Room 239/240

[notcalledlizzie]

Elizabeth is lying, curled up on her bed with a stuffed bear.

A small, neatly wrapped box is sitting on the bedside table.

She's trying to read; the same book she's been reading ever since she was in the library after Speech class.

Her mind keeps flashing back to the trip she made to Mali and the Ivory Coast. She can hardly believe how young and naive she had been. How back then she thought that she could help change the world.

She seems to reread the same paragraph over and over again

"A tumble? Oh, yes - out of the swing," said Katy, as it all came slowly back to her. "Did the rope break, Aunt Izzie? I can't remember about it."

She always reached for books from her childhood whenever she felt down.

Comments

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Come on in.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam opened the door and walked through. "I saw Janet and Parker already, but I wanted to see how you were doing. That...couldn't have been easy."

She's already ranted all over the library and it's not her assignment. Now is the time to let Liz get it out. She takes a seat on the end of the bed and tries to make herself look huggable.

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth crawls across the bed to curl up next to Sam.

"I hate it," she whispers. "They kept trying to tell me that slavery wasn't always bad. They kept trying to tell me that there were always choices. And all I can think about is that for $30, you can go to Mali and buy a child-slave."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam put an arm around Liz and pulled her close, laying her cheek on top of her friend's head and speaking quietly.

"They were wrong, Liz. There are absolute evils in the world, and you've seen them. Some people are born without choices, and you've met them. They were wrong. What she did, what she tried to make you do...it was wrong."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth turns her face into Sam's body, a few hot tears threatening to spill.

"I've tried so hard to fight these things... to get rid of them. And she treats is like a game. Did you see the list of "Rules" she had for the master and slave?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam puts her other arm around Liz and begins rubbing circles in her back.

"I know. It's not a game. It's a travesty. No, I didn't see, but Janet and Parker gave me the overview. I'll look later."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth relaxes slightly under Sam's touch.

"There are reportedly 12.3 million people living in slavery in the world," she says, her voice calm, with no emotion, as she recites the facts. "15,000 Mali children, starting from six years old to sixteen years, are thought to be working as slaves in plantations along the Ivory Coast. They're regularly beaten, starved and locked in tiny dark huts to keep them from fleeing."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam feels the muscles of Liz's back loosen a little, but doesn't stop making the little circles.

"There are also hundreds of thousands of Jaffa and millions of Earth's human descendants living in slavery to System Lords across the galaxy. That abomination of an assignment makes a mockery of the slavery here and out there. But you worked in Mali, helping some of those children. You, maybe better than almost anyone, understand what slavery does."

She pulled back an inch so she could look at Liz's face. "You tell her that. If you need help getting some pictures together, or some video commentary, or some first person accounts, I'll be happy to help. Show her that you understand exactly what slavery is, and explain how you have more respect for human life than to trivialize their suffering for a stupid class project that makes no logical sense."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth nods. Well, as best she can. "I know... I'm just focusing on the non-classified stuff," she almost grins.

She looks at Sam. "Thanks," she says, with a half-smile. "I might take you up on that offer."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, and I'm trying to show you that it's not just us, horrible as that sounds."

"You're welcome." She smiles. "And anytime. I probably owe it to you anyway, for making Janet learn about wormhole physics during a math class, but I would have offered regardless. It's not worth it--you, Janet, Parker, Cameron, I'm assuming Vala...you're all upset and heartsick. It's not worth it, no matter what it's supposed to be teaching you."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"I do know that, and I realize that it's a lot worse for a lot of them than it is for people here. Well. Worse when defining layers of slavery."

"Janet's learning about wormhole physics? Rather her than me," she says with another weak smile.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"It doesn't matter whose enslavement is worse. They're all horrifying. People owning other people, treating them as things...it's all bad."

Sam smiles back, trying to lighten the mood. "Crichton and I kinda shanghaied her into it for our math independent study--we're going to try to come up with the...y'know what...we can do that another time. It's really not important." She's not used to seeing Liz this broken. It's a little jarring.

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

Elizabeth shudders at Sam's words, and tries to curl up into a ball.

"No... just keep talking," she says, forcing herself to keep her eyes open, knowing that when she closes them, she'll see the children again.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam begins frantically searching her brain for a distraction. "Did I tell you that Jack and I got tied up together in shop class on Thursday? That was fun."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

There's a slight giggle from Elizabeth. "No, you didn't. What was that all about?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam smiles into Liz's hair. Good. "Our assignment for the class. We were tied up in this bank vault and had to get free and out of the vault. The only things in there with us were an oxygen tank, a toolbox with tools, a drill, a chair, a roll of duct tape, and a swiss army knife. The whole point is to get you thinking of outside the box, non-violent type solutions to problems."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"Non-violent? What did you end up doing?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Once we got free, which, trust me, took way longer than it should have because my knife was in the wrong pocket for Jack to reach, which meant I had to do a lot of wiggling to get the knife out of his back pocket...and, well, anyway...we ended up starting a small fire, shorting out the electrical system, and getting the door open that way. The other plan was to use the oxygen tank as a very large bomb."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"Surely a bomb would have been considered violent?"

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Well, yes...hmm." Sam thought, chewing on her lip. "Luckily, we didn't have to do that. Plus, the oxygen tank didn't start life as a bomb, so it was kind of about adapting it for a specific purpose."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"Ah, okay then. See, I'd have been useless in this class. Utterly hopeless."

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

Sam shook her head. "Not necessarily. You think outside of the box so often you don't even realize you're doing it. You find creative solutions to diplomatic situations all the time, right? This is like that, but with science (sometimes). We got to be partnered up for this one, which is good. I'm not sure that plan would have worked if I'd been on my own."

She laughed. "You and Janet would have found me there next Monday, still tied up because I couldn't reach the knife in my pocket to cut myself out of the ropes."

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"Aww, hon, you know we'd have come looking for you before Monday," she grinned.

[carter-i-am.livejournal.com]

"Thanks, Liz. I'm touched. Really," she replied.

[notcalledlizzie.livejournal.com]

"So you should be," Elizabeth said, cuddling up closer.