FF: Learning to Fly - Free Falling NC-17 4/6 (Sheppard/Weir)
*
John was, of course, off world dealing with the Wraith when she got back to Atlantis. Which, all things considered, was probably a good thing since Elizabeth wasn't entirely sure how either of them would respond once they finally laid eyes on each other again.
"Elizabeth. It is good to have you back," Teyla greeted, descending the stairs rapidly before embracing her friend in a tight hug. "Things were not the same here without you."
Elizabeth glanced expansively around, smiling. "The city is still standing, so it couldn't have been too bad without me." Teyla grinned broadly, the gesture fading as she finally noticed the man standing beside Weir. Seeing the shift, Elizabeth turned and quickly began the introductions. "Oh, Teyla, this is Richard Woolsey. He's with the IOA. Mr. Woolsey this is Teyla Emmagan." Teyla nodded respectfully. Woolsey returned the gesture. "If you'll come with me, Mr. Woolsey, I'll have Chuck assign you to guest quarters. Teyla, what time is Colonel Sheppard expected back from the camp?"
"They are scheduled to return in a little over three hours."
"Good," Elizabeth smiled, turning on her charm for Woolsey. "That should give you plenty of time to get settled in. We'll debrief after they return."
"I'll want to sit in on that meeting, if you don't mind," Woolsey said.
"Not at all," she answered graciously. "I think it will be helpful to get a full picture." Elizabeth waived Chuck over and turned Woolsey's care over to her assistant. She waited until both men were out of earshot on the control room steps before turning back to Teyla. "I don't think I need to tell you it's very important that the city not burn down in the next few days."
The Athosian nodded grimly. "I will let the others know."
"I'd appreciate it. Oh, and do me a favor and let Dr. Biro know she's not to get into any of the new supplies until after Mr. Woolsey leaves." Responding to Teyla's questioning look, she added, "Trust me, she'll know what I'm talking about."
*
In just under three hours Elizabeth had managed to shower, get unpacked, remind Louise once more not to get into the beer, and make her way through a quarter of the e-mails that had accumulated during her absence. But it wasn't until she heard Chuck utter four little words that she knew she was home.
"Jumper One has arrived."
"Thank you, Chuck."
Chuck hid his smile as he turned back to the control console. He'd always been pretty good at reading peoples faces, but a blind man could have seen the look of happiness in Elizabeth's eyes, even if the rest of her face had remained a study in neutral composition.
Unable to wait for John and the others to come down, she took to the stairs, counting each step methodically, willing her heart to beat a steady rhythm. It stopped all together when she saw him again.
A little tired, a little rugged, he looked like the picture perfect action hero as he stepped down the ramp, backlit by the lights and panels of the Jumper. It took all she had not to run into his arms.
It took all he had not fall at her feet.
Calmly, far too casually for those watching, they walked to each other, embracing in the briefest, most chaste hug on record.
"Woolsey's here," she mumbled into his ear before pulling away. He nodded, blinking once to cover the longing in his eyes.
"It's good to have you back John."
"It's good to be back," he agreed.
As the rest of the personnel started to disperse, Elizabeth took the chance to lower her voice, her face pleasant as she said, "Next time we're alone, remind me to teach you a lesson about telling someone before you attach yourself to a Wraith hive ship and disappear."
John nodded meekly, trying not to smile. "And after that?"
Her smile took on a dangerous edge as she answered, "You'll be lucky if I let you out of my sight long enough to go to the bathroom. I may keep you chained to the bed, or at the very least, chained to me, for the foreseeable future."
"Is that supposed to be a punishment or reward?" he asked cheekily. Elizabeth gave him a look, but her happiness at seeing him alive and whole wouldn't let her sustain it with any heat. "Teyla told me the IOA recalled you to Earth. Everything okay?" he added on a more serious note.
"We'll talk about it later," she dismissed, her smile fading. John winced, knowing it couldn't be good. Edging back, Elizabeth let her professional mask fall once more. Her voice carried just enough for the rest of the personnel around to overhear. "I'll need to see your team in an hour in the conference room to debrief. We have a lot to discuss."
"Yes, we do."
She smiled again, letting her eyes linger just a little longer than necessary on his face before walking back to the access stairway. John watched her go, for the first time in over a week feeling like he could finally breathe.
*
Laura stared impassively at her interrogator, her face a façade of calm and nonchalance.
"There's no reason to be nervous," Woolsey assured, setting out his notepad and tape recorder. "You aren't in any trouble," he smiled.
"I'm not nervous," Laura replied evenly. Adding, "And I know I'm not in trouble." Inwardly she relaxed a little. She knew Woolsey by reputation at the SGC and knew his presence on Atlantis bore no good. Whether or not he was gunning for her was no matter. He was gunning for Elizabeth, and probably Sheppard too, and that she wasn't going to stand for one little bit.
"How long have you been stationed on Atlantis?"
"Almost a year."
"I thought tours of duty on Atlantis usually last around the six to eight month time frame."
"I liked it here. I asked for a permanent transfer."
"You like it here?" Woolsey asked, slightly incredulous. "The city is amazing, but don't you find the Wraith a formidable enemy?"
"We've beaten them before."
"And by 'we' you mean the military?"
Laura's eyes narrowed just enough to border on menacing. "No, actually, I meant all of us. We're a team, here, Mr. Woolsey. A family. We succeed or fail together."
"And you consider your command staff family?"
They're some of my best friends you pasty, pencil-pushing, sonofabitch… She stopped herself from repeating aloud the string of insults in her head. Chances were Woolsey already knew Laura and Elizabeth were friends. Hell, chances were he knew a lot more than that. It didn't mean she had to help him along. "Yes, I consider them family."
"Hmm." He flipped through a few more pages in her file, as if studiously reviewing every letter, then looked up, fixing her with his eyes. "I see you recently were awarded a Navy Marine Corps Medal for your actions in disarming a bomb that had gotten into Atlantis."
Warily, she answered, "Yes," wondering where he was going. A moment later her suspicions were confirmed.
"The incident report was written up by Major Lorne. Where was Colonel Sheppard that day?"
Keep it simple. "I believe he and Dr. Weir had a meeting with the Athosians on the mainland."
"Do they do that often?"
"Do what?" Laura asked, purposefully obtuse.
"Do Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard leave the city to go to the mainland often?"
"Often enough I guess," she answered vaguely. "Sometimes Teyla goes with Sheppard, sometimes they all go. It just depends on what the Athosians want to talk about."
"My records indicate they were gone the entire day." He tossed the comment out offhandedly, waiting to see what kind of explosion it would make.
Laura just smiled. "Yeah, that sounds about right. I've gone a couple of times and it's pretty hard to make it through the village without having ten different conversations. I imagine it's worse for Dr. Weir, since she's in charge and everything."
Woolsey sat back, watching her. She was lying about something, holding back, but whether it was about Sheppard and Weir or something else he couldn't quite pin down. Trying a different tact, he asked, "Did you agree with Dr. Weir's orders to go after the Wraith ships?"
"It's not my place to question orders, sir."
"No, of course not," Woolsey conceded. "But if it had been you making the decision?"
Laura didn't hesitate. "I absolutely would have gone after them."
"Why?" he prompted.
"I've got family on Earth. My parents, sisters, brothers… I don't want the Wraith going anywhere near them."
"So you were willing to sacrifice yourself, to go on what many might considered a suicide mission, to stop them, when Earth could have defended itself through other means?"
"What do you think I do every day?" Laura asked, losing her calm reserve. "We fight the Wraith to make sure Earth stays safe. This is what I signed up for. This is what everyone here signed up for. Sure, we could have sent the ZPM back and left Earth to fend for itself, but then we would have been falling down in our jobs. We're here to fight so you don't have to."
Woolsey tapped his pen rhythmically, judiciously silent. Laura wasn't sure if that was a good or bad thing. "Thank you, Lieutenant, that will be all," he dismissed.
"Yes, sir." Laura shoved up out of the chair fighting the very real urge to punch Woolsey in the head. She had a feeling she wasn't the first person to have that urge, or the last.
*
"I don't like that Woolsey guy."
Teyla fought a smile and continued to eat her lunch. "You do not like many people, Ronon."
"Yeah, but I really don't like him."
"Any particular reason?" She asked, scooping up a forkful of corn. Out of all the vegetables the people from Earth had brought to Atlantis, the sweet yellow kernels were by far her favorite.
"That interview we had, after the meeting with Elizabeth… he asked me stuff."
Teyla sighed, fighting for patience. "What did he ask?"
"You know… stuff. About Sheppard and Dr. Weir. About the missions we go on. Whether or not I'm planning on sticking around here long term," he listed off before shoveling up a mouthful of potatoes.
She tried to keep her patience even as something indefinable pulled tightly at her chest. "And what did you tell him?"
"About Sheppard and Weir?"
"About staying on Atlantis," Teyla corrected.
"Nowhere else to go," he grunted. "Might as well stay here."
"Oh," she sighed, disappointed. "Well, then what did you say about John and Elizabeth?"
Ronon shrugged. "I said they were friends. Like us."
"Oh," Teyla echoed again, swallowing roughly. "What was his response?"
"Who knows? He was pretty twitchy."
"You know you can be intimidating."
He grinned, perfectly aware. "Who? Me?" He shoveled up another bite of potatoes. "He's a politician," Ronon explained. "Never did care much for them."
"Politician or not, it's important to be nice to him. I gathered from Elizabeth that his word carries great weight with the IOA. I am not sure another leader would be as… accepting of you and I."
"So I shouldn't have invited him to sparring practice?"
Teyla choked on her juice.
Ronon grinned again.
*
"Colonel Sheppard, do you have a minute?"
John glanced up, ready to say no, and then realized who was asking. The look on Caldwell's face clearly told him that 'no' wasn't going to be an acceptable answer. "Yes, sir."
With a jerk of his head Caldwell indicated John should follow, which the younger man did, silently, until they stepped out onto the East Pier and into the shadow of the Daedalus. Work crews were staggered over the hull, repairing the damage from the battle with the Wraith.
"She's a beautiful ship, sir."
"Yes, she is," Caldwell responded, his voice taking on a soft hue as he stared up at his ship. "I've had some good commands before… but nothing as good as this. Not even Atlantis."
"Sir?"
Caldwell turned, finally looking John in the eye. "You love this city like I love that ship. More even." Stephen took a deep breath then turned back to his ship. "Which is why I don't want to see you screw up and lose it."
"I don't understand-"
"-I know about you and Dr. Weir."
Of all the things John had been expecting, that admission hadn't been among the top ten. "I don't know what you're talking about," he responded, hesitating far too late to pass off as indignant.
"I saw you," Caldwell explained, "on the balcony at the awards ceremony a few months ago. You were kissing."
Okay. Plan B… "About that, sir, I can explain-"
Caldwell sighed in exasperation. "Save it, Colonel." He took a deep breath and pinned John with his most formidable stare. "If I know, you can be damned sure that other people on this base know. And now you've got Woolsey poking around. Someone's going to say something."
John's eyes narrowed in consideration. "But not you?"
Caldwell rolled his eyes in response. "You're not under my command."
"You have far more influence with the SGC than I do sir."
"Not enough Colonel," Caldwell smiled ruefully. "Or I'd be the one running military operations here, not you."
John winced, knowing it was the truth. "Still sir…"
"I'm not going to jam you up," Caldwell assured. "If I wanted that I would have filed a formal report months ago."
"Then what do you want?" John asked uncertainly.
"Honestly, I don't know," Caldwell answered. "But I know what I don't want, and that's to see a good officer lose his command because he makes a decision not everyone agrees with." John couldn't tell if Caldwell was talking about him or Elizabeth. He supposed at that moment it really didn't matter. "I've been watching you Colonel, both of you, looking for any reason why this relationship would need to be reported, but I found nothing. You both behave with absolute professionalism. If personal feelings are a factor in your decisions then I've never seen any evidence of it, at least no more than what would be warranted between friends." He took a breath and let it out slowly. "I guess what I'm saying is… make sure you and Elizabeth have a good cover story. Just in case."
*
Woolsey tapped his pen rhythmically against the table.
John glared at the pen, then, remembering Elizabeth's warning, forced himself to take a deep breath and stay calm. He leaned back in his chair, eyeing Woolsey suspiciously. So far he'd been subjected to forty-five minutes of Atlantis's greatest hits - everything from being betrayed by the Wraith to the Genii's attempted take over of the city. He'd been forced to endure question after question regarding he and Elizabeth's decisions over the last year and still Woolsey had yet to delve into anything more personal. After Caldwell's warning, something just didn't feel right.
Woolsey for his part kept writing down notes that John couldn't read, all of them seemingly more important than the last, although John couldn't for the life of him figure out what he'd said that was that important.
"Colonel, I'd like to direct your memory to an incident that occurred about a year and a half ago. The city was forced into lockdown by the outbreak of a nanovirus."
Oh, shit. "I remember. I'm sure you've read the action report."
"I have," Richard confirmed, leaning back in his chair. "You exhibited quite a bit of insubordination. Openly defied Dr. Weir and got Sergeant Bates to follow your lead. In any other context, Colonel, that would be considered a coup de tat."
"What? No. It wasn't like that…"
"Then what was it like?"
"Look… sometimes I get ahead of myself, okay. I do things without thinking them all the way through. That's a good thing when you're flying and you've got to rely on your gut instincts. It doesn't naturally correlate to being a military commander. I don't always see the big picture." John took a breath, scratching at the back of his neck. He could hear Elizabeth's voice in his head, chiding him for acting so nervous and guilty. "I never had any intention of trying to usurp Elizabeth's authority. I just thought I had a better way to resolve the situation."
"And you did. It was your idea to generate a large scale EMP blast that rendered the nanovirus inert. Gutsy call. Very clever."
The compliment felt dirty somehow. "Thanks."
"It seems to me that Atlantis would be well served by that type of capable decision making," Woolsey tossed out.
"It wasn't that big of a deal…" John trailed off slowly, realization starting to dawn.
"Do you and Dr. Weir spend a lot of time together?"
"Yes. We're friends," John answered honestly. "I wouldn't be here without her."
"She convinced you to join the expedition. You have the strongest presentation of the ATA gene on Atlantis, don't you?"
"That's right," John answered slowly.
"And Dr. Weir doesn't possess the Ancient gene, does she?"
"No… But Carson's working on it."
"Hmm… I'm sure he is." Woolsey made another one of his infuriating notes, scribbling loudly in the silent conference room while John started to fume. "Still, it would seem like you’re a, well, native son of this city."
John huffed, clearly displeased. "Just because I have the gene? No way… Elizabeth knows more about this city's history, its language than I'll ever know. Rodney can program this place with his eyes folded… Me? All I know how to do is fly and turn the lights on and off."
"I think you're being to modest Colonel. I think you'd be a natural leader for Atlantis-"
"And I think this interview is done," John ground out, shoving out of his chair. He managed to keep his temper in check long enough to get three solid strides away from Woolsey before turning around. "You know what? Question me all you want. My motives, my decision, all of it. But don't you dare question her. She's nearly died defending this place… hell, she did die trying to save it. Trying to save this entire expedition. Things don't always work out as planned, but if you're going to blame her for everything that's ever gone wrong on Atlantis, then you should probably start blaming General O'Neill for everything that's gone wrong while we've fought the Go'auld, or Replicators. Last time I checked you could find him at the Pentagon."
John launched out of the conference room, his vision tinged red. Without realizing it, he stalked across the catwalk, ignoring Chuck's startled look as he burst into Elizabeth's office. "Just out of political curiosity, how much trouble is it gonna cause you if I knock this Woolsey guy in the head?"
"May I ask why you'd like to do that?" she responded calmly, furtively looking over John's shoulder to see if Woolsey was already unconscious anywhere near by.
"It's just an impulse I had, really. One I suspect I'm gonna have again next time I see him. He may not even have to say anything."
Elizabeth looked up at him, highly amused. It was just so damn sweet. "I've never seen you like this. What did Woolsey say to you?"
"Besides judging every damned decision you've ever made?"
She leaned back, trying not to smile. "John Sheppard, are you defending my honor?"
He hesitated, trying to decide whether or not she would be pleased if he had been. "And judging me for agreeing with you," he tacked on lamely.
She wasn't convinced and he knew it, but she let him off the hook anyway. "Well, don't be too hard on him," Elizabeth shrugged. "I think of all the circling wolves, he's the least likely to actually bite. In fact, he might even convince the others to leave us alone."
"Alright, so, uh," he hesitated, losing steam as he sat down across from her. "No head knocking."
She gave him a sideways smile. "It's the thought that counts."
John smirked slightly, relaxing back into the chair. "He's trying to see if I'm interested in taking over Atlantis," he reported softly.
It wasn't surprising. As current military commander John would be at the top of the list to take over Atlantis if the IOA ceded control to the U.S. military. "And are you?"
The face he made in responded was answer enough. "Paperwork? Headaches? Dealing with hot shot military jerks like me? Dealing with Rodney? No thanks."
"It's not all bad," Elizabeth defended.
"No, it's not," he agreed. "But why would you want to put your third string quarterback in when you've already got John Elway?"
"I'm not completely sure I understand the analogy, but thank you."
"Don't worry," he grinned, "I'll explain it to you later - after Woolsey leaves and I've got you in bed. Naked."
"Now that sounds like a nice way to spend the evening."
Part Five