Fic Exchange: Missing (Lorne/Mitchell, PG)
Recipient: rubygirl29
Title: Missing
Pairing: Evan/Cam
Rating: PG
Summary/Notes: Written for rubygirl29, who is simply wonderful, and I hope she enjoys this! Her requests were thus: 1. Lorne as a leader, 2. H/C either character, any way. Optional requests: Team.
Word Count: 2,222
Disclaimer: Not mine; no infringement on any rights is intended. This is not for profit & is intended only for enjoyment.
Evan really liked Chuck, even though the gate tech almost always beat him at poker night. However, Evan had learned to dread Chuck’s voice coming over his ear piece when he was on-duty. This occasion was no exception to that rule, and he answered Chuck reluctantly when he heard his comm beep. “What is it, Chuck?”
“It’s Colonel Sheppard, sir,” Chuck responded.
“What about him?” Evan asked, checking his clock and noting that Sheppard’s team wasn’t due for a check in for another two hours, another sign that this was not going to end well.
Evan heard Chuck take a deep breath on the other side of the connection. “He and Dr. McKay split off from Ronon and Teyla on M9X-492. Ronon and Teyla just came back through the gate saying they lost all contact with Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay about two hours ago. They asked around the market on the planet but nobody has any information. Ronon and Teyla came back for a full search team, sir, and they request…”
Evan cut Chuck off mid-sentence. “I’ll be right there, contact the rest of my team and Zelenka, plus some marines. I want to gate out as soon as possible with as much back-up as is available.”
“Yes, sir,” Chuck replied.
Evan made his way to the locker room from his office. Once there, he met with the others and geared up, going through possible rescue options in his head. As soon as his gear was secure, Evan made his way out into the gate room where Ronon and Teyla were waiting. “Okay, what are we up against here?” Evan asked them.
Ronon folded his arms across his chest. “Not sure. Everything went fine for us. We decided to try to get Sheppard to let us scrap the mission and come back. He didn’t answer.”
“Ronon is correct,” Teyla added. “I did not sense any dangers on the planet, and certainly there were no Wraith. As far as we were concerned, everything was normal.”
Evan nodded. “Alright, how long have they been missing?”
“We do not know,” Teyla responded. “As we reported, we have known about it for approximately two hours. However, they were supposed to have been exploring the southern market on the planet and nobody there claimed to recognize their pictures. That market is only about half an hour from the gate. If they never made it there…”
“Could be up to five hours now,” Ronon finished.
Evan took a breath and nodded again. He turned to address the group of marines and scientists that had surrounded him. “Alright. I’m going to take Ronon and Teyla and head back to this southern market. We’ll make sure nobody recognizes the pictures. I want groups of three spread out in various directions from the gate to comb the forests; look for any clues. Stackhouse, I want you to take Zelenka and his group in a jumper to scan for life signs and any abnormalities across the surface of the planet. Zelenka, how many more hours of daylight do we have on this planet?”
“Approximately three hours, though we do not have complete data, so it may be less or more by up to twenty minutes.” Zelenka responded, poking at a data pad.
“Okay, three hours is plenty of time. Let’s go get our people,” Evan resolved. Woolsey nodded to the group from the balcony and turned to Chuck, giving him the okay to dial the gate. Once the wormhole was established and stable, Evan led the group through.
In Evan’s opinion, saying that the rescue mission didn’t go well would be a serious understatement. Not only were they unable to bring Sheppard and McKay back despite staying on M9X-492 for double the time they were supposed to, but they had exactly zero ideas as to what could have happened to the pair of them.
No person they talked to on the planet was even aware that the Gate had been activated until Ronon and Teyla showed up, let alone recognized Sheppard and McKay’s pictures. None of the seven groups searching the forests had found any sign that the pair had passed through. Ronon had personally made a circle about a mile out around the Stargate and had been extremely frustrated to pick up no signs at all, especially as they all knew that McKay couldn’t make it through a forest without leaving tracks. The scientists in the jumper found one life sign outside of the range of life on the planet, and the town had been grateful for the return of the thief who had run away the day before, but it didn’t provide Evan with any clues.
They were reasonably sure the Wraith hadn’t been involved. For one, Teyla hadn’t sensed any Wraith on the planet when Sheppard and McKay had gone missing. Also, the people on the planet reportedly hadn’t had any Wraith encounters for over a year, and the population was so small that the Wraith would likely just ignore the planet altogether.
All of that left the people of Atlantis with no idea of what happened to their men and no idea how to get them back.
Six months later, Woolsey makes the decision to consider Sheppard and McKay officially missing in action and suspends the active investigation and search for them. If Evan’s being honest with himself, it probably should’ve happened a lot sooner, would’ve happened a lot sooner for anyone other than Sheppard and McKay. Still, the implications and decisions that Evan’s been avoiding are all here now, staring him in the face.
When Woolsey tells Evan he’s in charge now, Evan’s first reaction is a blurted, “But I’m not qualified, I’m only a Major.”
Woolsey smiles sadly and reminds Evan, “So was Colonel Sheppard when he first arrived on Atlantis,” and that shuts Evan up for a second, but he shakes his head sharply.
“I need help. I need an XO, I can’t even…” he trails off, and he’d thought before now that he was dealing with Sheppard’s disappearance pretty well, but obviously he was wrong. He looks at Woolsey, trying not to appear as helpless as he feels; judging from the expression on Woolsey’s face, Evan only half succeeds.
“The Daedalus is leaving Earth today. They’ll be here in three weeks,” Woolsey concludes. He pats Evan a little awkwardly on the shoulder and offers one last sad smile before he turns and leaves Evan gaping in the middle of the hallway.
Evan learns later that Zelenka got the same kind of speech, he’s going to be taking over for Rodney. Woolsey apparently got from him the same sort of reaction he got from Evan, and assured Zelenka that there’s help coming on the Daedalus for him too. Evan decides that everything he’s been putting off for the past six months can wait another three weeks until he can, hopefully, get everything sorted out and under control.
Evan feels no more prepared to be the military commander on Atlantis three weeks later, but he’s standing in front of the gate all the same, waiting to greet the new arrivals off the Daedalus. He’s fallen into a parade rest, mostly out of habit, and feels Zelenka standing to his right, twitching enough for the both of them. A second later, the group from the Daedalus is beamed into the gate room.
Evan’s surprised, to say the least, when he’s greeted by Colonel Cameron Mitchell. He come to attention, shakes the man’s offered hand and snaps out a salute. “Good morning, sir,” Evan says.
The Colonel laughs and shakes his head. “Cam, call me Cam. I’m your new XO, Major, no need for formalities.”
“XO?” Evan questions, looking up to Woolsey who’s standing at the top of the stairs. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Colonel.”
“Okay, technically I’m in charge, but we’ve all agreed to let you be acting leader given your familiarity with the Pegasus Galaxy.” Cam replies, gesturing to Woolsey and the marines assembled behind him in turn.
“I see,” Evan replies, even though he’s far from understanding his situation. A Major as an acting leader over a Colonel? Shit like this only ever happens in Pegasus. “Well, I look forward to sharing my expertise with you then, Col… Cam.”
Cam smiles. “Me also, Major. And I’m sorry about John.”
“Evan. And don’t apologize, we’re going to find him,” Evan replies immediately. Cam smiles sadly and nods and Evan’s instantly sure that he’s dealt with this situation before, that he’s held onto the last strings of a false hope just as Evan’s doing now.
Woolsey claps from the top of the stairs. “Well, we can handle the introductions and things in the mess during breaks. Right now I need to get all of you assigned to your new living quarters and let you settle in.” Evan nods along with many of the new arrivals, and shakes Cam’s hand one more time before retreating to his office.
It takes about a month, but Evan acclimates to having Cam around. They communicate better than Evan ever did with Sheppard, but Evan tries desperately not to think about that too much. Although Atlantis has kept its eyes and ears open, and every off-world team carries pictures of John and Rodney, they still have no leads on the location of their men. Evan would say it’s starting to feel a little hopeless, but admitting that feels too much like giving up for his taste.
It’s late and today was long. Another off-world trading mission, nothing too exciting, but all the same, Evan’s tired. He’s in his office staring blankly at some paperwork, sort of hoping it’ll do itself if he watches it for long enough, when Cam walks in. “Isn’t it your bedtime, Major?” Cam teases.
“Long past, actually,” Evan replies, too tired to tease back.
Cam frowns and perches on the edge of Evan’s desk. “You look wrecked, Evan. What’s wrong?”
“I just…” Evan trails off, waving his hand listlessly. Cam grabs his hand and holds it firmly, raising his eyebrows in question. Evan sighs heavily and droops back into his chair. “Sheppard. I’m starting to think we’ll never find him, you know?”
Cam nods. “We’ll never stop looking, though. We don’t leave our men behind. Ever.”
“I know, it just doesn’t feel like enough to go to planets and say ‘hey, want to trade, by the way have you seen these men?’ any more. I want to storm some complex somewhere, shoot something and blow something else up and look for them.” Evan realizes at Cam’s intake in breath that he’s crushing the other man’s hand. He deflates and adds a mumbled, “Sorry.”
“No, don’t. I know how you feel, Evan. Useless, privileged, comfortable while he’s going through God-knows-what. But it’s hard to storm a complex and blow it up when you don’t know what complex to storm,” Cam says, and Evan has to admit the man has a point. They don’t have the first idea of where to look, and if they did the complex there would already be rubble.
Cam pulls Evan up from his chair. “What are you doing?” Evan questions.
“Taking you to bed. That paperwork will never do itself, no matter how long you stare at it. Trust me, I know from vast amounts of experience. Thinking isn’t going to help you at the moment either, and you look about a second from passing out anyway. So it’s bed for you,” Cam explains. Evan can’t disagree with any of that, so he just nods and allows himself to be pulled out of his office and through the hallways. He’s not paying too much attention to his surroundings, so Evan’s surprised when they stop and he’s in an unfamiliar hallway. Before he can ask, Cam opens the door in front of him and says, “My quarters. They were closer.”
Evan’s eyebrows shoot up, and this is so far beyond uncharted territory, besides the fact that it feels forbidden even if it technically isn’t anymore and that rule never really applied in Pegasus anyway. Cam simply pulls him further into the room, though, without sparing a second thought for the gravity of the situation, so Evan lets it all go. All the tension drains from his body, and he’s never been so glad to see a bed.
Cam drops his hand, and Evan pulls his shirt off followed by his shoes, socks, and pants. He hears Cam chuckle as he folds his shirt and pants neatly, but hell if he’s going to put on a wrinkled outfit in the morning, no matter how he’s feeling now. He crawls into Cam’s bed and slips between the covers, laying on his side with his head pillowed on his hand. Cam slips in behind him and throws a hand over Evan’s stomach, and if Evan tenses for a second, Cam doesn’t say anything about it. It never takes Evan very long to fall asleep and he usually doesn’t feel as bone-weary as he does tonight, so he’s sure he’ll be asleep within a minute.
Just as Evan’s about to drop off, Cam lifts his head so that his mouth is by Evan’s ear and whispers, “Rest, Evan. We’ll find him eventually,” and it’s been months since Evan’s believed that as much as he does right now.
Title: Missing
Pairing: Evan/Cam
Rating: PG
Summary/Notes: Written for rubygirl29, who is simply wonderful, and I hope she enjoys this! Her requests were thus: 1. Lorne as a leader, 2. H/C either character, any way. Optional requests: Team.
Word Count: 2,222
Disclaimer: Not mine; no infringement on any rights is intended. This is not for profit & is intended only for enjoyment.
Evan really liked Chuck, even though the gate tech almost always beat him at poker night. However, Evan had learned to dread Chuck’s voice coming over his ear piece when he was on-duty. This occasion was no exception to that rule, and he answered Chuck reluctantly when he heard his comm beep. “What is it, Chuck?”
“It’s Colonel Sheppard, sir,” Chuck responded.
“What about him?” Evan asked, checking his clock and noting that Sheppard’s team wasn’t due for a check in for another two hours, another sign that this was not going to end well.
Evan heard Chuck take a deep breath on the other side of the connection. “He and Dr. McKay split off from Ronon and Teyla on M9X-492. Ronon and Teyla just came back through the gate saying they lost all contact with Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay about two hours ago. They asked around the market on the planet but nobody has any information. Ronon and Teyla came back for a full search team, sir, and they request…”
Evan cut Chuck off mid-sentence. “I’ll be right there, contact the rest of my team and Zelenka, plus some marines. I want to gate out as soon as possible with as much back-up as is available.”
“Yes, sir,” Chuck replied.
Evan made his way to the locker room from his office. Once there, he met with the others and geared up, going through possible rescue options in his head. As soon as his gear was secure, Evan made his way out into the gate room where Ronon and Teyla were waiting. “Okay, what are we up against here?” Evan asked them.
Ronon folded his arms across his chest. “Not sure. Everything went fine for us. We decided to try to get Sheppard to let us scrap the mission and come back. He didn’t answer.”
“Ronon is correct,” Teyla added. “I did not sense any dangers on the planet, and certainly there were no Wraith. As far as we were concerned, everything was normal.”
Evan nodded. “Alright, how long have they been missing?”
“We do not know,” Teyla responded. “As we reported, we have known about it for approximately two hours. However, they were supposed to have been exploring the southern market on the planet and nobody there claimed to recognize their pictures. That market is only about half an hour from the gate. If they never made it there…”
“Could be up to five hours now,” Ronon finished.
Evan took a breath and nodded again. He turned to address the group of marines and scientists that had surrounded him. “Alright. I’m going to take Ronon and Teyla and head back to this southern market. We’ll make sure nobody recognizes the pictures. I want groups of three spread out in various directions from the gate to comb the forests; look for any clues. Stackhouse, I want you to take Zelenka and his group in a jumper to scan for life signs and any abnormalities across the surface of the planet. Zelenka, how many more hours of daylight do we have on this planet?”
“Approximately three hours, though we do not have complete data, so it may be less or more by up to twenty minutes.” Zelenka responded, poking at a data pad.
“Okay, three hours is plenty of time. Let’s go get our people,” Evan resolved. Woolsey nodded to the group from the balcony and turned to Chuck, giving him the okay to dial the gate. Once the wormhole was established and stable, Evan led the group through.
In Evan’s opinion, saying that the rescue mission didn’t go well would be a serious understatement. Not only were they unable to bring Sheppard and McKay back despite staying on M9X-492 for double the time they were supposed to, but they had exactly zero ideas as to what could have happened to the pair of them.
No person they talked to on the planet was even aware that the Gate had been activated until Ronon and Teyla showed up, let alone recognized Sheppard and McKay’s pictures. None of the seven groups searching the forests had found any sign that the pair had passed through. Ronon had personally made a circle about a mile out around the Stargate and had been extremely frustrated to pick up no signs at all, especially as they all knew that McKay couldn’t make it through a forest without leaving tracks. The scientists in the jumper found one life sign outside of the range of life on the planet, and the town had been grateful for the return of the thief who had run away the day before, but it didn’t provide Evan with any clues.
They were reasonably sure the Wraith hadn’t been involved. For one, Teyla hadn’t sensed any Wraith on the planet when Sheppard and McKay had gone missing. Also, the people on the planet reportedly hadn’t had any Wraith encounters for over a year, and the population was so small that the Wraith would likely just ignore the planet altogether.
All of that left the people of Atlantis with no idea of what happened to their men and no idea how to get them back.
Six months later, Woolsey makes the decision to consider Sheppard and McKay officially missing in action and suspends the active investigation and search for them. If Evan’s being honest with himself, it probably should’ve happened a lot sooner, would’ve happened a lot sooner for anyone other than Sheppard and McKay. Still, the implications and decisions that Evan’s been avoiding are all here now, staring him in the face.
When Woolsey tells Evan he’s in charge now, Evan’s first reaction is a blurted, “But I’m not qualified, I’m only a Major.”
Woolsey smiles sadly and reminds Evan, “So was Colonel Sheppard when he first arrived on Atlantis,” and that shuts Evan up for a second, but he shakes his head sharply.
“I need help. I need an XO, I can’t even…” he trails off, and he’d thought before now that he was dealing with Sheppard’s disappearance pretty well, but obviously he was wrong. He looks at Woolsey, trying not to appear as helpless as he feels; judging from the expression on Woolsey’s face, Evan only half succeeds.
“The Daedalus is leaving Earth today. They’ll be here in three weeks,” Woolsey concludes. He pats Evan a little awkwardly on the shoulder and offers one last sad smile before he turns and leaves Evan gaping in the middle of the hallway.
Evan learns later that Zelenka got the same kind of speech, he’s going to be taking over for Rodney. Woolsey apparently got from him the same sort of reaction he got from Evan, and assured Zelenka that there’s help coming on the Daedalus for him too. Evan decides that everything he’s been putting off for the past six months can wait another three weeks until he can, hopefully, get everything sorted out and under control.
Evan feels no more prepared to be the military commander on Atlantis three weeks later, but he’s standing in front of the gate all the same, waiting to greet the new arrivals off the Daedalus. He’s fallen into a parade rest, mostly out of habit, and feels Zelenka standing to his right, twitching enough for the both of them. A second later, the group from the Daedalus is beamed into the gate room.
Evan’s surprised, to say the least, when he’s greeted by Colonel Cameron Mitchell. He come to attention, shakes the man’s offered hand and snaps out a salute. “Good morning, sir,” Evan says.
The Colonel laughs and shakes his head. “Cam, call me Cam. I’m your new XO, Major, no need for formalities.”
“XO?” Evan questions, looking up to Woolsey who’s standing at the top of the stairs. “I’m afraid I don’t understand, Colonel.”
“Okay, technically I’m in charge, but we’ve all agreed to let you be acting leader given your familiarity with the Pegasus Galaxy.” Cam replies, gesturing to Woolsey and the marines assembled behind him in turn.
“I see,” Evan replies, even though he’s far from understanding his situation. A Major as an acting leader over a Colonel? Shit like this only ever happens in Pegasus. “Well, I look forward to sharing my expertise with you then, Col… Cam.”
Cam smiles. “Me also, Major. And I’m sorry about John.”
“Evan. And don’t apologize, we’re going to find him,” Evan replies immediately. Cam smiles sadly and nods and Evan’s instantly sure that he’s dealt with this situation before, that he’s held onto the last strings of a false hope just as Evan’s doing now.
Woolsey claps from the top of the stairs. “Well, we can handle the introductions and things in the mess during breaks. Right now I need to get all of you assigned to your new living quarters and let you settle in.” Evan nods along with many of the new arrivals, and shakes Cam’s hand one more time before retreating to his office.
It takes about a month, but Evan acclimates to having Cam around. They communicate better than Evan ever did with Sheppard, but Evan tries desperately not to think about that too much. Although Atlantis has kept its eyes and ears open, and every off-world team carries pictures of John and Rodney, they still have no leads on the location of their men. Evan would say it’s starting to feel a little hopeless, but admitting that feels too much like giving up for his taste.
It’s late and today was long. Another off-world trading mission, nothing too exciting, but all the same, Evan’s tired. He’s in his office staring blankly at some paperwork, sort of hoping it’ll do itself if he watches it for long enough, when Cam walks in. “Isn’t it your bedtime, Major?” Cam teases.
“Long past, actually,” Evan replies, too tired to tease back.
Cam frowns and perches on the edge of Evan’s desk. “You look wrecked, Evan. What’s wrong?”
“I just…” Evan trails off, waving his hand listlessly. Cam grabs his hand and holds it firmly, raising his eyebrows in question. Evan sighs heavily and droops back into his chair. “Sheppard. I’m starting to think we’ll never find him, you know?”
Cam nods. “We’ll never stop looking, though. We don’t leave our men behind. Ever.”
“I know, it just doesn’t feel like enough to go to planets and say ‘hey, want to trade, by the way have you seen these men?’ any more. I want to storm some complex somewhere, shoot something and blow something else up and look for them.” Evan realizes at Cam’s intake in breath that he’s crushing the other man’s hand. He deflates and adds a mumbled, “Sorry.”
“No, don’t. I know how you feel, Evan. Useless, privileged, comfortable while he’s going through God-knows-what. But it’s hard to storm a complex and blow it up when you don’t know what complex to storm,” Cam says, and Evan has to admit the man has a point. They don’t have the first idea of where to look, and if they did the complex there would already be rubble.
Cam pulls Evan up from his chair. “What are you doing?” Evan questions.
“Taking you to bed. That paperwork will never do itself, no matter how long you stare at it. Trust me, I know from vast amounts of experience. Thinking isn’t going to help you at the moment either, and you look about a second from passing out anyway. So it’s bed for you,” Cam explains. Evan can’t disagree with any of that, so he just nods and allows himself to be pulled out of his office and through the hallways. He’s not paying too much attention to his surroundings, so Evan’s surprised when they stop and he’s in an unfamiliar hallway. Before he can ask, Cam opens the door in front of him and says, “My quarters. They were closer.”
Evan’s eyebrows shoot up, and this is so far beyond uncharted territory, besides the fact that it feels forbidden even if it technically isn’t anymore and that rule never really applied in Pegasus anyway. Cam simply pulls him further into the room, though, without sparing a second thought for the gravity of the situation, so Evan lets it all go. All the tension drains from his body, and he’s never been so glad to see a bed.
Cam drops his hand, and Evan pulls his shirt off followed by his shoes, socks, and pants. He hears Cam chuckle as he folds his shirt and pants neatly, but hell if he’s going to put on a wrinkled outfit in the morning, no matter how he’s feeling now. He crawls into Cam’s bed and slips between the covers, laying on his side with his head pillowed on his hand. Cam slips in behind him and throws a hand over Evan’s stomach, and if Evan tenses for a second, Cam doesn’t say anything about it. It never takes Evan very long to fall asleep and he usually doesn’t feel as bone-weary as he does tonight, so he’s sure he’ll be asleep within a minute.
Just as Evan’s about to drop off, Cam lifts his head so that his mouth is by Evan’s ear and whispers, “Rest, Evan. We’ll find him eventually,” and it’s been months since Evan’s believed that as much as he does right now.