Trust Issues
A/N: Hi, welcome to my first crossover story. This was inspired by the exceptional stories of Kristen999 for both Hawaii 5-0 and SGA. Her stories and the fact that the shows are both about elite teams composed of three men and one woman inspired me to try a mashup. Hope you like it. Please r/r. Thanks for reading this first chapter.
Disclaimer: I don't lay claim to any characters from either SGA or H50. No copywrite infringement is intended.
Danny glanced around at the deserted air strip.
"So, uh, what's going on?" He asked Steve, who stood squinting stoically at the tarmac.
"You know as much as I do, Danno." Steve answered.
"Don't call me Danno." Danny grumbled.
He paced back and forth a few times, occasionally glancing in the general direction he supposed the plane would eventually emerge.
"We're here to babysit some out of townies from the mainland?" Danny asked after a few frustrated circuits. "Why'd they have to pick this weekend to drop in on my island?"
"Your Island?" Steve smirked. "Careful there, Jersey. You're starting to sound like you're going native."
"I didn't.." Danny sputtered. "I didn't mean MY island I meant this particular island. I mean, why not one of the many other Hawaiian islands so that… just shut up, okay."
Steve chuckled and watched as his partner, probably sweating more than he needed to in the button up and tie he stubbornly insisted on wearing, continued to pace.
"What are they doing here? Why all the hush-hush? Why here?" Danny yelled to the gorgeous scenery that, discounting Steve, was his only audience.
"Why did the Governor call on her 5-0 task force to do this on our day off?" Steve queried, with a knowingly arched eyebrow.
"Yes!" Danny exclaimed. "Yes, that's the real question. What is so important about these particular tourists that I have to give up a weekend with Gracie? You know the answer to that?"
Steve suppressed a smile and shook his head with a straight face.
"Nothing!" Danny exclaimed. "The correct answer, the ONLY answer to that question is nothing because nothing is more important than me getting to spend time with my daughter."
Steve felt bad. He really did but he couldn't help but smile a bit at Danny's frustration. Not because it was funny that Danny'd miss spending time with Gracie. That wasn't funny. But these displays of how much it bothered him to miss spending time with her, of how much Danny loved his little girl were always endearing.
"I'm sorry, Danny. I really am." Steve sighed. "You know what? Just go home. Like you said, it's babysitting some tourists. What's the worst that could happen?"
Danny groaned. "Why'd you have to say that?"
Steve frowned, "What?"
"I could have left if you hadn't said that!" Danny fumed.
For not the first time in their partnership Steve was completely at a loss as to what his partner was saying. "I don't get it."
"Why am I not surprised? Where were you while the rest of us were learning the things normal human beings just know? No, no. Don't tell me. You were off in super SEAL school learning how to kill people with your eyelashes. Look," Danny said, placing a hand on his partner's shoulder to maintain eye contact. "You never EVER say 'What's the worst that could happen', okay? Ne-ver. It's tempting fate."
"Fate?" Steve repeated.
"Yes, my imbecilic cretin, fate. As in, the unseen and all powerful force behind the universe."
"Really?" Steve asked skeptically. "You believe in fate?"
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."Danny sighed, now completely exasperated. "What I definitely do not believe in is tempting fate."
"Danny, there's no such thing as fate." Steve persisted. "I'm in control of my decisions. You're in control of yours. What are the odds there's some unseen force out there dictating our lives?"
"I don't know, probably pretty slim. I've got a pretty slim chance of getting hit by lightning but that doesn't mean I go around waving metal POLES in the air in the middle of a THUNDERSTORM!"
"Da-" Steve began but Danny interrupted.
"Just drop it." He huffed. "I'm not going anywhere." And as though to add to the finality of the statement Danny stopped pacing and folded his arms across his chest.
Steve stared at his partner with a slightly confused look for a moment more and then shrugged, folded his tattooed arms over his own chest and stood waiting in a companionable silence with his partner.
When was that plane gonna get here anyway?
50SGA50SGA50SGA50SGA
"I don't understand why we have to put up this pretense that we're arriving by conventional transportation." Dr. Meredith Rodney Mckay fumed. "We don't have time for this. We've got to find Jeanie."
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard sighed and turned his attention away from the control panel of the small space ship known as 'puddle jumper four' and gave his teammate a sympathetic and somewhat pained look. The slightly pudgy scientist was hunched over his tablet computer display of what looked like a typographical map of the Hawaiian islands, his intense blue eyes scanning some kind of data stream on the right side of the control panel but darting back to the map occasionally as well.
Sheppard sighed and wiggled his shoulders to ease some of the tension there. He rubbed a hand around his neck and realized in his hurry to get started he'd forgotten to shave. Oh well. His hair never seemed to lay flat anyway and the stubble would, he hoped, give him a rugged rather than disheveled appearance.
"I know you're worried about your sister, Mckay but we can't start landing this thing in public." He said.
"Why not?" Mckay huffed. "How many years have we been travelling to other planets, other galaxies? When are the powers that be going to decide to share that little tid bit with the rest of the planet?"
"Not my call." Sheppard said. "Not yours either. Look, we're lucky they let us use a jumper in the first place. Count your blessings."
"Count my blessings? Really?" Mckay erupted. "Which blessings would those be? That my sister got kidnapped? That I've got to go to Hawaii to track her down?"
"I am confused." Teyla Emmagen said, her delicate brows furrowed. The delicate features and graceful carriage were a bit deceitful, mused Sheppard as Teyla's attractive light brown frame was capable of inflicting massive amounts of damage when she felt the need. "I have been led to believe that Hawaii is a place of great beauty."
"Yeah," A deep voice grunted and the dark imposing form of Ronan Dex emerged from the back of the jumper, his thick dreadlocks spilling forward. "Don't you Earth folks call it a paradise?"
"A tropical paradise." McKay corrected. "Which is not such a paradise to people with citrus allergies."
Ronan looked to Teyla. "This is the lemon thing again?"
Mckay gave Ronan a withering glance. "Yes, it's the 'lemon thing' again. The 'lemon thing' is always going to be a thing because I'm always going to be allergic to citrus which means they will always be a deadly threat."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Ronon said dismissively and returned to the back of the jumper.
McKay realized that both Teyla and Sheppard were doing a pretty poor job of suppressing smiles.
"It's not funny." He huffed. "They put it in everything in these places. Drinks, food, lotion, everything is saturated with citrus. Wait. Huh. I wonder…" Mckay pulled out his tablet and started working furiously on something.
"Don't worry, Mckay. We'll protect you from the lethal lemons." Sheppard smirked, glad for even the slightest amount of levity. Things had been incredibly tense since they'd received word of Jeanie's kidnapping or, rather, since Sheppard had received word. He remembered that conversation with Woolsey.
"Do we know who took her?"
"Yes," The balding bespeckled man had sighed. "It was the Trust."
"The Trust? Those CIA wannabees? I thought we wiped them out? They're still out there trying to save Earth by any means necessary?"
"It would appear so." Woolsey said, delicately adjusting his eyeglasses. Sheppard mused that everything about the man screamed delicate but he had seen this delicate man stand up to things that would make some of his special forces buddies think twice.
"Do they have any theories on what they want with Jeanie?" Sheppard asked.
"No, because we know exactly what they want with her. They want Dr. Mckay."
Sheppard swallowed as though it would allow him to somehow more easily digest that fact.
"I suppose it shouldn't be surprising." Woolsey continued. "Dr. Mckay is a brilliant man on his own but when you consider his extensive research into the advanced technologies of the Ancients, his knowledge of both Goa'uld and Wraith technologies and then factor in the fact that he was personally tutored by an Asgard scientist…"
"And he's an ubergenius that a clandestine group of spies hell bent on using alien technology to wipe out extraterrestrial threats to Earth would pluck out their own eyes to acquire." Sheppard interrupted.
Woolsey frowned. "That isn't exactly how it was put but yes, that's the basic drift of it. Stargate Command, Colonel Carter in particular, is questioning why Mrs. Miller wasn't under some kind of protective detail, especially considering this isn't the first time someone has kidnapped the poor woman."
"Well, the first time she was kidnapped didn't have anything to do with Mckay. That time it was Jeanie's big brain the kidnappers were after. Remember, she's a genius too."
"Yes, well this time Dr. Mckay is definitely the target. Stargate Command received a communiqué offering proof of life for Jeanie" Wolsly cleared his throat in an attempt to cover up the fact he'd called Jeanie by her first name. The man was meticulous and this was an official briefing. He had shared a connection to Jeanie once and Sheppard knew he was very fond of her but in this official capacity she was Mrs. Miller, not Jeanie. "achem, for Mrs. Miller and stated they were willing to negotiate her release in trade for Dr. Mckay, nothing else. They further stated that any attempts at some alternate negotiation would result in punitive measures" despite his best efforts Woolsey's voice choked slightly "being taken out on Mrs. Miller."
"So, if we try and bargain with them, they'll hurt Jeanie." Sheppard simplified.
"Yes." Woolsey sighed, rubbing his temples.
"Did they give us a deadline?" Sheppard asked.
"Yes, they did and fortunately for us, they don't appear to be aware that we have re-established gate travel to Earth because the deadline seems to assume Dr. Mckay would have to take a Pegasus class ship home. They gave us approximately three months."
Sheppard grinned. "That's the first good news you've had for me Woolsey. We can be back on Earth tonight. I'll brief my team." He stood and started to head to the door.
"Commander!" Woolsey called out, halting the airman's retreat. "One more thing."
"What?" Sheppard asked turning back to face Woolsey.
"You won't like it. I don't like it either but it's an order and I expect you to obey it as I will."
Creepy crawlies were running up and down Sheppard's arms.
"What's this order I won't like?"
"We have been ordered not to tell Dr. Mckay the true details of his sister's abduction." Woolsey said flatly and braced himself for a violent response. Instead Sheppard simply frowned and was still for a moment as though considering.
"I get the reasoning behind it. Rodney'd do anything for Jeanie. Come to that, she'd do anything for him. We tell him the Trust wants a trade, he might just ditch us and make that trade. That what NID's thinking?"
"That was my understanding, yes, and the NID considers Dr. Mckay too valuable an asset to sacrifice. Initially, the consensus was that Dr. Mckay would not be allowed to participate at all but I and Colonel Carter argued that his intelligence and experience with both Mrs. Miller and the Trust could be invaluable. NID approved his inclusion only if he were kept ignorant of the Trust's true demands."
Sheppard didn't like the idea of keeping such an incredibly huge secret from his teammate and friend. His hesitance must have shown.
"I remind you Colonel, this is a direct order." Woolsey said sternly, and Woolsey could do stern. "If the NID or Stargate Command get any indication Dr. Mckay is aware of the Trust's demands, they will send him back to Atlantis immediately. I know it's distasteful but which do you think Dr. Mckay would prefer; for you to lie to him and allow him to help find his sister or for you to tell him the truth and leave him behind?"
Sheppard smirked sarcastically, "Well, when you put it that way it almost sounds like a good thing to lie to a friend and colleague. I used to wonder how politicians sleep at night but now I know there's absolutely nothing that can't be rationalized."
Thinking back on it, Sheppard knew he hadn't been fair to Woolsey. The man had fought for Mckay. Sheppard glanced back at the scientist.
"What are you doing?" He asked.
"I'm looking for signs of alien power signatures." Mckay mumbled distractedly.
"What? In Hawaii? Why?"
Mckay rolled his eyes. "What are we doing right now?"
Sheppard blinked. "Um, traveling?"
Mckay sighed.
"Flying then. I don't' know."
Mckay rolled his eyes. "We're using alien technology. The Trust has quite a few goodies of their own and it stands to reason if we use alien tech for shortcuts, they will... Got something! It's coming from, um, the middlish sized island near the top." Mckay said frowning.
"Uh, which one is the middlish sized one near the top, Mckay?" Sheppard prodded.
"I don't know! There are tons of them." Mckay said exasperated thrusting the topographical map at Sheppard. "Just look at it."
"Huh, that's Oahu. It's where we're supposed to meet up with that Honolulu task force. Good work, Mckay."
"That's why they pay me the big bucks. No wait. They DON'T pay me big bucks. They ship me off to another galaxy to fight alien monsters."
"And to make friends." Sheppard smiled and looked pointedly at Teyla.
Mckay glanced guiltily back at her. "Yeah, and to make friends with crazy beautiful women who can kick my ass seven ways to Sunday and whom I hope I have not in any way offended."
Teyla rewarded him with a laugh. "I was not offended, Rodney."
Mckay smiled but the smile faltered when he heard a gruff voice from the back call out.
"I was."