Full Summary:
Lt. Cassie Peck is Rookie Officer Gail Peck's older sister and has been in the military for nearly eight years. During a stop over on Earth, Cassie stops in to see Gail and drags her and the rest of the 15th she works with to the Daedalus and back to Atlantis. How do Gail's co-workers react to hearing that she's had Top-Level Security Clearance and never told them? Will Cassie explain why Gail is the only one in her family to be given the Clearance and not their parents as well?
Lt. Cassie Peck:
All the Peck's had become cops, I was the exception. Gail and I were the only girls in our family. I guess my parents figured I would follow in the family business and become a cop. I on the other hand had no intention of being a cop and being expected to become a White Shirt just like my parents. Gail and I were as tight as sisters could get, though she was mostly the only person I ever talked to. I told her all of my plans and she told me that she would always be there for me.
When I joined the military at the age of 18, my parents were very disappointed in me and stopped talking to me. My brothers didn't have to be told to stop talking to me since they also thought my career choice was a mistake. Gail on the other hand never stopped talking to me, even when I graduated Boot Camp and was transferred to the Classified Section of the military. We were allowed one family member to know what kind of work we did just in case anything happened to us.
I chose Gail to know what I did because we were always talking. I was good at my job and I knew that she would want to stay in the loop on what was going on with me. When Gail graduated from Rookie Academy, I took some leave and showed up at her graduation to the utmost dissatisfaction of our parents. I went to the Black Penny with her that night and let her know that I was proud of her. Before leaving the Penny, I told her that she wasn't going to be hearing from me for a while and that she would get a DVD in the mail describing what I would be doing and where I would be going.
Gail couldn't take the day off work so I came to see her instead. I wasn't it my dress uniforms like I had been when Gail graduated. I was in my camouflage uniform, the one I would be wearing on the flight to Atlantis. She was in Parade when I stopped by and I was led into the Parade room, backpack on my shoulder. When they opened the door and let me in, Gail noticed me almost immediately. I walked to her and hugged her before handing her the DVD that I said would be coming in the mail. The military hadn't been able to send all of the DVD's through the mail so I had brought mine to her personally.
I told Gail not to watch it until she could be alone. That there were a few things on it that would explain everything. She told me that she would pray for me and that she would email and write as much as she could. We hugged one more time and then I was gone. I walked out of the Parade room and looked back only once. She knew that what I was about to do was most likely going to get me killed. She watched me leave before sitting back down and looking at the table. We both knew that we wouldn't be seeing each other for a long time and that if anything happened to me, she would most likely hear it while she was at work.
I was intent on not letting anything happen to me. I was intent on surviving until I came back to Earth. Intents, however, normally don't go as planned. Intents have a way a failing you when you most need them to be there for you. Injuries, I found out, were common on Atlantis and knew that the special gene I had been born with was one of the reasons I had been chosen for the mission.