Author: RowenaR

Rating: T

Category: friendship

Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to Gekko and… all those other people making money with it. Anyway, I don't. Honestly. So – I don't own, you don't sue. Deal?

Summary: If SG10 thought things from their last mission would be done with a sleepover and a few pancakes in the morning, they were damn wrong.

A/N: Whooey, 'nother Minor Characters fic! Kind of a (four part) filler fic (but I guess by now the pattern of action-packed longer multi-chapter and bridge/aftermath shorter multichapters kind of established itself) but at least trying to deal with left over strands from Lies, Lies, Lies. I got a feeeling some things will never be dealt with properly but some things do need to be talked about, anyway so I hope I'm not going to disappoint :)

PS.: I'll stray from the established two POV per chapter pattern this time because it's going to work better with just one POV per chapter. Hope that's okay with you.

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

Minor Characters: When Your Well Runs Dry

"Tell me, tell me what you gonna do
When your, when your well runs dry
What you gonna do, when your, when your well runs dry?
What you gonna do when your well runs dry
I'd like to know
What you gonna do when your well runs dry?"

Eric Clapton, "Till Your Well Runs Dry"

One

Moore

Alright, I can do this. I can walk up to Landry's office, knock on the door and tell him never to fuck with my team ever again or I will end him. I once hit on a female fellow USAFA cadet and dissed the Black Knights, right in front of her older West Point cadet sister, who by the way, was a member of the judo team and a National Collegiate Champion two years running. Telling my boss not to screw around with my team should be a fucking piece of cake to me.

So… oh shit, General right ahead and no way to duck into another hall… wait. That's my chance. We're alone and not more than a couple yards away from his office. I need to act now. Alright. Fine. Wait a moment, wait a moment… go. "Excuse me, sir, might I have a word with you?"

Awesome timing, if I may say so myself. He was about to walk by with a short nod and I caught him right in that moment when he couldn't pretend he didn't hear me. "Of course, Major. What can I do for you?"

Nuh-uh, you won't get off so easily, sir. I school my face into a carefully worried expression. "I'd rather not have this conversation in a hall way, sir."

Just as planned, it gets him thinking enough that he pauses for a moment, then clears his throat. "...alright. Why don't we go back to my office?"

Good boy. I resist the temptation of patting him on the head for playing along so well. "Gladly, sir."

Landry turns around and I tag along for the short walk back to his office, telling myself there's a good reason that I'm doing this and that I have airtight arguments for what I'm about to throw at him. I nearly crashed the entire SGC server network to get confirmation for the suspicions I'd been holding ever since I went through those e-mails Dee received from Noruega and his ex-employers, after all. So I have damn good reasons for being here. And for making Landry listen to me.

Anyway… we're in his office now and he's looking expectantly at me. "So... what did you want to talk to me about?"

Alright. Let's get ourselves in trouble, head on. "Sergeant DeLisle, sir."

Landry's only reaction is a raised eyebrow indicating very mild interest. Just you wait. "Is the Sergeant giving you trouble?"

You mean aside from the fact that I'm pretty sure that he's been going through hell for roughly a week now? "No, sir."

"What else would you like to talk to me about, then?" Very mild interest just got replaced by starting annoyance. Good.

"His temporary absence, sir." Come on, boy, don't give me that whole clueless attitude. You didn't become head of one of the US military's most secret installations for nothing.

"Major... will I get to hear more than just one-liners from you?" Ah, finally we're getting somewhere. "Because my patience is starting to wane." No really? Then I'm sure you'll understand how my patience practically exploded when I had all my puzzle pieces together. "You and your team strained it already a lot during last week. Do get to the point, and fast."

I'd like nothing better, sir. "Yes, sir. Supplementary research to last week's mission points to the fact that Sergeant DeLisle's unauthorized absence was, in fact, authorized." Among others by you, no less. Under duress – or at least that's what the meta data that I decrypted yesterday says – granted. I'm still really, really pissed, though. "But not by me, sir, neither did I know it was." Or I'd probably have made sure that a couple heads at Homeworld Security would role for a few unsavory things I discovered on the way. And here we're going with the trouble part. "I'd just like to say that if anyone ever again thinks they can make decisions about my team over my head, they're going to regret it. And that includes everyone."

Silence. Dead silence. Oh yes, you know very well what I'm talking about. And I thought O'Neill warned you about that idiot officer who wouldn't stop at nothing, not even staff grade officers, if he thought someone was messing with his team. Obviously, O'Neill couldn't stand you if he didn't.

"Try not to forget yourself, Major." Oooh, someone's really pissed about having been called out on one of his less than stellar decisions.

Alright, let's piss him off a little more. "I just wanted to state a fact, sir, and take it to you for consideration."

I can see that he's burning to throw me out of his office, but knows that he has nothing he can use against, at least not today. He can't punish any of us for being AWOL since he sanctioned Dee's absence because someone at the Agency put a lot of pressure on him and he signed Dee's mission off and he sanctioned our absence because his personal Corporal owed my Lieutenant a favor and my Lieutenant is a secret badass grifter. He can't even throw me out for being disrespectful because I didn't attack him personally.

And to think Laura wanted to tie me up at home so I wouldn't go and ruin my career over a few unconfirmed rumors. Pffft.

Landry seems to have realized that there's no way he can get back at me and there's a certain resignation in his voice when he says, "Duly noted, Major."

Yeah, you better. "Thank you, sir."

He nods and makes a gesture in the direction of the door behind me. "Dismissed, Major."

Righty-o. I tip my head in a salute just about formal enough not to get literally booted out of the office after all and turn around.

Phew. So, that went… alright? Okay, at least according to Laura's gloom and doom prophecies, it went spectacular. According to her, it was supposed to end my career in a blaze of glory, including being thrown out of the office by Landry's own hands and receiving a magnificent yelling on top of it. She'll be so very disappointed that it didn't happen that I'm almost tempted to exaggerate my exit, just to keep her off my back.

Anyway, where to… "Hey, Tom." Oh just great. Look who's back from vacation. Evan fucking Lorne. "Anything interesting happened while I… whoa, nice shiner you got there." Yes, of course he'd have to comment on that. Just like basically everyone I ran into ever since Kid had a case of the Rambos. "How'd you acquire that one?"

I resist a dramatic sigh. "None of your business."

"Ran into a door?" Fuck your fucking grin and your fucking smugness, you fucking bastard. "Or was it a fist?"

"Absolutely and totally irrelevant." Ah, shit. As soon as I said that I realize the trap I just ran into full force.

Stupid grinning motherfucker. "Wait a moment. Was it your little Lieutenant?"

Just one more word and I'll have to deck him so hard he'll have to spend his first week back on the job in the fucking infirmary. "She's not my Lieutenant."

"I can't believe you let that girl beat you up." Jesus fucking Christ. How did he just manage to catch me like that twice?

This time, I can't resist the longsuffering sigh. I've been heaving those with alarming frequency in the last couple of days. "It was one single punch."

He raises his eyebrows and makes a silent whistling motion with his mouth. Fuck you. "If it was, it was pretty well aimed. Gotta give her credit for that, at least."

Ass. Maybe I can rescue this situation, though. "Yeah, and guess who taught her that."

He makes a show of thinking really hard and then… "Your Sergeant? Laura?" Of course he'd say that. And the worst thing? He's probably right. I wasn't the one in charge of her practical unarmed combat training. Dee was.

That doesn't mean I have to accept Lorne's bullshitting, though. "Asshole."

Okay, that probably wasn't really imaginative. "My pleasure." Yeah, I guess I deserved that. "Anyway… did anything interesting happened while I was gone?"

Contrary to public opinion, I am able to spot an attempt at serious conversation when I see one, even if it comes in the kind of casual voice that Lorne just used. I try to keep the same tone up. We're still in a public hallways in the SGC, after all. "My Sergeant went AWOL because his past came back to bite him in the ass."

That's as much as Lorne will ever hear about it and from the look of it, he knows that. "Got him back?"

I've known him for thirteen years now and that's probably how I know that behind that laid-back, almost uninterested tone, there's real interest and maybe a bit of worry, too because that's just what Lorne does. Worrying about his friends, fellow soldiers, subordinates… you name it. When he arrives at those places he's going – and he definitely is, much more than I am – he's gonna have a hell of a time not to lose his head over his worrying one day. I nod. "Sure did."

He grins. What? "You would've never gotten over your stupid pride without your girls, would you?"

See, and this is one of the absolute disadvantages of working with people who've known you for thirteen years and seen you at your absolute worst in anything from hangovers after "Single Retreat" weekends at the Academy to nearly getting killed due to a stupid pilot error in flight school. They just know you too fucking well. "Just shut up."

"I'm just saying." Not well enough to just do what you ask of them, though.

Goddammit. "And I said shut up."

He doesn't even have the decency to flinch at my death glare, just shrugs and says, "Sure," which just proves that he doesn't have any intention to shut up anytime soon. "By the way, you still owe me that barbecue."

Right. Uh-huh. Sure. "If I remember it correctly, you owe my team one."

At that, Lorne just grins. He totally knew that and actually thought I'd fall for one of his diversions a third time. Why am I friends with this guy? "How lucky that I had one planned for tomorrow. Consider yourself and your team invited." Oh, right, because he's such a goody-two-shoes.

Alright, least I can do is play along. He did just invite us to free food tomorrow. "You're being too kind."

"I invited Lieutenant Forsberg as well." I just can't… I… the bastard. Stupid fucking Forsberg who had the audacity to ask out one of my teammates, multiple times.

Another death glare, and this time I wish looks could kill. "I take everything back. You really are an asshole."

"Now why would you call me that… twice?" Seriously? He's trying for innocent? Seriously? Fucking bastard knows very well how much I do not approve of Forsberg anywhere near my Lieutenant in a fifty mile radius if it can be helped.

"Just... cause." The nerve the guy has. One day, I will get to deck him for purposely… "Come on, I got a couple really great steaks and a crate of imported Pilsner you're gonna love." Damn, I hate it that my friends know me well enough to be able to create the perfect lure for something I know I'll probably regret.

Ah, whatever. "Yeah, fine. But please remind Forsberg that I will instill the holy fear of God in him if he so much as looks the wrong way at Reece."

He rolls his eyes. "I will do no such thing." Damn decent officers. They're never up for a bit of healthy threatening of their subordinates. "And you will do no such thing, either." Yeah, right, make… "But you may glare at him for about two seconds."

Oh fine. "Whatever. See you tomorrow. Gotta instill the fear of God in someone, if I'm not allowed to do it to the rightful recipient."

That just makes him snort and again I wonder why we're friends. "Would you like me to schedule an inter-team unarmed combat session so you can take it out on him when he can actually defend himself?" Oh, right. That's why I'm still friends with him.

"Yeah, well, if he can defend himself." Oh come on, don't get all huffed up again. "Anyway… I'll tell the team they're invited. See you tomorrow?"

He nods and turns to go, probably to gently introduce Forsberg to the fact that he'll have the crap beaten out of him next time he enters the workout room – okay, if Laura and Lorne don't manage to step in first – and says, "Sure. Have fun doing that instilling the fear of God thing."

And with that he's gone and I… well, I'm left to call Laura and tell her how my meeting with Landry went. In which she will probably instill the fucking fear of God in me. But dammit, it was worth it. No one will ever mess with my team again. Not if I can prevent them from it, and I goddamn will.