Ends and Means
Summary: Post-Ep for Childhood's End. Sheppard gets a dressing down from Weir about what happened back on the planet. Then something unexpected happens. Weir/Sheppard.
Spoliers: Everything up to Childhood's End.
Disclaimer: Stargate Altantis and its characters do not belong to me.
Author's Notes: What can I say, I'm on a roll. Either that or I have too much time on my hands. This continues in the same storyline as my other FF, but you don't really need to have read them to get this one. Anyway...I don't see Sheppard as the type of person to take criticism well, so this starts with my take on his reaction to Weir's disapproval.
Thanks for all the reviews on my previous stories. I'm still working on catching all my verb tense mistakes, so please bear with me.
Major John Sheppard and the rest of his team are back in Atlantis. They're in the middle of the briefing and he can't keep himself from tuning out as Rodney McKay goes on and on about how he fixed and improved the electromagnetic shield. He doesn't know how Ford and Teyla can look attentive because they were all treated to McKay's explanations on the flight back to the gate. He notices a small mistake in McKay's calculations, but chooses not to call him on it. (The shield is actually 54.3% bigger than it was before.)
He decides, instead, to focus on his new favorite hobby – the beautiful Dr. Elizabeth Weir. It's been a few weeks since they had their little "run-in" down in the lower levels. He knows what he wants, but figures that convincing Elizabeth is going to take a little more time. She's been building some pretty high walls around herself since accepting this position. John's plan is to chip his way slowly through those walls and be entrenched before she knows what hit her. His standard MO of piling on the charm will probably just freak her out.
She's sitting across the conference table from him, facing McKay who is presenting at the end of the table. Since he's supposed to be listening too, John can only glance at her out of the corner of his eye. He notices that she looks tired. Then again, she has every reason to be tired. Running Atlantis on a daily basis would be tiring for even the most experienced commanders.
But today she looks a little worse than normal. He didn't even get the standard "welcome back" smile when they came through the gate. The jumper always hovers in front of the gate for a moment before going up to the bay. All the other times he'd come through, she would give them a relieved smile to welcome them back. But today she had barely glanced up from her conversation with Peter on the command deck.
Weir also isn't saying much during the briefing. She'd looked like she was going to speak up after he gave his mission report, but didn't. It's clear there's something bothering her.
John wonders if Kavanagh is giving her a hard time again. The guy still hasn't gotten over how Weir had put him in his place in front of his team. Kavanagh has a bigger superiority complex than McKay and that was saying a lot. He wonders if he can have a talk with the guy without seeming too over-protective of Elizabeth.
"Thanks Rodney. I look forward to hearing how you plan to incorporate what you learned into increasing our defenses. I think that's all for now. Thanks everyone."
Glad that he doesn't have to listen to McKay talk anymore, Sheppard quickly gets up to walk out of the conference room.
"Major Sheppard. Could you please stay for a moment?"
Everyone in the room stops moving and looks over at Weir.
"The rest of you need to report to the infirmary for your check-ups. Tell Dr. Beckett that Major Sheppard will be along in a few minutes."
His team walks out and Sheppard sits back down. He doesn't know what she wants to talk about, but he can't think of any reason to be concerned. He should have been worried by how nervous McKay looked when he walked out. Even more so when Elizabeth closes the doors behind his team.
Weir sits back down across the table from him. She looks a little pale and leans forward with a serious expression on her face. Sheppard is the opposite. He's leaning back in his chair with a small smile playing on his lips.
"What's up Doc?"
That old WB joke always makes her smile. This time, he gets no reaction. Not even the smallest hint of a smile. She lets out a little sigh and this has Sheppard sitting up in his chair with some concern.
"I wanted to talk to you about how you handled the situation back on the planet."
"What about it?"
"It was irresponsible for you to allow the shield to be dropped and the ZPM brought back to Atlantis."
"Finding energy sources is the reason why we go out there in the first place."
"The shield was the only thing protecting those children from the Wraith."
"We got it back up!"
"Not before a Wraith probe showed up."
"McKay got the shield back up before it could go back through the gate."
"How do you know it didn't transmit before it was taken out?"
"I don't. But it doesn't matter. The shield is back up!"
"That's not the point."
"Then what the hell is the point? Because from how I see it, we ended up saving a lot of lives today!"
"The ends does not always justify the means. You still could have stopped the suicides without endangering the people in the villages. What if Rodney hadn't gotten the shield back up?"
"But he did! What could have happened doesn't matter now!"
"Yes, it does. Don't you see? You intentionally put every person on that planet in danger just to bring a ZPM back to Atlantis. And you were willing to keep it and never put the shield back up."
"We would have brought them back to Atlantis if the ZPM was worth keeping!"
"You can't keep bringing people here."
"Why not? It's worked so far!"
"Because we don't have the resources. Because we're not the Ancients. We can't protect everyone in this galaxy from the Wraith. Not even the Ancients could protect them from the Wraith!"
"But without the ZPMs, we can't even protect ourselves!"
"If we're going to live here, we're going to have to stop believing we're more important than everyone else."
"You know damn well I don't think that way!"
"And yet Rodney still brought the ZPM back to Atlantis."
"Then why aren't you having this conversation with Rodney?"
"Because you are responsible for the decisions that the members of your team make during a mission."
"He'd already taken the ZPM out when he radioed me! He would have done it anyway!"
"Are you saying that you are unable to control the actions of your team?"
"Damn it! That's not what I'm saying!" Sheppard explodes from his chair and glares down at Weir. He slams his fists down on the table and leans forward menacingly. "MAYBE IF YOU GOT OFF YOUR ASS AND WENT THROUGH THE GATE NOW AND THEN, YOU'D SEE WHAT IT'S LIKE TO MAKE DECISIONS IN THE FIELD!"
Weir jumps up and matches Sheppard's glare.
"MAYBE IF YOU STARTED MAKING THE RIGHT DECISIONS FOR ONCE, I WOULDN'T HAVE TO STAY HERE AND KEEP DEALING WITH ALL OF YOUR SCREW UPS!"
They stay like that, glaring at each other for a full minute. Neither of them want to be the one to give in. Eventually Elizabeth leans back and squares her shoulders. She opts to end the confrontation with strength, not weakness.
"That's all for now Major. You're expected in the infirmary. Dismissed."
Sheppard fumes at her not-so-subtle reminder of who is really in charge of Atlantis. He slowly straightens from the table with his eyes flashing with fury.
"Yes - sir." He sneers before turning and storming out of the conference room.
He's too angry to notice that Elizabeth's cheeks were flushed with more than anger. That a layer of perspiration had formed on her forehead. He's too angry to look back and see her double over, no longer able to keep herself upright. He's charging down to the infirmary and doesn't see her clutch at her side. He's too far away to see the pain overcome her before she can call out for help.
There's nobody to see as she collapses and falls to the floor unconscious.