John Sheppard leaned his hands against the balcony long after the party was over. He and Weir had discussed possible candidates for his team. His team. Those two words bounced through his mind like a pin ball. Part of him thought he was dreaming, that he would wake up back in McMurdo anytime now. But now, after all that had happened in the past couple of days, McMurdo seemed like a whole lifetime away. It was difficult to believe that less than two weeks ago he had thought Earth was alone in the universe. He let go a long, tired sigh.
The wraith were another thing that kept resurfacing in his mind. They almost seemed like a bad Halloween joke, but the reality of them had been there from the moment he saw the female wraith's hand draining Colonel Sumner's life. Sheppard knew that not only that image but the feeling of pulling the trigger was going to haunt him all night. He was certain sleep was out of the question. It would be easier to simply avoid sleep until he absolutely needed to sleep.
"Major, Doctor, what are you doing still up. It's past midnight," a voice pulled Sheppard out of his thoughts.
Sheppard turned to see Aiden Ford walking over to himself and Dr. Weir. "Lieutenant. I could say the same about you."
Ford walked over to stand next to them for the second time that night. "I can't sleep either," Ford answered simply.
"Yeah, it comes in the job description I suppose," Weir commented
"Nah," Ford began, trying to lighten the mood. "I'm pretty sure that when I joined the Marine Corps that it didn't say, 'you may come into contact with alien races that feed on human life' anywhere."
Sheppard smiled. "You know it's funny, I don't remember reading that either. Speaking of a job. . ."
Here Ford grinned. "You know, sir, it might be good to have another military guy on your team. Maybe a lieutenant."
A smile tugged at Weir's lips at Ford's not-so-subtle hint.
"And someone who has at least some diplomatic skills," Sheppard added, matching Ford's grin and causing Weir to smile wider.
"Yeah, maybe someone who knows their way around the Pegasus Galaxy," Ford suggested, clearly catching on that Sheppard was talking about Teyla.
"And somebody smart enough to be able to fix a Puddle Jumper or any other Ancient tech we may come across to save your lives," Weir put in.
"Exactly," Ford agreed, then he got a considering expression on his face. "The Pegasus Galaxy Avengers," he announced with an exaggerated hand motion (well, arm flinging) that matched his cheesy grin.
Sheppard and Weir turned to Ford and tried valiantly to keep straight faces but with a lack of sleep combined with the utterly insane grin on to the lieutenant's face as well as the complete relevance of the title sent the three of them into fits of laughter. They all slid down, clutching the balcony rail, and tried their best to catch a hold of their laughter. They felt like the weight had been lifted from their shoulders and the gravity of their situation forgotten for a moment.
No matter what they face they had a group of people here would watch each others' backs that was for certain.
Just a little tag that really is more for me than anyone else since I'm sure it's been one many times before but I hope you enjoyed it anyway!