A/N: Eurgh, argh, still wrestling with the head cold, now into the part I hate most (the "HUMANS ARE NOT MEANT TO BREATH THROUGH JUST ONE HALF OF THEIR NOSES AAAARGH!" part) and I'll blame every damn mistake I didn't find while editting on this. I so very much hate having a cold, eurgh. (Look, I know there are worse things than that. That doesn't make it any nicer, though)
Anyway. This was still kinda fun because writing Dee always is, as I really like his observation skills and his capacity for sober and clean analysis, coupled with his loyalty to both his boss and his friends (I know I like to joke that Maureen is the only adult on the team but in this phase, it's definitely Dee who checks all the boxes on adulting...) and his ability to quietly and calmly speak truth to power and not let Tom intimidate him, at all. It's a little short but I hope you still like it.
Two
DeLisle
I honestly should just stop unintentionally listening in to private conversations.
Then again, people could also just stop having private conversations in public where everyone could stumble over them and unintentionally listen in. And by people, I mostly mean Maureen and the Major. I honestly can't believe we haven't been here even for a week and they already had another work-out room argument.
I also can't believe it wouldn't even take a week for Maureen to break her promise not to give the Major shit about Laura's death. I'm not sure if I'm even pissed off at her, considering how raw and wounded she sounded when she told the Major to fight back and how frightened she looked when she stormed out of the room. And you know, I kinda knew she would. The moment she promised me not to, I knew she would.
I just didn't think she'd snap so soon. Knowing the Major, it probably was something he said.
Oh hell, that wasn't fair and judging from everything I just heard and saw – it started with "Say it's not true" and ended with Maureen running out of the work-out room, probably too rattled to even notice me – it's safe to say that he might need a bit of non-commissioned officer TLC. I sigh and enter the work-out room.
At first, I'm a little confused but then I see him. Behind me, on the floor slumped against the wall right next to the door, his hands covering his face. Okay. That's… not good.
I crouch next to him, the bottle of water I brought with me in one hand. Realizing he either hasn't heard me coming in or, more likely, refuses to acknowledge there's someone else in the room, I decide to be gentle, just this time. "Water, sir?"
There might or might not have been a low groan from his direction. Either way, he doesn't look at me, but extends a hand towards me, the other still half covering his face. But yeah, I get the hint. Without a word, I put screw off the bottle's cap and hand it to him. He takes a deep draw, then rests both his arms on his drawn up knees and stares a little off into space and I honestly wonder if I shouldn't be pissed off at Maureen, after all. This still doesn't look very good.
Then, after another small eternity of silence, he says, kind of out of the blue, "Did you know she took up stick fighting here?"
Um. No? "Stick fighting, sir?"
"Yup," he makes and gestures towards two wooden batons on the floor in front of him. "She says they're called bantos rods and are used mainly by the natives." Okay. That's… interesting, I guess? "She got really damn good at it, to be honest."
Alright, that was enough chit-chat. Fuck being gentle, this needs the direct approach. "Sir?"
He frowns, finally looking at me. "What?"
"What happened?" Because honestly, we both know beating around the bush won't get us anywhere, anyway, so there's no use in it. Better go at this headfirst.
It takes him a moment, and he turns away from me again, when he replies, "What happened is that Maureen Reece got even better at cutting through the bullshit and right to the heart of the matter." Wow, cryptic much, sir? Probably, maybe, sensing my confusion, he takes another swig from the bottle and turns back to me, a dead-pan look on his face. "She realized I left Laura behind, and that's what killed her best friend."
Well. Uh. "Sir, you know that's not exactly what…"
"It's exactly what happened, Dee." And here I thought we were over that long ago.
I shake my head and barely resist a sigh. "Look, she asked…"
"Yes, and I shouldn't have listened to her." She did have some good arguments and she knew what she signed up for and… "This debate is over, Dee." He says that almost casually but he and I both know that he's going to be anything but casual about it if I continue this conversation.
But damn, I'm not willing to let this go entirely. "Sir… why didn't you just tell her the truth?" Or your slightly warped version of the truth, anyway.
He snorts, humorlessly. "You really think she would have listened?"
Okay. Saying "yes" now would be a lie because from the way she looked when she stormed out of the room, she might actually not be very much inclined to listen to him defend – or rather blame – himself. However, "She might have surprised you, sir. You know how she likes to do that."
That makes him laugh, even kind of genuinely. Just a small, short chuckle, sounding only as half as cynical as it used to after Laura died and I'm honestly wondering if he wasn't right when he said that we'd be screwed if we managed to survive that crazy nuke plan. I don't know exactly what his feelings are toward Maureen, just as I don't know exactly how she sees him but whatever it is, it's definitely a clusterfuck. Or bound to become one very soon.
"Yeah," he says, cutting through my musings, "she does, doesn't she?"
I find myself nodding. And then, because some devil must be riding me, I can't help adding, "At least she didn't hold a knife to your throat, sir."
There's this moment, this very tiny moment when I'm about to regret my – honestly thoughtless – quip and apologize because he looks at me like he'd like to hold a knife to my throat but then, for whatever reason, he seems to have decided that at least he's over that and genuinely laughs, rolling his eyes. "Way too soon, Sergeant." Yeah, that's what I thought. "But still, a good one."
High praise, indeed. I'm about to say something to that effect when suddenly, there's a new voice in play. "Uh, sir, um, can I, uh…" Lieutenant Rivers. Dear God, why?
"Lieutenant Rivers. Anything we can do for you?" The funny thing is: I have seen the Major switching from being a mess to acting completely unfazed in two seconds or less countless of times. But I still find it amazing to watch it happen every damn time it does. It's something no one who knows him, including me, would ever have him credited with and yet here we are.
He even managed to get up in one dynamic motion, betraying nothing of what just happened here. Rivers at least looks suitably impressed. "I just uh… I wanted to apologize, sir."
The Major frowns, and so do I. "For what, Lieutenant?"
At this point, I'm not sure if he really doesn't know what Rivers might want to apologize for or if he just wants to make it as hard as possible for him, and from the look of it, Rivers doesn't have an idea, either. "For my uh behavior during the siege, sir. It was unprofessional, out of line and put lives in danger. Sir."
For a second lieutenant in the US Marine Corps, that was actually a really decent performance. Admitting to a field grade that you behaved like the last moron under their command and endangered their life with your stupidity is something that doesn't come easy to anyone, let alone the testosterone filled calamity that is a male second lieutenant.
The Major nods, a little absentmindedly. And then moves to show the lieutenant that he was wrong, again. "Duly noted, Lieutenant. But you know as well as I that you shouldn't have come to me, don't you?" Rivers looks vaguely uncomfortable. Yeah, you better. "This should have gone to Captain Reece, and we both know it." Kudos for not slipping yet again and calling her Lieutenant, sir.
Rivers now suddenly looks awfully much like an overeager Golden Retriever puppy. Why do second lieutenants always look like overeager Golden Retriever puppies at some point in their life? "Oh, I already did, sir." Damn, I hope she gave him… "I mean, actually, she came to me."
I share a frown with the Major, and then he turns back to Rivers. "Care to elaborate, Lieutenant?"
Rivers continues to look uncomfortable. I'm starting to get the bad feeling that even he has already picked up on the weird vibes between the Major and Maureen and would like nothing more than to beat a fast retreat instead of having to wade into something he doesn't really understand. I actually feel him, at least a little. "I, um… She, uh. She came to me, two days ago and apologized for her uh outburst in the secondary ops."
Yeah, that's the Maureen I know. She'd do something like that, in a heartbeat. That, finally, is a sliver of the person I used to know back at the SGC. It's actually kind of reassuring that somewhere beneath the veneer and the scars of a year in Atlantis, there's still something of that wide-eyed, decent to a fault, polite lieutenant left.
"Of course you told her there wasn't anything to apologize for. Right, Lieutenant?" Come on, sir, that's bullshit, and we all know it.
"Uh, yeah, about that, sir…" Uh-oh.
The Major really is a mess where Maureen is concerned, but at least this time, he seems to have realized it before making any stupid moves and doesn't show his displeasure by more than a slightly unhappy and kind of menacing look before saying, "You still have a lot to learn, young padawan."
Rivers visibly swallows what was probably some snappy comment or other and says, with just a bit of difficulty of sounding genuinely contrite, "Yes, sir." Then, as if that wasn't enough, he really has the gall to open his mouth to add something. Oh… "Sir, Captain Reece really is one of the good ones."
"Yeah," the Major drawls, looking increasingly annoyed with this puppy of an officer, "I'm sure she'll appreciate your endorsement of her qualities as an officer especially."
Okay, I think that's enough. I clear my throat. "Sir, if you don't mind, I'd like to excuse myself from the conversation and take care of what we were just…"
"No," he says, apparently immediately picking up at what I was hinting at, and for someone who claims to be really fucking dumb where subtlety is concerned, that was pretty impressive, "I think that's something I need to handle." No. Seriously, it's going to be a disaster if you confront Maureen… "Because you will be tied down here, offering some of your sage wisdom to our padawan here, won't you, Sergeant?"
Goddammit. I just got played by my damn boss, and I really hate it when that happens. Especially if it involves babysitting a damn lieutenant. I can just barely keep myself from growling when I answer him, "Yes, sir. Of course, sir."
He gives me a tight grin that doesn't reach his eyes. "Good, Sergeant. Lieutenant. As you were."
And with that, he's gone, probably about to wreck whatever good rapport he had left with Maureen and I can't even move to intercept because he effectively gave me an order in front of a very impressionable young officer who probably still thinks an officer's word is law, and I am so not in the mood for a discussion with that kind of officer. I sigh. "Okay then, Lieutenant… how are your hand-to-hand combat skills?"
Rivers looks very much like he expects this to be a trick question, and that's not even completely wrong. He swallows again. "Uh… they… uh… could use a little work, sir?" Sir? I fucking work for a living. "Sergeant. They could use a little work, Sergeant."
Good lieutenant. "Alright, let's get to it, then."
At least the Major left me with something fun to do while I worry my head off about him shredding whatever chance of an at least civil professional relationship he had with Maureen because he's convinced that he can "handle" this. Beating the crap out of a lieutenant to distract myself, it is, then.
