Title: Just Three Steps
Character: John Sheppard
Synopsis: What will happen when a man finds Sheppard with his wife in their home?
Date Written: 2-18-10
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"Gimme three steps, Gimme three steps, Mister,
Gimme three steps towards the door.
Gimme three steps, Gimme three steps, Mister,
and you'll never see me no more." - Gimme Three Steps, Lynyrd Skynyrd
He knew he shouldn't have followed her! A beautiful woman like that? In a place like this? Of course she'd be taken!
But, of course, he hadn't thought of that before he'd followed her into a nearby hut.
And at the moment, he was wishing he had.
Because currently, there was a very large man in front of him with a crossbow pointed at his face.
Said woman was over in the corner, claiming that he had come onto her, when in reality, it had been the other way around.
Of course, her husband wasn't going to believe him.
His weapons were outside, with the others, and any peep from him to call for help would get him an arrow through the forehead.
But he knew that the only way out of this mess was by talking. He cleared his throat, the man did nothing.
"So far so good." He thought as he decided to risk talking.
"Umm. Look, Mister, I don't want any trouble."
The man remained silent, glaring.
"Look, if you'll just let me leave I promise I will never return."
Again, the man said nothing. With the door only three steps away, a song came to mind.
"Ummm. OK. How 'bout you just gimme three steps towards the door and you'll never see me no more."
The man thought for a moment, then slowly nodded.
He breathed a sigh of relief.
He took the largest step he could manage towards the door. He made it almost half-way there.
One more giant step... Reach for the flap... Move the cloth so he could get through... One more giant step...
And then he was out. He quickly made his way back to his team.
They gave him strange looks but said nothing.
"Colonel," Teyla began, "They will be happy to trade with us."
"That's great!" He said with false enthusiasm. If anyone noticed it, they did not mention it.
"Would you like to negotiate terms now?" Teyla prompted as he caught a glimpse of the large man just in sight, beside a building.
"N-no." He stammered. "If it's alright with them, I'll send Lorne's team to do that."
She gave him another strange look but nodded anyway. "I shall tell Miran then." She said, referring to the village leader.
"OK. You do that. We'll, uh, stay here."
She nodded before turning and walking back to where Miran was waiting.
"You alright?" Rodney asked as they picked up their things.
"What? Oh, yeah, fine. Why?"
"No reason."
Teyla returned a few long minutes later. "Miran says that will be fine."
"Alright then. Let's head back. I, uh, remembered some stuff I have to do."
After they reached the gate, he let Teyla, Rodney and Ronon go ahead of him.
Before he stepped through, he looked back. At the edge of the woods was the man that would plague his nightmares for days to come.
And with that thought, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, United States Air Force, stepped through the gate, happy to be going home.
What he didn't know, however, was that Ronon had seen everything...
