A quick note: This story is basically rated NC-17 (MA) for explicit sexual contents. However, because of this site's rules I have censored the fic and cut it down to an R (M) rating. So far I wasn't forced to cut out too much, but if you're interested in the uncensored fic you can read it at Wraithbait dot com, where the story is published under Categories - Strictly Slash - Sheppard/Lorne - Crossing The Line. The site may take a day or so to be updated.
Interlude
When Lorne first met Sheppard, they were still Evan and John.
####
The wormhole disengaged behind Lorne and Woeste as they stepped down the ramp, and they gave their weapons to a waiting SF before reporting to the control room and General Landry.
The General was already there, standing and looking over Walter's shoulder at something in the dialing computer. When they approached, he straightened and his eyebrows rose.
"Well, gentlemen, how did it go?" he asked.
"It was fine, sir. I-" Lorne started, but Woeste cut him off.
"Fine? That thing almost killed me and you call that fine!" he accused, slightly hysteric still. General Landry's eyebrows went even further up.
"Iron Shirt shot my MP5 at Woeste's general direction, sir," Lorne explained, and when Landry looked at him with severe eyes, he stated, "I told him to join me behind Iron Shirt. It was obvious his aim would be bad because his finger could barely squeeze into the trigger guard to pull the trigger. But Woeste preferred to run away into the woods." Lorne looked at his coward partner disapprovingly.
"Well, forgive me for not wanting to be around when an Unas is holding a weapon," Woeste retorted angrily.
"Did he disobey an order?" Landry sounded threatening.
"No, sir. I never made it an order. Actually, since he came with me only to check on the quality of the mineral I told him that he was free to roam around as long as he's not disturbing any Unas," Lorne was quick to pacify Landry. It was the truth, though Lorne regretted not making an order out of his request in retrospect.
"Why did you give that Unas your weapon in the first place, Major?" Landry was more curious and amazed than angry.
Lorne shrugged. "Iron Shirt was giving me a guided tour to their armory. Dr. Jackson taught me that I should always reply in kind, sir," he said, which was true. After his failure to notify Dr. Jackson of the artifacts, a failure that had cost Ritter his life, he volunteered to be the liaison between Earth and the Unas community of P3X-403. He had been very well trained by Dr. Jackson since then.
"Armory?" Landry asked.
"Sticks and stones, mostly. And old Goa'uld technology: Pain sticks, Zats, Staff weapons, manacles, spears…" Landry shook his head.
"I don't really want the entire list, Major, I'll read your report later. Just tell me this: how is the mining operation going on?" he said, impatient.
"They've found a few deeper veins further into the mountain, sir, and just this week alone they provided us with enough raw material to build one Fighter," Lorne reported with deep satisfaction. He was starting to grow fond of the Unas.
"Good. Now go wash your face, Major, I don't really want to know why it's painted blue. Dismissed," Landry walked back to his office without waiting for Lorne's acknowledgment, and Woeste hurried to the locker room without even a backwards glace. Lorne frowned after him. It wasn't as bad as Woeste made it look like. Iron Shirt was very amused with Woeste's anxiousness and Lorne really had told Woeste to get behind Iron Shirt. Five times. Lorne didn't have much sympathy for him after that.
"That bad, sir?" Walter asked. Lorne looked down at him and smiled.
"No. He just got really scared after being surrounded with so many Unas and he has a tendency to overreact. It'll pass," Lorne assured him, and then noticed a stranger who was standing in one corner of the control room and watching the exchange with interest. He was dressed in civilian clothes and his hair, despite being short, was sticking up in cowlicks in all directions.
Walter followed his gaze. "Oh, right. You didn't meet when he arrived," Walter said. "Major, Major," he added hastily to Lorne and the stranger by way of introduction, and turned back to the computer when the gate began spinning once more and the klaxons kicked into action.
Lorne moved forward towards the other Major and stuck out his hand. "Hi. Evan Lorne," he said. The stranger smiled.
"John Sheppard." The stranger introduced himself, and took Lorne's hand in a firm grip.
"The man from Atlantis, right?" Lorne asked, and then chuckled. "Sorry. It reminded me of a book I used to read when I was growing up," he explained.
"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you but I don't have any gills," John smirked. Lorne nodded his head at him, acknowledging the jest.
"Well-"
"Say-"
They both smiled, in that embarrassed and amused way two people did when starting to speak at the same time.
"Please, John," Lorne said, gesturing with his hand at John.
"I was going to ask if you're headed for the locker room. You know, to…" he motioned at Lorne's cheeks, where some blue paint-like stuff was slowly drying.
"Yeah. Of course, I'm headed there. You're welcome to come with me," Lorne said, realizing that John was a little lost. It was easy to get confused in the unmarked and indistinguishable corridors of the underground complex. They both left the control room just when SG-5 started returning through the gate.
"What's an Unas, and why did they paint you blue?" John asked as they made their way down the corridor towards the elevator. Lorne took out his card key and passed it in the elevator's security slot.
"They were the first Gua'uld hosts, but they are not human. They are incredibly powerful humanoid creatures, and their language is a complex combination of throaty sounds. They are intelligent and live in an organized society with a leader and local customs." Lorne explained, succinct yet thorough. "Which reminds me, do you mind if we make a stop along the way? I have something for Dr. Jackson that I'm sure he would love to receive as soon as possible."
"Sure," John said, apparently thinking over the information he was just given. Lorne wanted to ask how it was in Atlantis as they stepped into the elevator in silence, but knew that even with the highest security clearance there might still be things he wasn't meant to know and he didn't want to put John in an awkward position.
"So, why the blue paint?" John asked eventually, after he seemed to have processed Lorne's words.
"I have no idea, yet another mystery for Dr. Jackson," Lorne replied, smiling at him.
"And these Unas guys, they mine the Naquadah for the X-302's?" John asked again.
"Yes. At first we mined the Naquadah ourselves, but we almost started a war with them when it turned out that the mines were a sacred place. So Dr. Jackson and another Unas named Chaka brokered a deal between us and Iron Shirt, who leads the Unas of P3X-403," Lorne explained.
John then surprised him by saying, "You know, that's actually cool!"
Lorne looked at him. Most people at the SGC who weren't Dr. Jackson thought that Unas were quite scary and wanted as little to do with them as possible. Once he got to know them Lorne began to think like Dr. Jackson, but it was nice to have a visitor from another, exotic galaxy saying that Unas were cool.
"Yes. Yes they are," he agreed, smiling.
They reached Dr. Jackson's office. "Hopefully this will only take a moment," Lorne said, and knocked on the doorframe. Dr. Jackson's office didn't have a real door.
Dr. Jackson looked up from a tablet he was studying. He took stock of Lorne's cheeks and smiled broadly. "Major Lorne. I see that you were accepted into the family," he said enthusiastically.
Lorne raised his hand to the paint on his cheeks. "Is that what this paint means? I couldn't get Iron Shirt to explain it to me properly."
"Yes. When Chaka kidnapped me he killed a Goa'uld symbiote and smeared the color on my face. It's a sign of protection. Apparently the symbiote's blood is blue," Dr. Jackson said excitedly.
"Isn't Chaka the one who helped you broker the deal?" John spoke from behind them. Dr. Jackson seemed surprise that someone else was in the room with them, but nonetheless smiled at the newcomer.
"He did, but we got to know him after he kidnapped Dr. Jackson. Dr. Jackson, this is Major John Sheppard from Atlantis," Lorne made the introduction. Dr. Jackson's reached his hand to shake John's own outstretched one.
"Yes, we've met in Antarctica. You must've met Mitchell and Sam already, right? I'm sorry I didn't make it, I'm kind of behind on a lot of projects and I have a Vala-free time until tomorrow to finish them," Dr. Jackson told them. John merely nodded and smiled back, though Lorne could see that he had no idea who Vala was. It would probably be best if it would stay that way.
"Well, while it's nice to know that I'm protected I think I'm going to take a shower now. I just stopped by to bring you this," Lorne pulled a few sheets of paper from his vest pocket and handed them to Dr. Jackson, whose eyes lit up.
"This is incredible! Major, I-I could hug you!" Dr. Jackson exclaimed, smiling broadly and waving his hands excitedly.
"It's a list of new words in the Unas language," Lorne explained John, who was watching them both with amusement.
"This is amazing. You don't even know how much, Major Sheppard. We know so little about these creatures that-"
"Doc…" Lorne said, wanting to restrain the excitement so that they could get to the locker room faster, but he tried to do so gently. Everyone, including him, liked Dr. Jackson a lot, and he was well worth putting up with.
"Right. You have Wraith and other hellish things to worry about," Dr. Jackson apologized to John. "Anyway, thank you very much for this list, Major Lorne," he said to Lorne.
"Sure thing. Uh, Doc… do you think you can have a talk with Woeste? He kind of freaked out when we were on the planet, though Iron Shirt took it very nicely. He thought I brought him for amusement purposes, kept saying 'Ka-Nan' all the time. But still, Woeste almost got shot, and he kept running to the woods, so…" Lorne asked.
"'Ka-Nan', of course! It means 'game'! That's just incredible! Chaka was-" Dr. Jackson seemed to have suddenly remembered that Lorne wanted to get the paint off his face because he restrained himself from giving them a full lecture on his newest revelation. "Um… Yeah. Sure. I'll catch up with Woeste. You're right, it's important since he'ssupposed to accompany you from now on, right?"
"Yes. Thanks Doc!"
"No problem. Thank you and it was nice meeting you again, Major Sheppard," Dr. Jackson said absent-mindedly, already immersed in the papers Lorne gave him.
From Dr. Jackson's office they went another two floors up and Lorne led them to the locker room. "There it is. Think you can find it again if you needed to?" Lorne asked. John looked peeved.
"It's not that I can't find it. It's that I don't know where I am. Everything here is so alike and so gray and so…" he trailed off, his hand rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly as he realized that Lorne spent most of his days on Earth at the SGC.
"So drab? Just like every other military base situated inside a mountain," Lorne suggested, taking no offense at all. John nodded. "I take it Atlantis is not like this?" he allowed himself to ask.
John's eyes went round to emphasize the difference. "Oh, no. Nowhere near," he said passionately.
"I wish I could see it," Lorne said, wistful. By now the rumors of Atlantis made it seem like the culmination of every adventurer's dreams and desires: to serve in the first space colony Earth has ever established in a galaxy that wasn't the Milky Way. It was the wondrous city of the gate builders and was rumored to be filled with cool gadgets and new bad guys to fight. Lorne wasn't different from the average adventurer whenever he heard of it.
John smiled at him. "Maybe someday you will, Evan," he said.
"Yeah. Maybe."
####
The next time Lorne saw John, it was two weeks after his return from P3X-403. John was dressed in his dress uniforms and was just coming out of General Landry's office. Lorne himself was just summoned there, though no one told him why.
"John, how are you?" Lorne smiled warmly, and then froze. Instead of the gold oak leaf that Lorne also had on his uniform's epaulets, John now had a silver one. He was promoted to a Lieutenant Colonel.
"Uh, sorry, sir. When did you…" it was suddenly awkward, John looked extraordinarily smug and Lorne didn't know what to do. At the SGC people who knew each other didn't stand on ceremony or formalities like salutations, but John – no, Sheppard – wasn't from the SGC.
"Just now, in Landry's office," Sheppard said. Lorne smiled, more sure of himself now. It was custom to salute when congratulating a senior officer right after he got his promotion and it would be his pleasure to.
"Then allow me to be the first to congratulate you," he said, and was beginning to stretch for a smart salute when Sheppard grabbed his hand.
"I prefer this as congratulations. Especially from my second-in-command to be," he smiled and shook Lorne's hand. And in that warm hold Lorne once again froze with shock and bewilderment.
"What?"
"That's why Landry called you in. He wants to offer you the position, if you'll agree. Now you have a chance to see Atlantis."
Later, after all the fuss was over and Lorne managed to get his head around the idea and had agreed to go to Atlantis, he approached Sheppard. He wasn't the kind of person to question his good luck but he was the kind of person who appreciated a good working relationship and he needed to know that Sheppard was fine with having him around. He was well liked at the SGC, he knew, and he hated the thought of Landry pushing him on Sheppard because of it.
Ritter's death, though never blamed on him, was his fault. He was the one in charge of removing the Unas artifacts. The investigation concluded that it was Edwards' job to notify the SGC and that Lorne was operating under his orders. In reality if he had informed the SGC as protocol dictated, Ritter would still be alive. He made his amends by sticking closer to protocol whenever the situation allowed, though being off-world often required a lot of resilience, creativity and quick thinking.
Landry was sure to tell Sheppard about his conduct since the incident, but no amount of amends could bring Ritter back and he still believed that Sheppard needed to know as well.
"Sir, about the position General Landry offered me. You probably know about Ritter-" he began, but Sheppard held up a hand to stall him.
"I do. Your record is clean, so even if I wanted to I have no valid reason to kick you out. As it is, I appreciate men who can learn from their mistakes. In the Pegasus galaxy you don't have the luxury of repeating the same mistake twice. Sometimes you don't even have the luxury of making it once. Keep that in mind," Sheppard said, serious, and left Lorne alone to ponder on that.