Backstory notes: Sateda is Ronon's homeworld, destroyed by the Wraith. Hoff is a world that Sheppard's team visited in the Atlantis Season 1 Episode "Poisoning the Well". The Hoffans were the people that created the drug that made humans immune to feeding but was lethal to around half the humans that took it.
Chapter 9
"Dr. Rodney McKay," Lorne said. "Nice to see you again." His quarantine room was equipped with a video conferencing intercom system, so he not only could talk to his old friend but see him as well. "I could wish it was under better circumstances."
"Me too," Rodney agreed. "I mean, it's just terrible. I was right in the middle of major lab work on Atlantis when I got called away on this. Terribly inconsiderate," Rodney said.
Lorne chuckled despite himself. "Glad to see nothing changes with you Rodney."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Rodney asked, his suspicion showing.
"Nothing," Lorne said. "What can you tell me?"
"Well, it's nanotech, we're sure of that," he said.
"Excuse me," a third voice said. Lorne looked to another screen which showed the face of Colonel James Harper, commander of the USS Iliad. The Iliad had made orbit of Cimerria within an hour of Lorne's team retreating from the besieged world, but the Lucian Alliance forces had evacuated, a fact that Colonel Harper was less than happy about. Lorne suspected he had been looking forward to putting a boot in someone's ass and he was definitely put out that the opportunity had evaded him. "How do you know for certain it's nanotech, doctor?"
Rodney sighed with impatience. "Because we found the nanobots in the samples your ground team recovered and sent through the gate."
"I understand that," Harper said, his own impatience starting to show. "But I also understand that it's often hard to distinguish from nanobots and viruses. How can you be sure it's not a biological agent?"
"It's nanotech," Rodney stated with finality. "We reactivated some of the nanobots and are analyzing them."
Harper's eyes bugged out. "Is that wise?"
Rodney sighed. "It's fine, we've got them under control. Besides, if you want a defense against this new weapon, I need to study it."
"How soon before you can devise a defensive measure?" Harper asked.
"Well, I might be able to come up with something crude in a couple of days that would be partially effective, but not really adequate. For a proper defensive weapon system I'd say…three months?" Rodney said.
"Three months?" Harper asked, a twinge of fear showing in his eyes. "We may not have three months, doctor!"
"Oh, of course, you're right. I'll just wave my magic wand and materialize a new weapon out of thin air for you, how's that?" Rodney snapped.
"Doctor," Harper said warningly.
"Alright, that's enough," Lorne said. "Rodney, can you at least detect the nanobots?"
"Yes," Rodney replied. "We're already scanning you and the Cimerrian refugees, in fact to make sure you're clean. I'm pretty certain you are, though."
"Why's that?" Lorne asked.
"Because these things replicate themselves pretty quickly. If any had come through the gate with you I'm pretty sure you'd all be…well…dead by now," Rodney said.
"I know it will take time, but what kind of defensive measure did you have in mind?" Lorne asked.
A buzzer interrupted the response Rodney was about to give, and the airtight sealed door to Lorne's quarantine room opened. "You all are clean," Rodney said.
"That's a relief," Lorne said. He hit his radio. "Ronon, take the rest of SG1 back to Earth and report to General Landry. I'll be along in a little while, I've still got some things to talk about with McKay."
"Got it," Ronon replied.
"You were saying, Rodney?" Lorne asked.
"Oh, yes, countermeasures. Most likely we're talking about an energy weapon that will disable the nanites themselves. Such a system would still be vulnerable to a surprise attack by these nanites, however. If the defenders don't fire their weapon before the nanites got deployed, the weapon itself could be consumed by them. Still, we could get something workable on a large scale by using ship and ground based implementations of it. It wouldn't do anything to reverse any damage done by hostile nanites, but it would at least stop their spread," Rodney explained.
Rodney continued. "Ideally, however, I'd suggest we use our own nanobots to destroy these Alliance nanobots by deploying them 'prophylactically' in the atmosphere of friendly planets. This method would limit the damage significantly; in fact the damage would be considerably less than that caused by conventional weapons. This has a big problem, though. The IOA would probably not allow it, especially on Earth. There are too many corporations capable of working with basic nanotech that our hunter-killer nanobots would be discovered for sure and it'd blow our security. Aside from that, the brass is pretty skittish about nanotech in general," Rodney said.
Lorne grimaced. He understood that the government wanted to maintain secrecy around the Stargate program, but the danger of this new nano-weapon could not be overstated. Lorne was coming to believe as General O'Neill did on the matter of secrecy, that it was starting to cause more harm than good. That decision wasn't up to one Lt Colonel Evan Lorne, however. "I see," he said.
"Security is far from the only problem with that idea," Colonel Harper said.
"Well…yes…" Rodney stammered. "To be honest, our own success with nanobots has been, um…"
"Nonexistent?" Colonel Harper put in.
"No," Rodney said defensively. Then he grimaced. "But we have had setbacks. Almost all of our nanotech is derived from Replicator technology which has proven to be extremely dangerous. Replicator nanites have never been controllable and we don't have the knowledge to fully purge the software of Replicator code. The Asgard database has some information on nanotech, but most of it relates to either disrupting Replicator nanotech or industrial nanotech. Certainly they don't have much on something like this."
"One thing I don't understand," Colonel Harper said. "Why bother?"
"Sir?" Lorne asked, not seeing where Harper was going with his question.
"Why bother?" he repeated. "If your goal is to destroy your enemy's planetary installations and population centers, it seems to me like old fashioned orbital bombardment with energy weapons or nuclear warheads would work just as well and not require any of this sophisticated and expensive nanotech."
"It's more precise," Rodney said. "Consider that nanobots are controlled by computer software. You could tailor the weapon to attack only certain targets. If you wished to capture a world and leave something of particular value intact, you could program the nanites to destroy everything except that."
Harper looked rather concerned at that. "I wonder what they were after on Cimerria? They were gone by the time we showed up."
"It was a demonstration," Lorne said. That was the only thing it could be, as far as he was concerned. The Alliance was clearly demonstrating what they could do to Earth and its allies.
Harper nodded. "The thought occurred to me, too. Still, if you demonstrate something like that, it's usually to win some kind of concession from your enemy and we've received no demands."
"Maybe it was also a test," Rodney put in. "We haven't received word of anything like this happening anywhere else, so it's probably not in general use yet. Maybe they weren't sure it would work."
Lorne grunted agreement. "It's probably a bit of both. They waited until SG1 responded so they could be sure we'd see it. Hell, if they had been determined to pull off a proper operation, they'd have taken out the Stargate first and we'd have had no way to counterattack them. Either way, though, we've got to do something about this and find some way to counter it. Soon. Otherwise, we're going to find ourselves completely at our enemy's mercy with no choice but to accept whatever terms they offer."
XXXXXXXXXX
General Landry sat down by himself in the base's cafeteria. Cafeteria food wasn't his favorite, but it was chili night at the base, and it was one of the few dishes the cooks (and he used the term 'cooks' loosely here) actually did a pretty good job with. For once, he managed to get away from his office and the gateroom and have dinner in peace.
Smiling, he dipped his spoon into the steaming bowl of chili. He lifted the spoon to take his first bite when…
"Unscheduled activation," the intercom announced. "General Landry to the gateroom."
He dropped the spoon back into his chili dejectedly. "Dammit to hell."
Landry jogged into the gateroom just in time to see the gate activate and the iris close up. Walter Harriman was still at his station. How does he always manage to be here for gate activations? Landry thought. It's unnatural. He's got to sleep sometime.
"Receiving a transmission, general. Audio and video," Harriman said.
"Put it on," Landry ordered.
The flat screen above Harriman's console activated. A being with leather green skin and silken white hair stared back at Landry, and he unconsciously backed up a step.
"Who the hell are you?" Landry asked.
The Wraith smiled. "I am the one called 'Todd.' I wish to speak with John Sheppard. There are events in motion he must know about. I need his help…and you need mine."
"Well, I'm afraid I can't help you," Landry said. "Sheppard's retired. Besides, didn't you steal one of our ships once? Why in the hell should I trust you?"
Todd became more agitated. "You are a fool if you do not hear my proposal. But, as a token of my goodwill, accept this." Landry saw Todd activate something on his console.
"Receiving databurst," Harriman said.
"Put it on one of our secure computers and bring it up," Landry said. Harriman did as he was ordered, and a number of technical readouts came up on another of Harriman's array of flat screens. Most of it was well above Landry's head. "Get Dr. Lee up here," Landry said.
The images stopped on what appeared to be a schematic. "Hold that," Landry said. The image showed what appeared to be a blueprint of a robot. It looked vaguely familiar.
"That is the nanoweapon that was recently used on the world you call Cimerria," Todd said.
Landry jerked his attention back to Todd. "How did you know about that?" he demanded.
"I know a lot of things," Todd replied. Landry was certain that Todd was having fun annoying him with that cryptic answer.
"There is a war coming," Todd said. "Some of my brethren have learned the technology needed to overwhelm you. You know this as well as I do. I propose we ally ourselves together against our common enemy."
"Again, why should we trust you? I take it you're not doing this out of the goodness of your black little Wraith heart," Landry said.
"Of course not," Todd said simply. "I've made many enemies among my brethren. If they defeat you and harvest your world, they will be far too powerful for my forces to hold off. If you die, I die. It's in my best interest to help you."
Landry didn't disagree with Todd's analysis as presented, but he was still a Wraith. The reports he'd read from the Atlantis Expedition, especially those of Dr. Weir and Colonel Sheppard made it clear that Todd was not trustworthy. On the other hand, Todd had, for the most part, kept up his end of any deal Atlantis had made with him.
"Why do you want to talk to Sheppard?" Landry asked.
"I have a plan, one that might…mitigate the odds you are facing. He is a part of it," Todd said.
"Let's hear it, then," Landry said.
XXXXXXXXXX
John Sheppard fidgeted in his chair in the conference room of Stargate Command. He was not at all happy to have been dragged back here. He wasn't sure what Landry wanted with him and he didn't much want to know, but Teyla's pleading had been more than he could say no to.
Sheppard didn't like waiting in the base conference room but at least he was in good company. Regardless of everything else, it was nice to see Ronon and Rodney.
"What is this about, Ronon?" Sheppard asked the tall Satedan sitting next to him. "Why are you here anyway?"
"I don't know what's going on," he said. "Teyla was pretty tight lipped about it. Sounds important. As for why I'm here," he smiled warmly, "I heard you were going to be around. It's been a while."
"I suppose it has," Sheppard said. "Where is Teyla, by the way?"
"Offworld. I don't know where. I just got back myself," Ronon said. "You should come back, John. They don't let me or Teyla offworld much, but we get to go sometimes. If we could get you back onboard, we could at least go together. It'd be like old times," he said.
"I hope not. 'Old Times' almost got us killed on multiple occasions. Constant firefights, massive Wraith attacks, Rodney screwing up some piece of ancient tech and nearly blowing up all reality…"
"I never almost blew up all of reality. Not ours, at any rate," Rodney protested. Blow up one planet and this is how they treat you, Rodney fumed.
Ronon smiled again. "Don't you miss it, John?"
Sheppard chuckled. "Yeah, I guess I do." Sheppard's expression darkened. "Things change, though. People change. I don't—"
The conference room door opened. "Colonel Sheppard," General Landry said.
"It's just 'John' these days, actually," Sheppard said.
Landry nodded as he sat at the head of the table. "Whatever you want, John. I'm sorry I pulled you into this but…we need your help."
"I really kind of doubt that, General," Sheppard said.
Landry sighed. He hit a button on the conference table, activating an intercom. "Walt, send him in."
The conference room door opened, and a person John Sheppard had hoped to never see again walked into the room.
"Hello, Todd," Sheppard said sardonically. "I'd say that we're all happy to see you, but…"
"We're not," Ronon finished for him.
"Exactly!" Sheppard said, displaying a huge insincere smile. "Why are you here?" Sheppard turned and glanced at Landry. "And more importantly, why in hell's name did you let him through that gate?"
"Yes, why did you let him through the gate?" Rodney asked. "Do you have any idea how dangerous he is?"
"Todd has a proposal that—" Landry began.
"What a surprise," Sheppard groaned, facepalming.
"Would this be anything like that proposal where he stole one of our ships?" Rodney asked.
Landry's eyes narrowed in annoyance. "As I was saying, Todd has a proposal that I think we should listen to." Landry looked towards Todd and nodded.
"My brethren have adapted the technology of the Lanteans," he said. "They are building a warfleet to send to this world. To cull it."
John sat up straight. "They can't," he said. "Their ships are too slow to get here."
"Not anymore," Landry said. "The Daedalus found their main shipyard recently. The sensor readings were conclusive; they've reverse engineered ZPMs, probably Asuran models. Their new ZPM isn't nearly as good as the genuine Asuran or Lantean ZPMs, but they can produce these weaker ones in large numbers. We can expect a commensurate increase in their combat capability as well as hyperspace speed."
Sheppard felt a lump of ice forming in his stomach. "How long?"
"It will take their new ships about two years to make the journey. They already have some forces in our galaxy now, but we think it's mostly scouts," Landry said. "They had 40 ships nearing completion at the shipyard Daedalus found, and we're pretty sure they have others."
"Launch a pre-emptive strike," Sheppard said.
"We'd like to," Landry said. "Unfortunately, things are rapidly going to hell where the Lucian Alliance is concerned. There have been a score of minor skirmishes and a couple of significant attacks. Also, we've been getting some disturbing reports from some our patrolling ships about the Alliance's military capability. Their Ha'taks have apparently received some significant upgrades. We can't prove it, but we're pretty sure that the Alliance has gained access to some of the new Wraith tech. In light of these developments, the IOA is not willing to divert heavy enough forces to any pre-emptive attack because they feel that to do so would leave us too vulnerable to a serious push by the Alliance."
"I don't give a rat's ass what the IOA thinks," Sheppard said. "What do you think? What does General O'Neill think?"
"Actually," Landry said, "I kind of agree with them this time. If we divert heavy forces to Pegasus and the Alliance finds out, we could find ourselves in a very bad situation in a hurry."
"What about the Free Jaffa?" Sheppard asked.
"That situation is dicey," Landry said. "They nearly backed out of our mutual defense treaty. A good many of the Jaffa think we're trouble, and that we're likely to drag them into a war with the Alliance that they aren't prepared for. Nevermind that the Alliance are the ones that are being belligerent. Fortunately, Teal'c and Bra'tac prevented that despite the fact that one of the isolationist council members ending up dead by the hand of an assassin. Still, the situation is delicate, and the IOA fears that activating our mutual defense treaty with them might damage relations to the point that they won't help us. And if we've got a massive fleet of Wraith ships bearing down us in a couple of years…"
Sheppard nodded. "Then we're going to need all the help we can get. Still, what does any of this have to do with me?"
"Todd?" Landry motioned towards the Wraith.
"If my brethren cull this world it would bode…ill for me. I have made more than enough enemies, and once this particular faction culls your world, they will be unstoppable. I propose we start the battle now in Pegasus, by attacking their shipyards," Todd said.
The tall Wraith commander continued. "Unfortunately, I do not have the numbers to overwhelm them. I need for my ship crews and Dart pilots to be better than theirs. Our warrior drones are not noted for their...imaginative tactics. They need to be…taught," Todd seemed to have a little trouble getting the unfamiliar word out.
Sheppard just stared at Todd. "Are you serious? You want someone to train your men?"
"Not just anyone," Todd said. "You."
"Forget it," Sheppard snapped.
"Dammit, Colonel," Landry said.
"Get off the 'Colonel' stuff, General. I'm a civilian now, I do not take orders from you. This is a crappy plan anyway," Sheppard snapped.
"Alright, look, John," Landry said. "I know I can't order you to do this. But I need you to. This whole world needs you to. You remember what happened to Sateda and to Hoff. That's going to happen here."
Sheppard buried his face in his hands. This was the last thing he wanted to do. It seemed like no matter how hard he tried to run away from his past, it always came back to haunt him. Even being in that conference room reminded him of everything. Of the people he'd lost. Of Elizabeth.
And now this.
He was about to go into full rant mode at Landry when it hit him like a hammer. Maybe there was a way to undo his mistakes. It was a long shot, but…
"If I do this," Sheppard said. "I have some conditions. They are NOT negotiable."
Landry sighed. "What do you want?"
"I want Elizabeth," Sheppard said.
Landry looked confused. "What?"
"I want Elizabeth Weir," Sheppard said. "I want to take a ship to the space gate we sent her through, retrieve her, bring her back here, and have Rodney build a human body for her as she had intended originally."
"No way," Landry said. "It's too dangerous. How do we even know the Asuran you sent through the space gate was really her?"
"It was her," Sheppard said. "Besides, if you're worried about it, we can just use one of those zaytac thingies or whatever it is—"
Rodney groaned. "Za'tarc detector."
"Whatever. We can just use one of those to determine if she's really who she claims to be," Sheppard said.
"And if she isn't?" Landry asked.
"We kill it," Sheppard said. "And yes, I will still carry out my mission either way."
Landry shook his head. "There's no way that Homeworld Command or the IOA will agree to this anyway, and I don't blame them. There's no legitimate reason, beyond your personal feelings, to go through with such a risky operation. And I am not going to risk the well-being of anyone under my command for those personal feelings of yours."
"Actually, um, General," Rodney said. "There might be a good reason."
Landry's eyebrows shot up.
"The Lucian Alliance just used a nanotech based weapon of mass destruction on Cimerria," Rodney said. "When I was researching how to build human bodies for the Asurans, one of the things that became apparent is that their bodies would be infested with nanites. Elizabeth gave me some design specifications for those nanites. Part of their design would mean that the Asurans would be able to exert mental control over them."
"What does that have to do with Cimerria?" Landry asked.
"Right, I'm just saying, general, that we're going to have a hard time countering the enemy's nanotech because our own falls far short of being used operationally. If we go through with what Sheppard is proposing, we just might be able to solve some of our problems."
Rodney shifted into excited scientist mode. "Every other example of nanotech we have is either Replicator tech, which actively defends itself, or deactivated Asuran nanites and we've learned about all we can from non-functioning examples. The truth is that even though we can fabricate Lantean nanites with the equipment from Atlantis, we don't understand how they work. However, if we go through with this plan, we will have working nanotech onhand under the control of someone friendly to us who spent time in an Asuran nanite body. It might be the last push we need to crack our problems with manufacturing our own nano-tech."
Landry nearly rejected the idea outright, but McKay had a point. "Alright, let me contact General O'Neill. I'm sure this will be a fun conversation."
XXXXXXXXXX
John Sheppard, Dr. Rodney McKay, and Dr. Jennifer Keller looked downwards into the secure medical ward, and Sheppard could scarcely believe they'd actually gone through with it.
The Asuran that housed Elizabeth's personality had been retrieved (with Todd's help, damn him). She was inside a quarantine capsule, the interior temperature kept very close to absolute zero. She remained inactive at these temperatures, but that was about to change shortly.
Rodney's scientific curiosity had come in handy in this case. He had studied the notes and data the Asurans had left behind on Atlantis when Woolsey had them sent through the space gate. Though he'd never gotten permission to experiment, he finished the theoretical portion of the Asurans work on building new human bodies. The implications of that for the medical profession were pretty staggering. In fact, he'd initially wondered if he'd stumbled onto a true fountain of youth. If you could simply build a new, young body and transfer your conscious into it, there'd be no upper limit on your lifespan.
It hadn't quite worked out that way, though. Rodney had worked out how to transfer a consciousness from an Asuran body into a human one, but he had no idea how he might transfer a human consciousness OUT of a human body. The Asurans had, obviously, not been concerned with researching that particular subject during their time on Atlantis.
Landry already had a dozen guards in the medical ward. He obviously feared that the Asuran was not really Elizabeth Weir. Rodney had no doubt that it was, but the precautions didn't hurt anything either. There was also a Jaffa councilor present, though Rodney really had no idea what his interest in all of this was.
The door to the medical ward opened, and a hospital gurney was rolled in. John was nearly trembling at the sight of what was on the gurney.
Rebuilding the body had been difficult according to Rodney. Until now, he had not been permitted to experiment. Fortunately, the Lantean nanotech that made this possible worked quickly. Rodney had gone through a lot of trial error over the past week, but in the end he'd figured it out as he always did. While figuring the problem out had been hard, getting the rebuilt body correct had been fairly easy. The SGC had complete medical records on all its personnel after all, including a full genetic mapping.
On the gurney was the human body Rodney had managed to build with Dr. Keller's help. It was a sight John thought he'd never see again, but it really was Elizabeth as he'd remembered her. The rebuilt clone body looked like it might've been a bit younger than Elizabeth's original at her time of capture, but it was definitely her.
Or would be soon, at any rate. Dr. Lam had set up all the Lantean medical equipment Rodney had taken from Atlantis for this procedure.
"We're ready to get started Dr. McKay," Dr. Lam said into the intercom.
"We'll be down shortly," Rodney replied.
"Rodney, what you've accomplished here is amazing, even if it doesn't work out," Jennifer said.
"It will work out," Rodney replied. "And you had a part in it yourself."
Sheppard glanced at Rodney. "Sharing credit? That's unlike you."
Rodney tipped his head towards Jennifer. "She's a bad influence on me."
"Look, Rodney. Jennifer. Whatever happens I just wanted to say…thank you for doing this. You'll never know what it means to me," John said. John enfolded Rodney in hug.
"Hey, what are friends for?" Rodney asked.
"We'd better get down there," Jennifer said.
XXXXXXXXXX
Sheppard sat in a chair by Elizabeth's bed in the base's ICU. It had been seven hours since the operation to transfer Elizabeth's mind into the body Rodney had built for her. Sheppard had spent all seven of them at her bedside, waiting.
Sheppard didn't know how long she'd be unconscious, or if the operation had even worked. The Asuran body had disintegrated into its constituent nanites the moment the transfer began, but there was really no way to know if it had worked. He wouldn't know if Elizabeth was really in there or not until she woke.
Rodney had muttered some nerd-babble about neural pathways or some other kind of brain-surgeon crap that Sheppard didn't care about. Rodney bottom lined it for him that it could be hours, even days before she stirred.
He longed for her to wake, but at the same time he feared it. He was at least partly responsible for what had happened to her, and he feared looking into her eyes and seeing judgment or condemnation. If that happened, he didn't know how he would react or how he would be able to live with himself. What if she—
His woolgathering was interrupted by a rustling. His eyes snapped over to the bed and settled on two pale green eyes he had, up until recently, thought he'd never see again.
"Elizabeth," he whispered.
"John? Is that you?" he asked.
"It's me," he said, taking her right hand inside both of his. "It's me."
"How did—"
Her question was interrupted as the door to the ICU room opened. Several armed guards poured in followed by General Landry, Dr. Carolyn Lam, General O'Neill, and that Jaffa councilor Sheppard had seen earlier.
"Dr. Elizabeth Weir," Dr. Lam said. She motioned towards the device situated at the foot of her hospital bed. "I take it you are familiar with this device."
Elizabeth gazed at the device and nodded in recognition. "Za'tarc detector. I see. You can't know for sure if it's really me in this body, or some Asuran program."
"That's right. Since you now reside in a human body, we believe the device should be effective in determining if you're lying or not," General Landry said. "I know this is difficult, but it has to be done."
"I understand," Elizabeth nodded. "John maybe you should—"
"No," he said flatly. Elizabeth smiled. She should've known he would've refused to leave. Recognizing an unwinnable battle, she turned back towards Dr. Lam. "Let's proceed."
Dr. Lam activated the detector. "Please look into the light, Dr. Weir. Good. We'll do some baseline questions first. What color is your hair?"
"Dark brown," Elizabeth said.
"Who is this man standing next to me?"
"General Landry."
"Oh, I've got one," General O'Neill piped up. "Who's the most important person to me in the whole world?"
Elizabeth chuckled. "Homer Simpson?"
General O'Neill nodded. "It's her."
Landry rolled his eyes. "Continue, Dr. Lam."
"OK. Now tell me what—"
It went on like that for the better part of an hour. John didn't like it, but there was nothing he could do. He counted it a personal insult that Landry didn't trust her and felt this was all necessary. The logical part of him understood why it had to be done, but John didn't give a damn about his logical part. Not being able to do anything grated on him, so he did what he could. He held Elizabeth's hand in a show of support.
After nearly an hour, Dr. Lam finally asked, "Are you Dr. Elizabeth Weir?"
It wasn't just what Dr. Lam asked that gave it meaning, John realized. It was how she asked it. Dr. Lam wasn't asking if she claimed the title and name of 'Dr. Elizabeth Weir'. She was asking if the woman in the hospital bed next to John was the woman who had spent her early career as a UN diplomat. If she was the woman who had been brought into the Stargate program to head the Atlantis expedition. If she was the woman who had sacrificed any chance she may have had to return home to the people she loved, just to protect them from unseen and unknown threat a galaxy away that they couldn't possibly imagine existed.
Elizabeth answered. "Yes."
Dr. Lam looked down at the display on the detector, and John held his breathe. It really only took her two seconds to read the display, but it might as well have been 2,000 years for John. Dr. Lam finally looked up at Elizabeth. "And so you are, Dr. Weir," she said. Dr. Lam turned the monitor with the read out around so that Elizabeth could see it. It's flashing green indicator clearly indicated that Elizabeth had answered the question truthfully.
John released a pent up breathe. Thank God, he thought.
"Wait," General O'Neill said, holding up a hand. "One more question, if you don't mind." O'Neill motioned towards the old Jaffa councilor. "Master Bra'tac, if you would."
Bra'tac bowed towards O'Neill and approached the bed. His eyes locked with Elizabeth's, and as Dr. Lam just had, he asked Elizabeth to confirm not just her name, but the essence of who and what she was.
"Are you Elizabeth Weir?" Bra'tac asked.
"Yes," she answered.
Bra'tac had kept his eyes locked on hers the whole time. From his expression, it didn't even look like he had heard her. And perhaps he hadn't, in the conventional sense.
Bra'tac smiled. "She speaks truly, General O'Neill."
"Thank you, Master Bra'tac," O'Neill said.
Landry spoke next. "Well, since you are who you say are, I think we can dispense with the guards. A lot has happened Dr. Weir, and we find ourselves in need of your help, but that can wait until tomorrow. For now, I'll leave the two of you. One more thing, Sheppard."
"General?"
Landry tossed something towards Sheppard. He caught it and looked at it. They were dog tags.
"Consider yourself re-instated Colonel. You depart for Pegasus tomorrow and your ship will be here at 0600. Be ready," Landry said.
O'Neill smiled as he turned to leave. "You two kids have fun now." Elizabeth blushed. Without another word, O'Neill and his party left, leaving John and Elizabeth alone.
"Elizabeth," John began. "I'm sorry I didn't come back for you. I'm sorry that I let them send you through that space gate. I'm sorry—"
Elizabeth touched her index finger to his lips, shushing him before the flood got out of control. "No, John. I made my choice. And it was the right choice. Don't do this to yourself."
He tried to speak, to disagree, but he was out of words. He tried to hold it all back, but he couldn't. After a few moments of stoic silence, Elizabeth Weir saw John Sheppard, the strongest, most unbreakable man she'd ever met, break down and weep.
Sheppard wasn't completely unbreakable, however. In fact, the more unbreakable a man was, the more brittle he was. What had happened to her had been too much for him, and it had finally broken him. She could see it easily enough in the tiny smattering of gray hair he was starting to get and the couple of extra worry lines in his face she didn't remember from the last time she'd seen him.
She held his hand until he'd finished pouring his anguish out. It probably wasn't more than a few minutes, but it seemed like a long time.
"Sorry," he sniffled. "I just…I was lost after what we did to you. I just kind of gave up. God, I hope you won't think any less of me now, but I know there's plenty of reason to."
"Everything's going to be fine, John," she soothed. She knew John Sheppard had cared for her…more than a subordinate should, in fact. While she'd known it was a bad idea, she'd let herself start to feel the same way towards him. Events separated them before it went too far, but she could now see just how hard he had fallen for her. She didn't like to think about what it must've cost him to let her walk through that space gate.
Or what it had cost him to get the SGC to bring her home.
"How did you convince them?" she asked.
"Things have not been too good lately," John said. He went on to explain to her in detail about the Wraith build up and the Lucian Alliance's nanite attack on Cimerria. He then told her about Todd and his offer, and the unbendable terms he'd imposed on General Landry before he'd go through with it.
"John," she whispered. "Working with Todd is dangerous. You didn't need to do that for me."
"It was the only leverage I had to get you back," John said. "I don't regret it, even a little bit, but a deal's a deal. I'll see it through. I'll have to leave tomorrow, however. I just wish we could spend more time together because I…I…love you. And I have for a long time."
John Sheppard, she thought, I have done nothing to deserve this kind of devotion from anyone. But I'm grateful for it nonetheless, she thought. His admission of his feelings for her made her realize she felt the same way for him. It had been there all along and she didn't understand why she hadn't seen it before. Or maybe she had, and just didn't admit it to herself because she felt it would interfere with her duties, which it probably would have.
"I love you too," she said.
His eyes belied the relief and sheer untainted happiness those four words had sent coursing through him.
She pulled him closer and kissed him gently. "You've already made preparations for your mission tomorrow?" she whispered.
"Yes," he whispered back.
"Then stay with me tonight," she said. She made room for him on the hospital bed, and he laid beside her. They came together in a longer, deeper kiss and for the first time in eight years, John Sheppard remembered who he was and what he had to do.
The whole scene might've seemed a bit odd. Sheppard had always tried to be the knight in shining armor, righting wrongs and fighting the good fight. He was always the one there to pick up others when they fell, to be their strength when they had none left.
Few who didn't know him well would've expected see him so vulnerable, to see someone being strong for him. But Elizabeth did know him well.
John Sheppard slept well that night, the first good sleep he'd gotten in years, in the arms of the one person he loved most in the world.
