John, Dave
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You're not cleared to go offworld, so no trip to New New Athos, John apologizes, and is that disappointment he feels when Dave looks relieved? Why New New Athos, Dave asks, three days after eating dinner at the Emmagens'. Why'd O'Hara try to change the name during the merger, John explains without explanation, fighting an irrational surge of anger at the surprise that he actually knows what's going on back home. To lighten the mood, and to take Dave's thoughts from where they weren't supposed to go and because Jennifer said it would be okay, he suggests, Wanna come fly with me?
In what way is this aerodynamic? Dave ask dubiously, and John looks at Jumper Eight, remembering every trained pilot on base uttering the same question. It's about inner beauty, he quips, just you wait, and No, Major, I don't need a co-pilot, we'll be fine, thanks. You're clear to go, Lieutenant Petterson says, and John doesn't say a word the entire time as he takes them up, knowing that this sight is something that has to be appreciated in silence. Having Dave up here, seeing this, is too important for words.
If they'd attempted this on Earth, if he had taken Dave up in a chopper or one of the company jets, he couldn't have spent nearly as much time looking away from the controls, watching Dave's face. He doesn't really have to think about circling them over Atlantis slowly, spiraling around the towers, taking them up higher, and higher, and higher, leaving the atmosphere.
Dave's face is white, but it's not from exhaustion, not from motion-sickness and not from fear. He's alternating between windows, ignorant of the beauty of the Jumper doing its work but captivated by the stars around them. He hasn't been able to touch space like this, not even at Midway Station.
The words, when they finally come, are not what John is expecting. Distant, staring at a the planets outside, What's my guitar doing in your quarters? He's not conscious of telling the Jumper to halt, yet it does, and John looks unseeingly at the HUD. Because I had to have something, and Dave stares out into the blackness some more in reply. They stay up there in silence for a long time.
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