A/N: Chapter 11! A shout-out to Sheppardlover928, Var Devonshire and Caty91 for all their reviews and love so far! You guys rock.

In this chapter: Dark corridors, warm hands, broken promises, projectile photographs, and magical flying carpets.

Spērō (Verb, [spe-ro]): to expect; await; assume; suppose; anticipate; to hope for; believe something to be about to occur.

Casey took a deep breath, caught Lorne's hand (it was still as comfortingly warm and solid as she remembered) and squeezed it.

"Wait here for me?" she whispered, and Lorne grimaced.

"I really don't think...", Lorne started to say, and she interrupted him.

"This is the reason you asked me to come down here." Lorne looked unhappy, but he didn't say anything. "I'll be right at the end of this passage, just inside that door. If he's not there, I'll come right back. If he is..." Casey glanced down the dark hallway and took a deep breath.

"Look... I could have just told you how to get here, if all you needed was directions. But you and I both know that he's not going to talk to you. I'm probably the only person he can talk to."

Lorne sighed and stared at the floor for a moment or two.

"Okay, but if anything.. and I mean anything... "

"I promise I'll scream real loud and you can rush in to rescue me." Casey finished for him.

Lorne looked at her. She held his gaze confidently. She had to do this. She was probably the only one who could. After a few moments, he seemed convinced by her conviction. He nodded, squeezed her hand and let go. She turned away and carefully worked her way down the dark corridor. When she glanced back, Lorne was watching from the shadows at the end of the corridor, almost completely invisible in the darkness. She faced forwards again and stepped through the doorway. The Major wouldn't leave until she came back out, that much she could be certain of.

Lorne had been right. Sheppard was sitting at the far edge of the overhang that formed what was left of the floor. His legs hung down into the pit where the missing ceiling began. From where she stood she couldn't see the corner where the nest had been. Now that she viewed it almost impartially, it was obvious why bug!Sheppard would have picked it. It was rather cave-like, dark and slightly damp, with an air of "underground-ness". He was staring intently at a bundle held in his hands. After a moment she recognised it - it was one of the blankets that he had acquired from somewhere while she was unconscious.

That was another thing that she had spent plenty of time thinking about. He'd been pretty rough and brutal towards her at the start, but once she'd passed out he'd done an about-turn and tried to take care of her. She'd figured that, biologically, it didn't make sense to kill the female you were trying to impregnate, because a dying or dead female could not carry your offspring to term. Of course, it could have been purely about the claiming. Once he'd claimed her, she was his - part of his pack or horde or nest or whatever the collective noun for a group of human-iratus-hybrids would be - and she thus fell under his protection and care. Maybe it was a little of both.

He'd been able to smell her pregnancy even after being returned to human, 100% himself again, so perhaps bug!Sheppard had known instinctively that the mating had been successful and she would bear offspring. They would never really know. Sheppard still didn't remember most of what had happened, and probably never would. The only reason he even knew what he had done was because Major Lorne had, bless his ever-calm-soul, flipped out at his CO's unaffected exuberance about being "100% John Sheppard again" and had tossed an actual paper file at him containing photographs that documented Casey's injuries.

Sheppard had sobered very quickly under his XO's glare and paper projectiles. Lorne's tone was dark and dangerous as he succinctly, with barely controlled anger, had laid the facts out for Sheppard. The Colonel had disappeared out of their shared office almost immediately after seeing the pictures. Turns out nobody had bothered to mention that he'd abducted and assaulted a scientist during his blue phase. He'd heard about the marines; Dr Weir had told him when he'd woken up after Ronon had stunned him. At that stage they hadn't known about Casey or her injuries yet. By the time he had transformed back enough to be properly lucid and awake, Casey had already been out of the infirmary and back at work. It had just never come up. He was still technically on medical leave when his seemingly uncaring cheerfulness had damaged Lorne's calm to the point of flinging file folders filled with photos at his CO.

Sheppard still had another 2 weeks off-duty, at least, with twice daily check-ins in the infirmary and a daily injection from Carson to ensure that no Iratus DNA lingered somewhere hidden. They hadn't done the official debrief yet. There hadn't been any paperwork yet. Weir and Caldwell had agreed, just before Caldwell had departed on the Daedalus and handed the city over to Lorne, that it would be best for Sheppard to write his official report once he was 'fully reconverted' and had regained as much of his memories as possible. Nobody had thought to tell Sheppard, each thinking that someone else had surely mentioned it already and there was no need to bring it up again.

Sheppard had made a beeline to Beckett, who had taken one look at his expression and had ushered him into the privacy of his office before confirming everything. Lorne had followed, but hadn't interrupted. He had been waiting outside Beckett's office when Sheppard had stormed out like a man on a mission. He'd tried to stop the Colonel, but Sheppard had dodged him and disappeared into a transporter. Lorne had immediately set off to find Casey first, before Sheppard could get to her. At the very least, he had to warn her that he'd broken his promise and had told Sheppard the truth about what had happened. Once he'd found her, he could worry about the fact that he had technically just assaulted a superior officer, not to mention probably irreparably harmed his working relationship with his CO.

Sheppard had found her first.

The meeting in the infirmary had followed, before she'd dragged Lorne off and left Sheppard to explain to Beckett that he could smell things he shouldn't be. Meanwhile, Lorne had told her about the incident in the office, and had apologised profusely to Casey for breaking his word and telling Sheppard what had happened. Considering the news that had just come out of her encounter with Sheppard, hearing that he'd found out because Lorne had lost his temper was downright amusing, in her opinion.

You... threw a ~file~ at his head? Lorne never lost his temper. Lorne didn't get angry. Lorne certainly didn't throw folders at his CO.

Lorne didn't think it was all that funny. Casey had simply patted him on the arm.

There was always a chance that he would remember by himself, wasn't there? Lorne had grudgingly agreed with her. There had been a chance.

Then does it really matter? There is no good way to learn about these things. At least, throwing office supplies at him sounds like fun. Lorne had eventually given in to her cheerfulness and she'd managed a grin out of him, and 'flying file folders' got added to the Lorne bucket of secrets.

Sheppard may have been staring at the bundled blanket like it held all of life's answers, but he had still heard her coming. Or at least, heard someone approaching, because the look of surprise on his face when he glanced up and saw her was unmistakeable. He'd probably been expecting Lorne again. After all, nobody else would be stupid enough to track Sheppard down deliberately during one of his funks, except Lorne, who had made an art and a skill of it.

Even Ronon would usually leave him be, but if anybody needed Sheppard they knew to ask Lorne to go get him. Lorne always knew where Sheppard was. It wasn't, but should have been, written into his job description as Sheppard's XO: Keep track of your errant CO's location at all times. For some inexplicable reason, Sheppard not only allowed it but actually seemed fine with Lorne intruding on his moments of solitude. He hid the look of surprise almost as fast as it appeared, but he knew she had seen it.

Casey calmly and deliberately walked over and sat herself down right next to him. She sat down so close they were almost touching. He stiffened and stared at the tightly grasped blanket in his hands as though he could will it to turn into a magic carpet and carry him away. She was going to have to say something, but she wasn't sure what to start with, so she jumped back to the last neutral thought she'd had upon arrival.

"Expecting Evan, were you?"