The room was utterly silent, but the dead air felt more melancholy than tense. John cleared his throat with a forced cough, then rubbed his eyes with a shaking hand, pinching the bridge of his nose. Mackey sat next to him in stiff worry, his hand covering his mouth as if he had to physically restrain himself to keep quiet. When John went on, he folded his hands and addressed the tabletop.

"We, uh, had to convert the cloak to a shield to descend to the surface, then we entered the jumper bay for the mining complex. McKay had to rig power from the jumper to get the transporters to work – the only access to the vacuum mines were by transporter – then we recovered Teyla and Ronon and returned to Atlantis. You heard the rest from Elizabeth."

John finished and took a deep breath. Fixing a look of resolute determination on his face, he raised his head and looked calmly at Murgia.

Murgia took a few notes with his pen, then sat tapping his papers for a while, as if letting the story sink in. Then he leaned back in his chair, still studying John and put the tip of the pen in his mouth. John wasn't sure what Murgia was looking for, but the Colonel who had the power to determine John's fate wouldn't see regret. Remorse, yes; Deep, deep sorrow and soul consuming guilt, yes; but not regret.

"Colonel Sheppard, you fired warning shots into the village?"

"Yes, sir. Disarmed drones. They would have impacted just outside the camp and made a lot of noise, but they didn't detonate."

Murgia tapped a little bit more. "Did you return directly to Atlantis after retrieving Miss Emmagan and Dex?"

John wagged his head little, then answered, "We did a flyby of the village and Ehman's outpost. McKay thought that since the firestorm spread in the upper atmosphere first and worked its way down to the surface, some of the villagers might have had time to make it into the outpost, even after the ignition event."

"And?"

"The village was destroyed, and the warship hangar – where Ehman's people worked and accessed the base – was deserted. We didn't enter the outpost ourselves. Lorne's team took a jumper through the tunnel into the research facility during the recon search and rescue. Backup power was available, there, and they took a look at the internal sensors, but the place was empty."

"Empty?"

"Or everyone was dead. Environmental controls were still functioning, but barely. Lorne had to get in and out, he didn't stay for a room to room sweep."

Murgia nodded and folded his hands over the papers and spread his elbows across the desk. He held John's eyes for a long calculating moment. John's breath hitched, but he again returned the gaze steadily. Major Mackey was looking back and forth between them nervously, sitting on the edge of his seat, and John knew the lawyer was afraid that either Murgia would ask something inappropriate at that moment, or that John would say something – else – he shouldn't.

Murgia suddenly narrowed his eyes and leaned forward. "Colonel Sheppard," he asked with suspicious curiosity, "Do you know who anonymously sent the mission report and allegations of excessive use of force against you to the SGC and Military Justice Dept.?"

"Yes, sir," said John easily, raising an eyebrow as if daring the Colonel to continue. Elizabeth turned fully around in her seat to stare in undisguised surprise at his admission. John carefully avoided looking at her directly although he could feel her glare burning a hole into his ear.

"Who sent the documents, Colonel," Murgia's voice was stern, but there was a tilt to his head that suggested he had an idea of the answer.

"I did, sir," said John.

The statement caused a mild sensation in the room, and yet everyone seemed to have their own personal reaction to the revelation. Elizabeth slumped against the seat of her chair and stared as if she couldn't decide whether to be proud or furious. The row of judges and Mackey were nodding in approval, Ronon looked pissed, and Teyla's face was an unreadable mixture of grief and hope. John's eyes swept around the room, taking it in, then returned his gaze to Murgia.

"I see," Murgia seemed to find the answer satisfactory. He tapped his papers once again into a tidy stack. "Very well, then. I will interview Dr. McKay when he becomes available, but assuming his recollections confirm Colonel Sheppard's testimony, I consider the question of intentional homicide for personal gain to be resolved. No further inquiries into that matter need to be made."

"Thank you, sir," John choked out, his voice barely a hoarse whisper. It was a small victory, but one that was important to John. He would probably spend the rest of his life as a screwup convicted war criminal, but he needed his record to show he'd done it out of love, not greed. Selfish, fear driven love perhaps, but love nonetheless.

"You're welcome. Arrangements will be made for formal excessive use of force charges to be brought against you. You may stay on Atlantis under house arrest, if you wish, until a trial date is set."

"Yes, sir," was all John could say. His hands were shaking even as he clenched them tightly together on the table and he felt his shoulders sagging, tugging him forward with the desire to bury his head in his arms and shut out the whole room, the whole world for just a moment. He'd known this would be the inevitable outcome. Hell, he'd started the process himself. But at that moment, it hit him with unexpected terror. He'd be convicted and never see Atlantis again. John suddenly realized that he would choose to leave immediately, he couldn't live here a moment longer with the pain of waiting for his time here to end.

"Don't worry, Colonel. We'll mount an effective defense," Mackey was saying with a slap on the shoulder and that soothing lawyer voice that John didn't hate quite so much this time. "You'll get a fair trial, and a fair sentencing."

John gulped and nodded, his head low over his hands. He looked at no one, although he could tell from the murmurs across the room that the judges were conversing as a group among themselves, and his friends along the table beside him were shifting and rustling, preparing to leave soon. The was a commotion brewing behind his back that faced the row of doors into the conference room, but he assumed that the JAG lawyers were up to something lawyerish and he ignored the noise, rubbing his eyes with his palms and desperately waiting for the moment when he could just go back to his room and systematically destroy everything within reach…

"What do you mean it's over?! It's not over! Not until I get in there it won't be, now move aside Airboy. And let Major Lorne in, too, when he gets here."

The arrogantly bossy voice jolted John off his elbows to whirl around in his seat. McKay stood just at the threshold of the conference room, looking keenly around for familiar faces and then shouldered past the guards that had been put in place to prevent interruptions. Rodney's eyes skimmed past John with barely a hesitation, then he set his sights on Murgia and advanced down the tables to stand behind one of the empty chairs at John's table.

Fully aware that the whole room was looking at him with stunned curiosity, McKay bounced on his toes, thoroughly enjoying the attention.

"Where the HELL have you been!" John felt the words escape his throat in a furious growl, all the tension and anxiety and fear suddenly igniting into hot anger at McKay. The man had abandoned him, left him at the hearing alone – his only witness – for the entire time and NOW had the gall to waltz in and demand his five minutes of fame?

"Off saving your stripes, Sheppard. Again, I might add, and don't tell me you're not keeping track." McKay answered with a smile, not at all recognizing the anguish in John's voice.

John blinked. What?

But McKay turned back to Murgia and puffed out his chest. "Colonel Lawyer, sir. I'm ready to offer my testimony, now."

Murgia was not at all pleased with the theatrics any more than John, and he glared at McKay over the edge of his glasses. "Dr. McKay, I assume. The hearing has heard all the testimony it requires for now. Colonel Sheppard himself gave testimony of what happened in the time you were together, and I will arrange an interview with you immediately after we adjourn to confirm his account. At this time…"

"Sheppard testified?!" McKay blurted out, momentarily distracted from his swagger. He turned on John and cocked his head to one side, "You didn't do anything stupid like confess did you?"

John opened his mouth to reply angrily, but Murgia, annoyed at being interrupted, beat him to it, "Colonel Sheppard gave an honest account of his actions and his position is better because of it…"

McKay rolled his eyes at John, "You did! You confessed! I can't believe you just sat there and bled your heart out to this guy…"

"You weren't here!" John snapped, raising his voice, "They were accusing me of freakin' genocide, McKay!"

"I told you sending that document to the SGC was a bad idea," McKay shook his head ruefully, seeming not to have heard anything John had said.

This time it was Elizabeth's turn to blurt out an interruption, "You knew too? You knew John sent the mission report to Military Justice?"

McKay shrugged, "He said he needed a witness. I tried to talk him out of it. I told him to just wait and see if anybody even noticed…"

"McKay!" John yelled, suddenly a little bit grateful that McKay hadn't been around after all.

"Please!" Murgia bellowed, and all heads turned again to the very ruffled Colonel. "Dr. McKay, I assure you that your testimony will be required at the trial. In the meantime, unless you have something new to add…"

"Oh. I do," McKay suddenly looked a bit deflated, as if he'd just realized that the conversation hadn't gone quite according to his imagined plan. "I do have new information."

Murgia narrowed his eyes suspiciously and John knew exactly what Murgia was thinking – he was trying to figure out if McKay really had something or if he was just angling for more attention. "What sort of new information are we talking about, Doctor?"

The doors behind John hissed open a second time and McKay waved smugly at the figures entering the already crowded room. "That sort," he said.

John whirled around to face the doors. Major Lorne and Captain Anderson, armed and dressed in full offworld gear, stepped over the threshold, dragging by the elbows a tall handsome man dressed in silk pants and a fine linen tunic glittering with beads.

It was Ehman Lear.