Echoes

"I miss Chief Leiter's desserts." Rodney McKay threw his fork onto his tray.

John sat back, looking at the scientist and frowned. "Yeah."

They were sitting at a table on the exterior balcony of the cafeteria. "I heard that she got a choice assignment at the White House."

John nodded. "I don't know if she got it, but Landry was working on it."

"Well, no reason for her to come back, then. Who would pass up such a great assignment to come back to this?"

"She'd never have to worry about being Wraith food."

"Never have to worry about deadly solar flares."

Rodney frowned. "Coronal mass ejections."

"Same thing."

"Not really."

John frowned at him and Rodney frowned back.

"Fine." Rodney picked up his fork and poked at his food. "So, she's better off."

John nodded. "Yeah."

They sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Any sign of your buddy?"

"Who? Sam?"

John shook his head. "I thought I told you to stop calling him that."

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Well, to answer your question: No. I haven't seen him again."

John was about to answer when there was a loud commotion from inside.

"What's that?" Rodney looked past John toward the entrance to the cafeteria. He stood.

John followed suit and the two of them walked into the cafeteria to see a crowd surrounding Ronon who was lifting someone in a bear hug.

"Who – ?" John frowned.

Rodney smiled. "Helena?"

John's eyebrows drew together and he walked through the crowd.

"It's good to see you, too, big guy," she was laughing. Helena was dressed in the expedition uniform, but her hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail rather than her usual braid.

"Chief?"

She turned to see John and Rodney. She smiled broadly at them. "Hello, my friends!"

Rodney pushed John out of the way and pulled Helena into a hug. "Oh, thank god! I haven't had a decent meal in weeks."

"Hey!" a blonde wearing a chef's cooking uniform exclaimed.

Rodney straightened. "Oh, uh, that is to say, Coop, that the food has been lacking a key ingredient. I did not mean to say that you're not a good cook. You are – "

Cooper laughed. "Give it up, Dr. McKay, you're not getting out of it."

Helena laughed. "I'm happy to see you, too, Rodney."

John moved up to her and smiled down at her. "I thought you were cooking for the President."

She warmed under his gaze and shrugged. "Oh! Well, ah, I'll, ah, tell ya later."

"Hey, you have another square thing on your collar," Rodney pointed out.

Helena nodded. "Yep. They promoted me. CW4."

"Congratulations," John smiled.

"Even more reason to celebrate," Ronon said, grinned down on her.

She looked up at him and smiled. "I told Landry that the next time he tries to call me back to Earth, I'm resigning and running off with you, Ronon."

Ronon's grin widened. He looked at John and Rodney. "I don't think you are the only one."

oOo

Hours later, John found Helena on the West Pier, dressed in civilian clothes with her hair down.

"Did you cut your hair?"

She turned. "Hello, John."

"Hi."

"Just a trim."

"What?"

"I just trimmed a couple inches off. Didn't really cut it."

He nodded. "It looks shorter."

She shrugged. "Sweet of you to notice."

He shrugged his face and went to stand next to her. "So? How'd you convince the President to let you come back?"

It may have been a trick of the light, but he thought she was blushing.

"What is it?"

She smiled. "Well, I tried reasoning with General O'Neill, but didn't feel like it was working, so I went over his head."

He nodded. "You talked to the President."

Helena shook her head. "I went to the First Lady."

He frowned.

She refused to look at him, then. "I told her that needed to go back to my previous assignment because my fiancé was there."

"You and Carson got back together?"

"I didn't tell her it was Carson."

His eyebrows rose. "Really? Then, who?"

She looked out to the ocean, took a deep breath and spoke, quickly. "I told her that I couldn't tell General O'Neill or the President the truth because the military's attitude is 'If the Army wanted you to have a family, they would have issued you one'. So I told her that the man I'd been having an affair with and I both got our orders back to the Washington area, but in different commands, so we felt comfortable enough to move it to the next level. We decided to get married, but before we could, he got called back."

His eyebrows drew together. "Who?"

"I told her that I couldn't bear to be away from him for as long as it looked like we would be apart, especially knowing what I did about my condition."

His eyes widened. "Your condition."

"And I told her that there was no way that he would want me to be so far away from him, once he found out about my condition."

"Helena." His voice held a warning. "Who?"

Ignoring him, she continued. "Well, she was touched and assured me that she would talk to the President. At first, she wanted to get my fiancé reassigned to Washington, but I told her that he was vital to the success of the mission." She grimaced. "In fact, he was actually the base commander."

Realization dawned on his face. "So the First Lady of the United States thinks that you're pregnant. And engaged tooo?"

She nodded. "Not really a big deal, since I will probably never see her again."

"Why do I think there's a 'but'?"

"She told the President and the President told General O'Neill."

"What?" his voice rose slightly. "General O'Neill thinks that you and I are engaged and that you're having my child?"

She winced and covered her mouth.

"Oh, that's just great, 'Lena!" He moved away. "What happens the next time he comes to Atlantis and there's no child?"

She shrugged. "We claim a high risk pregnancy that didn't turn out well."

"And you and I?"

She smiled and shrugged. "Well, there are all sorts of ways we could handle that."

"Such as?"

"We broke up after the miscarriage. We're still together. I broke up with you after you had a fling with an alien priestess…"

He frowned at her. "But why me? Of all the people on this expedition, why me?"

"I had to come up with someone who was absolutely critical to the success of the mission and, who was, frankly…believable. No one would believe me if I said it was Rodney and they may have simply recalled Lorne or Carson. You were the only logical choice."

He raked his hand through his hair and release his breath in a long, slow motion.

"Are you really mad?"

John looked at her and made a face. "It's not that. I mean, I understand your reasoning, but…"

"But?"

He couldn't help but grin when he said. "I usually like to kiss a woman before I get engaged to her."

She laughed. "Yeah, bet you never thought you'd get a girl pregnant without even touchin' her."

He moved toward her with a grin. "We could remedy that."

Her mouth fell open and she stepped back to find herself trapped against the rail. She held her hand up. "Now, John!"

"Yes?" He asked lowly, taking another step closer.

"Well, we…you..we can't…you're…" Realization dawned on her face and she reached out and smacked his chest. "Oh, you cheeky bastard. Get off!" She pushed him back. "Fine." She laughed, relieved. "Consider your revenge had."

He smiled, but stepped back. "Oh, I wouldn't go that far. Just wait until O'Neill comes to visit."

She shook her finger at him. "You are incorrigible."

John smiled. "You keep saying that."

"Doesn't make it any less true."

He chuckled.

She sighed, with a smile.

John could tell that her face was flushed, by the way she was still smiling as they looked out at the starlit ocean. Every once in a while, she'd chuckle and, after a time, she reached out and pushed his arm, lightly.

"It's good to be back," she said.

He smiled. "Yeah."