Hello friends! Welcome to another chapter, this week has been agonizing for me, I'm so happy it's over and I can finally enjoy the weekend and reading all your wonderful reviews for this chapter! Enjoy guys, this is half canon and half filler as Critical Mass, while a good episode to watch, is a bitch to write about!


Breaking Ranks - Emergence


I was sat in the conference room a few hours later, Rodney had finally deduced that there wasn't actually a exploding device here on Atlantis, rather, that the person who had infiltrated Atlantis had disabled the failsafe's so that when the ZPM was connected it would overload and blow up the city. It was pretty smart to be honest, and scary, whoever had thought of this was down right genius. Rodney had me working on cracking the code that was blocking us re-enabling the failsafe codes, he was helping, obviously, but he was spending more time glaring at Laura Cadman for the most part. No matter how many times I scolded and glared at him, he firmly believed that she had some part in this catastrophe.

I was sat next to John, when I had walked into the room he and I had met gazes as he shot me a dark look, I held in my laugh, he was still obviously peeved about what had happened earlier between us, let's just say that was payback for him forcing me to go and talk to Heightmeyer. I sat down and sent him a pleasant smile as I turned my attention to the others in the room. Rodney was sitting on the other side of the table, Caldwell and Elizabeth stood in the center as they discussed what I already knew.

"Have we come any closer to getting the failsafe's up and running?" Elizabeth asked Rodney and I.

"We're still working on cracking the new failsafe code but uh—so far, no luck," he said to her as Elizabeth looked away grimly.

"How're things coming with Kavanagh?" Caldwell asked her, I knew for a fact that nothing was progressing with the pain in the ass scientist, seeing as I had overseen the security for the interrogations. "He still your prime suspect?"

"Yes, he is," Elizabeth nodded, "I'm having some difficulty with him though. He's not exactly the most co-operative of people."

"Oh, well there's a shocker!" Rodney muttered sarcastically. I snorted and covered it with a cough.

"If he does know the code, I highly doubt he's just going to give it to us."

Ronon had been sitting outside apparently; he suddenly appeared in the room, twirling a knife between his index and thumb as he came to a stop in the doorway.

"Give me ten minutes with him. I'll get it out of him," he said threateningly as my eyebrows shot up.

"Slow down there, Conan," I said with a pointed finger. I heard John move beside me as he leant on the table.

"Might not be a bad idea. Maybe it is time to take this interrogation to the next level," John admitted as I looked over at him. He met my gaze briefly before looking away.

"Look, I hate Kavanagh as much as the next guy—probably even more," Rodney drawled, "but we really need to be sure about this."

"We don't have time to debate morality. Unfortunately sometimes you have to do unpleasant things to save lives," Caldwell stated as I frowned at his words. Caldwell and Elizabeth are the first to leave the room; I stare at the Colonel's retreating back as I ponder his words, were we really going to resort to violence to get information out of one of our own? Granted if Kavanagh was working for the Goa'uld then by all means interrogate away, but we didn't know that and how could we really be sure?

I felt a hand graze gently across my lower back as I glanced to my left, John and I were the last ones in the room so there was no fear of being caught out, but still, this was a very public place with Caldwell and Elizabeth walking around.

"You frown any harder, you'll get wrinkles," John said teasingly to me as I scrunched up my nose at him. His hand tapped my ass lightly as he tried to give me a reassuring smile. "It'll be ok," he said as he wondered off, leaving me in the room by myself. When I was ready I left the conference room and heading into the control room, I spotted Rodney and Laura in a heated discussion as Laura frowned at the egotistical scientist and sighed in exasperation.

"I was juts trying to help, Rodney," she said.

"Hey, here's a thought," Rodney exclaimed, "failsafe code. Why don't you help with that?" He snapped at her as Laura furrowed her brows at him. She glanced over at me with a pleading look as I sighed, I was about to scold the bigheaded man when he hit his radio and shuffled over to the scanner screen.

"Elizabeth," he said into the radio.

"Yes, Rodney?"

"The cruisers are getting closer. I think it's time to reconnect the ZPM and cloak the city," he told her.

"Go ahead," came her reply. Rodney looked over his shoulder at me.

"I'm going to head down there, once I've got the ZPM—"

"I know what to do, Rodney," I cut him off with a sigh, as he looked pissed off but nodded and hurried out of the room. I walked over to the screen, which showed the two Wraith cruisers. There were indeed creeping closer and closer to the planet.

I heard Laura come stand next to me, "How long until they get here?" She asked me as I read over some data.

"Couples of hours, give or take," I replied to her somberly. She sighed dejectedly and walked back over to her laptop and tried once more to break the code on Atlantis. I took up my position at the control console as I started preparing the city for the switch from Naquadah generators to the ZPM.

It wasn't long before my radio buzzed and I heard Rodney's voice loud and clear in my ear.

"Mia, you ready?" He asked as I switched over to the opposite laptop, which controlled the power distributions for the generators and the ZPM.

"Yep, fire away McKay," I said cheerfully into the radio. I could almost hear the eye roll.

"Switching the ZPM power…now."

I made the necessary adjustments as I watched the power flick over; I swung around to the other laptop and made the command for the city to initiate the cloak.

I didn't have to wait long before Rodney came back and we both began powering down systems that the city didn't need, and hopefully wouldn't overload the ZPM and we wouldn't all be blown to smithereens. Rodney had me keeping one eye on the ZPM screen, making sure that the levels would not go near the overload, if that happened I would be running down to the power room and ripping the ZPM out of it's little home.

"How're we doing?" Elizabeth asked us as she appeared from her office; Rodney and I had been bent over a laptop screen going over data from the ZPM.

"Well, I've powered down several of the secondary systems, but so far ZPM levels are holding below overload I think we're going to be ok," Rodney said with positivity as I wanted to tell him that every time he said something like that, we never ended up being ok.


"They're here!" Rodney sung to Elizabeth as the three of us stared at the scanner screen with apprehension. "Two Wraith cruisers, just outside our atmosphere."

"So far they don't behave in a way that would indicate they're aware of us," Elizabeth said hopefully as I nodded in agreement. From behind us an alarm beeped that set my hair on edge and cause Goosebumps to appear on my flesh.

"Rodney," Laura called out.

"What?" Rodney replied with annoyance.

"The city's inertial dampeners just began powering up," Laura said as Rodney sprung up with alarm all over his face.

"What?"

"I'm trying to shut it down but it's requiring a code!" Laura said as Rodney ran over to the laptop she was at.

"Get out of there," he said as he shoved her roughly, Laura didn't complain as she moved away as Rodney began going over the data. "It's the star drive," he meets Elizabeth and mines gaze, seeing our confusion. "Look, the city, as you know it is just a giant spaceship with star drive capable of faster than light travel, which means it also has inertial dampeners."

"Yes, I know that."

"Like the puddle jumpers," I added in. Rodney looked between the screen and us frantically.

"One of the precursors of the star drive's power up phase is the activation of the dampeners—ah, which may very well affect out cloaking. Look but that's not the worst part of it."

"It'll overload the ZPM," Elizabeth stated.

"Way overload it," Rodney agreed. Elizabeth shut her eyes for a second, collecting her thoughts as she met his gaze.

"How long before that happens?" She asked him. Rodney bent down to look at the screen as he looked back up with dread on his face.

"Thirty minutes at the most and this city will be vaporized."

Elizabeth immediately hit her radio.

"Colonel Caldwell and Sheppard please report to the conference room, immediately!" She almost yelled into her radio. Rodney collected his tablet as I followed Elizabeth into the conference room. It was literally a minute later that John and Ronon came running into the room, the two of them had obviously been together when Elizabeth had given the order.

"What's going on?" John asked the three of us.

"The ZPM will overload in thirty minutes," I stated to him as John looked from me to Rodney, asking him if it was true.

"The person who did this must've realized that with most of the secondary power systems being disabled that they had to use something bigger, the star drive being that."

"And you didn't think to shut down the star drive first?" John asked with annoyance to the scientist.

"The star drive is a primary system," I responded. "There was no way to tell if those systems had been tampered with. If it was programed to start up then who knows what could've happened if we tried to shut them off."

"What matters now is that we need to get everyone off this base before it blows up," Elizabeth brought us all back on track.

"We can use the Daedalus," John said to us just as Caldwell came into the room.

"I take it reconnecting the ZPM didn't go as planned?" Caldwell asked. If it weren't for the situation at hand I would've wanted to give him a piece of my mind but either way I couldn't.

"We need to initiate some evacuation plans," Elizabeth told him.

"I told you," John repeated aggressively, "the Daedalus is our only option. We can't use the Stargate, we can't go to the Mainland."

"I agree," Caldwell said, shocking me as for the first time he actually agreed with John. "We'll fit as many people aboard the ship as we possibly can—"

"There is nowhere near enough room for everyone!" Rodney interrupted.

"We're going to have to make room," John argued as Rodney spun around to face him.

"No no no no no, you don't understand. The life support system can't handle that many people, not enough air to go around," Rodney used his hand to draw quick circles around his head. "They'll never make it back to Earth."

"What about another planet?" John offered, his eyes lit up as he remembered something. "There's one nearby in this solar system, remember? The one we found the crashed Wraith cruiser. That took us fifteen hours by puddle jumper, it's a blink of the eye for the Daedalus."

"And then we could use the puddle jumpers to ferry the rest of the people," Elizabeth added.

"The quickest thing to do is get the code," Ronon then spoke up as he leaned on the table, staring at Elizabeth. "Just let me in with Kavanagh and I'll get it from him." His tone was low and threatening as Elizabeth and him held gazes.

"ZPM overload in…twenty-four minutes…" Rodney said ominously.

Elizabeth turns her head to look at John who holds her gaze, I can tell by his face that he wanted her to let Ronon do this, we were finally at that point now. I could see the trepidation on her face as she nodded curtly.

"Do it."

Ronon casts a glance to John as he leaves the room swiftly. Rodney leaves the room, intent on trying to crack that failsafe code once more as Elizabeth turns to me.

"You've seen the schematics for the Daedalus, how many can we fit aboard the ship?" She asked me as I felt like I was suddenly put on the spot. I could feel both John and Caldwell staring at me as I started going over numbers in my head.

"With the crew of the Daedalus also…around two-hundred. If we put all the Athosian women and children on board first and have all medical staff on the ship they should be all right. Have everyone else go to the jumpers, each jumper can probably handle twenty people roughly, we'll need at least five or six jumpers."

Elizabeth nodded to me as she activated her radio.

"This is Doctor Weir. The city will be evacuated immediately. All Athosian woman and children please report to the East pier to board the Daedalus. Can all medical staff please proceed there too. The rest of the base please head to the jumper bay for evacuation."

Elizabeth looked over her shoulder at me and gave me a tight smile before she headed out of the room, following after Caldwell as he said something about heading down to the Daedalus to oversee the evacuation. I heard John approach me as I faced him with a reassuring smile. His face was serious.

"Is there anything I can say to get you on the Daedalus right this second?" He asked as I chuckled. I craned my neck around to the doorway, thankful that no one was around as I reached out and brushed my hand over his shoulder.

"Only if you get on there too, I'm not leaving without you," I said with a determined look as John smirked down at me. He knew that was going to be my answer even before he asked me. I saw John glance over at the doorway for a second before I felt his hand curl around the back of my neck as he pulled me to him, planting a kiss on my lips as I sighed into him. We pulled away after a few seconds, not wanting to get caught at a time like this.

"I love you," I told him with a smile as I saw his mouth curl up into a smile also as he pressed a kiss to my forehead quickly.

"Love you," he whispered to me as I walked out of his embrace and into the control room.


"Doctor Weir, Rodney I found something," Laura appears behind us as I turn and see her with a distraught look on her face.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asks her.

"I wish I was wrong but I found a deletion point in the failsafe logs."

"You already mentioned this to me," Rodney snapped at her as Laura sent him a dark look, I smacked his arm causing him to yelp as Laura continued on.

"I dug deeper, there are two deletion points in the logs, and an identification code was used to get into the city's operating system."

"Whose identification code was it?" I asked her as she looked pained to say it but she took a deep breath and spoke.

"Colonel Caldwell."

"What?"

"You can't be serious?" Rodney muttered as Laura nodded her head.

"It makes sense," I said to them all. "He's been on how many round trips to Earth now? And he's always hanging around and wanting Colonel Sheppard's position."

"It's the only solid lead we have," Laura added. Elizabeth looked torn on what to do, but she couldn't deny the facts also. It was ridiculous to think that one of our own could be working for the Trust, but we had to get to the bottom of this quickly.

"Rodney," she used her commanding tone on him as the scientist jumped slightly and looked over at her. "Send a message to Hermiod on the Daedalus, have him beam Colonel Caldwell into the interrogation room," Elizabeth turned on her radio. "Colonel Sheppard, order Ronon to stand down immediately. I'll meet you in the interrogation room," she said as she hurried out of the control room.

"Mia," Rodney called me as I spun around and hurried over to him. "I need you to start powering down all the systems in the city except for the door mechanics, hopefully if we reduce as much power as we can we can stall for time." I nodded to him as I took a seat at the laptop and began to do what I was told.


"Rodney how long?" I asked him wearily as I looked over my shoulder at him. Laura was looking nervous across from him as he looked at his tablet and then over at me.

"Seven minutes," he said just as Elizabeth reappeared at the stairs.

"Colonel Caldwell is a Goa'uld," she stated as I felt my jaw hit the ground.

"Oh, that's disgusting," Rodney, groaned as I grimaced.

"Explains a few things," I muttered.

I heard a loud alarm coming from the tablet that Rodney was holding as he looked down at it, his face paled suddenly as he looked at the three of us.

"ZPM levels are spiking. We need to go now!" He ordered as I jumped up from my chair, the first thing I thought was that I needed to find John and make sure that he got on the puddle jumper with me. Rodney, Laura, Elizabeth and I headed for the stairs and to my relief John and Ronon came bounding up the stairs as John handed a notebook to Rodney.

"Access code." He stated as Rodney gave him a relieved look as he darted to a computer and quickly began entering it in. I looked to my right and saw Laura coming to stand next to me; she was biting her bottom lip in nervousness.

Rodney slumped back into his seat with a sigh of relief as I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Ronon sinks his head down onto a nearby console and Elizabeth grins round at everyone. John wipes his forehead from the sweat that had built up as Laura tosses her arm around my shoulder and grins at me as I return her smile.


"And you're not in the infirmary because…?" John asked as he sat down across from me at the mess hall table. I was digging into a large tub of chocolate ice cream that I had snuck from the kitchen. It was one of those massive tubs that could literally hold a small dog or something, it had been a mission to carry but well deserved.

"Because Carson said that I didn't have to have a scan seeing as he already did one on me like a week ago after we came back from that planet with your alien girlfriend," I replied with a mouth half full. John rolled his eyes at me.

"Teer wasn't my girlfriend."

"Whatever," I muttered back. I liked to tease him about the Ancient women that he always seemed to unintentionally woo. Regarding the scan, Elizabeth had asked Carson to give everyone a physical since Caldwell had been harboring a Goa'uld in his brain. It was freaky to think that I had been in such close proximity with him on the Daedalus for my trip back here and I hadn't noticed anything, hell, none of us had and we probably wouldn't have if Laura hadn't found the missing data stream.

Hermiod, the creepy little naked alien man had successfully managed to remove the symbiotic from Caldwell's head and he was now resting in the Daedalus infirmary as they were on their way back to Earth.

John eyed me as I shoveled more ice cream into mouth as I offered up an extra spoon to him, "Want some?" I asked with a grin as he held my gaze before smirking and taking the spoon from my hand and digging in with me.


The next few weeks passed quickly and quietly, we went on a few mission here and there and soon it was almost two months since I had returned to Atlantis from my extended stay with Ford and my family. Routine went back to normal thankfully. John and I were doing great, it was if our little breakup had never happened; if anything it had brought us closer together. I continued to see Heightmeyer much to John's delight, he had been right after all, talking to her did help me get over some repressed anger against Ford leaving me once again. Everything seemed to be going great in Atlantis, but the pessimist side of me was always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

I was sitting in the mess hall in the early morning; I was barely awake as I ate my scrambled eggs sluggishly. I had been up most of the night helping Zelenka with repairs to a busted Jumper, we had almost finished it but it was still going to take some time repairing the weapons system, other than that it was good to fly again. I gulped down some juice and noticed Teyla entering the room; she spotted me, smiled and walked over to me.

"Good morning," she said with her dazzling smile, as I grunted in return, not yet able to perform speech. She sat down opposite me. "What are you doing later tonight?" She inquired as I shrugged my shoulders.

"Nothing," I replied sleepily as she beamed.

"Well, every year my people and I hold a ceremony to commemorate a successful harvest year. It just happens that it will be happening tonight and I am inviting our team to join us on the Mainland."

"So it's like a new years party or something?" I asked, my interest was peaked, when was the last time any of us had some down time here to kick back and relax with friends?

"Something like that," she agreed with a nod as I shrugged.

"I'm down for that. It's not going to be like the Genii's harvest celebration, is it?" I asked her skeptically as Teyla laughed. Remembering when we had been celebrating with the Genii we had been detained and forced to work with them. She shook her head, laughing.

"I can guarantee it will not be like the Genii one. Be ready in the afternoon, and bring a change of clothes as we'll be staying the night," she said to me as I smiled and nodded eagerly. I was excited about this tonight party tonight. I mean with everything that had been going on lately, all of our stress levels were high; we were due a night of fun and relaxation.


"Are you sure you don't want to come?" Teyla asked Elizabeth as we stood at the cargo bay door of the jumper. Elizabeth smiled pleasantly at all of us as she shook her head.

"Someone responsible has to stay here, all of my senior staff are deserting me," she said with a playful look directed at John, Lorne and myself. "Besides, I wouldn't be much fun anyway." Elizabeth waved her hand dismissively as Teyla sighed and nodded.

I looked over at our entourage. Teyla, Ronon, Lorne, John and myself all stood in our casual clothes. Rodney had politely refused to come when he found out that we would be staying the night, "Oh—I can't, my back and all…won't do any good sleeping on some dirt floor," he had said to us.

"Well, I'll be sure to drink your half," John commented to Elizabeth as she chuckled.

"Just try not to do anything I wouldn't do, but regardless, enjoy yourselves," she said with a smile as the five of us nodded and said our goodbyes to her. It was now that it dawned on me that I was with the people who knew about my relationship with John. I felt a blush creep up on my cheeks when I realized that John and I wouldn't have to hide with our present company, I didn't know if that excited or terrified me.

My gaze trailed over him as he continued to talk with Lorne and Elizabeth, he was dressed in a simple army green shirt and denim jeans, it was hot this time of year in the mainland so I had also dressed to the occasion. My only pair of daisy dukes and a black tank top, I left my hair out, I hadn't been able to cut it in a while so it was now the longest it had ever been, falling to the middle of my back. Lorne was in a blue button down and jeans; Teyla and Ronon looked the same, it wasn't a shock to see them in their usual clothes, they weren't bound by uniform regulations like the rest of us.

"Have fun and be safe," Elizabeth fare welled us once more as we collectively waved to her and filed into the jumper. I set down my overnight bag next to Teyla's as I watched John and Lorne take up the pilot and co-pilot seat respectively as I hung back with Teyla and Ronon in the rear compartment.

When we got to the Mainland the festivities were already underway. John parked the jumper on the outskirts of the settlement as I shouldered my bag and followed our group outside. Tables were set up in the middle, all filled with various foods and drinks as I looked over to one of the corners as saw some strange instruments being played by some of the Athosian's. I could feel the grin on my face as I looked all around us. All of Teyla's people were greeting us with smiles and laughter as they drank from cups and a bunch of them were already dancing to the strange music.

She led us to a set of tents and motioned to the door with her hand.

"Major Lorne and Ronon, you'll be sharing this tent for tonight," she said to them with a smile as Lorne and Ronon quickly ducked in to set their things down. "The feast will be starting soon, I shall meet you there," she called out to them as she motioned for John and I to follow her.

With every step I took I could feel my cheeks getting warmer at the prospect that John and I were probably going to be sharing a tent and Teyla had obviously done this on purpose seeing as she knew about our relationship. We didn't walk for long before she stopped outside of a small tent the exact size as Ronon and Lorne's. She turned to John and I with a cheeky smile.

"And this is your tent," she said, pointing to the door as John glanced over his shoulder down at me, he was grinning with a half smile as I felt my face flush. It was weird for everyone to still be so open about us; I was still getting used to it.

I ducked my head bashfully and marched into the tent, I could hear Teyla and John chuckling behind me as I glanced around quickly. Fur rugs lined the floor and a modest bed sat in the center large enough for John and I to sleep comfortably in it together, not like our miniscule ones in Atlantis that had us pressed up against each other every night; not that I minded. I heard John enter behind me just as I dropped my bag down on the floor and turned to face him.

"Are you not the least bit weirded out about them all knowing about us?" I asked John as I planted my hands on my hips.

"That's not even a word," he replied, setting his bag down on the opposite side to me as he shuffled around to me.

"Not my point," I said sternly as John chuckled kindheartedly.

"What's on your mind?" John asked. Ever since returning from Ford's planet and speaking to Heightmeyer, I noticed that John always asked me how I was feeling and what I was thinking about, I guessed it was a way for him to feel closer to me; I tended to keep a lot bottled up inside. During everything that had been happening, we hadn't really spoken about the others knowing about us, apart from a small conversation we had in the mess hall with everyone we hadn't discussed our relationship getting out in the open with the others.

"I'm just worried that someone's going to slip up about us, and we're the ones who're going to have to deal with the consequences."

"You should have more faith in them, Mia," John retorted.

"I do!" I argued, then I stopped and recomposed myself, "I don't want anything to screw this up now that we're back together. The more people who know, the more chances we have of slipping up."

John placed his hands on my shoulders as I met his hazel gaze, I could see that there was no doubt in his gaze.

"You trust each one of them with your life?" John asked as I furrowed my brows. What a stupid question.

"Of course," I stated firmly.

"Then you have nothing to worry about," he said with his half smile. "Besides, Teyla's not the one who organized this; I did," he said as I felt my mouth part open in questioning.

"Huh?"

John laughed at my apparent confusion; "I wanted to have a night with you away from the city, away from our responsibilities and rules. Teyla helped organize the feast so that we had a cover story," I stared at John. I could feel my smile growing. "We invited the others so it wouldn't be suspicious if it was the two of us going."

I was speechless, I felt a warm feeling spread through me at the mention of all the trouble John had gone through for this, it also made me feel guilty seeing as I never did anything like this for him; John was more of a closet romantic then I was. I felt my face heat up again at his explanation as I pulled him down to me and kissed him hard on the mouth, he let out a shocked noise in the back of his throat but he soon wrapped his arms around me and pulled my body against his—

"Whoa—sorry!"

I jumped away from him like I had been burned, both of our heads looked to the entrance of the tent as I saw Lorne looking at anything but us, his face was gradually turning red from barging in on us as John laughed at his expression.

"I uh—I came to tell you that Teyla's waiting for us," he said, rubbing the back of his head as I grinned.

"We're coming," I told him with a grin as Lorne held up his thumb and then backed out of the tent. John and I shared a look, him smirking down at me with his cheeky grin as I rolled my eyes and took his hand as I tugged him behind me.


John stood back with Ronon as the two men drank from the clay cups, the alcohol that the Athosian people brewed and traded was stronger then most Earth drinks. It did taste familiar to beer but had more of a kick to it. John looked across the bonfire that had been erected for the celebration as he watched his female teammate and girlfriend chatting to other Athosian women. Mia had a clay cup in her hand as she drank deeply from it, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand.

One of the Athosian women said something to Teyla and Mia as the small group burst out into loud giggles.

"Colonel."

John was pulled from watching his girlfriend as he faced Lorne who had joined the two. Lorne had a cup in his hand and some leftover food from the feast in the other.

"We're off duty, Lorne," John said with a pointed look to his SIC. Lorne nodded as Ronon pinched some of the food off him, claiming that he was still hungry as Lorne laughed.

The feast had been glorious, there had been so much food to go around, it was amazing at how much the Athosian's grew and traded, they were also all good cooks, except Teyla, she had been the butt of a few jokes from Halling about her cooking.

"So what's the real reason for this celebration?" Lorne asked John as the Colonel looked over at him. Ronon was listening, but didn't comment, as his mouth was full. John smirked at his SIC, he was too observant for his own good.

"What makes you say that?" John asked.

"Teyla told me," he replied. John chuckled heartedly, so he wasn't observant, Teyla just couldn't keep the information to herself apparently.

"It's Mia's birthday in a few days and our one year in a few weeks."

"Wait a year?" Lorne asked, curious. "You guys have been together for that long?"

"I knew that," Ronon said smugly, remembering when Mia had told him on the Hive Ship when Teyla had questioned her.

"You didn't?" John asked Lorne as the man shook his head in laughter.

"I never asked her, I assumed it hadn't been that long."

There was a comfortable silence between the men as the listened to the music playing and the laughter echoing around them from the happy people. John's eyes were drawn over to Mia again who seemed to be telling a story to the women around her by her facial expressions and her large arm movements, she could never do anything subtly.

"She needs this," John mumbled to the two men beside him, catching their attention once more. "After everything that she's been through the past year and a half. I owe it to her to make her happy."

Ronon and Lorne nodded in agreement, even though both men hadn't been here at the start of the Atlantis expedition, they had been told of the hardships that Mia had gone through, from loosing her father, godfather and her best friend to being taken hostage for six weeks and almost dying a couple times, hell, they all needed a night to relax—

"Mia! Dance with me!" a young voice broke through as John felt his jealously rear its ugly head at someone dancing with his girlfriend. It dissipated when he realized it was Jinto, the young teenager that had always harbored an innocent crush on Mia.

John watched as Jinto, who had grown remarkably since he had last saw him, hurried over to Mia and pulled on her arm. His girlfriend laughed merrily, the flushed look on her face was from the alcohol that she had been consuming as she held up her finger to the women behind her as she let Jinto pull her towards the bonfire where other couples were dancing the tradition Athosian dance.


Jinto pulled me into the area with the other couples as I laughed as he spun me around. I hadn't seen him in a long time, and now he was almost the same size as me, which didn't surprise me, as Halling was three heads taller than me. I looked at the other Athosian's dancing as I grimaced, I wasn't a good dancer as is, but the alcohol in my system was telling me that I could definitely do the intricate moves.

"I'll help you!" Jinto said cheerfully as he started to do the moves, I was copying to the best of my ability as I kicked out my legs and spun around, mimicking Jinto. There was a part where Jinto and I had to hold our hands up and circle each other as I followed him, I was grinning broadly at how much fun I was having as I could tell Jinto was having the time of his life by his smile and the blush on his cheeks. We changed direction and as we circled each other my gaze was drawn to the other side of the bonfire, for a few seconds I met a pair of hazel eyes that were shining with mirth at the sight of me dancing. John was standing with Lorne and Ronon as the latter was speaking to each other and laughing, John had his gaze focused solely on me; that was until Teyla went running up to him and pulled on his arm. John was trying to get of dancing with the Athosian woman but Teyla was almost as stubborn as me. I could see the grin on his face as Teyla tried with all her might to get him to dance with her.

As Jinto and I circled again I saw that Lorne had stepped up and handed his clay cup to John with one hand and held out the other to Teyla as the Athosian woman grinned and led Lorne out towards the area that Jinto and I were currently dancing in. I laughed loudly as Jinto took my hand and spun me around a few times.

I was all danced out. Jinto and I touched foreheads in the proper parting way as he thanked me for dancing with him as he jogged over to his friends as they all chatted between them and hurried off. Teyla and Lorne were still dancing to my right; Lorne was attempting to copy Teyla but ended up getting tangled in his own feet, causing Teyla to laugh at him. I looked over at John who was now in a deep conversation with Halling, the two men seemed to be talking about something that I couldn't hear from my position. I took a quick look around the area, not seeing Ronon but not worried about him, I mean, what was the worst that could happen to the Hulk reincarnated?

I walked over to John and Halling, the latter seeing me approach as he greeted me with a smile.

"Mia, it's a pleasure to see you," he said as I returned his smile and stopped by John's side.

"It's good to see you, Halling," I replied. John was looking down at me as I slipped my hand into his large, warm one. I squeezed his hand tenderly as I looked back over at Halling. The older man's gaze went from us to our hands and then back to us as he smiled.

"I shall take my leave, enjoy the rest of the night," he said politely to us as John and I said our goodbyes as we watched Halling walk off to another part of the settlement.

"Having a good night?" John asked me with a smirk as I felt my cheeks redden, embarrassed about the dancing he had obviously witnessed.

"It's a great night," I said as I stepped up on my tiptoes and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek.

"I can think of something that'll make it even better," John said with a wink as I felt a smirk pull at the corner of my mouth, understanding his hidden meaning. With a sharp tug I pulled John towards the direction of our tent.


Aww some cute fluff at the end. Yeah it's pretty corny and cheesy but idgaf, I find it cute xD

Thank you everyone for your feedback and I'l see you all next week!

REPLIES

Sheppardgirl08 - You're very welcome ahahah! Hope you enjoyed!

thompsonmaria9 - She does continue talking to her, but I skipped it over as it was becoming pretty repetitive at this point, she's done it so many times I think you can all guess about what they talked about

Julka212 - man Rodney is so much fun to tease, I'm such a horrible person to him...but we love it xD God I'm still not over the Sheppia name, I just love it so much and so happy that they have a ship name that actually sounds so cool. Yeah well I guess you'll be happy that I'm probably skipping over all Heightmeyer scenes as it's become pretty repetitive at this time xD ahaha I wasn't going for that but I guess it was pretty freaky, damn our girl having some PTSD troubles now. They do honestly! I'm always giggling and grinning at my phone ahaha. I walked up to him and literally only said hello, he stared at me for like a few seconds like I was absolutely mental...which might be true tbh xD

Adela - Thank you!

Sheppardlover928 - Hahaha thank you! I'm literally imagining Ronon saying 'Why do you have a baby?' in his confused voice xD that honestly would've been so funny to write, damn why didnt I think about that before? ahaha Literally everyone is asking me about a baby between these two xD maybe I should start asking about names for this kid that may or may not come. who knows when I'll be bringing in a pregnancy? xD Yeah they make me blush too, I hate re-reading them once they're written, I just get so embarassed knowing that I wrote it xD