Chapter 50

2008

Alex had thought long and hard about joining him and then decided that she couldn't stand it. There was very little she couldn't stomach, but this… this was too personal. And Evan couldn't exactly blame her.

Interrogating a prisoner was never fun.

Interrogating a wounded one even less so.

Interrogating a former friend, well that was a whole new experience for him.

Sheppard was sitting on the other side of the bed, whether it was as a watch dog, or his superior officer in the line of duty, Evan couldn't quite say. Probably a little bit of both. Evan doubted the Colonel would stay silent for long. One thing was certain, though, Sheppard wouldn't lash out at him if he chose the wrong words or messed this up.

Javier was staring at Evan. He hadn't said a word yet. Neither had Javier. A simple hello would have felt wrong. The last time he'd seen him, Javier had lied to him. Not half a year later he had aided in the kidnapping of his wife, who had called him friend once as well. And Sheppard knew, and that was why Evan was glad his commanding officer was who he was. He understood these things better than most others might. But patience still wasn't one of the virtues he was known for. Clearing his throat, Sheppard leaned forward. "As much as I like this staring contest, can we get going, please?"

Javier's dark eyes darted over to Sheppard and Evan watched in amazement as, for the fraction of a second, the muscles in Javier's shoulder's stiffened as though he was preparing to stand erect. Like the military had never been quite forgotten by the body. But it was gone as quickly as it had come. He flinched and his eyes squeezed shut for a second. Moving was still painful.

Good.

"And you are?" Javier asked, though he must know. The way he'd looked at Sheppard just now said as much.

"Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard," Sheppard said grimly, leaning forward slightly, "and you know Major Lorne here, of course?"

"Sure," Javier said without looking at Evan. "When are you taking me back to Earth to lock me up for the rest of my life?"

"You've never been an optimist," Evan said, though, of course Javier was right. Of course they'd send him back. As soon as he could be moved, which might only take a day or two.

"Don't act like you know me." Javier's voice was little more than a hiss and he leaned back against the pillows again, his eyed directed upward.

"Fine," Evan folded his hands to keep himself from balling them up into fists. "Why were you so stupid to attack us?" He felt Sheppard's warning gaze. He wasn't like this usually. Usually he was able to keep his cool. Not so much at the moment.

"I thought you'd want to watch the interrogation?" Jonas drew up the chair next to hers and sat down.

Alex only looked at him briefly before turning her attention back to the screen of her tablet. "What makes you say that?" The footage of the ruins which Jonas had brought back from his mission with Sheppard and his team had been enough to distract her so far. Well, almost. And she wished Jonas would want to talk about that rather than the issue which was bound to be occupying his mind as well. He was on Evan's team. He'd been there during the attack. He'd helped carry Javier back through the Gate.

"Come on."

With a sigh, she turned the tablet upside down and looked at him. "I don't. I don't want to hear his excuses or justifications for why he did what he did. I don't want to hear how going over to Ba'al was the only choice he had to get back at Evan."

"That's a bit of a stretch, wouldn't you say?"

"What?"

"Getting back at Evan as the sole purpose for becoming a follower of a System Lord? To betray one's own planet and go to a whole new galaxy? Just because someone was a jerk at one point?"

Alex swallowed hard. She'd never heard anyone call Evan names before, but Jonas wasn't entirely wrong. But what Evan had done had been a choice he'd needed to make. "I agree," she said hoarsely and took a sip of camomile tea. She'd switched from coffee to that disgusting concoction the moment she'd found out about the pregnancy. "That's what I said… It'll be enough for me to hear it from Evan. I really don't want to be near him." She could remember all too well the moment the Ba'al clone had threatened to kill Javier. And yet Javier had run off to join another one. To keep serving a self-obsessed parasite, who, by the looks of it, was hell-bent on dominating the universe.

"Right," Jonas said quietly. He was silent for a moment, then he cleared his throat. "Are you a bit tense today?"

With a scoff, she picked up her tablet again to stare at the black screen. He reflection staring back at her looked exhausted, the hair a bit of a mess, the skin blotchy. So much for the glow of pregnancy. "Look who's talking."

The sheepish smile was almost enough to make her regret snapping at him. Almost. But not quite. He'd had the privilege to be bad tempered for months now and she'd be damned if she let him off the hook that easily.

"Okay. Sorry." Shaking his head, he took the tablet from her and turned it on. "You're looking at the stuff we brought back? Did you get a chance to look at my notes?"

"Yes." Alex sighed in relief. "So… another meeting place?"

"And a map," Jonas said, opening the picture file with a tap of his hand. Then he pulled one of the ten or so empty notebooks towards him and started sketching wildly.

Javier smiled unhappily. "Does it matter? You killed all of my men, you captured me, you should be satisfied."

Evan barely held back a groan of frustration. He leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. He wouldn't have minded kicking the metal frame of Javier's hospital bed, just to see him flinch. "Stop being such a baby. You know-"

"I know I'm going to end up in prison if I'm lucky, on death row if I'm not, so why should I tell you anything?"

"Because those aren't your only options." Evan exchanged a brief look with Sheppard. They'd agreed on making the offer, even if there was no way they could know the Air Force would honour their promises. But he didn't much care if their superiors chose to ignore that. Javier would have gladly watched Alex be turned into a host, or killed. "You know there are more planets out there than just Earth. We could hide you."

Javier's smile widened. "There's no place in the universe I could be safe from him. I doubt I'm safe here-" he squeezed his eyes shut and hissed in pain. He'd been wounded badly, but Keller had patched him up as best she could, but apparently she hadn't given him enough pain killers. "with you."

"What're you saying, Pérez?" Sheppard leaned in, one hand on his knee.

"I'm saying I don't exactly trust you."

"Well, that's your problem," Evan said grimly. "Tell us where Ba'al is, and we might even let you go."

"I tell you where he is and another one is gonna kill me anyway."

Well, that was a grim prospect. Evan made a mental note to discuss that with Sheppard once they were alone. He could see that Javier's lids were drooping again. Not long, and he'd be out again.

"You could do it for the sake of finally doing the right thing," Sheppard said with a frown. "I guess you know better than anybody else here what you're responsible for. Couldn't help to set a couple of things straight?"

"I don't think there's nothing on Earth you care about anymore. You didn't want Ba'al to kill Alex. She told me you tried warning her on that ship. You're not-"

"Oh, stop that, Evan." Javier closed his eyes and shook his head.

"What did he promise you, Javier?"

"A map?" Alex asked with a frown as she watched Jonas' hand fly over the page.

"Yes, well, a couple of symbols appear more often than others. Same as with the steles on the other planet. There are words, there are sentences, and there's a particular pattern again." Jonas propped the tablet against a full water bottle and Alex almost flinched as it threatened to fall over. The quick rush of adrenaline subsided as quickly as it had come. "Have you sent this to Daniel yet?" she asked.

Jonas had set ten markers on the white page, each marker representing a word in the text etched into the tiles of yet another meeting place. And no small wonder McKay was starting to get excited by this. On the southmost edge of the plateau, there was the symbol, which would have drawn everyone's attention. A very clear depiction of a Zero Point Module. But what interested her most of all was the simplified depiction of the galaxy which Jonas opened on the tablet now. He quickly jotted down a Gate address next to one of the markers he'd drawn. Lantea. And then another address. The place where they'd found the first meeting place, and then another one representing the one they'd found now. And he was right. The position of the markers represented the position on the star chart. "From which planet was this picture taken?" Alex asked.

"Lantea."

Lantea. Of course. The Ancients' homeworld in the centre of this galaxy. "So. Daniel?"

"No," Jonas said and he started connecting the markers. "I doubt he'll have the time to investigate this anyway. I mean, this could be-"

"Why would they hide it, though? I mean, that world. The Ancients and the others who came there clearly had some kind of understanding between them. And no matter how ceremonial this was, why hide a secret message?"

"Maybe it's not a secret message," Jonas said, shaking his head as he connected the last two markers and then drew a line straight up, to the circle representing the glyph of the ZPM. "Maybe it's just art."

"Hm…" Alex scratched her temple. The symbol Jonas had drawn up was too familiar. She'd worn it on her sleeve for years. A pyramid with a circle hovering over the top. The point of origin of Tau'ri, of Earth. "This is a bit of a coincidence, wouldn't you agree?"

Jonas shrugged, clicked the top of his pen and stowed it away in his breast pocket. "I mean, Earth was the Ancients' homeworld in the Milky Way, right? And they came before the Goa'uld, which means, as the builders of the Stargate network, they must have already chosen this symbol for the point of origin before the Goa'uld even left their homeworld, right?"

She'd never thought of that. But of course Jonas was right. "So, you're saying this is telling us there are more Zero Point Modules on Earth?"

"No, I'm just saying this symbol was meaningful to the Ancients, and probably to the other races here as well. They chose the symbol for Earth, yes, but that doesn't mean the only valid interpretation is Tau'ri. My guess is, it's got some relevance in terms of referring to something unifying. It would make sense in this context." He pointed at the tablet again and opened the next file, which showed the whole plateau in panoramic view. No steles in this one, just tiles and the wide horizon. "This could be something big."

"Lorne, I don't think you being there is a good idea," Sheppard said, ruffling his hair and looking over at the door behind which Javier was fast asleep again. Before Evan could speak up, Sheppard shook his head. "I don't mean the way you talk to him, but your presence alone."

Sheppard wasn't wrong. Evan let out a long breath and leaned against the wall. The window opposite was overlooking the ocean. Dark rain clouds were fast approaching. Soon enough the whole city would be caught in a storm. Just a minor one, granted, but still. The flying lesson for the new arrivals on Atlantis would be scrapped because of it. The city looked more grey with the threat of imminent rain and he hated how exactly it matched his mood. "I don't disagree, Sir," he muttered. "But I also think I'm the only one who can get anything out of him. He's been in Ba'al's service for years and I knew him before that."

"That might be the problem exactly."

"Or not… give me another chance next time he wakes up."

Sheppard frowned and looked at his watch. Keller had told them it might be hours before Javier woke up again. "Fine," he grumbled and started heading towards the transport. "One last try."

"Right. Sir, I'm sorry, but we just don't have any time to waste, do we? Ba'al might still be well on his way to setting up his own network and Pérez is the only lead we got."

"Maybe." Sheppard started turning away, when he remembered something and turned to look at Evan again. "Why do you think he doesn't believe he's safe here? Just paranoia?"

"I hope so," Evan said, clearing his throat. "The only other alternative is a bit disconcerting."

"Yeah…" Sheppard muttered. "Take a look into the most recent personnel files, though, would you? Just in case we missed any connection to one of Ba'al's previous operations on Earth?"

"Yes, Sir."

Sheppard nodded. "I'll go talk to Carter in the meantime."

"We should take this to Anna," Alex muttered, going over her notes again. Nox writing, a new alphabet and Ancient. Those were big enough on their own, but with this promise of a map hovering over them, she should be more excited. Sheppard was right. But she felt the damper just the same. Because neither she, nor Anna could go off-world to chase this riddle.

Jonas nodded and the smile slowly started to fade from his face. His eyes took an expression, which made her slightly uneasy. "Alex?"

"Hm?"

"I- I got you a Christmas gift."

"It's been three weeks since Christmas… and you don't celebrate."

The grin accompanied by the crinkles around his eyes didn't quite manage to erase the sudden unease she felt looking at him. Shaking his head, he took a deep breath and reached into his pocket. Not a big gift, then.

"I didn't exactly get it," he said quietly and she could see the effort it took him to keep eye contact.

"Jonas, I don't have anything for you."

Jonas shook his head, took her hands and placed something inside the palm of her hand, closing her fingers around the small box and covering it with the other hand before Alex could see it. "You're pregnant, right?" There was no tension in his voice, just a trace of sadness, which brought tears to her own eyes before she could even begin trying to hold them back.

"How-"

Jonas shrugged. "You've been avoiding me. More than usual. You haven't talked to me since you and Evan got back and- well… Anna told me just now."

A snort was the only response she could give. She shook her head. She'd meant to tell Jonas herself. She'd meant to break it to him gently. This wasn't easy for him, she knew that.

"It's okay. I'll live. Now, take a look." This was more than Alex would have expected from Jonas. Not after what he'd been through.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I didn't want you to find out like that."

"Don't worry about it. Really." He took another deep breath, leaned forward and kissed her cheek. "You deserve this."

Blinking hard, Alex lifted her hand. A small wooden box. "What is it?"

"In Kelowna it was a tradition to present a child with a stone representing the time of the year it was born it. Kind of like a birthstone."

The past tense hung heavily in the air. Was. Jonas really had given up on his world. Well, of course he had. The Ori had been defeated, but no contact had been established with Langara. And he'd decided to stay here. To work. To distract himself.

Alex wiped her eyes and opened the box with trembling hands. A thin silver chain lay on black velvet, a light brown stone, almost the colour of ember was held by a delicate mounting in its centre.

"The length can be adjusted easily," Jonas said quietly, the additional chains are below the velvet, but-"

"Jonas-"

"It won't be right for your kid, of course, but it-"

"Jonas, I can't accept this."

Jonas nodded and took her free hand. For a moment she couldn't help but wonder what would have happened, hadn't Evan been at the SGC when she arrived. Would she have developed romantic feelings for Jonas? Who could say? They shared a lot of the same interests. They made a decent team. And it wasn't like he hadn't confessed to some interest in her at one point. But this right here had nothing to do with that. This was so much more. And it hurt. Just looking at the stone and remembering that he had kept it for his own child. That he'd taken it with him from Kelowna and now to a whole new galaxy. That he'd kept it for months and now had decided to pass it on told her that he'd given up on his past. That he wanted the dream to love on.

She took a shaky breath and squeezed his hand.

"Alex, please, I want you to have it. For your kid. I don't want to keep hanging on to this like a wasted dream. This belongs to someone, and if not to your kid, then to whom?"

A/N: Well, here we are. Chapter 50 and still not done. I hope you get to enjoy some restful days at the end of the year and to those of you celebrating: Merry Christmas. If you hate Christmas: Happy Holidays.

I was caught in some kind of Christmas gloom this year. Everything is a bit much at the moment, but writing this story/these stories got me through so much. Thank you for reading and sticking with Evan and Alex through thick and thin! And, no, I'm not done writing, I just want to thank you guys. 😉