Chapter 52

2008

Javier had a sister.

Evan was glad he wasn't the one who had to deliver the message of her brother's death. Who knew what she would say? Who knew where she thought her brother had been all this time, or what story they were telling her about his death? He was grateful he didn't have to be the one to lie to her.

There'd been no sign of a struggle, no wounds, no detectable poisons according to Keller. And yet… it wasn't right. Javier had been well enough to argue with Evan. He'd been well enough to make snide remarks. He'd been well enough to be sent back to Earth for further interrogation. Well, that certainly wouldn't be happening now.

"Major, how could this have happened?" The older man with the beads of sweat on his bald head asked. They were the thing Evan was focusing on. Beads of sweat were easier to look at than those accusative brown eyes.

He forced himself to meet the gaze. "I wasn't there, Mr Coolidge," he said. Sheppard must have gone through this interview already. He hadn't talked about it. He hadn't warned Evan or Alex either, though. Alex, who was already done with her interview, and who'd looked disgusted and tired when it was over. She was probably in Jackson's office right now, arranging a flight for the next day to San Francisco. There was no time to go to England and visit her mother and brother, but at least this interview would give them the opportunity to be with his parents and sister for two days before they were scheduled to return back to Pegasus. That was, if he ever got out of this room. "You could have just read my report, Sir," Evan continued, "I didn't think this interview would be about that." Not solely anyway.

"No, you weren't there, Major Lorne," Coolidge said, exchanging a glance with the man sitting on his right. He somehow kept ignoring the thin, light haired woman on his other side and that bothered Evan more than the tone in which Coolidge and Liu kept exchanging meaningful glances. The woman, Keating, kept twirling her pen between her fingers and was constantly frowning at the sheet of paper in front of her. From the view words she'd spoken when Even entered the room, he deduced that she was British. One American, one British, one Chinese interrogator. Evan wondered, for a brief moment, where the other nations stood on this series of interviews, or whether another team would be taking over the process in a few days. But that didn't really matter now. Coolidge leaned forward and the beads of sweat looked almost comical. Almost. Evan wasn't in the mood for a good laugh. "But the tape on which the interrogation was recorded suggests there was tension between the two of you."

"Are you accusing me of killing him?" Evan asked, folding his hands on the table and looking at the two men. "I didn't touch him or any of the medical equipment. You can ask my wife, you can ask Lieutenant Johnson. Also, I wanted to know, probably more badly than you do now, where Ba'al is hiding and where he's setting up his new little empire."

"And that's the thing," Coolidge said, "You wanted to know so desperately-"

"Yes!" Evan said, his voice louder than he intended, "I wanted to know, which is exactly why it wouldn't have made sense to kill him, would it?!"

"I think-" said the thin woman, whose voice sounded more whispy than Evan would have thought possible, "there's little use accusing Major Lorne of anything. His record is cleaner than most, his service to the Air Force has been impeccable, and, moreover, Doctor Keller's report didn't suggest Pérez was murdered."

Coolidge didn't look at his colleague, just frowned and looked back down ar his notes. But Evan couldn't focus on that. Impeccable. The word was still ringing in his ears when he finally left the room half an hour later. After the woman's decisive words, the interview had turned into a direction he could handle. Away from Pérez and back to his actual job.

Impeccable record. When had that happened? He'd screwed up a couple of times and especially the thing with Ba'al was bound to show up. There had been an investigation. He was sure there'd be an investigation into Javier's death as well. Somebody must have insisted these incidents didn't spoil his advancement. He probably owed a massive thank you to the Generals he'd served under.

The corridors were familiar as always, though walking through them felt alien. Like coming home after a very long time. They were the same, and yet they felt wider than he remembered them to be. He always felt that way when he was back. For the first few hours anyway. Only that this time around he wouldn't be sticking around for hours on end. He reached the lift, hit the button that would get the thing here and waited.

He still couldn't get the word out of his head. Impeccable record… and the accusation of murder? The news of Javier's sudden death had taken them all by surprise, yes, but there had been no evidence pointing towards murder. At least that was what Keller had told them. And he trusted Keller to get this right. Well, there was going to be another autopsy by the looks of it, but there was nothing to suggest he'd been the one who'd killed Javier!

The one who…

Something about Javier's death was fishy, but he'd looked at the footage of the security cameras. He'd talked to the two guards, to Johnson. None of them had seen anything. Well, maybe he wasn't doing his job right, but what else was there for him to investigate?

And still… he felt as though he'd swallowed a massive stone. He wiped his brow as soon as the doors closed. There had been guards. They'd seen him leave. Johnson had seen him leave. Alex had been with him on their way back. There had been security cameras. He repeated those facts again in his head. Everything was in order- except for the fact that Javier was dead. Evan took a deep breath, doing his best to focus, to make his thoughts stop racing. To think rationally. Why was he even afraid? He hadn't murdered Javier! He'd never even thought about it! And why would he, after deciding not to kill him in that forest?! Why would he, when Javier was the first real lead on Ba'al in months!

For a moment he closed his eyes. There was no use denying it. He'd tried to for two days now. The worst bit had been the day of quarantine on the Midway station. A day where he'd had little to do but paperwork. Javier was dead and despite everything, despite his anger and his lack of sympathy for the man, he couldn't forget that they'd been friends once. Close friends. Close enough that he'd defended him against accusations from homophobe drill sergeants in the Academy. Sam and Javier had nearly been found out their first year and Evan had done all he could to cover it up. He'd lied. He'd backed up Sam's story that he'd been with them the entire time.

The door opened and Evan stepped into the corridor leading Jackson's lab. He walked past the one in which he'd spent days of his life. Alex's lab, which was now, to his surprise, mainly used as a storage room. He cleared his throat.

What had happened to Javier wasn't his fault, Evan told himself for the thousandth time. How could it have been? Yes, he'd brought him in, but that was how far he'd go.

"I'm sure I can come to Atlantis again in a couple of weeks. Once I'm done looking through all the notes the Tok'ra have sent over that is."

Evan stopped in the doorway. Vala was sitting on Jackson's desk, legs crossed and looking perfectly at home surrounded by various artefacts and books scattered around her, while Jackson was leaning against the counter, Vala's hand casually resting on his shoulder. He was holding an ancient looking, leather-bound book in his hands and was showing it to Alex, who was leaning against the counter next to him. She was the first to notice him and when she spotted Evan, her smile was enough to make his heart feel a bit lighter. "Hey, how'd it go?"

"Okay, I guess?" he shrugged. She looked better now. Vala's company did that more often than not, and of course he knew that she missed working with Jackson.

"Are you sure? What'd they ask you?" Jackson asked.

Evan huffed, casually wrapped an arm around Alex's waist and shook his head. "A bunch of stuff about Pérez, about why we slightly changed guard duty in the Gate Room on Atlantis. Basically we could have done this via email."

Jackson raised his eyebrows significantly. "The usual, then?"

"The usual." Evan nodded and looked at Alex. "Can we go? I really want to check up on the house before we leave."

"I couldn't get us flights," she said. "Too short notice apparently."

That was a bit of a blow… but at least they'd get to talk to their families on the phone. That wasn't all bad, was it? He nodded. "Fine," he sighed and looked at Vala and Jackson again, "Listen, since we'll be staying here for a couple of days, why don't you two come over for dinner tomorrow or something?" Alex would love that and he managed to get on with Vala a lot easier these days. Being stuck on an abandoned planet for two weeks could do that to you apparently.

"Sure, why not. Teal'c won't be back until then, so we're not going on any missions."

"Where is he?" Evan frowned. After the destruction of Dakara, the Jaffa Nation was still struggling, so obviously Teal'c was bound to be knee deep in interplanetary politics.

"Oh, you don't know?" Jackson smiled vaguely. "He left for Atlantis about an hour ago. Sam asked him to coach Ronon for his interview?"

Sitting behind the wheel of a car always took some getting used to, but, as usual, after about ten minutes he was comfortable enough. Alex's hand was on his knee and for a second there he remembered what it had been like to drive her to his home after she'd been wounded in the field. She'd been high on pain medication, traumatized and constantly talking about how she wanted him. He had to admit, he'd come terribly close to kissing her that night.

It was dark now. The roads treacherous with thin layers of ice making the ground slippery. He was more used to having her around now. Her presence wasn't painful anymore, but calming. "What'd they ask you?" He looked at her out of the corner of his eye, then focused his gaze back on the road. At the dark tunnel that was the road ahead and the trees lining it.

"How we're planning to raise this child?" She cleared her throat and shook her head. "Told him it was none of his business. Teyla warned me this Coolidge guy was a jerk."

"Must have worked. He didn't ask me a thing about it."

"Because you're a man. Raising a child is my responsibility."

Evan couldn't help but laugh.

"What?!" The grin in her voice was enough to loosen the knot in the pit of his stomach.

"I love you, you know that?"

"Yes," she sighed, "I know." The pressure on his knee increased slightly as he turned into their street. Tomorrow morning they'd go to the cemetery. He'd cook her breakfast. They'd call their parents. He reached for his hand and kissed her knuckles.

"Let's talk about it though. When we're back on Atlantis we can talk this over with Anna and Murdoch, and Teyla as well. We'll find a way."

"Okay." He heard her shift in her seat. Their house was coming into view now. "The lights are on?"

That was certainly unexpected. And it could only mean one thing: either his parents or his sister were here. They were the only ones who had keys.

And there was that car. A rental. He sighed and parked their car right behind it. So much for peace and quiet for a couple of hours.

"They'll freak out," Alex said quietly and she wasn't smiling. It was highly unlikely that their email had gone through the usual security checks already. His parents didn't know about the baby yet. Neither did her mother and brother.

"Because we arrived all of a sudden without calling first, or the other obvious reason?"

"The other obvious reason." She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. "Oh God, my mom is gonna want to come here straight away, too if she hears." She wasn't wrong. But they wouldn't have time for that. And they'd gotten used to being alone, just the two of them, and, of course being with their families felt like a chore right now.

"I'll tell her no, if you want me to. I'll even talk to Adam."

She laughed and turned her head to look at him. "I don't need a knight in shining armour."

"Not saying I am one." He grinned as she leaned in, put her hands on his shoulders and kissed him.

"No, but you are one."

"Are you saying you don't need me?"

"Shut up, Major. Let's get this over with and ask your mom to cook us dinner."

A/N: Dear reader, this is the last chapter for this year. Don't worry, I fully intend to write a lot more! I'll be going on a writing retreat especially. There'll be nothing but silence, no internet, good food, good beer and some really nice monks. I hope you guys a very happy new year and a wonderful new decade!

I'll be back in January, whether I'll post something tomorrow or on Sunday I can't say yet. Anyway: See you then and thanks for reading!