Chapter IV: Setting the Past Straight
John walked out of the transporter and clicked his radio. Peter quickly answered, "Yes?"
John started pacing back and forth. "Pull out a map and tell me if there's another way out of here that is not by transport."
There was a moment of static. "Why?"
"Apparently the Wraith disabled them. We can't go out."
There was silence. "Ok, where are you? Exactly."
John told him quickly, then after another second of static, Peter answered, "From what I can see, it will be faster to send a team to fix the transport than for you to walk back. If you decide to walk, it could take you at least 4 hours."
That wasn't the answer John wanted to hear. "4 hours!"
"It's all because of all the damage in the area; you will have to go back and forth for a while to get your way back."
John didn't like how things were developing. "Ok, send the team. Now, put Dr. Weir on."
A few more seconds of static were heard. "Weir."
Now Sheppard started speaking in a lower tone, "Hey, it's John… we may have a problem."
The answer was quick. "What's wrong?"
"Transport is broken and the Wraith may be on our tails."
"How's Stella?"
John though about the answer, and tried to give it as calmly as possible, "She's driving me nuts!"
"Calm down, John. She's really not that bad."
As of now, John was trying to control himself and started pacing back and forth. "You know… she actually openly admitted the incident with Kavanagh."
"Oh... come on, John! You know the guy deserved it. Actually, she did exactly what I wanted to do. And besides, she got sanctioned and complied with her punishment gracefully. So stop acting like a little kid."
John massaged the back of his head; he knew the reason he was so distracted today. "You know….this would've never happened if you hadn't gotten angry with me that day."
There was silence, and John knew he had hit a spot. Not good. "John."
"Yes."
"Take care of the Wraith and come back in one piece. Call if you need anything."
John knew the conversation was over before she said the words. "Good–bye, Dr. Weir."
-0-0-0
After walking out of the transporter Stella saw Major Sheppard talking on his radio. Bates was right behind her, and Ford was on the alert. Stella walked toward a wall and slid down to the floor. Bates now crouched beside her, "What are you doing?"
Stella looked at Bates, confused. "What?"
"You are insulting and threatening my CO."
Stella still felt a bit confused as to what Bates was getting at, but she had a pretty good idea. "I have every right–"
But Bates cut her off harshly, "No, Stella. Is not the same when we're in your office and we joke about things. But we are in a dangerous situation right now and you are openly attacking my CO."
Stella felt again slapped in the face, but this time she knew she deserved it, she knew Bates was right. "Sorry, I'll try to control myself."
Bates now relaxed a bit. "How are you feeling?"
"Like I took a beating… but otherwise ok."
Now Major Sheppard had stopped speaking to the radio and turned to face the others, "We're stuck for now. Control just told me that it's going to be easier for us to wait for help than to walk out."
Stella stared at Sheppard. "Aren't you worried about that the Wraith could try to get to us?"
Major Sheppard then answered without looking at Stella, "For now we have more firepower. If he makes a move on us, it would be suicide for him."
Stella tried, she really tried. She knew this wasn't the place for it, but she just couldn't control herself. "Well don't you think it'll be better if we don't hang out in plain sight? We're sitting ducks here."
Ford and Bates could only watch another rant develop, helpless but to watch in morbid fascination to see how far they would go this time.
Sheppard glared harshly at Stella. "Hey! I know you might be scared, but that doesn't make you an expert in this sort of thing."
Stella now stood up and closed in on Sheppard. "Doesn't make me an expert, but I know damn well that Wraith is ready to do anything. All I am suggesting is that we step out of the open and go into a more secured area."
Sheppard was trying very hard to remain calm, but she was just pushing on everything he did. "You know something, I'm in charge here, and I think this place is perfectly ok for us to wait for help!"
Stella was now on the verge of shouting, "Yeah sure, you can be so clever for some situations and a complete moron for others!"
Now it was time to intervene, Bates knew that if this went any further at the present rate, Stella might try to repeat the whole Kavanagh incident. So he stepped between the two. "Ok, that's enough!" He turned around and looked at Sheppard. "I'm sorry sir." Then he turned to Stella, "But if we want to remain alive, this has to stop… Stella, tell him."
Stella was caught completely by surprise, "What?"
Bates was clearly irritated. "Just tell him exactly why you can't keep you mouth shut when he's around. Just like all those times you said to me what you wanted to say to him. Just tell him, now is your chance."
Stella remained silent, now it was the time to talk and she couldn't say a word. Damn you, Bates!
John on the other hand was still annoyed but curiosity ran through him like fire, he stared at Stella, "So…are you mute now?"
Stella stayed still; she really didn't know what to say. Bates' outburst had left her speechless, "No… I…"
But Sheppard cut her off. "Then for once could you explain why you did it in the first place?"
Now Stella felt to have her voice and will back and she replied instantly, "Because you were ignoring me! I tried to get your attention and all you said was 'yes,' 'no,' and 'go in a straight line.' What if that was my first time and something bad had happened? Do you know how much I practiced for that day? And instead you couldn't give me a moment of your attention."
No one cared now, they didn't even care if the Wraith was near, this was a nuke that it was about to explode.
Sheppard spat back, "Nothing bad was going to happen. You had control over it and if something went wrong I was there for it."
Stella now laughed sarcastically, "Of course, you are the great Major Sheppard. The only man who can control any situation. Well guess what? That day I gave you something you couldn't control and it ate you up!"
"What are you complaining about? You acted irresponsibly and endangered our lives, and you didn't even got punished…"
Before John could finish, Stella cut him off, "I was punished…you made me an outcast! No one wants to work with me, and if they have to, it's only 'do this and leave'. The scientists think I'm crazy because of what I did, so they don't want me around, and the military obviously stands by their CO. All because I made the great and powerful Sheppard angry!"
John now seemed to be a little taken aback by her comments, but before thinking it twice he spat back, "Not all the soldiers are like that, I see you and Sgt. Bates are quite friendly all the time."
Stella was now shouting, her face red with anger, "Ohhh… the supreme god John Sheppard has taken notice of us mortals. But if you haven't noticed, you have made Bates an outcast within your military group, just because he hasn't agreed with you in different occasions. So it's kind of no choice on his part."
Now Stella looked right at Bates, "No offense."
Bates waved his hands; he didn't want to be a part of this fight.
For once, John understood her point, but it still unnerved him that she could act so recklessly and then be sour about it. He sighed heavily and looked right at Stella. "Still, that doesn't give you the right to go around and hate everybody."
Anger had returned to Stella's face. "I don't hate everybody. I HATE YOU! I can spell it out if you still don't get it. Maybe yes, I acted irresponsibly. There were other ways to get your attention. But you didn't act exactly like a grown up either, and you know what? I should have defended myself, I shouldn't have cared that you are the ranking military officer. But you know what? If I was half as bad as you think I am I would have put some itchy stuff in your underwear a long time ago, and believe me I could get away with it."
Right in that moment, just before John could think of an answer to throw at Stella, they saw an illusion, a Wraith illusion really close to them. The three soldiers had their guns at the ready instantly. Sheppard took out his life signs detector, and he didn't like what he saw. "Ford… you're with me. Bates, stay here with Stella, we'll be back in a moment." Stella was still red with anger, but now she felt a light spot on her chest. She had finally said what she wanted to say for a long time.
She had unwillingly dragged Bates into the whole thing, now thinking about it, she should have done it a long time ago.
Now she wondered if she should have done it in the first place. Yes… that day she was excited because it was her first training run with Major Sheppard, whom at the time she saw as her platonic crush, but nothing more. He was the guy that every girl liked.
But that day she was so nervous, she had practically woken up and headed straight to the jumper bay. She wanted to be the first one to be tested as an auxiliary pilot and she knew she was going to do well. She had been good in all of her other trainings, so why should this one be different?
After waiting for hours Major Sheppard had called her to the jumper bay. Once inside the Puddle jumper, he had started with the common stuff, 'turn it on', 'take it out of the jumper bay', 'head toward the mainland'. But once they were flying deep into the planet, he started with the 'yes', 'no' and 'go in a straight line'. At first she had fallen for it, showing him on the blue screen her flight pattern, which was ok.
Then Stella tried to change her tactics; she really wanted to make sure the Major was paying attention to what she was doing. She started talking, stupid stuff really, but she just wanted him to snap out of whatever he was thinking of. "Well Major… if I pass as a pilot you can join me and the others later on the improvised bar and get trashed with some of the Athosian wine we have."
Nothing. His only response was something along the lines of, "Uhh uhgm."
It annoyed Stella to the core, she careful made her way into space, maybe that will snap him out of it. For a minute Stella looked around, then Sheppard seemed to notice, but his reaction had been, "just don't get too far away."
Ok… he had reacted but wasn't he supposed to be aware of every single movement she made with the Jumper? Going into space wasn't in the original plans. He had now returned to his glazed look, and Stella's patience was running low. If he didn't snap out of it, of she'd make sure he never forgot this day. She tried the conversation tactic again, this one must work!
It had always worked on her mom when she was younger. "So... Major, if you decide to come by and get trashed with all of the other prospective pilots, well, I managed to smuggle in some weed. I'm willing to share so everyone can talk to the purple chimps and the pink elephants."
She thought of it, she had never touched weed, but that comment always seemed to work at home if she wanted someone's attention. Then his answer came, "Yeah sure."
Stella's mind had to process what he said, he didn't sound sarcastic, just the answer of someone who is really thinking about something else. Anger rose up in her; he didn't care if she was doing well or not. He was in his own little world. The she let the anger get the better of her.
So she made the jumper make a 180 degrees back flip, and with great speed headed straight to Atlantis.
The sudden movement brought him back to reality, and he noticed that they were going far too fast. "Hey! Slow down!"
Stella looked at Sheppard. "Are you gonna pay attention?"
Sheppard was puzzled. "What?"
Stella now turned to look at the screen. "Wrong answer." Then she made the jumper spin around twice.
Sheppard stared at her with a mixture of anger and shock, "What the hell are you doing?"
Losing her temper, Stella shouted, "How the hell are you gonna know if I'm a qualified pilot if you have no idea of what I have done!"
Stella saw in his face that John had no idea of what she was talking about. "Slow down!" the major demanded again. But Stella pushed the Jumper ever faster, now heading straight into the Jumper Bay entrance.
Sheppard was getting angry. "I am ordering you to slow down, you are going to kill us!"
Everything he said it only made her make the Jumper go faster. It was like all those times back on Earth, while she was driving in her car. Every time she approached her home or a specific place she was accustomed to go, she would speed up. Stella knew that no matter how fast she was going she would hit the brakes at the precise moment and everything would go smoothly. That was what she was doing now; she knew that everything was going to be ok.
She could now hear Sheppard screaming angrily beside her, but she kept going; straight to the entrance. At the last moment the Jumper stopped and she landed it perfectly inside the Jumper bay.
What happened next was known all over Atlantis, and since then she wasn't allowed to go near a Puddle Jumper.
