Kate looked at her schedule to see who had the next appointment and groaned out loud. She had thought Lieutenant Ford and Major Sheppard were hard to deal with. Compared to this particular soldier, the other two were a piece of cake. Focus, she told herself sternly. He's going to try to put you on the defensive. You can't let him take control of the session.

Truth be told, Kate was more than a little intimidated by Sergeant Bates, even though she had no real reason to be. She'd never had a session with him before, and the few times that they had spoken he'd been unfailingly polite. Still, she'd never met anyone else with such a piercing stare. Oh, other people on the expedition had their own "evil looks" -- Carson in particular could be downright scary when dealing with a recalcitrant patient -- but Bates gave the impression that he was dissecting people, weighing and measuring them to determine if they were a threat to security. And his glare left little doubt as to what he would do if he thought that they were.

The panel next to her door chimed softly. Kate took a deep breath, schooled her face into a pleasantly neutral expression, and pushed a button to allow entry to the office. Bates entered, walked directly to the couch, and sat, positioning himself so that his back was to the outside wall. Without being obvious about it, he scanned the room for threats before looking back at her and nodding. "Ma'am," he said simply.

She tried not to be annoyed at his behavior. Kate didn't want her countertransference to interfere with the rapport she was trying to build, but she was mildly insulted at Bates's assumption that he would need to protect himself in her office. "Hello, Sergeant. Before we start, can I get you anything to drink? Water, maybe?" It occurred to her that she didn't even know his first name, and she wished she had taken the time to more thoroughly read his personnel file.

"No thank you, ma'am. I'm fine."

"Okay, then. Did anyone tell you why I asked to meet with the senior staff?"

"No, ma'am."

This was quickly going to get old, thought Kate. "The incident with the nanovirus caused more distress than we initially thought. I'm concerned that there may be aftereffects."

Bates frowned. "What kind of aftereffects?"

"Anything, really. Stress, nightmares, burnout. Things like that. Are you experiencing any?"

"Definitely not!"

Of course not, thought Kate. And he'd hardly tell her if he were. Maybe he'd open up if she shifted her focus to other people. "Glad to hear it. How about in any of your men? Some of them were on the east pier with Dr. McKay's cleanup crew. You're in the best position to help me make sure they're okay."

The tactic seemed to work. Once Bates thought she wasn't scrutinizing him, but instead enlisting his aid, his posture relaxed slightly. "I guess I wasn't watching for anything like that, but everyone seems okay. I try to talk to all my men every few weeks, find any problems before they get too big," he said with a touch of pride.

"That's good! I'll bet it helps the discipline in your unit."

"Yes, ma'am! That's very important."

Here was an opening. "You're right, discipline is important. Tell me, then, how did you feel when Major Sheppard and Dr. Weir gave you opposing orders? Who did you think was right? Either way, you had to undermine someone's authority."

Bates looked nervous. "Umm, both of them were acting in what they felt were the best interests of the expedition," he said a little stiffly.

"Oh, I know," Kate reassured him. "But it certainly put you in an awkward position."

He snorted at that. And was there a hint of a smile? "You have no idea, ma'am." Bates thought for a minute, then said, "I actually think Dr. Weir was right. Without a Hazmat suit, who knows what the Major could have blundered into. For all we knew, it could have been a biological attack on the city, and there could have been more than one pathogen."

"All true," said Kate. "So why didn't you back Dr. Weir?"

"Discipline," Bates said again. "Major Sheppard is my commanding officer."

Kate thought of an obvious question, and decided to push him. Bates wasn't as threatening as she had initially thought, but she was concerned about his automatic deference to the military chain of command above all else. "You responded differently, though, when Major Sheppard told you to drop the investigation of Teyla's potential role in the Wraith attacks. There, you backed Dr. Weir."

"That was different. That was a security threat, not a medical threat." But he grimaced, as if realizing how ridiculous that sounded.

"Is it that you don't like the Athosians?" Kate asked. She noticed that he was no longer calling her "ma'am".

Bates didn't say anything at first. Then, defensively, "Listen, why are you really doing this? I told you I'm not having any problems after the nanovirus. Why the interrogation?"

Kate leaned back in her chair and exhaled. He was the only person so far to have asked her that. "One reason really is to make sure people are okay after the nanovirus plague. But I'm also a little worried about everyone. We've all been under a lot of stress lately, the plague being only the latest example. We also know that a Wraith attack at some point is inevitable. Everyone is going to need to work smoothly with each other if any of us are to survive, so I'm trying to help that happen. I'm helping people understand their own motivations so that they can function effectively during what might be the most stress any of us has ever seen." She paused. "I'm going to push you a little, Sergeant, just like I've pushed everyone else. So answer my question."

"It's not that I don't like them, it's that I don't really trust any of them. Particularly Teyla. It was on her world that the Colonel Sumner and the others were taken," said Bates.

"After Major Sheppard accidently activated her locket."

"Oh, and that makes it so much better!" he sneered. "Look, you're never going to convince me that the Athosians didn't do something to bring the Wraith down on us. I'm willing to concede that it wasn't the locket. But there's so much we don't know about them. Who knows what someone else may have tried?" Bates seemed relieved at finally being able to explain himself.

Kate appeared skeptical. "So the Athosians deliberately wiped out their own planet just to have the Wraith attack your team, despite having only met you a few hours earlier? Forgive me, Sergeant, but that sounds really paranoid."

"I'd rather be paranoid than dead, Dr. Heightmeyer."

"It sounds like you're saying that from personal experience."

Kate expected an explosion from Bates, but he only sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. "I grew up in a very bad neighborhood in LA, doctor. Someone was crippled or killed in a drive-by shooting almost every month. So yes, I learned that trusting people could sometimes lead to you winding up dead."

"Do you have any family still there?"

"My little brother -- he's only 12. I had to look out for him when he was a baby because our parents were rarely around." He said it matter-of-factly, without self-pity or regret.

Kate nodded. "I see. So essentially you grew up being responsible for someone else's safety and security. Good practice for your job now."

Bates actually laughed out loud at that. "So what, now you're saying that instead of being paranoid, I'm being an overprotective big brother?"

She gave him a wicked smile in return. "Who said they were mutually exclusive?"

"Good point. But seriously, what does my childhood have to do with how I deal with the chain of command? That is what started all this."

Kate was surprised to find that she enjoyed sparring with the security chief. "I should make you tell me," she said. "But it's obvious. The Wraith cullings are the ultimate drive-by shootings. You see the Wraith as gang members, and all of us as your little siblings. You'll take orders from whoever you think will best help you advance your goal of perfect security."

"Oh, that is such a load of... you don't honestly believe that crap you're spouting, do you?" Bates suddenly stopped, stunned. How had she managed to get under his skin like that? He would never normally talk this way to someone who could yank him from active duty. And especially not to a woman as attractive as she was...

Well, as long as he'd already put his foot in it, he might as well continue the banter. He was strangely enjoying it. "Um. Didn't mean to put it quite so bluntly. But I do think you're reading way too much into things. I don't trust the Athosians because their timing is just too perfect. We need food, they have allies who might help us get it. We need medicines, they know just the right place to go. And Teyla's ability to sense the Wraith -- that's just plain freaky. As for following orders, I'm military. Unless there's a good reason not to, I'm going to listen to my CO. But when I believe he's thinking with his dick instead of his brain, I'm going to call him on it!" Now he really looked shocked at his outburst.

Kate grinned smugly. She'd been right. All she'd needed to do was get him sufficiently worked up, and he loosened up enough to reveal what was going on in his head. And he was right in that she'd been spouting Freudian nonsense. But people somehow expected psychologists to act that way, and she could make use of that. Now she'd be able to come up with a strategy to help him use his innate suspiciousness and protectiveness more effectively.

Now that their session was almost over, she wasn't sure why she had been so intimidated by him at first. He was just someone with issues, like everyone else on the expedition. And he was cute; she wasn't sure why she hadn't noticed that before, either.

There was a soft chiming sound as the computer she'd recently programmed reminded her that they were out of time. "All right, looks like we have to stop for now. But I'm going to recommend that you come back for another session next week so we can finish our discussion."

"Too bad," Bates said, not really looking disappointed at all.

Kate found herself in complete agreement.

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A/N: I read somewhere that we won't be seeing much of Bates next season. I'm kinda bummed about that, as I would have liked to see more of his character developed. Guess I'll just have to do it myself... :-)