TITLE: Shades of Gray

AUTHOR: DramaLexy

SUMMARY: There are some lines that there's no going back from after crossing. Post-Critical Mass. R&R

DISCLAIMER: If only they were mine...but they're not.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is for my roommates who constantly bug me to write. One wanted a story that was more or an ensemble piece. The other requested some whumping and provided me with the means to keep going once I hit writers block in the middle. Hope you enjoy the result of their demands.

The Wraith Cruisers had circled over the planet for several hours, which was highly unnerving for everyone in Atlantis, but they'd finally left, and the city had resumed normal operations, allowing Zelenka's team to return from M7G-677 and the expedition's pilots to begin ferrying the Athosians back to the mainland.

The Daedalus was effectively grounded in the city while Hermiod and a team of engineers and scientists worked to figure out if a beaming extraction of the Goa'uld in Caldwell was possible. Elizabeth had been able to dial back to Earth and inform the SGC that the city was safe and the bomber had been identified, plus send that week's data uplink. All in all, the day had been successful. So why didn't she feel relieved?

What she had told Sheppard had been correct – the inhabitants of the city of the Ancients were no better than the enemy they were fighting, with respect to distrust and violence within their own group. Two years ago, she never would have allowed herself to give an order like the one she'd given Ronon earlier that day. She'd hated the military for behaviors exactly like the one she condoned today. Some part of her wondered if Caldwell – no, the thing IN Caldwell – had taken pleasure in convincing her to torture a person that he knew to be innocent.

"Dr. Weir?"

She looked up at the sound of a voice and saw that one of the officers that was on-shift in the control room was currently standing in her office doorway. "What's going on, Lieutenant?"

"We just got a transmission from Colonel Sheppard, ma'am. They finished taking everyone back to the mainland and are on their way back to the city."

"Thank you."

She tried to focus on the work she needed to get done – the day's activities had resulted in a rather impressive number of reports that needed to be filled out – but was soon interrupted once more. "Beckett to Dr. Weir," she heard Carson's say over her headset.

"Go ahead."

"I just thought you might like to know that Dr. Kavanagh is awake and I've released him from the infirmary." Elizabeth sighed.

"Thank you, Carson."

It had definitely been a hell of a day.

When Kavanagh got back to his quarters on the Daedalus, he locked the door behind him and started rifling through his belongings for one item in particular. He hadn't been thrilled when Beckett had told him upon awakening that he would be stuck in Atlantis for the next couple of weeks at least while Weir's golden boy, Rodney McKay, and the freaky little alien in the engine room tried to figure out a way to help Colonel Caldwell. Kavanagh didn't really care what happened to the ship's commanding officer one way or another. Everything that had happened in Atlantis was Caldwell's fault, and it was because of him that Kavanagh had once again been made into a villain.

He finally found the thing he'd been looking for – a small red vile that he'd acquired the last time he was on Earth. He may not have had any friends on Atlantis, but he had a couple among the other scientists at SGC, and one of them had picked this up for him while off-world. He'd intended upon using it once he returned to Atlantis, but soon found that he was unable to force himself to actually carry out the deed. THAT was the real reason that he'd been going back to Earth; he'd never wanted to return to Atlantis for anything other than revenge. He'd let his conscience get in the way the last time, but as he looked at the small crimson bottle, Kavanagh promised himself that that would not happen again.

He pocketed the bottle, and then headed out of his quarters and back to Atlantis to put his plan in action.

TBC...