The following evening, when Beckett released Sheppard and Weir, he ordered both of them to have a session with Dr. Heightmeyer in the next 24 hours. Elizabeth immediately disappeared up to her office after agreeing, but John had a few people he needed to talk to before trying to resume life as normal.

"Colonel," Rodney said in surprise when he saw his friend walk into the Daedalus' engine room. "Are you supposed to be out of the infirmary?"

John glared. "Yes, Rodney. I'm a free man."

"It is good to see you doing better," Zelenka told him.

"Thank you…I assume you've already heard through the city grapevine about the incident last night?"

Both men nodded. "How's Elizabeth now?" Rodney asked.

"I don't know. She didn't really say much of anything all day, but I'll tell you: the sight of her with a gun in her hand was really pretty terrifying. Her eyes were just...sub-zero cold."

"I believe he had it coming," Rodney said.

"I didn't claim otherwise," John replied. "We need to get him out of the city, but just sending him back to Earth seems too easy."

"What do you mean?" Zelenka asked.

"The SGC definitely isn't going to be happy with him, but he's not military. They've got no power over him. And even if they manage to get him in a civilian court without complaining witnesses being present, there aren't any normal people that know about Atlantis or alien poisons. Whatever story they come up with in order to go to court is going to be a half-truth at best. We send him back to Earth, and he'll get away with everything."

"We have to send him back," Rodney pointed out. "I mean, besides the fact that the alternative is keeping him here, he was already on a transfer back to Earth."

"Maybe there is another alternative," Zelenka suggested. "Keeping him here for a fair punishment without actually keeping him HERE."

"What are you talking about?" John asked.

"I believe that M7G-677 would benefit from the presence of engineer on planet for, say, few weeks, in order to make sure they have no further problems with EM shield. Wouldn't you agree, Colonel?"

John grinned. "Yeah. And I think I know just the person for the job. I'll take a jumper there tomorrow and talk to Keras, see if he has a problem with it."

"Tell him to make sure that they do the same thing with his hair that they did to Zelenka," Rodney said with a smirk. The Czech was not as amused.

The next morning, John, Teyla, and Ronon took a jumper to M7G-677. They parked the ship outside of the shield and then walked to Keras' village. The younger children were very happy to see them; John had immediately started handing out chocolate that he'd secretly swiped from McKay's stash before they left Atlantis.

"We were not expecting to see you again so soon," Keras told Sheppard once the team joined the 'elder' in one of the tree houses in the village. "The modifications your people made are working well."

"We're glad to hear that," John replied, "But the technology can be a bit complicated. We were thinking about having one of our engineers stay here for the next few weeks to monitor the shield generator and fix any problems that may come up."

"That is very kind of you."

"We would provide anything that he will need," Teyla assured the young man. "Food, a small shelter, and, of course, equipment for working with the shield."

"Yeah," John agreed. "He may not be very friendly at first, but that's part of the reason we're giving this assignment to him in particular. We think there's a lot he can learn here from your people."

"Like how to be a human being," Ronon muttered to himself.

"We welcome others of your people the same as we welcome you," Keras said.

Sheppard smiled. "Good. Looks like it's all settled then."

The walk back to the puddle jumper was mostly quiet until Teyla spoke up. "Why did you not tell Keras the truth?" she asked John.

"I did. Sort of. I do think that Kavanagh's going to learn a lot…whether he likes it or not."

"My vote would be on the latter," Ronon told him.

John smirked. "And as for the actual reason we want him out of the city…I didn't see a need in scaring them. I've got a guard picked out that's going to come as well to make sure things go smoothly here."

"I feel sorry for that man," Teyla said.

"Tell me about it. But I think he's due for a promotion soon."

TBC...