"Seems like just yesterday you were a part of me. I used to stand so tall. I used to be so strong. Your arms around me tight. Everything, it felt so right. Unbreakable, like nothing could go wrong. Now I can't breathe. No, I can't sleep. I'm barely hanging on. Here I am once again. I'm torn into pieces. Can't deny it, can't pretend. Just thought you were the one. Broken up deep inside. But you won't get to see the tears I cry behind these hazel eyes." - Kelly Clarkson, "Behind These Hazel Eyes"
"Good morning, Evie," Summer greeted her friend as Evie joined her and Michael for breakfast in the mess hall.
"Hmph," Evie snorted, drowning her Fruit Loops with her cup of milk.
"What's the matter?" Summer asked. "You just tired?"
"Yeah," Evie lied, staring mournfully at a spoonful of the colored cereal. "Tired…"
"Well, if you didn't stay up so late talking to a certain someone…" Summer admonished with a grin.
Evie's jaw tightened at the mention of Sheppard. Just so long as he didn't come anywhere near her, she'd be fine. When she saw Michael suppressing a grin, she quickly snapped at Summer, "Wait, he knows?"
"She didn't tell me anything," Michael conceded. "But I've known you for a while now, Evie. I can tell when you have the hots for someone." Evie rolled her eyes.
"Speaking of a certain someone…" Summer whispered when she noticed Sheppard carrying his breakfast tray and searching for an empty table. "Morning, Colonel."
"Good morning, Captain," he said, not bothering to spare a greeting for Evie. And Evie, childishly, refused to even acknowledge him.
"All the tables are pretty full," Summer observed. "Sit with us?" She smiled when his eyes fell upon the only empty seat, the chair beside Evie.
'Don't you dare,' Evie thought to herself.
"Thank you," Sheppard said, setting his tray on the table and parking himself in the vacant seat.
'Where's my nine mil when I need it?' Evie mused, her blood beginning to boil. After a few minutes of small talk -- and Sheppard, of course, ignoring her -- Evie couldn't take it any longer. She stood to her feet and grabbed her tray. "I think I'm going to work out before we get going. I'll see you two at 0930," she said, giving her comrades a forced smile and then leaving the mess hall.
Michael cocked his head to the side as he watched her go. "Did Evie seem a little odd to either of you?"
Sheppard shrugged and continued eating his Lucky Charms.
"She probably just stayed up too late," Summer decided.
"Hmm. I suppose." Michael looked at his watch. "Ooh. I was supposed to talk to Zelenka before we go off-world. I'll meet you in the Control Room, babe," he said, gently kissing Summer before leaving.
After a pause, Summer said, "You didn't do anything to make her mad, did you, sir?"
Sheppard looked off to the side and appeared to be thinking hard. "I don't think so," he lied, shaking his head. "It's probably just, you know, a woman thing," he said, raising his eyebrows to stress the word "woman."
This explanation seemed to satisfy Summer, and she returned her attention to her oatmeal.
Rather than heading to the gym as she had stated, Evie went to Elizabeth's office. "Good morning, Dr. Weir," she said, knocking on the open door.
"Morning, Lieutenant," Elizabeth greeted with a smile. "Can I help you?"
"Yes, ma'am," Evie answered, stepping inside. "I was wondering what assignments you had for Major Johnson's team for the next couple of weeks."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, curious as to why the normally spur-of-the-moment Lieutenant would want to know advanced scheduling. "Well," she sighed, typing a few commands into her computer. She listed the addresses of the planets they were due to explore that week.
"And next week?" Evie pressed.
"Routine check-ups for P8F-496 and M3D-438, but on Monday you four will check out M8A-379 with…" She hit a few more keystrokes. "…Colonel Sheppard's team."
Evie tried not to show her disappointment. "Thank you, Doctor."
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Elizabeth asked.
"No, ma'am. I need to be in the Control Room soon, anyway," Evie said, turning to leave.
"Good luck, Lieutenant," Elizabeth called.
"Thank you, ma'am."
XXXXXX
Avoiding each other wasn't so hard for the first week, but asking Elizabeth to replace one of the teams for the M8A-379 mission would not have been a good idea; it would arouse too much suspicion. The Ancient database stated that the inhabitants, the Shim-ka, were an extremely short, highly evolved, but very aggressive race. Judging by the technology the database claimed the natives possessed, forming an alliance was a high priority for the mission. Evie and Sheppard would have to put aside their feelings for the time being.
When the teams stepped through the Gate Monday morning, they found themselves to be in a clearing, with some sort of religious circle of stones around the Stargate. They heard a rustling from the bushes bordering the clearing, and then they were suddenly surrounded by short little men, aiming powerful guns at them.
"Iksha! Preema!" cried one of the men, waving his weapon at Johnson, the closest Atlantean to them.
"We mean you no harm," Johnson said, slowly lowering his weapon.
"Heerak!" the little one cried, priming his weapon. Turning to the others, he ordered, "Kilaki, yoki rea!" The band of natives fired their weapons at the Atlanteans, who, stunned by the powerful blasts, quickly fell unconscious to the ground.
XXXXXX
When the teams came to, they found themselves in a small room. Their hands were tied behind their backs, and their weapons and vests had been removed. Forgetting for a moment that she wasn't speaking to him, Evie leaned over and whispered to Sheppard, "Brings back memories, doesn't it?" Sheppard grinned slightly in response.
Suddenly, they heard a voice from outside the door, presumably a guard. "Yallah! Bapi nushoo!" There was the sound of the door being unbolted, and then one of the diminutive men entered the room.
He was dressed in finely crafted clothes and stood at about 3'4". His round little head was bald, and he had piercing blue eyes. "Jeki," he said, as if addressing them, "ipiya tuvora?"
All heads slowly turned to Michael, who rolled his eyes. "My name is Michael," he began, going with basics. "We came in peace."
"Ah," the little man said. "You speak the language of the Ancestors."
Michael sighed in relief. Playing translator was only fun if you knew the language. "Yes," he said, nodding. "And I think there's been some sort of misunderstanding. We wouldn't have harmed anyone."
"The Shim-ka have many enemies," the man said untrustingly. "When we saw your weapons, we took action."
"We're merely explorers," Sheppard interjected. "And you can't be too careful when trekking across strange planets."
The man turned to Sheppard. "What is your name? And your quest?" he asked.
Sheppard grinned; he couldn't resist. "I am Sir Lancelot of Camelot. I seek the Holy Grail." There was some muffled snickering from the other Atlanteans.
"You seek the what?" the man asked, eyeing Sheppard suspiciously.
"Nothing. Never mind," Sheppard said, shaking his head.
"I do not appreciate insolence, Lancelot," the man said with a glare. "I want to know what you are doing here."
"Like I said, we're exploring," Sheppard explained. "We heard from some friends that you guys might have some technology we'd be interested in."
"Yes. Our technology is far superior to yours," he sniffed. "As is evidenced by your primitive weapons."
"Which is why," Johnson interposed, "we seek to form an alliance with you."
The man snorted. "We shall see." With that, he left the room.
After nearly an hour, the little man returned. "The Sho'a, our council, has decided that we will hear what you have to offer us. If we find you to be trustworthy, and worth our effort, we will consider an alliance."
And so, for the next several hours, the teams tried to convince the Sho'a that Atlantis had much to offer in trade for Shim-ka technology. Johnson's team informed them of the medicinal knowledge that Atlantis possessed, which was superior to that of the Shim-ka, while Sheppard's team played the military angle. By late afternoon, an agreement was reached: a vast number of advanced weapons in exchange for medical aid and information. The two races would also be allies in times of war.
"There is one more thing before you go," the man, called Nek'aa, said. "Which of you are pilots?" Sheppard, Summer, and Evie raised their hands.
"Excellent," Nek'aa said with a grin. "We would like to show you our ships. In time of war, it would be to our advantage if our allies had some knowledge of how to fly them. Would you three please come with me?"
As they walked, Evie accidentally bumped into Sheppard. "Watch where you're going," he snarled, moving away from her.
"You watch where you're going!" she shot back. There were mutual glares, but neither said anything further.
Nek'aa led them to a massive hangar and showed them the thousands of small one-pilot ships that they possessed. "To test your skills, we have prepared our kree-sha, ah…flight simulators, for you." A trio of Shim-ka soldiers came and took the three Atlantean pilots to the impressive glider replicas. The soldiers gave their guests the simple instructions on how to maneuver the crafts, then they manned the controls on the high-tech computers, creating waves of enemy fighter pilots for the humans to fight.
The high advancement of technology made the gliders easy to operate. They were a little bit hard to steer at times due to the different controls, but the Atlanteans were managing. All the gliders were connected and, in place of a windshield, had a screen that displayed the simulated battle. The first wave came swiftly, but the Atlanteans were able to shoot them all down after a short fight.
For the second wave, the Shim-ka cut off radio communication between the gliders, testing the Atlanteans' skill as single units. Halfway through the round, Evie's glider accidentally clipped Sheppard's, causing his simulator to jerk on its suspension for a few moments. "Sorry," she muttered, although she knew that he couldn't hear her.
"Oh, I know you didn't, bitch," Sheppard growled. With a few quick maneuvers, he pulled behind her and fired upon her ship. "Take that!" he yelled childishly.
"What the heck!" Evie cried as her simulator rocked wildly. Suddenly the screen flashed bright red. "Hewa taqui," an obnoxious computer voice began repeating over and over. After a moment, one of the soldiers turned on a translation device and the voice began droning, "Simulation unsuccessful." "Ya think?" Evie muttered angrily. She tried to open the door, but the lock wouldn't disengage until the wave was over. This only gave her more time to fume.
"Simulation complete." This time the voice came through on all three Atlanteans' headsets. Evie quickly yanked open the door, hopping out and storming over to Sheppard's simulator. Sheppard got out and began walking over to her, swaggering slightly. "What the heck was that!" she cried angrily, unaware that Summer was timidly watching the exchange.
"Terribly sorry, sweetheart," he said condescendingly. "But, in all fairness, you did start it."
"The heck I did! I bumped into you by accident!" Evie bit her tongue to keep from saying something that might get her court-martialed.
Sheppard didn't seem to care. "Oh, well. No hard feelings, babe," he said, slapping her rear.
That sent Evie over the edge. She drew back her fist and socked him one. Sheppard yelped in pain and clutched his face, muttering expletives. "Don't you ever touch me again!" Evie threatened, shaking out her now-injured hand. After recovering for a moment, Sheppard glared back up at Evie, his own fists tightening.
Sensing that things were going to go from really, really bad to worse, Summer quickly crossed to Evie. "Intervention!" she called, grabbing Evie's arm and beginning to drag the other woman out of the hangar. "Come on, Evie!" With a furious glare to the man she had once considered marrying, Evie allowed herself to be led away.
XXXXXX
The three Atlantean pilots returned home after a few more hours of proving to the Shim-ka that they were capable of flying the gliders. Elizabeth was in the Control Room to greet the travelers. "Major Johnson tells me that this mission was a success," she said smiling.
"Yes, ma'am," Sheppard replied, keeping his head down.
"I take it that you proved your skill as pilots?" she asked. When Sheppard nodded, Elizabeth could see what was amiss. "Good Lord, John, what happened to your eye?"
Now that she had announced his injury to the entire room, Sheppard reluctantly raised his head. He had the fine beginnings to a very nasty black eye.
"He ran into a door," Evie answered simply.
"You ran into a door?" Elizabeth asked with amused skepticism. Sheppard nodded lamely. "Well, I suggest you get Carson to take a look at it."
"I'll be fine," he waved her off.
"Alright," she shrugged. "It's your call. Well, good work. You three are free to go."
Sheppard, Evie, and Summer quickly walked into the armory, depositing their weapons. Evie's hand accidentally brushed Sheppard's as she put away her P-90. He jerked his hand away and glared at her, his eyes burning with hatred, then stalked out of the room.