Disclaimer:- Not mine, don't own any of them! Just borrowing them, for a very short amount of time, will return:)
Authors Notes:- Okay so I am back again with another one shot, this time a little tag for Critcial Mass. This was meant to be up sooner, than this, but erm...I kinda got side tracked by something else! Again thanks to the my lovely BETA Sparky, this would not be up here without you taking a look over it at least once. So yeah enjoy, I will just warn you that this is a little pre-episode for one of the SG1 Episodes, because I have the Prometheus in it:) So enjoy and leave a review.
One Shot.
"Doctor Weir, Colonel Caldwell is awake," came Carson's voice over Elizabeth's radio.
"Okay, I'll be right there," responded Elizabeth.
Stacking the papers, that she had been reading through, into a neat pile at the end of her desk, she stood up. It had been a long two days since they'd had to work to save the city from destruction. Again. It had been found that a Trust operative had supposedly planted a bomb in Atlantis. So when Caldwell had been confirmed as the Trust operative, it had shocked everyone on Atlantis. Especially the people on the Deadalus who had been working in close proximity with him. They couldn't believe they had missed something that important in a person they spent a lot of time around.
Sighing Elizabeth tucked her chair under her desk before striding out towards the infirmary. The extraction of the Goa'uld symboite from the Colonel had been rather tricky. Hermiod had used the Asgard beaming technology to beam the symboite out. The symbiote was now in a glass container sitting in the infirmary. They had originally tried to think of a way to extract the information it held, but unfortunately the symboite had died before they had managed to get anything from it. It was now just waiting to be transported to the Deadalus to be taken back to Earth. The removal its self had gone fairly smoothly and as soon as Caldwell had gotten over the sedative he'd been given, and barring further complications, he would be free to go.
As Elizabeth passed one of the science labs, she could hear people whispering, mainly about Kavanaugh. Once she had realized her mistake, Elizabeth had tried to apologize to the man. But Kavanaugh was having none of it and was leaving for Earth as soon as possible.
Folding her arms as she walked, Elizabeth tried not to dwell on the guilt too much, but even John's words couldn't ease her guilt. She had made an enormous error and nearly cost a man his life.
Finally she reached the infirmary, opening the door she walked in and a small smile spread across her face at the mixture of people standing around Caldwell's bed. There was Hermiod, Novak, John, and Ronan. She could see how uncomfortable John was standing next to an alien. So when she saw Hermiod casting glares at the Colonel she just knew something had been said.
Going over Elizabeth greeted them, "Colonel, its good to see you're awake."
"Doctor Weir it's good to be awake as my self again," replied Caldwell.
He was dressed in the white hospital scrubs, an IV in the back of his left hand and a heart monitor attached to this chest. He did still look slightly half asleep and at that moment Elizabeth wondered if she should have come.
Sensing Elizabeth's hesitation, John spoke up, "We were just saying, that once Colonel Caldwell is up and about, he got a lot of stuff to catch up on."
"Of course," agreed Elizabeth smiling tightly as she stopped at Caldwell's left side.
"I just wish they would dispose of that thing," replied Caldwell, nodding to the glass container, which was positioned in front of him at the other end of the room.
"I shall remove it to the Deadalus for you sir," suggested Novak.
Out of all the staff on the Deadalus, Novak was probably the most shocked at what had transpired. She regularly talked to the Colonel, on and off duty, and couldn't believe she had missed something as big as a Goa'uld symboite implanting itself in his mind.
"If you wouldn't mind doctor," agreed Caldwell.
"Of course not sir," responded Novak, "I'll see you later sir. Doctor Weir, Colonel Sheppard, Ronan."
Novak went over to the container and nervously reached out for it, when she spotted that there was an Asgard at her side. Staring at her, blinking his eyes several times before speaking.
"Maybe we could send it to the Tok'ra or Thor when we arrive back on Earth," suggested Hermiod.
"Well let's just see. Come on," replied Novak.
Despite how weird it had been for her to suddenly be working with an alien, Novak had come to admire the little grey guy. The two left the infirmary, talking quietly to each other.
"She gets on well with him," commented Elizabeth smiling.
"Its still weird, I still think he should be wearing clothes," replied John, shifting from one foot to another uncomfortably.
"Don't let him hear you say that Colonel," chuckled Caldwell. He knew how offended the Asgard could get if someone mentioned clothes to him.
"I won't," responded John.
The three of them stood around Caldwell's bed in silence. All three of them had had some part in subduing the Colonel when they needed to get the code from him.
Sighing Elizabeth finally asked, "How did the Trust get you Colonel?"
Caldwell seemed to be trying to sink into the bed to avoid answering that question, but he did manage to finally let out a sigh and told them what he remembered the last time he was on Earth.
The Deadalus was currently situated next to the Prometheus in Area 51. It was under going a few repairs from jumping into hyperspace all the time; it had caused a wear on the engines.
Caldwell was released for a few days downtime, but had found himself back at Area 51 looking over his ship and just generally trying to help out, much to the annoyance of several of the scientists there. They weren't due to take off for Atlantis for another few days. The SGC had been kept busy trying to find a way to defeat the Ori and everyone had forgotten about the threat of the Goa'uld. Well almost everyone.
"Excuse me sir," came a voice from behind him.
Turning around Caldwell replied, "Yes?"
"You are needed topside, the General is waiting for you," explained the man.
Not finding anything really out of the ordinary, Caldwell signed his signature on the bottom of a clipboard he had in his hands before handing it back to the scientist. Turning around he followed the man in a nice black suit towards the elevator that would take them to the surface.
"Did the General say what he wants with me?" questioned Caldwell.
"No sir, in here sir," answered the man.
Stepping into the elevator first Caldwell never saw the man pull something out of his pocket before he felt a blinding pain erupt on the back of his head. His knees gave out sending him to the floor, before another blow landed on his head and he blacked out…
"…I came to, to find I no longer had control of my body," ended Caldwell.
Control was the one thing that Caldwell hated to give up, he had always been in control and the Goa'uld had taken that away. To him it had been like watching a movie, except he was in the driving seat and wasn't able to stop all the action.
"What I don't get is why you? Why not Novak or someone else?" asked John confused.
"I guess they saw me as being able to infiltrated Atlantis a lot better than the others, and they were right," admitted Caldwell, his explanation cut short by a yawn.
"I think we should let you sleep. It is good to see you well," replied Elizabeth smiling softly.
Giving him their goodbyes the three of them left the room. Ronan headed off to the gym to see if Teyla was up to training with him. Whilst John walked Elizabeth back to her office.
"I still can't believe the Goa'uld tried something like this," commented Elizabeth.
"Well they are sneaky," replied John.
"That's not the point John," replied Elizabeth, "You're lucky he doesn't press charges for what Ronan did to him,"
"Hey, Ronan did what he knew was right, besides he didn't hurt him that much, just a few bruises," stated John, grabbing her arm and stopping her walking.
Turning to him, Elizabeth looked him in the eye and asked, "And what about what he did to Kavanaugh? You do know Kavanaugh is going to be complaining to General Landry and O'Neill about this."
"Kavanaugh fainted, Ronan said so and Beckett confirmed it," answered John, "Liz, you got nothing to worry about!"
They didn't speak after that. They just stared at each other. There was no need for words as they both understood perfectly what the other was feeling. Finally John let go of her arm and turned away officially breaking the moment.
They would all live to fight another day. Caldwell still had some recovering to do, but he was making good progress. Elizabeth tried to ignore what Kavanaugh was saying and went about things the best she could.
2 days later
"I'm heading back to Earth," said Caldwell, striding into Elizabeth's office.
"Already?" asked Elizabeth surprised.
"Yes I figured the sooner Earth knows you're all okay the better," answered Caldwell.
"What about you, how do you feel?" questioned Elizabeth leaning forwards.
Shrugging Caldwell answered, "Better, I still remember what I did and nothing can change that. I do how ever apologize for what happened."
"No need Colonel, it wasn't you," replied Elizabeth smiling, "Just have a safe trip home."
"Thank you Doctor Weir."
Caldwell nodded his head before disappearing in a white light as he was beamed aboard his ship.