CHAPTER FIVE

Four people sat around a table in the Commissary, all with coffee cups in hand, various foods filling their individual trays. The Scot had a sandwich and some kind of soup, though even he didn't know what it was, exactly. One of the Americans had a salad and an extremely large brownie sitting next to each other—the brownie had more missing from it than the salad did. The other American had a turkey sandwich, a personal luxury that he had not been afforded for several months. And the Canadian had heaping piles of everything except for the lemon chicken, which the other three had avoided as well, simply because no one wanted to hear about the dangers of citrus again.

"Okay, run the timeline by me one more time," John said before putting down his coffee and reaching for his sandwich—fresh turkey, even, not processed cold cuts, either, which was something that had the pilot beaming in a way that Elizabeth had said was disturbing when directed at food and Rodney had said was simply disturbing in general. John had kept his mouth shut when Elizabeth showed the same glee at the giant brownies that she had heard about from Daniel but never gotten the chance to experience for herself.

Elizabeth took a slow sip of her coffee, relishing the taste of actual coffee, not the improvised stuff made from a bean on P9Y-629 that shared a lot of qualities with the coffee bean—at least, that was what her science teams had told her and, really, she hadn't cared about anything other than the fact that the people who were going through caffeine withdrawals, herself included, would once again have access to their vice of choice. The coffee wasn't great—Elizabeth knew that the only really good coffee on the base was in the lab of Lieutenant Colonel Samantha Carter or, if he had stolen her coffee maker again, Doctor Daniel Jackson's office—but it was a hell of a lot better than the Fluntuthga Seed coffee-like-substance that most of Atlantis had been living on for the several weeks preceding the siege. Once she had savoured her coffee as much as possible, Elizabeth put her cup down and began picking at her salad, knowing that she should at least make a dent in it considering that she was eating with her physician who was constantly badgering her to eat regular meals and get more sleep and do all the things that she simply did not have time for while running the city.

"We're on Earth for two weeks, give or take a day or so," Elizabeth said, her voice not betraying the frustration she was feeling at having to go over the schedule for their time on Earth for what she was sure was the fortieth time. "During that time the three of you have to flesh out your departments. I'm going to be leaving for DC later today with General O'Neill and we're going to have a series of meetings with the IOA as well as the President and from there I'll be able to give you guys firm numbers for how many more people, civilian or not, they are willing to support. Hopefully staffing won't take too long—I know you all have names in mind, and there are a lot of files that the SGC has waiting for you to go through—so any time between the time you finish staffing your department and the time that we board the Daedalus is yours to do with as you wish. The Daedalus should be back in Earth's orbit in ten to twelve days, and then there will be two more days for the scientists at Area 51 to go over it to make sure that nothing got too badly screwed up since it left Earth. After that we board the Daedalus , and eighteen days later we're back on Atlantis."

"What are we supposed to do until you get back to us with numbers?" John asked.

Elizabeth shrugged. "Go off-world with one of the many SG teams that are willing, if not eager, to have you join them on a mission. Relax. Maybe take a day or two to visit friends or family, though I wouldn't plan any long trips until after you've staffed your department—believe me, General Landry wants the staffing process completed as quickly as possible and, honestly, I agree with him. We need to get this done."

"Says the woman who had her department staffed the moment she stepped foot on Earth again," Rodney groused.

"My department is linguistics and diplomacy. There are very few people who fit the job description, Rodney, especially when it comes to the Ancients. It's pretty much Daniel and a few people that he's trained," Elizabeth said. "Thank god he's going to be coming back with us," she added, smiling brightly at the thought of how nice it would be to have Daniel on Atlantis. He knew more about Ascension than they would ever learn from the Ancient database. He could pick up a language with almost no effort and the way his mind interpreted things was amazing, and, usually, right. He was field-ready, had been on a front-line team for the past nine years except for the year he spent as an Ascended Ancient, and could take care of himself as well as, if not better than, most of the military personnel that were already on Atlantis. He had spent a year living on an alien planet, becoming as beloved to the people of Abydos as any native to the planet, educating the locals and creating quite the stable little family unit. And, on top of all that, he was a friend and, while she was friends with some people, Elizabeth didn't have many close friends beyond John, Teyla, Rodney, and Carson.

Rodney continued to frown, but he didn't say anything more about the fact that he had so much more work to do when it came to filling the voids in his department, mostly because Carson and John were taking turns kicking him in the shins to get him to keep his mouth shut on the topic.

"Well, first thing I'm gonna do is get myself a place off-base," John said, bringing the subject off of their mutual staffing woes. "There's got to be a hotel or two in the area that exceed the luxuries of the VIP suite at Casa-De-SGC."

"You don't have anyone you want to visit?" Elizabeth asked. She had been curious about John's past, about his family, since they met, and when he had declined to sent any message when the rest of them were sending their goodbyes a few weeks previously her curiosity had grown. However, with the impending threat of the Wraith had made her push her inquisitiveness aside in favour of other, more important, matters.

John shook his head. "No, no one," he said before taking a large bite of his sandwich. He checked the time and frowned. "Crap. I'm late," he said, downing the rest of his coffee and taking the rest of his sandwich with him as he stood up. "If I don't see you before you leave have a good trip," he said to Elizabeth.

"Don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone," Elizabeth replied.

"No promises," John said with a smile before nodding to Carson and Rodney and leaving the Commissary.

"Ah, no, no, no, no, no, no, no," Sam said, shaking her head as John entered her lab. "Not happening, John. You remember the rules."

"Yeah, yeah, no food in the lab," John said, rolling his eyes. He stuffed the remainder of his sandwich into his mouth and shot Sam a 'good enough?' look. She frowned at him, but didn't say anything, moving, instead, to fiddle with the Naqueda generator that was in several pieces on her table—John recognized it as one that he had taken apart and put back together a few times over the past year, most notably during the Genii incursion of Atlantis during the massive storm that the city had barely survived. "So what did you want to see me about?" John asked after carefully chewing and swallowing the dregs of his meal.

"P9T-934," Sam said as she moved from the Naqueda generator to grab a slim file—a mission profile, John recognized, having seen more than enough since returning to Earth—from the table that her African violets were blooming upon. Sam handed the file to John who took it but didn't open it, waiting, instead, for Sam to fill him in. "An aerial survey showed extensive ruins about a mile from the 'Gate. Daniel says they're Ancient, so… well, he's almost always right about these things, so if he says they're Ancient… they're Ancient. The problem is that there is a native animal to 934 that is something like a wild boar crossed with a sabre-toothed tiger that is roughly the size of an adult grizzly."

"Cuddly," John commented.

"Exactly," Sam agreed. "Anyway, I could really use another set of eyes out there, especially for when we get to the ruins because… well, Daniel has a tendency to get wrapped up in his work."

"Not that you would ever be guilty of the same crime," John deadpanned."

Sam crossed her arms across her chest and lined John up with a glare that he was all-too familiar with. He liked to think of it as the 'get that bimbo out of my bathtub' look. Holding up his hands in surrender, John shut his mouth, promising with his eyes that he would cut out the commentary. Sam relaxed, going back to her Naqueda generator. "General O'Neill and General Landry have both already signed off on you joining SG-1, and Doctor Weir has approved both you and Rodney going off-world with SG teams as long as you both staff your units effectively while you're on Earth. Just let me know if you're in or not."

"I'm in," John said without hesitation.

"Good," Sam nodded. "1300, full gear, in the Gateroom." She gave him a push toward the door. "Now leave. I have a lot of work to finish up before I move and not a lot of time to do it in. And you lot coming with two damaged Naqueda generators certainly didn't lighten my load."

"Yeah, sorry about that. It's been… a hellova year," John said sheepishly.

Sam arched an eyebrow at him. "So I've heard," she said before turning back to her work. "1300," she reminded him as he headed for the door.

"See you then," John called over his shoulder.

Sam entered the control room, her eyes searching for her target. Finding her, Sam crossed the room and caught Elizabeth's attention. "Doctor Weir, you wouldn't happen to know where John—sorry, where Major Sheppard—is, would you?" Sam asked. She was having trouble remembering that almost no one knew that she and John had been friends for over fifteen years. Most people didn't even know that they knew each other before he had come back from Atlantis.

"Not off hand, no, but Rodney found an Ancient device that he was quite eager to test out. That usually means that Major Sheppard is stuck playing guinea pig," Elizabeth said. "Do you mind if I ask why you're looking for him?"

"He's joining SG-1 on the mission we're scheduled for today," Sam said. "We're heading to P9T-934. There are some ruins that Daniel wants to take a closer look at." She looked at her watch. "John was supposed to meet me in the Gateroom twenty minutes ago." She frowned. "Punctuality has never been his thing but this is pushing it," she muttered.

Elizabeth cocked her head to one side slightly. "Colonel, do you know Major Sheppard?"

"John and I have known each other for years," Sam said. "And you can lose the 'Colonel', Doctor. Sam's fine. Or Samantha."

Pieces of a puzzle that had been plaguing Elizabeth since before she had returned from Atlantis began falling into place, and she really didn't like the way the picture was turning out. Still, she put her best act on and hid everything she was feeling behind several layers of diplomatic pleasantry. "In that case you can lose the 'Doctor'… Sam," Elizabeth said.

Sam smiled softly, and then looked down at her feet for a moment before meeting Elizabeth's eyes. "I'm sorry about that meeting. I was rude and you had done nothing to deserve it," she said.

"This program has been your secret to keep for nearly a decade. I'm the interloper here. I get that," Elizabeth said honestly. "I think that Rodney was assigned a temporary lab somewhere on Level 19. I'd look for Major Sheppard there, first."

Sam nodded. "Thanks. I will," she said. "You're… you're heading to Washington now, right?"

"My ride leaves for Peterson in about half an hour. The IOA has set up an exhaustive series of meetings for me," Elizabeth nodded. "Some people higher up the chain of command don't seem able to accept that the Wraith are a clear and present threat to both Atlantis and, quite possibly, this galaxy as well. I'm supposed to meet up with General O'Neill. Thankfully he's in our corner on this."

"Well, hopefully they'll be easier to convince than the people we had to deal with the get the Stargate Program up and running in the first place. No one wanted to believe that the Goa'uld existed, not to mention the fact that just burying the 'Gate would only delay an attack until they could get their ships here," Sam said. She shrugged. "Maybe the work we've done here will help soften them up," she suggested.

"Believe me, that is part of my argument," Elizabeth said.

"If it helps, General O'Neill is probably the best person to have in your corner right now," Sam said.

Elizabeth nodded. "I know," she said. Sam smiled and turned to leave. "Sam?" Elizabeth called after the blonde Colonel.

"Yeah?" Sam asked, turning back to face the brunette.

"Take care of John out there," Elizabeth requested.

"Always," Sam promised before leaving the control room to head for the labs in search of her wayward long-time friend.

"I'm supposed to be somewhere, McKay," John complained as he shifted in his seat. He had been sitting in Rodney's temporary lab for quite a while, he wasn't sure how long exactly, hooked up to some Ancient device that Rodney was sure held the answers to all the questions in the universe—John thought it looked like a plunger, albeit one of Ancient design, but when he had said so he'd simply gotten ten minutes of sarcastic questions on when he became an expert in Ancient technology. John didn't see the point in reminding Rodney that, despite the astrophysicist's delusions of being the smartest person in two galaxies, other people were what most would consider experts in subjects that Rodney liked to think only he had mastered, and that John knew a lot more about the Ancients and Ancient technology than he let on. John liked learning, though, like his skill with numbers, he hid it behind multiple layers of misdirection and other techniques that he had mastered over the years.

"No one knows where you are. Where could you possibly need to be?" Rodney asked as he took note of the most recent readings.

John was about to answer when Sam appeared in the doorway, geared up for a mission. "There you are!" the blonde Lieutenant Colonel exclaimed.

"Sam!" Rodney choked, straightened his spine and smoothing down his rather grungy grey-ish lab coat. "You were looking for me?" he asked, intrigued.

"Hardly, McKay," Sam said, rolling her eyes. "I thought I told you 1300, John. It's 1330."

"Crap," John cringed, pulling the wires that attacked his body to the device, ignoring, as usual, Rodney's protests. "Sorry, Samantha. McKay shanghaied me. Can you give me five minutes to get ready?"

Sam smiled softly. "You've got ten. But this is a one-time reprieve, John," she warned.

"Thanks," Sheppard said. He gave Sam's hand a squeeze and ruffled her hair affectionately as he passed her on the way out of the lab.

"Gateroom, ten minutes," Sam called after the retreating Major.

"I'll be there," John called back before disappearing around a corner.

Sam peered at the device that Rodney had been testing. "What are you doing hooking John up to that?" she demanded.

"To find out what it is. He has amazing control over Ancient technolo—why do you keep calling him John?" Rodney frowned.

"Don't ever just hook someone up to devices that you know nothing about," Sam said, her voice hard and unforgiving. She turned on her heel, heading off in the direction that Sheppard had gone only moments before. "And, for your information, that Ancient device that you're testing? It's a freaking plunger," she called over her shoulder before disappearing from Rodney's sight.

TBC...

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