Title: No Such Thing, part 3
Summary: Nancy Sheppard arrives in Atlantis to review Mr Woolsey's good work.
Characters: Everyone
Pairing: Sheppard/Teyla, Sheppard/Nancy, Teyla/Kanaan.
Rating: T

If he was going to be honest with himself – which, on rare occasions, he sometimes was – he would admit that he'd been quite successful. His plan had been to avoid Nancy Sheppard and considering she'd been on base for almost two full days without him running into her, he'd call it a victory.

It wasn't all flowers and roses though; he and his team had been called off world to deal with a mess Rodney had left a few months before and the political fallout of losing one of their trading partners – as Woolsey had stressed, looking more haggard than normal – was beyond comprehension. If he'd asked John – which he didn't, though John believe he really should have – it wasn't that big of a deal and it didn't merit the full inquiry that the currently under review leader had commanded. McKay had been, for his part, almost sheepish with the turnout – this planet did, after all, supply Atlantis with a fresh range of coffee like beans every few weeks and the loss of which was, in McKay's eyes, monumental.

When Woolsey had come to find him a few hours later, Sheppard had been in his office under a pile of months old paperwork, making like he was busy. Woolsey had floundered, flustered as he told Sheppard how he'd been all over the city looking for him because conveniently, Sheppard's office was somehow out of range of the radios. What if there had been an emergency? What if Atlantis had been invaded, or one of Rodney's scientists blew something else up that resulted in the requirements of Sheppard's expertise.

Sheppard didn't point out that the city kept him well in the loop of every little going on, even when he didn't want it to.

Instead, he quirked his eyebrow and asked Woolsey what it was he really wanted.

"Ms Sheppard wants to speak to your team and, aside from Teyla, the others have been more than a little reticent." Sheppard lifted his eyebrow, attempting to keep the smirk from his face. Woolsey responded by narrowing his eyes. "I had hoped you would set an example for them to follow but as I can see..." He trailed off as he eyed the reams of paper on Sheppard's desk. "Just talk to them, will you?" Sheppard bit the inside of his lip even as he nodded. Woolsey visibly relaxed before him and Sheppard felt a little guilty for hiding out in his office but the feeling didn't last long. "Since you're doing some paper work, can you try and have the annual performance reviews handed in relatively on time?"

Sheppard scowled as Woolsey left the room, staring forlornly at the mounds before him. He wondered which lackey he could employ to try and sort it into piles while he went for some lunch because he really had no idea where to start.

He was about to send a quick e-mail to one of the newest recruits when Woolsey's head appeared around the doorjamb.

"She'll find out where your office is sooner or later." Sheppard feigned innocence and Woolsey rolled his eyes slightly. "Goodness knows you did."

Woolsey didn't see the leer Sheppard threw to his back.

--

When he'd radioed Ronon and Rodney and Lorne to make sure the coast was clear, Sheppard made his way to the mess hall in search of some late lunch. As he snuck around the halls, it came to him that he may be acting a little inappropriately and that the example he was setting for the members of the expedition were less than stellar. But then he remembered that Nancy was in Atlantis and that he really didn't want to talk to her.

His actions may be immature, but the reasons behind them certainly weren't.

"Oh, thank God!" Rodney said loudly as Sheppard made his way towards him with a full tray. "I was beginning to think you were going to hide out all day – Ronon's been making me-"

"No I haven't."

Rodney glared at Ronon, who smirked back at him as he shovelled food into his mouth.

"Where have you been?"

Sheppard shrugged as he took a seat beside Ronon, facing the doorway.

"In my office."

Rodney spluttered.

"Excuse me, where?" Sheppard sneered at him. "I didn't think you had one of those."

"Of course I do," he said casually with a shrug. "I just don't use it often." He took a bite out of the sandwich he'd picked up and chewed slowly, looking out over the sea. The sky was clear, the late afternoon sun low in the sky, glittering off the calm surface of the ocean. It was a good day for a ride. "I was supposed to be going to the mainland with one of your teams this morning," Sheppard said to McKay pointedly and McKay grunted.

"Good to know I saved you the hassle."

Ronon grunted this time and Sheppard couldn't help the half smirk that lifted his lips.

"It would have been no hassle-"

"Oh you-" he bit his tongue as his eyes flicked over Sheppard's shoulder, causing Sheppard to still and his stomach to drop out. "Crap."

"McKay-"

"It's Nancy and-"

"You better not be-"

"I'm not she's-"

"Crap-"

"Right there."

Sheppard lowered his sandwich to the tray slowly and waited for the impending meeting, cringing at the sound of her heels clipping along the tiled floor. For some reason, it surprised him that she would be wearing heels.

"Rodney, Ronon, John."

Sheppard closed his eyes briefly at the voice – not the one he'd expected – before quickly pushing a smile onto his face. The three nodded in greeting as the two women took seats on either side of Rodney and Nancy caught his eye quickly, smirking gleefully over to him for a brief moment before looking to the other two men.

"I'm Nancy-"

"Rodney McKay."

Ronon didn't say anything, only nodded, the smallest hint of a familial smile tilting the corner of his lips.

"You're my four o'clock."

McKay simply stared, wide eyed and flustered and Sheppard couldn't help the small grin that erupted across his face at the sight; he'd seen it more often than necessary but still it never ceased to amuse him.

"I never agreed to see you."

Nancy simply smiled over to McKay, rustling the scientist's feathers further when she didn't instantly reply. Instead, she spooned something – limp and green – from her plate into her mouth, sending a side long glance to John who couldn't help but smile back. When McKay turned to him, frowning at the exchange, John quietly cleared his throat and looked down to the half eaten sandwich on the plate in front of him.

Suddenly, he wasn't hungry anymore.

"You did when you signed up to the expedition."

McKay huffed and John saw the briefest flash of silver as McKay's spoon made a glittering arc through the air.

"So I'm just supposed to do whatever it is you tell me to?"

Nancy cocked her head to the side and studied McKay for a moment before shrugging.

"No." John could feel McKay's smug smile and he winced for the poor Canadian. "You can stop once I leave."

McKay turned to Sheppard, but John didn't look up; he simply smiled, puffed out a laugh and shook his head.

"Great."

--

Nancy's pastime had once been John Sheppard and she found that, in the few days she'd been on Atlantis, that her once favourite hobby had returned full force. Sitting at the small table in the canteen, she almost forgot that she was on an alien planet, in an alien galaxy, on a city turned ship created by a race of beings who were the first evolution of humans and who had populated beaucoup de galaxies.

Her eyes flickered past the occupants of the table to the cerulean sky beyond, the tips of a few glittering spires that she knew went on for miles in each direction. In her peripherals, a door slid open and a small group of what looked like Marines wandered in, flicking an informal salute in the direction of their table. She saw John return it and she turned back to the table, to the people around it.

John had never been one to idolise power, he'd shunned responsibilities – because it was just not worth it – and to see him so in control... She supposed it shouldn't have surprised her; John had been voted – behind his back, of course – as the one most likely to underachieve. And she knew it wasn't because of a lack of intelligence – he just didn't know how to handle people, feelings, situations very well.

It was part of the reason she'd decided to come to Atlantis. Because the opportunity to study Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, military commander of an expedition to an alien city turned ship was an opportunity she had not – and could not – pass up. She'd been aware that he might not appreciate her presence but even she had been surprised by his vehement avoidance of her. She knew he valued his privacy but she'd been surprised that she'd had to explain to Mr Woolsey that she was his ex-wife and not his sister.

She'd just never gotten around to changing her name.

And despite what Patrick and Dave Sheppard – and maybe even her own mother – thought, it wasn't because she harboured secret beliefs that they'd get back together. Maybe in the beginning when she'd been young and naive but, as she rationalised to everyone who dared ask her, she'd made her name as Nancy Sheppard – there was no point in changing it now.

John laughed and Nancy blinked, tuning back into the conversation around her. Teyla and Dex were smirking openly and McKay was grumbling incomprehensible words into his mug of coffee. She quirked an eyebrow in John's direction but he simply shook his head and took a sip from his own cup, turning his eyes to his team mates.

She hated that she felt slighted by that.

To them – to John – she was an outsider.

She quickly finished off her salad and grabbed her bottle of water, intending to make her excuses and try and find her way out of the maze of the central tower to her temporary quarters. The almost imperceptible turn of heads halted her though and she paused, midway through her rise and waited for them to explain. When John tapped his earpiece and muttered a quick "We'll be right there", she was left sitting alone at the table as they rushed out of the mess hall into the maze of corridors leading up to the control room.

--

Woolsey nodded to them as they arrived in the control room, Rodney swarming around Zelenka at one of the consoles, Teyla and Ronon standing back as Sheppard crowded the young airman at one of the other terminals.

"What is it?"

"It's a hive ship," Zelenka said quickly, sliding his chair out of the way as McKay reached around him to tap on a laptop.

Out of the corner of his eye, Sheppard was aware of Nancy arriving with an SF, standing quietly in the corner, observing.

"I can see that but what's it-"

"We don't know."

"Is it-"

"Yes!" Rodney interrupted, glaring at Sheppard.

"How long until it gets here?"

There was a pause as McKay and Zelenka tapped a few buttons and Woolsey drummed his fingers on the console. Sheppard stared, with a familiar swirl in his stomach, at the flashing dot on the iridescent screen in front of him. He hated when the thing flashed; it almost always meant that someone wanted to try and kill them again.

"A day at most."

"Are you sure it's not just-?" Woolsey began but McKay cut him off.

"No. Our frequencies would have picked them up if it was the Daedalus."

Woolsey closed his eyes and Sheppard almost felt bad for the guy. The past few weeks of Atlantis had been relatively quiet – given the previous four years experience – and there had been no real decisions to be made. But as Nancy took a step further into the room, her eyes skimming across John's face before resting on Woolsey, John couldn't help thinking that the Wraith had a sensor for this kind of thing.

"What is your plan of action, Mr Woolsey?" Nancy asked, her voice all business and Sheppard realised he was glad he'd never needed to be on the receiving end of it.

Woolsey turned his eyes to the flashing dot on the screen and shook his head.

"I have no idea."