"Kiryk." John greeted as he sat opposite the former runner.
"Sheppard." Kiryk nodded just as Ronon and Lorne sat either side of Sheppard. Being out numbered Kiryk turned his attention away from his food and glanced wearily at the three men.
"How you doing?" John questioned.
"Fine."
"Good." John commented. When Kiryk's attention went back to his food the Colonel probed. "What are your plans?"
"Plans?" Kiryk asked, briefly looking away from his plate.
"Yeah, what do you plan on doing?"
"When?" The former runner asked, giving up on trying to eat his food.
"Until the doc gets back." John clarified.
"I don't know."
"Are you going to wait for her or run off?"
"Wait."
"You sure?" Lorne asked.
"Yes."
"Well then we have a proposition for you." John offered.
"Proposition?"
"Yeah. It seems stupid for you to sit around here when you could be useful." The Colonel went on.
"Useful?"
"To us."
"You want me to help you?" Kiryk asked, his voice neutral.
"Look, if your plans are to make a life with the doc here then you have two choices. You can either sit around in the shadows or you can help us fight the Wraith." John went on. "Which would you prefer?"
"To fight."
"Good. Well the way things work here is no one goes out alone. People are parts of teams. Ronon here is on my team. Lorne leads another."
"I'm not…used to being in a team." Kiryk explained uncomfortably.
"Neither was Ronon, but we made it work. But to make it work you have to follow some rules."
"What rules?"
"Well firstly, you follow any order I or Lorne give you, regardless of whether or not you agree. Secondly, no stunning me."
"That's not a rule." Ronon interrupted.
"Well it should have been for you." John countered before looking back at Kiryk and saying. "I don't want an answer now. I want you think about it for a while first. If you want to join us properly come to the briefing room in four hours. But if you chose to join us there is no turning back. Once you sign up for Lorne's team you sign up for good. You follow orders and you act as a member of the team. If you don't follow orders or if you do anything that messes with the harmony of Lorne's team you get booted off Atlantis and when the doc returns I tell her you chose to leave. Do you understand?" When Kiryk silently nodded John added. "Good, well I'll leave you to your food." With that all three men stood only for Kiryk to say.
"Lorne, stay." Shrugging John and Ronon left as Lorne sat down again and waited for Kiryk to speak. Eventually the former runner asked. "Why?"
"Why what?" The Major asked confused.
"Why your team?"
"For Jennifer." Lorne stated before explaining. "For this to work it is going to require a lot of effort by you and the team you join. I know the doc wants things to work out so by leading that team I know we'll be doing everything possible on our side to make sure things work." Lorne then waited for Kiryk to respond. When the former runner just sat there Lorne tried to wait patiently. Eventually though he asked. "Anything else?"
"No."
"Okay then." Lorne said standing. He was just turning away when Kiryk said.
"Wait."
The Major looked back at Kiryk and cocked an eyebrow.
"The briefing room, where is it?"
"Tell you what, I'll pick you up from your quarters."
"Thank you."
-00-
As Lorne led Kiryk into the briefing room the former runner, acting on instinct, scanned the room for threats. Seeing nothing obvious he took the chair Lorne pointed to a sat stiffly, waiting for someone to speak. After a few seconds he saw Colonel Sheppard sit forward in his chair before asking.
"So how'd you feel about finishing what you started?" The question only acted to confuse Kiryk who scrunched his forehead. The gesture causing John to go on. "And get some revenge on behalf of the doc?"
Suddenly picking up on what John meant Kiryk leant forward, his interest piqued. "You want to attack the Wraith base?"
"He's worse than Ronon." McKay complained. "Mention Wraith and revenge in the same sentence and he's like a puppy with a new toy."
"You're really comparing Kiryk to a puppy?" Lorne asked before Woolsey interrupted.
"Gentlemen, the mission."
"Our plan is to locate the base, find out what they did to the doc and then destroy it." John explained.
"You think it'll still be there?" Kiryk asked, his voice full of doubt.
"Won't know 'til we get there." John replied leaning back.
"So you want me to tell you where to look?" Kiryk asked, guessing that would be the total of his involvement.
"Well, that's the first step. But seeing Lorne's team, which you're now part of, is down to go on the mission, we were kinda assuming you'd be there as well. Providing you adhere to the rules set out earlier. So what do you say?"
Everyone in the room was expecting a simple affirmative answer from Kiryk, so when his answer came everyone was caught off-guard.
"There are six entrances to the base, three of which are only lightly guarded. The-"
"I'll take that as your agreement?" Woolsey interrupted. The question causing Kiryk to look at him as if he were stupid.
"Can you sketch it out for us?" John asked, sliding Kiryk a pad of paper. As the runner started to draw Rodney asked.
"When you say lightly guarded, how many?"
"No more than five." Kiryk answered without looking up from his drawing.
"For the record, here lightly guarded means one." Rodney shot back causing Ronon to say.
"No it doesn't."
"What else do you want to know?" Kiryk asked Sheppard, sliding the sketch back to him, oblivious to McKay rolling his eyes at Ronon.
"Everything." John stated.
A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing. Next chapter up on Friday.