A/N: And... the second one. I thought I let you wait for so long, I shouldn't let you wait any longer, especially since this is kind of a companion piece/direct sequel to the last story. This one takes place maybe a couple of days after Possibly the Complications and gives us a glimpse at the character leah usually uses as her 1st POV narrator, Lieutenant Jenna Wells. Also, remember Maureen's and Tom's little trip to Russia from Doing Crazy Things? This is what Maureen and Laura are referring to here... and damn, I just realized I'm still owing you the second Russia smut... mh. I'll see what I can do about that.

Also, sorry for posting them so much out of order but that's really like they come. I'll see if I can find a better way to archieve them, alright? :)

I'm OK Now

"I am a spaceman flying high
I am the astronaut in the sky
Don't worry, I'm OK now
I am the light in the dark
I am the match
I am the spark
Don't worry I'm OK now."

Amy MacDonald, "Spark"

"Okay. We're gone on holiday for two measly weeks and everything goes to pieces here? What were you thinking?" She opens her eyes to look at her best friend and wonders if she looks as crappy as she feels. It's been a couple of hours since they transferred her from the SGC's infirmary to the Atlantis one and despite her best efforts she's obviously not up to the rapid fire of questions Maureen has prepared for her. "You two, actually." And has prepared for a none too great looking Lieutenant Wells, as well, obviously.

"Seriously, both of you… yes, you too, Wells. Don't look at me like that. And what's this thing I hear about Captain Kemp getting himself in trouble? You two really trying to imitate that one over there?" A little irritated, she makes the effort to drag herself up a little.

She even manages a little glare. "Yes, I'm glad to see you, too, Maureen. How was your vacation? Did Tom manage not to piss off anyone for a change?"

A short glance over to Wells confirms that she's isn't all too thrilled to be approached by one of the quasi senior members of the Atlantis officer corps like that, either. Maureen, however, simply takes a step into the room and leans against a night stand between their beds. "For the record: there's no one Tom can't piss off. Otherwise, the vacation was… fine. It was… fine."

Something in that… makes her doubt the statement but she decides that if she's ever going to hear what Maureen meant, it'll be in a private conversation. Jenna Wells might have been here since the first or second wave and a very reliable and competent officer, despite certain misgivings from someone further up the chain of command but some things are really are only meant for the ears of friends. "Nice to hear."

"Yeah," Maureen nods and then decides fro a dramatic change of topic with turning to Wells and saying, "Heard you became a hero, Lieutenant Wells."

Actually, that's what she heard herself. When Team Kemp had gotten back from their mission, dragging a barely breathing Jenna Wells with them who'd taken one for the team, she'd already been on that wretched training mission but Evan told her all about it and then some after they'd woken her up in the SGC and she'd pestered him to give her some distraction… well, within her limits, that is. Wells, however… doesn't seem like that because she shakes her head in dismay and rasps with a voice still fucked up from the tube they stuck down her throat, "It wasn't like that, ma'am."

Huh. "That's not how I heard it, Lieutenant. Way I heard it… you saved your guys' asses." That really is what she heard. She can't remember the details and to be honest, Evan didn't even really tell her the details, seeing as he'd probably thought she wasn't up to taking them in or some such nonsense but she does remember his genuine awe at what Wells did. And… his genuine aggravation about what Kemp had done after something General Wells must have said. She wishes she were back on par again, so she could go on a gossip scouting… ahem, no, fact finding mission.

Little Wells, however… turns her gaze on the infirmary sheets that are draped over her legs and she can see the Lieutenant's hands fretting with the fabric while she grinds out, "I'm not you, ma'am. I really don't deserve the praise."

She exchanges a short look with Maureen and her friend just gives her a minute nod so she twists her bruised and battered body so that she can face Wells. "Lieutenant…" she sighs and thinks this warrants something other than rank, "Jenna, I got blown up because someone miscalculated the explosives on a training mission. Nothing glorious in that."

"And you also happened to scare the living daylights out of me, I might add," Maureen murmurs.

At that, she can't help murmuring back, "Should have seen the crap I scared out of Evan." And that… gives her another idea. "By the way… seems like you also scared the crap out of some people, Lieutenant."

Wells gives off even more hostile and uncomfortable waves, if that's even possible. "I have no idea what or who you're talking about. Ma'am."

Uh-huh, sure you don't, she wants to say but this time Maureen shakes her head. "I think the Captain was talking about your team mates. And your father." Aw, not fair. Why isn't she allowed to say stuff like that but Maureen takes the liberty to do just that?

"I'm pretty sure my father had better things to do than be worried about me," Wells just scoffs and… and that's it. Nothing about her teammates. Huh, she thinks, that's really weird.

She exchanges another look with Maureen and this time it's Maureen who has the questioning look but she raises her eyebrows to indicate that this is Maureen's show now, since she'd been so eager to volunteer the first time and everything. After slightly rolling her eyes, Maureen turns back to Wells. "Actually, I don't think that. Every parent worries about their kids. Mine sure did," she says and adds a shrug. Well… that's going to be interesting, she thinks.

The Lieutenant seems to be genuinely confused now… confused enough that she looks up from her sheets and frowns at Maureen. "Ma'am?"

"They got killed when I was in college," Maureen replies matter-of-factly but she has a feeling that it's still getting to her. "Car accident," her friend adds, still matter-of-factly, and she starts to think she knows where this is heading, "Killed them both instantly. I think they were fighting when it happened. They were always fighting, actually… but they worried about me. I think the last thing my mother told me was not to go out on campus after dark because I surely wasn't up to defending myself."

That's something Maureen never told her before. She knew about the car accident and that there was nothing to save of them but she didn't know about that last words bit. For some reason… that makes Wells frown again, but now it's a frown of contemplation, as if she's trying to sort through what she just heard. "What was the last thing you told them, ma'am? If… I might ask, that is."

"You may," Maureen replies, a little amused half-smile on her lips. "I told my mother that I wasn't a little girl anymore and asked her not to treat me like one, goddammit." Well, that's a bit obvious now. And of course now Maureen goes in for the kill. "Took me a couple of years to realize she never meant to be patronizing. I don't even think she really thought I couldn't defend myself when I needed to. She just didn't know another way to say she was worried."

Another frown. "So you're essentially telling me to suck it up and pretend he only calls me a failure because he's worried about me? Because that sure would be pretty twisted."

There she goes again. And then… it just kind of slips out. "Maybe he'd stop calling you a failure if you stopped calling yourself one." There. Someone really needed to say that and if neither Evan nor Sheppard nor Kemp or her team did it, she had to do it.

However, that also… effectively put a stop on any conversation. Maureen looks like she's torn between putting a hand over her eyes in exasperation and congratulating her on saying something everyone who'd known Wells just a little closer had been dying to say at some point or other. And Wells returned to the sheets, her hands curling around the fabric and her face returning to the ashen color it must have looked when she'd been still on artificial respiration.

In the end, it's Maureen who takes the difficult task to pull Wells away from the edge she likes to go to so frequently upon her. "What Captain Cadman-Lorne here had wanted to say was that even in the highly unlikely event that your father does think you're a screw-up – which I seriously doubt, given everything I know about you – it doesn't matter. Not as much as you thinking as a screw-up of yourself."

There's a snort and if she weren't so weary of Wells' extremely self-deprecating attitude, she'd even think it heartbreaking. "Frankly I don't know anyone who doesn't think I'm a failure."

Yeah, Maureen's losing patience now as well. She can tell from the rigid set of her shoulders and the slightly impatient tapping of her right foot. "Jenna… that's not true, and you know it. I don't think you're a failure. Tom… Major Moore doesn't, either, by the way but don't tell him I said that."

A-ha, Wells nearly grinned. So she really does have a sense of humor. Well, that deserves a reward. "Major Lorne doesn't, either, and you should know that. You wouldn't still be here if Sheppard and Evan thought you didn't belong here." Come on, she thinks, there's no disputing that, seeing as they've all seen Sheppard or Evan deal with soldiers who couldn't cut it at some point in their time in Atlantis.

Wells abandoned the sheets again and is actually looking at them again. And has the guts to throw in, "But…"

"Captain Kemp doesn't think you're a failure, either." Whoa, she thinks, Maureen's really on a roll today. Maybe her vacation wasn't that bad, after all. Someone's demonstrating that her oak leaves are clearly overdue, and if it's just for pure cunning.

"Captain Kemp made an idiot out of himself," Wells grumbles and hey, that's actually kinda cute. It looks just a bit like she probably does when she thinks Evan did something really stupid… something really stupid on her behalf.

"Yeah, he probably did," Maureen agrees and then adds grinning, "but the worst thing is that he did it for you." Tom apparently started rubbing off on her. Big time.

Wells' first reaction is to go beet red in the face and frantically search for a reply. And she's pretty sure she would have found one in due time but… well, there's a new face in the doorway. "Hey, you still being a lazy… oh. Captain Reece… Captain Cadman-Lorne… ma'ams."

Look at that. The man who made an idiot out of himself for little Wells. If that isn't a weird coincidence. God, must not laugh, must not laugh, must not… "Captain Kemp. How nice to see you. How are you?"

It's amazing how Maureen can keep her countenance, even in situations like these she thinks. Definitely oak leaf material here. Kemp seems even a little intimidated by her. "I'm… fine, ma'am, thanks. How was your vacation?"

Seeing Kemp now, all stiff formality and wariness, she wonders how much of the stuff about that near legendary outburst people keep telling her about left, right and center is actually true. The Kemp she's seeing now… doesn't look like he'd have it in him to go full force at a certain Major General but even Evan, who's really not prone for exaggerations, said the only reason he hadn't relieved Kemp of his Captain's bars on the spot had been that it had been Major General Wells he'd had a go at. Well, that and the fact that the old geezer seemed to have known full well that there had been more truth than was even remotely comfortable in whatever Kemp had told him.

"Very nice, thank you for asking." She wonders if Maureen is thinking the same but then again Maureen has that uncanny knack to predict stuff like that much better than she could. Of course she'd known Kemp definitely had a soft sport for Wells – she'd seen the two of them at last year's Christmas party, for Heaven's sake – but that he would go that far? That sure had been surprising.

There's a moment of uncomfortable silence and then it's Maureen who takes initiative again. "Well, there's still the question of backlog, though. I think I'll go tackle some of that now." Yeah, right, and leave her alone with the two… teammates. "See you later, Laura? Lieutenant Wells?"

Surprise lights up on Wells' face for a moment – and sure as hell on Kemp's face as well – and seems to have been so overwhelming that the Lieutenant can only nod. She, however, doesn't feel so tongue-tied. "Sure," she says and… can barely suppress a yawn. Dammit, it's been only two hours or so she's been awake now.

With that, Maureen takes her leave, not without a meaningful little glance in the direction of Wells and Kemp that is apparently supposed to tell her to give them some room. Yeah, right, you try and walk out of a room when being wired to a couple of monitors and feeling generally sore all over, she wants to tell her but… one look at Wells and Kemp confirms that she might have wanted to listen in on them if she'd been her normal self but gladly turns over, as difficult as it is, to face the other way.

All of a sudden, she feels way too tired to watch them dance around each other. It's obviously gonna be a while, she thinks, before she can go round… bringing the right people together and she doesn't even get to hear Kemp asking Wells what the hell that had been about or realize that Evan just poked his head into the room as well because pain and exhaustion have claimed her the moment she closed her eyes and thought that she really needs to get on her feet again ASAP, seeing as there's still a lot to do for her here.