Chapter 7 - The Dark Side
Three days passed before they had news from General O'Neill. During that time, Dani regained a little strength and with her ribs starting to heal, Carson let her out of the infirmary for short periods and John, despite his best intentions, was not generally far from her side. He told himself that it was because she seemed to be the most comfortable with him, still a little shy and uncertain around the rest of his team and other expedition members that she had met.Keep telling yourself that John, you'll come to believe it eventually...But the fact of the matter was, she had gotten under his skin more than just a little and when he closed his eyes at night, it was to see a pair of stormy gray ones looking back at him. No, he certainly did not need these complications.
After dinner on the second night, Ronan declared that it was movie night and that it was his turn to pick. At this everyone groaned, knowing that he would again, pick Star Wars, a movie that John had introduced him to when he first came to Atlantis from Sateda, a move that John, and everyone else on the base had come to regret. The Satedan had become obsessed with the movie, the story and the characters and had at first believed, that these were real - movies and TV were not part of his world and it took a lot of convincing on John's part to get him to believe that they were just ficticious characters in a ficticious galaxy.
Dani laughed when she heard that they would be watching Star Wars, a movie that she had grown up with and enjoyed herself and John's eyes lit up when he heard her laughter and the resulting sparkle in her eyes. It seemed she had begun to heal a little, in more ways than one.
One of the rec rooms had been set up as a movie/TV room, with a very large screen TV front and centre, and several comfortable varied style couches and armchairs, brought back at different times from earth by different team members. John chose his favourite couch where he would generally stretch out his long legs, but in deference to Dani, he sat, patting the seat beside him so that she could sit also. Hesitating just a little, she curled up beside him, tucking her legs up underneath her and leaned comfortably against his side, long hair spilling over his shoulder. Unfortunately causing his breath to hitch just a little... and concentration on the movie to be all but non existent. Ronan's amused glance sent his way caused him to scowl in return, but couldn't resist dropping his head slightly so that his cheek rested against her hair. So not a good idea...he thought to himself, but that did not stop his body from responding to her nearness and soon he had placed an arm around her and was drawing her closer, now curled up like a tiny cat on his lap, face tucked in under his chin, and felt the slow, comfortable breaths she took and knew that she had fallen asleep. Long after the movie had ended and they remained the only ones in the room, did he sit there... head resting back against the couch, thoughts spinning through his mind, his touch gentle on the fragile girl who curled up asleep in his lap.
And when news came from General O'Neill, he breathed a sigh of relief. They could move forward now, find tangible evidence of her past and make an attempt to find out who had beaten her so badly. John was ready for some payback.
John was called into the control room as soon as communication came through from General O'Neill. He opted for video communication rather than in person, and John listened intently to what they had managed to establish so far.
"Sam managed to trace an energy spike, the size of which would have been required to activate a stargate - took a bit of work to triangulate coordinates, but folks, guess what? There is indeed a second stargate on earth, and while we have no idea which government has operational jurisdiction over it, we did manage to track it's location to none other than Australia."
"Are you serious?" John ran a hand through his hair, spiking it into messy clumps. "Why Australia? And where the hell did it come from?"
"Ah Colonel, questions we have been unable to provide answers for thus far... But as to why Australia, there is a lot of remote land in the middle of that country, perfect for hiding something as large and conspicuous as a stargate. Anyway, the good news... at least I think it is... we've got teams on the ground there now and I sent Sam in to see if she can dig into the DHD to find last dialled gate address... guess what? There is no DHD... the little buggers obviously disconnect and take it with them when they go. Sam,being Sam... well not much phases that woman!... managed to organise a portable DHD of her own, and gentlemen, ladies.. I have a gate address for you. And yes Colonel, you win the prize... it is indeed in the Pegasus Galaxy. T8U297 - got that folks? Colonel - it's up to you to run with this one now."
"Yes sir - I'll organise a team to go as soon as we can. Sounds like it's opened a whole wriggling can of worms for you back on earth though... we're talking deep undercover agency or private organisation here... but my guess is agency, but which government? These men would have been available to the highest bidder."
"Leave that to us Colonel... I've got some good people working on that right now. Keep me posted. O'Neill out."
John huffed a breath as soon as the communication had closed down. The news was good, but the results of their search would herald a nasty surprise for Dani and could implicate an entire secret government agency or private organisation back on earth. Whatever these people were doing out here in this galaxy, he would wager a year's pay that it was not for the good of their planet.