The Other Side of the Story: John's Point of View
Interlude 3: How the hell do you think I'm doing?!
Waiting was never my strong suit which probably explained why I had so many reprimands on my record. Still, the frustration of waiting to go and rescue a team mate when you know the longer they leave it the harder it'll be was nothing compared to what I felt while waiting for Agent Barrett to get back to us.
"Can't you just sit down for five minutes?" Rodney complained when I stalked past him on what felt like my hundredth circuit of the SGC main conference room.
"No," I replied grimly, knowing if I stopped moving I'd end up putting my fist through something ... although I was getting to the point where that was a possibility even with the pacing. "What are you doing anyway?"
"Searching through all the records Walter could direct me to looking for anything Trust related that might be linked to this," Rodney reminded me. "If you'd followed Ronon and Teyla down to the gym instead of hanging around here I might have gotten a bit further."
"Too risky," I said dismissively, leaving it to Rodney to work out what that meant. Just like you shouldn't take your anger behind the wheel of a car I'd learned at an early age that you also shouldn't take it into the sparring ring either. Too easy to take it too far – injure instead of teach. Sabina would be less than impressed if I damaged someone because I was pissed off she'd been kidnapped.
"Oh," Rodney looked up at me quickly before bending back to his work. "Are you ... you know, doing okay?" he asked awkwardly.
"Sabina's missing McKay," I shot back. "How the hell do you think I'm doing?!"
"I don't know!" Rodney complained. "I just thought I should say something because ... well you know why!"
"I appreciate the effort," I relented, dreading a slight grin up from somewhere over the classic pained expression Rodney was wearing.
"So ... you never said where you were going, before ...," he broke off, waving a hand vaguely in the air.
"Can you keep a secret?" I asked quietly.
"Probably not," Rodney admitted, "but tell me anyway."
"Vegas," I admitted abruptly.
"Oh you weren't gonna do the whole Elvis Chapel of Love elopement thing were you?" Rodney looked faintly sick at the idea.
"Of course not," I retorted, insulted that he'd think so. "I've got a lot more class than that!"
"Really?" Rodney looked surprised and more than a little sceptical.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence Rodney," I glared at him some more. "If you think about it my reasons for taking Sabina to Vegas will come to you."
"No! You're not leaving it at that," Rodney actually took his hands off his keyboard and gave me his full attention. "What would you be doing in Vegas apart from getting married?"
"Getting a legal licence inside of fifteen minutes," I revealed, hurrying into further explanation before he could throw in any more smart arse remarks. "Sabina's not the long engagement type and the frequency of our trips back here means it's pretty much now or next year to do the legal, paperwork side of things. I don't wanna wait that long. I was hoping she'd agree to sign the documents while we were here and then we could do the deed back on Atlantis sometime in the next year."
"Don't you need permission for that?" Rodney for once didn't take the obvious opportunity to get in a few digs at my expense.
"Not if we were doing it here," I explained. "Because Atlantis is classed as foreign soil it's a bit more complicated – there's usually a tonne of paperwork for American soldiers marrying foreign nationals outside of America. Sabina and I are both Americans of course but I still had to talk to General Landry and Richard Woolsey about the foreign soil part."
"General Landry knows you want to marry Sabina?" Rodney looked faintly insulted now.
"He is my commanding officer McKay," I reminded him. "You think that's bad – try having a conversation about something that personal with Woolsey. It wasn't pretty."
"What'd they say?" Rodney asked curiously.
"Landry gave his permission without question, told me he'd get Walter to check out what paperwork I needed," I admitted. "Woolsey couldn't make a decision to save his life – he has to take it to the IOA so they can give their permission for a wedding to take place on Atlantis."
"Man that's gotta suck," Rodney commented somewhat snidely. "I mean, there'll be representatives from like four countries talking about your personal life. I can only imagine how that conversation's gonna pan out!"
"Yeah – it does suck Rodney ... thanks for pointing that out!" I raised an eyebrow at him until he looked suitably guilty for making light of things.
"Well that's what you get for being military," he excused. "Personally the idea of having to ask anyone for permission to marry, no matter where you want to do it, sounds completely ridiculous to me."
"Then it's lucky you never joined the military isn't it," my tone made it quite clear the conversation was finished. Rodney turned back to his laptop for a few minutes before he couldn't resist asking another question.
"Are you worried she'll say no?" he rushed out.
"What, you don't think we've already talked about it?" I asked in amazement. "Who asks someone to marry them without at least having some idea of getting a positive response?"
"Good point," Rodney smiled before adding "and of course she'll say yes, right?! I mean technically you're already married anyway – at least according to Ancient custom. Not that Sabina knew she was agreein to that before you did the ceremony thing ... but still, that has to count for something right?"
"McKay," I growled, "I really don't need to be thinking about this now."
"Of course not," Rodney muttered apologetically. "Sorry."
We lapsed back into silence, my mind now engaged with worrying about Sabina and reliving all the conversations I'd had with her and anyone else over the whole marriage deal. I should have known not to tell Rodney!
oOo
We were already well into the evening with no new leads to pursue when I was forced to call it a night. I sent the rest of my team to get some much needed rest, promising I would do the same even though they all knew I wouldn't. Sitting up in the darkened Mess Hall worrying about things I couldn't change was a dismal way to pass the night ... but it was all I had.
oOo
Agent Barrett finally returned to the SGC in the early hours of the following morning, carrying a stack of files and an even more confused expression. We commandeered a conference room on level 22 so that Barrett could share what he'd learned with the whole team at the same time.
"These are all the companies currently vying for that Trust contact," Barrett announced, pushing the pile across the table towards me. "Turns out warfare enhancements for personnel doesn't have anything to do with weapons or equipment, including protective gear."
"Yeah, what does it have to do with then?" Ronon asked.
"Ah ... human genetic enhancement," Barrett replied, looking at Ronon like he was suddenly wondering what kind of unnatural enhancements Ronon might have be subjected to in the past.
"And all of these companies want a slice of that?" Rodney looked at the large stack in dismay.
"The contract is worth billions," Barrett revealed. "The Trust is very keen to develop a worldwide defence should the Wraith make it to Earth. They've gone with the popular 'super solider' approach. The first company to come up with something viable will be set for life."
"So if this Trust does not have Sabina, one of these other companies may?" Teyla queried.
"It's the only lead I can offer you at this stage," Barrett wasn't making any promises we'd get anywhere.
"Then we should begin our study of each of them," Teyla announced.
"There are like fifty of these files," Rodney complained. "That's gonna take hours, if not days!"
"Then it's lucky I brought in some outside help," General Landry announced from the doorway - clearly Agent Barrett had already filled him in on his progress. Behind the General stood Daniel Jackson, Walter and two other guys I didn't recognise. "Between the nine of you, you should be able to work through those files quickly," Landry explained. Without another word he turned and left us to it.
Walter introduced us to Daniel, Lieutenant Baker and Doctor Issacs. I stood to greet our helpers gratefully, acknowledging each name as Walter said it. When I got to Daniel, I added "I appreciate the help Doctor Jackson."
"Daniel, please," Jackson replied, moving quickly into the room and sitting in the chair next to me. The others followed closely behind, each taking the file Rodney gratefully handed out. "As soon as I heard what happened I approached General Landry to see how I could help."
"As you can see we need it," I replied. It didn't surprise me Daniel would want to do something – he and Sabina hadn't spent that much time together but they'd hit it off big time, having a love of all things Ancient in common to fuel every conversation between them. While that might have caused a small amount of jealously the first time we'd come to Earth I was well past that point over a year later and just grateful Sabina had a friend here who wanted to help.
I didn't know the others well either, but the fact they were there was enough and I could already feel some of the tension leave the room as everyone got down to business. Taking my own file I started the long process of reading through it looking for something – I didn't know what it was and could only hope that if something was there to be discovered, it would jump out at me.
Authors Note:
Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 5