CHAPTER 33 – RETURN TO EARTH

His face was like thunder by the time they arrived in Sam's office and he slapped his hand hard on her desk even before she had the time to sit down behind it.

"Not gonna happen, Sam. I'm not letting her go anywhere near those guys. With or without protection. We have no idea who they are yet... but we know they wield enough power to have a whole craptower to bring crumbling down. You can't seriously even consider letting her in a room with them?"

Sam didn't answer him immediately, and Nicole's brown eyes flashed between the base commander and the man she had spent last night with. She knew that there would be a power struggle here and saw in Sam's eyes that there was no question that she go to that meeting.

Attempting to insert herself between the combustible Colonel and the woman behind the desk, she forced him to look at her, not speaking until she had gotten his full attention. Her voice when it spoke, was quiet. Intuitively she knew that raising her voice to this man right now would stroke the embers of his anger to the point where he would hurt himself. She had no fear that he would ever hurt her.

"Listen to me John. Please. I want you to sit down and just listen. Can you do that?" She had placed her hands on his arms, stoking gently the inside of his wrist and something, both in that rhythmic action and her voice had his eyes softening a little and him backing up to the nearest seat. He sat down, her grip on his arms still tight enough to keep him in the seat and she had to bend slightly so that when he looked up, all he could see was her. She saw him take a deep breath and he nodded once. Sharply. To indicate that he was good to go.

Experimentally she removed her hands and watched as one curled immediately into a fist, then relaxed. Stepping back, she sat lightly on the armrest of his seat and allowed his hand to move so that it rested on one her knees, tapping a nervous rhythm there.

Sam and the others watched the subtle interplay, watched as in the space of a few moments she had calmed him down with both quiet words and a simple touch. Lego blocks thought Sam with just a small spark of humour. Meshing together so perfectly to form whatever they need to form. She's his 'ying' to his 'yang'. And it looks like they've finally done something about it...

"Tell me exactly what the communique said, Sam." His voice was even, the earlier anger and simmering tension just below the surface, but for now? Sam would take that calm and tell him what he needed to know. She pushed across a piece of paper with handwriting on it.

"It came to him via an encrypted message, and this is the uncoded version."

He read quickly, and Nicole perched on the side of his chair read it along side him. The meeting was to take place tomorrow in Washington in the hotel room of a large hotel on the outskirts. A non descript hotel that would not be used by any of the normal players that Washington was made up of.

"So can we get our own people here before hand? To sweep and put backup into place?"

He was all military now. The man was gone and the soldier had stepped up to the plate and Nicole watched his face curiously at the transformation. The eyes had hardened, as had his features and he no longer touched any part of her body. She longed for her camera to capture that transformation and an idea for another story came instantly to mind. Out here? The storylines seemed endless and she came to the realisation that life on earth had began to make her jaded and disgruntled. Here? She had found a new spark, a new enthusiasm and a new way to attack her passion and skill. And it was only partly due to a certain dark haired Colonel. The rest was the place itself. She wondered if she could go back to earth one day and take up the life she had before. And had the answer immediately. This place had quickly become home.

"Jack is already onto it as we speak, John. Thank you for trusting me on this. And thank you Nicole... for whatever magic you hold right now. It's working..."

She paused, looking around the room to check the reactions of the rest of John's team. Ronon remained silent as always but she had seen the tension when John had been about to explode. He had been ready to hold him down, secure him if need be. They too, had a symbiotic relationship and one would feed from the other... emotionally. Teyla? Teyla's eyes were on Nicole, and they were slightly troubled. Sam knew that Teyla was developing a level of friendship with the photographer and could see from Teyla's expression that her safety was on her mind also. And that left Rodney. Expression a little sour as he was no doubt recalling his unfinished breakfast. She stifled a smile. An unusual group of people who made up this elite team. But it worked. Most of the time, anyway.

She continued. "We'll have eyes and ears in there John. The very best that we can get our hands on, and Jack's looking into sniper locations but this one is proving to be trickier. They have chosen their location wisely. There are no surrounding buildings that afford any sort of sight into the room that has been booked for this meeting. It is wide open. The best we can do for backup is get our people in there undercover. Staff, maintenance people. We're working on that and it'll be in place for the meeting. Robert contacted them back immediately and gave the go ahead. We can't fit Nicole with a wire because both her and Robert will be searched before they enter the room. No weapons either. That goes without saying."

She concluded her monologue and sat back, waiting for the reactions. John's eyes, when he raised them to hers, had changed. The soldier was gone and the man was back, and the expression in them was bleak.

"How do I just let her go?" He didn't even try and hide the angst.

"How can you not, John..." Sam's indication was clear. If she didn't go to that meeting, the house of cards would come tumbling down. Robert would be compromised and the domino effect would start. The people on his list would go down... and it would escalate from there. They also had Nicole's family to consider. Do this right, and they'd get enough intell on the people in that meeting to work their way further into the shadow group.

He pushed himself abruptly out of the seat, nearly dislodging Nicole in her somewhat precarious position on the edge of his armrest.

"I need to think Sam. I need to process this on my own." He flicked an apologetic look at the woman he had held in his arms last night and turned, striding out of the room. Nicole went to follow but it was Teyla who put out a hand to stop her.

"Let him go for now Nicole. He knows what is the right thing to do, he just needs to come to terms with that, and he can't do it when he looks at you. Give him some space to let this sit right with him. Just as he gave you your space the other day." She lifted her eyebrows at Nicole and watched as the other woman's face changed, smiling a little now.

"I'll give him his space Teyla, but not for long. There's a fine line between 'thinking' and 'stewing' and if I time it right, I can make sure he doesn't cross that line. I see from this note that they want to to take what I have written and photographed to date. I'll need to do a rewrite I think... what I pounded out this morning will most definitely not be to their liking. Subterfuge, obfuscation and plausible denial... much, eh?"

It was only Sam and Rodney who understood these last words she spoke, but the others got the general idea of what she was referring to. Ronon looked at the tiny photographer with new respect. He had been prepared to dislike her from the start. In his oppinion, John didn't need some woman getting under his skin. Keep it simple and fun, that was his theory. But as he had gotten to know the fiesty woman himself, and had seen the way she fit into John's somewhat solitary life, he had begun to acknowledge that his friend was likely better off with her than without her. He made a decision.

"How much training have you had? Self defense..."

Teyla's eyes lit up as she followed immediately where he was going with his question.

"Oh... a little. Well, more than a little, I guess. I've spent a lot of time in 'hot' zones and brought down some rather undesirable sorts, so Ben …." she hesitated just briefly when she said his name this time, "... insisted that I at least be able to kick some ass..."

"Bet I could teach you some new... tricks..."

Looking up at his huge body and formidable build she swallowed slightly. "I bet you could Ronon. Is that an offer... I have to warn you. There's not much left on my body that hasn't seen some damage these past couple of weeks..."

"I'll be gentle..." he growled these words and she grimaced. Somehow she didn't think his 'gentle' had the same meaning as the one in her dictionary.