Run

by JessBubble

Lieutenant Tegan James is running from an old enemy who wants her dead out of paranoia. She's a British marine with a lot of influence, and after pulling a few strings she's managed to wind up in the Pegasus galaxy as the new girl on Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard's team. He finds her intriguing, too intriguing and is soon sucked into her problems, everyone else left but will he stay?

6. Chapter 5: Close Encounters

It had been half an hour since we'd found those bodies. Sheppard and Ronon had quickly put them somewhere none of us were going to go (the brig), after Sheppard said they could have been dead for months and the coldness of the ship had just preserved the bodies to really freak us all out. Then Rodney had made the plucked the tablet from his dead alternate counter part and started using it, which I thought was super gross but didn't say anything because he said we'd hit the jackpot. According to him, the alternate team Sheppard had come to investigate the suddenly materialising Daedalus but the ship had jumped to another reality before they could leave like we had, they'd tried to find a way out too apparently but clearly they'd failed and eventually ran out of supplies. Rodney had made the one statement that had actually scared me more than anything. If an alternate version of me couldn't figure this out then how can I in this reality?! Honestly, that had scared me. How could Rodney go from being so cocky and egotistical to suddenly having no confidence in his abilities? What the actual hell! The only one who seemed to notice I was frightened though, because I hid it pretty damn well, was Ronon. He kept shooting me glances every so often as Sheppard tried to calm everyone down,
"Okay, Rodney...look take a look around, you have some research to get you started and if you keep working on it you'll pull one of those miracles you're so good at out of the bag. Teyla, Ronon you pair go out, look for any supplies you can find. We can make do with as little as you can get so don't panic if you don't find much. Tegan, you're with me and we'll go looking to." he said, dishing out things to keep us all occupied so we wouldn't focus on the grim reality of death knocking on our door. Ronon nudged me on the way out with his arm, a comforting gesture that I appreciated and replied to with a small smile.

Sheppard turned to look at me,
"We should go back up to the bridge, see if we can find Atlantis and contact them." he said, studying my face for a second as I nodded. Walking silently for a moment, that awkward tense silence was back and I could feel his eyes on me every now and again but I kept my gaze on the corridor ahead as we stepped back out onto the bridge and Sheppard used the chair to try and communicate with Atlantis. Upon getting no response I drew in a shaky breathe, shivering again. "You look pale." Sheppard commented.
"I'm cold." I admitted. He raised an eyebrow and nodded a little,
"Yeah...if I'm honest, me to." he replied walking toward me, "Your lips are going blue too." he added with a frown. I blushed a little, feeling the warmth of it sting my cheeks,
"I handle the cold just fine mentally, physically not so much." I mumbled embarrassedly. He looked amused by that as he took my hands and tried to warm them for me with his breathe and some friction,
"Your hands are like blocks of ice. Come on, back to the jumper to see what other layers we can find for you, you're not catching hypothermia if I can help it." he said while starting to drag me out of the room, before dropping my hand and leading me back through the corridors and leaving my hand cold and empty. It took us a total of five minutes to reach the jumper and the silence between us had grown as we rummaged around for anything to keep in some extra heat. Sheppard pulled out a couple of blankets before finding a spare jacket.

I frowned a little as he held it out,
"Are you sure you don't need it?" I asked, pointedly looking at his bare arms. He nodded and without waiting for any other cue, I quickly took off the tac vest and slid on the other jacket underneath, before gearing back up and leaving the jumper. After, of course, I'd mumbled a quick thank you. We were walking back to the main part of the ship when Rodney contacted him,
"Sheppard, I found out what's making us jump to different realities, it's an alternate reality drive. The math of it is really complicated so I'll save you the details but either way, it charges after each jump then the discharge is what makes us jump to the other realities. It's rechargeable, that means we can't stop it, we're just gonna keep jumping and jumping, it's almost recharged now." he replied. Sheppard frowned,
"Don't you have anyway of controlling where it jumps to?" he asked. I heard Rodney sigh,
"No, it's still in the experiemntal stage basically. It works but needs fine tuning. Brace yourselves for another jump, we're at 98% power." he warned us. Me and Sheppard look at one another and began sprinting for the bridge quickly. When we got there we found it empty, no Ronon or Teyla but we at least had access to what the ships weapons if we jumped into the middle of a battle. We looked around as if we expected to find something in the room before the familiar shaking started up again, we were encased in that blinding white light again and I clutched the console desperately in an effort to balance myself, and buried my head in my arms to shield my eyes. By the time the shaking stopped and I looked up, Sheppard was looking a little worried. The intense look on his face getting worse as we just stared at one in another in tense silence for at least five minutes, both of us frozen and unable to move.

Finally I managed to say,
"Are you okay?" though my voice sounded strained and tense. Slowly, he nodded and straightened out,
"Yeah...you?" I nodded my head in reply as Teyla's extremely anxious voice came over the radio,
"Colonel, the ships sensors have deteceted an unidentified alien ship and Atlantis, they're engaged in a battle and the alien ship appears to be winning." she said sounding shocked. Sheppard and me raced into action as he pointed me to the console.
"Okay, use that to aim and that to fire, take out as many as you can." he ordered pointing at the buttons I needed. Swallowing I got myself familiar with the controls but it wasn't too long before Sheppard said, "We got fighters come on James!" Praying I had pressed the right buttons I fired. Much to my surprise, it was kind of like playing that old videogame, space invaders, you know with the little boxy aliens that come down in rows and you have to shoot them? However the targeting system was a little more complex than that, but I got in a few good hits. Sparks were flying, the ship was rocking in a sickening motion and my heart had accelerated in my chest. My stomach was in knots as adrenaline raced round my body. More and more of those fighters kept coming and no matter how hard I tried I knew I wasn't going to get them all, not with my aim, not under this pressure. There was another huge jolt and Sheppard yelled a curse word that shocked me a little, "That ship just crashed into the hull!Mckay I need options!" his voice was demanding and authoritive, something I'd never really heard from him before now. A violent jolt threw me to the floor from my chair, where I quickly pushed myself up and clung to the console. "Now Rodney!" Sheppard yelled, reaching his hand out towards me. I took it and he pulled me into him quickly, safely tucking my body between him and the console as the ship rocked again.

I didn't hear what Rodney said, I just saw Teyla and Ronon run in on wobbly feet as I curled as close as I could to Sheppard's body and screwed my eyes up so I didn't have to see anything. The ships rocking got worse and I could hear nothing but the pounding of fighters firing on the ship and Sheppard's fast heartbeat in my ear. His arm had closed around my waist, holding me to him protectively and inspite of all the chaos, I felt safe, warm. Finally, the ship stopped rocking. Slowly lifting my head, I looked around before looking at Sheppard's gaze. His eyes dropped down before flitting back up to my face and I realised I'd clutched the fabric of his shirt in my fists and was holding him very very tightly. Trying to calm my breathing I forced my numb fingers to let go, mumbled what I hoped sounded like an apology, and got off of him. Both of us looked awkwardly around the room, anything except look at each other as I ran a hand through my hair. I took a deep breath, trying to stop my ragged breathing but it was seemingly impossible next to the frantic thudding of my heart against my ribs.
"You guys are going to give me a bloody complex!" I breathed. Ronon just smirked,
"Suck it up Tiny, you'll be as insane as us in no time." he promised, his voice holding such conviction I believed him. Teyla was tapping on keys as I felt the air getting hotter...and hotter, and hotter and hotter and hotter.

Finally I stripped off both jackets,
"Is it just me or is it getting hotter in here?" Sheppard asked at the same time I did. Teyla nodded,
"No, the temperature of the ships hull is increasing. Very very quickly." she informed us, a frown pulling her brows together. I swallowed,
"Oh today just isn't your day is it?" I asked while shooting a look at Sheppard. He rolled his hazel eyes but a small smile played on his lips,
"You hear that Rodney, any ideas?" he asked. There was silence for a minute and Sheppard quickly called Rodney's name to check he was alright,
"I'm fine! I'm just thinking, give me a minute!" Rodney snapped back. A few more minutes of tense silence followed and I felt beads of sweat beginning to break out all over my body, I had to start fanning myself with my hand,
"Come on Rodders, think faster." I muttered, rolling my eyes to the ceiling and blowing out a breathe. Rodney let out a breathe too and I could hear him typing furiously over the radio,
"Okay, we're orbiting a red giant with hardly any shields...I'm throwing everything we've got into powering the jump generator again Ronon, Sheppard, I need you to get down to engineering and help me transfer the power now!" he said, sounding stressed out. Sheppard motioned for Teyla and me to follow and we all practically ran down the corridors to reach Rodney. By now my hair had been plastered to my face with sweat because it was so hot, and I was beginning to feel nauseous as my stomach twisted again in that horrible knot feeling. Teyla sat at the console, with Sheppard not far behind her as I stood facing them,
"What should I do Rodney?" Teyla asked, frowning at the controls as she blew a stray strand of hair from her face.

My ears picked up on a small bang back out in the corridor. I was all set to pass it off as a hallucination before I saw Ronon leaving the room to check it out. Deciding Teyla and Sheppard were more than capable of looking after the ship for now, I followed Ronon outside, feeling that same feeling of unease sweeping over me again as I joined him in the corridor. He looked surpsied to see me,
"You heard it to?" he asked while pulling out his gun. It was different to any I'd ever seen. Nodding slightly, I stepped up beside him and we fell into a comfortable silence, the pair of us looking around the corridor with rigid postures. Our fingers were poised on the triggers of our guns and we were ready to take down anything that came at us. I waited patiently in the intersection and it wasn't too long before we heard it again. Ronon raised an eyebrow slightly before carefully opening the nearest door. There stood an alien, about the same height as Ronon if not a bit taller, looking like a borg from Star Trek or something. He had grey skin and was covered in chunky metal armour. Raising my P-90 I watched as my friend and our enemy clashed together, the alien easily overpowering Ronon, who was struggling to get his arm free when the alien landed ontop of him and went about trying to kill him. My heart leapt up into my throat and I aimed very very carefully, holding my breathe as I fired and wasted a whole magazine on the damn thing. Sucking in a deep breathe I bellowed at the top of my lungs,
"Sheppard we've got hostiles on board!" The alien was weak enough (while I was reloading at rapid pace) for Ronon to wiggle his arm free. Three blasts of red light from Ronon's gun and it finally went down for the count. I was still standing ready when Sheppard skidded round the corner. Ronon stood and brushed himself off, nodding in appreciation at me as he massaged his throat.
"What the hell?" Sheppard asked, lifting his own P-90 in anticipation.
"The fighter that crashed into the hull must have deposited the borg collective on board." I suggested sarcastically.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow,
"You're a Star Trek fan?" he asked, looking me up and down like I was the alien. I raised my eyebrow back at him,
"Does it matter right now?" I replied, looking him and up and down too to try and make my point but really, it just meant that I got to drag my eyes over his body and wonder what muscle his baggy clothes were hiding. Snapping my eyes up to his gaze I saw that sexy smirk on his face again, and forced those ideas out of my head.
"Just tryna be friendly." he shot back. I rolled my eyes slightly,
"How about we kill the rest of the bad guys first, then we can play twenty questions later?" I asked while loading a fresh magazine into my P-90 and turning to the open door. Sheppard, who looked confused, asked,
"The rest of the bad guys?" As if on cue and just as I suspected, two more alien bad guys walked through the door and started shooting at us. I had already emptied my magazine into one and Ronon's added shots finished him off, then there was a blinding white light as the ship shook. We were jumping again and it momentaily distracted the remaining hostile alien. Sheppard and I took aim and sent a barrage of bullets towards him until he dropped. I suddenly became very very aware of him, there was a heatwave full of static electricity rolling off of him and I couldn't resist flicking my eyes up to his face, from the way he was looking at me I could tell he felt it to. "Those bad guys?" he asked, sounding a little breathless. Now it was my turn to smirk,
"Those would be the ones Colonel yes." my reply was probably a little sarcastic and snarky but he didn't seem to mind.

Finally, the ship was quiet. Turning on my heel I quickly left and walked back to Teyla.
"Is everything okay?" she asked, standing and reaching for her gun. I nodded with a small smile on my face,
"It's okay, we got them." I promised and watched her visibly relax. We stood in companiable silence as slowly, the heat began to fade and I was left feeling cold again. Frowning slightly I said, "I'm going to go back up to the bridge and get my jacket, it's getting chilly again." Teyla nodded and as I left I passed Sheppard and Ronon, but it wasn't long before I heard footsteps coming after me. Turning my head and glancing over my shoulder I saw Ronon and Sheppard catching up to me. We walked in companiable silence until we got to the bridge. I was busy pulling back on my jacket and tieing the other around my waist when I heard Sheppard clear his throat sligtly, looking at me with a disapproving expression,
"And I thought you were observant. Did you miss something?" he asked, gesturing to the window. Frowning I turned to take a look and my eyes widened, outside was an asteroid field. Taking a few steps towards the window, I placed my fingertips on the cool glass and looked out in awe. It was strangley beautiful, to see them peacefully floating past us, not a care in the world. "Hey Rodney, any idea where we are?" Sheppard asked over the radio. I didn't listen to what Rodney said in reply, just stared out of the window and watched the asteroids pass by. I was so absorbed by the sight, I didn't hear Sheppard calling my name until Ronon clapped my shoulder, "You in there James?" Sheppard asked. I nodded, a small smile playing on my lips,
"Yes, sorry. I've never seen an asteroid so close up." I said, blushing slightly.

Sheppard nodded,
"We'll go sightseeing later, Rodney's had an idea. He said he's gonna put the drive in reverse and we're going to jump back through the realities in reverse order. We've got manueveing thrusters so he said he's going to use them so we establish a stable orbit above that red giant and don't cook to death, then I want you back on the railguns again when we get to that reality with the fighters incase he can't get sublight working in time to outrun them." he said. I nodded once, sitting back in the chair I'd sat in before and spinning left and right to pass the time.
"Did he say how long it would take?" I asked curiously. Sheppard smiled a little but shook his head,
"No, but he said the jumps will happen quicker now that he boosted the energy." he replied. Nodding slightly I allowed the silence to wash over me and thought about the irony of it all, I'd escaped to another galaxy to boost my chances of survival yet I could be murdered by aliens any time now. Shaking the thoughts from my head I felt the ship shake slightly, maybe ten minutes or so after reaching the bridge, and I threw my arms up to protect my eyes as the blinding white light engulfed us once more. I waited for the shaking to shop and took a deep breath. "Good job none of us get travel sick." Sheppard said, attempting to lighten the mood as I let my arm drop and squinted against the red light we were being bathed in thanks to the red giant.
"We are in a stable orbit and the hull temperature is only increasing slightly, we will be okay, good work Rodney." Teyla said over the radio. She sounded so relieved and it suddenly occured to me that she was worried more so than anyone about not returning back to Atlantis. She had Torren to look after and being full time on the lead team meant she was in a whole lot of danger often.

The thought made me frown, Torren was a good baby, a sweet and cuddly little thing, but he needed to grow up with his mom around. I on the other hand, had nothing to return to. I had no family left that I knew of and after just upping and leaving without being able to tell them where I had to go and why I doubted severely that the people I'd once called friend would want me back. Well, that was depressing. Ten minutes had passed with only a slight temperature increase, which suited me just fine. Ronon and Sheppard had been talking while I zoned out, however my stomach growled, breaking the silence that had settled peacefully around us. Sheppard and Ronon looked at me and smirked,
"Hungry Lieutenant?" he asked, his tone mocking. The blood rushed to my cheeks and I swallowed a little before letting out a nervous laugh, rubbing my hand over the back of my neck, god how embarrassing! Did it have to be that loud?
"Maybe a little." I said with a forced smile. Ronon rolled his eyes,
"We got another Rodney." he grunted, making me narrow my eyes,
"Hey, I can go without food for up to three and a half days if needs must, thank you very much." I said getting defensive. I crossed my arms over my chest, defiantly staring into his brown eyes. He blinked back, staring back at me and seeing straight through me it seemed.
"Talking form experience?" Sheppard asked curiously. I deliberated it for a moment and then nodded, it was just so easy to open up to him!
"Yes, on tour in Afghanistan. Our team was ambushed and the truck blew up...we were trapped in a firefight with the enemy and our radios had been fried. It took us three days to get to the nearest settlement and radio for help." I said, my voice getting a little quieter towards the end.

Sheppard nodded sympathetically but Ronon remained stoic, clearly not big on the whole emotions things. I'd never told anybody but Rodney that, it was a part of me I didn't often share with anyone yet here I was, telling someone I'd barely known for two weeks. The problem was, I just found it so easy to open up to Sheppard. He was easy to trust, with his light hearted manner...but it was beginning to make me uncomfortable. It was too much to soon for me. I prefered to keep my secrets to myself and didn't let anyone close enough to be in such a position of trust, to be in a position where they could hurt me. Only Rodney was the one that I trusted implicitly. Speaking of Rodney, the ship shook again and I found the blinding white light kicked in as the drive started up. When the shaking stopped again, I looked out the window. The red giant was gone. Instead there was only the inky black expanse of space. Stars speckled the open sky but no asteroids or fighter ships were in sight...there was just nothing. With a frown I looked at Sheppard, "I did count them right didn't I? Shouldn't that alien ship be here?" I asked suspiciously. Sheppard nodded and tapped his earpiece,
"Teyla, Rodney? What's up with that ship? Has it left?" he asked. Rodney passed the question to Teyla and informed us he had sublight back online, and when Teyla answered, her voice was urgent,
"They are behind us!" Sheppard quickly returned to the controls and I watched as the stars blurred together He was flying the Daedalus smoothly along as though she were a ship on the ocean. When I checked my console, I saw I was beginning to get targets on my screen. "They've launched more fighters." Teyla confirmed. Sheppard opened his mouth but I didn't give him time to say anything, aiming quickly and firing until one went down. I was a terible shot with the railguns but I took a few down, not however before they hit our engines and we stopped dead in our tracks.

My heart accelerated in my chest as the ship rocked dangerously, but I kept firing until my hand cramped up. I had to stop and massage my hand back into action for a few minutes, all the while the ship was rocking and a few sparks flew behind us as a console blew,
"James!" Sheppard yelled. I returned to firing the railguns, ignoring the pull in my hand as together, me and Sheppard held off the fighters. Ronon was watching us in anticipation, until I got even more targets on my screen, "Whoa wait, don't shoot the new targets, they're ours, there 302's!" he exclaimed, as I went back to firing on the red targets on my screen. It was a tense five minutes that had my stomach in knots until finally, the fighters were all destroyed. Breathing a sigh of relief I leaned back in the chair,
"If there's ever a space invaders tournament on Atlantis, I want you on my team." I joked, smiling wearily at Sheppard who grinned back,
"Nice shooting sister." he teased, layering the American accent on thick. I raised an eyebrow,
"We don't even look a like." I pointed out. He rolled his eyes a little and opened his mouth to no doubt come back at me with some smart ass retort when a voice came over the radio, it was a voice we all recognised, one that made Sheppard's eyes widen slightly as he stared in shock at the console.
"Daedalus this is Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, everything okay there?" I blinked a little,
"When did you get a doppleganger?" I asked,
"Tegan?" the alternate Sheppard asked over the radio, sounding thoroughly shocked and perhaps a little hurt, as though my name had somehow caused him pain. The Sheppard from our reality motioned for me to quiet down and cleared his throat a little,
"This is Daedalus, er, thanks for that Colonel Sheppard." he said, looking uncomfortable as he spoke to himself.

"Who is this?" alternate Sheppard replied. Our Sheppard shifted uncomfortably in the chair and rubbed his hand over the back of his neck, "It doesn't matter. Look we've er..got to go...thanks for the help though. You're a good flyer and an excellent shot...and I'm sure a great leader too...and probably very handsome." he replied impishly as I snorted,
"And you say Rodney has a big ego?" I whispered with a smirk. Sheppard scowled at me but seemed delighted when alternate him replied with,
"Well thanks... you too." the ship started shaking again and checking my watch I saw it had been fifteen minutes since our last jump, it was time. Scrunching up my eyes as the blinding light rippled through the ship, I braced my hands against the console. "Okay folks, fall back to the jumper now so when we get to the right reality we can go straight home. I think we've worried them enough don't you?" Sheppard mused, standing up as Ronon started for the door. I fell into step beside them and we walked down the corridors until we met up with Teyla and Rodney, the light banter continued and we were finally safe. Sounds like the ending of a fiarytale huh? Wrong, we were not safe, so not safe. Rodney opened the door to the hanger bay, and a green phaser like shot hit him right in the shoulder. He just about kept his balance as Teyla shoved him out of the way. Adrenaline shot through me and my reaction was as quick as Ronon's, Sheppard was a split second behind me as we opened fire and rained hell on the alien fighter. Thank god there was only one I thought, as I emptied a magazine on him. He was down when I finished reloading, but there was something on his chest as he fell back, lighting up in segments, going around in a circle. My heart was beating ten to the dozen as I connected the dots.

"Fall back! Fall back!" Sheppard yelled as I helped Teyla pull Rodney to his feet and through the door. Sheppard slammed his hand down on the button and the door slid closed. A loud explosion still reached my ears and Sheppard looked around to check all of us out before his eyes landed on Rodney. "You're going to be fine buddy, just hang on, one more jump right?" he tried to cheer him up but Rodney, clutching his arm and breathing hard through his teeth looked up, red in the face and jaw clenched tight,
"We just lost the jumper!" he ground out looking away as he swore loudly. Walking over to him I patted his uninjuried shoulder and looked up at Sheppard, knowing he was right. There was no way off of this ship when we did jump back to our own reality. We had three minutes to think a solution. Chewing my lip I thought hard before I came up with something, looking at each of them in turn.
"Once we're back in the right reality then won't Atlantis register the signal on their sensors? We can send a message and they can send another jumper right?" I asked hopefully. Sheppard's eyes brightened and he nodded eagerly,
"Yeah, yeah! There you go see we're not gonna die!" he said cheerfully. Rodney shook his head and groaned,
"No, the jumper wouldn't get here in time. Using sublight to outrun those fighters means we're going to reappear furthur away from Atlantis." Feeling disheartened I pursed my lips as I tried to think of something, anything that might help us.
"I say we blow the thing up when we get there, that way the drives bust and we can't jump anymore, gives the rescue jumper enough time to get here right?" Ronon huffed, Rodney shook his head,
"NO! If you use c4 on that drive there's a damn good chance you'll rip a hole in the fabric of space-time and possibly destroy a solar system, our solar system, and that is not a good thing!" he argued.

I groaned,
"Great! You're full of good news aren't you." I grumbled. Sheppard shot me an exasperated look before his expression mellowed back out into that thoughtful frown I'd seen far too much of today, I noticed how the concentration made his hazel eyes duller than usual, however they got this glint in them when he had an idea, and I watched them light up right then.
"I got an idea, anyone claustrophobic?" he asked while looking around the group with a triumphant smile. Rodney nodded,
"Not overly so but after a few minutes it gets too much." he said shaking his head. I raised an eyebrow,
"I locked you in a closet for an hour when we were sixteen and you were fine." I retorted. He rolled his eyes,
"Yeah because you kept talking to me." he said it like it was obvious and I tried not to feel insulted. Sheppard pinched the bridge of his nose before looking at us again,
"Great, we'll keep talking to you then, follow me." he said with a quick hand gesutre, and we followed without protest as he lead us to some sort of storage cupboard. Inside this cupboard there were very bulky looking space suits. Rodney groaned but got the drift as Ronon helped him into one, Sheppard suited himself up as Teyla helped me and I helped her until we were both dressed in the suits. It was quite closed in, the helmet was stuffy and hard to breathe in until Teyla activated my oxygen supply and I did hers. It was fresher air though it still felt stuffy to me, but I had to get on with it if I wanted to live. Sheppard lead us back to the hanger bay and opened the door. I expected the temperature to drop as we were sucked out into space, but it didn't, I guessed that the suit locked the heat in. We floated weightlessly for a few minutes in silence, as I took in our surroundings. I was encased in darkness but the stars were speckles of bright silver around me and it was just so beautiful.

I gasped a little and Sheppard chuckled down my ear,
"Told you we'd go sightseeing later." he teased. I smiled,
"Definitely worth all the trouble Colonel. Thanks." I replied sincerely, my voice a little wistful. Sheppard's voice sounded confused,
"For what?" he asked.
"I've never of seen the stars up close." my reply was simple and short but it made Rodney groan,
"Would you two stop flirting for gods sake." I gasped a little, feeling my cheeks heating up,
"We are not flirting!" me and Sheppard snapped defensively in unison. After that we fell silent for a good five minutes, though it felt like hours, until finally we saw a jumper coming into sight. Our radio's crackled and Lorne's voice came over the radio,
"Colonel Sheppard sir, I hope that's you and your team out there in those suits." Sheppard sighed in relief,
"Yeah Lorne it's us, don't suppose we could hitch a ride home could we?" he asked. Lorne replied with laughter and manuvered the jumper so he could open the hatch and scoop us up inside, after the door shut and it was safe, we took the suits off again and for a moment, I caught Sheppard's eyes. He smiled and gave me a nod of approval, his way of telling me I'd done good today, and a soft smile graced my own face in return. Rodney walked past and groaned as he collapsed into the chair,
"So flirting." he grumbled as I rolled my eyes and sat next to him,
"Let's take a look at that shoulder you, and I suggest you stay quiet because this could be more painful than necessary if you open your mouth again." I threatened.