Hello, Stargate fans!

First, thank you for your reviews!

Second, we all know what happens in this episode. So, here's just two simple moments.

(Like I said in the first chapter: I'm not here to write the entire episodes, just small moments (or big ones) between my OC and the characters we already know and love.)

Chapter 17: Episode 4x09

Location: Earth, Cheyenne Montain Complex, Alexandra O'Neill's Office

"You cannot let Jeanie die."

Simple words as John's hazel eyes fell on Alexandra, who had come with the chosen Wraith from Atlantis. She had been pacing for the past few minutes, in silence, considering all their options at the situation in hand. But, truthfully, it was slowly driving him insane.

"What is it that you want me to do?" He asked, quietly, seeing the moment she stopped and turned to him. Her brown eyes looked as if they were trying to pierce his soul. "Are you going to offer yourself as a sacrifice?" He asked in a clipped tone, his jaw ticking for a moment.

The scientist sighed, being her most pacient self. "Three years and Dr. Beckett haven't found any way to sustain a Wraith?" Alexandra was still going over everything she knew about that Pegasus race.

"No. He could have been close, but… He died." John frowned at the memory.

Frustrated, Alexandra leaned against her desk, placing a hand on John's shoulder. She wished she could do something for him. For Rodney.

"If only people would stop asking around, snooping about things that are not their concern… The Trust. TMD. Geez!" Alexandra could see the quiet anger simmering inside of him. "Rodney will hold a grudge on you. He won't say it or be angry at you. He's logical that way. But you're the one giving the order, John."

"Don't you think I don't know that? I know how he is..." The pilot said lowly. Then he turned his eyes up to her. "Maybe I can… use somebody else." He stood and walked out of her office.

"What do you mean?" The scientist frowned and followed him out. "John? What are you thinking? Talk to me."

The pilot stopped in front of a door. The door where Henry Wallace was. And then she realized.

"No. You can't." Alexandra grabbed his arm. He was not looking at her. "John, you can't. It will weigh on you. You won't forgive yourself. It's a life nonetheless."

"And? He's not innocent in this. Besides, I'm just going to talk with him."

"And say what? There's a Wraith here that needs feeding? That can save the woman he condemned to death?"

When he turned to her, his eyes shown a decision made.

"Alex, I cannot do nothing." John was serious, too serious, with a darkness she hadn't seen before. "Besides, it's his fault Jeannie is like that. Like you said, he condemned her." Alexandra let go of his arm and he almost took his decision off the table. "I…"

"Don't apologize." She interrupted him, her own eyes serious now, shoulders tense. "It's your decision. Your responsibility."

The pilot lips turned into a thin line as he turned to the door and felt her leave his side.

Eventually, John found her in the mess hall, a couple of days later. He didn't regret his decision, but somehow he felt like he had been avoiding her because of it. Of course, he had seen Alexandra visit Jeanie in one of the times he had been at the infirmary bay to do the same, but he felt phisically unable to interrupt their moment.

He knew he had to face her at some point, but in that moment the Colonel took another one to just watch her. Somehow, she looked quieter than usual, reading her book, eating her breakfast.

"Morning."

Her brown eyes looked up at him. There was no judgement, just like the other day. He had expected it and found unsettling when he found none for what he did.

"Morning, Colonel."

"Alex…" In a second, he was sitting in front of her. "Listen…"

"I'm not angry at you, John." Alexandra merely said before turning her eyes back to her book. "It was... just different seeing you make that kind of decision. And I know you had to make some hard ones in the last few years."

The pilot stared at her surprised at those words.

"Why not? Why are you not angry?"

Alexandra shrugged, still not looking at him. Then, her book was gone as he took it from her hands.

"Why are you not angry? Upset? Judging me?"

"Who am I to judge you, John? Rodney is from your team, he's your friend and you did what you could to help his family. You saved his sister. You should be at ease with your conscience. After all, Wallace was a bad man."

"You're an Ancient, so…" The words came out before he could think clearly.

"Don't call me that." There was an edge to her tone all of a sudden.

"You didn't interfere in my decision. Isn't that what they do?"

Alexandra stared at him, surprised by his words, reflecting on them. She took a deep breath.

"Is that what you wanted? That I would interfere? That I stopped you?" She frowned, curious, not only for his answer, but for her own lack of interference in that matter now that he put it into words what she had done without thinking.

"No. I would have done it either way."

"Then, why are you saying this? You want someone to redeem you?" The scientist watched him stop and be quiet. "John, is that what you want?"

"I did exactly what he did. I took a life."

"You saved a life." Without thinking, Alexandra's hand found his on the table. "You saved an innocent life. Wallace was the guilty one. He put Jeanie in danger. He was ready to kill her for his own purposes."

Hazel eyes found brown ones. John felt uncomfortable by her sudden gesture but at the same time it felt good. His shoulders relaxed.

"Now, stop being a brooding old man. You don't need my forgiveness or words of redemption." She took her hand from his but he caught it.

"Thank you, Alex." His thumb went over her knuckles, softly.

Alexandra nodded with a soft smile.

[Dr. O'Neill. Col. Sheppard.]

"Go ahead, Walter." John talked to the radio, his eyes not looking away from hers.

[Gen. Landry gave a go to dial the gate.]

"We'll be right there, thank you." Alexandra finished, finally taking her hand and her eyes from him. "Let's go, Sheppard. Work is waiting for us." She stood and took her duffel bag.

"I wish I'd be Rodney right now and stay a few weeks here."

"Yeah… Someone should abduct your brother, then."

"No one would want to abduct him. He would bore them to death in five minutes."

"So, you're the radical one, uh?" The scientist teased him and Alexandra could see that the banter was finally taking him out of his own thoughts and made him crack a smile.

Ps: Please do leave a comment! Thank you!