Hello, Stargate Lovers!

Happy Friday! Hope you are doing well!

Happy weekend!

So, with nothing much to say so... Enjoy!

Chapter 34: Chapter 5x02

"He's coming down." Amelia looked up at Liet. Colonel John Sheppard that had approached the command area.

All personnel approached and stood in attention as a white light appeared near the balcony and Richard Woolsey appeared, already in his dark grey uniform, and the red of his station, coming down from the Earth ship Daedalus.

"Mr. Woolsey, welcome back." John stepped closer to the new Atlantis commander and shook his hand.

"Thank you, Colonel." Woolsey cleared his throat. "Well then..." He looked around and then settled once again on John. "I think I'll start by going over copies of all your latest reports. Yours as well, Doctor." He turned to Rodney briefly.

"What, right now?" Rodney was surprised.

"I've been out of touch on the Daedalus for three weeks. I'd like to be brought up to speed as quickly as possible. We can have a full briefing in the morning. Alongside Dr. O'Neill that will be down shortly, per my request." Woolsey started to walk in direction of his new office. "Please have the rest of my things sent directly to my quarters."

"Yes, sir." Amelia answered, giving a look towards her commanding officer.

"It was a nice speech. Very inspiring." John said, with a quirk of his brow.

A couple of hours later, Alexandra got beamed down into the city, after finishing her full report on what had happened in Ba'al's trial. She smiled towards Chuck and some of the other personnel present in the room and that were welcoming her back with a smile.

For a moment, Alexandra had a feeling of coming home that she wasn't expecting and it felt good. She enjoyed it.

As she left the transporter at the personal quarters area, she was greeted by several expedition members that had become friends over the course of the last year.

Suddenly, the unmistakable laugh of Ronon Dex, as well as Teyla's, was heard from the common room, making Alexandra stop by the entrance.

"Hey, doc!" Ronon immediately spotting her as she entered his line of sight.

"Hey, Ronon!" Alexandra ler her bag fall to the floor.

"Glad to be home?" Teyla asked as she saw her friend step closer and lean forward to look at baby Torren.

"I am, actually. Tired of being stuck on a ship with Woolsey. How is the little guy?"

"Perfectly healthy. You should hear him." John said as he entered the room. "I thought you had abandon us." He said playfully as he sat down.

"I thought about it." She said mischievously. "But then I thought you would get in too much in trouble with Woolsey if I wasn't around."

"I'm sure Ronon would behave…" John mentioned.

"Hey!" Ronon bumped his leg.

"I wasn't talking about him, Sheppard." The scientist smirked, sitting by his side, at the same time Teyla passed Torren to her, carefully.

Alexandra snuggled Torren, who just stared at her as she kept talking. She smiled softly at him at the same time.

Looking at her, John smiled and bumped her shoulder, softly.

"I'm glad you're back. I'll have a partner to train that won't kick my ass everytime. And, you're right, I'll probably need a buffer against Woolsey."

"See? Told you." Alexandra looked back at him knowingly. "I got your back, Colonel."

"Good."

There was moment between the two before Torren made himself known, interrupting them, and both looked down at him.

"You're lucky you're cute, buddy. I would be jealous otherwise. Always ogling the ladies now."

Teyla snorted, shaking her head.

"Right. Because you don't do the same." Ronon commented.

"Well, not all of them…" The pilot grumbled lowly as he stood. However, Alexandra heard it and frowned. "Early wake up call. Woolsey wants a meeting, guys."

"Yeah. He wants me there too. Not sure why, since Rodney is the head of the department."

"He wants all of us there." Teyla mentioned, standing and returning Torren from Alexandra.

"Then, everyone should head to bed." John ushered Ronon out, who smirked and waved goodnight at Alexandra, followed by Teyla.

Alexandra was about to get her bag when John got there first.

"Thought you were heading to bed." The scientist looked at him as he walked ahead with her bag.

"Your quarters are close to mine, so…"

"Such a gentleman, Colonel." She teased him.

John looked to the side with a smirk, catching her own.

"Woolsey gave you too much to do on your way here?"

"Well, he did wanted to know everything from the past year. And I mean everything. In detail. And, then, I had to finish my report on Ba'al's trial... It was a strange affair. Ba'al was a strange Goa'uld, to start with, and he kept saying we would regret what we were doing, things would soon change..."

He smiled, hearing her babble. It was good having her back. He had missed her.

"Listen..." He stopped in front of her quarters and he saw her turn to him with a slight frown. "We should talk about what happened in the future."

"I've read the file already, on the way here." Alexandra frowned, opening her door and seeing him place her bag inside. "Is there something I missed?"

"Or something I didn't mentioned." Turning to her, John straightened and looked at her questioning look, placing his hands in his pockets.

"Like what?" Alexandra raised her brown, curious.

"Like…" John took a step closer to her.

"Doc!" Evan Lorne interrupted them as he passed by the scientist quarters.

"Hey, Evan! Up and about, I see." She looked at her friend.

"Yeah. The fracture was not that bad after all."

John looked between the two, slightly annoyed.

"I'll let you two catch up." He said, leaving her quarters.

"Wait, John!" Alexandra went after him. "What were you going to tell me?"

"Tomorrow. I'll tell you tomorrow." The pilot rubbed behind his ear.

"Okay. Lunch, then." The scientist smiled. "Have a goodnight."

Watching her go, John frowned at what he felt upon being replaced so easily at Lorne's arrival and, at the same time, on how her smile made him feel.

"Good morning" Alexandra smiled, entering the conference room and feeling a familiar ache of missing her missions with SG-1. Especially, after her little adventure through time. However, looking around, she was truly happy to be back with her friends. Even though the table was new.

Immediately, she went for the coffee table, and John handed her a cup of tea.

"And here I thought you would forget." She half whispered.

"Never." John gave her a soft smile, seeing her leave his side to sit on one of the chairs as he got ready his own cup of coffee.

"I don't get it. I thought Col. Carter was doing a good job." Ronon started.

"I agree. We defeated the Replicators, we thwarted Michael's plans, and the Wraith are in a state of disarray. All of this happened while she was leader of Atlantis." Teyla continued.

"That's the problem. She's a victim of her own success." John explained. "Now that the threat level is down, the I.O.A is going to jump at the chance to put a civilian back in command."

"Well, it's not just that. I mean, Sam didn't exactly stick to protocol." Rodney mentioned with a tone of respect.

"Neither did Weir." Ronon added.

"Right, so for four years, they've been waiting to get someone in there who'll finally do things their way." The scientist continued.

"Hence, Woolsey." Alexandra intervened, placing her tablet and notebook on the table and waited for the new commander as they kept talking.

And continued to talk as Woolsey went through the various reports on the table.

"And, Dr. O'Neill?"

"Yes?" Alexandra answered, as she hadn't taken her eyes of the older man, always listening carefully to the words he gave to every member around the table, that was now currently looking at her. The I.O.A. always had a knack to ruin what was good and worked well.

"You'll be leading the linguistics department. There's too much areas we still haven't touched since Dr. McKay often goes offworld. So, I would like for you to lead it, since you're an expert on the Ancients and have experience given your partenership with Dr. Jackson."

"Are you sure, Mr. Woolsey?" She looked briefly at Rodney, who had frowned. "I'm sure Rodney has everything under control. I'm more than happy to keep being under his leadership."

"I am sure, Dr. O'Neill." And Woolsey's word was final.

"Hey. Are you okay?"

Briefly, Alexandra looked up to see John enter her office a couple of hours later.

"Yes. Why do you ask?" She frowned.

"Leading a department in Atlantis… That's big."

"Yeah. I was not expecting it. At all. Not even my uncle gave me a heads up." She moved around the room, tidying up the place after all significant artifacts found by other teams had landed on her table over the weeks she had been gone. "I just hope Rodney isn't too upset."

"He's not. Was caught off guard, but he'll get over it." John shrugged, not giving too much importance on the matter.

Alexandra smiled at the colonel's reassurance, but still not over the fact that she was leading a department.

"Do you need something? I'm going offworld in thirty minutes to check on a site. We'll have to rescheduel our lunch."

"It's fine. Just wanted to make sure you were okay." John watched her pack her bag.

"Talk later, then?" She looked at him as she went by him.

"Yeah. Alex?" He waited for her to turn around. "Be careful."

"Always am. Later, Sheppard!" She yelled as she walked away with a wave of her hand.

[How is everyone, Teyla?]

The athosian looked at the screen.

"They all have the pathogen. So do you. You better stay in isolation."

[I should be there. Perhaps I could help since I have the Ancient gene.]

"Alex, we are all fine. Carson is working on something to counter act on it. And you having the gene is probably the reason it hasn't manifested yet."

[You're right. At least, what Jennifer did with Carson worked. I'm glad he's working on the case.] The scientist sighed. [John must be loving to be in quarantine.]

"He's not pleased, that's for sure. I have to go, Alex. Once we know more, we'll contact you."

[You do that, Teyla. And be careful.]

"I will. You too."

The gate shut down.

Hours later

"Could you stop ending up in an infirmary bed?"

John looked up from his tablet. She had a look on her face as she crossed her arms and entered the medical ward.

"When did you arrive?" The pilot put the tablet down.

"A few minutes ago." Alexandra approached his bed. "Woolsey doesn't know it yet. Don't tell him." She had a conspirational smile on her lips and he enjoyed it very much.

The pilot zipped his lips with a smile.

"I heard you drove a jumper into Jennifer's quarters."

"I did. I needed to act fast."

"And get yourself killed in the process." She was trying not to show how upset she truly was after hearing of what he had done.

"It was the best option." John said with a final tone, slightly annoyed. It wasn't the first time she condoned him for his actions.

"I know. I just wished you would stop doing that. It's nerve wrecking."

"Nerve wrecking? I'm doing my job. I'm protecting my people."

"Fine. I give up." Alexandra held her hands up in surrender and a roll of her eyes. "I think you just like being pampered by the nurses." She tried to make a joke.

"Hm..." He almost nodded, if it wasn't for the half smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Alex, is everything alright?" He looked closely at her, worry etched in his tone as he tried to sit up more comfortably as if to get closer to her, even if she wasn't an arm's length away.

"Yeah. I'm fine." She shrugged. "I have to go and brief Woolsey, anyway." She stepped away.

"Wait." With a slight frown, he saw her turn around, curious. "Is everything alright between... us?"

"Of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

"I don't know. It's just... Well, you just came back and you seem... off."

"I'm fine. We're fine, John. I promise. I think it's just the whole leading a department thing." Alexandra gave him a smile. "You had a big day so... sweet dreams, flyboy."

"You too, doc." He gave her a quick smile.

The scientist nodded and walked away. Why did he had to be too observant sometimes?

Well, she had to be honest with herself and say that she had missed him back on Earth and going through time with Cameron and Samantha didn't help her feel any different. Or at ease with her own feelings. And the thing was, even if she wanted to deny it, or hide it, she felt something for him.

So, on the way back to Atlantis, she acknowledged her own feelings and accepted them. Which helped a little bit, even if he had the tendency to make life threatening decisions.

And what about him? She knew he felt something, but was it real or fake? Her powers were growing but getting inside his head to seek for what she needed to know and be sure, was still far from what her current abilities could do.

However, Alexandra knew they would have to talk.

Soon.

Ps: Thoughts?