Chapter 47: Sergeant Pilkes

Alex had only been to the floors housing the Marines a handful of times. Mostly, to grab something with Greg before heading to training. There was an unwritten rule that the scientists didn't venture in that sector unless explicitly asked – so wandering through the halls looking for a familiar face was a little unnerving.

Especially since there were quite a few standing around with nothing better to do. And while none of them were hostile, there was an uncomfortable awed hush whenever he came near. On both familiar and unfamiliar faces.

They knew.

It was expected. Gossip flew like wildfire among the Marines. No doubt, as soon as someone started putting the pieces together, outlandish theories sprung up – and ended with him at the middle. Who knew who all had been witness to his broadcast to the Daedalus and they had no doubt spread the news from there.

Alex swallowed down his discomfort and strode forward through the halls with one goal in mind.

Sierra Squad.

More specifically, one Sergeant Pilkes. Because if there was anyone that Greg trusted with his life – it was Pilkes.

2257.

2259.

2261.

The door was already open – a clear signal that the squad was open for visitors. Alex still rapped his knuckles on the doorframe, catching the attention of whoever was within.

And his luck held out for once, because there Pilkes was, lounging on his bunk with a datapad, during what was clearly some of his very precious downtime.

"Alex!" Pilkes sat up and set the datapad aside. He gave Alex a thorough once over. "You're looking well."

Alex gave him a tight smile, before shrugging a shoulder. "I've had worse."

"Thought Dr. Beckett was going to make you a permanent resident in the infirmary soon." His smile dimmed as he caught sight of Braxton and his posture changed from relaxed to military alert. "Sir." He made a second check of the door. "No Lieutenant Simmons?"

And fuck military protocol. He was never going to get anything out of Pilkes if Braxton was in the room. "No, got an upgrade." Alex bit out, before turning back to Braxton. "You can wait outside."

The chance of Pilkes being the missing operative was infinitesimally small – after all, if he hadn't passed the first round of checks, there was no way Braxton would have allowed them in the same room.

"I'm supposed to keep you within eyesight."

Alex squinted at him. "And what if I have to piss? Going to keep staring at me then?"

Pilkes opened and closed his mouth, clearly biting back words that were to tell Alex to respect his superiors, before realizing that it was a losing game. Braxton's captaincy didn't scare Alex. It was just another title that didn't matter when he was outside of the military hierarchy.

Braxton narrowed his eyes at Alex. "Nice to see you haven't changed."

"Nice to see you still need a good kick in the pants. Out."

Sure, it was probably best to not antagonize the one of the few people who didn't seem to currently have it out for him, but Alex knew he was working on limited time. There was only so much time before Daniels ran out of patience and shipped Greg back to the SGC – and then it would all be over and out of their hands.

"Five minutes, and the door stays cracked." Braxton said, stepping back through the doorway.

"Yes, mum." Alex sniped, hardly waiting for the man to get fully through the doorway, before thinking the precise directions to the door. A crack could mean only a millimeter, after all.

"What the hell, Alex?" Pilkes stared at him, eyes nervously darting toward the now closed door. "Who pissed in your cheerios this morning?"

"We've got some… history." And it turned out that he wasn't quite as over the bullshit of SAS training as he had thought. Alex resisted a shudder.

He really needed to find a new therapist.

"With the Captain of an ex-SAS team?" Pilkes asked, incredulously.

So, it seemed that that gossip had flown as well. Alex shrugged again, because this really wasn't the time or place.

Pilkes waved him to have a seat on the edge of the bed and really, Alex was grateful. While he had paced the infirmary numerous times, this was still the most he had been on his feet in over a week. It wouldn't do to overdo it on the first day.

Alex let out a long sigh, before deciding to just jump into it. "What happened when we got separated in the halls?"

Pilkes blinked at him curiously, looking startled by the sudden topic change. "Got zatted. The flashbomb was enough to distract them, but I needed more firepower than I had." He rubbed at his temple, grimacing. "They were invisible; got me in what, thirty seconds? Less?" Which, was a pretty poor showing for the elite of the city. But they had also been up against technology they had no access to themselves. "Next thing I knew, I was with the Colonel and the others. The goa'uld was gloating and you were presumably in the midst of becoming our savior." He tried for a quirk of his lips, but it fell flat.

They both knew what had come next.

Alex chewed on his lip for a moment, contemplating. It checked out. Everyone responded to the zats differently, but even the shortest out period he knew of gave more than enough time to progress from the sectors up to the tower. Though they would have had to lug a dead weight the entire way since the transporters weren't working.

Of course, why they had moved him and not just killed him…

"And they didn't say anything about Greg… or me?"

Pilkes regarded him curiously. "She was after you."

Alex waved it away. "No, I mean… One of her minions implied that he knew where I had stashed Greg." Because why would they know that? Why would they have had access to that particular piece of information unless someone had told them explicitly.

"No…" Pilkes shook his head carefully. "A couple were sent specifically to look for you, but… nothing about Greg. Or where you had been. I'm not even sure they had access to the systems."

No one should have had access to the systems – that was part of the reason Alex had gone all the way to the chair room. Once the city-wide lock down had engaged, there was very little that could be done, without direct authorization. Unless they had someone manning the system from the gate room – and they hadn't, that console had been suspiciously vacant – there was no way they could have tracked his movements.

Which meant that the chronicling would have had to happen after the invasion was over.

"Did anyone from our side show up in the gate room? Aside from Woolsey and Madsen?"

"A couple, but Director Daniels already picked them off—Alex, what is this about?"

"Some… evidence has come to light that isn't painting Greg in the… best picture. B-Daniels thinks he's a spy, but I don't—"

"Woah, wait." Pilkes held up his hands, looking alarmed. "Are you sure you're supposed to be talking about this? What if the wrong person overhears?"

Alex clenched his fists. "They're going to send him back to the SGC – I know it."

"Sheppard wouldn't—"

"Well, too bad Sheppard's not in charge right now." Since it seemed he was still playing second fiddle to Daniels and Lorne. Totally useless. What good was being the son of the second in command, if the second in command wasn't about to throw his weight around. "Look, someone is trying their damndest not only to stalk me, but also to throw Greg under the bus, because no one else can fit the description."

"Why Greg?"

"Who else had access to—"

"No, no, no. Don't tell me the details. Plausible deniability." Pilkes sighed, before fixing Alex with a steady gaze. "Why do you think they're focusing on Greg?"

Alex clenched his fist. "I don't know, because he's the only person with me throughout the day?" He didn't think it made any sense. Everything on the server was circumstantial – no clear signal as to its purpose, good or bad. It just looked awfully bad, spying on his every movement, with access to top secret information. Miraculously, he hadn't found any sign of their highly secretive Christmas conversation.

"And this… evidence. You think it's bad enough that he'll get sent back to the SGC? But you don't agree? You've seen it?"

Alex bit back a bitter laugh. "it's a highly guarded server, hidden in a shell update server. Greg doesn't have that kind of technical knowhow. He's lucky to navigate to the movies server the officers set up!" No doubt if it hadn't been what it was, Rodney would've been privately impressed at how long it had gone unnoticed. But Alex couldn't wrap his mind around even Rodney going along with this… farce.

It couldn't have been Greg.

"Okay."

Alex blinked. "Okay?"

Pilkes got up from the bed and made a come-hither motion. "So, let's go talk to Sheppard. Because clearly there's something else you haven't thought of." He pulled open the drawer next to his bunk, pulling out his service weapon and holster. "Come on."

Alex stared at him for another long moment, before getting up. He highly doubted this was going to achieve anything – except perhaps get him remanded to quarters. Perhaps get Pilkes in trouble too. But maybe… maybe they would at least be able to get Sheppard to see sense.

Sheppard was surprisingly in his office. Less surprising though was the resigned look on his face when Alex and Pilkes entered his office. "Are you here to join the long list of Marines campaigning that Lieutenant Simmons should be released immediately?"

Alex jerked back. "What?"

"For a navy rat, he's pretty popular." Sheppard shook his head ruefully, before tapping a thumb on his data pad. "I have a stack of messages purporting his good character and utter inability to do wrong. And here I thought you would be behind this…"

Alex shook his head. "I just went to find Pilkes."

"Sergeant."

"Sir."

Sheppard pinched the bridge of his nose, before letting out a long sigh. "Is there anything I can say that would convince you I am doing my best here? I'm not just hanging one of my men out to dry."

Alex's shoulder drooped. He was so used to having to do everything on his own – case in point, see the entire invasion – having someone on his side for once was… strange. "Then why are you so focused on Greg?"

"We're not. There's more than just the server." Sheppard gave him a pointed look. "Which I know you accessed."

"Not like Rodney hid it."

That earned him an incredulous deadpan stare. "Lieutenant Simmons is cooperating fully with the investigation. I don't think you have anything to worry about. Daniels doesn't think it was Simmons either."

"What? Then why-?"

"Because there's an unknown element on this base and we need to make sure everyone is safe." Sheppard made a sweeping gesture at the room around them. "Have you forgotten that we haven't even finished dealing with the pervious unknown element?"

Which, fair.

Pilkes cleared his throat. "Sir," Pilkes took a step forward, head tilted curiously. "Is Director Daniels trying to use Lieutenant Simmons to draw out the originator of this server?"

Sheppard snapped a finger in his direction. "Exactly. Now, do I agree with it? Do I think it could do more harm than good? Perhaps." He jabbed a finger at the datapad. "Of course, all the good reports I'm getting about Lieutenant Simmons makes me wonder if we've really given him enough responsibility, but…"

Alex sagged. Sheppard didn't think the worst of Greg. Sheppard was on his side. "So, what now?"

"Now? We wait. They'll make a mistake eventually."

"Or they already have," Pilkes observed. "Perhaps the fact that Dr. McKay found the server was the first mistake? After all, a server that large, with that kind of drain on resources, should've been found a long time ago."

Alex turned slowly to stare at Pilkes. "I… didn't tell you that." In fact, he hadn't told Pilkes anything more than it was a server – Pilkes had stopped him. Nothing about the size. Or the how resource heavy it should have been. Only that Greg didn't have the technical competence for it.

But… Pilkes did.

There was the slightest stiffening of his posture, as the words seemed to sink in. "No, you didn't."

A/N: Ooohhhh… What do we have here? More betrayal? By someone Alex is close to? Or is there a logical explanation? And is Greg actually innocent? All the questions…

Sorry that I dropped off the face of the earth. Work laptop went kaput and all my mental energy has gone into dealing with what was lost and not saved to the cloud. Backup your work, y'all. I've got a work trip in a couple weeks, so no promises, but I will try to get another chapter out at that point.