Interlude One – Conquered Earth

Henry Hayes, President of the United States and the so-called ‘leader of the free world’ was watching the invasion of his world from the Oval Office. He had Kinsey tied to a chair at the back of the room and had even taken the time to tie a big red bow onto the back of it. While the Ori might not get the joke, it was making him feel better. If God were kind, the vicious part of himself hoped, he would get to see what happened to him before the Orici dealt with him.

There were very few people left in the White House and most of the ones who were left were the single and or childless sorts who had no one else. They had all been offered a chance to go, but had stayed behind, each of them offering their place to someone else, to allow another family member to be saved. He was deeply humbled by the courage his people had shown. Everyone else, everyone he could save, down to the Presidential chef and the First Family had been sent to the SGC to be safe. O’Neill had let him know when they had gone through the gate to Atlantis. It had taken a huge load of worry off his mind when he had heard that.

Bomb after bomb fell on some of the most strategic areas on the planet, wiping out the bases of the major powers. Russia was crippled, wounded in ways that the Cold War doomsday planners had never dreamed. China had tried, but paid for their efforts with carpet bombs in Shanghai that killed most if not all of the twenty-three million inhabitants. They had gotten off some of their ICBM’s, but they did little good. Israel, Saudi Arabia, North and South Korea, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iraq and Iran, they all tried to shoot the Ori down. They all failed. Henry was keeping a tight hold on his ships and bases. There was no way he could afford to lose more than he absolutely had too.

When the sparkles of someone beaming into his office started, Henry sad back in his chair and just watched. There was no one in the room besides him and Kinsey and he was deeply glad of that now. His Secret Service Agents would have done their best to defend him, but they would have died and he knew that down to his bones. Died in vain at the hands of a mad woman and her army. Nine people beamed in. Eight in some form of armor and one woman who looked like every picture he had ever been given of the leader of the Ori. The Orici.

Stone cold sober, Henry looked insanity in the eye and laid it all on the line, “Madame Orici. I am Henry Hayes, President of the United States of America. I would say that I am pleased to meet you, but that would be an utter lie. What do you want?”

It was a struggle, but he kept his eyes and face calm as he watched the ‘woman’ in front of him react to his speech. For the most part, she seemed amused by his defiance, which he supposed was good and beat being killed out of hand. When she finally did answer him, it was pretty much what he had expected, and she was obviously very satisfied to be saying it. “We have taken this world. You and all the other Tau’ri will bow before the power of the Ori. Your new Gods.”

Henry watched over her shoulder as Kinsey turned a lovely shade of puce. The last time that particular color had shown up, Robert had gotten into spectacular screaming fit with the Secretary of State and it had lasted over an hour. So when he blew, the President just closed his eyes for a moment and tried to ride out the storm.

“There is no God, but Jehovah! We will not worship at false idols and God will smite thee for thy blasphemy! Repent sinner.” And it was on. Worse and worse with every word that dropped out of his mouth. Why hadn’t he gagged the stupid bastard?

Adria apparently had a shorter fuse than he did and Robert only got to full on rant for about five minutes before she had had enough. Henry was devoutly glad that he had a strong stomach, because there was not much left of Robert Kinsey, former Vice President of the United States when she was done. He had even felt a bit of vindictive glee at what his headache had gotten, but then came the guilt. He had set Kinsey up to die and there was no denying it.

Oh, well. The good of the many and all that rot.

When the Orici turned back to face him, Henry felt himself blanch at the sight of her eyes, but he stiffened his spine and met them. Dancing in their depths were flames. Flames that seemed to get bigger for just an instant and then banked themselves down to embers, while her face remained impassive, “What was that about?” she asked in a very sweet tone that fooled no one.

“That, Madame Orici, is a taste of how some of the fanatics we have on this planet will react to the coming of your troops. The most extreme are, by and large, unreasonably certain that their God is the only God, unwilling to bend to accept any other God and willing to die to prove that point. Moreover, there are several billion of them all over the planet in one form or another. In addition, there are people who aren’t as religious who are just as fanatical about their freedom to choose what they worship, if they worship and how they worship. There are seven billion people on this planet and most of the time, we can’t get along with each other, let alone worship the same thing. Imposing Origin will not go over well here.” Henry explained grimly. Laying it all out that way, Earth was not likely to make it through the rest of the day.

Adria said nothing as she stared at him, her eyes jumping with flares of flame and sparks. Uncomfortable with watching the fate of his planet be played out so silently, Henry turned his attention to the men who surrounded the Orici. They had been silent throughout the whole conversation and he could admit he was curious about them. Other than the odd armor, they looked normal, like the various members of the Secret Service he had seen on his detail over the years. One would think that aliens would look more like aliens.

He was watching the only blond in the room because he was the closest and well, if he was going to die, he might as well be watching something that freaked him out less than watching the pretty girl with flames in her eyes. What snapped him out of his funk were the voices of the anchors on CNN as they rose and fell in tired panic. Adrenaline, fear, excitement and at the start anticipation had been carried on those voices as the day had passed as the Ori fleet had moved over the planet. Flicking his eyes over the ticker at the bottom of the screen, Henry saw that the news agencies around the world were reporting sightings of alien troops in all the major capitols and cities around the globe.

It wasn’t quite ID4, but he had heard one of the anchors make the comparison several times during the day and he had winced then and he did now. He really, really hoped that Adria didn’t want to blow up the White House with a giant laser. That would really complete the utterly fucked up week he was having.

“Henry Hayes,” he snapped his eyes away from the TV and looked at the woman who held the fate of humanity in her hands. “You will stand beside me as the Ori take over this planet and dedicate it to the glory that is Origin. Right after we teach the Tau’ri a lesson in why you do not make war on us,” She declared with a hard and eager look on her face.

Horror churning in his guts, Henry looked at the TV and saw a live shot of Paris and the Ori Battlecruiser over it, releasing wave after wave of the devastating pulse that was the ships main weapon. It took only moments and Paris was gone. The view shifted as the anchors exclaimed in horror, trying to explain what the world had just seen and failing, Dubai and the tallest building in the world was now just so much slag. Islamabad, Pakistan was on fire and so was New Delhi, India. Moscow, Berlin, Sydney, Cape Town, Cairo, the pictures just kept coming. Honolulu, Hawaii, Los Angeles, California and Miami, Florida both burned along with Chicago, Colorado Springs, and finally the CNN studio lit briefly and then was gone. And that meant that New York was gone too.

“Come. We have things to do.” Adria, Orici and now the likely ruler of a crippled Earth moved out of the room. Henry followed her because he couldn’t do anything else and prayed that the people he had sent out with the SGC were strong enough, resourceful enough to find a way to eventually come rescue them. Because this was going to be a long, bloody conversion and he now had a front row seat to the whole thing.

God help him.

Picking Up the Pieces

Chapter Two

There are a lot of people who get hot under the collar at how we made the choice for the whole planet. Saying that our ethics were so bent that we were playing God and deciding who lived and who died.

They weren’t the ones who had to live with the sight of people being shoved through the stargate, wondering what they would find on the other side and mourning what they were leaving behind. They weren’t the ones who watched good men and women, when given the chance to leave, decide to stay because they believed that their duty was more important than their lives. Even if they did send their families out to us.

I can only pray, to a God I no longer fully believe in, that those people lived through the Ori bombardment and saved as many people as they possibly could. Because it is hard enough to live with myself knowing how many I saved. There are far more that I left to die.

General Jack O’Neill

USAF

18 Hours

Cheyenne Mountain

“General O’Neill? The Apollo has entered orbit.” Chief Master Sergeant Walter Harriman called out from his post.

“Excellent! Patch them through.” Jack called. He was packing his desk in an effort to keep his hands busy. The President had given them the go ahead to start pushing people through the gate and Danny had beaten the gun by starting with the non-essential people in the Mountain. Elizabeth was not going to be happy to see the amount of stuff coming her way.

“General O’Neill, this is Colonel Ellis. I have the sad duty to report the defeat of my ship and the fleet from Earth has been destroyed.”

Jack closed his eyes at the pain in his Colonel’s voice. “I know Abe. And I am sorry. But we have a new mission and there are things that need to be done quickly. How are your transporter arrays?”

The line was quiet for several heartbeats, and then there was the sound of a deep breath being taken. “Evacuation?” the question was breathed out on a horrified exhale.

There were times when Jack devoutly hated command and this was totally one of them. The Apollo and her crew deserved as much downtime as they could get, but there was no time for him to give. “Yes, Colonel. Evacuation. How are your arrays?”

One more deep audible breath and Abraham pulled it together. “Our arrays are fully functional and our crystal banks are undamaged. Apollo is standing by for orders, sir!”

Eyes closed against the heavy surge of grief, Jack nodded. “Please get in contact with Dr. Jackson to start the process of procuring evac supplies. Do you have McKay’s work around to the transporters to allow them to store their loads, not rematerialize them?”

“We have the change hard-wired into the transporter arrays as an option. We were the test-bed and still have the banks of blank crystal arrays hooked into the system.” Ellis said. His voice was carefully blank and Jack was aware enough to know that wasn’t a good thing in a ship captain.

“Excellent. All of the families associated with SGC members have been collected and will be sent through the Gate to Atlantis at the first opportunity. With Daniel being in charge of the evacuation, he will be sending everyone he can get his hands on at the first opportunity.” Jack scanned the list that Lam’s department had come up with for any Ellis’s. “Colonel, your wife and kids, with what looks like a cat and a dog are in the second wave to go out. They are holding in the SGC’s mess.”

Pretending that he didn’t hear the sigh of relief that came across the time, Jack packed another box of office supplies. “We’ll need to get some of our acquisition guys up with you so we can get everything that Daniel and his geeks have designated as stealable.”

“Yes, sir.” Ellis’s voice sounded a lot lighter, but still like he had been through the wars. Which to be fair, he had been. “Will we have enough room in the crystal memory for everything?”

“McKay designed this thing to allow us to do this. You have the super-sized test version.” Jack reminded the Colonel gently.

“Yes, sir. Apollo is standing by, ready for orders.” Ellis said smoothly.

“Goodman.” Jack softly praised. Turning to tap a few keys on his computer, he forwarded the evacuees list to the Apollo. They needed the morale boost.

~~

17 Hours

Gathering CSI

“Grissom.”

“Dr. Grissom, this is Dr. Carter. I have a message for you.”

Gil Grissom looked at his phone in concern. The last time he had spoken to the lovely lady on the other end of his phone, he had been examining a fascinating bug the size of a football. The three weeks he had spent at her site had been some of the most fun of his career. At the end of his three weeks, he had been given his pay, an additional NDA to cover all the other stuff he had gotten into and the knowledge that if the world was ever going to end, he would be getting a very distressing call.

Over the years since, he had done some consultation work for the SGC, but hadn’t had a reason to go back to Colorado Springs, so he hadn’t talked to Dr. Carter in person for a long time. “Dr. Carter! It is a pleasure to hear from you.” He said as he reached for the cricket jar to feed his tarantulas. “How can I help you today? Another bug to identify? Or are you doing a follow-up to that spider motion study you sponsored with the robotics group?”

Sad laughter came floating down the line. “I wish, Dr. Grissom. I dearly wish. I am sorry to ruin your night, but we are informing you that your option to be picked up is here. We’ll call back in three hours to collect you and anyone else you have with you. Please pack for forever, doctor. And leave the insects at home.”

Gil sat in silence for a moment before he shook himself out of his shock, “Please tell me this is a joke?”

“I can’t. Three hours Gil.” And the phone went dead.

~~

“Horatio Caine.”

“Lt. Caine, this is General Jack O’Neill.”

Horatio could feel a headache of migraine proportions come roaring up as he remembered where he had met the other man. “Please tell me that there isn’t another person with glowing eyes and a improbable passenger loose in Miami?”

“No. Worse. Remember the doomsday scenario my geeks and your geek played out played during our downtimes?”

It was the feel of the blood slowly draining out of his head and leaving him lightheaded that snapped Horatio out of his silence. Speed and O’Neill’s geeks had been talking about the end of the world and what would need to be done so the human race could survive. “I remember.”

“Well, we didn’t want it to happen, but a variation of it has. Three hours Horatio. Anyone you want to take. Pack accordingly and leave the suits.” O’Neill said grimly and then hung up the phone.

Horatio was moving before the handset had settled into the cradle. Three hours might not be enough time to get everyone. And to make his decision of stay and protect his city or go and protect all that was dear to him.

~~

“Lt. Mac Taylor.”

“Do they teach you guys to answer the phone with just your names when you go through the police academy? Or is it something that happens when you become a CSI?” the voice he had been expecting asked.

“No, Jack. We stop being polite when we become supervisors. I heard from Grissom and Horatio. I’ve already got the people I want to go getting ready. I just don’t know if I should. Do you know what is coming?” Mac asked carefully. He wanted to go, but his sense of duty was urging him to stay. Running away from his post, even if it was to another, was an anathema to him.

“You don’t ask the easy questions, do you Lieutenant? Right. If Earth is lucky, our guests will come in and just ask for humanity to bow down to them and worship them. If we are mildly unlucky, they will be impressive and bomb something from orbit and then demand worship. If things are bad, they bomb all the major population centers and demand worship with the edge of a sword. If we are totally fucked, they carpet bomb the planet and try to wipe humanity off this planet entirely.” O’Neill explained somberly.

Mac was silent while he wrestled with the options, the graduating horrors that his friend had laid out for him. “So by leaving, we are doing our best to keep humanity going?”

“Yeah. There are humans out there, in the stars, Mac. But they aren’t us, the mother world. We are one of the most advanced planets out there and if we fall, we are screwed on so many levels. But as to why you should go? Mac, I am shoving over ten thousand completely ignorant civilians through our escape hatch and as of right now, I have a total of eight cops. I need people who have seen the weird and dealt with it. Please.” Jack was trying not to beg, Mac could tell.

Ten thousand people and only eight cops. Mac realized that Jack couldn’t be counting Grissom and his crew and the Miami group. If he added in the people he had getting ready to his possible count, Jack would have at least twenty more cops. Not the best ratio, but a good place to start.

“We’ll be there, Jack. All of us.”

“Thank you.” Mac could hear Jack turn away from his phone and start barking orders as he ended the connection. He didn’t have a lot of time to get everything ready before his time was up.

~~

15 Hours

Cheyenne Mountain

It was one thing for Daniel to have put forth the option of stealing everything that wasn’t nailed down on the planet. But it was another to realize that he was actually doing it. Well, Mitchell was helping by keeping track of the supply lists, because Daniel was trying to make sense of the numbers of people being staged in a warehouse over at Area 51.

Too many people, too many questions that were being thrown at his people, too much stress that they couldn’t bleed off without causing more problems. He had had Nyan write up and print out a quick breakdown of what was happening, what was going to happen and what the people reading the flyer needed to do when they go to their new home. The flyer had cut down on a lot of the muttering coming from his people.

But they were getting ready to start moving people away from Earth. To start the evacuation of as many people as they could, because there was no way that they would be able to evacuate people by ship. Earth had one. One ship that was doing its level best to pick up everyone on the list of the ‘Tagged’, to pick up a planetful of supplies and maybe, if there was any free time, some of Earth’s treasure. Jack had let Vala pick what she thought would be a good thing to take. Daniel was certain she was having a lot of fun and committing theft on a vast scale.

Tapping his radio, Daniel checked in with Sam to see how she was doing in stripping Area 51 of all the things that the SGC had stored there. “Sam? Do we need to start the process of physically saving more stuff?”

“I don’t know. There are a lot of things here that I am not too comfortable being stored the crystals. That damn mirror for one. And a lot of Ma’chello’s stuff is still here too. We have no idea how that will take being stored as patterns in a buffer. God, were we magpies or what? I have a whole room full of glittery crap from the various Goa’uld we dealt with over the years.” The disgust that laced her voice, and Daniel was briefly amused at the thought of what her face looked like.

“I bet. Make sure that we bring it all. You never know when you need to be really, really gaudy for some diplomatic function. How about the records of stuff that we sent over?” he asked.

There was a frustrated blow of breath as Sam obviously moved onto the next item on her list, “I got those first. Anything that was recent, had to do with the Ori or the Ancients got sent up first, I am poking through the storerooms to see if there are any specific things that need to be taken up separate and stored in the one dangerous vault on the Apollo. Like that damn Quantum mirror.”

“It wasn’t destroyed? I thought General Hammond ordered it to be destroyed that?” Daniel asked. Most of his attention was on the tablet computer in his hands. Nyan had passed it to him with a section highlighted and Daniel was reading through it quickly. Weapons? Weapons were not his forte, but he had handled enough to know that they needed guns and bullets and all sorts of other goodies that he used every day. A quick tap brought up the active email program and he had scrawled a message to Jack asking what would be good to bring along. A further tap sent the note out and he passed the tablet back to his assistant. “Nyan, check with Mitchell to make sure we have everything we need.”

“What are you talking about, Daniel?” Sam asked. “Oh, General Hammond ordered it, but the scientists over here determined that if they did try to destroy that mirror, the amount of naquadah in it would blow a hole the size of Everest in the desert here. Not a good idea, so he had it packed up.”

“Sounds like a good idea, yeah. One of the armory guys is wondering about reloading rigs for our bullet supply. What do you think?” Daniel asked as he ran his finger down the next list on a new tablet.

“I think we will need every advantage we can get, and if reloading is an option, we need to pursue it. Done! Gotta go, Daniel. I need to get the Apollo to clean out these storerooms.” Sam said and then there was a quiet beep as the line closed.

Daniel barely noticed the closing of the line as he immersed himself back into the lists that he had assigned himself. There was too much to do and not enough time to do it.

~~

14.5 Hours

Cheyenne Mountain

“Madame Chancellor, Monsieur President, sir and ma’am’s. If you would walk this way?” Daniel asked as he escorted most of the cleared world leaders down to the Stargate. “We will be sending you to our Alpha Site, Icarus Base. They are prepared to take this opportunity to show you why we have the base there, what we do and what we are planning to do with it. Also as an added bonus, they have an X-302 program there, so if you ask, you might get one of the pilots to take you up.”

The leader for Germany gave Daniel and sardonic look at the mention of the X-3002. “Dr. Jackson, I have been in jets before. What makes this one different?”

Daniel didn’t break his stride as he continued down to the gate room. “The X-302, Madame, is a hybrid air craft developed by the US Air Force for use in both air and space. Which means that if you do desire to go on a flight, you would be able to take a trip out of the planet’s atmosphere, and into space.  If there is time, the pilot might also be able to take you on a tour of the solar system. I am told the Alpha site’s planet is very beautiful from space.”

“That does sound interesting.” The German Chancellor allowed. Daniel could hear several members of the politician herd talking and when he tuned into what they were saying, most of it seemed to be about the beaming process. Good.

The archeologist was quiet as he led the herd of politicians down to the gate level. The route he was taking them on was guarded by the Mountain’s security forces and every door along the way was shut and locked. If worst came to worst, he wanted a way to funnel crowds down and not allow anyone to wander away and get lost. Because while he knew that all the rooms were empty, he did not want the various dignitaries who would be using the route to know how stripped the SGC really was. It just would not be a confidence builder if the politicos knew how much the SGC through the Ori were going to win.

The turn into the Gateroom was quiet as the crowd behind him and Daniel swiped his card through the reader to quickly open the blast door. Standing aside, the archeologist waved his hand to get the people following him into the room. As soon as the last politician had walked into the room, Daniel turned his post over to one of the SF’s and let him keep the way open for the other men pushing the mountain of luggage their visitors had brought with them. If the Apollo had been in position to beam everyone, Daniel would have had them do it instead of his people. Oh, well.

Looking up at the control room, Daniel circled a finger at Walter to let him know to ready the dialing computer. Stepping up to the ramp, he looked over the faces of the people before him. “Ladies and gentlemen. You are about to go through the Stargate to another planet. The base there will look a lot like the one here. If you want to go to the surface, just like here, please ask one of the base personnel. They will be happy to take you up and let you explore the surface areas.

“You will feel a bit a bit of cold and disoriented when you after you exit the wormhole. It will pass quickly. Once you come out of the gate, please move away from it as quickly as possible, no matter how horrible you feel. We have a lot of you to get through the gate and your gear has to follow as well. Do you have any questions?”

One of the US Cabinet members raised a hand and pointed at the Gate. “How does that work and does it hurt?”

Didn’t these people pay attention to their briefings? “The Stargate is an Ancient transport method that produces a stable Lorentzian wormhole that can take you from one side of this galaxy to another. The whole thing takes about eight seconds. The trip doesn’t hurt, but the first few times are disorientating and you might be nauseous. It passes quickly.”

The older man nodded at the information and moved forward as if he wanted to be the first one through. “Sir, I would suggest that you stay behind the yellow likne. The backwash from the gate opening can dematerialize you.”

The other man stepped back again, face a bit grey as he made sure to be firmly behind the yellow line. The other people who had been standing close it also moved back and left plenty of room between them and the ramp. As soon as the last person was ‘safe’. Daniel waved at Walter and motioned at him to dial up the Gate as he moved to the side. The inner ring started to turn without the normal announcements, but each chevron clanked into place firmly.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, once you go through, please move away from the Gate. There will be people standing by to help. Walter?” The seventh clank of an encoding chevron clicked behind him and the Gate came to life with the familiar toilet bowl effect. From the way the crowd reacted, they had liked the show.

“We have the all clear from the Alpha Site, Dr. Jackson.” Walter’s voice came over the intercom, bright and clear.

“Understood.” Daniel said with a nod and waved at the SF’s he was sending out with the herd of politicians. All of them were good men, but…. They were much bigger ass-kissers than he could stand and he really did not want to deal with them on a day-to-day basis. For the crowd they would have to deal with though, they would be perfect.

The politicos, their families, guards and whatnots were streaming by now. Each of them were carrying some form personal bags. The German Chancellor stopped by Daniel and watched everyone go through, and then their supplies. As the last items were positioned for transport, she looked at him and asked, “Why there? Why not Atlantis?”

Daniel looked at her and thought about telling the whole truth, but decided to practice his discretion. “The last person to go through the Gate to Atlantis isn’t scheduled for another twelve or so hours, so we have time to reach a credible conclusion. This means that if we are over reacting to this threat, we will need to get you all back ASAP. If we are not over reacting, after the last person exists Midway, it will be blown so the Ori can’t take the easy route into the Pegasus Galaxy. The Apollo will pass by the Alpha site to pick you all up since you are on the way. Travel to Atlantis by ship takes three weeks by ship. I hope your people have something to read.”

Eyes lighter with understanding, the German Chancellor nodded and then walked up the ramp and through the Gate. Daniel was quiet as he watched the final people and things slated for the Alpha site head on through. Once the last of them had passed through and the power was off, he walked away muttering to himself. If anyone else had been there, they would have heard him saying, “The other reason you are going to visit the Alpha Site is because I couldn’t stand the thought of you all on Atlantis unsupervised.”

The words hadn’t had time to echo through the Gateroom before there was a flash of light and the Stargate was gone. Moved to a warehouse in Nevada, where it would be shuttling the ‘Tagged’ to their new home.

~~

12 Hours

Area 51, Nevada

“You know, when General O’Neill said that he wanted me to get everyone together to leave the planet forever, I didn’t think that forever was going to have a pit stop in here,” Tony complained lightly as he helped escort his fifth group of civilians to the Stargate for transport.

“Well you made Abby as happy as all hell.” Gibbs agreed dryly. His team had been issued some discreet radios and Gibbs had made certain that he was up on how to use them. They were much easier to use than the standard radios that they had been using for years through NCIS and he was happier with them too. “Horatio, have you got your batch of people ready for transport? This group is moving through a bit quicker than we were expecting.”

“We have them moving.” Horatio agreed. The five groups of police officers had met in a conference room all on their own and hammered out a chain of command. Gibbs had been nominated over his strong protests, but he had been the highest ranking Federal officer and Horatio, Mac and Grissom had called ‘Not it’ first. No one had even suggested that McGarrett get a chance to try for that.

Mac was his official second with Tony getting the expanded NCIS team, combining the LA and DC teams and putting Hetty in charge of Operations. Horatio had his team still and when they got to Atlantis, would be in charge of the combined labs. Three major crime labs that were now heading out and they had a lot of overlapping skills, so Gibbs was fairly certain that he was going to be in at least one meeting with Hetty, Horatio and Mac to determine where everyone would be. Grissom wasn’t likely to be with them on a daily basis given his specialty, but they would try to keep him. Actually, given how useful many of his people’s skill sets were, he could see a lot of loaning happening in the future. He would have to institute a firm policy about that so his people were returned.

However, before they could get to that stage, they had to get thousands of people through a giant donut that put out a dangerous back flush every time they turned the damn thing on. The lesson in that had been fairly graphic and the only good thing was it hadn’t involved anything living, just a crash test dummy someone had left out. Thankfully, none of the civilians had been in the warehouse when the demonstration had happened.

“G, McGee, Speed, Williams? What have you been hearing from the people waiting to come on through?” Gibbs moved on to the next item on his mental checklist. There were a lot of people waiting in various staging areas outside the warehouse and it was too much to hope that they would all be good with what was going on. General O’Neill had been very blunt in his list of possible enemies and their most harmless looking were wandering in and out of the crowds looking for anybody out of place. So far, they had come up dry, but better safe than sorry.

“Most of the people we are walking through are worried about where they are going and what will be happening here on Earth Gibbs. The few who haven’t been seem to be the veterans of the program and are talking it up. A lot.” McGee promptly reported.

“Agreed. Lots of nerves and crying kids, Gibbs, but very few incidences of bad behavior.” Williams chimed in.

There was no report from G Callen or Speed and Gibbs turned his attention to the people passing in front of him. Thank goodness for early childhood training, everyone was moving in orderly lines and they were actually quick about it. Horatio had actually dropped his group off before the other two reported. “Gibbs? We may have something for you. Some of the scientists from Japan and China are talking and from the tones, the discussion isn’t amiable.” Speed reported from where he was camped out with some of the scientist corps.

“Do we have anyone who understands both languages?” Gibbs asked.

“Not nearby.” Speed replied. “I’ll keep an eye on things, but you might want to send me some back up. My shoulder won’t take too much more damage and they two groups are eyeing each other like they want to start a new feud.”

“Joy. G? Are you free to head over by Speed?” Gibbs asked.

“Sure. I can head there. Right after I cuff the asshole in front of me. He wasn’t taking ‘no’ for an answer and the lady he was pushing is about to beat him to death.” Callen replied loudly. From the yelp that Gibbs heard through the microphone, he was certain that the ‘asshole’ was taken care of. And if there was someone like that cuffed and stuffed in a closet somewhere, he wouldn’t cry. There were things that he just didn’t’ want to deal with and men like that were one.

Overall, the whole evacuation thing was moving along and he was happy. Well, he would have been happier if the Ori had never come to invade, but still. He had a duty to try to keep people safe. And he was going to see it through. Once he got to the other side and had a room assigned to him though, he was going to get very, very drunk. Aliens? What in the ever living hell had DiNozzo gotten them involved in?

~~

Four Hours

Ancient Outpost

“General? The outpost is reporting that the Ori fleet is a bit over four hours out. Do we attack?” John Sheppard asked as he slid into the control Chair. He had managed to get everything he needed to get done in time and when the time for pickup had come, his whole family had been gathered around. They had gone to Nevada while he had been beamed over to the Antarctic Outpost. It was just as cold and unpleasant as he had remembered.

The scenery was a bit better this time though. One of the scientists who was ripping his way through all the information stored was a loud, vicious and very smart Canadian, which was really odd since John had thought that most of the people from that country were actually polite. He apparently had the ATA gene too and was working the Ancient equipment with ease and that was actually pretty cool. John had spent a good twenty minutes watching him decimate the scientists who had been stationed at the Outpost before heading to his duty station.

As soon as he had sat down, the status display came up and John relaxed into the grip of the equipment. The Apollo glowed in his new sight and the glyphs that he had learned meant Asgard flickered and glowed beside it in a repeating pattern. Watching it, John realized that he was watching the transporters working, moving and then in some cases, aborting in mid-stream supplies and people. The ZPM that was powering the whole insane thing was still glowing strong at 86%. A quick calculation showed that the ship would have enough power to maintain the stored supplies and still get out to Pegasus without going critical.

“Major. My name is Dr. Rodney McKay.” The obnoxious scientist had obviously finished berating his scientists and was now looking for a new something to distract himself.

“Doctor. I would shake your hand, but I am a bit distracted. What can I do for you?” John asked. Most of his attention was on passing the information from the Outpost to the Apollo and reviewing its weapons capabilities.

“Can you show us the schematics of the Outpost in a form that allows us to download the information? And all the information that is stored here about Atlantis?” There was a blur of orange by the main consoles and the sounds of someone tapping away at the Ancient computer.

John drew up the requested information and turned his attention back to the Ori. He didn’t have time to be distracted by a cute ass. Even if it was attached to a really interesting package. “General O’Neill, the Ori are slowing down. ETA is now five hours and counting. Do I engage?”

“Five hours?” General O’Neill asked. From the background sounds, John figured that he was somewhere on the Apollo.

“Yes sir. I have them within range and from the information I am seeing, I can take out at least six of the battlecruiser class ships.” John reported with a high degree of confidence.

“Hmmmm… If they get closer, do you think you can get more?” O’Neill asked.

There was new information streaming across what amounted to Chairs HUD that had to come from the Apollo. It looked like it was a report from the battle they had been in only a few hours before. A hasty review and John was certain that he and the Outpost would be able to take advantage of the new insights into the Ori battle strategy.

John nodded as he integrated the new insights into his battle plan. “Yes sir. If they advance to within another three hours travel, we should be able to take out a good dozen ships and increase the damage on the others to be even more extensive.”

“Major, while I have everything downloading, what can I do to help?” came the unexpected offer from the sea of orange.

“McKay? How goes the data harvesting? And what can you do to help?” the General asked.

“It is going about as well as we can expect, General. Thankfully, we have been moving information out of here for the last few years and the Major is letting us get the last few bits out of the main system. As for what I can do to help, I may be able to tweak the guidance program on the drones so the Major can let them do their thing without him needing to pay a lot of attention to them.”

Now that sounded promising. If there was a way that John could do this job and not feel like he was being divided into a billion pieces, he was all for it.

Apparently, the General agreed because all he said was. “Sounds good. Better get moving on that. O’Neill out.”

“Right. Major, think of where we are in the solar system and put a subtle ring around the Ori. I need to see how the system here reacts to aiming drones.” McKay commanded as he turned away.

John did as he was commanded and sank into the Ancient systems. Five more hours on Earth if things went sour. At least his family was safe.

~~

“Daniel! Is everything that you wanted in the databanks?” Jack asked as he ran down to the transporter room with Vala hot on his heels. All the main members of SG1 were already on board, the only people missing were Daniel and Mitchell and they were down at the SGC, doing something.

“We’re clear, Jack. Beam us out of here.” Daniel said calmly.

Goodie. “Ellis? Beam Dr. Jackson and Colonel Mitchell up please.” Jack requested as he turned the last corner to get to the dedicated spot for transports.

There was the normal flash of light, both men appeared, and they looked like shit. Neither looked like they had slept since the whole mess had started and from the trembles, it looked like they had been hitting the stims and coffee way too hard. Jack made his way over to Daniel and started herding him towards the med bay. Vala was right behind him, taking care of Mitchell. Good.

“What were the two of you doing?” Vala asked as the four of them squeezed into one of the elevators.

“Setting traps and arming the Mountain’s self destruct.” Daniel said simply.

Jack wasn’t surprised and nodded. Even if they had stripped out everything useful from the facility, it was still a target and it made sense to use it to get some of their own back.

The background hum of the ship deepened as the four of them made their way into Medical. From the feeling that he was getting, Jack knew that the Apollo was moving and moving quickly. Tapping his earpiece, he moved the open channel away from the inner-ship channel to the battle channel. It took him only a few minutes of listening while Daniel was checked in to come to a realization that was fairly depressing. The Ori were maneuvering to fire on the Outpost, they still had two people down there, and a ZPM that they could not allow to either fall into the hands of the Ori or be destroyed.

“Ellis, patch me through to Sheppard.” Jack demanded. As soon as he heard the hum of an open line, Jack started talking, “Sheppard, I need you to get the hell out of the Chair, set the self destruct, pull that ZPM and get ready for transport. Grab McKay while you are about it.”

“Yes, sir.” The Major responded. His voice was slurred and mostly vacant, but Jack could hear him moving.

“O’Neill, I pulled the ZPM and set up a naquadah generator in its place. It will keep a minimal cloak on this place for another hour or so. Colonel Ellis, can you beam us up? The Major needs some medical attention.” McKay demanded.

Another flash of light and McKay and Sheppard were standing before him. One irritated Canadian scientist supporting one really tried Air Force Major who was cradling a ZPM. The last of Earths official defenders had left. The planet was now on its own.

“Ellis, you have a go. Get us out of here.” Jack said quietly.

~~

Adria, the Orici, leader of the Ori watched as a Tau’ri ship moved out of orbit and then into hyperspace. From their heading, they were fleeing blindly, there was nothing in that direction that was important. Turning her attention to the planet below, she smiled. Time to teach the Tau’ri the power of Origin.

***

When the World Ends

My world , when it ended, ended not with a bang or a whimper, but with a great deal of confusion, miscommunication and a serious case of WTF?

No matter what we did, no matter how we tried to prepare, none of us were ready for that day. The guys at the SGC, the ones out on Atlantis, hell those of us who had just been tagged and told to keep our eyes open, we were clueless. None of us had it right. And when it all went to shit, all we could do was try to catch up.

There is a lot of stuff I regret about those two hours I had on Earth after I got my call. A lot.

Personal Diary

Anthony DiNozzo

NCIS

The screaming “WAKE UP!” of a cell phone that he kept on him at all times, but was not his official NCIS issued one woke Tony DiNozzo up out of the first sleep he had gotten in three days. It also woke his team up. They were hot on the tail of a Marine who had stolen his kid out of school and hightailed it to someplace unknown. Abby was crunching what evidence they had and until she came up with a clue they could use, Gibbs had let them sleep.

“Huh?” Two am was not the best time of his night.

“DiNozzo. This is O’Neill. Wake the fuck up,” growled an annoyed voice on the other end of the phone.

There were only two men on the planet who Tony would wake up and be coherent for without complaint. One was looking at him with a question on his face from his desk and the other was on his phone. Phone? Oh. SHIT. “General? Why are you calling me at 0200?”

“Remember when we told you that there might come a day when we would come calling? Well we are calling now. You have two hours to get your stuff together and gather everyone you wanna take. This isn’t a drill.”

He had heard of people feeling like they had a ball of ice in their guts, and had thought he had experienced it. This proved that he hadn’t. “Two hours? We can do that. We’ll be waiting”

“Good man.” Tony could hear the tired relief in the General’s voice. In the background, there were shouts and sounds of equipment and people being moved quickly to new locations. “Two hours. See you then.” And the phone when dead.

God. He wanted to puke. But… “Boss? I need you to trust me on this.” Tony said as he started dialing Abby. “We have two hours, less than that actually. More like an hour and forty-five. Go get everything you want to save and pack for a trip that does not include coming back here. Ever.”

Abby thankfully was still up didn’t ask him any questions as she had apparently gotten her own call from Colonel Carter. One less person to tell then. “Abby, tell Ducky and have him get here ASAP. Palmer too.”

“On it.” Was all she said. He could tell she wasn’t in the lab anymore, it was too quiet so she had to be heading towards her car. He wondered, briefly, if she was going to try to bring her coffin.

“DiNozzo? What is going on?”

“When you were in Mexico on your vacation a few years ago, Abby and I caught a case out in Colorado Springs. Ziva and McGee weren’t invited at the time, since their clearances weren’t high enough. Long story short, we got our perp, but we also go read in on a program that is insane. They gave us a parting gift, if ever the world was going to go to hell, they would do their level best to make sure that we and anyone we grabbed for the ride, would go with them. So I am asking the three of you to trust me and go home, pack for leaving forever and get back here in ninety minutes.” Tony explained as he grabbed his keys.

“But…” McGee tried to object, DiNozzo knew. One look at his face and he must have seen something that cleared everything up. Tony wasn’t playing any games now. “Ninety minutes? And whoever we can get here will come with us?”

The fear in his voice made Tony pause, “Yup. Your sister is here, right?”

“Yeah. She is.”

“Better wake her up then and have her start packing. Only what you can carry in normal bags and suitcases. Which means that typewriter yours is likely staying because I doubt that wherever we are going is gonna have someplace to get new ribbons.” And looking around, Tony saw that Ziva, who had said nothing to disagree with him, was already gone. Hopefully she would be back in time. Hopefully. Gibbs was heading towards the stairs and Tony took off after him. They were the faster method and he had wasted enough time.

~//~

16 hours

Thirty-two hours into the biggest clusterfuck of his career and all Jack O’Neill wanted was a beer, some peace and quiet and Daniel. He wasn’t going to be getting any of that anytime soon though.

Name after name of the ‘Tagged’ were being called and family grouping after family grouping was being beamed up to the Apollo and then back down to the SGC. To keep everyone as calm as they could, the largest space aboard ship not being used was co-opted and could be cleared was, the Mess. Thankfully it had enough windows, so none of their very temporary guests could say that they were lying.

The calls to his ‘Tagged’ covered the whole of the US. Hawai’i, LA, Las Vegas, Miami, Washington DC (no politicians allowed), New York. It was a hell of a diverse group, but he had been the one to work with all of the groups represented, so he got to break the news. Cops, CSI’s, Feds, lab monkeys and doctors. Professional skeptics, smartasses, and puzzle solvers. Jack had a horrible feeling that the refugees they were massing to shove through the Gate were going to need it.

Carter had left the contacting of her scientists to his team as well. She and McKay (and wasn’t he glad that surly bastard had been on Midway when they had started sending people though!) were busy making the insanity he was orchestrating actually work. Each group of the ‘Tagged’ was shoved through the Gate as quickly as they could be and if they could carry their gear, they did. Otherwise it got labeled and thrown through when the bucket brigades got to the pile. From last report, they had managed to empty out the SGC’s storerooms and were working on the crap that Daniel was finding.

For a man who was as upstanding, decent, and ethical as Daniel was, he and Mitchell were hell on wheels when it came to ‘stocking’ for their new reality. From the reports Jack had gotten out of Landry, the Terrible Twosome had managed to liberate warehouses of MRE’s, toilet paper, duct tape, coffee, dried and canned goods and many, many more things. Elizabeth had to be shitting bricks over what was being tossed through the Gate, but he didn’t care.

Vala Mal Doran was having a lot of fun with one transporter and was robbing everyone. Jack had turned over the ‘rescuing’ of cultural artifacts to her after listening to Daniel and his geeks during one of the monthly war games at the SGC. They had figured out a way to strip the planet of everything that would be needed in under twenty-four hours. He had accelerated the timetable to twelve thanks to McKay and his unexpected arrival. Jack blew out a breath of air and made himself a promise to actually thank the fucker.

“Danny? How goes the looting?”

“You do know I am really, really fucking busy, right? Mitchell? We need to find out where Sears, Penny’s, Levi’s, Carhartt and the like store their stock. Add in the underwear folks, socks and boots. I think that Miko can get us that information…” Jackson said to an obviously busy Cameron Mitchell if the distracted grunt he had heard in the background was any indication.

Jack was really very happy to hear that his buddy was thinking about underwear, because he wasn’t too sure how mu… “Danny! Don’t forget the stuff for Sam and Vala as well. I have to go and get the next group up and moving. Are we storing all of this stuff for transport or is it being moved to a physical location? The bucket brigades can’t move all that!”

“Right. Cam? Don’t forget the stuff for periods, bras and please God, raid Hershey’s too. We are using McKay’s transporter workaround. There are a LOT of empty warehouses all over the planet now.” Smug oozed over the airwaves and then the radio was off. Jack really, really hoped that Danny raided Hershey’s. Carter was dangerous without it.

Rubbing his hands over his face, Jack blew out another deep breath and looked at his list again. Time to start picking everyone up. Punching in a phone number, he took a deep breath and took his list back up. “Lt. Commander McGarrett? Is your team ready for pick up?”

Time to get back to saving what he could. Time to save people.

~//~

After the Sea Hawk he had gotten an apartment that was a lot smaller and miles closer to the Yard than his last one. With the smaller place had come downsizing. Tony now found himself oddly grateful that he had so much less stuff. All of his movies and TV show box sets were in flip cases, his music was on a huge IPod, he had backed up his computer files on a portable hard drive, so he could pack that and then there were all his practical clothes, the comfortable stuff, his bedding, a few pillows, his toiletries and he was done. Two super-sized suitcases, two duffels and his backpack. Looking over his apartment for anything that he forgot, he stopped at the pictures of his team and family. If he was never, ever likely to come back, those had to go to. Pulling the now irreplaceable bit of paper out, he carefully stored them in a book in his backpack.

One final stop in the kitchen yielded a partial bottle of bourbon, another of whiskey and two bottles of good vodka. Those got carefully places into various places in his luggage and so did a bottle of wine along with the contents of his spice rack. His Nonna’s recipe book went into the backpack too as did a full flask. He had a feeling he would need it. A quick check of his watch and it had taken him an hour to get this far. He carefully wrote out a letter to his land lord and lied, saying that he had been called away on a case, he would be back in a week or so. That would keep things calm on that front. He hope.

Car loaded, Tony started back to the Yard. He had one quick stop to make… There was a 24hour Safeway the way in. He was going to pick up some vacuum sealed coffee bricks. Because he wasn’t going to be a cast-a-way with Gibbs without some.

//

Steven McGarrett was quietly, competently, totally, freaking out. The call from General O’Neill had not been a welcome thing at all. Moreover, realizing what the call meant for his beloved Hawai’i was even worse. Thankfully, the call had come in the afternoon and they had a fighting chance to get everything together.

Chin and Kono had been the first two he had told. O’Neill had been very firm, friends, family and the stuff they could basically carry. Nothing more and there was no way he could bring the whole damn island. But he could slip out a warning by letting the Kalakua Clan know what was coming, and they would do what they could to keep at least some of them safe. From what Chin had said while he was packing, the Kalakua Clan had decided to hedge their bets and send some of their most vulnerable member off with his ohana. The thought was terrifying in ways that being a SEAL was not.

Right after he got through with Kono and Chin, Steve had tackled Danny. For the first time ever he had managed to shout down his partner and get him to listen. When Danno had left, Steve had prayed to whoever was listening that Rachel would be agreeable to coming along with Grace. He might not like her Britishness, but she was important to his partner and if there was no Rachel, that could mean no Grace. Which would mean no Danno. God.

It took him less than an hour to pack his life away. Thirty-five years and it all fit into some seabags, a half full trunk and his backpack. Not much of a life. The truck was running and it was the work of a moment to load it all up. A quick spin through the house and everything he wanted to save down to his dive gear was already packed. He really hoped that wherever they ended up had an ocean.

“Oh, God.” Steve put his head down on the Marquis stored safely under its tarp. He was taking his ohana to another planet. The Air Force was going to other planets; he was abandoning his home to whatever was coming down the pike and… “Suck it up, SuperSEAL,” he muttered to himself.

He didn’t have the time to have a breakdown yet. There was still too much to do. Pulling up the strength of will that had gotten him through BUDs, Lt. Commander Steven McGarrett looked at his family home one last time and then climbed into his truck and headed out.

“Rachel, we don’t have time for this. Steve said something big is going down and he wants everyone at H50 headquarters. Can you please skip whatever event you have with Stan and be there?” Daniel Williams asked as he quickly packed his belongings into two duffle bags. Steve had ‘suggested’ that he use those who anything that could be folded and stuffed and save the suitcases for the more breakable stuff. Since SuperSeal had done the whole packing thing a few times, Danny was willing to take it on faith. He had already packed all of the stuff he was holding for Grace, and he would get the rest of her stuff before he picked her up.

“No.”Rachel was absolute and Daniel could hear the steel in her spine snap too, “I will be perfectly safe from whatever bug has bitten Commander McGarrett and caused you to go along. The Governor’s Mansion is quite safe. Now you have Grace for the weekend, so you need to go and let the two of you get excited over whatever the Commander has planned.”

Eyes closed at the wave of proactive grief that washed over him, Danny listened as Rachel hung up and the connection die into a dial tone. When the phone began beeping at him, he pulled in a deep breath that sounded like a sob to his own ears and started packing again. Steve had said to pack for forever and Danny was taking him at his word.

When he slid into the seat of the Camero, Daniel Williams was as calm as he had ever been. He had a daughter to pack for and then pick up from school. He might not be able to save her mother, but there was no way he was going to fail Grace.

~//~

23 Hours

Rodney McKay was having an excellent day. The McKay-Carter Gatebridge was officially up and running, his ‘Sunday’ was fishing free, there was hot coffee on Midway and brand new sensor data to pore over from the instruments placed outside the station in the middle of the extragalactic nowhere. Even better, when he had gotten in, his email had let him know that Sam had sent him confirmation that his idea for aborting an Asgard transporter beam right before integration had worked. Well, it worked on inanimate objects at least. The less said about the mouse test, the better.

Rubbing his hands in glee, Rodney thought about what that little change was going to do to the Daedalus’s cargo holds and tried not to chortle. Oh, thank you Star Trek and minions who left their books lying around for the idea! Face split into a grin that would normally make his coworkers check for possession, Rodney got lost in the new data he was harvesting. After all, the stars and everything about them had been one of his first loves and who else got an opportunity like this?

When the Gate opened and people started coming though, Rodney had to check the schedule. Atlantis wasn’t expecting to get a new influx of people for another six weeks. One of the new hoard was someone he knew, if only vaguely so, he pulled the man out of the crush to interrogate. “Lee? What in the hell are you doing here?”

Bill Lee, one of the many theoretical scientists in the Mountain wasn’t perhaps the greatest source of information, but Rodney was not going to complain. “There was some giant battle with the Ori. They won and the President has ordered the SGC to start evacuation procedures. Everyone is getting grabbed. Even the ‘Tagged’. O’Neill’s already started.”

Shit.

“Stackhouse!” Rodney hadn’t even moved, just turned his head and bellowed at the top of his lungs. The Sergeant was nice enough to come running. Rodney didn’t even let him catch his breath before he started firing orders. “Dial the Pegasus Gate and get Elizabeth on. The SGC is evacuating and we are the main fallback position. Therefore, she needs to start clearing everything and anything out of the hallways around the Gateroom and tell her she needs to expect at least ten thousand, if not more, people. Also supplies for the same. Once she has that information, send all of these people through and strip Midway of anything useful and everything that is not nailed down. If you have time, pry up the nails and send them and the equipment through too.”

Hand hovering over his earpiece, Stackhouse nodded at what he was hearing, “Markham has already dialed and is passing the information along. Dr. Weir wants to know if there is anything else she can do?”

Keying his own comm, Rodney tuned in to hear Elizabeth trying to talk to the SGC. They didn’t have time for this. “Elizabeth, this is McKay. The SGC does not call for mass evacuations unless they have no other choice. Let everyone through, pick his or her brains then and expect the Gate to be busy for the next thirteen hours. That is the amount of time we think it will take to move ten thousand people. In addition, get Sumner’s Marines together to form a bucket brigade because there will be stuff. They will know what I mean and we are going to have to move many, many tons of supplies around the people coming in.”

A quick tap to his comm, shut her protests off and Rodney grabbed his laptop and powered it down before stuffing it into his mission back and putting it on. Making his way over to the Milky Way side of Midway, Rodney watched as a veritable flood of people, luggage and important crap came through the Gate and milled around for a moment before they were moved to the Pegasus side. From the look of things, the worse case scenarios were all in place and being followed. This was not the way he wanted to get back to Earth.

Thirty-five minutes after the flood had started, the Gate shut off. The address for Earth was easily and quickly dialed in and then, “Walter? This is McKay. I am coming through and then you can start shipping people through again.”

Rodney tapped out his GDO code and nodded when the return signal came though. The shield was down. He headed through the gate at a dead run. They had no time to waste.

//

48 hours

Daniel Jackson was not having a good day. There had been no coffee at home, Jack was back in DC, the coffeemakers at the Mountain were serving cheap government sludge again and his annual physical had been move up. His day just got worse when the Asgard early warning buoy that Thor had placed for them reported an incoming Ori fleet.

“Walter? Do we have numbers on the hostiles?” General Landry asked.

“Flight Control at Nellis reports twenty-five Ori battle cruisers incoming, General. We are scrambling the fleet. ETA is forty-eight hours out.”

Daniel watched as Landry digested the news. This was basically his first major test as the head of the SGC and the archeologist found himself rather unimpressed his ability to lead the SGC during a crisis. The Ori plague they had been gifted with months before didn’t really count, since Lam had taken most of that over. “General Landry, unless you need me to help with the battle plans, I need to get my people together to go over our evac plans in case one is called.”

“You have a go Doctor. We will keep you updated on the status of the fleet,” Landry said, relief coloring his voice. Daniel for some reason made him uncomfortable.

“Sam, Teal’c, Mitchell, Vala. Talk to you later.” Daniel said as he stood up from the main conference room table and headed out. His lab had coffee and the departments under him knew to keep a pot brewing for him. With an enemy fleet forty-eight hours out, his people had a laundry list of things to do to get ready if the other fleet weren’t stopped. Most of his people had just wrapped up a round of experiments or translations the week before and were spooling up for the next big push out of the exploratory arm of the SGC, so they were basically clear. Going over his mental list of things to do and items to push off, Daniel got into the elevator and quickly punched the button for his floor.

As soon as the doors opened, Daniel grabbed the first member of his team and firmly ‘requested’ that they pass on the message that he wanted to see everyone in the main lab. No exceptions. One pit stop at his lab for a cup or two of perfectly brewed java and he was much more ready to face the day. Filling his travel mug with the last of the pot, he made his way to the main lab. It was full and all of his scientists were chattering about what might be going on to their neighbors. Lurking outside the door to try to get a handle on the rumors, Daniel was surprised that no one had guessed the reason. Then again, the head of the gossip chain was currently busy.

When he stepped into the room, it got quiet. Daniel wasn’t quite as unknowing and naive as he projected, but the level of respect and outright awe he normally got didn’t sit well with him. Even if it was useful at times. Right now, the lack of sound and fuss would be helpful. “Flight Control out of Nellis has a massive Ori fleet coming this way with a forty-eight out ETA. We are going with the most recent forty-right hour evac plan. Please make sure that every step of the protocol happens this time folks. This is not a drill.

“Nyan, get the personnel list for Atlantis and start prepping phone numbers. Sabers, get the lists for our people and do the same. Michaels, Knox and Andrews, get with the people in charge of the ‘Tagged’ and start the prep work there. Miko I need you to update our targets for supply liberation, our last prep day was four months ago and stuff will have been mood. Also someone get with the hard science folks. McKay recently turned his hand at adjusting our Asgard transporter beams into the sort of device that doesn’t require reintegration before storing the beamed product. It costs some serious power, but with a ZPM tied into a ship, we have it to burn. Finally someone research where Kona and Columbia stash their good coffee beans, because if we have to do an evacuation of this planet, I am not doing it without coffee. So, now that you have your assignments, you have an hour you get them done and then go home and pack your gear. Any questions?”

For once, his people was quiet. Daniel took the time to look each member in the eye, trying to get a read on all of them. These were the ones that had lasted at the SGC for years, people who could roll with the random insanity that the gate sparked and he was very sure they could make it through today. Even knowing that it might be one of their last nights on Earth.

“Dr. Jackson, sir.” Miko Kusanagi raised her voice so she could be heard by all of them. Daniel had no clue why she was with his department for her rotation back to Earth, but he was grateful that she was there, never-the-less. “I would like to add to the looting lists, please. Dr. Weir and Dr. McKay both sent me back with requests ranging from ‘need’ to ‘want’. I think we need to work on filling both sets.”

“I think that is doable Dr. Kusanagi. Please get with Dr. Miller in the hard sciences lab to make sure that we aren’t covering the same ground. For that matter, please go with them and get that set of looting lists made up. I know that Sam keeps an updated list of needs and wants posted in the main lab. For those of you setting up the supply lists, please remember toilet paper! Last training cycle one of the teams forgot it and I don’t want us to this time either. I do not want to be the one to experiment with the Ancient version of a bidet!” Daniel finished with a hand wave. Most everyone in the winced at the thought and then laughed. Obviously that would not be something that they would look forward to either. “Dismissed people!”

Everyone broke to take care of their assigned jobs and Daniel head back to his office. One of his first tasks would be to actually pack the mess. Or at least, get it ready to be beamed out and stored. There was too much necessary knowledge contained in the room to leave it behind. His books at home, while nice, weren’t quite as important and he had all the originals at the SGC anyway. He no longer had fish, so there were no pets to worry about either. His fridge had been empty this morning and as for clothes? Well, he mostly wore uniforms. So his packing would be pretty basic once he stopped at a store to stock up on things like socks and underwear. All his linens, his minimal civilian wardrobe, his power suits and he needed to make a stop at the local sex store. He was not leaving without a few goodies.

28 Hours

There hadn’t been much for Daniel to do once his departments had signed off on being ready. Everyone had brought in their bags and boxes, all carefully labeled and set aside in their designated area, waiting for them to either collect them, or for a ship to come beam them away. Now, they were just waiting. After the fifth time breaking up a rubber band fight, Daniel had directed his people to start downloading everything they could by way if entertainment. He had a sneaking suspicion, since he had seen Miko come back, that there was going to be a lot more than he expected on the various hard drives. Most of it very illegal too. Not that he cared. Maybe if this lasted long enough, he would send some of them to the mall for games and shit, if they didn’t pull them off the internet itself. There was a reason Sam had gotten the best internet line she could run to the Mountain.

The fleet from Earth had gone out hours before and Daniel was not with them, nor was he with the official ‘Flight Control’ out at Nellis. Landry had specifically ordered him to stay behind since he ‘wasn’t a soldier’ and due to his specialties ‘obviously couldn’t contribute’ to the battle. Daniel wanted to scream since he had been on a Gate team from the beginning and had more battle experience than the General did. But painful lessons in diplomacy had stuck and he bit his tongue and held in what he wanted to say. The look he had gotten from Sam had been sympathetic and she had rolled her eyes as much has he had.

Since he was the one stuck in the Mountain, he had been the one to start the most general of plans for receiving VIP’s for evac through the Gate. For the first step in the plan, any and all of the world leaders that came to the Mountain were going to be going to the main Alpha Site at Icarus Base. Since there was nothing scheduled for the next month, the VIP’s should be safe enough there and would still get a good idea of what the SGC was trying for with their exploratory arm. And if the world went to hell, the VIP’s would be out of the way and not asking what the hell they were doing. His ability to tolerate shit like that was going down the older he got.

Anyway, since very few of those same world leaders would have a need to go any further into the SGC than they had to, the straight line entrance from the elevators to the Gate had been kept clear of people or things. Daniel had also been nice enough to send all the ‘fresh’ food out to Icarus so he could load up the bases freezers with enough ice cream to make a Ben&Jerry’s shop jealous. Not that he was going to tell Icarus what he had put in the place of all the hotdogs and hamburgers that they had been shipped, he had steaks to hide in with the ice cream too. For good measure, he had his people buy a good half-dozen ice cream makers too. If nothing else, they could make sorbet.

With that final purchase, Daniel found that his lists for the sciences were done and he turned his attention to the rest of the Mountain. Housekeeping services had topped off all their supplies and had packed away anything that wasn’t immediately needed for the making of minimal meals or keeping things clean. Medical was also as packed as they could be, while still being ready to handle emergency surgeries. The armory had gone through their supplies and, after issuing all the qualified personnel their sidearm’s, extra clips and assault rifles, had packed away everything. The records and storerooms clerks had spent the previous twenty hours putting transponder tags on each and every crate or object under their control for possible beamout. And finally, the soldiers who had been left behind were being very proactive when it came to his safety. While Daniel was fine with the thought of being safe, the level of paranoia they were displaying was at turns amusing and very heartening.

The folks in the medical research departments under Lam had packed up the Tretonin factory the SGC had put together and had it ready to be shipped out to Dakara. If there was no news out of the Fleet within the next four hours, Daniel was going to order the equipment to be shipped out with the Jaffa that Carolyn had been training. Landry had not been a happy General when he had found out that Jack had authorized that particular event. Not that Jack had cared, but it had been funny in retrospect.

What wasn’t funny was being the only person of sufficient rank in the Mountain since all the officers were either aboard ships, running around Area 51 getting it ready or at Nellis. Daniel had barely agreed to take charge of the soft science departments, he had not signed on for this. Jack, when he got back from dealing with the President and all his sycophants, was going to owe him so damn much for this bullshit.

~//~

23 Hours

“Apollo we’ve been hit pretty bad. Damage control has us at 40% of nominal. Potemkin is not responding to hails and the Pyotr is a bit busy trying to get behind one of the inner monsters.”

“Roger that Daedalus. We are moving to target that big bruiser on your six. Get clear please.”

“We will. God speed and grace Apollo.” And Abraham Ellis watched as the Daedalus try to get out of the rat trap the Tau’ri fleet had managed to get themselves into. He could only follow her progress for a few moments before he lost her engines in the massive light display before him.

Thanks to the efforts of Caldwell and his crew, the ship he was aiming for blew, washing the heavens with enough energy to dazzle a star. As soon as Ellis and the Apollo killed one Ori ship, there was another and another and still they kept coming. The next time he had a second to look around the battle, there was no evidence that the Daedalus was still alive. But there was evidence that the Tau’ri, that Earth was losing. Of the eight ships they had left Earth with, only two were still fighting. The others were only dead hulls, and a quick look at the sensor feeds showed that there was no one left alive on those ships to rescue.

“Comms! Get me Flight control”

They were fighting for their lives now in so many ways, and Abe knew, knew that his ship and her sister ship the Pyotr Veliky were doomed unless they could get out of the trap. The Hammond, the Potemkin, the Korolev, the Odyssey, the Hood and the Daedalus, were all gone. And given the way the Ori were being so aggressive, the chances of survivors had gone away the first time he has seen an Ori battlecruiser shooting escape pod.

“Sir, we have Flight Control, General O’Neill is on.” The Lieutenant who had taken over the Comms position called out.

“Command, this is Apollo. Come in please.” Ellis said. He had most of his attention on the information that his sensors were telling him. Pyotr was starting to redline, and that could not be good. Tapping into the intership communication array that Colonel Carter had set up, Ellis called out to his fellow captain, “Markov, what is your status?”

The Russian was obviously in pain when he came back, but still had his sense of humor, “Oh, just hanging about, my friend. I would suggest when we clear the road that you get on your way. Something tells me that you will be needed.”

Before Abraham could respond, O’Neill was on the line, “Apollo, Pyotr, you need to break it off and head home. We are calling you back.”

“To late, comrade. Das vi dan ya.”

On the screen before him, Colonel Abraham Ellis watched as his friend, his ship and all of his crew took out another Ori battlecruiser. And died.

All he could do was make sure that their sacrifice wasn’t in vain. The fire of the Pyotr’s death hadn’t even had time to fade before he had taken the Apollo through it and run for home. They were the only ship to survive and the Ori fleet, though bruised, was still heading towards Earth.

//

22 Hours

Nellis Air Force Base

Jack O’Neill was not a man who routinely craved a drink to help him deal with his day, but today, he really wanted a big drink. Earth had just had its ass chewed up, spat out and then handed back to it. So, so fucked.

His hand was rock steady though as he picked up the red phone at on the command desk at Flight Control. “This is Major General Jack O’Neill. I need to speak to the President. Now.”

The secretary on the other end of the phone didn’t argue, for which Jack was duly grateful. There were several clicks and then, “General O’Neill, this is Hayes.”

“Mr. President, it is my sad duty to inform you that our fleet has been defeated. Only one ship has been confirmed as surviving, the Apollo. We do know that the fleet destroyed seven Ori battlecruisers outright, and heavily damaged another twelve with medium to light damage to the rest. However, the Ori fleet is still heading this way. We estimate their ETA at twenty-two to twenty-four hours before they reach Earth.”

“Oh, damn. We lost?” Hayes asked with a sigh. Jack could hear the deep breath as the President calmed down. “Is it certain that the Ori will come to Earth?”

Jack felt the dull burn of hopelessness. “It’s certain. When we sent the fleet out, I ordered them not to fire first. As soon as the Ori ships came out of hyper, they were firing. No mistake there.”

“So what are our options with the Ori? What can we expect them to do?” Hayes asked.

Jack controlled the urge to roll his eyes and ask if the President even listened to his reports. The man spent the whole of his day in meeting after boring ass meeting, so he could forgive some forgetfulness. “The options with the Ori are simple. Convert or die. They don’t have a middle ground. As for what we can expect? I would say that Earth can expect ‘conversion by the sword’. Given our history, it is bound to be a bloody thing.”

“Bloody is an understatement. The Middle East will be hell on earth.” Hayes muttered. “Do we stay and fight? Alternatively, do I order you and the SGC to put an evacuation plan into place? Something that I am firmly convinced that you have prepped, right?”

The hand Jack had holding the red phone tightened and he winced. Dear god. Evacuating a whole planet. There was no way in hell the SGC could do it, but they did have plans in place to save as many people as they could. “To stay or go, Mr. President, is up to you. However, I can tell you that we will need a minimum of twelve hours to save as many people as possible. We will also be doing a fair bit of looting. In addition to liberating a lot of cultural items. Fair warning, the Louvre is not going to be happy.”

“Joy. When will we know for certain about the Ori fleet’s intentions?” the President pressed.

Jack took the time to fully think through what was coming. If the enemy fleet kept on their current course, they would be running over Earth in a minimum of twenty-two hours, give or take a few. And that meant they had far less time to reach a decision. Well at least officially. There was no way that Daniel was going to wait for the official go ahead before he started acquiring the supplies they would need. If he hadn’t started already. Nor would he be waiting to send non-essential personnel through the gate. “We have a maximum of ten hours before we need to make a final decision. This also means that you have ten hours before you need to decide if you want to go through the gate or stay here on Earth.”

“Right. Ten hours to try to get my advisors to agree on something and inform our allies in the know as to what the hell is coming.” Hayes said with a wry note to his voice.

Better the President than the General, O’Neill thought. There was no way on the planet that he wanted to get in the middle of that mess. He had enough of his own. “Yes, Mr. President. I will keep you informed as to what is happening with the fleet and when the Apollo drops out of hyper in four hours, I will get Ellis debriefed and try to find out what the hell happened out there.”

“Understood. While I might not like the message, General, I thank you for calling to let me know.” Hayes hung up the phone with that comment and Jack set the receiver back onto the cradle closing his eyes for a moment. Running his hands over face and hair, he decided that really wanted to get that drink. God, he hoped that Daniel remembered to pick up the whiskey. Every barrel of it.

~//~

22 Hours

Virginia, USA

“Sheppard? Where in the ever living hell are you?”

Major John Sheppard, USAF looked at his phone in confusion. He knew that he hadn’t given the General his phone number and yet, here he was calling him. A quick glance at his watch showed him that he hadn’t overstayed his leave and he wasn’t on call for any meetings that he knew of…

“Sheppard!” O’Neill barked out, sounding much more impatient.

Instincts that had been beaten into him at the Academy kicked in and John answered quickly, “General O’Neill, sir? I’m in Virginia at home, sir. Why do you ask?”

“Virginia? You’re from Virginia? Why did I not know this? Never mind. We are going to need you back in Antarctica and our hole in the ground in about sixteen hours. We have some incoming playmates that need a stern talking to.” The General ordered.

John checked his watch again in confusion. It had taken him over twenty-four hours to get home from McMurdo. There was no way that he was going to be able to get back to the Outpost in less than that. Moreover, his flights out had been specially chartered too. “General? How in the world am I going to do that?”

There were words being spoken in the background that John couldn’t hear, but the voice sounded like Dr. Jackson. Whatever the conversation was, it took a few minutes and then the General was back on the phone. “Sheppard has anyone taken the time to explain to you about our less than friendly proselytizing neighbors and what happens when they come by to have an explosive visit?”

He had to think about that whole sentence for a moment and then it snapped into place. Less than friendly neighbors did not mean the penguins down south; it meant any of several different aliens that they were at war with. But the term proselytizing meant that it was likely the Ori and that meant that he was being recalled to sit in the defense chair at the Outpost and per the protocols he had skimmed, his family was going to be really exposed to his new job.

His dad was not going to be a happy camper.

“Yes sir, they did. I take it my family is going to be taken care of?”

John could practically hear the nod over the phone. “Yup. Daniel says that your dad is Patrick Sheppard? That makes things easier. He is one of the contractors we have for the X-303’s. That should make the whole reveal thing a lot less dramatic.”

He couldn’t help it; he had to shade his reply with a fine level of sarcasm at that reveal, “As you say, sir. Do we have time to get stuff ready to leave? And how are we leaving?”

There was a snort of amusement on the other end of the phone, “Nice, Sheppard. Yes, you have time to get ready. I would say that we will be ready to pick up you and your family in about twelve hours. So get cracking on what you want to bring. Daniel just found your family on the internet. You can’t bring the horses. Sorry.”

“We’ll manage. Thank you for letting me know. Where will we be ending up, sir?” John said dryly. If he was going to potentially evacuate his family from the planet Earth, he wasn’t going to be bringing a horse with him for it. No matter how much his younger brother might pout.

“You are going to Atlantis. Pack for the ocean.” And the phone went dead.

“Dad! This isn’t a drill, okay? General O’Neill was very firm that our ‘less than friendly proselytizing neighbors’ were coming by to have an ‘explosive’ visit. Can you please just get ready? And why didn’t I know that you were working for the SGC?” John asked.

Patrick Sheppard looked at his eldest son and tried not to laugh at the slightly petulant tone of the question. He knew that John understood the need for secrets and wasn’t actually all that upset about him not telling him, just more peeved that he had missed something. “Because you and I both understand secrets and can keep them? Even from family? Besides, if this had happened before you were exposed to the SGC, you would have gotten notice to come home. Or if there was no time, they would have beamed you out.”

Eyes alight, John turned away from his packing to stare at his father. “Beam? Like Star Trek? Transporters are real?”

“Yup. Totally real and very cool. We should be able to get to the Mountain without a hitch so long as there is a ship in orbit. And if they are positioned right, they should be able to get you down to Antarctica pretty easily. Do you want us to keep all your gear with us?”

“If you could please. I will have a ready bag with some basics, but I have no idea how long I will be down there. Dad, if I can turn on stuff in that outpost…”

“Then your brothers or I might be able to as well.” Patrick completed the thought. He hadn’t been around any of this Ancient technology that he knew of while he had building X-303’s out in Nevada, but then again, he hadn’t been looking for any either. Now that he knew, he was going to corner Jack as soon as possible to see what they could do to test his family. Apparently the ATA(?) thing was deeply valuable, which meant so, potentially, were they.

“Right. Since we have the time, do you think we should pack a few suitcases of goodies? Like coffee and chocolate? There is no telling what the SGC will consider important survival supplies.” John asked with a small grin.

Patrick grinned back and patted his son on the arm, “You are thinking too small. We need to hit a liquor store and then Home Depot and maybe a grocery store. The geeks over at Area 51 damn near live on coffee and chocolate, so I know that they have those two supplies covered. But fruit and decent vegetables? I think we can stock up on some nice heirloom seeds for trade goods. And maybe a fabric store. And spices, can’t forget them. Hmmm… We have how long?” he asked as he walked out of his son’s bedroom.

“Less than twelve hours, dad.” John said as he followed his dad out. This was going to be an interesting trip at least.

~//~

22 Hours

Washington DC, USA

Henry Hayes was a career politician who had made or helped make some of the hardest decisions in US politics for decades. But the decision that O’Neill had just dumped in his lap, to stay or to go, was one that no one would ever want to deal with. Evacuating Earth. Leave seven billion people to a fate that many would see as one of the worst of the worst. How in the hell was he supposed to make decisions like this? Pinching the bridge of his nose, he held the pressure for a five count and then reached out to open the intercom to his personal secretary.

“Mr. President?” she asked promptly.

“Mary, get me the VP, Joint Chiefs, Secretaries of Defense and State and my Chief of Staff. Quietly. For a meeting in thirty minutes.” Hayes ordered. He would need to time to puke, clean up and maybe have a drink. Terrorists were nothing compared to this.

“Yes, Mr. President. Should I have the coffee ready?” she asked.

“Sure. Gimme ten and then I’ll be ready to take care of regular business until the meeting. Oh, make sure to get Lt. Colonel Paul Davis out of the Pentagon here too.” He ordered before closing the line and heading over to the Presidential bathroom to lose his breakfast. Fortunately, his Secret Service detail knew the score and weren’t calling for a doctor. Losing one’s breakfast should be a private thing after all.

A quick clean up of his face, tooth brushing to deal with the taste and he was back sitting at his desk, trying to lead the latest Senate bill on ways to increase jobs. Since the words mostly swam on the page and made no sense, he set the mess aside. Closing his eyes, he leaned back in his really comfortable chair and tried to think.

His mental musings were interrupted by his secretary escorting the people he had requested in. Kinsey, his useless fuck of a VP was looking particularly smug and Hayes once more wondered when he had stopped tolerating the man and started loathing him. If events had been different, if the Ori fleet hadn’t handed Earth their asses, he would have found a way to run again without him. Public perception be damned, because the man was personally and morally bankrupt.

“Gentlemen please sit. I just got some information from Project Bluebook.” Hayes said with a wave of his hand to the seating arrangement in the center of the Oval Office. “So I want you all to sit and listen to me for a few minutes.”

Laying out the updated situation took only a moment. Kinsey, who had been smugly certain that Earth’s ‘God blessed’ forces would win the day, was looking quite green around the edges. The other man was at a coward and Henry was sincerely certain that, when the choice of stay or go was given, Kinsey would choose to go. And the chances of him wanting to let anyone else escape with him were slim to none and slim had just left the building.

“Now that we all have the basic information…. Colonel Davis, can you tell us how the Ori normally go about taking over a planet?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. President.” Davis agreed. Turning to face the Joint Chiefs, Hayes was rather impressed to see that the Lt. Colonel was comfortable with his position and that delivering hard truths was old hat to this man. It was weirdly reassuring. “When the Ori pick a planet to ‘convert’ they typically send in a Pryor out to proselytize among the population. If that doesn’t work, which it often doesn’t, they send in a tailored plague after duly warning the populace. Once infected, the people are allowed to suffer, perhaps die and in general regret that they didn’t take the Pryor up on the offer of Origin.

“After some unknown threshold has been reached, the Pryor comes back and ‘cures’ the populace and offers Origin again. Normally this is enough and the population falls into line. On the rare occasions where these steps don’t work, the Ori get aggressive. They are firm believers in ‘conversion by the sword’ and they will bomb a planet back into the Stone Age to get the populace to accept them and start worshiping them. Earth can pretty firmly expect the latter to be what we are up against.”

“Why? Why do you think that Earth will be bombed?” the Secretary of Defense asked.

Davis was grim when he looked at the man who was his boss. “Because we’ve already had chances one and two. We’ve had the proselytizing Pryor come by. He lit himself on fire and was rather less than impressive, so I am told. But he did serve as a good warning for what was to come. The promised plague was the super-flu that we struggled with last winter. We managed to get a cure for that at the last minute and so we are down option two. The last option then is by the sword. So. Things will be bad, and it will get worse, quickly.”

“God will keep those heathens away from Earth and protect us as He protected his chosen Christians in the past.” Kinsey declared with all the fervor of a confirmed true believer. Apparently he had recovered his bluster. “After all, He has protected Earth from the scourge before and he will protect us again.”

Henry leaned back in his chair and decided that he just didn’t care about the fallout. “Robert, you are a douche-bag. God had not a damn thing to do with keeping this planet safe, the men and women of the SGC are responsible for that. But since you feel so strongly that God will keep you safe, you can stay and lead whatever people you can get to follow you.”

His gaze was level as he looked at his VP. The other man was squirming, trying to find a way to press his agenda, to make the President see his way. Henry rather meanly decided that if they really did evacuate, Kinsey was staying behind. With a big red bow on his stupid ass if he could manage it.

Clearing his throat harshly, Lt. Colonel Davis drew the rooms’ attention to him. “Mr. Vice President, faith in the Christian God, while an admirable thing is not going to keep the Ori away from Earth.” Davis said icily. His face was set in stone as he continued, “Our fleet was not enough to keep the Ori away from Earth and they paid to delay them with their lives. And with those lives they gave us the chase to ask: Can the SGC save upwards of ten thousand people besides the family members of the SGC staff and the family of the ships crews? Who do we pick? Do we have the right to do so?”

Kinsey looked like he wanted to launch into a tirade, but Henry did not want to hear it. He had heard enough out of the man. Then something Davis had said caught his attention, “I understand from reports that the SGC has files on people they call the ‘Tagged’?”

Davis nodded in agreement. “There are. People all over the science communities, some law enforcement members and some people in various versions of the arts. All of these people have had some type of experience with the SGC and the madness that it brings. They were all given minimal information on what might happen if they got called and agreed to it. No one on our lists will be left behind if we can manage it.”

“Where will they go?” asked one of the four Joint Chiefs.

The Secretary of State looked grim, but mostly satisfied at the same time. “Atlantis.” She took a deep breath and pushed on, “We found the main tower complex three years ago in Pegasus and sent a minimal expedition out. The returns on that investment have been very impressive. Dr. McKay and Lt. Colonel Carter just finished stringing a gate-bridge that should allow us to dial out without browning out the country. It will work well enough to evacuate everyone we can shove through.”

Henry could feel the headache building and pinched the bridge of his nose again in a bid to stave it off. “So. Stay and fight? Or go and pray that Earth can bow its stubborn neck long enough for us to rebuild and kick the Ori’s asses forever?” he asked as he looked at each of his advisors.

“Stay! We will show these heathens the might of God and Earth!” Kinsey said loudly. He had a light of fanaticism in his eyes and Henry could only guess that the whole event had caused the man to snap. It looked like there would be no forcing Robert to stay behind. If he decided that they were to go, he was not going to be leaving any of the VP’s Secret Service agents behind to guard his insane ass.

The look on the Secretary of State’s face was peaceful when he looked at her. “Go.” She said in a firm voice. Hayes was certain that she was thinking about her daughter. Political lion that she was, she was a mother first.

“Go.” Agreed the Secretary of Defense. When Henry cocked an eyebrow at him in question, the other man shrugged. “If Earth can’t throw them off, we are going to need someone to ride to the rescue on the white horse. Might as well be the SGC.”

Each of the Joint Chiefs were just firm with their stated “Go” as if there were no other choices available.

Nodding lightly to himself, Henry Hayes, 44^th President of the United States of America made his decision. “Go. Lt. Colonel Davis, please inform General O’Neill of the decision and start getting things together on this end. We will be having some people to send out very quickly.”

//

In the Fullness of Time

July

Four Days After Meeting

The building where Northwestern housed its Sentinel/Guide Pairs was about as isolated as could be managed on the campus, which was to say, not very. However, it was a new building and Rodney was certain the soundproofing was up to code at least. He was actually looking forward to living with John now that the shock of the whole Bonded thing had worn off.

Turning his attention away from the building, he looked at Professor Sandburg as the older Guide ran through the list of amenities for their new home. “It has raised bedroom for the Sentinel and if you two were a typical Bonded pair, the second room under the stairs would be a study or something. Now it can do duty as Rodney’s room until you Bond. There is a decent kitchen set up for when you want meals in, a decent en-suite bath and there’s also a washer/dryer set up in each apartment. Too many Sentinels have individual allergies to do the communal route. The windows are triple paned, so there shouldn’t be much noise coming through them.”

Nodding slowly as he took it all in, Rodney looked over at his new roommate. “Which one is ours?”

Pointing to a corner unit, the Prof indicated a bare set of windows. “That one. The last tenant graduated last year and no one has lived there for the last six months. The scent markers should have faded, but if they haven’t, we can get a cleaning crew to come in and deal with it.”

Eyes on the windows, John nodded. “I think we need to. I can see some spider webs from here.”

“Right. Well that is easily fixed. Do either of you have the stuff you need to set up house?” the older Guide asked as he tapped away at his phone. When there was no reply, he looked up to see Rodney at least, staring at him in panic. “Let me guess, you have your books, some clothes, you might have towels, but neither of you have anything else?”

Rodney gulped and tried to think of what he really had in his dorm room. Apparently Professor Sandburg could read minds, not just emotions, because he put his phone away and hooked an arm in with Rodney’s. “So we go to the mall while the cleaning crew does their job. Come on boys.”

And away they went.

~//~

“So what are we going to do with Sheppard and McKay?”

“Huh?” Blair asked, his mind clearly between the pages of his book.

Jim tried not to grin at his mate, but it was a losing battle. He always loved derailing Blair’s train of thought with something out of left field and then watching while he caught up. “Sheppard and McKay? You know, the kids that you just spent obscene amounts of money on to get settled into the Bonded dorms, even though they aren’t yet? And had me spend an hour talking to commander of Northwestern’s ROTC division about?”

“Oh, them,” Blair said as he clued into the conversation. “If I am correct, we will see them Bonding in the next six months or so. Their bio-rhythms are already starting to sync up and I can feel Rodney’s channels priming to accept his Sentinel.”

“And you’re okay with them rooming together knowing that?” Jim asked incredulously.

Jim winced as Blair gave him his patented ‘You are being slow, keep up’ look. “Do you really think we could have kept them apart? Short of locking them both up in separate rooms and even then, I wouldn’t put it past them to get free.”

“Right. Six months?”

Blair made an agreeing sound as he reached for his coffee. “Six months at the outside. Less if things keep going the way they have been.”

Jim took a sip of his own coffee and savored the flavor of really good beans and a perfect roast while he turned the idea over in his head. If he was in Sheppard’s shoes, there was no way in hell that he would have let Sandburg out of his sight, so he couldn’t see the younger Sentinel letting McKay get too far. And McKay, for all he was a snarky, mean little shit with more brains than sense at times, had started looking after Sheppard as fiercely as Blair did him.

Good.

“So we need to stay in touch, right?” Jim asked carefully.

Eyes sharp with concentration, Blair glanced at his Sentinel. “Oh, yeah. We do. I also asked Jack and Daniel to stay in touch as well since John wants to join the military and it is doubtful that Rodney will.”

“How is that going to work? Have you got any ideas on that Chief?” Jim was curious to see what his Guide had come up with. There were many S&G pairs in the military, but few of them had one member a civilian and the other active duty.

“Rodney has depths that most people miss, Jim. And he’s a Wolf. He won’t let his Sentinel down.” Expression peaceful as he stared at his book, Blair let himself be drawn back into it.

Jim sat back to finish his coffee. Obviously Blair was done with his discussion. He would give it a few before he tried another distraction. Maybe a massage….

~//~

Of all the time he spent with Jim, Blair enjoyed the moments when his Sentinel would allow him to take care of him the most. Jim was good with going along with his Guide caring for the normal things; foods, chemical exposures, temper control and all, but those were just standard day-to-day stuff. This was something between the two of them, formed of love and devotion and only peripherally based off their Bond.

Hands that had acquired calluses from guns and unarmed combat moved over his Sentinel, spreading sweet almond oil in their wake. And the Sentinel purred, relaxing degree by degree, until he was puddled out over their bed. Blair felt a flair of deep satisfaction at the signs of total relaxation and let go of his own worries as well. Each sweep of his hands, each muscle that was followed lead to a level of contentment that allowed their Bond flow free and easy between them.

Blair ran his hands down Jim’s legs a final time and grabbing the linen cloth he used when he gave his Sentinel a massage, started to wipe the excess oil off his skin. Each stroke of the cloth was firm, but not hard, allowing the excess oil to be removed but not irritate Jim’s sensitive skin. At the final stroke, he sat back on his heels and admired the man spread out before him. “You’re beautiful.”

The Guide watched as the cheek that was facing up turn pink at the compliment. He would never tell Jim, but he was totally cute when he blushed like that. Broad shoulders, smooth chest, trim waist, firm ass and long legs made his Sentinel a beautiful sight to behold. Even more so when there was a blush moving down his face, over his chest and up to his ears. Watching the man spread out before him, Blair felt his mood move from soothing to sensual in a heartbeat.

Moreover, Jim knew it. The spreading of his legs and shifting of his hips showed that. Blair ran a hand down Jim’s back and settled it onto his ass, kneading the firm flesh lightly as he played with the shadowed cleft. When there was no protest, he smiled and grabbed the almond oil.  He was going to enjoy watching his Sentinel come apart at the seams.

It was the work of only a moment to pour a thin stream of the almond oil over the crack of Jim’s ass. Flicking the cap back on the bottle, Blair dropped it onto the bed, ready for easy retrieval. Spreading the lightly viscous oil up and down the shadowed cleft before him, he rubbed it firmly into the tightly furled rosebud of Jim’s ass. Slowly but surely, the muscles relaxed and unfurled.

Giving into temptation, Blair dipped his head and slowly ran his tongue over the newly loose muscles. The faint taste of almonds was overwhelmed with the earthy taste of the man spread before him. He kept his attention on the feast before him and reached out one hand for more oil. Coating his fingers, he slipped the first one into Jim’s ass and started to slowly, surely finger fuck him. And Jim loved it. His hips were rising and falling to meet the thrusts of Blair’s fingers. Moans were falling from his lips like water and their Bond was thick with love and lust.

When Jim was as loose as he wanted to be and both of them were more than ready for the next step, Blair carefully removed his fingers and using the linen cloth quickly cleaned them up before adding more oil to his hand, his cock and Jim’s ass. There was never anything casual about making love to his partner, the gift that he was being given each time was to be savored, and Blair did. With each and every inch of his cock as he entered Jim’s body. And when he was as deeply seated as he could get, he started rocking in and out of the beautiful body before him.

No matter how long he wanted to draw the experience out for, it would never be long enough. Humming lightly as he leaned forward to run kisses along Jim’s shoulders, Blair drew strength from the love that poured through him from Jim. It was independent of and yet complimentary to the Bond they shared and he could only be grateful that he had it. Orgasm, when it finally came, was almost unexpected in its intensity and they came apart under its power, minds merging again and again until two became one and there was no more Sentinel, no more Guide, just ONE.

July

Three Weeks After Meeting

John was pacing up and down the waiting room closest to his Guide. He had found out what was going on only because one of Rodney’s students had seen what had happened and run to tell him. The trip to this hospital had been a taste of hell. John had tried to talk to the duty nurse, but she had sent him to this room and now no one was talking to him. He needed to let them know that his Guide needed him. Focusing his hearing outward, John latched onto Rodney’s heartbeat, and even with his layman’s knowledge, could tell it was beating way too fast. It was nothing like the strong rhythm that normally underlay his day and it was driving him crazy.

Turning sharply on his heel, John started towards the doors to the treatment rooms. No one was around to stop him and by god, he was not waiting out here anymore. The doors were easy enough to get around, and once inside, he homed in on the too rapid beat of his Guide’s heart.

Doctors and nurses were moving over and around his Guide, talking quickly and loudly, their attention firmly on his physical status, ignoring the emotional. Through it all, Rodney was crying. Big silent tears were welling up in his eyes and trailing down into his hair. John joined the dance around the gurney and moved to the head, where Rodney could see him. As soon as he touched him, John could hear his heartbeat start to slow down to a calmer rhythm.

“You can’t be here!” one of the people working on Rodney said. Reaching out, he tried to grab a hold of John.

The snarl that John flashed the interfering mundane was mostly outside of his control. Mostly. “My Guide!”

“Shit! You’re a Sentinel?” The other man (some part of John knew he was a nurse, but it didn’t help) looked at Rodney again. “Everybody freeze.”

With everyone still, John could easily hear the machine that was helping his Guide breathe working, and the sub-vocal whimpers from a voice that was unable to work around the tube supplying air to starving lungs.

“The patient is apparently a Guide. His Sentinel stays. Anyone who is not cleared to work on or near an empath in distress needs to leave.” The room emptied of all but two nurses and a doctor, and Rodney calmed down even further, his tears finally stopping. “Now that he isn’t fighting us, we need to get him stabilized and up to the Sentinel/Guide floor.”

John kept a close eye on the three people working on his Guide. They were calm, professional and didn’t touch Rodney any more than they had too. When they were released from the ER, the same nurse that had realized who Rodney was, was there to smooth the way for them again. John got to give his Guide a bed bath and removed the stink of fear from his skin, plus the contact helped calm him down too.

Once everything was tidied up, John crawled into the bed with Rodney and listened to him breathe. The whole afternoon had been the most frightening thing he had ever gone through and if he had to get them tattoos to show their status, he would. After this Rodney was never going near a seafood restaurant ever again. Lemons were totally evil.

August

One Month After Meeting

“Hut, two, three, four!”

No matter how many times Rodney listened to the ROTC units practicing, the commands they shouted were still so much gibberish to him. But the results were very pretty, he could admit. And John was even prettier in his uniform, all shiny and stuff.

Once school had actually started, John had gone in and gotten what he called a ‘regulation haircut’. What that meant to Rodney was that all the lovely semi-sentient hair his Sentinel had was now gone and all that was left was a buzz cut. He had done his best not to pout. John’s head had been almost as good as having a cat and he certainly enjoyed it when Rodney had run his fingers through the mass.

ROTC also meant that the fitness program that John had been following was ramped up even further. And he insisted on Rodney joining in. While it was doing wonderful things for his ass, it was doing nothing for his sleep levels. Or his hormones. Since stretchy and sweaty was a good look on his Sentinel, Rodney was learning how to do all sorts of things half-hard. Given how many times John bent over in front of him, he was quite certain the other man knew it.

However, this was John’s dream and Rodney was his Guide. So he would be there every step of the way to help his Sentinel. And if that meant that he had to get up at the ass crack of dawn to tire himself out, while watching his partner do the same? He would do it a thousand times over.

September

Two Months After Meeting

John enjoyed the hell out shadowing his Guides classes when he could. While he was teaching, Rodney came alive as he explained the ways the universe unfolded, layer-by-layer, in math so beautiful he could weep. And most of it was totally lost or unappreciated by the grad students he was teaching.

Rodney knew he was there, of course. However, he never called him on his habit, nor did he ever ask John to turn in his version of the completed equations. He was still contemplating leaving the papers covered in math out where his Guide could find them. The bitching that they would cause would be as funny as all hell.

The writing of his Master’s thesis was going just as it should and he was making great progress explaining the hows and whys of his math. The slow conversion of his theorem from three loose-leaf binders to something that was fit for human consumption was taking a bit longer, but it was moving right along as well. If he ever did this again, he wasn’t going to be as messy as he had been, because even he was having problems following the mass of overwritten and crossed out equations covering the pages.

They were working on the living together thing too. If John had to be honest, he thought that they were getting the hang of not killing each other over the little stuff. They had mastered the “shared bathroom dance”, the “kitchen tango” and just the general living together thing. Even if Rodney was a bit of a slob over the level of cleaning John thought was needed.

His application to enter the Air Force directly, bypassing the Academy was under consideration and he was hopeful. While he was not opposed to getting another degree or two, spending four more years in college was not his idea of fun and he had already gotten the needed training on his service thanks to his time in the ROTC. Colonel O’Neill had suggested the sidestepping thing as a way to get in faster and maybe use his pilot’s license before it was out of date. If all went well, by the time his thesis had made it through committee, he would have a slot in the advanced pilots training course. He had his fingers crossed on that though.
John had decided to take advantage of a free afternoon to go over the how he was putting together his thesis. Pages from the finished portion were scattered around the sunspot he was lying in and he was adding background pages in piles below them. If all went well, he was a few months away from being finished with the whole mess. John decided he was taking a break from higher math after he finished this degree, the next one would be in something else…. Military History maybe. Or Aeronautical Engineering. He liked working with his hands too.

November

Four Months After Meeting

John *hated* Christmas. There were too many blinking lights, too many scents in the air, and way too much noise. From the masses of overexcited kids, arguing adults, insistently annoying muzak, to the mistuned bells, it never, ever shut up. He felt like he should be wearing his ROTC MOPP gear to protect himself from the suddenly hostile environment.

Everyone else at Northwestern seemed to be dealing with the insanity well enough. Well, other than the normal end of term tensions.  He had experienced his first zone in years when he and Rodney had gone to the mall to restock on clothes and Sentinel friendly products. After that lovely event, Rodney had labeled the whole thing as a bad experience and declared that they would order their shit online.

The college itself was mostly ok. After all, he was well used to the insanity that college students seemed to thrive in. However, there were still areas where he was not comfortable, so he avoided them as much as he was able. Namely the various dorms, the theater and the student store. He had thought about becoming a hermit, but it seemed like too much trouble when he looked into it.

~//~

Rodney was having his own problems thanks to the volatile emotions that ran rampant through the season. In the years before, he would have been able to lock down his shields, and thus ignore the fact that there were other human beings around him. This year, he didn’t have that option. There was no way he would shut out John.

But the beat of everyone else’s emotions against his shields was so hard to deal with, and he had to let the stress bleed off somehow… Therefore, the morons in his various classes were getting the rough side of his tongue and all he could do was try to keep the truly viscous edge to himself. He was still getting looks like he had killed their favorite pet and the staff at the University was not too happy with him either. Rodney found himself meditating a lot in an effort to keep things on some sort of level that he could live with. He was so looking forward to the ‘joyous season’ being over with.

When it all got too much, he had to call out for help. The counselors on the campus weren’t enough and there wasn’t a hope in hell that he was going to ever step foot back into the Sentinel/Guide Center. Thanks to long talks with Dr. Sandburg and Dr. Jackson, Rodney had come to the reluctant conclusion that the only way his shields would get firm enough to take extended emotional storms like the holidays, would be after he and John Bonded. And that event was still months away. So he did his exercises, meditated a lot and tried not to get sucked into large crowds without John there to anchor him. Becoming a hermit with John was looking more and more viable. After all, they had the internet, and Amazon delivered damn near anything for a price.

~//~

Blair came back from his emergency handholding trip to Chicago very thoughtful and very quiet. Jim watched while he moved from one task to another, without his usual chatter. It was an unnerving sight to see. When he reached the end of his patience he had to ask, “Chief, what are you thinking about so hard?”

His Guide turned to look at him and Jim saw that while he had heard the question, his mind was far, far away. And when he spoke, he could tell that it was an effort. “Jim? What do you need?”

“You’re quiet, Chief. Is there something wrong with the kids? Were the holidays too much?”

Blair took a few more moments to respond, but his eyes were sharp and present when he did, “The kids are fine. I was just thinking about what I am seeing between them.”

“And what are you seeing, Oh Shaman of the Great City?”

Eyes fond, his Guide looked at him and shook his head slightly at the title. “I saw that Rodney’s channels are almost fully open and John is basically ready. His mind is primed and waiting for his Guide. Their Spirit Guides are with them all the time now. So I think we are down to weeks before they Bond. If that.”

“Weeks, huh? Then we need to figure out a nice Bonding gift. What do you think they will need?”

“Not a clue, man. They still have to figure out what they want to do when they graduate. John isn’t that far away from it. Rodney, from what he told me, has that second doctorate of his that needs to be finished.” Blair said with a shrug.

Jim had to give it to Rodney; he was ambitious and dedicated to his goal of multiple doctorates. “How much longer does he have on that? And what is it in?”

“The end of the year at the outside for the one on Sentinel Studies and he already has his Doctorate in Astrophysics. Depending on what John decides about going into the military, he might just go for the third Doctorate he had been talking about,” replied Blair.

“Another PhD? In what?” Jim asked incredulously. If Rodney wasn’t careful, he would end up being a professional student.

Humming lightly, Blair moved over to the kitchen to start some tea. “Engineering. If John goes into the Air Force like he told you, Rodney can take classes through their online system or from one of the colleges wherever he is assigned to for flight school. He is thinking Mechanical Engineering with a subset into Computer Engineering.”

“Is John going to try to push on with his schooling to get a doctorate?” Jim asked as he took his cup. If Blair was going to give him tea, at least it was going to be something other than an herbal blend. Rising out of the cup was the distinctive scent of Earl Grey, heavy on the Bergamot and natural, unbleached sugar. Much better than the twigs that his Guide was drinking.

“No. Once he has his Masters, he might take some other classes to get a minor while Rodney completes the Sentinel Studies degree, but his is thinking Flight School will be enough for a while.”

“Sounds doable,” Jim agreed. Something told him that they would be keeping an eye on these kids for a while.

January

Five Months After Meeting

 

Rodney was quite certain that he was one of the luckiest Guides on the planet. He, while not Bonded yet, got to live with his Sentinel and ogle the pretty bastard all the time. It was wonderful.

Then again, he was living with his Sentinel and the too pretty bastard was grinning at him every time his hormones spiked. Which they did. Often.

Anyway.

Classes were normal, boringly so. He had to deal with all the moronic underclassmen who thought that, since he was only seventeen, they could intimidate him into giving them better grades. He was very happy to prove them wrong, wrong, wrong! Speaking of wrong, the test he was currently grading was… Dear god in heaven, didn’t people read the directions he put up on the board before tests? Muttering imprecations on the heads of all his students, Rodney turned his attention (and his red pen) back to his latest math test. His students were morons.

~//~

John looked up from his spot on the couch and stared at his Guide. The other man was muttering comments that he was quite certain were physically impossible to do to another human being. And all of them aimed at his 301 Theoretical Math class. Since John was past that, he counted himself lucky and got up to see what had set the other man off this time. Peering over his shoulder as the red pen of death moved across the page, John winced. The poor schmoo who had this paper had obviously not bothered to actually study for the test, the whole thing was wrong.

However, the problem that Rodney had set his class was intriguing and grabbing his doddle notebook, the Sentinel copied down the first equation and started playing with the math. Two hours later, he was twenty pages further into his notebook and Rodney was finished demolishing the egos of his 301 class. When the pen was set down, John looked up to see his Guide looking at his notebook with a speculative eye.

“Uh-uh. No. My toy for the moment. When I get tired of it, you can look. Okay?” John asked.

“Fine,” Rodney said with a small pout. “How soon until you get the written portion of your thesis finished?”

“Uhm… It is with my committee and I am getting the grilled on it soon?” John admitted as he rubbed the back of his neck.

Body still as he digested that, Rodney stared at his Sentinel and fellow student, “You’ve finished writing your Master’s Thesis, it is in committee and you are going to defend it when?”

“Three weeks?” John admitted with an optimistic lilt to the answer. It apparently wasn’t going to help today.

“Three weeks? You defend in three WEEKS!” he screeched. “Oooooohhh, you!”

Cocking his head to the side, John watched as his Guide flushed and his eyes got shiny with irritation, pride and a huge amount of geekly math lust. “You are really pretty when you get angry.”

He didn’t even have time to yelp as Rodney came out of the chair and tackled him to the floor, tickling him mercilessly.

February

Six Months After Meeting

“You’re a Guide.”

Rodney looked up from his books at the Sentinel wearing a football jersey staring down at him. Eyebrow raised slightly, he watched the other man for a moment.

“I want you to be my Guide.”

His other eyebrow was now trying to climb his forehead to join the first in disbelief. But he held his tongue and waited to see how far the idiot would go.

“Let’s go.”

And there he went. Screaming over the edge into abject Moronville. “No.” He was damn proud of himself. He hadn’t added any of the multitudes of insults that had flashed across his mind.

“Do you know who I am?”

Rodney snorted in disdain and gave up on being nice, “No. Now take your over-blown ego, moron level IQ, obviously tiny dick and go away.”

“But you’re a Guide, I’m a Sentinel. That means that you’re supposed to be mine.”

Shaking his head at that statement, Rodney sighed and took a deep drink of his coffee. Swallowing more than the liquid, he said, “I’m not your Guide, little boy. I’m his Guide.” And pointing over the puppy’s shoulder, drew his attention to the pissed off Alpha Sentinel behind him.

Rodney took another sip of his coffee as he watched John silently teach the football player a lesson in manners, respect and discretion. It was awesome. When the puppy had slunk off, he continued to stare at his Sentinel, watching him as his metaphorical tail twitched in irritation.

The last sip of coffee was swallowed as silently as the first and he set the cup down on the table before him. “Sentinel.”

Fierce triumph lit the green eyes staring down at him, “Guide.”

First Day

Bonded

They weren’t even out of college yet. They were young, and untried, but there was no one else for either of them. And now, now they had to Bond. Which meant following tradition.

“Run”

Rodney did not have to be told twice. There was no more waiting, no more ignoring his instincts. He was all grown up now and his Sentinel was following behind, ready to Bond. Hunting him. Stalking him. Herding him back to their dorm where it was safe.

Panting lightly from the run, Rodney pushed himself to get up the stairs quickly. John was only minutes behind him. A quick fumble at the door and he was in. One more flight of stairs to the aerie and he could strip. Thank goodness he had showered and scrubbed well. No time for that now.

He was down to his skin now, shivering lightly in the cool of the room. A rapid check of the drawers in the nightstand lead to the lube that John used on himself and he made sure that was at hand. Reaching out, Rodney grabbed the duvet and top sheet to strip the bed down. Roughly folding the mess at the foot of the bed, he debated on what to do next. Should he stretch himself out or let John do it? Rodney knew that John was aware of the efforts he had been going through to prepare for this, but still…

He heard the keys in the lock at the door and that tore it. No more time. Climbing into bed, Rodney laid down on his back. Waiting for his Sentinel to come in and Bond with him. Damn it. Now he felt like some sacrifice. He was so going to bitch at Dr. Sandburg for suggesting this!

~//~

Tradition in the world of Sentinels and Guides was a very strong thing. Moreover, the tradition of a Sentinel running his Guide to ground to claim him was one of the one that had been set aside by most of the world. But Professor Sandburg had felt that it would be best if he and Rodney were to pay at least lip service to it.

When he had told Rodney to run, and then watched his Guide take off like a racehorse, John had felt his blood catch fire. He was going to enjoy the hell out of catching the other man. To give him a bit more time and to draw out the fun, John picked up the stuff his Guide had left behind in his haste to run home. Thankfully, Rodney had only brought his laptop out and had left all the other crap he liked to haul around at home.

Two minutes down and he was doing his best to give him at least a five minute lead. Anticipation was starting to burn along his nerves and John began to pace, watching the seconds count down on his watch. One hundred and eighty seconds later and he had the computer case over his shoulder and he was running for their dorm.

It was freeing to be moving as quickly as he was and only the distant rational part of his mind noticed how many people got out of his way. He knew he had to look like a lunatic for running full out the way he was, but he really didn’t care. The only thing that stopped him was finding the door to their room closed and the lock engaged. Clever Guide. The fumble with his keys was another moment that Rodney had to get ready and John could smell him though the door. Bonding pheromones, lust, precum and healthy sex. Gods, so heady.

John took a deep breath as he walked into their dorm and his mouth watered at the scents. It took more than he wanted to think about to carefully put Rodney’s computer bag down without flinging it away from him, but he did. Then he stripped down to his skin while he was still coherent enough to remember what shoelaces were. The wildness in his blood was clamoring and he just knew that as soon as he saw his Guide, he was going to lose it.

A quick look into Rodney’s bedroom showed him that his Guide hadn’t even bothered to stop in there, so he moved upstairs quickly. And there he was. All laid out on his bed. Pale skin, rosy nipples and a deep rose cock and John was gone.

~//~

Rodney tried to quiet his breathing when he heard John enter the room, but it was useless. He was starting to get all worked up for this event thanks to the whole chase thing and well, it worked for him. Evidenced by his cock getting all interested. When John came up the stairs, he tried not to squirm, but it was useless. His Sentinel was looking at him with eyes that were so dilated with lust and need that their normal green color was almost completely eclipsed by the black pupil. God.

He had never, ever seen John like he was now and he thinned his shields like he had been taught. Lust was there, so was need, but there was also something else, the sense of someone else, reaching out to him. Rodney, for the first time since he had been taught to shield his thoughts, dropped them completely and allowed another person inside his mind. He let his Sentinel in.

The meeting of minds had never been described to him and now he knew why. There was nothing anyone who had never been through it could use as a frame of reference for the event. Intimate, yes. Mind-blowing, certainly. Invasive, no. It was more. Two souls meeting as one, twining around, through and with each other.

When he opened his eyes again, Rodney wasn’t surprised to find that John was in bed with him. He was however, surprised to find that nothing had happened yet though. Reaching out a careful hand, he drew it down his face, “Sentinel.”

Eyes that had been blown open with lust and desire were looking at him closely now, but John was obviously back in control. “Guide.”

“What are you waiting for?”

Grinning fiercely at the question, John replied, “Nothing.” As if the question had been the trigger, Rodney felt his Sentinel let go and his mind slid into his again. It was wonderful.

John’s hands were hard as they mapped each and every inch of Rodney’s skin. He started at the top of his head and moved down to his feet and the Guide found himself wishing that he had taken the time to bathe. Everything he had been taught stated that John would be fine with the scents of his body, but he was still twitchy over it.

“Relax Rodney. This part isn’t all that new.” John said softly. “I know what you smell like, now I get to learn what you taste like. And so far, I like what I am tasting.”

Oh, GOD. Rodney moaned as John moved up between his legs to his neglected cock and started to lick up and down the length of it. When he took it deep into his mouth and swallowed around the head, Rodney curled up and came without warning before flopping back. The ripples of his orgasm rippled out from his cock and all he wanted to do was ooze out into a puddle of satiated Guide. Dropping his hand onto John’s head, he ran his fingers through his Sentinels hair in thanks.

When John let his cock go with a wet pop, Rodney felt a grin pop up on his face and after one last pass through his hair, he put his hand back where it had been. The Sentinel was panting lightly like he had been the one to run full out and it was wonderful to know that he had done that, just by coming. As John got his wind back, Rodney shifted his hips a bit, trying to let his legs fall further about in a subtle hint. They had gotten this far and he wanted more.

“You are not as subtle as you think, Rodney.” John said into the skin above his cock.

Lifting his head, Rodney looked down his body to eye the other. Lying without a qualm, he “There is no way in hell I am trying to be subtle. You are going to fuck me aren’t you?”

Eyebrow raised in silent disbelief at the lie, John nodded and looked around for something. When his eyes lit on the lube, Rodney squirmed in anticipation. A long armed reach out and the Sentinel had the bottle. Flipping the cap open, John coated his fingers and grinned down at him. “Tilt your hips a bit.”

Rodney did him one better and hooked his hands under his knees and pulled back, exposing his whole ass to his Sentinel. The position should have made him feel vulnerable, but watching the darkening of John’s eyes, it made him feel powerful and smug.

At least it did until John rubbed his fingers over his asshole and started dipping it in and out of the first layer of muscles, slowly letting him get used to the thought of having something in there. The feel of one finger sliding in was both odd and really good, the second and third fingers were just as good and he was rocking back into the thrusts, trying to get more.  He was hard and aching and when the fingers that were driving him wild pulled out, Rodney actually keened.

“Shhhh…” John’s voice sounded strained as he moved between his legs. Rodney felt the knuckles of his hand brush his ass as he felt the head of John’s cock press against his hole. When it popped through the guardian ring, he winced slightly at the burn and felt the pause as John stopped moving. It was a conscious decision, but he worked to let his muscles relax and with the softening, John sank in even further.

He let his eyes close as he concentrated on the feelings of the cock inside of him. It was different from when he had fingered himself, warmer, much bigger and since it was under someone else’s control he couldn’t tell him to speed up. When it tagged something inside of him that he had only brushed at on his own he was thrilled. “God! Do that again. Harder!”

John grunted as he shifted them around slightly to get a better angle and with a deep breath, started to comply. The thrusts from the skinny hips that drove him wild walking were taking him apart and his words left him. All he had left was his mind and he had to share, had to let John know what he was doing to him. Reaching out along their newborn Bond, Rodney poured his feelings down it and felt John’s coming back it. It was better than when their minds had met, it was better than anything.

Orgasm when it came again was just another piece of what they had formed between them. Something that, when it whited out his mind and sent him over the edge, Rodney welcomed with open arms as he felt John come apart with him. For a brief shining moment, they were one.

————–

A/N. I need to say a massive thank you to Keira again. Without which this last scene would not have been added to the story and you all would be with out John & Rodney sex. So thank you!

Interlude Atlantis: Rejoining Life

Daniel walked into the apartment he shared with Jon and stopped. There was no one home. Jon had called him to remind him to come home and (after checking his watch), it was his partners turn to cook, so dinner should have been started….

But no one was there. If they had been any place other than Atlantis, he would have been more concerned about kidnapping, so that left… Well kidnapping, accidents, unexplained off-world missions or scientists grabbing Jon for his ATA gene. Tapping his ear piece, Daniel took the direct route, “Jon? Where are you?”

No answer. Damn it.

Another tap to the channel stud and, “Carson? Is Jon O’Neill there with you?”

“Nae, lad. He isn’t. Haven’t seen him in days. Why do ye ask?” replied the base CMO. After so many years on Atlantis, the question didn’t seem to have thrown him at all, just made him curious.

“Because he isn’t home and I was wondering if he had been sparring with anyone and needed your attention. Thanks!” and quickly signing off, the Archeologist dropped his computer on the desk by the door and headed out again.

Jumper Bay, Jon’s office, Sheppard’s office, the mess, the armory, CIC, the range, their favorite balcony and back again. He wasn’t in any of them. When Daniel had passed Sheppard for the third time as he made his rounds, apparently that was just too much for the other man and he pulled him over to one of the many niches scattered up and down the halls. “Check the Natrium. Last time I saw him, he was sitting on the floor, staring at Jamie’s unit.”

Daniel felt himself twitch at that news and in a burst of intuition, looked at his watch. Like every other time piece on Atlantis, it showed both the Atlantis date and Earth date. He wasn’t all the surprised to find that on Earth, it was officially a bad day. Today would have been Charlie O’Neill’s birthday. And thus, was a day that neither Jon or Jack O’Neill handled with anything approaching grace. Nodding slightly, Daniel murmured a quiet “Thank you,” before heading over to the last place he would have looked for his partner at.

Jon was sitting on the floor, staring up at the artificial womb holding Jamie McKay-Sheppard with a look Daniel hadn’t seen in ears. Envy, want, need, hunger. The last time he had really seen that look was when Jack had had to let the Re’tu child, Charlie, go to the Tok’Ra. Right afterwards the Colonel had closed down tightly and had spent the night getting really, really drunk. Not wanting to break the silence, Daniel sat down beside his partner.

“I want the brass ring, Danny. I want to try again.” The words were quiet, but heartfelt. Jon looked up at him and Daniel felt his heart melt at the sight.

“Sure, Jon. Let’s have a baby.”

The smile that lit spread over Jon’s face was enough to light up a room.

~~~~~~~~

Thank you Chris King and Keira for the look over!

Earth Chapter Six – Recovery

Earth Chapter Six – Recovery

Colorado Springs, CO

November 2012

O’Neill/Jackson Residence

Daniel had been home for two months and he was still reluctant to believe that all was truly well in his personal world. Oh, he was quite certain that he was with Jack again, and that he was on Earth, but he was having a hard time coming down from his long term combat high. And he knew it.

The shrinks on base were decent enough, he supposed, but they were way too easy to toy with. They just kept trying too damn hard and kept missing whole huge points involving his mental health. But then again, he really wasn’t telling them everything either. There was no way he was going to give them the keys to his psyche. All three of the shrinks on base were members of military as well and there were some topics that he would never discuss with them. DADT was for more than just the military.

Since he had to get the thoughts out of his head, Daniel took to writing in one of his journals. Not the work ones that he kept on base that he recorded his thoughts and suppositions on the various cultures they had encountered in. No, this was one of the therapy ones that was written in an obscure dialect of Ancient that he only learned after he had Deascended for the second time. If there was anyone on Earth who could read them (other than Jack), he would be surprised. And since it was his therapy, his release valve, he went all out and used a good steel tipped fountain pen to slowly, inch by inch fill the journal with his thoughts and fears during the time away from Jack.

When he reached the last page of the journal, Daniel felt calmer, more in control of his reactions to the years away. It had taken two months.

~//~

Jack was good with Daniel talking with the shrinks on base. He really was. After all, none of them were McKenzie so that was a definite plus in their favor. What he wasn’t okay with was how ineffectual they were turning out to be. If they were this bad with Daniel, someone who was actually trying to make some use of their services, what were they like for the rest of SG1? Or the rest of his kids on base?

So he was looking for some good trauma trained psychologists who could handle the deeply weird situations that his base either got into or generated. So far, he was coming up dry.

Meanwhile Daniel had retreated to his private journal and was writing away at it in some form of Ancient that Jack had professed to only vaguely understand. At least the archeologist was good about making sure that all of his work journals were in a readily readable language, as evidenced by Jonas being able to make use of them during his brief tenure on SG1. Every time Daniel surfaced from a session of writing, he looked better, more at peace with himself, so Jack wasn’t going to complain.

He was however, going to keep an eye on him and as soon as Daniel made even the smallest gesture at wanting to let him in, he was going to be ready. Jack had learned his lesson and was going to be ready to listen to the other man about everything that had happened. They both would need it.

But he was still going to have Daniel talk with an ‘expert’. Just in case.

~//~

Washington DC, USA

Late November 2012

Oval Office, The White House

“Mr. President, the Oceanus has been completed and we are making plans to launch her within the month. All necessary repairs to the Odyssey, Potemkin and Apollo have been completed and they have all been resupplied and assigned their patrol routes. The Halifax reports all is still quiet on the rim and the Enterprise has sent back her latest survey data.” O’Neill reported as he sat on the same sofa that he had sat on when he had taken control of both Homeworld and the SGC.

The older man was as calm and laid back as he had been every time he had reported to the Oval Office and Baqer was profoundly grateful for that. He had way too many people who spent their time with him trying to fear-monger him into deciding in their favor. It didn’t work, but they sure tried.

“Area 51 is going over that communiqué carefully since there has been Ori activity in that sector over the last six months. From all reports they have had a calm cruise, but the captain did mention that they still haven’t found any dilithium crystals yet, but they are still looking.” O’Neill didn’t miss a beat as the President of the US, his titular boss chuckled at that remark. “The Vindico, nicknamed the ‘Toilet Bowl’ by its crew is still being taken apart and examined. Carter’s work around, per the engineering guys is both elegant and easily repeated if we ever get our hands on another Ori battlecruiser.

“SG1 has been passed by the shrinks to light duty on the base and Teal’c has headed out to Dakarra to see what the Jaffa nation has been up to while he was gone. Dr. Jackson has reclaimed his office at the Mountain and the output from his departments has gone up 37%. Carter has the reins of the hard sciences again and the number of accidents, both potentially fatal and non, have dropped to nearly nothing. Mitchell is fitting in well as my 2IC at this point and Vala is working with Daniel’s anthropologists to fill in some of the gaps in our knowledge of the various cultures we are meeting.”

Baqer Omidifar, President of the US raised his hand to stop the report Jack was giving. He needed a point in that mass of words explained. “I thought Col. Carter was your 2IC, General. When did that change?”

“When SG1 got back, sir,” Jack said. There was no apology in his tone as he explained the change. “Carter has decided that she has had enough of going through the Gate and wants to concentrate on science for a while. Col. Mitchell still wants to lead SG1 and Vala Mal Doran is willing to go out with him. They are looking for a soft science type from Dr. Jackson’s department and I am lobbying for a Marine as their fourth. So far Mitchell isn’t thrilled with what the interview process is turning up.”

“You do interviews to place team members?” asked Joseph Morris, the Secretary of Defense.

“When it comes to the premier team that has been the first line of defense for the planet many, many times over the last sixteen years, yes, we do. It takes a unique personality to do our job and not everyone is suited for it. I would far rather have Mitchell and Mal Doran spend a few weeks doing interviews than try to fix what a bad personality mesh screwed up.” O’Neill’s eyes were still clear and without apology as he looked at Morris.

Omidifar cocked his head to the side as he thought over what he had been told were the duties of SG1 and by extension the other teams out of the SGC. If interviews were what worked, he wasn’t going to fuss that it wasn’t ‘normal’. He already knew the KISS principle.

O’Neill nodded and picked up his report again. “We have attempted to contact Atlantis again, but have had no success. We are looking into the feasibility of sending a ship out to Pegasus, but that would take one of them out of contact for at least six to eight weeks. If we authorize an extended tour, the ship will be out even longer. We know some of the conditions that Weir and her people would need for a new planet, so we will be looking over the reported planets that were explored before Atlantis broke contact for possible new worlds.

“Our alliance with the Jaffa has gotten markedly better once Lam started increasing the amount of synthetic tretonin her labs have been able to put out. We are basically supplying most of the Jaffa nation with what they need to survive at this time. We are also working on getting their scientists the necessary training and materials that they need to start up production in their own facility.

“We still have not heard from the Tok’ra, despite putting out feelers all over the galaxy. We know that they are still in existence due to circumstantial evidence, but we haven’t spoken to one of their operatives since we buried Jacob and Selmac. Given that, we have left message capsules on worlds where we knew they used as stops to break their trails when their people head back to base.

“The System Lords have been quiet and for the most part, staying out of galactic politics. They don’t have the power bases or Jaffa loyal to them anymore to be much more than a nuisance. A dangerous one, but at this point, they aren’t our major concern.

“The System Lord Ba’al has been sighted several times on Earth. We don’t know what he is up to, but the times that he has been seen lead us to believe it is either an imposter or that he has managed to clone himself several times. SG1 and I along with the long time staff at the SGC believe he has gone the cloning route, no matter what the weenies at Area 51 think. Whatever he is doing, it is costing him a pretty penny, because every time he has been seen, he’s wearing some very expensive clothes.

“The Ori have also, for the most part, been quiet as well. There are several worlds where the population had taken on Origin, and are now back to their original gods. When we went back to check on them, the populations were healthy and they stated that there have been no Priors around for several months.”

Morris held a hand up to interrupt O’Neill. “Why did they go back to their original gods? I thought once a planet converted, that was it?”

O’Neill wagged his head from side to side as he thought on how to answer, something that Baqer appreciated, but didn’t always get. “From what Dr. Jackson has said, the Ori galaxy has been under their control for several tens of thousands of years. The beings in control had plenty of time to get the whole process of controlling populations down to a science. In our galaxy, we had the Goa’uld trading planets and slaves back and forth like they were chess pieces. Due to that, the people here are used to serving a ‘God’ with all their hearts, for as long as the ‘God’ is in charge. Once they are gone, the people revert back to what was comfortable or their last god.”

“So even though the Ori came and conquered, they weren’t firmly established and once they were gone, things went back to business as usual?” Morris asked.

“Pretty much,” O’Neill agreed. “If the Ori had been able to hold onto some of those planets for a generation or two, we might have a different picture out there. But since they didn’t, events are moving back to what passes for normal on various planets. Origin might stay in the Milky Way, but it isn’t going to be… as overwhelming as it could have been.”

Baqer aimed a piercing glance at his General. “So do you think they will continue to proselytize around the galaxy in an effort to drum up worshippers?”

Nodding slightly, O’Neill agreed. “They might try, but the driving forces behind the push, the Ascended Ori and the Orici are both gone. Dead. When SG1 went to the Ori galaxy, they let loose the gift we got from Merlin and the Ori are no more. And yes, we do have confirmation of this from the Morrigan.”

“So we have a group of people in the galaxy who want to convert populations to their religion and aren’t too caring if it is by the sword or not? Why is this familiar?” Morris asked.

“Because we have been dealing with it here on Earth for the last ten thousand plus years? Religion makes some people really, really stupid, sir. See the Middle East, the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition for examples,” O’Neill said with a disgusted look.

“Agreed. Now is there anything else?” Baqer asked. His time with O’Neill was drawing to a close and he was going to need a few minutes to decompress from all the information dumped on him.

“The Lucien Alliance are my last topic to touch on. They are still dealing and making waves for us through our alliances and those we are just meeting. They have been around for a while now, and have some internal divisions that we are hoping to use to split them soon. We have started working to get HUMIT on them, but it will be a long time coming before we can get dependable information out of that. And I am done.” O’Neill closed his leather file folder with a snap.

“Thank you, General,” Baqer said sincerely. “Please pass on a ‘Best of luck’ to Col. Mitchell and Ms. Mal Doran in their search for the new team members. Also to Dr. Jackson, Col. Carter and Teal’c in their endeavors, plus the rest of your personnel as well.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you and I will pass it along,” O’Neill agreed as he stood. Good man. He could hear the implied dismissal. Saluting smartly, the General waited a beat to have it returned and then walked out. Just one of the many, many military men who came to report to their supreme boss.

~//~

Colorado Springs, CO

Late November 2012

O’Neill/Jackson Residence

“Honey, I’m home!” Jack called softly as he walked in his front door.

“Very funny. Coffee is perked and the Simpsons will be on in fifteen minutes if you wanna shower,” came Daniel’s voice from the den.

“Sweet. Be there in ten.”

Jack dropped his overnight bag in the hall on the way to the shower he had been dreaming of since he had gotten on his flight back to Colorado after his monthly briefing with President. He hated Washington and had since he had been in charge of Homeworld Security. The whole city made him feel slimy, like he had gotten coated in something foul. Stripping out of his uniform, he took the time to hang his jacket and trousers carefully. They needed to get dropped off at the drycleaners at the first opportunity.

The hot water was a divine thing and Jack reveled in the feeling for a moment before he started to scrub himself clean. Each pass of the soap and wash cloth left him feeling more and more like himself and less like some weird mishmash of Hammond and himself. He was so not a politician, but he could play one for however long it took for all of his kids to be safe.

Body and hair clean, Jack shut everything down and took the time to dry off enough that his sweats wouldn’t be uncomfortable. Thick sweats on, socks to keep his feet warm and his hair scrubbed mostly dry, Jack headed towards the den, coffee and Daniel. He was home now.

*****

Daniel curled up further into the couch with his cup of coffee, a warm afghan and the therapy journal in his lap. The journal had been sitting on the coffee table while he had been waiting on Jack to get home. And he had been staring at it like it was a cobra that was going to bite him.

Which was ridiculous. The thing was leather, paper and ink. It wasn’t alive, it wasn’t going to bite him and the contents no longer had the power to hurt him. But it did have the power to hurt Jack. And that wasn’t his intention at all.

While the process of writing down of everything had been cathartic, it had not been easy or calm. The journal had been launched across the room several times in various fits of rage at events he was struggling to get down. When he had mentioned his fits of rage, his therapist had seemed to be okay with the launching thing and even called it healthy. If the man hadn’t been so damn sane, Daniel would have put him in for a chance at his own couch, just for that.

His shrink knew that he had been writing a therapy journal from the very beginning, and had even encouraged him in the endeavor, calling it useful. The new guy that Jack had found was… decent. And actually capable of putting the combat vet inside of him at ease, since the doctor’s last duty station had been Iraq. And when he had had flashbacks in his office, the doctor hadn’t reached for the drugs to medicate him into oblivion, but instead had talked him down.

Despite getting better on the mental health front, Daniel knew he wasn’t going to be able to go through the gate any time soon. Maybe never again. He hoped that Jack would be good with his decision to say at the SGC full time. The Gate, with its lure of pretty, pretty cultures, wonders and insanity was just too much right now. And Daniel was convinced that the situation wasn’t going to change any time soon. Every time he went down to Level 29, his hands shook slightly. Not exactly a good sign.

Daniel ran his hands over the battered front cover of the journal. He and Jack needed to go over everything that it contained. Dr. Garibay, his therapist, was good with the idea of the two of them talking about what was in the journal. While they had gone over some of what it contained in session, there were area’s Daniel had firmly blocked off from the psychologist and the other man had respected his boundaries, only commenting that even for him, there were things that he didn’t need to know.

The shower in the master bedroom cut off and Daniel dragged his mind off the mental side path it had taken while he had waited for Jack to get done. Taking sip of his coffee, he made a face at the cup. It was cold again. Uncurling his legs from the afghan, Daniel stood up and placed the journal in his spot before heading to the coffee pot.

He was grateful that Jack’s taste in coffee had improved over the years and he was now as much of a coffee snob as the archeologist. Neither of them apologized for getting the really good beans and both of them were apt to brew pot after pot to keep them going. Daniel poured his cup and then grabbed a mug for Jack, taking care to pour it with enough room for some additives. The bottle of JD had been a joke from Janet many years before, but its successor was going to be needed now. Tucking the sealed bottle under one arm, Daniel carried both cups back to his nest in the living room and after placing Jack’s cup on the coffee table with the liquor, curled up under the afghan again.

Digressing again. He could hear Jack padding down the stairs, “Jack? I have your cup out here.”

Tilting his head back, Daniel waited with his eyes closed. Warm lips that kissed his were a privilege that he would never stop being grateful for and he kissed them back with all the love that he had. Jack looked just like he expected when he opened his eyes after the kiss ended. A bit tired, but he had that open look in his eyes that showed that he was willing to talk.

“You might want to doctor that cup, this is going to be a bit rough.” Daniel said quietly.

Eyes alight with curiosity, Jack did as he was ordered. As soon as he had taken the first sip, Daniel leaned forward and started to tell him everything.

Atlantis Chapter Seven – Endless Possibilities

New Lantea

October 2012

Jumper Bay

“We decided that his name will be James Alexander McKay Sheppard,” Rodney said as he worked on Jumper One with Radek. It was their day to go over each of the little space ships to confirm their space worthiness.

“Is a good name. Flows well and you will be able to scream it without many problems,” Radek said from the cargo compartment.

Rodney huffed out an amused snort. “Yeah, I did that before we settle on Jamie’s name. No kid of ours is going to be sweet and calm.”

Radek laughed softly at that thought too. “No, you and the Colonel are not calm and sweet. How soon until the baby is born?”

Raw terror showed briefly on McKay’s face and was then hidden again. “Five more months. He is so energetic now. Every time we are in the incubarium, he gets really, really excited and moves a lot.”

Radek ignored the thread of fear that ran through his friend’s voice. He was firmly convinced that all parents should be afraid of the birth of their child. It was only right. Speaking of the birth… “Do you have the nursery prepared?”

“No….” Rodney drew the word out. His voice was distracted and Radek could see him shifting as he worked on another system. “Teyla suggested that we wait until he is through this trimester and then start looking for stuff. She gave us lists.”

Radek laughed again. Of course she had.

~//~

Unnamed System

Late October 2012

Locus Novus Propositum

 

“Holy shit.” The voice over the radio was soft and filled with awe at the sight before them.

Floating like abandoned toys were the remnants of Ancient ships. Far more than they had ever dreamed would be at the site.  Even from as far away as the space gate, it was obvious that some of the ship remains had severe battle damage. Reposts from the remnants of the Ancient sensor array they had accessed upon arrival showed that some of the ships were cracked down to their keels, while others were burned and melted into shapes that only vaguely resembled the ships they had started out as.  There were no obvious power readings at all, but they really hadn’t thought they would find any. The records Elizabeth had found showed that this location had been as carefully mothballed as the Da Vinci had been.

Edging forward, the jumpers moved carefully though the space based graveyard. There were so many bits and pieces of ships floating in the volume before them that the pilots fell silent, concentrating on getting through the mess safely. Peering through the windshield of the jumper he was in, Rodney managed to identify engine pods, inner and outer hull fragments, what looked like a residential tower from an Ancient city and thousands of lumps of melted material. And that was only what was within his unassisted eyesight.

“Colonel, if the computer is correct, the main facility for the yard is here.” Rodney got the computer to highlight a tangled mass of metal that was the Ancients idea of an ideal recycling station. At least, per the Da Vinci, that was what it was supposed to be.

“Gotcha,” John said as his hands worked the control yokes of the Jumper with smooth skill. It was the work of only moments before they were on the way to their target.

“I feel like we are redoing the asteroid belt scene from Empire Strikes Back,” Rodney muttered as an unidentifiable piece of something drifted by. “You did remember to put the shield up on this thing, right?”

“Shields are up and they have been since we came through the Gate. I need to thank the MALP crew for that very nice space MALP. If we hadn’t had it, we would have come through bare and that would have totally sucked since there is crap all around the Gate,” John muttered back. Rodney could tell that most of his attention was on the instruments that were predicting the ‘orbit’ of everything in front of him and keeping an eye on the windshield.

There was just so much stuff out there.

Nevertheless, he could guess as to why the Wraith had ignored this whole system. At first and even second glance, the place looked like what it was; free-floating junk that gravity was playing bumper cars with. The station no longer looked like the typical smooth Ancient construction; it was covered in layers and layers of trash. Rodney paused at that thought and pushed a harder scan at the station. For that much crap to be on the station and not in or through it, there had to be a shield of some type.

It took him twenty minutes to find evidence to back up his hypothesis and even then, the sensors on the Jumper weren’t quite good enough to show what he wanted. The only reason Rodney could confirm the existence of the shield was something the size of a 747 hit the side of the station nearest their flight path and he saw the whole thing light up. Some genius of an Ancient had come up with a shield that took its power from the crap that hit it, so it only needed a low-level power supply for the times when it wasn’t being hit. Wonderful.

“Rodney? What are you muttering about?” John asked. “And can you tell if that piece destroyed anything important? Like life support?”

“It didn’t hurt anything Colonel. But it did supply some more power to the shield that is surrounding the station,” Rodney said. Mystery solved, he turned his attention to trying to get the station to talk to him on a meaningful level. One that meant he could get the plans for the thing and find out where the landing bay was.

“A kinetic shield? Holy shit, that is so cool. But that means that there is power somewhere, right?”

Nodding absently, Rodney started typing into his laptop quickly. “There has to be somewhere. I need you to circle the station for a few minutes, okay?”

The protocols that the Da Vinci used were now coming in handy. He had a roadmap to show him how this station might react to them. Thankfully, it was a repair and recycling depot, not a battle station. While there might be drones somewhere below, there was little chance that they were loaded into weapons bays. He hoped.

“We’re in,” Rodney announced. His pass codes and authentications from Atlantis had been accepted and were still considered good apparently. Time to really get to work then.

~//~

Aboard the Junkyard Dog

November 18, 2012

Central Computer Core Room

Rodney was actually happy with the Ancients who had worked in the recycling station. They had been as anal retentive as he could wish. There were complete files on each and every ship or part that had every entered the facility. The data Elizabeth had led them to was a goldmine.

On the other hand, the salvageable parts available weren’t living up to his pipe dreams. The absolute cold of 3°K or -250°C had preserved the various ship remains floating around beautifully. However, the incessant micro-meteor impacts from all the crap floating around had damaged more than he really wanted to think about. There were some parts stored inside the base itself though, but not enough. From his best estimation, there were enough available parts to rehab two, maybe three ships if they were all like the Orion. Maybe. Sheppard had pilots out scouring the surrounding area for ship hulls that were intact enough to try to press back into service.

Rodney moved on to the next item on his checklist. Computers. Specifically, the Yards computers. Again, whoever had shut the place down had done a bang-up job of mothballing them. Any computers having to do with the ripping apart and mending of ship or city parts had not only been shut down, but they had also been surrounded by low-level stasis fields. They hadn’t put out a great deal of energy and the only reason they even knew about them was he had seen one flair and die when he had tied in a few naquadah generators to get power back. The plans for those had already been downloaded and sent over to Atlantis for review by Kusanagi. If the tech worked as well on foodstuffs as it did on electronics, they had another trade item.

However, with every good, there had to be the bad, and the bad was pretty bad. The Navigation and Station-keeping computers were so badly corrupted with incorrectly stored data that they couldn’t function. It was a miracle of several magnitudes that the Yard wasn’t one of the many broken and useless Ancient facilities. Ten thousand years without servicing or even the basic automated stuff that Atlantis had been allowed had resulted in computers with the Ancient version of bit rot. He was going to have to get one of his few IT people onto the problem. If they were lucky, they might be able to salvage something out of it.

Rodney took a deep pull from his coffee cup and sighed in happiness. His coffee was actually hot despite if having been cold the last time he had reached for it. That fact brought him up and out of his work haze long enough to look around. John was leaning against the wall nearest the door.

Eyebrow raised in inquiry, Rodney asked, “How long have you been staring at my ass?”

John flashed him a wicked smirk. “Not long enough.”

~//~

P3X-477

December 2012

Cloth Market

“So we’re supposed to find what today?” Rodney asked.

Teyla was surveying the market before them with a practiced eye and he could tell that she was planning the trip. “Jamie is in need of cloth to make diapers, clothes and soft toys for when he is older.”

Rodney nodded and looked back over the market, trying to find the cloth sellers. “Why am I here again?”

“Because John is running drills with the military and you wanted to pick out things in case the baby inherited your allergies,” Teyla said calmly.

“Right.”Rodney sighed. He had hated clothes shopping on Earth where the prices were set, no haggling needed. Yet here he was, voluntarily going clothes shopping in Pegasus where haggling was both required and an art form.  Thank goodness for Teyla.

Who only smiled as if she could hear his thought and started to walk down the rows, obviously heading for something. Rodney followed behind after shrugging his backpack into a better position and grabbing the handle of the wagon some of his engineers had made out of scraps and MALP parts. As they moved deeper into the rows, he saw more and more stuff associated with cloth, looms, spindles and the Pegasus version of the spinning wheel. There were needles mounted on paper, skeins of spun threads in a rainbow of colors and finally, fabric.

Fine, gauzy, sturdy, dyed in a variety of shades and colors, it was all there. There was one stall out of the visual bedlam that caught his eye due to the color of fabric it contained. Every bolt of fabric that he could see was black. Not the green/black or red/black that he often saw but real, true black. “Teyla? After we get the stuff for Jamie, I want to stop there,” Rodney said with a nod of his head towards the stall.

Eyes bright with understanding and laughter, Teyla nodded. She was scanning the area for something and with a satisfied noise headed towards one of the stalls with what looked like unbleached linens in it.

Each bolt in the stall was weighed, handled, and tested. Teyla put only a few aside of later consideration. Of the ones put aside, several were removed after some test that Rodney had no clue about; apparently the owner of the stall was okay with it though. When he ran a finger over one of the bolts that had Teyla’s approval, it was soft and even he could tell the weave was tight. The ones that she had refused were rough in comparison. Not something that he wanted against Jamie’s skin.

Once the tiresome debating on which bolts, thread and fasteners to get was done, Teyla quickly ordered the lengths she felt were needed and they paid for everything with the currency of the market. Wagon loaded, they moved onto the next few stalls.

Repeat, repeat, repeat. Rodney had to keep reminding himself that this whole boring trip was for Jamie. The kid wasn’t even born yet and already was causing him a headache. To distract himself, Rodney started going over the lists of people and chores associated with the junkyard. It kept him entertained and out of the way of Teyla’s bargaining.

When the wagon was almost full, they turned back towards the entrance of the cloth mongers area. The stall full of black cloth was still there and still full. Apparently, black was not a popular color around here.

“Teyla, how much do you have on you?” Rodney asked quietly as they got closer to the exit.

As usual, she followed his non-science thoughts with little effort. “I have enough. For John?”

“Yeah,” Rodney agreed. “His off duty stuff is getting a bit thin.” Pulling the wagon over, he positioned it where they both could keep an eye on it and started testing bolts. There was cloth that felt like canvas, some that felt like well washed t-shirts, another that felt like silk and everything in-between. Moreover, all of it in the deep beautiful black that John would love.

Like every other stall they had visited, this one had thread and what passed for buttons in Pegasus. Rodney spent every bit of money that he and Teyla had on them and came away with enough cloth to outfit John head to toe in his color of choice. Looking at his haul, he was well satisfied.

~//~

Atlantis

December 15, 2012

Personal Quarters

“John? Does this feel soft enough to you?”

Rodney was holding out a swatch of fabric for testing and John stared at it in horror. “Rodney, we may be officially gay, but even I have my limits. We are not having a “Queer Guy of the Pegasus Galaxy” moment here.”

Huffing lightly in irritation, Rodney shook the rag at him. “Look, this is for clothes for Jamie. Teyla and I went and found stuff for him and I think it is fine, but I wanted a second opinion. Plus the dye is one that I am not allergic to, and I want to make sure that you are good with it too.”

John looked at the green fabric swatch and sighed in capitulation. He had already tested the stuff for diapers, onesies and bath sheets. One more piece of fabric wasn’t going to kill him. “At least you didn’t go for the color coding thing.”

Rodney shook his head at that. “There is no way that I am going to foist the whole Western boys blue, girls pink thing on our kid. Besides, I am allergic to the plant the Ashvornians use for the source of their blue dye.”

“So who is making the clothes for Jamie?” John asked as he studiously ignored the light blush that was staining Rodney’s face. The green swatch that he had in his hands was actually pretty nice and soft; if he had to compare it to anything, it felt a bit thicker than t-shirt cotton.

“Some of the Athosian women are doing a lot of sewing as long as you get them all the supplies and let them know what you want. We had some standard baby clothes that got included in one of the many, many boxes that Siler and crew shoved through the Gate. So I grabbed some examples of the most common styles and asked that they make them,.” Rodney explained as he started unloading the backpack that he had taken with him on his trading trip to the mainland market.

John blinked at that. The Athosians had been integrated into the culture of the city and he knew that they were taking a more active role in things, but this was the first he had heard about them being willing to sew for anyone. “Are we paying them anything?” he asked cautiously.

“Yes. We are. Teyla made sure of that. I picked up some of those really thick and soft blankets from Eurareau and enough yarn to knit at least three more,” Rodney said. The blush was back, so there had to be more to the story than that. Still. Those blankets weren’t cheap, and neither was the yarn. How were they affording this?

“Rodney? How are we affording this? I mean, I know that Atlantis trades our skills, medicines and the like for stuff we need as a whole, but how are we affording all this stuff for Jamie?”

“You really don’t read the emails coming out of my department, do you? Or the cultural stuff that Elizabeth keeps pushing,” Rodney said fondly. He read everything that his scientists put out. Even the stuff from the soft sciences. He might think they were full of bullshit, but he did read them. Because occasionally, even his soft science people found some good stuff. Not that he was going to tell them so in so many words, that was what he had Jackson for now. It worked much better this way.

It was John’s turn to blush now. He knew that he was supposed to read all the reports that crossed his desk, and he did try, but there wasn’t enough time to read everything. “Apparently not if it relates to whatever it is that you are talking about.”

“Due to the desalinators that Atlantis operates to produce the massive amounts of fresh water we use, she has been picking up a lot of salt and precious minerals. When we finally got around to checking the areas where the byproducts of our water production were stored we found several metric tonnes of good quality salt and several hundred troy ounces of gold, platinum, silver, palladium and other goodies. Every trading group goes out with some of each. Salt is apparently highly prized since so many civilizations are inland. Elizabeth is thrilled that we don’t have to volunteer our people on some of the trades.”

“I bet,” John said grimly. Some of the trades they had done that first year were horrifying to think about now. They had been very, very lucky that the first people the Expedition had met had been the Athosians. If they had been the Genii, there might have been no one to rescue when the Daedalus had shown up.

“Anyway, we went to that great big market that keeps hopping worlds and I spent my free afternoon following Teyla around. That woman can shop. Remind me to not be available for pack mule service if we ever get back to Earth,.” Rodney said dryly.

“So you went shopping, got stuff for Junior and then talked some of the Athosian crafters to make us baby clothes?” John asked.

“Yup,.” Rodney agreed with another blush. John was now very certain that getting Jamie clothes wasn’t all that his partner had done, but whatever he was hiding, it wasn’t bad. Rodney was too happy with whatever it was for it to be trouble.

~//~

Aboard the Junkyard Dog

January 2013

Main Control

“Eureka!”

The call over the all channels override cause Rodney and John to jump upright, thankfully neither was under a console at the time or someone would have been paying dearly. No matter how cool the discovery.

“Eureka, what?” John demanded after he got his heart out of his mouth.

“Ships, sir! Three of them. Parked in a dark crater on one of the bigger asteroids out here,” came the prompt reply from the same voice that had startled them.

“Does it look like they are intact?” Rodney asked quickly.

“The Jumper is reporting one of those kinetic shields, Dr. McKay and it looks to be functional,” Replied Parkins. He was one of Rodney’s cross-trained physicist/engineers and that meant that he was out in Jumper Seven with one of the Marine teams.

Rodney was already powering down his laptop and getting his tools together. “How strong is the shield?”

“The shield looks like it is on its last ergs of energy from the readings I am getting. If it lasts a month more at the current level, I’ll be shocked. There are a lot of little meteorites out here and it was the flare of a strike that caused the sensors to home in on it,” Parkins reported.

John mulled the information over for a moment and then tapped his earpiece over to the pilot only channel. “Attention ladies and gentlemen! You all heard Parkins. Keep an eye on the deep craters for anything the Ancients hid. You know they liked to make things difficult for anyone looking for their stuff. If you find anything at all, let us know. Sheppard out.”

Rodney was talking to his scientist as he zipped up his mission pack. John took the time to grab the coffee carafe and his own pack as they moved out the door to the hanger bay. This was something that they needed to be on scene for.

*************

John stared out the windshield of his Jumper. There were three ships hiding in the shadows of the crater, each one of them bigger and in better shape than the Orion. If even one of them was in as good of shape as they looked, Atlantis was set.

“Being a space explorer is so cool,” he breathed out.

Rodney only laughed beside him.

**************

Author’s Note:

As always, I need to give a sincere thank you to my Beta’s, Keira and Chris King. Without those two ladies, this would have been a poorer chapter. Thank you!

Interlude: Atlantis

Interlude

New Lantea

November 10

“Elizabeth, we need tomorrow off.”

John watched as Elizabeth looked up at him in surprise. It wasn’t often that he asked for a day off and so he could understand her being startled. She would be even more startled when she found out that he meant the whole of Atlantis’s military establishment.

“We? What we are you talking about John? You and Rodney?” she asked. Her eyes were flicking from her computer screen to the tablet she had been working on, obviously trying to determine what had sparked this request.

John shook his head at that question. “No. We as in your military. All of my men are back aboard Atlantis and we just need tomorrow off.”

“Uhm… May I ask why?” John had to give her points for trying, because Elizabeth hadn’t given up on looking for answers. Even if she was a bit off balance thanks to his approach.

“Tomorrow is Veterans Day, Elizabeth. And we, the military arm of the Expedition, would like to hold a bit of ceremony to commemorate it,” John said quietly.

For a brief moment, Elizabeth seemed startled and in an obvious move, checked the date on her computer. Seeing that it was, nominally, the tenth of November she nodded. “I can agree with that John. Do you want us there?”

John shook his head and murmured, “No, not this time. We need to do this on our own.”

Elizabeth was silent for a moment or two and John stayed still. While the Expedition was no longer part of Earth, this observance was something important to his boys and girls and he didn’t want to do anything to mess it up. When Elizabeth nodded her acquiescence to his request, all he could do was say thank you as he left. There were things he had to ready before tomorrow morning.

~//~

          There were rows and rows of boots and guns supporting dog tags. The boots varied in size, color and wear patterns but every single one was special in some way, to someone. Every year, the display got larger, and the men and women who were part of the Atlantis military command were far too used to the growth for them to twitch at that grim fact.

The living members of the military arm of the Expedition were in their own rows, all shiny in dress uniforms from nations all over Earth. This would be the last time they observed this ’holiday’ in their Earth-based uniforms. There were new ones being made now, and they would honor their dead in the next year with a united display of pageantry.

Speeches, short as they were, were given with all the heartfelt emotion that men and women on the front lines of a war they hadn’t started, but knew that they would finish could give. At the end, after every name was said, after every moment of heartache was felt, ‘Taps’ played from the lone bugler to come to Atlantis. There was no sound to be heard from ranks while he played.

Voice thick with emotions that would never be let free, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard called his men and women to attention, and with a crisp salute to the fallen, dismissed everyone.

Another year ended. His prayers for no deaths went forth as they did every year, and he knew that they would be in vain. War was a beast that was always hungry and his soldiers were its food. God help them all.

*******************

Authors Notes:

This got a brief edit by Keira Marcos. Thank you for that.

This is dedicated to each and every member of the military, worldwide, who has lost their life to the War On Terror. It has been going on far longer than many of us knew and will continue for many years yet. This is also for all of those left behind. We will miss you, mourn you and salute you. Godspeed.

~L

Reality and Reflections

“Dr. McKay, thank you for agreeing to this meeting,” Blair said in formal tones. Despite his words, there was a bright grin on his face. He was truly proud of his student.

Rodney returned the grin with one of his own. “Thank you, Dr. Sandburg! How can I be of service?”

Blair felt his face fall into more serious lines as he thinned his shields and contemplated what he had to say. Given who he was talking to, blunt honest was going to be the best policy. “You and John were put together to Bond yesterday, Rodney. We need to talk about what happened and what didn’t happen.”

“But nothing happened! We tried to be careful not to touch or anything!” Rodney protested.

“Nothing happened yesterday because neither of you wanted it to, plus we got someone there in time. But you and John are extremely compatible. To the point where I am certain that on a genetic level, you two are perfect matches for each other.” Blair sighed. “For most anyone else in the program, this would be cause for dancing in the street. For you two, it will be a lot different.”

“Why?” Blair could feel the need in the younger man to know, to understand why his teacher was denying something that every Guide wanted. A Sentinel of their own.

“Because no matter how compatible you and John are, your brains aren’t quiet mature enough to handle everything that a Bonding entails. If you were, you would have been thrown into it when John touched you in the meditation room.” Blair let his regret leak out through his shields. “It may be a year or more before you two are able to successfully support a Bond.”

“A year!” Rodney squeaked. Blair wasn’t going to laugh at him for that, even if it was funny. “What happens if we try to Bond before then?”

Now that wasn’t funny at all. Best to nip that idea in the bud, right now. “If you aren’t ready, you could burn out the channels in your mind that support a Bond. Rodney, I know that you are a powerful, well trained Guide, but there is a reason why we don’t let Sentinels and Guides bond before they are at least eighteen.”

“Burnout? I could burn out?” Rodney looked horrified and Blair felt the flair of it against his shields.

“Rodney. You’re projecting,” Blair said calmly. He knew he had gotten his point across. Rodney was far too well trained for this to have been a planned slip. The feeling of horror stopped and Blair watched as his student took a deep breath and concentrated on quieting his mind.

When Rodney next opened his eyes, he was calm and Blair could see that he had taken the time to actually absorb what he had said, not just react to the words. Good for him. Logic above emotion, for the win.

“So how will you know when we are ready to Bond? As far as I know, there is no reliable way to tell the channels from any other portion of the brain using a CT scan or a MRI,” Rodney asked.

“There isn’t. The only way is for a Bonded Guide to scan you both and confirm that you are ready. That is part of the reason why we were doing guided meditation yesterday. Your channels are just starting to open up and if you try anything now, well. Like I said, burnout,” the older Guide said softly.

Rodney growled lightly in obvious frustration. “So how do I keep from crawling all over John? I mean, let’s be honest here, Dr. Sandburg. If you had been told that you couldn’t have Mr. Ellison, what would you have done?”

“Oh, I think I would have gone a little mad before I could get the okay to Bond. And I expect that you two will be in pretty sad shape by the time we give you permission. But I also expect that you will be sane and unharmed at that point too. And that it will be a lot sooner than a year,” Blair said with a sigh.

“Why?”

“Oh, just a hunch.”

~//~

Jim pulled his hearing back from his Guide and looked at the younger Sentinel in front of him. Raising an eyebrow in question, he waited on him to finish digesting the conversation that they had just blatantly listened in on.

While John as working through everything that Blair had brought up, Jim took the time to run an accessing look over the younger man. He was tall for his age and thin, but there were some well trained muscles under the skin and he had felt gun and unarmed combat calluses on his hands. He was alert to any sudden movements around him and yet, he wasn’t always on guard and strung tight. Thinking back on it, Jim had watched John scan he room before he entered and only relaxed when his back was to a corner. He could only conclude that there was some serious training under the kids’ fluffy head. Good. He would need it.

When John refocused on him, Jim could almost feel the burn of the glare as he stared at him. Holding up a conciliatory hand, he tried to cut him off at the pass. “Hey! Don’t blame us, blame biology! This has been known about and proved many times over the last two hundred years. You would be getting the in depth lectures on Bonding this year as soon as you were cleared to go to the mixers here on campus.”

“And for those Sentinels and Guides who do not enter college?” John asked in a carefully controlled voice.

Jim cocked his head as he realized John didn’t know the answer, “You’ve been in college for how long?”

“What does that have to do with anything?” John asked, bewildered.

“Because Prides and the Centers start having introductory classes on Bonding and what it means when their members are around fourteen or so. That way no one is surprised by anything. Did no one mention that you were supposed to go to them?” Jim asked curious.

“No. No one did. Not to me,” John said grimly. “But then again, my father has been very hands on with my training for the last three years or so. To the point where he had be pulled out of my classes at the Center by my home. That would have been right about when I would have started to get training on what to do when I Bonded, right?”

Jim thought over the curriculum of the Sentinel/Guide Centers nationwide. “You’re seventeen, right?”

“Yup.”

“Then, yes. You were likely pulled before you would have gotten this information.”Jim said calmly. Inside however, he was putting together a nice warm message to send to the heads of the Pride and Center in John’s natal territory. They had let an Alpha Sentinel out of their hands without verifying his training and it was only the younger man’s innate sense of honor that had kept a tragedy from happening. This was going to cause some interesting waves. He was actually looking forward to talking to them.

“Well, shit,” John said in disgust. Jim could only nod in agreement; there was nothing else to say. “So what’s next?”

“Next?” Jim stared at John and then smiled a bit meanly. “Well, your dad was called in to talk to us since you aren’t emancipated. Jack O’Neill and Daniel Jackson are going to be talking to him any time now. Wanna listen in?”

John cocked his head to the side as he considered what Jim had suggested. Eyes alight with determination, he nodded. “Yes. And can we ask Sentinel O’Neill to push the conversation in a way to get my dad to talk about why he took me out of classes?”

“Will do, John. Don’t worry. Danny and I can handle your dad,”  O’Neill said quietly.

Jim was amused to see the kid start and look in the direction that Jack had spoken from. “You aren’t the only one here who wants to keep an eye on things. The only ones who might be startled are Blair & McKay. And even then, I am betting that Blair will know everything that happens with your dad within fifteen minutes of getting out of his room.”

~//~

Jack O’Neill looked at the man sitting across from him and Daniel. Patrick Sheppard was a very wealthy man and he had no problems letting everyone know that fact. From his handmade suit and shoes to a watch that cost more he and Danny made in a year, the man dripped money. Jack wasn’t impressed.

“As I understand it, Mr. Sheppard, John is a fully trained Sentinel and here at Northwestern to complete his Masters degree in Applied Math. Which I have been assured by his advisor that he will get with honors. So I need to ask: What is the problem?” Daniel asked.

Sheppard wasn’t twitching a muscle at answering the Guide’s question and that bothered Jack a bit. Most of the people they dealt with were not used to dealing with S&G pairs. This man was. The question was why.

“John may be a Sentinel, Dr. Jackson, but he is to follow me into the family business. Not this ridiculous desire of his to enter the military. Of course, his Guide will be expected to join John in the family business if he has any head for it,” Sheppard said coldly.

Now that was too much. “Your son, Mr. Sheppard, is a Sentinel. If he chooses to go into the military, that is both his choice and his right. As for his Guide, chances are indeed very good that he will walk beside his Sentinel in all things,” Jack said calmly. After all, McKay was young, fit and above all, a Wolf Guide. There was little chance that he would let his Sentinel out of his sight once they were allowed to Bond.

But the words slid right off Sheppard and it was obvious that he was neither listening nor believed them. Jack could see that this whole session was going to go downhill. When the man opened his mouth again, he was certain. “John knows that he isn’t going to go into the military. If he does, he is cut off.”

Jack could feel the ripple of shock and anger radiating out from his Guide. Daniel was no hot head, but even he had his limits. He heard Daniel take a long, slow breath. “What do you have against your son joining the military?”

The other man’s expression was a mix of arrogance and disdain as he said, “He is a Sheppard. We do not do that type of thing.”

The Bond he shared with Daniel was ablaze with the other man was feeling and then it was gone. Through the miniature storm that moved through the Guide his face never changed and neither did his voice as he calmly refuted the mundane before him. “Mr. Sheppard, John might not need to join the military, that is true. But the instincts and drives of a Sentinel tell him to work to protect the tribe. If that means that your son wants to join the military, then he will be joining the military. There is nothing that you can do to change that.”

Sheppard only raised an eyebrow in a move that practically screamed arrogance. “My son knows he is expected to do what is best for him. ”

“Best being decided by you of course?” Daniel asked.

“Yes”

“Jack, watch out. Incoming,” Ellison said.

Jack hummed under his breath, certain that the other Sentinel could hear him. He wasn’t going to do a damn thing. This man had all but tap danced his way into his son’s bad graces and he was just going to sit back and watch the explosion. After all, they had made no secret about calling Sheppard in and if the moron had any clue, he knew what his son was capable of.

The sound of the door bouncing off the wall only startled one person in the room and it wasn’t the S&G pair. He was even more startled at the way that John was looking at him. This wasn’t a seventeen year old college student; this was a Sentinel dealing with a possible threat to his Guide. Oh, well.

~//~

Patrick Sheppard was not a man who knuckled under to anyone. Which was why he was perfectly happy to piss off the Alpha Sentinel and Guide pair that were ‘interviewing’ him. After all, their opinions didn’t matter to his lifestyle.

He had gotten used to dealing with Sentinels and Guides on an almost daily basis after he had taken over the training of his oldest son and heir. No Sheppard was going to be mixing with the common rabble while in training. The Center by his main house let everyone who applied in and even worse, his heir might Bond with an unsuitable Guide. No.

When the door to the interview room bounced open and his son stormed in, Patrick mentally ‘tsked’ at the melodrama. Sitting back in his chair, he looked at his heir. “John.”

“I find it amazing what you have managed to get away with concerning me. But no more,” John said quietly. “I am a Sentinel. I am not going to join the family business. I will be out protecting the tribe. As I was meant to. If that bothers you, too damn bad. You have nothing to hold me with anymore.”

The elder Sheppard raised an eyebrow at that statement. “I have your brother and I have your Trust.”

There was a flash of anger in his son’s eyes and then there was nothing. Patrick watched as he signaled the other Sentinel to do nothing when he started to move. Good. He would have preferred it if the pair had left him alone with his son, but since they hadn’t, their silence would have to do. Patrick let his face fall into an inquiring look. He was actually curious to find out what John had to say.

His son took a deep breath and looked at him calmly. “David is just like you, Father. He has no other ambition but to make more money for the family. Use him in your dynastic plans. He’ll enjoy it. As for my Trust from Mom? You might be able to keep it from me until I am eighteen, but no further. I know the terms it was set up under. Thus, you have no hooks to use to keep me in line.”

Impressive. The boy had balls. But in all the wrong ways. “As you will. If you do not want the obligations of being a Sheppard, I will cut you loose. You are no son of mine,” Patrick said in a bored tone. Standing up, he moved around the table he had been sitting at and walked out of the room. Eventually John would come back. After all, despite his now having a Guide, family came first.

Patrick made it out of the building without anyone trying to stop him. What a pity. After getting into his limo, he tapped the direct line to his secretary, “Gladys, put me through to my attorney. I need to change my will. Also get me the file on my son David.”

As he was placed on hold while she transferred him, Patrick Sheppard contemplated his only son’s future. This one would do, he decided.

~//~

“So we have a year or so before we can Bond,” Rodney said. He was so not happy with the thought of having to wait. His Sentinel was either growing on him or he was really, really horny. At this point, Rodney was quite certain that his hormones didn’t care one way or another.

“Yup. That is what they are telling me too. But I am thinking that we will get to that magic mature point a bit sooner,” John said from his spot on the floor. The Sentinel had walked into the large sunlit room and staked out a spot in the sunshine. From the way that he was sprawled, Rodney was convinced that his spirit animal was some type of feline. No other animal on earth could take up more space than could be logically explained due to their size.

“Sooner? Do you know something that Professor Sandburg doesn’t?” Rodney asked, his attention grabbed by the pronouncement. When John rolled over onto his stomach and stretched, he could feel his thoughts hiccup and then try and restart.

John was looking at him with knowing eyes, like he could see his brain trying to reboot. Rodney glared at him and tried to ignore his blush. Smirking, John nodded. “I do indeed know something that the Prof doesn’t know. When we are alone like this, you start putting out the same scent that Bonded Guides do when they need to Bond with their Sentinels. It’s faint, but it is there.”

“Really?” Rodney squeaked. He knew that he had. And from the amusement in the other man’s eyes, he was enjoying his reactions way too much.

“Really,” John agreed.

Oh, boy.

********************
AN: Thank you Keira for pushing me to add some things. You are right, it reads better this way. And thank you for the Beta.

6. Wishes

Title: Wishes
Author: Lady
Rating: U (Suitable for all)
Challenge: Wish Fulfillment
Words: 700
A/N: This may end up taking towards the finale of my fic, An Uncomplicated Choice. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: SGA and its characters do not belong to me.

 

Jeannie McKay-Miller walked into the darkest corner of her backyard and stared up at the stars.

She had been doing this at least once a month for the last five years. Despite the evidence, she had kept the faith and the vigil for a group of people who had stood by their principals and then disappeared from sight five years before. All she had to support her inner certainty of their survival was her knowledge of who and what they were and a single group of letters she had received before all contact was lost. Jeannie snorted softly as she thought of the letters again. They had actually been a packet of emails from everyone she had met on Atlantis and one long, slightly scatter-brained one from her brother. It had been obvious that he had begun it and been drawn away from it repeatedly, because thoughts had been started and then dropped for something new, with topics meandering all over and secrets she had suspected had been told. Not the least of which had been the one about Meredith’s feelings for John.

Blinking back tears at the thought that her socially awkward brother had finally found someone who so obliviously loved him as deeply as she knew John did, Jeannie sniffled and wrapped her arms around herself. It had been so long since she had heard from him and she was starting to worry. When warm arms wrapped around her waist, she leaned back into Kaleb’s embrace and tried to think of a way to get across her uneasiness. “It’s been five years since I got Mer’s letter. He said that if they could, they would try to get in contact with us by now. General O’Neill told me that the SGC has tried Atlantis’s old address and gotten nowhere. Colonel Carter told me that she hasn’t seen anything on the long-range sensors and that without another ZPM she doubted they would be able to sustain a hyperspace window to get here. I’m worried, Kaleb. I miss my brother.”

Kaleb didn’t say anything immediately. Like the last few times she’d had this conversation with him, he was taking the time to give her fears due consideration before responding. “I can’t even begin to understand everything that lead to your brother and his friends making the decision they did, but I know that I am proud that they stood up for their beliefs. Plus, I am so proud of you, Jeannie. You stood up to those arrogant assholes that were running the SGC at the time when they tried to get you to design a system to find Atlantis and you did it without help. If your brother is even a tenth as strong as you are, he and his friends are fine. No doubt in my mind, they’ll get here.”

Laughing lightly in embarrassment at Kaleb’s compliments, Jeannie shook her head before tilting back to kiss her wonderful husband. Falling into the kiss with as much enthusiasm as she had their very first one, she put her fears and wishes aside for a moment; right now she needed to let her husband know how wonderful she thought he was. Twisting in his embrace, she turned around and wrapped her arms around him, returning the hug. Breaking the kiss with a small sigh, she kissed Kaleb again briefly and then rested her head against his chest, content to enjoy his presence with her on this night.

“MOM! DAD!”

Jeannie jerked away from the safety of Kaleb’s arms and turned towards the house and Madison’s scream. She didn’t sound like she was scared, more like something amazing and astounding had happened. Jeannie hurried to meet Madison as she ran out the back door, “Madison? What’s wrong, honey?”

Holding out the phone she had clutched to her ear, Madison grinned widely, “It’s Uncle Mer, mom!”

Grabbing the phone in shaking hands, she brought it to her ear and heard, “Jeannie? It’s Mer. Are you there?”

Gulping back a sob, Jeannie sent a devout thank you to anything that was listening. Her wish had been granted. “You’re late, Mer. And that means that you have to eat tofurkey when you get out here.”