Gibbs watched Samas slide along the Wraith control panel. The visual information seemed to be supplemented with an olfactory control system that Samas could only access from outside Gibbs’ body. Samas reared up, all four mouth parts opening wide as he swung toward the main controls. Gibbs reached out and moved the display to the next set of numbers.

“This is not exactly exciting work,” Gibbs complained. Samas coiled up on the pads that seemed to function as both control and scent display. It made a sort of sense that Wraith could smell through their hands since they ate through them.

“You can help me with my paperwork,” Tony said. Groaning, he stood up from his desk. They’d claimed one of the largest personal quarters with both a main room and a separate bedroom, but they’d managed to fill the front space with a strange assortment of office supplies and alien technology. “Next time I decide to declare war on the Marine Corps, do you think maybe you could warn me that they’re vindictive bastards?”

“Nope,” Gibbs said. He understood why Tony had reported those three, but if it had been Gibbs’ decision, he would have dragged them to training and then he and Teyla could have tag teamed them until they understood to show respect for everyone on the mission. Hell, he might have asked Rodney to plan a mock emergency for the training levels. Then the idiots would have gotten it through their heads that they needed Rodney a hell of a lot more than Rodney needed them.

“Still pissed?” Tony asked.

Gibbs sighed. “You and Samas are playing a dangerous game.”

“I’m pretty sure that Weir and Radek are right there with us,” Tony pointed out. With a sigh he came over and dropped into the chair next to Gibbs. “Everett is being an ass.”

“He’s being a Marine.”

“You’re a Marine, and you’ve never treated Teyla like a civilian.”

Gibbs sighed and leaned back. For a second, Samas paused and swung his head around, his jaws snapping as he tasted the air, but then he went back to his work. “I didn’t walk into a siege situation.”

“So, if you had come with Everett, would you make these same decisions?”

“No,” Gibbs admitted. “But I’ve been a civilian longer than I’ve been a Marine.”

“I guess it doesn’t matter now. Rumor says that O’Neill is pulling Everett.”

Gibbs nodded. He hoped whoever they got next could handle Atlantis a little better. Samas had taught him to see the concept of war a little differently, but Everett still thought in terms of front lines and defended positions. Samas had watched his children dragged out and executed, even when they were in the most closely defended spaces on the damn planet, so Gibbs understood the illusion of safety.

Tony reached for Samas’ tail, only to have Samas flip it away at the last second. Leave it to Tony to tease the five thousand year old queen who had terrorized entire civilizations. He reached for his tail a second time, and this time Samas flipped around and snapped his jaws shut millimeters from Tony’s finger. If Tony hadn’t jerked it back fast enough, he would have lost it.

“He’s not going to feel bad about maiming you,” Gibbs warned.

Tony grinned. “Aw, boss, don’t you trust me to move fast enough?” Tony looked down, and Samas had his head tilted to the side so he could watch Tony. Only Tony would manage to get an onac to play hooky and start horseplaying in the middle of the day. It was a talent. Some days Gibbs ached for the days when Tony and Kate would have wars across their desks. Then they’d both drag Abby in, and like a good mercenary, she would provide both sides with ammunition and then stand back and watch the pranks get truly out of hand. He was pretty sure that Kate hadn’t engaged in that sort of teasing during her time at the Secret Service.

“He’s getting a little fat, isn’t he?” Tony went for the tail again, and this time he didn’t move quite fast enough. “Ow!” A line of red like a long papercut opened on his finger, and Tony stuck his finger in his mouth. “You’re a mean onac,” Tony said around his finger. He poked his left hand in Samas’ direction, and Samas clacked his jaws again.

“If he was going to nest, he’d create an egg sac that hung from his lower body and allowed him to lay a lot more eggs at once. But even though he’s intentionally avoiding that, laying eggs is going to cause him to get larger as he manages the additional genetic data.”

Tony hummed. He wasn’t stupid. He was going to figure out what Gibbs already knew. Samas only had another ten or twenty years before he was too large to use a host. It made Samas a little desperate to get the city settled fast. Gibbs just worried that the desperation was going to lead to bad decisions. He still didn’t approve of Weir’s direct confrontation with Everett.

The door chimed, and Tony stood up. “It’s probably Radek,” he said as he headed to the door. Tony opened it, and O’Neill stood there. Gibbs vacillated. He was technically in this man’s command now, and part of him said he should stand and offer a salute. He played the military game with other officers; however, O’Neill knew the whole truth, including the fact that he and Tony were exiles because of Samas, so he just crossed his arms.

“DiNozzo, Gunny,” O’Neill said, greeting them.

“General Backstabber. Welcome to Atlantis,” Tony said with a grin.

O’Neill took a second to glare at Tony wearily. “Every time I forget why I dislike you, you remind me,” O’Neill said as he passed Tony and came into the room. “So, I hear you have Samas working on reverse engineering the Wraith controls.”

“Yep,” Gibbs answered.

O’Neill stopped and sighed. “You could make this easier for us.”

“No, I couldn’t,” Gibbs answered.

“Hey, I found you a nice city with no IOC members sitting around plotting your dead and/or vivisection,” O’Neill said as he took the chair Tony had just left and turned it around before straddling it. “I was hoping we could talk privately.”

Tony harrumphed. “I think that was my invitation to get lost.”

“And take Samas with you,” O’Neill agreed. Curled up against the Wraith technology, Samas almost vanished. So when Gibbs looked down at Samas and O’Neill followed his gaze, O’Neill must not have immediately noticed him. At least that’s what Gibbs assumed because three seconds later, O’Neill flailed, stumbled back away from the console and managed to both trip on and kick the chair during his retreat. “Aw crap. Warn a guy.”

Tony pushed past O’Neill and reached his hand out for Samas. Coiling up, Samas ignored Tony’s hand and launched himself at Tony’s face. Tony flinched back. “I hate it when you do that. You can’t actually fly, you know,” he complained. But Samas had hooked his main teeth into Tony’s shirt, and he flipped his body up around Tony’s neck before settling in. “Bite my ear again, and I’m going to bite you back,” Tony warned as he headed out the door.

O’Neill stood in the middle of the room near the chair that was on its side. “Okay, I did not see that one coming.”

“The Wraith controls have a visual language and a chemical scent that seems to offer either more information or a more nuanced understanding of the words on the display,” Gibbs said.

“Right.” O’Neill picked up the chair, but when he set it down, he was several feet farther away. “So he curls up on it?”

“He knows what it says, and now he’s trying to understand the chemicals.”

“Great. Fun.” O’Neill gave a shiver. “And you never once thought about running like hell once he’s out?”

“No.”

O’Neill grunted. They shared an awkward moment before O’Neill changed the subject. “So, the cloak worked.”

“It was a good plan. I knew it would,” Gibbs agreed. He didn’t need to point out that Sheppard and McKay had come up with the plan and Everett had vetoed it. O’Neill knew all that.

“I’m taking Sheppard back with me.”

Gibbs grunted. He didn’t like it, but he did understand that the IOC wouldn’t leave Sheppard in charge and the man was not going to do well under a Marine commander.

“So….” O’Neill drew the word out and then looked at Gibbs expectantly.

Gibbs was enjoying this. He looked right at O’Neill and waited for him to man up and just ask the damn question.

O’Neill rolled his eyes. “Do they take your sense of subtly away in Marine school?”

“Yes.”

“You know, that would explain a lot of things. Fine, give me a sitrep on Sheppard. I want him back here inside six months, but what kind of resources is he going to need?”

Gibbs uncrossed his arms and gave that some thought. More often than not, Sheppard didn’t trust himself. But then he’d go off on wild chases where he wouldn’t trust anyone else. Well, maybe McKay, but McKay’s judgment wasn’t the best. Bates hadn’t helped with the number of times he’d gone head to head against Sheppard, but Gibbs had noticed that lately Bates had been more open to Sheppard and increasingly annoyed by Everett’s rules. The man was smart enough to understand that Everett was fucking up.

“He needs a strong second, someone he can learn to trust,” Gibbs said. “Ford was young and Bates didn’t approve of his non-traditional command.”

“Ford. He’s the one who went MIA after getting overdosed, right?”

“Yeah. He was a good kid,” Gibbs said. “Sheppard took it hard when he lost him.”

O’Neill rubbed a hand over his face. “That kid wasn’t anywhere near ready to be anyone’s XO. How the hell did you lose so many officers in the first attack?”

“Because they tried to fight the Wraith the way you would the goa’uld,” Gibbs said. “They entrenched positions and returned fire. The only reason I survived is because Everett wouldn’t take me on the first mission to Athos and when I did go with Sheppard, Samas had a definite preference for hiding first and killing the enemy when they weren’t expecting it.”

“And that’s how you’ve trained the people you had under you.”

“Yep,” Gibbs agreed. “We aren’t the top of the food chain. Literally. The goa’uld could be counted on to be tactically inferior and arrogant. The Wraith are going to be harder to fight, so I teach my guys to be guerillas, not frontline soldiers.”

“When Everett leaves, are you going to be able to integrate the new Marines?”

“Is there any other choice?” As far as Gibbs was concerned, Marines had to adapt. Sure, he agreed with Everett that asking them to adapt in a siege situation wasn’t wise, but sooner or later, Gibbs would start training again. Samas was close to cracking the Wraith coding, and he’d had already sent a large number of technical schematics over to Radek, so the heavy work of reverse engineering the darts was over.

“Atlantis has a fully charged ZPM and Earth has one with enough of a charge to make regular trips,” O’Neill pointed out.

“So they can run home with their tails between their legs?” Gibbs laughed. “You don’t know Marines very well, O’Neill.”

“You don’t know how deep the hatred of snakeheads runs in the SGC.”

“Marines adapt. I was ordered to work with warlords and murders, and I dealt with it. My Marines will make sure the new people understand that Samas isn’t either of those.”

O’Neill narrowed his eyes. “I never thought you’d be the primary Staff NCO on base, gunny.”

He wasn’t. As of right now, Gibbs had three people above him in the ranks, including Bates who was the ranking non-commissioned officer. But O’Neill seemed to be suggesting that things were changing. “What about Bates?”

“He’s requested a transfer back to Earth. His brother was badly injured in a car accident.”

Gibbs took a deep breath. That did change a few things. “I assume we’re getting more NCOs.”

“Sergeants Barroso, Cole, Markham, and Long are all from the US Military side. You’re also getting Major Lorne and two new captains.”

“Are we keeping Stackhouse?”

“Yep. And while Cole’s a Gunnery Sergeant, you have him on time in rank.”

O’Neill was leaving him as the ranking NCO on Atlantis. That shocked the hell out of Gibbs. With a new commander, Major Lorne and two captains in place, Gibbs wouldn’t exactly have free reign; however, officers usually left the NCO to handle the enlisted. “What’s the catch?”

O’Neill stood up and walked over to the window and looked out over the ocean. “Are there any bad views in this city?”

“A few in the lower towers.”

“Huh.”

Gibbs waited for O’Neill to sort his thoughts. If Gibbs had to guess, he would say the politics back home was getting nastier.

“People back home are afraid of losing control of the city. There are a lot of people here who don’t answer to the IOC, or even to Earth.”

“And if you brought in a Master Sergeant, you’re afraid they would answer to the IOC,” Gibbs guessed.

O’Neill shrugged. “Maybe. Lorne is SGC, and I’m going to get Ellis assigned here. Colonel Ellis has his sights set on one of the 304s, so he won’t try and put down roots here.”

“And you’re telling me this?”

O’Neill gave a rough laugh and turned back around to face him. “Gunny, you’re a devious son of a bitch who ran more of NCIS than most people want to admit. I don’t know if it’s in your personality to pull the strings from behind or if that’s Samas, but don’t try and bullshit a bullshit artist.”

Gibbs stood and pushed his chair under his table. “I’m not interested in running anything, not NCIS or Atlantis.”

“No, you’re just interested in having the person you want at the helm.”

Gibbs laughed. “Do you think I wanted Jenny Shepard as my director at NCIS? I have trust issue with that woman that could fill a troop transport. I don’t know why you think I’m pulling the strings here, but I’m not.”

“So, you weren’t in favor of Weir’s conspiracy?”

“Me? No.” Gibbs shook his head. “I think it was a stupid move during a siege. It set the Marines on edge and aggravated the situation.”

“But Samas backed Weir,” O’Neill guessed. The man might play dumb, but he wasn’t.

“Yes, he did.”

“Why? What’s his game?”

“To have Atlantis in the control of people he trusts,” Gibbs said. “Onac could, theoretically, live forever. He doesn’t want that to be another five thousand years of hiding in the shadow because the wrong people won the war.”

O’Neill pounced on that. “Is he worried about the Wraith or the IOC?”

Gibbs didn’t answer. The fact was that Samas was fairly dedicated to keeping both out of the city.

“That’s what I thought.”

“Samas wouldn’t oppose you coming and taking command,” Gibbs pointed out.

“I’m too old for the game, Gunny.”

“So am I.”

O’Neill grimaced. “You know, more than once I’ve thought that I probably should have minded my own business. If I could do it again, I wouldn’t track you down, Gibbs.”

As much as Gibbs wanted to blame O’Neill, he really couldn’t. “Ba’al and Kali still would have come searching for Samas,” Gibbs said. O’Neill didn’t seem to have an answer for that. For a long time, the silence filled the space between them. Gibbs almost felt like he was back in an interrogation room waiting for a suspect to finally break. He could almost feel the stress fractures in O’Neill’s reticence.

“Sheppard doesn’t have a nose for politics,” O’Neill finally said, and Gibbs figured they were finally at the meat of their conversation.

“Neither do the two of us.”

O’Neill shrugged. “Maybe not, but we know how to keep track of the skeletons in the closet and make ourselves too damn useful to get rid of. Sheppard can’t play the game. I can leave Lorne here, but if Sheppard is going to turn Atlantis into his equivalent of SG1, he has to make sure that other people can’t take his toys away.”

Gibbs got it. He really did. When men were too attached to leaders, the military tended to move them before unhealthy bonds developed and people did stupid shit like disobey direct orders and fly a helicopter directly into enemy territory. O’Neill had gotten away with having complete control over his team only because no one could replace him. Gibbs had read the reports, and too many allies associated their alliance with O’Neill, not Earth. The IOC and military were going to want to keep Sheppard from doing the same, especially when they had evidence that he was well on his way to making himself even more indispensable.

“Have you had this conversation with him?” Gibbs asked.

“He’s a baby, Gibbs. He’s not even fully grown yet. Besides, I can’t take a man seriously when he has more cowlicks than he’s had birthdays.”

Gibbs laughed. “He’s a pretty good officer, despite the hair.”

O’Neill grimaced. “When did children take over our military, Gibbs?”

“About the time we got old.”

“Shit. I felt old in Columbia. I’m past old at this point.”

Leaning back against the table, Gibbs watched this man he’d fought with in the field. Colombia had been some damn dirty business, and they’d had each other’s six. Hell, back then Samas was new to him and Gibbs was still half mad with grief after losing Shannon and Kelly, so he wasn’t sure he would have survived the mission without O’Neill. To be honest, he hadn’t intended to come out of the jungle in one piece. Death by mission was a better end than suicide, but it would have left him in a grave just the same.

“Are you going to give Sheppard back to us?”

“I’m going to try,” O’Neill said, which wasn’t the same as a promise.

“Your ears only, not for any report,” Gibbs said. O’Neill immediately focused his attention on the conversation, all those little signs of weariness vanishing in a second. “Samas will only be able to join with a host for another ten or twenty years. He’s getting too old and too large, and that’s a normal part of an onac life cycle. Most onac aren’t taking hosts even this late in life and it’s starting to get uncomfortable.”

“He’s giving up having the freedom to walk around?” O’Neill looked confused.

“He’s going back to being able to swim full time, which is where he wants to be. But he’s worried that if the IOC will hunt him down or that the Wraith will take the city. He wants the city in the hands of the most capable leaders so he can leave without worrying about what stupid thing we’re getting up to. He doesn’t have the highest opinion of human logic, which is why he’s so fond of McKay. They spend a lot of time talking about how much they don’t like people.”

“Why am I not surprised?”

“As far as Samas is concerned, McKay is irreplaceable. John Sheppard is equally important, and certain people like Weir and Radek and Carson are only a half-step behind them.”

“Weir is taking second to McKay and Sheppard? She’d love that.”

“Without McKay this place would sink, and all that talk the locals do about Sheppard being an Ancient…?”

O’Neill started to shake his head. “Oh Gunny, not you too.”

“Either the city is talking to him on a subliminal level or he knows things subconscious that he can’t fully remember.”

O’Neill leaned back against the window. “So what? An Ancient got himself born on earth a few decades ago on the off chance we were going to find Atlantis now?”

“Either that or there is more than one Ancient rattling around, and he’s the one who got here first,” Gibbs said. “Don’t talk to the Dagans. They can’t keep their logic separate from their faith. But go ask McKay about it. He’ll make an argument that will have you wondering.”

“If the IOC even suspects that Sheppard is an Ancient, they will lock him in a very small cell under the mountain.”

“Next to the one they had set aside for me?” Gibbs asked.

O’Neill’s absolutely lack of reaction told him what he needed to know.

“You got me out of there before that happened. Do the same for Sheppard.”

“That means you have to keep telling people that this Ancient story is something you made up to steal a ZPM from a religious cult. The IOC actually likes that story.”

“They would,” Gibbs said dryly. O’Neill’s face mirrored his own disgust. Some days Gibbs figured that politicians were more dangerous than the goa’uld.

O’Neill headed for the door. “Try to avoid letting the geeks kill Ellis when he gets here,” O’Neill asked.

“No promises,” Gibbs answered. Ellis would have to prove himself, the same as Everett and Sheppard had. Of course, only one had managed to make a good impression on the Pegasus natives, but Gibbs was willing to give this new commander a fair shake.

O’Neill rolled his eyes and headed out the door.

John was trying hard to avoid fidgeting. From the amused looked General O’Neill kept giving him, he wasn’t succeeding. “I don’t know how you can be excited to see McKay.”

“Maybe it’s not McKay,” John said defensively. He didn’t need O’Neill to start wondering about their relationship, even if John was starting to suspect that O’Neill and Daniel Jackson were a little closer than regulations allowed.

“So, you have a thing for Weir?” O’Neill looked up from a report to give John a look that just dared him to suggest that.

“Aren’t you supposed to brief Dr. Weir on the new funding restrictions?” John asked, glancing down at the folder.

“You hit below the belt, Major,” O’Neill said with a grimace. He looked back down at his files.

“McKay put his own life on the line for the expedition, sir.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“And as much as going through the Stargate scared him, he went, every damn time. He saved my life and the lives of my team more often than I can count.”

O’Neill looked up at him again. “And he tried to leave Teal’c behind.”

“He really thought that Carter’s override of the security protocols had already killed him.” John hated that Rodney seemed to catch all the blame for the event. Hell, Teal’c was the only one who hadn’t made a shitty comment about that day. “And he paid for that. Sending him to Siberia…” John stopped. He should probably avoid telling his superior officer that he’d made a dick move.

O’Neill grunted. “You never met McKay before he had some of his arrogance knocked off.”

“I never… what?”

“Trust me – the McKay you see now is the lite and fluffy version. McKay version 1.0 was enough of an asshole that you would have found a way to shoot him. He might have changed, but I’m not about to forget some of the shit he pulled the first time around, and I’m enough of a bastard that I don’t forgive easily.”

“He’s earned better.”

“From you? Probably. Luckily I don’t have to work with the man, so my hatred doesn’t affect him.”

John wasn’t sure he agreed with that assessment. Rodney always claimed that he didn’t care what people thought, and that was true when he didn’t respect people. If people were idiots, they were so far below Rodney’s radar that he didn’t notice them. However, Rodney knew how much good SG1 had done, and other than a weird hatred for Carter’s ability to be socially apt, he respected them. Actually, he respected Carter, too, he just had a horrible way of showing it.

“Rodney just doesn’t notice people. Until he meets them, it’s like they aren’t quite real. He can’t feel bad about the death of someone he doesn’t know and he doesn’t know anything about. You brought him into a situation and asked for technical answers. He didn’t have any other context.”

“I think you just described him as a sociopath.”

John almost laughed. He’d had enough people accuse him of that particular sin that the irony was nearly overwhelming. John had a soldier’s ability to compartmentalize. If he killed soldiers, he could easily put that into a small part of his mind and forget it. Their souls would have to move onto whatever came after, but he wasn’t going to feel guilty about destroying their bodies. “I described a man who has an inability to understand people in general. It’s like you have a colorblind soldier, and you keep yelling at him to open the red door. And then you hate him for opening the green one and getting someone nearly killed.”

“Are you going to keep this up until I start worshiping at the altar of Rodney McKay?” O’Neill was starting to sound cranky.

“No, but I would appreciate it if you backed off the nasty comments. He does know you, and whether he’s willing to admit it or show it, he respects your opinion. It bothers him when you rip into him.”

“Ya know, when I was a major, I actually respected generals.”

“I respect the hell out of you, sir, but if you make McKay miserable this visit, your paperwork is going to end up filed under all the profanity I won’t say to your face.”

“So my expense reports will be under ‘asshole’?”

“Maybe,” John admitted, although he could think of much more creative terms than asshole.

O’Neill gave a rough laugh and shook his head. “You really aren’t anything like that pilot I met in Antarctic.”

“No, I’m more like the pilot in Afghanistan who risked his life to save his men and promptly got court-martialed for his trouble.”

That made O’Neill grimace. “Yeah, well you’ve got to learn to play the game better Sheppard. You need the right people watching your career, and then it’s harder for the real assholes to hang you out to dry.”

“Yes, sir. I haven’t snapped off the head of a congressman yet.”

“And I appreciate that. It’s hard to hide the bodies when you kill elected officials.” O’Neill sounded almost sympathetic. He should feel bad, he was the one who had forced John to play host to all the politicians who wanted personal tours through the mission reports. John understood that his main job was to keep these people away from the general, but he didn’t have to like it.

“If you make me take Congressman Swenson on another tour of Area 51, I won’t be held responsible for my actions.”

“He’s not half as bad as Kinsey was,” O’Neill pointed out. “And Swenson is a major player behind the scenes. If he knows your name, it’s going to be harder for anyone to move against you. The next time someone goes to him and whispers that you’re trying to set yourself up as a god out there, Craig is going to start laughing in their face.”

“Yes, sir.” John hated it, but he did understand why O’Neill was constantly throwing him to the political wolves. “I still reserve the right to hate this shit, though.”

“Oh, you hate away, major. I hated it when General Hammond made me play nice, so I figure that’s a fair turnaround. Besides, if you want to get back to your people, you need this.”

His people. John knew all too well that not all his people were there for him to go home to. “Has there been any word on Ford?”

“Sheppard, you read all the damn Atlantis reports before I get my hands on them, so if you don’t know, I don’t know.”

“I would never read your mail, General.” John tried to keep a straight face.

“If I thought that was true for even one second, I wouldn’t be fighting to get you back there,” O’Neill pointed out.

“Are you encouraging me to break the rules?”

“I’m encouraging you to avoid getting caught breaking the unimportant rules. You and I both know that Atlantis is your command.”

John was hit with a flash of gratitude that nearly took his breath away. Atlantis was his, and hearing the general say that made him think that maybe he would get his city and his people back. “Thank you, sir.”

“I remember how it felt every time I had to give command of SG1 to someone else or loan out Danny.” He groaned. “You have no idea how much trouble Daniel got into every single time. That man is a menace. My hair went gray worrying about him every time the general ordered me to let him go play with some science team.”

“I’m sure, sir.”

“At least other teams aren’t always trying to poach your geek.”

“My geek scares them.”

“And that’s probably a good thing. You wouldn’t look good with gray hair.”

John laughed. “Probably not.”

The car pulled up to the outer gate, and they both fell silent as the SGC guards ran the car for security violations. John presented his information as well as the general’s as O’Neill started reading his reports again. It took almost ten minutes for them to clear the car, and then they had another short drive through the forest before they reached the main complex. They had covered about half that distance when O’Neill put his report to one side.

“A piece of advice, Major. When you’re visiting with McKay, I don’t care where you are or how closely you’ve checked the security, act like someone is watching.”

“Are you suggesting—”

“I’m suggesting that people are watching, Major. Don’t give them ammunition. Stick to safe subjects, like a run down on which of these damn complaints is serious and which are frivolous crap generated by Weir’s people in an attempt to get you back. I swear, that woman knows how to use paperwork as a weapon of mass destruction. Try to get a little clarification on some of these.” O’Neill tossed over a very thick file. John caught it out of instinct. He didn’t have to look inside to know what the various complaints were. He’d filed them all as they came into the general’s office, and a few he’d filed into the garbage because he couldn’t even believe some of the stupidity that came out of Kavanagh.

“We’ll keep it to business, sir,” John promised. At this point, Rodney was going to move on and find a nice female scientist to settle down with and have babies before John got to bring up the subject of their relationship again. While he knew that was ridiculous, there was a piece of him that did honestly worry about that. Miko Kusanagi and Katie Brown both had serious crushes on the man, and oblivious or not, Rodney would notice… eventually. John had just assumed he’d be entrenched inside Rodney’s defenses before that day came. At this point, he was starting to doubt that his luck would hold that well.

 

Gibbs stood at attention and waited for Colonel Ellis to acknowledge him. While Gibbs understood the necessity of this plan, his stomach churned. If he could stop this without betraying Samas, he would. He understood that Ellis was a dangerously rule-bound commander. He understood that Samas’ plan would likely save more human lives in the long run. However, it was not in his nature to send men out to die.

Hell, he’d betray Samas, only he suspected that Ellis would be fine with a little genocide. He’d already made it clear that he didn’t believe that Samas had any right to live at all, so if the man found Samas’ egg nests all dangling from the underside of Atlantis, he would destroy every last symbiote and still push forward with this damned mission.

“What can I do for you, Gunnery Sergeant?” Ellis finally asked as he looked up from his laptop.

“Sir, I wanted to speak to you about the mission planned for Thursday.”

“Energy readings,” Ellis confirmed, and then he fell silent, his expression making it clear that Gibbs was taking up valuable time that Ellis didn’t have to spare.

“Sir, Samas is very uncomfortable with this mission.”

Ellis immediately stiffened. “Do you have that snake in you right now?”

“No, sir,” Gibbs barked out. He had followed Ellis’ orders to the letter, leaving Samas in the water after every lab shift and having himself scanned to confirm the lack of a symbiote.

“Send any concerns for the mission in an email, and I will review them,” Ellis said, and he turned back to his computer. Gibbs glanced over at Lorne, but he had a perfectly blank expression. Gibbs had been a Marine for a long time, long before he’d met Samas, and he knew that good officers allowed a certain free flow of information. This office had a terminal case of constipation. Samas was right that Ellis would get people killed eventually.

“Sir, I don’t have specific concerns,” Gibbs said, plowing ahead despite the obvious dismissal. “Samas cannot remember a specific cause for alarm, but he has four to five thousand years of memories to try and sort through. He only knows that he is very alarmed at the readings.”

Ellis made a show out of looking up very slowly. “The potential ZPM readings?”

“The energy is unstable.” Which was an understatement. The goa’uld never had an original idea, and that included naquadria. In the early days of Ra, they had found a conversion plant. The readings from the planet indicated another one on P3M-005. However, the energy readings also suggested that it was at critical mass. Gibbs wanted to say all that. He did. However, Samas was right that it would only delay the inevitable catastrophe that would hit the base if Ellis continued to ignore any advice that didn’t come from human scientists. Even McKay had been demoted from most trusted scientist to scientist most likely to sabotage Ellis over his Sheppard issues, at least in Ellis’ mind.

It meant Ellis trusted Radek and Peter Kavanagh more. Radek was good, but he wasn’t as intuitive with the technology, and Kavanagh never listened to anyone. People accused Rodney of being arrogant and not listening, but he generally did. He complained and argued and bitched, but he listened. And if someone had evidence, he was willing to change his mind. Kavanagh never did.

“That is not your concern, Gunnery Sergeant.”

Always gunnery sergeant, never gunny. The distinction was not lost on Gibbs.

“Sir, Samas has always put the long-term interests of this expedition ahead of all else,” including short-term interests of the same expedition, Gibbs added mentally, “and if he is uncomfortable, there is something he is only half remembering. Please, give him time to work with the readings.”

“He has until next Thursday.”

“Sir—”

“Dismissed!” Ellis snapped. Gibbs came to attention and fought with all the emotions that raged inside him. Samas was right that this human arrogance was going to lead to disaster at some point, but Gibbs couldn’t let this happen.

“Yes, sir,” he said, and he turned and strode out of the room. Damn arrogant son of a bitch. If Gibbs or Samas had indicated even half that concern to Sheppard, he would have cancelled the whole mission and told Rodney to figure out what had Samas’ tail in a knot. Gibbs could almost hear him now.

They didn’t have to lose good men simply to prove that Ellis was incompetent. He just had to convince someone else to pull the mission and then have that someone else write a scathing report about Ellis’ inflexibility. Weir would probably enjoy writing that report. Gibbs turned toward her office.

Ellis had forced Gibbs to wait for almost ten minutes, but the second Elizabeth saw him, she waved him into her office. “Gibbs. I haven’t seen enough of you lately. How are Tony and Samas?”

“Fine, ma’am. Permission to speak freely?”

She laughed. “Gibbs, I have never known you to be anything but honest. Take a seat. I’ll get us some coffee.” She got up and headed over to the pot while Gibbs settled into a seat. She came back with a large mug that Gibbs was almost sure belonged to Sheppard. She kept it in the same spot with the mugs for McKay and Sergeant Franks who ran base logistics. Ellis didn’t have a cup that lived in her office permanently. “Now, what can I do for you?” she asked as she settled into her seat.

“Samas thinks that the mission to P3M-005 is going to be a disaster.”

Elizabeth’s eyebrows went up. “Okay. Can you tell me why?”

The phrasing was just diplomatic enough to let Gibbs off the hook for any details he didn’t share. He wondered if that was an innate political sense or if she knew more about Samas’ plans than they’d guessed. Certainly Samas approved of her, even if she wasn’t brutal enough for true leadership. Samas understood that people weren’t onac and they needed Elizabeth’s softer touch.

“There is something wrong with those readings.”

“Like what?”

Gibbs shrugged. “Like I told Colonel Ellis, Samas has four or five thousand years of memories to sort through. He isn’t sure. And now that he has to return to the water, that’s slowing the process down.”

Elizabeth leaned forward. “What do you mean?”

Gibbs set his cup on the side of her desk. “Onac don’t have a brain like we do. Their entire nervous system works together, so the spine essentially is a very long brain, with the onac growing longer in order to add more space. However, the brain of a host becomes a sort of working memory or processor for the onac to access those memories more quickly. With Samas limited to working a few hours a day in the lab, he has not been able to sort through his older memories.”

“I see. Have you discussed this issue with Colonel Ellis?”

“Yes, ma’am, both the need for Samas to stay in me for longer periods of time if we’re going to work on complex problems and the need to postpone this particular mission.” Gibbs didn’t miss the coldly calculating expression that crossed her face.

She knew this was prime material for making political hay, and Gibbs wondered if she would go as far as Samas would to protect their colony, even at the cost of some of their people. Maybe subconsciously, but he didn’t think she had it in her to intentionally condemn men. He counted on that to make her cancel the mission, and after the rest of them figured out what Samas already knew, it would be a nail in the coffin of his career as military leader of Atlantis. It might not lead to immediate dismissal the way Samas’ plan would have, but he trusted Weir to come up with a way to get the man transferred.

She touched her communicator. “Dr. Zelenka?” Sadly, she knew better than to include Rodney. He might be the head of science, but with Ellis turning to Radek and Kavanagh, Rodney didn’t have the political know-how to navigate the waters. Keeping him out of the deep end was the kindest thing for him.

Gibbs couldn’t hear his first response, but the minute Dr. Weir said, “Gibbs is here sharing concerns about the mission to P3M-005,” Gibbs’ radio channel opened.

“Yes, yes. Samas and I have spoken. Power fluctuations are most unusual.”

“Unusual or dangerous?” Elizabeth asked with a frown.

“Is there difference?” Radek demanded, but after a second, he added, “Right now, fluctuations seem more interesting, but we watch so short a time, that we do not know if power will become more unstable.”

“Have you advised Colonel Ellis of this?”

“Yes, yes, yes. I do not want go,” Radek’s grammar was failing and his accent deepening as he got more emotional. “But Kavanagh tells him that we only want to keep the rest from big discovery. We hate Ellis so much we walk away from ZPM. Kavanagh is idiot.” And after that, the Czech curses came out.

“And what did Rodney say?”

“He forbade any of us to go. He said it was stupid to ignore the reading and to ignore Samas who has lived thousands of years longer than the rest of us put together. Ellis told him he did not have authority to change mission rosters.”

Elizabeth rubbed a hand over her face. “Why didn’t anyone bring this to my attention?”

There was a long silence on the other end. “We do not want you to be in difficult position. If we tell you and you let us stay home while they find a ZPM…” Radek’s voice trailed off.

Elizabeth sighed. “I appreciate that you’re trying to protect my position, but protecting this expedition from Earth politics is my job. Next time, you come to me.”

“Tell Rodney this,” Radek suggested. “He is terrified of losing another friend. Samas is as good as exiled, Sheppard is gone, he worries.”

“I know. He worries about all of us, all the time.”

“It is only thing that makes his ego bearable,” Radek said softly.

“I know that too,” Elizabeth answered. She looked up at Gibbs. “I will talk to Ellis, but meanwhile, Ellis has no authorization to order any civilian into the field. You said you didn’t want to go, so consider it an order for you to stay on Atlantis. The same with Rodney. If Ellis wants a scientist on a mission where one of our best scientific brains believes it’s dangerous, he can find a volunteer.”

“Kavanagh will go,” Radek warned.

“Good, they can blow themselves up together.”

Gibbs flinched.

“And that was highly inappropriate,” Elizabeth added. “Gunny, I apologize. I know those are men you trained. I spoke out of frustration and in front of two friends. I will control my temper when I speak to Ellis and I will even avoid calling him a hide-bound Neanderthal.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Gibbs stood. He’d had a lot of bosses, but the fact was that he hadn’t worked for many who truly cared about the people under them. Morrow had. Sadly Jenny had been far more interested in her career and her agendas. But as much as Gibbs had originally dismissed Elizabeth Weir as a political animal, she had a core of steel to her. “Thank you, Dr. Weir.”

She smiled at him. “I’ll take care of this. You go see if you can get some extra time with Samas so you can figure this out.” Gibbs nodded, guilt still gnawing at him. This time he took the tacit dismissal order and left. He’d done what he could to blunt Samas’ work.

Gibbs suffered through another shift with Samas while the pushy queen pointed out that a few deaths would not compare with the many who would die under Ellis in the long run. Samas also pointed out that the naquadria might not explode. There was no way to tell if the energy of the wormhole or jumper would trigger the explosion, but it would be enough that Ellis put people in harm’s way. Samas spent long gleeful minutes imagining Ellis disgraced in front of everyone. When the images of Ellis getting eaten and vomited back up started hitting Gibbs’ brain, he started questioning the distinction between onac and goa’uld.

The day after that, the labs were in chaos as Kavanagh and Rodney by turns screamed at each other and sniped at each other. Rodney called Kavanagh stupid. Kavanagh called Rodney a coward. Rodney pointed out that he’d faced down untold dangers—and he’d used the word untold—while Kavanagh ran away. Kavanagh suggested that Rodney had a crush on Major Sheppard and would do anything to undermine Ellis—the first reasonable leader they’d ever had on Atlantis. Most of the science department got involved, with Rodney the clear winner both in terms of the number of scientists and the average IQ of those on his side.

The following day marked T-minus three days. Gibbs traded training days with Stackhouse and cleared it with Major Lorne to take all the military personnel on the P3M-005 roster. He took them to the mainland and practiced radiation drills, explosion drills, evacuation drills. He had them take turns doing jumper liftoff, and Radek had programmed a nasty simulation that made it feel like the ground was exploding under the jumper. He ran them ragged for nearly six hours. The Pegasus veterans laughed about how the gunny was on his game. The ones from the SGC looked a little like someone had kicked their puppies.

The day after that, Gibbs lay on the cold decking next to Samas’ favorite bit of flooded city. Samas worked on healing a hundred sore and old muscles that were used to having an onac’s support. Tony lay by his side, an arm over Gibbs’ stomach as Gibbs confessed everything. Tony kissed the side of his neck and pointed out that if they were still home, the Atlantis expedition would have walked in blind anyway. Rodney already wanted to hold off and monitor the situation, so if Ellis and Kavanagh pushed their agendas, the responsibility was theirs. They’d had sex slowly, and for the first time, Gibbs had allowed Tony to top him. It would never be his preference, but for that one day, there was something comforting about letting Tony take over.

Wednesday, Gibbs had been so wired that Rodney had kicked him out of the labs and told him to come back when he could step back and let Samas take the lead like a good little host. Gibbs had held up his hands in surrender and retreated. The fact was that his distress was distracting Samas from the coding work. Gibbs had radioed Tony and told him to grab them lunch and bring it down to the flooded section. Samas and Tony had not been able to spend time together with Ellis’ new regulations. Samas wasn’t even allowed in the living quarters or in any areas of the city other than the labs. Hell, Gibbs expected to find an escort outside his quarters any time now. And soon after that, Ellis would realize that Gibbs shared quarters with Tony, and who the hell knew how he was going to react.

Tony hadn’t even brought the food before Gibbs got a summons to Ellis’ officer, and he had to leave Samas in the waters as he trudged back up to his commanding officer. Gibbs was starting to remember why he’d left the Marines. Hell, he had lost patience with the damn reserves, and yet here he was.

Gibbs knocked, but unlike last time where Ellis seemed intent on ignoring him for as long as possible, Ellis closed his laptop and gestured for Gibbs to come in. Lorne stood to the side, his eyes focused on nothing.

“Reporting as ordered, Colonel.” Gibbs was really fed up with this whole dog and pony show. Regulations were fine, but this was a front line unit, not the parade grounds of D.C.

“At ease, Gunnery Sergeant.”

Gibbs went to parade rest and stared at a spot on the wall. This was going to be bad. Gibbs braced himself for all sorts of stupidity, and since his reenlistment had been less than voluntary, he wasn’t going to have any exit strategy. He wondered briefly if Ellis realized that.

“Were you scheduled for training this week?”

“No, sir.” Gibbs stopped there. He wasn’t going to offer up anything without being asked.

Ellis seemed to need a second to compose himself. “Did you request to trade shifts with Stackhouse?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Would you care to explain yourself, Gunnery Sergeant?”

“I wanted to expose the newest Marines to Pegasus training, sir.”

“Pegasus training? And what exactly would that mean?” Ellis was working up to a real fury, Gibbs could feel it.

“Harder training, different equipment, sir.”

“Different equipment?”

“Jumpers, life sign detectors.”

Ellis leaned forward and gave Gibbs a crocodile smile. “I heard you were using standard Earth equipment like radiation scanners,” he said in a low, dangerous voice.

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs agreed.

Ellis leaned back in his chair. “I’ve known other staff NCO’s like you, Gunny.” He twisted the last word so it came out derisive. “You like to tell people that you’re the ones who work for a living, that officers don’t actually know what they’re doing. You think of yourselves as the ones who are really in charge.”

Gibbs held his tongue through sheer willpower.

“Maybe you got away with that around Sheppard. Maybe he didn’t recognize the smell of your shit. But you will not try and rule your kingdom around me, Gibbs, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.” Gibbs barked it out just like he’d been trained in boot camp. This was a level of hell.

“I turned down your request for more time because it is a vague and unsubstantiated warning from a potential hostile. However, let me make this clear. I do not explain myself to you, Gunnery Sergeant. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You will not try and warn people about my orders when you do not agree with them, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You will not go and whine like a little girl to civilian leadership when a mission is under military authority, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are compromised, Gunnery Sergeant. You live with a snake in your head, and that snake has had access long enough to rewrite any part of your memory it wants.”

Gibbs could have pointed out that onac didn’t work that way, but it really wasn’t worth it, and Ellis wouldn’t believe him anyway.

“You are to keep in mind that you are not part of this command structure. You are here so that you are not on Earth, is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs said, loud and clear. That answered one question—Ellis definitely knew that Gibbs had been involuntarily reactivated. Area 51 had felt like a prison. Antarctica had definitely felt like a prison, but up until this point, Atlantis never had. However, Ellis had just shown him the exact size and shape of his cell.

“Then you need some time to realize that the rules have changed, Gunny.” Again, his tone twisted the title into something dark and ugly. “Three weeks, report for KP duty. From now on, you are not to have that snake in you again. I will send medical personnel to scan you randomly. I find that snake in you even once, and I will lock you up until it comes out and then cut its head off. Is that clear?”

“Yes, sir,” Gibbs answered. Shit. He had no way to even tell Samas what had happened. Samas would come back to the flooded lab over and over, and Gibbs simply wouldn’t come back… couldn’t come back. No way would Gibbs risk Samas’ life like that.

“Dismissed,” Ellis snapped.

Gibbs turned and headed out of the office as fast as he could. If he didn’t, he was going to reach across the desk and choke Ellis to death. That would be one way to get rid of the man. Footsteps followed, and Gibbs tightened his hands into fists as he stopped and waited. If Ellis had more to say, he could say it now.

“Gunny.” The word was said like an apology.

Gibbs turned around, and Major Lorne was there with a pained expression.

“Shit, I’m sorry, Gunny.”

“It’s okay, sir. It wasn’t your choice.” Gibbs thought about Lorne’s signature on the changed duty rosters. It wasn’t just that Gibbs had changed shifts with Stackhouse, he had intentionally pulled all the members of that mission into his training group. “I hope this didn’t get you in trouble with the colonel.”

Lorne grimaced. “I feel a little like I threw you under the bus, Gunny. I told him that the sergeants handled the training and unless someone came to me with a specific request, I signed off on the schedules you guys came up with.”

“It was true, sir. That’s not throwing me under the bus.” Gibbs figured Lorne was one of the good ones—that was going to make working under Ellis even harder. It wasn’t that Ellis was bad or evil, he just wanted everything to function by the book. He didn’t have a gut for leadership, and that made him rely on rules. As much as Gibbs loved his rules, he knew there were times when a man had to break them. Who was he kidding? He broke his own rules all the time. Leaders had to have some flexibility in how the reacted to events on the ground.

“Do you still think this mission is trouble?” Lorne asked.

Gibbs nodded. “Yes, sir.”

“How would you minimize the danger?”

Gibbs thought about that. If the wormhole set off the naquadria, the planet would blow up before anyone had time to even get through the event horizon. If the weight of the jumper was going to do it, then they’d all die instantly. The planet might remain stable, or it might be slowly burning from the inside already with chain reactions running through the planet’s naquedah.

“Keep people near the jumpers. Have rear mounted ropes so that if you have to get the jumpers off the surface, you can still pick up people without having to land.”

“You think the very ground is unstable?” Lorne asked. The thought disturbed him.

“The power readings are irregular, not just fluctuating, but almost like they’re threaded through the ground.”

Lorne nodded, “Which could mean buried power lines or the ZPM factory that Ellis is hoping for, but it could also mean old mines.”

Gibbs must have let the surprise show through on his face.

“One of my jobs with Stargate Command was overseeing a mining operation with the unas,” Lorne said. “I do know something about minerals underground. More than that, I’m the one who escorted Tony back to D.C. I’ve met your co-workers, Gunny, and they all had good things to say. I know you’d have my six on any mission, and I will try to get Ellis to assign you to my team. That way you won’t be stuck on KP for the next twenty years.”

“Better KP than a jail cell, sir.”

“O’Neill won’t let that happen,” Lorne said firmly. “Ellis has his orders, and I have mine, Gunny. Worst case scenario, pick a nice planet. I’ll manage to lose you and Tony somehow.”

Gibbs closed his eyes for a second, stunned by the sudden relief. This wasn’t just his life, it was Tony’s life and Samas’. Just knowing that he wasn’t standing alone made up for every shitty thing O’Neill had said, and he’d said plenty. “Thank you, sir,” Gibbs answered.

“I’d better get back. Hopefully he thinks I’m reaming you out for changing the schedules.” Lorne grinned before he turned and headed back toward Ellis’ office.

As much as Gibbs did appreciate the support, the fact was that the center could not hold. There were too many people trying to grab for power. Ellis had requested more military personnel, which was a given after the scientists had gone on strike during Colonel Everett’s short command. But instead of getting all Marines, he’d ended up with international forces, some of which seemed to make quick friends with civilians like the Hoff. Elizabeth was furious over her inability to get Sheppard promoted, and the labs were in turmoil as Rodney’s brilliance and title were constantly undermined by Ellis’ support for Kavanagh. Allies like the Genii were beginning to chafe under the lack of information coming out of the city, and their oldest allies were furious at Ellis’ tight control over Stargate, which was another conflict between Weir and Ellis that was going to explode eventually.

If the Wraith attacked today, the city would fold in minutes. Gibbs prayed that Samas was right that this plan would prevent that.

 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

 

“Major Sheppard.” General O’Neill stuck his head out of his office when he could have just used the intercom.

“Sir?”

“Where are you on that Air War College coursework?”

John glanced down at the motorcycle magazine he’d been looking at and shoved it farther under the desk. “Almost halfway through Joint Planning, sir.”

“Is that your last one?”

“I just started the Practice of Command class, sir. That will be the last one.” John never had a commanding officer take quite so much interest in his life. Then again, he’d never been stuck within fifty feet of his officer twenty-four, seven. With O’Neill insisting that John take his spare bedroom, John pretty much felt like he was living in the general’s pocket.

“All off-world missions out of Atlantis have been cancelled. The IOC is having a review in two weeks, you have exactly fifteen days to get all coursework done, Major. Got it?”

John’s stomach knotted. Off-world missions had been cancelled. That meant something huge had happened. He looked up at O’Neill, ignoring the general’s question. “Who?” he asked, his voice embarrassingly weak and trembling.

O’Neill moved to a spot just in front of John’s desk. “Privates Cooper and Yin. Airman Giffords.”

John closed his eyes and fought with the emotions that threatened to rise up his throat and make him vomit on his desk. He clenched his fists and his whole body flushed with heat until John felt like he might burst out of his own skin. Giffords was a goddamn baby, barely twenty-two. Private Cooper had been one of Everett’s, and he’d stood in the infirmary all fucking day, unwilling to abandon his colonel. And Yin. John thought about the tall woman with black hair and a mean right hook. She’d been determined to take Teyla out in a fight one day. He remembered how Teyla had smiled and said she looked forward to that day, but the day would never come now.

“It could have been a lot worse,” O’Neill offered. The words were hollow. “Most of the people on the mission made it back with minor injuries. Elizabeth, Zelenka, McKay and Gibbs all tried to stop the mission, and Ellis pushed it through over their very vocal and very on-the-record objections.”

Which explained why John had to get the War College classes done--O’Neill was going to try to push through a promotion. John forced himself to take several breaths and open his eyes. “I’ll finish the Joint Planning this week sir. I don’t know if I can get through Practice of Command work fast enough, but I’ll try.”

O’Neill nodded. “I’ll have Carter set up one of those speaking through the computers using camera things. She can talk you through a lot of it.”

“Yes sir.”

“Oh, and you know how you unplugged the phone from the wall?”

John blushed. “Sir, the same people call and get the same answer, over and over. Important stuff comes through email.” He gestured toward the computer.

“Don’t plug it in again for the next two weeks, Major” O’Neill said. “We’re getting you back on Atlantis, and I’m going to lose the second best assistant I ever had.” O’Neill turned and headed back into his office, the door slamming hard.

Forcing himself to his feet, John went over and locked the main entrance. Only then did he let himself slide down to the floor as he started to shake. Yin and Giffords had been his. His. John’s chest felt like it might burst, and he put his head on his knees and let himself truly fall apart, at least for a little while.

This is the first chapter that actually follows the incident where Ellis insisted on sending a team to investigate the planet that Gibbs, Samas, Rodney, and Elizabeth all tried to stop him from investigating. Three people died, and now Ellis is under investigation.

 

 

 

“Jessica Yin had a good heart and a steady hand. The day would have come that she could have bested me while sparring,” Teyla raised her cup and solemnly said, “We remember.” The small group gathered on the east pier all drank to the memory. Tony ran his hand over Gibbs’ leg, but Tony knew that Gibbs had to work through his own guilt.

“I should have done more to stop Ellis,” Lorne said mournfully as he stared down at the strange drink Teyla had shown up with. Apparently, this was the after-memorial group therapy party the Athosians had when they lost their own to violence. Tony approved. It beat the hell out of everyone going to their own quarters and throwing a private pity party with a bottle of Radek’s moonshine.

“I should have gotten Samas to work harder on the energy signals,” Gibbs said, which was as close as he would ever come to a confession.

“We all have done our best. Nothing more can be asked of any of us,” Teyla proclaimed in that tone of voice that meant that the next person to feel guilty was going to get hit with her sticks. “We come to remember them and honor their lives. Jessica Yin pleased me greatly.”

“Private Cooper was the most loyal son of a bitch I ever met,” Lorne said, his voice cracking near the end. He’d died in Lorne’s arms. Radek leaned over and gave Lorne an awkward pat on the leg.

Rodney was making a wheezing sound he insisted had everything to do with hay fever and nothing at all to do with any ridiculous emotion. Despite the fact they were in the middle of an ocean, no one called him on it. “Dr. Coleman wouldn’t have made it back to the jumper without him,” Rodney offered. “She’s almost not stupid and we need her.” Sometimes Tony wondered who had hurt him so badly that he had to hide every pain under layers of sarcasm and logic.

Teyla recognized the meaning behind Rodney’s words and lifted her cup. “We remember,” she finished, and the rest of them drank while Rodney stared at his cup.

Samas spoke next, his voice softer and more lilting than Gibbs’. It was as if the longer they were out here, the less Samas felt the need to hide himself in his host. “Jessica Yin would often ask to spar, and would ask to listen to stories of the enemies I have devoured. She never attempted to judge me by the standards of the humans. I will miss her greatly, and she was worthy of many children.”

“We remember,” Tony said softly. He wondered if the others even recognized the honor Samas had just paid to the woman.

“We remember,” Teyla echoed him.

Radek spoke up. “Eric Giffords was a ridiculous man who laughed so much it was hard to not also laugh in his presence. He was a menace when I wanted a nice quiet test flight in the jumpers.”

Tony laughed as he remembered Giffords doing barrel rolls over the west pier. “I was almost sure I could hear you screaming from my balcony,” Tony offered.

“We remember,” Lorne said, lifting his cup. After that, there was a silence for some time. Teyla sat and stared out over the water. Radek was near Lorne with Rodney on his other side, and Tony lay with his head on Gibbs’ thigh. The group felt too damn small. Ford wasn’t here to add his puppyish energy to everything, and Tony was too tired to play the clown. And Sheppard had left a hole the size of Manhattan. Even the city seemed dimmer without him. If the IOC didn’t send Sheppard back, Tony was going to go back to Earth and kick some ass. Or more likely, he was going to hold someone down while Weir kicked some ass, and she would. The woman was nearing a breaking point with her frustration.

When Gibbs, Samas, Weir, Teyla and Ladim had staged that little coup against Everett in the form of a memorial service, Tony thought he’d seen the woman at her scary best. He’d been wrong. If she got any angrier, she was going to resort to poison, and Samas was going to help her.

“We’ve lost too many,” Lorne said quietly. He might be new, but he sounded like he felt every loss.

“People rarely grow old,” Teyla agreed softly. She was neither angry nor distressed—it was a simple fact in her world. She looked over at Gibbs. “It is why my people are so taken with the idea that you are so many thousands of years old. It seems almost miraculous to us.”

“Ninety percent of my people die within a few years of being born,” Samas said. “To grow old in my world means that one is very cagey and able to survive.”

“Age brings wisdom,” Teyla agreed.

“It didn’t bring the goa’uld wisdom,” Lorne pointed out. Tony tensed up. He didn’t want to deal with this shit now.

Gibbs’ fingers stroked his hair, soothing him. “It did not because they do not live. They hide in a small corner of a host, terrified. They slowly rot in there, unwilling to risk their own lives and unable to escape their own fear.”

Teyla gave Lorne a wary look. “Fear is a poor companion for any creature. Surely we have met enough humans who can prove that rule as well as the goa’uld.”

“Yes, ma’am, we have,” Lorne agreed after a two second pause. “I didn’t mean to imply that all onac were goa’uld, only that age itself doesn’t bring wisdom.”

“Centuries of foolishness is still foolish,” Samas agreed.

Rodney sat up straight. “And the IOC is full of idiots, and they aren’t going to want to send Sheppard back to us, and nothing has gone right since he left.” Rodney’s voice had a dark intensity that made a shiver go through Tony.

“General O’Neill is going to get his promotion pushed through, and Weir is working on the political end of things. They’ll fix this,” Lorne said firmly.

Tony wondered if that was the result of wishful thinking or inside information.

“They’re two people against the legions of morons that run that planet. They’re never going to give him back.” Rodney exploded up onto his feet, and everyone else leapt up after him.

Radek caught his arm first. “We give them time to work. You know this.”

“And when they fail again?” Rodney demanded. “What do we do when they send us someone else, someone even worse? How do we make them understand that they’re going to destroy this city because they keep thinking that Atlantis is just one more post?” The hysteria was definitely winning.

Samas pushed past the others to stand in front of Rodney. He grabbed both Rodney’s shoulders and gave him a little shake. “I have not survived thousands of years to lose a battle to the IOC,” he snapped. Rodney closed his mouth. “Can anyone else run this city better than us?”

Rodney looked around at the small group gathered on the pier. “No?”

Samas smiled. “Then they can send who they like. We shall keep the city floating and do no more until they send us back the one who can make it sing. They may try to target us, but as long as all of us do our jobs and no more, there’s no head for them to strike at.”

“I probably shouldn’t be hearing this,” Lorne said softly, but he didn’t make any move to leave. That surprised Tony.

He turned on Lorne. “You don’t even know Sheppard.”

Lorne shrugged. “Nope, but I know that O’Neill wants him back here. That’s enough for me.”

“And the rest of us must learn to wait.” Samas smiled. “I am very skilled in waiting.”

“And perhaps in doing more than just waiting,” Radek said softly.

Teyla’s voice rose above the sound of the waves hitting the pier. “I remember Airman Giffords who threatened to punch Major Sheppard if the major ever again tried to go on a suicide mission.”

Tony remembered that day. Sheppard had run off to ‘save’ Chaya Sar. Of course it turned out she could take care of herself, but that didn’t change the fact that Sheppard had taken exactly one jumper and gone running straight into a Wraith attack. Ford had been too shocked to even comment when Sheppard had come back. Weir had ripped into him and talked about command structure and permission. However Airman Giffords had stood with hands fisted and threatened to punch John. That’s who finally got through to him that day. Tony liked to think that’s when Sheppard realized that he wasn’t just a pilot who happened to end up being the highest ranking officer, but he was, in fact, the military commander of Atlantis.

Tony lifted his glass. “We remember. We remember all of them, and we’ll keep the city lights lit until Sheppard comes home.”

The others raised their glasses. Tony figured it was the least they owed Cooper, Yin, and Giffords. If Sheppard had been in charge, he would have vetoed any mission until Rodney was comfortable with it, and by that time, Rodney would have figured out that the energy came from unstable naquadria. Samas was right. They needed their commander back.

John grinned as he touched his new insignia. He was officially a light bird... a lieutenant colonel. He had a quick and uncharitable thought about calling his father with a quick “Told you so,” but he decided that colonels shouldn’t be that petty. Colonels. As in he was a colonel. And he was the colonel officially ordered to ship out to Atlantis in a week. If he got any more giddy, General O’Neill was going to order him to take a drug test.

“Good day, sir?” the sergeant driving him asked.

“One of those perfect ones,” John agreed. “Not even meeting with the Department of Defense big wigs can make this day less than perfect.” Strangely, John had already informally hobnobbed with most of the men assigned to grill him today. General O’Neill had forced him to socialize and play politics with so many generals and Congressmen that John’s father would have been proud, which was another reason to avoid calling the old man.

The sergeant whistled. “You’re in the big leagues, sir.”

“Only until I ship out,” John pointed out.

“Yes, sir. We have some road construction ahead. If we want to get you to your meeting, we’re going to have to detour.”

“That’s fine.” John didn’t care how they got there. Honestly, he didn’t care if they were late, as long as he could blame it on someone else. Standing up a group of generals and politicians in his first week as a colonel wouldn’t send the right message.

John went back to reading his briefing information so he would be ready for anything. No, he didn’t start the rumors about being ascended. No, he didn’t believe he was the only man for the job, or at least if he did, he wasn’t stupid enough to say it out loud. He’d learned one or two things in the last several months. General O’Neill had included every potential question he expected the panel to throw at John, and he mentally composed answer to all of them.

“Sir?” The alarmed voice in the Marine sergeant’s voice brought John’s attention back to the road. Other cars were moving through the road ahead, but a construction worker was waving them toward an alley to the right. “Maybe I’m just paranoid, but this is…”

“Alarming?” John grabbed his phone. “Yeah. We don’t have reason to panic yet, though.” John dialed the general’s office.

“Aw crap. Don’t tell me you pissed them off already. I keep telling you, Sheppard, say that stuff behind their backs. Behind their backs.”

John couldn’t resist smiling. “Yes, sir. I actually haven’t had a chance to piss anyone off, but I was wondering if you had any suspicious activity in our area.”

The silence on the other end was telling. “Situation?”

“We’re being detoured into a long alley,” John reported. He pulled his service weapon out of his briefcase. He’d been warned to not carry it openly in the middle of the city. No one had told him he couldn’t conceal it. John checked the round in the chamber, and the Marine glanced in his rear view mirror at the sound.

“Bullet proof glass, sir. Please don’t try and fire through the window.”

“Understood,” John agreed.

“We’re checking, and we have units en route to cover just in case,” General O’Neill said.

“You know, if this turns out to be a false alarm, I’m going to be really embarrassed,” John said as he watched the brick buildings crawl past. The Marine couldn’t be going faster than five miles an hour, which was a good stalling tactic. If this was a trap, they needed to give the backup time to get through DC traffic.

“Better embarrassed than dead, Colonel.”

“Oh, that makes me feel so much better, General. Thank you.”

O’Neill snorted in amusement. He was also concerned enough that he didn’t hang up. John could hear his muffled orders as he talked to someone else in the room. A muffled pop made the windows rattle, and a fraction of a second later, the sergeant gunned the engine. Unfortunately, he didn’t move fast enough and a chunk of wall fell on the hood of the car. Immediately, John knew they were in deep shit. The windshield failed and the sergeant was left with no cover. He tumbled out the driver’s side door an started firing on someone coming up from the rear fast. John stuck his head up long enough to see a black SUV. It kind of matched the one coming at them from the front.

“It’s a trap, sir. Two SUVs black. We’re pinned in the car and it’s disabled. Taking fire.” John heard the sharp pings of bullets against metal and the whine of zats.

“They have zats.” At that, John dropped the phone and went out the passenger side and pulled the front door open so he was between them and had some cover as he fired on the SUV coming up on their front bumper.

“Sir, get inside,” the Marine yelled.

“You can’t cover both directions at once. Cover your own 12 and I’ll keep your six,” John yelled back. Maybe that was enough to convince the Marine that John wasn’t a paperwork sort of Colonel because he went back to targeting his SUV.

Three shots in, John realized that their tires were made of something designed to not puncture when hit and the vehicle was bulletproof. The whole damn thing must be armored. He’d also learned to not touch metal directly after it had absorbed a zat blast and that he really hated being shot at. To be fair, he already knew that last one was true.

The sergeant gave a cry, and John looked over in time to see him catch the edge of a zat blast as he leaned around the door to take another shot. He collapsed on the ground, his head in clear view of the enemy. John paused. He could try and scramble through the door to pull the sergeant to safety, but he couldn’t do that while covering him. He turned and focused on the SUV behind him, but oddly, a man was stepping out in front, his hands held up.

“Colonel Sheppard, let’s talk.”

“Talk? That doesn’t seem to be what you’re doing.” Stall. Just stall for time. Why the hell didn’t they have jumpers assigned here? Yeah, there was the recharging problem, but Rodney could figure that out.

“Your man is down. Now he won’t stay down, so that puts us in an interesting situation. If this battle goes on, we’re going to take the head shot. That will keep your guard out of our way while we capture you.”

“You know, that’s a really bad plan,” John pointed out. “Capturing me rarely ends well for anyone. Including me.”

“You understand politics well enough to know this isn’t personal, Colonel. You surrender in the next ten seconds, and we will take you into custody and hold you until General O’Neill is willing to listen to reason.”

“I don’t think the general has ever listened to reason, so you might want to rethink that.”

“The alternative is that you continue resisting. We will kill the sergeant right now and with us coming from both sides, we will capture you. We don’t mind taking a few casualties. I’m not sure the same can be said for you.”

John looked over at the sergeant lying helpless on the ground. Without someone to watch his six, he wouldn’t hold out long, and they would still get him, the only difference is that the sergeant would have died for nothing. John could distantly hear O’Neill yelling something, but he ignored it.

John stood, holding his weapon out to the side. “Let’s not do anything permanent.”

“Weapon on the ground.”

John turned sideways to come out from behind the car door, and now several armed soldiers in black came out from the sides of the van. Shit. “Well, this is a larger party than I expected. Should I be complemented or do you always overplan?” he asked as he carefully put his weapon on the ground and then stood. He stepped back away from it and put his hands on his head without being asked. “Zats and P90s. All for one little colonel?”

“You’ve decided to make yourself a player, Colonel Sheppard. This is how the game is played. Turn around.”

John pressed his lips together and tried to calculate how slowly he could move before they lost their tempers. One of the soldiers raised his P90 in the direction of the sergeant who was only now starting to groan. John turned around and braced himself for the hands that would grab him and pull his arms behind his back. If he tried to fight now, he’d likely just pull muscles, so he took several breaths and focused on making the right moves.

He didn’t get a chance because the next thing he knew electricity slammed into his back, and he flew toward the ground, his limbs twitching before he finally fell into the black.

Tony felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders, or at least the weight of O’Neill and Gibbs’ expectations, anyway. He’d done hundreds if not thousands of missing persons cases, but that hadn’t prepared him for the need to find his own commanding officer. Sheppard wasn’t Gibbs. He wouldn’t follow Sheppard into a fire, but he’d follow him about anywhere else unless Gibbs ordered him not to. So running a concurrent investigation alongside O’Neill felt less like a chance to prove himself and more like a race against the clock to avoid losing another friend.

Maybe that explained why Tony felt so strange walking into the Navy Yard. The version of Tony who had once worked here didn’t know that aliens were real. He had lived alone and couldn’t maintain a relationship and thought that al-Qaeda was the biggest threat to the United States.

He’d been a bit of an idiot.

“You okay?” Lieutenant Reed asked. He’d been one of Lorne’s handpicked SGC team members, so Tony trusted him… to a point… but he really didn’t know how to answer.

“I will be if we can find Sheppard.”

“Yes, sir,” Reed agreed. “And if we can’t, General O’Neill is going to start doing some pretty undiplomatic things to some pretty powerful people.”

“If I thought that would get us Sheppard back, I’d encourage him,” Tony pointed out.

“Considering he’s our biggest supporter and every bridge he burns cuts us off from reinforcements, I wouldn’t suggest that, sir,” Reed said. “I’ve been in this command long enough to know how much the general does, and how much we can’t allow him to compromise his position.”

“So, take care of the boss?”

“Seems like you already know that rule.”

Tony nodded. “Yep, which is why we’re going to find Colonel Sheppard.”

Reed fell silent as they got through security. Tony still had his NCIS credentials since he technically worked for the agency, but the two guards at the front were new. It made Tony feel a little out of place.

“Hey, Tony!” Agent Holder called, waving across the lobby.

“Nicky!” Tony called back.

“You back?”

“Nah, just checking in. I’m still doing the agent afloat deal.”

Holder came over, and Tony could feel Reed shift uncomfortably at his back. It was weird, but Tony could understand why. There were so many people here, and most of them weren’t vetted. They were all potential victims of a goa’uld or wraith invasion, and they didn’t know it. It made Tony feel kind of slimy inside for not warning them.

“I never thought you’d take a ship duty. Where do you get your manicures?” Nick made an exaggerated expression of horror. “Where do you get your hair done?”

Tony laughed even though it felt strained. “Luckily we have a Czech who’s good with scissors. Otherwise I’d have to resort to a Marine barber. Agent Nick Holder, this is Lieutenant Dan Reed. Reed, this is the agent voted most likely to accidentally shoot me in the ass.”

Nick laughed. “I still don’t know if that was a comment on your ability to annoy people or my aim.”

“Probably both,” Tony said. He felt so artificial joking about some stupid office prank when there were enemies who considered humans food. “Look, I need to get up to see the director.”

“Yeah, sure. Good seeing you.”

“You bet,” Tony said, clapping the man on the shoulder before heading to the elevator. The second the doors closed, he asked Reed, “Did that sound as fake as I felt?”

“Nope. You’re doing better than I did when I got sent out for physical therapy after a mission to P5S-381 ended with me falling down a ravine. I couldn’t figure out how to talk to anyone because anything I had to say was classified.”

“Yeah,” Tony said with a sigh. “And my director is going to love that.”

Reed gave him a wry smile. “Get used to it. The good news is that after five or ten years, you’re so used to it that the mundane shit sort of rolls off and you don’t have any friends outside the program.”

“Aren’t you a little jaded for a lieutenant?”

“I was a sergeant on a field team for five years before I decided to go for an officer position, and before that, I worked in a lot of hot spots locally.”

From anyone else, Tony would assume that meant in the US, as if Reed had worked on insurgents or local terror groups. However, for SGC teams, local meant Earth. Tony understood that, but there wasn’t another soul in this building who would, and that made him feel so very out of place.

The elevator opened on the floor for the director’s office, and Reed stepped forward, clearing the area with the same sort of enthusiasm Major Lorne had shown last time Tony had been here. Reed gave him a clear signal, and Tony turned on his brightest smile to cover the growing unease.

“Cynthia! You are looking younger. You don’t have a painting of some old woman in your attic do you?”

Cynthia laughed and actually came around the desk to catch Tony in a hug, which shocked him so much he didn’t evade. “Tony! We’ve missed you around here.” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “No one gets the director’s blood pressure up with you and Gibbs gone.”

“What? Is Timmy falling down on the job?” Tony asked, but he didn’t honestly expect Tim to make waves. When Tony left, he didn’t have the confidence yet. He still remembered when Gibbs had directly ordered Tim to tell off the Deputy Secretary of State. He’d nearly had a heart attack, Tony could tell that when Tim tried to describe the horror later.

Cythia smiled at him and shook her head. “How’s Gibbs?”

“Cranky as hell,” Tony answered honestly. “And we lost our colonel when he came back home for a promotion, so that makes him even crankier. I almost feel sorry for the people back home because Gibbs would much rather be here intimidating suspects.”

Reed made a sound that landed somewhere between a laugh and a snort. “I’m not too much of a man to admit that I’m damn glad I’m on protection detail here because the gunny is going to be on the warpath.”

“Oh yeah.” Tony grimaced. If they didn’t clear this case fast, Tony was going to go back and make another plea to the general to let Gibbs come back to DC, even if he had to leave Samas in Atlantis.

“Well the director is waiting. She got some interesting calls earlier today, from Sec Nav and from the White House.” Cynthia looked impressed.

“Colonel Sheppard’s a big wig,” Tony agreed. Reed cleared this throat and gave Tony a narrow-eyed look.

“Or not,” Tony added. “Because you know, I’m sure there’s… so, Director Sheppard?” he asked in an overly bright voice.

Cynthia shook her head, but luckily she knew how to keep a secret. That was her whole job. “Go on in,” she said.

Again, Reed took point, and Tony would have accused him of being paranoid, but he’d allowed Tony to leave the hotel without the rest of SG19, and how weird was it that he had his own covert ops teams shadowing him because their colonel had been stolen in the middle of DC. Sheppard had visited dozens of planets, most of which seemed pretty damn hostile. He’d gone on Wraith ships, single-handedly fought back and Genii invasion, and regularly disarmed Rodney’s mouth, but it was a car ride through DC that had gotten him.

Tony followed Reed into the room, and the second he spotted Jenny Shepherds’ tight expression, he knew that she was not amused. “Director,” Tony offered.

“Agent DiNozzo. So nice to see you again. Please, have a seat.” She stood and gestured stiffly toward the guest chairs. Reed gave him a subtle nod and moved to one wall to cover them better. Jenny’s gaze flicked in his direction before settling on Tony again. “You’ve moved down from a major to a lieutenant.”

Tony smiled at her. “The rest of the team is at the hotel, but unfortunately, we don’t have a lot of investigative skills on the team.”

Dr. Ryder was the linguist, Brown and Williams shot things, Williams and Cheeks spied on things and ran tech and all four were amazingly good at blending into the scenery, but they weren’t crime scene technicians. They were, however, good enough that Tony was wondering if Sheppard could poach them.

“Yes, Sec Nav said that you are to have full access to NCIS facilities. However, he didn’t explain the nature of the case or why it’s NCIS jurisdiction.”

Reed raised his eyebrows. Yep, he was shocked at Director Shepherd’s attitude, but Tony wasn’t. She had fought to get this high in the agency, and she done it by never backing down an inch, even when she should.

“I can’t explain the full situation, but I can say that a Marine sergeant named Anders and Colonel Sheppard of the Air Force were traveling to a briefing in preparation for Colonel Sheppard to return to his posting and take up command. They both disappeared under questionable circumstances.”

“And the posting is related to where you’re serving? And Gibbs?”

Reed spoke up. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but you are not cleared for that information.”

Director Shepherd leaned back in her chair and spread her hands. “Fine. I assume that someone will be getting the reports, including the costs of using NCIS equipment. We don’t have the sort of resources the Air Force or even the FBI might provide.”

“I still do paperwork,” Tony said. “If the costs are too high, you may want to talk to Sec Nav.”

“Sec Nav? I actually got a call from the Vice President suggesting that the President is keeping an eye on the investigation and that he would dislike any evidence that we aren’t team players. Tony, I don’t know what you think you’re into, but I can promise you, whatever you’re doing, you’re in too deep.”

Tony smiled. “I know. But right now, I’m just an NCIS agent on an investigation. I’m going to go check in with Abby and see if she can’t help with some footage.”

Williams and Cheeks had already pulled the traffic cameras and gotten shots of the two SUVs and they had the cell phone recording from O’Neill, but Abby was more creative in her approach. He trusted her to find them something more. However, he needed to make sure she wasn’t sending reports up to the director.

Tony stood up. “Hopefully we’ll be in and out.”

“You can use Gibbs’ old desk. The other agents act like it’s haunted, and no one stays there longer than a few days.”

“Thank you.”

“Of course.” She gave him the most insincere smile Tony had ever seen. Then she turned all her attention to the computer, making it clear that they were dismissed.

Tony and Reed traded looks, and then Reed led the way out of the office. They were back at the elevator when Reed spoke. “That is a woman who does not like being left out of the loop.”

“Ya think?” Tony asked, channeling Gibbs. He could practically envision Gibbs’ disapproving look. “We may actually need Gibbs to run interference if she gets too upset.”

“The IOC won’t like that.”

“Yeah, but she was Gibbs’ partner. We may need him to get her to back off because there’s no way she’s going to take silence as an answer.”

Reed sighed. “Great. And here I thought Lorne was giving me an easy assignment for a change. If she’s a danger to operational security…”

Tony gave him a sympathetic look. “There’s not a damn thing you can do when she’s the director of a federal agency.”

“I hate this shit.”

“Yeah, that’s why I actually like working where I do now. People don’t look over my shoulder.” Tony frowned. “Well, people didn’t before I pissed off Colonel Everett. But we just have to find Sheppard, and then we can all go back to having our reports cheerfully ignored.”

“Yes, sir,” Reed agreed. The elevator stopped on the floor for the lab. “So, is this tech as wild and crazy as you like to tell people?”

Tony grinned at him. “Oh, you’ll see. She’s right through there.” Tony gestured toward Abby’s door and then stood back to watch the show. Abby might work for NCIS, but she really wasn’t military approved. Reed gave him an odd look and then went toward the door with an abundance of caution.

"Hold it right there mister."

"Excuse me?"

"Tony, are you out there?"

"Yep." Tony slipped past Reed who seemed shocked by Abby who was in rare form. Her platform shoes made her taller than ever and she had red streaks in her pigtails and a bare midriff. Today seemed to be a naughty schoolgirl day with a plaid skirt and knee high white socks. It was a little much, even for Abby. "Hey Abbs."

"You're really here." She threw herself at him, and Tony just had time to brace himself before he had an armful of Abby.

"Hey, I told you I would come back and visit when I could, and you're making the security guy twitchy." Reed did look more than a little concerned, but he didn't seem as freaked out as Lorne had been in his first introduction to Abby.

Abby looked at Reed and gave a dismissive snort. "The director said you had evidence of a kidnapping? Hand it over."

"Abbs, before we do, you have to know that the director does not get copied on any of these results. She doesn't get reports or summaries or copies of absolutely anything."

Abby took a step back. "By whose orders?"

Reed answered that. "The Secretary of the Navy gave the director that order, and if you question it, I will not allow any evidence out of my custody. Tony's in charge of the investigation and he says we need you, but I am responsible for making sure that classified information is not shared outside the smallest possible group. In fact, I need you to sign a non-disclosure agreement." Reed slipped his bag off his shoulder and started reaching for the thick packet of papers.

"I have clearance."

"Not for the information you're likely to hear working on this case. I need you to sign before I allow you work on Colonel Sheppard's disappearance."

Tony could see her getting her back up. "Gibbs sent you a note," he said, pulling it out of his pocket. He'd watched Gibbs scrawl out the messy letters.

"Don't let me down and sign the damn papers."

It wasn't the sort of love note that would impress most women, but Tony suspected that it would affect Abby more than any of Tony’s arguments. Abby took it and carefully opened the envelope, sliding out the thick paper Gibbs had gotten from an Athosians. As she read, her eyes shined with tears. She looked up at him. "Why isn't he here?"

"Because he's needed there, Abbs. This isn't a fight he's willing to walk away from."

"So he walks away from me?" Abby sounded incredibly fragile, and Tony caught her hands in his.

"He's always protecting you. You know that."

Abby's gaze darted over toward Reed. Tony practically willed the man to leave them alone, but Reed gestured toward the window and gave Tony a helpless look. He wouldn't leave Tony in a room with an unsecured window, not when the SGC had some enemies on the move. Tony got it. He pulled Abby toward her office.

When the door slid shut, the first tears rolled down Abby's cheeks. "Oh Abby." Tony held his arms open, and she nearly knocked him over. "I've missed you so much, and so has Gibbs."

"Then come home."

"We can't Abby. Well, Gibbs can't, and I won't leave Gibbs." Tony tried to figure out what he could say. He knew full well that everyone and his dog would be listening to his wire right now because O'Neill didn't trust him as far as he could throw him. "They'd be happy to have me back here, but if I did that, who would watch Gibbs' six?" Tony reconsidered that. "Well of course he has a whole bunch of Marines that think their gunny is the best thing since Monday Night Football, but they aren't us. They aren't Gibbs' family. I can't leave him out there alone, Abby."

Abby let go and backed away, her arms wrapped around her stomach. "Why can't I come too?"

"Because you wouldn't be safe. The military is not thrilled with putting crime scene technicians in the middle of dangerous situation.” Usually Tony would have said that the military didn’t like putting women in danger, but between Carter and Vala, they’d sort of knocked the stupidity out of the SGC on that front. “Besides, who would stay with Timmy? And hey, how's Ziva doing?"

She stomped behind her desk and threw herself into the chair. Ziva is in L.A. more than she's here, but I don't care. She isn't part of the family. It was Ducky and Gibbs, you, me, Tim and..." her voice trailed off.

"Kate," Tony finished.

Abby's face crumpled. "And now you and Gibbs are gone and Ducky’s different and Tim.... He doesn't talk about her. He's so busy working in the cybercrimes unit and getting worshipped by them that his head doesn’t fit through doors anymore. And he doesn’t talk about her.”

“Maybe that’s healthy. He’s moving on, Abby, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t miss her. I bet he still talks to her sometimes, maybe while he’s sitting at that old typewriter of his playing writer.” Tony grinned at her. He knew how hard Tim had taken Kate’s death, but clinging to the pain wasn’t healthy.

Abby shook her head. “It’s not the same. I need you and Gibbs back. Where did you go that I can’t go with you?”

“Abby, I can’t tell you where Gibbs is.”

“Yes, you can.”

“No, I can’t.”

“Tony!”

“Abby, I love you. Gibbs loves you. But we can’t put you in the middle of this fight. It would destroy Gibbs if you got hurt. You don’t understand how much he loves you.”

“No, you don’t understand. I don’t have a family anymore. If I can’t go there, you need to come home.” Abby got her stubborn face going, and Tony could only sigh.

“We aren’t coming back, Abby,” he said softly. He’d keep saying it until she heard him, and that might take a while. He’d thought that time would heal this wound, but clearly it was festering instead. If this was her attitude, she had definitely been trying to hack into someone’s computer to get their location, and from the desperate edge to her voice, she’d failed.

She gave him a small smile. “You’re back now.”

“Lots of guys have to do a few tours as an agent afloat, especially us single guys. And trust me, someone needs to poke some of these officers.”

“And Gibbs?”

Tony took a deep breath. “He wouldn’t leave his post to save his life, Abbs. He believes in what he’s doing, and he wants his damn colonel back, so maybe we can focus on the evidence?”

Tony didn’t think he’d won, not for a second, but she did turn her attention to the case, and he took that as the temporary reprieve it was. “Why is NCIS investigating an Air Force colonel’s disappearance?”

“First, a Marine disappeared with him. Marines are our business. Second, I’m briefed on the nature of the mission, and that makes it a whole lot easier to follow leads. Now, evidence Abby. Well, sign the papers, and then evidence.”

“And the director isn’t in on this?”

“Abby, this is so far above the director that she’s going to have everyone up through the President angry if she gets even one whiff of what’s going on.”

“If Tom Morrow were still director, they wouldn’t cut him out like this,” she said unhappily.

“Yeah, Abby, they would. Hell, from what I hear, the President was pissed that he had to read in the Secretary of the Navy, but the Air Force was using a bunch of his Marines, and the man noticed after a while.”

Abby gave him a horrified look. “How far in the rabbit hole are you?”

“Far enough that I can hear them chewing the carrots,” Tony admitted. “Now, I have a missing Colonel, one cell phone audio tape, traffic cams on two vehicles and a lot of desperate people. You help me track down who to target, and you’re going to get to see what happens when the entire Department of Defense is pissed at the same person at the same time.”

“Right. I can do that.” Abby have a jerky nod and put on her game face. “Time to catch the bad guys.”

Before the first Caf-Pow arrived, Abby was already giving him a horrified look as she listened to the last recording of Colonel Sheppard surrendering. His backup had still been twelve minutes away, and he’d surrendered to save the life of a sergeant. Every time the tape played, Reed cringed a little more. Every time it played, Abby seemed a little more determined to get their colonel back.

Two Caf-Pows later, Abby asked about Colonel Sheppard’s aim, and flailed wildly as it occurred to her that both SUVs drove away. Drove. Meaning either they were heavily armored or Colonel Sheppard and Sergeant Anders both had terrible aim. Since Tony could confirm that Sheppard’s marksmanship was close to Gibbs’ own, that meant that the SUVs had been heavily armored or they would have taken damage and leaked, at the very least.

A third Caf-Pow and a lot of hand waving later, Abby had called every contact she knew and found the locations for fourteen traffic research stations that recorded cars going over them, and she started writing a program that would allow them to identify the timestamp of any vehicles that fell within the parameters of an armored vehicles. That’s when she kicked them both out, giving Tony a kiss on the cheek before he left.

It was dark as they headed up to the parking lot, and Tony realized he missed checking in with Ducky and Tim. Then again, they hadn’t found him in Abby’s lab, either.

“She’s interesting,” Reed said as he walked in front of Tony into the guarded lot where they’d left the car. “Kate?”

Tony sighed. Nothing like reminding someone they were being monitored. “Special Agent Caitlin Todd, killed in the line of duty.”

“Tough break.”

“Yeah. She would have loved all… that.” Tony gestured toward the sky.

“She must have been a gutsy lady then.”

Tony nodded. “The best.” He still felt her loss, but it killed him to see Abby get so stuck on it. It wasn’t that she hadn’t gotten obsessed with things before. She did. It was in her nature. But she should have moved on. But then she didn’t have him to take her out or Gibbs to give her the stink eye, either.

Guilt was a real bitch. They got in the car, and Reed ran his anti-surveillance equipment before speaking openly.

“Captain Williams and Lieutenant Cheeks are procuring city worker uniforms so they can go out as soon as Ms. Sciuto finishes the programming.”

“Procuring as in asking for them?”

“That would leave a paper trail and could lead to people asking why we want those uniforms, which is why Sergeant Brown is staying here until Abby leaves, and then he’s tailing her.”

Tony resisted an urge to look around. The team was SGC’s only true covert ops team, so he knew he’d never be able to spot Brown. It was still tempting to look. Stupid, but tempting.

“I’m glad you insisted that we include her. The general’s team is tracking down known NID operatives, but no one thought of a way to track the SUVs, not once we lost them off traffic cameras.”

“It still might not work. That’s the thing with investigations, you have to do charging down a dozen blind alleys before you find the one that leads to your suspect.”

“Yeah, but I feel a little better now than I did twelve hours ago. At least we have a direction.”

Tony woke to one of the more horrific sights in the universe: a frantic and angry Rodney McKay.

“You asked a technician to write the program that Sheppard is depending on for his life? Are you insane? Did traveling through the wormhole somehow destroy the last three brain cells you possess that aren’t engaged in thinking about sex or personal hygiene?” Rodney was leaning over Tony’s hotel room bed and spraying spittle as he screamed.

Reed stood at the open door with a sympathetic expression, but he was clearly not planning to rescue Tony.

Tony tried to gather his thoughts before wading into the verbal wars. “Abby figured out how to track him, and how did you get here?”

“Oh please. Once someone brought technology into the rescue, did you really think anyone could keep me away?” Rodney snorted and narrowed his eyes. “And what are you doing in bed?” He snapped his fingers dangerously close to Tony’s face. “Up, up. Come on, it’s time to get a move on.”

Tony understood that this was all Rodney’s way of worrying. He still wanted to shoot the man. “Rodney, do not snap your fingers in the face of a barely awake, armed federal agent. I’m just saying.”

“Say it as you’re getting dressed.”

“That’s kinda hard. I’m naked under here, so unless you want a peep show so you can compare notes with Samas later…” Before Tony had finished, Rodney had already fled. Tony sighed and glared at Reed. “You couldn’t have given me a little warning?”

“What, you mean between him showing up and him barging through all the rooms looking for you? Hell no. You’re less likely to damage McKay than the rest of us, and if we hurt him, Sheppard is going to hurt us.”

“You haven’t even met Sheppard.”

“His reputation precedes him. Sergeant Brown said that Abby never went home and she seems to be up and moving in her lab again this morning. He also says that having a window into a secure area is ridiculous and that the security at the Navy yard ranks up there with a children playing at snow forts.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “I don’t think the director normally prepares for alien invasions and Brown does. He can probably find a dozen security holes at the Pentagon. Now get out before Rodney regroups and decides to yell at me while I’m naked.”

“That won’t take long. He’s pretty worked up,” Reed warned and then he was gone.

Tony moved as fast as humanly possible given that he hadn’t had any coffee and Rodney was probably drinking every drop he could find in the hotel suite. By the time a shower damp and still squinty eyed Tony was heading into the main room, Rodney had clearly set up a pacing pattern. Dr. Ryder sat on one of the couches, still in her green pajamas with her feet pulled up under her. Reed stood off to the side, and Rodney paced a tight circle around the couch.

“Where are Watson and Holmes?” Tony asked.

Rodney stopped dead. “Who?”

Reed answered. “Williams and Cheeks. They’re out getting a couple of vehicles.”

Tony sighed. He was a cop. He really should object to all the stealing of city property. “Let’s head over to the Navy Yard and see what Abby has cooked up for us.”

Immediately, Rodney was in his face. “We are not using anything that I have not checked, and double checked. Do you really think I’m going to trust the life of Sheppard in the hands of someone who doesn’t even have her first PhD?”

“Hey, Abby’s published a lot of papers. She could have her PhD, only she says that people with doctorates are arrogant sons of bitches who are so stuck on their titles that they forget how to be human beings,” Tony pointed out. Sure enough, that was such an alien concept for Rodney’s brain that he was temporarily stunned into silence. “Come on, Rod. Time to save the colonel.” Tony grabbed Rodney by the shoulders and started shoving him toward the door.

Rodney had been less than impressed by the Navy Yard, and Tony wasn’t surprised. He’d worked in the best labs available in three countries on two continents and in two separate galaxies. It took a lot to impress Rodney McKay, and NCIS did not have a lot. A little twisted part of Tony vowed that after they got Sheppard back, he was going to take Rodney up to MTAC and suggest that the computers in there were the best and most secure computers anywhere. He could imagine the look on all the geeks’ faces when McKay shredded them in two seconds flat. Then it occurred to him that Tim would be one of those geeks trying to defend the honor of NCIS, and suddenly Tony didn’t know how to feel.

Abby had changed into something less school girl and more Goth vampire. She smiled at him when they walked in and bounced.

“Tony, Tony, Tony. I have it. My masterpiece is complete.” She spun, stopping when she spotted Rodney.

And Rodney, well he was acting like Rodney. He immediately shoved past Abby to move straight over to her computers. “Yes, yes. Where is this supposed masterpiece of mundane programming?” He touched the computer, but immediately a security screen came up. “What?” Rodney spun around and Abby glared at him, a remote in hand.

“Oh no you don’t. Who are you and why are you touching my babies?” she demanded in a dangerous tone.

“Rod.” Tony tried to pitch his voice the way Sheppard did when he was warning Rodney away from thermonuclear devices. “This is Abby Sciuto. Abby, this is Dr. Rodney McKay, head of sciences at – ” Reed cleared his throat, “where Gibbs and I work,” Tony finished.

“Good for you,” Abby said without softening her tone one bit. “Why are you touching my babies?”

“Oh please. These are hardly babies. They barely qualify as computers, and you don’t have any of your materials secured.”

“Hey, this whole level is secure, buddy. Who do you think you are?”

Tony could see the moment when something in Rodney snapped. “Someone who’s clearly smarter than you are, not that it’s difficult. You have a window. A window. Anyone could be peering in here or climbing in here.”

“The base is secure.”

“Oh yes! So secure that you have someone sleeping your bushes right now so that he’s close if the team needs backing up. That does not make me feel any better.”

“Whoa,” Tony interrupted. “Sergeant Brown is still in the bushes?” Tony looked at Reed.

He shrugged. “He said he’d rather jungle up. Brown’s more comfortable sleeping under a camo net than in a hotel any day of the week.”

Abby turned a beautiful shade of red. “You have someone watching me?”

This Tony knew how to handle. “Hell yes. You’re working on a project that has the entire Pentagon twitching, and no one at NCIS has the sort of skills that Brown does. Brown is like Gibbs was twenty years ago before the knees started creaking. If I am going to ask for your help on something this dangerous, I’m going to make sure I have the person who is as close to Gibbs as possible watching your six. I just didn’t think he’d jungle up in the bushes long term.” He scratched the side of his neck and watched as Abby’s brain spun through a dozen different emotions until settling on fond. Yep, he knew his girl.

Rodney snorted, completely ruining the mood. “No security,” he repeated. “I bet your computers – ”

“Don’t you say it,” Abby warned.

“Are as unprotected as his building!”

“My babies are all password protected seventeen ways from Sunday.”

Rodney rolled his eyes and turned to the screen. “Oh please. These would be childsplay to hack.” He pulled out a small tablet that probably had Ancient tech shoved inside a Sony case. From the way Reed flinched, he was thinking the same. Before this was over, Tony really needed to buy Reed a huge bottle of booze as a “thank you for guarding me through all the crazy” gift. Maybe then he wouldn’t turn the man back over to Lorne so twitchy that Lorne took it out on him.

Abby crossed her arms. “Fine. Go ahead and try you pumped up little troll. You arrogant – ” She stopped dead as he computer program reappeared on the screen. “Huh.”

“Genius here,” Rodney said in a sing-song. “When people are good, they get to be arrogant.” Abby was starting to soften, Tony could see it. Then Rodney swung around and glared at her. “When they aren’t good, they secure classified data behind defensible security protocols, and that doesn’t include a window.” He pointed at the half-moon of glass. And poof. There went all Abby’s good will toward Rodney, all thimbleful of it.

“So I should be in a vault?”

“Yes. Do you have one?” Rodney looked so honestly hopeful that he managed the impossible. He stymied Abby. However, she recovered faster than most people when first exposed to Rodney McKay.

“No.” Her voice had a finality that dared him to continue this conversation on the point of death. Tony felt like he was back in the Antarctic, sitting in the lab and turning on gizmos as Rodney shredded his way through half the scientific community before landing on people who were, as he described it, almost not stupid.

Rodney turned his back. “This is ridiculous. I want to see what you did.”

Abby pushed her way over to the computer, and Tony let her. He would take a bullet to protect either of these two, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to protect them from each other. Hell, even Reed had retreated to the far door, and he looked ready to make a run for it. “Oh no. You’d better start sucking up to me if you want what I have.”

“I am not interested in anything beyond your potential to mine datasets.”

“Good because you’re not seeing anything, not even the data sets.”

Rodney snorted. “Like I need you.” He yanked the keyboard out of Abby’s hands since she had reclaimed it, and then he started typing.

Abby looked over to Tony and he took a step back. Her glare promised endless pain. “Fine,” she snapped. “Go ahead. Pound your head against a wall trying to even find – ” Again, she stopped. Yep, Abby was learning the power of a pissed off Rodney. “Oh. You’re actually pretty good.”

“Exceptionally good,” Rodney corrected her. “This. This right here. What is this?” He jabbed the computer screen with his finger.

Abby gave some answer that didn’t make any sense to Tony other than the gismo with the whatsit was there to make the thingamajig do something. They started throwing technical terms back and forth so fast that Tony was starting to get a little dizzy. He’d seen Abby at her manic best, and he’d seen Rodney in that same sort of panicked mania, but until this moment, he’d never realized that their verbal speeds actually matched.

Tony backed up against the wall and stood with Reed out of any potential flail zone. Between Abby zooming around between her three computers and Rodney’s arm flailing, someone was going to get hit eventually. Tony just didn’t want it to be him.

“Are they scaring you?” Reed asked.

“Completely,” Tony agreed.

Reed chuckled and watched them for a few minutes. “At least now I can see why Dr. McKay didn’t frighten you when you first met him.”

He hadn’t thought of it like that. “Rodney’s just a combination of Gibbs in a bad mood and Abby with too much caffeine and too little sleep.”

“I think you just described hell.”

Tony laughed. While those two were dancing around each other, Tony headed for Abby’s office. A quick call to the morgue and Jimmy apologized a million different ways, but Ducky’s mother was ill, and he had been home with her all day. Tony felt a sinking disappointment. He knew that Ducky probably expected that if Tony were back, he’d be around for a while. With both Rodney and Abby on the case, he was hoping to have Sheppard back by the end of the day, and that would mean he would be gone by sunset.

And he truly didn’t have the energy to deal with Tim. He remembered how insecure Tim had been when he first started with the team. Now that Tim had found a place where he could be comfortably geeky all the time, getting pulled out of that place was going to make him turn back into that insecure little nerd. Maybe if Tony and Gibbs had been around longer McGee could have turned into a kick ass agent, but Tony would never stop being angry at the director for not pushing Tim and he’d never stop feeling guilty about abandoning him. Abby was right. They’d been a family. And Tony felt like the kid in the middle of a divorce, but he had made his choice, and he wasn’t sorry.

Gibbs had been confined to quarters by Everett and outright threatened by Ellis before being put on KP duty, and hadn’t that been fun. The worst part was that every Marine, every Hoff, almost every scientist and every Dagan in the damn city had refused to use the mess hall for those two weeks. That left a smattering of Ellis’ command staff and Kavanagh and his cronies.

Athosians had outdoor barbeques and Marines ate MREs and the guys who ran the kitchen had come close to crying every time Gibbs touched a dish. Ellis’ temper had been on a hair trigger the whole time. And then there’d been the one day that Ellis ordered every military person to eat in the mess hall, and they had all shown up, took the smallest item they could and sat in silence. Tony figured that the loyalty the city had shown him had hurt Gibbs worse than the damn punishment. Gibbs would do anything for his people, and he couldn’t protect them from the fallout from Ellis’ hatred for all things onac. Tony wouldn’t leave Gibbs side for anything. Gibbs needed him. However, he hated leaving the siblings behind.

“Hey,” Reed interrupted his thought.

Tony smiled at him. “What’s up?”

“They’re to the congratulating each other and claiming credit portion of the argument, so I think we’re ready. None of these stations is wireless, so Captain Williams and Lieutenant Cheeks are going out to check on the ones on the north side, you and I are taking east, and we’ve requested two NCIS teams with a field trained techie in each. We’ll brief them after we brief them and have Mr. Secretary give them a little pep talk.”

“Sec Nav?” How long had Tony been daydreaming.

Reed laughed. “You know how you said Director Shepard wouldn’t take silence as an answer?”

“Yeah?” Tony had a very bad feeling.

“The Secretary of Navy just showed up in the Yard. We’ve been asked to brief him.”

Tony nodded and headed back into the main lab.

“Oh please. If you do that, the…” and that’s as many of Rodney’s words as Tony understood, but Rodney and Abby seemed to be weirdly happy yelling at each other.

“Hey!” Tony shouted. “I’ve got to go brief the boss.”

Rodney waved a hand in his direction. “Yes, yes.” Suddenly he whirled around. “Wait. If you’re trying to go off and rescue Sheppard without me, I will shoot you. I will. Watch me. And I’ll aim for something non-vital like a knee, but you know me and aiming.”

Tony crossed his arms over his chest. “First, your aim is great as long as no one is shooting back at you. Second, I know you’re worried. I’m not trying to cut you out of anything McWorry. Third, you’re cleared for field work. I don’t have to leave you behind.” Tony gave Abby an apologetic look.

“I hate you more than ever now,” she told Rodney with a pout. Rodney looked like he didn’t know what to do with that, but Tony turned his back and headed into the hall.

“Where are they waiting?”

“Director Shepard’s office. Apparently she was reassigned to the executive conference room temporarily.”

Tony cringed. Yeah, he would never, ever be coming back to DC. “Let’s make this fast so we can get to the mission.”

Reed nodded. “Yes sir. Williams and Cheeks are already out there, and you know they’ll move faster than any of us.”

Tony nodded. Reed escorted him up to Director Shepard’s office, and Cynthia gave him a concerned look as they passed. Inside the office, Reed stopped, offered a sharp salute, and then stepped to the side so Tony could come in. McGee and three agents Tony didn’t know all sat at the small conference table looking a little shocked and Sec Nav and one of his aides stood at the end. McGee’s mouth came open when he spotted Tony, but he didn’t say anything. Sec Nav was already moving.

“DiNozzo, excellent work on this. Excellent work on everything you’ve done lately.”

“Thank you, sir.” Tony took the hand the Secretary offered and shook it solemnly. He really had fallen down the rabbit hole.

“I’ve just impressed on these four that they report to you and me, and absolutely no one else, so they are going to go gear up while you give me a quick sitrep.” The Secretary waved his arm toward the door, inviting the other NCIS agents to leave. McGee gave Tony another wild-eyed look, but he left with the others. When the door closed, the Secretary’s aide took up a position near Reed at the door.

“I’m looking for the highlights. How are you getting Sheppard back, and what are your current theories about who would benefit from taking him?”

Rodney tapped his thumb against his knee nervously. “Well?” They had taken the computer away from him after he dropped it the second time, but Rodney couldn’t control the bouts of shaking that kept catching him off guard. Normally he was the one being shot at or taken hostage. He had to either run or shoot or open something or rewire Ancient machinery while running and shooting and opening things. But he didn’t wait. He was horrible at waiting.

Dr. Ryder studied the screen where Rodney had hacked the wireless signal he’d found. Luckily Abby had the equipment to build a powerful receiver that could capture the signal. He really hoped she passed the test he’d left her. If she didn’t, he couldn’t justify bringing in a scientist with half the education of most of his staff. However, if her curiosity and her skills got through the security protocols on his laptop without destroying the data inside, she deserved a spot.

Normally he didn’t feel bad about hacking O’Neill’s pathetic excuse for a computer network over at Homeworld Command, but after listening to the recordings of Abby’s breakdown, he felt just a little guilty. He understood what it was like to be that smart and finally find people who loved you anyway and then lose them. Yeah, he thought Gibbs was a jarhead, but Abby loved him. And the program had taken him away from her. That didn’t sit right with him, and when he didn’t approve of something, he fixed it. Simple as that. At least, he gave her a chance to fix it.

“The coding on this is layers deep,” Dr. Ryder said. She ran long fingers through her salt and pepper hair.

“You’re a decoder. You’re supposed to be able to do layers,” Rodney snapped. “Doesn’t anyone in this unit know how to do their jobs?” Glares met him from all around. Dr. Ryder’s was the mildest, but then there was the skinny shit with the dark eyes that made Rodney want to guard his balls and the two who were carrying guns that made P90s look like toys.

“Try to not poke the highly trained covert ops team, Rod,” Tony suggested. He rested his hand on Rodney’s knee. Rodney wanted to push him away, but he felt like that hand was all that was holding him together. “Is this feeling a little too easy to anyone else?” Tony asked.

Dr. Ryder turned her chair around and faced the rest of the van. “Yes, which is why I keep looking for some evidence that I’m looking at a trap. This looks like a Trust site. I’ve got similar security protocols and codes, and I’m seeing code words that logically relate to known Trust sites. They aren’t even dumb enough to use compromised Trust ciphers we know.” She ran her hand through her hair again. “Another analyst might have said that these weren’t Trust signals. So either this is real, or they knew the SGC would send their best.”

Rodney clenched his teeth together to keep from screaming. He didn’t care if it was a trap. All the evidence said that Sheppard was in that building, and Rodney wanted him back. Now. Tony tightened his fingers, gripping Rodney’s knee tightly for a second before loosening his grip again.

“How would the SGC handle this if we called it in?”

“When we call it in,” Reed said firmly.

“When we eventually call it in,” Tony compromised.

“Oh for the love of god.” Rodney exploded up out of his seat. “They could be torturing Sheppard right now and you’re arguing semantics. What is wrong with you people?” Rodney might have jumped out of the van just to force the idiots to do something, only there were people between him and all the exits.

“Rodney, this is the most dangerous part of a rescue.” Tony pulled on his hand until Rodney gave up and collapsed back down onto the seat next to him. “If we do something wrong, they will kill Sheppard before we can retrieve him, so we have to move slowly.”

Tony turned to Reed. “When we report the position, what will the SGC do?”

Reed frowned. “They have the Daedalus in orbit, so they will lock onto the position and use sensors to determine the positions of all life signs. They will then wait for a team on the ground to get into position, and use either data on the mobility of the individuals or information on the ground to determine which person is Sheppard and beam him up.”

Tony turned to Rodney. “Could you create a virus that got beamed up with a person?”

Rodney frowned. “That’s just stupid. You clearly don’t understand how computers work because that would require a physical object to carry a computer virus.” He frowned. “But the Daedalus is designed to scan any incoming materials in order to determine whether they pose a risk during rematerializing.” To get information to leap from the buffers to the main computer would be impossible, but the systems were linked. “Not even I could do that.”

“Could Samas?” Tony asked.

“What? NO! He would never create any sort of virus to be used against beaming technology.”

Tony sighed. “No, but if he can do it, then there’s a chance that at least a few of the older goa’uld could too. Could Samas create a virus that got uploaded that way?”

Rodney shook his head. “Onac don’t think outside the box that way.”

“They don’t have to. They just have to watch television. Focus Rodney. If they saw someone do that in a movie and they had the command codes for the Daedalus, could they do it?”

Rodney thought about the way Samas could hold thousands of lines of code in his head at once. “Maybe,” he finally said.

One of the SG guys, Winters or Williams or something, groaned. “Great. So if they carry out standard mission protocol, they could put the whole ship at risk.”

“Over US territory, which would make a mess,” Ryder added.

Reed looked at Tony. “I don’t know about them, but my orders are to follow you in the field unless you compromise operational security, and then I’m supposed to sit on you.”

Most of the people in the van laughed. Rodney didn’t.

The W-name captain nodded. “We’re here as backup. How do we handle this?”

Tony frowned. “Captain Williams, I don’t run offworld missions. You do.”

“Nope,” he said. “I carry out tactical maneuvers after someone else gives me the mission. We have a potential threat here, so you can pass that on to HQ or come up with mission objectives in the field. We’re just here to make them happen.”

Tony’s frown got deeper, but he didn’t seem inclined to do anything.

“Torture. Potential torture. Right now!” Rodney interjected.

Tony looked at him wearily. “Give me the secure phone,” he said. Reed handed it over and Tony dialed. Right now Rodney didn’t care if the Daedalus did upload a virus and the whole ship blew up as long as Sheppard got off first, and that wasn’t a nice thought, but Rodney had long ago come to terms with the fact that he wasn’t a nice person.

Someone answered Tony’s call after a few seconds. “General, we think we have a location, but there’s a chance that beaming Sheppard out could pose a risk to the Daedalus.” He paused. “Yes, sir.” More pauses. Rodney was on the verge of ripping the phone out of Tony’s hand. “SG19 could get a sense of the situation on the ground, and act if they can do so without risk to the colonel.” Tony grinned as he listened to the response. “Exactly,” he said loudly enough that Rodney got the impression he was interrupting, “this isn’t SG protocol, so it will catch them off guard. We haven’t spotted a single suspicious watcher, and I don’t think Williams or Cheeks would have missed Trust agents.”

Lieutenant Cheeks snorted and then added under his breath, “The day I can’t spot a tail, I’m retiring.”

“You’re twenty-three,” Williams shot back, “you’re too young to be that cocksure.”

Dr. Ryder gave them a dirty look big enough for both of them. Rodney remembered his mother giving him that same look a lot.

“Yes, sir,” Tony said into the phone even as he grinned at them. He hung up the phone. “General O’Neill says we’re on the ground, but we should be advised that they think they have a leak somewhere. They’ve tried to raid a couple of high level targets only to find only low level workers and old intel at each site.”

Williams pressed his lips together for a second. “What the fuck is wrong with people? We have aliens trying to kill us, and that’s not enough? We have to turn on each other?”

Cheeks shook his head. “Rich people have always done anything to get richer. At least we know we don’t have a spy in with us.”

“Why?” Rodney asked.

Pretty much everyone looked at him like he was insane, but it was Williams who answered. “We’re the only all minority SGC team. Two blacks, two Hispanics, and one of us a very gay woman. What would a bunch of rich businessmen think they could get out of us?”

“What difference does that make? They could put a snake in someone.” Rodney’s eyes got big. “What if they’re putting a snake in Sheppard? We should get Samas here.”

Tony patted his leg. “Rodney is one of those rare people who truly doesn’t see race. In his world, you’re smart enough to be worthy of him learning your name or you’re not. Race, religion, culture, sexual orientation—it all fall to the side of his overwhelming prejudice against stupid people.”

Rodney glared at Tony. “So, Captain Williams, why don’t you go see if you can find our colonel. Reed, maybe the three of us could cover their exit.”

Reed looked in Rodney’s direction.

Rodney poked a finger in his direction. “I am field trained, and I am not staying in the van. If you even ask me to, you are going to find your life on Atlantis more miserable than December in Siberia. I may even apply the same torture to Lorne for sending you, depending on how vindictive I feel. Got it?”

“Got it,” Reed said, lifting his hands in surrender. “We all gearing up then. Captain Williams, from the time we hit the ground, you have command.”

“Good. It’s annoying to have to look to a lieutenant and an NCIS agent for orders,” he said with a grin. “Brown, what do you have on security?”

“High tech all the way. I’m recommending a low tech wrench in the wheels.”

“Entry point?”

Brown pointed at a sheer wall. “I’m going up right there.”

“How?” Rodney demanded.

Brown grinned at him, and Rodney noticed that he was dark skinned. Huh. “Have you ever heard of parkour, Dr. McKay?”

“It sounds like something Teyla would make me eat.”

“You’re about to get schooled, then. Give me fifteen minutes to get in position, sir,” Brown said.

“You have a go,” Williams said. “In fifteen minutes Cheeks and I will be taking the side entrance here. Ryder, you’ll be on our six, and I need you to scramble their computers hard, the second we’re in.”

“Before or after I steal everything they have in there?” she asked.

“Your discretion,” Williams said. “DiNozzo, Reed, McKay. You are to hold position at this location.” He pointed to a spot across the street. “From the looks of things, that’s their primary exit, and you are to zat any and everyone who comes running out that rat hole. We’re likely to miss some on secondary exits, but the mission is recovery of our missing colonel, not capture of enemy operatives. Keep that in mind.

“DiNozzo, ten minutes after primary breeches the side door, call for all the backup the SGC can spare, but do not let them bring in the Daedalus.”

“Yes, sir,” DiNozzo agreed.

“Smartass,” William said. “Brown, we’re working off your mark. Go.”

Brown grinned and then stripped off everything military. It left him in a hoodie and a pair of old jeans that made him look about seventeen. “See you on the other side,” he said as he shoved a zat down the back of his pants. He jumped out the back of the van and started strolling past the building. When he got near, he took a can of spraypaint and started tagging the brick.

Rodney’s mouth fell open. “What is he doing?”

“His job,” Williams said, watching the monitor. The pattern crossed several wires, and Rodney watched Brown give an electrical box an extra spray of red.

Someone came out a side door, and Brown threw the can at him and ran off laughing while the guy cursed at him. Cursed. Not shot at. Rodney looked over at Tony. “But… they know they have a kidnapped colonel in there. Why would they assume that was a coincidence? How stupid are these people?” Rodney was truly offended. How the hell could Sheppard let himself get captured by stupid people?

“People see what they want to,” Williams said, “that’s why we’re so good. The paint is corrosive. Their systems should be acting up by now.” Sure enough, a guy came out the side and walked over to the electrical panel, opening it and then slamming it in disgust before going back inside.

“If this is the level of bad guy on Earth, I want a rebate on my taxes. You guys clearly shouldn’t require half as much money as you do to catch these morons.”

Captain Williams shook his head. “I’ll figure out later if that’s a compliment or an insult, but this is Brown’s parkour routine.” Brown came strolling back over to the building, and then suddenly he was leaping up the side. He jumped up and used the electrical box as a stepping stone to leap high enough to grab a second story ledge. He swung sideways and then let go and then somehow ended up three feet over where he started shimmying up a narrow channel in the brick.

“I so want one of him,” Reed said in an admiring tone.

“Find a parkour runner, convince him to join the Air Force, get him sharp shooter trained, and I’m sure O’Neill will let you keep him, but Brown’s mine. Seven minutes to go. Reed, keep your people low profile until the shooting starts.” He gave Rodney a long look.

“Yes, yes. I’m the weak link. I’m still smarter than any of you, and if Sheppard has one hair on his silly head out of place, I’ll make it my mission to torture each and every one of you.”

Williams blinked. “Why Dr. McKay, you say the sweetest things. Cheeks, Ryder, you set?”

Rodney tuned them out and started tapping his thumb against his leg again. He wanted to start shouting at them to go faster. It wasn’t logical, and Rodney hated being illogical. He’d hated it when he’d crashed his system using stimulants, he hated the fact that he couldn’t control his resentment of Carter, he hated that he hadn’t jumped Sheppard when he had the chance. He hated how many illogical stupid things he’d done lately.

Tony shoved a weapon and holder into his hands. “Gear up, Rod,” he said, and Rodney exploded up off the seat, thrilled to be doing anything that would make this go faster. He blinked and the rest of SG19 were gone.

“Are Williams and Cheeks related?” Tony asked. Rodney about screamed at him. How could he care right now?

“They look like father and son, don’t they?” Reed said. “I remember us taking advantage of that fact more than once. Put those two into civvies, and they can wander through a village without making anyone raise an eyebrow.”

“Can we go now?” Rodney demanded.

Reed nodded. “It’s time.” Reed drove the van to their position, and Rodney finally got to stand outside. Then people started running out, and Rodney was busy using a zat to take people down while honestly trying to not hit them twice. After the first couple, he gave up and let Reed and Tony handle the shooting. He went inside and started monitoring Ryder’s computer. She was inside their system, and Rodney immediately started sorting the data.

He found what he wanted in record time. “Symbiotes. They have symbiotes in there,” he yelled.

Tony stuck his head in the van. “What? How many?” In the distance, the sound of a helicopter was coming closer.

“How would I know? I just know the chemicals required to keep a symbiote in stasis, and they’ve been ordering them.”

Tony pulled his phone out. “General, we have goa’uld on site. We don’t know if they’re implanted or still free swimming, but whoever you’re sending, send more, and we may need Samas here to do his blood vengeance thing against all goa’uld.”

“Do they have Sheppard?” Rodney demanded. Tony was still talking to the general, and Rodney lost his cool. He grabbed the phone out of Tony’s hand and tossed it. “Do they have Sheppard?”

Reed was there, and the wind whipped around as a helicopter hovered low enough for special ops guys to drop like spiders sliding down a thread.

“The building’s secure. We have Sheppard.”

Rodney didn’t wait for anything else, he ran for the building. Behind him, Tony shouted and words were distorted by the sheer force of the downwind created by the helicopter, but Rodney didn’t care about any of it. Sheppard was in there. He was getting his damn colonel back and the next time Sheppard wanted to come to Earth, he was going to be handcuffed to Rodney so the asshole couldn’t do this to him again.