Secrets

Chapter Twenty-six The Brotherhood

“So,” Dick Woolsey said, folding his hands in front of him on the conference table. He wished he had a file folder to open decisively. But he didn’t. File folders were heavy and unnecessary, not worth shipping out on the Daedalus or Hammond. He could have acquired all the file folders he wanted when they were on Earth, but he’d had more important things on his mind then than office supplies.

Everyone was looking at him, waiting for him to continue, Sheppard, Teyla, McKay, Zelenka down one side of the table, Keller at the far end, then Carter, Lorne, and Ronon. Lorne had a tripodal cane with him, propped up against the table beside him. He was getting around, but it would be weeks yet before he was back to normal.

“So,” Dick said again. “We have Todd arriving. He’s agreed to come to Atlantis under our terms.”

“Isn’t that a little weird?” Lorne asked. “He’s usually pretty careful unless he’s got something up his sleeve.”

“I think he’s probably on the up and up,” Dr. Keller said. It was unusual for her to speak up immediately in a meeting, and Woolsey felt his brows rise. “We have Alabaster and his grandson. I think this is a situation where he’d meet almost any terms we set.”

There was a general sense of skepticism around the table. “Dr. Keller has worked with him extensively,” Dick said. “Teyla? Do you have an opinion?”

“I think it is likely that he is eager to be reunited with Alabaster,” Teyla said. She spread her hands. “But I cannot speak for the veracity of anything he says until we are in the same room. I do not think he can deceive me about his intentions face to face, but there is nothing I can ascertain from a transmission.”

“We need to take every precaution,” Sheppard said. He leaned forward in his chair, all taut lines. “We’ll meet him at a rendezvous point and bring him through blindfolded and under guard. Sam, can I borrow Cadman for that?”

“I’m here,” Ronon said.

“And I need you here watching Alabaster,” Sheppard said. “Two Wraith, two teams.”

Ronon nodded.

“Yes, you can borrow Cadman again,” Carter said. She looked amused. “But you can’t keep her.”

“I’d send Lorne, but…” Sheppard shrugged in Lorne’s direction, who brandished his cane.

“I take it I’m with the crew here,” Lorne said.

“Yes. You’ll coordinate the security arrangements here.” Sheppard looked at Dick. “Is there anything else I need to know about security wise?”

“Not that I’m aware of,” Dick said. “There won’t be any special arrangements for General O’Neill.”

“O’Neill’s coming?” Sheppard looked startled. “When did that happen?”

Carter was studiously examining her laptop.

“It hasn’t yet,” Dick said dryly. “I imagine I’ll be informed about it this afternoon.” Score.

John folded up his laptop and tucked it under his arm as people started filing out of the conference room. He hung back to let Lorne get ahead of him, still awkward untangling himself from table and chairs. Rodney hung back too, while Keller went ahead. So that was how it was.

Sam moved one of the other chairs out of Lorne’s way. “Thank you, ma’am,” Lorne said, stumping along.

“No problem.”

Rodney hung back at Sam’s shoulder. “So,” he said. “Want to go over some calculations?”

Sam blinked. “Which calculations?”

Rodney stuffed his hands in his pockets, his old three sided smile on his face. “I’m sure we can find some calculations. I mean, it was awkward dealing with this thing between us when you were in charge here, but now you have the Hammond and I work for Woolsey… We could have dinner.”

Sam blinked again. Her mouth opened and snapped shut. “Rodney,” she said. “I’m not going out with you.”

“Well, I mean, where’s out?” Rodney said with a suave and insouciant smile. “It’s just dinner in the mess with an old friend.”

Sam turned and faced him, almost nose to nose as she was tall. “For the four hundred and forty seventh time, I am not going out with you. I am never going out with you. Not now, not next week, not next year. I am involved with someone else, and I am not interested. Got it?”

John winced.

“Got it,” Rodney said.

“Good.” Sam’s pony tail flipped like a cat’s tail lashing as she stalked out of the conference room.

“Good job, Rodney,” John said, gritting his teeth. “Way to go.”

Rodney looked after her and shrugged. “Is she really involved with somebody else, or is she trying to let me down easy?”

“She’s really involved with someone else,” John said. “Really, really involved. And Rodney, what the hell? You knew she’d say that.”

“I figured it would be good for the old morale,” Rodney said. “You know. A declaration of independence. If me and Jennifer are casual and not exclusive, there’s no reason I can’t see Sam.”

“Except that Sam won’t see you except on a platter with a sprig of parsley,” John said. “Come on, Rodney. Can’t you think of anybody to hit on besides Sam?”

“There’s Teyla.” Rodney stopped in the doorway as though the thought had just struck him. “She’s hot.”

“It took you almost six years to notice that?”

Rodney scratched his head, which was still white haired. “I think it’s the Wraith thing. Teyla was never my type, but now when I see her I just…”

“Want to kiss her feet?”

“Yeah, that.”

John clapped him on the shoulder as he followed him out of the conference room. “I’ll make sure you have a chaperone with Alabaster.”

“Very funny.”

John caught up with Teyla in the hall outside the transport chamber, where Lorne was just getting in. “I’m going to the lab level,” Lorne said apologetically.

“We will wait,” Teyla said, and let the doors close. She looked at John keenly. “You are troubled.”

John blew out a breath. “Does it strike you that Rodney is acting strange? He just hit on Sam like a ton of bricks when he knew she’d shoot him down. What the hell was with that? That’s not our normal Rodney.”

Teyla tilted her chin. “No, it is not. Rodney is not normal. He has been a Wraith, and though he may like to think that he is as he was before, except for his hair, the Gift shows that he is not. He can still speak mind to mind, and it seems clear to me that there are other changes as well.” She put one foot up against the wall beside the transport chamber. “You do not understand how a Wraith craves a queen’s attention. He needs her mental touch. He needs her regard. We did not understand it then, but we saw this with Michael — how he fixed upon me as the only person who could give him what he needed. Sam is a queen to him, as she is perceived so by all the Wraith. Her attention, even her negative attention, is better than none. To pursue a queen and be refused is nothing. But one must try.”

John frowned. “So Rodney has a predisposition to chase women who will kick him in the teeth?”

Teyla looked serious. “Moreover, he has been captured and held these many months. If you had just been recovered from months as a prisoner, would you not want me to rush to you with open arms?”

“Well, of course.” John shifted from foot to foot. “But that doesn’t happen sometimes. I mean, sometimes guys get back from deployment all messed up and their wives are in a totally different place. They want everything to be ok and to move on and to get on with life and have everything work and it just doesn’t. There’s just too much water under that bridge and too little common ground.” He stopped. Or he tried to, but the words kept flowing. “Too many things you can’t talk about and too many things you’re ashamed of, too much blood on your hands. Or maybe there just wasn’t enough that was right in the first place.”

“John, he killed people. He led an assault on us where people were slain. He has put Major Lorne, who was his friend, through two surgeries and months of pain and discomfort. He cannot simply forget it as though it never happened, as though it were done by someone else. And he has fed on Jennifer, even though it was with her consent. These are things that change a man.”

John put his arm on the wall and leaned his head against it. “You’re right,” he said quietly. “I don’t know why I didn’t see that.”

“Perhaps because it is too close?” Teyla put a hand to his shoulder. “And because you are his friend and you wish that he did not have to go through what you have gone through?”

“Yeah.” John closed his eyes. He could hardly remember coming home, and that in itself was strange. He should remember that. It was November, December. There were Christmas trees in BWI airport. He remembered that. But he couldn’t remember who was there. Nancy, probably? Where had they gone? What had they done? It had been three weeks since Holland died, five weeks since Mitch and Dex. Had she brought the car or had they taken a cab? Gone on the train? He had no idea how they’d gotten to Crystal City. He didn’t remember what she’d worn or what she looked like, if she’d had a little flag or a sign like soldier’s wives sometimes did. Had she smiled or cried?

He wasn’t sure if it was that day or another day that she’d put her arms around him and he had frozen, feeling only the weight of a cooling corpse against his breast. “What’s wrong?” she had asked, words for which there was no answer.

“Ok,” John said. “That’s what Rodney’s going through. And Jennifer…”

“Who shall Jennifer turn to? You? Me? Ronon?” Teyla shook her head. “Who are her friends besides Rodney? I can think of no one but Carson, and they are not close. She was shy when she first came here, overwhelmed by responsibility. And then Katie Brown’s friends spurned her, seeing her as the reason Rodney broke up with Katie. The women who are her own age, like Laura, were all Katie’s friends.” Teyla leaned back against the wall beside him. “Jennifer is very much alone, and Rodney needed more than she could give. Jennifer is an honest person, and she will not give her lifelong vow to someone if she is not certain of it. How could she be certain now?”

“I’m not saying she should have married him out of pity,” John said. “That wouldn’t work. I just…” He straightened up, shrugging. “I just don’t know what to do.”

“I do not either, besides give him time to heal.” Teyla shook her head ruefully. “He will always be Quicksilver, just as I am always Steelflower. I understand that. And you have known this bitter homecoming, as he has, and can be his friend. Perhaps it will be enough.”

“And not expect him to be ok, even if he says he is,” John said, nodding. “I get that. Four months in Antarctica with light duty.”

“Did that help you?”

“I guess. It helped a lot more than four months in DC chewing my feet off.” Antarctica had been so quiet. Restful.

“Then perhaps Rodney needs light duty that does not feel to him as though you are pushing him off in the corner?” Teyla suggested.

“Yeah. I’ll have to talk to Woolsey. We can work something out. Some kind of project…” Rodney messed up was not a good thing, over and above it being Rodney. But of course he wasn’t ok. It was just that John had wanted him to be ok, that Rodney wanted to be ok.

Teyla put her arm to his sleeve again. “John, he will be stronger in time. Just as you are.”

“Yeah,” he said, and he supposed it meant something that he almost believed it.

Lorne caught up with Cadman on the lab level, just where he’d expected her to be. She’d been in the armory, and she straightened up when she saw him. “Sir.”

“Hey,” he said. “I need to talk to you about something. I just got out of the briefing, and Carter said we could borrow you again.”

Cadman looked pleased, as usual. She seemed to like being needed, though she was always careful not to make it look like she was gunning for his job, something he appreciated when he was running on three legs, so to speak. “With the Wraith?”

“Yeah. I’m in charge of security procedures. Todd’s going to get here to meet with Woolsey and Alabaster, so we’ve got two parties of Wraith to guard. I want Ronon to handle Alabaster, and I’m going to send you to meet Todd on neutral ground.”

Cadman nodded. “Should I pick somewhere we don’t usually use out of the database?”

“That’ll do,” Lorne said. “Take a full squad of Marines with you. Whoever you think is best.”

She looked thoughtful. “I’d rather have Sgt. Sandoval, if that’s ok.”

“You can have Sandoval,” Lorne said. “I’ll keep the newest guys here.” He didn’t need to add ‘where Sheppard and I can keep an eye on them.’ That went without saying. It also went without saying that he was making it very clear Cadman had moved up a notch, a leader with a certain amount of latitude for her own team. “I don’t need to tell you to watch out, right?”

Cadman grinned. “Nope. I think I’ve got a pretty good idea that the Wraith can’t be trusted.”

“Even if you’re Carter’s niece or whatever,” Lorne said.

“That’s so weird.”

He shrugged. “Matriarchal society. You take it like it comes.”

“Whatever you say, Major.” Cadman grinned again. “We’ll take every precaution. I’ll search Todd myself.”

“Probably a good idea,” Lorne said. “Can you send me Jones and Canifora in my office? I need to get my end of it straightened out before we regroup and report in…” He looked at his watch. “About two hours.” He shook his head. “I don’t know where days go.”

“Same place they always do,” Cadman said cheerfully. “I’ll send the guys up.” She turned to go and then stopped, her face suddenly serious. “Thank you, Major.”

“No problem,” Lorne said.