Reading Time: 118 Minutes
Title: Seeking Sheppard
Series: Priceless
Series Order: 2
Author: SASundance
Fandom: NCIS, Stargate SG1, Stargate Atlantis, Criminal Minds; JAG
Genre: Crime Drama, Crossover, Episode Related, Hurt/Comfort, Science Fiction
Relationship(s): Radek Zelenka/Miko Kusanagi
Content Rating: NC-17
Warnings: Rape/Non-con/Dub-con, Slavery, Torture, Violence – Graphic, Violence – Domestic and/or Against Children , Violence – graphic, offscreen torture, discussions of past and offscreen rape/non-con, issues around the loss of free will, loss of bodily autonomy, mind control, past murder, discussions of miscarriage and abortion, discussions of slavery and implications of mind control, non-consensual drug use, discussion of past domestic violence, discussion of canon vaccination and future vaccination programs, discussion of past canon unethical medical experimentation, character bashing (Elizabeth Weir and Ziva David). Not friendly to: McKay, Gibbs, Keller, McGee, Vance. (Note: slavery, mind control, autonomy issues are related to canon events)
Beta: Aussiefan70
Word Count: 59,047
Summary: The hunt was on in earnest as Alex Paddington, aka Tony DiNozzo finally, found the thread he needed to unravel Lt Col John Sheppard’s mysterious disappearance. The search results in Tony making not only several enemies in the city but also some rather formidable friends even as he uncovers a frightening conspiracy on Atlantis. One that will have far-reaching consequences for many people in the Pegasus galaxy and back home on Earth.
Artist: AngelicInsanity
“They did not know it was impossible, so they did it.”
Mark Twain
Chapter 1 Calling on A Higher Power
Tony DiNozzo, aka Alexander Paddington, sat in the mess eating an egg salad wrap and thinking about his upcoming trip to Proculus tomorrow. He wasn’t exactly thrilled at the prospect of meeting an Ascended Ancient, but everyone agreed that as someone with an ATA that rivalled Col Sheppard’s, that it might help endear him to her. God knows, he hadn’t hesitated to flirt with witnesses and informants to get intel in the past, but the Ascended Ancients were pretty high-octane beings from all he’d learnt. Plus, he wasn’t thrilled that the High Priestess of Athar might be able to suss out things about him that he’d prefer to stay hidden. But it was his job and it had been his suggestion to go and interview her, okay to be accurate it was Janae Progenius’ suggestion, but no one except Tony knew of the existence of the artificial intelligence program. They thought it was his idea and that it was a good one.
While he was working himself into a state, running scenarios of all the ways that this trip could turn FUBAR, Radek Zelenka plopped his lunch tray down on the table beside the investigator, piled high with food.
Seeing his amused attention to the mound of chilli, cornbread, and jalapeno peppers on the metal tray, Radek said, “What? So, I like chilli.”
Tony smirked at the scientist. “Yeah, I can see that.”
“Yes yes yes yes, have your fun,” Radek told him snarkily.
The Czech gave a long-suffering sigh before deciding to tease his friend. “Did you know that Kazumi announced a few days ago that she wants to marry you? It isn’t nice to be making fun of your future father-in-law, now is it,” he asked, chuckling at Paddington’s expression.
“Oh-good-lord, really? Kazumi will barely even speak to me she’s so shy around me,” he said turning bright red.
“Yes, she is a little shy, but we’re hoping that Belle and going to school will help her be more confident,” her father said. “By the way, Belle was there when Zumi announced her intention to marry you. It was right after Belle announced that she was marrying Col Lorne when she grows up,” he informed Belle’s father with a grin.
“Oh my God, is this normal,” Alex asked him frantically. Do I need to investigate Lorne for grooming my daughter? Do I need to investigate myself for grooming too?
Zelenka shrugged. “My sister has boys, but Miko doesn’t seem worried about it,” he comforted the single father as he ploughed through his lunch with gusto. For a little guy, Radek could sure put it away, he concluded.
Okay well, Tony trusted Miko, she was an awesome mother and a brainiac scientist to boot. If she wasn’t worried, he guessed it must be normal. Still, as luck would have it, he had a session with Dr O’Shea just after lunch, he’d check with her and see if his daughter’s obsession with Evan Lorne pointed to something amiss in Tali’s relationship with him.
There were times when he missed Lavinia badly. Having a lecturer in early childhood development had been a real godsend, she often reassured him that he wasn’t making a complete mess of bringing up his daughter. Plus, she was always ready to offer sound advice if he asked for it. It sucked having to leave!
~o0o~
O’Shea noted that Special Agent Alex Paddington was looking rather anxious when he entered her office, even with the list of issues he was dealing with, she felt that this might be a new concern, perhaps it related to his discussion with his daughter that precipitated her house call. They talked about how Belle was coping since learning about the episode with the dinner party to which Alex had been excluded and how he’d told her the truth that the person who’d done it was Belle’s mother, Ziva as she had already surmised in the way children sometimes had of seeing what adults didn’t want them to.
“What did Belle say?” the psychologist asked.
“That Imma hadn’t been very nice, and she hoped she’d gotten a time out for being bad,” he said wryly.
“And did she?” Aoife quizzed him.
“Sadly, no. The rest of the team thought it was a great joke, but I didn’t tell Belle that.”
O’Shea detected the hurt in his voice and stored it up because this was a long-held pain and she doubted it was what was causing his anxiety right now. Time enough to revisit it at a later point in their therapy.
“So, no tearful declarations that she hated Ziva or anything like that?” She looked at him, knowing this was his real fear – that he would poison her relationship with her mother by telling her the truth.
“No, it was like when her friends do something wrong and get punished. She didn’t like the behaviour but didn’t seem to despise her,” he answered and seemed genuinely relieved.
“That suggests that you haven’t brought her up to see people in authority, even significant ones like you or her mother as infallible or incapable of making mistakes, which is healthy. And aside from this, how is Belle settling in?”
“Um…should I be worried that Belle announced to the Zelenkas that she intends to marry Col Lorne when she grows up and Kazumi replied that she is going to marry me? Is there something lacking in our relationship? Have Lorne and I behaved inappropriately with the girls,” he asked her worriedly.
Aoife saw how worried he was. “What do Miko and Radek think?”
Alex shrugged. “They don’t seem too worried. Is this normal?”
“There is no black and white answer, Alex. Only a contextual one. Does Lorne have much to do with Belle?”
“He’s watched her for me in his office a few times if I had to do something work-related and she couldn’t be there. He colours in with her, or he’ll read to her since she loves stories.”
“Does he have any family who has children?”
“He said his sister has two boys and he misses spending time with them,” Alex admitted.
“Then unless you see warning signs that you probably know better than I do, as a cop, I’d say this is a harmless attachment. It indicates that Belle is settling in and feeling more secure. As to the question of you doing anything wrong, have you been alone with Kazumi?”
“No. She is so shy, she wouldn’t stay with anyone she doesn’t know well. She’ll barely talk to me she’s so shy.”
“Hmm, hopefully, it won’t develop into social phobia. It is good that she has Belle to bring her out of her shell and it sounds like she was probably just mimicking her about marrying you. You didn’t do anything wrong,” she reassured him.’
“That’s a relief. I arrest paedophiles, I don’t aspire to be one,” he said looking less stressed.
“So how are Belle’s nightmares. Are they as frequent?”
“About the same, maybe a little less regular. That aside, she seems to have formed another attachment. This time to Captain Cadman who is teaching her how to tap dance. Laura is giving her weekly lessons and now Kazumi Radek wants to participate too. Belle loves her, and she sometimes invites her to eat dinner afterwards,” he said brightly.
Something about his demeanour tipped O’Shea off that he was faking his enthusiasm. While Alex had many masks which he used to hide his true feelings, O’Shea was used to her clients pretending to be fine, especially the military ones. She had developed a sixth sense almost when it came to their obfuscation.
Deciding to simply call him on it, she asked, “And why does that make you feel uncomfortable, Alex?”
He looked at her and she could tell he was struggling between irritation at being called out and feeling ashamed.
“I trust Captain Cadman to protect Belle; she is an extremely competent and experienced Marine and is an excellent Head of Base Security,” he told her truthfully.
“But?”
“I don’t know. She makes me feel uncomfortable I guess.”
O’Shea frowned inwardly as she kept her outward expression open. She was expecting this to come up but not so early on after he arrived in Atlantis or his confession about how learned that Belle was his daughter. Still, she needed not to judge him. Every person was an individual – they recovered from rape in their own way in their own time and he needed support, not censure.
“Are you attracted to her?” she asked, neutrally. “You do know that there isn’t anything wrong with wanting a relationship, if you are.”
Alex stared at her, flabbergasted before he shook his head violently. “God no, I’m not attracted to her. Just the opposite – she kinda repels me, to be honest….and I know it’s not her fault what happened to her and Rodney McKay… but I can’t help how I feel,” he said guiltily.
Shite! She had misread that situation, badly.
“Sorry about that, but I don’t know what you’re referring to. What happened to her and Dr McKay?”
He waved away her apology. “It’s fine, you weren’t on Atlantis back then. There was a Dr Heightmeyer who handled the case.”
He sighed before proceeding to give her a quick rundown. “It was in the second year of the expedition. They were culled by a Wraith dart which Col. Sheppard shot down, but he damaged the beaming device that the Wraith use to cull and store their prey ‘til they get back to the hive ship. When Dr Zelenka tried to reintegrate their life sign signatures, Dr McKay was reenergized with both his own and Laura Cadman’s consciousness into his body.”
O’Shea listened intently as he told her how they had battled over control, both being Alpha types. How because McKay didn’t play nicely with others Cadman had become sneaky, seizing control of his body when he was sleeping.
Oh yeah, she absolutely could see why that would bother Alex, given what he’d experienced. The realisation of what had occurred to him had only happened in the past few months and unsurprisingly, it was still incredibly raw and painful.
“It wasn’t just that she used his body to go for a run or slept in the nude which weirded McKay out. It was that she interfered with his relationship with a botanist he was seeing and that undoubtedly overstepped the boundaries. Even if she was trying to help him, which I’m inclined to believe, it was still wrong. After all, she knew about his feelings for Dr Brown because she was sharing his body. Later she was able to seize control even when he was awake and she forced him to kiss Dr Brown which was just too creepy,” he grimaced.
“Well, feck! Isn’t that just seven shades of shite! No wonder you’re uncomfortable around her!” Aoife told him, her brogue becoming much more pronounced in her exclamation before returning to less colourful language. “What a terrible coincidence.”
“And as you say, I can understand why someone who is the antithesis of Dr McKay in so many ways, would struggle with not being in control. I have noticed that Marines are notoriously stubborn and want to be in control. It was a horrific situation for both parties.”
O’Shea wondered if Dr Heightmeyer was able to follow up with Cadman and McKay when the situation had been resolved. It should have been mandatory but then, mandatory frequently didn’t mean much in Atlantis. Perhaps it was significant that Rodney, for all his hypochondria and cnawvshawling during their sessions had not mentioned Dr Cadman to her. The Chief Science Officer was pretty much God when it came to calling the shots since he was considered indispensable to the expedition’s survival and that gave him unprecedented power. If he refused to go to mandatory counselling, there wasn’t a lot that could be done about it. In her observation, the only one who seemed to exert any authority over him was John Sheppard.
As they spoke at length about Cadman and the unfortunate situation, she and Dr McKay found themselves sharing his body, she realised that Alex recognised that he was not being entirely rational. It was so easy for them both to judge Cadman’s behaviour unfavourably but unless you’d been in her shoes, no one could truthfully say how they would have reacted either.
However, knowing that intellectually was one thing. Dealing with the loss of his autonomy, not to mention the fact it was his long-time co-worker who had betrayed him, made it difficult for him to trust Cadman and the psychologist knew that it was only to be expected.
Unless Alex was willing to confront Cadman and explain why he felt uncomfortable, there wasn’t an immediate fix for the problem. Since O’Shea knew that Alex wouldn’t willingly share that information with her (or anyone else) it was simply a matter of hoping that over time, Laura Cadman could gain his trust. The fact that little Belle had latched onto her as a mother substitute was in one sense, horrible bad luck. Nevertheless, Aoife knew that Alex would suffer in silence rather than ask his daughter to sacrifice her nascent relationship with the female Marine.
It was a pity that he couldn’t just tell Cadman about Belle’s mother and what she’d done but unfortunately, Alex was still very much stuck in the stage of blaming himself for being raped. It wasn’t surprising that he would be unwilling to share that perceived weakness with anyone. The fact he disclosed it to her was a huge step for the intensely private man, who’d learnt at an early age that he needed to look after himself as the people who should have been looking after him couldn’t be depended upon. And he would put his daughter’s welfare above and beyond his own which entailed repressing his discomfort around Captain Cadman, who it seemed was his de facto work partner, in addition to someone Belle had chosen to adopt as a de facto mother. It was certainly a steever for him!
As they’d talked about his feelings regarding the Marine captain, O’Shea became aware that his anxiety hadn’t seemed to diminish at all which was surprising. Unless…the Cadman situation wasn’t what had him so stressed. So, if not Belle or the situation regarding Laura Cadman’s professional and personal presence in his life what was causing him to be projecting anxiety that was palpable?
Sighing, since she’d used up the majority of their hour on the terrible coincidence of Cadman being assigned to assist him, O’Shea decided she didn’t have time for her usual finesse in ferreting out his fear. She would just have to confront him head-on and hope he cooperated.
She stared at him calmly and asked, “You want to tell me what has you so anxious, Alex?”
He grimaced and was silent, no doubt mentally debating whether or not to disclose what had rattled him before he heaved a sigh and seemingly decided to spill the beans.
He said, “I have to go to the planet called Proculus tomorrow to speak with the High Priestess of Athar, Chaya Sar.”
O’Shea didn’t recognise the individual or the planet but then she didn’t follow every mission, or perhaps it was before her time. Still, she didn’t understand why this would throw him into a near state of panic. There must be more to it than he was letting on.
She nodded. “And that has you feeling anxious because…” she said leadingly.
“Because I have to leave Belle and it’s the first time, I haven’t been close by since the kidnapping,” he said. “Plus, I’m all she has and what if I am killed or culled by the Wraith or the puddle jumper blows up? I have really bad luck.”
He must have mistaken her tell-me-more look with her lets-not make mountains out of molehills look since he responded with, “No I do! I’ve been thrown out of a plane at night with no jump training, caught the pneumonic plague and almost died, been handcuffed to a serial killer, kidnapped by another serial killer, held hostage by a drug dealer in a morgue and that’s just for starters. Not to mention I was framed three times for murder – three times. Can you believe it – three times? So please, do not tell me I am catastrophising, Doc!”
Making a mental note to check up on what he mentioned at a later time, she said a little archly despite trying to remain emotionally neutral, “I wasn’t going to, Alex. And it doesn’t matter what I think but if you want my opinion, all that sounds awfully unlucky to me. I want to hear more about it but right now, time is not our friend.”
Alex looked relieved to have his feelings validated and as he was usually not someone to display his true emotions to others, Aoife figured it wasn’t a situation that was familiar for him, but everyone needed to feel validated. What the hell was wrong with the people he’d worked with for 15 years?
“You have excellent reasons why you aren’t keen on going off-world so why go?”
“Because Chaya Sar is an ascended Ancient banished to live on Proculus by her fellow Ancients for breaking their code of conduct. She might be able to tell us if Colonel Sheppard has ascended or is dead or still alive.”
“Aye, I can see why someone definitely needs to speak with her but is there a good reason why it should be you? As you say, you have Belle to consider, plus you do seem to attract trouble. Why don’t you have Sheppard’s teammates go and talk with her?” she asked.
Grimacing, he said, “Dr McKay and the High Priestess weren’t exactly cordial when she visited Atlantis. He offended her – from what I’ve been told. He was jealous that she seemed to be smitten by Colonel Sheppard and accused her of nefarious motives when she didn’t reveal her true identity to them. Plus, the prevailing wisdom is that she was drawn to the Colonel, in part because of his strong ATA gene and was able to connect with him in a way that wasn’t possible in other gene holders. The hope is that I can charm her into helping,” he said with a frown.
O’Shea tried not to scowl or express her disapproval at the mission but now was not the time for Alex to be sent out to try to charm anyone. He was still very much in the highly destructive stage of self-blame. The ‘I must have led Ziva on’ stage, even though the Israeli woman’s actions by keeping her pregnancy and Belle’s existence a secret spoke volumes about her real intentions. In Aoife’s opinion, the secrecy was as good as a confession of guilt that she’d raped him, otherwise, she had no reason not to inform him about Belle’s birth. The truth of the matter was that she’d forced him to have non-consensual sex, deliberately using a chemical agent so he didn’t remember the rape. Alex was an innocent pawn in her self-centred scheme to have a child without having to face any of the inconvenient trappings of a relationship with Belle’s father.
Unfortunately, like when grieving a loved one, there were similar stages most survivors of non-consensual sex found themselves going through and the anger and self-blame were top of the list. Also unfortunately, from what she had observed in their interactions, Alex excelled at blaming himself – not all that surprising given that he was a child of alcoholic parents. So, the anger and the self-blame were going to be areas she needed to focus on to make sure that he didn’t get bogged down as he processed the rape and its long-term consequences. But right now, she needed to help him deal with the issue that was causing this freak-out.
In the remainder of their session, she concentrated on the off-world mission to interview a fallen ascended Ancient. And that statement right there – how feckin crazy was that?
~o0o~
Tony was in the puddle jumper as the small Alteran spaceships were called, on his way to Proculus to see Chaya Sar. He had talked to Colonel Lorne about who would accompany them per the plan he’d worked out with Dr O’Shea about what he needed to happen, to make the trip. She had recommended and he had agreed that having Captain Cadman along on the mission was only going to heighten his anxiety. It was kind of a no-brainer in the sense that Laura made him uncomfortable, but it was difficult to leave her behind without him providing a credible reason why he didn’t want a highly trained Marine to protect his six, particularly since she knew Alex and Belle’s real identities.
However, the psychologist suggested that he use those two factors to argue for her not to go to Proculus. He should request that she stay to guard Tali since he wasn’t there and of everyone on Atlantis, his daughter had bonded with Laura more strongly than any other adult. Sure, he’d left her with Miko and Radek for a few occasions but if she were to need protection, neither had the training or skills to thwart a kidnapping attempt. Therefore, it was logical that he would feel much less stressed about going off-world if he knew that she was protecting the little girl.
Tony had congratulated Aoife on her elegant solution to the problem, made all the better since it was also the truth – it just wasn’t the whole truth. Plus, her rationale neatly short-circuited Cadman or Lorne from overruling his reasoning (should they be inclined) as there had been demonstrable threats on Tali’s life and the Trust had infiltrated once before. He was incredibly grateful that he’d overcome his stubbornness and reached out to her for help. Not that it was easy working with her – he often had to fight his natural inclination towards wanting to fix up his own messes, even though he knew it wasn’t the best option. Unfortunately, it had been a survival mechanism he’d adopted when he was very young, and it was a hard habit to break. Not one he wanted Tali to emulate, however.
So, Tali was hanging out with Laura Cadman and Miko had offered to fill in if Cadman had any business that required her to handle it personally. Lorne had offered to fly him to Proculus and to have his six which certainly helped him feel less stressed about the off-world trip. Of course, taking along four highly experienced Marines who’d been on Atlantis for several years, as backup certainly didn’t hurt either. Plus, Teyla Emmagan and Ronon Dex from Colonel Sheppard’s AR-1 team offered to accompany them and guide them to Chaya Sar’s location, having been there before.
It was also decided by mutual consent after Teyla discreetly suggested that Rodney McKay sit this one out, given that his antipathy to the High Priestess Athar (aka Chaya Sar) had been so strong, they felt that it might make further dealings with her problematic. From what he’d been able to glean, the Ascended Alteran was beautiful and had instantly zeroed in on John Sheppard, attracted to him no doubt, in part at least because he had such a strong manifestation of the ATA gene. According to McKay, it had led to them sharing some glowing sex and a major argument between the two men.
McKay had made it plain to all and sundry that he didn’t trust the Ascended Alteran as far as he could throw her – she’d lied to them, pretending to be human when they arrived at Proculus, eager to learn how the planet protected itself from the Wraith. She’d feigned ignorance of ‘the weapon’ they were seeking and flirted with the colonel who Rodney sarcastically referred to as Captain Kirk, a television character who was famed for seducing every female he encountered, regardless of species. Then, once on Atlantis after Sheppard invited her to come back with them, she was given carte blanche to rifle through their database by the gullible Dr Weir.
No doubt Weir was hoping she would share their defensive capability with the expeditionary force which was never on the cards due to the arbitrary rules of her fellow Ascended Alterans and showed questionable wisdom on the part of the expedition commander. However, Tony found himself siding with McKay on this issue – letting a strange Alien go tripping around their database was a very foolish decision, especially since Weir brought up the option. He was glad she wasn’t in charge now!
Teyla’s account of the mission provided a distinct perspective from Rodney’s on several points. She agreed that the Ancient was deceptive but suggested that Chaya Sar was starved of companionship, and she felt sure that the Ancient had genuine feelings for the colonel. The people of Proculus were good but not technologically advanced and although he tended to be overshadowed by Rodney’s brilliance, John was highly intelligent. The High Priestess was probably also curious about the technological development of humans from the Milky Way since the Ancients had returned there 10,000 years ago and seized the opportunity to visit Atlantis and study the people from Earth, but not for nefarious purposes.
Teyla also said that although Rodney appeared to be jealous of Chaya Sar’s interest in the colonel, she didn’t believe like others did that he wanted to be John’s spouse. She thought the real reason he was always ranting about Colonel Shepard’s Kirk-ing (Teyla’s term) on every planet where their team encountered attractive and influential females was that Rodney was envious that they often threw themselves at John. Tony didn’t know if her theory was correct or not, but he found it interesting that she confirmed accounts that Dr McKay seemed to resent John’s charisma and charm with women. His constant bitching about John behaving like Captain James Tiberius Kirk on the original Star Trek sci-fi show, who was pretty much a man-whore, having affairs with sexy female aliens every other week, had initially made Tony wonder if he had killed him in a jealous rage.
He’d wondered if it was an unrequited sexual attraction that might have resulted in McKay snapping and killing him accidentally or a more premeditated motive such as possessiveness. If he couldn’t win Colonel Sheppard’s affections, then he would make sure no one else would either. Over time Tony had discounted that as a workable theory – Dr McKay at the time of Sheppard’s disappearance was in a relationship with Dr Keller, the Chief Medical Officer and had been for several years, despite the difference in their ages and their vastly different personalities. Plus, when he’d mentioned it to Cadman, she had told him firmly that while McKay could certainly be a stubborn arrogant jerk at times, he was genuinely fond of the colonel.
Off course, being fond of someone didn’t preclude them from lashing out in anger – he knew from experience that often people lashed out in anger, not necessarily intending to kill a friend or family, but it happened far more frequently than people realised. Even the fact that McKay seemed obsessed with finding out what had happened to Sheppard didn’t rule him out as a suspect. Tony had seen guilty people hold press conferences pleading with people to come forward with evidence, purely to try to divert evidence away from themselves. However, since McKay was alibied by Teyla and Ronon on M2S-181 when Sheppard disappeared, Tony had decided he wasn’t a suspect.
Now on their way to Proculus without Rodney with Teyla’s reminder that McKay constantly berated the colonel for being attractive to females he encountered off-world, he wondered afresh about Rodney’s jealousy. Perhaps Sheppard and Keller had an affair and Dr McKay found out about it – that was certainly a quite common motive for killing a friend or partner. It may have even been an innocent comment made by Dr Keller about Sheppard or vice versus which her lover acted upon because of jealousy or insecurity. He’d learnt that McKay was always making fun of Sheppard for his hair which was thick and abundant while he battled a receding hairline which he was sensitive about.
Another angle – may be McKay and Shepard had been cheating on Dr Keller and she’d killed him or sold him out to an enemy to ensure McKay remained with her. While according to the base logs she was on Atlantis during the colonel’s disappearance, she could have recruited someone else to do her dirty work – merely supplying the details of when he was vulnerable to being grabbed. If it came to it, McKay could have sold him out too, it was a definite avenue that he needed to check out.
Equally, if McKay had spent the last eight years on Atlantis bitching publicly about how Colonel Sheppard was the Captain Kirk of the expedition, then other individuals could have been convinced that he was a threat to an existing relationship. He also resolved to check on anyone who had broken up with a partner around the time that Sheppard disappeared. If people heard that Sheppard would seduce anything with a pulse, eventually some people would come to believe that fiction was the truth, and it may have cost Sheppard his life or at least his freedom. However, as far as he could tell, Sheppard wasn’t going around having sex willy-nilly with every attractive alien. By the same token, as head of the military contingent, it seemed clear Sheppard didn’t feel comfortable having a relationship or even casual sex with anyone on Atlantis either, which didn’t leave him with too many romantic opportunities. Of course, random hook-ups with people in the Pegasus galaxy had their drawbacks too, like the Traveller’s Larrin no-last-name, who used his sexual attraction to her to manipulate him.
He mused about the difficulties that commanders such as Lorne and Sheppard faced on Atlantis in terms of having any relationships, noting it was lonely at the top. As he commiserated, he became aware that Colonel Lorne was speaking. It turned out he was speaking to him, and he felt embarrassed that he’d been so lost in his thoughts he hadn’t been paying attention.
“Sorry Colonel Lorne,” he flashed him a regretful look. I’m just mentally going through a couple of new leads that I’ll follow up if the High Priestess of Athar can’t help us.”
Lorne didn’t look angry though. “Not a problem. I’m glad you still have other avenues to pursue, Special Agent Paddington,” he replied, keeping it formal since they were on a mission. “We were all out of possibilities before your arrival. You’ve given us hope that we may still find him.”
Teyla smiled at them both. “I am grateful that you are here and not giving up, Alex.”
Ronon Dex, the fourth member of Colonel Shepard’s team snorted. Tony understood his attitude – although he’d been working feverishly to find Sheppard, he had nothing to show for his efforts at this point. In the Satedan’s book it added up to failure (a perspective the federal agent was also familiar with), and he was disappointed he wasn’t able to locate him yet.
However, as frustrated as he was, Tony also knew more than anyone on Atlantis how important it was to rule out suspects even when it seemed that you weren’t making any progress at all. It wasn’t something you could speed up because then you could miss out on vital clues, you had to be methodical. Unfortunately, sometimes you had a large pool of suspects to have to wade through; sometimes you just got lucky, and the guilty party was near the top of the suspect list. Other times you had to invest far too much time sorting through what turned out to be dead ends, but it couldn’t be helped.
Tony already figured out that Ronon was an impatient guy. He wanted immediate results and that wasn’t something Tony could just deliver during a complicated investigation. But he wasn’t going to let Dex’s exasperation get to him. He’d soon noted that the big Satedan was incredibly taciturn, definitely not someone who enjoyed small-talk. Both qualities were strangely reminiscent of Gibbs, along with the equally familiar but unwelcome urge to solve obstacles be they animal, vegetable, or mineral by shooting or blowing up the problem.
Yet, for all his resemblance to Gibbs, Tony had quickly realised Ronon’s schtick – the dumb he-man military guy was a fairly obvious façade. There was no way the Satedan could have survived as a runner for seven years, tagged by the Wraith and let loose to be hunted down like prey if he was a dumb muscle-bound hulk. It would require someone intelligent and highly tactical to be able to remain on the run for such an extended period. For some reason, Dex felt more comfortable when people grossly underestimated him.
Since Tony had used a similar variation on the theme when he was at NCIS – that of a dumb jock – he felt they shared common ground. His past made it difficult to trust other people even when he was ostensibly safe from harm now, but Tony wanted to reach out to Dex and warn the younger man that it might seem like a clever idea to let people underestimate him, but it could easily backfire. Especially when you let it go on too long.
The underestimating could develop into disrespect, insults and contempt which happened at NCIS. His partners forgot he was competent and highly capable and refused to listen to him, ultimately making him doubt himself and his abilities. His fear of trusting other people ironically led to his teammates not trusting him to do his job and effectively made it impossible to work with them. Not all, Ellie had been a breath of fresh air but although she was still very much a probie, her strong analytical side allowed her to see his competency.
Hindsight is an awesome thing and after realising his mistake, he tried to throw off the shackles that he’d imprisoned himself within but by that stage, it was too late. McGee and Ziva reacted violently, used to him being merely the team’s comic relief and the indispensable relief valve when Gibbs became too volatile for everyone to have to cope with. It seemed that everyone decide that his raison d’être was to sacrifice his self-respect by allowing Gibbs to berate him verbally, physically, and well… actions spoke louder than words. Perhaps he’d allowed the crucial part of Special Agent DiNozzo to be sacrificed on the altar of keeping everyone else happy. When he finally wised up and refused to be his former boss’ punching bag any longer, the whole team including Abby (who wasn’t technically on the team) had made him suffer. So, he desperately wanted to prevent Ronon from making the same mistakes he had.
AN
cnawvshawling – whining and complaining (Irish)
steever – a kick in the backside (Irish slang)
Chapter 2 The Cone of Silence
Knowing that Dex’s big dumb persona was just an act meant that Tony found Ronon’s assessment of McKay, and his Captain Kirk comments about Colonel Sheppard particularly interesting. He’d started running with the Satedan shortly after arriving on Atlantis when he had someone to watch Tali. With his impaired lung function, he needed to maintain fitness levels that had been impossible to achieve when working for Gibbs. Along with getting adequate sleep and being able to eat a healthy diet, now that he wasn’t working 18-hour days, he was much fitter now than he was a decade ago. Even so, he needed to keep up his cardio fitness and having a running buddy was a fantastic motivator. It also was how he’d first seen the little chinks that made him realise that Ronon’s He-Man act was just that – an act.
Dex’s assessment had been an interesting one. He started by acknowledging that McKay was his teammate and that he also considered him to be a friend. He said that even so, McKay tended to treat them appallingly at times, and even though he had apologised for his treatment of them, usually when he thought he was going to die, it also didn’t stop him from being just as obnoxious and abusive after the danger had passed. Nor did Ronon ascribe to the popular wisdom that McKay was secretly carrying a torch for Sheppard and was jealous of a bevy of female aliens flirting with him or engaging in copious amounts of oteu with their missing leader. (Tony had learnt that oteu was a Satedan word for sex.)
According to Dex, Rodney McKay believed people should be worshipping at his feet for his incredible intelligence and he resented it when other people received the attention that he felt should be his due. The Canadian claimed to have been badly bullied growing up because he was too smart to fit in with his age-mates, but Ronon noted that it didn’t stop him bullying and berating his fellow scientists. So, Dex questioned the advantages of being so smart when Rodney couldn’t see how his bad behaviour might affect other people.
To be honest, Dex’s opinion resonated with Tony, having watched the CSO’s interactions with other Atlantis residents. Now as they made their way to Proculus, he resolved to do some digging into the state of McKay’s relationship with Dr Keller when they got home. Of course, if Dr Keller listened to the gossip about her partner holding a torch for Colonel Sheppard, equally she might have betrayed Sheppard to get him out of the way.
Lieutenant Colonel Lorne nudged him. “I said, how about I give you your first lesson in how to fly a jumper, Agent Paddington,” he suggested, raising an eyebrow.
It made good sense to learn how to fly the puddle jumper for emergencies, not to mention learning a new skill would help occupy his overactive brain. Plus, it would be super cool, and he grinned excitedly at the Air Force officer. Lorne was fast becoming a good friend and he appreciated all the support that the even-tempered man had given him since he’d arrived at the Alteran city. He was unusually patient for a bachelor around Tali too, far more than Tony had ever been with kids before Tali had been unceremoniously dumped on him.
Putting aside his speculations for the moment, Tony turned his attention to the controls of the puddle jumper as Lorne took him through an explanation of the spaceship, a cylindrical craft designed to fly through the starship, although it was used to fly around and between planets too. It was a sort of jack-of-all-trades transport that could carry up to twelve individuals in an emergency although the load that would place on life systems could not be maintained for extended periods. In addition to being equipped with a cloaking device that could render it invisible to the naked eye, and even advanced sensors of foes, each jumper was armed with a minimum of twelve dozen drone weapons – smaller but equally deadly versions of the ones on Atlantis that could take down Wraith hive ships.
He demonstrated the use of the Heads-Up-Display (HUD) screen that appeared on one side of the massive viewport window on the co-pilot’s side of the ship. It displayed relevant flight, navigational and environmental data and Lorne pointed to the equipment behind the co-pilot and pilot’s seats to explain that each jumper contained a mini version of the DHD (the dial home device) which had to be manually engaged to dial-up a wormhole. When Tony expressed doubt about his ability to manoeuvre the pod through a stargate, Lorne reassured him that when the puddle jumper drew within a few metres of the gate the ship’s automated systems would kick in to guide the jumper through the event horizon of the wormhole.
Just as his head felt it might explode from all the information that Lorne had thrown at him, he felt Lorne mentally hand over the controls of the puddle jumper to him. He felt momentary panic until the technology seemed to click and suddenly, he felt like he knew exactly what to do (which was weird, to say the least since he’d never flown an aircraft before) to keep the ship flying serenely through space. Although he felt at home piloting the ship, he knew that if there was any tricky flying to be done, he would need a lot more practice to pull that off. As they neared Proculus several hours later, he tried to hand back the controls, but Lorne told him he would talk him through performing the landing of the jumper. After a slightly bumpy landing, which Lorne told him only needed additional practice, they disembarked on the planet that looked remarkably like earth, geographically.
Despite his trepidation about meeting the High Priestess of Athar, he was exuberant about being on his first off-world planet. Technically he’d been on Atlantis, which didn’t count although the sentient city was docked on New Lantea, he’d never travelled to the mainland, so this was the first time he’d set foot on land. After they’d secured the jumper, the group were eager to make their way towards the rustic village where the people of Proculus lived an idyllic if bucolic life. It seemed they did not aspire towards a more technological existence and since they were safe from the Wraith, he couldn’t say they were wrong.
When they were approximately three-quarters of the way to the settlement, Teyla and Ronon turned away from the wide path into the village. They headed in a north-easterly direction instead, taking a moderately steep and fairly narrow pathway to reach the Temple of the High Priestess Athar. After all this effort, Tony hoped she could help them with their search for Colonel Sheppard.
Once they’d landed on Proculus, Teyla suggested that Colonel Lorne left the Marines stationed half a klick down the narrow pathway to Chaya Sar’s temple, pointing out that they probably didn’t want to antagonise her since they wanted to engage her assistance. Tony and Lorne agreed with her assessment; after all, it was precisely why they’d persuaded Rodney to remain behind on Atlantis. Ronon kept his opinion to himself but since he didn’t object, they took it that he tacitly supported Teyla’s idea too, so it was just the four of them that proceeded the last half a klick from her simple domicile.
For an ascended being, even one who had broken the rules of non-interference on the corporeal plane of existence, her dwelling was surprisingly unassuming and plain. As nervous as he was to encounter this Ascended being, Tony couldn’t help but feel sympathy for Chaya Sar. He knew what it meant to don a mask and portray to the rest of the world, someone who wasn’t the real you. To the people of Proculus, she was the High Priestess Athar, not an Alteran who had ascended to a higher state of consciousness, who’d made the unforgivable sin of not being able to let go of her worldly burdens by trying to protect the Proculus people she greatly loved. Her punishment had been to remain on Proculus for eternity, able to protect her people but no other; forced to watch as the Wraith culled so many worlds. All the while knowing she was impotent to interfere.
After reading eight years of after-action reports of the expedition and speaking to the Dex and the Athosians who lived and worked on Atlantis, Tony was not a fan of the Alterans, be they Ancients or their former Ori brethren. Ascended or otherwise. The suffering the Ancients had unleashed upon the Pegasus galaxy was incalculable. Their arrogance, even before they’d learned how to ascend, had ranged from being high-handed jerks to short-sighted sociopaths with what had to be the worst case of target fixation Tony had had the misfortune to see. They had been willing to do whatever it took, no matter the consequences so they could achieve their goal of Ascension and once Ascended, these undesirable traits were magnified a million-fold. Their holier than thou philosophy of non-interference in corporeal matters was merely a highly convenient way to ignore their culpability for all of the crimes against worlds and galaxies they’d caused, due to the Wraith, the Asurans and ignoring the threat of their kin, the Ori.
There was also the question of all of the dangerous tech that they’d left lying around when they split the earthly scene and lit out for the higher plain. It had caused death and destruction on a massive scale and enabled the Goa’uld to evolve at a grossly accelerated unnatural rate and take over countless worlds. He couldn’t help but wonder if the Goa’uld didn’t have some form of genetic relationship to the Alterans despite having such radically different morphologies. Their arrogance seemed to be on par with the Alterans in Tony’s humble opinion. He must ask one of the Atlantis geneticists about it when they got back home.
Bottom line – as far as he was concerned, collectively the Alterans as a race of beings were a cruel arrogant people who despised qualities of kindness, responsibility, empathy, or love as weaknesses which may explain why they believed that it had no place in their higher realm of existence. Individuals such as Orin, Oma Desala, and Chaya Sar who felt responsible for the mess they’d made and wanted to fix it were seen as dangerously undesirable outliers. The other Ancients decided that they needed to be publicly punished to discourage others who might feel inclined to emulate them.
As he pondered the absolute overweening grandiosity of the Alterans, a brunette female in a long white dress appeared, descending the stone steps of the Temple built by the people of Proculus for their High Priestess Athar. As she scanned the four, she looked disappointed.
“Greetings Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex,” she smiled and bowed her head, before regarding Tony and the colonel dispassionately. “You two, I do not know but you are welcome also.”
They nodded their appreciation as she continued.
“I had hoped when I detected the presence of two humans possessing the Alteran gene that John Sheppard had returned at long last, especially when one of them was so strong,” she said, casting an appraising eye over Tony.
“But he is not with you. Is he well?” she asked and couldn’t hide her sense of longing from showing.
The Lanteans, by tacit agreement, looked at Teyla, signalling that she should take point at this stage. She nodded acceptance in her understated and gracious manner and smiled.
“It is good to see you too, Chaya Sar, High Priestess of Athar. May I introduce Lieutenant Colonel Evan Lorne, acting commander officer of Atlantis and Special Agent Alexander Paddington, who is an investigator and enforcer of the law? Colonel, Alex, this is Chaya Sar.”
After they’d greeted her and she cast an even more assessing eye over both men, Teyla continued to broach the subject of their visit.
“As to Colonel Shepard, we have come to Proculus to seek your help. John disappeared while AR-1 was on what should have been a routine mission to the marketplace on Croya where he became lost to us. That was more than four months ago and while we have searched for him, we do not know what has happened. We do not even know if he is still alive.”
Chaya Sar looked pained. “I am most sad to hear this, I do care deeply for John, but I do not understand. Why have you come here? You must know that I cannot help you search for him – I am not permitted to help anyone who is not born on Proculus.”
Teyla looked at Tony and shrugged helplessly, she had suspected it would be thusly, her gesture seemed to indicate. He nodded, before giving her a small but hopeful smile. As the son of a con man who’d watched Senior as he skated far too close to the edge of what was barely legal far too often, he was used to thinking outside of the box when it came to rules. However, when Senior did so, it was always to advantage himself, personally or financially but when Tony tried to manipulate rules without breaking them, it was when he was trying to help other people.
He smiled at the Ascended being. “We do know that High Priestess Athar and we have no desire for your people to suffer. We merely wondered if Colonel Shepard had ascended since there have been no credible sightings of him and we haven’t found a body either. If he Ascended, then at least his people could cease searching for him. Like you, they care about him very deeply and are extremely worried about him.”
Chaya Sar regarded him gravely, “I do not understand. Why would you believe John Ascended? I know he has what you refer to as the Alteran Technology Gene but there is much more to Ascension than that.”
He nodded. “Yes, we do know that High Priestess Athar, but he was offered a chance to Ascend when he stumbled inadvertently into a time dilation on a planet he and his team visited. I believe it was called the Sanctuary and the enclave where the Ancients strived for Ascension was known as The Cloisters.”
Tony could tell that she knew of the planet but tried not to show it.
“In the space of four or five hours, while the team organised a rescue mission, Colonel Sheppard lived almost six months dwelling with a group who had been trying to Ascend for several generations. While living there and acting as their protector, they prepared him to Ascend alongside themselves. When he finally showed them what they needed to do to take the last step to overcome their fears, they offered him the chance to Ascend too.”
“It is clear that John turned down their offer. Do you know why?” Although she sounded disinterested, it didn’t fool him – the master of the deflection.
Tony looked at his teammates. They were better placed to answer that question as he had never met the man.
“Didn’t want to,” Dex grumbled, in what people interpreted as his ill-disposed personality.
Not DiNozzo. After 15 years of putting up with Gibbs’ inability to communicate, interspersed by increasingly more frequent bouts of his explosive anger being directed at him, Tony found Ronon highly agreeable by comparison.
Teyla was more verbose. “At that point, we arrived to free him from the time dilation so he knew he could return to Atlantis. But I believe that even had we not arrived in time, John would not have accepted Teer’s offer. He feels a deep responsibility for his people on Atlantis.”
Lorne who had remained silent until now nodded. “Teyla is correct about his duty to the people under his command, but it doesn’t stop there. He also feels a sense of obligation to the people of Pegasus who are impacted by the Wraith, especially those who may have inadvertently been harmed by the expedition.”
Chaya Sar’s impassive bearing relaxed as she gave them a mysterious smile. “Yes Colonel Lorne, you speak truly of John Sheppard. He is a man of great integrity. He feels things deeply. So why do you believe he would Ascend now if he refused before?”
Evan frowned. “We don’t think he would unless he had no other option. If he was grievously injured or dying, perhaps he might. One of our comrades, Dr Daniel Jackson was fatally injured saving a planet from destruction and Oma Desala offered him the chance to Ascend. He accepted her offer although the Ancients eventually banished him and forced him to return to a corporeal state,” he explained their rationale.
“I see and you think that the individuals who were with him on the planet with the time dilation may have offered him another chance to Ascend?”
“It is possible, is it not, Chaya Sar?” Teyla asked her.
The High Priestess of Athar pursed her lips. “No, not all that likely and yet, I would not have considered that John would be ready to Ascend. However, from all you have told me, he attained a level of enlightenment I would have thought beyond him at this stage. So, I must agree that, yes Teyla Emmagan, it is possible.”
Looking at Tony intently she said, “I am unclear about what brought you here, knowing the strict restrictions imposed upon me by the others. What exactly is it that you would have me do Agent Alex?”
“To ask you to check with the folk from The Sanctuary, to find out if Colonel Sheppard has ascended, but only if that would not be breaking the rules. We have no desire for you to be in trouble, High Priestess Athar. It is just that when Dr Jackson ascended, Oma Desala permitted him to tell his friend, Jack O’Neill where he was going, so they didn’t keep looking for him.”
“And if John has ascended? What then?”
“Then all of the men and women who serve under him can release their burdens and cease searching for him,” he said, knowing this was part of the Ascension prattle and wanting it to resonate with her.
“They will be sad since they want him back home to Atlantis but knowing that he is safe will give them closure and then they can move on. Right now, people are in limbo, and it is cruel not knowing what has happened to him,” he declared firmly.
As she regarded him closely, he wondered if she could read his mind. She seemed to consider what they had said before she appeared to reach a decision.
“Very well, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan, Colonel Lorne, and Agent Paddington. While it is a grey area in terms of what I am permitted to do, I will attempt to contact the Ascended and ask if John is there, but they may choose not to answer me.”
Teyla nodded. “We understand and are grateful for your efforts. We know that they may choose not to respond but we must try anyway.”
“Who am I attempting to make contact with?”
Teyla said, “There was a young female, still but a child. She healed John twice after he fought with the Beast. Her name was Hedda, and she lived with her sister, Teer, and their brother Avrid who had lived their whole lives in the Sanctuary, meditating upon Ascension. It was Teer who tried to convince John to Ascend with the last of their kind and although I do not know if the feeling was reciprocated, I believe she had strong feelings for him,” she said discreetly.
Ronon rolled his eyes and Tony got the impression that Teyla was understating the situation. If McKay had been here, no doubt he would be ranting about his ‘Kirk-ing’ around and that could have been tricky, since they were depending upon her strong attachment to the missing CO to try to manipulate her into contacting the Ascended ones.
Chaya Sar nodded. “John is someone who is easy to care about,” she said. “I will do my best to reach this Teer or her siblings. Please wait here,” she told them. “It may take time.”
She disappeared inside the Temple and the four Atlanteans sat down on a couple of benches to wait, talking desultorily about mundane subjects. Teyla started teasing Dex about his girlfriend Amelia Barnes, and Lorne asked Tony how many languages Belle spoke.
Deliberately not mentioning Hebrew, he replied, “Three; English of course and French and Italian from when we were living in those countries, but she is picking up Japanese from Miko and Kazumi. I wouldn’t be surprised if she starts speaking Czech since she spends so much time over at Miko and Radek’s place.”
Lorne chuckled, “Better hope she doesn’t, Paddington. Radek cusses up a blue streak when he gets going in his mother tongue. I’ve translated some of it and I kid you not, it’s enough to curl your hair.”
Tony grimaced because he didn’t want his daughter to be able to swear like a sailor but keeping her from absorbing languages was no easy feat.
“And do you speak any languages, Alex?” Teyla asked curiously. It was apparent that although she had been teasing the Satedan, Sheppard’s teammates had been half-listening to Lorne and Tony.
He smiled at her. “Yes, I do Teyla, I speak Italian and French too from living there, plus English of course as it is my native tongue. I can speak a little Spanish from having friends growing up,” he said, although it wasn’t strictly true”
Tony was at least as proficient in written and spoken Spanish as he was in Italian, which he learned when his father took him to Italy to meet his Italian relatives for one whole summer and was immersed in the culture. He’d learnt Spanish from his father’s servants growing up and he was fluent in it, maybe even more so than Italian since he spent most of his childhood up until he was twelve years old in the company of the cook Saadia who was from El Salvador and spoke only a little English.
Dex looked impressed. “That’s a lot, probably why Belle picks them up. She must have inherited your language ability.”
“Her mother was multi-lingual as well,” Tony replied vaguely, not wanting to talk about Ziva.
Most people assumed he didn’t speak about Belle’s mother because he was grief-stricken by her death, and he didn’t bother to correct them. If Ziva was dead and he still wasn’t convinced, then one day he hoped he could be sad about the senseless waste of her life, mostly because it deprived Tali of a mother. He happened to know firsthand that was a tragic thing, but right now he felt far too much anger at what she’d done to him to feel sorrow.
“Is that common on your planet? For people to know many languages?” Ronin asked with uncharacteristic tact, respecting his reticence to discuss the mother of his child. Although, having lost his family on Sateda probably made him empathetic about losing loved ones.
“Not really, but some people seem to pick them up very easily.”
“How many languages are there on Earth?” Teyla asked curiously.
Lorne rolled his eyes. “A lot, Teyla; some say well over seven thousand spoken languages but that changes all the time since some tribes will die out and other peoples living in remote regions are still unknown to us.”
“A lot of those languages have very few native speakers who can still speak the language. There are incredibly old languages that have been lost to us in modern times and…” Tony explained but what he had been about to say was interrupted by the return of Chaya Sar looking enigmatic.
The four Lanteans rose from the stone benches as one, but she gestured for them to sit down as she sat down next to Teyla. She looked at each of them before turning to the Athosian woman with a nod.
“Your intuition about Teer was correct, Teyla Emmagan. She had intense feelings for John Sheppard before her ascension. She tried to persuade him to Ascend with her people of the Sanctuary, but he refused the offer. She said John was not ready to release his burdens. But she said that while she most definitely would have helped him to Ascend, he is not there,” she cast a languid hand gesture above her head, “On the higher plain. She also hinted that he was not dead, either. She said that should he be dying, she will help him to Ascend if that is what he wishes to do.”
Lorne looked at the others and shrugged. “Do you believe Teer was telling you the truth?”
The High Priestess of Athar winced fractionally but they saw it, nonetheless. “I do not believe she would lie about it,” she told them earnestly.
Teyla like the others seemed relieved to know that Sheppard was most probably still alive. Yet it begged the million-dollar question for everyone – where the hell was Atlantis’ Commanding Officer?
She smiled, “We appreciate your assistance in this matter, Chaya Sar. We hope you have not imperilled yourself in this quest.”
Chaya Sar bowed her head. “Thank you. Like Teer, I too am indebted to John Sheppard.”
Tactfully, since they all believed, she was referring to what McKay called her glowy-sex with Captain Kirk aka Colonel Sheppard, they remained silent. As she gracefully got to her feet, she looked at Tony. “Would you care to would take a walk with me to the Falls of Lamara, Alexander Paddington? They are most beautiful, and it would give me a chance to talk to you about your gift for languages.”
Teyla hadn’t been the only one listening to Tony and Evan’s conversation, Chaya Sar had been eavesdropping on their conversation too. Tony looked at Lorne to check on his reaction. Lorne shrugged in answer to Tony’s unspoken question that it was up to him. The Lieutenant Colonel didn’t have any objection to her request and neither did Teyla or the normally paranoid Ronon Dex. Honestly, the last thing he wanted to do was to go off on his own with the Ascended Alteran, but they had asked her to risk the ire of the other Ascended, so it was difficult to reject her request. He knew if McKay were here, he would say it was a bad idea, it was clear the CSO didn’t trust her as far as he could throw her but then Tony thought his distrust was partly because Chaya Sar had wormed her way into Atlantis and managed to fool a lot of people.
Sensing his apparent reluctance, she took his hand. “I give you my word that no harm will come to you while you are on Proculus,” she assured him gently.
Seeing he had no other choice since they needed to remain on good terms with her for the future he nodded, moving off the bench, giving him a perfectly valid excuse to break the physical contact with her. It made him uncomfortable, not just because ever since Ziva, uninvited touching made him anxious, but he suspected that she could bust his cover. If that Teer person had psychic gifts, it wasn’t unrealistic that an ascended Alteran did too.
As they started up the path towards the falls, he said, “What do you want to know?”
“Is there a universal language on Earth?”
They talked in a desultory fashion about language as they climbed. Tony was becoming more convinced by the minute that this was a ruse, but he couldn’t figure out her end goal. So, he chose not to confront her as she led him to a rocky ledge where they could view the glistening falls before she quickly tugged him into a small cave. Feeling increasingly anxious but mindful that there was little he could do to fight an Ascended being, he watched her warily.
“We must be quick,” she said after creating some sort of glowing bubble thing that freaked him right out and he felt an anxiety attack looming. “I must speak to you about John Sheppard but in private. You seem to be the best one to keep this secret since you are already keeping some important ones about yourself and your daughter.”
Okay, now he was panicking! As he suspected, she had some psychic ability and he could not protect his thoughts from her, damn it!
Sensing his thoughts, she took his hand a second time and he felt calm flowing through her to him, quelling his nervousness.
“Be at peace Alexander or should I say, Anthony? I will not harm you. You are a protector of your people and most especially of your daughter who has been hurt. You know that you and she have the ATA gene, as does John Shepard which is most prized by the New Lanteans? What your people do not know is that there are five Alteran genes that can and have been passed onto humans.
Along with the technology gene which is expressed very strongly in you and John Sheppard, your daughter and yourself both have a communication gene – it gives you the ability to learn languages rapidly, especially Alteran languages. Plus, you can read nonverbal cues well, which helps you to get people to open up to you, among other things.”
Tony decided to just listen to Chaya Sar; he decided not to tell her he already knew about the second Alteran gene, but he appreciated the extra information she’d given him. He would think about it later, now he was curious about the purpose of the other three genes.
“What do the other three genes do?”
Chaya Sar stared at him oddly. “They enable telekinesis, healing and heightened sensory perception.”
He raised his eyebrows. “What about psychic abilities?” Seeing her puzzled look he explained succinctly, Dr McKay accidentally got zapped by an ascension accelerator a few years ago. He developed telekinetic abilities, he was able to heal others, could read other peoples’ thoughts and developed super-sensitive hearing. And Colonel Sheppard reported that the humans at the Sanctuary developed powers as they approached ascension. Teer could read minds and see the future, the younger sister healed Sheppard twice when he was near death and Teer’s mother could move things with her mind before she ascended.”
Chaya Sar smiled at him. “You have a mind that makes unorthodox connections. You are correct but the ability to see into another individual’s mind is linked to the Alteran communication gene.”
“So, I could read minds?” he asked, feeling a sense of dread envelope him. To Tony, it seemed like robbing individuals of their autonomy and for fairly obvious reasons, he was not okay with taking away an individual’s free will.
“Theoretically, yes, but I sense that you have been badly hurt,” she told him empathetically. “To enter into someone else’s mind requires you to be emotionally open and at peace. I do not think you will achieve the required state until your soul has been healed. Your daughter might though, despite her frightening ordeals – the young are more resilient.”
Tony could tell that the High Priestess was getting jumpy, so he decided to defer the topic for the present. “You said that you wanted to tell me something about Colonel Shepard?” he said, moving things on since he didn’t want her to get into trouble.
“Teer let me read her mind. All ascended beings can read each other’s minds, but we can also block another from entering. She chose not to because she wanted to help John. They were lovers before her ascent, so I have to think that he also felt something for her – just not enough to abandon his duty to Atlantis.”
He sensed her pleasure that the colonel had refused to Ascend with Teer. It seems that jealousy was one burden the Ascended did not manage to release before they left their worldly body behind.
“What did she wish you to know, High Priestess Athar?” he asked.
“She believes that an old enemy is holding him, trying to learn how to use Atlantean technology. She also revealed that one of your own on Atlantis betrayed him to this enemy. I do not know details or where he is now, except that he is still alive but even for her to divulge that much was a grave risk for her, but apart from having feelings for him, she is indebted to him for saving her siblings Avrid and Hedda from The Beast and showing them how to Ascend.”
“Thank you, Chaya. Teer was not the only one who placed herself in danger. This is really helpful information,” he acknowledged gratefully as they made their way back out of the cave to the ledge.
“I have enjoyed speaking to you about all of the languages on your planet. I encountered a few when I visited the city of Atlantis seven years ago, but I had no idea that there were so many,” she said having already dropped her glowing privacy bubble.
Tony had to stop himself from giggling, hoping it worked a lot better than the Cone-of-Silence on Get Smart, an innovative 1960’s satirical sitcom he’d watched during a lonely childhood. He guessed by her actions that they must be under observation, and he wondered what degree of hubris was possessed by this supposedly advanced race that they would leave behind such a complete mess then stop others from cleaning it up.
Luckily, after all these years of undercover work, he was not about to blow Chaya Sar’s illegal divulging of information, even though it was purposefully vague. He wouldn’t endanger the innocent people of Proculus because of some very minor rule-breaking.
“You are welcome High Priestess, although I hardly qualify as a scholar when it comes to languages.”
As they started to head down the path to the temple, she asked. “And these nonverbal languages, what purpose do these serve?”
They chatted about sign language for the hearing impaired and Braille for people who couldn’t see, and she was fascinated by this concept since the Alterans were capable of healing anyone born with imperfect sensory functioning.
As they reached the Temple of Athar she asked. “The next time we meet, will you explain to me about music, Alexander. I came across many references to it in your databases while I was visiting Atlantis and was curious.”
He nodded. “It would be my honour – I love music and I will be happy to share it with you.”
She looked pleased by his answer. “I hope the next time we meet, John Sheppard will have returned home. And now, if you will excuse me, I must meet with Abbot Zarah.” She bowed her head to Ronon, Teyla and Lorne before giving Tony a small smile and bowed her head a final time before disappearing inside the Temple.
Lorne looked at Tony. “Everything alright?”
“Fine, Colonel Lorne. Chaya Sar was interested in universal languages, not that I’m an expert or anything,” he reassured them. “Answering some questions about what I know seemed to be a small price to pay for helping us find out that Colonel Sheppard hasn’t ascended.”
Ronon couldn’t help expressing his frustration. “I don’t see that we are any further along. Sheppard is still missing. We should ask her to help us find him.”
Teyla patted his shoulder. “I am as eager as you are to find him, Ronon, but Chaya Sar is not permitted to help anyone who isn’t born on Proculus. We knew that. We must not ask more of her – to endanger all the people on this planet to find one man is not fair. I do not believe that John would want her to put hundreds of lives in danger just for him.”
“The Colonel would kick our butts if we destroyed Proculus,” Lorne agreed with Teyla. “At least we ruled out a possibility.”
Tony agreed. “Look, I know it doesn’t seem like we’ve made much progress, but we have. If we can believe the Ascended ones, then the colonel isn’t there. So, we can cross that off the list and we have the fact that Teer hinted that he isn’t dead either so we can focus on looking for someone with a motive to abduct him. Investigations often involve ruling out a list of possibilities until you only have one left. Sometimes you get lucky and find the information before you get to the bottom of the list. But sometimes you don’t and that sucks but there isn’t anything you can do about it.”
Ronon still looked frustrated, probably wanting to kick some butts but until they knew who had taken Sheppard, there was no one for him to lash out at.
Lorne exchanged a look with Tony before suggesting, “Let’s head back to Atlantis and try to figure out where we go from here.”
Tony agreed, anxious to see Tali again. He knew that Captain Cadman would protect her with her life – her conduct during her distinguished career demonstrated that she was an exemplary Marine, but it was difficult being so far from home.
Teyla bumped shoulders with him as they started making their way back to the puddle jumper. “I’m sure that Belle is safe, Alex,” she told him.
“I know, but it’s the first time I’ve left her for a significant amount of time. Being off-world is hard because I can’t be there if she needs me.”
“I think I understand,” she said. “I miss Torren very much too, but at least he has his father when I need to go off-world. I’m not sure what I’d do if I didn’t have Kanaan. It is lucky that Belle is so fond of Captain Cadman. I think that she would make an excellent mother though, so your young one is in good hands.”
“Yes, Belle and the Captain seem to get along well together. Ever since she learned that her mother used to dance when she was growing up, Belle has been determined to have lessons, but we never got around to it before Atlantis. When Laura agreed to give her and Kazumi lessons, Belle was so excited.”
As they once again bypassed the village, taking the virtual goat track back to the ship, and talking while walking became difficult. It gave Tony the chance to figure out what his next moves would be in searching for John Sheppard. Since Chaya Sar revealed that someone on Atlantis had sold him out to one of their enemies, Tony felt that if he could figure out who it was, they could probably learn who had taken Atlantis’ military commander.
The first thing he was going to do was talk to Cadman and Lorne about any bad bust-ups on Atlantis. He still hadn’t decided if he would divulge what Chaya Sar had revealed to him about Colonel Shepard when they were alone – he didn’t want to cause her any more grief. He may not be psychic, but he did sense how lonely her life was.
To be sentenced to remain on Proculus protecting the people for what amounted to eternity, pretty much ruled out developing relationships with anyone. The fact was that they’d die of old age in what would seem like a blink of an eye to an Ascended being whose life span effectively was forever. As creepy as it was to have her inside his head and he felt violated by it, Tony knew what it was like to be alone, and he found himself feeling desperately sorry for the High Priestess of Athar.
AN
Oteu – to have sex (Satedan)
Chapter 3 Finding the Path
As they made their way home, Tony felt relief that the trip to Proculus had paid dividends and he could hardly wait to see Tali again. It was paradoxical that as terrified as he’d been of being a halfway competent father, in the months that he’d been under the misguided belief he was merely Tali’s guardian, he’d become less anxious about his ability to take care of her, not just physically but emotionally. After he learnt his true relationship with her, he was nowhere near as panic-stricken by the notion of how grossly unsuitable and emotionally screwed-up he would be a parent. He had other things on his mind.
If he could just overcome his very real fear that his rage at Ziva’s actions might one day end up sullying his feelings for his own flesh and blood, he would be very relieved. He loved the little girl so much, she’d saved him from his downward spiral, but it truly terrified him that one day he might be riven with resentment at Tali, who had never asked to be born.
Still, he was determined to face his feelings instead of trying to repress them, subjecting himself to regular counselling sessions with Dr O’Shea. A year ago, the thought that he’d voluntarily commit to such a course of action would have been unthinkable. Yet the truth was that inexorably Tony had fallen head over heels for a curly-haired moppet who had a stubborn streak that would give his former boss, Leroy Jethro Gibbs, a real run for his money.
Now he just wanted to get back to Atlantis, bundle her into an embrace, and reassure himself she was okay. Not fine, because after the abduction attempts and the resulting measures he’d taken to keep her safe, no child could escape without some heavy-duty consequences. However, he was hoping she’d coped okay with him being off-world and unavailable.
Once again, Tony had been awed at the understated way that Lorne had, seemingly knowing how Tony was feeling as he bullied him into taking over the controls of the puddle jumper to keep his overactive brain engaged. He didn’t try to debrief during the flight, keeping the conversation strictly on the finer points of flying, insisting the agent take to the ship through Atlantis’ stargate with Lorne ready to step in only if necessary. It was an effective way to take his mind off his daughter, since Tony was far too terrified of getting the ship stuck in the stargate or crashing into the gate room command centre that he wasn’t able to focus on anything else.
Later when he’d safely completed the terrifying journey through the stargate, Lorne expertly coached him on the use of the braking thrusters to bring the ship to a dead halt after they’d arrived in Atlantis’ extremely confined space of the gate room. Then he’d talked him through docking manoeuvres in the command tower bay, filled with the rest of the fleet of Puddle Jumpers. It was only after docking that Tony had time to pause briefly to admire once again his low key but highly effective leadership skills.
Lorne was the sort of officer destined to remained the perennial 2IC, not because he wasn’t highly competent, but because it was his nature was to carry out his duties without fanfare. He quietly supported his more flamboyant peers and superiors because first and foremost, Evan Lorne was a team player. Tony smirked, mentally ascribing it to the Commander Will Riker syndrome, from the Star Trek Next Gen franchise. While Tony regretted the circumstance that had landed Lieutenant Colonel Lorne with the position of acting CO of Atlantis, he was glad that people were given the chance to see him as the highly effective leader he was underneath his mild-mannered exterior. Just like Clark Kent, he sniggered in amusement.
Still, all thoughts about Lorne fled as they disembarked and made their way to the infirmary. There were established and necessary protocols put in place for all teams and personnel after going off the giant star city. First, a medical examination which included blood tests to ensure they hadn’t brought any nasty infectious agents back with them – among other even more scary things. Then once they received the medical all-clear, there was a mandatory debrief to endure with Ambassador Auclair, the IOC’s head of Atlantis. While Tony knew that both protocols were necessary, he still struggled with being kept apart from Tali. He knew he could use the comms system to talk with Cadman and find out how she was doing but if she were anxious or God forbid, upset, he would not be able to remain in the infirmary or to give the bureaucrat a SITREP of their mission.
During the debrief, he chose to stay silent about what Chaya had revealed to him during their private conversation. He didn’t want to endanger her, Teer, or the people of Proculus, especially since her information essentially confirmed his suspicions. At the end of the meeting, he was finally free to seek out Tali.
He started out, looking in their quarters but even though there were signs that Cadman and his daughter had been there – colouring books and pencils on the dining table, plus the remnants of a mac and cheese meal, the place was empty. Even though he knew that they’d have notified him immediately if there’d been any trouble, he couldn’t help feeling an unwelcome sense of dread in the pit of his stomach. It was a familiar sensation brought on after Tali became the target of the Trust.
“Captain Cadman, this is Agent Paddington. What is your location?”
“Hi, Alex. Belle and I are visiting Dr Zelenka and Kazumi in their quarters.”
Heaving a sigh of relief, he replied, “I’ll be there in two,” since he was too impatient to wait, desperate to see for himself that Tali was fine.
Soon he was striding out of their family-sized accommodations, making his way to the Zelenka quarters, without having to consciously think about where he was going. Since their two daughters were constant visitors to each other’s homes, Tony was fairly sure he could navigate his way between their quarters blindfolded if he had to. As he reached Radek’s door, he felt his impatience practically bubbling over as he knocked before the door opened and he slipped inside.
Their reunion was tumultuous; Tali sensed his presence as he came through the door, and she cannoned into him with a force that emphasized her primal need to physically reconnect. He was sad that she became teary but not surprised. Even when he’d left her with Lavinia and Crisp and their twins, she had suffered from separation anxiety. He knew he’d lucked out having Miko, Radek and Kazumi in Atlantis to soften the blow of Tali having to leave them behind in England.
As Tali clung to him, becoming more distressed now that the battle to hold herself together had ended, he held her, crooning softly to her as he unobtrusively exited the Zelenka’s family quarters. He had an equally strong urge to get her home and settle her down where she was in a familiar environment. He knew that Tali would want to sleep with him tonight and there was no way he would refuse her, despite what others may think. He’d discussed the situation with Aoife, and she had been supportive of how he was parenting Tali – encouraging him to listen to his intuition. His intuition told him that if the five-year-old (who was pretending to be 4) wanted to sleep in his bed tonight then he should trust his instincts.
Meanwhile, he was going to take her home and settle her into her normal routine as swiftly as possible. After a bath and a light dinner, they would settle in to watch a movie, maybe Shrek or Toy Story, before an early night. Tony hoped that the familiar routine would prevent the nightmares that beset her ever since the Trust decided that she was some fucking asset that they had to acquire, but he was also a pragmatist. Chances were fairly high that neither of them would get an unbroken night’s sleep and as much as he wanted to make those bastards pay for the trauma that Tali had endured, he needed to act calm and loving and focus on her needs, not his.
He found it surprisingly, given the terrible parental role model that Senior had been, how simple it was to put his daughter’s needs ahead of his own. So much so, that the guy who couldn’t bear to leave NCIS because he viewed the MCRT as his dysfunctional de facto family, had been prepared to leave behind his home and family in England to come to a distant galaxy to protect her.
Tonight, he would focus on Tali’s needs and tomorrow he would start looking for who had decided to betray Colonel Sheppard. As he approached their quarters, he sent a mental order to the door to open, not wanting to disturb Tali who was settling down as he carried her into their home. Flopping down on the sofa he ran his hand soothingly through her brunette curls, inherited from her mother. He was amused as she expressed her contentment as she recovered from the minor meltdown. He knew, thanks to Cadman’s communication via their comms that she’d become increasingly more anxious as the day had worn on and she’d decided that hanging out with Kazumi Zelenka would help distract her.
It wasn’t until his appearance just now that Tali had fallen apart emotionally. He thanked Laura and told her he’d talk to her tomorrow, then turned his focus to the little girl who was the epicentre of his universe. He was pleased to see that she was becoming increasingly tranquil as he hummed and stroked her hair.
~o0o~
After a night interrupted by Tali’s bad dreams, both father and daughter settled down around 0400 hours, so he managed to grab a couple of hours of unbroken sleep, rising at 0615 which was his usual time to get up, ever since he’d left NCIS. Tali was sleeping soundly still, so he figured he’d let her slumber for a couple more hours before waking her and feeding her breakfast. After a quick shower and dressed in his Atlantis uniform, he was making a cup of green tea when his comms alerted him to Cpt Cadman’s presence outside their quarters. Mentally commanding the door to unlock, he motioned to her to come in, noting she was still in her workout gear.
Speaking quietly so as not to wake up his sleeping daughter, he asked, “Problem, Captain?”
Shaking her head, she told him, “Nope. Thought you might want to go for a run while I stay with Belle.”
Briefly thinking about her offer, he decided to accept. He needed to maintain his fitness levels due to having caught the pneumonic plague all those years ago. Plus, aside from running to maintain his lung capacity, running had always helped him think. The truth was that an early morning run was his favourite time to exercise before most people were awake.
Nodding, he said, “Thanks, Laura. That would be great. Make yourself at home.”
“Okay. Where’s Belle?”
“In my bed, asleep,” he gave her a hard stare.
Fortunately, she just shrugged. “Okay.”
He must have telegraphed his relief because she gave him an inquisitive look.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
“You thought I’d disapprove? Why, because I’m a Marine?”
“Hey, Jarheads don’t coddle people. But aside from that, I suspect Belle’s mother would say I’m overprotecting her. That terrible things happen, and she needs to toughen up.”
Cadman looked mad or sad, maybe both. “She’s survived two abduction attempts and had to move to a new galaxy in the ultimate WitSec program, Alex. She’s still a little girl – I say she’s already tough enough. Nothing wrong with spending the night in her daddy’s bed if it helps ward off the monsters,” she told him decisively.
“You’re not going to get any criticism from me. My father was my hero when I was growing up. I think you’re doing an awesome job helping her get through the trauma. Nightmares are a bitch.”
He studied the Marine for a few seconds to gauge her sincerity before giving her a tight grin. “Thanks, Cadman. I won’t be gone long.” He crept into his room to gather up his workout gear, changing in the bathroom.
As he started his warmup routine, he replayed the brief conversation between himself and Laura. He realised he was projecting his feelings and experiences with Ziva (which were all pretty negative at this point) onto the Marine captain, because she was highly trained and lethal like the former Mossad operative. Also, he was subconsciously lumping her in with Ziva over the whole sharing a body with Dr McKay and shanghaiing it without consent issue. Although there were some parallels it was also comparing apples to oranges – simply impossible.
God, he was so screwed up. He was going to be seeing Doc O’Shea for the foreseeable future and even then, Tony wondered if that was time enough to unravel all his fucked upness? He doubted it.
He decided he needed to clear the air with the Major later, she was his backup after all, and he knew he could trust her to watch his back. When he met up with her to brief her about the trip to Proculus, he apologised for making assumptions about her opinions. He went so far as to explain that she reminded him of his former partner, Ziva in some respects (although he didn’t elaborate on the specifics, knowing she would assume it was their deadly military backgrounds) and told her he would try to stop with the comparisons.
Cadman had been understanding, even if she didn’t realise what the real issue was. There was no way he could explain it without telling her about Tali’s conception and he was not going there. It had been hard enough confessing the shameful secret to Dr O’Shea and he only did so for the sake of his long-term relationship with Tali. Still clearing the air with Cadman was the right thing to do and let him focus on the new aspect of the investigation. The niggling stirring in his gut confirmed that after weeks of painstaking research, they might finally be on the home stretch now.
~o0o~
Once he knew where to look, it was scary how quickly the pieces seemed to fall into place.
He questioned McKay and Jennifer Keller separately about their romantic relationship of more than three years. It did not go down well with either of them, although the Chief Science Officer was much more upfront in his outrage. Dr Keller was being manipulative, a wide-eyed little girl, acting oh so wounded. Her why are you being so mean to me manner grating badly on him.
Since Abby had begun playing that game like a virtuoso after Cate, Tim and Ziva joined the MCRT and she became increasingly infantilized, Tony was well versed in that con. He failed to be moved by Keller’s poor misunderstood little girl genius act. Her injured, how could you possibly think I’d do anything horrible air if anything, actually increased his suspicions about her setting Colonel Sheppard up.
When at last she realised that he wasn’t manipulated by her act, she got shitty with him.
“Why? Why would you think that I’d betray John?”
“One of the most common motives for crimes – jealousy,” he replied disinterestedly, knowing it pissed her off when men ignored her.
Ziva had always used overt sexuality to finesse her way through sticky situations, especially when dealing with males (except Gibbs, who she pulled the surrogate daughter card with), but Keller was far less overt. Jennifer called upon a faux naivete – not exactly convincing in Tony’s opinion, after all, the woman was a doctor and a medical researcher who’d possessed enough nous to get into the Stargate program.
From a mixture of gossip, interviews and reports he’d learnt that Jennifer the ingénue had hit on Rodney McKay less than a week after he’d broken off a serious long-term relationship with the botanist, Dr Katie Brown. The very same Dr Brown that Cadman had meddled with his relationship during her sojourn sharing McKay’s body. Plus, Jennifer had also put the moves on Ronon Dex, reportedly playing them off against each other, enjoying the fun.
That was so not the actions of the innocent I never went to the prom persona she projected towards males she was attracted to. She was a lot younger than Tony was, but despite being in a relationship with McKay who was also much older than she was, she was demonstrably unhappy when Tony failed to respond to her veiled sexuality. Which suited him fine as it made her frustrated and more likely to trip up.
“Jealous? Why would I be jealous?”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Well, some people think that Rodney has a thing for Colonel Sheppard.”
“Rodney and John? Don’t be ludicrous, Rodney is in a committed relationship with me.”
“Oh, my bad. I thought you were just dating!”
“We’ve been together for almost four years, I’d hardly call that dating.”
“But you don’t live together. You two still aren’t married, Dr Keller. See…me, I’d call that dating.”
“Rodney is a private person who likes his own space. It works for us. And as for not being married, he’s just a little gun shy, that’s all,” she said, twisting her finger around a lock of her long hair.
“Or maybe he likes having his own space so he can see other people on the side…like Colonel Sheppard.”
“That’s ridiculous. Rodney’s not into guys,” she protested vehemently, too heatedly and Tony was almost sure that she had already wondered about his obsession with John before he brought it up.
“Perhaps your right, but people wonder why he’s always ranting about Colonel Sheppard acting like the fictional character, Captain Kirk who sleeps his way across galaxies, bedding every attractive female who had a pulse. It seems like he’s jealous. Maybe he doesn’t like sharing.”
As Keller vehemently denied Tony’s assertion that McKay had a sexual relationship with Sheppard or anyone else but her, he demanded to know why the CSO was constantly berating the colonel for his ‘Kirk-ing’ behaviour.
“He probably thinks that whoring his way across the galaxy isn’t a good look for the Commanding Officer and he needed to behave with more decorum. Rodney isn’t jealous.”
Keeping her off balance, Tony countered, “Okay maybe Dr McKay isn’t jealous of the Colonel, but I think you might be. I think that you were afraid that something was going on between them or else that it was some sort of unrequited on Rodney’s part and you decided to get rid of your competition.”
Keller was smart – reportedly a child prodigy – but Tony had made an art form out of pissing people off. It kept them from controlling non-verbal tells that revealed when they were being deceptive. Also having more than a little experience with content analysis, he knew the angrier someone was, the more difficult it was to guard their speech patterns to hide their intent to lie or conceal.
“Rodney loves me, how dare you insinuate that he’s having an affair with a man. He’s straight. Ask anyone – they’ll tell you what a great couple we are. Intellectually I’m his match. Even if he were bisexual – and he’s not, he doesn’t even like sex all that much – Rodney McKay wouldn’t want to be with a soldier who is all brawn and limited intellect.”
“Like Colonel Sheppard, you mean?”
Folding her hands primly in her lap and looking virtuous she smiled sweetly. “You said it, I didn’t.”
No, but you thought it AND implied it, you manipulative piece of work.
Need I remind you, Doctor, that Colonel Sheppard’s ‘limited intellect’ was apparently enough to have been invited to join Mensa. To be eligible to join, you need to score in the 98th percentile or above in a supervised standardized IQ. That suggests brawn AND brains,” he told her, playing an extremely obnoxious devil’s advocate to make her even angrier.
Anger in most individuals usually short-circuited their filters and Tony was par excellence when it came to pissing people off. It was a gift!
Jennifer sniffed disparagingly, “I’ve never believed that. John’s father was a highly successful businessman who could easily have paid someone to take the test for him or bribed the psychologist who supervised the testing.”
Okay, so that certainly sounded like a familiar old theme song. McGee, Cate, and Ziva all had expressed similar theories on various occasions about how he’d managed to be one of the youngest detectives ever and the fact that he’d been appointed as Gibbs’ senior field agent. Seems like Sheppard was also more comfortable in letting people underestimate him.
Wrongly assuming that she had scored a win with her last attack, Keller made it obvious she felt like she was on much more solid ground now and decided to throw someone else under the bus. Arranging her features into an I’m an honest citizen just trying to help the police persona, she leaned forward, looking young and earnest.
“Personally, if anyone had a motive to be jealous of John Sheppard, I’d put my money on Kanaan. You might want to look into why Teyla called their son after her father and her team leader, not the man who is supposed to be Torren’s father. That’s a pretty odd thing to do in my humble opinion,” she said self-righteously.
~o0o~
His interview with Rodney McKay was even more volatile but that was hardly a surprise. Even a casual brunch could turn into a rant-filled saga when the CSO was present. Tony was fairly sure that like his former bastard…er boss, McKay had a personality disorder or few. Having spent a huge part of his life dealing with colleagues with Narcissistic Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder and Histrionic Personality Disorder, he recognised many similarities with the Chief Scientific Officer. Plus, he grew up with a parent who was a narcissist, so he was something of an expert on the matter, even before his PhD in personality disorders in criminals.
Hell, Dr Mallard had even accused him of having NPD before cutting the legs out from under the laughable diagnosis by admitting that Tony had empathy. Ducky was certainly not someone Tony would consult about psychological matters – his NPD ‘diagnosis’ was the equivalent of calling someone a sociopath when they couldn’t tell the difference between right or wrong or a drunk driver who tested clean for any type of drugs or alcohol. Absence of the ability to feel empathy was the crux of narcissistic personality disorder.
So, being no stranger to the various disorders of personality, he was fully prepared for the colossal temper tantrum that the CSO threw when Tony set out to interview him about the colonel. He was certainly expecting McKay’s scorn and ranting as he lost no time expressing his contempt for law enforcement techniques and personnel. It had been particularly directed at Tony, who McKay accused of insisted that McKay not attend the off-world mission to Proculus. In truth, it had been Teyla and Lorne’s suggestion he remain behind but when he learned their rationale, he supported it one hundred percent.
“Are you a complete imbecilic idiot, Officer Plod?” he screamed after Tony asked him if he’d set Colonel Sheppard up because he was afraid that Sheppard would steal his girlfriend away from him. “Why would I do that?”
“Well, you’re always complaining about his Captain Kirk-ing ways. People think you are jealous because women are attracted to him. Maybe Dr Keller fell for him.”
“Don’t be more stupid than fate made you, Paddington,” he sneered. “I have a perfect relationship with Jennifer – there’s no reason for me to be jealous about John’s juvenile libidinous antics.”
Smirking because he knew how fragile the man’s ego was, Tony said, “Maybe she doesn’t think it’s so perfect. From what I hear, you aren’t man enough to satisfy her since you aren’t all that keen on sex. A younger woman must be especially hard to satisfy sexually but from what you’ve said about Colonel Sheppard, he must have a pretty insatiable sex drive – typical flyboy!” he said sarcastically.
Looking like he wanted to punch Tony in the face, he snarled, “There’s nothing wrong with my sex drive, you unimaginative dumbass cop. I don’t know who is feeding you these vicious lies about our relationship, but for your information, you inept buffoon, she is plenty satisfied by my physical prowess in the sack. Besides, not that it is any of your business, but I trust Jennifer and John implicitly,” he insisted strenuously.
Tony decided not to inform him that it was Dr Keller who told him that McKay wasn’t interested in sex; he didn’t think it boded well for their relationship. but it wasn’t his concern. Still, one of them was lying – Keller told him that Rodney wasn’t really into sex, and he had boasted that he kept her well satisfied, but both statements couldn’t be true.
Plus, he was always ranting about the thought of Sheppard getting laid by gorgeous females, which as far as Tony could tell, was a pretty big exaggeration. That obsession pointed to someone who thought a helluva lot about sex, so Tony was leaning towards Keller lying. Unless McKay was obsessed with sex and was impotent, which also might explain a few things.
“If you are so happy, why are you constantly ranting about Colonel Sheppard’s promiscuity – lots of people told me they think you are carrying a torch for him.”
“Oh my God, are you shitting me? Who thinks that I’m lusting after Sheppard?” he demanded. “I’m not into guys – not that there’s anything wrong with that. I’m no prude. I made Miko head of her department, and the third in charge of the science department and I thought for sure she was a lesbian until she and Radek got married, so see, not homophobic at all. Plus, I thought it was really hot when Major Teldy picked an all-female team. So, same-sex couples don’t bother me one bit – I’m just straight.”
Tony mentally rolled his eyes, this guy was clueless. He might also be in denial about his orientation, but it wasn’t Tony’s problem. So long as he hadn’t sold Sheppard out or forced someone to have sex with him, then Tony truly did give a shit who he slept with. Just as long as they weren’t underage of course.
The FBI agent was also beginning to think that Ronon was right about McKay. The guy couldn’t cope when someone else took the spotlight away from him, even if it were Sheppard wooing beautiful women. It was interesting that Dex’s opinion was that Sheppard didn’t go out of his way trying to make women throw themselves at him, yet to hear the CSO raving about it, most people would be forgiven for thinking that John Sheppard was a real self-obsessed man-slut going out of his way looking for one night stands every time he left the base. But if that were the case, he didn’t think a bunch of hardened Marines would be so fucking devoted to the Air Force commanding officer.
“Maybe that’s true Dr McKay, but has it occurred to you that Dr Keller might not believe that. You don’t live with her, and you two aren’t married, even though you’ve been together for over three years. Perhaps she believed she had something to be jealous of, with all your snide remarks about the colonel acting like Kirk and so she decided to get rid of what she saw as her competition.”
McKay’s reaction had been EPIC, calling him every derogatory insult he could think of – and it turned out he could think of a lot of them. Of course, after years of being subjected to Gibbs’ anger, he was immune to Dr McKay’s vitriol. Gibbs knew him well enough to know all his numerous insecurities and target them like the sniper he was, but McKay’s anger was explosive and generalised, so he had little difficulty in letting it flow off him. His dispassionate disregard for Rodney’s rantings had pissed the CSO off, even more, he was accustomed to reducing his peers and military personnel alike to tears with his sarcasm and spiteful jibes and anger.
For anyone not used to Gibbs aggression and his attitude to having to be accountable to anyone but himself, Tony might have viewed McKay’s fury at him as a sign that he was guilty or that he thought Jennifer Keller was. Lucky for him, Tony knew it was more of a reflection of his huge superiority complex and belief that he shouldn’t be forced to justify himself. McKay was extremely irritated with him, and Tony did worry at one point that the man might have an apoplectic fit. Wow! And Tony thought he had issues!
Finally, when Rodney quietened down, having run out of steam, or concluded that Tony wasn’t going to be cowed by his anger, he glared at the federal agent with ill-disguised rancour. Tony sent him on his way soon afterwards, with a ton of questions about the search for Col Sheppard and demands to be briefed on the mission to Proculus left unanswered. The Chief Scientific Officer was riled – unaccustomed to being dismissed without getting the information he felt was his due, but until Tony was satisfied that he, and or Dr Keller, weren’t suspects in Sheppard’s disappearance, he would be telling Rodney McKay sweet FA. He could complain about it until the cows came home though, because it was standard operating procedure not to share data with suspects, and Tony wasn’t about to make exceptions, even for the mighty Dr Rodney McKay!
Cadman who had been watching the interview via video camera gave him a sympathetic look. “Well, that went well.”
He shrugged, “Water off a duck’s back after fifteen years working for Gibbs,” he told her blandly.
“You honestly think that McKay has the hots for Colonel Sheppard?”
He looked at her trying to decide if he should ask. Finally deciding that it was important, he said. “According to scuttlebutt he does. What do YOU think?”
She knew what he was asking. “I suppose it is possible, but I never got that impression. He was head over heels for Katie Brown before I fucked everything up,” she told him candidly. “I thought I was helping but…” she trailed off penitently.
“I got the feeling he might not even realise it himself, if it is true that he has feelings for Sheppard. What I am almost sure of though, McKay’s constant carping about Colonel Sheppard being a pathological skirt chaser is probably the motivation for someone in Atlantis to rat him out to an outside agent.”
“And you suspect it’s Dr Keller?”
“Not necessarily, but there’s something about her that I can’t quite put my finger on. She also claims that he’s not all that interested in sex.”
“Well, that’s a lot of crap,” Cadman exclaimed before blushing furiously. “Okay he’d hate me for saying this, but he’s most definitely interested. One of the reasons he was so pissy when we were both trapped in his body was that he wouldn’t um… you know… jack off because of me.”
Tony felt uncomfortable learning such intimate details about McKay, purely because of how Cadman had come by the information, but it did corroborate the CSO’s claims of having a healthy sex drive. Which begged the question – if Keller had lied, then why? He knew people lied all the time and he was only interested if it had to do with the case, not Keller’s and McKay’s relationship.
“Have any of the investigations into the supposed ‘theft’ with the personnel, which shipped out of the city, turn up anything so far?” he asked, referring to their fake excuse to be asking leading questions about residents on Atlantis, specifically, those civilians who requested a transfer.
Cadman shook her head. “Not as yet.”
He frowned, feeling frustrated. “Okay. Then, can you run checks on all the personnel that left, looking for anyone who had messy breakups, please?” he asked.
He knew Laura’s computer skills were exceptional, although she didn’t flaunt her capability. It fit with her personality – she was highly competent and had no need to announce it to everyone constantly.
“Sure, I can do that, if the relationships were on record. Otherwise, we’re just going to have to investigate the old-fashion way. Anything else?”
“Maybe. Who would you say are the biggest gossips when it comes to who’s seeing who?” he asked because she had just given him an idea.
“That’s probably a question better posed to Lieutenant Colonel Lorne – he’s been here a lot longer than me,” Cadman told him. “Plus, I’m still getting up to speed with a lot of the changes in staffing since the last time I was here.”
Tony nodded. “Good idea. Can you check in with Colonel Lorne, please? I have someone else I need to talk to.”
Chapter 4 Power Rangers are Secret Weapons?
After Tony sent Cadman off to carry out the assignments he’d outlined, he thought about his next move. He’d interviewed Jennifer Keller and Rodney McKay in a makeshift interview room and recorded the interview. For some reason, he couldn’t articulate, he was reluctant to do so with the next two interviewees.
Some sixth sense was telling him that he should tread carefully when he interviewed Teyla Emmagan and her partner Kanaan. Of course, he had a social relationship with them, since Tali had become friends with Kazumi and Torren. Teyla, Kanaan, and Torren had even spent time with him and Tali in their quarters. He’d come to appreciate Teyla, especially during their trip to Proculus, but he didn’t think that was the cause of his reticence to question them.
No, it was something far less tangible and therefore he was unable to nail it down and neatly label it. He only knew that over the years he’d worked for him, much had been made about Gibbs’ infallible gut, which was quite ironic seeing how many times it failed him. The most recent and spectacular instance was with Luke Harris and the other so-called Lost Boys recruited by Daniel Budd of the terrorist organisation The Calling. Gibbs had come within a hairsbreadth of dying because he trusted Luke but despite losing confidence in Gibbs’ gut, Tony had learnt to trust his intuitive feelings. Mostly, he had them during undercover missions and since Atlantis was the biggest undercover gig of his life, he decided not to dismiss his reluctance to formally interview the Athosians about what Jennifer Keller had alleged. He would speak to Teyla privately and then, if necessary, he would formally interview them, transcripts, recordings, signed statements and all.
His knowledge of Kanaan was limited – he’d found the Athosian hard to read during the few times he’d attended one of Tali’s movie nights, but he’d just assumed Kanaan was feeling like an outsider. Although Teyla and Torren were also Athosians, they had a lot more contact with the expeditionary members of Atlantis. Tony was aware from reading his security file that Kanaan, like Teyla, possessed Wraith DNA – a remnant from experimentation on previous generations of Athosians, which caused some of his people to regard him, and others like him, with deep suspicion and bigotry.
Ironically, when the Wraith known as Michael (who Carson Beckett and Elizabeth Weir, in their colossal arrogance and short-sightedness, attempted to turn him into a hybrid-human) abducted the population of New Athos, it was Kanaan’s Wraith DNA that caught Michael’s attention. In a tragic paradox, Michael transformed Kanaan and other Athosians into a Wraith/human hybrids, intent on conquering both human and Wraith populations and commanding his own army of super beings. Was there something in the drinking water or air that turned people in Pegasus into arrogant megalomaniacs?
Jennifer Keller had managed to reverse the changes in Michael’s hybrids, but Tony figured that at least some people would remain uneasy around them, especially amongst the Athosian population. It was hardly surprising that Kanaan would feel like he didn’t fit in anywhere. Tragically, that had been the Wraith known as Michael’s justification – not fitting in as a Wraith anymore – which precipitated the horrific scientific experiments on humans and resulted in him murdering hundreds of thousands of innocent people in the Pegasus galaxy. However, Kanaan and his fellow hybrids had bravely overcome their torture and misfortune, even though in all probability, their lives would forever remain tainted by the terrible crimes that had been committed against them. So, it made sense that Kanaan was introverted and remained in the background in social situations.
Given the information that Jennifer Keller had revealed when he was questioning her, Tony had no choice but to investigate if Kanaan might have felt jealous of John Sheppard. That was if Teyla had named her son after John Sheppard. He also had no desire to cause any more harm to the Athosian man, if he was innocent. Kanaan had suffered more than enough already, and as a victim of the vilest torture, the FBI agent knew he had to tread very carefully with him. Tony didn’t want him to suffer any more than he already did.
So, after considering his actions carefully, Tony had decided to speak to Teyla privately to determine if there was cause to interview Kanaan formally. His intuition was warning him that a false accusation would likely destroy the Athosian, and he wanted to avoid that scenario at all costs.
He chose to question Teyla at the children’s playground knowing few people would be around. He was a little stunned when she acknowledged what Jennifer Keller had told him, that Torren’s middle name was indeed John and he was named after her father Torren Emmagan and Colonel Sheppard, her team leader and friend. When he asked was it customary for Athosians to name their children after leaders, she’d admitted that it wasn’t.
Tony sighed, knowing that their conversation was about to become difficult. “New intel suggests that someone on Atlantis betrayed Colonel Sheppard to one of his or Atlantis’ enemies. His disappearance without a trace means that in all likelihood it was planned well in advance. My current area of investigation is looking for whoever betrayed the Colonel, possibly because they felt threatened by him, plus it was someone who also knew that he was going on an intel-gathering trip to M2S-181. I have to ask this because it’s my job Teyla, but is it possible that Kanaan suspected that John Sheppard was Torren’s father and was afraid that you might leave him for Sheppard?”
Teyla looked like she’d been run over by a tank. “Kanaan? You think that he could have given up John’s location? Never! Believe me, he would not do that Alex.”
“How can you be so sure though? Jealousy is a very toxic emotion. I’ve investigated many crimes that have been committed because of jealousy.”
“When I was the leader of my people, I witnessed what you speak of many times. Envy can make people behave without honour, it is true. To lie, steal or even kill another person. But you must trust me when I say that Kanaan did not betray John because he was jealous or because John was Torren’s father. He knows John is not Torren’s father,” she declared emphatically.
Tony felt like there was something that Teyla was holding back – how could she be so sure. He sighed, “I’d like to trust you, Teyla but what if you are mistaken. From what I understand, before the colonel’s disappearance, Dr McKay was always complaining to anyone who would listen, that Colonel Sheppard would bed any attractive female he encountered off-world. What we would call a skirt chaser or a playboy. Maybe Kanaan thought you were having an affair with him. You said that it isn’t your custom to call you baby after a leader,” he explained.
The Athosian woman nodded. “I understand that it raised eyebrows. Elizabeth and Carson both assumed that John was Torren’s father too, but I assure you that isn’t the case,” she said firmly.
Tony’s intuition told him that she was telling the truth about Sheppard not being Torren’s father, despite her giving him the colonel’s middle name. “I believe you Teyla, but just because Colonel Sheppard isn’t Torren’s father doesn’t mean that Kanaan believes it.”
“I see what you are saying but you must believe me Alex, when I say that Kannan is not the one you seek. Someone else is responsible for John’s betrayal. You must keep looking,” she told him earnestly, her gaze fierce and determined
It was clear to the seasoned investigator that Emmagan believed what she was saying was the truth but believing something didn’t make it factual.
“Teyla, I know you believe that Kanaan isn’t responsible, but people are frequently wrong about their partners. The last thing I want to do is accuse Kanaan if he’s innocent because he’s had to deal with far too much crap in his life already, but unless you can prove that he didn’t betray John, then I must interview him. It’s my job and my duty. I’ve already questioned Dr Keller and Dr McKay.”
Teyla nodded and bowed her head in resignation. “Very well, I see now that I must tell you.”
As she spoke, her head remained bowed so he couldn’t see her expressive brown eyes. Her copper-coloured hair further obscured her face, and yet as Tony listened to what Teyla had to say, he didn’t feel that she was trying to lie to him. As she told him her secret, he felt his horror rise. Never in a million years was he expecting to hear what she told him. Stoically, she related the ugly tale, her voice steady but he could see the tears falling from her chin, which she did not attempt to brush away. They fell, landing on the ground at their feet – a silent testament to the terrible pain she carried with her.
Appalled by what she’d told him, he reached out and gripped her hand, knowing it didn’t begin to take away her pain, but it was all he had…for now.
He vowed to her that he was going to do everything in his power to help, despite her objections that there was nothing to be done. He disagreed pointing out that letting the matter go only increased the possibility of it happening again. Reluctantly, Teyla agreed for him to discreetly look into the issue but not before she extracted a promise. He must find Colonel Sheppard first.
He knew he shouldn’t make that promise – what if he never found John Sheppard? Yet he couldn’t refuse the petite Athosian, a former leader who’d renounced her claim of leadership so she could fight against the Wraith for the good of her people. She was strong and proud, a warrior through and through, who sacrificed everything to help defeat the Wraith. When she clung to him, pleading that he find Sheppard first because John had been her saviour, Tony knew she wasn’t speaking of Michael the Wraith.
How could he deny her plea? If he wasn’t motivated to find Colonel John Sheppard before, Tony was resolutely determined to locate him now. He had a scumbag to bring to justice!
~o0o~
Meanwhile, Cadman had been busy too. She’d written a program searching the departure list for anyone who’d broken up with their partner before shipping out. She’d had to be a bit more subtle since they didn’t maintain data on who was dating who. Her program searched for individuals who were cohabiting and thus sharing quarters with someone else, or who had requested reassignment of quarters six weeks or less before departing the base. Now the computer was searching, and they would need to wait.
Tony congratulated her on her efforts and with his time as a rookie cop in Peoria in mind, he recommended that she also check the logs for complaints about couples arguing that required base security to become involved. If they were back home, he’d look at restraining orders requested or granted. He knew that wasn’t likely in this situation.
It was one more reason why General O’Neill wanted to establish a joint military and civilian law enforcement bureau on Atlantis. Victims of domestic violence didn’t have a lot of recourse out here, especially the civilians. Tony was far too cynical to believe that domestic violence by spouses or partners wasn’t going on right under the noses of the powers that be, on Atlantis. At some point soon, he needed to address that situation but not today.
Cadman frowned and suggested she speak to the base security personnel and ask them about domestic disturbances. Tony shook his head.
“I’d prefer we check out the logs, Captain. I’ve seen cases of DV as a cop where the perpetrator was a police officer and his colleagues covered for him,” he explained.
“Seriously?” Cadman demanded, her auburn complexion flushing red with fury.
“Unfortunately, I’m completely serious. When I have time, it’s one of the enforcement issues I’ll be addressing.”
“Good, count on my support,” she said. “I lost a good friend to domestic violence, her ex-partner killed her and her unborn child,” she said.
“I’m sorry for your loss,” he told the Marine as she nodded.
“Thanks, Alex. The other thing I wanted to tell you was I spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Lorne. He reckons the two biggest gossipers on the base are control room technicians, Chuck Lyons, and Amelia Banks. They also happen to be the instigators of the base betting pool, so they are always looking for new intel, including who’s seeing who.”
“And presumably, who’s dumped who too. That’s excellent work, Laura.”
He thought about what she’d told him. “When you say Amelia Barnes, you are referring to the kickboxing Amelia who is living with Ronon Dex?”
“One and the same,” she stifled a giggle. “It’s hard to believe that she’s such a gossip – I’ve grappled with her a few times and she’s one badass chick,” she told him.
“How would you like to come to my place tonight for dinner and a movie? Maybe Fight Club or Million Dollar Baby? Why don’t you invite Dex and Banks too? Make it after Belle has eaten,” he suggested.
“Good idea,” she said. “I’ll organise with the mess staff to pick something up for our dinner,” she promised before she hurried away to meet with Ambassador Auclair about base security.
Later that day she dropped by Tony’s office to give him the list of personnel her search had identified. There were thirty-five couples on it, and she was discouraged.
“I didn’t expect there to be that many,” she said
Tony told her bracingly, “I’m not all that surprised. Don’t forget we have Amelia – she is our secret weapon! Are they coming tonight?”
“Yeah, they think it’s a double date, so I didn’t disabuse them about our real motive.”
He shrugged. “Better that way. Keep everyone from figuring out what we’re really up to,” he told her. “I’ll ask Lorne to come too. If Amelia helps us narrow down the list of suspects, we’ll need to have the Colonel’s assistance to coordinate with Stargate and Homeworld Command so we can question the perp,” he mused. “Can you get extra food for dinner?”
Cadman gave him a wry smirk. “I think I can manage that. Let’s hope that our secret weapon prevails. By the way, Amelia wants to know if you have Tomb Raider?”
“Angelina Jolie, excellent choice! Dex will enjoy that one, I think.”
“Right…well I’ll let you know how I get on with the security logs,” Cadman told him, standing up from the chair she’d sunk into when she entered his office.
As he started studying the list, he momentarily raised his head to acknowledge her statement before returning to the list of departed personnel. He flagged four names on the list as possibilities but hopefully, Amelia would help narrow things down even more. The profile he was developing was of someone fairly young, who was deeply suspicious and controlling of their partner. Wanting to know exactly who they talked to and what they discussed, an introvert who felt like his girlfriend was out of his league and expected to be cheated on. Someone who’s passive-aggressive and has a lot of internal rage but can’t express it in a socially acceptable manner.
Of course, there was also the possibility that they were looking for a female, although statistically, domestic violence was usually carried out by males. However, he’d encountered women who physically and emotionally terrorised their partners too. It was just that fewer victims (particularly men) were willing to report it.
Later when he took a break for lunch, on his way to pick Tali up from the Zelenkas’ quarters where she usually spent the mornings with Kazumi and her mom or dad, he called in on Lorne. He wanted to inform him about their movie night (which was a convenient excuse to grill Amelia Barnes about scuttlebutt) and to invite him along too. He agreed to attend, and Tony got the impression, not for the first time, that the poor guy was lonely. Before he took over as Acting Commanding Officer on Atlantis, he had led his own team, but several had gone back to Cheyenne Mountain to accept promotions, which left him with few real friends he could kick back and have a beer or two with. Ronon Dex seemed to hang out with him sometimes and not being part of the military (at least not from Earth) it wasn’t awkward for them to socialise, but he’d noted that like Colonel Sheppard, Lorne didn’t date which made for a lonely life. It was true what they said, ‘that it’s lonely at the top.’
After lunch, with Tali busy drawing, he sat down at his desk to look at the four individuals he’d flagged plus a fifth that was a female couple. He called up the military files for those who were enlisted and personnel files for the others who were civilian. All were under 35 years of age and all of them had several complaints brought about by superiors for their inability to play nicely with their teammates. Deciding to check out their former partners, he searched for and downloaded their personnel records onto his tablet, too and began studying them.
Lorne arrived early that night, Tali was still watching her Power Rangers video. He was a little concerned that at five years of age she was more interested in superheroes than The Wiggles, Barney, or Sesame Street. Lorne gazed at the screen for several minutes before asking in a bemused tone what she was watching.
“Power Rangers,” Tony answered briefly.
He suspected that Lorne had turned up early so he could spend time with Tali. He was good with her, and she liked him too. Sometimes when he needed to deal with matters where he couldn’t have her with him, the lieutenant colonel offered to keep an eye on her. He’d recently learned from Teyla that Lorne was close to his sister and her two boys and missed them a lot. He often offered to watch Torren too so Kannan and Teyla could have some grownup time alone.
“Yeah, but what language is that?”
Tony had to stop for a moment and listen. “Oh, that? It’s Italian. One of her nursery school friends gave it to her when we were living in Naples,” he said casually.
When Tali noticed his presence, she insisted that he come and watch with her. When Lorne explained that he didn’t understand Italian, she offered to translate, and they sat together watching until the episode ended. Tony ever vigilant, called out to her to come and eat her dinner, causing her to pout.
“Can’t I watch one more episode, Papa?” she cajoled.
He shook his head. “No not tonight, Kiddo. I explained we were having visitors. Now come and eat your dinner and then you need to have a bath before you go to bed. You still have modelling clay from when you were with Kazumi. You need to give your fingernails a good scrubbing with the nail brush,” he explained.
“She sighed glumly. “I wish I was grown up and could stay up late and watch the movie too.”
Tony chuckled. “Then you wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning, and you’d miss your music lesson with Aoife.”
The psychologist had offered to teach Tali to play the piano, although she’d only been able to bring a keyboard with her on one of her trips back home for a psychology conference. Tali was thrilled by the offer and when Kazumi heard about it, she wanted to learn how to play too. Luckily, Dr O’Shea was happy to have two eager little beavers as students, and Tony had already ordered a top-of-the-line keyboard which he hoped would come on the next supply ship in a month. Even should Tali lose interest in learning to play, it was a way for him to play the piano, even if it weren’t nearly the same as his baby grand which had been in storage since he’d learned about Tali. It was still better than nothing!
Not only was she going to be having music lessons but next week the teachers that General O’Neill had promised to find were due to arrive on the Zephyrus the newest of the Battle Class 304 interstellar ships. So, classes would be starting up in the not-too-distant future for the four youngsters: Tali, Kazumi, Felix, and Torren. Tali was so excited that she was going to start proper school at last that it was practically all she talked about. Fortunately, she and Felix had seemed to have made up and he even let her drive his remote-controlled car in a race with Torren, which was apparently a sign of his enormous esteem for her, at least according to his mother Monique Girard.
“Okay Papa,” she conceded reluctantly, rushing off to wash her hands before eating.
The Atlantis cooks always prepared child-friendly meals and tonight they had fish sticks and vegetables, one of her favourite meals on the menu, so she tucked in with enthusiasm. Sometimes it was difficult to get his daughter to finish her veggies but tonight she obviously liked the selection on her plate, or more likely he smirked, she knew he wouldn’t let her eat the chocolate pudding for dessert unless she ate all her veggies. Tali adored chocolate pudding, much to Tony’s disgust. It brought back unpleasant memories of hospital food but like her inexplicable love of mac and cheese, she loved it. Ah well, to each their own!
After she headed in to have a bath, Lorne asked, “How is Belle doing?”
Tony made a motion with his hand, shifting left to right in the universally understood gesture indicating so-so. “Some good days and some bad days. She misses her cousins and her Aunt but I’m grateful that she has three other kids her age to play with and to go to school.”
“Except that you’ve altered her age to make her one year younger.”
“Yeah, but she has special dispensation to start school ‘early,’ and she’s super excited about going to big school finally.”
“She seems like she’s settling in well. And the feud with Felix appeared to have ended. I understand that he let her race Torren with his remote-control car. That’s practically a declaration of marriage at that age,” he joked.
Rolling his eyes, Tony said, “He’d better not get his hopes up or he’ll be disappointed. My daughter informed me that when she’s grown up, she’s going to marry you,” he told Lorne who looked like he was going to choke. “I wouldn’t worry about it, she was also sure that she was going to marry my cousin Crispian a few months ago and he has a wife and two kids. It’s just her way of saying she feels safe with you, according to Dr O’Shea.”
“You consulted the shrink about Belle’s crush on me?” Lorne spluttered.
“Don’t feel threatened. “The Doc is helping me manage her trauma issues and my own excess baggage too,” he said casually.
Before Lorne decided to ask any more questions about Aoife O’Shea, he steered the conversation back to Felix Girard, Tali’s classmate. “By the way, now that Belle and Felix are best buds, I was wondering, what’s the score with his father. Is he still on Atlantis?”
Lorne grinned. “Why? Are you interested in the delectable Monique Girard?”
Tony admitted that the willowy blonde biochemist was pretty, but he had other motives for wanting to know. Certainly, since learning about his non-consensual activities in Tel Aviv, the idea of getting intimate with anyone was enough to cause him mild to moderate panic attacks. It wasn’t the sex act per se so much as it required a certain level of trust in the other party not to take advantage of you when you were completely vulnerable, physically, and emotionally. After all, if you couldn’t trust your work partner/ teammate of more than eight years not to betray your trust, how was he supposed to trust someone he barely knew?
He’d always had difficulty trusting people, even before Ziva chose her wants and desires over his. Now his trust issues were much worse.
That angst aside, even before he discovered he was Tali’s biological father, he’d barely dated since he remembered how confusing it was as a kid. To have a constant parade of women coming into and back out of his life as Senior tried to bed every attractive or filthy rich female he encountered, hadn’t helped Tony trust people either.
“Nope! Single dad with a traumatised five-year-old. Not looking for a casual relationship – not looking for a relationship, period. But when kids play together it inevitably means that their parents interact. Don’t want to put my foot in it with his Mom. Plus,” he said, facetiously, “I’m an investigator and incurably nosy,” which was true.
Lorne frowned. “Sorry, shouldn’t tease you. Monique’s nickname is the Ice Princess because she refuses anyone who asks her out. Officially, I don’t know this – but there’s a pool on who will finally melt her heart, but so far, she’s refused all comers. She was seeing a guy in the RAF, but they broke up before she got pregnant with Felix. He transferred out about 16 months ago and she never said who Felix’s father is.”
Tony shook his head. He knew that Atlantis personnel were constantly running betting pools on all manner of frivolous shit – NCIS was the same. There’d been a pool on how long the brash detective from Baltimore would survive on Gibbs’ team before the former gunny would get pissed off and kick him to the curb. No one had bet on it taking fifteen years and his heart clenched in pain. Technically he’d resigned to keep Tali safe but that was BS, it had been a handy excuse to walk away from his job with his head held high, not because Gibbs had finally chased him off. But he knew the truth.
Anyway, he understood why they generated betting pools; danger and stress needed to have outlets. Yet it was one thing to bet on something harmless like how long the current IOA appointed leader of Atlantis might last or what the next dinner the mess staff might prepare but he didn’t think that betting on Dr Girard’s sex life was appropriate. Tony decided he needed to teach Lantean’s a lesson regarding what was appropriate fodder for running betting pools. He added it to his mental to-do list to address later.
Right now, he could feel that they were inching closer to finding out who sold Colonel Sheppard out. Once they had a suspect, they could hopefully find out who had him and bring him home.
As he was getting Tali ready for bed, Dex and Amelia arrived and Laura five minutes later. Tony cursed them all for turning up early since Tali wanted to stay up while they ate. Agreeing that she could extend her bedtime by thirty minutes but no more, he got out plates and eating implements since oddly, he preferred real plates to the metal ones in the mess.
Cadman served up the food she’d brought from the mess, it was Mexican and German night tonight, so she’d opted for enchiladas. No one inquired too closely into what the not-chicken and not beef protein source was, enjoying the meal and considering themselves lucky that they had real guacamole and limes as it had only been a few weeks since their last supply ship had delivered fresh produce. They agreed that the only thing missing was the Corona beer, but Lorne had managed to acquire some of the Athosian locally fermented brew, even if it wasn’t beer, it was still surprisingly good.
All in all, they agreed that it was a good meal and Tali was enjoying the extension of her bedtime immensely. She was particularly captivated by Ronon and Amelia who she hadn’t met. Tony realised her socialness should have been a big red flag that she was his daughter. She worked the room like a pro, telling them all about The Power Ranger’s episode she’d just watched before adroitly (and sneakily) offering to let them watch the next one with her. As he scooped her up under his arm like a sack of flour, he told her that it was bedtime and time to take care of bathroom business before bed.
After supervising her teeth cleaning and leaving her to go to the toilet he ducked into the kitchen to start the coffee machine and fetch her a glass of water. As she emerged from the bathroom, he instructed her to say goodnight.
She hugged Cadman, “Goodnight, Laura. Can you come for mac and cheese, soon?”
The head of base security kissed her in return and promised to come by in a few days if it was okay with her dad. He shrugged, knowing that Tali loved having a female to fuss over her.
“Sure, just as long as you don’t expect me to eat that stuff,” he said.
Beaming, Tali skipped over and hugged Lorne before shocking him by pecking him on the cheek. “Come back soon and we can watch more Power Rangers,” she wheedled coquettishly, and Tony saw a flash of Ziva before he suppressed the thought.
Tali was not her mother. She was a typical five-year-old who just happened to have two Ancient genes.
Lorne looked embarrassed as Ronon, and Amelie laughed their asses off to see the Acting CO caught so off guard.
~o0o~
Later when Tony had begun to read his little girl a chapter of Charlotte’s Web where Wilbur went off to the fair, she fell asleep halfway through due to her extended bedtime. He kissed her and tucked her in, letting the classical music play, knowing it would help her fall into a deeper sleep.
When he exited her bedroom, pulling the door to, but not closing it, so he could hear if she started having bad dreams, he saw to his amusement that the four adults were all watching an episode of the Power Rangers. Someone had changed the langue setting to English, he noted idly. Seeing him laughing at them, Amelia got defensive.
“It’s Ronon’s fault. He wanted to know what Power Rangers was. Laura said it was easier to just show him than to explain it.”
Exchanging an amused look with Lorne, who had come over early to watch a show with his daughter, he said wryly. “Of course, it was all his fault.”
Ronon grinned and he decided that the Satedan was even more intimidating when he smiled, which was counterintuitive, but it was also the truth. Meanwhile Tony was beginning to understand how having a five-year-old around gave adults a chance to indulge their inner child and watch kids’ shows and movies. Even the big badass Marine Captain happily snuggled up on the couch up to watch movies like Toy Story or The Incredibles with Tali.
He waited patiently for the episode to end, heading into the kitchen to make coffee for Lorne, Cadman and Dex who had been corrupted by spending too much time in the company of Sheppard and McKay, both heavy coffee drinkers. He made green tea for himself and Amelia. As he finished making their beverages, the show was ending which was excellent timing. He was happy because they could get down to business – he was impatient to pick Amelia’s brain.
The simple truth was that a genuine dyed-in-the-wool gossip was a cop’s secret weapon. They were hoarders of information, noticing stuff, that other people who minded their own business, often failed to notice, or normal people saw and discarded, as unimportant. To the gossip, every little skerrick of information was priceless, and it also helped them to contribute to a bigger picture, even if the gossiper frequently added up two plus two and came up with twenty-two.
But that was cool because if there was one thing that Tony excelled at as a cop and a federal agent, it was taking disparate pieces of data and forming it into a cogent picture that most of the time, ended up proving to be true. As the head of the new enforcement agency on Atlantis, he was going to cultivate Amelia Banks for the unbelievably valuable resource she was, and his secret weapon was Tali and his ridiculously diverse collection of kids DVDs. Shrek, Madagascar, Minions, and Monsters Inc, here we come!
He also intended on wooing Chuck Lyons, the gate room technician/intel analyst who’d been on Atlantis since the expedition first arrived. He must be a fount of information just waiting to be mined. Tony just needed to figure out what Chuck’s currency was, and he would be putty in Tony’s hands. With any luck, the agent would soon have two invaluable intel assets to aid in his future investigations.
First, he needed to teach them a lesson, about what was and wasn’t appropriate fodder when setting up a betting pool on the base. Felix and speculation on his parentage were off limits!
Chapter 5 Building the Profile
Amelia Barnes had come through big time! The badass kickboxing data analyst was a legend!
When Tony explained who they were looking for, a jealous spouse, who was pathologically jealous and may have believed that Colonel Sheppard was interested in or was having an affair with their partner, she barely batted an eyelid. She proceeded to give them an astonishingly detailed rundown on practically every couple Cadman had identified as having broken up in the weeks leading up to Sheppard’s disappearance. It was impressive – not just that she knew so much about what was going on in the city but that she was able to call up some much data off the top of her head.
Once again it vindicated his theory that a busybody was a cop’s best friend. He planned to organise for Amelia to come over regularly to watch Power Rangers with Tali under the pretext of babysitting her. Hell, Lorne would probably come too!
Ronon however was not so sure.
“This is how you hope to find Sheppard? You are wrong, John Sheppard isn’t running around Atlantis bedding every female who catches his eye,” he defended his team leader vehemently. “This is putnscrite,” he declared hotly.
“Dex, I’m not saying that I believe that Colonel Sheppard can’t keep his dick in his pants. From everything I’ve learnt about him, he is a remarkable professional. And as CO it is awkward to have a relationship with subordinates – the military is pretty damned fussy about fraternization.”
“Plus, with the revolving door of civilian leaders that the IOA keeps assigning to the base every year or two, I’m sure he feels like the civilians who are contracted to the Stargate program are his subordinates too,” Lorne added.
“Which by my calculations that just leaves Pegasus natives if he wants to let Rover off the leash,” Tony said delicately since he was talking about Lorne and Cadman’s CO and talking about Sheppard’s sex life was a bit like talking about your parent’s sex life.
“Okay, then why are you talking about this crap then?” Dex growled, glaring at him, but he was impervious to glares and yelling. Plenty of practice!
“Just because it isn’t true, it doesn’t stop someone who has a screw loose up top and is a pathologically jealous and insecure piece of shit from believing that Colonel Sheppard wants their partner or that their partner is having an affair with him. They are often highly insecure individuals. Hell, they are often unfaithful themselves, cheating within the relationship. It isn’t a stretch for them to think that their partner would act the same way too.”
“But why pick on Sheppard?” Dex asked, no longer furious, more confused.
“He might come have in contact with their partner frequently or the partner might have talked about Sheppard all the time. Could even have had a crush on him and wasn’t exactly discreet about it. But mostly, I suspect because the Colonel has earnt what was the undeserved reputation of being some sort of oversexed Captain Kirk, unable to resist a pretty face.”
“But that’s stonlurt! Sorry… it’s crap that McKay rants after a mission when he’s pissed that some woman didn’t throw themselves at him but was all over Sheppard. Not John’s fault that the opposite sex finds him attractive,” he said frustrated.
“No one here said it was, Ronon,” Amelia patted his thigh soothingly. “Look I know that you get hit on all the time, Babe. You and Colonel Sheppard have no control over it because you are sex on legs, Mr Man Mountain and he’s got the bedroom hair happening and sacrificing himself for others complex,” she told him fondly. “But now we’re a couple, you’re also seen as being off the market by most people. Sure, women and probably men still flirt with you, but they tend to desist when you tell them you aren’t interested…”
“Especially when they know your partner is a scary as fuck kickboxing champion,” Tony commented dryly.
Huffing in amusement, Amelia nodded. “There is that too,” she conceded, a twinkle in her eye. “With the colonel, the fact he isn’t officially ‘seeing’ anyone makes some people believe all the Captain Kirk shit. They think he isn’t looking for a relationship – just sex with no strings.”
“And Dr McKay has earned a lot of people’s respect for his ability to pull a rabbit out of his hat when Atlantis is on the brink of destruction,” Laura said quietly. “So, of course, there are going to be people who believe what he says, especially about a teammate when he’s been going on and on about it for years.”
Dex looked around the other four incredulously. “No one believes that pile of klumpenkrug!”
Tony mentally translated klumpenkrug to mean the equivalent of the idiom ‘a pile of horse-manure,’ but it turned out he was way off base. He learned a few weeks later that klumpenkrug was a Satedan colloquialism meaning a massive quantity of excrement. Specifically, it referred to a massive four-horned rhinoceros-like creature in the Pegasus galaxy (only twice as big as a rhino) who produced copious quantities of manure, some two hundred pounds twice per day. That sure was some pile of shit!
Picking up his huge hand, Amelia looked into her lover’s eyes and said seriously, “Sorry to tell you this, but yeah, Babe, there are quite a few people here who genuinely do believe it.”
Gently Tony told him. “Researchers have proven what snollygoster politicians have known since the dawn of time, tell a lie often enough and mentally lazy individuals will begin to accept it as truth.”
The Satedan looked shattered as well he might. If they were correct, Rodney McKay’s thoughtless ravings potentially could have gotten Sheppard killed. No doubt, just like the time when McGee’s ridiculous novels which he wrote but claimed were fiction had caused a whack job fan to carry out his plot had killed two innocent people Tim based his characters on. Gibbs, who’d maintained McGee wasn’t culpable, would probably also say that Rodney McKay was blameless.
Legally he was right, but morally? Tony didn’t think it was that black and white and he doubted that the families of those two men Tim chose to base his characters on would think so either. Maybe if the whack-job had managed to kill Abby, Gibbs might have changed his mind. However but Tony believed that both McGee and McKay bore some responsibility, as did the perps and that was hard to accept when it was your teammate.
Meanwhile, while Dex was trying to wrap his head around the new reality, Amelia glared at Tony. “What the hell is a snollygoster, Paddington. Are you just making up words?”
Grinning back smugly, he said, “Nope. It refers to a shrewd unprincipled individual. Look it up, Barnes,” he told her, thanking Wendy Miller’s love of Scrabble for his knowledge of arcane or weird words.
As the massive warrior sat silently, the rest of the group started working through the list of former couples. Tony outlined to Amelia the psychological profile of the person he suspected had sold Sheppard out to what the FBI called an UNSUB – an unknown subject.
“As I said, the person I’m looking for will have been charming at first, to win over the partner. Once they were together that would slowly change, the perp becoming increasingly controlling. They’d try to separate their partner from their friends, wanting to be the centre of the partner’s universe. They would become increasingly controlling, needing to know where their partner was every minute of the day, and who they were spending time with. The person I’m looking for would be highly intelligent but never managed to achieve their potential, probably someone of low rank and resentful that promotions failed to materialise.”
Tony took a sip of his now beyond tepid tea and grimaced. “Uuugh that’s cold…okay where was I?” He looked at his tablet. “Right, escalating abuse. The suspect starts to exert control by subjecting their partner to verbal abuse, calling them dumb, ugly, fat, lazy, and making them think that no one else would want to be in a relationship with them. They might start using psychological abuse to further isolate their partner or increase their dependence on the suspect. Secrets told in confidence being used to tear them down are common tactics in a toxic abusive relationship. There could also be physical abuse, their partner constantly having bruising or injuries if the suspect believes that they aren’t faithful or might be considering breaking up with them.”
“Hang on, wouldn’t we see evidence of physical abuse?” Amelia objected.
Tony looked at her searchingly. “Do people bat an eye when you turn up with a bruised or even the occasional split lip, Amelia? Would they suspect that Ronon was smacking you around?”
“Of course not,” she snapped at him.
“You suggesting I’m hitting her?” Dex snarled at Tony who maintained a bland expression.
“Nope, just using you as an example as to why people might not notice physical abuse,” he told them calmly. “And why would people ignore any injuries you might exhibit regularly, Amelia,” he asked her?
“Because I’m into kickboxing, plus I train with Ronon, sparing a few times a week,” she said slowly. “So, I have quite a lot of bumps and bruises – more than your average person.”
Ronon shook his head. You sayin that the prick forces his partner to do martial arts or fighting to cover up the injuries he gives them because he’s a bully?”
“No, I wasn’t but that is a possible scenario I hadn’t considered.”
Then what were you sayin, Paddington?” Dex demanded. He was not a patient guy.
“I was suggesting that it is widespread practice for THE VICTIM to take up full-contact sports like American gridiron football or rugby or to sign up for martial arts or wrestling teams because they are ashamed and don’t want other people to figure out they’re being hit,” Tony told him baldly. “It’s a good cover for their injuries.”
“Why would someone who’s being abused try to cover up for their abuser?” he argued.
Tony sighed, “It doesn’t make sense to some who’s never been there, but abusers can often be extremely manipulative. Remember I said the person was probably really smart but in a job that they consider is below their abilities. It makes them angry not to have realised their potential, so hurting someone else makes them feel big and important.”
He shifted slightly to get more comfortable.
“The abuser is frequently skilled in manipulation, and they convince their partner that they deserved to be punished. They take intimate knowledge that the partner shares with them about their soft underbellies, cause let’s face it, all of us have them, and they twist facts around to attack their partner.”
“In fighting, the trick is not to let your opponent know where your weakness lie,” Ronon said.
“Right, but when you’re in an intimate relationship with someone, especially during the initial stages when the oxytocin is flowing, people don’t see their partner as an opponent, otherwise they wouldn’t be so quick to share compromising photos of themselves,” Tony observed. “Anyway, by the time they’ve been brainwashed into believing they deserve to be disciplined, it’s often far too late for them to get out on their own. They are too trapped inside their head and can’t think straight,” he said darkly.
Lorne who had remained fairly quiet until now joined in. “Sometimes they don’t make it out of the relationship. An old girlfriend from college ended up in an abusive relationship and he cut her off from friends and family by moving halfway around the world. Finally, after suffering years of beatings, she snapped because he beat her when she was pregnant, and she grabbed a knife and stabbed him in the heart. She’s still in jail for manslaughter, he told them. “Her parents are raising her kid.”
“Seen a few cases like that, Lorne,” Tony said. “Tragic! Anyway, the bottom line is that abusers seem to have a sixth sense about finding a partner that they can manipulate. Even if they get out of a violent relationship, many survivors of abuse seem to end up right back in another one.
“All right, I believe you. I think your job is a hard one. I’d rather kill Wraith but from now on I will be keeping my eyes open for people who might be using our training to cover up injuries,” Ronon vowed grimly.
“Good,” the Acting Commander, the Base Security Officer and the military and civilian law enforcement agent chorused together.
~o0o~
Amelia had identified two suspects that fit most of his criteria – a British Italian, Lance Corporal called Joe Favre who’d been a radar operator. He’d broken up with his girlfriend three weeks before the colonel had gone missing on M2S-181.
Francesca De Rosa, a young Italian botanist whose specialty was palynology (which Amelia informed them was the study of pollen and spores) had been living with the lance corporal for 16 months before their sudden break. Cadman reported that their breakup resulted in her moving in with one of the other scientists before requesting separate quarters shortly after Favre shipped out on the Apollo, a 304-battlecruiser headed back to Earth.
The other suspect was US Marine, Sergeant Rayleen (Ray) Callahan who broke up with Lucinda Thomas, a chief warrant officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force who naturally possessed the ATA gene and was one of their best puddle jumper pilots.
Amelia reported that their relationship of eleven months had been volatile with reports of arguments during their first few months of sharing quarters, which seemed to settle down after a while. Also, the group of Canadians Lucinda had chummed up with in the last couple of years she’d been on Atlantis had noted she stopped hanging out with them. Their perception was that she was obsessed with Sgt Callahan and wanted to spend all her time with Ray, but Callahan didn’t seem as committed. Scuttlebutt was that the Marine had been playing the field, albeit discreetly with several Atlantis personnel who didn’t care that she was living with Thomas. After the chief warrant officer caught Callahan cheating, the couple had broken up acrimoniously. Sgt Callahan accused Thomas of having her own secret lover which Thomas denied and Callahan requested and was granted a transfer back to Earth.
Amelia looked at Tony, “I realise that this doesn’t exactly fit your profile, Agent Paddington…”
“Because Thomas and Callahan are lesbians?” Cadman asked, but before Tony could respond, Amelia did.
“Oh no, Callahan is lesbian, Thomas is bi,” she corrected the Head of Base Security. “No, I just hesitated to mention them because Lucy was the one who was obsessed with Ray.”
“How do you know Thomas is bisexual?” Lorne asked curiously, because although DADT was officially no longer a thing, in the real-world old habits die hard. Even on Atlantis, a lot of people still tended to mind their own business if they thought someone was not comfortable coming out of the closet.
“Chuck. He dated her for about three months when she was first assigned to Atlantis and now, she’s going out with that hunky Danish guy from the physics department.”
“That Rasmussen idiot? You think he’s a hunk,” her partner quizzed her, dumbfounded.
“He is pretty hot, Ronon,” Cadman said, being brutally honest. “Tall dark and handsome with cobalt blue eyes that any model would kill for and lips to…” she sighed sinfully as Amelia chuckled.
“But he’s also such an egotistical jerk, I’m amazed anyone would date him since he’s got a major crush on himself. He’s even worse than that Kavanaugh guy,” she gave an exaggerated shudder. “I reckon Russy’s ego is so huge I wouldn’t have thought there was room for anyone else in his bed,” Laura quipped.
Lorne chuckled. “Dr Kavanaugh was certainly an acquired taste. Unfortunately, Peter genuinely believed he was smarter than McKay and that was never going to end well,” he stated, sharing a wry grin with Ronon. “Rasmussen sounds like a tool too, but it kinda bears out what Alex was saying about victims of domestic violence moving from one abusive relationship to the next.”
Tony didn’t know who Kavanaugh was, but he was keen to get the discussion back on track.
“If CWO Thomas is bi then I think she and Sgt Callahan fit the psychological profile, Amelia. Victims of domestic violence will push away friends and family because their ‘partner’ insists on it. They are hardly likely to admit that their partner doesn’t want them to socialise with friends, so it isn’t exactly uncommon for them to lie. Thomas telling her buddies that she wants to spend time with the sergeant allows her to continue to lie to them and herself that everything is okay,” he explained blandly.
As he wandered into the kitchen area to make more coffee and tea, he was considering his next move. Tomorrow he would interview Dr De Rosa and CWO Thomas about their exes – maybe Dr O’Shea would be present as it might be wise to have a female there if things got messy. Plus, they both might open up to another woman more easily than a cop.
He would also need to find out where Sgt Callahan and Lance Corp Favre had been reassigned. If they were still with Stargate, it would be a whole lot easier.
After sipping their fresh beverages, by mutual agreement they put off watching Lara Croft Tomb Raider until the end of the week. Everyone was tired but also energised by the fact that they had fresh leads, especially Tony. His intuition was telling him they were getting close to a breakthrough and if he’d been back at NCIS he’d in all likelihood have got into his car and driven back into the office to start investigating Callahan and Favre right away. Now, of course, he needed to balance his desire to solve the case with the responsibilities of being a single parent. Tomorrow would be soon enough to start digging.
Lorne sensing his need to talk, hung back as Cadman, Amelia and Ronon departed shortly after finishing their drinks.
Tony nodded at him, appreciating that the Lieutenant Colonel was good at reading non-verbal communications. “Thanks for staying. Just wondering if you can find out quietly where Favre and Callahan were reassigned. Gonna need to interview them, but I don’t want to tip them off.”
Lorne grinned. “Sure, I can do that. So, you think this is a real lead?”
Looking pleased he said, “Yeah, I do but just so we’re clear, I believe one of this pair probably betrayed Colonel Sheppard to an UNSUB or maybe I should say an UNFOE. Until we know who that is we aren’t any closer to finding him…” he cautioned. “Yet!”
~o0o~
Forty-eight hours later Tony was getting ready to make a lightning-quick trip to the new Midway Station which had been rebuilt with safeguards in place to prevent a reoccurrence of what happened when the Wraith hijacked it to invade Stargate Command. After a lot of angst, Tony decided to interrogate their suspect there instead of returning to Cheyenne Mountain for questioning. Midway had minimal staff in comparison to Stargate Command and he didn’t want to be seen any more than was necessary. People talked, plus there were security cameras all over the base and he was supposed to be flying under the radar. Not to mention there was the distinct possibility that the Trust still had spies embedded inside the mountain. The more he was there, the greater his chances of being recognised.
Midway II Station, by contrast, had less than ten full-time crew so it was much easier to maintain security, in other words, to preserve his anonymity. At first General Landry insisted that the FBI/ AFOSI agent return to Earth to interrogate Lance Corporal Joey Favre and Tony seriously considered it, but there were just too many spies who had access to the mountain for him to be keen to go back. The only people on Earth who knew his real identity were General O’Neill, his 2IC Colonel Paul Davis, and the POTUS who had signed off on his rehiring and being a federal agent who had jurisdiction over the military and civilian personnel on Atlantis.
Not even Landry knew his real identity, although he knew he had a daughter that the Trust had tried to abduct and that, was frankly as much info on him that Tony wanted him to know. It wasn’t that he had any specific reason to distrust the Air Force General and head of Stargate Command per se, it was that Tony didn’t trust, period. Even as a child he’d learnt that trusting adults who were supposed to have his best interest at heart let him down. Over his years working in three different precincts when he was a cop and then for Gibbs for 15 years (who’d hired him with the promise he wouldn’t waste good and wouldn’t screw him over) they’d all failed to have his six. No wonder he was paranoid when it came to trusting colleagues and superiors.
At first, when O’Neill told him about the off the wall idea about signing him up to be head of law enforcement on Atlantis, he’d been more than a little sceptical about Jack. It wasn’t until after he’d told him about his son Charlie and how he was determined that Tali wasn’t going to end up in the clutches of power-hungry A-holes if he could help it, that Tony started warming up to him. He shared with him that many years before on a spec ops infiltration of Iraq under the command of a Colonel Frank Cromwell, Jack had been shot and his team, believing him to be dead had left him there. He’d spent four months in an Iraqi prison camp, and although he didn’t spell it out, Tony could well imagine the torture he would have endured as a captured special forces operative. He did express that he could never forgive Cromwell for leaving him behind, even if the colonel had sacrificed himself to save Jack’s life and saved the planet. He told him it was why he was so obsessed with his ethos that the people who he worked with, never got left behind.
Knowing that Gen O’Neill understood on such a fundamental level why he had such a tough time trusting people, helped him develop a burgeoning trust in the man. He was an officer that Leroy Jethro Gibbs of old would have admired. From what he’d learnt, Jack was always at the pointy end of the spear when going into battle and always the last person to leave which was why he was so popular within Stargate Command and was respected in a way that Gen Landry would never be. Tony realised the more he investigated Col Sheppard that he’d been cut from the same cloth as Gen. O’Neill, which explained why he was held in such high regard by everyone on Atlantis
So, when Gen Landry had insisted that Special Agent Paddington come back to Cheyenne Mountain to interrogate the suspect, he had finally given in grudgingly, knowing that Sheppard’s life was hanging on him finding out who had taken him. If it were Tali who was missing, he’d want the investigator to do whatever it took to find her, therefore he needed to suck it up and return to Earth to question Favre. He’d planned on going in disguise until General O’Neill proved that he did walk the talk when it came to having Tony’s six. He’d suggested as a compromise, using Midway II Station to carry out the interrogation.
It was much more secure and with a little bit of luck, Tony wouldn’t have to leave Tali on Atlantis overnight without him. Had he’d gone back to the Mountain, he doubted that Landry would have authorised two activations of the Stargate to the Pegasus galaxy within a day. He would probably have taken advantage of his presence to debrief him on everything about the investigation and Tony was under no illusions that the International Oversight Advisory committee would also want to grill him like a piece of trout.
Yeah, he’d be lucky to get back to Atlantis in a week at least, which would have presented him with a real Sophie’s Choice. He could leave Tali in Atlantis where she was reasonable safe, knowing his absence would trigger her PTS and set her back emotionally and psychologically for months, possibly years or bring her back with him to Earth where she’d be vulnerable to the Trust. It was a no-win situation but thanks to Jack, he didn’t have to make that impossible choice.
When he’d informed Lorne and Cadman that he was going to do the interview on Midway II they’d both been relieved that he didn’t have to return to Stargate Command. Even so, they insisted that they would be accompanying him to the Midway station and when he heard about the trip, Ronon demanded that he come too. Radek and Miko had agreed that Belle could stay with Kazumi for the day, although Amelia had offered to pick her up and go back with her to their family quarters if Tony were delayed getting back from Midway II that night. She told him that they would binge-watch Power Rangers and that Teyla, who was a close friend could come too and bring Torren too. They’d pop some corn and make it a movie night.
Hopefully, he’d be home before Tali’s dinnertime, but he appreciated Amelia’s contingency plan. He also gave Dr O’Shea a heads up, and she’d promised to be on standby if his daughter had a meltdown, although he suspected that if it happened, it would come later after he came home. Still, it didn’t hurt to be prepared as the Boy Scouts always said. Okay, so Senior trying to hit on all the other boy’s mothers and get their dads to invest in his latest scheme might have brought a very abrupt ending to his stint as a cub scout. But there was one thing that he excelled at, and that was observing rules if they made sense and that one did!
The psychologist had also agreed to help him interview Lucinda Thomas and Francesca De Rosa about their former partners and they’d managed to rule out Sergeant Callahan as a suspect. While she certainly fit the profile of a controlling, possessive, and abusive partner, after speaking with the CWO they’d learnt that Callahan had been jealous about Sergeant Dusty Mehri seducing Thomas, not Col Sheppard. Especially after the chief warrant officer was temporarily assigned to Major Teldy’s all-female team when their pilot, Kylie Waters from the RAAF was injured on an off-world mission. When Tony checked out Thomas’ account of the straw that broke the camel’s back – the reason Lucinda and Ray had broken up, Teldy confirmed what Thomas had told them.
Sergeant Mehri had even filed a report that Sergeant Callahan had threatened her, calling her a horny bitch, and telling her to stay away from CWO Thomas. She went so far as to accuse Mehra of orchestrating the Australian pilot’s injury so Lucinda would be assigned to the team. Having managed to rule Sgt Callahan out of their investigation, he made a note to follow up on the situation at a later date. Chances were that she’d been shipped to Atlantis because someone wanted to get rid of her, but it simply shifted the problem to someone else’s command and had left Atlantis’ personnel vulnerable to Callahan’s abuse of her partners.
However, for the immediate future, Tony recognised that his focus needed to remain on finding Colonel Shepard – Callahan was gone from Atlantis and no longer a danger to any of its residents. Of course, she was no doubt targeting a new victim back on Earth.
Yet as he and Dr O’Shea had begun to interview Francesca De Rosa, it became increasingly obvious that Lance Corporal Joey Favre was the one they’d been looking for. Dr De Rosa had been asked to go on an away mission to Blentos with AR-1, a planet where Sheppard’s team had reason to believe that the locals were suffering weird psychogenic effects from a type of plant pollen that the expedition hadn’t encountered before.
Since the botanist’s specialty was palynology, she was the obvious choice for Sheppard to request to accompany them to Blentos and gather samples to be analysed back on base. Inevitably, Favre had accused De Rosa of cheating on him with Colonel Sheppard because, “She was a slut and everyone on the base knew that John Sheppard was a man whore who would fuck pretty much female, even someone as ugly as Francesca.”
When the botanist needed to make several more trips to Blentos to take more samples while Dr Keller also went to take blood samples of the Blentosians, Favre insisted that Sheppard engineered the whole mission to get De Rosa away from him. A two-day mission by AR-1 and De Rosa to check out a group of native people who were supposedly impervious to the effects of the plant had been the final straw for Favre. His paranoid suspicions about Francesca and John Shepard became intolerable and he’d become physically abusive, saying she needed punishment.
Francesca initially defended him by explaining that Joey was teaching her about the BDSM lifestyle. She insisted that she had somehow given Joey the wrong impression about her professional relationship with Colonel Sheppard because she admired him too much. It became obvious to Tony and Aoife O’Shea that the beautiful, yet woefully naïve Italian scientist had been tricked into believing that Favre’s physical and emotional abuse was part of the whole BDSM scene, yet she didn’t even know what a safe word was.
It was at that point, that Tony had slipped discreetly out of the room so that the psychologist could speak to the botanist in private. After two decades in law enforcement, it never ceased to amaze and dishearten him at how supposedly brilliant people could become so easily duped. When he questioned the rest of Sheppard’s team, they admitted that Francesca had seemed to have a bad case of hero-worship for Sheppard, but he’d treated her tactfully and professionally. Asked why none of them bothered to mention this to him earlier, there’d been a mutual shrugging of shoulders, and embarrassment before McKay, who was still holding a grudge, told him that it happened all the time and no one paid it any mind.
Even more disturbing, Tony learnt that De Rosa had been taking Muay Thai classes, otherwise known as Thai boxing. Sgt Mehra, whose mother was from Thailand ran the class and reported that Favre had approached him, saying that his girlfriend was keen to learn the martial art. It made a sick kind of sense that such a physical form of martial arts would hide the abuse that he’d done to the scientist but signing her up for Muay Thai classes was a whole new level of depravity for the jaded cop. Lance Corporal Favre was one real sick puppy and Tony looked forward to taking him apart – by the book of course.
After he’d let his emotions rule his head when he believed that Trent Kort had killed Ziva and had almost killed her daughter, he’d become caught up in the bloodlust affecting the rest of the team. Not to mention deeply affected by the fear and pain of Emily Fornell over her father’s near-fatal shooting and the assassination of Director Morrow. He’d joined in on the posse that hunted the former CIA spook down, which ended with the vile spook taking a dirt nap. Not that Kort didn’t deserve his fate but for Tony, he’d stepped over a line that he’d never believed he would. Not even with Daniel Budd, had he shot him down without provocation. His takedown was by the book – he tried to take the terrorist into custody, but Budd had refused to be arrested, threatening Tony’s life which was when he’d fired the kill shot.
He hadn’t shed any tears over killing Budd, but he also knew it was strictly by the book. Yet he couldn’t say the same for Kort, that bastard had caused him to lose a piece of his humanity and he’d vowed when he took on this job, he was never going there again.
He would crush Joey Favre, but SAIC Alex Paddington would do it by the book.
AN:
putnscrite – bull shit (Satedan)
stonlurt – that’s crap (Satedan)
klumpenkrug – a massive quantity of excrement (specifically refers to) manure from a Pegasus galaxy mammal resembling a rhinoceros, with four horns, is twice its mass, producing up to two hundred pounds of manure per day (Satedan)
