stargatexing | FIC: Past Misfortunes, Present Blessings

Gosh, sorry to keep y'all waiting. I've been having issues being worked out with the characters. I'm trying to get more up soon.

Part XII

"There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences." -- P.J. O'Rourke

Freya marked the page she was on as the door swished closed behind the man who had just entered her office. She'd been expecting someone to drop by, but when she looked up, the person looked right, but she had never quite seen that expression on his face before.

"Teyla and I are returning in a couple of days to check on Rodney and '994. He's still checking things out," Sheppard said, without preamble, but that didn't explain the cocky grin accompanied by a slight bouncing on the balls of his feet as he stood there.

"What is it?" Freya asked, skipping a few parts of the conversation herself.

"Rodney agrees with me."

"So you and Teyla are going to help him with a worn-down Stonehenge copy?"

"No, we're going to be there to back Rodney up when he figures out how to access the device generating the field at the exact center of the worn-down Stonehenge copy."

"You came to tell me I'm not invited," she guessed.

"It's too dangerous, Freya. You're compromised out there," Sheppard said, flatly. He wasn't bouncing anymore.

"I wasn't ready."

"Dammit, we almost lost you!"

"And we know better, now, don't we? I'm an observer, Brendan. Let me do what I do best."

"You can observe from here," he insisted.

Freya stood up, placing her hands palm down on the desk in front of her and leaning towards him. "Why are you doing this to me?"

"Teyla sensed the same thing you did, but she wasn't as badly affected. Why take the risk when you can OBSERVE from here?"

Freya took a deep breath, then let it out. "You asked, no you practically ordered me to be on your team, and now you're cutting me out. Please, let me help."

Sheppard turned away from her, and for a moment, she caught the edges of his anxiety before he blocked her out again.

"Don't be frightened," she said, softly. Relaxing her stance, she sat back down.

"Two years ago, you would have sat this one out," Sheppard said, softly, still not looking at her.

"Two years ago, I barely qualified as a rookie agent, and had no training to speak of. Thanks to you, I'm not that bad anymore."

:I can't protect you from this,: Freya heard him think, and a moment later Sheppard spoke.

"I don't want to see you hurt, Freya."

The telepath didn't know what to say as she watched her former partner walk out the door, and let out a deep sigh as the door swished closed.

"I just don't get him these days," Freya said to Teyla over the rapid sounds of sticks hitting each other as they went through some of the beginning patterns. "He begged me to back him up, and now, he's saying I can't go."

"You speak of Colonel Sheppard?" the Athosian woman asked.

"What other him would it be?" Freya replied with a scowl, but her lapse in attention was rewarded with a smarting blow as Teyla knocked one of the paired sticks from her hand, sending it clattering to the wall.

"You and John certainly are close. Is it not normal to wish to protect those we . . . care for?" The hesitation before the final phrase caught Freya's attention.

"He knows he can trust me. We worked together for nearly a year, and then he went off and disappeared on me. All I knew was that he transferred to another project. Nobody I talked to could tell me what happened to the best partner I ever had. Apparently, I'm also the only partner he ever could be bothered to work with," Freya continued, trying desperately to continue to block Teyla's attacks.

"Halt," Teyla said, frowning at Freya's form. "You are improving, but your mind is on other matters. Perhaps it would be in your best interest to address things before we spar again." The Athosian nodded, and Freya looked over to see Sheppard watching them, with a mildly amused smirk on his face.

"I'll have you know, Freya, that the reason you were the only partner I ever stuck beside was because the others all suddenly desired transfers," he said, with a shrug.

"Because you kept them on the outside, Brendan, just like you are, now," Freya said, thrusting her remaining stick into Teyla's hands and pushing past Sheppard to exit the workout room. "You can be the best leader in the world, John, but that doesn't make you a better partner."

Sheppard continued to look at Freya's retreating back, then turned to Teyla. "Do I want to know what that was about?"

"I would say that you already know, Colonel Sheppard," Teyla said, shaking her head.

Sheppard leaned against the wall, scratching his head. "She's acting like I don't have everyone's best interests in mind when I make my decisions."

"I am not certain it is your mind making this one," Teyla said, then, picking up the stick that had fallen to one side, she offered the pair to Sheppard. "Shall we see if you have improved as well?"

Freya was in her office again, reading through a set of files on the nature of the various types of ancient technology discovered so far when a knock on the wall beside the door caught her attention. Looking up, she was surprised to see Rodney standing there.

"Dr. McKay, you're back," she said.

"Yes, well, when your reports came through, I realized that it was imperative that I be here to make certain things were taken care of," the scientist replied.

"Well, I'm glad you took time out of your busy schedule to come see me, but I'm sure by now you've been informed that I won't be returning to the planet," Freya commented, unable to keep her bitterness out of her voice.

"That's precisely what I wanted to talk to you about."

"I can't force the colonel to take me with him when he's already made up his mind, and you don't need to be a telepath to know that he has."

"However, he has no say whatsoever on any scientists I choose to consider necessary."

Freya blinked, surprised. "You're saying you want me, a person you have thought on numerous occaisions to be crazy, to work on your discovery?"

"Well, actually, no," Rodney said.

At his words, Freya started to go back to her reading.

"Ms. McAllister, I want you there when I activate the device because your insight in the situation has already proven invaluable. Your . . . communication with the local indiginous lifeforms made it possible to realize that the supposedly random fluctuations we were seeing in the energy signature were in fact two separate types of energy interacting."

She looked up at that. "You believe that they're real?"

"This isn't the first energy-based life form discovered via the stargate, and it isn't even the first found in this galaxy. And since they appear to be able to communicate, I fully intend to try to keep the means of communication open, which means I need you. Maybe the natives can tell us more about what the device we've found is used for," he said, turning to leave. "If you don't want to come, I suppose we could survive without you."

Freya shook her head, grinning at the man in front of her. "No, I'm coming, I wouldn't miss this for the world."