| A Promise Made, A Promise Kept "Now, thanks to you, he's in enemy hands with information that could compromise all of us." Caldwell turned to leave and John knew he should probably leave well enough alone, but he couldn't stop himself. "I don't think he'll give us away." He couldn't bring himself to believe that Ford would betray them, no matter what had happened to the young Marine. Caldwell turned back around with a scornful look. "Oh, thank you so much for your assurance, Colonel. I'll be sure to include your feelings in my report." He stared at John contemptuously for a moment more before exiting, the officers who had been waiting outside Weir's office door following as he walked away. There was an uncomfortable silence for several seconds after Caldwell left the room; it seemed no one knew quite what to say. Elizabeth finally spoke, though her voice was noticeably quieter than it had been just thirty seconds earlier. "Is there anything else any of you want to add?" she asked, looking at each of them in turn. They all shook their heads and she nodded. "Alright. Then I suggest we finish this in the briefing tomorrow." John waited for Teyla and Rodney to leave, hanging back so he could talk with Elizabeth. "Can I ask you something?" he said, watching as she sat at her desk. "Of course." Her brows furrowed at his question and she looked even more confused when he closed the office door before taking a seat across from her. "What is it, John?" She sounded concerned. "I wanted to ask you about Caldwell." Technically, ethically, he shouldn't have been talking about a superior officer, but he felt safe in coming to Elizabeth with his unease. "Have you noticed a change in his attitude since we left Earth?" John had liked the man when he'd first met him � Caldwell had taken his suggestions into account and had deferred to Elizabeth for decisions regarding Atlantis � but ever since they'd boarded the Daedalus for the trip back to the Pegasus galaxy the colonel had been antagonistic at every turn, for reasons John couldn't figure out. Elizabeth sat back in her chair. "I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but I didn't realize it had reached this point." Actually, it was probably worse than she thought since, as far as he was aware, she didn't know that Caldwell had confronted him earlier. But John didn't think she needed to hear about that. "Colonel Caldwell wanted your job." Well. He hadn't been expecting that. "If he wanted it, why doesn't he have it?" Caldwell outranked him and doubtlessly had a more impressive service record. By all rights, John thought, the colonel probably should have his job. Elizabeth's expression was an odd combination of mischief and embarrassment. "I may have had something to do with that." He should have guessed. "Do I even want to know?" Her expression changed, reminding John of the way she'd smiled at him when they'd talked about his promotion back on the Daedalus. "Probably not." As he sat there looking at her, something occurred to John for the first time. A year ago, somewhere between his crash course on the Stargate system and leaving for the lost city of Atlantis, John had made a promise to himself that he would make it his personal mission to watch out for Dr. Weir. She'd wanted him on her team despite knowing his record, and he'd been determined to prove that her trust in him hadn't been misplaced. Over the course of their first eleven months he'd kept his promise in obvious ways, such as the whole Genii incident, and by less obvious means, like making sure she took time to relax every now and then. It wasn't until that moment that John realized she'd been looking out for him, too, in a lot of different ways over the past year. It had been a long time since anyone who mattered had shown any faith in him and that Elizabeth would use her influence � and he knew she had a fair bit of it, back on Earth � in order to keep him as military commander of Atlantis left him momentarily speechless. His lack of response to Elizabeth's flippant tone must have had her second-guessing herself because her smile disappeared and she started reassuring him. "They wouldn't have promoted you if you didn't deserve it, John, no matter what I wanted. You earned it." She must have taken his silence as self-doubt. John didn't know how to tell her what he'd just realized � words were her domain, not his � and probably wouldn't have anyway, so he settled for smiling at her, and her expression eased. "Just keep Caldwell in the loop on the important stuff so he doesn't have cause to complain. There's not much else we can do unless he starts interfering with city operations." John nodded in agreement and rose to his feet. "I can do that." He'd try, at any rate. He could practically guarantee that he and Caldwell would continue to butt heads, though. He opened the door but paused before exiting, glancing back at Elizabeth, who was already pouring over a report. An emotion he chose not to identify tightened his chest, just for a moment. "Elizabeth?" She looked up. "John?" It came out much quieter than he'd intended. "Thank you." By the way she smiled back at him he thought that maybe she got it, even if he didn't. With a last nod at her, John left her to her work. --end-- back to Atlantis fanfic |