At a red light that she knew from experience was annoyingly long�if you were unlucky enough to miss it you could wait for upwards of ten minutes before cars in your lane even got the opportunity to move again�Elizabeth hooked up her trusty hands-free cell phone headset and dialled the number that she had found herself calling more often than she was entirely comfortable with the pencil-pushers that would receive the cell bill knowing about.
�Sheppard,� the familiar and comforting voice of her second in command answered.
�Hey,� Elizabeth said, suddenly hoping she hadn�t interrupted anything. She knew that John was at Area 51 for a reason, that he was there to master X-302�s, but the idea of him not always being just a radio call away, was hard for Elizabeth to wrap her head around. The only time he was ever out of contact was when he was in trouble, which she supposed was a contributing factor to her ever-present concern for her second in command. �Sorry, is this a bad time?�
�Nah. There�s this weird laissez-faire attitude to my supposed training that is, quite frankly, far from reassuring,�</i> John replied. �I�ve spent most of the day going over potential additions to the military contingent.�
�Well, at least you�re getting some work done,� Elizabeth said, not entirely comfortable with how nervous she felt.
�There is that,� John agreed. �So what�s up? I mean, not that I mind the spur-of-the-moment calls �cause they�re great for breaking up the day and it�s heartening to know that you haven�t been eaten alive by the politics that I, thankfully, get to avoid for the most part, but you usually have a reason for calling me."
�Uh, yeah, actually. I�m on my way to the base. Apparently Teyla called earlier and she�s going to call again in, like, half an hour, so I�m trying to get back to the Mountain in time to pass some messages along to people back home.�
�I thought they weren�t going to call until next week,� John said. Elizabeth could hear the frown in his voice and she could easily imagine his brow furrowing.
With a sigh she nodded. �Me too. Landry says that he�ll get Colonel Carter to tell me why Teyla called early when there�s time. Probably some time-change thing that we haven�t had to deal with yet.�
�Probably,� John agreed. �Uh� I can�t think of anything that is pressing. Just say hi to everyone and� oh, can you make sure Zelenka checks out Jumper Six? It was doing this weird pulling-to-the-right thing that I�d really like fixed before we get back and I have to start training new people to fly them.�
�Jumper Six is pulling to the right. Got it,� Elizabeth said, making a mental note of John�s request. �So training isn�t going so well?� she asked sympathetically.
John let out a bitter chuckle. �Understatement. After I went over the paper crap�which Samantha gave me the lowdown on before I left the base�I got about two minutes in the hanger bay with one of the techs but he got called away and I got sent back to my room. I�ve gone through about two dozen files since I got back here.�
�Anyone good?�
�A few of them show promise for what we deal with, but I�m not wild about judging people by what�s in their file. Glass houses and all that,� John said and Elizabeth nodded even though she knew John couldn�t see the motion. She had always known that what was written down was hardly ever the full story, especially when it came to something as unclassifiable as people. It was why she hadn�t cared about the fact that John�s record before Atlantis was a mixture of �amazing pilot�-type comments and �disciplinary pain in the ass� variations and, of course, the infamous black mark from Afghanistan. Hell, half of the military personnel she had under her command had some kind of negative mark on their record that was stopping them from moving their careers forward on Earth�it was part of why they had agreed to leave the Milky Way in the first place. �What�s that noise? You�re not driving are you?� John asked.
�How else was I supposed to get to the SGC?� Elizabeth frowned.
�You really shouldn�t use your phone while you�re driving,� John said sternly.