Chapter 11 – Doctor Weir’s Interview
Jon had spent most of the morning trying to find LtCol Sheppard. The man was elusive. However, chance intervened and Jon was able to pinpoint the colonel’s location by overhearing a few of the Marines returning from the gym. Apparently, LtCol Sheppard was taking his frustrations out on the defenseless punching bag.
Jon quickly changed into workout gear and headed to the gym. He easily spotted the colonel in the corner and decided to use try a casual approach. Jon spent several minutes stretching near the colonel while watching the Athosians train several Marines in stick fighting.
“Wow,” Jon remarked offhandedly to Sheppard as Teyla executed a particularly difficult move. “She’s pretty good,” he said stealing a glance at the colonel.
Sheppard sent him a glare before renewing his assault on the heavy bag. Jon rolled his eyes at the obvious display of hostility before turning his attention back to the stick fighting. He finished his stretches just as the Marines finished their training and left. Jon walked right up to woman with a big smile on his face.
“That was a very impressive display of skill, Ma’am,” he greeted her trying to play up his youthful looks and enthusiasm.
She considered him for a moment as she toweled the sweat from her face. “Thank you…” she paused significantly.
“Oh…I’m sorry. Ma’am. My mother would tan my hide for such a poor display of manners.” Jon smiled contritely and extended his hand. “Jon O’Brien, Ma’am. I’m here with the NCIS team. And I am very pleased to make your acquaintance.”
She returned his smile as his boyish charm started to work on her. “Teyla Emmagan of the Athosians.” She accepted his hand with a firm grip as she assessed him more carefully. “Would you care to spar?” she asked gesturing to the sticks piled nearby.
Jon chuckled, “I’m afraid that I would be no match for your skill. While I have some small skill with a bo, I have never tried to master the tonfa.”
“The what?” she asked confused.
“Your batons or sticks. They are called tonfa in taekwondo,” he said still grinning.
She returned his grin. “Then perhaps it is time you began to learn,” she challenged her eyes alight with good humor.
“It would be my pleasure, Ma’am,” he teased back and immediately scooped up a pair of sticks.
Teyla spent the next few minutes showing him how to properly hold the sticks and walking him through several techniques before coaching him through a few simple forms. Before long she was testing his forms and techniques against her own set of sticks. The whole time, Jon was acutely aware of LtCol Sheppard’s scrutiny. Finally, she called a break.
“I am impressed,” she said after taking a drink from a water bottle. “You learn very quickly.”
“Thanks. Although, I’m sure my sensei would disagree. He is always telling me how slow I am.” Jon took another sip of water.
Teyla smiled at him. “So what do you think of Atlantis so far?” she asked him.
“It’s amazing,” he replied with false enthusiasm. “The people have been great so far…well, most people have,” he said glancing briefly at the colonel still in his quiet corner of the room.
Teyla’s smile faded and she also glanced at Sheppard. “That’s good,” she replied trying to deflect attention away from Sheppard. “There are many good people here.”
“Yes, there are,” Jon said in a conversational tone. “I can see why Lt Ford was so proud of this place and the people stationed here.” Jon covertly watched as both Sheppard and Teyla froze at the mention of the lieutenant. Pretending to be oblivious to their discomfort, he continued. “He talked quite extensively about the people he worked with in his letters home. He never mentioned specifics, but you could tell that he was honored to serve here with everyone.”
Teyla shook off her shock first and she slowly turned away and placed her water bottle on the ground to mask her emotions. Sheppard was staring hard at the heavy bag, seemingly unable to move.
“Aiden was a good friend,” Teyla said softly. “I still miss him.”
Teyla’s words seemed to prod Sheppard into action. He started to angrily beat at the heavy bag with a series of rapid punches. Jon nodded to himself. They both were obviously still grieving for the lieutenant, even after all this time.
“Do you think he could have survived?” Jon asked, with feigned innocence.
Teyla sucked in a breath and looked over at the colonel again. Sheppard’s face was a hard mask. He was so focused on beating the heavy bag that he seemed oblivious to their scrutiny.
Teyla finally looked back at Jon with concern, “Some of us think that he could have survived. But most of us have accepted that he is lost to us.”
Jon nodded solemnly in response. “Yeah. Well, it’s been nice meeting you. Thanks for teaching me.”
Teyla gave him a tentative smile. “You are welcome. I hope we can have another lesson before you leave.”
Jon returned her smile. “I hope so too.” Jon set the sticks back in their corner and waved to her as he left the room. He stopped out of sight in the hallway and listened.
“You know, Teyla, he was just probing for information,” the gruff voice of LtCol Sheppard said in between thuds on the heavy bag.
“Yes, John. I know. His job is to find the truth, is it not?” Teyla replied.
Sheppard snorted in disbelief and the thuds stopped. “No, it’s not. His job is to find a scapegoat to dump all the blame on.” The thuds resumed.
“You believe that they will blame you,” Teyla said quietly.
“Yeah.” Thud. Thud. Thud. “They did it before…” Thud. “When Holland…” Sheppard stopped abruptly.
“You did nothing wrong, John,” she said trying to reassure him.
“Didn’t I?” Thud. “I had him in my sights, Teyla. Twice…” Sheppard replied angrily. Thud. Thud. Thud. “I let him get away…”
“John…” Teyla said forcefully.
“No, Teyla. It’s better this way,” he said in a resigned voice, his anger dissipating slowly.
“So, you’re giving up then,” Teyla accused.
Sheppard chuckled softly, “Hell, no. You know that I can’t do anything the easy way. They’ll have to drag me away kicking and screaming,” he joked softly.
“But they will drag you away,” Teyla stated in a disbelieving tone.
Sheppard let out a quiet resigned sigh. “Yeah. Probably.”
Jon listened a few moments longer before he stalked away quietly. He thought about what he had learned from the two members of SGA-1. He understood Sheppard far too well. A commander’s guilt of a failed mission. The loss of someone under your command. Sheppard’s pain and anger was far too easy to understand. Jon let out a huff of air as he entered the team’s lab, ready to brief Gibbs on what he had found.
--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG
“Elizabeth, there you are,” McKay said coming to an abrupt halt in front of Dr. Weir waving his portable computer at her.
Dr Weir gave him a wan smile as she recognized his expression. He only wore it when Sheppard had been threatening him or the computer refused to accept his genius. “Yes, Rodney. I was just on my way to a meeting.”
“It can wait,” he declared, absently. “We’ve got a problem.”
Weir sighed. Rodney was great at bringing problems to her attention. Hopefully, this time the problem didn’t involve their imminent deaths. She fixed him with her fake smile and nodded for him to continue.
“Okay,” he started. “I was working late in my lab when the lights started to go haywire, then the air conditioner, and then computer monitors. At first, I thought it was a large scale problem, but then I was able to track down a computer unaffected by the power fluctuations…”
“Rodney!” Weir interrupted.
“The…uh…anomaly seems to be following me,” McKay summarized.
Okay, maybe she stopped him too soon. “What anomaly?”
“The one causing the power fluctuations,” he replied with a slightly panicked look. “Look, I know this sounds crazy, but watch.” McKay walked up to the light switch and turned the light off in the hallway and walked away. Seconds after he turned around, the hall lights came back on. “Now, you do it,” he said as he gestured to the light switch.
Shaking her head, she complied and turned the hall lights off again. This time they stayed off. They waited for a minute but nothing else happened. When McKay tried to turn them back on, the switch repeated its performance. She had to admit that it was weird.
“See. I can’t get any work done. The computer reverses every command I enter just seconds after I enter it,” McKay whined.
Weir nodded sympathetically. She could see how frustrating that would be. “When did this start?”
McKay blushed. “Last night,” he said evasively, piquing her interest. She gave him her firmest look and he caved. “Alright, it started when those agents came by. I…I was talking to that scary girl when all hell started breaking loose.”
Uh huh. “Rodney,” she started. “What did you…” She stopped and thought better of a better question to ask. “How wide spread is this?”
“Uh…I think it’s limited to just me. I’ve asked all of my staff and the technicians in the gateroom. None of them are having problems…at least, not until I tried something. But it stopped as soon as I left the area.” McKay blushed again.
“Any ideas about what might be causing this?” she asked.
McKay seemed to pale and then looked at his feet. “Um…maybe…”
Weir waited in the following silence before letting out an exasperated, “Well?”
McKay mumbled something under his breath.
Weir was just about at the end of her patience. “What was that, Rodney?”
He blushed again. “I might have been cursed.”
Of all the possible longwinded explanations she had expected, that brief admission wasn’t one of them. “Cursed?”
“Yeah…I might have said something a wee bit inappropriate to that agent girl…and she just might have cursed me until I apologize…She didn’t tell me she was a witch,” he groused in an embarrassed tone.
“Agent Sciuto did this? How?” Weir asked completely flabbergasted.
“I don’t know. If I knew, I could fix it. She didn’t touch anything. She just looked at me with her angry eyes and told me to apologize or else.” He said waving the computer about.
“Or else what?” Weir asked.
“She didn’t say…But when I refused to take it back…that’s when the computer started to go nuts.”
Weir let out a frustrated sigh as the McKay induced headache started. “So it is likely a coincidence that she was angry at you at the exact moment the computer glitch turns up.”
“NO!” McKay stated firmly. “Well…okay…maybe,” he relented as she glared at him. “But I’m sure it’s her.”
Weir glanced at her watch and winced. She was late for her interview. Great. “Rodney, just take care of it. If apologizing will fix it, then go apologize. Just…fix it.”
“But…” he whined.
“NOW, Rodney!” she said over her should as she stormed off to the room set aside for the interviews.
--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG
Gibbs was patiently waiting in the interview room watching the beauty of Atlantis out of the window when Dr Weir arrived looking both angry and frustrated. He was curious about her late arrival, but careful not to show it. He would have bet money that she would arrive early to make a good impression. Seeing her frustration, he had no doubt that she had intended to arrive early, but had been delayed. He knew that he would have to handle her differently than Caldwell. He doubted that a confrontational approach would work. She was a negotiator and a politician. He had to convince her that answering was in the best interests of the expedition. Gibbs really hated taking the soft approach. It was always so…messy.
Dr Weir sat primly in her chair and set out her notes before she finally meet his eyes. She gave him a pained smile before apologizing. “I’m sorry. I was delayed on my way.”
“Nothing of galactic importance, I hope,” he replied indifferently as he casually took his seat across from her.
Weir let out a frustrated huff. “No.”
Gibbs barely suppressed grinning at her response. “Good. Let’s get started then.” Gibbs leaned back casually. “Tell me about Lt Ford’s rescue and his subsequent escape.”
“I’m sure you’ve read my report. It’s all there,” she said aloofly.
Gibbs watched her closely. He had to admit, she was very good at masking her true feelings. He hadn’t expected to hit her defensive walls so soon. He knew that he more he pushed the more stubborn she would get.
“No. The facts are there. I know the facts. What I don’t know is how those facts affected you and your decisions at the time,” he related trying to show her an open face. It was more difficult than he remembered. He usually sent Ziva in to play this role.
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. “You can’t bully me into changing my reports,” she declared defiantly.
Gibbs gave her a soft understanding smile. “I know. I wouldn’t dream of trying to force your hand.” He leaned in and rested his hands on the table. “I understand how hard this is for you. I know that you’ve became close to your whole team, including Lt Ford. That everyone on this expedition is very important to you. I’m just trying to understand what happened so I can reassure Lt Ford’s family. Please, tell me what happened. I just want to hear it in your own words.”
Weir watched him with interest as if weighing his motives before finally giving him a curt nod. “At the time, I was worried about Aiden and his team. We lost contact with them during the first attack,” she looked down and checked her notes. “After we had secured the city, we were trying to locate the wounded and dead. Aiden was neither dead nor wounded. We couldn’t even find him using the lifesign detector. John…LtCol Sheppard…” she clarified, “…expanded the search to include the sea and suddenly we had found him and he was alive. I was relieved. I immediately contacted the Daedalus and had him transported to the infirmary.” She fixed Gibbs with a penetrating gaze, “My relief was replaced with horror when I found out what had happened to him.”
She released a shuddering breath as she relived the memory. “At first he seemed fine. Insisting that he be allowed back to work…And then he attacked Carson. He felt so bad about losing control.” She paused, collecting her thoughts. “Carson was worried about Aiden and the affects the enzyme was having on his brain functions. I think that we may have tried to wean him off of it too quickly…or we were already too late to help him.” She glanced back down at her notes before continuing. “Carson told us of his escape as we were preparing to receive the rest of the wraith fleet. John tried to reason with him, but Aiden…he was just too far gone. John set out after him, hoping to reach him before it was too late.”
“When was this?” Gibbs asked softly.
She glanced back down at her notes, “Shortly before Rodney detonated the warhead.”
Gibbs nodded. It matched his timeline. “What happened next?”
“Rodney detonated the nuke over the city and then switched the shield to a cloak. The Stargate dialed just as John rushed into the control room. But we were too late. The Stargate activated and Aiden left without saying another word. We tried to track him, but we just couldn’t find him.”
“Why did you just send LtCol Sheppard? Why not send a whole security team?” he asked, trying not to sound confrontational.
She glanced up quickly. “Because I didn’t have one,” she snapped. “The Athosians and the majority of the expedition had evacuated to the Alpha site. The Daedalus was too busy trying to repair its systems in case those of us that remained behind needed a quick extraction. The only security personnel I could spare had already been guarding Aiden in the infirmary.” She paused significantly and let out a disgusted snort. “I didn’t even want John to go after him. Not with the wraith poised to attack.” She guiltily looked into his eyes. “I didn’t think he was threat…I was wrong.”
Gibbs nodded reassuringly. “I doubt you could have known what he planned. By all accounts, Lt Ford was not in his right mind.”
“No, but it would be easier to understand if he had been completely irrational…not…not quite so reasonable…so understandable.” Tears threatened to fall as she took a deep breath to control the emotional surge. Methodically, she clasped her hands on the table and straightened as she regained control.
“What about the next time your teams encountered the lieutenant?” Gibbs continued after she had pulled herself back together.
“Just over a month later, we found our first sign that Aiden was still alive. Maj Lorne had found a dead wraith that had been killed by our weapons. I sent SGA-1 and SGA-2 back to the planet to see if they could find Aiden and bring him home.” She sighed and clenched her hands together. “But it didn’t play out that way. First, I was informed that John and Teyla went missing and then Rodney. Eventually, John made contact and requested that Carson come and help a new ally. But the next time they reported in, Aiden had tried to kill Rodney, was shot by John, and escaped us by allowing the wraith to take him captive.” She let out a long breath. “It was a rollercoaster ride and in the end, I’m just glad that I didn’t lose anyone else. I missed Aiden and wanted him home, but not at the cost of others,” she said before lapsing into silence.
Gibbs let them sit in the quiet for a few moments, pretending to scratch a few notes. He finally looked up, drawing her attention back to the present. “Do you think you’re your teams did everything possible was done to recover the lieutenant?” he asked, trying to appear uneasy about having to ask the question. This was the line that he hated about the soft approach; How to push without appearing to push. He preferred the more honest, if confrontational approach.
Weir looked at him closely, trying once again to read into his motives. “Yes, I do.”
He gave her a small crooked smile as he nodded, as if in approval. But honestly, he didn’t expect another answer. “And the last time you encountered Lt Ford?”
She shook her head slowly as if trying to deny the last time. “I was on Atlantis the whole time. All I really knew for sure was that SGA-1 was missing, possibly taken prisoner. It wasn’t until Rodney stumbled through the gate several days later that we found out about Aiden’s involvement and it was another 48 hours before Rodney was well enough to pass on his information. I immediately sent the Daedalus to try and beam them off of the wraith hive ship, but the Daedalus was too late.”
She chuckled dryly. “In fact, I had just received Col Caldwell’s message that they had been unable to recover the team when John dialed the Stargate with Ronan and Teyla in tow. He has always had the most impeccable timing.”
“But they still didn’t have Lt Ford?” Gibbs asked absently.
“No. John was the last to see Aiden alive on the hive ship. Aiden was covering their escape.” Her smile faded to a wince, “John still believes that Aiden is alive. He fought me when I wanted to change his status to killed-in-action. We eventually compromised and listed him as missing but presumed dead.”
Gibbs leaned back once more, “Why do you think he believes that?”
“Playing psychologist now, Agent Gibbs?” Weir teased, with a grin.
Gibbs smiled crookedly. “Maybe.”
“Well, then, he believes it because that is who he is. John…John is perhaps the most positive person I know. He will refuse to believe that Aiden is dead until he sees his body.” She looked up at Gibbs again considering. “Perhaps that’s why he is so against this investigation.”
Gibbs conceded her point with a nod. “Or perhaps it’s because he almost lost his career the last time he was involved in this kind of investigation,” Gibbs pointed out.
“Yes,” she agreed. “That certainly isn’t helping.”
“Is there anything else you can add about the lieutenant or the others on his team?” Gibbs asked absently as he scratched a few more fake notes on his pad.
“About Aiden, no. The others will come around…” she chuckled as she recalled McKay’s latest ‘problem’. “Although, Rodney should be a fun interview.” She grinned as she took in Gibbs’ questioning look. “He thinks that your Agent Sciuto has cursed him.”
“What? Abby? Where would he get that idea?” Gibbs asked, surprised.
“I’m not totally sure, but it should be fun to find out. Don’t you think?” Weir rose from her seat with a genuine smile on her face. “Let me know if you need anything, Agent Gibbs,” she said extending her hand.
Gibbs rose with her and took her hand, not totally surprised that Weir had taken control of the interview at the end. She needed to take back control from him in order to resume command once she left. “I will, Dr Weir. I’ll let you know what I find before I return to Earth.” Gibbs released her hand and scooped up his notes before gesturing her to precede him out of the room. Man he hated the soft touch…at least he wouldn’t have to use it for Sheppard’s interview. No, that would require a whole new approach.
--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG
Ten minutes later, Gibbs sat and watched as LtCol Sheppard stalked angrily into the interview room. He had expected nothing less after Jon’s report this morning. The colonel stood over the table glaring at Gibbs before slamming a copy of his official reports on the table. Gibbs didn’t bother to react to Sheppard’s display or even to glance at the abused paperwork. Instead he continued to intently watch the colonel with his most passive face. It was a simple contest of wills and Gibbs had nothing to hide.
Abruptly, LtCol Sheppard looked away. He paused only a moment before retreating from the room. Gibbs gave a cryptic smile before collecting his paperwork and returning to the lab where his team was waiting. It looks like they would have extra time to prepare for the next interview. He’d let LtCol Sheppard simmer for a day or two before trying something else.
--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG--SG—SG
TBC
Finding Closure von Rocza
Kapitel Bemerkung: Jon scopes out Sheppard, Rodney's in trouble, Gibbs interviews Dr Weir, and Sheppard pulls a Hammond.
Kapitel Abschlussbemerkung: Yes, Sheppard pulled a Hammond. Done before, but oh so appropriate to the story line.
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