Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

0.121.0

Hello friends! After a terrible round of writers block, I'm back with a LONG update!

Happy Reading!

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Echoes
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As promised, it took a couple weeks for things to get back to normal on Atlantis. Once they had all the personnel returned, things were able to settle into a fairly regular routine. Kai worked either in the lab with Zelenka or the jumper bay. She sparred with Teyla or Ronon, but things weren't normal. Not really. The Bond was distracting, and despite John being close enough for it to not be painful, she wasn't sleeping well. It was too easy to become complacent and let down her guard, and as soon as she did the Bond would flare open whether she wanted it to or not. Somehow fighting the Bond was even worse then the emptiness of its absence. It made her tense and irritable.

Kai was working in the jumper bay when Jumper 3 returned from a short run to the main lane. John was the pilot of course. He had ferried Zelenka and Ronon to the main land the day before and had returned to pick them up. It had been an odd choice for John to run such a mundane mission, but Kai wasn't about to engage him just to question it.

Zelenka had some tests he wanted to run using ground penetrating radar and Ronon had used the opportunity to escort him as an impromptu hunting trip. Kai wasn't certain the Satedan was going to be happy with the results of trying to hunt while Zelenka worked, but no one had asked her opinion. With Ronon willing to go with him as escort and backup Kai didn't have to.

John set the jumper down in its usual spot and the three of them disembarked. Ronon shoved past the other two, stomping angrily out of the bay. Kai turned and watched him go. She wasn't sure if she had ever seen him that worked up outside of a combat situation. Any normal time she would have turned to John...Colonel Sheppard, with a quirked brow. Instead, she sank her teeth into the inside of her cheek and looked down, fighting to appear focused on her work when the Bond strained like a living thing with him so close.

"Kai," Zelenka said, coming towards her.

Kai turned to Zelenka, relieved for the distraction.

"There seems to be an issue with the navigation system," Zelenka said thoughtfully.

Kai frowned and risked a glance towards Sheppard. He seemed to be trying his best to remain unobtrusive, but stood close enough to be part of the conversation.

"It appears to be off by nearly 40 degrees," John told her.

Kai didn't contain her surprise. Forty degrees was a significant fluxuation. "I'll take a look," she promised. She picked up her tablet and made a note of the issue. She also filed a ground order for the jumper. It would be incredibly dangerous to fly without an accurate navigation system.

The others left and Kai went to work diagnosing the problem. She worked most of the evening and it was late into the night before she finally gave up and admitted defeat. No matter what tests she ran and what scenarios she put into the program she couldn't find what had caused the navigation issue. Perhaps tomorrow she would take it out herself and see if she could replicate the problem. She packed away her tools and headed for the hall. She had missed dinner, but was too tired to care.

The halls were quiet as she made her way towards her quarters. She came around the corner and saw Teyla standing perfectly still in the middle of the hall with her back to her. Teyla tipped her head as though she were looking at something in front of her, although Kai couldn't see, hear, or smell anything else in the hall.

"I'm sorry I do not understand," Teyla said, then she flinched and looked down at herself in surprise.

Kai jerked as a flash of pain made her vision dim for a second in the same moment. She dropped to her knee gasping and suddenly Teyla was there, resting a hand on her back.