The Long Way Home

Chapter Fifty Five: The Ties That Bind

I'll be there for you
These five words I swear to you
When you breathe I want to be the air for you
I'll be there for you

Bon Jovi – I'll Be There For You

It was a stand off just like it had been in Atlantis during the Siege only this time John thought he had the upper hand. The two men were standing apart from each other. John with his back to the forest P90 focused on the young officer and Lieutenant Ford empty handed, standing with his feet apart, inches away from where the Wraith Darts were scanning the surface with their beaming technology.

The situation was escalating more rapidly than John had thought possible. He had hoped they'd be able to snag Ford before the Wraith had made it through the Stargate but that would apparently have been to easy for the powers above.

He took solace in the fact that both Teyla and Cass had made it back to the Jumper and the marines guarding it. If anything were to go wrong here they were in a position to defend themselves and retreat if necessary. Ronon had fulfilled his promise of tracking Ford and in turn saved the McKay from an untimely death at the Lieutenant's hands. There were many a time that John himself had considered shooting McKay more often than not in a bid to get him to shut the hell up but he was never serious, he had never raised a gun to the other man.

That was the indication that things had crossed a line here. Ford was no longer seeing things in black or white, he was simply seeing grey. The strong morale structure his grandparents had instilled when they were raising him had depleted into the most basic of instincts, he was becoming more and more like the Wraith every day. Cold, callous and merciless, there were still traces of Aiden in there, now an then John thought he could glimpse the reminders of the young man struggling to fight through the effects of the drug but they were fleeting and brief.

Too much time alone, too much time spent fight and ingesting more of the Wraith enzyme. They were losing him, John didn't have to be a genius to figure that out. Ford's survival instincts were strong but it left him un-trusting and paranoid. Watching the Lieutenant now was like having a wild animal backed into a corner. He looked vicious and unfocused, there was no fear in his gaze only clinical statement as he surveyed his options before his inky black eye came to rest on John once more. He knew what he was doing, the other man was trying to gauge whether not his former C.O would really put a bullet in him and the answer no matter how much John disliked the possibility was yes.

The plan was wound him, get him back to Atlantis, detox.

Easier said than done from the way things were going down and they were swiftly running out of time. The longer they remained on this planet the worse the risk to his people from the Wraith.

The whistle of Wraith Darts cut through the air, piercing John's ears with that loud wailing shriek. He thought after over a year in the Pegasus Galaxy that he would be used to that noise by now but it still sent shivers of apprehension up his spine, even more so now from his prior experiences with the Wraith.

"We wanna help." John told the younger man from beyond the barrel of his P90.

It was the truth, the time they had spent tracking their friend down was so that they could rid his system of the Wraith drug. John wanted to bring this man home, to restore him to some resemblance of the person he had been. He wanted Ford to be able to go home to Earth and recover the right way with his family around him, loving and caring for him. The younger man deserved that for everything he had done for Atlantis and the galaxy.

Yet what John thought and what Ford wanted were two very different things. Already Ford's fingers were flexing with agitation as his hand dangled precariously close to the holster on his waist. Not long ago John would never have believed that Aiden Ford was capable of killing him but now with that wild, trapped look in his eyes...