Nesert

2.20

Nes spent a long time drifting in and out as her body began to heal. She'd required numerous surgeries just to deal with the internal injuries she'd sustained and then once she was stable enough, they began addressing the broken and shattered bones. The jaffa's greater strength from their symbiotes was apparent in every part of Nes' body and she knew without anyone saying that it had been a rough battle to keep her alive.

As she started spending more time awake, she was surprised by how much she had missed, the biggest of which involved the Atlantis expedition. Stargate Command had finally heard from the Pegasus galaxy when a highly compressed data file was sent through the gate, only to learn that the expedition would likely be under attack from a hostile alien race they'd encountered. Somehow (though Nes was still very confused on the details) the SGC had gotten their hands on another ZPM, an Ancient power source, and immediately began working on a plan to help Atlantis.

From what Nes could gather, they'd first sent support through the Stargate using the ZPM to power the dialing to a different galaxy and then immediately plugged that ZPM into the Daedalus. Earth's newest ship then headed towards Atlantis, the advanced power source allowing them to make the trip in just four days. A little over a week later, Atlantis had dialed Earth and the senior members of the expedition had walked through the gate with good news that they'd fooled the new enemy (the Wraith or some such name) into thinking the city had been destroyed and were hopeful they'd be left in peace, at least for a while.

So when Dr. Weir and a man Nes hadn't met came into the infirmary for their turns at getting a thorough workup, Nes wasn't surprised to see the former leader of Stargate Command, though the same could not be said for the Atlantis commander.

"Nesert! What happened to you?" Dr. Weir came over to her bed, her mouth hanging open, the dark haired man trailing behind.

Nes knew she still looked quite bad, the swelling and healing knife wounds making her barely recognizable at times. "I'm afraid a group of free jaffa had some questions about my allegiances. A concern I believe you share, Dr. Weir."

"Yes, but good heavens..." She looked around for something else to say and remembered the man next to her." Nesert, this is the newly promoted Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. He's the military commander of the Atlantis expedition. John, this is Nesert Saeda. She's...well, she's..." Dr. Weir looked to Nes for help.

"I'm a former goa'uld host and without these injuries most people would recognize me as Tessa James."

"The Butcher Tessa James?" Colonel Sheppard asked with raised eyebrows.

"That's the one."

"So the snake in your head was the one killing people."

Nes tilted her head slightly. "Mostly." She ignored his confused look. "Dr. Weir...I was just curious...Lt. Elliot...."

"He's good," Dr. Weir said with a smile. "And he'll find out when we get back that he's now Captain Elliot."

"That's great. He deserves it." She tried to insert some excitement into her voice, but even she could hear the hollowness.

"You and Elliot friends?" Sheppard put his hands in his pockets uncomfortably.

"No." Normally she wouldn't elaborate her answers, but Sheppard contorted his face in a way similar to Jack that was meant to encourage her to continue. She finally sighed and continued. "I was along on his first offworld mission. Just curious how he's getting on in the Pegasus galaxy."

Dr. Weir gave her a pointed look, knowing what had occurred on that mission. Nes knew she at the very least had heard rumors on base of the relationship between the pair, but the expedition leader didn't call her out on her partial truths. After all, by the time Dr. Weir had taken over the SGC, Nes had begun cutting Elliot out of her life, trying to protect him from her duplicity as she allied herself with Ba'al.