''Interstellar Destiny''

What Happened?

An hour later and Sheppard and his team return to the city. Elizabeth meets them in the Jumper Bay, seeing them walking out of the Jumper unusually quiet. Teyla, Ronon and McKay walk past her, all coming to stand across from her at the end of the small Jumper ramp, their eyes lowered, making Elizabeth fear the worst.

Sheppard walks out last and heads straight for her, anger spread across his face.

-"What happened?"

-"We need to go back."

Sheppard opens his closed fist and hands her a set of burned dogtags, anger in his voice. Elizabeth looks at him confused.

-"Elizabeth?" - Teyla catches her attention. -"We found the bodies of Major Lorne and his team in a burned down house. Their dogtags were the only thing that allowed us to identify them."

At Teyla's words, Sheppard punches the hull of the Jumper, startling everyone. Elizabeth fights the lump in her throat, wiping the soot from the dogtags, reading Evan's name, as well as of his team members, as she goes through them.

-"And you're sure it was them?" - She doesn't want to believe it.

-"The bodies were severely burned and we only had the dogtags to ID them, but maybe Jennifer can check their genetic profile. That way we'll be sure." - McKay comes to stand next to her, his voice wavering a little in the end.

-"Are you all okay with going back and retrieving the bodies?"

Elizabeth looks at Sheppard, seeing the man nod, before she brings her hand up to her earpiece to radio Jennifer, when he grabs her hand, stopping her.

-"Maybe it would be better if we did this in person?"

Elizabeth is confused for a moment when realization hits her. Teyla has the same realization, just before stepping forward.

-"I will go and get Dr. Keller. Maybe while I do that, John can find some Marines to assist us?"

-"Thank you, Teyla, yes, please do. This needs to be done quickly and discreetly. If anyone asks, Major Lorne is staying on the planet overnight at the request of our allies." - Everyone nods at Elizabeth's suggestion.

-"Alright, Teyla meet us back here in ten minutes. Chewy, you're with me. McKay, you can stay here. This will be a... recovery mission, so..."

Teyla, Sheppard and Ronon all leave and go their separate ways to get the people they need, leaving Elizabeth and McKay in the Jumper Bay. Elizabeth sighs and shakes her head, trying to get her emotions in check, and having a hard time with it.

-"If that really is Lorne, how am I going to tell Lara that he is dead?"

-"I don't know." - McKay's voice is sad and low.

-"Since you're staying behind, what are you going to do?"

-"I'm not staying. I'm going with them."

-"Why?" - Elizabeth looks back at him, surprised.

-"I owe it to Lorne. He protected me during that whole Ford thing. The least I can do, if that's really him, is make sure he comes home."

Elizabeth has to admit, sometimes McKay still surprises her, and this is definitely one of those times. She nods at him, understanding where he is coming from, and thinking that there's a lot of people in the city who can say the same about Major Evan Lorne.