Trust Once Broken | SGA John Sheppard

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"No, how's that for an answer?" Elizabeth snapped. She looked back and forth between Major Sheppard and Lieutenant Ford in disbelief. She honestly couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"It pithy," Sheppard said shrugging casually. "I'll give you that." He hadn't expected Elizabeth to be excited about the Genii's plan to infiltrate a Wraith ship, but he had expected her to consider it for at least thirty seconds. It was risky, but the potential rewards were worth it.

"I'm sure you already agreed to this," Weir paced anxiously behind Sheppard and Ford as she massaged away the growing migraine. This trade deal with the Genii had started simple, crops for medicine, from there it had gone from bad to worse. Every couple hours Sheppard would step back through the stargate with a new, terrible negotiation.

"Only because we'll get something out of it," Sheppard reasoned calmly.

What he failed to add was Teyla and Rodney's lives were one of the things they would get out of it. The Genii had left them no choice, it was either help them or die, and it had taken a fair amount of smooth talking on his part to convince them they needed his team to help them.

"And we do need allies ma'am," Ford added helpfully. He was doing his best to help his superior office, but when Weir leveled a glare his way he dropped his eyes to the table submissively again.

"Allies?" Weir asked incredulously. "You just said these people were ready to string you up. How can you tell me you trust them?"

"Hey," Sheppard said pulling back. "I don't trust them as far as I can throw them. There's a reason they insisted McKay and Teyla stay there, and it's not just to help them with building their bombs. But we have something they need, and they have something we need. I thought that was what negotiating was all about."

"Oh, well it is," Weir agreed her tone dripping with sarcasm. "Personally though I stop short of offering nuclear weapons."

John frowned. He was normally the sarcastic one. It seemed he was rubbing off on Weir and he didn't like it.

"They were building them anyway," Ford said in a low voice as he stared at his hands. He looked like a kid who had been sent to the principles office.

Weir shot him a look of disbelief. "Oh, well if they were building them anyway lieutenant, why didn't you just say so?" she spun back around on John. "You realize I originally sent you out for food?"

Sheppard flattened his mouth and leaned back to glance at Ford. "I think we can still get that."

"I don't see why not," Ford agreed helpfully.

Elizabeth's anger was dissipating quickly, so John leaned back in his chair, relaxing into the conversation now that he was sure he wasn't going to get chewed out any worse. "We kind of moved past it with the whole atomic bomb thing," he joked lightly, hoping to get her to stop and really consider the possibilities here.

"Okay," Weir said after a moment. "Tell me the truth. Can you pull this off?"

John nodded slowly. "We'll have to watch our backs, but- I wouldn't put my team at risk if I didn't think so."

Elizabeth exhaled. "Okay go," she relented. "and then maybe we'll talk about nuclear bombs," she said with a disgusted shake of her head.

"Ah Elizabeth, there's one more thing," Sheppard called after her.