Five times John’s men were proud to have him as CO (1/1)
Title: Five times John’s men were proud to have him as CO
Author: somehowunbroken
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: none really
Word count: 1,379
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Stargate franchise, unfortunately.
Summary: Another "five things" meme.
1. Captain Collins leads AR-3, which consists of himself, Sergeant Thomas, Officer Hamit, and a scientist named Amy Constance. They're all good people, for all that they're fairly nondescript in the day-to-day operations of Atlantis, and their main job is to oversee the "strictly science" missions that come up in the city. It's not that they're non-combatant; far from it, actually, with three members from three different militaries and a scientist with a black belt. It's just that their primary objective is science, not ass-kicking.
When they miss a check-in, and then a second, it's John who gears up, who gathers his team in a Jumper and flies through the Gate, because he's the one who doesn't leave people behind.
And then the Gate is opening back up, and the Jumper's flying back through, calling for a medical team in the Jumper bay, and Elizabeth can't help but notice that it's Teyla calling over the radio. She hurries to the bay herself and stares in the back of the Jumper, quickly identifying every head she sees, and coming up two short.
"Where is John?" she calls into the ruckus, hoping to be heard. Teyla looks up from where she is kneeling next to Officer Hamit, holding gauze to a bleeding gash in his forehead.
"They had taken Captain Collins away," she says, meeting Elizabeth's eyes. "He ordered us all back to the Jumper and told us to get these three home. He said that he would follow shortly."
Shortly in John's book is apparently three hours, when the Gate finally reactivates and Elizabeth jumps from her seat, running to see for herself. John appears, looking exhausted, Collins draped across his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Elizabeth doesn't remember calling for a medical team but somehow they're already running into the Gate room, pulling Collins from John's grasp and descending into medical terminology. Carson turns to John, reaching for a stomach wound that is clear even from the balcony o the control room, but John shrugs him off and mutters something, and Carson frowns but returns his attention to Collins.
John collapses while walking to the infirmary. When he comes to, hours later, his first words are to ask about Collins. The young man peers out from behind the machinery between them, sitting up and looking a little ragged but otherwise okay.
"Thank you, sir," he says in a soft voice that would break if it were any louder. "I would have - if you hadn't -"
John surveys his broken arm, pats down his side to where they'd patched up the hole that had been shot across his abdomen, and gives Collins a grin. "We got off easy, then," he says, and that's the last of the conversation, neither again mentioning how John walked into Hell and nearly died himself to save a young man he barely knew.
2. When news comes that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has finally been repealed, John's eating lunch in the mess hall with Lorne, going over schedules and rotations. There's a sort of stunned silence when the call comes over the intercom, one more announcement tacked onto the end of the weekly report to the city. After a minute of near-absolute stillness, John rolls his eyes, stands, hauls Lorne to his feet, and makes a very public display of groping him as he kisses the stunned Major. When he's done, he sits back down and continues eating his pie, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The stunned silence continues for about ten seconds before the mess hall erupts into frantic conversation.
Lorne sits back down, blushing at the cheers, and leans closer to John. "Sir, I don't - I'm not-"
"Neither am I," John replies casually, licking the cherry-like filling from the end of his fork. "But half the base has now seen the military commander of Atlantis making out with his male XO, so there won't be any problems for people who actually are."
It turns out later that he was right. There weren't.
3. AR-4 and AR-7 are together on P4X-779, on a scientific mission that has the Natural Sciences division swooning. They make the first two check-ins fine, but when they run an hour late for the third, John sends Lorne and his men out to check on them. Lorne returns twenty minutes later, his face ashen, stumbling through with Dr. Carlson draped over one shoulder.
Lorne reports a cave-in; the rest of his team had stayed behind to dig out Four and Seven, but Carlson had been the only one left on the surface, and she had been badly injured. Lorne hesitates before adding, "The lifesigns detector only picked up two more, sir," but John is already gearing up, calling the combat engineers, getting out to the planet himself.
By the time all is said and done, Dr. Carlson is all that remains of AR-4 and Sergeant Willoughs all of AR-7. The rest of both teams had been crushed by the falling rocks. They'd managed to drag another Marine out, Gunney Grayson, but he hadn't even made it back to the Gate.
John personally oversees every body recovery, records a message to every family, organizes each individual memorial service, and brings another counselor in to make sure someone is available to talk for weeks after the accident. It leaves everyone shaken - they understood going in that the Wraith are a threat, that the Genii might kill them, but the ground itself had turned against Four and Seven. Nobody had been prepared for that. John, however, is there to help the survivors through.
When Willoughs finds out that he will never walk again, John gets him honorably discharged and keeps him on as a civilian contractor so he can stay in the City, becoming the science team's personal Ancient light switch. And when Carlson breaks down at the memorial service, John stands next to her, arm around her waist though it clearly makes him uncomfortable, and lets her cry on his shoulder. When she requests reassignment two weeks later, he asks where she wants to go, and pulls strings to make sure she gets there.
Throughout the ordeal, John never makes a fuss, never tries to pass those responsibilities on, just quietly takes care of his people, no matter what.
4. When Atlantis lands on Earth, there is a flurry of activity for a while, people trying to get it back to Pegasus. The IOA hems and haws, as they are prone to do, and after a while it seems that even Landry doesn't want the expedition to go back. Finally, seven months after the city lands in the oceans of Earth, John leaves for a three-day meeting with the IOA. He sits silently, listening to the words pass over and around him, and when he's finally asked to say his piece, he simply leans forward and says into the microphone, "We'd like to go home now."
The IOA rebuts; you are home, we can't afford to, what if, what if, what if. John just leans back in his chair, one eyebrow raised, and when the IOA finally agree to let the ship - the city - leave, Jack O'Neill gets up to shake John's hand.
"Taking a page out of my book," he says cheekily, and John grins.
"We don't leave our people behind," he replies. "Right now, none of us are where we belong , and I'm just trying to get us back home."
5. When Mr. Woolsey retires, years after Atlantis is back in Pegasus and years before any of the rest of them will even think of doing so, John is the one to organize the ceremonies, the parties, and the goodbye present. Woolsey is speechless when he opens the recordings - Brahms and Mozart and Bach, al by the greatest symphonies Earth has to offer - and even more so when he opens the box containing hundreds and hundreds of letters - one from each person on Atlantis and several from others John has managed to track down between the two galaxies, thanking him for his service and his leadership.
John gives him a sharp military salute as he takes his final trip through the Stargate.
Author: somehowunbroken
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: none really
Word count: 1,379
Rating: G
Disclaimer: I don't own any part of the Stargate franchise, unfortunately.
Summary: Another "five things" meme.
1. Captain Collins leads AR-3, which consists of himself, Sergeant Thomas, Officer Hamit, and a scientist named Amy Constance. They're all good people, for all that they're fairly nondescript in the day-to-day operations of Atlantis, and their main job is to oversee the "strictly science" missions that come up in the city. It's not that they're non-combatant; far from it, actually, with three members from three different militaries and a scientist with a black belt. It's just that their primary objective is science, not ass-kicking.
When they miss a check-in, and then a second, it's John who gears up, who gathers his team in a Jumper and flies through the Gate, because he's the one who doesn't leave people behind.
And then the Gate is opening back up, and the Jumper's flying back through, calling for a medical team in the Jumper bay, and Elizabeth can't help but notice that it's Teyla calling over the radio. She hurries to the bay herself and stares in the back of the Jumper, quickly identifying every head she sees, and coming up two short.
"Where is John?" she calls into the ruckus, hoping to be heard. Teyla looks up from where she is kneeling next to Officer Hamit, holding gauze to a bleeding gash in his forehead.
"They had taken Captain Collins away," she says, meeting Elizabeth's eyes. "He ordered us all back to the Jumper and told us to get these three home. He said that he would follow shortly."
Shortly in John's book is apparently three hours, when the Gate finally reactivates and Elizabeth jumps from her seat, running to see for herself. John appears, looking exhausted, Collins draped across his shoulder in a fireman's carry. Elizabeth doesn't remember calling for a medical team but somehow they're already running into the Gate room, pulling Collins from John's grasp and descending into medical terminology. Carson turns to John, reaching for a stomach wound that is clear even from the balcony o the control room, but John shrugs him off and mutters something, and Carson frowns but returns his attention to Collins.
John collapses while walking to the infirmary. When he comes to, hours later, his first words are to ask about Collins. The young man peers out from behind the machinery between them, sitting up and looking a little ragged but otherwise okay.
"Thank you, sir," he says in a soft voice that would break if it were any louder. "I would have - if you hadn't -"
John surveys his broken arm, pats down his side to where they'd patched up the hole that had been shot across his abdomen, and gives Collins a grin. "We got off easy, then," he says, and that's the last of the conversation, neither again mentioning how John walked into Hell and nearly died himself to save a young man he barely knew.
2. When news comes that the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy has finally been repealed, John's eating lunch in the mess hall with Lorne, going over schedules and rotations. There's a sort of stunned silence when the call comes over the intercom, one more announcement tacked onto the end of the weekly report to the city. After a minute of near-absolute stillness, John rolls his eyes, stands, hauls Lorne to his feet, and makes a very public display of groping him as he kisses the stunned Major. When he's done, he sits back down and continues eating his pie, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. The stunned silence continues for about ten seconds before the mess hall erupts into frantic conversation.
Lorne sits back down, blushing at the cheers, and leans closer to John. "Sir, I don't - I'm not-"
"Neither am I," John replies casually, licking the cherry-like filling from the end of his fork. "But half the base has now seen the military commander of Atlantis making out with his male XO, so there won't be any problems for people who actually are."
It turns out later that he was right. There weren't.
3. AR-4 and AR-7 are together on P4X-779, on a scientific mission that has the Natural Sciences division swooning. They make the first two check-ins fine, but when they run an hour late for the third, John sends Lorne and his men out to check on them. Lorne returns twenty minutes later, his face ashen, stumbling through with Dr. Carlson draped over one shoulder.
Lorne reports a cave-in; the rest of his team had stayed behind to dig out Four and Seven, but Carlson had been the only one left on the surface, and she had been badly injured. Lorne hesitates before adding, "The lifesigns detector only picked up two more, sir," but John is already gearing up, calling the combat engineers, getting out to the planet himself.
By the time all is said and done, Dr. Carlson is all that remains of AR-4 and Sergeant Willoughs all of AR-7. The rest of both teams had been crushed by the falling rocks. They'd managed to drag another Marine out, Gunney Grayson, but he hadn't even made it back to the Gate.
John personally oversees every body recovery, records a message to every family, organizes each individual memorial service, and brings another counselor in to make sure someone is available to talk for weeks after the accident. It leaves everyone shaken - they understood going in that the Wraith are a threat, that the Genii might kill them, but the ground itself had turned against Four and Seven. Nobody had been prepared for that. John, however, is there to help the survivors through.
When Willoughs finds out that he will never walk again, John gets him honorably discharged and keeps him on as a civilian contractor so he can stay in the City, becoming the science team's personal Ancient light switch. And when Carlson breaks down at the memorial service, John stands next to her, arm around her waist though it clearly makes him uncomfortable, and lets her cry on his shoulder. When she requests reassignment two weeks later, he asks where she wants to go, and pulls strings to make sure she gets there.
Throughout the ordeal, John never makes a fuss, never tries to pass those responsibilities on, just quietly takes care of his people, no matter what.
4. When Atlantis lands on Earth, there is a flurry of activity for a while, people trying to get it back to Pegasus. The IOA hems and haws, as they are prone to do, and after a while it seems that even Landry doesn't want the expedition to go back. Finally, seven months after the city lands in the oceans of Earth, John leaves for a three-day meeting with the IOA. He sits silently, listening to the words pass over and around him, and when he's finally asked to say his piece, he simply leans forward and says into the microphone, "We'd like to go home now."
The IOA rebuts; you are home, we can't afford to, what if, what if, what if. John just leans back in his chair, one eyebrow raised, and when the IOA finally agree to let the ship - the city - leave, Jack O'Neill gets up to shake John's hand.
"Taking a page out of my book," he says cheekily, and John grins.
"We don't leave our people behind," he replies. "Right now, none of us are where we belong , and I'm just trying to get us back home."
5. When Mr. Woolsey retires, years after Atlantis is back in Pegasus and years before any of the rest of them will even think of doing so, John is the one to organize the ceremonies, the parties, and the goodbye present. Woolsey is speechless when he opens the recordings - Brahms and Mozart and Bach, al by the greatest symphonies Earth has to offer - and even more so when he opens the box containing hundreds and hundreds of letters - one from each person on Atlantis and several from others John has managed to track down between the two galaxies, thanking him for his service and his leadership.
John gives him a sharp military salute as he takes his final trip through the Stargate.