out_there | SGA Ficlet: All That You've Seen

Title: All That You've Seen
Fandom: SGA
Summary: Coming to Atlantis didn't change John.

"And looking back on your time in Atlantis," the woman says, standing in her dove-grey suit and holding her microphone carelessly, "how would you say the experience changed you?"

John blinks. Media-coverage had been SGC's idea -- tell the masses of the fantastic research facility we have in another galaxy; don't mention the Wraith, don't mention the dangers, don't mention the deaths -- but John has his doubts. "Well, it nearly turned me into a bug."

"It didn't change him at all." Beside him, Rodney's all but bouncing on the balls of his feet. Public acknowledgement means papers can be published; Rodney's already working on his Nobel acceptance speech. "I mean, yeah, the bug thing actually happened -- but we totally fixed it, no permanent scars -- but it's not like just being here and waking up every day to endless ocean and flying through new constallations changed the Colonel's personality. He's still the same man he always was."

The woman -- John can't remember her name, doesn't know if they were even introduced; since they got back to Colorado, there's been too many reporters in tailored suits -- she nods, smiling for Rodney to continue.

"You've got to understand, Colonel Sheppard's always been an extraordinary individual." Rodney pauses, hands freezing in front of him.

John can't help smirking a little bit. Rodney means the gene, the way that he can use it, but that's one of the things they're not allowed to say. He can't wait to see how Rodney's going to dig himself out of this one.

"He's--" Rodney grimaces and smiles and frowns, all within a second. "He's an extraordinary person. He's the type of leader who is brave and bold, who cares about the people under his command and the ones he's protecting. This isn't a military thing, it's a personality thing. There are a lot of people here who are much smarter than him, who have discovered amazing things in their chosen fields, who are his intellectual better in every possible way. But they wouldn't have survived here without Colonel Sheppard. The Colonel's the kind of guy who makes a research outpost feel like a community, like a home, like a safe, protected place. He's the type of guy who always has a smile or a moment to talk to you, who is reassuring simply because he's there. He's as much a part of Atlantis as the building, as the technology, as the research."

"Oh," she says, glancing at John. John smiles back at her, gives her a little shrug that means 'scientists are weird'.

Rodney rolls his eyes at that. "But my point stands. The Colonel didn't become that by coming to Atlantis. That's just who he is."