Chapter 12

They talked each other to sleep until the sun was well up in the sky — suddenly Felix woke up from another nightmare and had his gun in his hand before Laura Cadman could understand what was going on. She realized that the buzzer for her door was chiming repeatedly and that Felix was sitting with his Diablo pointed at the door, waiting for who knew what.

She put her hand over the front of the gun and forced it down until he released it and she said, "Just relax — this is a safe place, nobody is going to hurt you here — just relax. It's probably just someone wondering where I am. I'm going to answer the door now."

She got up and threw her blankets on the bed so it looked like they slept separately even if they didn't, but appearances with some people was noted.

She answered the chime, "Yes?"

"It's Colonel Sheppard — have you seen Felix at all? He wasn't in his room this morning and..."

The door opening cut off Sheppard's final words; she stepped aside so he could see Felix sitting there on the floor in the corner away from her bed. Sheppard said, "Oh! I didn't mean to..."

Cadman cut in, "Sir, I had him sleep here, as he couldn't get into his room or know where it was, so I had him sleep here so he was also secured. And no, nothing happened between us, sir."

Felix stood up and holstered his Diablo and said, "I'm sorry sir, it will never happen again. Lt. Cadman was the perfect host and allowed me to sleep on the floor."

Sheppard gave a small smile and replied, "Lieutenant — what happens behind closed doors is not my concern in this instance — I'm sure you were the perfect host for Felix. I was looking for him to take him to breakfast."

Felix put on a gay lisp and answered, "Ith that an invitation on a date, thir? Thorry, but you're jutht not my type."

Cadman started laughing at the look of amazement on Sheppard's face at Felix's reaction to the breakfast invite. She managed to say; "He's been like that for part of the evening while we were talking, sir — he has a very warped sense of humour at times."

Sheppard looked away for a second and said, "Yeah." He looked at Felix and asked, "So does breakfast interest you at all? Lt., you are invited as well. How about we meet you there in a few minutes?"

She replied, "Can do, sir." And then she got her clothes to get dressed and went behind a screen while Felix put his boots on quickly and placed the blankets neatly folded next to her bed. He looked at the Colonel and said, "Lead the way, sir."

They left Lt. Cadman to finish getting dressed and meet them there at the dining area — Sheppard asked, "Did you manage to get any sleep?"

Felix answered, "I managed to get a few hours, sir — and like she said, sir"-

Sheppard stopped in the hall and faced a startled Felix, "Sergeant — like I said — I don't care what goes on behind closed doors with other people. We've had some rough times here and these people can use a bit of slack now and then. I'm not biting your head off or anything — just trying to get you to understand that I don't have a problem with it."

Felix replied boldly, "Am I cutting your grass with her, sir? Is that why you sound the way you do right now? Because if you want me to stay away from her..."

Sheppard replied firmly, "No, Sergeant, that isn't the problem at all. Lt. Cadman is a very beautiful young woman who can definitely look after herself, believe me. I finished reading your Pers file and found out that you are uniquely qualified for being here — and some idiot back on Earth wants to bring you back for a 'debriefing' of some kind. So I'm a little upset that I may be losing a valuable asset just as I get it. I'm not mad at you, Felix — but I'm starting to see why you had a few problems with your higher-ups at times. Plus you have got gaps in your Pers file that should be explained by someone back on Earth — like no mention of any commendations or citations."

Felix just shrugged and replied, "I don't do the job for the medals and shiny things, sir — I really couldn't care about medals. I have enough crap on my uniform as it is already."

Sheppard shook his head and replied, "You must have had some ... interesting bosses in the past, Sergeant - especially if they don't keep a man's Pers file updated."

Felix turned away from Sheppard they headed towards the dining area together and he said to the Colonel, "Stupid is as stupid does, sir."

Sheppard looked at Felix sideways and asked, "What?"

Felix replied, "Forrest Gump, sir — I think he had a valid statement with those words. The other one that comes to mind was from the movie 'Snatch' — 'never underestimate the predictability of stupidity'" Felix had said both statements perfectly in the voice of the actors of those movies.

Sheppard looked at Felix and commented, "I read in your file that you have a knack for languages — you can speak or read 5 other languages - is that right?"

They entered the dining area and they grabbed trays and put their food on the trays and sat down — Sheppard looked at Felix and asked, "Well how about it Sergeant?"

Felix seemed in a bit of a daze again and then realized that Sheppard was talking to him, "Oh right, languages. Um, well ... I found that I just have a bit of an ear for languages or accents. Don't ask me how or why — I have no idea — I just can pick them up fairly easily. I also remember lines from movies I've watched — sort of a 'movieholic' I call myself, sir."

As they ate Lt. Cadman showed up towards the end of breakfast looking rather flushed in the face. They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders and commented simultaneously, "Women." They chuckled at the similarity of their thoughts and then turned their attention to Cadman as she sat down and started her breakfast.

Once finished a couple of mouthfuls of food, she said the Sheppard, "Sir, you should see the guns he has in the armoury, especially his big gun. Very handy to have around, I'm starting to think. Felix, can you explain the sights again?"

Felix nodded and explained in detail about the versatility of the combined optical with thermal sight and the pros and cons of their own FLIR sights they had in Atlantis.

Sheppard made the observation that the 50cal was a bit cumbersome and the rounds were probably ancient and old.

Lt. Cadman made a point of telling Sheppard that the rounds were in fact caseless like their P90's and they were very good rounds.

Felix piped up and asked, "Oh! That reminds me — who do I talk to about an ammo request for more rounds?"

Sheppard nodded at Lt. Cadman and replied, "Tell the Lieutenant what you need and we'll see what we have here. Otherwise we'll have to send the request back to Earth and have it come here on the Daedelus when they poke their heads here. Did you have something specific in mind?"

Felix nodded and replied, "Yes sir, I need some more pain relievers of the 320-grain and some 52-grain varieties. Do you have any flash-bangs or thumpers in stock here?"

Sheppard looked at Felix strangely again and asked, "Pain relievers? What pain relievers?"

Lt. Cadman answered for Felix; "He calls the rounds that, sir. They are the ones for his guns —I know for a fact that we don't carry either of the kind he is asking for here, so we'll have to send a request back to Earth. As for flash-bangs we do have a decent stock — they came in last week, and thumpers — I have no idea what those could be."

Felix swallowed his last mouthful of food and replied, "Thumpers is the nickname I gave percussion grenades — when it explodes the recipients are blind and deaf as a post for a bit. Plus they are disoriented from the actual percussion."

Sheppard commented, "You know Sergeant — you have a rather strange way of talking, using words I have never heard of but oddly enough they make sense — in a weird sort of way."

Felix smiled and replied, "That's why I liken myself to Cosmonaut Andropov from the movie 'Armageddon' where Billy-Bob Thornton was telling the miners, 'you should remember that this guy has been in a tin can by himself for the past 19 months, so you might find him a bit ... off.'"

Sheppard and Cadman smiled at his comparative analogy and nodded in agreement.

Sheppard stood up and said, "Well if we are all done, why don't we get you fingered and we can be about our business? Let's go to the control room and then I'll take you to the chair and see what you can do."

The three of them placed their empty trays at the disposal area and headed to the control centre to get Felix 'fingered' as Sheppard had put it. They went upstairs and saw the one technician they needed, explained what they would like — Felix placed his forefinger on the keypad and it was done. He was now entered into the Atlantean database and had limited access to the areas required.

Felix stood there for a second watching the activity of the control room — organized chaos was how he saw it. He heard the technician say, "Daedelus is requesting permission to land on the East Pier, ma'am."