Chapter 60

Felix was enjoying a warm shower at present, then got out and dried off, dressed partly and wrapped himself in his poncho liner to sleep on the bed; he actually slept through the night without a nightmare for a change. When he awoke in the morning he remembered seeing a laptop on his desk - open - that wasn't there a few days ago; he wasn't in the mood to see what it was about, got dressed and went to the dining hall for some breakfast, got the tray full and found a spot by himself.

When he was about halfway through breakfast he spotted 'his' four Marines as he thought of them, and as they came closer he nodded at them in greeting. They joined him at the table and Felix could tell they were looking at him differently - he couldn't quite put his finger on what the feeling was but he sensed it more than anything else. The usual greetings were exchanged, and then it was Cpl Adams who asked, "So when do we start doing something around here, Sahge?"

His heavy Boston accent gave Felix pause as he deciphered the accent, then he answered, "Excellent question, and the answer is ... I have to figure out exactly what skills each of you have, what needs to be upgraded or maybe taught - files tell only so much. You also should know where I'm coming from so that we can work better together - I don't mean personal stuff, as that would fall within the purview of your conundrums and philosophy, but why you may look at things a certain way. Make sense so far?"

They nodded their agreement so Felix continued; "I'm not one for much formality - just when certain officers are around should you use my rank. Which by the way is Sergeant, not Sarge - sorry - just a pet peeve is all." He paused to shovel more bacon and scrambled eggs into his waiting gullet, chewed and then asked, "Any questions from you folks?"

It was the loud brash Texan Cpl Tarsell who asked, "So what we saw last night - is that normal for a mission here?"

Felix replied with a question of his own, "Did you ever have a normal mission in Iraq?"

The Texan snorted derisively and replied, "Hell no - every day was different. We never knew one day to the next what was going to happen."

Felix gave him a knowing smile as he rebutted, "Bingo! You win the daily double! Every mission rescue is different, so the best weapon any of you have and utilize is your brain. Think outside the normal ways, be unconventional in your planning if need be - but the priority is always bring our people home safely." The intensity of Felix's reply caught the Marines by surprise; a short silence fell over the table as nobody was sure of what to say next; Felix picked up on this feeling and said, "Hey look folks - I'm fairly easy going, I've got a somewhat warped sense of humour - just try to relax a bit. I figure we will be learning from each other rather than just me teaching you - okay?"

It was Meach again who asked, "How long have you been doing CSAR ops, Sergeant?"

Felix shrugged non-committally and replied casually, "I don't know - about 10 years or something like that," which brought all conversation to a stop; he asked, "What?" as he looked at their astonished faces. They had talked to their fellow Marines about Felix and the rescues in Atlantis, which had led to a couple of them remembering a certain 4-man team being talked about from Iraq and Afghanistan.

None of them could say for sure if Felix was part of that unknown but much talked about team, so Meach asked further, "Did you ever operate in Iraq a few years ago?"

Felix swallowed his mouthful of food and again casually replied, "Yeah, I worked there, along with lots of others - why?"

Meach looked at the others then back at her boss and asked, "Did you ever do an Op near the east border - it was a Marine Spec-Ops team?"

All they got was another shrug and an evasive, "Don't know - might have." The Marines could tell by the evasiveness that it was him that did the rescue, and because they knew about the Spec-Ops team rescued they also knew how dangerous that particular mission had been. Their respect for this wiry little unassuming Canuck grew; again Felix sensed something had changed but he shrugged it off mentally; he finished his breakfast, took his tray to the drop-off and then got another coffee to sit back at the table with the Marines.

As they were almost finished he sipped his coffee and gathered his thoughts while listening to their banter and conversation until they were finished the meal. He was thinking about where they could go to talk in a relaxed manner when he remembered the Jumpers up in the bays - perfect for an informal chat about what course to steer.

Once they were ready to head out, Felix took them to Gate Control, where he went and asked Dr. Weir if they could borrow a Jumper to sit in the back of to discuss things. She had no problem with that, and then with an impish smile she added, "By the way Felix, you have a bit of a fan in your Marines - L/Cpl Meach was asking about your history."

Felix raised an eyebrow as he replied cautiously, "Oh?"

Elizabeth added, "I only told her a little bit about you, Felix - just the highlights since you've been here. And I even left out the stuff that Laura told me about you at our Friday night poker games."

She turned around and walked back into her office, leaving a flustered Felix to figure out what things Cadman had told Dr. Weir; Elizabeth had a smirk on her face as she sat down at her desk while Felix turned around slowly to face his Marines with a feeling of dread and tried to shake off that feeling.

He led them upstairs to the Jumper bays and found one off to the side to lessen the chance of interruptions, and then told them, "I figure seeing as how I don't like the conference rooms and I don't rate an office - this is as good a place as any to talk." The Marines took a seat and looked around the inside of the Jumper, absorbing how similar the layout was to an M-2 Bradley, but obviously with more room inside.

Felix started the chat session asking each of them when they were in Iraq, what they were tasked with - he was able to filter out the garbage from the truth with barely any problems. As the five of them sat there talking about their experiences Felix had been successfully deflecting questions out of reflex, and wasn't aware of that until Meach brought it to his attention. His reply to that was, "What is there to know about me? What you see is what you get - scars and all."

Cpl Tarsell pushed the issue, "Why won't you tell us what happened with you and the Genii, Sarge?"

Felix got a very stern look on his face and told Tarsell in a low cold voice, "Why don't you go ask the Marines from last night if they want to relive their mission?" He stood up, looked at his watch - they now knew that they had pushed too far as he looked a little bit pissed, and told them, "Break for an early lunch - we'll meet in the dining hall later," and left the Marines in the Jumper to ponder their wisdom as he went back to his room to cool down mentally.

After a few minutes of sitting he decided to burn off the anger with some push-ups; when he was finished he noticed the open laptop that was still on his desk, so he decided to see what was on it. As soon as he opened it up a video started - showing Laura Cadman telling him that she had been recalled to duty with the Secret Service and that she was very proud of him - the usual words in a Dear John. He made himself sit and watch all of it, and became sad and frustrated from the emotions running through because another woman exited his life again.

Then instead of moping he grabbed his medical bag and decided that now would be a good time to replenish it from the infirmary; at the last second he also scooped up the laptop, closed it up, and walked with it to Dr. Weir's office.

When he got close to her office he could see that she had enough problems of her own judging by the people in her office, so he then asked Chuck where the IT section was located. Chuck asked what he wished done, and once Felix explained Chuck then turned around and called one of the women back three desks and sent him to see her to square away what he wanted. It took only 5 minutes to get Felix set up on the Atlantis email system, which is where the female IT tech found that the laptop was already assigned to Felix; he did manage to get the tech to leave the email simply as CSAR with nothing revealing who the account holder was - he preferred to be off the radar where possible.

He then had the IT tech give a quick show and tell of what was where on the web site, thanked her, then went back to Chuck's Gate desk to enquire about the status of any off-world teams. Only two teams were out, things were okay with them, so Felix asked further, "Am I allowed to enquire as to Colonel Sheppard's whereabouts?"

Chuck looked towards Dr. Weir's office - she was there - then he replied, "Off-world is all I'm allowed to say."

Felix was able to read between the lines easily and added, "Covert or missing? If they are missing ask the boss lady if I can help at all." With that, he went down to the infirmary to replenish his medical bag, and encountered the doctor who had operated on him several days ago: Maggie; he greeted her and said, "You do good work, Doc. Thanks again for fixing me," then lifted the side of his t-shirt to show her the bandage.

Maggie rebutted, "I heard you were banged up a bit on a rescue the other night - you really should take better care of yourself," she paused and then added, "So what can I help you with?"

Felix replied, "Looking to replenish my medical bag, and I was wondering if I could get the splints back from the other night?" Over the next while he got his medical bag topped up, new splints to replace the old ones - and a very strange look from Maggie when he asked for tampons - until he explained they were better for gunshot wounds. After a bit more professional talk, he took his medical bag and the laptop back to his room, once there saw that lunch was now ongoing and took Pain with him for the meal. He joined the line-up for trays, went to the sandwich bar, nodding at various people in greeting, got what he wanted for a sandwich, and found a seat at a long table.

After a few mouthfuls of salad Felix noticed a number of people looking in his direction - more than usual - so he casually looked behind him to see if he was in the line of sight of another person - nope, people behind him were looking and pointing and talking. As he had no idea what they were on about, he shook his head and continued his salad and tuned the staring out - then suddenly a person sat down next to him with their tray.

A voice spoke next to him, "So this is what you look like normally," which caused Felix to put his fork and sandwich down, raise an eyebrow as he turned to face the voice, ready to lay into the speaker - and stopped when he saw the speaker. It was the Marine Hansa who Felix had rescues a few weeks prior, along with the female scientist - she sat down and smiled at Felix and started her lunch but she definitely had eyes for Hansa.

Felix greeted them, "Hey - how are you two doing? I see you're a bit more mobile - how is the leg healing?"

Hansa replied, "I'm doing better, physio is helping a lot as I'm back on limited duties, which keeps me busy. And thanks to you ... we're dating - Michelle and I."

Felix gave them a sincere big smile and told them, "Good for you - cool," then on a whim he asked in a lower voice, "Do either of you notice people ... kind of ... um ... staring this direction?"

The couple looked around at the surrounding tables and then back at Felix - Hansa told him, "Yeah, there's a few staring this way."

Michelle piped up, "There was an email sent out from Dr. Weir about the rescues you've done the past while - it is good for morale of the teams here."

Felix sighed in exasperation and replied, "I don't see it that way - all I did was my job. I brought them back so they can get on with their own jobs and lives. I'm going to have to have a chat with Dr. Weir about this email - I don't hold with this." Fortunately he was saved from further comments by the arrival of L/Cpl Meach and Cpl Henderson as they sat down across from their boss - after they had a bite of food he casually asked, "Anybody up for a swim this afternoon?"

Both Marines replied, "Sure," as they continued to eat their heavy lunch.

Felix casually pointed at their food and commented, "You might want to cut back on that stuff then - we'll meet at the Marine equipment area and depart from there at about 1315."

With that, Felix stood up, nodded at the table in general and went off to liaise the arrangements with the Marine CSM he knew; Michelle leaned forward and asked, "Are you working with him?"

Cpl Henderson replied, "The old man? Yeah - we'll show him what Marines can really do - he doesn't look so tough." Michelle didn't say anything more as she looked at Hansa as they exchanged a knowing glance as if to say 'they have no idea what they are in for - they'll learn the hard way'.

L/Cpl Meach caught the glance and filed it away for later that afternoon, plus she decided to heed the advice and cut back on the carbohydrates for now as 'suggested' by her boss.