Chapter 30

In Atlantis the gate technician looked at Dr. Weir and asked, "Care to guess how it went, ma'am?"

She looked at him and replied, "I'll wait until they tell me what happened — I'm a bit leery when Felix goes out like this."

Just then Jumper One came through the gate, hovered as the gate shut down behind it, and then it rose to the Jumper hanger bay.

Once the Jumper was parked in its customary spot, Sheppard lowered the ramp and the team disembarked, bringing their gear with them. Felix stopped just off the ramp and asked, "Boss — are we having a debrief at all?"

Sheppard stopped also and replied, "We'll keep just you and I, Felix — I'm pretty sure that Teyla and Ronon aren't required. You two can hit the hay for the night."

Ronon just nodded in agreement and left while Teyla said, "Good night Colonel, Felix."

As they went down the stairs from the Jumper bay to the control centre, Felix lowered the top of his ghillie suit off his head, as he was finding the inside temperature warmer than his liking. He had his 50cal slung across the front so it wasn't interfering with his patrol pack, and Sheppard was likewise with his P90.

As they got to the control centre they saw Elizabeth standing there, waiting for them to find out what happened during the short mission. She asked, "So how did it go? You're back early — is that a good thing?"

Sheppard replied, "We're back early because we accomplished the mission early. We caught two guys trying to set out poison, confronted them, took them with barely any resistance to the town sheriff, handed them over to him and a deputy, gathered our gear, and we're calling it a night. Unless there was something else?"

Sheppard looked at Felix, who also shrugged his shoulders and said, "Nope, happened just as you said. Nobody hurt - unless you count their pride, and two clowns in the town's custody. The horses looked nice and that would be about the only thing worth mentioning, other than that..."

Dr. Weir looked at the two of them for a moment as if coming to a decision about something and then said, "All right then — Sergeant Grey — you can go and clean up and get some sleep. Colonel, I wish to talk to you in my office for a minute."

Felix raised an eyebrow at Sheppard and Weir as he turned and said, "Good night," and went down to his room to do his post-mission routine.

Elizabeth waited until Felix was gone away down the hall and motioned towards her office so they could talk.

Sheppard asked, "Okay Elizabeth — what was that all about?"

Weir stood by her desk and took a deep breath and then replied, "Its about Felix, John."

Sheppard looked at her strangely and said, "We didn't do anything wrong tonight, Elizabeth — what I said was what happened. Things went very smoothly."

She looked down at her desk and then just turned her laptop around so he could see the screen — then he saw the problem.

He scanned the article from the previous week as well as the message from SGC informing one Sergeant Felix Grey 'that due to a severe tornado strike his farm and family as well as several others were killed.'

Sheppard looked at Elizabeth and asked, "His entire family - gone? Any survivors at all?"

She shook her head and replied, "There was a service for the victims of the town the day before you found Felix. No one in his family survived; there are just a couple of distant relatives in Scotland and Ireland but that's all. How does the military handle such a thing like this, Colonel?"

Sheppard sat back and looked around the office and finally replied, "Normally he would be sent back for the funeral, but that's done. Plus he is now entitled to Survivors Leave where he would go home — but honestly I don't think that would do any good, as there isn't anything to go back to. Man, this sucks, Elizabeth — really sucks."

She nodded her head in agreement as she barely held her tears back and then said, "Well, there is one positive out of all this — the SGC has shipped Sergeant Grey's F&E and it arrived just after you left on the mission. Plus his request for the gear arrived as well — a complete tri-wall of everything he requested came through the Stargate at the same time." She looked down at her desk and paused; Sheppard asked, "There's more — isn't there?"

She nodded and looked at Sheppard and said, "The final item is ... the day after tomorrow General O'Neill will be coming here to present Felix with a long overdue medal and promotions for some of our people." She shook her head and added, "It just doesn't seem fair, John — he gets sent off world, stranded, tortured, starved, then he loses his family to a tornado, he is left with just his personal effects, and then he gets a medal. I really don't know how he'll handle this, especially all at once. So much pain on one person — how does he do it?"

Sheppard sighed and said, "I really don't know, Elizabeth — I really don't know. Maybe through his jokes and laughing is how he copes." He paused and then said, "Well as his acting boss I should be the one to tell him the bad news. Did you want me to tell him now or wait until after breakfast to tell him?"

Dr. Weir answered, "How about we both tell him? To be honest I'll need all the support I can have — this is such a tragedy. First he gets trapped off-world on a rescue mission that goes wrong and now this with his family."

There was a knock at the door and the two leaders turned around to see Felix standing there. He said, "Something happened — didn't it?" He didn't get an immediate reply from either Sheppard or Elizabeth but their faces spoke volumes so he pressed on; "It's something to do with my family — isn't it?"

Sheppard and Dr. Weir both nodded simultaneously and then Sheppard turned the laptop away from Felix and said, "They were killed the day before we picked you up by a big tornado — there were no survivors, I'm afraid. I'm sorry it came this way, Felix — there is nothing we can say or do that could help, I know that. But we are here if you need anything at all. I'll talk to you later in the morning about what else has to happen in the next day or so. I'll ask Dr. Beckett to give you a sleeping sedative so you can actually sleep through the night for once — okay?"

Weir watched Felix as silent tears rolled down his face as he read the screen and then the Sergeant asked, "When was the service, sir?"

Weir answered softly, "The other day, Sergeant — I'm sorry for your loss."

Felix just nodded and swallowed then said, "Thanks — both of you. It's probably better this way — I'd have to find a suit and I have no idea where my F&E is at so..."

Weir said, "Your F&E showed up tonight, Sergeant — I took the liberty of getting some people to unpack your stuff and place them in your room."

Felix nodded again and said, "Thanks, ma'am — nice of you to do that for me. Did my bagpipes by chance show up with my gear?"

Weir answered, "I would assume so — why would you want your bagpipes right now?"

Felix answered, "I was supposed to play at any family member's funeral if..." he trailed off again and wiped his tears. He raised his head and asked, "Is there an unoccupied area of the city I can go play the pipes at? Somewhere I can play without waking the whole city?"