The Long Way Home

Chapter Fifty Six: Insatiable

Turn the lights down low
Take it off
Let me show
My love for you
Insatiable

Darren Hayes - Insatiable

The bathwater was sensational and luxurious across John Sheppard's aching flesh as he sank down into the depths of the gloriously hot water. Whatever the weird assemble of bath products were that Cass had organised in the little wicker basket thing seemed to be working their magic on his tense irate form. He was more of a shower guy usually but there was definitely something to be said for baths.

It had been a sham of a day and he was tired, angry and pissed off by the way that it had gone. They had come inches away from capturing Ford and getting him back to Atlantis and somewhere along the line John had failed. Yet he couldn't see what he could have done differently. Wraith stunners took a long time to work on Ford and John hadn't had one of those anyway. He had taken the only non lethal course of action available and even that had resulted in nothing. The Wraith enzyme had made Ford even stronger than John could have imagined and bullets hadn't worked. John wondered what there was left to do if they ever met again, would he end up being forced to kill Aiden Ford just so he could bring his family some peace?

That would never be an option for John, he lived primarily on a kill or be killed basis usually. Although he did believe in the greater good and as far as he was concerned if Ford had managed to escape that Wraith Dart then he was out there wrecking up a death toll of the Wraith. John didn't quite believe that the Lieutenant was a security risk to Atlantis just yet, not in the same way Colonel Caldwell did.

John thought about Ford's family back home, of his grandparents and cousin who resided back in Memphis still waiting news of their relative. Would it have been better to simply tell them that he was dead like Corinne had suggested? John believed that there was hope in the absence of a body but he couldn't deny that he understood where she was coming from. There was no closure to being told your loved one was MIA. He knew that the book was certainly still open for him, until he literally saw or heard about Ford's death he would continue searching for the other man.

On the other side of the coin there was now Ronon to worry about. John hadn't realized they were taking in a refugee when they had brought the other man on board Atlantis. As far as he had been concerned he was simply helping a victim of the Wraith get back home, something they had done several times before. Only this poor bastard's world had been culled and then obliterated by the Wraith and he was stranded with them without no friends or family or a home.

Elizabeth had considered setting him free amongst the Athosian settlement on the mainland but John thought that kind of life would simply drive the other man crazy. He had seen Ronon in action, the other man's skilled were honed as a warrior, he was ex military and John thought he may be able to find a suitable place for the other man to fit in here. Ronon hated the Wraith as much as they did, maybe more and he knew that no matter what happened the Runner would always go back to extracting revenge on the creatures that had murdered his people. It's what John would have done if he was in that tedious position.

He'd give Ronon some time before he brought the subject up. He wanted to offer the other man stability and a home but John thought the wounds would be too raw from what they had learned about Sateda.

John closed his eyes against those thoughts. Now was the time to switch off from work and focus on his home life. He needed to relax otherwise this job would take over completely and he couldn't afford to let that happen to him again. He edged lower into the tub so the bubbles were up to his chin.

He wondered where Cass was. The last time he had seen her he'd been entering a briefing with Elizabeth and Colonel Caldwell, whilst she was heading to the locker room in order to change out of her combat gear. That must have been several hours ago. He had assumed that she must have headed back to the infirmary to write up her mission report. She was more organised that he was, John would put off his reports for as long as he was able. Cass liked them out of the way with as soon as possible. He considered the probability that she had fallen asleep at her desk again. It was becoming a hazard as of late with all the training she had been engaged in with the new field medics.