sga: inertia [sheppard]

Just a little something I came up with while I was on the train into work this morning. On a bit of a roll this week.

Set in the interim between Siege III [2.01] and Intruder [2.02] and with thanks for coreopsis, nemoinis and engenda for the readthrough. :)


inertia

Coming back to Earth, Sheppard isn't sure what to make of things when they step through into the SGC. He's the screwup, the rebel, the one that gets through by the skin of his teeth and the immenseness of his own stupidity. The last one comes courtesy of a certain astrophysicist, but Sheppard's not convinced that Rodney's that far from the truth.

He's just sure as hell that he isn't anyone's hero.

It's like he's living someone else's life the first day back and the way people look at him is starting to freak him out. Things quieten down some and he doesn't feel so much like a bug pinned to a board for posterity, but the itchy feeling between his shoulder blades is still there. Through the debriefs, the meetings, the hours and days of them, he can still feel it and it makes him want to scratch.

So when Landry and Caldwell give him the option to head to Eglin to get up to speed on the 302's, he grabs it. He's only taking up space in Colorado and the rest of the team are busy with their own problems. Plus, he doesn't want to mention it, but the SGC gives him the creeps. Neither man, nor bird, nor pilot, was supposed to be that far underground and it's good to be away and under an open sky again.

The smell of aviation fuel as he exits the transport makes him feel like he's truly home for the first time. This is what it's about. Planes, choppers, UAVs. He knows he's standing on the tarmac with a stupid grin on his face, looking for all the world like some kind of green second lieutenant, but he can't help it. The puddlejumpers are cool in their own way -- who the hell wouldn't want to be able to fly through space? -- but he's missed this.

There's a taste, a smell, a feel, to it that's just not there with the jumpers. It's like they've been sanitised of all the things that make flying, well, flying.

And when he sees the MH sitting in one of the hangers as he passes, all he wants to do is drop his duffle and press himself against her. He knows the feel of her, the way she shifts under his hands, how she can pin him down and steal his breath, and like coming back to his first love, he wonders if she's as good as he remembers.




*MH is the MH-53J Pave Low III which is what I think Sheppard flew before Atlantis.