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TITLE: On The Run
SUMMARY: When John Sheppard encounters Teyla Athos nee Emmagen over the boardroom table, how can he forget the woman who claimed his heart over two years earlier?
CATEGORY: Romance, crackfic, AU
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: Yes, more crackfic. No, it won't ever be finished. If the summary makes this sound like a trashy romance novel, then that's because it is! This was a story I began for the 'Harlequin' challenge - working title 'On The Run' - but I never got past this excerpt.
On The Run: Part Two
"Gennii Corp will have Atlantis over my dead body."
Nobody had ever accused John Sheppard of anything less than absolute forthrightness. There'd been many occasions when his people had cause to regret it. Right now, John didn't think that there was any sugar-coating this plain truth; even if his fellow board-members didn't want to hear it.
Elizabeth shot him a brief look of exasperation. They'd been over this several times today already. "We don't have any other options, John."
"It's the Gennii or filing for bankruptcy," Steven said bleakly.
Not that any of them liked the option of selling out to Gennii Corp; but finance was finance, and their finances were, to put it bluntly, sunk.
There was a noisy clatter on the table, drawing the attention of the room. Rodney ignored the stares and glares from his fellow board members as he retrieved the pen he'd been twirling around his thumb. "You know, all things considered, I'd rather file for bankruptcy. Gennii Corp will suck us dry just as surely as our debtors would."
John regarded his friend and fellow board member with a sour expression. "Thanks for that uplifting thought, Rodney."
"Sheppard, it's an option. Nobody's twisting our arms to take the Gennii offer - although, strictly speaking, it's not arms they're twisting so much as selling," said Rodney, referencing how Gennii Corp had made most of their money.
"If there aren't any other negotiations in place, then we might have to take the Gennii offer," Elizabeth said, standing at the window that looked out over Atlantic City. "And don't tell me how it's the Gennii, John, we've been through this before."
"Did I say anything?"
She didn't even turn around. "You thought it, I'm sure."
John looked down at the sheafs of paper in front of him; a thousand notes and notations, several emails, and a letter he'd received in the post this morning.
"There is an alternative," he said, leaning back in his chair and trying to seem nonchalant.
Elizabeth turned, startled; at the table, the other board members were regarding him with astonishment, interest, and, yes, hope.
It had been a while since they'd had hope.
"An alternative offer?" Rodney asked, blinking. "From whom?"
John pushed the letter across the table. "Athos Holdings."
"Athos Holdings?" Steven said, leaning over so he could see the letter and the scrawled signature at the bottom of the note. "Why would they have an interest in us?"
He could feel both Rodney and Elizabeth's eyes on him.
--
"It's the Emmagen heiress, isn't it?" Rodney said when the other directors had left, jubilant at the prospect of a buy-out which didn't involve the Gennii.
John heard Elizabeth hesitate before she spoke. "She's not the Emmagen heiress anymore, Rodney."
"Oh, that's right. She married Torin Athos, didn't she? Wasn't that a month or two before you came back to Atlantis, Sheppard?"
It was a struggle to get his voice to work, to persuade his vocal chords to loosen up enough to lightly say, "Something like that."
He could feel Elizabeth's gaze on him, a compassion he neither wanted or needed. To escape her pity, John stood up and went to look out the window at the city below, scraping a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. In the window glass, he could see his reflection, pale skin limned in gold by the setting sun - a handsome face with a long nose, and a mouth that quirked beneath hazel eyes that held shadows of bitterness.
It had been nobody's fault but his own.
"Well, if they're willing to buy us out of trouble...I'm all for it." Rodney sounded unconcerned about the details and was completely insensible to John's state of mind. John had learned not to let it bother him. Rodney preferred working with his technology anyway. "When do you meet with the Athos representative?"
John turned from the window, ignoring the way the sun lanced into his eyes like a migraine - or a knife in the heart. "Tomorrow afternoon. Five o'clock."
In his chair, Rodney frowned. "That's fast."
"We don't have a lot of time," said John. "Our creditors want an answer by close of business Friday." And he and the rest of the directors of Atlantis had three days to pull a miracle out of their collective asses.
"Did they say who they'd send around to open negotiations?" Elizabeth asked, shifting in her chair. She was probably already formulating plans of attack - Liz was nothing if not practical.
"No. I didn't ask." He'd been too shocked by the offer to think of anything so basic. And he squashed any fear - or hope- of seeing her again. Athos Holdings was financially stable, without the need for its directors to be involved in its day-to-day runnings. For all he knew, Torin Athos had noted the announcements of Atlantis' financial trouble and just told someone to make inquiries about a takeover.
For all he knew, Teyla Athos nee Emmagen hadn't given John Sheppard so much as a second thought after she received her wedding gift and sent him a handwritten thank-you note in her looping, graceful script.
But John hoped nevertheless.
--
At four-thirty, everything was ready for the appointment. John had his jacket and tie to hand, and his secretary had colour-coded folders ready for the Athos representative to flip through, with all the major bits of information about Atlantis that the rep might want to see.
To pass time, John went through one of Rodney's reports about some of their more recent scientific discoveries, skimming the document and writing down questions as they hit him. It helped to have a double-degree in Science and Business - he could actually keep up with Rodney and the geeks in R&D. Well, most of the time, anyway.
And John had to admit it was fun to watch the scientists stare as he casually asked a question that a Director shouldn't know. Sometimes he even caught Rodney out.
At four-fifty, his intercom buzzed.
"Mr. Sheppard, Ms. Sar is on line one."
John picked it up. "Sheppard."
"John," the smooth, gentle voice of Chaya Sar slipped through the receiver to his ears. "I haven't heard back from you in a couple of days. Is everything okay at work?"
"Hey, Chaya. Everything's fine. We're just busy sorting out our options right now..."
"You know that my father offered..."
John interrupted her before she could get any further. They'd been through this before. "And we appreciate the offer," he said. "But the other directors are less willing to deal with a single investor as compared to a company. It's business, Chaya."
"We're not asking for your souls in return for the investment, John," she sounded amused. John could see her expression - the delicate amusement.
"And we appreciate that," he replied, lightly. "It's not personal, we're just not ready to commit to a single investor." Now or ever.
Not that he could say that to Chaya; she wouldn't understand.
Atlantis Inc. had started as a joint venture among a dozen young people. Most had worked together before, only John had been new to the group. Different skills and abilities had learned how to mesh with some careful co-ordination and more than a few arguments among them, but they'd successfully provided a service to what they thought was a niche market.
Within a year, their small company was doing better than anyone had predicted, within three, they were publically listed. Within five, they'd made the Fortune 500.
John opted out after the fifth year, relinquishing his part in the day-to-day running of the company and heading off to start a new venture.
The public reasons had been varied - a desire to try new things, to move on, to stretch himself; the private reason had been simple, he'd come home one night to find his fianceé in bed with another man.
He'd left the company in the hands of his fellow board directors for six years while he worked on other projects, undertook other business enterprises. But he'd retained his share in Atlantis, the equal part he had with Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay. It was one thing to give up actively working in the company, quite another to give up Atlantis entirely. The company had been built with their sweat, laughter, arguments, and vision; to abandon it was unthinkable.
Which was why, even now, they were looking for a way to keep themselves afloat with a buy-in they could stomach.
Eleventh hour, much?
He hung up on Chaya with the promise to call her later in the week. There was little doubt in his mind that her interest in him went beyond the professional - not that he had a problem with that. Chaya was good company, charming, and sexy, but Atlantis was very much separate to that.
And hopefully would remain so.
The intercom beeped. "Mr. Sheppard? Your five o'clock is here."
Showtime.
"I'll be out in a minute, Alina."
He closed down his laptop, checked he had at least one pen on him, then reached into his drawer and pulled out his father's dogtags. The thin chain was cold and clinked gently as he picked them up and slipped them over his head, then buttoned his shirt over them. Superstition, maybe; but John wasn't above using it to his own ends.
Quickly, John reached for his tie and began to tie it. Less than a minute later he checked his reflection in the mirror, trying to neaten his hair a bit before he slipped on his suit jacket and went out to greet the Athos representative.
Alina was just preparing a cup of coffee for the rep as John walked out of his office. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting..."
The words died on his lips as she turned from her contemplation of the paintings on the wall.
If he'd thought that two years might help him forget, he'd been wrong.
"John."
"Teyla." At least he managed her name without sounding like a complete idiot. "How are you?" His hand didn't shake as he held it out, but he felt his stomach quiver as she shook it, but gently pulled him down for a kiss on the cheek.
He felt the touch of her lips against his skin, the gentlest brush of flesh against flesh. His nose brushed past a wisp of hair, escaped from the clips that held her hair upswept, and the lightly perfumed scent of her prompted memory.
...her hand slid up his spine to his nape, slicking sweat across hot skin as his mouth clung to her throat and they writhed together in the cheap motel bed...
John didn't quite shiver.
"I am well, John," said Teyla as she pulled back and studied him. "Are you? You look tired."
He shrugged, trying for nonchalance and not sure he succeeded. "It's been a busy year," he said, still holding her hand.
He studied her face, looking for the changes two years of marriage had wrought in her - two years of contentment, happiness, and the love she'd given another man before she'd ever laid eyes on John Sheppard.
He couldn't find any, she seemed the same as ever.
"So I heard," she replied. "And it is why I'm here."
"So...you're the representative from Athos Holdings?"
Her gaze was steady. "Yes. Initally, Tom Halling was to come here, but his son got into some trouble at school. I was the only other board member conversant in the details of your company." Something flickered across her face. "If you wish, Halling can come tomorr--"
"That won't be necessary." John cut her off. He didn't want her to get the idea that he couldn't stand to speak to her, look at her, work with her. This wasn't about him, or even about them. This was about Atlantis. For the sake of Atlantis, he could and would bury his own painful memories and work with her. "I'm happy to deal with someone I know and trust." He indicated the conference room. "Shall we?"
Alina, who'd been taking in every nuance of their conversation and was probably jumping to her own conclusions even now, offered the coffee cup to Teyla who took it with quiet thanks.
In the conference room, she paused, regarding the folders lying on the table with some surprise. "You are organised."
"You expected otherwise?"
Her wry smile and tilt of the head indicated her fault. "Forgive me."
Forgiving was the easy part, John reflected as he gestured to a seat at the corner of the table. Forgetting... Well, that was more difficult. "What do you know of our situation?"
Teyla laid her cup and her laptop case down on the table and began unpacking. "We are aware of your financial straits, and that you are looking for a buyout that will allow you, and Drs. Weir and McKay to retain management of the company. Ideally, you would also like to retain a total of twenty percent holdings in the company, preferably through the means of loans against which you would set your personal properties and holdings as surety." She looked up as she pulled out her slim silver notebook and turned it on. "Am I so far correct?"
"You've got good sources," John said, taking the seat perpendicular to hers and focusing on the matter at hand. "Obviously, we'd like a buyout that gives us maximum flexibility in the management and running of the company." Although, if Teyla knew the terms they wanted for their buyout, then she would also be aware that they were caught over a barrel and act accordingly.
"Understandable," she replied. "I imagine you and your fellow directors are aware that such flexibility may come at other costs?"
"We're well aware of that." The Gennii had refused their terms, point-blank, wanting complete and total control of the company. "However, there are some points that are negotiable, depending on other factors in the buy-out."
She rested her wrists at the edge of her laptop and regarded him calmly. "Which points?"
"That's what we have to discuss." John leaned across the table and snagged a folder, then paused. "What are the intentions of Athos Holdings regarding Atlantis? What are you prepared to offer us?"
In the silence that followed, the only noise was the whir of the air-conditioners cycling air through the room and the tap-tap of keys as slim fingers typed in a password to access her machine.
Dark eyes lifted to rest on him. "The board of directors at Athos Holdings is willing to offer you a conditional, eight-year buyout, on the terms you have laid down, in exchange for a number of permanent concessions with regards to marketing and licencing of your products."
John didn't let loose a whistle, although he was impressed. Athos Holdings might be seen as a quiet, unimaginative crowd in the business area, but they were solid all the way back through their history and they knew what they were doing.
That had been the reason he'd agreed to help Torin Athos in the first place, after all.
Teyla was still watching him, her expression carefully neutral. "I understand that you cannot speak for the whole board of directors, however you may indicate if you believe such an agreement might be possible."
More than anything else, her words underscored a home truth; this wasn't the young woman he'd been sent to rescue two years ago. She was older and wiser, more business-savvy, and the inner strength he'd admired then had been transmuted to steel brilliance.
"It'll take more hammering out," John said after a moment. "But it sounds like we have something to offer you."
Teyla's smile was a quicksilver shimmer in the late afternoon light. "Good." She turned back to her laptop with that smile and began opening files. And John watched the wisps of hair drift down around her face like a hazy halo, and his heart clenched.
Possibly worse than seeing her again was the realisation that, while the years had changed her, molded her, grown her, at least one thing hadn't changed.
John still loved her.
--
He tried not to dwell on it as they hammered out the details between them, falling into a working partnership so achingly familiar that John wondered that it had taken less than a month for them to develop it - and that he had ever let it go at all.
Over the last two hours, they'd grown almost familiar. He'd taken off jacket and tie, opening the throat of his shirt, she'd kicked off her heels, padding about in stocking feet with little thought for propriety.
John remembered her predilection for bare feet - and remembered admiring the smooth tanned curves of her legs as she stuck her feet up on the dashboard of the car during that four-week cross-country drive.
The sun was setting, creeping its golden rays towards their workspace, and Teyla reached for a file with her left hand. The diamond on her ring finger refracted rainbows through the room as her hand dipped into the sunlight, the tiny sparkles searing across his retina. John blinked and looked back down at his laptop, reminded of the cold, hard truth.
He'd let her go because she'd never been his in the first place.
"I'm sending you the document that outlines our current agreement," she said, interrupting his thoughts. "Do you have BlueTooth on that laptop?"
John did and she transferred the file to him.
He opened it and began reading, comparing it to his own notes on their discussion. She had a good grasp of the legal ramifications for each clause, and an ability to phrase it simply. After a couple of paragraphs, he glanced up to ask a question and found her eyes resting on him thoughtfully.
Something in him warmed and melted, gripping his chest with fiery bands, but John didn't look away.
The directness of his gaze drew a reserve over her as she looked back down at her notes. "You've changed," she said, fiddling with the papers by her computer.
"So have you."
Her cheeks flushed with faint colour, nothing more than the vaguest tint of red in her tanned cheeks, and she brushed back a wisp of hair with some self-consciousness. "Did you have a question?"
John opened his mouth and found the question on his lips was not about the document at all. Would you have dinner with me?
The chordal sounds of her cellphone interrupted them, and she turned to her case with a grimace. "Excuse me."
John cursed himself as she took out the slim silver phone and answered it. After two years, he'd thought it would be all gone and done, water under the bridge, an old flame fallen into ashes. How galling to discover that he'd let go, but his heart hadn't moved on.
If he could have fooled himself that his interest was only as a friend, as a business associate-- But John couldn't, and he wasn't willing to play pretend. Teyla had given her heart to another man, was his wife, wore his ring on her finger. John had betrayed that once before. He wouldn't do it again.
"...I would not return for another hour anyway." She listened to the answer and shook her head although her contact couldn't see her. "No, do not wait for me - I will see you in the morning."
Her words curled John's hands into fists over the keys of his computer. Torin Athos, then, calling to see where his wife was.
...the alcohol that slipped down his throat burned with the promise of unconsciousness, while somewhere else, she danced with her newly-wedded husband while six hundred pairs of eyes watched approvingly, and one John Sheppard got himself drunk enough to forget her - if only for a little while...
He forced himself to unclench his hands, to read the document again, to concentrate on what it was saying and what it would mean for Atlantis Inc. But his hindbrain registered the fact that she had closed up the phone and had come to stand beside his chair, one hand resting on the chair back as she read the document over his shoulder and the scent of her perfume sifted through his nostrils.
"This section," he pointed out. "I thought we agreed to provide an audit of all management decisions, financial and organisational, within three months of the takeover."
She shifted so they could make eye contact more easily. "And I indicated that timeframe would leave us with only a month in which to review the decisions before our six-monthly financial report. I suggested two months."
"I don't remember agreeing to that."
Teyla eyed him. "We can offer personnel to assist in collation of the data."
"That won't be necessary," John said shortly. "I'll see it's done." Two months would make it tight, but it could be done. He'd make sure it was done, if it meant he didn't sleep for those two months.
Something flickered across her face, like regret. He imagined she could see every misgiving that went through his mind. "Still so passionate about your work?"
It wasn't work he'd been so passionate about the last time - something they both had cause to remember and regret. John felt his cheeks flame, saw hers do the same, and looked fixedly back at his laptop and the document.
She stepped away from his chair, back to the safe distance of her own computer, and he felt her absence.
John kept reading. He read all the way to the end, every word imprinted on his mind, but only half of his attention on the agreement. Still, at the end, he could at least tell that it was what they'd discussed. "It's good," he said, sending it back to her laptop. "I'll present it to the other directors tomorrow."
Teyla nodded, her cheeks still faintly pink. "Thank you, John."
That made him look up. "Isn't it the other way around? I should be thanking you and Torin for bailing us out on this one."
Of all the responses he'd expected to his statement, the sudden and frozen anguish in her face was a shock. "Teyla?"
"You do not know..."
"Know what?" Sudden fear snatched at him with ghostly hands; that she'd been playing him these last two hours, that there were other issues with the takeover that she hadn't specified, that he'd made a mistake somewhere, said something he shouldn't have said...
A thousand terrible scenarios leaped into his mind, and he stared at her, dread tearing into him with sharp nails.
But her gaze was pained as she looked at him. "Torin is dead, John."
John stared at her.
"I have a job for you, if you're willing to take it."
John eyed the man standing in his boxy little office. "I only take the cases that interest me, Mr. Athos."
"So you know of me? Ah, but of course you would." The dark eyes regarded John. "John Sheppard, formerly a director of Atlantis Inc."
"Still a director of Atlantis Inc.," John said with a little more asperity than was warranted.
The dark eyes glanced up, surprised at his sudden passion. "Forgive me, Mr. Sheppard." That was something that had to be said about Torin Athos: he might play know-it-all, but he knew when to back down. "I hope that you will take this one. It features an old...friend of yours."
An envelope slid across the desk. John opened it and tipped out the grainy photos - someone had been doing surreptitious surveillance on the man. "Cowan." The name was a curse.
"Gennii Corp have been trying to take over Athos Holdings for a while - they tried to move in after the attempt by Wraith Industries--"
"And now he's resorting to a different kind of business method?" Cowan was a bully and a prig - John had met the man - encountered him more than once while working in Atlantis. Cowan lusted after power and money and was known to sacrifice his own people to get it.
Another envelope was proffered, and John took it.
More photos spilled out across the desk, a tumble of clear, sharp pictures with the same woman captured each time.
"She was taken last week. Kidnapped on her way home."
John looked up at the resonance of grief beneath the anger, then back down at the topmost photo.
Naturally tanned skin, large dark eyes, and hair of an oddly pale hue - a honeyed caramel colour - none of the charcoal or chocolate usual in women of her colouring. It might be dyed, but the proud lines of her features pronounced her a woman who used only the barest of cosmetics.
Not that she needed it.
"Who is she?"
"My fiancee, Teyla," said Athos.
"Dead?" John repeated, not sure he was able to believe it. He didn't remember...hadn't heard anything about...
"Nearly a year ago," Teyla answered, her voice almost steady. "It was...sudden. A stroke, and then death." She shrugged. "I believe it was around the same time as your father."
John tensed. That had been a bad time for him. "You knew about--?"
"It was in the papers."
For some reason, John felt anger flush him. "But Athos' death wasn't?"
"The Belka Bank scandal erupted just before," Teyla said. "It was lost in the drama of the news."
Abruptly she seemed so brittle, as though all the poise of before had been nothing more than a cover. John's anger faded. His father's death hadn't been her fault, and Athos' death had probably been played down. Athos Holdings was known for being secretive about the lives of its directors, while Atlantis... "I'm sorry, Teyla. If I'd known..."
You'd have what? Gone to offer 'comfort' to the grieving widow?
Teyla had no reason to trust his generosity.
"You did not," she said. "But thank you, anyway."
He watched her pack her things away, and felt the gap between them widen.
"Have dinner with me." It was less of a question and more of a plea. A faint dusky tide rose over her cheeks, but she looked up at him with her excuses already in her eyes.
John didn't give her a chance to protest. "We can catch up on the last two years," he said, knowing it was a lame excuse to keep her company, but not wanting to have to give her up. "You can ask any questions that come up about Atlantis, me, my personal life, or the personal lives of my fellow directors." That, at least, elicited a smile from her.
It was wrong. Dangerous. It could get them both into trouble. It would get John into trouble. He knew that deep in his flesh and bones.
John was beyond caring.
Two years trying to forget her, and she'd walked back into his life as casually as she'd walk into a boutique store and he was bought and sold, body, soul and heart.
But she was still going to say no.
He went for the magic word. "Please."
"I should not," she said at last.
"But you will?" He smiled, already knowing her answer as she sighed and zipped the laptop bag closed.
"Yes," she said with a rueful smile. "I will."
It was answer enough for John.
- fin -
NOTES: The basic premise of 'On The Run' is that the various planets (or cultures) in Pegasus are businesses, run by their respective boards of directors. John's a director of Atlantis Inc. but he was absent from the daily workings of the company for a couple of years - as detailed in the story. During this time, he becomes an odd-jobs man (I imagined him working with Ronon, actually) and then is hired by Torin Athos to find Teyla, who's been taken by the Gennii. The story was typically going to be about John's rescue of Teyla (considerably assisted by Teyla herself), realising that there are more people working for the Gennii than they ever imagined, and having to road-trip it cross-country to get back to Torin. By which time, John's fallen for Teyla, only to have to give her up to her fiance. (The bit where they have sex was one of those 'We just avoided death by really narrow margins and we're really horny' moments.)
Fast forward two years and John's back and working in Atlantis again. He encounters Teyla when Athos Holdings steps in to help Atlantis out of their financial straits, and since Torin's dead, they end up screwing like bunnies. This excerpt is pretty much from the beginning of 'On The Run: Part Two'. Basically, the second half was going to be them working out their relationship and coming up against Kolya, who's taken up GenniiCorp and is considerably more ruthless than Cowan. They take him down (with assorted helpful cameos by everyone from Elizabeth to Ronon) and either ride off into the sunset or kiss and have mad bunny sex.
On the whole, it was highly entertaining to imagine, slightly crazy to write, and I based quite a bit of the 'John and Teyla in a cheap pickup looking like a couple of no-good white trash drifters' concept on my own halfway-across-the-country road trip back in 2005.
SUMMARY: When John Sheppard encounters Teyla Athos nee Emmagen over the boardroom table, how can he forget the woman who claimed his heart over two years earlier?
CATEGORY: Romance, crackfic, AU
RATING: PG-13
NOTES: Yes, more crackfic. No, it won't ever be finished. If the summary makes this sound like a trashy romance novel, then that's because it is! This was a story I began for the 'Harlequin' challenge - working title 'On The Run' - but I never got past this excerpt.
On The Run: Part Two
"Gennii Corp will have Atlantis over my dead body."
Nobody had ever accused John Sheppard of anything less than absolute forthrightness. There'd been many occasions when his people had cause to regret it. Right now, John didn't think that there was any sugar-coating this plain truth; even if his fellow board-members didn't want to hear it.
Elizabeth shot him a brief look of exasperation. They'd been over this several times today already. "We don't have any other options, John."
"It's the Gennii or filing for bankruptcy," Steven said bleakly.
Not that any of them liked the option of selling out to Gennii Corp; but finance was finance, and their finances were, to put it bluntly, sunk.
There was a noisy clatter on the table, drawing the attention of the room. Rodney ignored the stares and glares from his fellow board members as he retrieved the pen he'd been twirling around his thumb. "You know, all things considered, I'd rather file for bankruptcy. Gennii Corp will suck us dry just as surely as our debtors would."
John regarded his friend and fellow board member with a sour expression. "Thanks for that uplifting thought, Rodney."
"Sheppard, it's an option. Nobody's twisting our arms to take the Gennii offer - although, strictly speaking, it's not arms they're twisting so much as selling," said Rodney, referencing how Gennii Corp had made most of their money.
"If there aren't any other negotiations in place, then we might have to take the Gennii offer," Elizabeth said, standing at the window that looked out over Atlantic City. "And don't tell me how it's the Gennii, John, we've been through this before."
"Did I say anything?"
She didn't even turn around. "You thought it, I'm sure."
John looked down at the sheafs of paper in front of him; a thousand notes and notations, several emails, and a letter he'd received in the post this morning.
"There is an alternative," he said, leaning back in his chair and trying to seem nonchalant.
Elizabeth turned, startled; at the table, the other board members were regarding him with astonishment, interest, and, yes, hope.
It had been a while since they'd had hope.
"An alternative offer?" Rodney asked, blinking. "From whom?"
John pushed the letter across the table. "Athos Holdings."
"Athos Holdings?" Steven said, leaning over so he could see the letter and the scrawled signature at the bottom of the note. "Why would they have an interest in us?"
He could feel both Rodney and Elizabeth's eyes on him.
--
"It's the Emmagen heiress, isn't it?" Rodney said when the other directors had left, jubilant at the prospect of a buy-out which didn't involve the Gennii.
John heard Elizabeth hesitate before she spoke. "She's not the Emmagen heiress anymore, Rodney."
"Oh, that's right. She married Torin Athos, didn't she? Wasn't that a month or two before you came back to Atlantis, Sheppard?"
It was a struggle to get his voice to work, to persuade his vocal chords to loosen up enough to lightly say, "Something like that."
He could feel Elizabeth's gaze on him, a compassion he neither wanted or needed. To escape her pity, John stood up and went to look out the window at the city below, scraping a hand through his hair to get it out of his face. In the window glass, he could see his reflection, pale skin limned in gold by the setting sun - a handsome face with a long nose, and a mouth that quirked beneath hazel eyes that held shadows of bitterness.
It had been nobody's fault but his own.
"Well, if they're willing to buy us out of trouble...I'm all for it." Rodney sounded unconcerned about the details and was completely insensible to John's state of mind. John had learned not to let it bother him. Rodney preferred working with his technology anyway. "When do you meet with the Athos representative?"
John turned from the window, ignoring the way the sun lanced into his eyes like a migraine - or a knife in the heart. "Tomorrow afternoon. Five o'clock."
In his chair, Rodney frowned. "That's fast."
"We don't have a lot of time," said John. "Our creditors want an answer by close of business Friday." And he and the rest of the directors of Atlantis had three days to pull a miracle out of their collective asses.
"Did they say who they'd send around to open negotiations?" Elizabeth asked, shifting in her chair. She was probably already formulating plans of attack - Liz was nothing if not practical.
"No. I didn't ask." He'd been too shocked by the offer to think of anything so basic. And he squashed any fear - or hope- of seeing her again. Athos Holdings was financially stable, without the need for its directors to be involved in its day-to-day runnings. For all he knew, Torin Athos had noted the announcements of Atlantis' financial trouble and just told someone to make inquiries about a takeover.
For all he knew, Teyla Athos nee Emmagen hadn't given John Sheppard so much as a second thought after she received her wedding gift and sent him a handwritten thank-you note in her looping, graceful script.
But John hoped nevertheless.
--
At four-thirty, everything was ready for the appointment. John had his jacket and tie to hand, and his secretary had colour-coded folders ready for the Athos representative to flip through, with all the major bits of information about Atlantis that the rep might want to see.
To pass time, John went through one of Rodney's reports about some of their more recent scientific discoveries, skimming the document and writing down questions as they hit him. It helped to have a double-degree in Science and Business - he could actually keep up with Rodney and the geeks in R&D. Well, most of the time, anyway.
And John had to admit it was fun to watch the scientists stare as he casually asked a question that a Director shouldn't know. Sometimes he even caught Rodney out.
At four-fifty, his intercom buzzed.
"Mr. Sheppard, Ms. Sar is on line one."
John picked it up. "Sheppard."
"John," the smooth, gentle voice of Chaya Sar slipped through the receiver to his ears. "I haven't heard back from you in a couple of days. Is everything okay at work?"
"Hey, Chaya. Everything's fine. We're just busy sorting out our options right now..."
"You know that my father offered..."
John interrupted her before she could get any further. They'd been through this before. "And we appreciate the offer," he said. "But the other directors are less willing to deal with a single investor as compared to a company. It's business, Chaya."
"We're not asking for your souls in return for the investment, John," she sounded amused. John could see her expression - the delicate amusement.
"And we appreciate that," he replied, lightly. "It's not personal, we're just not ready to commit to a single investor." Now or ever.
Not that he could say that to Chaya; she wouldn't understand.
Atlantis Inc. had started as a joint venture among a dozen young people. Most had worked together before, only John had been new to the group. Different skills and abilities had learned how to mesh with some careful co-ordination and more than a few arguments among them, but they'd successfully provided a service to what they thought was a niche market.
Within a year, their small company was doing better than anyone had predicted, within three, they were publically listed. Within five, they'd made the Fortune 500.
John opted out after the fifth year, relinquishing his part in the day-to-day running of the company and heading off to start a new venture.
The public reasons had been varied - a desire to try new things, to move on, to stretch himself; the private reason had been simple, he'd come home one night to find his fianceé in bed with another man.
He'd left the company in the hands of his fellow board directors for six years while he worked on other projects, undertook other business enterprises. But he'd retained his share in Atlantis, the equal part he had with Elizabeth Weir and Rodney McKay. It was one thing to give up actively working in the company, quite another to give up Atlantis entirely. The company had been built with their sweat, laughter, arguments, and vision; to abandon it was unthinkable.
Which was why, even now, they were looking for a way to keep themselves afloat with a buy-in they could stomach.
Eleventh hour, much?
He hung up on Chaya with the promise to call her later in the week. There was little doubt in his mind that her interest in him went beyond the professional - not that he had a problem with that. Chaya was good company, charming, and sexy, but Atlantis was very much separate to that.
And hopefully would remain so.
The intercom beeped. "Mr. Sheppard? Your five o'clock is here."
Showtime.
"I'll be out in a minute, Alina."
He closed down his laptop, checked he had at least one pen on him, then reached into his drawer and pulled out his father's dogtags. The thin chain was cold and clinked gently as he picked them up and slipped them over his head, then buttoned his shirt over them. Superstition, maybe; but John wasn't above using it to his own ends.
Quickly, John reached for his tie and began to tie it. Less than a minute later he checked his reflection in the mirror, trying to neaten his hair a bit before he slipped on his suit jacket and went out to greet the Athos representative.
Alina was just preparing a cup of coffee for the rep as John walked out of his office. "I'm sorry to keep you waiting..."
The words died on his lips as she turned from her contemplation of the paintings on the wall.
If he'd thought that two years might help him forget, he'd been wrong.
"John."
"Teyla." At least he managed her name without sounding like a complete idiot. "How are you?" His hand didn't shake as he held it out, but he felt his stomach quiver as she shook it, but gently pulled him down for a kiss on the cheek.
He felt the touch of her lips against his skin, the gentlest brush of flesh against flesh. His nose brushed past a wisp of hair, escaped from the clips that held her hair upswept, and the lightly perfumed scent of her prompted memory.
...her hand slid up his spine to his nape, slicking sweat across hot skin as his mouth clung to her throat and they writhed together in the cheap motel bed...
John didn't quite shiver.
"I am well, John," said Teyla as she pulled back and studied him. "Are you? You look tired."
He shrugged, trying for nonchalance and not sure he succeeded. "It's been a busy year," he said, still holding her hand.
He studied her face, looking for the changes two years of marriage had wrought in her - two years of contentment, happiness, and the love she'd given another man before she'd ever laid eyes on John Sheppard.
He couldn't find any, she seemed the same as ever.
"So I heard," she replied. "And it is why I'm here."
"So...you're the representative from Athos Holdings?"
Her gaze was steady. "Yes. Initally, Tom Halling was to come here, but his son got into some trouble at school. I was the only other board member conversant in the details of your company." Something flickered across her face. "If you wish, Halling can come tomorr--"
"That won't be necessary." John cut her off. He didn't want her to get the idea that he couldn't stand to speak to her, look at her, work with her. This wasn't about him, or even about them. This was about Atlantis. For the sake of Atlantis, he could and would bury his own painful memories and work with her. "I'm happy to deal with someone I know and trust." He indicated the conference room. "Shall we?"
Alina, who'd been taking in every nuance of their conversation and was probably jumping to her own conclusions even now, offered the coffee cup to Teyla who took it with quiet thanks.
In the conference room, she paused, regarding the folders lying on the table with some surprise. "You are organised."
"You expected otherwise?"
Her wry smile and tilt of the head indicated her fault. "Forgive me."
Forgiving was the easy part, John reflected as he gestured to a seat at the corner of the table. Forgetting... Well, that was more difficult. "What do you know of our situation?"
Teyla laid her cup and her laptop case down on the table and began unpacking. "We are aware of your financial straits, and that you are looking for a buyout that will allow you, and Drs. Weir and McKay to retain management of the company. Ideally, you would also like to retain a total of twenty percent holdings in the company, preferably through the means of loans against which you would set your personal properties and holdings as surety." She looked up as she pulled out her slim silver notebook and turned it on. "Am I so far correct?"
"You've got good sources," John said, taking the seat perpendicular to hers and focusing on the matter at hand. "Obviously, we'd like a buyout that gives us maximum flexibility in the management and running of the company." Although, if Teyla knew the terms they wanted for their buyout, then she would also be aware that they were caught over a barrel and act accordingly.
"Understandable," she replied. "I imagine you and your fellow directors are aware that such flexibility may come at other costs?"
"We're well aware of that." The Gennii had refused their terms, point-blank, wanting complete and total control of the company. "However, there are some points that are negotiable, depending on other factors in the buy-out."
She rested her wrists at the edge of her laptop and regarded him calmly. "Which points?"
"That's what we have to discuss." John leaned across the table and snagged a folder, then paused. "What are the intentions of Athos Holdings regarding Atlantis? What are you prepared to offer us?"
In the silence that followed, the only noise was the whir of the air-conditioners cycling air through the room and the tap-tap of keys as slim fingers typed in a password to access her machine.
Dark eyes lifted to rest on him. "The board of directors at Athos Holdings is willing to offer you a conditional, eight-year buyout, on the terms you have laid down, in exchange for a number of permanent concessions with regards to marketing and licencing of your products."
John didn't let loose a whistle, although he was impressed. Athos Holdings might be seen as a quiet, unimaginative crowd in the business area, but they were solid all the way back through their history and they knew what they were doing.
That had been the reason he'd agreed to help Torin Athos in the first place, after all.
Teyla was still watching him, her expression carefully neutral. "I understand that you cannot speak for the whole board of directors, however you may indicate if you believe such an agreement might be possible."
More than anything else, her words underscored a home truth; this wasn't the young woman he'd been sent to rescue two years ago. She was older and wiser, more business-savvy, and the inner strength he'd admired then had been transmuted to steel brilliance.
"It'll take more hammering out," John said after a moment. "But it sounds like we have something to offer you."
Teyla's smile was a quicksilver shimmer in the late afternoon light. "Good." She turned back to her laptop with that smile and began opening files. And John watched the wisps of hair drift down around her face like a hazy halo, and his heart clenched.
Possibly worse than seeing her again was the realisation that, while the years had changed her, molded her, grown her, at least one thing hadn't changed.
John still loved her.
--
He tried not to dwell on it as they hammered out the details between them, falling into a working partnership so achingly familiar that John wondered that it had taken less than a month for them to develop it - and that he had ever let it go at all.
Over the last two hours, they'd grown almost familiar. He'd taken off jacket and tie, opening the throat of his shirt, she'd kicked off her heels, padding about in stocking feet with little thought for propriety.
John remembered her predilection for bare feet - and remembered admiring the smooth tanned curves of her legs as she stuck her feet up on the dashboard of the car during that four-week cross-country drive.
The sun was setting, creeping its golden rays towards their workspace, and Teyla reached for a file with her left hand. The diamond on her ring finger refracted rainbows through the room as her hand dipped into the sunlight, the tiny sparkles searing across his retina. John blinked and looked back down at his laptop, reminded of the cold, hard truth.
He'd let her go because she'd never been his in the first place.
"I'm sending you the document that outlines our current agreement," she said, interrupting his thoughts. "Do you have BlueTooth on that laptop?"
John did and she transferred the file to him.
He opened it and began reading, comparing it to his own notes on their discussion. She had a good grasp of the legal ramifications for each clause, and an ability to phrase it simply. After a couple of paragraphs, he glanced up to ask a question and found her eyes resting on him thoughtfully.
Something in him warmed and melted, gripping his chest with fiery bands, but John didn't look away.
The directness of his gaze drew a reserve over her as she looked back down at her notes. "You've changed," she said, fiddling with the papers by her computer.
"So have you."
Her cheeks flushed with faint colour, nothing more than the vaguest tint of red in her tanned cheeks, and she brushed back a wisp of hair with some self-consciousness. "Did you have a question?"
John opened his mouth and found the question on his lips was not about the document at all. Would you have dinner with me?
The chordal sounds of her cellphone interrupted them, and she turned to her case with a grimace. "Excuse me."
John cursed himself as she took out the slim silver phone and answered it. After two years, he'd thought it would be all gone and done, water under the bridge, an old flame fallen into ashes. How galling to discover that he'd let go, but his heart hadn't moved on.
If he could have fooled himself that his interest was only as a friend, as a business associate-- But John couldn't, and he wasn't willing to play pretend. Teyla had given her heart to another man, was his wife, wore his ring on her finger. John had betrayed that once before. He wouldn't do it again.
"...I would not return for another hour anyway." She listened to the answer and shook her head although her contact couldn't see her. "No, do not wait for me - I will see you in the morning."
Her words curled John's hands into fists over the keys of his computer. Torin Athos, then, calling to see where his wife was.
...the alcohol that slipped down his throat burned with the promise of unconsciousness, while somewhere else, she danced with her newly-wedded husband while six hundred pairs of eyes watched approvingly, and one John Sheppard got himself drunk enough to forget her - if only for a little while...
He forced himself to unclench his hands, to read the document again, to concentrate on what it was saying and what it would mean for Atlantis Inc. But his hindbrain registered the fact that she had closed up the phone and had come to stand beside his chair, one hand resting on the chair back as she read the document over his shoulder and the scent of her perfume sifted through his nostrils.
"This section," he pointed out. "I thought we agreed to provide an audit of all management decisions, financial and organisational, within three months of the takeover."
She shifted so they could make eye contact more easily. "And I indicated that timeframe would leave us with only a month in which to review the decisions before our six-monthly financial report. I suggested two months."
"I don't remember agreeing to that."
Teyla eyed him. "We can offer personnel to assist in collation of the data."
"That won't be necessary," John said shortly. "I'll see it's done." Two months would make it tight, but it could be done. He'd make sure it was done, if it meant he didn't sleep for those two months.
Something flickered across her face, like regret. He imagined she could see every misgiving that went through his mind. "Still so passionate about your work?"
It wasn't work he'd been so passionate about the last time - something they both had cause to remember and regret. John felt his cheeks flame, saw hers do the same, and looked fixedly back at his laptop and the document.
She stepped away from his chair, back to the safe distance of her own computer, and he felt her absence.
John kept reading. He read all the way to the end, every word imprinted on his mind, but only half of his attention on the agreement. Still, at the end, he could at least tell that it was what they'd discussed. "It's good," he said, sending it back to her laptop. "I'll present it to the other directors tomorrow."
Teyla nodded, her cheeks still faintly pink. "Thank you, John."
That made him look up. "Isn't it the other way around? I should be thanking you and Torin for bailing us out on this one."
Of all the responses he'd expected to his statement, the sudden and frozen anguish in her face was a shock. "Teyla?"
"You do not know..."
"Know what?" Sudden fear snatched at him with ghostly hands; that she'd been playing him these last two hours, that there were other issues with the takeover that she hadn't specified, that he'd made a mistake somewhere, said something he shouldn't have said...
A thousand terrible scenarios leaped into his mind, and he stared at her, dread tearing into him with sharp nails.
But her gaze was pained as she looked at him. "Torin is dead, John."
John stared at her.
"I have a job for you, if you're willing to take it."
John eyed the man standing in his boxy little office. "I only take the cases that interest me, Mr. Athos."
"So you know of me? Ah, but of course you would." The dark eyes regarded John. "John Sheppard, formerly a director of Atlantis Inc."
"Still a director of Atlantis Inc.," John said with a little more asperity than was warranted.
The dark eyes glanced up, surprised at his sudden passion. "Forgive me, Mr. Sheppard." That was something that had to be said about Torin Athos: he might play know-it-all, but he knew when to back down. "I hope that you will take this one. It features an old...friend of yours."
An envelope slid across the desk. John opened it and tipped out the grainy photos - someone had been doing surreptitious surveillance on the man. "Cowan." The name was a curse.
"Gennii Corp have been trying to take over Athos Holdings for a while - they tried to move in after the attempt by Wraith Industries--"
"And now he's resorting to a different kind of business method?" Cowan was a bully and a prig - John had met the man - encountered him more than once while working in Atlantis. Cowan lusted after power and money and was known to sacrifice his own people to get it.
Another envelope was proffered, and John took it.
More photos spilled out across the desk, a tumble of clear, sharp pictures with the same woman captured each time.
"She was taken last week. Kidnapped on her way home."
John looked up at the resonance of grief beneath the anger, then back down at the topmost photo.
Naturally tanned skin, large dark eyes, and hair of an oddly pale hue - a honeyed caramel colour - none of the charcoal or chocolate usual in women of her colouring. It might be dyed, but the proud lines of her features pronounced her a woman who used only the barest of cosmetics.
Not that she needed it.
"Who is she?"
"My fiancee, Teyla," said Athos.
"Dead?" John repeated, not sure he was able to believe it. He didn't remember...hadn't heard anything about...
"Nearly a year ago," Teyla answered, her voice almost steady. "It was...sudden. A stroke, and then death." She shrugged. "I believe it was around the same time as your father."
John tensed. That had been a bad time for him. "You knew about--?"
"It was in the papers."
For some reason, John felt anger flush him. "But Athos' death wasn't?"
"The Belka Bank scandal erupted just before," Teyla said. "It was lost in the drama of the news."
Abruptly she seemed so brittle, as though all the poise of before had been nothing more than a cover. John's anger faded. His father's death hadn't been her fault, and Athos' death had probably been played down. Athos Holdings was known for being secretive about the lives of its directors, while Atlantis... "I'm sorry, Teyla. If I'd known..."
You'd have what? Gone to offer 'comfort' to the grieving widow?
Teyla had no reason to trust his generosity.
"You did not," she said. "But thank you, anyway."
He watched her pack her things away, and felt the gap between them widen.
"Have dinner with me." It was less of a question and more of a plea. A faint dusky tide rose over her cheeks, but she looked up at him with her excuses already in her eyes.
John didn't give her a chance to protest. "We can catch up on the last two years," he said, knowing it was a lame excuse to keep her company, but not wanting to have to give her up. "You can ask any questions that come up about Atlantis, me, my personal life, or the personal lives of my fellow directors." That, at least, elicited a smile from her.
It was wrong. Dangerous. It could get them both into trouble. It would get John into trouble. He knew that deep in his flesh and bones.
John was beyond caring.
Two years trying to forget her, and she'd walked back into his life as casually as she'd walk into a boutique store and he was bought and sold, body, soul and heart.
But she was still going to say no.
He went for the magic word. "Please."
"I should not," she said at last.
"But you will?" He smiled, already knowing her answer as she sighed and zipped the laptop bag closed.
"Yes," she said with a rueful smile. "I will."
It was answer enough for John.
- fin -
NOTES: The basic premise of 'On The Run' is that the various planets (or cultures) in Pegasus are businesses, run by their respective boards of directors. John's a director of Atlantis Inc. but he was absent from the daily workings of the company for a couple of years - as detailed in the story. During this time, he becomes an odd-jobs man (I imagined him working with Ronon, actually) and then is hired by Torin Athos to find Teyla, who's been taken by the Gennii. The story was typically going to be about John's rescue of Teyla (considerably assisted by Teyla herself), realising that there are more people working for the Gennii than they ever imagined, and having to road-trip it cross-country to get back to Torin. By which time, John's fallen for Teyla, only to have to give her up to her fiance. (The bit where they have sex was one of those 'We just avoided death by really narrow margins and we're really horny' moments.)
Fast forward two years and John's back and working in Atlantis again. He encounters Teyla when Athos Holdings steps in to help Atlantis out of their financial straits, and since Torin's dead, they end up screwing like bunnies. This excerpt is pretty much from the beginning of 'On The Run: Part Two'. Basically, the second half was going to be them working out their relationship and coming up against Kolya, who's taken up GenniiCorp and is considerably more ruthless than Cowan. They take him down (with assorted helpful cameos by everyone from Elizabeth to Ronon) and either ride off into the sunset or kiss and have mad bunny sex.
On the whole, it was highly entertaining to imagine, slightly crazy to write, and I based quite a bit of the 'John and Teyla in a cheap pickup looking like a couple of no-good white trash drifters' concept on my own halfway-across-the-country road trip back in 2005.
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hiya...
Pure class and I'm reading..I'll post it at gw so some of the other readers can comment cause this is great...
VB