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1 302 pilot
Cam knows months before the teams get announced that he’s going to lead the first team, the
302 pilots’ SG-1. Not in a full-of-himself, thinks he’s brilliant kind of way, because Afghanistan knocked that
out of him fast, but because he’s one of three lieutenant colonels in the programme, and there are going to be three
teams. Stands to reason.
They don’t get to choose their team, and the rest of the pilots don’t get to choose
where they’d rather go, so the first Cam knows of it is when York hands over a list of names with a grin and says, “oh,
by the way – you got Sheppard.”
He’s gone before Cam can respond, which is no bad thing. Sheppard’s
got a death wish in a plane like no-one else Cam’s ever met, but he’s also one of the best pilots on the programme.
Which is probably why it’s still only a death wish, and not an actual death.
Still, Cam thinks, watching him
a couple of days later as he turns the plane at an angle even Cam hasn’t wanted to try, could be worse.
2
Blue Team Leader
“Did you know about this?” Sheppard asks when Cam walks into the locker room, and Cam
doesn’t even remember until he sees the seal on the letter Sheppard’s waving at him.
“Might have
heard it mentioned,” he says casually, opening his locker.
Sheppard’s silent for a minute, then says, “I
got… they want…” Cam waits patiently for him to finish a sentence, because Sheppard’s not exactly
flavour of the month, even here, and he knows how surprised he was when Colonel Morris called and asked how he’d feel
about having Sheppard as his second. “Guess there really are perks to sleeping with the boss,” Sheppard says slyly.
“Excuse
me?” Cam demands, kind of wishing for the uncompleted sentences again. “That was nothing to do with me.”
Sheppard’s
eyes widen in surprise, but he covers it fast. “You knew.”
“Of course I knew, idiot. It’s my
team.” He’s not really given to physical violence against his team, even affectionately, but he’s willing
to make an exception here.
“Oh,” Sheppard says. Then, “want to celebrate later?”
“Yeah.”
Cam cuffs him gently on the arm. “Congratulations.”
*
He’s been out of hospital three days,
still learning to move around in the wheelchair, when York calls. Red Team weren’t involved in the dogfight in Antarctica,
but York’s got the casualty list anyway. He starts with John’s name, killed in action, and Cam barely hears the
rest.
It’s too late now, and it probably wouldn’t have made any difference, but he wishes he’d said
no when they asked him about John.
3 SG-1 pre-Atlantis: permanent outsider
“You wanna get a drink?”
Cam asks, leaning in the locker room doorway and watching Sheppard tie his boots.
He looks up and catches Cam, grins
a little. “Team night?”
“Maybe not.” Cam doesn’t need to fight to keep his expression
neutral when it’s just the two of them; he loves SG-1, he does, and he’s glad they came back because it wouldn’t
be the same without them. It’s just that sometimes he feels a mad urge to point out that him and Sheppard and whoever
the Mountain had spare on any given day held the fort for three months till the rest of them decided they missed going through
the gate, and the Ori weren’t trouble till Dr Jackson. They’re not completely incompetent, even if they are new.
“Yeah.”
Sheppard’s expression reflects his own, reminding Cam that this is the guy who was on his way out of the Air Force,
who liked the isolation and ice of Antarctica; this probably stings worse for him than it does for Cam. “You driving?”
Cam
shakes his head. “We’ll walk.”
They’ve been SG-1, not SG-1 and whoever they can find for six
months now, long enough for them to get recognised in the bar near the Mountain. They talk sports, the weather, coded conversations
about their brush with the Prior plague, nothing about their team, but it under-scores everything else they say.
They
leave an hour before last orders, and Cam nods down the street. “Want to crash at my place?”
Sheppard looks
the other way, the Mountain where he’s still living close enough for him to walk back, then nods. “Sure.”
One
thing they’re good at is knowing what the other one isn’t saying.
4 SG-1 post Atlantis: team leader
Cam
stays late after Jackson turns him down and offers him his apartment, going through file after file, sorting them into yes,
no and maybe. He tries to be fair about it, to not compare everyone to Sam, Jackson and Teal’c, because, hell, it’s
not like he’d measure up against them. It’s hard though, and by the time he finishes, the no pile is twice the
size of the other two put together. Twelve’s plenty of people to pick a team from, he tells himself firmly, and goes
home.
Thing is… he doesn’t want to pick a team. He doesn’t want to be in charge again. They lost
five people in Antarctica, all of them his people, and three more transferred out of the programme for various reasons. Just
for a while, he’d like someone else to be giving the orders that lead to honours in memoriam and graves he visits because
he was unconscious for the funerals.
Landry doesn’t sound surprised when Cam tells him he’s turning the
job down, just sighs and agrees to arrange an alternative posting. He wonders if he’ll hear from O’Neill, who
he thinks must have had some ulterior motive in not warning him SG-1 were gone, but he doesn’t.
Six months later,
he hears from a friend of a friend that they appointed the military commander of Atlantis in his place. Cam wishes him luck,
in his head, and wonders if he’s regretting accepting the job the same way Cam’s regretting turning it down.
5
Well, technically it’s Lorne’s job…
“You did what?” Cam demands, stunned into replacing
his glass without even drinking from it.
Sheppard shrugs from the other side of the room. “It’s not like
I got given a choice. You try saying no to President Landry.”
“So you took my job.” He’s not
whining, he’s not, and it’s not like he’s in any fit state to do any kind of job, but still. He’s
always thought Sheppard would be on his side, leading the uprising against Landry. If it existed.
Sheppard has the
grace to look a little ashamed. “You know, technically, I took Johnson’s job. He’s just not around to mind
any more.”
Sheppard leaves not long after that comment.
*
Unfortunately, unlike everyone else at
the SGC, he comes back. And keeps coming back. And Cam wouldn’t swear to this, but he thinks Sheppard might be secretly
taking his alcohol with him when he leaves.
Of course, when he accuses Sheppard of this, Sheppard just looks at him,
then says, “I wouldn’t want the stuff you drink if I was dying of thirst.”
He leaves pretty quickly
after that comment as well.
*
The next time he comes, he brings a scientist from the SGC. Cam’s never
met him – they got married then divorced in the time Cam was off-world training on the 302s, but Sam talked about him
often enough that he knows who it is without Sheppard’s introductions. He looks at Cam like most people do, like the
other Sam did, like he’s disappointed in Cam, but once he gets over that, he’s not bad to have around.
*
Cam’s
not entirely surprised when Sheppard tells him McKay’s joining his gate team. He almost feels sorry for the Ori –
they don’t stand a chance against those two.
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