A SHOW OF TRUST
CHAPTER NINETEEN: WELL AND ALL

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A couple of days later, everything was almost back to normal, and Tae was ready to head home.

The monk gripped Sheppard's arm tightly, a smile on the man's face even as he stood next to the table on which they had lain the shrouded Straein. Behind them, the active Stargate leading back to Saroku rippled and glittered.

"I hope we can be allies," the major said to the monk, "someday."

"And I hope we can earn your trust enough to become so," Tae replied sincerely. "I realize…that may not be for a while."

Sheppard shook his head, "Probably not. But we'll send some folks through every so often to check on you. Probably Sergeant Bates and Corporal Recillos," he said, smiling more broadly and looking over at the two marines in question. Inez smiled back. Bates, of course, pretended he didn't notice the look, not even blinking an eyelid. Sheppard looked back at Tae, "Besides, we still want to see those shield devices."

Tae chuckled a little, then shrugged. "If you must." He leaned in, "Just don't send Doctor Kavenaugh," he whispered. "His mind is…ugh."

The major had to laugh, at that—it was so accurate. "Speaking of which," Sheppard lowered his head, "out of curiosity, why couldn't you effect McKay and the others as you did the rest of us?"

Tae's eyebrows lifted, and he smiled. "To be honest, we could. It just takes a lot more power, and our strength is limited. People like your Doctor McKay always question everything they see, making them much harder to influence. They don't trust anything at first or even second glance, though, as you know yourself, once they do, they are loyal to a fault."

Sheppard smiled at that, then opened his mouth to ask a follow up question, but Tae was ahead of him.

"Straein was trying to influence as many people as possible at a time. Spreading her power out that way, she didn't have enough ability to pinpoint those few who's barriers are the most resilient. If she tried to focus on, say, just convincing Doctor McKay, she would have been revealed to the rest of you. So, she focused on those who were…easier…and took the risk that the few who weren't wouldn't do anything until too late."

"Oh," Sheppard looked down. He didn't like the idea that he was "easier" to influence.

"But she couldn't affect you where it most mattered, Major," Tae reminded him softly. "Remember that. She tried to get you to kill him….You didn't. She was an extremely powerful telepath, Major, the third greatest on all of Saroku—most would not have been able to fight her manipulations."

Sheppard's hazel eyes lifted, and, after a moment, he nodded. "Thanks Tae."

The monk smiled back, then looked around at the rest of the room. He saw Doctor McKay standing at the top of the stairs, watching him warily, his hands twisting by his sides. He also recognized the Athosian by his side. Teyla was giving him a hesitant smile, but she had a light comforting touch on the doctor's arm. Doctor Weir stood a few feet away from Sheppard, a few steps behind Sergeant Bates and Corporal Recillos, clearly waiting for Sheppard and Tae's private conversation to finish. At Tae's look, she stepped forward.

"We would welcome a dialogue, Tae," she said sincerely, "despite everything that happened. We feel as if we've found a friend in you." Lifting her hand, she held out a radio. "Stay in touch."

The monk accepted the radio with a smile. Sheppard pointed out the talk and receive buttons. Tae nodded, and tucked it into the cloth bag he had on his back, into which he had also placed Straein's few things.

"I wish you and Atlantis well," he called to everyone in the room. "And good luck."

"You too," Weir said. He nodded at her, then turned and gently picked up Straein's body into his arms. With one more look at Sheppard, the monk turned and walked through the Stargate…home.

The gate shutdown a moment later.

Sheppard sighed, and looked over at Weir, then up at McKay. The scientist looked incredibly relieved now that the monk was gone, and he walked down the steps to join them, his gait still a little stiff, with Teyla right behind him. Weir signaled to someone up in the control room, and the doors opened to let in the rest of the expedition members to return to their posts. Ford jogged through the doors and immediately moved to stand by the major's side.

As McKay and Teyla reached Sheppard, Ford and Weir, the scientist clapped his hands and rubbed them together, smiling at them.

"Well, all's well that ends well, I suppose. I'm feeling a little worse for wear—not sure when the headache will go away—but I'm alive." His smile grew, "And next time, I hope this teaches you all to listen to me a little more carefully? Hmmm?"

"Actually," Teyla said, eyeing McKay from the side, "I think it means you should listen to me a little better. I told you we should not have gone to that planet."

McKay's smile faltered at that, then fell completely. Sheppard, Ford and Weir all started to laugh, and Teyla broke into a smile. The scientist pursed his lips at her, then smiled unwillingly, unable to stop himself.

"All right," he shrugged, "I'll give you that one."

Teyla's grin, a perfect imitation of the patented McKay smug mug, lit up the room.

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The END! (as McKay would say, "oh thank God!")

Thank you all so much for the reviews! I wish I knew how to answer them all individually, but in general, I wanted to thank everyone who wrote! I had a pretty dark week last week, and it meant so much to hear from you! And I do hope you liked it! And...I pray, next time, that the program won't eat my punctuation. It used to eat words, now it eats question marks, exclamation marksand commas. LOL! Ah well, forces me toproofread it all again, right? That's good...tiring...but good. heehee. Anyway, thank you!