ORP: When All the Stars Align

[Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington DC

If there was one thing to be grateful about when it came to hotel rooms it was the thick curtains that seemed to be able to tune out everything from the bright sunlight to loud noises. Once they were drawn closed it was like the room was plunged into a darkness all of its own and the only ones who mattered were those who were within those four walls. With no plans early the next day, and Ayden's trip in the DC area drawing to a close as she finished up her business, she had no alarm set and not a care in the world other than sleep, especially after the events of the night prior. 

Years of waking early pushed Ayden from the dream world she inhabited and she mumbled almost completely inaudibly as her arm tightened around the warm figure beside her and pressed her face against his chest. With the blankets draped over them and only the sound of each other breathing it truly was like nothing else in the world mattered. If she moved too much, a faint pounding in her head warned her she was no longer a college girl who could down her liquor with no consequences in the morning so she chose to stay completely still, and instead focused her attention on syncing her breathing with the General's. 

She drifted back between dream world and being awake, her eyes fluttering closed, completely eased by the sound of him breathing and she pressed closer to him, plastering herself to his side for more warmth. Now was not the time to worry about consequences, or what could come of the rest of the day, but instead to simply focus on the here and the now - and that was something she was more than content with.

< Tag: Troy Loveridge >

[Troy Loveridge]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

Buuuuzzzz... buuuuzzzz

Awareness slowly returned to Troy. He peeled open an eye and found the room around him to be dark and unfamiliar. The bed sheets felt a little rough, almost commercial. The room was largest than a residential bedroom and had a large TV mounted on the wall. An oddly shaped copper coloured lamp sat on the bedside.

Buuuuzzzz… buuuuzzzz

His phone, that was what had woken him up. Half rolling onto his back he groped in the darkness for the device, knocking an empty bottle over on the bedside table. His other arm was trapped under the other occupant of the bed, limiting how far he could reach. He managed to get a hand on the device and dismiss the call, catching a glimpse of the call ID before the almost-flat phone returned to silence. It had been the office. They were probably wondering why he wasn’t at home.

Troy groaned as he rolled back into a comfortable position, his head swimming slightly. He wasn’t as young as he used to be and knew he would be paying for it today.

Still, things could be worst.

Flashes of the night before were coming back to him know. Leaving the wine bar, walking Ayden to her hotel, coming up to her room for one last drink. What was missing was the memory of leaving her hotel and returning to his apartment, because clearly that hadn’t happened and he was still here. What had happened after that was hazy, but he had some pretty strong suspicions.

It was going to be an interesting morning.

< Tag Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard >

[Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

The phone buzzing and the bed shifting beneath her were just signs that it was time to come back to the real world; a real world that Ayden wanted nothing to do with at the moment. She was quite content to stay buried under the blankets, the cool air of the hotel room setting her at peace from what would no doubt be a class a hangover. When the bed shifted further and the buzzing of the phone stopped, Ayden shifted onto her back and she ran both hands over her face. It was time to face the music. 

She was no blushing teenager anymore, and what she knew had happened the night before wasn't something she was ashamed of, but it was quite the awkward position to be thrust into first thing in the morning. She shifted to sit up, making sure to move slow so as to stop any pain from taking over her, but it was a futile attempt as hangovers came hard when they hit her. She blinked once, then again, trying to think over what had happened the night before, and flashes of their evening came to her. She remembered the bar, him walking her to her room, her inviting him in, another drink or two...

Luckily Ayden did remember that there was a bottle of Tylenol not far away and she leaned over to the nightstand to whisk it up along with a bottle of water. She grabbed two pills for herself and downed them with ease before taking another two and she rested a hand on Troy's chest, "here -- these should help," she spoke up softly, giving him a smile despite the darkness of the room around them. Her hand found his and she slipped the two pills into it before holding the water up as well. 

< Tag: Troy Loveridge >

[Troy Loveridge]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

Next to him Ayden was waking up, clearly sharing the same battlecruiser sized headache Troy was. She rummaged around and had something to drink before hanging him a glass of water and two pills, explaining they were painkillers.

“Cheers,” Troy replied gratefully, popping the painkillers into his mouth and washing them down with the water. The water was a relief for his dry mouth, but wasn’t much good against the taste lingering from the previous night.

“I don’t suppose you have some bacon and eggs over there as well?”

Humour was probably his best bet at this point. Ayden wasn’t in the military any more and didn’t report to him. This was just two work colleagues sharing a bed. It was by no means uncommon in the SGC - people paired off sometimes if only to have someone they could talk about. Working on such a classified project really limited how much you could talk work at home. Sharing your life with someone who worked alongside you every day and knew exactly what you were going through would be a great benefit to your mental health. The secrets and ‘need to know’ nature of the job had driven a pretty solid wedge between Ashlee and Troy not long after he’d joined the SGC.

But that was jumping ahead. Right now he needed to gauge the current situation.

“Well has the potential to make quite the scandal around the SGC,” he said jokingly. “Not O’Neill and Carter level gossip, but a solid effort none the less.” Ayden seemed relaxed enough about the whole situation, and there was no reason why he shouldn’t be as well.

< Tag Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard >

[Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

Once she downed the tylenol Ayden decided it best to lay back down. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath, taking a moment to allow the sweet relief of total darkness consume her senses. While she wasn't exactly bothered by what happened, she did know it needed to be discussed, but the more time they spent quiet, the more time she had to process what happened. Thankfully Troy was cracking jokes already so he was not as freaked out about the situation as she would have assumed he would be.

"If only it were that simple," she joked softly as she rolled on her side to face him and she propped her head up on her hand, her blue eyes scanning over his chest. "We could always order them. A nice greasy breakfast always did wonders for hangovers back in my college days," she said with a soft smile. Hesitantly she reached out to trail her fingertips along the chain of his dog tags and she looked up to meet his gaze. 

His next words brought a soft laugh from her lips and she leaned down, pressing her face against his chest. The rumors that had surrounded the former members of SG-1 were well known in every corner of the SGC and even beyond. Thankfully Ayden had never been one who was part of scandal period, but she knew how quickly gossip spread through their ranks. "That'll be quite the story. People will start saying we've been hooking up for years. Have a whole storyline for us before we even make heads or tails of the situation."

Ah, gossip. You would think it'd end in high school but in the military it was practically currency. 

< Tag: Troy Loveridge >

[Troy Loveridge]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

“I do feel a little like an undergrad now you mention it,” Troy replied to Ayden’s reference to college. “In a manner of speaking.” The US Air Force Academy had much stricter rules about this sort of thing than a typical college - by all accounts he’d never gotten quite the full college experience like civilian students did. Still, he was feeling a lot younger right now than he had in a long time.

“Where’d you go to college anyway?” he asked, realising that he didn’t know. Years working together and he didn’t feel like he’d even scratched the surface. The two would have sat through hundreds of briefings and taken part in dozens of operations together, and yet they’d never talked about life back on Earth. It had probably been a coping mechanism on both their behalf.

“Do you miss it?” he asked as Ayden toyed with his dog tags. “The service. You left kind of suddenly from memory.” As her commander at the time, Troy had never felt right going into the how and why of her transfer to the NID. His main concern had been her mission performance, which hadn't skipped a beat. He’d heard she’d returned to the USAF briefly after the expedition had ended to work at Homeworld Command, but clearly she had landed on the NID as her new career path.

< Tag Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard >

[Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

College was a part of her life Ayden hadn't thought of in a long time, especially not since she had started working for the Stargate Program. As she pressed her cheek to his chest and rested on her side she clicked her tongue, thinking back to her younger years. "I attended the University of Colorado when I graduated high school at fifteen. I was able to take some CLEP tests so I could skip some of my general education classes and jumped right into my major courses. I received my Anthropology degree at seventeen, almost eighteen, and attended the Air Force Academy soon after. My father was a flight instructor there and I had this absurd need to please him so I tried to follow in his footsteps."

It was amusing to Ayden how the one joy in her life, flying, was something she never wanted to begin with. It had started with a need to please her strict father and was something she hated more than anything when she started, but it soon grew to be something she couldn't live without.

"For my graduate degrees I was able to work through the University of Colorado as well, but for my PhD's I attended Duke when I was stationed nearby."

Ayden's life had been focused on her schooling when she was younger, then the older she got her attention shifted to her military career, with her wanting nothing more than to be in the cockpit of a fighter jet. It gave her a rush she had never before experienced in her life and even though that's the very thing that almost killed her she wouldn't have traded it for anything.

Troy's questioning of her leaving the military brought many painful memories to mind, but she had faced them before. She no longer minded talking of the trouble she went through but it wasn't something she brought up unless asked. She took in a slow, deep breath and bit down on her lower lip before she spoke up softly. 

"I lost Al and found out I was pregnant. I had to get out; I couldn't let Isaac lose me too, but somehow you always get sucked back in with this program. I actually stayed in the military for awhile when I went to Homeworld Command. I was able to get back in the cockpit but it didn't last long. I was flying a prototype and the systems were faulty. I crashed and due to the injuries I sustained, I had to officially end my career in the military. I was paralyzed for a...long time. It took almost two years for me to get fully back on my feet and the scars..."

Ayden hadn't been self-conscious since she was in high school but suddenly, with the talk of the crash she felt completely exposed. She had some scarring that was always present - the one that stretched from behind her left ear to her cheek and the one across her right cheek - but also had scarring that none had really seen - the faint scars on her back from being tortured while serving in Atlantis and the newest additions; her scarring and burns on her lower back and legs from the crash. However, now was not the time to dwell.

She pulled the blankets up further to cover her stomach and shrugged up her shoulder that was not pressed against the mattress, "I do miss it though. Every day. I miss flying, I miss the missions, I miss the passion and excitement I had to start every day with. It's not the same being out; the military was my family for so many years."

< Tag: Troy Loveridge >

[Troy Loveridge]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

Troy listened intently as Ayden described her time at college and the Air Force Academy. He adjusted his graduation ring unconscious, unsure if he’d knew she’d attended there or not. Three years with the Delian Expedition and still it was obvious that he’d barely scratched the surface of getting to know those he’d worked with.

Her tale of Al’s death and her own injuries in the cockpit were heart breaking to listen to. Going through that would have been hard enough for anyone, but it was made all the more challenging when you couldn’t talk to your friends and family about what you’d seen and experienced on the other side of the Stargate. Losing his wife and becoming estranged with his daughter had taken Troy to a similar low point in his life since returning to Earth.

“There’s a lot of people at the SGC who would still call you family,” Troy replied. “Even if you don’t wear the uniform any more.”

Speaking of uniform, he really needed to get going - throughout their talk he’d seen the screen of his mobile phone light up numerous times with missed calls and email trying to find out where he was. That was the problem with being a man of strict routine.

“And incase you were wondering, and while it does sounds cliche,” he said, finally breaking out of her warm embrace and sitting up on the edge of the bed. “I promise to call.”

Pentagon Briefing Room
Washington DC
Later that day

“And as this chart here shows, the continued delays realising the Block III life support upgrades will have a flow-on effect unless…”

Hours later Troy found himself in one of the Pentagon’s many briefing rooms, listening as an action officer briefed them on the latest Daedalus-class production schedule. While the massive battle cruisers were the backbone of Earth’s defensive fleet, the content of the brief could have been just as quickly covered off in a memo or email.

At the back of the room, the General found himself checking his phone every few moments. It was starting to get a little ridiculous - he felt like a teenager again. He’d battle alien gods, flesh-eating monsters and tears in the time-space continuum, and yet a simple message had stopped him in his tracks.

Time to bite the bullet.

Free after work? If so meet at JB Andrews @ 1800, 1 Helo Sqd heli pad. T.
< Tag Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard >

[Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard]

The Kimpton Palomar
Washington, DC

After seeing Troy off Ayden ordered herself some breakfast and took a nice hot shower before getting into a clean outfit for the day. While she was disappointed that he had to depart, she did understand. She liked to think she knew the older man well enough that he would keep his word and call, so she tried to do her best to focus on the work she had to do instead of mule over the events of the night before.

Due to Ayden's transition to the DC area she had the day to herself, which was a rare occurrence. Instead of actually enjoying it, however, she was pouring over her emails which seemed to never end and continued to search for a place to call home. As the day went on she found herself checking her phone continuously, like some lovestruck teenager waiting to hear from their crush and she rolled her eyes at herself, willing her attention to her work instead despite how difficult it was.

When her phone dinged with a new message Ayden glanced over at the screen thinking it was a message relating to work but when she saw Troy's name flash across the screen she reached out to pick her phone up from its place on the desk and she smiled softly, her teeth biting into her lower lip. She reread the text a few times before she replied.

It's a date. See you then.

1755 Hours
JB Andrews

Always one to be relatively early Ayden arrived with a few minutes to spare. She had been on this base more times than she could count and knew her way around fairly well. She parked her rental car and busied herself with checking and rechecking her hair and makeup before she rolled her eyes at how ridiculous she was being. She wasn't even sure quite what this was that Troy had planned. With a final glance in the mirror she climbed out before locking the car up.

She was dressed in a simple outfit; a pretty blue shirt that accented her eyes, a pair of skinny jeans, and heels to match. It wasn't anything too over the top and she deemed it appropriate for whatever it was that Troy had in mind for this evening. Ayden pushed her sunglasses on as she leaned against the rental car and pulled her phone from her back pocket to scroll through yet another email from her boss. She decided quickly that now wasn't the time to focus on work, and she flipped her phone to silent before tucking it into her back pocket as she waited. 

< Tag: Troy Loveridge >

[Troy Loveridge]

1755 hours
JB Andrews

Troy appeared out of a nearby hangar and crossed the tarmac to where Ayden was standing. He hadn’t been able to make it home and was still attired in his Air Force blues, but had ditched the tie, which as people who worked with him would comment, was a bit of a big deal. He greeted her with a hug and a light kiss on the check, assuming that he being her meant she was be receptive to such advances. They were both old enough that it could go unsaid.

The roar of a helicopter quickly grew over the airfield as a black and gold VH-60, the VIP transport variant of the Blackhawk helicopter, came in for landing. The downwash of the rotors threatened to knock them over, and Troy braced himself against the wind. The pilot wound back the throttle but kept the engine going. A crew chief opened the door to the rear cabin and waved them over, signalling for them to watch their heads. Taking Ayden’s hand, Troy led her toward the helicopter, hunching over slightly to stay beneath the whirling blades.

“Right on time,” he declared as they climbed in and took their seats, putting on their headsets to talk. The crew chief pulled shut the door, and within moments, they were in the air and flying north over the DC skyline.

So far he hadn’t really explained what they were doing or where they were going. He should probably change that.

“What do you know about Raven Rock, Site R, in Pennsylvania?”

< Tag Ayden "Ghost" Sheppard >