John glanced over at his wife when she told Rodney to sabotage the crystal charging case, trying not to smile. He had to hand it to her - she gave as good as she got. Mark was an ass to her, so she was going to make things as painful for him as possible.
And John most definitely approved.
Once Rodney was gone, John stared down at their hands with Fred took his and let out a small sigh. He had never told her about what had happened not because he was trying to hide anything but because it was something he had tried to put behind him. Several of Air Force superiors, like General Harris, seemed set on making sure he never did, though. At least Caldwell understood now, and he had been a friend of Sumner.
Looking up toward Operations and not wanting them to overhear even though several of those on-duty knew what had happened, John led Fred out of the Gate room and outside onto one of the parapets. He sat down with her on a bench.
"Back when Doctor Weir requested that I join the expedition because of the fact that I have the ATA gene, Marshall Sumner was the original commanding military officer. He wasn't too thrilled about me coming along because of what had happened in Afghanistan, but Weir had the final say, so I was in. When we first got here, the city was underwater because the ancients had hid it, but the shield was about to collapse, so we went searching for a new power source. That's how I met Teyla - we had gone to her world to try to find information. The wraith attacked while we were there, and they captured Teyla, Sumner and several of both our people. I got the rest, including her father, to Atlantis. Turns out we didn't need a power source because when the shield went into shutdown, the city surfaced."
John paused for a moment and took a deep breath, tightening his hold on her hand. "I got permission to stage a rescue mission on the wraith hive ship, but by the time we got there, Colonel Sumner was almost dead. He refused to give up the location of Earth to them, so their hive keeper had been draining his life to get him to talk. He was in pain, and it was only getting worse." He looked into his wife's eyes, feeling tears in his own. Even though he had done what he had to, sometimes it still got to him. "There was no way we could have saved him. So I...I shot him. To stop his suffering and so the keeper couldn't get the information."
He pursed his lips together for a moment and shrugged. "Weir understood, and so did most of Stargate Command and the Pentagon once they read the reports. But there are some - like Harris - who can only see that I shot a superior officer."