One week to go and he would be heading back through that Stargate, that's what he kept telling himself, even as the base became a full beehive of activity. He himself had gotten back from his mini vacation with Claire a few days before, He'd gone through his own medical etc tests to say he was back on top form for travelling.

Then he had learned that several people had needed to go through some refresher courses for there firearms training and well Caleb being himself, offered to help out. It didn't hurt matters that he was first and foremost a Weapons Specialist, it gave him a unique perspective on the weapons he handled, even if he was more use to the bigger weapons the small hand held firearms that most of the civilians carried with them.

He had taken about a 9mm gun, laid it out on the table in the armoury, there were people passing in and out all the time collecting what they needed as they needed waiting for the person to turn up. He'd met Ruth Tolliver on occasion, not that he could really remember interacting with her that much, but he had offered his services up to give her the refresher course.

Caleb found that the civilians seemed to take better to him doing the refresher course than most of the other military, with there being such a varied mix of military personnel, they had all been trained differently. He could still remember the the disagreement he'd had with an officer over the correct way to put something back together, in the end they had agreed to disagree and both went there separate ways.

He glanced at his watch once more, she wasn't late, not yet, but with the amount of people running around the base busy with there own schedules before they took off for the Beta site, well it wouldn't surprise him if she did.

"Damn," muttered Ruth, catching a glimpse of the clock in her lab. She had been deep into a translation from an obscure Goa'uld text - as usual - and had let time run away with her. She was due in the armory for a refresher on her sidearm handling skills before being shipped off to the Beta site for a few weeks.

As with all civilians, Ruth had kept up to date with her skills, but, being sent offworld for an extended period of time meant that she needed to get just that little bit better, and make sure she would be able to pull her weight if it came to it. She always worried about being the weak link when a member of an offworld team, but, fortunately, she had had no cause to use her sidearm so far. Fingers crossed she never would.

Pulling her hair back into her favoured messy ponytail, she locked up the lab and jogged down the corridor to the elevators. She would normally take the stairs, but she was already running later than she would have liked, and didn't have time to waste.

All in all, she was only a minute or two late when she reached the armory, and she glanced around, wondering who would have been assigned to take her through her refresher. She spotted a familiar face, albeit one she hadn't seen in a while, and Ruth almost yelped. "Caleb Williams, don't tell me they're trusting you to make sure I'm not too rusty with my sidearm, hon," she exclaimed, a big, happy smile etched onto her face. She didn't know him particularly well, but she knew that he and his partner had been on Atlantis for over a year, before making a return to the SGC. "How was Atlantis? And did you bring Claire back with you?"

Caleb was use to waiting, especially when it came to some of the civilians on base, honestly he wasn't sure why when they took on civilians they didn't give them a fair warning on not to keep the military people waiting. Not that it bothered him that much, he didn't care unless the thing he was working on was time sensitive, but then again most of the time sensitive things he worked on would necessarily be given to civilians.

So when he saw a flash of red hair, heard her familiar accent, he couldn't help but smile, it had been a while since he'd last seen Ruth and although they had a job they needed to do that day, it was going to be good to catch up.

“Ruth Tolliver, my favourite red head of all time, it's good to see you to, sweetheart.” he replied smiling as she came to stop in front of him.

He couldn't help laughing as she made the comment about the side arm, “Trust me, you'll be a pro with your and anyone else's side arm in no time,” the flirt was natural, the smile charming, and well he couldn't really help himself. Plus if he knew Ruth, he knew as soon as she saw Claire it would get back to her, he could just picture Claire rolling her eyes at him now.

“Atlantis was great, couldn't ask for anywhere better to be,” he answered, just with a twinge of sadness, he'd been 'better' for lack of another word since Italy, but there was still moments when he was talking about it that it crept up on him. It just wasn't so much as a punch to the gut any more as a small tap, reminding him that yes he still wasn't on Atlantis, but he could go back soon. “It was more like Claire brought me back, am surprise the two of you haven't had chance to catch up yet? I know she is always lurking around the infirmary, she likes the pointy objects.”

"Atlantis sure does sound like something." Ruth rolled her eyes at Caleb's flirting, though. He had always had a reputation as a bit of a player, but she had thought that had all changed. The scuttlebutt around the base was that he had fallen super-hard for Claire Te Atua, and the pair of them had scampered off into the sunset to Atlantis together. She wondered, for a moment, if things were over between them, and he was back to his old self. Not that she was interested, her heart firmly belonged to someone else.

She was relieved to find out that they were still together, apparently, and she returned Caleb's smile. "She brought you back," Ruth teased, shaking her head. "See, when we last talked, you were footloose, fancy free, and would have run a mile from anyone suggesting you spend more than a night together," she said, shaking her head. "And here you are, hon, with the same woman for more than a year? Is that a record?"

She'd have to see whether she could get anything more out of Claire. While they hadn't been close friends, she had known the doctor better than she had known Caleb, and she had been pleased - if a bit surprised - when she had heard they were a couple.

"I've not had a chance to see her yet," admitted Ruth. Always busy with some translation or other, she had only realised that Claire and Caleb were back a day or two ago, and a catchup hadn't been top of her list. "Anyway, I guess we're veering into that realm of girl talk," she grinned. "What are you taking me through today, hon? Teaching me where the trigger is?"

Caleb nodded his head as Ruth told him that Atlantis sounded like something, it really was and he actually missed walking the corridors at time. There was something almost peaceful about Atlantis, peaceful, calm and new, that the SGC just didn't seem to have. Not that he would give up either for anything in the world, this one or the others he had visited.

He smiled kindly at Ruth as she mentioned his past, yup his reputation still kind of proceeded him, of course he was sure that Ruth would have heard all about the amount of times he'd gone out of base from Claire, especially before him and Claire got together at least, it wasn't like he ever came back drunk. Never that wasn't acceptable, well maybe he came back with the smell of alcohol on him once, but that was after the Tollana mission and everyone had gone out that night.

“Still footloose, Ruth,” he replied, “maybe just a little less of the fancy free, of course don't go telling people that. I still have a reputation to keep.”

He couldn't help the smile slipped slightly as she mentioned that him being with Claire must have been a record, It actually wasn't, and he knew if any of that actually got out then the rumours would probably start becoming more rife, and there would probably be a betting pool going as well. When he'd first joined the Navy, had met Rachael, had fallen for her hard it had lasted over four years. Him and Claire weren't even at the three year mark yet, not that had any plans to ever leave her, she was basically his everything now and couldn't quite manage imagine being at the SGC, Atlantis, the Beta Site without her.

Of course he didn't actually voice any of this to Ruth, they were friends, sure, she knew of his reputation no problem, but that was about it, he wouldn't overly share much about his time before joining the SGC. Sure most folks knew he had worked on a Submarine, the amount of comments he got when he'd first joined about switching one Sub for another were astounding, he could have made money off the amount of times people said that to him.

Plastering a smile on his face, he replied, “Record, am going for Guinness book of records for being together the longest. What do you reckon, reckon we'd make it into the book?” The laugh was right, the joking tone clear, and the smile was easy enough to read that he wasn't overly comfortable with that kind of questioning. “What about you then? Still together with...damn...what was his name?”

He gestured that they should move to the table where the 9mm was sitting in pieces in front of them, he could multitask, he was good at that. He stood on the opposite side of the table from Ruth, he wasn't sure how she had trained to use a firearm last time, but his way meant putting the damn thing back together first.

“Okay, okay definitely no more girl talk,” he replied, scrunching up his nose slightly as he thought about gossiping. For all the rumours going around about him, he very rarely started gossip about anyone else, surprisingly enough he was very much a very private person and everyone just took him at the face value of the rumours.

“Am sure by now, an experienced woman such as yourself can find the trigger,” he answered, huffing out a small laugh, “What I want you to do is put it back together for me first, have you ever assembled a weapon before?”

Ruth laughed as Caleb tried to brush off the magnitude of his relationship with Claire. "Got it," she said, her smile genuine. "Although I'm not sure footloose or fancy free kinda works when you're with someone, hon!" And Caleb Williams didn't have much of a reputation any more. Everyone knew he had been smitten with Claire Te Atua, and the pair had become inseparable. It gave hope to the rest of them, really.

She frowned, though, as Caleb's smile faltered a little. "I'm sorry, have I said something out of turn," she asked, her cheeks colouring a little. She hated upsetting or offending people, especially her friends, and it looked as though something she had said had hit a bad mark with Caleb. She just wasn't sure what it was.

The smile bounced back, though, with more joking, and Ruth wondered what, exactly, she had said to cause such and about face in his mood. Maybe she ought to take a step back from the more personal conversation, but Caleb didn't want to let go of catching up just yet. She smiled, her cheeks colouring up as he asked whether she was still together with... someone.

"Now, given my dating history wasn't public knowledge when you left, hon, you're on a fishing expedition," she laughed. "But yes, I'm off the market. And never happier." It would be hard leaving him behind, in fact, but the Beta site wasn't an opportunity that would present itself regularly, and, for once, Ruth hadn't wanted to miss out.

Her attention was drawn to the pieces of the gun on the table in front of her, and she looked up at Caleb. "I sure as hell know where the trigger is, smartass," she replied, almost indignant, but her voice was laughing. "But no, I've never had to put a weapon back together before, hon, this one's new to me."

“Yeah I guess not,” he replied smiling at her, “It's more whipped and committed right, that's what the folks say?” He knew people still talked about him, even if his reputation for his bed hopping ways had dwindled slightly, after all you didn't go from bed hopping to a committed relationship without reason right.

He loved flirting with people he met, especially new people when they weren't overly sure on how to take him and it was made even more better when Claire was with him. He liked to make people smile, to brighten someone's day if he could, and he was so grateful that Claire hadn't really asked him to change that part of himself. He don't think he could change that part of himself, it was once used as a wall between him and anything lasting, but now, now it was less about getting the person into his bed and just making the person smile. There were obviously certain words he wouldn't use for flirting now, certain words that were just Claire's and Claire's alone, he wasn't sure if anyone had picked up on the fact he hadn't gone around calling anyone sweetheart any more. Well not unless he actually wanted to get a certain look from Claire he didn't that was for sure.

Caleb smiled gently at Ruth, “No you didn't say anything out of turn,” he said. He didn't want her to think she'd upset him, which she hadn't, there was no way anyone could upset as such, but he wasn't quite in that friend zone with Ruth yet. For all the times Caleb spoke, for all the rumours going around about him, his reputation etc, for what people assumed about him, he was actually a very private person. People only saw what they wanted to see and they saw someone who had a reputation but was cosying up with the on base doctor. “Claire is my best friend,” he finally said, voice low, so no one would over hear them. He didn't add more to it, he didn't need to, it was said good enough that Ruth should be able to hear he didn't want to talk about it much more.

He was glad when the mood lightened a bit, as she told him off for fishing for information, at the end of the day that was how the military were so damn successful, you didn't realise they were fishing for information until they had it. He laughed at her answer, “So you planning on knocking me and Claire off the top spot for the record holding then?” he joked, all smiles once more.

Caleb stepped up to the other side of the table, the smile might still be there but he was getting down to business, besides the one thing that might surprise most people was that he could multi task, he could gossip as Ruth had so eloquently put it and give her some lessons all at the same time. Not that he liked gossiping of course, he didn't care about the rumours spread around about him, but he had never shared anything that anyone had told him and hopefully people knew that he was the trustworthy sort.

“Well now's your chance to show me,” he said gesturing to the bits in front of her, “The gun isn't loaded, so you can't accidentally damage me, I like my person whole thank you very much.” He picked up the first two pieces of the gun, put them together, took them apart, before laying them back on the table, “Well do it step by step, until you get the hang of it.”

It wasn't mandatory that people knew how to take a weapon apart or put it back together again, but he liked to know the people he had taught had a better understanding of the weapon they were carrying and he knew that was a big deal with the civilians on base. Plus there had been one occasion long before he'd joined the SGC, he'd been on a mission with a few civilians, he'd been pinned down, and the civilian hadn't had a clue how to reload the damn thing. They had only just made it out of that place alive.

"Oh, I don't think you're whipped, hon," replied Ruth, shaking her head. In love, yes. But whipped? Not a chance. From what she knew of both he and Claire, neither were the kind to allow themselves to get "whipped" by a partner. "Besides, as long as you're happy, what does it matter?" And the expression on his face as Caleb said that Claire was his best friend said it all. She hoped that she looked that way when she talked about the man she loved.

Ruth laughed. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about there, we're a little while behind the pair of you. Besides, how can we begin to compete with the romance of the century?" Her voice was teasing, but not quite bordering on flirtatious. That was something that Ruth had never been very good at anyway, but at least it hadn't gotten in the way with Jake. They each got as embarrassed as the other as they had danced their way around finally starting to date, but she had no regrets whatsoever.

The gun seemed daunting as it lay in pieces in front of her, and Ruth's face grew serious. This was going to be a challenge. She was never very good with practicalities like this, and, despite being a fair shot, she had never needed to disassemble or reassemble a gun, and she faced this one with trepidation.

She nodded as Caleb said they would rebuild the gun step by step, and Ruth took a deep breath, trying to memorise the appearance of each individual element. "So, where do we start? What comes first?"

He did actually offer Ruth a soft smile at that, he was most definitely happy, no matter what people called it, said to him or anything of the sort he was happy. More happy than he had been in a long time, even with that niggling bit of doubt that he'd ever see Atlantis again, he was happy.

“Thanks, Ruth,” he said, it was nice that there were at least still some people that could see his relationship skills had come along way. “We are, both very happy and I know Claire will be happy to hear that as well.”

He did however do a double take as she mentioned the romance of the century, before he burst out laughing, one of them completely disbelieving, what the hell are you talking about, kind of laughs. He had heard all the rumours about his bed hopping, about him getting Claire pregnant (which most definitely not going to happen any time soon) and had even seen some of the glares when people realised he was off the market.

But he had never heard it be called that, wiping at his eyes, he said, “Sorry, sorry,” he apologised, he wasn't laughing at her, just at what she'd said, “But did you just say romance of the century? Because that is the best thing I've heard from someone about my relationship with Claire.”

Part of him wanted to go over and hug the woman for saying such an amazing thing, no one said things like that any more and for it to come from someone who he hadn't, had much interaction with. Well he was mightily surprised that was for sure, it was a reason why he liked working at the SGC, because people could still surprise you, even after all this time.

Once his laughter had died down a bit, and they got down to business so to speak, he made a note of keeping an eye on Ruth as he assembled the first part, de-assembled it again before laying it back in pieces on the table. He took note of the trepidation on her face, he'd been around weapons his whole working life, they weren't something he liked using but would use them if needs be, he wouldn't call her out on the nerves just yet.

“Start at the beginning,” he answered, nodding to the the barrel of the gun and the slide, “Take your first two items, barrel and slide, you're going to want to slide the barrel back into the slide, carefully, it might need a bit of force just to get it to lay flat, but not much. You won't break it, these things are difficult to break, but you can damage them if too rough. You need to make sure that it's flush inside the top of the slide.”

It had been a long time since he'd actually given a lesson in anything like this, the last time had been a bit before he'd joined the SGC, his rank hadn't really been high enough when he'd first joined to offer this kind of help. But he found himself in his element as he started to speak, this was a part of himself that he didn't get to share that often with anyone; Claire included.

Ruth gave Caleb a bright smile. To hear that he and Claire were happy was wonderful, and she was genuinely pleased for them. Given what she had heard about Caleb's past, in fact, it was nothing short of remarkable. "You know, you two being happy gives hope to the rest of us, hon," she replied, her voice warm.

She wasn't expecting such laughter at her comment about the romance of the century, and Ruth's cheeks coloured. She shrugged. "But it's kinda true, isn't it? And it's lovely." She was a romantic at heart, and was a sucker for a happy ending. "Meeting your soulmate against all the odds, becoming friends, then realising you've got something more? Sounds like a fairytale to me, hon!"

Still the time for idle chat was over, and Ruth was all focus as she watched Caleb slot two pieces of the gun together. She wasn't completely certain which two pieces they were, so kept her eyes on his hands as he demonstrated. After the demonstration, he explained which piece was which, and how they fit together.

She wasn't afraid of the gun, more nervous that she might screw something up, but nodded as Caleb explained how the two pieces in question fit together. With a moment's hesitation, she picked up the barrel and slide, and, after a small fumble, slotted them together, and pushed them home. Ruth let out a triumphant squeak as she felt them fit together perfectly. "How'd I do?"