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?”
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