Chapter Text
Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard stepped out of his quarters and walked casually down the corridor. It was early morning and half the expedition was still fast asleep, but for him, this was the best part of the day. His jogging route took him to several of the most beautiful parts of the city, inside and out, and at this time of day the outside was a breath of fresh air the likes of which he’d never experienced before.
He had also carefully planned his route so he could take his one and only break on a high balcony from which he could see the whole of Atlantis, well almost the whole of it anyway. He turned into the stairwell and ran up to the floor above where he took the transporter to his starting location.
Normally he had company. Ronon tended to be here before him ready to run him ragged. But his companion was off trying to negotiate some needed supplies from some very old friends. Stepping out of the transporter, John paused to stretch and prepare himself before starting off on his trek.
A few weeks previous, one of the scientists had asked him why he bothered to run anymore. They had been convinced he got enough exercise from the missions and sparring with the other officers. John had simply replied that you could never get too much exercise when you needed to be on full alert most of the day. But this wasn’t the whole truth. Like him, most people who ran had more than one reason for doing so, other than physical fitness. John had several additional reasons for his jogging mornings.
One such reason, other than the obvious physical fitness, was the freedom, the open air outside the walls of the city and undisturbed time. Another was the opportunity to run over new personnel duties in his head; things that needed to be done when the Daedalus was due, or schedules that were rearranged due to the loss of an expedition member or team. But his main reason, and one he would never be able to admit to anyone, was the time to think about his relationship with one Doctor Elizabeth Weir.
He’d known Elizabeth for almost three years now, since he met her on, what he called, a fortunate day back on Earth. For two years they were just friends, close friends who tended to flirt with each other, but still just friends; until recently. It had been a few months since their encounter with the Asurans and Elizabeth’s brush with death – or in her case, a mental institute – and things between them had been slowly building. He had only intended to check on her after her nightmare. Released from the infirmary Carson had ordered her to take a week of rest but no one had seen her for the first day. John had paid her a visit with dinner in hand and found her sitting curled on her bed staring into space. It had scared him more than anything he’d seen since moving to Atlantis. The last thing anyone needed was for Elizabeth to really end up in a hospital. Luckily she’d only been afraid to close her eyes and her week of rest had quickly turned into a week with Doctor Heightmeyer.
John had spent every night with her since then and left early to go get his running gear and start his morning jog. It worked perfectly for them, Elizabeth didn’t sleep long, never really had, and as they were lying in a bed built to give enough space to one body and not two, it became tricky not to fall off the bed and the more comfortable they became sleeping close.
He vividly remembered falling feeling during his first few nights with her. He had jerked awake and jostled Elizabeth then quickly reached out to catch her before she toppled off the edge of her bed. A sigh of relief had quickly followed as he sank back onto the pillow without thinking, wanting to lie on his back, and dropped off the side to hit the floor.
He stopped his jog along the outer corridor, his eyes fixed on the corner he had been approaching. For a second he thought he’d seen something or someone there, but the space was empty. John walked forward a few steps and paused again. His feet on the metal surface hadn’t been the only sound and he waited to see if his ears and eyes were playing tricks on him. The sound came again, a giggle as if from a small child. John moved instantly, his feet carrying him to the next corridor and he turned to see a young girl skip to the end and turn down another hallway.
His brow creased, John followed. He thought this was over; the whale-thingies Rodney seemed to like had left over a week ago, though the city was still recovering from its effects. When he turned the corner again he found her standing on the threshold of the transporter. She smiled brightly at him, her small hands resting against her pale blue dress and her innocent face alight with joy before she turned, entered the confined space and stretched her small frame up to touch a location.
John stepped into the transporter and studied the area where her small fingers had touched. The lower section of the outer pier, or so he thought. He let his finger hover there for a moment deciding if he should follow her before he changed his mind and tapped the control tower. He turned out of the transporter and jogged up the stairs to the control room; he nodded to the person heading for the stairs and moved to stop at the sensor screen.
The Ancient text on the long range scanners was scrolling lazily down the screen and he creased his brow before muttering ‘wrong view’ and turned to the room.
“Hello,” Elizabeth said suddenly making him jump; she’d moved from her office in the time he’d been standing there and stopped extremely close to him. “Not your usual daily attire,” she noted making a point to look him up and down a few times.
“Funny,” he said with a sly grin. “Chuck, can you change this to internal and surroundings?”
Chuck nodded and John turned back to the screen to watch it flicker over to the city layout. He felt Elizabeth step up beside him as his eyes scanned the new sensor information. There were only two specks on one of the piers, but it was on the other side of the city from where the girl had gone. Other than that, only the inhabitants were in view; not a single sea creature in sight.
“Something wrong?”
He considered just telling her, saying that he’d seen another Ancient running around the city; skipping actually. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it, there were no whales in the area making him see things, so there was no rational explanation for what he’d seen. Maybe he was just going crazy.
“No,” he said moving away from the screen and towards the stairs, “just tired I guess.”
“John,” Elizabeth said following him. He knew she wouldn’t buy it; he had just spent the night with her after all.
“I need to change before our meeting,” he shouted over his shoulder running down the stairs as the Stargate activated behind him. Maybe it was nothing, an after effect of the whales that had so recently lived under the protection of the Atlantis shields.
****
Elizabeth was caught for just a second between following him and seeing to the incoming wormhole. Only Major Lorne’s team was off world, and they weren’t due back for several hours yet. It was the call for medical attention that finally pulled her decision away from John and back to the control room, she could always deal with him after the meeting.
“Err, Doctor Weir...” Chuck said and she turned into the main room and crossed behind Chuck as the shield dropped, she trusted her control room personnel to know when to use the shield, and jogged down the stairs.
Before she reached the bottom of the stairs Evan Lorne stepped through the gate supporting Doctor Parrish. He moved quickly to one side, lowering the Botanist to the ground; Elizabeth moved across the room towards them. The remaining two members of the team backed through the gate side by side and Sergeant Cole shouted for the gate shield to be activated.
“What happened?” Elizabeth demanded as she turned back to Lorne.
“They had a very big problem with the fact that we were all men,” he said, then looking up at last he quickly added, “ma’am.”
“They wouldn’t talk to us at first, just ignored us,” Lieutenant Miller said. “Something we did must have really ticked them off; they turned aggressive towards us and pushed us back to the gate,” Elizabeth quirked a brow at this as the medical team rushed into the room.
“And Doctor Parrish?”
“Had to start running at one point. Parrish missed his footing, stumbled and went down the side of a ditch awkwardly. Sounded like he broke his leg,” Evan explained.
Wonderful, another world they couldn’t ally with. She was starting think there were no other places in the galaxy that would help them or even become allies with them. Just once she’d like to send a team off world to get the response ‘sure, we’ll be your friends’.
She gave a sigh; this morning was turning out to be just another bad day, just like the rest of them usually were. It had started so well, waking up in bed next to John and finding the correct reports in her inbox. Then John’s bad mood and whatever it was he was hiding. Now another world scrubbed off the list. It couldn’t really get worse, could it?
“Get down to the infirmary,” she said with a nod and turned to head back up to her office.
****
John had showered and changed quickly that morning and returned to Elizabeth’s office to give a feeble apology for how he had acted. Truth was, he just didn’t know what to make of the girl and the very last thing he wanted was to mess up the relationship he had with Elizabeth. He’d grown too used to sharing her small bed at night and it had unsettled him several weeks back when he’d spent the night alone while she was off world.
He had run through the possibilities and always came back to the one. It was just a lingering effect from the whales. Though he couldn’t really explain how that was still happening a week later. And why was he the only one still suffering?
The meeting had been about supplies and, with the Daedalus being delayed this trip, they would have to ration a little more than normal. John counted every minute as an extra point he could award himself later when he admitted to Elizabeth he’d wanted to fall asleep or yawn several times. He could be playful and smug as he told her he’d managed to go 98 minutes without yawning.
He caught up with Lorne after the meeting, got a quick rundown of events that had happened on his trip and then the added extra that Parrish had returned with a broken leg. Evan had been disheartened when he added that the doctor had been considering requesting a transfer to somewhere safer for quite a while now.
After that, he spent an agonisingly slow day reading reports and writing up ones that were overdue. There was a plus side to Ronon being off on his own mission, it gave him time to catch up on things; but there was also a downside other than the fact that they didn’t get to go explore some random planet; he had time to catch up on things.
Elizabeth seemed to be having a bad day. When he met her for lunch she had told him to come back later when she’d finished pulling every hair out of Rodney’s head with a pair of tweezers. John tracked down the scientist to find out what was going on and found he’d been messing with the ZPM’s power unit to see if he could extend the life span. In the process of this unauthorised activity he’d managed to cut out power to half the personnel tower, leaving half the inhabitants with no hot water, controlled air or electricity.
Now he was sitting in Elizabeth’s room in his t-shirt and boxers watching the flickering candle on her bedside. The balcony door a little way down the wall was open to let the cool air in and stifle the perfumed scent of the candles smoke. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell, but after a while it began to add to Elizabeth’s headache so he’d opened the door.
Elizabeth was down the corridor. Two doors away Radek had a fully functioning room and she’d talked him into letting her use the bathroom to wash up before heading to bed. John could just picture the uncomfortable doctor trying not to look at her as she passed through his room in her shorts, camisole and robe, barefoot and fresh faced. It made him smile to think that Radek would try to avoid conversation and probably jump out of his skin when she thanked him. It also made John wonder how he and Elizabeth managed to spend every night together without having sex.
He didn’t really need that extra contact, not with Elizabeth. He was comfortable with her, that was all that mattered and when she was ready to go that extra step she would let him know.
The door opened and Elizabeth stepped in and brushed her hand over the control panel to close and lock the door. His eyes followed her in the dim light as she moved across to the sofa, dropped her things on it and slipped out of her robe. She was beautiful, a sight he could dream good things about, not overly skinny and just shapely enough to attract attention; especially dressed in the matching pale green camisole and shorts.
“What?” she asked and his eyes shot up to her face.
“Just admiring the view,” he said with a smirk he doubted she could see. She adjusted her stance, one hip cantered to the side and her hand resting on it.
“Careful John; or I might never let you see what’s under the material.”
“Hey,” he said in mock protest, “I’ve been good; survived that meeting this morning without yawning once.”
“You did not,” she said, “I saw you stifle at least three.”
Damn!
He pouted, giving a childish whimper to make sure she got the idea and then turned as she rounded the bed to get in. He waited for her to settle, knowing she would fidget and fiddle with the pillows for a moment, before he climbed in behind her and pressed himself against her back. He tucked his arm under the pillow, and under her head, and rested his other hand on her hip.
“Are you going to tell me?” she asked when he had stilled.
“Tell you what?”
“What happened this morning,” she explained and he bit his lower lip as he carefully considered his answer.
“It was nothing,” he said placing a kiss on her bare shoulder beside the thin strap of her camisole. “Just my mind playing tricks on me,” he yawned and settled closer to her letting his arm slip down over her waist. He felt her relax against him, her back pressed to his chest and gave a deep sigh. Moments later she was asleep. The only sound in the room was her soft and steady breathing. It was a few more minutes of flickering candle light before John drifted off.
When he opened his eyes again he found himself looking around a dark room. The candle on the bedside opposite him had gone out and the room was thick with the night air. Still asleep and wrapped in his arms, Elizabeth gave a deep sigh and shifted slightly and he felt her bared legs brush softly against his.
He creased his brow, lifted his hand to her hip and looking around as best he could in the darkened room trying vainly to work out what had woken him, or why. There was nothing, not a thing to indicate the sudden wave of insomnia that seemed to have taken hold of him. Giving it up as just one of those things, John let his hand drop down over Elizabeth’s stomach and he tightened his grip on her before snuggling in against the back of her neck and closed his eyes.
“Shh.”
John’s eyes snapped open. Standing on the other side of the bed, dressed in a pale pink dress was the girl he saw that morning. She smiled at him and he watched her bright eyes flick to Elizabeth before she looked back at him.
“She’s sleeping,” she breathed and then giggled, bringing her hand up to stifle the sound. She turned and walked around the bed and John followed her, turning his head to watch her walk through the door. He started for a second and Elizabeth groaned at being jostled. The door hadn’t opened for the girl as the transporter had, or had it still been open from someone else using it?
As quickly and carefully as he could, John separated himself from Elizabeth, taking extra care with the arm under her pillow. He pulled his pants on as he walked to the door and almost over balanced as he tried to walk, pull on his clothes and open the door at the same time.
Outside, he looked both ways down the corridor and only just managed to catch a glance of the long dress as it whipped around the corner. He took off at a jog and rounded the corner to find a member of the expedition pinned to the wall watching as she danced her way passed him with a small wave. He followed her at a quick walk and paused at the wide eyed scientist only to pat his shoulder and confirm that someone else had seen her. He followed her for a few more turns before he realised she would soon wander full circle around the tower.
“Hey,” he said and she stopped and turned to face him. For a moment she turned and examined the doors nearby.
“We should wake Rodney,” she said and John’s brow creased even more. She knew Rodney? How did she know him and where he slept and for that matter, how many more people did she know? “It’ll be fun to annoy him,” she said with a small childish laugh. All her innocence seemed to fade for that moment of misbehaviour and John watched in disbelief as she took a step towards McKay’s room.
“Who are you?” he asked, stopping her actions.
“Don’t you want to play, while we can?”
The innocent statement made John even more confused, ‘while we can’. What did that mean? He considered it and her for a short time until his mind wandered back to the comfortable warm bed where he’d left Elizabeth.
“It’s the middle of the night,” he said, “and I don’t even know your name.”
Her face fell and she slowly lowered her head. For a fleeting moment panic set in, he was good with kids, playing with them, keeping them happy. He didn’t know how to deal with a crying one or one who wouldn’t go to bed. He licked his lips and shifted his feet uncomfortably before thinking of something to say that would brighten her mood.
“We can tease Rodney in the morning,” he tried and her whole body seemed to fill with energy at the thought.
“Okay,” she said and turned to run off down the corridor. John was too slow at following her and calling out and when he turned the corner behind her, she had vanished completely.
His mind buzzing, John returned to Elizabeth’s room, making sure to check no one saw him go in before he quickly entered and closed the door behind him. She was still fast asleep, though she had turned in the bed and he had to nudge her over so he could climb in and settled with her leaning against his chest.
****
“Just once,” Rodney spat, stretching his back as he tinkered inside the console.” Just once, I’d like to find something new that’s in working order.”
“I agree,” Radek said and Rodney nodded to himself even though he was out of view. They had gotten up early specifically to look at this new piece of technology. They had been working for over an hour so far and this was the fourth time Rodney had been forced back under the device. Radek had offered to do the fixing several times, but there was no way Rodney McKay would let anyone else do the work; they tended to make things worse and there was no one in the city better than he was at making things functional.
“I’m starting to believe,” Rodney started from under the new console, “that they broke everything before they left, just to see if we were ready. A sort of, ‘if you can fix it, you earn the right to use it’.”
“That’s not what happened.”
Rodney sat up quickly; the extra voice was sudden and vastly unexpected as was the underside of the console. He swore and pulled quickly out from under the device to see Radek smirking at him and a small girl standing a few steps beyond him.
“You said a bad word,” she said innocently and Rodney glared at her.
“What do you know about what happened?” Rodney asked and watched Radek’s face turn from fun to questioning.
“What are you on about?” Radek asked.
“The Wraith did it,” the girl told him as Rodney looked between her and Radek.
“Are you feeling alright?” Radek tried.
“Yes, fine,” Rodney said to Radek with a wave and turned to the girl. “The Wraith didn’t get into the city to pull crystals,” he said.
“Who are you talking to?” Radek questioned turning to look behind him.
“The stupid little kid behind you,” Rodney said waving his hand in her direction before ducking back under the console. “Who can leave now that’s she’s given me just that extra bit of useless information.”
“There was Wraith in the city, I was told not to leave my room and then the floor shook and I watched the water come up and swallow us. I wouldn’t do that,” she added and Rodney swore as he got a short electric shock.
“I think you should see Carson,” Radek said.
“No,” he said to Radek pulling back out, “and no,” he added to the girl. “There is no proof the Wraith were in Atlantis before we arrived, so take your stupid little voice and go bug someone else.”
“He’s smarter than you are,” she said, pointing to Radek.
“Oh yes and a three year old would know that,” Rodney spat sarcastically.
“I’m five,” she said.
“Doctor Beckett, please report to Lab Seven,” Radek said into his radio.
“Three,” Rodney spat before rounding on Radek. “I do not need a doctor.”
“You’re talking to yourself,” Radek said bluntly.
“He can’t see me,” the girl said rubbing at her nose as if she had an itch. “John can.”
“Good,” Rodney spat, “then go bug John.”
“I like John, he’s going to play with me later,” she said. “I don’t like you.”
“Well I didn’t invite you in so you can just leave.”
“I don’t want to.”
“Fine,” Rodney spat and climbed to his feet, “then I will.”
He brushed past her and moved in to the corridor well aware that Radek was watching his every move. He followed the corridor around before he looked back and found the girl following him.
“What do you want?” he asked. She didn’t answer, instead she just followed him. He walked the corridor for a while, darting into transporters in an attempt to get rid of her, but she seemed to always catch up with him. He would have to talk to Teyla about the Athosian kids wandering off from their parents while in the city. He turned the corner and stopped outside John’s room. If she wouldn’t leave him alone, then he was going to make sure John kept her away from him. He rang the chime and waited.
“He’s not in there,” she said fiddling with her dress. “He’s with her.”
“Her, who?” Rodney said turning curiously to the girl. It was five in the morning, and John was with a woman? A coy smile broke on her innocent face and Rodney knew she had the answer to the question. “Her, who?” he repeated.
“I’m not telling you.”
“Sheppard,” Rodney said loudly into his radio and waited. No one answered and he knew it was a stupid attempt. “Wait, its five am, isn’t it past your bedtime?”
“I don’t have a bedtime anymore.”
Rodney snorted and moved away from her and headed back to the lab, he’d just have to ignore her and wait for John or Teyla to get up so he could fob her off on them. With any luck she’d fall asleep and he could leave her in the lab.
****
“Doctor Weir?”
Elizabeth looked up to see one of the newest recruits standing nervously in her door way. She smiled politely at the man and beckoned him in. He took only a single step before stopping again and fiddling with his jacket.
“Doctor Smith,” she said politely, “what can I help you with?”
“I was,” he stuttered and then paused to swallow, “I was wondering about the,” he took another moment to stutter before he could continue, “about the little girl.”
She had known when she hired him that he stuttered a lot when he spoke. It didn’t affect his work and it didn’t bother her in the slightest. On any other day she would have been very polite in her answer and done so with a reassuring smile, but his question was just as strange as the conversations she’d picked up on this morning.
“What little girl?” she asked dropping the smile and creasing her brows.
“She was seen with,” he paused to think of the name, “Colonel Sheppard a little,” he paused again stumbling over the word, “a little while ago and Doctor Zelenka was,” another pause to collect his words, “saying about Doctor McKay seeing things in one of the labs earlier this morning.”
She took a moment to gather her thoughts, remembering that John had hidden something from her the previous day. He’d checked the scanner for something.
“Thank you,” she said and wondered if he would dare ask what she knew about it all again; she hadn’t answered him as it was. He turned quickly and left without hesitation. Elizabeth waited just a moment for him to vanish down the stairs before she got up and headed for the scanner monitor. “Chuck,” she said turning her head to look at him over her shoulder, “put this back on internal.”
“Yes ma’am,” he said and seconds later the screen flickered over to the city layout. She knew without turning that the technician had joined her, standing a pace behind her and just slightly to one side. “Is something wrong?” he asked quietly.
She didn’t answer him straight away, her eyes picking out all the individuals in the city before she settled on a dot down near the west pier.
“No,” she said locating the nearest transporter to the dot’s position. “I’ll be back in a little while,” she said and turned towards the stairs. She passed Teyla on her way up and wasn’t completely surprised when the woman turned and followed her back down.
“Good Morning, Elizabeth,” she said.
“Morning, Teyla. You’ve come to ask about the little girl,” she said being a little bit too short with her friend.
“Yes,” Teyla said following her around the corridor to stop in front of the transporter. “Rodney was,” she paused to think of an appropriate and kind word, “adamant that a young girl had followed him around for the majority of the morning. He demanded rather rudely that I tell all Athosian parents to keep a closer eye on their off-spring, but there are no Athosian’s in Atlantis.”
Elizabeth couldn’t help the smug look on her face as she started to wonder if Rodney was going crazy after the whales had affected the city. It would have been just one more amusing thing about the scientist. After stifling the smug thoughts she reached out and placed a hand on Teyla’s arm.
“I’ll deal with Rodney when I know exactly what’s going on,” she said. “Apparently he’s not the only one to have seen this girl.”
“It is only the fact that he would not listen when I explained there were none of my people in the city that concerns me.”
“It’s Rodney,” she said playfully, “you expect him to listen any other time?” Teyla gave a small laugh at this and smiled apologetically at Elizabeth.
“I will delay you no further,” she said.
“See you at lunch,” Elizabeth put in as she stepped into the transport and tapped the screen.
The corridor she stepped out onto was empty. The west pier was on the least used side of the city and this was the first time she’d been down to any of the unexplored sections alone. She wasn’t ashamed to admit that it was a little freaky. She took a deep breath and turned out of the transporter to follow the corridor around to where she’d last seen the lone dot on the sensors.
It didn’t shock her that John was closer to her location than she had previously seen, but his actions were very questionable. She leaned to her right, resting her right hand on her hip as she watched him. His back was to her and he was crouched low, he backed up towards her stopping at the next door and flicked the control to open it. He vanished inside and she quirked an eyebrow as she waited to see if he would step back out. Moments later, he returned to the corridor and snuck across to the opposite door, he hadn’t spotted her as he flicked at the control and vanished into the room. If she didn’t know him better she would have seriously considered he was losing his mind, or had some serous back problems that needed to be checked.
“You can’t hide from me,” he said stepping back into the corridor and turning towards her. He stopped dead only a few steps ahead of her and she watched in amusement as he slowly righted himself and met her questioning eyes. “Hi,” he said.
“John,” she said simply and waited for his inevitable explanation.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” he said with a smug smile.
“And what does it look like?” she questioned with a quirked brow and she wondered just how nervous she was making him at this moment in time.
He licked his lips and not for the first time she wished she’d kissed them by now. She pushed the thought aside as he repeated the move and reached up to rub at the back of his neck. He clearly didn’t have an answer to the question and he was being adorable with his small quirks as he attempted to come up with something to say.
“Yesterday,” she started stepping towards him and shortening the space between them, “you came up to the control room, looking very cute I might add, in your jogging outfit and changed the scanners. What were you looking for?” She made sure her words were dangerously low to get across the fact that despite how amused she’d been a moment ago and adorable he’d looked the previous day, she wanted answers now.
“A life sign down here,” he said.
“Did you find one?”
“No,” he admitted and licked his lips again.
Elizabeth took another step; putting herself so close to him she could feel his breath on her face and smell his aftershave and deodorant. She knew at this distance even he would be intimidated by her and as she tilted her head up to give the impression she’d kiss him for good behaviour, she asked another question.
“Where did you go last night?”
“She was in your room,” he said and licked his lips again only this time adding a quick swallow. “I followed her out and talked to her.”
“Her?”
“She’s making me guess her name,” he said.
“Why didn’t you tell me about her?”
“I figured it was just an after effect of the Whales,” he said leaning just slightly so his lips brushed very close to hers. She wasn’t going to let him get away with it though and she drew back enough to make sure he understood.
“Briefing room,” she said quietly, then in a much stronger voice added: “Now.”
She turned abruptly, her hand brushing his stomach as she moved off down the corridor and back into the transporter. She didn't like people keeping secrets from her. Most of all she hated it from her senior staff. This was going to stop and she was going to work out who this girl was.
****
John, Rodney, Radek and Carson were in the conference room with Teyla and Ronon standing just outside the door. She hadn’t invited them to this, but she wasn’t about to send them away or close the door on them. Carson wasn’t here to be yelled at and as a result he stood off to one side waiting for his orders.
“After what just happened and the threat everyone in this city went through, how could neither of you tell me you were seeing things again?”
She left no room for argument and waited patiently as the silence turned into a dare for one of them to step up and explain themselves - if they could risk it. For Radek though, she had learned he hadn’t seen a thing and had called Carson in the early hours to get him to see to Rodney, who had turned him away as soon as the doctor arrived. Just when she thought it was safe to carry on Rodney interrupted.
“Who’s seeing things?” he snapped, “she was an annoying Athosian kid who wandered off in the middle of the night.”
“Firstly, Rodney, I haven’t even begun to touch on your conversation with Teyla this morning,” she caught Ronon’s raised brow as he turned to look at the Athosian. “Secondly, there haven’t been any Athosian’s, other than Teyla, in Atlantis for three weeks,” she moved a few steps away and traded a look with Carson before turning back to them.
“You two,” she said continuing to exempt Radek from this, “are among the highest ranked members of this expedition, you report only to me and when you show this much distrust in my abilities to deal with more mirages created by alien sea creatures, you show the rest of the people here that I’m a push over. Now tell me about this girl.”
“She was about three,” Rodney started.
“She’s five,” John cut in sounding indignant, “won’t tell me her name, like I said, she’s making me guess. She’s Ancient, not Athosian and keeps asking me to play with her ‘while we have time,’ but won’t tell me why time is short.”
“And you’re the only two who have seen her?” Carson asked.
“No,” John said a little high pitched. “I followed her last night, she passed Doctor Johnson and he could see her.”
“Doctor Smith told me this morning she’d been seen with John,” Elizabeth said. “He didn’t say who by,” she added seeing something click in Carson’s mind. “I want them both examined, Carson. Make sure this isn’t a lasting effect from the whales.”
She turned back to John and Rodney and eyed them. She had the urge to order them confined to the infirmary until Carson said otherwise, but she couldn’t honestly do that. She needed Rodney to fix his last mess up so she could use her own bathroom tonight. Not to mention John had late reports he needed to complete.
“Rodney, when you’re done in the infirmary you will go back to undoing your ZPM enhances. John,” she paused considering his order then a small, very useful idea came to mind. “I want to see you when you’re done. Dismissed.”
John and Rodney left quickly; Carson gave her a look before following them from the room. She watched the door, her eyes not focused on anything in particular as Teyla and Ronon joined her and Radek inside the room.
“You called Carson, but didn’t stop Rodney from leaving?”
“I,” Radek started and shifted. “I don’t know why I let him walk out; I was too stunned watching him talk to the air.”
Elizabeth smiled. She probably would have reacted the same. She knew they had been up early to work on the new console on their own time and she wasn’t about to punish Radek for something so trivial. At least he hadn’t seen the girl and snapped at Teyla.
“Could you follow him next time?” she asked and smiled as he nodded. “Rodney can fix the ZPMs alone today; you can carry on with your new toy.”
Radek practically beamed at her, thanked her several times and almost bounced out of the room. When he was gone, she flicked the control to close the conference room doors and crossed to the coffee machine at the back while Ronon eyed the sliding panels. When they were completely alone she turned to them with her cup in hand.
“I need to know about this girl,” she started. “So far, only people with the gene have been able to see her. I need this confirmed.”
“You want one of us to find her?” Ronon asked.
“Close,” she said with a smile. “When John gets back, I’m going to let him return to his game of hide and seek. I’d appreciate it if one or both of you would go with him.”
“You want us to play with an invisible girl?” Ronon’s quirked brow never failed to make her smile; he always found things so simple.
“If you can’t see her, then you don’t have to stay,” she said giving him a coy look. “If you can see her, then play with her, help John find out who she is and why she’s here, why now?”
“Why not when we were seeing the other Ancients?” Ronon asked.
“She had several opportunities to appear over the last two and a half years,” Teyla said hitting closer to home on what Elizabeth was thinking. “I have promised Halling that I would...”
“Of course, I forgot about that, you’re visiting after lunch.”
“I’ll do it,” Ronon said shifting his weight. “Give me another reason to poke fun at Sheppard if I can’t see her,” he added with a smirk.
“I won’t deprive you of that fun,” she said heading for the door, “ever,” she added with a grin.
****
“Penny? Molly? Louise? Tina? Sue?” John said turning the corner back down at the west pier. “Amy?” he tried again.
“What are you doing?” Ronon asked stopping to look into one of the open rooms.
“She wants me to guess her name,” John said continuing down the corridor. “So I’m guessing. Chloe? Carla? Debbie? Victoria?” He peered into one room before moving further along the hallway. “Rebecca? Terri? Emma? Emily? Gemma? Charlotte? Christina? Natalie?”
“Natalie?”
“I’m trying random names here; you wanna learn Earth names or help?”
“She’s not gonna have an Earth name,” Ronon said and John stopped, his brow raised and he slowly turned to look at his friend.
“I knew that,” he said and stepped up to another open door. “Nora?” he said pointing into the room at the little girl. “I’ve been looking for you,” he said to her, stopping for a second to remember that was the point of the game. She was up out of her seat quicker than he could anticipate and ran the distance to wrap her arms around his legs.
“I know Elizabeth had a good reason for stopping the game,” she said looking up at him, but not releasing him. “I knew you’d come back for me.”
“Yeah,” John said placing his hand on her arm and feeling the warmth of her skin. He could touch her and it was like touching another living person. “And I brought a friend to play with us.”
“Is he like you?” she asked and John thought about it for a moment.
“He’s a big, mean, fighting machine,” John said and she let go of him and took a step backwards, “should make him easy to find.”
“But it’s your turn to hide,” she moved away from him and over to the window and he watched her cover her eyes before she started to count.
“Why don’t we play another game,” John said licking his lips. He watched her drop her hands and turn to him with a smile.
“We’re already playing two. You still haven’t guessed my name.”
“I was thinking of changing hide and seek,” he said feeling Ronon step into the room behind him. “Maybe we can play tag.”
“What’s that?” she asked looking confused.
“One person is ‘it’; they have to catch one of the other players. When they do they shout ‘tag’ and the person who got tagged takes over and tries to catch someone else. Not so fun if there are only two people, but three people isn’t so bad.”
“I can’t ‘tag’ someone I can’t see,” Ronon said looking around the room. “I’m going back to Weir.”
“Okay,” John said, “guess tag’s out of the question.”
****
“Amanda?” John tried hopefully as he placed his palms together, the tips of his fingers rested against the tips of the very small hands of his companion. She moved quickly, her left hand pulling away from the other and she slapped the back of his right hand.
“Nope,” she offered as he let out a short and playful ‘ouch,’ to tease her about her strength.
“Kate?” John tried again and took a swipe at her fingers, but she was far too fast for him. “Amelia? Elizabeth? Tanya? Sophie? Monica? Denise? Abigail? Isabel? Ouch!”
She’d taken a whack at him while he was distracted with a list of names and managed to hit just right, so that his hand actually stung. He bet her palm hurt just as much as she giggled at him and put her fingers back in place. He took a swipe at her and missed and she instantly reciprocated and struck him in the same place.
He could never win this game against kids; they always had much faster reflexes than he did. Jinto and the other Athosian children had taken great joy in beating him, yet for some reason he still taught them games he couldn’t beat them at. Rock, Paper, Scissors was another one he had managed to lose to her and after half an hour he’d decided this would be better. How wrong could he get?
“Nope,” she said smugly.
“Am I even close?” he asked hopefully.
“I’m not telling you,” she said avoiding his hit again. “If I answered that you’d focus on the name and it would take you less guesses to get it right.”
“So I am close?”
“No.”
“Rachel, Teyla, Toni, Laura, Patricia, Jennifer, Pat, Paula, Lucy...”
“You’re just naming people in the city,” she laughed and John dodged her hit with a triumphant shout of joy.
“Yeah,” he said eventually, “and I’m running out of women to name,” he said managing a light smack on the back of her hand.
’Colonel Sheppard.’
“Hang on,” John said to her as he pulled his hands away just in time and reached up to activate his radio. “Sheppard,” he said shortly and said quietly “Janet? Julie or Jamima?” She shook her head at him.
“Sir, there’s another fight in the mess,” Chuck said, “Lorne’s heading to intervene, but suggested you should go and sort this one out.”
“Let me guess,” he said screwing up his nose, “Tipson and Lambert?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I’m on my way,” John said and smiled apologetically to his new friend. “I have to go back to work,” he said. “Stop a fight and find out why they can’t get along with the rest of the universe.”
The girl stiffened and John eyed her curiously. He watched as she got out of her seat and searched the room. When she looked back at him, her mouth was moving in silent recollection and her brow creased as she seemed desperately to remember something.
“Elizabeth,” she breathed, he caught the shape of the name more than he heard the syllables as they left her mouth and then she looked up to meet his eye. “I have to go.”
****
Elizabeth sat at her desk with her eyes fixed on the screen. Her concentration wasn’t at its peak with all the fuss about the girl in the city, but at least she was making it slowly through Carson’s report. She didn’t really need to read it; John and Rodney were in perfect health. Well, for Rodney that was questionable with the amount of food he ate every meal. But Carson had gone on to detail his theory about the girl only appearing for ATA Gene carriers.
This was something she already knew. Ronon had only been gone for twenty minutes before he stepped back into her office and dropped down onto her sofa.
‘He found her,’ was all he had said. She had waited for more, but eventually she’d been forced to ask him for more detailed information before he added to his statement. ‘I couldn’t see anyone in the room.’
A five year old Ancient girl wandering around Atlantis was a little daunting. If she’d been sent to do some task, why had she not started to follow her order and played with John after? Likewise, if she’d been sent, why hadn’t the others sent someone a little more mature?
But this wasn’t the most terrifying question Elizabeth could think of. The Ancients, for all their extensive technology and advanced thinking, had always stayed clear of people on the lower plane of existence. For them to send someone, anyone, to Atlantis must mean something was heading their way, and it must be bad enough for them to risk the interference. She pushed these ideas away hoping against all hope that she was simply here out of boredom.
There was movement in the control room and Elizabeth looked up over the top of her monitor and watched as one of the control room staff hurriedly tried to clean a console of the spilt coffee.
She let her mind wander to last night. She’d turned over in bed and woken instantly. It was unusual for her to be able to just roll over and not end up pressed against John’s warm body. She’d looked around the room before settling back into a comfortable position and waited. She’d pretended to be asleep when he returned and had fallen asleep in his arms before she could even contemplate asking where he’d been.
The fact that he’d got up to follow this girl was an additional worry. Would her presence become addictive? Was she there to trick them? Was she Ancient or some other race?
Elizabeth jerked her head to her left as a small hand came to rest on her arm. Her eyes settled on the innocent face of a five year old. Confused, Elizabeth creased her brow and opened her mouth to ask a question, any question, but the girl spoke first.
“Evil is coming.”