Atlantean Hearing Aid by Indus [Reviews - 1]
Chapter or Story - Text Size +

Category: Slash Pairings > McKay/Sheppard
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Rating: PG-13
Genres: AU - Alternate Universe, Pre-slash
Warnings: None
Series: None

Word count: 14997; Completed: No

Summary: A family reunion threatens to tear them apart, until a tragedy provides new opportunities for McKay and Sheppard. Written before season 2 so AU.



"You- you traitor!"

Dr. Elizabeth Weir and Colonel John Sheppard looked at each other in one of those mutual glances over a year in close quarters had perfected. Volumes could be communicated in such looks, but this particular one merely meant, 'What the hell?!!!"

The beautiful civilian who had beamed down with a group of scientists tossed her brown hair in the air imperatively and rubbed the hand she had just used to slap Rodney in the face. "I should have known you'd be here," she sneered, and looked about ready to spit at him as Rodney recovered from the shock that had paralyzed him upon the sight of her.

"Jeannie?" he asked, his pale face, marred by a red handprint, not showing any of its customary snark.

John stepped between them. "Fascinating as it is to see an excerpt of the thrilling tales on Don Juan de McKay's adventures, I think this is a conversation best left for private. Now, Miss..."

"McKay," she supplied sweetly.

He stopped, floundered, and a small part of Rodney's brain couldn't help enjoying the sight. "Major, meet my sister, Jeannie."

"Dr. McKay," she corrected, but her eyes, still full of anger and hurt, never left her brother's face. And just in case Sheppard didn't catch the insolence, she didn't take his outstretched hand.

"All right," Elizabeth said diplomatically. "I'm sure you two have a lot to talk about. Now, let's get through this briefing and then you can get on with it. Where is the leader of this mission, Dr. Halster?"

Jeannie collapsed into a chair, the angry flush dying down so that the others could see how tired she was. "That would be me. The US military has yet to recognize my divorce, I suppose."

John had thought he was beyond shock, but it appeared that he was wrong. "Wait, you're our Native American tribes anthropology expert? You're not even American!"

"Well, we call them First Nations, but yes, I am fairly conversant in their varied histories and cultures as well as your American counterparts." She smiled with that same false sweetness at the Colonel, and he felt himself flushing. Clearly, there was a lot of Rodney in her.

It wasn't that he didn't know about First Nations, but that had been more polite than remarking on the fact that Rodney's sister was in a field that was almost as removed from astrophysics as the military. But then, here they all were, in the same room, working on the same mission.

Interrupting his thoughts, the anthropologist asked for a detailed account of the mission.

"Well, we got to their planet yesterday morning," Rodney began, "and almost immediately the similarities between First Nations, or Native American tribes, and their set-up hit us in the face. There were what looked like totem poles, pictography and their clothes..."

"Language is another issue." Elizabeth continued. "We had several linguists who were familiar with Native American dialects, but unfortunately we lost two on recent missions and the rest either left or are on extended leave. We might wait for them to get ready to come back and form their own team, but there may be an energy source there that is of great interest to us. Besides, the ones we consulted on Earth suggested their dialect was closer to a First Nation than a Native American tribe."

"And the military asked me to fill in," Jeannie mused. "With my incredible team, of course. They must have been desperate."

John laughed, and then tried to smooth over the hostility she seemed to feel towards him, though he didn't know the reason for it. "Oh come on, you must be one of the best just to be here."

"I am," she said confidentally, again channeling her brother, but showing no softening in her contempt for the handsome Colonel, who was not used to getting such a reaction from women. "But I'm shocked I passed background checks considering my history."

"Oh God," Rodney groaned.

"History?" Teyla asked, eyes dancing as she drank in the unusual woman, so much like the man she considered her younger brother, despite the fact that at 34 he was a few years her senior.

"I've written and published many articles on how militaries are evil institutions responsible for most if not all of our loss of culture and history. In fact, I've protested and striked against most if not all US and Canadian military operations since I was old enough, and quite frankly, I'd tell you all to go fuck yourselves if I wasn't being blackmailed into being here."

"Blackmailed?" At least four voices repeated in unison.

She gestured with an elegant, but unmanicured, hand towards her team, made up of four men and two women. "We've been working for close to three years on a particular site, and we're close to finishing on an exhibit that would revolutionize the way we see First Nations, except that it's become apparent that we'll lose government funding if we don't do this for you. Now, on my own, I'd still them to kiss my ass, but I won't throw away the futures of everyone I work with."

"Hey, you can still tell them to kiss your ass," the bearded man beside her chimed in, and while there were mutterings of agreement from several others, a couple of people on her team looked a little uncomfortable with the prospect of losing their livelihood.

Elizabeth sighed, rethinking some of her choices for the hundredth time. "Look, what they did to you was terrible, and I can understand your reluctance..."

"They?"

Weir threw her hands up in frustration. "God, I'm sorry, it's been one of those days. I'm Dr. Elizabeth Weir, and I'm the civilian leader of this city."

"Weir?" The bearded man raised his eyebrows. "I once caught a lecture of yours, while you were at the United Nations, against the military industrial complex."

Jeannie smiled delightedly. "Oh good, now I can work with you and not feel guilty for it!"

Not even batting an eye at her blunt speech, Elizabeth smiled. "Glad to hear it, and I'm glad you enjoyed it, Dr..."

"Halster. I'm the ex, but definitely not the leader of this mission."

In the obvious silence that fell as the SGA staff tried to digest the odd visitors, Rodney tried to use his sister's change of heart to his advantage. "If you can do it, why can't I?"

"Are you making weapons for the US military?"

He shifted uncomfortably, but retaliated almost immediately. "No, not just for them. To defend earth against some pretty unpleasant people who would either like to infest us with worms or eat us for dinner."

She blanched, but came back at him with the strength of her convictions. "You're still making weapons, and that's a betrayal of everything you are. Or were, I don't know who you are. Just remember- lie down with dogs, and you may just pick up fleas."

"Hey!" John was pardonably annoyed. He looked around for some support, but everyone else was just watching, intent on what was an emotionally charged exchange.

"And when things get good, and you get comfortable, just remember that you're following in our parents' footsteps, and look what happened to them." Jeannie's voice was deadly calm, but when Rodney seemed to crumble at her words, Teyla was certain she saw something like guilt flash over the heart-shaped face of his sister.

Whatever it was, it was fleeting, and the two siblings seemed to become aware of their surroundings at about the same time. Drawing on unexpected dignity, they picked up their books in silence, and walked out with stony faces.

"Well," Dr. Halster whistled. "This will be interesting."

"Do you know what it was about?" the red-haired woman beside him asked.

It was obvious that he did know, and he wasn't going to speak, except to smile slightly at his friend and pat her hand. "There's more to both those people, Stella, than you know. But that's their business, not yours or mine."

Stella flushed, but took the snub well. "So, let's get started."

*

"Don't touch that!"

Sheppard put down the Ancient device and frowned. "I wasn't going to do anything, you know. You don't need to treat me like a five-year-old. And what does this do, anyway?

Rodney came closer and frowned at the object, trying to remember. "Radek! Radek!"

The Czech scientist sighed as he looked up from his own project. "Rodney, I'm busy. What is it?"

"What does this one do?"

Radek Zelenka looked at his department head as if he were a particularly fascinating experiment. "Rodney, are you all right?"

"Fine, but you're not answering my question."

"It's just that this is the first time you've asked me that question. It's that thing you found on your last mission."

"Thing?" John asked, smirking.

Rodney snorted and pushed the Colonel away. "Right, we don't know what it does yet. Please don't touch it until I'm sure you won't kill us all."

"Look, that was just the one time..."

Rodney sighed. "Colonel, is there anything I can do for you?"

"Major," Sheppard corrected instinctively, and then stopped. "Wait, is this like that Bugs Bunny reverse psychology trick? You know, rabbit season, duck season, duck season, rabbit season?"

This time Rodney's sigh was even deeper. "No, this might surprise you, but my brain is capable of remembering minute details of scientific discoveries that have the potential to affect the galaxy, and trivial things like your rank at the same time. Now, Colonel, is there a reason you came here?"

John was stumped. His mention of Bugs Bunny had been the perfect opportunity for the irreverent scientist to make fun of his immature taste in entertainment, but for once McKay hadn't picked up on that. Seriously worried now, he tried to smile at Rodney and asked if he was ready for lunch.

"Not hungry, but thanks."

Behind them, there was a loud crashing sound and every scientist within earshot looked staggered by the idea of a Dr. McKay who wasn't hungry. "Rodney, are you all right?" Zelenka asked again.

"Yes, I'm fine! Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Rodney exploded, practically threw whatever he was holding on the table, and stomped out of the lab, leaving silence behind.

"What happened in the briefing?" Zelenka asked Sheppard, and the expression on his face, somewhat like a mother bear protecting her young, made the Colonel answer after looking around to make certain they weren't overheard.

"The anthropologist who came in was Rodney's sister, and she didn't look happy to see him," he answered, and was going to add that he didn't know why when he saw the expression change on Radek's face. "Do you know something?"

Zelenka paused, obviously searching for words, though his hesistation did not seem to be brought about by language barriers. "Colonel, my time in Atlantis has showed me somethings are truth everywhere- we all speak about each other, gossip I think you say. What I know is this... gossip... and I would like it more if you went to Dr. Weir."

Respecting that, and the obvious bonds that existed in Rodney's department despite, or because of, the abrasive personalities of its leader and Cavanaugh, Sheppard left. He made his way to Elizabeth's office to find that the brilliant diplomat was one step ahead of him.

Weir sat in her chair, sipping coffee and paging through a thick file. "Come in, John," she said, without looking up.

"How did you know?" he asked, distracted momentarily.

She looked up then, laughing at his befuddled expression. "I knew you'd be here about two minutes after Rodney stormed in asking that you not be allowed to come into the lab and distract all of his techs."

"Hey! He's always on me trying to get me in there to help him with stuff." John hated when his voice took on that particular whining tone.

"I know, I know," Weir said, holding up her hand for silence. "And as it is, he's not usually someone who complains behind people's backs. And his heart wasn't in it. So that rang some bells. What's going on?"

John shrugged. "I tried to find out. We all know how that went. Maybe you should check"-

"Already am," she smiled, lifting the file in her hands so that Sheppard could see the name and his unsmiling, uncomfortable teammate's picture on the cover. "And there's nothing."

Sheppard sat down and leaned forward, holding out his hand for the file. "Did you look for his parents? His sister mentioned them and he just... froze, for a second. Oh!" For he had turned to the family part of the background file. "Parents: deceased. Classified..." he read, the last word trailing off as he looked up to meet Elizabeth's eyes.

"When I took him on, it was at the special request of the Pentagon, and I didn't look too closely at him because I knew he'd been through all the necessary checks. So this is the first time I'm actually looking at this file, and I have to admit, I find it very interesting that there's something they didn't think I should know." She raised her eyebrows and looked at her military commander interrogatively. "Has he ever mentioned them to you?"

"No, whenever he's mentioned family it's always just been his sister," John said. "But the fact that it's classified, plus their behavior and what was said today make me think that they worked with the military, probably ours."

Weir reached out to take back the file and continued. "And maybe died doing it, which would explain her bitterness."

Freezing at her words, Sheppard hissed. "Zelenka!"

"What?"

Brought back to his surroundings, the Colonel quickly briefed Weir on the odd discussion he'd had with Rodney's second. "He knows something."

She thought about calling Zelenka up, finding out the truth so that she could know how to handle the emotional quagmire threatening her base, but then squashed that desire and her own curiousity. "We all have so little privacy as it is. I'm not infringing on Rodney's without more of a reason than a few hissy fits."

Sheppard nodded. "You're right."

*

He hated guilt, so he rarely gave himself the chance to feel it. This time, though, it seemed to be all he could feel. There was little he could do about the main reason he wanted to gnaw on his own insides, unless he gave up what he was doing. He couldn't do that, though. Even if he could get over the high of working on the greatest finds in the universe, he was more than a little fond of the city. She was home now, and he wasn't sure he could make it back on Earth.

So, if he couldn't deal with the main reason that remorse was eating him alive, he might as well get rid of the others. Going into the lab, he cleared his throat and waited until everyone looked up. "Umm, I just wanted to say... look, I'm sorry and you guys are ordered to take the rest of the day off. Go home."

Spinning on his heel, he walked out before his team could get over their shock. It hadn't been the most gracious of apologies but they didn't seem to care. As he walked towards the jumper bay, he could have sworn he heard Miko whoop and Hunter invite everyone to his quarters to celebrate the unexpected windfall with the Athosian version of beer and pizza.

He made his way to the jumper bay, where he found Sheppard escorting a beautiful Marine officer out of the puddle-jumper. "You did good, Abby, but you need to work on those turns."

She blushed and smiled and gushed something as she walked out, and Sheppard was braced for a remark about Captain Kirk and the ensigns or Yeomans from McKay, but didn't receive one. Instead, the scientist watched Lt. Cassidy walk out and shifted his feet uncomfortably.

"Flying lesson?"

"Anything you need, McKay?" he didn't mean for it to come out snide, but seeing as how he was barred from entering the other man's place of work he didn't think it was unfair.

Rodney looked even more guilty and mumbled something.

'What?"

"Look, I'm sorry," and though he sounded more angry than apologetic, it was clearly sincere. "There's some stuff I'm going through and I took it out on you. Elizabeth probably told you what I said and I want you to know I'm not proud of it. As soon as I'm done here I'll go to her and take it all back."

The Colonel looked at him as if he were crazy. "This isn't the fourth grade, Rodney! All complaints against me go on record, and no amount of 'taking back' is going to erase the words already entered in my file."

McKay blanched. "I didn't think of that."

"Oh, the great McKay, who thinks of everything but the consequences of his own actions," John mocked, and wished the words unsaid as soon as he saw his teammate's face.

Rodney just turned around and walked out. There was a defeated, tired slump to his shoulders, as if months of not sleeping and working around the clock had caught up with him. John would have called out after him, apologized, except that he knew that while his words were hurtful, they were just the last straw. And he didn't have the knowledge or power to deal with the rest of it.

But he had a feeling he knew someone who did.

*

"What do you want?" She was as gracious as her brother was, though the face that peered at him from around the door was a whole lot prettier.

He couldn't hide the smile that surfaced at the resemblance and the lack of it, and that made her all the more suspicious.

"Look, what is it? I'm working with the team you guys assigned me to- what is it 5?- as fast as I can. The stuff you guys want is very valuable to them and we're still working on things we could trade. Amazingly enough, they're not all that interested in your computers and stuff." She waved away her brother's work as if it were nothing, and somehow it wasn't as funny as when Sheppard did it.

"Dr. McKay, we need to talk."

She searched his face, and then nodded. She shut the door and he heard her move around inside. When the door opened a few minutes later, she and her ex-husband were wearing robes and there were traces of dinner being quickly swept away. John took in the disarray in the room and opened his mouth to apologize and reschedule their discussion, but was forestalled by Dr. Halster.

"I can leave," he offered, but his ex-wife shook her head. "There are no secrets between us," she said, in a voice so darkly loving that John felt even more like an intruder than ever. But he sat in the chair indicated, and refused their offer of a refreshment.

"Dr. McKay," he began, then paused.

"Not sure where to start?" she asked, and smiled at his fumbling. "Then how about with names? I'm Jeannie, this is Eric, and you're-?"

"John," he replied, then raised an eyebrow. "What's with all the first names? You didn't seem to want us to use yours earlier." He mentally smacked himself a minute later for putting her on the defensive, but then realized he hadn't. She had an earthy confidence to her, based probably on her anger, both of which her brother seemed to lack.

She laughed. "Don't miss much, do you? Oh, we're not best friends, and I still think you work for the devil, but I've had a chance to go through some mission reports as research and I've watched you with the Athosian kids that came for their field trip today. So you're good with children, and you've saved my brother's life. Again, you work for the devil, and eventually he'll have you, but you're a good man by the looks of things."

"I don't think I've ever been so insulted or flattered," he quipped, truth gleaming from behind the jokes.

Eric sighed. "I'll apologize for her, Colonel, but you should know she has reason to hate your kind."

"What is that reason?" Sheppard asked, leaning forward.

The two anthropologists looked at each other and seemed to deliberate over an answer. Jeannie looked back at her brother's friend and bit her lip. "I don't know if I should tell you. You are Rodney's friends, and if he saw fit not to tell you..."

The Colonel fought back his frustration and used his considerable guile to push for answers. "I can understand that, but there's obviously something here that I think I should know about. You seem to have this overwhelming hatred for my uniform, and while I haven't seen anything but contempt from Rodney I have to keep in mind that he holds the fates of dozens of soldiers in his hands on an almost daily basis."

She stood up suddenly, and the force of her anger made her magnificent. "Are you suggesting that my brother would get someone killed because of what you people did to my parents? No, that's the kind of thing you do, not us!"

"What did we do?" John was standing up now too.

"You killed them!" She shrieked, and she wasn't an angry woman anymore but a frightened little girl. "You took them out to the middle of nowhere and you promised their safety, and then you let them die so horribly... You destroyed my family!" She burst into tears and collapsed back into her chair. John followed suit more slowly, his heart thundering and his mind almost blank as he watched Eric soothe his ex-wife.

It seemed hours later, but it was probably only minutes when she calmed enough to finish her story. And then John told his, and by the time they were finished they had both gained respect and genuine affection for the other. And the knowledge that they would never discuss those events with each other again.

*

"Come in," Elizabeth called, and sipped her coffee as she scanned the morning reports. Flicking her eyes up, she caught the evidence of John's sleepless night. "I didn't think you'd be into the scientists' party, John."

"What?" he asked confusedly.

She did look up then, and seemed to realize that more was wrong than a few bottles of beer and a group of the most brilliantly hung-over people in the Pegasus Galaxy. Putting down the screen of her laptop, she linked her fingers on her desk and looked inquiringly at the Colonel.

He poured himself into his chair and smiled bitterly at her. "Every time I think we are better than the wraith, that we have some reason to go around the galaxy with our superior, we-can-help-you-people attitude, something comes along that reminds me of our own weaknesses."

"I thought we agreed not to pry into Rodney's problems." Elizabeth was no one's fool.

He couldn't look at her as he outlined the quarrel he had had with McKay the day before. "I know, I know, that's called kicking a dog when it's down and it's not a very nice thing to do. But Elizabeth, complaining to you was low, and it wasn't like him, so I went to his sister to ask what was behind his weirdness. The story she told me- it's grim."

"I'm sure it is," she said, and considered whether or not to ask him to share the secret that was most certainly burdening him. But as leader, she often had to do unpleasant tasks, know things she didn't want to know, and so she swallowed her own fear and held out her hand for him to grip. "What happened, John?"

"Their father was a scientist, and a damn good one. He was a Canadian but entered into this North American partnership thing that was researching alternate energy sources. Apparently their research was so controversial they began doing experiments in a top-secret facility in South America. But their results were probably not very popular, because one day this supposedly very well guarded facility was broken into by a group of rebel soldiers, and only two guards out of a contingent of thirty were killed. But Rodney and Jeannie's mother and several other female scientists and wives were brutally raped while the men were made to watch and then tortured. This took several hours and then they were all killed, except for the kids. There were about ten to fifteen of them, counting Jeannie and Rodney, and they managed to get out. Mostly because they were the progeny of some of the most brilliant American and Canadian minds out there, I suppose."

"My God!" Elizabeth murmured. Then, shaking her head, she pointed out the most obvious flaw. "But those kids couldn't have been more brilliant than at least some of their parents."

John looked down at his hands, thinking of the blood that stained them, and grateful for the strength of character that allowed him to sleep at night. There were quite a few things he wasn't capable of, and didn't that make him more of a man? "That's it, isn't it? I mean, those rebels somehow knew enough to completely trash the lab, erase any trace of information, and exactly who to kill. Coincidentally, they also knew to attack at a time and day when the facility was least guarded, and when soldiers had been called away to help with rescue efforts after a building collapsed nearby. Now, that could have been engineered by them, but they needed to have great surveillance to get into the computers and labs. And with all their information, somehow the kids were able to get away. Sounds like someone's misguided attempt at approximating humanity by sparing the kids from an engineered massacre."

Elizabeth's mouth worked as she tried to find a way to express her feelings of horror and sickness. It took her several minutes to get there but she knew what Sheppard needed to hear. "It's times like this when it's most important for people like us to stay where we are. They need us, John, to remember that being human is not about choosing who gets to live but about trying to make sure that everybody does, regardless of the color of their skin or passport, their beliefs or their lack of them. And yes, that puts us in the middle, and that's the worst place to be, but look at the company we're in. And when you're in this kind of company, you know you're in the right place."

He looked back at her, and tried to smile. "I get that, and thanks. But where we are is probably nowhere close to where Rodney is. It could be that he's so lost in the work he's doing that his employers don't matter, but I don't think that's true."

"You think he's here for something. That he might feel the way his sister does." She pushed away from her desk and stood to stare unseeingly out the glass window, trying to block out his words.

John winced, but went on, his voice gaining strength as he spoke. "We have to consider the possibility that he's got another agenda. I've read his mission reports, that was my job, and I know he gave up on saving members of SG1's lives way before anyone else. But you could say that's just his natural pessimism, and I'd agree. And he's done nothing since to warrant our suspicions. But as a kid, he watched people rape his mother and torture his father before killing them, and he knows the US and Canadian militaries had something to do with that. Would you be able to serve them in that case?"

"Why do you think I wasn't in the SGC?" A hard, yet vulnerable voice broke in.

They both spun around and stared at Rodney in shock and horror. Elizabeth found her voice first, and used it pleadingly. "Please Rodney, try to understand."

"Oh, I do," he said, and there was an odd, splendid dignity about his short stocky frame as he stared them both down. "You found out about what happened in- what happened- and you think that makes me a security problem. Well, how about I solve that little quandary for you? I'll finish up the stuff I can, get Radek caught up on what I can't, and go home next time the Daedalus leaves for Earth. Consider that my resignation, Elizabeth."

*

Being on Atlantis for the next month wasn't fun. Rodney ignored everyone, including his sister, and was all-business as he trained Zelenka to take over for him in the lab and Dr. Lena Kaghazwalla to take his spot on Sheppard's team. While the young, petite Pakistani scientist, an unexpected black belt, had served ably on off-world missions, the move to the the flagship team was difficult for everyone. For one thing, she actually followed orders, and for another, she didn't want to be reassigned out of the team she had served on, one devoted primarily to scientific missions. Sheppard, as she put it to a colleague, often indulged in more exciting but less scientific activities, and her resentment at having to give up a posting that had been more to her taste could not be hidden. She would do her job, but without playing along and enjoying the adventures that her predecessor had pretended to hate.

Zelenka didn't try to mask his resentment either. He had taken over as department leader every time McKay was off Atlantis, and that had been often enough so that he could get the thrill of wielding power. However, the responsibility of keeping the city afloat, now his permanently, was a headache he could have done without, and one that would require people skills the Czech had enjoyed not having to develop. McKay had developed them in his own odd way, not learning how to coax but rather berate and annoy them into going along with him. But Zelenka couldn't be quite that obnoxious, and he was afraid that science would not get its due and the scientific component of the Atlantis expedition would be pushed to the bottom of the priority list.

Moreover, knowing the truth behind McKay's family tragedy, Zelenka had no doubts that Sheppard's incquistiveness had led to the current situation. Though he said nothing, he made it clear that the Colonel was in some way responsible, and that the poor man was not welcome anywhere near the lab. Since Jeannie McKay shared his feelings, Sheppard avoided the anthro labs as well.

All in all, it was an uncomfortable month, and the end of it Sheppard was equally regretful and grateful as they walked through the gate for what was set as their last mission as a team.

*

"Ford, you're with Rodney and Kaag, Kahg," Sheppard stumbled over the long South Asian name.

"Dr. K," she said, with a sudden, attractive smile. She was just the kind of woman he might have gone for, except that she was patently not interested, and married to someone on Beckett's staff. "You can call me Dr. K."

"Lena, do you have any idea where the EM signal is coming from?" Rodney broke in, his eyes intent on the little machine he held, the one the science team liked to call a tricorder. "I'm not getting any clear readings."

"Neither am I," she said, studying the similar device she held. "Should we boost...?"

Sheppard tuned them out and watched them walk away, Ford scanning their surroundings with the eyes of a predator. They were all learning so fast in Atlantis.

It was almost too perfect a last mission for Rodney McKay. Later, John would muse over that, wonder why the absolute perfection of it hadn't set him on edge, warned him about what was coming... But he was relaxed and joking with Teyla as they lounged by the gate when the first whine of engines were heard overhead.

Sheppard looked up and immediately reached for his gun. Unfamiliar ships were rarely a good thing around here. From the corner of his eye he saw Teyla start dialing up the gate as he radioed the others. "We have company," the Colonel growled. "I don't know if its friendly but just in case- get to cover." Following his own advice, he crouched down and motioned to Teyla to do the same.

Ford's voice squacked in his ear. "I see the ship, sir. Drs McKay and K are still outside, trying to get a ZPM out of its casing. I'm trying to get to them."

"Rodney, Rodney!" John yelled. "Listen, get to cover. There's a ship we've never seen before almost above you."

"I know, I got the message the first time. But they could take, or worse destroy, this ZPM before I get a chance to get it out. Give me a few minutes." Rodney's voice had an odd calmness to it, as if he had faced the fact that this was his last mission, and the way it ended didn't really matter.

Sheppard shook his head, though the only who could see him was Teyla. "Rodney, I'm not the one you should be asking for time."

"Colonel, you're just assuming that these people have harmful intentions. They could be peaceful explorers and this could be an opportunity to make new friends," the Athosian woman's voice was calm, but not quite convincing. She too had seen something ominous in the way the ship had completely disregarded them and set off straight towards the abandoned city their teammates were exploring.

"I don't want to take that chance," Ford's nervous voice excaberated Sheppard's dangling nerves. "I'll get to them and force them to a cave."

The Colonel told him to be careful, and then he and Teyla began making their way towards the hilly area, dotted with caves, a mile from the gate. They had just started the trek when they heard the sounds of battle. "What's going on?" Teyla asked.

"As soon as I broke cover I saw the ship directly overhead, and it saw me," Ford said, breathless with excitement and panic. "It fired. They missed me, but the tree I was next to gave me a few splinters when their weapon hit it. Colonel, their weapons are strange. They aren't visible, you just see things bursting in front of you and your ears hurt if you get close to the target. I think it's sound related, sir."

"Stay under, Ford. They've got you pinned. Where's the ZPM?"

Ford peered through the brush covering the entrance to his hiding spot towards his friends. "It's in a chamber of some sorts in the middle of the town, about thirty feet north of me, Colonel."

"I don't want to have to repeat myself, Ford. Stay where you are. But do you think the chamber will be adequate protection against a weapon like that?"

"No," Rodney broke in. "The walls are too thin, it can't be anywhere near as good a shelter as those caves."

Sheppard groaned. "Great, we run into a species that kills with sound and Rodney gets himself trapped in the one place here that isn't underground. Damn it, McKay, couldn't you have found this ZPM last week when these guys weren't here?"

"I don't think it's a coincidence," Lena's calm voice broke in. "I just poked my head out and caught a glance at the ship and it looks like the technology we found. We're not the only ones to use ZPMs, and I suppose they want theirs back."

Sheppard reached the top of a hill and looked around. He could see the ship but they were still a ways off, and he doubted they were looking this way. Still, they would have to go low and hope they didn't set off any proximity alerts. "They must have had some kind of alarm on the gate, and came to investigate when we set them off."

"And the EM field told them they'd left something behind," Rodney groaned. He shut off his radio and looked at the woman he had shared a lab with for several years. "Okay, Lena, there's no point in both of us dying if they decide to fire, or losing the ZPM. You get down the hatch we found earlier. The caves might lead you out of here. Just get down and wait. If I don't open the door, give it a while."

"It's a ways down," she pointed out. "I wont be able to use the radio."

He nodded. "So it'll be a risk when you decide to come up. You won't know where the rest of us are. But as soon as I get the ZPM out, I'll throw it down and make my way to you. I'll tell John to get you out when its safe in case I don't make it. Promise."

She smiled tremulously. They'd worked together in Antartica and developed a strong friendship, as had her husband and Carson, which had made group outings a pleasure. "You'd better make it, or I'll have to answer to Carson."

"Yeah, well, Carson's not really that dangerous. Even with those needles," Rodney sneered, hiding his own desire to see his friend. They'd clicked on meeting each other, and the Scot had not only tolerated Rodney's behavior, he'd been one of the few to get beyond it and develop a friendship with the scientist. But when the Daedalus had brought news of his beloved mother's illness, Atlantis's chief doctor had returned home in time to see her one last time and attend her funeral. He was expected back that day, and then the ship would take Rodney home. Thinking of that, Rodney stopped Dr. K as she was leaving. "Lena, if I don't make it, please tell him... thanks."

"That's it?" She stopped, incredulous. "You know, I may come from a fairly conservative culture, but that's no reason to think that I personally am intolerant. I know about you two, and I would be more than happy to carry a more intimate message."

Rodney gaped at her. "The two of us? More intimate?"

Her eyes widened and she flushed, wondering if embarrassment could actually kill. "Oh God, I thought the two of you were"-

"No!" Rodney would have laughed if he hadn't been in the midst of delicately maneavuring the ZPM so that it could slide out of its casing. "Carson is as straight as they come. Me on the other hand... Anyway, get down there quickly or this is all a waste of effort, and believe me, I don't like to exert myself to this extent unless I get something out of this."

She looked at him, memorizing his blue eyes and smile. She was sure she wouldn't see them again, not quite the same. She didn't know why, but she belonged to an ancient culture that had its superstitions, and no amount of religion or science could shake the conviction that things could happen even if they weren't theoretically possible. Then, thinking of the man she loved on Atlantis, and his child that she was beginning to suspect she carried, she closed the hatch above her, switched on her flashlight and put it between her teeth as she climbed down. When she finally got to the bottom, she moved out from under the opening in case Rodney threw something down, set down the light and sat on the sand to wait. And wait.

*

John and Teyla crouched down and looked at the ship that was directly over their heads. "Ok, that is weird," Sheppard commented, gazing at the unusual architecture. It wasn't ugly; in fact, the dark metal that looked a little like polished granite would probably be considered beautiful by many. But the dark, round disc-like ship, resembling the flying saucers of comic books and alien conventions, had a strange design like the center of a bicycle tire, with spokes coming out of it, on the bottom.

"I think that's the weapon," Teyla remarked. "Judging by the size and pattern, the power for it comes from all those separate places, and then meets up in the middle to fire down."

The Colonel nodded. "And that means to take it out we either need to simultaneously destroy each and every one of those power storage compartments or the center, which is so big it would require a lot more ammo than we're carrying. We need to get out of here, not engage another enemy that has us outgunned."

"How do you..." Teyla's voice was cut off as the bottom of the ship suddenly began to show movement. The whine of its engines grew in intensity, and then suddenly the weapon powered up.

If he'd been able to, Sheppard would have shouted out a warning. But just as it had taken Ford unawares, and almost destroyed him, the invisible sound blaster did not give them time to say or do anything before it focused on the chamber that housed the ZPM.

It was almost beautiful, and certainly deserving of a dozen special effects awards, except that it was all too real. Firing could not have lasted more than a few seconds, but in that time Rodney's scream cut through the air like a butcher's knife through butter, and the chamber was reduced to rubble.

Sheppard wasn't aware of anything except the roaring in his ears, only partly owing to the enemy weapon. His finger tightened on the trigger and when he could hear again, feel again, he found himself uselessly firing on the armored ship, Teyla and Ford mirroring him from their positions. Then, when his impotence broke through, his finger slackened and he stood there, staring at the ruins that had once sheltered his friend and a woman he had come to respect. "Oh God, Rodney."

As the sound of gunfire died down, a beam of light transferred a being to the ground in front of John. He raised his gun, but the humanoid figure, simply dressed and obviously unarmed, raised its hand and he froze. "Greetings," it said, in a voice that was oddly blurred. "We are the Rainings."

He found his voice, but he couldn't be bothered to find his manners. "You killed my friend."

"No," the being said, moving his head from one shoulder to another in an approximation of the Western gesture of negation. "We scanned your life signs and ensured that the intensity of our blast would not do great damage to your essential organs. We merely destroyed the chamber and the enery device. Our last life sign scan showed your friend was injured, but not dead. I suggest you take him out immediately. The second life sign disappeared shortly before we fired so I would surmise she was out of range of the weapon."

Sheppard ordered Teyla and Ford to the ruins and focused on the Raining. "Why did you do this? What do you want with us?"

"Nothing. We no longer live in this galaxy and do not like to interact with other species. It is also against our laws to share technology. Your friend was about to break those laws, so we had to stop him."

"Couldn't you have told us this before?"

"Not in time to stop your acquisition of our technology. Even now we wouldn't have approached you except that you were engaging in battle with us, and we did not want you to think of us as an enemy. We are no one's enemy. I have taken this form, and will return to my ship now. You can return to this planet at any time. Now that the device and the last chamber are destroyed, we give it up to any beings who would claim it." With that, the Raining returned to his ship and it flew up and out of sight.

When they got Rodney out, it was obvious both that the Rainings hadn't lied, and that they had grossly underestimated the scientist's injuries. While there did not appear to be any life-threatening wounds, the young man was a mass of blood and bruises, and the broken bones in his leg were evident through a particularly deep gash. However, their deepest worry was that he didn't seem to be responding to anything or anyone.

Lena was sitting on the ground, under the hatch, when they opened it. The tears she had been holding back spilled over when she saw that Rodney wasn't looking down at her, but she quiescently followed Sheppard's shouted instructions and climbed up the ladder. Upon reaching the ruins of the chamber, she steeled herself to look beyond Teyla tending to Rodney, and looked for the ZPM.

"Come on, we need to get Rodney to the gate," Sheppard urged loudly, pulling at her arm.

"Wait!" She rushed towards the familiar shape of a ZPM and dug it out of the stone. "Oh, no..." Her voice trailed off as she examined the wreck of what could have been a valuable energy source. "Oh no, Rodney."

Teyla looked at her sharply. "He's alive, but he might not be if we don't get him back soon. That thing is worthless now, so lets not delay any more.

Lena turned to her and nodded. "Of course. I'm ready." She stowed the object in her pack for future study and the team made their way to the gate.

*

"I'm so sorry, Carson, for your loss. Still, I won't deny that it's good to see you again," Elizabeth said warmly, holding his hand in both of hers.

The Daedalus had just reached Atlantis a short while before, and the doctor had come to greet the base leader. "I won't deny that it's good to see you all again, and that I've a need to see to my little hospital, though I'm sure Dr. Kaghazwalla's done a right good job of looking after it. But I've been hearing that Rodney's going home. Did something happen, Dr. Weir?"

She sighed and sat down heavily. "Carson, what do you know about his past?"

"Ah," was his only reply for several minutes. Then, "Quite a bit, actually. We've been friends for a few years. But what does that have to do with his leaving?"

She explained what had occurred. Long before she had finished, he was spluttering with indignation, but he let her come to a complete stop before he tried to speak. "But- that's- sometimes it seems that Sheppard has his head up his arse! Rodney wouldn't sabotage anything!"

"Yes, but with his past, why would he help us?"

It was his turn to let his breath out in an explosion of frustration and not a little sadness. "Well, who does he help? It was the act of several governments together that signed his parents death warrants. And Rodney had to come to terms with the fact that this was where the real money for science, the real opportunities for evolution and growth are, a long time ago. We talked about it once. I think it's a constant struggle, and that's how he justifies it. And he doesn't just work with you. He's a right pain when he wants to be about the military."

"So at the end of the day, we don't need to worry as long as he's an ass?" Elizabeth found the energy to laugh. "No, I see what you're saying, and believe me, we don't want him to leave. But he was set on it as soon as he realized we knew, and that John had his suspicions about Rodney's intentions"-

Anything else she might have said was cut off by the sound of alarms. A young gate technician burst into her office and choked out something about a medical emergency, and Colonel Sheppard.

"Let's go!" She said, and Carson followed her on her heels.

The gate room was a mess. The smell of blood was pungent and had permeated into every pore of the rest of SGA1. Everyone was covered with dust and had cuts and scrapes, resembling survivors of an earthquake. And for some reason, they were all speaking very loudly, except for the diminutive female scientist.

Weir snagged the young woman and stopped her as she made to follow the rest of the team to the infirmary. As she looked much less dirty and bloody than the rest of them, the diplomat ignored the scraped fingers and broken nails and asked her for a report. "I'm not sure, doctor. We were trying to get a ZPM out of its container and then Rodney had me hide in a hole. I missed most of what happened. Do you think he's going to be all right?

Elizabeth let go of Dr. Kaghazwalla and watched her fly out. God, but she hoped so.

*

The thing about medical centers, John thought, was that they all felt and smelled the same. Oh, he'd been in some great ones, including a rather memorable MASH type unit that made the popular TV show look like Mount Sinai after spring cleaning, but still, there were some common denominators that made them identical. That ever-present (hopefully) scent of antiseptic, those bright lights and that annoying beeping sound...

He hated them. He hated them with the passion of someone who had spent too many nights wounded, or watching and waiting for the wounded, or worst of all, saying good-bye. And yet, every time he sat in an uncomfortable chair observing someone else's chest rise and fall, he had to be grateful that they had made it that far, that they hadn't died in a fireball in the sky, on the ground, on Earth or on some other god-forsaken planet.

So he was grateful. Grateful for the regular beeps coming from the machine measuring Rodney's heartbeat, grateful for the care an exhausted Dr. Beckett took of his friend, and grateful that that chest kept rising and falling as the scientist took a breath.

"You hate this, don't you?"

"I'm grateful," he answered in a monotone, still lost in his thoughts.

Jeannie's tired, teary face showed her understanding. "So am I. Carson says he's going to live, and I am so thankful for that. I knew what you were doing was dangerous, but I suppose I always thought he'd be there for me to be pissed at."

He had to laugh. That was such a Rodney thing to say. "Yeah, what a bastard. Goes off and gets himself injured just so we can't be mad at him any more."

A noise behind them made them jump. Eric Halster was looking at them, eyebrows raised in mock indignation. "Is that how you talk about a wounded soldier, Mr. Sheppard?"

The Colonel wouldn't have corrected Eric for the world. Because if a man went down trying to save his people from a perceived enemy, that made him a wounded soldier no matter what his job or training. But, to his surprise, Jeannie McKay spoke up. "That's Colonel Sheppard, Eric."

Both men turned to look at her, jaws dropped, and Sheppard found it difficult not to get a little emotional at her using his rank. It seemed not only like a sign of forgiveness, a validation that he wasn't responsible for the actions of each and every person who wore that uniform, but also approval. He didn't know how to thank her, to acknowledge her gift without embarrassing them both, and could only feel relieved when Beckett interrupted them.

"Well, Jeannie, Dr. McKay, I've done all my tests and now feel confident in giving you as complete a diagnosis as possible before Rodney wakes up." His kind, earnest face was set in deep lines of sadness and strain, and they all tensed. He waited for Dr. Weir to walk in- he had paged her as soon as he was ready, as ordered, and she didn't take long. Though she had retired to her room, her face and clothes made it obvious that she hadn't slept either. "Now that you're all here, it's important for me to reiterate that I can't be certain of much while he's out."

"But he'll live, right?" Jeannie's voice was plaintive, child-like, and he wished it were that simple.

"It's true that I don't think there are any life-threatening injuries from the impact of the ceiling falling on him- scrapes and bruises, of course, and a few broken bones in his left leg that may impede walking and maneuvering for a bit, but nothing he wouldn't walk away from."

Sheppard would have loved for that to be the end of it, but things were rarely that easy in Atlantis. "But"-

Beckett sighed, looked at his friend's sleeping form with something like envy. Being unconscious had to be better than giving news like this. "The weapon's like nothing I've ever seen. It's definitely related to sound, and the blast had a devastating impact on Rodney's ears despite his being inside."

"Devastating?" The anthropologist repeated, her face paling.

Beckett smiled sympathetically at her. They'd met at Rodney's apartment, and had bonded over teasing Rodney until the grumpy scientist had threatened never to speak to either again. At that time, Rodney and Carson were working in research for a private firm and the McKays were on good terms with each other. A few months later Rodney joined the Pentagon, and Jeannie stopped speaking with him. Eventually, when Carson followed his friend, but in the field of bio-research rather than physics, the younger Mckay had refused to speak to him for a long time. However, Rodney had sent her a message regarding Mrs. Beckett's health and she had called Carson shortly before leaving on the Daedalus to join her brother in Atlantis. Since she was one of those people you couldn't hold a grudge against, those few minutes they had spoken had been enough for them to feel close to each other again.

So, it was especially horrible that upon meeting for the first time in a long while, he should have to give her such bad news. "Yes, devastating. I don't think he'll be able to hear normally. The extent of the damage won't be determined until he wakes up, but his ears show a lot of trauma. It's a little like standing with your ear to a cannon, I suppose."

Dr. Weir turned away to hide the tears in her eyes. "Oh, Rodney. What'll we do now?"

"We?" Jeannie asked. "You're not the one facing a lifetime of not hearing anything." It was easier to be angry than sad.

"Neither are you. But my friend, and your brother, is," Elizabeth pointed out gently.

Eric Halster put his hand on his ex-wife's arm. "Jeannie, getting mad is not going to help Rodney. Why don't you get some sleep?"

"I don't want to leave him," she whispered, looking at how oddly insubstantial her brother looked, pale and small in the sterile white hospital bed.

Beckett looked around. It had been an usually good week at Atlantis. "No one else is here, so why don't we put you up in one of the beds here? It's not the best of rests but you'll be right here."

"Perfect."

*

Sheppard hadn't said a word. Weir kept glancing at him in concern, but didn't say anything until they were in the briefing room, where Teyla and Ford were waiting despite the late hour. Their anxious looks only deepened when Elizabeth gave them the news, and when they left it didn't seem that they would get much rest.

Sitting down with two mugs of decaffeinated coffee, Weir urged her military commander to drink. "It won't keep you up, but it might loosen your tongue," she mocked gently.

"It really doesn't matter, does it? It's not as if any of us is going to sleep tonight," Sheppard said quietly, then jumped up in a sudden burst of anger. "I mean, how are any of us going to forget being there, hearing him scream? Damn it, this isn't what I signed up for!"

"What isn't?" she asked gently, putting aside her own horror at the thought of what her friends must have suffered.

John seemed to want to throw something, but perhaps the quiet formality of the room and the people just outside forestalled him, so he settled for pacing, stomping his feet in vicious protest against the day. "Sumner, that scientist who put a weapon to his own head rather than live after being culled, and now Rodney being deafened by xenophobic aliens! This isn't what I thought it would be..." He trailed off, his voice going quiet as he slumped into a chair, holding his head in despair.

She could have said something, but didn't know what. The thing was, she often thought, that people forgot Rwanda and Somalia, and the absolute horror that existed on Earth but was ignored or dismissed by most people who saw it as hopeless, distant, or worse... not their problem. They forgot that the unimaginable happened every day, and that was how they woke up the next morning. But at Atlantis, you couldn't forget because it happened here, in front of you, every day. And it made you do and see things you never imagined you were capable of, and it was too much of a strain to keep up for long without breaking. So people broke, and their friends tried to be there to bolster them until the crisis was over.

They hadn't done that for Rodney though. And as she sat there, her hand reaching out for John's, Elizabeth decided not to accept Rodney's resignation. It wouldn't end this way. Not if she could help it.

*

"Deaf?" Rodney asked, forgetting he wouldn't be able to hear the answer as he looked at Carson instead of the monitor in front of him. "Really deaf?"

He knew this wasn't the right time, but John couldn't quite help himself. "Is there any other kind?" he typed into the computer they had set up in the infirmary for just that purpose.

Rodney glared at his team commander. "I don't know, whatever happens regularly on those IQ point-dropping soap operas or to some character or another on all those Star Treks. You know, when someone has something like this happen to them, they rebel against it, and then finally get all gracious and then they get that magical treatment that cures them. Which isn't really deaf because I have a feeling that the adjustment takes longer than fifty minutes!"

It was a long speech, still perfectly legible, and despite the snippy tone Sheppard couldn't quite prevent a big smile from taking over his face. A glance to his left showed Teyla, Ford, Jeannie and Beckett sharing in the hilarity while Elizabeth was rolling her eyes at the routine. Things were more normal here than they had been since the younger Dr. McKay had arrived.

Noticing everyone's reactions, Rodney's frown deepened. "What?" he asked roughly. "Why is my being deaf so funny to all of you?"

Immediately they sobered, and Weir reached over to type in a soothing message. "It's not, and you have our word that we'll help you get through this as much as we can. Anything you need, Rodney."

He was a little mollified, and sat back against his pillows wearily. He had barely woken up, and was not feeling very strong. "Well, at least that won't have to be for so long," he said, his voice little more than a murmur as he plucked at the sheet.

This time it was Carson who leaned forward and pushed the recalcitrant doctor's face towards the monitor where Elizabeth was typing steadily. "Yes, we will. I've refused to accept your resignation. We need you here."

"Like this."

"Your brain still works, doesn't it?" John said sarcastically, typing as he spoke so that everyone could appreciate his considerable wit.

"I knew we'd get to the point where you'd admit this city wouldn't keep floating if it weren't for my brain."

"And your humility," Ford was quick to add.

Teyla smiled, and let someone else type her softly spoken, affectionate words. "Especially that." She leaned forward and kissed his cheek. "Get better soon, Doctor."

As he watched her admittedly amazing body walk out, Rodney couldn't prevent a rather sad grin from overtaking his face as he fingered the spot her lips had touched. He vaguely waved a good-bye at the others who were leaving and only half-listened as Beckett promised to be right back. However, he sobered quickly when he realized his sister had remained behind. "Jeannie."

She smiled tremulously. "I have to go, Rodney. My work is done and the Daedalus should be leaving in a few hours. I wish I could stay, but I've been called back and, well... my work is there."

"Even after all you've seen?" he asked incredulously. "Isn't the real history you're so interested in excavating out here?"

She shrugged. "You could say the history of Earth has its roots here, and I wouldn't disagree. And there's a part of me that is deeply envious of the anthro staff in Atlantis which has such an amazing and virgin expanse to discover and work to understand. But they'll never be able to share it. And I could never again be a part of a world where information is a commodity controlled by men with guns. Not again, Rodney."

His eyes clouded over as he remembered their childhood, the way their parents had grown more and more tense over their work, and how they had been sworn to secrecy about what they talked about in their own home. "I understand that, and I'm sorry that I have to be."

She hushed him, crying a little as she clutched his hand and typed with the other. "No, no, don't be. You've made your peace with it, kept it from making you hate them the way I do, and I wish I could do that. And all my time here, seeing how they've treated you, has made me appreciate that those were different people, with different agendas... I think I might actually like them, Rodney."

The undisguised shock, mixed with not a little horror, evident in her face as she typed made him laugh, though the pain in his sore ribs had him regretting it later. "Jeannie, Jeannie, what has the world come to if you actually hold some affection for the boys in blue?"

"It isn't the boys, is it? It's the people holding the reins, the ones who are far enough from the ground that they forget there are real people down there." She'd always known that, on some level, but it had been difficult to prevent some resentment for people who wore the uniforms as well. After all, they were the ones who had walked away when the compound was attacked.

Rodney read her mind. "Except for the two who stayed, and died for that. And the reason I could let go of that resentment so much faster than you was that a few years ago I was contacted by one of the men who had followed orders to be inconspicuously absent that day, a Sargent Peters, remember him? He used to try and get the boys to play Frisbee, and laugh like hell when you were more interested in it than I was." They shared a laugh over the memory, the first time, he thought, that they had ever done so, and then he went on. "Anyway, he came up to D.C. from Arizona, where he lived, just to tell me that they had had no idea what was happening. They were ordered to be far away, and of course they were suspicious, but they thought the worst that could happen, the worst that would be allowed to happen, was the destruction of the parents' work. Not murder, and most of them had a lot of problems with what actually did occur."

"A lot of problems..." she mocked, unable to compare the pain of those who had been complicit with that of the innocent. "What were their 'problems?"'

He answered her seriously. "Alcohol abuse, drugs, failed relationships... They were younger than we are now, Jeannie, and when their training kicked in and they did as ordered, they were betrayed by the people they were made to believe would never let them down. They didn't know. Maybe you think they should have, maybe I do too, and trust me I never fail to question orders if they don't make sense, but the fact is that most of them probably didn't know how. And the ones that did, just died for their pains."

She listened to him in silence and patted his hand when he was done. The anthropologist stayed with her brother until he fell asleep, then until a young Air Force officer came to escort her to the ship. Leaning down, she kissed her brother as she had once done to her father, light butterfly kisses on both cheeks, the forehead then the chin. "I love you," she whispered, the sound no less heartfelt because the one it was meant for could not hear. Then, she smiled sweetly at the officer and followed him to where her ex-husband waited with both their bags packed. "I'm ready," she said, and then they went home.

*

"This itches," Rodney sniped. "Are you sure Atlantis can't make this better faster?"

"Yes," Carson said in a monotone that made it obvious he hadn't been listening for a while. He didn't even bother to type it into the PDA Rodney carried around.

Then again, Rodney wasn't reading either. "And these regular check-ups make working more of a challenge than it already is with those idiots. I have to stop whatever I'm doing. And do you have to send those MPs to escort me here? Everyone takes a break to laugh, so it's slowing down work as well as annoying."

This time, the easy-going doctor did stop his scans and grab the PDA to type one-fingered. "Well, if you hadn't missed all those appointments I wouldn't have to have two airmen on permanent Rodney duty!"

"You sound like it's a chore. What else are they going to do- join the Major on some stupid joy-ride out there?" He flung his hand out in the direction of the nearest window.

Carson wasn't very fond of the puddle-jumpers either, but he couldn't look at the airmen's long faces and not make a token protest. "I'm sure they have some more important work to do with people a right more pleasant than you. How is your balance working?"

Rodney shrugged. "I suppose I should be grateful I broke my leg too. I'm not quite sure how the damage to my ears affected my balance because it's not like I'm walking normally anyway. Rehab for the leg is helping me there. I don't think it should make a difference in the end, and I'm not feeling any vertigo or anything. Actually, if it wasn't for the fact that I can't hear, I'd say I was in as good health as I ever am."

That wasn't quite true, Carson thought, but knew better than to say out loud. Rodney had actually lost weight because of the rehabilitation, and as Sheppard had made sure to include components of training, he was putting on some much-needed muscle. Moreover, his speech was still remarkably lucid, though it was starting to sound as if he had a cold. "You're doing well, and yes, I'd say the cast is about ready to come off."

"Great!" Colonel Sheppard enthused as he came all the way in, making the doctor jump as he became abruptly aware of his presence. "Now you can start training with Teyla properly." He didn't bother to touch the PDA, merely gesturing to the airman closest to serve as recorder.

"I thought I was doing that," the scientist said grumpily, then sat up straight with a jerk. "Why would I do that, though? It's not like I'm still on the team."

The Colonel shrugged, leaning his lithe frame against the door. "Actually, I think you might need to come back. It seems that the doctor set to replace you is pregnant. She's asked permission to stay and keep working, but Elizabeth has grounded her and we need a geek, I mean scientist, to replace her. So we thought- why not the one she was replacing seeing as how he's staying now?"

Deciding to take the high road, Rodney shrugged off the word geek and snorted. "Please, how the hell am I supposed to be an active member of an off-world team if I can't hear?"

"What, like you ever listened to me when you could hear?" John pointed out, hearing Beckett chuckle behind his back as he walked out. There were no other sounds. Of course, the two airmen were trained not to express emotion in the presence of superior officers, but it appeared that he'd managed to make Rodney shut up. That had become increasingly difficult as the scientist recovered, much to everyone's unexpected joy.

He walked into Weir's briefing room, where the diplomat, the rest of the flagship team and Drs. Kaghazwalla and Zelenka were waiting. "I told him," he said premptorally.

"Before I had approved it," Elizabeth frowned. She hated it when John did things she hadn't quite come around to approving. "John..."

"Elizabeth," he said gently. "I think it's the best thing. No offense to Dr. K, but we need our team back. For as long as we can keep it together." There were so many dangers out there, he didn't say, that it was all the more important they didn't let anything they might be able to overcome stop them, without at least making the attempt to overcome it. He didn't say it, but they all heard it.

"And it's not like his work depends solely on his hearing," Teyla pointed out, smiling at Sheppard as if he had done something right. Maybe it was childish, but he couldn't resist the hot wave of pride.

Weir obviously wanted to be happy about it, but she had some reservations. "Yes, I can see that, but what if you run into some problems? I don't want to lose Rodney just because he didn't hear you say 'duck!'"

Zelenka and Dr. K exchanged excited looks before bursting into speech simultaneously.
"You might not"-

"Ah, but this newest find"-

Weir made an admirable effort to understand them before holding up her hand for silence. Such was their respect for her that after a few seconds they actually obeyed. God, she missed Rodney. "One at a time."

Zelenka generously gestured to his coworker. "You explain. You find answer first, after all."

"No, no," she said, looking distressed. "Rodney and you assigned it to me after you realized it had something to do with translation and that was the most significant contribution. Or maybe that was Dr. Cavenaugh, who found it in the first place in one of the lower level chambers..."

"All right," Sheppard interrupted, unusually irritated by the show of modesty. "What did Dr. Cavenaugh find?"

"And how will it help Rodney?" Teyla chimed in.

Elizabeth was quiet. As her speciality on this mission, aside from leading it, was languages, she was kept apprise of all translation technology. The focus was on Ancient- English and then the dozens of other tongues spoken by other members of the expedition so that they might be able to use their first language while working, thereby increasing efficiency, but she faintly recalled the device they were talking about.

"So, when they came back with it, Rodney and Radek assigned it to me to investigate at my leisure. It was categorized as a level two- something to help us work."

"Level two?" Knowing the narrow-minded focus of the scientists, Ford had to ask. "What's level one?"

Her hand strayed to her womb as the petite woman answered. "Something to make it easier to access home, shielding for the city, and weapons against the wraith."

The young man swallowed. "Oh, okay."

"Go on," Teyla urged gently. "What was it?"

"Well, ever since the away mission, the priority of most of the people in the lab"- she didn't mention Cavanaugh here, but they all knew he wasn't one of those people- "is using technology to help Rodney. We've been experimenting with setting up all the computers in Atlantis to automatically have a teletext of everything spoken on the screens, so that Rodney can be facing anywhere and still know what everyone is saying. It would just a small thing on the bottom, so people don't have to type, and they would have to work only in proximity to Rodney or that's a waste of resources."

Sheppard frowned. "I don't know if that's a good idea. What if there is some kind of situation where we don't want our conversations to be visible to everyone in the room? Like a foothold situation? Or hell, if we're talking about someone?"

Weir frowned at the Colonel. "I'd put up with the latter to help Rodney, seeing as how we could make sure that person isn't in the room, but what if there are several conversations going on at the same time?"

"Exactly!" Zelenka beamed. "We threw out the idea for the base but we'll keep it in the lab. But we did need something to replace the inefficiency of the PDA, and there has been voice-activated technology on Earth for years. And that was when we thought of this."

Weir snapped her fingers. "Right! This device had something to do with sound and the kind of brain link that pilots use on the jumpers..."

"Yes," Zelenka said, hair almost standing up and accent thickening, "exactly! But the problem, Dr. Weir, is that it uses paths in the brain that have been destroyed in Rodney's, and the information is in Ancient, and quite frankly even if we could find ways around that, it's too much of a strain for even such a brain as Rodney's to take for long."

"So it's useless," Sheppard said slowly, feeling his hopes deflate. "Except for some very short missions after Carson and you fix McKay's brain and he learns to think in Ancient."

It was Dr. K's turn to hold up her hand and explain calmly. "No, it just meant that the most brilliant minds on Earth had to spend some weeks thinking of other ways to use this machine, and we have. We've made sunglasses."

"Excuse me?"

"Look." She opened a case and took out a pair of sunglasses that looked fairly normal, except that the lenses were of the same blue as the screens that decorated Atlantis. The frames, however, were black and the same plastic material as antennas, though thinner.

Sheppard, of course, reached out and grabbed the sunglasses and put them on. "Ok, these work just like regular sunglasses. I'm not seeing anything."

"First of all,these only work for people with the gene"-

"Which I have..."

Dr. K sighed, and Teyla laughed. "Lena, you should probably get used to this; you'll be a mother soon."

There were a few snickers heard in the room, and the Colonel pretended to look a little embarrassed. "Sorry, please go on."

Removing a little black box from the case, Dr. K demonstrated how, when it was switched on, everything that was said was written on the bottom of the glasses in such a way that could be read easily by the wearer but was invisible to anyone else. Moreover, the sunglasses adjusted to light and became a sort of night-vision goggles in the dark.

"These are incredible!" Elizabeth breathed. "Can we send this to Earth?"

Zelenka deflated a bit. "I'm sorry, Dr. Weir, but we have not come close to replicating the technology. Adapting it is one thing, understanding it enough to making more of them is quite another."

She smiled and tried to buck up his spirits. "Still, what you've done is wonderful. I'd imagine Rodney can function quite normally with the..."

"AHA!" Ford supplied. "Atlantean Hearing Aid," he added, amidst general groans and smirks.

Sheppard mock-glared at his subordinate. "What did I tell you about naming things? We'll just call this an eye-piece."

*

An eye-piece it was.

Rodney took to it well, and wore it, at first, almost constantly. However, after he collapsed in his lab two days in, it was discovered that he could not wear it for more than a few hours a day on a daily basis, and that his lab would have to be adapted so that all the big screens would automatically have a teletext for every sentence that held Rodney's name in it. The scientists learned a few basic signs, which Elizabeth insisted everyone who worked with Rodney do. It didn't have to be any one of the different sign languages that had originated on Earth, or the Athosian equivalent, but they had to come up with some sort of general signal to duck or get out in case something went wrong.

However, Rodney was able to wear the eye-piece on missions. Using it for a limited time allowed him to work normally without straining his eyes and the part of his brain the technology used. Moreover, Zelenka and Lena had made the glasses so strong and the strap shaped in such a way that it had to be unlatched in order to open, so it could not fall off or be removed by a stranger. Finally, the box it was attached to that did most of the work was clipped on to Rodney's belt just as securely.

So when the wormhole was established, and they were walking through the blue puddle of space, John was completely disoriented. Because even though everything had changed, it felt exactly the same.

Like home.

THE END