Summary – John looked down at Rodney worriedly. "What do you mean he's imprinted on me?" Yet another transformation fic I'm afraid, hopefully a little different.

Rating – G

Disclaimer – I don't own the characters, their creators do.

Instincts

John looked down at Rodney worriedly, Elizabeth kept her eyes on John.

"What do you mean he's imprinted on me?"

"As far as we can tell, Colonel, Rodney's brain is not nearly advanced enough to deal with the thoughts of a human right now. Therefore, he has returned to behaviour instinctive to the animal and latched onto someone. The natural instinct would obviously be to imprint upon the mother. Clearly here that is not an option and, as a substitute, Rodney appears to have chosen you." Elizabeth gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Carson still doesn't know if that's due to your proximity to Rodney at the time of the transformation or because of your friendship though."

"Surely-"

She fixed him with a steely stare. "You were gone for half-an-hour, Colonel, and he started to pine."

Quietly John started to mutter something about 'the damned Ancients and their damned experiments' but as the language got slightly more graphic Elizabeth thought it best not to hear.

Eventually he got a grip.

"Surely that's not normal behaviour even for…" John gestured fruitlessly at Rodney who was looking up at him with unspeakable adoration.

"No," Elizabeth admitted. "But quite frankly we have no idea how much of the natural behaviour Rodney will demonstrate. Naturally, he is not-"

"Right." John held up his hands. "I get it."

He looked back down at Rodney. "Right then, little guy, guess you're coming home with me."

Wincing slightly he held out a hand and Rodney jumped onto it happily.

"John," Elizabeth warned. "In this form it will be extremely beneficial for him to-"

"I know, Carson told me. I'll fill the bath when we get back."

John stared down at the tiny duckling sitting on his palm. Rodney looked back at him with curious, innocent, bright blue eyes.

"And get someone to bring a bag of bread to my quarters."