Just wrote a little bit based on the title of a song I was listening to. For some reason. I may do more. Takes place during Hide and Seek. Critiques and comments are loved. This is my first Atlantis fic, so any thoughts on the characters or any details I get wrong, I'd be happy to hear about it.

"So You're Going to Help Me?"

"Well, it's impossible to know for sure, now, isn't it?" Rodney snapped irritably. He didn't even know who this guy was. Stupid. Of course, Rodney couldn't call him that. He'd share the name with about a half a dozen other people and Rodney hadn't even met everyone yet.

"Yes. It would be nice to have the ATA gene."

It didn't matter. Rodney was never going to remember his name anyway. He could at least identify the flag of the Czech Republic on his shoulder. Rodney didn't have any other Czech scientists. Maybe he did. He didn't remember.

"We could know for sure," he continued.

"Oh, so I guess you'd go around activating every shiny thing that caught your eye, hm?" Rodney challenged.

The Czech frowned, his eyebrows twisted. "No. This is practically an instruction manual for the device. It clearly says—"

"I know what it says." Rodney tipped the tablet toward him.

"Did you read it?" he asked.

Rodney scoffed. The gall. "Yes."

"Okay. You know what it is."

"We think we know what it is." Never forget, this city tried to kill them when they first arrived. Rodney wasn't quite ready to trust to Ancients yet. Of course, they were ten-thousand years past some of this stuffs' use-by date.

He shook his head and walked to another part of the lab. Picked up another shiny piece of Ancient technology. "Why would they lie?"

"I'm not saying they would lie. Maybe you misidentified it," Rodney said. True, it was Rodney and Grodin who'd found the object. This guy happened to stumble upon a picture remarkably similar to it before they did.

He paused, looking into the space before his eyes for a moment. "Right. I misidentified a green and silver irregular hexagon with a—"

Rodney put a finger up to halt his pratting when Doctor Beckett spoke in his earpiece. "Rodney?"

"Yes, Doctor Beckett." He grinned. This could only mean one thing. "Are you ready for me?"

"I suppose, but—"

"Great! See you in a few minutes." He nodded at—who was he? "Thanks for your help, um…?"

"Zelenka, Doctor Radek Zelenka." He sounded slightly irritated. Maybe Rodney had actually met him before? Usually people reserved this tone for repeating unnecessary information that others were inexplicably expected to remember.

"Right. Later."

#

"Hey. You."

Radek looked up from his seat in the puddle jumper. He sighed. So much for leaving the lab to get away from this— "Yes, Doctor McKay?"

"Back me up on this."

He recognized one of the military members of the expedition behind him, but Radek typically made it a point not to get friendly with those types. Even though his nod of greeting seemed… well, not murderous, anyway.

"Back you up?" Radek repeated. English was still hard if he didn't stop to think about it. He spied the device he'd identified earlier attached to Doctor McKay's shirt. "I see the gene therapy worked…"

"Yes, this thing makes the wearer invulnerable," Doctor McKay said.

He knew that. He shrugged and went back to the puddle jumper systems he was working on. Well, not working on. Studying. It was too early to begin fooling around with these things too much. Maybe he should say that out loud? "It's like a shield," Radek allowed.

"Invulnerable, Sheppard," McKay said to his friend.

"Yeah, okay," Sheppard said sarcastically. Then he looked at Radek. "Doctor Zelenka said it was 'like a shield,' not that it makes you invulnerable."

"It's like the puddle jumper shields," Radek spoke up, "but skin-tight. It should absorb all—"

"Right, right," McKay interrupted. "It basically absorbs, um…" He paused. Probably trying to find the words his friend would understand. "Kinetic energy. For example, if I fell off the puddle jumper right now, I wouldn't feel a thing."

"It should also block projectiles—"

"Projectiles?" Sheppard asked.

Radek decided to go back to his puddle jumper. It didn't interrupt him when he spoke.

"Yes!" McKay said. "Here, shoot me." He held his arms up.

Radek glanced up. This would be worth watching even if he was admittedly gun-shy. Even if he couldn't get a word in edgewise. Still… "This isn't your first test?" he asked.

McKay looked at Radek. "Well. Yes. But you read the manual, too. It was very clear."

"Yes." Radek nodded his agreement. It was pretty clear. Including the picture of the device that Doctor McKay was now wearing. "It's ten thousand years old."

"I'll just shoot you in the leg." Even Radek thought Sheppard sounded a little eager.

"Great."

That had to be the most pleased anyone ever was about being shot at. Doctor McKay must have been pretty assured that this device worked the way the Ancients said it did. Of course, if it did work that way…

"Ah." Radek held his hand up just as Sheppard pulled out his handgun. Both of them looked at him. "Outside, please?" he asked.

Doctor McKay snapped and pointed at him. "Right. What if it ricochets?"

Radek nodded, but both of them were already on their way out into the jumper bay.

Sheppard paused at the doorway. "Care to join us?" He paused. "You work for him, right?"

Radek nodded. Sort of.

"Front-row seats to McKay getting shot at."

"Ah, no." Radek chuckled. He looked back at his tablet and then out the window. As much as he appreciated the appeal… he could see just fine in here.

McKay took up a position in the middle of the jumper bay. Sheppard stood about three meters away with his handgun pointed at the floor.

"Are you sure about this?" Sheppard asked.

"Come on." Doctor McKay rolled his eyes.

"Alright."

A round snapped off and the shield around McKay's leg glowed and buzzed. McKay flinched, but as soon as he realized that the bullet had deflected harmlessly off his personal shield, he grinned at Sheppard.

"Invulnerable!" he shouted.

"Now, this could be useful," Sheppard said.

Radek disconnected his tablet and left the jumper, convinced that they were done shooting and being shot at. He pulled up the text on the Ancient personal shield and skimmed. "Useful," he mumbled. Yes, useful if almost anyone but Doctor McKay had worn it first. "Except that the shield im—"

"What should we do next?" Doctor McKay asked.

Radek frowned.

"Toss you off the balcony in the control room?" Sheppard asked. He looked at Radek. "You sure you don't want to come?"

Radek sighed and looked at the puddle jumper. This was why he wanted to work with technology in the first place, wasn't it? "No. I'll stay and…" He gestured vaguely at the jumper, not bothering to finish his sentence. He couldn't have translated it quickly enough for these impatient children, anyway.

"Alright, let's go." Sheppard jogged out of the jumper bay. Anyone might be so eager to toss McKay off a balcony.

"Right." McKay was about the follow, then turned to Radek. "Thanks, uh…"

"Zelenka," he offered.

"Yes." McKay ran out of the jumper bay after Sheppard.

#

"Are you going to eat that?" Rodney motioned to the untouched sandwich on the plate. It was irresponsible to have food just sitting out in the lab anyway. The only other person in the lab was the Czech whose name he could never remember. Sure, he'd just walked in and set it down a moment ago. But if he wasn't eating it right now, he wasn't exactly starving, now, was he?

"Um." He looked at it, then at Rodney. He finally shrugged. "No."

"Finish whatever you were doing with the… uh…?" Rodney chewed on the sandwich pensively. He couldn't even remember where he'd seen him last.

"The puddle jumper?" he filled in. He sighed. "No. Making sure that energy-cloud didn't cause any damage before it went through the 'gate." He looked at Rodney, and then his eyes fell on the spent Ancient personal shield.

Rodney went back to his computer, lines upon lines of text on the personal shield. He was going to need another sandwich. He could translate it, if given time. Lots of time. But he was starting to recognize some words by sight, which was a good sign.

"You're reading that now?"

Rodney glanced at him. "I've already read it."

"Right." He nodded, but looked less than convinced.

Rodney closed the instruction manual and spun around to face him. "I knew exactly what I was doing."

"Yes."

Did he mean he agreed, or was his English not very good? Rodney pondered that and the sandwich.

He suddenly stood up and shut off his computer. "I am going to eat. But let me know next time you need someone to read an instruction manual."

Rodney spied a long, laborious text on puddle jumpers on the tablet under his arm with hand-drawn diagrams and schematics labeled in a language Rodney didn't know. Probably from earth. "I can read instruction manuals," Rodney called after him.

He said something in Czech, waving him off.

Rodney still couldn't remember his name.