Disclaimer: not mine! However much I might wish he was, I wasn't creative enough to come up with him in the first place.

"They don't think they need us, right up until the point that they need us, and then, they need us."

How accurate that line is. Even about the man who said it.

The first time he needed my help all he could say about me was " the Czech, the Czech who's name I can never remember."

Of course he couldn't remember my name. Why would he?

I didn't have the ancient gene, I wasn't as abrasive as Kavanagh, and I certainly don't have the looks of Maj- no Col. Carter.

That's what I get for being a briliant and quiet engineer. Of course the lab could not withstand another person who talks as much as McKay, but there you have it.

When the nanovirus was released in the lower levels, again he needs me- this time to continue research.

"Nelenka," he called me then. My only response at the time was a shrug of the shoulders. It was close, almost closer than I expected. Certainly better than "the Czech"

And now after a year of working together, the position we are in has caused something amazing: Dr. Rodney McKay sees me as almost his equal in the realm of science. He is still of course a man who is full of his own confidence, but as far as the technology of Atlantis is concerned, he trusts me to get things done. He is not surprised when I can follow his chain of thought.

The aspiration of every scientist on Atlantis is to be able to outmatch Rodney. Most of us would settle for just matching him.

But then again look at what it has gotten me. I need to run off and build a nuclear bomb.

AN: Please take a moment and review. It won't take more than a minute of your time, and fell free to tell me of any mistakes i made with Canon