Human Again

Summary: Fix it story that begins at the last part of the episode 5x05 "Ghost In The Machine" - *Sparky*.

Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis and all related characters are the property of MGM Television Entertainment. There is no financial gain made from this nor will any be sought. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Rating: T

Elizabeth walked to the Stargate, very well knowing that she was heading right into facing her own death, or more specifically she was going to turn down the nanites in her system while her human body was going to be floating dead in space. But she was doing this for all of them, for all the people that went through so much with her. She knew she would miss them, assuming you could talk of missing while being dead. You can't, so the correct term would be that she is already missing them and her old life right at this moment. Nevertheless, when she decided to take that step she knew it was better like this. Someone of the little group she had led for the past month turned out as a threat to Atlantis and she never saw that coming. So she couldn't be sure that nobody else of them turned out the same. No, it was a good decision and she would go through with it. Ever since Rodney activated the damn nanites in her, everything just got worse by the minute.

At the edge of the Stargate Elizabeth turned around looking at John. That's when it hit her. If she was walking into her own death, she wanted to kiss John at least once to know how it felt. So she headed directly into his direction, ignoring the guns and shouts that where aimed at her. Just seeing him increased the need for kissing him. With every step she took that need grew stronger and stronger. Then she finally stood directly before him. She didn't pause one second. If she had given him the time to realize what she was about to do, he maybe would not have allowed it. Therefore she pressed her lips directly to his in a short but meaningful kiss before leaning back again. She looked at him smiling a little shyly at seeing his shocked expression and turned around to walk back to the Stargate again. She didn't come very far though, because John took hold of her wrist and pulled her to him going in for a real kiss.

Now she was the shocked one. She just wanted to kiss him shortly to take the feeling with her and now he was kissing her back like this! She felt so many things at the same time that it was nearly too much. There was his scent, his touch and his mouth on hers. That made her realize how much she loved this man. She hadn't really wanted that kind of a kiss. It made her incredibly happy to know that he obviously felt the same about her, but it also made her sad, because she knew that she couldn't be with him. She decided to let the happiness overrule the sadness and just enjoy the moment with every fiber of her being. So she reciprocated the kiss with determination, trying to show John everything that she had felt for him since a long time, but never being able to tell him when she was the leader of this expedition. While doing that something strange happened. It was as if a fever started to get hold of her body. From one second to the next everything was too hot, like she was burning from the inside. It wasn't a bad feeling. On the contrary it felt extremely good. She couldn't put her finger on it. It was as if everything in her shifted in its right position again and added to that she had a feeling of peace and wholeness that she never had before. Then it was gone and the kiss ended, because this time John leaned back.

He looked extremely surprised and she didn't know how to judge his reaction, because he kissed her the second time. She would have understood it after the first kiss, but now? She was clueless.

"Elizabeth, you…" John started, but Elizabeth cut him off.

"Don't. I just wanted to show you that I love you, before…" She didn't come any further either, because a sharp pain in her leg cut her ability of speaking short and let her sag right into Johns arms.

Apparently he was faster in understanding the situation than she was, because he shielded her with his body and shouted: "Stop shooting at her!"

'Shooting at me?' she thought. Then she looked down at her leg and saw the red spot on her white trousers. The redness spread out on the fabric while she was looking at it and the pain in her leg got worse. 'Why was the blood flowing out of the wound and why was it still hurting this much?' she asked herself. 'It should've healed in seconds instead'. She looked up in John's worried eyes and asked him exactly that.

"I don't know Elizabeth", he answered before shouting at the next person nearby that he should get Dr. Keller down to them. At the same time a man came running towards them, who spoke to John in a hurried voice.

"I'm sorry Sir. I thought it was some kind of trick from her. She changed and then she didn't step away from you and… I'm sorry", he said defeated.

"No wrong, you didn't think! You just acted out of fear of the unknown! We will talk about it later", John told him with barely restrained anger in his voice.

That was the last thing Elizabeth heard before she fainted.

She woke up to two voices speaking quietly with each other. She opened her eyes and saw John and Dr. Keller standing next to her bed. When they noticed that she was awake, John rushed to her side holding a plastic cup out to her.

"Here drink. You've lost a lot of blood, you will need it."

That made her look at her surroundings more precisely. The first thing she noticed was that she lay in a hospital bed in the infirmary of Atlantis. There was an IV stuck into her left crook of the arm. In the bag at the top was a translucent liquid that went down the tube and into her arm. She flipped her blanked over so that she could look at her leg. There was a bandage attached to it which looked as if it was recently placed there.

To say that she was irritated would have been the understatement of the year. In order to get answers to her questions she tucked herself up again, drank something of the water in the cup, before handing it back to John and then stated: "I don't understand. Why am I here, shot and not healed by the nanites in my body?"

"I think it's a wise idea to start with the facts first, okay?" That was Dr. Keller asking.

"Yes, of course", she answered.

"As you know you were shot by one of Johns soldiers in the gateroom. When I came down there you had already lost your consciousness and the wound was bleeding heavily. I didn't exactly understand what was happening, but I acted as any doctor would have in this situation. I took you to surgery. There I removed the bullet that was in your leg, stitched the wound and bandaged it. After that I scanned your body. The result of the scan showed me that there weren't any nanites in your body anymore. Not one."

"Does that mean that I'm human again?", she wanted to know. Then something else pressed to the front of her mind. "The soldier that shot me said to John that I changed. What did he mean with it? He hadn't seen the scan like you did later. So how should he have known?"

"Yes, you're human again", Dr. Keller answered her first question before continuing. "After I made the scan I also took a blood sample from you, which showed your old DNA, the one that you had before the nanites infested your body. And to answer your last question, the soldier knew because of this." Dr. Keller went over to a nearby table, took a little mirror from it and gave it to Elizabeth.

When Elizabeth looked into it her hands began to shake and she gasped. She looked at herself, at her real self, not her Fran-self face. There were her curly brown hair, her green eyes and the ever prominent freckles in her face.

"How is that possible?", she whispered touching her face with one hand.

"That's where I can only guess. I think it happened because John kissed you."

At that her head snapped up to meet Dr. Kellers eyes. "What? That doesn't make any sense. When I kissed him the first time, nothing happened. I turned away ready to head back to the gate. I only started to feel funny when John kissed me the second time."

"Yes, exactly. I think that when you kissed him first your thoughts were mainly focused on your nearby death. John told me that after the second kiss you told him that you love him. So my theory is that when he kissed you back you realized that he must feel something for you too. You were so happy that your body produced a lot of pheromones in the process. That fact in combination with the love that you feel for him changed you back. Love is one of the strongest feelings that a human being can have. Therefore my theory is that your humanity overruled the nanites in exactly that moment. The moment in which you started to feel funny as you say."

"Wow!", was all she could get out as an answer.

"I know it's a lot to handle. When I come back from checking my other patients and you will have had some time to get used to all of the information, then we can talk more about it if you want to. For now I will leave the two of you alone." She took one last look first at John and then at Elizabeth before she walked out of the room.

A companionable silence settled between them for a while. It had always been like that with John. It was one of the many things that she appreciated in his presence. He just let her be and when he sensed that she had a lot of things going around in her head he just waited until she was ready to talk again. It wasn't any different this time.

When she had sorted her thoughts out as far as it was possible at the moment, she had some other urgent questions. "What happened to the others? I can't imagine that they walked through the gate after what happened. Will they also have the chance of transforming wholly into a human being at some point in their life?"

"No they didn't walk through the gate, but they agreed on locking them up as long as we need to come up with another solution. As for your second question I have to disappoint you. According to Dr. Keller your changing was only possible, because you were human once. They have been nanites all of their life. So even if they are capable of loving someone, there isn't a human DNA in them that can override the nanites."

"That's a pity, because my impression was that they really wanted to be human. But I thought that Koracen wanted that too and I was wrong. So for now I'm just happy that I am human again. That's what I wanted the whole time."

"I know and I am so glad that you are back. I missed you so much", John told her before smacking his hand to his forehead, rolling his eyes dramatically and adding: "I haven't told you the most important thing yet."

Because of his actions and his tone of voice Elizabeth knew that it wasn't a bad thing that he hadn't told her and that he only wanted to cheer her up with it. So she grinned while asking: "And what would that very important thing be, Colonel Sheppard?"

"That I love you back" he told her in a serious tone before leaning down and kissing her tenderly on the lips.

The End