Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with nor do I own any part of Stargate, Stargate SG1 or its' movies, Stargate Atlantis, or any of the characters. My stories are for purely entertainment purposes, with no monetary gain. No copyright infringement is intended. This story is based on the episode "Duet" and continues from my 'Runner Missing Scenes'. The lines of dialog you recognize are from the show (thanks to GateWorld Transcripts).

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Prior to Duet:

Lt. Colonel Sheppard strode purposely into Dr. Rodney McKay's lab. The lab was empty except for the scientist and Teyla Emmagan who glanced at him with an amused smile, an amused smile that instantly made him react and he smiled back, a bit too eagerly. "John." she nodded at him in greeting and he just kept smiling at her.

Rodney rolled his eyes at his teammates but they remained clueless, "So John, why are you interrupting my extremely important work?"

"Huh?"

"The team meeting… why are we having it?"

"Oh, right! Specialist Ronon Dex. What do you think of him?"

"Think of him? I don't."

"Rodney." Teyla admonishes, but with that graceful lilt to her voice so no offence is taken.

McKay closed out a file and shut down his laptop before looking directly at Sheppard, "What?"

John squirmed a bit, "Well, we did bring him home…"

"He's not a puppy." the doctor snapped, of course with that hair… he shook his head at the image of Ronon being a giant puppy.

"What is a puppy?"

"A hairy, four legged, pet with a tail; drools a lot. Look Colonel, not really sure what you want to hear… I thought you were sending him home. You know… potential allies with him being grateful for us saving him from the Wraith and all."

"Ah, see we tried that." At Teyla and Rodney's curious looks, John continued. "The Wraith had almost leveled the city the gate is in and later we sent a UAV to get a better look… let's just say the Wraith made sure no one was left."

"City? You mean they were advanced beyond tents and huts? What a shame… we might still be able to find something… obviously the Wraith thought they had something…" Rodney sputtered briefly to a stop as Teyla was glaring at him, "What? What did I say?"

Teyla turned away from McKay and focused on Sheppard. "I do not understand the problem."

Sheppard wouldn't look at her and she had to strain to hear what he was mumbling. "Well, uhm, with the exploding city illusion and the IOA's new refugee policy… we're not really sure what to do with him."

"I still do not understand."

Sheppard was starting to look green but resolutely kept his mouth shut. Rodney sighed this is why he hated team meetings. Clearing his throat so Teyla would have to look at him, McKay began, "Dex is a security risk so the military wants him detained here on Atlantis. The IOA, the governing body of our illustrious expedition, has deemed our damaged city, supply issues, manpower, etc., insufficient to handle refugees. In short the IOA won't allow him to stay and the military won't allow him to leave."

Teyla blinked, she had given her word… "You allowed my people to stay."

John and Rodney glanced at each other; neither mentioned the guilt they all had for bringing the Wraith down upon the Athosians so early, causing them to flee almost forced to Atlantis. "Well, that was sort of a different situation. We had just arrived, the city was sinking, and …" He left the 'we didn't know what we were doing' part unsaid.

Rodney finished for him, "The IOA wasn't actually in contact then and let's face it you guys had food."

Teyla was too aghast to even be upset with Rodney's bluntness.

John squirmed again, "I thought that … maybe we could come up with something so as not to involve the powers that be."

"He is welcome to stay with my people."

John froze, his mouth gapping; Rodney took one look at him and realized his reputation of being blunt beyond social acceptance was about to save his team leader.

"The military won't accept that. By now they've read our reports: how he took you both down twice, then immediately after surgery, having been unconscious during my rapid fire and screaming, still beat John to my position; not to mention he was winning against a Wraith hyped Ford and the whole hostage thing, what I'm saying is…"

"They do not trust my people to keep him, even with the gate being controlled by Earthers." Neither Rodney nor John would look at her.

John cleared his throat, "With Ford escaping and the afore mentioned reports, they don't trust us to keep him either; and ah, he kinda told me already that he could escape if he wanted too."

"I see."

The silence was extremely uncomfortable, John didn't even squirm nor did he notice when Teyla looked directly at him, "If Ronon had something the military or IOA thought would be beneficial?"

Sheppard's head popped up and Rodney thought both John and Teyla were going to strain something trying to find anything beneficial about Ronon. It was almost comical when they burst out simultaneously:

"He had that cool gun!"

"He recognized the Ancestors' technology."

Rodney shook his head, sorry to disappoint them, "The gun can be studied better without him and lots of people recognize Ancient tech."

The silence grew again, "Surely, Elizabeth cannot be ordered to … "

Sighing, Rodney broke into Teyla's lament. "You said he was military. The SGC allowed O'Neill to keep Teal'c." Rodney sighed again, at John's amazed look. "You really should read the SGC's mission reports, not all of them obviously, just the important ones. I have all of Samantha Carter's on my personal laptop, with unbreakable encryption of course, tried to read Jackson's but, well not the same face so… just lots of words… the point is O'Neill sold the higher ups on the fact that Teal'c had valuable knowledge of the enemy and other worlds."

With Ronon's situation on his mind and still smarting from the loss of Ford, the Lt. Colonel didn't even seem to hear Rodney's blatant security breach, but the smack on the back still smarted. "Great thinking! I'll talk to Lorne, he served at the SGC under General O'Neill. For now we make Dex comfortable, feel him out about what he knows and what his skills are, and if things pan out the way we think they will, I'll approach Dr. Weir about having him on our team."

"Our team?" but Sheppard didn't hear him already heading out the door on his radio, Teyla gave him the school teacher look before leaving as well, "Right, our team it is then." Rodney mumbled as he rebooted his laptop.

"Rodney!"

Rodney jumped and keyed his radio. "What now?"

"Gear up, another planet's been hit."

"Well, obviously it is too late to warn them and you just said the IOA won't allow refugees, so what is the point of me going?"

"First you're on my team, second we can offer medical assistance and aid without bringing anyone back here, third we need Intel – now that the Wraith aren't gearing up to head to Earth are they still culling whole societies or are they only harvesting and …"

"Fine! I'm on my way."