Author's Notes: Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.

I wrote this before I wrote Trapped so technically this is my first McKay/Cadman ship story.

He stood looking out across his kingdom; the land was rich making harvests plentiful. His people worshipped him as they should, as was only right for one with the powers he possessed.

Turning to his side he saw his love standing, her arms resting across where their child lay and he smiled. Her long golden hair fell across one shoulder and he gently pushed it so it flowed along her back sliding his hand across her cheek. He rested his hand on her stomach feeling the new life within move and smiled.

Soon the child would be born and he would be stronger than ever before.

Laura Cadman stopped jogging at the balcony, standing to take a drink from her water bottle. It was early morning and few people were up and about so she had the place to herself. She loved being on Atlantis, when she'd first been assigned to it she'd been worried and scared at the prospect of being in another galaxy but the moment she arrived she had fallen in love with the city.

Cadman stretched to cool down looking forward to a leisurely breakfast before a day off. Carson had offered to let her come with him to the mainland but she had declined; although for a while she'd had a thing for Carson, once they'd started dating it became clear she liked him only as a friend, which was good since he and Katie Brown had started seeing each other a great deal after the date she had invited him to between Rodney and Katie.

Cadman sighed; she didn't want to think about Rodney McKay. She hadn't liked the man when she first met him; he was arrogant, opinionated and extremely full of himself. Her opinion of him these days was something she wasn't sure about. Being stuck inside the man's mind for that time had been bizarre to say the least, terrifying towards the end as well but now she almost constantly had him on her mind, which was driving her insane.

x

Cadman smiled as Lt Naomi Nelson waved her over, she grabbed her breakfast and settled beside her friend.

"Any plans for today Cadman?" Naomi asked as she took her seat.

No one called her Laura except her parents and sister, at school she'd been one of six Laura's in her class so one was called Laura while the rest were given monikers to recognise them and she had simply become Cadman.

"I plan to do absolutely nothing," she grinned at her friend, "What about you?"

"I'm offworld today," Naomi replied, "Trading mission but it's a nice planet we're heading to. We're meant to be there about three days so hopefully I'll be back in time to see you leave."

Cadman shrugged, "It's strange to be heading home. I'm really going to miss this place…and a few of the people."

Naomi leaned forward interested, "Who would that be?"

Cadman shrugged, "Just you, the poker night gang, Carson..."

"McKay," Naomi teased with a grin watching the slight pink flush of Cadman's cheeks.

"I'm not going to miss the 'ego that walks'," she replied a little more defensively than she meant.

Naomi laughed again, "Yet you can't keep your eyes off him when he's in the room."

"I…" Cadman stammered for a second before frowning at her friend, "Shut up."

Naomi laughed again at her friend again before checking her watch, "I have to go. I'll see you before you leave."

Cadman nodded squeezing her friend's arm before she left. Cadman sat her head resting on her hand as she played with the remainder of her breakfast.

"I don't care," an instantly recognisable voice sounded near her making her look up, "I'm not asking Carson to let you come with us," Rodney continued at Colonel Sheppard who's arm was resting in a sling, "You hurt your arm, you're grounded, so get over it."

"Rodney," Sheppard started.

"No means no Colonel," Rodney snapped turning he saw Cadman sitting there, "Morning Lieutenant."

"Rodney," she gave him a small smile before turning to her commanding officer, "Colonel."

"Hey Cadman," Colonel Sheppard grinned at her, "Enjoying your last few days here?"

"Of course sir," she smiled.

"Last few days?" Rodney asked confused.

"Yeah," Sheppard told him, "Cadman here is going home once the Daedalus gets back."

Rodney stared at her a little shocked, "Are you?"

Cadman shrugged, "My tour here is over. Besides my sister's getting married and I have to be there."

"Oh," Rodney shrugged, "Good luck Lieutenant."

Cadman smiled at him as they headed to get a seat not sure what she had been expecting him to say before she finished her breakfast alone.

x

"Rodney, are you even listening to me?" John demanded.

"Nope," Rodney replied continuing to eat.

"Rodney!"

"Will you stop whining," Rodney rolled his eyes, "Your arm is in a sling. Carson is not under any circumstances going to let you come exploring the city with us. So shut up so I can eat in peace."

John let out a sigh of annoyance and started eating again. He looked up to see his friend looking across the room. Interested John checked over his shoulder to see who Rodney was watching.

"I thought you didn't like Cadman?" John grinned as his friend sharply brought his gaze back to the table.

"What?" Rodney demanded, "What are you talking about?"

"You're staring at her," John laughed.

"I'm not staring at her," Rodney defended himself; "I am looking in that general direction as I tune out your whining."

John nodded interested in this new development and wondering when this had occurred.

Rodney walked with John towards the briefing room his mind wandering again to Cadman. He'd been thinking about her a lot over the past few days and couldn't understand why. Having her in his mind had been months ago and he'd brushed that off quite quickly but when they'd worked together looking for the bomb that had been supposedly set in Atlantis he'd found he was attracted to her. At first he tried to push her out of his mind since she and Carson had been dating except he found out a few days later that they weren't anymore and Carson was dating Katie Brown.

Finding out she was leaving had been a shock; he thought she'd been leaving before this but to find this out now made him sad.

"Good morning gentlemen," Elizabeth greeted them as they entered.

"Is it?" John groused as he took his seat.

"Colonel," Elizabeth laughed, "I see your mood has improved since last night."

John grunted as Elizabeth turned to Rodney, "Is everything ready for today's exploration?"

"Mostly," Rodney nodded, "Except I seem to be down one military personnel since someone is hoping to come along when the Doctor has grounded him."

"Fink," John muttered under his breath as Elizabeth turned to look at him.

"John you're not going," Elizabeth reminded him, "If I have to I shall get Ronan back from the mainland to tie you to a bed in the infirmary."

John sighed, "There's one problem with that. There's nobody free to go with Rodney."

"Because you made sure they were all assigned somewhere else," Rodney shot back, "John, we're not waiting for your arm to heal before we go check this section of Atlantis."

"The only person I could assign is Cadman," John told them, "But I told her she had the few days before going to home to relax."

"Ask her," Elizabeth told John.

x

Cadman fixed her equipment glancing over at where Rodney was standing pointedly staring at the wall while the Colonel gave him orders. She smiled amused watching the two men; Rodney noticed her and gave her a quick nod.

"Lieutenant," Sheppard turned to her, "I want you to go with Rodney as I think you can resist the urge to shoot him. Just let him ramble, do as he says and don't let anyone kill him."

"I will sir," Cadman smiled.

"Good on you and thanks for doing this," he replied, "Okay people head out."

Cadman followed Rodney as he headed to the transporter, the rest of their small team followed on, one scientist to one marine.

They stopped just outside the transporter and Rodney turned to them.

"Alright," he called, "Everyone knows where they're going. The transporters are big enough for two at a time so I will go with Cadman, then Davies, Mendel then Jefferson, Watts. Any questions?"

As silence answered him Rodney nodded, "Good. Let's go and keep in touch."

Cadman entered the small room with Rodney feeling a shiver at being so close to him. This was ridiculous she decided. She did not have feelings for the arrogant pain in the ass at her side, she refused to. Rodney touched the screen sending them to the unexplored part of the city; he had found there were several labs that didn't have any connection to the citywide database.

"Thanks for coming," Rodney said suddenly once they started towards the labs.

"What?" she turned to him amazed.

"If you had refused I would have had to reschedule this," Rodney explained softly, "So…thanks."

"No problem Rodney," she smiled at him, "This just means I lose a day of doing nothing, which is something I'm not good at."

"I know the feeling," he murmured before stopping suddenly, "Here we go," he hit his radio, "Jefferson?"

"Yes Dr McKay?" the scientist replied.

"I want everyone to make sure they only touch what has been deemed safe," Rodney told them, "I don't want a repeat of the nanite incident understand?"

"Of course Dr McKay," Dr Jefferson said.

Rodney turned to her, "Come on."

x

Rodney set down his equipment aware of Cadman standing just at the door her hands settled on her P90. Her long strawberry blonde hair was pulled back in a neat ponytail, which swung distractingly every time she moved.

"Ignore it," he murmured to himself, "She's leaving in a few days so just ignore it."

"Something wrong Rodney?" Cadman asked.

"Just setting things up," he replied without looking at her, "Try and keep quiet Lieutenant while I'm working."

"Of course Dr McKay," she mimicked Jefferson with a smile as he gave her a dark glare.

Rodney returned to integrating his laptop with the labs systems so he could discover what they did in this room. Once he was in Rodney quickly started working on finding files surprised as only one appeared.

"That's odd," he murmured.

"Is something wrong?" Cadman asked, "Or should I just shut up?"

Rodney turned back to her, "It's odd. There's one file called Ellis and that's it."

"In a lab like this?" Cadman asked, "Why would they only use this place for one thing?"

"I don't know," he sighed pulling over a stool so he could get settled, "Let's find out."

John sat staring at the screen wondering why he was watching the afternoon movie. Around the room sat those who were on the night shift enjoying the movie. He was so bored and since Carson had him doped up he couldn't do anything even resembling his job.

"You dislocated your shoulder Colonel," Carson had reminded him when he was in the infirmary that morning, "You have to rest it."

"Oh come on Doc," John had appealed, "All I'd be doing is standing around as Rodney is going over the data he finds."

"Which is why there's no point in you going along," Carson smiled at him. "You could use a day or two off Colonel so you may as well enjoy yourself."

John had left muttering under his breath and ended up watching a bad movie with lots of explosions and no plot.

Glancing up he noticed Teyla passing the window and jumped up, finally someone to talk to.

"Hey Teyla," he called catching up with her.

"Colonel," she greeted him glancing at his arm, "How are you?"

He shrugged before wincing, "Okay."

Teyla smiled sympathetically, "I am so sorry John."

"It wasn't your fault," John reminded her, "I should have been paying attention. But since you're here come watch this movie with me before I die of boredom?"

Teyla laughed, "I believe I have missed a good deal of it."

"Somebody stole something, lots of things have blown up," John listed, "Trust me you've missed nothing."

Teyla smiled, "Then let's go and watch the movie John."

x

Cadman was getting bored; she'd been standing watching Rodney work for about three hours now. Every so often he would rub his neck to relieve the stiffness, she itched to reach out and massage his shoulders, which was disturbing her a lot.

She was not attracted to this man. She refused to be. They were friends…almost. She cared about his well being because she'd been stuck in his body for a few days and it made her a little more conscious of him.

"Damn," his yell made her jump.

"Something wrong?" she asked moving over to where he was sitting raking his hands through his short hair.

"According to this there is some sort of 'holding cell' for whatever this Ellis is," Rodney told her, "But it won't tell me where it is or even what it is."

"Is that a bad thing?" Cadman asked worriedly, "I mean if this thing warrants its own lab maybe we shouldn't be messing with it."

Rodney rolled his eyes at her, "I do not mess with things Cadman, I am a scientist I study things and anything like this can be dangerous only if I don't take the proper precautions which I will."

"Alright Rodney," Cadman held up her hands, "I was only asking."

"Don't," he snapped.

Cadman stepped back from him reminding herself that this was why she couldn't be attracted to Rodney McKay. He was an egotistical ass.

x

Rodney sighed as Cadman headed back to the doorway she had been standing in for a good part of the morning. He hadn't meant to snap at her but he was hitting a wall with the information he was getting from the database.

Not to mention having her there was distracting him quite a bit. His ability with women was bad at the best of times but considering this one had both been in his head and witnessed him on a date he had absolutely no chance on making any sort of impression that was good.

Besides why would she be interested in him? No, he'd get through today and avoid her until she left. He'd at least say goodbye to her.

"Rodney," her voice interrupted his thoughts, "What's this?"

He turned to look at where she was pointing moving closer to get a better look. The panel was raised slightly and as Rodney brushed his fingertips across it the panel opened revealing a slightly raised section in the wall with several control crystals sitting with several slots empty.

"Wonder what they were hiding?" Cadman whispered from his side, Rodney hoped she didn't notice what her close proximity was doing to him.

"Whatever the hell Ellis is," Rodney replied picking up one of the control crystals turning it over in his hands, "No markings," he mused for a few more minutes, "Hand me my laptop Cadman."

She bit back a reply and brought him the computer over crouching down beside him, "Rodney?"

"Give me a second," he muttered as he tapped away, "Aha got it."

"Got what?"

He picked up one of the crystals and inserted it in the central slot. Cadman gasped as the cube filled with light her hand reaching out to touch it. She winced as Rodney caught her hand and yanked it back.

"Don't touch," he warned her.

"Sorry," she shrugged.

Rodney rolled his eyes, he went to remove the crystal but when letting go of her his hand skimmed the cube. Rodney gave a cry as electricity slammed him across the room where he struck his head against the wall. He heard Cadman cry his name before everything went black.