A/N: Hello. So, this is technically a sequel to Beyond the fire, though it s completely readable without having read that one.

As usual, still haven't forgotten about Unshaken. Just need some time yet for it.

Disclaimer: Rodney is so lucky that I don't own Atlantis cause he'd be so screwed.

p.s.: This is un-betaed, so if you find mistakes, please let me know so I can fix them. Thanks!

Chapter 1

The alarm buzzed beside Rodney's ear annoyingly, drawing him out of the far too little sleep that he had been attempting to catch. He opened his mouth to grumble about it, but then remembered that there was someone else with him and he clamped his mouth closed again. Quickly, but gently, he reached out and turned the alarm off.

He laid there a moment, rubbing his face with his hand that he had just turned the alarm off with, trying to convince himself that he really did need to actually get up. A soft sigh beside him, accompanied by a warm arm around his shoulders, nearly convinced him that he could actually just stay there a little while longer.

"Shouldn't you get going, mister?" a groggy female voice whispered in his ear.

He sighed knowing Jennifer was right, but reluctant to leave both her and the potential for a few more minutes of sleep. He let a slight smile slip across his face as he really let it sink in where he was.

He and Jennifer had been together now for nearly a year, but the fact that he was waking up next to a beautiful woman that actually wanted him there was still sometimes a shock to him. He closed his eyes again and rolled over to plant a kiss on her forehead before forcing himself to get out of bed.

When he opened his eyes again, though, it wasn't Jennifer's face he saw. In fact, everything had changed. He was now standing in front of an Ancient device that he knew he should know from somewhere. He was looking across the device at tall dark skinned man in leather attire.

But before he could process anymore of his sudden change of position and surroundings, he felt his arms grabbed and roughly pulled behind his back. A sudden and painful blow connected with the back of his knees and he crumpled to the ground with a yelp.

"What's going on!?" He demanded in a voice that sounded too high pitched even for him as the person who stood behind him clamped cold metal restraints around his wrists, locking his arms behind his back. As he started to look around, he then noticed his own body. Looking down, there were two very noticeable differences to his chest.

"What the…" he started to mutter and then all the familiar sightings came back to him. The device, the man that had been staring at him… the body he was now looking at that seemed to currently be his own

Neeva, his mind supplied the name.

"You have got to be kidding me," he whined just moments before the other man stepped up and turned a Wraith stunner on him, knocking him out cold.

XXX

"Rodney?" Jennifer asked as she looked into the rather confused eyes of her boyfriend.

He stared back at her as if he was trying to process the sight. Finally, after a moment, he broke into a loopy grin. "Jennifer," he said to her. "I'm sorry… It's just; it's still sometimes hard to believe that you actually want to be with me."

Jennifer gave him a small giggle and planted a kiss on his lips. At first, he seemed stunned, almost reluctant, at her movement. It surprised her at first, but then he responded and returned her kiss in kind. She was the one that broke them apart and said, "You need to get going, Rodney," and gave him a little shove towards the edge of the bed.

He seemed to be quick to leave just then, which also surprised Jennifer. Normally, he was not so eager to either leave her side or to start his day, especially given the amount of sleep that he gotten last night. She wasn't sure what time it was that he had crawled into bed with her last night, but she knew that she had been asleep for a matter of hours and she had gone to bed after midnight. The alarm had been set to go off at 06:00.

She rolled over and propped herself up on one arm as she watched him retreat. She saw him glance around as if looking for something before he spied the clothes that he had laid out for himself in preparation for an early start today. Jennifer thought she heard him give a grateful sigh when he spied them and picked them up.

"Rodney, are you feeling all right?" she asked as she watched him glance around again before heading towards the bathroom on the other side of the room.

"Yes, of course," he told her quickly. "Just… I'm just still a bit tired."

She gave him a sad smile and nodded, "Of course you are. You couldn't have gotten more than, what, three, maybe four hours of sleep? You need to start taking better care of yourself, Rodney."

"Yeah… yes, I should. Just, too much to do, have to keep pushing myself, and all that," he said and started to head for the bathroom hurriedly. "Have to get ready now," he muttered as he disappeared behind the door.

Jennifer shook her head and then lay back down. She didn't have to be up for another couple of hours yet for her shift. Before she knew it, she had fallen back asleep, worry about how Rodney was acting forgotten as she drifted off. But the last thought that she had before her groggy mind slipped to unconsciousness was, was he swaying his hips?

XXX

"How the hell did I wind up in him?" Neeva muttered to herself as she stared into the mirror at Rodney's face. "Damn it," she said as she turned away from the mirror and the disturbing sight of a face that wasn't hers.

She looked down at her new body and sighed, "Not exactly a great show either." She looked up suddenly as another thought struck her. "And that means he's in my body! Great!"

She heard a shifting in the other room as the gentle snoring Keller had been making broke for a second. Neeva froze and listened carefully until she could hear that snoring again.

"Ok," she whispered to herself as she turned around and stared at Rodney's face in the mirror again. "I can do this… in fact, he might be better. He can fly one of those ships after all… Yes, this can still work."

She frowned slightly before she stood up straight and nodded once to herself. "Yes, I can still do this," she repeated and then turned around again and got dressed for the day.

XXX

"Colonel Sheppard," Woolsey's voice crackled in Sheppard's ear.

Sheppard held up a hand to Ronon, halting their sparing match. John was actually a little grateful to Woolsey for interrupting when he did because he was certain he was about to have his butt handed to him, again, by the big guy.

"Go ahead," Sheppard responded as he tapped his earwig.

"Colonel, have you seen Dr. McKay today?" Woolsey asked.

"No," Sheppard replied as he looked up while contemplating the question. "I thought that he was supposed to have a meeting with you and a few of the other science guys about the city defense systems this morning?"

"He was," Woolsey said and Sheppard could hear the frown in his voice. "But he never showed up and hasn't responded to his radio."

Sheppard frowned and glanced at Ronon. Ronon immediately got that something was wrong and stiffened, ready to go into action. "Have Zelenka track him with the city sensors," Sheppard said. "Ronon and I will check on a few of his usual haunts in the meant time."

"I just called Dr. Zelenka here to do so," Woolsey confirmed.

"Ok, did you check with Keller?" he asked.

"Yes. Dr. Keller said that she saw him get up early this morning, but fell asleep before he left. But he was gone when she got up."

Sheppard frowned a little more deeply at that. That meant that Rodney had at least not overslept and had intended on going to the meeting. "Ok," he said. "We'll head out and see if we can find him. Let me know if Zelenka comes up with anything."

"Agreed, Colonel. Good luck."

Sheppard tabbed his radio off and turned to head out of the gym. Ronon was close behind him. "It seems we're on McKay retrieval this morning, buddy," Sheppard said as he led them into the hall.

"He get lost?" Ronon asked.

"Not sure. He didn't show up for a meeting with Woolsey this morning and no one seems to know where he went."

Ronon simply nodded and increased his pace, overtaking the Colonel and taking the lead. "I'll check the mess, you his lab," Ronon said.

Sheppard nodded, "My thoughts exactly. I'll let you know if Zelenka turns anything up on the tracking system."

Ronon nodded again and turned down the next hall. As soon as he was alone in the hall, Sheppard decided that it wouldn't hurt to try the radio himself. He reached up and tapped his communicator. "McKay, come in," he said.

There was no response. He sighed and shook his head as he continued on to the lab. It was unlikely that someone would have missed Rodney being there as it should be the first place that anyone would check for the scientist. Still, it was also the first place Rodney would return to if he had been elsewhere when the lab was first checked.

As luck would have it, Sheppard turned the corner just as Rodney was leaving the lab with something in his arms. "Rodney!" Sheppard called and hurried up to meet him.

Rodney came to a sudden halt and looked up at Sheppard. John thought he saw a brief moment of panic on the man's face but was quickly replaced with a welcoming smile. "John, hey. Kind of busy right now…"

"Doing what?" Sheppard asked as he eyed the device in Rodney's arms. He didn't recognize it, but it was obviously Ancient. "You missed your meeting with Woolsey this morning and haven't responded to your radio. You've had a bunch of us pretty worried."

"Oh… Sorry about that," Rodney said as he turned and started to walk down the hall, forcing Sheppard to walk with him. "I guess I forgot my radio this morning. It was pretty early and I… I didn't get much sleep last night."

"Yeah, but what else is new?" Sheppard asked as he put out a hand and grabbed Rodney's arm to keep him from going any further. "What's going on, McKay?" he asked as he was surprised with the way Rodney's muscles had jerked at his touch. It was almost as if he was about to strike back at Sheppard, but that couldn't have been it.

"Nothing," Rodney replied. "I just forgot about the meeting and left my radio in my room. I've got… I'm working on a new project and got… sidetracked is all."

Sheppard frowned. Well that certainly sounded like McKay. He could get entirely engulfed in his work at times. That was usually why he didn't get as much sleep as he probably should. More often than not, Sheppard could find Rodney passed out at his computer in his lab in the mornings than in his quarters whenever he wanted to drag the scientist to a team breakfast.

The Colonel eyed Rodney closely for a second before he said, "Well why don't you go back to your quarters and get your radio and then report to Woolsey? You know how he gets when his schedule is interrupted. Then I'm sure you can return to whatever you're working on."

McKay nodded, "Yeah. I'll do that. I just need to take this…"

"…No, put it back in your lab and get the radio now," Sheppard said firmly. "You know the protocol. Anything can happen around here and you know, as well as I do, how you don't want to be caught without it if something were to go down."

"Ah, yeah. Right… I'll do that. Sorry, John." He turned then and walked back to the lab and put the device inside. Sheppard watched him as he started to head back towards his quarters.

"McKay," Sheppard called.

"Yeah?" he said turning around and facing Sheppard again.

"Maybe cut back on the coffee a little. You seem even tenser than usual today."

Rodney nodded and said, "Yeah, lack of sleep. I guess I should probably cut back." He turned then and hurried around the corner.

Sheppard sighed and turned around to head for the control room. He tapped his communicator and said, "Woolsey?"

"Yes Colonel?"

"I found him. He got sidetracked with whatever new do-hicky he's working on. I sent him to get his radio and then report to you."

There was a pause on the other end before Woolsey said, "Dr. Zelenka just informed me that he doesn't know of any new project Dr. McKay is currently working on."

Sheppard stopped mid step. "Well he does have various pet projects, right?" he asked.

Zelenka's voice was one that responded. "Yes, Rodney is always working on something," the Czech confirmed. "But I do not believe he currently has anything that would have distracted him from today's meeting. He's been working very hard on improving city defenses and has been preparing for meeting all week."

"Ok," Sheppard said as he turned around and headed towards Rodney's quarters instead. "I'll catch up with him again and see what's really going on."

"Colonel," Woolsey said over the radio again. "Maybe Dr. McKay should report to the infirmary. If he's having memory issues again…"

"Yeah, I'm on it," Sheppard said quickly, not wanting to even think about having to go through that again. "Zelenka, did you find him on the sensors?" Sheppard asked.

"Ah, no," Zelenka replied. "For some reason his transmitter is not appearing on the scanners."

Sheppard really didn't like the sound of that. "All right, thanks, Radek," he replied and hurried his steps.

"Ronon," he spoke into his radio.

"Find him?" the big man asked.

"Yeah. I sent him to his quarters to get his radio, but I'm a little worried about him still. Meet me there, ok?"

"On it," was the simple response.

They both hurried to meet up with their wayward scientist, hoping that he would actually be where he was supposed to be this time.

XXX

Rodney groaned as he came to. "God," he muttered. "I hate those things." He rolled over and found that his hands were still secured behind his back. He was even more disconcerted to find that his ankles were now tied together. Looking around, he saw that he was also inside a small, barred cell.

"A little overkill, don't you think?" he spoke to the empty room. But the sound of his voice reminded him again of the situation.

He looked down at himself again and sighed. "Great, now I'm in her body. I certainly hope that I'm not about to be hauled off to execution again."

"Not this time, doctor," a voice said from the darkened hallway outside his cell.

Rodney craned his head and noticed the tall black man entering from the end of the hallway. "Hold on," he said. "You're the one Jennifer said was about to kill her. We thought Neeva was dead because of you."

He scowled and said, "She was lucky and was able to grab the gun before I fired. I only shot the trees before she was able to convince me that she was herself again."

"Huh," McKay said and then shook that useless information off. "Look," he said as he tried to shift into a better position to keep an eye on the man. "I don't know what you guys are up to, but it's not going to work. I'm pretty sure they're going to realize that it's not me."

"Oh, don't worry, doctor," the man replied. Rodney wished he could remember this guy's name, but it just wasn't coming to him. "Neeva's been working on that medical thing for a while now. She's got a plan to fit in just long enough to grab some real nice goods and get out of there with your next scheduled visit to the Athosians tomorrow."

"My next… Medical…?" Rodney mumbled. Then he broke into a grin. "So you think I'm Jennifer again?"

"Dr. Jennifer Keller," the man replied with a grin.

Rodney couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, you are so screwed. You messed it up. She didn't switch with Keller again. She transferred with me, Dr. Rodney McKay. She's got no clue how to fit in with my role."

The man scowled and shook his head. "No, she was supposed to switch with Keller again. That's how it works."

"Noooo. It switches with whoever the last person to touch the stone was. And I was the last one to work with them, trying to find out if there was a way to deactivate them so this wouldn't happen again." He frowned slightly then and said, "Apparently I wasn't as successful with that as I had hoped."

"You're lying," the man spat at Rodney as he drew the stunner and aimed it through the bars at him.

"Why would I do that?!" he squeaked as he wiggled himself further back into the cell away from the threatening man. "What could I gain from telling you that you switched with the wrong person?"

"You're trying to get us to turn it off, to switch you back now, hoping she doesn't get caught."

"No, I…" Rodney thought about it a moment. "Wait, did you figure out how to actually turn it off? I mean, without blowing it up or something?"

"That's none of your business," the man said as he tucked the stunner away again and turned to leave.

"Wait, I swear I'm telling you the truth," Rodney said hurriedly. "And, I didn't bring it up for that, but you're right. The best way to save your friend from being caught again is to switch us back now. I have no idea where we are, so it's not like we can track you down or anything."

"Good night, Dr. Keller," the man said. "Neeva should be back here tomorrow and we can switch you back then. Of course, you'll be back in your body so we can simply dispose of you then."

He turned around and flashed a sickly smile at Rodney and said, "Pleasant dreams." He disappeared around the hallway again and the resounding sound of a door slamming shut followed him.

"Oh, this is so not good…" Rodney muttered into the darkness.

XXX

Keller had been a little anxious when she heard that Rodney wasn't responding to his radio. She was in her office working on paper work as she didn't currently have any patients… miracle of miracles… But she had been distracted ever since Woolsey had contacted her. She kept wondering if maybe she ought to set aside her work for now and see if she could find Rodney herself.

Then she would remember that Woolsey had said he would ask Colonel Sheppard to look into it and if anyone would have better luck tracking down Rodney than her, it would be Sheppard. The man seemed to 'get,' Rodney better than anyone else, including her. She may be dating and living with the scientist, but he still baffled her at times.

She sighed to herself for what seemed like the hundredth time and returned to her paperwork again. That was when she heard a noise out in the infirmary. It wasn't much, but it was out of the ordinary so she stood and poked her head out of her office. She was quite surprised to see her wayward boyfriend inside one of the supposedly locked medical cabinets, searching through the medications.

"Rodney?" she asked as she came out and approached him.

The speed that he whiped around to face her caught her off guard. There was something in his movements that didn't seem right. And it wasn't just that he was obviously trying to cover up his guilty expression with grin that looked all wrong.

"Rodney, what's… going on?" she asked haltingly as she drew nearer.

"Nothing," he said quickly. "I was just… Teyla had asked me if could ask you for some more sleeping pills. I didn't see you here and I didn't want to bother you…"

"Rodney, that cabinet was locked," Jennifer said, pointing to thing behind him.

"Really? I don't think so," he said glancing back at it. "I just opened it."

Jennifer frowned as she was certain that she had been the last one in it and she had locked it behind her. "I was sure…" she muttered as she walked up to the cabinet.

"Oh, you probably just forgot. It happens to the best of us," he said with another uncharacteristic grin. She eyed him as she drew closer. But when she was standing next to him, she turned her attention to the cabinet and examined the lock. It didn't look tampered with and lord knows Rodney was not a lock picker… at least, not one that wasn't controlled by a computer. If he had tried to tamper with the lock, she was certain there would be obvious evidence of it.

She gave the lock one last close appraising look before turning back to Rodney. She thought that she saw some quick movement of his hand but didn't see what it was. "Rodney, you know that only medical personnel are allowed to access the medicine cabinets," she chastised.

"Oh, well… I just figured such a minor pill wouldn't be that important and when I found the cabinet unlocked…"

She sighed and shook her head at him. "You're impossible," she said with a grin as she placed a hand on his chest and leaned up to kiss him.

For a moment it looked as if he was hesitant to meet her kiss but then he quickly leaned down and met her lips. She was a little startled to find his lips open and was quickly pulled into a much deeper kiss than she had been intending. It wasn't rare that he would balk at PDA's so the fact he had been hesitant didn't seem odd. What was strange was his sudden zeal. This was a side of him that she only saw when they were alone in their quarters. And even then it was when he wasn't completely distracted with some project or other and that was once in a blue moon in itself.

When he pulled back, she was left rather breathless. "Oh, well…" she said, clearing her throat. "That was…"

He frowned at her, "Didn't you like it?" he asked.

"Oh, yes!" she said with a little more zest than she had intended. She cleared her throat again and continued more subdued. "I mean, yes, that was quiet nice, Rodney. I'm just wondering where that came from."

"I told you this morning," he said with a smile. "I'm just surprised that you would want to be with me and I don't want to chance losing you."

She felt herself flush as she smiled at him and then backed away. "Oh Rodney, like you could get rid of me," she said with a wink and then turned to walk back to her office. She paused after a few steps and turned back, seeing a rather relieved looking Rodney standing there. "Just, ask me next time before getting into the medicine. Ok?"

He nodded, "Of course," he said.

She giggled to herself again and went back to her office. It wasn't until she sat back down at her desk that she even thought to ask him about where he had been that morning. She got up and went back out, but he was gone again.

Tapping her radio she said, "Keller to McKay?"

But there was no response. She frowned and then tapped her radio again. "Keller to Sheppard."

"What's up Doc?" Sheppard replied quickly.

Jennifer ignored the annoying quote and dove right into the reason she was calling. "John, have you seen Rodney?"

"I just sent him to your quarters a few minutes ago. I'm heading there now to ask him to go see you. Why?"

"Oh, well, you're not going to find him there because he was just here."

"What?" Sheppard snapped. Jennifer could almost hear him halt in mid step. "What the hell was he doing there?"

"He said that Teyla asked him to get some more sleeping pills from me. But come to think of it, he left without them."

She heard Sheppard mutter something under his breath that she suspected was some kind of curse. "Jennifer," he said after a second. "Stay there and let me know immediately if he turns up there again, all right?"

"Okay," she said hesitantly. "But what's going on, John?"

He sighed across the radio and replied, "I'm not sure but he's been acting kind of odd today and I just want to make sure that he's ok. I'll let you know if I find him again."

"Alright. Thanks, John."

"Sheppard out."

Jennifer sighed and sat down in her office chair, angled so she could see out into the infirmary. She couldn't imagine what was wrong. Rodney had seemed maybe a little on edge when she first found him, but he didn't seem too odd. At least, not for Rodney. But right now, Sheppard was right. It was probably best to just stay there in case he came back. That way she wouldn't have the chance of missing him and John promised to tell her if they found him. So, for now, she would simply wait and hope that nothing was wrong with her boyfriend.

XXX

Neeva could have screamed with how difficult this was. The first time she had switched bodies with a Lantian she had been taken completely by surprised and didn't understand what was happening. This time, she had prepared. She knew what she was getting into and had thought that she was going to be able to pull it off. But of course, something had to go wrong. How the hell she wound up in the annoying scientist's body was a mystery to her.

And at first, she thought it was just a minor setback that she could recover from. It didn't take much to find this guy's lab. All she had to do was find one of those other scientists of his and bully them to get something from his lab and then discretely follow. No doubt when that poor guy returned with whatever she had sent him after and couldn't find her, he would have a breakdown.

Once there, it wasn't too difficult to modify the original plan to deactivate the tracker that all Atlantians wore. Learning of that little piece of knowledge had taken some work and more than a little alcohol to discover. Once known though, it didn't take much more to figure out how to deactivate it. A small electrical charge applied across the space it was located would short it out. There was no shortage of items to choose from here to create that charge.

That had been the easy part. After she had done that and shook the numbness out of her arm and made sure it was covered by her sleeve, then came the problem that she didn't know what was valuable there. She had been studying for the last year to know what would be of the most value from the infirmary as she had planned that to be where she was expected to be. Now she was in a room full of technology that she didn't know anything about or understand in the least. But that was only a minor hiccup.

This was the city of the Ancestors. That meant that anything from here would be valuable to someone. True, medicine and medical equipment would have been more universal, but she was sure anything she could grab that was obviously of Ancestor design would fetch a hearty price.

Luckily, she already knew where the Jumper Bay was from her last little stint on Atlantis. Now that was certainly going to be useful. Having her own spaceship with the ability to cloak was well worth any difficulty that her mission encountered. And that also meant she was going to be able to make off with far more than she had originally intended.

Knowing where the lab was and knowing where the Jumpers were was all she needed as she began to haul items from one to the other. But, of course, she had only moved a few things when everything had to go wrong again. That pushy Colonel suddenly turned up. If she hadn't been studying the Atlantis team ever since she had last encountered them, she was sure she would have forgotten this guy's name.

And of course, it turns out that she had to switch into McKay's body on the morning he was supposed to be in some important meeting. But, she was always good at thinking on her feet and after she managed to not knock Sheppard into the other wall when he touched her, she spun a lie that sounded like the scientist. Little was actually known about the guy in her research as he was not as interactive with other planets. But between her brief firsthand experience and what little she could find out, she thought she had a fairly convincing performance.

Of course she wasn't about to return to those quarters as instructed. She was off radio on purpose and had far too much to accomplish in her short amount of time here to play Sheppard's games. He couldn't track her and he couldn't contact her so, in theory, he could be avoided.

But now that she had been caught in the lab, it probably wouldn't do to keep returning to it. So, since she already knew what she needed in the infirmary, why not go there? Apparently she was still in a relationship with the doctor so it wouldn't be too out of ordinary to be going there, surely.

She had barely gotten in there and picked the lock on the first cabinet than said girlfriend turned up. She could have swore when Keller came up on her. How she hated that body and still, she longed to have been in it rather than this out of shape, balding man that was almost impossible to accurately impersonate.

Keller was there, asking why she had gotten into the cupboard. Luckily it didn't take her too long to come up with a convincing lie. It was good that she had gained as much knowledge of the other people on Atlantis as she did. Anything else would have never been believable.

When Keller turned her back, Neeva considered how easy it would be to just get rid of her. The girlfriend was probably going to be the first one to spot a change and that was dangerous. She had just started to reach for the blade that she had picked up in the lab that was now concealed in her pocket when Keller turned back around.

She changed her mind in that instant and hid the weapon again. She remembered that attacking someone last time is what had gotten her caught. She needed to be more careful this time and avoid such complications. But she needed to throw Keller off balance to keep from questioning.

It was when Keller leaned up for a kiss that she realized how to do that. Of course this wasn't her cup of tea, but she did know how to get a girl riled up enough to forget everything else at least for a few minutes; and that was all she needed to make her escape from the infirmary.

It worked, Keller was thrown off balance and she was able to make a hasty retreat. But now what the hell was she supposed to do? She couldn't go back to the infirmary. The lab was too risky now… what else of value could she pilfer and make off to the Jumper with before she really made her escape?

And that was when she saw the Athosian woman heading in her direction with her son balanced on her hip…

"Rodney," Teyla greeted with a wide grin. "I thought you were busy this morning?"

"Oh, the meeting," Neeva said off-handedly. "It didn't go near as long as expected. What brings you down here?"

"Well," Teyla said, barely masking an annoyance. "After you said you were too busy to watch Torren today while I performed my exercises, I asked Marie to. So I am bringing Torren by for her to watch for a while."

Neeva grinned through Rodney's face and said, "Well, since I'm free after all, I would be happy to watch after the little guy for you."

Teyla smiled but said, "Well thank you, Rodney. But you do not have to. I know it's not something you particularly enjoy."

She shook his head and replied, "No, really. I would love to watch him for you. I don't get to see very much on him these days."

"Through no fault but your own," Teyla chastised.

"Well, I would like to fix that. Here, I'm sure I can find something to entertain him while you spend some time for yourself," she held out his hands towards the kid. Torren seemed eager to go to Uncle Rodney as he reached out for him in return.

Teyla cocked an eyebrow but gave in and released her son to who she thought was Rodney. "I suppose since you both seem to want to, I can't argue. Thank you, Rodney. I will just stop in and let Marie know that she does not have to watch him today."

"Oh, don't worry about it," Neeva said quickly. "I can tell her. You go ahead and do what you plan. I can take care of this."

Teyla gave him a bemused looked and shook her head, "You never cease to surprise me Rodney," she said. "Alright, thank you again, Rodney. I'll radio you when I finish."

"Take your time."

Teyla smiled again and stepped up to her friend. She took Rodney by both arms and leaned towards him. Neeva was glad that she had spent some time with the Athosians to know what this was or she probably would have reacted badly. But, after only the briefest of hesitations, she leaned down and touched foreheads with Teyla.

"I'll see you soon," Teyla said softly to her son before leaning back. "And you too, Rodney," she said with a smile and then turned and left.

"No, I don't think so," Neeva said softly and looked down at the child in her arms. "I think I've got enough haul to get out of here now," she said to Torren before quickly turning around and hurrying to the Jumper Bay.