Rating: T

Spoilers: Season 5

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or Stargate: Atlantis

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Chapter 2- Awakening

Atlantis Infirmary

Richard and Radek were standing over a computer terminal as Dr. Cole was explaining the results of the test they had run the woman who had come through the gate late yesterday.

"I've run all the blood work several times and everything matches what we had on file for Jennifer McKay." The doctor said softly as she looked at the still unconscious woman on the bed behind them. "Another test I ran shows that she gave birth within the last twelve months."

The two men looked over at each other confused, "A baby? How is that possible?" Richard was the first to speak up.

Jennifer had been semi-conscious through the conversation and was not sure if she was hearing them right, "Zoe," she said to answer Woolsey's question.

The three turned around, thinking that Jennifer was still unconscious, "What about her?" Radek asked.

It was tiring for Jennifer to speak, "She said I gave birth within the last year." She pointed to the other doctor. "Last time I checked seven months was less than a year. Where is she?"

Everyone looked at each other, trying to figure out how to answer that. Zoe had been seven months at the time of her apparent death and they knew soon the girl would be turning four.

Jennifer was not liking the silent treatment. Silence usually meant the news was bad and the look on their faces were not convincing her otherwise, "Where are my children?"

Radek was the first to speak, "They are safe." On Earth with their father. It had been two weeks since the Czech spoke to Rodney and he had said his children were doing good.

That still was not the answer she was looking for as Jennifer wanted to know where her children where. She was glad they were okay, but she needed to see them. She mustered all the strength she had to sit up and look around. She frowned when there was no sign of the others. The doctor collapsed against the bed, feeling all the energy expended from her body. "They didn't make it, didn't they?" a stray tear rolled down her face.

"Who didn't make it?" Radek asked, not realizing what she was asking.

"Rodney, John and Ronon," she looked at the Czech like he was stupid for asking the question.

"We have some questions that we need you to answer first," Richard tried to be as diplomatic as possible.

"Questions? What kind of questions?" Jennifer was getting upset. "What about answering me about where my husband and children are?"

Woolsey shook his head, "We need a few questions answered first."

The female sighed, feeling defeated. She only got through a handful of their questions before she passed out from exhaustion. Jennifer believed that they were dead and that was the true reason they refused to answer her.


Stargate Command

Rodney was working in his lab that he shared with Sam and sighed at how quiet it was, "Why are you so quiet, shorty?" He looked to see where his youngest child was.

"Making a list," Zoe looked up at her father.

"Making a list? For what?" He was looking for a distraction from the mundane work of tying up loose ends for coding he was working on.

"What I want for my birthday," she made her way to him.

Rodney smirked, "And when is that? You know I'm getting old and forget things like that," he picked his daughter up, placing her on his knee.

Zoe laughed, "You know it's tomorrow, daddy." She handed the list over to him. The list was just a set of drawings that depicted what she wanted.

"What do we have here?" The father looked over the list, "Cat...pony," Rodney was able to guess the first two drawings, but he could not figure out the next two. "What are these?" He pointed to the last two pictures. "Cup and a doll?"

Zoe shook her head, "No. Tea party set and a baby."

He was almost speechless, "Tea party set I can do. Arthur is allergic to cats. We have no room for a pony." Rodney swallowed hard, "A baby?"

The girl nodded, "Just like Dr. Lam has. I want someone else to play with."

"Zoe, babies aren't toys to play with. They take a lot of work. A whole lotta lotta work."

"So I can help," Zoe insisted.

Rodney shook his head, "It is not that easy."

"What's not what easy?" Sam asked as she entered the lab. It had been a month since she last stepped foot inside the lab and part of her was glad to be back. It had been a month since Jack died and she thought it was time to try to return to some semblance of normal and Sam knew McKay would be one of the few people who knew well enough to leave her alone.

He looked relieved that someone had shown up to distract Zoe this line of conversation, "Hey, Sam. Wasn't expecting you back today."

"I want daddy to have a baby, so I can have someone to play with," Zoe pouted.

Sam stifled a laugh, "Oh, I'm leaving this one to you, Rodney." The father-daughter duo was always entertaining and always put her in a good mood.

"Thanks," Rodney sighed. "We will talk about this when we get home," he put Zoe back on the ground. "Finish making that list. Sam and I have some things to talk about."

"Okay," Zoe sighed as she went back to her little table.

"I am just about finished on the communications relay. I think it might be ready for a test later today," he turned his attention back the coding he had been working on. Rodney gave her a small smile. He was not going to push her to talk, knowing how much he hated it when he was in her position three years ago. The relay had been a pet project of Rodney's for the last two years and involved multiple small satellites placed between Earth and Atlantis that were cloaked and would provide instantaneous communication between the two bases.

"Really?" Sam asked, taking the seat next to him.

Rodney nodded, "Two years of hard work finally paying off. Instant communication with Atlantis without having the dial the gate." He was rather pleased with himself. What had started off as a project to take his mind off Jennifer was about to become a reality.

"The glitches with the satellite cloaking?"

"Ellis said there were no malfunctions as of last night," a look of smug satisfaction spread across his face. "We finally did it."

She shook her head and started to laugh.

"What is so funny?" Rodney looked upset that she was laughing. "This is not a time to be laughing."

Sam covered her mouth, "Sorry. It's just that you said we."

"And your point? You worked on this just as much as I have," he furrowed his brow.

She shook her head, "Sorry. I was just thinking of the first time I met you and how he would have never used the word we when it came to a project."

Rodney rolled his eyes and gave a fake laugh, "Yeah. Ha. Ha. I know I was a complete jerk back then and it got me shipped off to Russia for six months."

Sam nodded, "You were just a little bit difficult...okay a lot difficult to deal with back then. I would never have expected that jerk to become the person you are today."

"There was a compliment somewhere in there, wasn't there?" McKay raised his finger in the air.

"There was," she nodded her head and then fell silent. After a few moments, Sam looked up and sighed, "It gets easier, doesn't it?" She was wading into that painful territory and he was one of the few she knew that had gone through the same exact pain she was feeling.

Rodney had been typing on the computer and heard only part of the question, "Huh? What gets easier?" The look on Sam's face told him the question she was asking, "You want the truth or the sugar-coated answer?" There was a pained expression on his face.

Sam rubbed the back of her neck and frowned the look on his face said it all; he was still in a lot of pain. It was only a month for her and she woke up every night crying.

"Who ever came up with that expression 'Time heals all wounds.' was a moron. It is not true and it still hurts like hell," he held up his left hand. "See, I still wear my wedding band. Can't take it off." His therapist had suggested that it was time he took it off, but it was something Rodney could not bring himself to do yet.

"How do you do it?" she asked, looking for some guidance.

Rodney shrugged, "I don't know. Knowing my children need me helps. If you want honesty I don't know if I would be here if I didn't have them." That is where their situations were different; he had children and she didn't.

Carter frowned. She was glad for his honesty and put her hand on his shoulder, "Thank you."

"For what? I haven't done anything," he was confused. If anything Rodney thought he had made her feel worse.

Sam kissed his cheek, "You have." She offered him a weak smile.

"I did? What did I do?" he was lost now.

"Telling me the truth. You've been where I am and you've managed to survive," she smiled as she looked at his coding. "Looks like you are done."

Rodney offered a small shrug, "Almost." He looked at his watch and sighed, "And I've got to pick up my two oldest." McKay looked at his daughter, "It's time to go." He turned his attention back to Sam, "I am going to wrap up a few last loose ends from home and try the test run from there. I'll call you to let you know how it goes."

Sam nodded, "I am going to be here a while. Going to catch up on some projects."


Atlantis Infirmary

Jennifer woke several hours later to find herself alone. She thought it had to be the middle of the night since the infirmary was only this quiet at that time. She shut her eyes as she heard footsteps approaching, hoping she could overhear something. There was the distinct impression that they were keeping something from her. Being with Rodney all these years some of his paranoia had rubbed off on her. Could he really be dead?

"Have you been able to figure out what the device does?" Woosley asked the small scientist. The two men were going to check if there had been any changes in Jennifer's condition as they still had some questions for her.

Radek shook his head, "No. I cannot do anything with it. It's like a huge paperweight."

"Do you have an idea when you will know anything?" Richard pressed the other man.

Zelenka threw up his hands, "I have no idea. I don't have the resources to devote a lot of time to this. My team has been working on the power problems on the west pier." Rodney had always made it seem like his job was easy and three years later Radek was still struggling with it.

Woosley nodded, "I understand." Keeping the power to the west pier was a top priority. "What are you suggesting we do?"

"Send the device back to the SGC," the Czech suggested. "Rodney and Sam would probably have better luck with it." He paused and looked over where Jennifer was sleeping.

Richard agreed, "Do you know if Sam has returned to work yet?"

Zelenka shrugged, "I don't know. As of last week I heard she had not returned."

"Rodney knows these kind of devices better than anyone," the scientist nodded. "But what do we tell him? Do we tell him that there is a chance that Jennifer is alive?" He was trying to find the words. Radek knew they had the same conversation the day before but now the situation was different and there was no way they could do this without Rodney.

Jennifer wished she had not pretended to be sleeping as the gravity of their words sunk in. This explained why everyone had been acting odd around her; they thought her to be dead.

"When is the last time you spoke to Dr. McKay?"

"Two weeks ago. He sent some updated coding for the communication relay," Radek sighed. He had not appreciated the belittling from his former boss.

"Is it almost ready?" The leader asked.

"Rodney believes so. He is ironing out the some of the security protocols and fixing glitches with the cloaking. It should be online any day now." Radek explained.

Jennifer was trying to speak but as she was absorbing the information, she wonder how long she was thought dead. It was clear from the conversation that her husband was alive and has been on Earth for some time. It was a safe assumption that their children were with him.

The two men looked at each other as the Star Trek theme started to play through the com system.

Richard tapped his earpiece, "Whomever is playing that music. You know it is against base protocol to use the radios for this purpose."

The music stopped and was replaced by a familiar voice, "And what if I am three million light years away?"

Radek rolled his eyes, "You know you have some odd timing."

Richard smiled. Odd timing indeed. "Rodney, I take it this means the communication relay is ready?"

Rodney rolled his eyes, "Considering I am in Colorado Springs I would say so. I'm only testing it out tonight."

"Who is there with you, running the test?" Zelenka asked. It sounded too quiet to be the SGC. "Is Sam around?"

"Arthur, Abigail and Zoe," he replied.

"You are home?" Richard asked.

"I am. Plus of being one of the bosses. I can make my own hours so I can pick Arthur and Abigail up from school. Besides it is feeding time here." Rodney placed the pizza box on the dining room table. The girls were already at the table, but his son was missing. "Arthur! Pizza's here. Get off your computer," he yelled up the stairs.

Richard looked at Jennifer lying in the bed and he was torn; he was unsure if he should say anything about the woman. He sighed and turned away from her, "Speaking of which how are the children? How about Colonel Sheppard?"

Rodney smirked, "They are good. John is good too. He is off-world or he would have liked to have been here for this." He looked down at Abigail, who was pulling at his shirt, "What is it?"

Abigail stood up on her chair and leaned over to whisper, "Who are you talking to? Is it that strange little man with glasses? The one you and Uncle John say can't do your job as good as you?" But her words were hard over the radio.

Radek's face turned bright red. Obviously Rodney was passing along his attitude to his offspring. "What are the two of you teaching those kids? I can do your job," he was flustered.

"Relax, Radek. She is only five. Don't be too hard on her." He kissed the top of his daughter's head. "That was not a nice thing to say, Abigail."

Zelenka felt it was as if Rodney had never left, "And Abigail is already taking after you."

"You have no idea. You should come over and babysit and see what I deal with." It was so easy for the two to fall back into their old bantering.

"Gentlemen," Richard spoke up. "Rodney, we are having a little trouble with a device we located. Would it be possible for you to pay us a visit and lend us some assistance tomorrow?"

Jennifer had been listening in on the conversation and she thought it was time to speak up, "Radek." She said hoarsely. She wondered what Radek meant by the two of you. Who was the second person he was referring to?

"Can't," Rodney replied. "Have an appointment in the morning and it is Zoe's birthday. You can send it to the SGC and I can take a look at it when I am there in the morning."

Radek turned pale when Jennifer spoke. He wondered how much of their conversation she had heard. He looked to Woolsey for some help.

"I want to talk to my husband," she tried to reach out for Zelenka. The was a look of desperation on her face. No one had told her anything. All she knew was that her husband was living with someone and Abigail was taking after her father.

Richard sighed and reached for his earwig. Despite his earlier misgivings about telling Rodney the truth, he could not in good conscious ignore her request. It should have never been up to him to try to shield Rodney from this. "Rodney, there is someone who needs to talk to you," he handed Jennifer his radio.

"Who is it?" Rodney wondered who wanted to talk to him.

Jennifer's hand was shaking as she put the radio around her ear, "Rodney..."

A chill ran through his body. This was impossible; a cruel trick. Rodney face went pale as he grabbed the back the chair, "J...J...Jennifer?"

There was no reply, "Jennifer." He called her name several more times and no response came. "Radek...Woolsey," he tried to get in contact it the others and still no response. Rodney knew what the silence meant, something happened to the connection. "No...no...no. This can't be happening." It was time to panic.

"Yes, Rodney," Jennifer sighed. She started to shake after he did not respond. "You still there?" she asked and looked over at Radek.

Zelenka tried to raise McKay on the radio and failed, "The connection is gone."