Title: Hidden Secrets
Author: BloodOrigen
Spoilers: Rising
Disclaimer: I don't any of these characters…but if David Hewlett would like to donate himself and his character Rodney McKay to the Michelle foundation…be my guest.
Summary: Sometimes it's better if things stay hidden, because when they are exposed life can only get worse.
Authors note: Thought I might add this until I finish the next chapter...

Interlude: From the depths she watches

Atlantis watched on as her beloved walked through the halls, looking at everything in wonder and awe. He was so much like her previous occupants, like her creators, but he had been abused so much it made her mental components weep. Her beloved was so closed up, so guarded, that it would take a lot of work to break down those barriers that had been built up. She lit up for him and him alone. The others thought it was for the one, whose genetic makeup they knew was close to her former occupants, what did the call him? Oh that's right Major John Sheppard but to her he was more of a protector. She would need his help eventually with her beloved but not right now. It was her job to get him out of his shell, to let his natural genius shine like his ancestors had.

Sometimes she wonders how he did it, how he hid his gene and history from everyone, how that doctor did not see what he was hiding. But then she realizes, it is another one of his barriers. The human mind is complex, she realizes, almost as complex as her. It has created those barriers to protect itself, like the shield that she has that covers her city, but know those barriers must be broken.

She starts by slowly speaking to him, whispering things in his mind when he lets his guard down. She whispers words of comfort and words of praise. She makes sure he remembers to eat and forces him to leave his labs once n awhile. The other sub programs under her have taken a liking to him too. He fixes them with a skill that the others don't have. At times he even makes them run better than they already had. He doesn't' use his own gene. It has been suppressed but the potential for it to awaken is great. She watches as the doctor injects him with something. He thinks it gives his patients the ATA gene but it reality it awakens the recessive ones. For her beloved though it breaks down the barrier he has created on it and finally she can sense him completely. It will take awhile for his gene to become unsuppressed fully and his true potential to be discovered but she is happy because the first step has been taken.