Chapter Two: Meet and Greet

"All right. Where to next?" Sheppard asked as he strode into Dr Weir's office.

"The gate room. The SGC's resident Ancient expert is beaming down in ten minutes, and you are going to greet her, along with Major Lorne and Rodney," Dr Weir said.

"I thought Daniel was indispensable?" McKay asked in bewilderment from the door.

The two turned to face him and Lorne, who had both just arrived.

"It's someone else, not Dr Jackson," Weir said.

"Who knows more about the Ancients than Daniel?" McKay asked sceptically.

"Anyone I know?" Lorne asked from his place behind McKay.

"Dr Avery Sewe;;."

The two military officers frowned as they attempted to remember anyone by that name whilst McKay said in surprise, "Lucky No Fun's coming..."

"Lucky No Fun?" Lorne asked in astonishment.

"Rodney! She's been through enough already! Don't be callous!" Weir scolded.

"Wait...Lucky, as in ascension, amnesia, and anti-social Lucky Bird?" Lorne asked.

"Yes. That's her, the albino opera singer who developed schizophrenia after being forcefully un-ascended," McKay said bitterly.

"Un-ascended?" Sheppard asked.

"Yeah. She was ascended before Jackson, gone without a trace for three years. Then, she shows up on a routine reconnaissance mission to an uninhabited world with no memory and schizophrenia," Lorne said.

"But she remembers now, right?" Sheppard asked with apprehension.

"Yes," Weir said.

"So then-" Sheppard began again.

"We don't have time for that," Weir said. "You three need to get down to the gate room before she beams down from the Odyssey.

"Great!" Lorne said eagerly, hurrying down with the others following behind more slowly.

Even before they arrived, a beam of white light shone through the gate room before disappearing, leaving in its wake a small, pale woman; a large, plastic tub; and a grey standard issue duffle bag. This woman was clearly an albino: her skin and hair were white as paper whilst her eyes shone a disconcerting red as they took in her surroundings. She did not even stand five feet high, and her build was comparatively small. They were all surprised to see that she was not wearing a uniform but shiny, black English riding boots; skin-tight black leggings; a crisp, white shirt fitted to perfection; a purple leather bomber jacket with an asymmetrical zipper; and a leaf green scarf wrapped loosely around her neck.

"Welcome to Atlantis, Dr Sewell. I am Dr Weir," Dr Weir said kindly as she hurried down the stairs.

"It is a pleasure to meet you," Avery responded with a nod before peering up at the men following the base commander.

"This is Colonel John Sheppard, Major Evan Lorne, and Dr Rodney McKay," Weir said, gesturing to each man in term.

"Gentlemen, McKay" Avery acknowledged with a nod of her head.

"It's nice to see you again, Lucky," Lorne said, walking forward to offer the newcomer his hand with a slightly awkward smile.

"You, too, Lorne. You're moving up in the world," Avery commented, very gently grasping his hand to shake it before replacing it behind his back.

"Yeah. Now, I'm the CO of Atlantis 2, not SG-11, the team that always gets trapped," he said with a chuckle.

"That's not happening here, is it?" Avery asked in mock worry.

"Only occasionally," Lorne shot back.

Before either of them could continue their banter, Dr Weir cleared her throat. The two of them turned to face her only have their attention drawn away by McKay saying exasperatedly, "Now, he's turning into a Kirk! What is it with you people?"

"I'm not flirting!" Lorne denied instantly, turning indignantly to the scientist.

"We've worked together before," Avery assured them.

"Well, then perhaps you should show Dr Sewell to her quarters and then to the Medical Bay," Dr Weir said.

"Great. Let's go," Avery said with false eagerness before muttering under her breath, "For yet another medical exam."

"Tired of being poked and prodded?" Lorne asked as he picked up her tub of belongings and began to walk to the nearest transporter.

"I've been through about every test possible in order to get here, probably because Ganos made at least one mistake when she created this lovely body and pushed my mind into it," Avery said with surprising bitterness.

"But that's why you have your meds, right?" Lorne asked as they walked out of the transporter.

"Yep. So I don't have another psychotic breakdown," she said with mocking cheerfulness.

"Wow. No wonder O'Neill liked having you around," Lorne said as he stopped at a door.

"So, is this my room?" Avery gestured to the door.

"Yep. Just wave your hand in front of here and the door'll open. Do you have the Ancient Gene?" Lorne said, opening the door and gesturing for her to go inside.

"Naturally, actually. I'm lucky that way; I have a lot of uncommon genes," Avery said before looking into the room. "So, a nice bed, a bathroom, a dresser, a wardrobe, fairly roomy..." she observed.

"It's bigger than the crappy, little rooms at the SGC, too," Lorne offered, setting the tub down in front of the wardrobe.

"But smaller than my apartment," Avery commented, sitting down to test the bed.

"Hey! Not all of us are rich singers in New York," Lorne protested.

"I wasn't rich!" Avery objected.

"Then how'd you afford a nice, big apartment in Manhattan?" Lorne questioned.

"The Air Force was paying me and the theatre company," she pointed out before laying back and sighing.

"Come on. We need to go," Lorne said, offering his hand to pull her to her feet.

"Right. More tests," Avery said, clearly not looking forward to yet another doctor poking through her history to find all of her abnormalities and reasons to be unfit for her job. And yet, she was still there.