Spoilers: Refers to the captured Wraith in "Suspicion".
Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Sorry it's a little...blah but it picks up in the next few chapters. Please review!

Running Out of Days

Chapter 2

Dr. Elizabeth Weir looked around the table at the members of the foremost team on Atlantis, frowning slightly. "What did you find from the tests?" she questioned, her inquiry directed at Carson Beckett.

He glanced up at her, continuing to fiddle with his pen. "Not much, I'm afraid," he sighed, setting the pen now. "I need more time to analyze the DNA data," he told Weir, shifting uncomfortably in his seat.

"Why?" John Sheppard butted in. Everyone turned to look at him and he shrugged. "Why is it taking so long?"

"The DNA is extremely complex," Beckett explained, gesturing with his hands.

"Are we dealing with a Wraith or not, Dr. Beckett?" Elizabeth questioned bluntly.

"I don't know," he replied. "The DNA isn't even close to the sample we got from the Wraith we captured a while ago."

"But you aren't sure that it's not a Wraith," she stated.

"We know nothing about the Wraiths' genetic make-up. For all we know each one could be completely different," Beckett told her, and leaned back in his seat. "Even if it's nearly the same for every Wraith, I still need more time to decipher her DNA."

"What's the big deal with her DNA?" Lieutenant Ford asked. "It can't be that hard, can it?"

Carson sighed. "Imagine two DNA strands fused together into one," he told the young man, "That's basically what we're dealing with here."

"All right," Weir said. "Anything else we should know?"

"She's got heightened levels of iron in her blood, but it's not that unusual," Carson shook his head and shrugged. "Other than that, she appears to be a normal human being."

"So no worries?" Elizabeth asked.

He shook his head. "I didn't say that."

"Okay," Weir pushed away from the table and stood up. "McKay," she addressed the man currently nursing his cup of coffee, "I want you to run the coordinates from the planet through the computer and see if we've been there before, something has happened there; that kind of thing. Ford, get a Wraith stunner and stand guard outside of the quarantined room. I'm not taking any chances. Sheppard, you and Teyla prepare to go to the planet. Carson, if you figure out anything, call me," she added to Beckett. "We'll brief again at 1500."

Three hours later, Carson Beckett glanced down at his watch and rubbed his eyes. It was nearly 11 o'clock. He yawned, looking at the computer screen in front of him for a moment before resuming his frenzied typing. He was so close; a minute more… As he made the final changes, Carson stared ahead at the two strands, nibbling on his lower lip. Beckett printed out the results and pushed away from the computer. He opened a file cabinet and pulled out a folder, flipping it open and looking at the screen.

"Bloody hell," he whispered, his eyes large. He snapped the folder shut and ran for the door, barely remembering to grab the results as he sprinted.

Major John Sheppard sighed to himself as he looked around the planet for a moment more before glancing at Teyla and the others that had accompanied them. They'd split up and scoured the area for about an hour and found absolutely nothing but burnt foliage and footsteps impressed on the dirt paths that led to the Stargate.

"This makes no sense," Sheppard stated, tapping his fingers on the P90 in his hands. "Weir played the tape—there human and Wraith screaming," Teyla turned to him. "Where are all the bodies?"

"Perhaps the Wraith were victorious," Teyla replied, "They would have brought any alive humans back onto their ships." John simply frowned, his eyes still scanning the ground. Finally, he turned toward the gate.

"Let's hope McKay or Beckett found something, 'cause we've got squat," he said loudly, motioning for someone to begin dialing the address back to Atlantis.

At 1510, Dr. Carson Beckett rushed into the briefing room, shrugging off a white lab jacket as he did so. McKay raised an eyebrow at his late appearance. "Keep it up and your sense of timing will be as good as the major's," he commented.

"Hey! My sense of timing is just fine, thank you very much," Sheppard retorted indignantly.

"Children, please," Elizabeth Weir said stonily, casting a look down the table to McKay and Sheppard.

Beckett sat down quickly, eager to share his finding. He decided that it would be useless to explain to everyone that he was late because another team had come back through the gate, one of the lieutenants shot in the shoulder. The local wildlife hadn't been quite happy to see them and had gone after the man. The lieutenant's teammate, on his order, had shot at the animal. The bullet had killed the animal but ended up lodged in the lieutenant's shoulder. Beckett shook his head, but pushed the incident out of his mind.

"Okay, so let's start," Weir said, clasping her hands in front of her and looking from person to person. "What do we know?"

"I got nothing on the planet," McKay said, ruffled that he had been appointed to the most boring task. "We haven't visited or had a visitor up 'til now."

"Nothin' on the planet either," Sheppard supplied, "It was a nice scenery trip though."

"Did you find anything?" Weir asked pleadingly, "Bodies? Ships?"

"There was nothing left," Teyla answered.

"She hasn't woken up from the painkillers yet," Ford added in, looking nearly as thrilled as Dr. McKay.

Weir ran her hands over her face. This was not turning out to be her day. "Please tell me you've got something, Carson," she said.

Carson grinned. "Matter of fact, I do," he announced, and Weir let out a sigh of relief. Beckett faltered for a moment, "It may or may not be what you want to hear," he told her, and set the print-out of the two separated DNA strands. "I managed to get them pretty much separated from one another," he said.

"Wraith," McKay said, pointing to one of them. He looked over at Beckett, "That's what it is, isn't it?"

"Yes," Beckett nodded. "The other strand is human."

Weir leaned forward on her elbows, studying the diagram. 'I'll pretend like I have some idea what the heck that means,' she thought to herself, bewildered by its complexity. "So she's half-Wraith?" she questioned. "How does that happen?"

"There's no way that two completely separate strands of DNA can be fused together, at least not naturally," Beckett explained. "When a child is born the parents' strands of DNA become a separate new one. This isn't the case. Sometime, most likely when she was about four to seven years of age, Wraith DNA was introduced to her system."

"So she's like a human…only with the power of a Wraith?" Ford asked, his eyebrows drawing together.

Beckett shook his head. "You would be right, but whoever did this probably thought the Wraith DNA would overpower the human DNA. You see," he gestured with his hands, "The Wraith DNA is that of an adult and by the age it was introduced the human DNA wasn't susceptible. Somehow the…scientist," he said, for lack of a better term, "was able to get the Wraith DNA to fuse literally on top of the human DNA."

"Can you speak a language we all know?" Sheppard asked bluntly.

"The Wraith and the human are separate entities," Carson said. "The subject will emit symptoms of a schizophrenic person."

"Now was that so hard?" Sheppard questioned.

McKay settled back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. "So it's like a Goa'uld."

Carson raised his eyebrows. "Um…"

"Never mind," McKay said, rolling his eyes.

"Anyway… My guess is the person wanted a way to cloak a Wraith to find breeding grounds but it didn't work."

"So we're dealing with a half-human half-Wraith?" Weir questioned.

"Basically yes," Carson replied.

"Is there any way to remove the Wraith DNA?"

"I've never seen anything like this, Dr. Weir," Beckett explained, "Besides the fact that you just can remove DNA, it's a complicated pro—"

"We get it," Sheppard interrupted.

"Do you have any idea where she's from?" Elizabeth said, nibbling on her lower lip.

Carson suddenly looked anxious. He glanced at McKay and then pulled another paper from his folder and laid it next to the human DNA from the girl. "This is a sample of Dr. McKay's DNA."

"Whoa," McKay leaned back, staring at Carson, "What does my DNA have to do with this?"

Carson sighed. "Her human DNA is nearly the same as yours, McKay," he said.

"That's impossible," McKay shook his head.

"It's supposed to be a clone of McKay?" Sheppard said bluntly, "Who would want that?"

"John-" Weir tried to intervene.

"Excuse me, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying—"

"It's not a clone!" Carson yelled, shocking both Sheppard and McKay out of their verbal battle.

"Thank you," Ford murmured beneath his breath, tired of the constant bickering between the two men.

"It's ninety-seven percent likely that she's within McKay's immediate family," Beckett finished.

"So…McKay had a daughter that no one knew about…" Sheppard said.

McKay narrowed his eyes and turned to Sheppard. "I don't have a daughter. I think I'd know," he added, his eyes wide.

"Yeah, you probably haven't had a chance at a slip-up in twenty years," Sheppard insulted.

"Major," Weir said, venom in her voice, "You have no place discussing such matters here," she told him, "Not to mention that the same is probably true for you," she added icily, her patience growing thin.

"This is the thanks I get for saving your life?"

"Enough!" Weir slammed her palms on the table. "Carson," she moved her eyes to him and forced a smile on her face. "Please finish what you were saying."

"Do you know of any relatives having a child about sixteen years ago?" Beckett asked.

"N-" McKay stopped suddenly, clamping his mouth shut, his face growing pale.

"Rodney?" Weir asked. He shoved away from the table and ran out of the briefing room. Weir stood up, watching his retreating back. She looked toward Carson for an answer, but he simply shrugged. Elizabeth headed on her way to follow McKay—presumably to the place where the prisoner was being held—and the others followed.

"You know, if Carson's right, we could use her to get information on the Wraith," Sheppard said, jogging alongside Weir.

"She's half-human, John," Elizabeth replied, her eyes flashing. "She has rights."

"Does she?" Sheppard asked. Weir stopped and glared at him. What was his deal? Ever since he'd come back from that planet he'd been a total asshole. Weir shook her head and resumed her run toward the holding room. She had more important problems to worry about than Sheppard's sudden bipolar turns.

The main one being figuring out what was up with McKay.

Author's Note: I hope you guys liked this chapter! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. I think I'll try and update weekly from now on if I can keep getting these chapters written early. :) And no, John's attitude isn't a coincident:) Anyway, please review!