Authors notes: WELL! I wasn't expecting that sort of response! You've all just blown me away. 53 emails for one chapter! I'm still in shock! You have no idea how insanely happy you've all made me. Seriously! I love you all!
I hope you all enjoy this chapter as much as the first one. Please let me know what you think. Love it, hate it, let me know!
SJSJSJSJ
2
"Excuse me?" she asked, taken aback and wakening instantly.
He watched the tiredness leave her face. He looked at her through pain filled and confused eyes. Did she really have no idea who he was?
He felt the world tilt. He saw her through blurred eyes. She was moving towards him, her arms outstretched as if to grab him.
It registered somewhere in the back of his mind that it was cold beneath him. He saw her run back into her quarters through the ever increasing number of black spots. He briefly wondered where she was going.
He didn't have time to ponder what was going on before she was back at his side, her fingers on his neck checking his pulse. He tried to smile through the mist in his brain. He hadn't realised how much he had missed her since arriving on Atlantis those three months before.
She was his mother. She cared for him. Looked after him. Helped him in any way she could. Whether it be with his homework or talking to girls. She had taken him under her wing and helped make him the man he was. The strong and intelligent soldier that his father was beyond proud of.
"This is Colonel Carter, I need a medical team to my quarters, now!" she said into the earpiece.
Carter? he thought as he gave into the darkness.
SJ
Sam examined the bloody and beaten young man on the floor just outside of her quarters. She knelt on the floor by his side, checking his pulse again before checking him for other injuries. She hadn't failed to notice him holding his arm close to his body. She could tell by looking at him, that his shoulder was dislocated.
She had just finished giving him a quick once over when the medical team arrived.
"Colonel?" Keller asked as she came to a stand still by the two people on the floor.
"He has a dislocated shoulder, a cut on his forehead and a split lip from what I can tell," she said as she stood up, the medical team moving into place around the stranger. They carefully placed him on the gurney and wheeled him away.
"Are you alright?" Keller asked her, seeing the haunted look on her face. "Did he hurt you?"
Sam shook her head. "He rang the bell, woke me up. He called me mom."
"You don't know who he is, do you?"
"No, I don't," she shook her head. "I'll meet you in the infirmary. I want the room secured. Until we find out who he is and what's he's doing here, I'm not taking any chances. I'll call security."
"Yes Colonel," Keller nodded and followed her team to the infirmary.
The security team were already in place by the time she got there.
SJ
"Has he woken up yet?" Sam asked as she entered the infirmary, dressed in her uniform.
"No he's still out cold. We've pushed his shoulder back in and cleaned him up as best we can for now," Keller explained as she watched the Ancient's scanner move over the motionless body on the table.
The two women stood and waited until the scanner completed its task. Keller looked at the screen as the machine stilled.
"No other broken bones, no internal bleeding, no nanites. He's okay."
"Still doesn't tell us who he is," Sam mused.
"I've got the blood work running," Keller said as she watched Sam cross her arms over her chest and stare intently at the young man.
He was a handsome young man, even while beaten. A large bruise was forming around the cut on his head, but even that couldn't diminish his boyish good looks.
"Do you recognise him?" Keller asked.
"I don't think so," Sam shook her head to clear her thoughts. "Let me know when he wakes up. We need to find out how he got on the base."
Sam left the infirmary and walked down the long hall. Sheppard was walking towards her.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Uninvited guest. Human from what we can tell. Pretty beaten up," she explained as Sheppard nodded. "He thinks I'm his mother."
"What?" Sheppard's head snapped around to look at her.
"Yeah. I need you to organise search parties. Find out how he got into the city and where he came from. I'm going up to the control room to track things from there."
"Yes Colonel," Sheppard nodded and turned around, heading towards the armoury.
SJ
"What have we got?" Sam asked as she entered the control room to find McKay already at one of the stations working on his laptop.
"Nothing yet. I'm looking through the city's database to find any anomaly's. So far everything is normal," he said as he quickly typed in commands.
"Let me know when you have something," she said as she walked over to her office, her hands in her hair.
Her mind filled with unanswered questions. Who was that young man? How did he get into the city? Was he even old enough to be a part of the Atlantis team? Was he even human? Where had he come from? And why had he called her mom?
Of all of the things he could have done or said to her, she hadn't expected that. Mom.
She sat down heavily in her chair and opened her laptop. She was going to look into things herself.
She was finding it hard to focus. She was far too tired to be dealing with something like this. She was convinced the galaxy didn't want her to have any time off. Just like when she was back in the Milky Way. Pegasus was proving just as stress-worthy.
"Stay focused Sam," she told herself as she felt her eyes begin to droop.
She couldn't remember the last time she had slept properly. It had been a busy few weeks and she was finally starting to get her bearings. Although she had been to Atlantis before, it was a big place and she didn't know her way around.
Sure, she knew how to get to the places she really needed to be, but she hasn't had the chance to explore the city properly. She was eager to learn the layout of the city like the back of her hand like she did the SGC.
A pang of home sickness struck her heart as she thought of all the people she had left behind.
Daniel, her fellow Geek In Arms as General O'Neill called them. Ever since they had first met on Abydos all those years ago, she had felt a strong connection to the slightly older man. He was just as passionate about his work as she was. They could relate to each other easily. Although it was far from the same thing, they had both lost their mothers at a young age. But Daniel had also lost his father on the same day.
Sam herself had lost her own mother while in her early teens. She shook her head. She wouldn't allow herself to think about that. She had other things to focus on.
Her thoughts turned to Teal'c. Her strong and silent companion. Her unlikely friend. Despite being a former enemy, they had a very strong friendship. They had went through so much together over the years and been by each others side for ten years, Sam couldn't begin to imagine her life without him. She smiled when she thought of how she could get him to hug her with just a single look. No one else could do that, with the exception of Cassie.
Cassie. She felt guilty for leaving the bright and ambitious young woman alone on Earth. She knew her three father figures would be there for her with a single phone call, but she wanted to be there too. Cassie understood, of course, but she had already lost two mothers in her short life, she didn't want to make it three.
Finally her thoughts rested on General O'Neill. Her once Commanding Officer. She shook her head. Jack. He was her husband now. She smiled at the thought. For everything other than work, she was Mrs O'Neill. Her smile soon faded. She missed him. She longed for him to hold her, to whisper things in her ear before they fell asleep.
It had taken them both awhile to get used to sharing a bed with someone else again. But they had. And now she felt lonely every night without someone there to hold her.
She sighed. Thinking about her life back home was not helping her solve the problem of who the young man was, or where he came from. Forcing herself to stay focused, she took a deep breath and examined the data in front of her.
She knew it was going to be a long night.
SJ
She had been sitting in her office for nearly two hours when McKay walked in. She had gotten nowhere. The security teams were still looking, but nothing had been disturbed or broken. There were no signs of forced entry. No evidence that he had been anywhere apart from outside of her quarters.
They had checked the atmosphere for clues and had, again, come up empty. He hadn't come by ship. He had apparently appeared out of thin air.
McKay sat himself down on the other side of her desk and passed her a mug of coffee.
"Thank you," she said softly before raising the mug to her lips and taking a long sip, letting the bitter liquid flow easily down her throat. "Anything yet?"
"Nothing. Maybe he did just appear from nowhere," he suggested as he shrugged, raising his mug to his mouth.
"Why here?" she asked as she put her mug down. "Why not on the mainland? Or another planet?"
"Didn't he call you mom?" he asked as he set down his own mug.
"How did you-?"
"Sheppard," he explained after cutting her off.
"Yes," she said, looking at her screen. "Yes he did."
"Maybe that's why he's here," he suggested.
"But he sounded surprised when he said it. Like he wasn't expecting it to be me."
"Colonel Carter?" Keller's voice said through the earpiece.
"Dr Keller?" she replied.
"He's awake. And he's asking for you," she said.
"I'll be right there," she said before tapping it off. "He's awake. It's time to get some answers." She stood up and walked out of her office, McKay two steps behind her.
SJ
He was sitting up on the bed when she walked in. He smiled brightly at her as she walked towards the side of his bed, keeping a careful distance.
"You have no idea how glad I am to see you," he said happily. "I thought I was dreaming."
Sam shared a look with Keller, silently asking if the blood work was back yet. Keller shook her head no before glancing at her watch. She held up one hand and spread her fingers apart indicating another five minutes, hopefully.
"Who are you?" Sam asked him as he reached out to take her hand.
"Mom?" he asked, his hand stilling in mid air. "You're not being serious, are you?" he looked around the room and noticed the guards for the first time. "Mom, it's me. Charlie."
SJ
AN2: Weren't expecting that, were you?! None of you suggested this possibility and for that, I am insanely proud of myself! Please review.