Disclaimer: Didn't really edit this one, so it's kind of word vomit chapter. If you see anything wrong with it, tell me so I can fix it.

Despite the fact that he loved his sister to death, John Sheppard would continue to get annoyed every time someone he wanted to talk to was busy 'hanging out' with his sister (because as a brother it was his duty to get suspicious of the intention of any male that came within ten feet of her). Teyla had already started teaching her on the sticks, praising her as a quick study, which made Carson ask a lot more frequently about this tic that he seemed to have developed. Ronon changed their running schedule around because Calypso was an earlier riser than John, and her running circuits wore the Satedan out.

John had fumed for days over that one.

And it pissed him off every time someone called for 'Sheppard' and then meant his sister. The only person who didn't do this was Rodney, but John had a sneaking suspicion that this was only because Rodney feared his sister. John had to smirk as his mind echoed Rodney's gloating words back at the genius. He should fear. He should fear greatly.

"So you two had a falling out?" Rodney asked as they lounged in Rodney's room, drinking beer that had been smuggled to Atlantis aboard the Daedalus by a surprisingly easy going naked gray alien, and Sheppard gave another shrug. They were lounging in Rodney's room because as of yet, Calypso didn't know where that was.

"Not exactly; in fact, if she'd been along from the beginning, I'd probably have been cool with it." John answered, propping his feet up on Rodney's coffee table and folding his hands behind his head. Rodney looked interested.

"Very close siblings then,"

"Emotionally if not geographically," Sheppard agreed.

"Must have been nice," Rodney replied, almost wistfully. Sheppard looked at him from the corner of his eye and then shook his head.

"You'd have hated her." he said, drawing Rodney's attention. "She was just like me." he added, and Rodney thought about that for a second. "We got into the worst kinds of trouble," he continued wistfully. "We still had our own friends, I mean after we reached that age where you just need your own friends, y'know?" he asked.

Rodney nodded, even though he never had that age when he was growing up.

"Until we were twelve, you could not tell us apart. And we used that to our advantage, too. And then when we got older and started going to high school, I'd hit on her friends, and she'd hit on mine." he added with a nostalgic grin. Rodney shook his head and rolled his eyes.

"You would,"

"Yep." answered John, with a shit-eating grin on his face.

"Okay, I have to ask," Rodney said, and Sheppard looked at him. "What does 'forbidden' mean?" he asked, and John rolled his eyes.

"It was something we did when we were kids. If one of us didn't want the other to talk about a certain subject—"

"Like Star Trek, apparently," Rodney interjected, but Sheppard just talked a little louder, ignoring that Rodney had said anything.

"—then we'd say, 'you're forbidden to ever speak of that in or out of my presence unless I say it's okay', which – eventually – was shortened to just 'forbidden'," he explained. Rodney rolled his eyes.

"Which just goes to show that you never evolved out of your childhood," he quipped, and John raised an eyebrow.

"If that's the case, then you know Calypso never did either," he commented, and to this, Rodney groaned, rolling his eyes and letting his head loll back on his couch.

"Why is your sister such a freak?" he asked, and John looked at him.

"Hey," he cautioned, and Rodney glanced at him before shaking his head.

"I mean, sorry, but your sister is crazy."

"She is," Sheppard admitted with a nod of his shaggy head.

"She won't leave me alone, either. I swear it's getting so bad I won't even stay in the lab if it's just going to be me." complained the scientist, which only made John chuckle. "I am falling behind on several key projects, and it is not funny, John. So not." he added, pointing at the Lieutenant Colonel.

"Well what do you want me to do about it, Rodney, it's not like I can tell her not to go near the labs, she has clearance for everywhere, and she got her degree in Mathematical Theory the same time I finished college," he argued, not mentioning at all that they had continued their close friendship in college, even going so far as to get the same degree, with the same classes at the same time. They were even roommates, because it wasn't like either of them actually slept in the room anyway. Calypso didn't, anyway.

"Sure you can." Rodney countered, and John rolled his eyes, snorting.

"Okay, yes, I can, but let me ask you, do you think she'll listen?" he returned, eying the man pointedly with an arched eyebrow. "We are talking about my twin, remember?" he asked, and Rodney groaned.

"As if I could forget. You'd probably break my legs for going within two feet of her." he muttered, and John sighed a very put upon sigh.

"Why do you people insist on having these conversations with me?" he asked, and Rodney blinked owlishly at him. "Never mind. Rodney, if you go after my sister, just don't tell me about it." he said, and Rodney flushed.

"Oh, please," he scoffed, but John just drank the rest of his Daedalus smuggled beer and retreated from his best friend's room, shaking his head.

After a few weeks, things appeared to settle down into their new routine, and the only thing that was any different at all was that now Rodney got to sleep at a decent hour. Or at least, he got to his room.

Calypso's room was in a different hall from Rodney's (a personal request from the scientist in question), but close to the labs, which was the only suitable room in the sleeping quarters that Calypso would even look at because it was spacious and it had a balcony. It looked suspiciously like Rodney's room, actually, a thought that absolutely did not creep John out at all.

Lorne grounded Parrish, which wasn't all that bad; really, the botanist didn't want to go through the gate, and Calypso, well…the girl was practically vibrating as she waited for the ancient artifact to kawoosh her to an all new adventure.

They came back half an hour later, Gales was dead, and Calypso was bleeding, and she was way too subdued to be the woman who had been so eager for off-world travel, and John, who was there for their return and for Cal's medical examination (revealing that a few arrows had glanced off her shoulders and one had taken a chunk off her thigh but other than that and a busted lip, she was fine), knew that she got it now.

He half expected her to want to stay in Atlantis now, where it was relatively safe, but when Carson was patching her up, she asked, quietly, but determinedly, when she could resume her duties as an off-world team member. John had puffed up on the inside, and he clapped Cal on the shoulder that wasn't quite so sore and then left to brag about his sister's bravery to his own gate team.

And when Teyla was busy, he took over training with his sister for the day, which turned out to be a mistake. One moment of distraction, and suddenly he was curled up on the floor wondering why he couldn't hear out of one ear.

He was only temporarily deafened, and Carson had told him as much, but what did he expect from sparring with wooden sticks, and it really wasn't that serious, so would he please stop screaming at him, please? Cal had just sat there while Carson had helped her twin away to the infirmary for painkillers and a bandage. She'd been so angry.

Gales had been a blast.

He was smart, he was funny, he was nice.

He was dead.

She threw the stick she was holding across the room and then dropped to her knees, taking deep breaths and trying not to relive every heart-wrenching moment of the ambush. They were on their way to the village that they'd heard about, and Gales had been in the middle of a joke that he'd apparently told a million times. He was just about to deliver the punchline – she braced her hands against the floor and took deeper, faster breaths, tears falling to splash against the solid marble-ish floor.

The arrow had knocked him back a few feet, and they all stared in horror until Calypso, who had dropped to his side to see if he was still alive, jumped to her feet only to have an arrow fly through about an inch of skin on her thigh. She'd almost gone down and stayed down, and she probably would have if she hadn't remembered that she had a weapon too, and her arrows were smaller, faster, and no less deadly.

She sat on the gym floor for what seemed like forever until she heard a tinny squawk in her ear, and she tucked her memory into a box in the corner of her mind, wiping at her face.

"—pso Sheppard?"

"Yeah, McKay, what's up? Changed your mind about bunking with me?" she asked, with a weak chuckle. Hopefully he wouldn't know her well enough to know that she was just crying.

"Uh…no. Actually, I was wondering where your brother was, he's supposed to be helping me out in the lab, turning things on." answered the scientist, clearly distracted by whatever life-saving device he'd found that day. She smirked, feeling a little bit better already.

"I'd be happy to turn you on, Rodney," she teased, and there was a pause.

"Wait, what?" he demanded, and she laughed, pulling herself together and standing up.

"I'm joking, McKay. John's in the infirmary, I got a little enthusiastic with our sparring, and I boxed him a good one upside his head. But don't worry, he's got a thick skull." she assured him. "Give me a few minutes, and I'll sub in for him." she offered.

"Um, uh…"

"Good. See you after I shower."