Chapter 3

Actually Duncan did not even like 'Danny Boy.' Nor did Carson. But when two Scots got drunk together, it seemed like the right thing to sing. Perhaps it would just have been a little better if the two of them could remember the lyrics:

"Oh, Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling,

From glen to glen, and down the mountain side.

The summer's gone, and all the flowers are dying.

'Tis you, 'tis you mushroom and I will hide..."

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Carson Beckett (II, but unaware at the time) had spent many months waiting for Atlantis to find him. He had heard the commotion outside his prison and known it was them.

But he had not expected the looks of utter confusion on their faces when John, Rodney and Ronon had walked into his cell that day.

Yet that was nothing compared to the shock of seeing himself face-to-face for the first time. Rodney had tried to explain to him that they had not been looking for him, seeing as he wasn't missing. Seeing Carson Beckett – the real one – had not been something anybody could have prepared him for. In his mindhewas Carson Beckett,he was the real person.

The pretty new doctor, Jennifer Keller, had been the one to take the time in finding the truth. She had been the one who told him he was definitely a clone.

A clone! Pigs and sheep and ants were things to clone, not humans. Yet here he was. And whenever he felt like it must all be a bad dream, he only had to go find Carson – the real Carson – to know the truth.

That was why he had insisted from the start that he would not even try and be the original Carson. He knew there was no way to compete.

Soon after they had stuck him in that fridge – sorry, stasis pod – and for one terrible moment he had thought they were just getting rid of him. What use did they have for him? Carson Beckett, the doctor, was already there, living his life. To help him he had Doctor Keller. Why would they want another Beckett? Another doctor?

Jennifer Keller had promised him she would not give up on finding a cure for him, on getting him out of the pod. He had not known then that when she gives her word, she would do anything to keep it.

She had been the one to awaken him, to tell him they might have found a cure. Three months have passed, three months that had been tiring and difficult for her. No amount of words could have expressed how he had felt about her in that moment. She had been an angel sent to bring him back to life.

No wonder he had fallen for her. But having her fall for him had been much more difficult.

Another two surprises that had awaited him – aside from the abundance of new enemies Atlantis has made – was those regarding Elisabeth Weir and Sitnalta.

They told him about Elisabeth's accident. Rodney explained how she had been saved by the nanites. And how John still refused to give her the time of day. The last part was the worst, seeing as he had always suspected John and Elisabeth to be close.

And then there was Sitnalta. She fascinated him on a level few could understand. She, too, was a clone: a clone of the city herself! Yet this had never stopped her from trying to find her own voice, her own life. As he now had to find his own place in life.

It had been John that had dubbed him 'Duncan.' It was a tribute to the 'Highlander' show and Beckett did not mind. In fact, he fully embraced the name. If he was Duncan Beckett, then he was not Carson Beckett anymore. With just that simple change in his life, he could take control of it again.

So he had chosen to go to any planet that needed his help. He had not really expected to return to Atlantis after that.

But it had been Jennifer Keller that had changed that eventually. For some reason she had seen something in him that had fascinated her. Perhaps in the beginning it had been the fact that he was a medical anomaly. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that she had spent so much time working on a way to get him out of that stasis pod. Either way, he had only been on P7R-443 for a few weeks before her first visit. Then she had told him it was only to check on him, to make sure he was still doing okay. But she had returned only two weeks later – two days after he had been on Atlantis for a check-up.

Soon her visits had become a weekly thing, something he looked forward to every week. And by now he would visit her on Atlantis as often as he could. Had it not been for the fact that the villages he were in were often far from the gate, he would have tried sleeping on Atlantis and going to work every day.

The situation concerning Carson had been more complicated. He understood why Carson had shunned him at first: he had felt the same thing. Every time he looked at Carson he was reminded of everything he would never be; everything he had lost. He even wondered if he would ever see Scotland again.

Then Carson had come to visit him instead of Jennifer. Carson had decided to give him a chance. In fact, by now they were good friends and it had even been Carson that had invited him for the game of Spite and Malice – partly because he had wanted him there, but also partly because the two Becketts were the only ones who actually knew how to play the game.

So now Atlantis had two Becketts: one working on the city and one working everywhere else. People still had trouble distinguishing between the two of them, but they accepted them both in stride. Living in the Pegasus galaxy did make many stories that seemed impossible believable.

Considering all else, life was precious and lovely.

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"And I shall hear, you soft and great and love me,

And all my dreams will warm and sweeter be,

If you'll not fail to tell me that you love me.

I'll simply sleep in peace until you come to me."