A/N Anyone who is enjoying my relatively quick update, you should send Vividvideogeek a thank you. She's inspiring me to really get some stuff ready to post. One, maybe two more chapters will be coming your way this week since I'm having a staycation. I promise I'm still working on Unforgettable, too, but just one enthusiastic reader has me going nuts on this one, so if you want more McGibbs, why not post a review or two on Red Shoes or Cooking Bacon? Even a PM wouldn't be amiss…

Chapter Four

Jordan was allowed to get Leah's email forwarded to her, and so Leah got to work on her thesis with the final batch of data her team had sent her. She spent hours each day double checking her information and conclusions, and it came together quickly. She finished it and put it through processing to get it mailed out to her advisory board at Tamag, as Texas A&M at Galveston was known. There wasn't much for her to do after that, and she began to spend time wandering around, getting a feel for the people on the base. She began to suspect that the feelings and intuitive leaps she was having were more than that, and she enjoyed listening to people as she tried to catch what they were thinking. Skills and abilities tended to increase with use, so she practiced. When her head started to ache from too much of that practice, she changed her clothes and got directions to the gym. Headphones on, she began to run on an open treadmill. Her mind wandered as she enjoyed stretching her legs into a familiar rhythm. This underground base was interesting enough, but she missed the sun. Fresh air, even painfully cold air would be wonderful to feel again. The beloved smell of the ocean was surely denied her for some while. But when she could go to Atlantis she'd at least see it, along with the elegant spires of the city, and the blue, shadowed eyes of Dr McKay, hiding all his fears and pains so vehemently… Leah dropped into a daydream of running with him along the long piers she'd seen at the edges of the city. He'd complain, of course. But she would cajole gently until he smiled. A real smile, not the smirk, or the sneer, or the tight little lip stretch he seemed to think was a smile. And they'd run in companionable silence, enjoying the sea breeze, and afterwards, a shower to soak and…

Leah brought herself back to her current location and situation abruptly. This was not the place for a daydream to devolve into a sexual fantasy. The man was in another galaxy, but the way thoughts of him affected her made her flush. She slowed her pace, walking for several minutes, then went off to find a cold shower.

~~~SGA~~~

Leah sat dejectedly in the cafeteria. Her new friend Corporal Slate was off today. She knew it was for security reasons, but she hated being confined to the base. Jordan was out somewhere with O'Neill, and Leah still didn't know most of the other people well yet. Worse still, she was feeling totally alone, missing her interactions with McKay, and again her hormones were tapping insistently on her shoulder as her thoughts lingered on him. She nearly flew out of her seat when someone tapped her shoulder.

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask if I could join you," Daniel exclaimed, looking sheepish. Leah laughed.

"It's alright. I just…I had just had the thought that my…emotions were tapping me on the shoulder, and then you did! Please, Dr Jackson, sit down," she said. He did, setting a tray with a sandwich and a cup of coffee on the table.

"I know I've asked before, but, really, call me Daniel."

"Well, thanks, Daniel. I appreciate the company. Jordan is the only person I really know, and she has her job to do, so I don't want to monopolize all her time."

The handsome man nodded and tucked into his food. "So how are you doing?" He asked between bites. She decided to test the idea she'd been kicking around and focused her mind to answer mentally.

'Fine, just bored,' she sent. He nodded. He hadn't been looking at her when she replied. She knew what he was going to reply before he said it.

"That's understandable. It's unfortunate you have to be stuck on the base while your security clearance is checked." She read the associated memory he had of when he'd been brought into the Stargate program years before.

"At least they let you get right to work when you arrived. I'm not even allowed to go back to Atlantis until they're done," she said aloud.

"How—how did you know about that?" He stared at her, his sandwich in his hand, though forgotten.

'I think that device made me telepathic,' she sent, keeping her mouth firmly closed as she did. His sandwich dropped from his hand, landing with a little plop on the table, the tuna salad wet.

"That's-that's incredible! H-H-How long have you known? What's it like? Does JJ know?" His verbal response stuttered, but his mind just ran on and on with questions. She bit her lip and smiled at him.

"I wasn't sure until just now," she confided. "Jordan and I have always had a very strong sense of each other," she shrugged, "a twin thing, you know. But I've been getting a stronger and stronger sense of people's motivations and emotional states, and I figured you wouldn't freak if I tested it on you." She grinned. "Freak bad, anyway. You're kind of freaking, with all the questions running through your mind and stuff."

"This-this is just so—" She smiled and sipped her lemonade, amused by the way his mouth couldn't keep up with his mind. "Oh!" He exclaimed, and got up. He looked at her, then headed out of the cafeteria. She could tell he wanted her to come with him, but he hadn't said it, so she hesitated.

Daniel came back into the room and up to her table. "Are you coming?" He asked. She grinned.

"You never said it out loud, you know," she told him as she rose. He did a classic double take.

"Of course I did, I—" He stopped. "Never mind. We need to go see Sam."

Leah halted. She hadn't felt all that comfortable with Colonel Carter since she'd arrived, and she wasn't sure she wanted to spend much time with the woman poking and prodding her about her new ability. Daniel stopped when he saw her face. Leah looked away.

"She's really not so bad, you know," he said quietly. "She just doesn't see what you see regarding McKay."

Leah looked at him, and he raised his eyebrows. He was so gentle and compassionate, and he was really trying to make her feel better about Carter.

"It's hard to listen to all the criticism of him. He's been really wonderful with me."

Daniel sighed, considering. "Well, when he was here the first time, he almost got a member of our team killed, and he has been very rude to Sam pretty much whenever they've worked together. That makes her reaction more understandable, doesn't it?" He ducked his head to look at her over his glasses. She smiled. He was adorable.

"I guess so. And it doesn't really matter anyway. I have to have someone check this new ability out, and I'd rather not go to the medical staff again, so…lead on, MacDuff," she gestured for him to precede her, and he smiled, nodding.

~~~SGA~~~

"So how does it work, actually?" Carter asked her when they'd explained why they had invaded her lab. Leah shrugged.

"Just like it does when I'm projected to Atlantis; I get impressions of feelings and mood pretty constantly, and emphatic thoughts I hear spontaneously. If I try at all I can pick up anyone's surface thoughts who are close by. I haven't tried to read anyone deeper like I did Dr McKay."

"That must have been fun," Carter muttered. Leah gritted her teeth.

"It was very informative, actually. I don't think many people get to see anything of who he really is behind his protections," Leah snapped. Daniel put a hand lightly on her back, and she took a deep breath. "So, I expect I could read anyone on a deeper level if I get close. I had to—touch him to really go deep."

"Touch him? You were incorporeal," Carter protested.

"Well, it was like touching him, I got close and reached out and I could see some of my glowy cloud right against his shoulder, okay?"

Carter twitched her head back at Leah's defensiveness. "Sorry, I'm just trying to understand."

Leah looked away and nodded. "Some people seem louder than others, and in Atlantis, like I said before, people with the gene can see me, and Major Sheppard was exceptionally loud to me. I don't know if that's because he's what Dr Beckett referred to as a natural carrier or what."

Carter ran scans of Leah's brain, and eventually Leah had to go down to the infirmary to get more blood drawn and further medical scans done. The next day Leah was to be run through a battery of tests by Carter and Jackson, but when she arrived at Sam's lab, it was dark. She went to find Daniel.

"Oh, yeah, she had to go off-world, so I-I'll do those tests we talked about," Jackson told her. She sensed his concern for Carter but chose not to pry for more information. He made her do all the classic telepathy tests, which she scored perfectly on, then moved on to more intense testing.

"So let's try having you go deeper, like you said you did with McKay," Daniel said. Leah nodded.

"Let's see what I can do without touching you first, yes?" Leah asked. He nodded.

"What am I thinking about?"

"Blue jell-o, and how much Sam likes it."

"Now?"

"A symbol of some kind, like a squiggle in an oval. You're associating it with…Teal'c and Apophis, and you have positive reaction to the former and—wow, loathing for the latter." Leah leaned away from the strength of Daniel's emotion.

"Um, sorry. And now?"

"Oh! That sci-fi show, Wormhole Xtreme. God, that show is awful."

Daniel laughed. "Now?"

"The pyramids. As landing platforms for spaceships? Hey, that really happened? Cool."

"Okay, so let's try taking one further. To start—" He concentrated, and she saw a scaly alien. Her head jerked as she realized it was a real memory.

"I see him," she said.

"What's his name, how did I meet him?"

"Chaka, and you met him when…he snatched you. You—you're thinking in a foreign language now," she said. She concentrated, then imitated the sounds she 'heard' as best she could. "And that means…water is many…miles? To the east." He smiled at her.

"Now I'm getting a history lesson about Chaka's people. Thanks, but that's more Jordan's purview."

"Alright then—"

"Look, you're just feeding me with this. I don't feel any…difficulty at all. Any other ideas?" She interrupted. Daniel shrugged and nodded, thinking.

"McKay was taking readings on some of the Ancient equipment and I…I ended up just kind of rifling through his memories when he needed me to do more intense 'psychic stuff'. I don't know how else we could use this," she said.

"Hmm, well, I'm not sure that command would want you looking at my memories," Daniel prevaricated, and she caught a few memories flashing through his thoughts which looked dark and chaotic and frightening. Then there was one which was full of light and peace, and she was drawn to it. There was another person, a feminine energy, and she was offering enormous possibility to him. Leah felt Daniel stretch in his memory, his mind opening like a lotus, felt his self-discovery of each petal, felt the peace that settled onto him as he rose up and flew, unbounded by all mortal constraints. Leah's sense of self shrank as she saw how Daniel had expanded into some kind of infinite space, and her vision clouded, darkened, and she found herself on the floor, looking up at Daniel's concerned face.

"What was that?" She asked. Her voice was breathy and her head ached.

"You fainted," Jackson said, helping her to sit up.

"No, I mean—yeah, I did, but…what the hell happened to you? Did you die?"

"Oh—that, well, yeah, um…kind of," he said unhelpfully. She shook her head and smiled at him.

"Alright then. I think I'll leave that alone for now," Leah chuckled, and he shrugged, smiling an embarrassed smile. "Um, my head hurts, can we stop?"

~~~SGA~~~

They planned to work together more in the next few days, but the arrival of another General delayed them. Leah was officially requested to speak with the man about Atlantis. Jordan escorted her to the briefing room, reassuring her that General Hammond was a good man. When she met him, Leah had to agree. He had a wonderful air of confidence and paternal interest about him. She wasn't told why, but she was expected to tell him anything he asked. She began to get a sense of some mission to Atlantis that they must be planning. She didn't know how they planned to get there, but the questions Hammond asked were very practical ones. He grilled her just as the others had at her original debriefing, but without the criticisms of McKay. When Leah was finally dismissed, she passed Daniel in the hall on her way back to her room. His mind was more familiar to her, and she easily read that he was going with Hammond on a new spaceship to Atlantis. She stopped him with a grip on his arm.

"Daniel, um…would you tell Dr McKay why I haven't been back, and just, ah, say hi to him for me?" Leah said quietly. His eyes widened for an instant, and then they darted around quickly and returned to hers with a look that told her to shut up. She nodded to him, shrugging as she walked away, tossing an impish grin over her shoulder at him. He shook his head and smiled back.

He was gone the next day when she asked about him. When he returned a week later, he was unhappy and Leah chose to leave him alone, knowing the mission must have failed to reach Atlantis.

~~~SGA~~~

"Mail call, Elf," Jordan said, coming into Leah's room and tossing her a small stack of envelopes. Leah looked through them, sighing at her mother's handwriting and exclaiming over the Tamag return address on another. She tore it open immediately, scanning it. Then she leapt to her feet and jumped up and down.

"They accepted it! They accepted my thesis! I just have to defend it and I'll be Doctor Elton!" She bounced around in a circle, and Jordan laughed and hugged her. They mirror danced a little in celebration.

"Congratulations, sis! That's really incredible," Jordan told her. Leah stopped dancing.

"Aarg! I can't go to Texas to defend 'cause I'm stuck on this base! Damn!"

"It won't be forever, Elf," Jordan tried to pacify her. Leah stalked over and threw herself on the bed and kicked her heals a few times.

"I know. I-know-I-know-I-know! It's just… I've worked so hard for this, and I want to be Dr Elton when I go back and see…" she trailed off at her sister's sense of disapproval. Leah rolled her eyes. "Yeah, like you have the best taste in men. Does he even know how you feel?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Jordan protested, but Leah read the answer in her sister's mind. Jordan wasn't sure if Jack O'Neill knew, and she wasn't sure how he felt, either.

"Yeah, uh-huh. Veh, right?" Leah shook her head. She was so frustrated with Jordan. "Look, I'm gonna go for a run, okay?"

Jordan stood and went to the door. "Fine. See you later." She left.

Leah got changed and headed out, a plan beginning to form. She didn't expect to have a chance to implement it so quickly, but O'Neill was in the gym when she arrived. She quickly hopped onto the treadmill next to his.

"Hi," she said brightly. He nodded. "Have you seen Jordan?" She asked as she switched the machine on and began a light jog. She reached out with her mind, trying to get a feel for his response to her sister's name. She got nothing.

"Nope. Check Daniel's lab," he said.

"She works with Daniel a lot, then?"

"Uh-huh."

"Do you get to work with her much?" She said, reaching out, pushing herself. His mind was like one-way glass. When she struggled, it was like she could sense something, vaguely, but there were no words, nothing she could put a name to.

"Not much." He shut his machine off, pulled the towel off the bar beside him, and nodded to her as he walked away. She thought about the encounter. What was different about him? He had the gene, but she'd been able to read people in Atlantis more who had the gene. Especially Sheppard. From what the medical staff had said, O'Neill was also what they called a 'natural', or an exceptionally potent carrier, like Sheppard, or herself. O'Neill was older, and he'd been in the military longer. What was his background? Was he a pilot? Or maybe something else. She stayed and finished a few miles before quitting.

Daniel joined the twins for dinner in the cafeteria that evening. Leah maneuvered the conversation around to personal histories of the various people she'd met on the base, and Daniel finally let slip the information that Leah was fishing for.

"—with Jack's background in Special Forces, he's seen plenty of ground combat. Sam's seen a lot of combat hours in the air, though," Daniel finished. Leah nodded. Special forces would likely give their people anti-interrogation training. He'd have automatic defenses to his mind.

"Thanks, that clears that up," Leah said to him. She'd have to figure out another way to get past those blocks.

~~~SGA~~~

Leah was reading in her room when she sensed Jordan approaching. Her twin stuck her head in the door.

"Good news! Your security clearance has been granted. Wanna get out of here?" Jordan smiled. Leah's heart leapt.

"Oo! Could, could you wait a bit? If I'm cleared, I can go back to Atlantis. Just pop back and let them know we're good to go for scheduled reports and research," Leah said, trying to spin her desire to see McKay again to something Jordan would approve of. But they'd had too many conversations about him, and Jordan sighed, her shoulders sagging.

"You just want to go see—"

"Hey! I've been working pretty hard on this crush here, so what better way to find out for myself that you're right and he's just an asshole than to go spend more time with him?" Leah interrupted, grinning. She was bouncing in her chair and Jordan sighed again, then straightened up and gave a stern look

"Two hours. I want you back here in two hours or I will drag you back here whatever it takes!" Jordan was adamant. Leah grinned.

"Two hours, absolutely!" Leah went and lay down on the bed and began to breathe deeply. She sensed Jordan's curiosity and that her twin came into the room and sat in the chair she'd been reading in, watching Leah. Though an audience wasn't the best conductor for meditation, it was only Jordan, and Leah really wanted to go, so she blocked out the distraction and focused on getting to Atlantis.

At the city, it was late evening, as far as Leah could tell. There was still a thin strip of light at the horizon, but the stars were out in abundance. She paused and studied them, awed by the fact that they were totally different from either the northern hemisphere she'd grown up with or the southern where she'd spent so much time recently. That brought home to her better than the intellectual knowledge that she really was in another galaxy. She remembered that she could go see McKay and headed into the city. His lab held another scientist, a short man with longish thinning brown hair, but he didn't have the gene and couldn't see her. She paused, wondering what he was working on, and tried to listen to his thoughts, but they were in a foreign language. She could grasp that the work he was doing had to do with a generator, and maybe repairs, from the images accompanying the thoughts, but the language was a real barrier for her. With a mental shrug, she headed down the hall toward McKay's room. She entered at the door, peeking in first, then entering when she saw he was clothed on his bed. She approached and could see his breathing was slow and even. He slept. He lay atop the covers, fully dressed, as if he had collapsed in exhaustion. As Leah moved closer, studying the relaxed countenance, she noticed a bandage on his forearm. Blood had seeped through.

Leah must have projected her concern, as McKay's eyes flew open.

"Huh? Wha—Leah?" McKay mumbled, sitting up. She backed off a bit.

"I'm sorry I disturbed you. I finally got my security clearance, and thought I'd come let you know so we can schedule regular check-ins, then I saw your arm…"

His opposite hand came across and covered the bandage protectively and she got the sudden burst of his memory projected on a wave of remembered fear. Genii had come to try to take over the base while it was mostly evacuated due to a massive storm. McKay knew he had to get them to let him enact his plan to power the shield with the lightning and save the city, but he also knew they wouldn't believe him if he gave up the information too easily. His fear, knowing he'd have to let them torture him was only tempered by the knowledge he wouldn't have to endure much since they thought he was a wimp. The ruse had worked, but he shuddered as he recalled the searing pain as the knife slid into his arm, then the shooting agony as the soldier had twisted the blade between the bones of his forearm. He shook his head, trying to clear the recall from his mind.

"Oh God, you are so brave!" Leah exclaimed in wonder. He started and stared at her in shock.

"What?"

"I'm sorry, Doctor, but you just projected really loudly that whole memory. I can't believe you let them…" She came close to him, wishing she could touch him, reassure him. She hovered beside him over his bed. "You're really an amazing man. You saved the city." McKay's chin rose, and with it his discomfort. Pride was there as well, and a whole bundle of tangled emotions stemming from his self-loathing, his desire for approval; his whole damaged emotional self.

"Yes, well. I did what had to be done," he declared, burying the uncomfortable emotions and slapping an arrogant manner into place from self-protection and habit. They stayed that way awkwardly for a minute.

"Look, you certainly deserve your rest. I am sorry I woke you. Shall I check in with someone else tonight or just come back tomorrow?" Leah forced herself to move away from him.

McKay cleared his throat. "Unless you have anything urgent to report, we can certainly schedule something for tomorrow."

"In about 16 hours?" She asked. It would be early morning for her, but probably afternoon for Atlantis. McKay looked up at her, and she saw him eyes play over her 'face'. Thoughtfully, she tried to project her approval of his actions, her concern, and her respect in a very low-key way. Some of the tension left his shoulders and he nodded.

"That will be fine. In my lab, if you'd be so kind," he said, his standard hostility and sarcasm coming out. She smiled inwardly.

"Of course, Doctor. See you tomorrow," she moved toward the door and paused. "Sleep well." She let some of her affection for him pulse toward him as she exited. She paused in the hallway, trying to gauge the time. It couldn't have been more than half an hour, but she really had no desire to talk with Sheppard, Beckett, or Weir. She rose up out of the building and looked around. The sea was very active with large swells and there were breakers at the edges of the city. She suddenly realized that she wouldn't need scuba gear to dive like this, and she zipped straight down to the edge of the city. She dove, and was excited to find that she could move as easily under the water as she did through the air. She explored, going deep to find any of the sea life that was avoiding how stormy it was above. Her own presence was bright enough to illuminate the depths, and she lost herself looking at the variety of sea life she found.

Leah felt a tugging, and a fading sensation, and she guiltily realized it had probably been more than two hours. She returned to her body, and Jordan's frowning face.

~~~SGA~~~

A/N I'm realizing that this story really requires that you know which episodes are happening when it's going on. I'm going to keep posting it as is, but I intend to do some re-writing with non-SGA people in mind. Please let me know if it's too confusing.