CHAPTER 7

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Next week would be the start of their one week mandatory vacation. Usually whenever they had so much time off, he and John would request a few days leave and go back to Earth for a bit. This was the first time he had a week off since John passed and maybe he should have stuck to his normal routine but he just didn't want to make the trip back alone.

Together they generally spent the day at Midway watching movies and fighting over Soduku puzzles. But now he had to do that alone and Rodney was sure that he couldn't face that yet. In time he could, but not only after eight months. And yes, eight months may seem like a lot of time but really it depended on the situation.

It just wasn't enough time yet. He had adjusted, not greatly but he had. Rodney had never gotten to the point of caring so much about the death of a friend until he ended up in Atlantis. On Earth he only knew of his sister and his niece who he deeply cared about. But on Atlantis, the list went on and on.

So maybe he was crazy for putting a single thought into Teyla's weird delusion that Sheppard would come back or maybe he didn't have the heart to deny the possibility that it could happen. Crazy stuff happened all the time and if John Sheppard could survive being taken hostage and fed on by a Wraith, then why couldn't the man come back from the dead?

Because that would completely ignore the rules of, well, everything. But…

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The elevator didn't prove to be anymore interesting than a regular elevator. John supposed that it could be used as an evacuation device due to its vastness, the elevator room could easily fit fifty people. There was even a first aid corner where a large white cabinet with a sort of glass covering stood.

John wondered who Trin was as he lightly fingered the dog tags under his shirt and instantly knew that something was wrong with them. He quickly yanked them out and stared at them. The metal was greenish but the size was almost the same as the standard issue ones he got from the military. He could have easily mistaken them for each other, but the color was wrong and the texture felt smooth in a way his tags never did. He couldn't read the writing that was engraved but he assumed that they identified him.

"What's this?" John asked as he held up the tags.

"Identification tags," Adnon answered as he pulled out his own and showed an exact replica. "They came up with the idea hundreds of years ago but during the War, everyone got them. Too many bodies."

John nodded, he didn't know what War Adnon was talking about but decided that he didn't want to know at this point, he had a bigger question to ask, "Where's the Stargate?"

"The what?" Adnon frowned at the terminology.

"You know, the Ancestors' Ring." John explained.

"Oh," Adnon nodded, "you mean the Ancient Ring. It's in Laynend National Park, about fifteen kilos west of here."

John smiled, they had a Stargate which meant that he would be able to go home and figure this mess out. Wait, Ancient? Did that mean that he was in the Milky Way Galaxy? Or did they just call it the Ancient Ring because it was really old? He had to get to the Stargate, once he saw the gate then he would know which galaxy he was in and which Alpha site he had to dial to.

"Why do you want to know?" Adnon leaned back against the metal wall and crossed his arms, "It's useless."

John shook his head, "No, that thing can take me home."

"Take you home?" Adnon raised an eyebrow at him, "Shep, you are home."