Dara sat on the chair, swinging her legs back and forth, as she talked with Lt. Ford. They heard the switching of the door and they both turn to see Jinto and Teyla walk in.

"Nhey," Ford says with a smile.

"Jinto, has something he wishes to say," Teyla replies as she urges Jinto forward.

"I am sorry. What happen to you was my fault."

Ford lightly shakes his, head and thinks of something. "Where I come from, we have a saying: Stuff happens! Actually it's a little different. You didn't mean for this to happen, did you?" Jinto shakes his head no just a little and Ford mimics it a little. "You're a good kid." Smiling he contiues on, "You weren't doing anything wrong, which means this isn't your fault, kay?" Jinto nods a little. Ford sits up and looks at Jinto. "It's the same as when we came to your planet, we didn't mean for the wraith to show up, they just did. That's why you're here. Your home was destroyed, you almost lost your dad. I don't remember you getting mad at me over that."

Jinto thinks for a moment and slowly responds, "Stuff happens."

Ford gives off a small nod and Jinto smiles. Soon Jinto and Teyla wandered out of the room, leaving Dara and Ford there, with the random appearance of Dr. Beckett coming in to check on him.

At one point Dr. Beckett did come in, holding a candle. "Here." He hands it to Dara.

"What is this for?"

"There is a rumor going around the Athosians, that the darkness is afraid of the candle. Not to mention, it may get a little dark around here."

Dara carefully places the candle on the table, next to Ford. "Do you have a lighter or a match?" She askes as she holds her hand out.

"Aye." Dr. Beckett carefully hands her a pocket book of matches.

Smiling she thanks him, strikes the match, and carefully lighting the candle. She then hands the matches back. After a few minutes, most of the lights and power shut down. The only few things running were, some of the machines in the infirmary. Then, what seemed like a long time of darkness, Dara notice the machines around Ford started to flicker a little. "Dr. Beckett!"

Dr. Beckett comes running in, looking around wildly. "What is it, lass?"

"Are those machines suppose to do that?"

"No, they are not. How are you feeling, lad?"

"I feel fine, Dr. Beckett."

Dara thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye and she gets up, leaving Dr. Beckett and Ford to talk to themselves. As usual, the Marine falls in line behind her. Openning the door of the Infirmary, she sees nothing, but darkness. That was when she notice the darkness was deeper than normal and it seemed to swirl closer to her. Looking over to her Marine she says, "Not good, back up." She swipes her hand over the control panel and backs up behind the Marine as the door closes.

About that time Dr. Beckett comes running over, to see what was all the fuss was about. As he watches as the darkness seem to slowly seep into between the door panels he mutters, "Oh, dear lord." Without thinking, Dara runs towards the door. "No, don't, lass!" She didn't hear him though as she reaches it and presses her back against the door panels, as if she could hold the door there. For a few seconds she felt more awake then she had in days, as if she drank a whole case of pop in one sitting. Then with out warning, everything got brighter and the machines in the other room, she could hear, working properly.

Carefully she turns towards the control panel and swipes her hand, to open the door. As it openned, Dara stared out in the hallway and watched as the darkness retreated off.

Dr. Beckett grabs her by the arm, making her jump, and drags her towards the beds. "You could have been seriously hurt. Now you have to have another full check up for today, just to make sure that you weren't."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Beckett, but I had to do something. I know shooting it wouldn't have worked."


Dr. Beckett pulls off the other plastic glove and smiles. "Okay, you're prefectly fine. I'll even be nice and say this was today's check up," he says as he looks out the window, showing the sun coming up.

Dara smiles, "Thanks Dr. Beckett."

Dr. Beckett's smile disappears and he gets a serious face then. "You're not out of the woods, yet. You're lucky that you weren't serousily hurt."

"But, I..."

Cutting her off he continues, "I put a lot of effort into proving that you are no threat. As punishment, I want you to take the report of my finding to Maj. Sheppard and Dr. Weir." He hands her a Manilla folder. He then looks over at her Marine and says, "And make sure, she gets there."

Dara watched as Dr. Beckett walks away and then slowly slides down from the table. She then walked out, with her Marine in tow, and stared at the folder. She was really interested in reading it to see what it said, but she felt bad already letting Dr. Beckett down. She didn't want to do it again, by reading the folder. As her mind wandered as she walked towards the control room she went over what happened in her head. Not to mention she thought about what she knew and what she could do. She knew why they didn't just lock her up and throw away the key, because of the fact they were cut off from earth and they didn't have the ablity to waste supplies on a person that didn't do anything. After a few more thoughts she wandered into the control room and stands near Dr. Weir, patently waiting for her to finish talking.

Dr. Weir looks over at her, "Can I help you, Dara."

"Dr. Beckett wanted me to give you this," Dara responds as she holds out the Manilla folder.

"You didn't read it, did you?"

"No, ma'am."

Dr. Weir looks over towards the Marine and he shakes his head "no".

"Thank you for being trueful."

Dara nods and goes over to a stool and sits down. She listens to the small group that was in the control room.

"We need to know where it is, right now," Dr. Weir says as she looks down at Peter.

"We'll have to turn the power on to use the sensors," Peter responds.

"You can't do that!" Rodney, now without the sheild on snaps right back.

"Do it!" Dr. Weir commands. "Just the Operations Tower."

Dara watched as the power in the room kicks on as Maj. Sheppard comes walking into the room and stands near Teyla.

"What now?" John asks.

"It's heading this way," Dr. Weir says.

"Because you turn the power back on!" Rodney responds without a beat.

"We can't go on like this!" Dr. Weir snaps right back.

Teyla slowly turns and looks at the small group. "Do you think it wants to be here?"

The group looks up at Teyla, wondering. "I'm going to have to go with Teyla on this," Dara says.

The group looks over at Dara, then back at Teyla. "What do you mean?" John asks.

"It's been trapped here for thousands of years. Alone."

"It's not alone, anymore," Dr. Weir responds.

"It doesn't think on that level. It thinks about eatting, that's it!" Rodney responds.

"Oh, you would know," John retorts back.

"If we stay, it will kill us," Teyla continues.

"Not unless we kill it first," John says without a beat.

"Well, I don't see how!" Rodney shoots in.

"Then either we must go, or it must." Teyla looks around the group. "Maybe it wants to go. If we open the Stargate..." Teyla turns towards the Stargate and looks at it.


Dara stood at the second story tier and looked down as John and Rodney put a heavy case down on a machine with wheels. She watches as they open up the case and Rodney picks up a piece of the machine. "This is a bad idea." Rodney says.

"You said that already." Dr. Weir states.

"Well, it's worth saying again."

Dara looks behind her where Peter and Teyla are sitting at a computer screen. She watches as Peter points to a screen and Teyla looks at her and nods. Turning toward the small group near the gate, Dara yells out, "It's coming!"

"The open Stargate is a huge power source," Rodney says, "This thing is smart. Even smart enough not to get trapped in the Ancient containment vessel, again. What makes you think it's going to follow a Naquadah Generator, through a worm hole?"

John looks at Rodney to come up with something else. "You got a better idea?"

Rodney puts the genrator back into the case, closes it, and locks it. "Good luck!" and he takes off to the second tier.

"You okay?" Dr. Weir asks.

John just glances at her and nods, trying not to think of what is about to come.

As Rodney gets near Peter, Peter says, "It's almost here."

About that time, Dr. Weir comes up next to Teyla saying, "Do you have an address?"

"M4X-337!" Peter says instantly. "Barren waste land."

Dr. Weir nods. "Dail it."

Rodney starts to push the buttons and Dara watches as the lights on the Stargate light up.

"That was good thinking," Dr. Weir says as she looks over towards Teyla.

Dara watched as the darkness comes oozing into the gate room. Holding her breath she watches as John press a button on the machine, causing the it to move forward and he takes off running up the stairs. Dara's eyes get huge as the darkness seem to fill the gate room and cover it like a sea.

"It's not going anywhere!" Rodney exclaims.

"We can't see if the MALP got through," Dr. Weir says.

"The entity could have drained the battery," Peter says.

"It could be feeding off genrator, off the Stargate, this is a disaster!" Rodney says very negativly.

"Shut it down!" Dr. Weir commands.

Rodney hits the button, but it doesn't make it's usual sound. Dara looks over as Rodney hits it a couple more times. "I can't."

"The consoles are dead," Peter confirms.

"There must be something we can do?" Dr. Weir asks, as if to get any idea.

"We don't know if the MALP is still down there." Peter responds. "It's possable that the enitity will still go through the gate once it depleted the energy in the Naqaudah Generator on the MALP."

"Or it could continue to feed off the gate's energy!" Dr. Weir snaps back.

Dara continues to stare at the darkness, trying to decide if it was safe enough to jump into the mass and throw the generator through the gate. Shaking her head, she realised that she was lucky in the infirmary when it didn't hurt her then, but now it could kill her. That was when a thought struck her. Rodney was the one that threw the generator in the episode, when she also realised that she was a little behind. Looking around, she spots Rodney slowly walking towards the darkness, with the sheild on. "Rodney, what are doing?"

John looks over to where Dara was looking and see Rodney about to step into the darkness. "McKay!" He starts to run over towards him.

Rodney just looks at him and continues on. John had to stop, as the darkness begins to rise.

"RODNEY!" Dr. Weir yells at him, as the darkness sweeps up and around his chest, but he doesn't respond as he disappears into the large black enitity.

They all watched as the sea of darkness seemed to wave and swirl. Dara couldn't take the suspense. She stands up to move towards it, to help him, when the Marine grabs her shoulder and shoves her back down in her seat. Then all of a sudden, the darkness begins to move really fast through the gate. As the last bit of it goes through, the gate closes, leaving Rodney laying on the floor. Dara moves faster than the Marine and manage to run down the stairs towards Rodney.

As the rest of the group moves around Rodney, Dr. Weir says, "McKay?" She manages to grab the sheild and pick it up.

Peter holds out his hand and Dr. Weir hands it to him. "The power must have been drained by the enitity."

John doesn't waste a second. "Medical team to the gate room!"

"He's not burn and he's breathing," Dara says as she feels for a pulse.

The group stares at him for a few seconds, when Dr. Weir says, "McKay? McKay?"

Rodney slowly opens his eyes and carefully looks around. "What happened?"

"You did it!" Dr. Weir says with a smile.

"I did?"

"It went through the gate," she responds to Rodney's disbelief.

Everyone smiles and John says, "You must have passed out."

Rodney wobblely moves his hand and says, "Thanks for not saying the other thing."

John stands up and smiles. Then looking at Teyla, he says, "That was a 'Hail Mary'."

Smiling Dr. Weir, Peter, and Dara slowly help Rodney up to a sitting position.

Dara steps back out of the way as the medical team surrounds Rodney. He just glances up and says, "Thank you. Take your time. Man down."


A few days later, Dara laid on her bed staring at the ceiling, thinking of how bored she was, when there was a chime at her door. "Come in." She says without even looking away from the ceiling.

Her door swishes open and her Marine steps in. "Ma'am. You're requested to go to the confress room."

This made her pick up her head and look at him. "Why?"

"I don't know, Ma'am, but I got the request from Maj. Sheppard himself."

Without even getting up she rolls off her bed, putting her feet below her, so she could stand up instantly. Walking out the door, her Marine instantly falls inline behind her. After walking a few halls and taking a transporter, she finally arrives to the confress room. Dara walks in and notices Dr. Weir and John sitting down at the table.

"Have a seat, please," Dr. Weir asks as she indicates to a chair.

Dara, being a little nervous, carefully takes a seat and looks over at them. Without waiting for anyone to say anything, she jumps right on it, "Am I in trouble?"

John looks at her and smiles, "No, actually..."

"Actually," Dr. Weir interupts, "In light of recent events, we are going to give you a little more freedom."

"Huh?"

"Basically, no more Marines following you," John says.

"But, if you are going to stay, you have to make your way around here, you understand?" Dr. Weir asks.

Dara nods quietly, then askes, "What am I to do?"

"Well, it seems that Rodney doesn't mind you hanging around somewhat," Dr. Weir starts.

"And that you are one of the very, and I stress very, few that don't have the urge to strangle him," John says with a smirk.

Dr. Weir gives John a look and continues on. "You are to be his personal assistant when he is on base. When he his on the field, you are to help out Dr. Beckett. Do you understand?"

Dara just nods, trying not to let her grin show through.

"But, don't let him run you around like a butler or maid, we don't need his head getting any bigger," John adds in with another smile.

Dara finally let's her smile out. "Okay, I'll do it."

John reaches over, grabs her hand, and shakes it. "Welcome to Atlantis."