Chap. 10:
Almost three weeks later, Lexi is in session with Katie Brown. Sitting there listening to Katie talking about her relationship with McKay she finds herself zoning out. Inwardly she shakes herself, using all of her mental reserves to bring her focus back to what Katie is saying.
Ten more minutes. she tells herself and refocuses on Katie, asking a couple more thought provoking questions and before she knows it the last ten minutes are up. Glancing down at her watch, "Katie, I know Rodney. Don't take offense by it."
Standing up, "you're right Lexi. I'm just being silly."
Standing up as well and walking with her to the door, "you're not being silly. Just don't worry about it and I'll see you next week."
Swiping the doors open, she's a little surprised to see John standing there. Shooting him a look of curiosity, as she hadn't missed him quickly hiding something behind his back as soon as the doors had opened.
"Colonel, what are you doing here?" Katie asks.
Stepping aside to let her pass, "um, I need to get Dr. Carter's thoughts on a situation I'm having with one of the marines."
Smiling and walking out of the office, "oh, okay. Thank you, Lexi, see you next week."
Watching Katie walk away from them, "yes. See you." and as she mentally shuts the doors, she turns around to see John, stepping up close to her. Pulling him into her, she melts, as he kisses her.
A couple of minutes later, pulling away from her, but not taking his left hand off her waist, "I thought she'd never leave."
"Tell me about it." she says, and leaning in close, she kisses him again and pulling away from him, taking his hand from her waist, they walk over to the couch and sit down.
Eyeing him suspiciously, "so what really brings you by? Since I've been here, you've yet to come here for anything other than, well you know."
They had had the conversation after that first night together. John had told her he wasn't really sure if he was ready for a relationship and Lexi understood where he was coming from. Instead they agreed to be friends with exclusive benefits, for the time being. Since the talk, they had been seeing each other whenever he wasn't off world and their schedules actually meshed. They had taken to sleeping in each other's quarters, although it was usually in hers, as she had a bigger bed and every now and then they would meet up in her office. They were relieved, as well, that they had managed to keep their relationship under wraps.
Bringing his right hand around and holding it in front of her, fist closed, "close your eyes and give me your left hand."
Looking at his hand apprehensively, "John, what are you doing?"
"Lexi, just close your eyes and give me your left hand." and smiling, "trust me."
Staring at him for a couple of seconds more, she holds out her left hand, palm facing up and closes her eyes. She feels him place something in her hand and opening her eyes and looking down, she smiles at what is now lying in it, "oh, John."
"Well," he says, shrugging, "I thought you'd like something that reminded you of me."
Running her fingers over the dog tag and taking a closer look at it, she notices that it has her initials a dash and his. Looking up at him from the dog tag, she catches the smile and the warmth looking out at her from his eyes and she leans in and kisses him.
Pulling away, "you like it?"
"I love it." and turning around and handing it to him, "can you help me put it on?"
He takes the tag from her and unhooking the clasp he raises his arms up so that he can place it around her neck, kissing the nape of her neck as he finishes clasping the chain together.
Turning back to face him, "it's perfect." and placing the tag under her shirt, "I'll never take it off."
"Good, I'm glad." and eyeing her tablet on her desk, "so, when's your next appointment?"
Looking at the clock on her desk, "in fifteen. I've got a pretty full day today. What you up to?"
"I've got to go meet Rodney in the Control room. Something about a new program for the Gate but other than that not much. You feel like grabbing lunch?"
"Yeah, how does 1330 sound?"
Leaning in and kissing her, "great, I'll meet you in the mess." and pulling away and standing up "you really like it?"
Standing up too and clasping her arms around his neck, she leans in and kisses him hard, "what do you think?" she asks, pulling away with a smile on her face.
They kiss some more and after a couple of minutes, "ugh, all right, time to go see what McKay has done now."
Walking with him to the door, "be good, John. You know he only does it because you're approval is, even though he won't admit it, really important to him."
"You, know what?" he says, squeezing her hand and looking at her, "sometimes it scares me how perceptive you are."
Squeezing his hand back, "hey, why do you think I became a shrink? Now get, or he'll freak out if you're not there on time."
Laughing, "you're right. Okay, I'm going." and not letting go of her hand but pulling her into a hug, "this is me walking out the door." and feeling her push him away, seeing the annoyed smile on her lips, "are my feet actually moving?"
Playfully pushing him towards the door, "go, get out of here." and rolling her eyes at the look he's giving her, "I'll see you later, Colonel."
"So professional?" he asks, feigning hurt as he walks out of the office and with a wink and a smile over his shoulder, he heads for the transporter, the door closing behind him.
xxxx
As he's walking to the Control room he absentmindedly smiles and greets various members of the expedition, as they pass by him saying hellos. Completely in his own little world, really thinking of Lexi. Finally the sound of McKay grumbling to Zelenka, as he reaches the top of the stairs of the Control room, brings him out of his thoughts to the present.
Walking over to the two men, "hey, McKay."
"Ah, Sheppard, you're here. Good."
Standing next to the console that McKay is working on, "so what's so important that you needed me here?"
"Well, I've come up with a streamlining program designed to boost its," pointing to the Gate "operating efficiency." and seeing the look on John's face, "look, the Gate'll be offline for, what one hour, two hours tops."
Before John can say anything however, the Gate starts to dial in. As it kawhooshes he and McKay look at it, seeing the shield activate.
Turning to Chuck, "we expecting someone?" John asks.
"No, sir, but it's Major Jordan reporting in from M34-227."
"You got video?"
"Yes, sir."
Chuck lowers the shield and activates a view screen nearby. John and McKay walk over to it, as Major Jordan appears on the screen.
"What's the situation, Major?"
"Well, sir, there's someone here who would like to have a word with you."
McKay frowns in confusion as Jordan steps out of the way. A couple of seconds later, Elizabeth walks into view. Causing their eyes to widen in disbelief.
"Elizabeth!"
"Hello, John."
"Elizabeth! What happened to you? How did you get away?" McKay asks.
"I'm not Elizabeth. Well, not the Elizabeth you knew. I have all of her memories and all of her thoughts, everything that makes her me. But I'm a duplicate. I was created by a faction of the Replicators as a means to attaining ascension."
"But you...look and sound just like her."
"I'm sorry, Rodney, but it's true. This group managed to isolate themselves from the others in order to pursue their study in secrecy, but they were eventually discovered and destroyed."
"I...don't know what to say. This is all very, uh..." John says, fumbling for the word.
"Strange? Yeah, I know. But we need to meet. We have some information that you can use against the Replicators."
"We?"
"Yes John, there are some "people" that you need to meet. Can you get here quickly?"
"Sure. Yeah."
"Good, we'll be waiting." and before the feed cuts out, "you need to hurry."
As soon as the screen goes blank, John turns to McKay and tapping his radio, "Ronon, Teyla, gear up, we leave in twenty," and as the two of them head out for the locker room, he shouts over his shoulder to Chuck, "let Colonel Carter know what's going on."
While they are walking to the locker room to get ready, John remembers that he has lunch plans with Lexi, "Dr. Carter, come in please."
"Go ahead, John."
"Lexi, something's come up and I'm gonna have to take a rain check."
"Okay, be safe."
Closing the radio link he and McKay walk into the locker room, where Teyla and Ronon are already getting ready. Ignoring the looks McKay keeps throwing his way, he heads over to his locker and gears up.
xxxx
Twenty minutes later, coming out on the other side of the Gate, Elizabeth and Major Jordan and his team meet them.
"Major, hold the Gate. We'll keep in radio contact."
"Yes, sir."
"Elizabeth, it's good to see you."
"Thank you, Teyla. But, pleasantries aside, we must hurry. Follow me."
She leads them to a tent, where the Replicator versions of the team are waiting. The two teams stand there, staring at each other, not saying anything. Realizing the awkwardness of the situation, Elizabeth, tries to break the silence, "well, I suppose introductions aren't really necessary."
"Great! The last time I came face to face with myself, I ended up kicking my own ass." John says, sarcasm dripping from every word.
Ronon walks over to face his Replicator self and they stand toe-to-toe, glaring at each other.
RepliMcKay looks admiringly at McKay's leather jacket, "nice jacket!"
"Uh, yeah, it's new. We got new versions of those uniforms. The old ones used to..."
"...bunch up under the arms."
"Yeah."
"Huh!"
After watching this exchange, John turns to Elizabeth, "you said you've got something for us."
"Yeah. McKay." RepliSheppard says.
Both McKay's look at him and the real one answers, "hmm?"
"No, my McKay." says RepliSheppard
"Oh, yeah, right," and clicking his fingers, he walks to a different part of the tent to fetch something.
The Ronons are still staring at each other, the real one smiling humorlessly. RepliMcKay brings a gray square item, over to the group.
Teyla, noticing what he has in his hands first, "what is that?"
"This is the core drive of a Replicator ship tracking system. Once it is up and running, we'll be able to track every Aurora-class Replicator ship in the Pegasus galaxy." RepliMcKay explains.
"It's not much, but it's a start." RepliSheppard says.
"Are you kidding? This is huge! We can get working on a..."
"...Modification program..."
"...Uh, reconfigure the base sequencing..."
"...Run it through one of the Ancient relays so the information's..."
"...Automatically adapted and outputted."
"Outputted? Is that even a word?" John asks, mocking McKay.
"Of course it is!" McKay says, indignantly.
"We can't both be wrong."
John grimaces at them and RepliMcKay speaks up again, "look, we need to get started on this now."
"Whoa, whoa. Not so fast." RepliSheppard says looking at the real John, "where do you plan on doing this? We're too big of a security risk to be allowed back on Atlantis."
Looking from his double to the two McKay's, "he's got a...I've got a point. You two are gonna have to find another way to do that."
"It's not a problem," McKay offers, "I'll just go back to Atlantis and get what we need. We can do all the work right here."
"Oh, this is great!" RepliMcKay says, "finally, someone in whom I can have a hundred percent confidence! I cannot tell you how much I'm looking forward to working with you!"
"And this is just the beginning!"
Both Sheppards grimace at each other, as RepliMcKay boasts, "humanity's about to benefit from one of the greatest living scientific minds times two!"
To which, McKay responds, "can you imagine?"
"I'm trying not to." RepliSheppard replies.
Grinning, McKay stands aside and gestures for his double to head towards the exit of the tent. Smiling happily, RepliMcKay leads him outside.
Watching the two McKay's walk out, John turns to face the rest of the Replicator team, "we appreciate all this, but the truth is, we came here for another reason. You were with the Replicators. What do you know about our Elizabeth and are you willing to help us get her back?"
RepliSheppard and Elizabeth look at each other, wondering which of them should break the news.
A little while later, John and Elizabeth are walking through the forest together, talking, "you think this other Keller was telling the truth?" John asks.
"I don't know why she'd lie."
Considering this for a second, "it's kinda weird, that's all. I mean, I don't see you for all this time and then five minutes later I find out."
"That I'm dead. Yeah. Don't worry, the moment I learned the truth, I knew there'd be no going back the way things were, not for me, not for any of us."
As the two of them are walking together, both sets of Ronon and Teylas are scouting out the forest separately, each set talking about how weird this whole situation is. Eventually running into each other, the Replicator versions, decide to go back to the tent, as the real versions decide to go look for John and Elizabeth.
John and Elizabeth are still walking through the forest, talking about the situation.
"It's not like this hasn't happened before. The other Elizabeth got infected by those little nanite things and we figured out how to stop 'em somehow. Maybe we can do the same for you."
"So we wouldn't be a security threat?"
Grimacing, "you can contribute. Things'll just be...different."
Sighing and shaking her head, "that's not really the issue, John. I guess what really bothers me is just knowing that you and the others will always consider me less than what I really am."
A deep humming sound begins, but they don't notice it. They simply continue their conversation.
"That's not true."
"Of course it is, and I don't blame you."
John finally hears the sound, but not sure what he's hearing, "d'you hear something?"
Before Elizabeth can respond, "Colonel Sheppard, this is Teyla. Please respond."
"Go ahead, Teyla. What's wrong?"
"The Replicators are here."
"They managed to track the ship." Elizabeth says, worriedly.
The two of them make their way to a clearing and as they look up at the sky, to see if they can see anything, Teyla's voice comes over the radio again, "John, do you hear me?"
"Oh, yeah, I heard ya."
A Replicator warship comes into view and upon spotting it, "our ship must have had a hidden sub-space transponder."
Looking at the ship, "all right, run." John says.
They race off into the forest, as the ship fires drones towards the ground. The drones hit the ground all around them, but luckily they don't score a direct hit. They continue to run and evade the falling drones and within moments they run into Ronon and Teyla. The four of them stop and John asks, "where's McKay?"
"He's still at the compound." Ronon answers.
Tapping his radio, "Rodney, this is Sheppard. We need you to fall back to the Gate immediately."
"Colonel, this is Major Jordan. The Gate is a no-go. I repeat, the Gate is a no-go. There's a Replicator ship in position ready to take us out the second we show ourselves."
"All right, everybody fall back to the Jumper. Rodney, did you hear me?" John commands.
"Yeah, I heard you. We're on our way."
"John." Elizabeth says, pulling him up before they can all start running again, "regarding the Gate, they have us trapped. Even cloaked, if the Jumper so much as rustles a bush, they will pinpoint our position and blast us out of the sky. We need a diversion."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I will take the Jumper with the others and activate the Gate. We'll lead the Replicator ships away from the Gate, giving all of you enough time to make it through on foot. We'll all have a better chance this way."
"I don't want you doing this because you feel any less, uh..."
"Human?" she finishes for him and looking at him, her eyes determined, "from the beginning we've been trying to convince ourselves that we're just like you." and smiling, "now we've got a chance to prove it."
"All right. Let's go." John says, inwardly hoping that this plan works.
Both teams meet up at the Jumper and once they say their goodbyes, the real team taking the core drive, they head for the Gate to meet up with Major Jordan's team. The Replicator team and Elizabeth board the Jumper and fly over the Gate, right in front of one of the Replicator warships. As both warships abandon the Gate to chase after the Jumper, the Gate activates and John leads everyone through it. But not before, seeing the Jumper plunge to the ground, after being hit by two drones.
As Team Jordan and Team Sheppard run through the Gate, John looks up to the Control room shouting, "shut it down!" and as the Gate shuts down, he looks at the rest of his team and with obvious hurt in his voice, "no one else is coming."