Aboard the Apollo, as it flew through hyperspace, Elizabeth sat alone in the ship's Mess. She stared into nothingness, lost in her thoughts, her book forgotten on the table in front of her as she went over the details of the mission, amongst other things, in her head. Some time later, Jennifer wandered into the Mess, intending on making a quick exit when she spotted the expedition leader. Grabbing a bottle of water, the linguist walked over to Elizabeth's table.

Elizabeth snapped back into reality, and said as she looked up at Jennifer, "Hi, Jennifer." She glanced around the Mess, remarking with a smirk, "Where's your burly protector? It's odd to see you without him nowadays."

Jennifer smiled despite feeling a little bitter at the joke being at her expense. She shrugged. "Ronon's in the lab with Carson."

"Yes, of course he is."

Jennifer all but rolled her eyes at the smirk reminiscent of Sheppard's when he was in the middle of teasing McKay. She asked, changing the subject, "What are you doing?"

Elizabeth replied, now looking quite serious, "Just thinking... how things have changed."

Jennifer gestured to the seat opposite the expedition leader. "May I?"

"Of course." When Jennifer was seated, Elizabeth continued, "We spent all those years fighting the Wraith and the Asurans... and then they're just gone, just like that, wiped out from existence. On some level it feels wrong, as though they deserved more than that; as though we deserved more than that. A sort of catharsis."

Jennifer nodded. "I know. I get what you mean. In a way, it's as though we were cheated out of a fight by a deus ex machina. Still... at least the City is relatively safe now. Safe enough for children to be there."

Elizabeth smirked briefly. "Not when John is blowing things up. There's a part of me that is dreading our return to Atlantis. A list of accusations against him from Doctor Kavanaugh; damage to the City or valuable equipment... I suppose I can take solace in the fact that Rodney won't be moaning about him for once."

Jennifer nodded, suddenly feeling awkward once again. She shrugged and smiled half a smile. "Well, he could be moaning about Doctor Jackson instead... that man does go on some amazing tangents."

"Tell me about." Elizabeth appeared serious once again. "Look, I know it's not my business to pry into your personal relationships, but I think you need to re-assess things. It seems to me as though you're torn between doing what everyone else thinks is right, and what you think you might want. And I'm sure I don't have to inform you of the rumours circulating about you and Ronon now..."

Jennifer retorted defiantly, "They can think what they want."

"But the issue still stands... and it's beginning to affect your duties. Because of that, it is my responsibility to encourage you to sort your problems out, or to at least try."

Jennifer shrugged, sighing as her eyes were fixed on the tabletop. "It's just hard... you know?" She finally met Elizabeth's gaze. "I'm in way too deep here. It's funny 'cos when I come to think of it, if I hadn't got talking to Evan that night, I might actually have started out being with Rodney instead. I mean... don't get me wrong, I love Evan... but Rodney and I... we just have so much more in common."

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow sceptically. "So do Rodney and Carson..."

The linguist exclaimed, looking highly upset and uncomfortable, "I know! God, I am fully aware that I've totalled their marriage... never mind my own. Why does everyone think that I'm happily oblivious to that glaring fact?"

Elizabeth gazed at the younger woman sympathetically. "No-one's saying that..." She paused. "Okay, so maybe they are, but that's inconsequential here. What matters is how your personal life is affecting your duties as the Expedition's linguist. And speaking as a friend of each party involved, including yourself, whatever you decide, I'm here for you... just decide on something."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Sheppard walked through the wall to Janus' lab. He gazed around himself in amazement and then back at the wall. The Colonel, who had initially appeared stunned, suddenly grinned, impressed by the idea of a secret door concealed in a way that he had never previously imagined. And then, after that there was the idea of a secret door leading to a secret lab with possibly many untold and amazing pieces of Ancient technology.

"Wow! That's pretty cool!"

Hands in pockets, he casually strolled over to where many scientists were working at various consoles in the room. He made his way to where Daniel and McKay were working, while House flipped coins as he stared at the ceiling. McKay smugly replied to the Colonel's exclamation,

"Harmonic resonance."

Wanting to forgo an unnecessarily long explanation from the physicist, Sheppard nodded, and said, "Yeah, I was told... but what happens if the sound goes off and you're in the middle of the wall?"

House continued to stare at the ceiling and flip coins as Daniel continued working. McKay replied with a shrug, "Well, the wall would break apart your body."

House added, his eyes still on the ceiling, "But the magnetic field which holds the door together would be disrupted, compromising the structural integrity of the wall. Before you died from being severed in half, the wall would begin to crumble around you... but it would be too slow to do you any good."

McKay, Daniel and Sheppard stared at House, who finally sat up straight. The doctor remarked gruffly, "What, you might as well forgo the sugar coating here... we're all grown-ups."

Sheppard looked at McKay nervously, pointing behind him to the concealed doorway with a thumb. "Maybe we should, uh..."

McKay glared at House, and then said to Sheppard, "I've set up a sub-sonic tone generator outside. The wall is now permanently open. Ignore Doctor Pimp over there."

House retorted as he put his coins away, "Can it, PhD."

Sheppard looked from one to the other in surprise. He then looked at a somewhat irritated looking Daniel. "They been like this all week?"

Daniel remarked, trying not to be snippy, "What do you think? They're worse than Mitchell and Vala in full flow."

Sheppard smirked a little, silently promising the archaeologist that he would help however much he could to alleviate the stress caused by McKay and House's bickering. The Colonel, enjoying it on some level nonetheless, said to McKay, "Anyway, the tone generator's good. What have you got so far?"

Daniel raised his eyebrows and straightened up in his seat. "Well, the good news is it's definitely Janus' secret lab. The bad news is... getting in was the easy part."

McKay quickly added, not missing a beat, "There are levels of encryption on all the data here that even the most paranoid N.S.A. agent wouldn't use. I mean, it is deep."

As Daniel secretly longed for his wife's assistance, the archaeologist said, hopeful nonetheless, "Some of them are straight-up math ciphers while others are Ancient knowledge puzzles."

"And until we start deciphering, there's no way to tell what any of this stuff does."

House waved a notepad that he had been leisurely scribbling in. "Already solved some."

McKay stared in disbelief at the doctor before grabbing the notepad, "What?! Give me that!"

Daniel fought a strong urge to hide away from everyone, and Sheppard smirked. At this rate, judging by the sparks flying between the three geniuses, his wife wouldn't notice if he happened to cause one little explosion. The Colonel remarked, looking quite mischievous, "Sounds like you guys make a good team though."

McKay glanced at his colleagues uncomfortably. "Mmm..."

Daniel, at least as uncomfortable, said, "Yeah... I wouldn't say 'good'..."

House folded his arms across his chest, smirking triumphantly. He then said, "I wouldn't say 'team' either."

Sheppard shrugged. "Hey, as long as you find what you're looking for before Rodney starts crying, we're cool." McKay shot Sheppard a very dirty look. "So play nice, kids... I gotta go back to being the boss."

McKay asked, now looking a little impressed as he looked over House's work, "How's that going?"

Sheppard shrugged. "Meh, pretty boring, actually. Makes me appreciate more what Elizabeth actually does around here."

"Well, you're more than welcome to help us crack some of these ciphers. House seems to have picked up some stuff from being around yours truly." McKay glanced at Daniel. "You know, he could have been in Mensa, my boy blue over there."

Daniel grinned politely, albeit in disbelief, while McKay snorted with laughter. House, however, shrugged and remarked, "Well, if they can put a man on the moon..."

Daniel and McKay looked at House, while an unimpressed Sheppard glared at the three of them. The Colonel said, not especially happy that he was now the butt of one of McKay's jokes instead of the other way around, "Why don't you contact me when you three geniuses have a breakthrough?"

Daniel smiled, feigning innocence as the Colonel walked away, leaving the lab. "Will do!"

Daniel then frowned a little, looking at McKay. "What's his problem?"

McKay remarked disdainfully, "The leader of this expedition is on her way to meet the Genii. What do you think?"

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

A great many hours – perhaps even days – later, Daniel was seated at a console. He gazed at the reams of text that scrolled across the wall screen in front of him, in utter amazement despite feeling rather weary at the exertion. It had certainly been a long time since he had had the opportunity to work on a project constantly, the passing of days and nights becoming immaterial in the process. And his Ancient abilities could only keep him upright and conscious for so long without adequate sustenance.

He grimaced a little as a recurring albeit rather nagging headache decided to attack. House, who had been lightly dozing next to a console where McKay napped, woke up once again. The doctor regarded the archaeologist with mild curiosity. "Headache back again?"

Daniel turned to him, glancing momentarily at McKay who had begun to mumble in his sleep, the physicist reciting Pi. "Uh... sorta. It's nothing."

"You should get some sleep."

Daniel was flushed with excitement nonetheless. "I won't be able to sleep... there's just so much here." He glanced down at McKay again. "However, it's just as well that Sam drilled me into carrying snacks and dextrose tablets for Rodney. Who knew he'd finish his own supply so fast?"

"Well, junior American here gets hungry when he's stressed."

Daniel made a face. "You know... you shouldn't call him that. Racism aside, you know how he gets."

House appeared smug for a moment. "It's fun." He yawned and then stretched. "Haven't done the night owl thing since college though. How you getting along?"

"It's too much for me to do in a sensible amount of time. Unfortunately the Ancient knowledge in my head isn't much help in my present form."

"Can you Ascend?"

Daniel appeared dubious. "No... it's not something you can or should do on a whim. I've been in a state where I was unable to stop Ascending, so it's possible that the Ancients could stop me from Descending somehow."

"Quite a fan club you have there."

Just then McKay blinked away, murmuring, "I'm awake, I'm awake."

Daniel glared at House when it looked as though the doctor was going to tease McKay. The archaeologist said to the bleary-eyed physicist, "You know, it's almost dawn. If you wanna call it a night, it's, uh..."

Tired himself, Daniel rubbed his eyes, and McKay replied quickly, "What? No-no-no, I'm fine, fine, but you know, if you need to rest, I completely understand."

Daniel, now annoyed, stopped rubbing his eyes and faced the physicist. "Seriously, is everything a competition with you?"

House folded his arms across his chest, the doctor direly in need of entertainment and willing to get it from anywhere. McKay resumed working, and replied, feigning innocence under Daniel's glaring eye, "I'm not sure what you're talking about."

Daniel sighed. "I just found you a secret lab full of really cool Ancient stuff. I kind of think that should score me some points here."

"Okay, I will admit that I may have been a little brusque with you up until now."

House suddenly snorted derisively as Daniel remarked quietly, "Just a little(!)"

"... but the truth is, I really didn't think you were gonna find anything. You have an unbeatable record for getting into trouble though."

As House nodded in agreement, smirking at the archaeologist, Daniel remarked, "Well, that much I actually understand... the, uh, thinking I was chasing a red herring thing."

McKay asked, surprised on realising that Daniel wasn't being sarcastic, "You do?"

Daniel shrugged, taking the diplomatic route. "Yeah. I've spent the majority of my professional life being ridiculed for my theories – most of which turned out to be correct, by the way. I'm kind of used to it, Rodney."

House remarked, "You're always being ridiculed for your theories, Danny... because you're a fruitcake willing to die for anything. You've done it so many times now that it's lost all meaning."

Daniel glared at House reproachfully. His harsh expression eventually faded. "Now you're just making me sound like Bra'tac."

McKay, not really listening to the ensuing tangent between the other two, slumped back in his chair as he considered what Daniel had initially said. He eventually looked at Daniel. "Doesn't that bother you? I mean, there's no vindication, no recognition, no credit."

House got bored, realising that McKay and Daniel were highly unlikely now to come to blows, so the doctor resumed solving ciphers on his notepad. Daniel, now intrigued at the insight into the physicist, said, "Well, I could say the same thing about you. The discoveries you've made – you probably could have won the Nobel Prize five times over by now."

House said as he continued to scribble, "I've been keeping count... eight for junior American; about five for Carson, and I think I'm due one and a half by now."

McKay smiled as he looked from House to Daniel. "It's so true. So... I guess none of us signed up to get famous, huh?"

A smirking Daniel resumed working at his console. "No, we did it for the money."

House raised his eyebrows in disbelief as McKay chuckled. "Good one!"

House remarked, "Perfect opportunity to be underpaid. We can't form a union because we'd be shot."

Daniel's and McKay's mirthful expressions faded. McKay's faded completely as he thought of something. "Wait a minute. You don't get paid more than I do, do you?" Daniel sighed, not wanting to talk about their relative wages. "Do you?"

House eyed the physicist warily. "You know, for a physicist, your math really does suck."

A gradually stunned McKay looked from House to Daniel once again. Daniel sighed once more and said, albeit reluctantly,

"Yes, I do." Knowing that McKay would persist out of curiosity, and admittedly pettiness, Daniel continued, "Okay, seeing as you're not gonna let this go in spite of the work we have left to do... I still get combat pay, and while I was still officially on SG-1, I received the same basic pay as Sam did before she got promoted. When I started out though, I just got paid the same as most other senior albeit civilian consultants. So, anyway, I get paid more than that now what with being Sam's civilian second-in-command... and of course, she gets paid more than I did when I was in charge of the base..."

House remarked, looking a little impressed, "Drinks are on you and General McBoobs when I go home again."

A flabbergasted McKay exclaimed in disbelief, "What?! That's unfair! I'm like you and Sam rolled into one. Actually, I'm like half of the SGC rolled into one. I'm held in rather high esteem around here, although they're all jealous of my staggering intellect, I'll have you know."

As House found himself laughing for the first time in a long time, Daniel said, looking sceptical, "Uh-huh... yeah." The archaeologist then looked at House, curious. "Before Rodney resumes being an idiot... what about you? Why are you still here?"

House shrugged. "It's different and I like puzzles."

McKay frowned as he continued to regard Daniel in disbelief. "You know, you not actually being a proper scientist aside, you're a shame to the community... you're only in it now for the money."

"Says the man complaining that I get paid more than he does."

"But that's because I'm still an active member of AR-1. What the hell do you do in the Milky Way? Actually, wait, what the hell did you do?!"

Daniel sighed as House began to smirk as he resumed solving ciphers. The archaeologist said, his headache returning, "Just... let's back to work. If we're still alive at the end of this, I'll ask Sam if you can have a pay rise."

McKay appeared shocked, and then smug as he resumed work. "Oh... that's gonna be good. We all know blue eyes has got a thing for me." When Daniel looked at him reprovingly, McKay continued dismissively, "It's old history, Danny... from way before you stole her."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Meanwhile, back on Earth, Cam and his team, in combat gear, awaited further orders as they waited near a surveillance truck. Jack emerged from the truck and joined them. Cam asked as Jack waved at the other men when they stood to attention, "Anything, Sir?"

Jack, with uncharacteristic nervousness, ran his fingers through his cropped hair. "Nothing... Carter's working on it. Doesn't look good though. She said if they could have kept the channel open longer, tracking would have been easier. Whichever bastard's got 'em must have found them."

Cam was just as concerned as Jack was for their nieces' and nephews' wellbeing. "Or it could be a trap, Sir."

"Or... those bastards have grossly underestimated Carter's kids."

"Still, Sir..."

"Your orders now, Mitchell, are to locate and eliminate all the Anti-Ancient doohickies so Carter can use her glowiness if all else fails. Doctor Lee should be coming round with some handheld scanners for you and your men to use."

Cam nodded as his men reloaded their P-90's. "Yes, Sir."

As Lee emerged from a nearby van, Jack patted Cam on the shoulder, "Break a leg."

"Not any of ours, Sir."

Suddenly the door of the surveillance truck opened, and Sam came running out, leaving Barrett in the open doorway. The men turned towards her, Cam asking, concerned, "General? What's up?"

Sam, looking flushed with relief on some level, said almost breathlessly, "The equipment had already picked up a broken signal scattered across many frequency bands. It does that on occasion near badly tuned car radios... but then we got some really high readings. The use of the frequencies between 1420 and 1640 megahertz are restricted by international law. As it is, our radios and the Army's are set to 148 megahertz..."

Cam looked at Jack, who waved impatiently. "Carter. While I'm still young."

She swallowed nervously. "Sorry, Jack. The equipment in the truck received a signal moments before Mitchell got radioed. It didn't pick up that signal but it's a fair guess that they're from the same point of origin..." She paused, stopping herself from nervously rambling. "They're right beneath us."

Cam and Jack exchanged a look, the Colonel asking, "Excuse me?"

Jack added, confused, "Beneath us?"

Sam replied, daring to hope again, "Right under us, Sir... I mean, Jack. As in under ground."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Back in Atlantis, Sheppard, still in his base uniform, lie on his bed asleep, an open book face down on his chest. Next to him, his daughter Charlotte was fast asleep in almost the same position, albeit with a toy floppy-eared bunny clutched to her chest. The Colonel flinched on hearing Chuck's voice,

"Colonel Sheppard, Sir?"

Sheppard groaned and then said blearily, "Yeah, uh, just resting my eyes." He frowned as he opened his eyes properly. He looked around, realising something was slightly amiss. He checked on Charlotte, and asked, "Who said that?"

Chuck replied, sounding worried, "I patched into the P.A. in your room, Sir. You're gonna wanna get up here. Tracking an unidentified craft which has just exited hyperspace, Sir."

Sheppard nodded, and then remembered that Chuck couldn't see him. He said quietly as he carefully moved Charlotte to the middle of his bed to prevent her from falling off, "Understood. On my way."