Max half listened to the music that was playing over the speakers as she tried to help Jack figure out what was wrong with the TARDIS; he was off with Martha getting more tools. She set aside the cover for wiring, grabbed a pair of pliers, and put the penlight between her teeth so she could work with both hands free. "Some things never change." She thought to herself.

While traveling with the Doctor he had picked up that she was good at mechanical things and had allowed her help whenever the ship needed repairs, but he hadn't let her drive the damn thing. It had been awhile since she had to look at the alien technology but once she got her bearings it was like riding a bike, and Max was glad to work on it again.

Finding nothing wrong with the batch of wires she moved on to the next panel and exchanged the pliers for a wrench. As she worked Max thought about a few days ago, when the Doctor finally realized that they were on Atlantis.

After seeing the hologram he had told Max of his first time here, as much yet at the same time as little as he could. There was a part of herself, the one with the degree in history, that wanted to know everything the Doctor could remember about the city but Max knew that he'd be less than forthcoming about the details. It made her wonder why he was such a private person, obviously she knew why; from what she could gather he'd lost so much but she thought that he'd be more than willing to share his travels with someone who was actually interested in them.


"So this really is Atlantis?" Martha asked as she and Jack walked down the hallway towards the Engine Room, each with arms full of repair tools and equipment.

"Yup." Jack replied, nodding his head. He had woken up a few days ago before everyone else and found the Doctor terribly excited about being on Atlantis so before Max and Martha had joined them they had sat down and he had told Jack most about his time here. Of course he didn't tell the whole story; you never got the whole truth with a man like the Time Lord, only bits and pieces over time until you could piece the whole picture together. It was like a jigsaw puzzle of someone's life.

"And both of you have been here before-"

"Well actually only the Doctor has."

"Did he say how long ago?"

"Who knows with him, but I guess it was with someone named Ace and according to him, what's here was only part of the city; the rest was actually land-based and the entire thing much bigger."

"Really?" Martha asked in amazement even though she had seen more fantastical stuff than the Lost City during her travels with the Doctor, both as a companion and then as a friend.

"Apparently." Jack said with a smile. He had seen pictures of Atlantis after reaching an agreement with the SGC but that had been after the Expedition had been there for years and the city had taken on a weary look, scars from past wounds still visible. Now though the city looked bright, happy, and newly built and Jack enjoyed seeing it like that. He could tell that Max enjoyed it as well but underneath it was something that he couldn't put his finger on, a darkness underneath the smile, and that bothered Jack. But he left it alone because he also knew that when the time was right it would come out.

As they neared the Engine Room both of them could hear what sounded like opera playing and when they walked in Jack saw Max underneath the panel working. Setting his armful of tools down he walked over to where the iPod was plugged into the controls and hit 'pause'.

"I was listening to that y'know." Max replied without looking away from what she was working on.

"But it was so...cultured." Jack replied making a face that made Martha stifled a giggle as she set down her load. "You need something more upbeat...more danceable."

Max wiggled out and stood so that she was looking at Jack with a raised eyebrow. "More danceable?"

"Yeah...you gotta relax and have some fun." Jack said as he switched over to the TARDIS' music library and selected a few songs to play in succession. Almost instantly swing music started to play and Jack grabbed Martha's hand starting to dance.

While Martha had taken a few dance lessons as a child (what little girl didn't?) she hadn't done anything like this before. But Jack was an excellent teacher and kept it simple, so soon she was doing the swing and smiling along as they danced.

Max had moved to the side when Jack and Martha started to dance, laughing along as Martha had a few fumbles in the beginning and saw how they were enjoying it. Maybe Jack was right and they needed to have more fun here, after all it wasn't everyday that you were on an alien spaceship in the Lost City of Atlantis before you had actually been there.

The upbeat music finished and now a slower song started to play and Jack let go of Martha while extended his hand towards Max while flashing her his mega-watt smile, "What do you say Maxie?"

Max laughed and took his hand while saying, "Has anyone ever said no to you?"

"Not so far."

That just caused Max to laugh even more and almost trip over Jack's feet. After regaining her footing she fell easily into the rhythm of the dance. She had spent the most of her life before meeting the Doctor and joining the SGC ballroom dancing and while she couldn't have gone professional if she wanted to, she could hold her own and had done well in the few competitions she had participated in. Looking Jack in the eye they glided around the control panel in time to the music.

Martha watched the pair dance and was amazed at how well they danced together; it was almost like time had slowed and both of them could keep on dancing forever. She knew that someone like Jack would know how to dance; the man practically oozed smoothness, but was surprised that Max knew how to as well, it was something that if she wasn't seeing with her own eyes would never guess in a billion years.

Jack was surprised at how well Max was moving to the music; if someone had told them that she was one hell of a dancer he would have asked if they had been drinking too much hypervodka. But here she was, almost matching his skill and he wanted to see just how much she knew. The song ended and a new one started playing, this one another swing, and instantly Jack moved faster to keep up with the music.

Deciding to test Max's skill Jack started doing the lindy; it had been decades since he had done it, but the steps had never left his memory. Max matched his pacing and a smile started to form on her face and Jack could feel one creep onto his as well. Both of them laughing, they continued to dance; each not wanting the moment to end.


"How long has the Expedition been here?" The Doctor asked Laura Cadman as they walked down the hallway towards the storage room where the TARDIS was.

"Just over a year." Laura answered, looking at the man across from her. "But I thought that everyone at the SGC knew that."

"Ah...well we're always out and about so much that we tend to miss the news coming from there." The Time Lord hastily said as he increased the pace. He wasn't used to having a disguise come with such a complicated background; normally he just winged it and went off of the assumptions of who he was supposed to be. Reaching the doors, the Doctor paused in front of them to shift the generator in order to free a hand.

"Need help?" Laura asked as she cast a glance towards the blue box. Like everyone else who had seen it she didn't quite know how the four of them could fit in there. Cadman was sure that there was some logical explanation as to how, but wasn't sure if she wanted to know. Even though she had been on Atlantis a few months now and had seen some pretty weird stuff, this topped the list.

"No, but thanks for the offer." The Doctor said, pulling open the door and hearing music as well as laughter. Stepping inside he saw Jack dancing around the panel with Max and Martha looking on, each with a smile on their face and laughing.

Smiling, the Time Lord didn't say anything, he was just glad to have people aboard again; the TARDIS had been on his case to find another Companion, telling him that he'd get into trouble without one (which wasn't entirely without merit; before Rose he had been on his own and ended up electrocuting himself while working on the TARDIS which had caused his ninth regeneration), but after Donna's shrill voice he wanted to take a break from having someone around.

The music started to end and Jack lowered Max into a dip while grinning. Max yelped with laughter at the unexpected move and looked past her head to see red converses, then suddenly she was right side up and saw the Doctor standing in front of the door with an amused smile on his face.

"I didn't know you could dance like that." The Doctor replied to a blushing Max and a grinning Jack.

"Well all you had to do was ask." Jack said, moving past Max and towards the Doctor. "I see that you managed to get a generator."

"But only for an hour." The Doctor replied, passing the heavier object to Jack who eagerly took it and moved towards the opening in the floor. "I had a lovely chat with Doctor Weir, she's a wonderful women; absolutely brilliant in terms of diplomacy. If she ever chooses to go back to Earth I can see her going places. Anyways, I ran into her as I was going to see Doctor McKay about the generators and she asked if we'd like to go through the Stargate with a team and I told her that we would."

Max was silent at the Doctor's comment about Elizabeth; it was both a blessing and a curse to see her again, Carson as well. She had gotten to know the women over the years before the older women had been captured by the Replicators and had kept hope, along with everyone else, that she hadn't been killed by them. But since they were back in time none of that had happened yet and they had no idea what was going to happen in the future. But the last statement caught her completely by surprise. "We're what?" she asked, wondering if she had somehow hear wrong.

"Going through the Stargate or 'off-world' as she called it." The Doctor repeated, smiling.


The apartment was a mess; clothes and toys were strewn everywhere covering the floor and draped over the furniture, dishes piled in the sink waiting to be done, mail and newspapers strewn all over the dining table, and the entire place looking like a category five hurricane had hit it. With Evan's erratic work hours it was all he could do in order to make sure the kids got looked after; something had to slip.

Evan collapsed on the couch and ran a hand through his already mussed hair; today had been a day that never seemed to end. It had been quite enough in the Hub and Owen let everyone off early, they seemed to keep shorter hours now that he was in control, so Evan had decided to pick Miranda up at school. She greeted him in tears and it took most of the way home for her to calm down enough to explain what had gotten her so upset; some of the kids had teased her because of her red hair. Evan was at loss what to say because Max normally handled that sort of thing.

Now that she was gone he noticed that she handled a lot of things.

After promises of pizza and a movie Evan picked up the twins from the sitter and headed back to the apartment when his cell rang. One of Tosh's programs had caught something coming through the Rift. After promising that he was on his way, Lorne had called Anglia to see if she could watch the kids but she had turned off her cell phone and skipped lacrosse practice.

Not quite sure what to do, he ended up doing the first thing that popped into his mind; he simply took the kids to the Hub. Owen hadn't been happy but after Evan managed to convince him that if they kept them in the tourist office with Ianto they'd finish quicker than if Lorne had to drive them to a sitter, drop them off, and then drive back again.

That had been at three. They didn't finish until ten that night and even then they had only discovered that the only thing to come through was a metal glove. Owen and Tosh had freaked out; destroying the glove as soon as they figured out it resurrected people who had died violently. Evan wanted to know why they had acted that way and got the short version of what it had done to Suzie Costello and Gwen.

When they were finally done, Evan had collected the kids (who had been sleeping) and got back to the apartment just as Anglia did. Lorne and Anglia had gotten into an argument as to why she had turned off her phone and skipped practice which ended when Anglia stormed out saying that she wanted to move back home. He wasn't worried about her being out late; she was an Athosian and grew up in the Pegasus Galaxy, they taught their kids to defend themselves at an early age.

After that the twins decided they had been quite long enough and refused to settle down for Evan. It had taken him hours of holding both of them as well as walking back and forth until they finally fell asleep. That's when Evan just collapsed on the couch; he just wanted all of this to be a dream and for him to wake up next Max.

Unfortunately the dull ache in his shoulder told him that this was very much real and not a dream.

Leaning his head back, Evan wondered when Max would come back. She had been gone three weeks and he had no idea when she would appear. After the first week had passed, Owen had put in a call to Martha Jones only to find that she had failed to show up for her new job and had been missing a week as well.

Tosh guessed that the Doctor had originally come here for Martha, who Evan had learned had been traveling with him on and off through out the years, and while getting her Max and Jack saw the TARDIS and decided to go with them. That sounded like Jack to Evan but he still wondered why Max would do such a thing. Asking that question to the team hadn't gotten him anywhere, they were just as stumped as Evan as to why Max went with Jack.

The phone rang, breaking him out of his thoughts, and Lorne reached for it only to find the holder empty. He frantically searched for it, tossing clothes every which way and shoving toys to the side as it continued to ring. He finally found it wedged between the sofa seats and answered it, "Hello?"

"Evan? It's Lydia."

"Hey...how's it going?"

"Fine. Sorry for calling so late, or early in your case. This is the first time all week I've gotten to myself; it's been hell over here. Is Max there?"

"Not really," Evan replied as he heard a wail. Wincing he continued, "she had to, uh, step out for a few."

"Really?"

"Yeah, just needed a few things that couldn't wait until morning." Evan lied while walking towards the room where the crying was coming from.

"Well when she gets back let her know that Crysta and I'll be leaving Friday for our little get together."

"About that," Evan paused just outside of the door, not sure how to tell Lydia that Max was gone with no return in sight. "things have gotten a bit busy over here and I don't know if we'll have time to get away."

"Nonsense. From the sound of things on your end you guys need a few pairs of extra hands. We're leaving Friday to help you guys out."

"But-"

"No buts. We're coming and that's final."

"If you say so." Evan said slightly relived to hear that while wondering what he was going to tell them when they got here and Max was still missing. If she didn't come back that is, and he hoped that she did before they got here and save him from what the situation might look like.