"Are you going to tell us now why you came back so suddenly?" Rodney asked, pushing the coffee pot over to Ian before sitting back down on the couch in Shawn's 'man cave'. He had already poured himself a second cup, and River and Shawn were both nursing their own, but were watching him intently, curious as well.
"I had a question about the Ashrak," Ian told them, pouring his coffee into a mug that proclaimed Shawn as the World's Number One Dad. "I remembered hearing – or reading – that when the group that came after you when you were a little kid arrived on the planet, Jack got a really bad headache, and that it was apparently some kind of warning for him that the Ashrak were there. So I was hoping he knew how it happened, to see if it was something we could use…"
"And was it?" River asked.
"He didn't know and neither did Sam."
"How about Chelani?" Shawn suggested.
"I asked. He didn't know anything about it."
"Well, no real reason that he would," Rodney pointed out. "He didn't have anything to do with it, after all."
"But he was ascended for a while, so I had hoped maybe he'd picked something up…"
Shawn smiled and shook his head.
"I doubt it works that way."
"Yeah, me too. It was just a shot in the dark." Ian leaned back into the cushion of the couch. "What about you guys? Are you set up here?"
McKay nodded.
"This place is Fort Knox now," he said, smugly. "Nothing can get within miles of here without setting off the Miniature Guardian program, and anything that is under cloak – except for the Gateships – will immediate lose their cloaking and be visible."
"Nice."
"Of course it is. I thought about putting in an automatic gunnery system, but figured that would be a bit much for a residential neighborhood."
Which caused Ian to smirk.
"You think?" he asked, sarcastically.
Rodney looked over at him, his expression curious.
"You don't?"
River snorted, amused at how neatly McKay was screwing with Ian. Not a lot of people did – especially those on Atlantis – so it was good for him to have someone willing to do it occasionally. Ian scowled at him, and pointedly refused to reply to that. Instead, he looked at Shawn.
"Gina and Dotty are settled in at Atlantis, but hopefully that makes Gina feel better when they come back."
"It's a lot more than I could have expected," Shawn replied, but he was looking at them all. "Thanks for the help."
"This is mostly Rodney," Ian told him, taking another sip of his coffee. "So he's the one to thank. You can thank me once I figure out how to take care of the Ashrak themselves." Before Shawn could say anything, the New Yorker stood up. "I'm heading back to Atlantis."
"You can stay here tonight and go back in the morning if you want," Shawn offered. "There's plenty of room."
Ian shook his head.
"I'm going to sleep in my own bed tonight."
"Want company?" River asked.
Since he hadn't moved from his ultra comfortable position in the easy chair, Ian knew he didn't have any desire to go anywhere just then – and since Jessica was asleep in Dotty's bed, he had even more reason not to.
"Nah. I'll see you tomorrow sometime."
"Sometime after noon," River told him, cheerfully. "I'm going to sleep in tomorrow."
"Rodney?"
"I'll go back with Hayden," the astrophysicist told him. "I want to check a couple more sensors in the morning."
Ian figured he was more interested in getting in a couple more meals at fast food places than he was double-checking work that was almost certainly done correctly the first time, but he didn't argue. Instead he said his goodbyes and rinsed his coffee cup out before heading out to the car he'd borrowed from the base.
River looked over at Shawn.
"Are you sure you don't want to just take a few days and visit Atlantis?"
"I've visited there before," he reminded his friend. "Besides, Gina will have fun having some girl-only time with Cassie and Dotty."
"And Ian and the twins and Sheppard and Ronon and-"
"We get it," River said, interrupting McKay before he could name every male in the city. He shrugged. "If you change your mind, though, just come on over."
"I'll let you know."
OOOOOOOOOO
General Alan Hunt frowned. "I expected you'd want to spend the night at Shawn's."
Ian shook his head.
"Adams doesn't have any information I can use, unfortunately."
"What are you going to do, then?"
The New Yorker sighed, more frustrated than anything else, and leaned against the side of the Gateship that they were standing by.
"I'm not sure, to be honest. I've got a ton of information about the Ashrak, though, so there has to be some way for me to use it to keep them from making another try on Shawn – and incidentally keeping them away from Earth and the SGC."
"Well, if there's anything we can do to help, just let me know – short of assassinating that Goa'uld, of course."
Ian gave him a wry smile and offered him his hand.
"I'll let you know if I think of anything."
"You do that."
Hunt stepped back and headed for the entrance to the mountain, while Ian went up the ramp at the rear of the craft and engaged the cloak once more before he lifted off and headed for the opening that would let him drop down into the embarkation room. Only when he was sure the ship understood they were leaving did he dare take a hand off the controls long enough to tap the communications control.
"SGC Flight, this is Gateship 3, requesting embarkation room permission."
His way of letting them know he was dropping in on them and they should clear out anyone that didn't want to do an imitation of a dung beetle under the hooves of a wildebeest.
"Gateship 3, this is SGC Flight, you are cleared for embarkation."
"Thank you, Flight." He tapped in the address for Atlantis with practiced ease and could hear the Airman at the SGC communications advising Atlantis through the now open gate that they were sending a Gateship through. Only when he heard Grodin's reply from Atlantis did give the ship the command for them to head into the embarkation room, and even though it was the shortest of all Gateship flights he still couldn't help the death grip he had on the controls – and didn't bother to try since there wasn't anyone in the craft to see it. A moment later he saw the embarkation room come into view, with the gate glowing and waiting for him and his ship, and then he was heading into it and he didn't see anything, and didn't feel anything.
Suddenly he was through. And frowned as the bright sunlight nearly blinded him. The Gateship settled itself on the soft sand under them, and Ian stared at the vista in front of him – a vista that didn't include Atlantis' control room. Endless sand and far off rock outcroppings, that led to even more distant mountains under a brilliant blue sky that had at least two moons hovering low on the horizon.
Before he could even say the swear word that was forming both on his lips and automatically in his mind, two forms stepped into view in front of the ship. And he grinned instead, standing up and immediately turning for the rear of the Gateship. He slapped the control to open the ramp and found the two were waiting for him there.
"Greetings, Ian Brooks," Alexander said, stepping forward and looking at him with interest.
"Alexander," he said, his smile genuinely pleased. He gave the Ancient a slight bow, knowing that it was their custom. His smile only slightly faded when he turned to the other Ancient, but he was no less happy to see her – and had almost expected it. "Dotty. It's good to see you. Both of you."
