Evelyn POV

"Oh so someone decided to show themselves at work," I heard as soon as I walked through the door. I looked up and saw Zelenka grinning at me, should have known he didn't mean it. I smiled softly back at him and came over to start work.

"Sorry, I had trouble sleeping again last night," I told him and he nodded in understanding. I hopped up on the bench beside where he was working.

"Thankfully most of the leg work you did yesterday has paid off," he told me. "We're looking for some lab mice to run a test on, would you like to go and pick them up?"

"Sure, I can do that," I replied. "You tell me where and when."

"Alright, Captain, head to the transporter," he told me and I hopped off the countertop. I walked through the transporter towards the lab we were keeping the mice in and it sparked an idea in me. I got back in time to find Zelenka running more simulations on his computer. I leaned over his shoulder to watch and that was how we spent the next few hours and into the night. It was after dinner when we started making real progress.

"Zelenka you genius," I commented as we started getting successful sim after successful sim.

"Well I don't know about that," he said and I laughed. "Don't let Dr McKay hear you call me that."

"I'll try not to," I chuckled and he paged everyone to the room. I was playing with one of the test mice when John got there and smiled at me.

"Didn't see you in the mess today," he said.

"Slept late and then came here," I shrugged. "McKay is such a defensive eater he's got snacks hidden all over his work stations."

"You're eating my snacks!" I heard and saw him round the corner.

"You want them back?" I raised my brow and he glared at me.

I put the mouse back in the plastic container and moved it over in front of the machine. Weir arrived and stood beside Sheppard who was looking on curiously as Zelenka showed McKay the work we'd been doing on his computer.

"We've been running simulations all day. I think we may finally have something. I was able to get the generator to run on a buffer loop, which tricks the Dart into taking only the power that it needs without overlading," Zelenka explained.

"All the sims the last 45 to an hour have been yielding positive results," I added and McKay perked up, scanning the screen one last time.

"Mm. Great. Good thinking. Now, can we just see it?" McKay asked, pointing to the mice.

"Anxious?" Weir asked, looking back at him from the machine.

"Yes," McKay agreed.

"Okay," Zelenka said, pressing the button on his computer. "Firing."

The materialiser mounted in front of the table fired a beam at the mice and just as planned they successfully disappeared from the box. I grinned. This was gonna work. The life signs showed up on the computer, proving they'd entered the machine successfully and alive. Now all we had to do was have the materialiser spit them back out again.

"Alright, life signs holding steady. Now, rematerialisation initiated," Zelenka narrated and I excitedly held my breath. He hit the button again and we all stared back in shock at the sight that greeted us. Smoke plumed from the box and the mice I'd just been playing with were tiny charred corpses. Did we do memorial services for lab mice?

"Now, I'm no scientist, but those mice used to be a different colour," Sheppard stated.

"This is never going to end. I'm going to be stuck like this forever," McKay whined and I sighed. I saw Zalenka pull his glasses and wipe his face, disappointed and stressed. I rested an elbow on his shoulder and put my head in my right hand.

"I don't understand, the tests we ran worked perfectly," I said and Zelenka sighed.

"I guess we overshot," he said and I nodded, lifting my head up off my hand.

"Probably because we were guessing for people, not mice. But I'd rather we weren't guessing at all," I sighed. I lifted my elbow up off his shoulder and hopped up on the bench. "I was thinking in the transporter it was a pity we didn't have something of our technology to compare it to. If we just had something that also used beaming technology we could convert it to get Cadman back."

"Yes, it is a pity," Zelenka agreed, and went back to the computer. I deflated a little. I could tell he didn't really give me his full attention, he was almost dismissive. I felt bad, I wish there was more I could do to assist him but I knew virtually nothing about Ancient technology, or Wraith for that matter. I could work on almost any machine I'd told McKay on the Daedalus. I guess I'd meant any Earth machine.

Rodney POV

I sat somberly in the bed Beckett had set me up in as I thought about what he and Heightmeyer had just told us. I'd thought this was just another set of shenanigans in the Pegasus galaxy, annoying but everything would eventually settle. I'd figure out how to get Cadman in her own body and we'd be right as rain again.

"You don't have to do this," I told Cadman. Just out of earshot I could see Beckett and Heightmeyer discussing our options. Not that was had any.

"Yes, I do, Rodney. It's your body, and you're not going to do it," she argued. That spurred something in me, how did she know that? I could be selfless.

"Oh, what makes you so sure?" I replied.

"They need you here, and as much as I hate to admit it, I'm not as important as…"

"Stop it. That's not true," I said.

"Carson? I need something to write with," she called out through my body.

"What are you doing?" I asked just as Beckett made his way over with a tablet and handed it to me.

"I'm going to write a letter to my folks. I'd appreciate it if you delivered it yourself the next time you gate back to Earth, Rodney. Explain what happened," she said.

"Well I'm not quite sure when I'll…" I started, and I had a lightbulb moment. The Gate! O'Neill had said it just a few hours ago and that idiot Zelenka had dismissed her. She'd been standing right in front of us all when she said it.

"I was thinking in the transporter it was a pity we didn't have something of our own technology to compare to. If we just had something that also used beaming technology we could convert it to get Cadman back," she said, swinging her legs a little as she sat on the bench.

"Yes, it is a pity," he dismissed, ignoring her in favour of the computer.

"The gate. We can use the gate!" I told Cadman excitedly. "O'Neill said it herself, comparable technology. The gate dematerialises you as you step into it, sending your information to the next gate so it can rematerialise you on the other side."

"We know that," Cadman replied.

"If we can take one of the crystal control modules from the gate and interface it with the Dart, we should be able to build a stable system," I explained excitedly and started shoving us out of bed.

"Rodney, wait, I don't think you're in any condition to do this," Beckett said, trying to stop me.

"I don't have time to talk. I need to get this done before the next seizure," I told him and climbed out of the bed, running off down the hall.

Evelyn POV

I rushed into the hanger with John and Weir. I stepped out for five minutes to go down the mess and eat some dinner and McKay decides to do a suicide run with gate crystals. I slid to a stop beside John who had captured McKay's attention.

"Ah, about time," McKay said, clapping his hands together.

"Hold on, Rodney. I thought all the mice died," John said.

"Well, what are we, mice or men?" McKay replied. I hoped he wasn't thinking about what I'd said earlier, about the rematerialisation not working because we'd calculated it to work on people not mice.

"Are you sure about this?" Weir asked, clear concern spilling over her features.

"Absolutely, yes," McKay said softly. John, Zelenka and Beckett shared in my concern as well. I, as much as I complained about and yelled at him, actually quite liked McKay. If this didn't work not only would he, my kind of friend, disappear but Cadman, my new sleepover buddy would be gone.

"Okay," Weir said after we all exchanged more looks.

"Just give me a sec," McKay said, moving over to the target area for the beam. I started chewing on my knuckles.

"Well, Laura, it's been, um… unique," he told her. "Good luck us both, hmm?"

"All right, it's ready," Zelenka said, pressing a few buttons on the computer. He looked at the rest of us. "I suggest you take a step back," he turned back to the computer, ready to initiate the final process. "All right."

McKay raised a single finger in halt, and looked to the side to stare directly at Beckett. But I was unsure if it was him or Cadman that was holding us up. McKay walked over to Beckett and grabbed him by the lapels, tugging him forward into a deep kiss. My jaw dropped. I glanced away for a second to see Zelenka and John look disturbed, however all my Christmases had come at once.

"Just in case this doesn't work," McKay said and I was pretty sure it was Cadman steering the ship at this point. "Oh… oh… just.. just hit it," McKay then said and awkwardly stepped back into the target zone. I snorted and he looked up to glare at me.

Zelenka hit the button and the ray activated, sucking away McKay in an instant. His computer beeped and Zelenka looked down momentarily. "Okay," he said. "It's reading as two life signs. Power levels are steady…"

"Get 'em out of there," John ordered. Zelenka hit the button and two people rematerialised in the target zone, Cadman in her marine fatigues in the same position she'd been beamed up in and McKay who'd been in his bathrobe seconds earlier. The two bodies dropped instantly collapsing onto the ground. Beckett and team were down by their sides working on the immediately.

"Let's get them to the infirmary," Beckett ordered and I watched the team move them to stretchers and wheel them out of there. I sighed a breath of relief and leaned back against the wall.

"Thank god for that," John said and I nodded.