Author's Note: Yay! Finally another chapter! Just to let you all know: I'm posting chapters as I write them (gasp, I know, horrible), but that's what happens when you start writing a story with no plot in mind… I hope to get another chapter by the end of the week, then I will be busy all next week (meaning no chapters next week, sorry). I was reading over the story and realized I haven't really done much with Teyla. I find her particularly difficult, but the second part of this chappie is Teyla-central. Yes, McKay is in the infirmary (again), and most of this chapter takes place there, but I promise he'll be out soon.

Regarding the show vs. this fic: Yes, I realize the Athosians are gone now in the show, and I will kick them out of Atlantis in my fic soon enough, just not in exactly the same way. Also, you'll notice a small reference to when Weir threatens that really annoying 'ponytail scientist'. Now I know what happens in the show doesn't happen here, but he seemed like the kind of guy who would be a pain in the butt all the time… so I pretended that Weir threatened him for something else he did in this ficworld…

Regarding pairings: I don't think slash belongs with any of the Atlantis chars, not that I'm against it, but there will be no slash in my Atlantis fics just cos it doesn't fit... I do like the idea of Teyla/Ford, even though the show clearly screams Sheppard/Teyla. Other than that, I'm finding there's a depressing lack of women in Atlantis. I don't really see Weir going with anyone, but then again she's got a husband, so… I've introduced a new female char in this chappie, I don't know if I'll put her with anyone, but its possible.

Regarding the Boss: Oh-kay. I am a Springsteen fan, but that's not the reason for the song in there… I was listening to a radio station streamed over the net and the song came on while I was thinking of what to write for that segment and BOOM there's a little idea there… If you don't like the Boss… well, I won't say cos I want you to keep reading my fic!

Regarding Sheppard and Ford's music prefs: I have no idea what kind of music they're supposed to like, but everyone likes Bruce, so I'm assuming they do too… Don't kill me.

THANK YOU REVIEWERS! I feed on constructive/positive reviews! I love you guys!

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Serefina - I'm a regular… I visit it like every day! (those who have no clue what I'm talking about, GO TO THE SITE it's like a Stargate everying encyclopedia plus stuff!

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Disclaimer: See first chapter if you really care that much. ADD: don't own Bruce Springsteen (though I do own some of his cd's…), and I'm not getting paid to advertise for him in this fic sooo…

This isn't the most exciting chap, nor is it the funniest, but its ending one plot and starting another… sorry! The next one will be much better and it should be up by the end of the week!

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"He's got a concussion, but he's going to be fine," said Beckett with his back to McKay.

"Good. When can he get out of the infirmary?" asked Weir.

"Em, I'd say about a week."

"A week? I can't stay here for a week! I need to keep translating that room! No, anywhere but here- oww." burst out McKay from behind them, rubbing his head.

"I wouldn't suggest doing much of anything today, you took a good knock to the head, Rodney," said Beckett, turning to face McKay.

"Fine," he pouted. "Can I go tomorrow?"

Weir turned to Beckett, who nodded his head 'no'. She turned back to McKay. "Doctor's orders, you have to stay here until… until… for a week." She paused, then added, "What day is it anyway?"

"No, Elizabeth, I'm begging you! Get me out of here! Agh!" he winced as the pain in his head flared up again.

"Lay down, doctor. You're not getting better any faster by yelling like that," exclaimed Beckett.

Weir mentally sighed. It was going to be a long week for both of them.

xxx

"Hey, wanna go walk around the city a little?" Sheppard asked, appearing in Ford's doorway.

"Huh?"

"Well, we can't go anywhere while McKay's in the infirmary. I already asked Teyla, but she's busy doing some… ritual with the rest of her people. I only found two other people who speak English and both of them were working together on some mystery box they found… And it's creepy going alone."

"Well, I was unpacking some stuff…" muttered Ford.

"It took you two minutes to pack it during the evacuation, and it takes you a half an hour to unpack it?"

"You got me, sir. Where were you planning on going?" Ford stood up, grabbed his coat, and made his way to the door. The two started walking down the hallway.

"Oh, I dunno. Just for a walk. I never considered myself the exploring type, but this city is just so darn cool!"

Ford grinned. "You got that right, sir. My favorite thing so far is the jumpers…"

"Ford, lose the 'sir'. It's not like I'm going to court martial you; we're in Atlantis for god's sake!"

"Oh, sorry, sir- um, sorry. Man, that's gonna take some getting used to."

"Hey look! Its that room. Gee, I forgot about with the Wraith an all," exclaimed Sheppard, pointing to a door on their left."

"Me too, sir-" Ford received a look from Sheppard, and inconspicuously cleared his throat. "Dang, nice crack." Sheppard shot him an appalled look, and quickly hitched up his pants. Ford laughed. "No, in the glass!" he chuckled, pointing to the stasis unit.

"Huh. I bet that thing, whatever it is, not alive anymore."

"McKay killed it?"

"If it was ever alive," Sheppard responded skeptically. He walked over and lightly touched the glass.

"Woah, sir, did you do that?" came Ford's voice, clearly worried. He hadn't brought his gun.

"Oops," said Sheppard as the stasis pod began to light up, the 'ice' inside melting.

"Sir, it might be a good idea to step away-" The glass suddenly disappeared, and the animal leaped at Sheppard, knocking him cold on the ground. It didn't try to attack him, however, as it bolted for the door, almost knocking over Ford, who quickly jumped out of the way.

"Holy crud, what was that?!" Ford exclaimed, slowly getting to his feet. Hearing no response, he looked over at Sheppard only to discover that he was lying face-down on the floor. "Major? Major!" He walked over and checked for a pulse, which he found to be quite stable. He took Sheppard's transmitter, as he hadn't thought to bring his own, and called, "Med team to the stasis room! I repeat, med team to the stasis room, Major Sheppard has been knocked unconscious!"

xxx

Born in the USA…

Born in the USA…

Bruce Springsteen softly chorused throughout the infirmary.

"Isn't that a little inappropriate for this place?" came McKay's voice.

Come back home to the refinery…

Sheppard looked at him from the next bed over with an offended glare. "Are you kidding? This is the Boss." (see Author's Note)

He said, "Son, you don't understand"…

"Besides, I thought you're personal item was the football tape," retorted McKay.

"Ford's disc, Doc's boom box," replied Sheppard coolly.

Born in the USA…

McKay looked incredulously at Beckett. "You contributed to this?!"

Beckett shrugged, "Personally, I think Mr. Springsteen's music has a nice sound." He hurried off to attend to another patient.

"Am I the only one here with a sense of national pride?!" yelled McKay, silencing the room and attracting odd looks from most of the infirmary occupants.

I'm a cool rockin' daddy in the USA…

The song ended in the silence. Sheppard looked around at the weird looks, and turned to McKay. "Apparently, yes." The busy chatter of the infirmary quickly returned, along with Beckett.

"Good news, John. Nothing major, no infections or diseases. You may have a slight headache for the next few hours, but if it gets any worse than that, come straight back here right quick." Beckett deftly affixed a bandage to Sheppard's forehead, where the animal had collided with him. "You're free to go, but, if I may ask… how did this happen?"

Sheppard gingerly rubbed his head. "Well, Ford and I were just wandering around since the team's grounded for the week…" He shot a look at McKay. "And we came to that room with the stasis unit, and I… accidentally activated it, I think."

"You what!?" McKay sat straight up, looking at Sheppard in disbelief. "Ah, ow. Oh, that was not a good idea… ow…" He held his head and Beckett helped him lay back down.

"Well, the… whatever it was jumped off and knocked me over, then bolted out the door."

"You mean it's loose roaming around the city?" asked McKay.

"Uh, yes."

"Oh this is very bad. I should go figure out what those writings on the wall… Hopefully it doesn't hurt anyone. I have to go back to that room-" McKay struggled to sit up.

"No," said Beckett flatly, "You're staying here 'till you can at least walk." McKay glared at him, but reluctantly eased himself back onto the bed.

"Have you told Weir?" asked McKay.

"No. She's got enough on her mind already." Sheppard hopped off the bed, took Ford's CD from the boom box, and walked out.

McKay gave a sulky look at the door and muttered, "Lucky…"

"Well maybe if you didn't go and get yourself hurt so often, you wouldn't get stuck in here all the time," said Beckett, noting his look as he replaced the IV fluid bag. McKay sighed and looked gloomily around the room. "Something on your mind?" Beckett asked.

"Weir hasn't talked to me about the little jumper incident yet. I'm getting paranoid about what she's going to do,' replied McKay.

"I don't blame you, I heard she threatened to send some scientist to a desert planet 'cos he was being a pain in the-"

"I did, but he shaped up before I ever got the chance to actually go through with it," Weir intruded on their conversation. "I was wondering, though, why did you take that jumper up there, Rodney?"

xxx

"We cannot stay here! You know as well as I do; our people don't like it here, and neither do I."

"Halling, where would we go? This is the only place we have at the moment. Remember, we are guests here, we should be thankful for what the people from Earth have provided for us," rebutted Teyla.

"You seem to have grown close to Doctor Weir's people, though the rest of us have not."

"You do not respect them? They saved us from the Wraith attack. If it were not for them we would all be dead, or worse, held captive by the Wraith, waiting for out time to be," Teyla shuddered, "eaten. I understand your unrest, however we have no place else to go right now. And while we are here, I expect every one of us to show respect to Doctor Weir's people." Teyla stormed out of the room. It wasn't like her to get angry at her people, but the way they were acting was ridiculous.

She needed time to think. She had sufficient knowledge of the layout of the city, and knew where to go so that she wouldn't be disturbed in her thoughts. As she walked through the deserted halls, she couldn't shake the picture of her unhappy people, of Halling's distrusting face. She knew she had to do something, as the leader of the group of survivors, but she didn't know what. She wondered if she had done the right thing by following Major Sheppard and bringing her people to Atlantis. Suddenly she questioned her leadership. Was she really doing what was best for her people? What if something disastrous happened? She would be blamed.

Teyla suddenly realized that she was outside, on a balcony. Looking back at the main building, she was able to gauge her approximate position, and faintly remembered the area to be some kind of seaport. Sure enough, Teyla looked down to see an Ancient version of a 'dock'. Although she had never actually lived next to a large body of water in her lifetime, she had heard plenty about it from Sheppard, Ford, and McKay, all of whom she considered good friends.

Her feet carried her down to the docks, so close that she could jump into the ocean and swim if she had the need. There was a cool sea breeze coming off the large ocean, and she pleasantly leaned against the safety rail, letting the wind rush past her face. She momentarily forgot about her leadership worries, too caught up in the beauty of the ocean to think of anything else. Her moment was quickly interrupted, however, by the sight of a small boat that was maybe 300 meters away from where she was standing.

She stared at it curiously, not sure if she should call for help. As far as she could tell, there were three people occupying the boat, two male and one female. They didn't look Wraith, but then again, Teyla reminded herself, Wraiths fly in ships, not little wooden canoes. She continued to look with great curiosity as the boat drew nearer and nearer.

"Pe-ta, pe-ta!" One of the occupants of the boat had stood up and was obviously trying to gain Teyla's attention.

She didn't recognize the dialect, but held her hand up in a universal greeting. "Hello!" She spoke in the common language, as it seemed to be spoken by most every race they encountered. "Hello!"

The man in the boat seemed confused, and said something to the woman in the back. She nodded and said something back, then stood up and held her hand identical to Teyla's. "Hallo!" she called back.

"I am Teyla," she called to the woman. "Who are you?"

The two men looked expectantly at the woman, who seemed to be working out Teyla's words in her head and coming up with a response. Finally she answered, "I Yenamey." She pointed to the 'pe-ta' man. "Onothen." She then pointed to the second man. "Henorem." She then fell silent, as if searching for a word. "Peace!" she ended, stuttering slightly as if she didn't know how to correctly pronounce the word.

The boat was now less than 50 meters away. The three people had stopped rowing, as if they were waiting to be accepted into the dock. Teyla noticed, and replied as simply as she could think of, "Peace! Come." She beckoned to the dock, and walked out onto it, awaiting the boat.

The three people seemed unsure, but started paddling again. They suddenly stopped, as 'Onothen' seemed worried. He spoke to Yenamey, who stood up and repeated, "Peace! Peace!"

Teyla was confused by their reluctance to approach the dock, as they had obviously paddled their little boat full of supplies for a few hundred miles to see the newly risen city. She replied, "Yes, peace. Come!" Teyla beckoned to the dock some more, and the group slowly paddled in. As they got closer, it was apparent that they had been at sea for many, many days. They looked quite miserable, and Teyla noticed that their packs (of food, she guessed) appeared empty.

The first man, Onothen, pulled the boat right up to where Teyla was standing, and offered her the rope. Teyla had never tied up a boat before, but took it anyway, and held it steady as the three travelers clamored onto the city of Atlantis. Onothen gently took back the rope and deftly tied it to a post on the side of the dock.

The group stood uneasily on the dock, facing Teyla. No one spoke for at least a minute. Finally Teyla decided they were probably waiting for her to say something.

"Welcome," she said, smiling. "Atlantis," she said, gesturing behind her towards the bulk of the city.

Yenamey seemed to bristle at the mention of the word 'Atlantis', and gazed up at the city in awe. The woman murmured in her native tongue to the two men, who immediately took on her look of awe. "Atlantis!" she exclaimed, as if she had just found some long lost family treasure.

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Author's Second Note: You know, I shouldn't call it 'Authors Second Note' cos its really just a continuation of the first one… oh well. Anyway, dun dun dun dunnnnn! New people! Yay! Another plot! Double yay! (yay yay!) So, what happens? Hmmm, I don't know. Haven't written it yet.

Next chapter: early this week (hopefully Tuesday or Wednesday)

Reviews are much appreciated and will be recognized! (I should trademark that. I use it at the end of every chapter…).