All three of them were down in the infirmary shortly thereafter, sitting on beds as a very puzzled Carson Beckett examined them all.
"It felt like an electric shock," John explained, fidgeting as Carson tried to check him over. Elizabeth was playing with a lock of her hair out of some old, forgotten habit as she watched them.
Rodney sighed, folding his arms. "If I knew more about how their weaponry worked, I could try to analyze what exactly its reaction was on the gate."
"Was it actually something related to the gate?" Elizabeth asked him. "John was already clear of it and you and I never traveled through it."
"Speaking of traveling through the gate," Carson said as he bandaged a minor wound on John's arm, "Is it possible for you to return from a mission without having been shot at?"
"Apparently not," John dryly replied.
"We were within arms reach of the event horizon when the gate shut down," Rodney was explaining to Elizabeth. "It's possible that it could have been destabilized by their weaponry. We're lucky no one lost a limb or got vaporized, but OBVIOUSLY, I won't know what's ACTUALLY possible until I run some tests."
"Can you even reach a lab bench?" John shot. McKay couldn't resist the urge to stick his tongue out at him.
"Okay, that's real mature, guys," Elizabeth said, rolling her eyes.
"Maybe you haven't noticed, but I'm about eleven," John told her. "Where exactly did you think maturity was going to come into play?"
"What does your age have to do with that?" McKay shot back.
"All right, enough!" Elizabeth told them. "Rodney, talk to Teyla and see if she has any information that can help you, and then work with Beckett for some way to…fix this." She slid down off of the bed and had made about two steps towards the door before Carson noticed.
"Where are you going?" he asked her.
"We only reverted physiologically, because my memory is still intact, and right now I'm remembering all the work that's waiting for me in my office. Keep me updated on your progress?" Carson nodded, and so Elizabeth left. John just smiled.
"I sure as hell wouldn't be running off to do work now," he commented.
"That's why, thankfully, you're not in charge of the city," Rodney sniped as he, too, got down.
The surprised look on Teyla's face when she saw the figure in her doorway was enough to make John laugh. "John? What are you doing here?"
"We had a training session," he simply stated.
"I had assumed – "
"That you wouldn't have to beat up on a little kid? Un-uh. Come on; you told me to practice and I've been practicing and now I get to prove how useless it was." Teyla raised an eyebrow as she went to get her weapons.
"If you think I am going to 'go easy on you', as you would put it…"
He smirked, "Why would I think that?"
For those in Atlantis' control room that were watching the situation in the city's leader's office, there was a pretty funny sight to be seen: a brunette twelve-year-old in a noticeably too big expedition jacket was going toe to toe with her chief of security, who was probably about two heads taller than her and just as stubborn. For those inside of the office, the situation wasn't anywhere near as entertaining.
"My brain still works, Sergeant," Elizabeth told Bates. "I'm not turning over control of the city. I can still do everything I could do yesterday."
"And what if something else happens?" he asked her. "What if this isn't reversible?"
"It's reversible."
"How do you know that?" Elizabeth was sorely tempted to stand on a chair – he was using his height advantage for all it was worth.
"Because I know Rodney, and he will not stop working until he's come up with a solution. I'm the leader of this expedition, and it's going to stay that way."
"What about Major Sheppard?"
"What about him?"
"You really think the military personnel in this city should be taking orders from a child?"
"I think they should be taking orders from their commanding officer, who – at the moment – just happens to look like a child. You're not going to get anywhere with this argument; until I have proof that either one of us is unfit to lead, we're doing it. Now, was there anything else?" Bates grudgingly beat a retreat. Elizabeth sank back into her chair with a sigh.
Not only does Rodney REALLY need to find a fix, she told herself, but he needs to find it fast…
John instituted another movie night that evening, if only to give himself something to do. There'd been a rather extensive debate when it came to selecting a film, but in the end, they'd chosen The Final Countdown.
"Are we all set?" someone asked as they all took seats around the room.
"Yeah," John said. "No, wait. Where's Elizabeth?"
"Her office, the last time I saw her," someone replied. John rolled his eyes, getting up (he'd decided he was no longer tall enough to jump over the back of the couch.)
"Don't start the movie," he said, and the chorus of groans he got wasn't unexpected. "Just give me five minutes! I'll be back."
"I'm pushing play in five minutes," Aiden warned him.
"Fine!" John called back as he hurried down the halls back towards the control room. Elizabeth was, of course, still sitting at her desk looking at reports.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd say someone was cramming for a test tomorrow," John teased her. She looked up with a smile, knowing how she must have appeared.
"Yeah, a test on the water filtration systems of a ten-thousand-year-old city."
"Well…how about studying for something else?"
"Such as?"
"How an aircraft carrier can get pulled back in time from 1980 to the day before Pearl Harbor? We're watching The Final Countdown, but I told them not to start until I brought you back with me."
"John…"
"It's one night. And you are sorely in need of some fun – now more than ever. Come on." Elizabeth thought about it, and finally put her pen down.
"Someone better have made popcorn," she told him as they left her office together. She couldn't help but return John's smile; even as a child, he still had that flyboy grin.
"I think we could find you a bowl."
TBC...
See the blue button? You know what to do 8-)
