This chapter may be short, but it is important.
Dr. Weir sighed inwardly as Sergeant Stackhouse's team came through the Gate, alive and unharmed. She was getting used to the untroubled missions that were going on lately. They hadn't been successful in finding a ZPM, but at least all the teams were in one piece. Somehow it was always Sheppard's team that ended up injured, captured, injured and captured, or just having bad things happening to them. With that team grounded, things were actually quiet around the control room.
Thinking about the team brought Elizabeth's mind back to mini-John and Rodney. They had taken the news that they were actually adults quite well, and were intent on learning everything they could about Atlantis and aliens. 'Not that anyone's told them about their future selves. Or the Wraith. They give me nightmares, I'm not inflicting that on those kids.' It had been exactly two weeks since John and Rodney had been turned into children, and they had certainly grown on Elizabeth, Carson, and the others.
That was soon to end, though. Dr. Zelenka had just radioed in that he believed he had found the right crystal-combination, and would be ready to test it the next day. Elizabeth sighed again as she saw the evening light shining through the windows. Only one more day and Major Sheppard and Dr. McKay were back. Only one more day and the sweet little boys in the infirmary would be gone for good.
A beep signaled an incoming com, and Elizabeth tapped her headset. "Yes?"
"Dr. Weir, we have a problem!"
"What is it Carson?"
She could hear the tenseness in the physician's voice. "The lads are missing. I can't find them anywhere in the infirmary!"
00000
Rodney and John waited in the shadows until they saw the last scientist leave the lab. John had managed to find his way back to the lab where they had been turned into children, and led his brother silently there. Looking both ways down the hall, the twins scurried into the room, turning on the lights in the process. In the middle of the lab, on a table, sat the three cylinders.
Little Rodney quickly pulled himself up on one of the lab chairs, looking at the device. The top of the largest cylinder was open, showing the colorful crystals that lay inside. The boy frowned. "This looks wrong."
John sat on the chair next to him. "How can you tell?"
"They don't…feel right."
The black-haired twin matched his brother's frown as he looked at the device. "You're right, it doesn't. That greenish-purple one looks out of place."
Rodney nodded, sucking on his lip as he thought. His eyes lit up when he finally figured it out. "It needs to be rotated a little bit that way." He did, so and the two visibly relaxed. "Yup, that's right." Rodney looked at his brother. "Should we try it out?"
John grinned. "Duh!"
00000
Radek Zelenka breathed out heavily as he lay on his bed. He was exhausted after working long hours to fix the machine that had turned his friends into children. Tomorrow they would be back to normal. The only thing bugging the Czech scientist still was the 'failsafe' the original Atlantean scientist had written about. Something about memories and the ventilation system…
Zelenka's eyes popped open and he jumped out of bed. Swearing violently in Czech, he began swiftly walking back to McKay's lab. He had to fix this or they certainly wouldn't be turning McKay and Sheppard back tomorrow.
00000
The twins scrambled out of the chairs and laid the cylinders in the middle of the room. Rodney pushed the top of the big cylinder and it began to hum. Taking up the empty cylinders, the boys looked at each other. "Ready J.D.?"
John nodded. "I'm ready, Quinn." He flashed his brother a cocky grin. "See you soon!"
Rodney smiled back and together the boy's inserted the smaller cylinders into their original slots. The whole device glowed, enveloping them in a large, white light.
And the city of Atlantis responded.
Only one more to go!