Author: atlantis child

Title: The Heirs to Atlantis

Chapter Title: Chapter 2 "Technical Difficulties"

Summary: Major Sheppard and Doctor Weir are quite confused at new arrivals that appear on Atlantis. They know too much for strangers.

Genres: Alternate Universe, Angst, Drama, Future Fic

Rating: PG

Warnings: none

Author's Note: This is my first Atlantis fic, and I am new with the show as my bio says, so I apologize for any mistakes I make regarding Atlantis or the people therein. Please, if you'd like to let me know, please do so kindly ;)

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked quietly when Elizabeth approached him. She had seemed so unsure about taking responsibility of the girl.

"She's asleep," she told him. Elizabeth had put Zaira to sleep in her bed. She was relieved that Zaira fell asleep rather quickly. She had worry written all across her face, she wasn't sure about caring for this child.

John frowned, "Are you going to be okay?" he repeated.

"I've only ever taken care of a dog. Somehow taking care of a child seems vastly different." She sighed and sat down, "What are we to do with her, John? If she didn't come through the Stargate is not Anthosian… It's like she appeared out of thin air."

"You'll do great, Elizabeth," he told her trying to be reassuring. "And I agree it is like she just appeared out of nowhere."

"But what do we do? I mean, do we continue to take care of her? Do we keep her here on Atlantis? Or do we start to look for people who would act as foster parents?"

"Maybe Carson will have more clues tomorrow. He has to be able to tell us /something/ from his tests, right?"

Elizabeth frowned, "I suppose. But he can't tell us what I want to know. Who the girl's parents are…where they are…and how did she get here?"

"And those are…good questions," Sheppard told her. "But for now I think it's best for her to stay with you… She /likes/ you, Elizabeth…and maybe she'll open up more to you." He moved over and sat next to her.

"Have I mentioned I have a dog on Earth, and I don't have kids?" Elizabeth asked looking up at him.

John smiled and wrapped his arm around her pulling her closer. "You're going to be a great mother some day," he told her and kissed her forehead.

"Oh yeah? And how do you know that?" she asked in a disbelieving tone.

"You've taken care of all of us, haven't you?" he pointed out still holding her.

Elizabeth had relaxed and let her head fall to his shoulder, "It's been a group effort."

John smiled, "That's called family, Elizabeth."

The lights in Atlantis started to flicker on and off at about four a.m., even the lights that had been off came on. "What the hell!" was Major Sheppard's response when he blinked his eyes open. It took him a minute to realize where he was. He was still in Elizabeth's quarters. Still holding her. "Elizabeth," he whispered nudging her a bit.

"Mmm?" she mumbled opening her eyes to be in pitch black one second and bright light the next.

"Did you remember to pay the electric bill?"

After a minute, Elizabeth had fully woken up and was sitting up trying to see if the lights would make up their mind.

"Maybe we shou—" John started, but was interrupted by a scream. Immediately, John hurried to where Elizabeth had laid Zaira down in her bed. He found her curled up under the blankets. "It's okay," he whispered as he scooped her up. "The lights are just broken."

Elizabeth had followed, but had stayed back as John looked like he was doing fine on his own.

"I don't like the dark," Zaira whispered.

John held her close using one hand to hold her against him, her arms were wrapped tightly around his neck and he doubted she was going anywhere. He reached out and took Elizabeth's hand pulling her along with him. "Let's find out what's going on."

"Please don't let the Wraith get me," the girl whispered into Sheppard's ear.

"Shh…the Wraith aren't here. One of the batteries is probably just having a fit," he tried to sound convincing. The girl's fears got him a bit and unconsciously, he held Zaira closer and held onto Elizabeth's hand tighter.

"The Wraith come in the dark," she whispered.

"Rodney, what's going on?" Elizabeth asked immediately when they entered the control room.

"I don't know! Nothing's making sense! And I think that the power to access the computer main frame from here has been re-routed," he told her quite frazzled and quite quickly.

"What do you mean?" Sheppard asked still with Zaira in his arms. He had let Elizabeth's hand go since the area was small and she couldn't go far.

"How is that possible?" Elizabeth added moving towards Rodney who was working with Zelenka.

Rodney was extremely frustrated. He was trying to figure out what the hell was happening, but constant questions weren't helping. "I don't know. Maybe Atlantis is going on strike," he said sarcastically.

"Rodney—" Sheppard started annoyed with McKay.

"What? The only other ideas I can come up with are that either someone's hacked into Atlantis or there's an intruder who knows the Atlantis systems."

John coughed a bit feeling the girl's hold around his neck tighten. He knew what she was thinking. "Don't worry, Honey… The Wraith aren't here…" he told her in a soothing tone. Teyla would have sensed their presence and reported it by then.

"Should she /really/ be here?" McKay asked.

"Rodney," Elizabeth spoke up. "/Focus/. We need to know what is going on right now."

"Look!" McKay started and then stopped when information came up on his screen.

Seeing the look on Rodney's face, Elizabeth started to worry. "What? What is it?"

"The shield…" Rodney stammered.

"Someone's turned on the shield," Zelenka stated.

"Do we at least know where the controls have been routed?" Elizabeth asked not liking that they didn't have control of Atlantis.

"Give me a minute," Rodney muttered trying to get things to cooperate. "Oh…CRAP!" he shouted just as the city jolted and started to sink into the ocean. He suddenly got a curious look on his face once they had stopped moving. "How did they figure out how to do that?" He hadn't even figured out how to re-anchor Atlantis to the bottom of the ocean.

John had fallen when Atlantis shook gracefully onto his butt, but had made sure that he held Zaira tightly and that no harm came to her.

"The Wraith can't come now," Zaira whispered.

"Yeah…" he said letting out a shaky breath and looking at the child a bit worried. Did she know about this?

"Well…we're on the bottom…again," Rodney announced a bit shakily.

"Doctor Weir?" Zelenka said aloud seeing her still on the ground. She had fallen during the city's decent, while those at consoles had just held onto them and braced for it. But she still wasn't moving.

"Elizabeth?" John called out as he got up separating from Zaira so that he could go to Elizabeth's side. He reached over and felt for a pulse. There was one…at least he thought it was one. "Elizabeth?" he said again hoping that she'd stir. He carefully to started to move her, but stopped when he saw the blood on his hands when he slipped his hand under her head. "We need to get Beckett down here!"

"Radios are down," someone reminded quietly.

"You'll have to take her to Beckett yourself," Zelenka told him.

"Go," Rodney said. "We'll work on at least getting radios up."

"I think Elizabeth would want complete control of Atlantis back," Sheppard said as he carefully picked Elizabeth up.

"We'll work on it," he told Sheppard.

"Stay close, Zaira," John said looking down at the little girl as he headed out of the control room. He didn't like this. He knew that a head wound was bad and bled heavily. He wished the power wasn't fluctuating and that he could use the transporter, but with the power like it was it was out of the question.

She did, "We're taking the long way to the scary place…" Zaira pointed out.

"Ya know, I don't think Carson would appreciate you calling his medical bay 'the scary place'," John told her looking down at her while they walked. "And the batteries still aren't working, so we have to take the long way."

"But it is the scary place!"

John smirked, "I know… But it's also a good place, we're gonna get Elizabeth fixed up."

Zaira looked up at him, "She'll be okay, right?"

"Of course she will," John tried to assure the girl. God, he prayed she'd be okay. As much as Elizabeth Weir could be a pain, he loved her…and he respected her. She was a good leader. Of course they would often agree to disagree, but he couldn't imagine Atlantis without her. She had to be okay.

She had to.