Chapter 8:

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Alexa looked over at her alarm, 0530. Eh, mine as well get up. Gotta shower, meet Marc at the Mess at 0615. It's not like I'm going to get any sleep anyway. It's true, Alexa had gotten no sleep. All night her mind kept going over what had happened. She couldn't believe it was real. She had to keep reminding herself that it wasn't a dream. In less than a day, she had gotten what she thought was going to take months to achieve. The person she hurt had forgiven her, understood completely, and wanted exactly the same thing she did. They were back together. But how were they going to handle it? Their relationship is against regulations and her father is no longer around to help them around it. Whenever someone questioned their relationship back at the SGC he always insisted they were just friends. And of course, he being General Madison, no one doubted him. He knew it was against regulations, but how could he break his daughter's heart. But now?

Lexa tried to brush the thoughts out of her mind as she threw on some clothes to go for a quick run. As she jogged through the empty halls she tried to imagine what Atlantis would have been like for the Ancients. Would they have been up this early? Keeping fit, watching the sun rise? She was just trying to keep her mind away from her worries. She made her way back to her room and jumped in the shower.

As she turned off the water and reached for a towel, she heard a knock at her door. She quickly wrapped the towel around her body, grabbed her watch, and looked at the time, 0605. She peeked her head out and invited her guest in.

Marcus entered. "Hey you almost…" He took notice of her wet hair and towel. "Oh, guess not." He smiled.

"Well, give me a few minutes, you're early. Besides, weren't we supposed to meet in the Mess?" Lexa ducked back into the bathroom to get dressed.

"Well if I'm going to continue to be a great tour guide, I figured I should walk you over. So, how'd you sleep?"

Lexa laughed. "Oh, is that what I was supposed to be doing?" She put on her uniform, minus the jacket that was out sitting on her bed, and looked in the mirror. "My mind was otherwise occupied." She grabbed the hair dryer and quickly straight-dried her hair.

As she walked out of the bathroom Marcus looker her over. "Hmm, not bad. Like the shirt. How'd you manage that?"

Lexa was wearing a tight black tank top that bared about 3 inches of her firm abs. "Part of my deal with Jack. Oh the things I can get away with!" She grabbed her jacket and threw it on.

"Oh really?" Marcus smiled and lifted an eye brow.

Lexa titled her head. "That? No. Wasn't part of the deal. Now had I known getting back together would have been this simple, then yeah, I would have asked. But I doubt if it would have gone through. Ok, me ready. Take me away oh great tour guide." They linked elbows and headed for the Mess.

Being so early the Mess was fairly empty, so they grabbed some waffles and cereal and headed for the far table away from everyone else. As they ate they discussed the technicalities of their relationship. How to avoid suspicion, how to act in the public eye. Basically, how not to get noticed for having a relationship against regulations, and not get reprimanded. Though it wasn't Lorne's style, he was determined to attain the plans he thought were lost when Alexa left. As they continued talking one image kept flashing in his mind; a small black velveteen box. They finished their breakfast and left for Stargate Ops.

"Ah, Good morning Captain, Major. Right on time," Dr. Weir greeted them as they walked into her office. "So I heard Major Lorne here has given you the grand tour?"

"Yes, he has kindly given up his time and shown me around. Atlantis is very impressive, but I also can't wait to get off-world. So what fun things do I get to do today?"

"Well, I'm not sure how fun the first part of your day will be. I'd like for you to observe the procedures here in Stargate Operations for the morning. We have a recon team off-world that is scheduled to return in about 2 hours. Until then Dr. Zelenka will be showing you around. Familiarizing you with the ancient technology. Ah, here he is now." A short scientist in glasses entered the office as Dr. Weir performed the introductions. "Dr. Zelenka, Captain Madison." They both smiled and nodded to each other. "As for going off-world, you might just get your wish," Weir continued as she turned to Lorne. "Major, I'd like for to have your team on stand-by. If the recon team is to come back with anything interesting, I'd like for you to be ready to leave."

"Yes Ma'am," Lorne replied. Weir sat down at her desk as the three of them left.

"So, guess I'll see you later for our mission," Lexa beamed.

Lorne smiled. "Possible mission. And yeah, I'll see you later. Have fun."

As Lexa turned around Dr. Zelenka jumped right in at super-speed with the first piece of Ancient tech. "Obviously this equipment here is the DHD. Now we're in a different galaxy so the constellations are different, which you've undoubtedly noticed. This touch-pad here operates the shield, which is equivalent to the Iris on the Earth gate." These super-speedy, obvious explanations continued from one piece of technology to the other. Alexa tried to stay focused, the Ancients fascinated her, but after awhile she could no longer process the Czech's gibberish. She kept glancing at her watch wondering when the recon team would return, and hopefully with good news. Sure she was captivated by Atlantis, but she'd be living there now, so there was plenty of time to explore. Now that she was settled in she couldn't wait to get off-world, explore a new galaxy, battle a new enemy.

As she stood there acting like she was listening to Zelenka, her eyes rummaged around the room trying to find something to keep her entertained, which she found in Major Lorne as he walked into the room. As she watched from above, Colonel Sheppard had gone over to him and started talking. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but between the smirks on both of their faces, it was fairly apparent, to her at least, what they were discussing.

"So, come to check up on our new recruit," Sheppard said as he caught Lorne before he got to the stairs that led up to the control room.

Lorne rolled his eyes and turned around to face the Colonel. "Actually, there's a recon team do back soon and Dr. Weir wants my team to check things out if they find anything interesting."

"Ah yes, the team that's not due back for another 15 minutes, and I know you two are…" Sheppard hesitated for a moment and smirked, "friends. Hence my question."

Lorne smirked back, coming up with a logical excuse to avoid the real reason. "Ok, you caught me. But I wasn't so much as coming to check up on her, than I was to rescue her from Zelenka's techno babble. I mean, two hours listening to him go on about Ancient tech, though not as bad as having to listen to McKay, but still, it's enough to drive anyone nuts."

Sheppard continued to grin from ear to ear. "Uh huh. Rescue her. What, you trying out for the whole 'knight in shining armor' gig or somethin'?"

"Yeah, that's it sir. Though I don't know how well it will work seeing as how I left my horse back on Earth." They were interrupted by the locking of chevrons from an off-world activation. "Ah, looks like they're early." And with that the two of them headed up the illuminated staircase as Dr. Weir exited her office.

The tech at one of the control panels indicated that they had received an IDC and Dr. Weir ordered the shield lowered as she looked to Captain Madison. Guess she's testing what I've learned today. Right. "Oh don't worry, I got this one," Lexa said cockily as she hit the touch pad. The shield lowered and a few moments later the recon team came through, the gate shut down, and they all headed to the conference room.

Before Dr. Weir could even ask the scientist on the team spoke up excitedly. "It's unbelievable! It's huge! No where near the size of Atlantis, but still, huge!"

"Well that's fascinating," Dr. Weir broke in. "But it would help if we knew what you were talking about?"

The scientist continued. "An ancient laboratory! Underground! Who knows what we can find and learn!"

The team leader finally spoke up. "We didn't catch it in our initial scan of the planet. Ancient shielding probably kept it off our sensors. But as we were exploring we found a small structure that we initially thought was a temple of some sort. Well, turns out that it housed a set of Transporter Rings, and we got sent to this laboratory. It's definitely worth exploring, but it is huge. We were transported into a large central room that had corridors leading off in 5 directions."

"Well, Major, Colonel, looks like you'll be heading up this mission together. I'd like you to have your teams ready to leave in 10 minutes. Oh and Major, I'd like for Zelenka to go along as well, in place of Dr. Langly." And with that Weir dismissed the brief meeting. The two teams suited up and were soon off through the gate.