NEXT!

and thanks for all the kind words!

"Okay people, the whole city's been shutdown, what do we do?" The table sat and considered carefully.

"Um, we get it going again?" All the people around him gave John a 'no-kidding' look. Weir smiled briefly.

"Anything else?"

"Well, th' city's sentient correct?" A couple people nodded slowly. "Or at least sentien'-like." More people nodded. "Good, so we convince it to come back online," Beckett proposed. A few people scoffed at the idea, but Sheppard smiled. Beckett had been tip-toeing around the fact that it was because of him the city was essentially dead.

"And how do we do that?" One loud grating voice stood out in the crowd. Dr. Kavanaugh… and for the thousandth time, Sheppard asked himself how the hell Kavanaugh had managed to get on the expedition. Ford looked at him haughtily. He didn't think well of the scientist… who did?

"Well, the Chair is the main connection to the city. Why not start there?"

"That's a good idea. Let's get working on it. John…?"

"Actually Elizabeth, I'd like to have Carson working on this… he seems to have a natural… connection with the Chair," Rodney enticed. John smiled at that and peered to where Beckett had been trying to flee the scene. Sheppard caught the doctor's eye, pointed a finger at him and mouthed "You."

Beckett had a dismayed face on and shocked as he pointed to himself and mouthed back "Meh?" The major bit his lip and nodded the death sentence. Beckett was exasperated and left with his hands raised in the air. John turned back to Weir,

"He'll do it."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

They all walked down the hall slowly, like in a funeral procession. They were contemplating what would happen if the Wraith came and the city was undefended. Well, at least three out of four of them were. The last was wondering what would happen when his ass hit that seat again.

Zelenka kept peering oddly at Beckett as if trying to figure something out. Beckett kept stealing looks back at the scientist, annoyed. After about five minutes of glanced looks and silence, Beckett stopped the group.

"Do ye wan' teh say somethin' Zelenka?" he asked angrily.

"No, vhy vould you ask?" he answered back.

"Oh, because… ye keep lookin' at meh funny!" Zelenka coughed once and went to talk.

"Vell, okay I'll keep it simple. Okay, you said earlier ve convince it to come back online.' Vhat does zat mean?" He cocked his eyebrow at the doctor. Beckett turned away and blushed ever so slightly. He hadn't meant it to sound like that at all. "You make it sound like it's alive!" This time Sheppard coughed and McKay became interested in his feet.

"I uh… erm…" Luckily for the stuttering Beckett, the gang arrived in the Chair room once again. This cut off Carson's mumbling and left a very confused Zelenka, but he turned to the task at hand: getting Carson into the Chair.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"No."

"Move it Beckett."

"No." He stood on the far side of the room; arms crossed looking like someone who wouldn't meet with his ex-girlfriend to get back together. The analogy didn't exactly apply, but it was close enough. Save he was being forced to meet again. He gave up on arguing, seeing how it didn't work last time. So, he became a rock.

"Get into the cursed Chair Carson! NOW!" Beckett shook his head to McKay's incessant whines. Growling, McKay wrenched one of the doctor's arms from the pose and tried to pull him towards it. He stiffly yanked his arm back into his stance. Even Radek was impatient now. He tried pleading.

"Come on doctor! Please help us!"

"No way in hell!" Sheppard, on the side, snickered loudly. He was leaning up against one of the walls with his arms crossed looking vaguely amused.

"We appreciate your help major!" McKay spat violently. John nodded.

"No problem." Beckett had a sudden burst of thought.

"Zelenka, you get in the Chair."

"Vhy?"

"Because you have the gene now too," he explained. The original gene therapy hadn't worked on the scientist, but Carson had refined it so now about 90 of the Atlantians had the gene. Zelenka had grown so used to not having it that he didn't ever consider himself a possibility for the Chair.

Zelenka shrugged and hopped in. The Chair reclined… and straightened again, throwing Radek clear of the area. He bubbled on in Czech quite nastily. Beckett could understand him, but it wasn't of his own doings. The Chair had managed to make him understand Zelenka's ramblings.

"You God-awful son of a bitch! Oh, I hate you. How dare you throw me out of there… you're gonna get it…" Beckett stopped in surprise.

"Whoa," Beckett said to Zelenka.

"What?"