Disclaimer: not mine, nor will it ever be

AN: First off, I'd like to thank EVERYONE who has left a review! Thanks for sticking with me! I lost my Beta, so if anyone is interesting in helping me out...? It'd be greatly appreciated! Here is a revised version of the last chapter. I fixed up some grammar mistakes, no plot added or changed. Also, I've added chapter titles.

New chapter should be out in a couple of days.

"So, you're my friend?" Rodney stared at the beautiful woman in front of him. For the last two days, he had been stuck in the infirmary for observation. Not that he minded it all too much because he really didn't know where else he could go. It was during these past couple of days that random people had come by to say hello and see how he was doing. It was a little over-whelming to say the least. At the moment a tanned skinned woman named Teyla, who had been by to visit many times before, was sitting next to the bed asking him to join her for lunch in the cafeteria.

"Yes Rodney, a good friend." Rodney didn't respond, he just kept looking at her. Turning the doctor, Telya asked, "I do not understand why he keeps asking me this question? I have been by many times to visit, is his memory somehow affected by what happened?"

Trying not to laugh, Carson responded, "I don't think that's it, luv." Carson could tell that the boy was quite taken with her. Telya turned her inquisitive glance back towards Rodney.

"A total gorgeous girl is my friend," he blurted out, deadpanned.

Telya blushed and looked at Carson who had to walk away for fear of laughing. She was taken back by the statement, not quite sure what to say; something that didn't happen to her often. "I am your friend," Telya started. "No matter how difficult you may find it to believe. Now, my offer stands, but only for a little while longer." After a moment, he bashfully accepted her offer.

As they headed towards the door, Rodney stopped suddenly and looked towards the doctor. He was about to ask for permission to go, when the doctor started to make a shooing motion with his hands. Carson told the boy, "run along lad, it's no good for a boy to be cooped up in one place for as long as you have." So with a big smile, Rodney took his first trip out of the infirmary.

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Although it was off hours, the mess still had a good amount of people in it. Soldiers and scientists were scattered throughout the dining area; among them were John Sheppard and Ronon Dex drinking what appeared to be coffee. They had been told by Teyla to wait, so they did.

"Look who decided to leave the infirmary," Ronon nodded toward the doorway behind Sheppard that revealed Teyla followed by a frightened looking Rodney. A smile came over his face as he saw them walk in. Rodney was dressed in clothes that were donated by the Athosians, since there was nothing in Atlantis that could fit him. The earth tones and leather seemed strange on the boy, but the clothes fit him well enough.

"Teyla, over here," Sheppard flagged them down. Telya walked right over with Rodney never to far behind. John had noticed that although Rodney knew that he wasn't in any danger, the boy still clung to people he had deemed to be 'safe' over the last two days. "So this is the surprise you where talking about. How are you doing Rodney?"

"I'm fine, Mr. Sheppard." Ronon nearly choked on his drink when he heard that, even Teyla couldn't help smiling a little at the formality.

"Rodney, I've told you before call me John," he gave Ronon a glare that could kill when he heard him start to laugh again before turning his attention back to Rodney. "Or Sheppard that's what everyone else does."

The boy nodded. When he turned his attention to Ronon to say something, the Satedan interjected, "Don't even try to call me Mr. Dex." The statement would have been more menacing if Ronon hadn't smiled afterward, but Rodney got the message.

"Well then, now that we got the niceties out of the way, who's hungry?" Sheppard asked.

"I am!" Everyone looked at Rodney who was just a little embarrassed by his outburst.

"You all heard the boy," making a grand gesture with his arms he pointed to the food. "Let's get some grub." As they made their way to the food line, Rodney stayed close. He could feel the eyes of the other people in the room. He tried not to let it bother him, but he couldn't help feeling nervous. Wasting no time, Ronon started to shovel food onto his plate. He was followed by Teyla, who chose her food a little more sensibly. John waited for Rodney to start, but was a little surprised that he just stood staring.

Sheppard kneeled down so he could talk more privately. "What's the matter, Rodney?" He watched as Rodney shifted his weight from one foot to another, looking down uncomfortably.

"This is just kind of weird. I'm not used to… to all this…" Rodney couldn't quite translate his feeling in words properly. These people were so willing to except him and treated him with a familiarity that he wasn't used to. When he looked at Sheppard, he had that same kind smile on his face that shined with understanding and patience.

"Don't worry, Rodney, nothing bad is gonna happen." Putting his hand on Rodney's shoulder he added, "We're all friends."

"I'm starting to get that a bit, but…" he started sheepishly. Over the last couple of days he tried to come to terms with the fact that to them, he wasn't nine years old and that he had lived the last two years with these people.

"But?"

"I don't have any money for food." Sheppard had to stop himself from smiling to spare his friend's feelings. He kept forgetting how out of place Rodney was.

"Listen to me, Rodney. Everything is free, okay? Not just in the infirmary." He waited until the boy nodded before continuing. "And even if it wasn't, considering how many times you've saved this city and everyone in it, I don't think you'd have to pay anyway."

Rodney's face light up at that last part, "Really?"

"Yes, really, now get some food and we'll tell you all about it." He gently pushed him forward. Pausing of a motion, he realized that this was the first time that he had touched Rodney, without him flinching or tensing up.

When they got back to the table, everyone regaled Rodney with tales of their mission's at Atlantis. Eating slowly, he listened and absorbed everything that was being said. His teammates couldn't help but feel odd at how they were telling Rodney all this. But nothing had been quite since the accident. Their team was down a science officer, so they were basically grounded. That was, unless they wanted to bring Kavanaugh along with them.

"I get to use a gun, fight aliens, and go to different planets. That's the coolest job ever! How many planets have I been too? Have I ever been shot?" The question kept coming from, while they ate their food. Mostly Sheppard and Telya answered his questions, but every once in a while Ronon would put his two cents in. Rodney started to ask something and then stopped halfway through. Confusion covered his face as he asked a different question. "What about Ford?"

The table grew quiet at that question; no one had mentioned the missing team member. "You remember Ford?" Ronon was the one to ask.

"I… I don't know." He looked around with a confused and almost pained expression on his face. "The name just popped into my head." Seeing the looks on the adults' faces was a little unnerving. "Did I say something wrong?"

"No, no of course not Rodney," Sheppard looked at the other people at the table for support, but they were as dumbfounded as he was. "It's just… kind of weird that you mentioned Ford. He was apart of our original team, but he sort of went AWOL." He stopped there, unsure of how much he should tell. Rodney looked down at his plate, lost in his thoughts.

The next minute was filled with an awkward silence that seemed to affect everyone but Ronon, who after the initial shock, just continued to eat. It was Teyla who broke the silence this time. "So tell me about where you grew up Rodney? I am interesting in hearing about what type of childhood that creates such a genius." She was laying on the charm pretty heavily, trying to ease Rodney's confusion.

John was about to interrupt, when Rodney answered her. "It's nothing to special. We live in a small neighborhood, not to far from the city where I take my piano lessons and Jeanie goes to ballet. She's really good at it; even the teacher says that Jeanie's her best student. My lesson usually gets out first and sometimes I get to watch her on stage. It's one of the best parts of my day, watching how she glides across the stage. My mom always used to say how lucky she was to have such great children, one that was beautiful watch and the other one who's wonderful to listen to. She was the one who insisted that we go to the lessons, since dad thought they were a waste of time."

"Your mother sounds like a very wise woman."

John stiffened a bit at the mention of Rodney's mother and the boy winced slightly at the comment, but slowly smiled to himself. "She was really smart and nice too, kinda like you Telya."

Telya gave Rodney a pleased smile. "Thank you for the compliment Rodney. Maybe one day in the future I could meet you mother."

Sheppard decided that now was the time to interrupt and stated, a little too loudly and a little to fast, "how'd you like to see where you work, Rodney!" Telya, Ronon, and a few other people startled by the outburst stared at the Colonel. He just gave Teyla a quick, stern 'I'll talk to you later' look before getting up and turning back to Rodney.

"Sure," he responded, giving Sheppard a small grateful smile. Giving everyone a quick goodbye, Rodney eagerly followed the Colonel out into the hall towards the labs.

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"Thanks for what you did back there." Rodney didn't look at up when he talked to Sheppard. He just kept walking forward, eyes slightly downcast.

"No problem Rodney." John looked down and could see that the boy wanted to say something, but couldn't quite let it out. He stopped and grabbed his shoulder gently to turn Rodney towards him. "What is it, Rodney?"

He tried to look anywhere but at the man in front of him. "You know that she's dead, don't you?"

He paused for a moment before answering, "Yea, I do." Rodney tensed with an emotion that Sheppard couldn't quite identify. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"No." John reached out to Rodney, but the boy started to walk again leaving the Colonel behind. "Hey, wait up! You don't know where you're going."

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"So you finally decided to visit." Radek greeted the two visitors with open arms. Patting Sheppard on the arm, he smiled greatly. "You'll be happy to know, Colonel, that we make much progress."

Smiling back at the man, Sheppard looked towards Rodney who still stood between Sheppard and the doorway. "Did you hear that, Rodney? Zelenka's got everything under control without your help."

"That's good, I guess." Rodney looked up at the two men nervously. "Keep up the good work?" He added awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Both men stared a moment, the boy's out of character behavior, for the adult McKay at least, was a little hard to get used to.

"AH, praise from the great McKay. Everyone cherish this moment!" Zelenka shouted to the rest of the staff in the room. Sometime during this exchange Miko had walked up to greet them. Instinctively, Rodney took a step closer to Sheppard.

"Welcome back, McKay. It's good to see you're doing well." She smiled warmly at him and extended out her hand. Realizing that she meant no harm, he shook the woman's hand.

"You can call me Rodney. It's a little weird when people call me by my last name." This seemed to delight the scientist and her smile grew.

"Alright then, Rodney, you probably don't remember me, but I'm one of your assistants, Miko." She looked towards Sheppard after the introductions and asked if she could show Rodney around.

"What do you say?" Sheppard asked as he looked at the boy. Rodney didn't answer, he just nodded slowly. Before Sheppard could say another word, Miko whisked Rodney into the labs.

The Colonel watched as Rodney explored the lab. Watching his interactions, he could tell that the female scientists, especially Miko, had all taken an instant liking to the miniature version of the adult tyrant. It was then that Sheppard realized that McKay always had that quality about him, only he was a little rougher around the edges as an adult. McKay would seem to be an arrogant, selfish control freak, but if you spent any time with the man you'd learn the truth. It had taken only a matter of days before Sheppard became friends with the scientist. Not just friends but something more, because over the years John had learned that he could put his life in Rodney's hands and the man would everything he could to not disappoint him.

"Did you hear me, Colonel?" Sheppard snapped out of thoughts by the Czech's questions.

"No, sorry, I was just thinking about something. What did you say?"

Zelenka shook his head as he repeated himself to the Colonel, "I said I found out what caused McKay's accident." When he saw that he had the other man's full attention, he continued. "McKay had been touching the artifact when I restored the power. We should have been more careful. We are now able to work on device without fear of…" Zelenka searched for the right word.

"Repercussions," Sheppard added.

"Yes, repercussions. We are working on way to reverse process, but it will take time." Zelenka took off his glasses and rubbed his eye, the long hours were getting to him.

Sheppard looked around and smiled, giving the Czech a big pat on the back. "I know you guys will figure something out. You're the best and the brightest, that's why you're h…" He was cut off by a commotion in the back of the lab. Looking at each other briefly, they knew it had to involve Rodney and went to see what happened.

What they found was an irate Kavanaugh and a distraught Miko trying to calm him down. As soon as they arrived, Rodney ran behind Sheppard grabbing his hand for support. Kavanaugh pointed to the boy. "He's faking it! The guy turns himself into a kid and pretends not to know anything, so we have to fix his mess."

Sheppard took a step toward the man and asked a little hostilely, "What are you talking about Kavanaugh?"

Kavanaugh responded by pointing to the white board behind him, all the while glaring at the boy hiding behind Sheppard. "Look at this." Sheppard looked that the board. It was filled with diagrams and notes. The only thing that stood out was a completed equation that took up most of the board.

"I think I'm missing sometime here."

"I had been working on this equation for last hour and when I walk away from the board for one second; McKay waltzes on over and completes it! The bastards been lying this whole time to get..." As Kavanaugh shouted, Sheppard could feel Rodney's grip tighten.

"Watch it, Kavanaugh!" Sheppard never liked the man standing in front of him. It took all his energy to not hit him at the moment. "Despite what you may think, Rodney doesn't remember anything. If you don't believe me, ask Carson."

Looking as smug as ever he retorted, "then how do you explain this?" Again he pointed at the board.

"How about we ask and find out?" By now the entire staff was paying attention to what was happening. Sheppard just hoped that Rodney didn't freeze up. Turning around to the scared boy, he sat back on his haunches and tried to look as reassuring as possible. "Rodney, how did you know the answer?"

Keeping his eyes on the floor, Rodney spoke softly. "I don't know." As he continued, he voice slowly got louder. "I saw him trying to fix the equation, when Miko was showing me around. When he walked away I knew that something was off and then it just clicked. So I fixed it. I told him when he came back but I didn't know that he was going to get so mad. I wouldn't have done it otherwise. I'm sorry, really I am." Sheppard could see that the boy was about to go into full McKay rant mode, so he cut him off.

"It's okay, Rodney. You didn't do anything wrong." He turned to stare angrily at Kavanaugh before he went on. "Kavanaugh is just having a bad day right?" Seeing that everyone was taking McKay's side, Kavanaugh stormed passed them, muttering under his breath.

Rodney flinched when the scientist brushed by him. Sheppard looked up to Zelenka and shared a knowing look. Zelenka could see the distress in his friend's body language and tried to cheer him up the only way he knew how; by stroking his ego "No matter how old McKay is, he always has to be best. Especially when if comes to showing up Kavanaugh." Patting the boys shoulder, he said, "good job, Rodney!" The rest of the praise was spoken in a language that no one else understood. However they all knew what he meant, even Rodney.

He lit up a bit with the praise and the smiles that he got from Zelenka and the other people in the lab. "My sister always says that I'm the smartest," he responded quietly.

"Well, you might be the smartest, but I'm still a little worried about how you knew that answer and how you remembered Ford. I think we should head back to the doc's place and get you checked out." Zelenka nodded in agreement.

"Okay. It was nice seeing you again, Dr. Zelenka." Rodney waved bye to the rest of the staff and waited for the Colonel to say his goodbyes. Once they were out of the room and in the empty hall, Sheppard could see some of the tension leave the boy's body, some of it, but not all it.

"Don't worry, Rodney." Sheppard reached down and ruffled his hair a bit. "I'm sure that Dr. Beckett will be able to figure this all out." As he said this, Jphn wasn't sure if it was for Rodney's benefit or his own.

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Rodney and Sheppard sat on the bed with Carson standing in front of him. He was putting up two scans of Rodney's brain on the light-up board. "This one is Rodney's most recent scan from before the accident, and this one is from yesterday." The two on the bed looked at the scans, not sure of what they should be seeing. Beckett continued. "As you can probably see, both scans are practically identical. Meaning that nothing has really changed since the accident, except for this region right here on little Rodney's scan. As you might have guessed,this is the area of the brain that our memories are stored."

"So what does all this mean?"

"It means, Colonel, that all of Rodney's memories are still enacted, however something is preventing him from remembering them." Carson looked at Rodney to see how he was taking the news since he hadn't spoken. The boy just stared at the scans, not letting any emotion show. "I'd like to do another scan to be sure, but I believe that either whatever is suppressing you memories may be reversing itself or it just might not have done the job completely. But from what you've told me, I can only guess that with time you may start to remember more and more of your adult life." They waited for Rodney to react, but he only nodded his head. At that moment, a man in uniform walked in the infirmary with some documents looking at Dr. Beckett. "If you'd excuse me a moment lads," Carson turned off the board and greeted the man.

It wasn't until Carson was gone that Rodney spoke. "It kind of makes sense now."

Sheppard changed positions on the bed so that he could talk better with Rodney. "What does?"

"When I first meet…" Rodney stopped for a moment and rephrased the sentence. "After the accident, when you came and got me, I felt safer. It's the same with Teyla and Ronon, but not as much." Sheppard stared at him a little shocked by the information. Rodney kept staring at his legs that were hanging over the bed. "I was going to run out of the lab before you got there, but when I saw you something stopped me. Somehow I knew I could trust you, even if I was still scared."

"Rodney, I'm…"

"You don't have to say anything. I just figured saying it out loud would make me feel a little better. I'm not good with people, with dad I always…" He paused and looked at John. "If I have a friend like you who I can trust, then I know that I didn't grow up to be like my father, and that makes me happy." He gave the Colonel a heartbreaking smiling.

Sheppard looked at Rodney, not sure of how to respond. "Don't worry Rodney; you turned out to be a great guy."

---TBC---