Anything with /'s inside quotes is being spoken in Czech.

Chapter 7

"Radek?" Elizabeth looked up, a little surprised to see the Czech standing at her doorway, even more surprised to see his battered toolkit. She saw a pair of marines standing at the far end of the bridge to her office. Radek hadn't felt the need to bring them into Weir's small office for this.

"Elizabeth. /If this is a bad time I can come back, but I believe I have found a way to give you more privacy in your office. John told me he can change the glass?/"

"/Yes, he made it opaque, I admit I don't like the whole place being glass but we can't figure out how to hang curtains. Ancient metal isn't really drill friendly./"

Radek nodded and stepped into the office, the door closing behind him. "/And gene therapy didn't work for you, yes/" He set his toolkit down, sitting across from her.

"/Yes, I'm one of the fifty two percent, unfortunately. But you said you can make it so I can make the walls opaque? Even just a little?/"

"/If my simulation is correct, I believe I may be able to. If it works on this, there are many other things I can do with it as well. May I?/" Elizabeth stood so he could get around her desk.

"/Should I leave?/" She knew some people didn't like to have someone over their shoulder.

"/I don't mind if you stay. It's your office after all./" He flashed her a smile, and ducked under the desk. He reached up, moving his hand over a section and the walls frosted just a moment, then went clear again.

"/That was fast! Whatever you did worked for a second./"

"/Sorry? I hadn't done anything./" Radek's head popped up, looking a bit confused, and Elizabeth concluded she rather enjoyed the look – he was cuter than Rodney when he looked like that.

"/You had your hand here, and the walls went frosted. Stand up and try it again./"

He did, eyes going wide behind his glasses as the glass walls turned smoky. He concentrated and when his hand moved away, they stayed like that. "/The therepy didn't take with me, and I hadn't even gotten the desk open .../"

"/Maybe I wasn't trying hard enough before./" Elizabeth stood beside him and tried to clear the walls, holding her hand over the same spot on the desk, even touching it in case that helped. The walls didn't change. She could see Radek's mind working, as was her own, and the two came to the conclusion at the same time. "/I'm no doctor, Radek but I have a feeling your little Marina is going to have the ancient gene./"

"I can't say how long the effect will last once you've had the baby, Radek, but yes, it seems that even the unnatural imposition of the gene can create an offspring with the gene, naturally. Which is a little unusual because my research into the gene on Earth indicated it was in no way passed on genetically the same way we think of it. On the other hand, it may be a by-product of the machine used in the wee one's conception. When you're far enough along, Radek, I'd like to test the baby for the gene."

"Of course," Radek nodded, sitting on one of the infirmary beds with Elizabeth lingering nearby. After he'd successfully rigged her desk to allow her to control the walls, she'd asked if she could accompany him to tell Beckett about the apparent effects of gene therapy.

A few tests later and Beckett had confirmed it – Radek's blood was showing trace amounts of the gene. Less than the weakest therapeutic result, but still a marked presence – marked enough to enable him to use the city to a fuller extent than someone without the gene at all. Beckett warned him that since it seemed to be coming directly from the child, it was only temporary, and the effect was likely to fade after the child was born, an event now only six months away.

"/How does it feel now?/" Elizabeth asked as they sat at lunch. The mess hall was nearly empty – the real lunch rush was over and the dinner rush hadn't yet begun. A group of marines at the table by the door were Radek's current bodyguards.

"/It's like ... a concert, your favorite piece of music played live, so you can feel it in your very soul, and every note is exactly as it should be, the way you know it in your heart. I know it will fade, but for now, I will enjoy the music./" He ducked his head shyly, realizing he'd gotten a bit flowery.

"/Radek you have the soul of a poet,/" Elizabeth smiled – not her diplomat smile, this one reached her eyes and Radek liked it more than he would admit right now.

"/Thank you. I can sometimes get carried away, especially when I don't have to wrap my mind around English./" Radek realized he never had actually thanked her for their Czech conversations. "/Thank you for this. It's nice to speak the language of my home, when I'm so far from it./"

"/I'm glad to help, you're keeping me from losing at least one language out here, and the conversation is quite pleasant besides. Do you miss it, Earth?/"

"/Sometimes. Some days I do not know which is home, Earth, or here. I think when the time comes./" His hand moved to rest on his stomach. "/Atlantis will be home, when I have more here than I had on Earth. Perhaps it already is. You? Do you miss Earth?/"

"/I did, for a long time. But there's nothing for me there now that isn't here./" Elizabeth's face darkened for a moment, thinking of Simon, still berating herself for telling him not to wait, and being upset when he'd listened.

Radek found himself reaching across the table, covering Elizabeth's hand with his, seeing the flash of remembrance on her face. He'd heard rumors that her relationship had ended while they had all been on Earth, rumors confirmed by the ghost on her face now. He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze and let go, his resolve to keep things as just friends firmer than ever – she didn't need the complication right now of a pregnant, lovesick physicist.

"/So tell me about America,/" he asked, breaking the heavy silence, wanting the easy conversation back.