DISCLAIMER – Stargate: Atlantis is not my property. It belongs to MGM/UA and associates. I am writing this story for fun and entertainment, not for profit.

RATING – Story rated T

SPOILERS – Everything up to the final episode of Season 2 is fair game.

A/N – Thank you once again to each person who replied to the last chapter. The comments are awesome. (I love comments. hehe) Erm...okay...if this chapter looks incomplete, it's because Chapter 14 and Chapter 15 should probably have been posted as one. The problem is, they'd make for a wicked long post if they were together, and besides, I'm not quite finished tweaking Chapter 15 yet (and I still need a decent chapter title for it.) So, anyway, please forgive me if you think Chapter 14 cuts off a bit abruptly. At any rate, I hope you will all enjoy reading this chapter. Oo…and flubber, the chess set is dedicated to you!

Any blocks of text that are written in present tense and italicized are flashback scenes.

Anything in «double-angle quotation marks» represents something written in Ancient.

Beta-less as ever. All mistakes are courtesy of me. :P


The Song Of Silent Rivers

14. Hide And Seek

"You're kidding, right? Are you saying the mission is off?"

John Sheppard knew he was in for a difficult day when he and his team were preparing to leave for their mission to M4X-382, and he was interrupted by a call from Elizabeth. The expedition leader had wanted John and his team to meet her in the briefing room. That, in John's experience, was never a good thing to have happen just before a mission. An unexpected meeting in the briefing room was usually the forerunner of trouble of one sort or another.

John should have been able to guess the trouble with this mission would be Shadow. Before the gathering in the briefing room, the last John had seen of Elizabeth was when she'd been on her way to the Infirmary to find the deaf woman. Apparently, Elizabeth had been on the proverbial wild goose chase. Now, John's team, plus Elizabeth and Dr. Zelenka, were in the briefing room discussing the erstwhile mission.

"No, John, the mission isn't off," Elizabeth was saying. "It's just been postponed until further notice."

"Seriously?"

"John—"

"Sheppard, does she look like she's joking to you?" Rodney said.

"The guided mission can hardly proceed without the native guide, can it?" said Elizabeth. "You won't be returning to M4X-382 without Shadow, and at the moment we can't find her, so the mission is being delayed."

"Why can't you find her?" John asked. "I thought she was supposed to have been with Carson."

It was Zelenka who answered him. The Czech engineer spoke very quietly. "I think Shadow is hiding."

"On purpose?"

"Yes," Zelenka said.

"Okay, don't tell me why. I'm not even going to go there," said John. He was sure the answer would be something he'd wish he hadn't heard, anyway. "So, what are we supposed to do?"

"What we need to do at the moment is concentrate on finding Shadow," said Elizabeth.

"How are we supposed to find a woman who has an Ancient device that can make her invisible?" Ronon wanted to know.

"Could we use the life signs detector to help us locate her?" Elizabeth asked.

"No," said Rodney. "That won't work."

"Why not?" said Ronon.

"Because the life signs detector can't identify specific individuals, that's why," Rodney said. "It knows we're humans, but it can't tell which human is which. She would just show up as one of a couple hundred life signs in the city. We'd never find her that way."

"If Shadow is using Ancient device to make her invisible, life signs detector would not work, anyway," Zelenka added. "It did not detect her on the planet."

"Right," said John. "I forgot about that."

"So, what are we supposed to do?" Ronon said, repeating John's earlier question.

"I do not think we can do anything," said Teyla. "We could search all over the city and we may still be unable to find her. I believe when she is ready to be found, she will show herself. The most logical course of action might simply be to wait."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Radek listened to the wind, and the sound of waves breaking against Atlantis. By now, he'd begun to learn the ocean's moods, and he was almost as adept at predicting an approaching storm as some of his friends who had grown up beside the oceans of Earth. He knew it would rain before morning, and wondered if there would be thunder and lightning as well. He'd always been fascinated by lightning. Sometimes, during a storm here in Atlantis, a flash of lightning could illuminate the night sky almost to the brightness of day. It was beautiful and powerful and dangerous, the perfect complement for the equally awesome and perilous ocean.

Thoughts of the coming storm made Radek restless. Ever since the first severe weather system they'd experienced here, he'd developed a tendency toward nervous energy in anticipation of bad weather. He felt as if he needed to do something, despite the fact there was nothing for him to do. The feeling was particularly strong tonight. He guessed the impending rain wasn't the only factor contributing to his unsettled mood.

He'd spent the afternoon looking for Shadow, even though he'd known it was pointless. She could be anywhere in Atlantis. It frustrated him to think he might have walked past her a dozen times without being able to see her. The situation was further hindered by the fact that Shadow could not hear him if he called for her. She would have to come out of hiding eventually, he told himself. She would want to eat and sleep. One thing he couldn't stop worrying about was that Shadow might be lost somewhere, unable to find her way back to the inhabited part of the city. She was used to navigating through the trees. Atlantis wasn't exactly Shadow's sub-tropical forest.

The thought of Shadow wandering through some empty part of the city at night gave him a particular feeling of anxiety. Anything could happen to her. There were parts of the city the expedition members hadn't even explored yet, and no one knew what sort of danger might be waiting for an unsuspecting person to stumble upon it. Shadow's ability to operate the Ancient devices didn't make matters any better. In Radek's opinion, that only increased the likelihood of her getting into trouble.

Radek paced around his room, marking time with his footsteps. He wanted to walk through the corridors instead, wanted to search for Shadow despite being convinced already that he wouldn't see her. It would be just like when he was a boy, ghost-hunting with Dušana in the lower streets of Prague. All he and his cousin had ever done was chase shadows in the Mala Strana. He caught himself smiling at the irony of that thought – chasing a shadow – for that was exactly the thing he sought to do now. If Dušana were here, she would have laughed at him. Then, of course, she would have linked arms with him and joined him in his search.

He missed Dušana. Of all the people he loved, Dušana was the one who'd always returned his love in equal measure. Sometimes, she'd seemed like more of a mother to him than his own real mother. He could not remember a time during his childhood when Dušana hadn't been there to play games with him, listen to his problems, help him with his lessons or give him advice. Even when they were both adults, she continued to be his confidante. The hardest thing to do when he'd left for Atlantis had been saying goodbye to Dušana. He'd wanted to tell her where he was going, but he could not. Lost, he thought. His cousin must have thought he was lost, just as surely as he believed Shadow was lost.

He wished vainly that he and Dušana could be together now. She would have known how to calm him, what to say and what to do. He could have benefited from her practical wisdom tonight.

Radek moved across the room to where his chess set rested in its box on the shelf. Most of the time he still thought of it as Aunt Kveta's chess set, even though it had belonged to him since Uncle Jaromir had given it to him for his eleventh birthday. He hadn't been able to bring many non-essential items with him to the Pegasus galaxy, so he'd had to choose carefully, but each time he remembered how he'd gotten this chess set he was glad he hadn't left it behind on Earth.

He opened the box and lifted one of the dark-coloured knights from its place. The small, delicately-carved horse had been handled far more than any of the other pieces. The wood was sleek in spots because it had been stroked so frequently by Radek's restless fingers. The solid little object reassured him, soothed him. It reminded him of times when he felt safe and peaceful; made him think of Earth and Prague and home.

He rubbed the smooth wood with his thumb, allowing his mind to be lulled into quietness by the rhythm of each stroke.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Checkmate."

Radek pulls his gaze away from the window and looks at the chessboard. His mind is not on the game. If he'd been concentrating, he knows he would have been able to win the match easily. He's been playing against Jirina, and she has only known how to play chess since this summer. Radek studies the pieces on the board and sees Jirina has, in fact, defeated him.

"Congratulations," he says.

Sitting on the floor across from him, Jirina's brown eyes are bright with triumph. "This is the first time I've ever won against you, Radek," she says. "It means I'm getting better at this, right?"

"Yes," he says.

"Are you mad because I won?"

"No. I'm not mad," says Radek.

He looks out the window again. Snow has been falling for hours, getting steadily heavier. Radek thinks about Father and Uncle Jaromir and he wonders where they are. He knows they're probably being hindered by the storm, but something tells him even the snow would not delay them this long. They were supposed to have been home hours ago.

Jirina reaches across the chessboard and touches Radek's hand. She says, "If you're not mad, what's the matter?"

"I'm thinking."

"About what?"

"Father and Uncle Jaromir. They went to visit my grandmother."

"Is your grandmother still sick?"

"Mother says she might be dying," Radek admits.

He doesn't like to imagine Babička being so sick that she might die, and he doesn't really want to talk about it with Jirina. She is only nine years old, and she doesn't need to know about weighty things like death. Radek wishes he could be Jirina's age again so people would shield him from the harsher truths of life, but he knows he can never return to that state of innocence. He is fourteen. He's nearly a man. Sometimes he feels proud of his nearly-grown-up status, but today isn't one of those days.

He picks up one of the dark-coloured knights from the chessboard and strokes the small wooden horse with his thumb. The motion of his fingers on the wood helps him clear his mind.

"You're going to rub the varnish off," Jirina says.

"I know."

"I'm sorry about your grandmother."

'Me too," Radek says.

"Your father will be home soon."

Radek says nothing. He sits perfectly still except for the motion of the hand that is still holding the dark knight. He can feel Jirina's gaze on him. He wants her to stop staring, but he doesn't know how to tell her without sounding mean.

He is saved from this dilemma when his cousin Dušana appears in the doorway of the living room. Dušana is wearing her apron, and there's flour on it. Her curly hair escapes in all directions from her long braid. She seems unworried, and Radek momentarily envies her for her apparent lack of anxiety.

"Jirina, your mother is here," Dušana tells them. "She says it's time for you to go home."

"Do I have to?" says Jirina.

Dušana smiles. "Yes, I think you do."

"All right." Jirina gets up and starts toward the door. "I'll see you tomorrow, Radek. You're still going to take me and Milena skating tomorrow afternoon, right?"

"I'll take you," Radek says. "I'll have to think about whether or not Milena can come."

"Radek!" Dušana scolds him. "Of course you're going to take Milena. We'll see you tomorrow, Jirina. You'd better go, before your mother gets impatient."

"Okay," Jirina says.

Radek watches Jirina leave the room. When she's gone, he turns his attention back to the window. Dušana crosses the room and sits on the floor beside him. She puts her arms around him, and only then does he realize she is just as worried as he is. Dušana knows how to conceal her fears better than he does, that's all. Heedless of the flour on her apron, Radek leans into his cousin's embrace and rests his head against her shoulder. They stay like that for a long time before either of them speaks.

"It's getting dark," Dušana says.

"Remember when I was really small?" says Radek. "I used to be afraid of the dark."

"It wasn't so much the dark as the monsters in your closet."

"They were scary, you know, even if they weren't real."

"I know," says Dušana. "Aunt Magdaléna taught you that poem to chase them off."

"Do you still remember it? Mother's poem, I mean."

"Yes," says Dušana, she chants the silly poem.

"It doesn't work the way it used to," Radek says softly, when she is done. "I guess it's because we're growing up."

His cousin tightens her arms around him and buries her face in his hair.

"Radek, Radek…" Dušana murmurs his name in a singsong lilt against the top of his head. "I wish we didn't have to grow up. I wish we could stay just exactly as we used to be, when we could chase away the scary monsters with a rhyme. Growing up isn't any fun when the monsters are grown up, too."

Radek is quiet for a moment, contemplating what his cousin has said. "Maybe we need a grown up rhyme, Dušana," he suggests at last.

"Maybe," she says.

"I think I know why the rhyme worked so well when I was little."

"Why?"

"Because we were always together. You always said the rhyme with me."

"I love you, Radek. You know that, don't you?" Dušana holds him tight and kisses the top of his head. "We don't need a new rhyme. As long as we're together, we don't really need a rhyme at all."

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Darkness had descended on the City of the Ancestors by the time Shadow finally emerged from her hiding place. She sensed that it was night, even before she crept from her place and found her way to one of the city's many balconies. The sea looked black and foreboding. The sky was covered with clouds that hid the stars. Something innate in Shadow's consciousness told her that a storm was coming, and she was afraid. She had seen storms blow the calm waters of a lake into an angry froth. She did not wish to see what a furious wind would do to the ocean.

Shadow was so cold she could not stop shivering. She felt tired, too, and very hungry. She thought about the last time she'd eaten, and realized she had not consumed any food or water since that morning. Her throat felt as if it were lined with sand, so dry and itchy that it actually hurt a little when she tried to swallow.

She remembered her grandmother. The old woman's illness had begun with a dry throat. No one had thought anything of it at first, and Shadow's father had prepared a tea of herbs for her to drink. In the night, Shadow's grandmother had developed a fever, though she had made signs to Shadow that she had been cold. The fever had continued for days and the old woman had grown weaker. She could not eat and sometimes when she attempted to drink, she coughed so violently that her entire body trembled. Nothing Shadow or her father had done seemed to help.

Shadow missed her grandmother. The old woman had been wise. She had defied the Elders of the village many times, and she had not been frightened by any of her enemies. Shadow's father had once told her that Grandmother had been a warrior, and Shadow believed it was true. Grandmother also had The Knowledge, but the Elders feared her too much to make trouble for her because of it.

It made Shadow sad to think her warrior grandmother had not been able to conquer her final enemy. A woman who could defeat a man in battle should not have been so easily overcome by a simple fever. Still, she understood that was the way of all things. Death was the enemy that won every battle, in the end.

Shadow shook her head. She should not be thinking of her grandmother now. This was not the time to be standing outside, revisiting the past. She needed to find something to eat. She felt so weary that she found it difficult to concentrate on remaining concealed. She would need to seek a safe, warm place to sleep.

Nourishment first, she decided. She knew where she could get some of the food called 'power bars' without much difficulty. All she needed to do was remain concealed for a little while longer.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

Sometimes, Rodney McKay found himself on the verge of believing in the supernatural. Gods or ghosts might be an elegant solution when things happened that he could not explain. It'd be a hell of a lot better than the alternative, namely that he might be hallucinating or going crazy.

Rodney was in his lab, working late, trying to catch up with some of the things he hadn't been able to accomplish when his cold had been at its worst and he'd been too sick and tired to concentrate properly. Rodney usually liked to work at night. The labs were quiet in the evening when most of the other scientists were enjoying some downtime. Rodney was grateful for the solitude. During the day, there always seemed to be too many interruptions, people coming and going, and yet more people asking stupid questions. At night, he could immerse himself totally in his research without distraction.

At least, he could usually do that.

Tonight he'd been hearing noises; weird, nondescript noises. Every so often, his ears detected a muffled swishing or tapping, but he could not identify what the sounds were or where exactly they were coming from. Once, he thought he heard something moving in a corner of the lab, but when he had looked in that direction he saw nothing.

Radek's pet ghosts are haunting the lab again, he thought, recalling his friend's quaint stories. He wanted to laugh when that idea occurred to him, but he was afraid the laughter would come out hysterical. He didn't believe in ghosts, after all, but he could not deny there was definitely something in the lab. He left his laptop and started toward the corner from which he'd noticed the sound.

He was halfway across the room when he heard someone sneeze.

Ghosts didn't sneeze.

People sneezed, though it wasn't the most strategic action for people who were invisible and trying to hide. In a flash of clarity, Rodney realized there was a perfectly good explanation for all the noises he'd been hearing. He wasn't going crazy. He'd just been letting his imagination run away with him. He felt like an idiot for not coming to this conclusion sooner, though he'd never admit that in a million years.

When he reached the corner, he put out his hand tentatively. He expected to encounter something substantial, and he did feel the distinct texture of human hair beneath his fingers. What he hadn't expected was to hear a scream. At Rodney's touch, Shadow materialized before the physicist's eyes and let out a howl that made his eardrums throb. Rodney yelled, too, though not quite as piercingly as Shadow. He yanked his hand away from her head, and scrambled backwards.

Some part of Rodney's brain took the opportunity to be fascinated by the fact that the deaf girl was able to vocalize. The greater part of his mind, however, was too busy alternating between surprise at having found Shadow and annoyance at being startled so badly by her, to give his scientific curiosity much consideration. He wondered how long Shadow had been hiding in the lab. Was it possible she'd been here all day?

No, probably not. He decided she must've gotten in when Miko came to say good night. He hadn't started hearing things until everyone had gone away, and Miko Kusanagi had been the last person to stop by his lab that evening. Shadow had probably sneaked in when the door was open. He told himself he would have noticed, otherwise.

Rodney glanced at Shadow, who was curled into a tight ball in the corner. Her face was streaked with tears. She sniffled loudly, and peered at Rodney with sad eyes. Looking at her, Rodney felt his irritation drain away and be replaced by unexpected sympathy.

He wished he knew what to do. He'd be the first to admit he was terrible in situations like this. He was ill-equipped to deal with sniffling and tears and emotional outbursts, and his typical reaction to such things was acerbity. He had a feeling that wouldn't get him anywhere in this instance. Talking probably wouldn't get him anywhere, either, but he decided if he couldn't do something, he might as well say something.

"Uh…look, I'm sorry I scared you," he said. The words sounded awkward, coming from his mouth. He crouched so that he was on her eye level. "You know, a lot of people have been looking for you. You can't keep disappearing like that. It's…inconvenient. Our mission got delayed, and…I don't know…some people were worried about you."

Shadow's only response was to lift her hand and point at the table where Rodney's laptop rested. Rodney let his gaze travel to where she was pointing, but he utterly failed to comprehend what she was trying to communicate to him.

"What? What do you want?" he asked. He shook his head to show her that he didn't understand.

Shadow drew her hand back, and touched her own mouth. The muscles of her jaw worked as if she were chewing.

"Food?" Rodney guessed. "You want something to eat, and you're actually asking me for it? Now, that's different for you. Stay right there and don't disappear. I think I've got a power bar."

As it turned out, Rodney didn't have any power bars hidden away, but he did have some chocolate. That was something he was reluctant to share, but if it meant keeping Shadow in one place long enough for him to contact somebody to come and get her, then so be it. He handed over the chocolate and watched Shadow unwrap it. Satisfied that she wasn't going anywhere for the next few minutes, he decided there was no time like the present to make a call.

TBC

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A/N #2 – Ahh…finally I've gotten a chance to update this story! Sorry it's been taking so long between updates, but I am volunteering with a youth program this week which is taking up a lot of my spare time. The program's going great, though and I am having a lot of fun! Oo and on a totally different but not unfamiliar topic, the breeder has send me some updated pictures of Grace. She is currently as tall as a Coca-Cola can. (Grace, not the breeder lol!)