A low growl pulled Ian out of a restless doze. He opened his eyes, while at the same time putting his hand on Jack's side. Standing at the foot of his bed watching both him and McKay was a woman he didn't recognize. She gave him a slight smile when she saw that he was awake, but prudently remained out of reach of the yellow lab who was watching her far more intently than she was watching them.

"Lieutenant Brooks?"

Ian scowled, wondering if she was some kind of reporter who had somehow managed to break past security.

"Who's that?" Rodney McKay asked, coming awake at the same time Ian had, and obviously surprised to find a woman at his bedside.

"I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir," Weir told them both. "I'd like to speak with you, if you don't mind?"

"About what?" Ian asked.

"Sure." McKay's reply was just as quick and far more enthusiastic.

"About Atlantis."

"What about it?" Ian asked, glancing over and looking at the clock on the wall since his watch was on the hand that Jack had rolled over onto and it was pinned under the lab. It was fairly early, but he was pretty sure Fraiser would be in soon – and he wasn't positive that he was supposed to be talking to anyone about Atlantis. Even Weir – whose name he recognized once he heard it.

"I've been speaking to some of the assembled diplomats about possibly sending another group there."

"What? Why?"

"Because who knows what else we could find there?" Weir said, seeming surprised by the question. "There is probably all sorts of technology that-"

"There's no one there," McKay said.

"And no way to get there." Ian added.

"You got there."

"We had the ZPM."

"It's still here – at least, it's at the Antarctica site… we could probably use it again." She stepped forward, now standing between the beds since Jack (the dog) hadn't made any further sign of being hostile or suspicious. "What I want to know is whatever you can tell me about the city, and what I'd need for an expedition there – so I have more information before I bring it up in the morning briefing…"

"There's no guarantee that your people would even make it through the Stargate," McKay said. "The team that was supposed to go with us didn't arrive with us."

"I know," Weir told them. "They arrived here. With no memory of even going through the Stargate with you."

"They're safe?" Ian asked.

She nodded.

"If I can get a team through to the city… what should I take?"

Ian scowled again.

"You couldn't do anything there. The place is dead unless you have the right people with you to turn things on."

"So I get the right people."

"It's not that simple."

"They have to have the Ancient gene," McKay explained. "If they don't, the technology in the city won't work for you. It didn't work for me."

"But it worked for you?" she asked Ian.

"Yeah."

"So you have this gene…"

"Yeah."

Duh.

"So there must be others with it. We just have to find them…"

"It's not that simple," Ian told her. "It's a gene. You'd have to isolate it first – and then try to develop some kind of way to test for it."

"We could just set people in the chair in Antarctica…"

McKay rolled his eyes, unable to hide his opinion of that idea.

"Brilliant. Put a thousand untrained people into an Ancient weapon and just hope that they don't blow themselves – and the entire planet – up."

"It's that powerful?"

"And then some," Ian said, nodding.

Weir frowned.

"There's probably some way to make a test for it. I know a guy that might be able to think of something… a Scottish doctor who-"

"I think you'd probably have to ask permission before you asked him…" Ian interrupted, scowling.

She smiled.

"I won't have trouble getting permission."

"Well don't get all military people," McKay said. "The military isn't going to be able to do much with Atlantis, in my opinion. I think that-"

"Your best bet is military," Ian said, annoyed and instantly on the defensive. "We have the training to handle the kind of shit that might be found there – and we're better organized than any-"

"Oh, your people did brilliantly last time, didn't they?" McKay asked, rhetorically. "Let me see… how many of them made it through the Stargate? Oh, that's right. None. Instead it was just you and me, and I-"

"And you shot me. Remember?"

McKay scowled.

"That was an accident. How many times are you going to-"

"Gentlemen…" Weir said, breaking into the argument before it could really get going. "I just want to know what kind of people I'd want to recruit."

"Scientists," McKay said, instantly.

"Pilots," Ian said. "Military pilots who can adapt to anything quickly. And a large security force."

"A large force to guard the scientists," McKay said. "If they make it through the gate, that is."

"If you can get any civilians that won't piss their pants at the thought of taking the risk," Ian snapped.

Weir frowned, a little stung by that comment since she was a civilian, after all, and she wasn't afraid to make the trip.

"I'll take that under advisement…" she said, trying to be as diplomatic as possible, despite being put off by Ian Brooks' manners and shortness. "Can you tell me what the city is like…? I understand that you've been there twice."

"I can tell you," Rodney said, quickly. He pushed his blankets off, and swung his feet off the bed. Luckily for Ian's eyes, he was fully dressed in a set of white pajamas. "How about you and I go and get some breakfast and I tell you all about the place?"

She hesitated, but a quick look at Ian told her quite plainly that she wasn't going to get much more out of him without him having orders to tell her. Weir was very good at reading people – and Ian Brooks was easier to read than most.

"Are you supposed to be out of bed?"

"No one said I couldn't be…" McKay told her, eager to have the opportunity to both impress this woman and to spend time with her and maybe strike up a relationship of some kind. Some intimate kind, if he had his way.

Ian snorted, but didn't say a word, and Weir shrugged.

"All right, then. Breakfast it is."

McKay staggered out of bed, clearly sore, but willing to ignore it for the time being. He offered Weir his arm, and she took it.

Ian shook his head as he watched the two leave. He couldn't wait for Fraiser to get in and see McKay gone. If he thought Atlantis was scary, he hadn't seen anything yet.