Disclaimer – I have no claim on Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis other than the chance to live out a few fantasies. Dr. Melody Hayden is my own creation and alter ego in this story.

Chapter 6 – Lunch Time

A few hours later saw Melody and Carson making their way to a mess hall table with trays in their hands. "So how did you like your first morning?" Carson asked as he set his tray on an empty table.

Mel heaved a huge sigh. "I know today was probably a no brainer for you, and I was doing a lot of the same stuff both at the SGC, Antarctica, and on my various missions offworld. How do you think I did on my first morning?" Mel looked over at Carson and raised an eyebrow.

He smiled. "Ye did well, lass. Ye have an easy style that the patients open up to, but ye are firm when you need to be."

"Like with Rodney?" Mel laughed.

Carson echoed her laugh. "Yes, like with Rodney. I am curious about one thing though. Did you think that scanner on?"

Mel tore off a hunk of bread and dipped it into her soup. "Nope. I've been trying to figure that one out since that happened. The only thing I can come up with is that it made contact with my skin and came on. Do you know if that is how the Ancients controlled things?"

"It certainly doesn't help us that we don't have an Ancient of our very own to ask questions like these. I've been looking in the city's database since then, and I can't seem to find anything on it."

"I suppose now Sheppard and Rodney will want to see if I can control more things with just a touch." Mel rolled her eyes as she spoke.

"I am sure that they will want you to learn how to pilot a puddle jumper." Carson smiled. "It will be good to have another person who can control the technology in the infirmary."

"That's just because you hate to fly and shudder in horror at the Chair." Radek laid his tray on the table and snagged the seat between Carson and Melody. "So how did your first morning go?"

"Well, she didn't kill Rodney, and she can turn on Ancient technology by touching it," Carson informed the latecomer.

Radek looked between Melody and Carson with a stupefied look on his face. "You can turn on things with a touch? Without thinking them on?"

Mel smiled shyly and dipped her head before answering her ex-husband. "Yep, Rodney laid this scanner in my hand and it turned on."

"It seems that the good Doctor Hayden also has a good deal of experience in the Chair at Antarctica as well as a family connection to General O'Neill." Carson shifted his gaze from Radek's open-mouthed face to Melody's blushing face. "Did I miss anything lass?"

"You didn't have to unload all this on Radek and blow a gasket in his brain!" Mel stuck her tongue out at Carson and blew raspberries at him.

"You never told me any of this in your letters!" Radek was still trying to comprehend it all.

"Since I didn't know you were here on Atlantis and had clearance for things like that, I couldn't exactly tell you anything."

Radek mumbled something like 'I suppose not', picked up his tray, and left the two doctors alone again.

"I wonder if he will realize that he didn't eat anything?" Mel mused.

"Aye, in an hour when his stomach begins to rumble." Carson smiled. "I suppose we should be getting back and let the nurses take their lunch."