A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update this chapter. I think I re-wrote this chapter at least a half dozen times. I just couldn't get the right feel for it. But I think this version has just about everything I wanted to say (except for an Elizabeth scene, but I just couldn't get the flow right if I added one like I wanted to). Anywho, thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter and I hope you're still interested in the story even though I took so long. On to the story.
Also, I haven't edited this yet, so any mistakes are mine and I'll fix them as soon as I can. I just wanted to post it.
Chapter 7 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"How the hell did she contract the virus and we didn't? I mean, she's hardly left my side in a month and when she wasn't with me, she was with you or Radek."
"I don't know, Rodney," Sheppard mumbled as he turned in his chair.
"Don't you think it' important, Sheppard. It could be the answer to help cure her. Carson's isolated the virus, but I need to figure out where it came from."
"It's three in the morning. Besides, Carson won't let you use your laptop in the infirmary. Go back to sleep, Rodney."
"I haven't been to sleep yet. I've been thinking."
Sheppard groaned and
pulled his blanket tighter around his chest. Rodney sighed and
flopped down in his chair, but he couldn't
settle down. He
wasn't really tired anyway, having polished off most of a pot of
coffee. He shuffled his feet, sighed heavily, moved his arm, turned
in the chair, crossed his legs, and fidgeted. Across the bed,
Sheppard huffed and tossed his blanket to the side.
"What, Rodney?"
"I just need to bounce ideas off of someone."
"What about Zelenka?"
"Are you crazy? It's three in the morning, Radek's not awake."
"Lucky him. Is there coffee, at least?"
"Um, in Carson's office. So I've been thinking about how Chi could have caught this virus. Wanna hear my theories?"
"No," Sheppard yelled from Carson's office. "I want to go back to sleep." He returned from the office with a steaming cup of coffee in hand. He returned to his chair, propped his feet on Chi's bed, and sipped at his coffee.
"How can you drink that with cream? It ruins the flavor of coffee. Coffee is naturally black and you should drink it black."
"McKay, did you wake me up to talk about coffee or to talk about Chi?"
"Right. Chi. So I was going back over the day, trying to think of how she could have caught the virus. But I can't remember all the details because, you know, everything happened so fast."
"We've already been through this, Rodney. Kima and Selik were the only ones who saw her fall and they don't remember seeing anything out of the ordinary. Can we go back to sleep now? I'm sure you'll be able to figure this out after a little sleep."
Rodney sighed as he stood. He started to pace around the small room. "I'm missing something. It's right in front of me, damn it, but I just can't see it yet. I just…okay, we left the 'jumper and Chi was upset because she didn't want to leave. Then they took her and we left. What happened in between? What am I missing, damn it?"
"Seriously, McKay, sleep." Rodney shot him a dirty look. Sheppard smirked as he sipped at his coffee. "Okay, okay. Maybe we're just asking the wrong questions, McKay. I mean, why would someone want to infect a seven year-old kid with a deadly virus anyway?"
There was silence as both men thought about it. Rodney's brain ran quickly through likely scenarios.
"The gene," they said at the same time. Rodney snapped his fingers.
"Of course. She's the only one in the galaxy with that sequence Carson was telling us about."
"You were paying attention?"
"Yes, I was paying attention. Anyway, whoever made the virus would have known about her Ancient genes and would have targeted those specific genes. I'll have to ask Carson about the specifics, but I'm pretty sure it's possible. All's they'd need is a delivery system."
"Good, you figured it out. I'm going back to sleep now."
"Wait, wait, Sheppard. I'm on a role now; I've got to work this out. What kind of delivery system? What the hell could they use? It's right there, right in front of me. It has to be something she keeps with her, something no one else would touch. Especially people without the gene. Maybe a necklace or a bracelet or…"
"Nen."
"What? Please Colonel, that's the most stupid…" Rodney paused. "Wait a minute. Kima grabbed it!"
"What?"
"When we were on the ground, Kima took Nen from me. She tried to grab Chi's hand, but got Nen instead! That's got to be it, Sheppard. Carson!" Rodney called over the radio. There was no answer.
"Carson! Carson, get up. This is important! Carson!" he called again.
"Do you know what time it is, Rodney?" came the groggy response.
"I tried to tell him," Sheppard teased. Rodney ignored him as he continued.
"Is it possible for the Ancients to have put a sort of viral bomb in Nen?'
"What are you going on about, Rodney?"
"Nen. Chi's toy. Is it possible that they put some type of device that could, I don't know, release a virus to a certain trigger? Could it be a DNA trigger or something?"
"Rodney…it's four in the morning, man. Can't this wait until tomorrow?" Carson replied. There was a pause. "Say that again?"
Rodney sighed. "How many times do I have to explain this? I'll use small words so you can understand. Is it possible to put a virus in Nen that would only be triggered if someone without the gene touched it? You know, is there some way that the virus could have been, I don't know, dominant until some one without the gene triggered it?"
There was silence.
"Carson?"
"I'm on my way now, Rodney. See if you can't get that little dragon from her so I can run some tests on it. Oh, and try not to touch it too much. I'm not sure what the virus, if your theory is right-"
"My theories are always right."
"-might do to you or Colonel Sheppard," Carson continued as if Rodney hasn't said anything. "As much as I can tell from the sample I took from Chi, it produces a protein that blocks her specific Ancient DNA sequence, but that doesn't mean it can't mutate to effect you both."
"What?" Rodney cried, pulling his hand back from the girl and her stuffed toy. "Mutate? Carson?"
The doctor didn't respond. Rodney glanced over at Sheppard, but the other man had drifted back to sleep sometime during Rodney's conversation with Carson. Rodney sighed and looked back at the sleeping form who cuddled the dragon close to her side. He sighed again.
"If I get some weird alien disease from this, I am so blaming it on Carson and Sheppard," he mumbled as he shifted Ch. He eyed the little toy for a moment as if expecting it to come to life and maul him. When it didn't move, he gently grabbed the tip of the wing and pulled it away. The movement stirred Chi and opened an eye.
"Rodney, why are you taking Nen?" she asked as she rubbed at her eyes. She yawned widely.
"I'm, um, just taking him to Carson, to, um…make sure he's not sick too," Rodney replied. It wasn't really a lie. Carson was going to check if Nen carried the virus.
"Oh. Okay. That's good." With that, Chi closed her eyes. Rodney watched her for a second, pondering how in one month the little girl had come to trust him so much.
"Rodney?"
"Go back to sleep."
"Am I going to die?"
The question floored Rodney. She asked so calmly, without a hint of fear, that it shook Rodney to his very core. "What? No, of course not. Why would you even say that?"
"Grampa got shakes really bad before he died," she replied matter-of-factly. "Just like me."
"Well, you're not going to die. Go to sleep."
He started to leave when Chi sat up. "Rodney?"
"What now?"
"My daddy died before I was born, but I hope he was like you."
For the first time in a very long while, Rodney was speechless. He just walked over to the bed and placed a small, awkward kiss on her forehead. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek.
"I'm glad you found me, Rodney. I love you. Good night." Then she lie back down and fell instantly to sleep.
Rodney felt his heart actually swell. It was like that damn Dr. Seuss book about the grinch. Well, Rodney's heart suddenly grew and his life suddenly found new purpose. He would protect this little girl no matter what it took.
"I, um, love you too."
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"You were right, Rodney, the virus was in Nen. And I must say it was packaged brilliantly. It was completely inert as long as someone with the gene was in contact with it, but when someone without the correct protein markers from the gene touched the toy the virus was activated. I won't bore you with the mechanics of it, but the chain reaction was brilliant."
"What's going to happen to Chi?" Rodney asked, not at all impressed that his theory was right.
"She's going to die."
"What?"
"Isn't there anything you can do, Doc?"
Rodney looked at Carson expectantly. Next to him, he could feel Sheppard tense as the three of them crowded around Carson's computer in his office. The doctor quickly pulled up a file.
"Whoever built this virus knew her biology incredibly well. This is a sophisticated virus."
"So it attends parties in black tie. Just fix it," Rodney spat out. Sheppard tossed him a "shut-the-hell-up" glare. "Sorry."
"I wish I could 'just fix it', Rodney. But this thing is well designed. It is designed to build a protein from only three types of amino acids. The protein's main function is to shut down production of the four major amino acids used in the construction of the ATA protein, the protein that allows people with the ATA gene to interact with Ancient technology."
"So she doesn't have the ATA gene anymore?" Sheppard asked.
"She still has the gene, it just can't encode anymore proteins. But the way this virus blocks the proteins is the problem. The body can't function normally without all twenty amino acids. And two of the four that the virus blocks can't be found in sufficient quantities in any supplement."
"So that's it. We're just going to let her die?" Rodney yelled as he jumped to his feet. "Because that answer sucks Carson. It really sucks." Of course, that's not what he wanted to say. What he wanted to say went something along the lines of "I am not going to sit here and let her die. I made a promise and…and…" and that's as far as he could think. The truth was, Rodney had really started to think of Chi as his kid, his daughter. He wasn't sure what life would be like if she went away because there would be a hole in his soul that would never be able to be repaired. He really didn't want to think about her dieing.
"There's got to be a way, Doc," Sheppard insisted. Rodney glanced up and caught the colonel's eye. Sheppard was feeling the same way.
"I have to work on this," Carson answered. "I'll have to put Chi in a medically induced coma. It should slow her metabolism enough that I can find a cure for her. It's the only way."
"How long?"
"If I work only on this…" he shrugged. "But I have to do it now. Her seizures are only getting worst."
"All right, all right. I'll tell her." Rodney walked out of the office, followed closely by Sheppard and Carson, and made his way to Chi's bed. Her eyes were closed and her small body was trembling.
"Chi?" He sat down on the bed next to her. When he put his hand on her arm, her eyes shot open.
"Can we go home now?"
This was going to be hard. "Um, no, not yet. Um, Carson's going to put you to sleep for a little while so, um, he can fix you." Her eyes were wide with fright and she clenched her hands into fists.
"Is Nen okay?"
Rodney felt more than saw Sheppard smile. "Yep. As a matter of fact, he was telling me how much he missed you. But you don't want Nen to get sick, too, right?"
Chi shook her head. She looked back to Rodney. "Can Nen stay with you while I'm sleeping?"
I'm not gonna cry. I'm not gonna cry. "Of course." He held her hand as Carson came over and injected something into her IV.
"Rodney?" Chi asked, her voice already thick with the medication. "Will you be here when I wake up?"
"Yeah."
"Rodney? Will you be my dad?" And then her hand went in his. Rodney felt the tears welling in his eyes. He closed them to stop the flow.
"Yeah."
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I have my own theory on how the ATA gene works. It's based on my simple knowledge of biochemistry and genetics (I'm an undergrad, not a doctor). I didn't want to go into too much detail because it boggs down the story, but if anyone wants me to explain it to them or talk to me about other theories, feel free to e-mail me.
