Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.

Previously: Anna is practically in the middle of a meltdown (since approximately chapter 91). Radek took Rodney's advice (last chapter) because why not? Even Rodney couldn't make things worse. So Anna and Radek are going to that one planet with all the kids. Because we definitely need a few more kids in the mix.


Chapter 94. Adults.

It was going to be a long day.

Of course, it was. The oldest adult on the planet was only just now an adult at twenty-five. Twenty-six? Something like that. Just barely out of young adult status, anyway. Radek didn't remember the last time he talked to someone in their mid-twenties. Probably when he was in that age bracket himself.

"Welcome, welcome."

Radek smiled and nodded while the leader of the band of children spoke to Troy. He introduced himself as Keras, and then introduced his lieutenants, Neleus and Leto. The two of them couldn't have been much older than Anna, perhaps sixteen or seventeen.

Troy offered introductions of his own, first for himself. Troy announced he was an anthropologist, and proceeded to explain what that meant in no uncertain terms. He explained that Doctor Antar was a botanist. Then he introduced Radek as basically an "Ancient repairman." Radek didn't know if he should temper his insult with the realization that Troy didn't know what he was talking about 95% of the time. The other 5%, he was just lucky.

Anna got no introduction whatsoever.

Troy said something about visiting a few of the surrounding villages while Radek worked on the machine and Antar took his samples of the planet's nearby flora. Keras seemed drastically accommodating. Maybe they didn't get a lot of visitors.

Radek didn't wonder why. This place had to be something like a frat house in the woods, didn't it?

With a glance at Anna, Radek realized why he thought this was a terrible idea. Simply terrible.

Keras listened to everything Troy had to say with apparent interest, but ended up cutting off a long-winded explanation at the first opportunity of an ended sentence. "Very good, very good." He pointed to Leto, and then at Radek. "Leto, if you could show Doctor Zelenka the machine?"

Leto nodded with the carriage of a soldier, and stood aside for them to follow her into the woods.

Radek wanted to stay to see if Keras remembered everyone's names so well. Still, he motioned for Anna to follow him as he followed Leto into the brush. He was fairly thankful that these people didn't seem to have any complex greeting rituals, or else they were more concerned about the Wraith dropping down on them with the shield out of commission.

He was mostly grateful that Leto had been assigned as their escort. Neleus looked too young, too ravenous—and Radek had never been so suspicious of young people. He just needed to relax. His daughter, this same girl who had been pinned to the wall of the Puddle Jumper yesterday, knew perfectly well how to cut a person to make them bleed out in fifteen seconds or less.

But, then, in the Puddle Jumper yesterday… Not every hunter knew a lion when they saw one.

Leto eyed Anna, maybe like she was a bit of competition that she didn't need. Or maybe she was only confused by Anna's age. After all, everyone Leto had seen from Atlantis was approximately twenty-five and older—most older than everyone she'd ever met by a decade or more. Anna was a stark contrast to the rest of Atlantis, but could have fit in here with a change of clothes… and a few weeks without bathing.

"I'm a Sixteen," Leto said suddenly, looking at Radek. "But tomorrow is my Seventeen ceremony."

"That's… impressive?" Radek wondered, and then realized that his questioning tone probably should not have been. "I think. Is it?"

"Not to you, probably," Leto said. "We were told that most of your people were thirties or more."

"Hm." Radek chuckled. "Yes, we are. I am a… uh, Thirty-Eight."

Leto's eyes bugged out, probably since she could only fathom numbers that large in quantities of acorns and arrow quivers. Then again, Leto would also probably think it was ridiculous Radek had been given his first knife ever for his most recent… ceremony.

Radek just decided to save Leto from her burning curiosity and paralyzing fear from saying the wrong thing. "And this is my daughter, Anna. She's a Sixteen, also. Only just." Only just? Four months ago, more like.

Anna shot him an incredulous look.

Radek backpedaled. "Actually it has been months. I lose track of time."

Anna looked somewhat gratified, and looked at Leto. "You call yourselves by your ages?"

Leto nodded. "Yes. Before your people visited us a year ago, we would only live to Twenty-Five. We have our first Twenty-Six now."

Radek supposed an explanation of ritual suicide was in his future. He ignored it for the time being. Leto seemed to relax the further into the woods they walked, but she couldn't seem to decide who she related to more: the girl who was almost exactly her age, or Radek, who she probably matched more closely in other lifetime milestones. He wouldn't have been surprised if Leto were a mother by now.

"What, exactly, do your people… do?" Anna asked quietly, maybe just to get a conversation going.

Leto smiled at her, as though pleased to have something to talk about. "Anything it takes to live here. We survive mostly by farming, hunting, and trapping. We spend a majority of our time training our children."

Anna nodded.

So did Radek. Children were time-consuming. Anxiety-inducing. Definitely the most baffling thing in his life currently, but also inexplicably the most meaningful thing. Even though he had no concept of what that meaning was, precisely.

"My son is not quite a Two," Leto offered quietly. She looked at Anna as though to wonder if she had any of her own.

"Your?" Anna looked baffled.

Radek caught back a self-satisfied grin. Yes, Anna, sixteen is far, far too young for these things. But he figured he couldn't just let Anna's mystified outburst linger too long. "What is his name?"

"Akylles," Leto said with a tint of pride. "But when he becomes a three, he will go to live with his father in another village. Learn to be a fort-builder."

"Hm." Radek didn't know whether to feel bad for her or not. Of course, Radek wouldn't have been involved in Anna's upbringing, either, after seven. He said the only thing he could think to say. "I'm sorry."

He stopped himself from any further thought, because he could just hear the earful Doctor Troy would give him for not giving two twigs about the differences between his and Leto's culture—or whatever the idiom was. Radek felt perfectly justified to subject the two to equal criticism. After all, Radek was from a culture where one parent could squeeze out another even in absence of violence or abuse, and he hated it. Might as well spread it around.

"Sorry?" Leto arched an eyebrow. She looked from Anna to Radek, as though wondering that Radek and Eliška must have had a similar arrangement. After all, Anna was here to learn what Radek was doing. Maybe so that she could have his job someday.

Anna's eyebrow shot up in much the same way.

"Yes, you know, children…" Radek didn't know what he meant by it now that he had to explain it.

"I will get to see him again, though," Leto said suddenly, as though having just remembered.

"Oh. I suppose that's true." And that was a consideration Radek never addressed. If the Atlantis recon team hadn't stumbled onto their planet, Leto wouldn't live to see her son become a teenager.

Radek wasn't all that much better off these people only a year ago, was he? He lived longer, but he still managed to miss the same things they did. At least they had a decent excuse for it. Being dead was a decent excuse.

Radek found himself and Anna being led down a path that led to a den with a curved stone archway. It looked like hanging and crawling vines had been recently cleared to give easier access. Unfortunately, it seemed to offer less protection from the elements. A few leaves and sticks had blown in, scattered over the ground of the den. Other bits of nature stuck in the machine's crevices and between the dim buttons.

Radek sighed, pulling an oak leaf from the machine. "Thank you. The initial assessment should take about an hour. I should have more information for Keras about what the problem is then."

"Until midday, then." Leto nodded and took a few steps back, seeming to think about that for a moment. "I will return with a meal for you?"

"Fine, thank you." Radek watched Leto turn to go back the way they'd come before saying, "Anna, will you monitor the field strength? It isn't up, but I want to know if it flickers…"

Anna did so without saying anything. Radek could only imagine what she would say when she did start talking. He gave periodic instructions, which she followed. He saw her taking notes on her tablet, drawing pictures of what she saw, and she even made a few guesses in her notes as to the problem that were pretty on target.

Anna suddenly spoke up. "How's that, though?" She shook her head. "Kids already."

Radek sniffed in amusement. He could see how this conversation could go quickly off track, but it was better than talking about Eliška. "Yes. Crazy." Or maybe not so crazy, especially if people were dying on their twenty-fifth birthday.

"Really crazy." Anna looked at him pointedly. "But it's not like I'm thinking about kids at sixteen. Who thinks about that?"

Radek hoped no one did. He happened to know he was the type to give into horror stories, though. "Nobody," he said. "It is good to be young. Single. Best to enjoy it." Before you screw everything up... He had higher hopes for Anna.

"But it isn't bad to not be single."

Radek paused long enough to untangle that. He had no choice but to say, "No. You're right. It's not."

It wasn't about to stop there, was it? Radek figured he wasn't that lucky.

"I just think it's not fair," Anna said, suddenly. "I mean, what about you and Elizabeth? You two are—well, you know?"

He was so stunned for a moment he didn't answer except to sputter, "Whoa, what? Me and—okay, wait." It took a moment for him to regain his calm. "First of all, Elizabeth and I are adults. We are both adults from the same planet." He wasn't sure how else to express his hesitations regarding the Athosians other than just coming right out and telling her that she was from a planet that at least had first-world countries, Iskaan lived in a tent, and that sure made the cultural differences between the US and the Czech Republic a hell of a lot more manageable.

He didn't say anything about that, though.

"To be frank, this is something you don't have the privilege of questioning me on." There were probably more diplomatic ways to say that. He couldn't think of any.

"Well, it isn't fair, is it?" Anna interrupted.

"You," Radek said, swinging around to look her in the eyes. He was glad, for the moment, that she was at least a little bit shorter than he was. Maybe it would serve as an ever so subtle reminder that she was, yes, a child. "You are sixteen years old. I am thirty-eight. As much as anybody can be, I am in control of my own life and my own career. You are a child, and you are not at all in control. What should happen if the expedition gets shut down and I have to go back to Earth? I'm certainly not leaving you here with the Athosians, am I, now?"

Anna lowered her eyes. Shook her head ever so slightly.

"And I know that… you are not an idiot, okay? I know that. But I don't want you to set yourself up for a broken heart. I'm afraid you can let your passion and excitement get in the way and forget to think about what might happen in the future."

"You're one to talk—you and Elizabeth practically decided just to forget about the consequences."

Radek thought he would start yelling. But he didn't. For some reason, he'd begun to equate yelling as something he did to Rodney, or to the computers. Instead, his voice got very low. "My relationship with Elizabeth is not your business."

"And my relationship is your business?"

"Yes. It very much is."

Anna didn't seem to take that declaration with exceeding goodwill.

"Anna," he said before she could fire off another inane comment.

She fell silent after that, for a long time. Good thing, too. He needed to think.

Best not to use his relationship—any of them, since he obviously wasn't working on a great track record—as a model. After his marriage fell apart, he wasn't keen on finding anything settled or stable. But Anna's coming changed his mind… No, her coming had changed him, hadn't it? Even if he was lonely, he was no longer alone. He could pretend his decisions wouldn't hurt anybody before; he couldn't pretend that now. His every decision was bound to have repercussions in Anna's life.

Nobody would blame him for capitalizing on the sudden sympathy, though. Even if he set somebody up for a broken heart? Let passion and excitement get in the way?

Anyway, he would prefer any other topic above this, even though they seemed to walking around the issue like a cat around hot mash. Even if he simply told her point blank he did not want her dating that boy (much less sleeping with him, but he definitely wasn't going there) talking about his own relationship was not in question. Forget about it.

Maybe he'd be better at this if he thought about this talk beforehand. He'd spent a bit more than eight months avoiding the thought. He never wanted to be the most progressive parent—hell, he decided months ago he'd settle for anything other than most inept—and he was pretty sure he had decent, progressive reasons to not want Anna with… that boy. Iskaan. He wanted her to be happy, yes. But he also wanted her to be safe. Not set herself up for physical or emotional pain, because that was all that could happen here.

Wasn't it?

She was sixteen—don't panic about wedding bells just yet. But wasn't this where wedding bells started?

Not for him, not at sixteen. But for all the girls he chased—since his awkward handling of social situations rarely held him back if there were women involved—the first girl he kissed ended up being the one he married… He didn't want wedding bells for himself, perhaps not ever. And wasn't that hypocritical? Why shouldn't she pursue her own relationships as she wanted?

Well, she was sixteen, for one thing. He didn't think that was old enough to pursue anything that wasn't planned out, annotated, and documented.

And he already knew his way was miserable. Enjoyable and exciting. Shallow and short-lived. Still, mostly miserable, sending letters away to another galaxy to people who didn't care to receive them. But he was too far down the trail, perhaps, to turn aside.

How had he lost track of Anna? He knew very well she wasn't seven years old anymore. But when did he stop paying attention so much so that she could somehow end up kissing a young Athosian in the back of a Puddle Jumper?

"I don't care if you think I'm stupid," Anna said a moment later. "But…" She took a deep breath and Radek realized those were tears she was pushing off her cheeks. "But I didn't mean to, you know. I don't even know if I wanted—it happened too fast to think of it. It's not like I went to the Jumper Bay looking for something."

What was he supposed to say to that?

She still wasn't looking at him, her eyes down and away at her hands. He wished she wouldn't cry, but there didn't seem a way to avoid it now. It was fine if she was angry at him. It was understandable.

He couldn't have screwed this up any more if he'd been trying.

Radek rested his forehead on his fingers for a moment. "How long have you been together, then?"

Anna shrugged. "I don't know."

Impossible. Maybe not to the day, but surely she'd know down to a few days. "Weeks? Months?"

"No," Anna snapped, scoffed, and shook her head. "We're not, okay?"

"So you…?"

"No." Anna glared at him, and he stared back.

"You're telling me I was looking at a first date?"

She didn't answer, but averted her eyes.

Radek replaced his forehead on its resting place. "Good lord, Anna."

"What?" Anna demanded.

Radek went back to the machine. He had to admit, to himself, anyway, had he met Eliška four years earlier than he did, his social ineptitude would have done little to keep him away from her. When the whole world seemed to be going crazy, it was the easiest thing to just follow along. It was stupid, but… but he couldn't very well say that directly, could he?

"I don't think you're stupid," he said, finally. "I'm only concerned that you don't—it's hard to think… about…" Oh, where was he supposed to be going here? "It's hard to think in the moment, so you have to think ahead of time."

"I thought about it."

Radek bit back pointing out her inconsistency. It happened too fast for her to think—that was why she needed to think of it right now. It was better to think of it last week, or the week before.

"You think I didn't think of it?" Anna asked with just a hint of defiance.

Radek shrugged helplessly. "I don't know; you said that it happened too fast for you to think. So were you thinking or weren't you?"

Anna didn't have an answer for him, and Radek didn't have any more questions.

They worked in silence for several minutes. The field flickered a few times, proving Radek right in his assumptions about what was wrong with the machine. Nothing was wrong with it, exactly. It had been built to last forever. Unfortunately, the last time somebody took it apart, he put it back together wrong.

"This is unbelievable…"

Anna looked up when he muttered to himself, and he realized that must have sounded most ungracious if she didn't know he wasn't talking about her.

Radek shook his head quickly. "No, no, no; I mean Rodney."

"Oh." Anna seemed to consider that, and then take a closer look at the machine.

"He must have been in a hurry. Then he was so interested in making his little software upgrades to the projection, he stopped paying attention." Radek dismantled the core walls one slow, methodical piece at a time. "That's what happened."

"Is it so hard to say it was just a mistake?" Anna wondered.

He smiled grimly. "Yes." Yes, it was hard.

Anna sighed. Nodded. "Yeah…"

Next to him, static buzzed through one of the canvas duffle bags he'd brought with him. Major Ivanov would probably personally murder him for not having his transmitter on him or, at least, within arm's reach.

But it wasn't Major Ivanov's voice he heard as he fished the radio out of his bag. "Major Ivanov," an unfamiliar voice called. "This is Lieutenant Danforth on the Daedalus."

Major Ivanov spoke next. "Ivanov, here."

"Major, we have a situation on Atlantis. Orders are to remain on M7G-677 until we contact you."

"Understood."

Radek desperately wanted to know what was going on—and if Rodney needed his help. Then he remembered that Major Ivanov was a stoic Russian that didn't ask any questions and rarely gave any answers. He wasn't one of Radek's favorite military escort personnel. Not that he had one…

Oh, wait, he actually did have a favorite, now.

He picked up the radio and depressed the side button. "Lieutenant, this is Doctor Zelenka. Does Atlantis need our assistance? I might—"

"Orders are to not dial Atlantis." Lieutenant Danforth didn't seem irritated at being questioned. Of course, if it was Colonel Caldwell calling, it may have been a different story. Certainly not one of Radek's favorite colonels. Fortunately for Radek, Lieutenant Danforth seemed to know what Radek was after. Maybe it was a story he hoped he'd get to tell. "A bomb has been rigged somewhere in the Atlantis central tower to go off when Atlantis made its weekly update to Earth."

Radek wanted to argue, but he caught himself back from the brink of too much self-importance. Aside from Major Ivanov and his team of three, an anthropologist, and a botanist, Radek was one of only two or three scientists offworld. Rodney and the others could handle it. Atlantis even had explosives experts—

"Lieutenant Cadman is on Atlantis, yes?" Radek asked.

"It's being handled, Doctor. We'll keep you in the loop."

Radek put the radio down and thought about that for a moment. Rodney was fine. He always was. Usually. When he wasn't high on Wraith enzyme or trying to blow up solar systems.

He looked up and realized Anna was looking at him, all shock and concern. He tried on a smile for her. "I suppose we will get to see what a Seventeen ceremony is like?"

#

The afternoon progressed much like any other, except they were not on Atlantis. Maybe it was a good thing. After all, if there was a bomb somewhere on Atlantis, Anna was pretty sure she didn't want to be there. Except Atlantis was huge. That would have to be a pretty big bomb to reach from the Central Tower to even a few blocks away from the extremities. Rodney's lab would come away unscathed if it was a normal bomb like the ones that most terrorist groups used on Earth.

Things that destroyed cars and trains… Anna didn't pay attention, only knew that every now and again the news would say something about things catching on fire and how many dead and injured. Countries so far away they couldn't even see her sky.

This planet couldn't even see the same stars Atlantis could.

If Radek was worried, he didn't really show it.

Anna couldn't help but wonder and worry what was going on back home. Home. On Atlantis.

"If something happens to Atlantis…"

"It won't," Radek interrupted.

"But if it does…" Anna kept on. "If it does, we'll be stuck here." That thought was momentarily terrifying. She didn't like it here; didn't want to stay here for the rest of her life.

He shook his head only a moment after she said it. "No, the Daedalus will come get us."

Oh, right… The Daedalus knew where they were. Someone knew that they would be alone on the planet with no home to go to. Only sitting in a hospital room alone, because everyone else left. A body couldn't really be called someone.

"I'm sure it will be fine," Radek finished.

But how did he know that?

He didn't know that.

Mom also said it would be fine, but she couldn't have seen this coming last year. Last year, the last thing she said to Anna… It will be alright. That, and, I love you, Anna. Anna hadn't said it back, like the universe would wait for it and let her live to hear it. She couldn't have anticipated Anna on another planet in one year, sitting next to an ancient alien device, wondering if her home would be destroyed by some mystery incendiary device.

She also said Radek would be there, but he wasn't. He never was. Maybe she knew that.

"Anna, what is it?"

Anna glanced up, realized that she was no longer looking at her tablet and Radek was no longer looking at the machine.

"Nothing," she said quickly, trying to right her voice from a quiver.

Either he was fooled and thought she was telling the truth, or he knew she was melting from the inside out and chose to ignore it. She didn't know which was better. He held up a crystal and a wand that looked like a screwdriver. Anna had seen him use it before to isolate corrupted circuits. "Did you want to give it a try?"

Anna didn't know what she was trying, but nodded. Brushed her notes aside, one hand under her eyes, and held the other hand out to take the tool he was handing her. "What do I do?"

"Some of the pathways have been destroyed by… um, corrosion." Not the exact word he wanted, judging by his hesitation. Maybe because the pathways were not metal and so couldn't technically be corroded. "This will let you find the broken pathway and pull it out so it can be replaced or repaired." He hesitated, watching Anna watch him.

"I know; I mean I don't know how…"

"Oh." Radek reached for the screwdriver and hit a small button on the end of it. "The on-switch."

Anna nodded and watched the light blue glow for a few seconds.

"If you know, explain it to me," Radek said.

He didn't say it like a dare, like he thought she was just saying that to get him to stop talking. At least, she didn't think so. She glanced at him just in time to see him shift position on the rock he was sitting on to better observe her aligning crystal pathways.

"It will help you learn," he said.

Anna sighed. "But you already know how it is."

"Pretend I know nothing about it. Pretend I'm… um…" He looked around, as if he might find someone to suggest, even though Anna felt sure the name on the tip of his tongue right now was Iskaan. Iskaan knew nothing about it. "Oh, here. Explain it to Leto."

Radek pointed, and then paled. "Oh, my god, are those squirrels?"

Anna nodded and offered, "They look like squirrels." She'd watched Iskaan skin squirrels once…

"Squirrels have fur."

"Only on their skin."

Radek glanced at her, a tinge of sarcasm arching one eyebrow. "Ah, really?"

Indeed, Leto had three skinned small animals hanging off strings over her shoulder. She realized they were both looking at her, and explained, "Lunch? I was going to cook for you."

"Do you want to see what we're doing?" Radek asked. Conveniently, he didn't make any comment about a squirrel's nutritional value.

Leto looked between Radek, Anna, and the bit of crystal in her hand. Anna couldn't decide if Leto looked interested or coerced. Whatever the case, before Anna could put together an offer that Leto didn't have to be interested, she'd hung her rodent-strings on a tree and knelt next to Anna.

To her surprise, Leto had already leaned closer to see what it was she was doing.

Anna decided to start at the mostly-beginning. She pulled out one of the closer crystals to show it to Leto. It was flat and clear, with milky-white information paths crossing each other like the machine's blood vessels. She showed it to Leto and pointed out the crisscrossing on the surface, leading from connecting nodes that could touch to other crystals, to the core of the crystal, a little nucleus where information processing and transmitting happened.

"You see these lines, here?" she asked, unsure exactly how to explain it.

Leto nodded, silent and in awe. Anna had to imagine she looked like that sometimes.

"They are like… they are like a tree's roots. They pull information from other places and bring it to here." Anna indicated the thick bundle of crystal circuitry near the center of the glass. She didn't know what should happen if she touched the crystal circuitry with the tool Radek gave her to use, to spread the "roots" apart and singling out a thread for repair.

"And this is the tree?" Leto asked, pointing reverently at the circuit's nucleus.

Anna pointed, too, and nodded. "Yes. It is where most of the things happen for this crystal. But if information doesn't get there, it can't work. So…" Anna paused and bent over the crystal, concentrating very hard to separate the corrupted circuit from its mates, so it could be fixed or removed. "We have to take out the roots that are broken or sick," she mumbled as she worked.

The end of the wand, when it touched the crystal panel, emitted a shot of light as soon as it touched the crystal's surface, like a tiny welding torch. As soon as the blue light touched the circuits, the crystal seemed to come alive in her hand. The circuits glowed and wiggled, where before they had been still and rigid. It was like the crystal transformed into a living thing, turning the circuits into tendrils. Anna fished around in the glass for what felt like minutes. It took her some time to figure out what it was the tool was doing exactly, but she learned she could use it to pull out single circuits by touching them, like pulling strands of hair out of a braid. The more she worked, though, the circuits spread apart and singled out the circuit she wanted on their own, almost as if listening to her thoughts.

She shut off the tool and showed the crystal to Radek. He didn't look surprised, in fact, he looked gratified. "I wondered if it had a genetic component…" He held the crystal up to the light outside, where it was plain to see that Anna's restructuring had solidified, with a single circuit running across and all the others tangled up together to either side.

Anna looked at the tool in her hand. "It doesn't do that for you?"

He chuckled and shook his head. "Not so easily. I've practiced to the point where I can follow the circuits and pull out the one I want, but you went straight at the corrupted part and it wasn't a problem for you."

"I was fast?" she asked.

Radek shrugged as he picked up a stack of chips he'd set aside. So it wasn't an inaccurate assessment… but it wasn't really accurate, either. "Faster than I thought you might be."

He adjusted his glasses and proceeded to do the same thing to other corrupted crystal circuitry with the speed and accuracy that only practice could afford.

Without the gene, too…

Anna sighed. Maybe the gene wasn't everything.

Leto looked between them, bewildered. Anna blushed when she realized they were saying things she wouldn't understand. "Sorry." She showed Leto the wand in her hand. "He was just wondering if this… um, it works differently for me than it does for him because… um…?" How did she explain genes to a girl who lived in the woods and ate… squirrel?

Leto smiled when Anna's voice trailed away. She pointed at the squirrels. "I can teach you how to cook a delicious lunch from the forest."

Anna looked at the squirrel, nodding before she was really certain of her affirmative. Leto looked extremely happy, though, so Anna supposed that she could at least pretend.

She nodded. "Yes, thank you. I would like to learn."


Thanks yous & etc.

Gasel- Thanks so much for reading and reviewing! It's good to know I shouldn't use "no" all on its own, like we would use "yeah" alone. For simplifications' sake, though, I'm just going to keep with "Doctor Beckett," as she's using "Doctor" as a name rather than as the word "doctor." It's a pretty fine line, and I guess either way would be okay in this case because the story itself is in English. But thank you for telling me about the professionalism thing (máš/máte)! I'll have to go back and change that. See you next time!


Next time: Just because you hate somebody doesn't mean you don't also love them…