Author: Jadelyn Tate
Story: Falling In the Black
Rating: M (just to be safe--it won't get up to NC-17 but I honestly don't know how mature it will get)
Disclaimer: I own no one but Nicole Scott.
Short summery: She didn't know she was searching for a place to belong...until she found it.
A/N: This focuses mostly on an OC dealing with life in the Pegasus galaxy from Season one through…whenever I end it. :D Also, this is for my own personal prompt challenge of 50 prompts. If I get enough interest, I may LJ community the prompts.

Prompt: # 3 - Language

"Dr. Weir?"

"Yes, Dr. Scott?" the head of the Atlantis expedition turned around from where she was speaking with Teyla Emmagen, Dr. McKay, Major Sheppard, and Lt. Ford. Nicole was standing behind her, a small notepad in hand and two pencils holding her hair in a bun.

It'd been two days since they'd arrived and Nicole, while excited about the amount of written accounts in the databanks, had been more interested in the inscriptions everywhere. Not for the first time she bemoaned the fact her linguists numbered exactly three; herself and two others. The simple fact of the matter, however, was that she was lucky she had as many linguists as she did—command had only wanted to send her and two anthropologists as the culture department. She had Daniel to thank for getting the other two linguists.

"I--I don't mean to interrupt," Nicole shifted and Dr. Weir smiled.

"It's quite all right, what do you have for me?"

"The staircase translation," she murmured.

"Staircase translation?" Major Sheppard asked, looking confused. Nicole nodded, pointing down to the stairs in question.

"The--the squiggles aren't just squiggles, Major," she told him. "It's Ancient."

"What does it say?" Dr. Weir asked, eyes bright with excitement. Nicole looked down at her notepad, not missing the eye roll from Dr. McKay.

"We hold these as the truth," she read off. "A hearty welcome to those of other worlds visiting our home for the first time. Welcome again to those returning. You have been gone too long and your absence has weighed heavily on our souls. We are whole again that you are among us and we celebrate you being here again. As we leave for distant worlds we pledge to respect the lands of our neighbors and to act with integrity as ambassadors in peace time of our people. Travelers with open hearts will always be welcome. Refugees from tyranny may seek shelter under our roof and know that our people will lay down their lives to protect the weak and the just. Let this be our pledge to those inhabitants of this world. And all we may ever know we will always strive to come in peace as we go in peace and you will be welcome on our shores forevermore."

"All that's on the staircase?" Major Sheppard asked, surprised. Nicole nodded as Ms. Emmagen smiled at her.

"You can read the Ancestors language?" she asked, impressed and Nicole nodded.

"It's the mother language of Latin, a language back on Earth," she explained, relaxing a bit with the familiar subject. She turned to Dr. Weir. "There are several more inscriptions I've recorded but I haven't translated them yet. I was too excited about what the staircase might say."

"Good work, Dr. Scott," she smiled at her. "Give me translations as you get them."

"Okay," she agreed and hesitated. "I had an idea but…"

"What is it?" Dr. Weir asked, still smiling.

"Maybe post the translation next to the staircase or at the top? That way everyone will know what the staircase says," she suggested quietly.

"Yes, and then we can have a party about how you got this dribble translated!" Dr. McKay said sarcastically. Nicole winced and looked down at her feet.

"I think that's a great idea, Dr. Scott," Weir said and Nicole nodded, still not looking up. She quietly excused herself and walked off.

"That was uncalled for Rodney," she heard Dr. Weir scold.

"Well I'm sorry if I don't think we need translators."

"So you're fluent in Ancient now?"

"Well no I--What?"

"Dr. Scott is knows Ancient about as well as Dr. Jackson, Rodney, and she and her linguists will be translating the parts of the database into something you can understand so I'd be a bit nicer to her in the future," Weir suggested.

"I'll just go to the head linguist if I need something."

"She is the head linguist, Rodney. In fact, she's in charge of the entire culture department on Dr. Jackson's recommendation."

"Way to go McKay, alienating the person in charge of getting you instructions on how to use all your new doohickeys."

Nicole swallowed back tears as she moved without really seeing anyone as the voices faded. More than one person on the expedition had asked why she and the other cultural members were here and it hurt no matter how many times she heard it.

Back on earth, she was a respected member of the SGC; here, she and her team were essentially considered unwanted or unneeded gawkers. She knew, logically, that everyone was still a bit in shock of the whole trip but that hadn't changed the fact she didn't feel at all welcome.

"Och, pardon me lass," a thick accent made her look up. She blushed as she realized she'd nearly run into the head CMO.

"Sor--sorry Dr. Beckett, I--I wasn't watching where I was going."

"It's all right lass, we're all a bit bamboozled around here," he said, smiling at her in understanding. "I'm still trying to find a permanent place to set up an infirmary."

"Why don't you just use the Ancients main infirmary?"

It came out before she could stop it but let it stand as the Scottish doctors eyes lit up. "You know where the infirmary is?"

"They--they had several but yeah, I know where the main one is. It--it was in the database we were looking through this morning," she explained. She hesitated a moment and then took a deep breath. "Come with me, I'll show you."

As they went up the stairs, she could hear the doctors breathing pick up. "Well, at least we'll get plenty of exercise," she mumbled. She moved to the correct door. "Here we are."

"We're going to have to find a better way to get here for the stretchers," Dr. Beckett said as the door opened. They both walked in, a bit surprised at all the items.

"I—I don't think you'll have to worry too much about medical beds," she offered as they uncovered the main objects. Dr Beckett ran a hand through his hair.

"I wouldn't know the first thing about using these lass," he told her, eying the things. She bit her lip.

"I--I'll try to find instructions as soon as I can but the database is huge," she told him as she struggled to keep herself from babbling. "And then I'd have to translate it and we have so much else we need to translate and…it-it might take a while."

"Take as much time as you need, lass," he told her with a kind smile. "I know there's a lot of work to be done."

"Dr. Beckett, what's all this?" Dr. Weir said, walking through the open door, SGA-1 behind him. Nicole cringed and shifted back, trying to blend with the wall. From the looks she was getting, it wasn't working.

"Welcome to the new infirmary," Dr. Beckett said, beaming. "The lass found it for me in the Ancient database."

"This was the Ancient infirmary?" Major Sheppard asked, smiling at Nicole. "Seems having a linguist is more useful than you thought, eh, McKay?"

"Well, I suppose they're good for something," Dr. McKay agreed and turned to Nicole. "Which, by the way, there is a section of the database that explains about the shield that I need translated as soon as possible."

"Och, no you don't Rodney!" Dr. Beckett said. "I need to know how to use these things, which is more important at the moment!"

"Well, if we don't get the shield up and running, having a working infirmary won't be much use to us when the Wraith come, now will it?" Dr. McKay said.

Nicole simply watched the two bicker, eyes wide. Dr. Weir, Major Sheppard, Ms. Emmagen, and Lt. Ford all smiled, both at the argument and at Nicole's expression.

"Dr. Scott, which one do you think you can do first?" Dr. Weir asked. The two men stopped arguing and turned to her expectantly. Nicole swallowed, looking between the two men.

"I—I can have Josh, Dr. Kenmore, start the s-section of the database that deals with the shield while I do the infirmary," she said, her voice soft. "Richard, Dr. Jeremiah can do anything else that comes up in the meantime."

"Why can't you do my shield?" Dr. McKay demanded. "You know Ancient better than he does, I'm sure."

Nicole flinched. "Josh—Josh can handle the shield translation," she told him, trying to be firm. "I-I already promised Dr. Beckett I'd do the infirmary."

"Well that's just unacceptable," Dr. McKay said.

"Without the ZPM, you can't power the shield anyway, right?" Major Sheppard stepped in. Dr. McKay opened his mouth but Sheppard held up a hand. "Yes or no."

"I can't power the shield without a new or full ZPM, that's right," he agreed reluctantly.

Major Sheppard nodded and turned to Dr. Weir. "In that case, the infirmary is more important at the moment since McKay can't use the information translated until we get a ZPM."

"I agree," Dr. Weir said, nodding. "The translation decision stands; Dr. Scott will work with Dr. Beckett to translate what he needs in the infirmary."

Five minutes later, Dr. Weir, Dr. McKay, Ms. Emmagan, Major Sheppard, and Lt. Ford left, leaving Nicole standing in the infirmary with Dr. Beckett.

"Thank you, lass," he smiled at her

"Uh huh," she said, inching towards the door. "I'm gonna go, uh, look at the database."

He nodded and picked up his walkie-talkie as she slipped out of the room. "Peter, we found the infirmary. Bring up all the supplies to…"