A/N: Thank you for all those reviews. I'm so happy you like the Dana story this much.
Oh, and as for her parents ... I'm slowly coming to that now. But first of all here's John's storytelling:
xxxxx
"But no horror stories, hear?" Sheppard smirked to himself as he saw the admonishing look on Carson's face. By now he already knew what story he wanted to tell her.
"No, no, doc, I'd never do that. No need to worry", he gave the physician his most innocent smile waiting till he had vanished into his office. "So, little one, how about a little story about Rodney?"
"Ronny?" Dana's big, blue eyes looked up at him expectantly and she snuggled herself up against his side.
John smirked, "Yeah, I think that's him, kiddo."
The little one smiled back at him, giving him an approving little nod. So John cleared his throat and began his tale: "You know, back in the early days he saved our collective asses with a big Hail Mary."
Dana frowned at him, "Muire?"
John sighed, making a mental note that he definitely needed to start promoting his favorite sport in the Pegasus galaxy pretty soon, "Ah, never mind. Anyway, you wanna know how it came to that?"
"Aye", the girl shook her golden curls.
"Ok, well. You know first of all Rodney got the Ancient gene from Carson's gene therapy. Then he decided to check out his new feature with a little device he had just found in one of the labs. It turned out to be a personal shield generator. You know what that means, honey?"
She simply shook her head.
"Well, it meant that he was invulnerable for the moment. So the two of us tried out some funny stuff with him. I threw him off a balcony and even shot him..."
A horrified gasp came from Dana and John grinned at her, "Don't worry it was into the leg and since he was being invulnerable... Anyway sadly Rodney couldn't take the thingy off again and so he thought he might have to starve to death. That's so typically him, I tell ya. Better we just overlook his whining and go on with the story."
He looked at the little one who had just cuddled herself up to him a bit closer. "Thing is that later that night long after I had told them their bedtime story two of the Athosian kids sneaked out into the halls to play Major Sheppard vs. Wraith", John noticed that on the mention of the Wraith Dana pulled a disturbed grimace so he went on rather quickly, "Then Jinto, one of them, got caught in a transporter that took him to an unexplored lab. Scared as he was he pushed some buttons and accidentally freed a subspace energy monster from its prison..."
Suddenly he noticed that there was a quiet snoring coming from Dana now. He looked at the girl to see that she had just fallen asleep beside him with her curly head resting against his side. Carefully he put a pillow under it before he slid off the bed. Quietly and a bit disappointed that she had interrupted him like that he went into Carson's office to tell him that he was about to go.
"So, doc, she's fast asleep. I'll leave now, if you don't mind."
"Thank you, Major. We'll see you tomorrow, then."
Sheppard found it hard to suppress a chuckle, "Well, Good night."
"Good night", Carson gave him a thankful smile.
As John had left the infirmary behind, the chuckle found it's way out at last. 'We'. That sounded pretty much like the things over-enthusiastic dads were saying all the time. Wee baby Dana and daddy Carson... He laughed out loud. That was the match of the year.
But all of a sudden another matter found its way into John's head making him thoughtful at once: What about Dana's real mommy and daddy? Were they still out there somewhere? If so, they were probably missing her little girl like mad with no idea where she had gone to. Sighing he made a mental note to discuss the affair with Elizabeth first thing the next morning.
xxxxx
After he had typed up the last report for today, Carson yawned and stretched himself. On tiptoe he left his office and went over to Dana who was fast asleep, sucking her thumb. Carefully he picked her up and carried her to his quarters where he placed her on his bed while he went to sleep on the floor right next to her. For a while he listened to her quiet, unintelligible babble until it lulled him to sleep and he finally dozed off.
But the peace and quiet didn't last for long: In the middle of the night Carson was woken by Dana's sobbing. Still a bit drowsy he jumped to his feet and sat down beside the little one, taking her into his arms, "What's the matter, lassie?"
At first Dana ignored him completely and kept on crying. He rocked her trying his best to make her stop, "Shsh, honey, it's all right..."
Still nothing happened; the blubbering was getting even worse. The girl held on tightly to Carson's shirt and all at once the word, "Ma-ma, Ma-ma", broke from her lips. Carson held her tightly and caressed her back. They sat like that for over half an hour before Dana had quieted down a little bit. Seemingly his nearness was the only thing that could calm her right now. Sighing he sat back against the wall and waited for his wee lassie to go back to sleep, but nothing happened. All she did was look up at him with her tear-dimmed blue eyes. If Carson wanted them both to get some much-needed rest, he had to substitute himself with something else for the moment. But what?
Suddenly his eyes fell on a half-opened drawer in his closet. Perhaps this would do for the moment. He went over and took out a pair of socks his mother had knitted for him. He crossed his fingers hoping that they would silence her for awhile...
Sergeant Bates was just eating his breakfast all by himself as suddenly somebody tugged him by the sleeve.
"What?" He looked up from his bowl a little annoyed about the sudden disturbance. Then he saw that it was Dana and he switched back to friendly mode. "Oh, good morning, kiddo. What's up?"
"Madainn mhath", she smiled back at him and handed him a piece of paper. He took it and looked at it with a frown since he could not quite see what the drawing on it meant. "Oh, have you painted that for me? It's pretty sweet."
Dana bounced up and down happily, "Tapadh leat." That moment Dr Beckett entered the scene. Somehow he wasn't looking that well, just as if he could use a good night's sleep.
"Good morning, doc", Bates greeted him, "That's really a nice drawing Dana made for me. But I just can't get what's on it..." , he added more quietly.
The Scotsman frowned at it, too. "That's, uh... ?" He bent down so that the little girl could whisper it into his ear, "She says it's a basketball."
"Nice", the sergeant stated. He had the feeling that the thing on the paper looked more like an oversized strawberry, but why spoil all the fun right now? He smiled a little at Dana and noticed that she was holding a thick, gray wool sock in her tiny hand. Surprised he looked at the physician, "Is that a ...?"
The Scot uttered an unnerved sigh, "Aye that's a sock, Sergeant. I didn't know what else to do. The wee lassie was feeling so lonely."
Bates snorted, "And then you give her a ... scratchy sock?!"
Carson was about to make a witty reply as Elizabeth passed them with a smile, "Good Morning."
The little lass turned her whole attention to the expedition leader immediately. She ran over to her and gave her a rather fierce hug with her short arms cheering, "Madainn mhath", once again.
"Ooh, hello Dana. I hope you've slept well", Elizabeth crouched down so that they were on the same level. That moment she remarked the sock in the girl's tiny hand, "But say is that...?"
"Aye, it's my sock", Carson replied suppressing a groan. He began to wonder if he should attach a post-it to it saying: Hey, look everyone, it's Dr Beckett's favorite wool sock.
Luckily Weir picked up the notion and decided not to make further inquiries on the subject. All she finally said way, "Carson, I was wondering whether I could see you and Dana in my office after breakfast?"
The physician nodded, "Sure, love."
Not much later he sat at Elizabeth's desk with Dana playing and babbling about in his lap. The expedition leader watched her for a moment before she began to talk. "So, what's the matter with the little one?"
Carson sighed a little, "Well she woke up last night, crying and missing her mother. And after a while I gave her my sock because I had nothing else at hand."
"Ah, I see", she smiled sympathetically, "actually this is what I wanted to discuss with you. I'm sure it has occurred to you that she has to have parents somewhere."
"Aye", he nodded, "But I was dreading to ask her about them. There's no telling if she's traumatized in any way..."
Elizabeth consented, "I can understand your point, but perhaps we should try it", she left her seat and came around to the other side, smiling at the little girl, "Dana..." she looked up at her expectantly and so Weir went on, "We could use a little help from you, darling. We're looking for your mom and dad. Do you know where they could be?"
On hearing the words mom and dad Dana began crying almost immediately. She whispered, "Mama", and her lips began to quiver. Tears were running down her cheeks and she turned her curly head away, burying it in the folds of Carson's jacket.
"Oh no, I didn't want to make her cry", Elizabeth looked quite shocked for a moment, "I'm so sorry, Carson."
The Scotsman looked at her with understanding, "It's all right, it's not your fault", he got up and rocked the girl a bit, "Let's see if I can calm her again", caressing and soothing Dana he went out of the room, leaving a rather unhappy expedition leader behind.
Two hours later John and Rodney entered the rec room finding Carson slumped on the couch wearing a pained expression. Next to him sat Dana, quietly sucking her thumb and staring at the ceiling.
"Hello you two", John said, trying to sound as cheerful as possible, "Look what Elizabeth sends you." He took a small, brown terry rabbit from his pocket, "This is Mr. Carrot, her much-loved toy rabbit." He handed it to Dana who began to suck at his ear right away.
"Thank you, Major", Carson looked at him with glassy eyes.
Rodney squinted at the physician remarking, "Man, Carson, you look like you've been losing sleep."
"How very observant of you, Rodney", Sheppard gave him a meaningful nudge.
"By the way observant", the physicist snapped back, "What have you told Dana that she stares at me like that?"
John sneered, "She only admires you."
"Admires me", Rodney gave him a self-satisfied smile, "Now that's something, isn't it?"
"Nope", the major sat down next to Carson who regarded him with a very tired look, "You okay, doc?"
"Ach, not really. The wee one's sad, so I'm pretty down, too", the Scot replied with a rather thick brogue. John knew that this was not a good sign so he quickly snatched the big Gaelic dictionary from the table and stated, "I think McKay and I have found a good way to ask Dana about her parents..."
to be continued