Browsing through the fat Gaelic dictionary Sheppard kept an eye on Dana who was now sitting on the floor with Mr. Carrot clenched in her little hands rather tightly, looking up at Rodney who was staring back at her intently.
"Phew, now look at that... She's sucking that rabbit's ear", the physicist exclaimed just a moment later. John merely rolled his eyes and continued his word search while Carson uttered a disturbed groan, "Mind you, Rodney, she's just a wee bairn and she's aye stressed. Besides, who's the one of us sucking his thumb at night?"
John smiled to himself. Congrats Rodney, you've finally pissed him off. Wonder how you're planning to get yourself out of that.
"Well, that's none of your business", McKay snapped back, "Anyway, it's way better than self-knitted sheep socks..."
That moment Sheppard closed the dictionary rather noisily to get everyone's attention. He smiled at Dana who was looking at him expectantly. Slowly he cleared his throat and mulled over what he wanted to say once again. Hoping that he had understood the grammar annotations right, he then began his sentence, "Dana-love, càite a bheil do thaigh?"
Both the little one and Beckett regarded him with a surprised stare that said Since when are you speaking Gaelic? That look was followed by a thoughtful frown from Dana.
It took the girl quite some time to find an answer, but finally she stated, "An-seo", pointing to the ground with determination.
"She said it's here", Carson translated getting a sidelong glare from Rodney.
"What is here?" he exquired in an unnerved way.
"Her home, Rodney", the physician added with a long sigh that wasn't actually meant for the Canadian. He went on murmuring quietly to himself, "Ach ... càite a bheil do phàrantan, a chaileag bhig?"
Dana picked up what he was saying and threw herself into his lap, glancing at him with wet blue eyes. But this time she didn't start crying. She merely shrugged and shook her head quietly.
"So she doesn't know where her folks are", Sheppard, who had just looked up the unknown words in the dictionary, pulled a disappointed face, "But perhaps somebody will call around and pick her up. I'm gonna go ask Elizabeth if we can go back to the planet where we found her. Could be we find something..."
"Do that, major", Carson replied while he was caressing Dana's curly hair. John nodded and left the room. As he was gone Dana hopped off Carson's lap and offered Mr. Carrot to Rodney.
"What does she want now?" the physicist huffed.
With a slight grin the Scotsman translated what she had just whispered into his ear, "She asks whether you'd like to snuggle the rabbit for a moment."
"Ha-ha. Very funny", McKay scowled at her. He got up and walked away quickly, muttering, "I need to get out of here..."
xxxxx
Dr Zelenka was very relieved that McKay had finally gone on that mission with the team. For more than two hours his colleague had bothered him with his lengthy and annoying tirades on little, squeaking, whining, drooling Gaelic brats. Not that some of these qualities could also be applied to Rodney himself...
Now the Czech engineer was having a horrible headache, shuffling his way to the infirmary to get himself some painkillers. As he was about to enter, the little girl ,Rodney's whole lamenting had been about, bumped right into him. Sighing Radek waited for her to pass by.
As she was finally gone, he noticed that the little on had dropped her toy bunny. Quickly he picked it up, fearing that somebody could fall over it. An instant later he already regretted his decision: The spongy little thing had recently been snuggled and now his hand was covered in child spittle. Muttering angrily he wiped it dry on his trousers, putting the toy into a pocket.
The moment he had reached Dr Beckett's office and was about to ask him for some aspirins, Radek felt a tug on his sleeve. Slightly annoyed he turned around and found little Dana standing behind him, exclaiming, "Misser Kerrit!"
"Pardon, what?" the Czech crouched down to get on eye-level with the kid.
"Mis-ser Ker-rit!" she repeated apparently losing her patience.
Now Zelenka remembered that he was still holding hostage her rabbit. With two fingers he pinched the semi-wet thing by the ear and held it up, "You want your bunny back, right?"
"Aye", his assumption was confirmed with a fierce nod and he let the toy glide down into her little hands. Once Dana had snatched it, she wagged it around in front of him and stated, "Sin Misser Kerrit."
"I see", rolling his eyes Radek stood up and turned back to Carson, asking, "So I guess that is how it's called?"
The Scotsman nodded briefly, "Actually the rabbit's name is Mr. Carrot, but you can't expect such a wee lassie to pronounce properly."
"Ah", this information didn't make Radek's headache any better, "Could you prescribe me something for my aching head?"
"Aye, if you tell me why it aches, son."
Zelenka sighed, "It aches because Rodney couldn't stop raving about your cute little girlie."
"Oh, couldn't he?" the physician seemed to make a mental note to take vengeance for that later, "What exactly did he say?"
"You don't want to know. But I think he'll be very happy when they find something back on planet where they met her..."
xxxxx
Major Sheppard's team had just arrived in the gate room as Carson entered. Dana was clutching his hand, hopping up and down merrily.
"Have you found something?" the Scot asked in a rather excited way.
"Yeah", Sheppard took a slip of paper from his breast pocket and handed it to him, "there was this letter..."
"Major Show-off here was unable to translate", threw in Rodney, receiving a pissed scowl and a slap on the head for it.
That moment Teyla placed herself between her two arguing teammates and put a bundle of clothes and other things into Carson's arms, "And we've also found these."
"Thank you, love", he took the things with a thankful smile. And while Dana decided to grab some of the stuff and scatter it all across the room the physician unfolded the letter and made an attempt to read it.
to be continued...
A/N: "Ach ... càite a bheil do phàrantan, a chaileag bhig?" But ... where are your parents, little girl?