Rodney took the
opportunity to make another taunting remark, "We'll know what?"
"If her parents are on the
other end of the line", John rolled his eyes.
The physicist groaned throwing
Carson a glance, "Looks like somebody's sucking up to our
master sheep painter here."
"Aw, fan sámhach,
Rodney", the Scotsman grumbled. On hearing it, Dana cheered and
clapped her hands in approval. Then came the moment of truth.
Everyone looked at Peter full of excitement as he finally played
back the transmission:
Atlantis, this is Dr Lindsay. We
could use a backup team to salvage all these artifacts we've found
here...
The rest of the message was
drowned out by a collective groan that sounded pretty much like it
came from a horde of disappointed football fans.
"And what do we do now?"
Teyla asked into the round.
The others shrugged and Peter
suggested, "Why don't we finish our painting?"
"Right, that's a good idea",
Carson agreed. A moment later they had all filed out of the control
room, leaving behind a lonesome and disgruntled Rodney.
Instead of grabbing a crayon
right away, Dana withdrew into a quiet corner. She sat there on her
snuggle blanket, sucking Mr. Carrot's ear almost violently. Carson
threw his wee one a worried glance and finally he sat down beside
her. For a moment they were sitting side by side quietly until the
physician realized that there were tiny little tear trickling down
her rosy cheeks. He wrapped an arm around her whispering, "A
Dhana, chan eil thu brònach."
The girl shook her head, sniffling
away the tears as good as she could, trying her best to convince him
that she wasn't sad at all. Sighing she dug her little head into his
side. He cuddled the girl a bit more, reassuring her that they would
find her parents soon.
As John saw what was going on he
went over to them, trying to get Dana's attention. Once he had it he
pointed at the big picture that was almost finished by now. "Look,
seo thusa."
Curiously the little one crawled
over to the drawing, gawking at the stick man the major had just
shown her. Forgetting her sadness for the moment she pointed at the
figure next to it.
"Cò sin?" she
questioned.
Proudly Sheppard pointed at
himself, "That's me."
On the other side of the sheet
Elizabeth started snorting quietly. Then she came walking over and
added another figure to the group. The moment she was done, John
scrutinized it with his eyes pinched half-closed, "Is that you?
I didn't know you had long, brown ears."
The expedition leader gave him a
strange look, "Ha-ha, very funny. That's not me it's..."
"Misser Kerrit!" Dana
cheered, completing the sentence for her. Happily the girl bent down
and kissed the painted bunny onto its cute, waxy snout. The action
left a long, brownish streak on her upper lip which she smeared even
further across her face with the real toy bunny's ear, chuckling
away merrily.
"Look, Dana has got a beard",
Peter exclaimed, pointing and smiling.
Blushing the little lass covered
her mouth with her hands and went on laughing. The game went on
until Carson reached for a Kleenex, deciding to wipe the color away.
Shrieking Dana jumped up and hid herself behind Teyla's back,
peaking at the Scotsman suspiciously with round, watchful eyes.
Sighing he threw the tissue away again, "Okay, then not, love."
Relieved the kid leapt out of her
hiding-place again, almost bumping into Dr Biro who just came
walking through the door.
"Can I help you?"
Carson got up offering his subordinate a hand with the obviously
heavy plate she was carrying.
"No, no, sir, it's all right",
she beamed broadly at her boss, "I just came by to bring you a
little something I've made in case anyone's hungry", proudly
she lifted the cloth that covered the plate, revealing a big heap of
brownies.
On seeing the sweet surprise Dana
nearly freaked out. Bumping up and down the little one called out,
"Cèic, cèic !!!"
With a friendly smile Dr Biro handed
her a piece of it, "There you go, sweetie."
John watched the scene thoughtfully,
"I wonder where the chocolate comes from, doc."
"Well",
Biro smirked mischievously, "actually I've found
it in one of the storage room though I
think it might
belong to Dr McKay. Do you think he'll miss it?"
"No, not at all", was the
answer that, to everyone's surprise, came from Weir, "I think
he can share on Dana's behalf..."
"Right", the others
clapped approvingly and then helped themselves to a juicy piece of
cake.
John was just paying his compliments
on Dr Biro's delicious baking as the door opened once again letting
in a flushed McKay who stomped into the room, coming to a stop right
in front of the brownie plate.
"So this is where my chocolate
went", snappishly he glared into the round, "This isn't
very nice, you know. Stealing other people chocolate and ... and..."
he paused because Dana was tugging at his sleeve. With a placating
smile she offered the rest of her cake to him. That was way too much
for Rodney to take: "Sorry, I don't take salivated brownie
remnants from greedy little kids who steel my chocolate", he
exclaimed a tad too loudly, making the little girl cringe and run
away, right out of the office.
"Great Rodney, really great",
Carson scolded the physicist angrily, "She was having a tough
time already and then you burst in and spoil it all for a bloody bit
of chocolate." His lecture was accompanied by cross stares from
everyone else in the room.
"We'd better go find her",
Sheppard shoved himself past Rodney and followed Dana outside.
For almost half an hour John
wandered through the corridors, looking for any hints that could
lead him to their little girl. She had definitely been damn quick
running away and now she was just as clever hiding away from them.
And all because of Rodney. The Canadian should definitely be the one
looking out for her now but of course he wasn't. Instead he had gone
back to his lab where he was now sulking, as usual.
Suddenly the major heard a
grinding sound beneath his feet. He had stepped on something.
Quickly he bent down to find that he was standing on a track of
brown chocolate crumbles. He followed the trail for a moment until
he reached the door of Sergeant Bates's quarters, in front of which
the line ended. Without hesitating he used his command code to open
the door. Once Sheppard was inside he received a message from Grodin
over his headset:
"Major we've just received a
transmission from the planet. Sergeant Bates reports that two people
have come through the gate. They seem to be looking for their little
girl."
"All right, thank you, Peter.
I'll head back to the gate room once I've found Dana", he
replied, about to continue his search. But he didn't need to. The
wee one was sitting on the bed right in front of him. With a
satisfied expression on her little face she was still nibbling on
her brownie while snuggling Bates's basketball with her free arm. As
she noticed John her curly head turned toward him, watching him with
questioning eyes.
The major made a big step toward her
saying, "Your parents, little one, they've come back."
"Pa-rents?" Dana repeated
slowly, frowning a little.
"Do phàrantan..."
he added after a moment of thought. On hearing this the child jumped
up at once, running into his arms with a happy squeak. Smiling John
lifted her up, carrying her back to the gate room.