Transposed Part 5
Atlantis Mess:
"You want me to what?" Evan asked in utter surprise. Of all the things he had been expecting to do today, this had not been one of them. At. All.
Teyla smiled sweetly at him cooing persuasively, "They need someone to keep an eye on them and as Ronon disappeared after breakfast, Rodney must continue trying to find a way to reverse the device, Radek is assisting Rodney, and Jenifer has other duties in the infirmary. I hoped you would be a willing substitute."
Lorne looked down at the two girls, who continued to finish up their breakfast. Teyla had called out to him as he passed by in the mess, and now they stood discussing the matter a few feet from the table; just far enough not to be overheard.
"But what are you doing?" Evan asked, still trying to avoid babysitting duty.
Teyla sighed, "I must meet my weekly meditation class in the gym in ten minutes. Unless you would be willing to lead that, I think it would be counterproductive to bring Sam and Larrin along with me."
"And Colonel Sheppard can't?" Lorne tried in a last ditch effort, knowing that before Sam's accidental reversal, specifically stated that she did not want Larrin handed off to just anyone, due to her being a head of "state" and all.
The Athosian nodded understandingly and answered, "John requested some quiet work time this morning to take care of some duties Colonel Carter would normally attend to."
"Of course he did," Lorne sulked, mentally wrapping his mind around the fact he was "it" in the proverbial Tag game of kid-sitting.
"However," Teyla continued with a small smile, "He did agree to take over mid-morning."
"Great," the major replied with a roll of his eyes. He waved goodbye to Teyla and sat down next to the girls. He had yet to spend any real time with them, and hoped that they would warm up to him fairly easily; otherwise it was going to be an awkward few hours.
Thinking that they both probably would be more cooperative once they worked off some energy, the quick thinking Major reasoned some time-honored games wouldn't hurt, and asked playfully, "Either of you played Simon Says before?"
Atlantis Carter's Office:
Often, John wondered if the 'Powers that Be' slapped a big target on his head, and took turns taking pot-shots at him.
Like now, he was stuck in command while Sam was indisposed, which was a slight change from the usual life-threatening and often deadly pursuits. Still, being chained to a desk all day was not his ideal job, and right now he was reaching his limit to how many reports he could read and digest.
Fortunately, his current perusal of another techno-babble filled report was interrupted by the arrival of Major Lorne. John looked up to see the harried Major enter the office with both Sam and Larrin in tow, obviously fed up with the task of watching them.
"Sir," greeted Evan as he plopped down into one of the comfy chairs Sam preferred in her office, "I believe my time was up two hours ago on the 'Sitting' front."
John smiled, taking in his second in command's worn-out appearance. "Right, Major. Didn't Teyla pass guardianship over to you after breakfast?
"Yes since then we've played Simon Says, Hide and Seek, Freeze Tag, Red-Light-Green-Light, and then I broke out the coloring stuff. I'm all out of ideas," the Major threw up his hands in mock defeat.
Thankfully, the two girls in question seated themselves out of the way, on the floor and were currently occupied with some notepads and finger-paints.
"Finger-paints?" John asked amused, knowing only Evan would keep any real quantity of art supplies out of all his men.
"Yes sir," replied Lorne rather proud of himself, "I figured they would stay quiet that way while you worked."
The smile left John's face completely as his face fell, "Wait, why is it my turn? Now?"
"Sorry sir," said the Major standing up, "Dr. Keller needed to complete post-mission checks, Ronon was nowhere to be found, Teyla was teaching a class in the gym, and Dr. McKay claimed he was too busy. "
"So it jumped to my turn?" John huffed, realizing he would get even less done now, sullenly reiterating, "Because you have a mission to prepare for. Aright, you're dismissed Major." He waved Lorne off as he said under his breath, "For now."
Getting up from behind the desk, John walked over and sat down on the floor next to the two girls, who wasted no time in sharing their paper and paints.
Atlantis Control Room:
As a gate technician from the initial arrival into the city, Chuck had witnessed a plethora of strange sights running the gamut from spectacular arrivals, to deformed teammates, to barely clothed teams, to unexpected and repulsive gifts-overtures from off-world cultures.
However, when he happened to glance in the general direction of Colonel Carter's office, a completely hilarious sight met his gaze. Presently, Colonel Sheppard was decorating the glass walls enclosing Colonel Carter's office with finger paints; and joining him in the endeavor were little Larrin and Sam.
Chuck laughed to himself at how Carter would react once McKay returned her to her normal form; he doubted she would keep her new office decorations.
Whipping out his handy digital camera, Chuck deftly documented the event just in case. He rationalized some anonymous posting on the city's discussion boards wouldn't hurt anyone.
Atlantis:
Somehow Jenifer got roped into keeping an eye on the girls after lunch. It was not that she did not wish to look after them, it was just strange. Strange pretending to be an aunt to one's boss, strange to be looking after a highly independent allied leader; Jenifer was just slightly bothered by the situation completely.
Presently, the two girls were absorbed with decorating a paper kite. Again, Major Lorne had shown a unique creative streak by fashioning some kites for the pair of them. Using them to fuel the current distraction, she had taken the pair, at Teyla's suggestion out to the east pier. As she colored with the girls, a shadow fell over them, and Jenifer looked up to see Teyla.
"Might I join you?" Teyla asked politely, beaming down at the girls.
"Auntie Teyla," the two squealed in excitement as they scooted over to make room for her around their kites.
"I must confess," began Teyla good naturedly, "I have never flown a kite. John has mentioned them before, and when I heard Evan made some for the girls, I thought I'd join you to see for myself."
"Ah yes," agreed Jenifer, "Kite's are a classic childhood activity. I wonder though, why neither of them joined us. I figured of all people they, as pilots, would love to make things fly."
"Well," began Teyla glancing significantly at the two little heads bent over their work, "Since the Colonel needed to step up recently, he has been swamped with extra duties."
"Ah, and the Major is helping of course," Jenifer agreed good-naturedly.
Meanwhile Sam and Larrin colored peacefully on their kites. Sam was in the process of adding a large smiley face on her kite, while Larrin was drawing a bird.
"Can you pass the blue one?" Sam queried as she worked to put on the finishing touches of her kite design. Now all she needed to do was name the craft. Some inner voice told her that all flying objects needed to be named; it was the same principle as ships too.
"Yeah sure. Are you ready yet?" Larrin asked impatiently, excited to fly her kite. Sam was proving to be a very good friendly though, as they were both similar to each other in many ways.
"Okay!" Sam replied good-naturedly, happy to have someone as enthusiastic as Larrin to play with.
After a few minutes of faltering, the girls managed to cast their kites into the sky. Due to the quality breeze blowing across the pier, the kites took off easily into the sky, flying high and gracefully.
Cries of "Look at mine go!"and "Wow, they are so pretty up there," filled the air, complimented with the girls' laughter.
The innocent fun was not to last as another headache swiftly cut in to ruin the fun. Only Larrin was the lucky recipient this time. Jenifer noticed the change first as Larrin, positioning herself at the girl's side, just in case.
Communicating silently with Teyla, Jenifer subtly maneuvered Larrin further down the pier, while Teyla mirrored the action, creating enough space in between each pair as to allow for private discussion.
"What's going on?" Larrin asked in confusion, another jump in memory, and more blanks for her to fill in. She was really starting to dislike the whole situation.
"Oh, you know," Jenifer began nonchalantly, "The usual stuff. You switch back and forth between an adult memory and a child one; but don't worry it's not dangerous enough to harm you permanently."
"Wonderful," replied Larrin sarcastically.
Over in the other corner Sam, puzzled by her playmate's strange behavior, asked, "Auntie Teyla, why does Larrin not like me all of a sudden? Did I do something wrong?"
Thinking quickly she responded, "No, Larrin just needed some space. Do not worry; I am sure your friend will be back over to play eventually."
Shrugging her shoulders, and refocusing on the act of flying her kite, Sam replied, "Okie dokie!"
Atlantis Rec. Room:
Later that evening the torch had been passed to Ronon, and in an event to keep the two little ones occupied, he enlisted the help of Radek in setting up a movie for the three of them to watch.
Radek had even gone so far as to help pick out the movie, recommending the gag gift General O'Neil had sent through a while ago: "Atlantis the Lost Empire."
While most had found it amusing, in a fairly sick way, the movie fulfilled the present need for a child-appropriate film. Initially the girls' laughter filled the room, but the days' events had finally caught up with the girls, and both were sleeping peacefully curled up next to the Satedan. Only when the girls were completely asleep, did Ronon allow his boredom to win out, and rest as well.
Atlantis Rec. Room: Later
Sometime later Teyla poked her head into the recreational room hoping to find Ronon and the girls. To her surprise she grinned to herself at the sight of the three nestled together on the couch; the movie's DVD menu playing continuously in the background. As she stood there grinning, she felt another sidle up next to her.
"So, uh, how do you want to work this?" Whispered John from beside her, smirking slightly at the sight before them, "They can't very well stay in the infirmary again."
"I suppose they might stay the night in my quarters. I believe you call it a sleep-over?" Teyla asked softly, a smile playing on her lips.
"Great," replied John before entering the room. He walked up behind the runner and whispered right in his ear, "Ronon."
The effect was instantaneous as the Satedan jerked forward involuntarily, however not quite enough to wake the girls. Tilting his head backwards to stair up at the speaker, Ronon's eyes locked with John, "Sheppard. Finally!"
"Whoa, easy there buddy," John began holding up his hands in a cautioning manner, "We need to get them to Teyla's room. She offered to keep them for the night."
Scooping up Sam, Ronon stood up, daring John to question his choice. John just sighed in annoyance, and picked up Larrin—hoping that if she awoke, she would not remember this moment.
Atlantis Teyla's Quarters:
Just after getting the girls into bed, on the portable cots Teyla had previously arranged in her quarters, the Athosian was drawn back over by a whispered, "Teyla?"
The voice belonged to neither John nor Ronon, because they left several minutes before.
Teyla walked back from the bathroom and towards the source of the voice; it was Sam.
But it was not the little Sam they had put to bed several minutes before. No the intelligence behind the piercing blue eyes belonged to the genius astrophysicist, the long time member of SG-1, the current leader of Atlantis, and one of Teyla's newest and dear friends.
"Sam," Teyla whispered back, glancing down at the sleeping form of Larrin, "We should go somewhere we can talk."
Sam nodded and followed Teyla out onto the balcony attached to her quarters, and stated with a frown, "I take it McKay didn't quite find a way to turn it off?"
Teyla shook her head sadly, "No, the device was set only to turn females into a child-like state."
"Oh," replied Sam as she put two and two together, "So when nothing happened to him or Zelenka, they assumed it was off."
"Yes, and you happened to get too close," finished Teyla, noting the looking frustration on Sam's face as she ran a hand through her blond hair.
"So, have they come up with anything yet?" Sam asked grasping at whatever straws she could.
"No," replied Teyla solemnly, "They are still working to fix it so that you and Larrin might be returned to your normal state."
For a moment Teyla watched as Sam absorbed the new information, obviously displeased with what she had heard.
"Why do I suddenly remember who I am and what happened? When Larrin was brought to us she displayed all signs of a child-like mentality," Sam mused, the mental cogs whirring as her mind tried to work out what was happening to her.
"Jenifer determined that your consciousness will waver between two states: one of a child, and your present one that includes all of your memories, the adult one. She also said that these changes in state will be marked by a sudden headache that dissipates soon after the shift," explained Teyla gently.
Frowning Sam asked warily, "Is it dangerous?"
Teyla shook her head, "Jenifer assured us that there would be no lasting damage."
"Alright," smiled Sam finally, "I guess we just have to ride this out until Rodney comes up with something."
Smiling back at her friend, Teyla replied comfortingly, "Yes Rodney and Radek are taking care of restoring you to your proper form. Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne are keeping the base running as smooth as possible."
"Good," she half smiled before frowning slightly Sam cautioned with a look of unnatural seriousness on her childish face, reminiscent of her older and dominant self, "But we must make sure nobody else falls victim to this device. I'm sure we can hardly afford to deal with another child running loose."
Atlantis McKay's Lab:
Even though Jenifer could hardly fathom why McKay needed her when she hardly knew anything about Ancient technology, she still responded to his summons. Hopefully he had unearthed something that would help them restore the two"kidified" leaders to their old selves.
Sauntering lightly, Jenifer crossed the threshold into Rodney's lab and called out, "Okay what did you need me for McKay?"
The head of the man in question popped up from behind the lab table on which the troublesome device rested, hooked up to various monitors and laptops. Curious Jenifer asked motioning to the cables and wires, "What's all this for?"
"Oh that," replied McKay as he gestured to the gear, "It's taking readings of power levels, searching through the device's memory, decoding command codes, and sifting through past sessions. You know, it actually keeps a record of how it was last used?"
"That's so interesting Rodney," Jenifer rolled her eyes sarcastically, "I'm so glad you called me down here."
"Yes well I need your advice," admitted Rodney. As much as he did not want to regard medicine as an actual science, he needed a medical brain to pick at the moment. "Um right, so I need you to look at this set of data and tell me what it means to you."
"Right," said Jenifer slowly, doubting just how much she could help, but still took the tablet Rodney held out to her.
Focusing in on the text, the doctor lost her awareness of her surroundings as she read, commenting distractedly, "These are brain chemistry results."
"Crap, that's what Radek thought," exclaimed McKay in frustration, "Great he wins that bet!"
However just as Rodney finished his thought, Jenifer leaned against the lab table behind her out of habit, barely brushing up against the device with her back.
"JENIFER, NO!" Rodney shouted, trying to stave off the inevitable. Yet it was to no avail, a blinding white light enveloped the Doctor, just like it had done with Sam and presumable Larrin as well.
All too soon it dissipated; leaving Rodney to cringe inwardly, Sheppard was so going to kill him for letting it happen again. The first time, he could pass it off as a mistake, but twice was just stupidity on his part.
Now there were THREE little girls to be minded, it was almost a club now!
--tbc--
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