Sheppard walked up to Dr. Weir's office doorway, knocking on the frame. She looked up from her desk, smiled, and invited him to come in. "I'm guessing from the smile that I'm not in trouble," he said, stepping inside.

"No, not today." She stood and came around the desk, her posture relaxed. So nothing was wrong. "I wanted to talk to you about your team."

"Yeah?"

"Specifically, adding Lieutenant Cooper."

He frowned. "The girl who just arrived on the Daedalus with all those trainees?"

She nodded. "Glad to see you're keeping up with the head count."

He tried not to make a face. "No offense, Elizabeth, but that's not really necessary. I mean, don't you think we have enough combat-trained people on the team?"

"With all the situations you get yourself into? That's debatable," she said. "But I'm not bringing her on for that. Lieutenant Cooper is also a linguist. I figured, now that we've realized the further out in the galaxy we go, the more the language changes, it might be useful to have a translator with you."

"I highly doubt she's fluent in the native languages of Pegasus," he said.

"No, but she did study as a linguist and she assisted Dr. Daniel Jackson for a time at SGC. The languages of Pegasus should all have common roots, as the Wraith and Ancient languages do, and she can bridge the gaps. She's been known to do so quickly on several accounts."

"And you think this will help our efficiency?" he asked.

She nodded. "I do. And I'd like to not use up so much time translating like we have been."

He shrugged. "Well, it's up to you, but I don't see how it could hurt. Should we take her back to M7X-638 as a test run? See if she can get anything out of those tablets?"

At this, Elizabeth smiled slightly. "Yes, I've been told you were getting hung up on that. It's a fairly harmless planet, I think it'll be good for her first mission."

He smiled back and nodded. "Then let me go make her feel at home."

"I was hoping you'd say that."

. . .

"Is this some kind of briefing?" Ronon asked, looking at the others sitting at the lunch table.

Teyla gave a half shrug. "If it were a briefing, we would have met in the designated briefing room. In my memory, Colonel Sheppard has never called for a meeting in so casual a place."

"Yes, well, it would be really nice if he would tell us what this is all about," Rodney said irritably. "If it's not important, then I should be getting back to work, I already told him this morning that I don't have time for-"

"Relax, Rodney, take a break for once," Sheppard said, approaching the table with a tray of food in his hands and a girl in fatigues at his side. "The world's not ending for once, I think you can manage a few minutes out of the lab."

"Ha, yeah, good one. For all you know, you're putting the security of the entire city at risk just because you want to introduce us to your new girlfriend."

"Rodney," Teyla admonished.

"She's not my girlfriend, McGrumpy," he said calmly, sitting down and motioning for the girl to do the same. "This is Lieutenant Mary Jane Cooper."

"Ah, MJ, actually," she said quickly. She gave everyone a swift, apologetic smile. "My parents were hippies."

Sheppard nodded with an amused smirk. "MJ, then. Dr. Weir has asked that we take her on as part of the team for translation purposes. I figured it might be nice to get to know each other before we all went off-world."

"Okay, great, then I don't have to be here," Rodney said, already getting to his feet. "I don't even care to know the names of my lab assistance, so as long as you can do your job, I'm-"

"Sit down, Rodney," Sheppard said, a slight warning tone in his voice. "Your experiments aren't going anywhere."

"Says you. Zelenka might-" He stopped, noticing the look in the colonel's eyes, and reluctantly sat. "Well, nothing wrong with refueling while I'm here."

"Please excuse Dr. McKay," Teyla said apologetically. "We are very happy that you are going to be with us on our missions."

Cooper, who had been looking at Rodney with some amount of offense, turned to the Athosian. "Thank you. You must be Teyla. I've gone over all of your reports, you seem like a tough nut to crack."

Teyla smiled. "I am pleased that you think so."

Sheppard smiled. This was exactly why Teyla had been the leader of her people. She was gentle, able to smooth over tension, and was an excellent judge of character. She probably had little idea on the meaning of Cooper's idiom, but she'd determined that it was a compliment and accepted it graciously.

Ronon was staring at the lieutenant, seeming to size her up from beneath his heavy brows. Sheppard tried to read him, but couldn't tell if the Satedan liked what he saw or was ready to make his disapproval known.

"She's young," he said finally. "Too young."

Cooper looked a bit taken aback. "I'm not too young," she said immediately. "I'm exactly as old as I should be."

They stared each other down for a long moment. Even Rodney stopped eating to watch nervously. If Ronon decided he didn't like the new recruit, they would be hard-pressed to convince him otherwise.

Finally, he nodded. "Okay," he said simply.

Cooper blinked, then leaned over to Sheppard and murmured, "I didn't know I had to get everyone's permission."

"You don't. It's just easier if they like you," he replied. "So, you've read all our files. Why don't you tell us about yourself?"

"Oh, great," Rodney said, rolling his eyes.

"You can go, Dr. McKay. I promise I won't hate you," she said tightly.

He needed no second invitation. "Not like I'd care if you did, I just needed your permission, or Sheppard would have shot me."

"I might still shoot you," the colonel said.

"No you won't, too important, remember?" he said, cramming the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and tearing from the room.

Cooper sighed. "Anyway, I'm not sure what you want to hear. Compared to you guys, my record is pretty boring."

"Well, Dr. Weir told me you collaborated with Dr. Jackson, that's gotta be worth something," Sheppard said encouragingly. He looked at Teyla and Ronon. "Daniel Jackson was a part of the original expedition through the Stargate along with General O'Neill. He's one of the best damn archeologists on my entire planet."

"Yeah, so 'collaborated' really isn't the word," Cooper said. "He's not the demanding type, not like Dr. McKay, but all I did was follow his instructions. It was a great learning experience, though."

"Have you been through the Stargate many times?" Teyla asked.

She nodded. "I was on a relief team back on Earth. If back-up was called in, I was there."

"You must have been in a lot of combat," Ronon surmised.

"A lot, but not every time. Sometimes I was only on guard duty, set to watch some ruins or something while the actual expedition team ran off somewhere else on the planet."

Sheppard gave her a guilty smile. "We do that here, too. We make perfectly capable fighters babysit the jumper while we get ourselves killed."

She snorted. "Yeah. So you can kind of get the picture. Not much to know."

"Then I hope we'll be able to help you build an impressive resume," he said, taking a drink of water.

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you, Colonel."