Life in Miniature Motion

The full story of wee!John

By Kyizi

Disclaimer: Stargate: Atlantis and all related items do not belong to me, only the stories and their related original ideas and characters are mine. No copyright infringement intended.

Notes: I suck! I'm so sorry; I completely forgot I was uploading this here, too. Hope you enjoy.

All other information can be found at the start of chapter one

~x~x~x~x~x~

Chapter Two

~x~x~x~x~x~

"Have we heard anything yet?" Rodney asks, once again ignoring the wide-eyed stares of everyone around him. The boy is clutching Rodney's right ear with one hand and the top of his t-shirt with the other and, after one poked eye and a few fingers up his nose, Rodney had figured it was less hassle just to leave the boy's hands where they were.

Elizabeth just looks at him for a moment, then smiles and shakes her head. "Major Lorne and his team aren't due back for another three hours, Rodney. The walk to the gate is at least four."

"They didn't take a jumper?" he asks incredulously.

"I felt that appearing in a spaceship would further damage relations with the Alekesh."

"Further damage…" Rodney trails off hoping that his face finishes his sentence for him. He can't believe that Elizabeth is actually being so cavalier about what's happened to Sheppard and placing so much importance on a relationship with the people who did this to him. "What aren't you telling me?" he asks suddenly.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Elizabeth might have the best poker face in Pegasus, but Rodney figured out her tell a long time ago. Well, okay, Sheppard had figured it out and told him, but the fact remains that he could see through the lie. There was something she wasn't telling him.

"Elizabeth," he pushes and she glances at the boy in his arms before looking at Rodney. She almost looks like she might be about to answer him when he hears the telltale noise of the Stargate coming to life.

"Incoming wormhole," Chuck calls and Rodney has to bite his tongue to stop some sarcastic comment about stating the obvious. His attention wavers from the 'gate room when he hears a noise coming from the child in his arms.

He looks down to see a gleeful little boy, with bright eyes, staring at the Stargate as if it were a Christmas tree. The boy's grip on his t-shirt has it cutting into the back of Rodney's neck as he leans forward, reaching out to touch the 'gate even thought it's far out of reach.

It's been a long time since Rodney has seen someone looking at anything with that much wonder, let alone felt it himself, and he takes a moment to think about the first time he heard his grandmother fingers dancing Liszt's Rhapsodies, the way each key had struck something that reverberated inside his chest, he thinks about the first time he realised that numbers sang to him and the world became a playground of primes, variables and universal constants. He suddenly realises that he's jealous of Sheppard, jealous because Rodney doesn't think he'll ever see the world like that ever again.

He turns to Elizabeth and is completely caught off guard by the look on her face. She's gazing at the boy with an expression that he doesn't think he could quantify or understand no matter how long he tried. It's true that he finds it hard to read people, finds it hard to relate and to make friends, but it's rare that he's ever wanted so much to read between the lines like he does right now.

He jerks out of his thoughts when the Major's voice echoes through the 'Gate room.

"Atlantis, we're comin' in hot!"

~x~x~x~x~x~

Rodney frowns again at the strange machine in the centre of the room. It's completely inert now, although it had sputtered slightly to life when mini Sheppard had reached for it and only Ronon's quick hands had got the boy out of the way in time. To keep him away, Elizabeth left the boy's in Zelenka's care (which Rodney secretly finds hilarious, because the Czech likes kids less than he does) having what's likely to be a Grade-A tantrum.

"It doesn't seem to be working at all, Doc," Lorne says with a shrug. "I'll be honest and say that Asher may have damaged it when I told him to yank it off the wall and what with the alarms and all it didn't seem like a good time to stop and figure out if we'd broken it."

Rodney would normally shout at him, threaten him with the million and one ways he could make the Major's life a living hell for messing this up, but he's already put together a picture of what happened (and at least Lorne – also Sheppard's second in command as far as the gene goes – had had the sense not to touch the thing himself). He tries to hide the small smile, but thinks the answering twitch of Lorne's mouth has given him away. Unfortunately, Elizabeth isn't so amused.

"What do you mean 'when you told him to yank it off the wall'?" she demands and Lorne fidgets a little at her tone.

"They were rather…reluctant to adhere to our request. The opportunity merely presented itself when they were called to attend their daily worship."

"You stole it?" Elizabeth asks incredulously.

Lorne cocks his head slightly to one side and frowns. "I prefer to think of it as borrowing."

Ronon's eyebrows shoot up, as he gives Lorne a wide grin; Teyla frowns slightly, but Rodney can tell she's finding it hard to find fault with the Major's decision; and Rodney… well, he finds himself reassessing his opinion of Sheppard's 2IC. Rodney wonders if the Air Force will give the man a medal on his recommendation.

"Your orders, Major, were to try to negotiate for the machine, not to steal it."

"Well, it's done now," Rodney says, waving his hand as if it's unimportant and, as he'd hoped, Elizabeth's focus is back on him.

"Can you figure this out?" she asks, tightly.

"I'll need time to study it."

"Right, so in the meantime we need to figure out what to do about the Colonel."

Ronon shrugs. "He seems happy enough to me."

"Indeed, he does seem to be adjusting quite well," Teyla says with a nod. "He has no memory of us, but he trusts who we are to him, Rodney in particular. I believe it would be best for us to accommodate for him much as we have been."

Elizabeth frowns, but nods. "Okay, for now we'll leave things as they are. We can meet in the morning and see if we have any idea as to how this will proceed."

~x~x~x~x~x~

"Hey Doc, wait up."

Rodney blinks, coming out of his thought process and lifting his gaze from the machine in his hands, as Lorne joins him and they continue walking.

"I've never figured out how you do that," the man says and Rodney frowns. "You've been walking towards the lab, not walking into anything or anyone and you haven't taken your eyes off that thing since you left the meeting. I've been trying to catch your attention since we left and you didn't even see the transporter doors almost chop my damn hand off."

"It's a talent that requires more brain cells than the average military grunt possesses." Lorne seems amused, so Rodney doesn't think the man's offended. "What can I do for you, Major, I'm a busy man."

"That I know. Just thought I'd offer my services again. Babysitting," he clarifies a moment later. "I figure half the city's gonna offer, but I'm a bit worried that with the way the civilians are acting with John that they'll let him get away with anything and most of the military contingent won't be able to forget that he's their CO."

"And you won't?" Rodney shakes his head and continues before the man can answer. "I hadn't really thought about it. But, yes, that's … yes."

Lorne frowns at him and Rodney knows that the man can tell he's working around to asking something. They walk in silence for a moment before Rodney stops and turns to face him, startling him slightly.

"How do you do it?" Rodney demands. "How do you…?"

Lorne winces a little. "Honestly? I'm pretending he's the Colonel's kid. It's easier and I try not to think about the fact that he's likely to remember I played cops and robbers with him for about four hours yesterday. And, hey, you'll fix this in no time."

"Sheppard's son?"

"Yeah, Doc." Lorne slaps a hand on Rodney's shoulder. "Man with a brain your size, shouldn't be too hard to figure that one out." He winks and indicates the lab down the corridor with a jerk of his head. "Figure we should relieve Zalenka of the screaming."

Rodney nods and finally lets the shrieking noise he's been ignoring since he got off the transporter penetrate his thought process. They both wince on a particularly loud scream.

"What the…is he torturing the kid?"

~x~x~x~x~x~

When Lorne returns the boy that evening, Rodney doesn't know what they spent the day doing, but he's eternally grateful that the kid isn't bouncing off the walls. It's too early to put him to bed, but he has no idea what to do with him in the meantime.

When the boy changes into his Athosian style pyjamas and hold his hands up to be picked up, Rodney really looks at him for a moment. He has Sheppard's eyes; they're still bright and full of mischief, but the newly-acquired innocence he can now see no longer masks the intelligence behind them. There's something hidden back there, though, something that Rodney's secretly hoping is the key to turning him back into a man; memories. He'll figure it out somehow, knows he has to, but in the meantime…

Rodney picks the boy up holding him by the arm pits and out at arms length, keeping him at eye level. He narrows his eyes, waiting a moment until the kid finally gives him a look that says, 'What, Rodney?' in that calm drawl he can almost hear in his head.

"Okay, so…right." He clears his throat and the boy frowns comically. "Lorne says I should just think of you as the Colonel's son, or relative or whatever. Somehow, I don't think Sheppard would be stupid enough to leave me with a kid, let alone one he actually wanted to survive the encounter, but that's beside the point. You're not Sheppard, okay, you're…you're…"

"John," the boy says, eyes wide and voice vaguely patronising, but Rodney just nods.

"Yes, yes. You're…you're John."

"Okay. We go pay now?"

"I told you, geniuses-"

"Don't pay," John finishes, rolling his eyes. "I know, Wodney."

"Well then." Rodney frowns and then takes a moment to think what the hell he is going to do with the kid before his own brainwave comes back to him. He smiles.

"I think it's time I taught you how to count."

~x~x~x~x~x~

On the third day of what Rodney now thinks of as his own personal hell, he wakes up to find he can't breathe properly due to a heavy object on his chest. He's half choking on tufts of fluffy hair and the wet patch on his left shoulder is, in fact, John-drool. Grossed out far less than he feels he should be, he simply lies still and tries to think of a point in his life when he'd ever felt more out of his depth. Apologising after blowing up the better part of a solar system, that had been hard and painful and, oh God, the look in Sheppard's eyes had damn near killed him, but this? He thinks it would be easier to define pi as a fraction than make it through this in one piece.

Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay has never been accused of being anything other than selfish and he's never really denied that that's exactly the way he likes things. He remembers, with a startling clarity, the look of embarrassed horror on his mother's face the day she and his father had dragged a wide-eyed Jeannie into a room full of government officials because their son had build a (non-working!) weapon as his school science project. Until that moment, his genius had always been something to celebrate, to be proud of and revelled in – even if, in hindsight, Rodney can easily see that it was all in the name of making his parents look better in the eyes of others; their son, the genius.

From that moment on, however, it had been every McKay for him or herself. Or, perhaps, it had been him and Jeannie against their parents until that fateful moment when he'd opened his damn mouth and spouted out a whole lot of things he hasn't been able to remember in full detail to this day. But Jeannie had been his. Had been his to cling to and to support in equal measures. And then she'd belonged to someone else, to two someone elses and Rodney had been on the outside again, because how could he compare to a vegetarian English major and a baby girl when he'd seen that look of love in Jeannie's eyes. So he'd told her she was turning her back on her science and her potential when he was secretly screaming that she was turning her back on him and begging her not to leave him behind. It was the first time that she hadn't understood Rodney since the day she'd been born.

He glances at the boy on his chest, trying to dislodge the lump of something caught in his throat and tells himself that the ache in his chest is the kid's elbow. It's easier, he figures, to pretend that it's not Sheppard; that way he can think of it as 'the boy' or 'the child' or 'the kid' or just simply 'it', because if it's really John Sheppard, Rodney has to care. Has to care because it's Sheppard and because, no matter how many times he's tried to stop himself, he cares about his team and Carson and Elizabeth in a way that he's not cared since Jeannie had been his entire world.

He thinks back to what Lorne said to him yesterday and he knows deep down that that might be his only option, because, no matter what he's been spouting off, he knows that the machine isn't going to be doing a damn thing anytime soon and this child – John – is right in front of him and he has to deal with it. He tried the whole 'ignore it and it'll go away' thing with Jeannie whenever she'd got particularly annoying when they were children, but that doesn't work anymore with kids than it does with Kavanagh.

"Wodney?"

The sleepy murmur startles him slightly and, for a moment, he doesn't know what to do with his hands when the child snuggles into his chest, as if he's burrowing for warmth. He pulls up the sheet and, after a moment of random flailing, settles his arms around the boy's shoulders.

"It's okay, John, go back to sleep," he says softly.

It feels strange, but having actually said it again, having actually acknowledged that the boy on his chest is John Sheppard, things instantly get better and worse simultaneously. Rodney's never been one to give himself to something half heartedly, not with his work and not with his affection. It's the main reason he gives the latter so scarcely, because with his work, he knows that 99.99% of the time he's doing everything right and the margin for error is small enough to be negligible. With the other…well, it's more of the reverse and Rodney's not sure he's built for that kind of loss.

~x~x~x~x~x~

In the first two weeks following the initial incident, Rodney approaches his 'parenting' a lot like he'd approached his lab work for his first doctorate. He spends his time recording data like how long it takes John to calm down at night, what foods send him into a hyperactive tizzy that end up with half the contingent of Atlantis watching gleefully whilst he grinds his teeth, what areas of the city are most responsive and at the same time least child proof, and so on until he has a working model of what John can and can't do and a comparative working model of John doing whatever the hell he wants. The crossover is unsurprisingly alarming and he's had science teams out on child-proofing missions since the day the Major walked into his lab and told him John had his own personal Scotty in Atlantis' systems to 'beam him up'. Even if he doesn't actually believe Lorne's wild story about a transporter beam, it's still a wise plan.

He studies input and output a lot like John's a computer system, a series of tests, a string of codes that he can crack and analyse so that he has a set pattern and a governing set of rules to explain the universe of a miniature John Sheppard. What he finds, however, at the end of all the observation and time spent turning the information into graphs and trends is that John simply will not be defined by any set parameters.

It's unsettling to say the least, Rodney's used to discovery and finding new ways of working, he's used to adapting to new rules and limitations, but 'just winging it' was always more Sheppard's thing and he's having trouble adapting to that.

"Stop that!"

"No!"

"I said," Rodney snatches the pda out of the boy's hands. "Stop that right now!"

"No! You didn't! You said 'top that, you neve' said wight now!"

"I swear to God," Rodney throws the pda on the bed, picks up the screaming, wriggling child by the arm pits and deposits him in the corner by placing him in the metal tub he got from the Athosians for John to bathe in, knowing that the boy can't get out on his own. "Stop that noise and…be good and I'll let you out!"

"You can't do dat!" John cries and Rodney blinks. That almost sounded like Sheppard, all indignation and righteousness. "Wet me out!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

"No!"

John sniffs and Rodney's eyes widen in alarm. "Please…Wodney…" he hiccoughs and Rodney sighs, preparing to relent, before he notices the gleam in the boy's eyes.

"No, I certainly will not!"

"Fine!" John cries and disappears in a flash of blue light.

Rodney gapes at the empty tub for a few seconds. "Why you little brat!" He storms out of his room, tapping his earpiece on the way. "Major Lorne!"

"Woah, what, McKay?"

"Remember when I called you delusional?"

"Which time?"

"The little brat disappeared on me."

He growls when Lorne chuckles. "I told ya, McKay, Altantis has a transporter beam."

"Yes, yes, whatever. I need you to start a search, while I try to track him on the computers."

"Already on it, McKay."

There's a beep to signal that Lorne's done talking to him and Rodney nods to himself, making his way quickly to the 'gate room. He's used to Sheppard cajoling and demanding more information, used to debating and verbal sparring, and he misses it, but he does appreciate that Major Lorne is efficient.

"Elizabeth," he greets, stepping up to the nearest computer. He pushes Emily/Amy/Amelie/whatever-her-name-is out of the way and starts tapping away at the controls.

"Rodney," Elizabeth greets conversationally, her tone curious and demanding at the same time.

"The little brat beamed out of our quarters."

"Beamed?" she queries. "Like in Star Trek?"

"I knew it, you're all secretly Trekkies," Rodney says, blinking up at her for a moment, before getting back to the computer. "Yes, like Star Trek."

"Wait a minute. Rodney, if he can do that, he could-"

"End up anywhere, yes, I know. Why do you think I've had the science team trying to child-proof the- aha! Gotcha." Rodney taps his earpiece, ignoring Elizabeth (he's not stupid, he knows she's trying to get him to talk seriously about this, but it's one of the times he prefers to feign ignorance). "Major Lorne."

"Go ahead, Doc. You got him?"

"Yes. Outskirts of the cleared sections of the city; he's in what we think was one of the old civilian quarters. Section 16, level three. You should pick him up with your life sensors when you get off the transporter."

"We're on it."

Nodding, Rodney turns to leave, but Elizabeth has blocked his path. "We need to talk about this, Rodney. You keep manoeuvring out of these conversations, but we need to talk."

"I hardly think this is the time to-"

"Major Lorne will get him and if there are any problems I'm sure you'll be the first to know. Now step into my office."

His feeling of dread intensifies as he follows Elizabeth. He's not the most sensitive of guys, but he's far from oblivious and he knows that something has been off with her since they stepped back through the 'gate with John Sheppard the Junior Version screaming his little head off, as Ronon held him under one arm and aimed his gun at the bad guys with the other.

"Rodney," she begins.

"No. Just no." He shakes his head and she frowns at him, looking stunned that he's interrupted her already. "Look, I know what you're going to say. Or, well, I don't, but I'm working on this and I need time. He's got about two hundred babysitters, he's happy and… I can fix this." He tries to ignore that he's totally pleading with her, but he also doesn't really care.

"Rodney, I can't…" Elizabeth sighs. "Okay," she says with a nod. "Okay, I'll give you some time, but I need to make a report to the SGC. I can say we're working on it in next data burst, but the Deadalus is due back in about two and a half weeks and we'll need some answers by then, Rodney. The SGC won't allow a toddler with all of John's skills and experience to run around in a city he can control with his mind."

"I understand. Three weeks. That's plenty of time." He forces a smile and leaves before Elizabeth can see that he's not entirely convinced he's telling the truth.

~x~x~x~x~x~

In the early days, Rodney had thought it wise to make sure that John had regressed completely; he hadn't wanted to wake up one morning to find out that their resident three-year-old had set the base on self-destruct (and, yes, he knows it takes two command codes, but he also knows that Sheppard is a lot smarter than most people give him credit for and there's no doubt in Rodney's mind that, somehow or other, Sheppard has acquired at least one other person's command code along the way. It isn't like he hasn't done the same himself). Simple tests and a few random observations from everyone from Kate Heightmeyer to Miko Kusanagi had allayed those fears and Rodney hasn't given it much thought for a while.

But there are times when Rodney thinks that John might be more like Sheppard than they all originally deducted. It isn't just that he never mentions his parents, never asks why he's on Atlantis rather than Earth, why he never questions the utterly terrifying faith he has in Rodney, it's more in the little things.

So, one morning after Rodney's spent the whole night deciphering part of the database that might help him figure out the device and then fallen asleep perched at the top of his bed, his face gaining an imprint of his laptop keyboard, when John wakes up screaming, he feels it shouldn't really surprise him as much as it does.

He takes a moment to react, not for lack of the ingrained jump of adrenaline mixed with self preservation that he's been honing for the last few years, but because he's trying to figure out what the hell it is that John's screaming at the top of his lungs. Rodney crouches by the small bed that Lorne and Hinkleman (one of the not-quite-so-brain-dead-after-all Marines) fashioned out of a few trees from the mainland, pulling John's clawing hands away from his little neck when he makes out the word "Bug! Bug! Bug!" on repeat and he suddenly gets it. He breaks instantly into a cold sweat and clutches John to him, pulling the boy onto his lap and trying to get the image of Sheppard, iratus bug attached to him, out of his mind.

It takes him about an hour to calm John down enough to get the boy to let go and longer to get him dressed, before Rodney drops him off exhausted at Teyla's. He's half way to the lab when the idea strikes and he smiles, really smiles, for the first time in three weeks, four days and sixteen hours.

~x~x~x~x~x~

"I don't get it."

"Of course you don't, but don't mistake your lack of intelligence for a bad idea," Rodney snarls, almost startled when Lorne just rolls his eyes and lets the comment roll of his back like…like Sheppard would. Somehow that makes him resent the Major a little more.

"What are you saying, Rodney?" Elizabeth asks and he has to force himself not to notice the pinched and hollow expression he's seen on her face a lot more often recently. He's still a little angry at her and her deadlines and doesn't want to admit to himself that there might be a reason for it and maybe he should figure it out.

"What I'm saying," he continues, making sure to disguise his hope that, oh God, this might work with a put-upon expression. "Is that maybe if we keep trying to jog his memory, it'll make things easier to reverse."

Lorne frowns. "Like, show him places he's been as an adult, re-train him to do certain things and it might all come back to him?"

Rodney nods. "Exactly."

"I do not believe that we should teach a child how to use a gun, Major," Teyla says, alarm barely masked by her calm voice.

Lorne looks horrified. "I didn't mean weapons training!" he cries and Teyla relaxes.

"I apologise for the misunderstanding," she says seriously and Rodney thinks that maybe he's not the only one who's finding it hard to see Lorne sitting in Sheppard's place. Even the Major looks uncomfortable.

The man nods, hesitates for a moment and then scans the room before looking directly at Rodney. "Can I say somethin', Doc?"

"Can I stop you?" Rodney accuses.

"If you want, but-"

"Oh, what is it?"

"Look, it's not my place to pretend I'm an expert at this, but I got a big family and…look I want the Colonel back almost as much as you do," he says and Rodney's actually kind of grateful that he said 'almost' and isn't trying to pretend that he's lost his best friend, too. "But it just seems to me that we're all forgetting something."

"What are we forgetting, Major?" Teyla asks when he stops.

"We're forgetting that, even though we know McKay's gonna fix this, right now he's just a little boy. Doesn't matter that the Colonel might or might not be in there, the reality is that we're dealing with a child and we gotta treat him like that. If we have to pretend the he's the Colonel's kid, or relation, or whatever so that we can deal, then so be it, but we can't have the marines calling him 'Sir' and doing what he tells them, we can't leave him on his own to run around Atlantis because he could activate anything and we wouldn't know it, or worse, he could fall and kill himself because something isn't safe." Lorne sighs and glances around the room at all the personnel deemed necessary to attend. "Look, I'm just saying…we've got to remember that he's a little boy. He needs us to remember that."

There's a moment of silence and Elizabeth nods. "Agreed, Major. The Daedalus arrives in three days and I'd like everyone to ensure that there are no incidents until then. I'm sure we'd all like at least one visit to go smoothly." She smiles at the knowing looks passed around the table at the knowledge that Caldwell is always arriving in the midst of some crisis or another. For Rodney it's merely another reminder that Sheppard isn't there to cause one.

"Whilst Colonel Caldwell is in the city, he will be in charge of the military contingent," she continues, glancing at Lorne. "Until then and after he leaves, I've discussed the matter with General Landry and we agree that things are running smoothly under your command for the time being, Major, so things will remain as they are." At his nod, she turns to the rest of the room. "I'd like Major Lorne, Doctor McKay, Doctor Beckett, Teyla and Ronon to remain, the rest of you are dismissed. Thank you for coming. Jennifer, I'm sure Drs Kusanagi and Simpson would appreciate some help with John," she says to the young doctor, who shares a smile with her and chuckles as she leaves the room.

By the time everyone else has left, there's a strange sense of foreboding in the air and Rodney shuffles in his seat. He exchanges a glance with Ronon and Teyla before turning back to Elizabeth.

"This isn't easy to say, so I'm going to get straight to the point. Rodney, do you have any indication of how long it's going to take you to sort this out?"

"Oh, yes, turn on the scientist. It's not like I have a handbook or-"

"Rodney."

"I…" he swallows. "No. I discovered what I think might be the control unit. It was in the lab. Sheppard turned it on about a month before we went to the planet and…I think that's what caused the machine to work on just him and didn't turn anyone else into children."

Teyla sighs. "So their machine has never done this before, which would explain why the Village Elders were alarmed and did not wish our presence on their planet any longer. It would also explain why they released us, rather then keep us prisoner."

"And it explains our even warmer welcome," Lorne says with a frown.

"So John actually turned on the machine himself a month before he even went to the planet?" Elizabeth inquires.

"No, I think he would have turned it on anyway, I just think that he controlled the settings before he went, but I have no way of being sure."

"And you can't use this control unit to turn him back?"

"It's broken," Rodney says darkly. "It looks like someone's been using it and I don't know what happened, yet, but it's in about fifty pieces and I have no idea how to put it back together. I'll need to work out how to control it from the actual device."

"Right," Elizabeth lets out a long breath. "And you don't know how long this will take."

"No."

She nods. "Okay. I'm not going to be able to hold off any longer, Rodney. I'm going to have to tell Stargate Command the full extent of what's happened and there is every chance they will order that John be returned to Earth."

"No," Rodney says firmly. "That is not an option. He's fine where he is."

"Rodney-"

"No! How can you expect me to fix him if he's not even here?"

"Rodney, you need to face facts; you might not be able to f-"

"Do not say that."

"I believe that Rodney will succeed, Elizabeth," Teyla interrupts and, as usual, her presence calms them all. "It is too soon to expect results. Rodney needs time."

There's a long moment of silence. "I'll see what I can do," Elizabeth says finally. "But I can't promise you anything. In the meantime, we need to come to more arrangements regarding his care. If he's to remain here, we'll need to show that we can properly care for him."

"He's fine," Rodney protests again.

"Rodney, I can't have you indisposed all the time. What happens if something goes wrong in the middle of the night? I need you to be as available as you always have been. I agree that John seems to be happiest in your care, but it's simply not possible to continue this way. Major Lorne is right, he's a little boy and children need routines, Rodney."

"So, what, you're taking him away from me?"

Elizabeth shakes her head. "No, but I think it would be a good idea to share the responsibility. I think that, if she agrees, Teyla should take care of John in the evenings. Not every night, but I think it would be best for everyone involved if he's looked after by more than one person. Especially given the nature of our work."

Rodney gets what she's saying, understands that it'll be worse on John if he goes and dies on the kid, but it still feels like he's being punished.

"Fine," he snaps. "I'll take him every second weekend and two weeks every holiday."

"Rodney, that's not what I mean. Have space set up for John in both your quarters and on the nights where you need to work late, he can stay with Teyla. If something happens in the middle of the night and we need you, Teyla can look after him and he's going to need to be comfortable enough to stay in another room. Rodney, you know I'm right."

And, yes, he does know she's right. But at that moment, it doesn't make him hate her any less.

~x~x~x~x~x~

End of Chapter Two