While the news about Teyla's disappearance spreads throughout the infirmary, Sheppard and Halling are just minutes away. As they round the corner, they can hear the muttering of people inside. Sheppard, speaking as if almost to himself says..."Hope everyone we need is in there." With that, he taps Halling on the arm in a signal to continue.

Sam sees John enter the infirmary, and immediately walks over to him - followed closely by Elizabeth, Ronon, Lorne, and Harper. She is tense as she asks, "Colonel Sheppard. What happened to Teyla?"

Sheppard sees Colonel Carter heading toward him and is relieved to not only see her but to see the rest of the team there as well. He gives Halling a reassuring glance before he begins to speak. "Michael used you as a decoy so that he could get on Atlantis unnoticed to kidnap Teyla and Tagan. He used Halling and Tagan as bait to draw Teyla to Harper's quarters. I don't know how he got them off of Atlantis undetected but he did."

Harper looks at her uncle. "My room! That creep...wait till I see that Wraith-human freak!"

Lorne looks at Sam. "My team can be ready whenever we set up the plan."

Sam crosses her arms, and sighs. "I knew there was something strange about Michael's kidnapping me." She turns and looks towards the corner where Carson, Rodney, and Keller are still standing. "Rodney, could you come over here please?" When Rodney reaches the group, Sam explains. "Michael somehow managed to take Teyla while we were gone. It was a set up the whole time." She turns back to the group, "We need to find where Michael has taken her." Her eyes move to Harper then Rodney, "How did you find where Michael had me?"

Rodney walks over to reply to Sam. "Well I found the DNA device."

"No you didn't I told you about it!"

Rodney looks at Harper then to Sam. "The device only has a span radius of about to like 15 planets away."

Sam looks at him, "Ok...well, that's a start at least.....can you two see if it can locate her?" She looks around the group, "Hopefully she's not any further away than 15 planets......"

Rodney nods as he runs to the control room and grabs the DNA device where they had left it earlier and starts to play with it as he comes back to the group. "Well so far this thing is broke."

Harper looks at Rodney and touches the device and turns on. "That's cause you gene isn't strong enough."

Keller heard all the commotion she just prayed it wasn't anything big. Teyla was gone. Her stomach dropped so was Tagan.

Rodney grabs the device out of Harper's hand. The device shuts down. "This thing is messing up. What did you do to it?"

Harper rolls her eyes and grabs it back as it keeps coming back on. "I told you yesterday the battery was slow and since you never tried to find out where these batteries came from its breaking."

Rodney looks at her. "Find her yet?"

Harper goes to slap Rodney as Ronon grabs her arm and shakes his head in a no direction. "She is on MMX-457 but it could be anywhere on the planet."

"Obviously." Rodney rolls his eyes at her.

Sheppard looks at the device in Harper's hand. "Well at least we've got it down to which planet she's on." He turns to look at Carter and Elizabeth. "Elizabeth, can we use your ship?"

Elizabeth was deep in thought, and was a little startled when John spoke to her. She looks at him, "Of course, John......anything I can do to help Teyla!"

Seeing that Carter is about to say something, Sheppard begins to explain his idea. "Colonel, Elizabeth's ship will get us there in half the time and we can take a cloaked puddle jumper down to the surface. If we get into any trouble, Elizabeth's ship can provide cover fire for us."

Sam looks at John, then Elizabeth, and then back to John, "That sounds good to me, Colonel. I think Elizabeth's ship would be the best option, as well....I was quite impressed by it." She smiles at Elizabeth, "Thank you for offering, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth smiles in return. "Think nothing of it, Sam. I want to get Teyla back as much as you do." She glances between the two leaders, "So, if you'll excuse me, I'll return to my ship and prepare my crew for departure."

She starts to leave, but then pauses looking over to Carson. She turns back to Sam, "If you don't mind, I'd like to take Carson with me. I'd like my scientists to take a look at him to make sure that the nanites are integrating into his system without any problems."

Sam hesitates, but then realizes that it was probably a good idea, so she agrees. After all, who knows more about replicator nanites than the replicators? She watches as Elizabeth walks over to Carson.

Carson also seems to hesitate, but then agrees. Elizabeth smiles, briefly placing a hand on his arm again. They turn and head out of the infirmary - Elizabeth sending one final assuring smile to the group as they exit.

Sheppard looks confused as he watches Elizabeth walk over to Carson. "What does she mean 'make sure the nanites are integrating'?" Suddenly, realization dawns on Sheppard's face. "Don't tell me that Elizabeth injected her nanites into Carson?"

Sam is a little startled - she'd forgotten that John wasn't here when that decision was made. "Yes, well......Rodney and Jennifer actually injected them, but it was Elizabeth's suggestion." She sees the look on John's face, so she explains, "Carson's treatments were beginning to fail. His dosage had to keep being increased, and his body was quickly approaching the point where it would no longer work at all." She sighs, "It wasn't an easy decision for him, John, but there were no alternatives - he would have died without them."

Sam sees that John still looks a little concerned, so she continues, "Elizabeth's nanites were already programmed not to take control - and the Asuran threat has been neutralized - so there was no danger to Carson or the city." She looks intently into his eyes, "It was either this, or death, John. That's the only reason Elizabeth suggested it."

Her face softens, "She said that she could not let him die this time.....not when she had it in her power to prevent it." She smiles, glancing at the door that the Scottish doctor and former leader had just gone through. "You can't blame her for that.....and Carson has already begun to feel better. There is no reason not to assume that the nanites will completely repair him, just as they did Elizabeth."

"Don't blame me for this." Keller mumbled earning a look from John and Carter. "I would like to be a part of the rescue mission."

Both opened their mouths. "Look and nanite infested Carson, a baby, and Teyla with Michael I think me being a part of it is kind of implied but if I must spell it out I will." When they both just looked at the floor she headed off to get her medical kit together. She wondered if she could jam the entire infirmary in that backpack. Um?

Carter and Sheppard are taken aback by yet another outburst from the usually docile young doctor. Sam watches as she walks away, then turns to John with a smirk, "Does she seem a little moody to you?" He smiles and nods. Sam crosses her arms, "I usually have to order her to go off world...she never just volunteers!" She and John watch in amusement as the young woman seems to be trying to pack the entire infirmary into her bag. Sam looks back at John with a twinkle in her eye, "Lord help Carson if he so much as sneezes when she's around......."

John just laughs, and then excuses himself - heading out the door where his team had left just a couple of minutes before.

Sam glances at Dr. Keller one more time, and then heads to the control center with a smile on her face. This is a mission I might have actually enjoyed. Her smile fades as she thinks of Teyla and her son in the hands of Michael. Her face grows hard, as the anger rises up again. Then again.....maybe not..... She rubs the rope burns on her wrists. Michael will pay for all of this....go get him, John!

Lorne looked at Sheppard. "My team is always waiting and has the weapons."

Rodney and Harper start doing another search for Teyla with the device. "Man still getting the same planet but not anymore on the location at all." Harper replies to Rodney questioning look.

Sheppard is still in shock as Carter explains what happened. I know Carson wasn't doing that great but this... He looks into Carter's eyes, his expression slightly more relieved. "I don't blame either of them Colonel. It would've been nice to know about it though." There is a brief pause as Sheppard ponders the situation. However, his train of thought is broken as Lorne speaks followed by Rodney and Harper. "Okay...Lorne, have your men gear up and head for Elizabeth's ship. Rodney, Harper, you go with Lorne and see if the Asurans can't help narrow that location down. Ronon, get geared up and meet Lorne's men at the ship." With that, Sheppard turns his attention back to Colonel Carter. "Colonel, do you think that Carson is up for a little trip?"

Lorne nods at Sheppard as he gets his team and heads for the ship.

Rodney and Harper start arguing as they enter Weir's Ship.

"Elizabeth!" Harper calls out waiting for her reply as they walk in on the ship and Rodney sits down in a chair. She looks at Rodney, "Lazy much?"

He mumbles at her. "Who is helping you? Oh that's right me."

Harper rolls her eyes and slams her laptop bag on to McKay's chest. Rodney grunts as he opens her bag taking out some of her devices she stole from his lab. Paper, mints yummy. Popping one into his mouth. Lip stick lucky Ronon. What the hell! Setting this back down. He sets the little bag of personal stuff back into the bag as he notices a piece of paper and pulls it out. What a family. He states into his mind as he looks at a picture of John, Elizabeth and Harper back on Earth at the younger girls college graduation. He stops to look around for the team. Where is John anyways?

Elizabeth and Carson are walking down the hall, when Elizabeth hears John calling her name. She stops and turns towards him. She realizes that he wants to talk to her for a bit, so she asks Lorne to take Carson, Rodney, and Harper up to her ship. "I just notified them that you would be arriving ahead of me, so there will be no problem." Lorne nods and leads the small group to the jumper bay.

Elizabeth returns her attention to John, but not before she notices Rodney giving them a strange look. I wonder what that is all about....he can't still be worried that Arlon is going to hurt him! She smirks at the earlier memory, and then gives John her undivided attention.

She is surprised and a little concerned. "Yes, John.....is something else wrong?"

Sheppard looks deep into Elizabeth's eyes. "Nothing's wrong." He pauses as he struggles to control his emotions. "I uh...well..." Finally, he takes a deep breath as he begins. "I just wanted to say how much I missed you."

Elizabeth replies, "I missed you too, John......so much."

Elizabeth embraces John in a warm hug as Sheppard thinks back to that sorrowful day. He pulls away from her and she can see the conflict in his eyes.

Rodney's face had a smug smirk on then he noticed that Ronon just leaned out of his kiss with Harper. Rodney scratched his forehead in disbelief of what had happened in his mind or what he thought he saw in his mind.

"Earth to Rodney! Are you okay? You been out of it for like 5 minutes." Harper questions his sanity.

Rodney then sees Sheppard and Weir walked into the ship. He looks at his watch noticing that he only been in his mind for about a minute or two and then looked at John and Elizabeth as his eyes grow bigger like a deer seeing head lights going to crash into him. He then throws Harper's laptop bag off of him as he sticks his tongue out and starts to wipe his hand on it.

"Oh God what did I do to think this."

He then starts yelling and hardly breathing on his own without the lost of his rambling of his words. He then touches his lips feeling a bit peculiar and then grabs Harper's mint he had in lap and started to pour them in his mouth.

"Clean my mouth Mr. Minty." He then looks up at the group who are looking at him. "What?" He mumbles with all of the mints in his mouth.

Elizabeth and John walk over to the group. Elizabeth glances at Rodney, "Rodney, John and I were just talking about Carson's nanites, and..........." She pauses giving Rodney a strange look. "What's the matter with you......and what are you eating?"

"Mints." He states with some mints almost ready to come out of his mouth. He swallowed the mints and looked around. "Carson um yes he is fine." Looking at Carson who nods to him.

Sheppard stares at Rodney as he fidgets slightly. "Have you been touching things? You look like you did when I caught you screwing around this ship the first time."

Elizabeth is still looking at Rodney strangely. "Are you ok?" She puts her hand up, "Never mind! I don't think I want to know." She glances from him to Carson, then back again. "Anyway, as I was saying.....John and I were discussing Carson's nanites. He seems to be handling them well, but I'm not sure if they will react any differently in him since he's a clone."

She sees the expressions on their faces, so she hurries to continue, "Oh, I don't think that they'll be a problem! Don't worry......I just want to make sure that we have all our bases covered." She turns to Rodney, "That's where you come in Rodney....since you are the one that programmed my nanites to begin with, I'd like you to work with a couple of my scientists to make sure that all continues to go smoothly with Carson." She watches as he swallows more mints, and then shakes her head before looking back at him. "Would you be willing to do that?"

Rodney glares at Sheppard. "Excuse me but I had a terrible idea in my head."

Rodney only rolls his eyes at Elizabeth and then sees one of her crew members in the room and smiles. "Uh sure sounds like a good plan."

Sheppard holds back a laugh as he responds..."Wouldn't be the first one."

Rodney only glares at Sheppard as he waits for Elizabeth to take him or get her friendly crew to take him to a lab.

Elizabeth stifles a laugh at John's comment, looking away from the group briefly to hide her smile. She sees the two Asuran scientists - that she wants Rodney to work with - enter the bridge. She smiles, and turns back to Rodney. "Rodney, if you and Carson will come with me, I'll introduce you to your counterparts, so to speak."

Elizabeth leads the two men over to the Asurans, who are waiting expectantly. She gestures to a small redheaded female. "Rodney, allow me to introduce you to Raena." She then gestures to a tall blonde male, "And this is Caylon. You will be working with them while we are on the ship." Both Asurans nod politely towards the two men, as Elizabeth introduces them. "This is Rodney.....and this is Carson."

Rodney waves at the Asurans. "Hello nice to meet you. So which one is like me?" He smiles at them remembering his experience with their kind earlier.

The Asurans look a bit confused by Rodney's question, and look at Elizabeth. She smiles, shaking her head slightly, "Raena is the lead scientist, if that's what you mean, Rodney." She turns to Carson, "The Asurans don't need a doctor, per say, but Caylon here is more or less the equivalent of one." She smiles towards the tall blonde, "He has actually taken a great interest in human physiology, and has done many studies into how the nanites have reacted to my body." She puts her hand on Carson's arm, "He'll take good care of you, Carson."

She looks back to the Asurans, "Will you please show these gentlemen to the lab?" She turns back to Rodney, "I'll let you know if we need you, Rodney."

Rodney nods as he walks with Carson. "You know you can so now hook up with Raena I mean you are half them now."

Carson (who had been rather quiet) shot a glare Rodney's way as they walked.

"You know, Rodney...I've more pressing matters to think about then girls at the moment."

Smiling slyly, Carson continued. "You know, I haven't heard any mention of Katie lately...such a sweet lass she was...made a good salad also...how are things with her nowadays?"

Rodney walks along side Carson turning his head to him then to the ground. "She's back on Earth now, it's over." He then smiles. "Well you see you need to get back into the game Carson buddy."

Carson looked at Rodney in surprise.
"It's over?? I'm sorry Rodney...I know you really liked her..."

Rodney shakes his head. "I screwed it up and now I been thinking about someone else. What about you? How have the ladies treaded you since well you came back?"

Carson sighed and absently rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.
"Oh...I don't think so...as I said...I've other things on my mind...maybe when we have everyone back and this mess sorted out...maybe then I'll think about ladies."

Rodney looks at Carson. "Don't worry you will be fine." Rodney then started looking at his table laptop then turn back to him. So how are you feeling? Any changes?"

Carson rolled his shoulders and took a deep breath.

"Well, I feel it may be a wee premature to say anything definite...but; I am feeling the best I have in days..."

He continued to walk along side Rodney in silence.

"Although...maybe it's just because my brain's a bit foggy...but isn't it taking a bit long to get where we are going?"

Rodney nods. "Yeah but hello big ship here." Caylon stops and rolls his eyes as he leads them into the room where they would be working at. Rodney sits down. "Finally."

Carson eased himself into a seat.
"Where shall we start?"

Rodney nods. "Sure. Hey you two." Looking at the Asurans. "Are you going to help or are you going to sit there?"

Raena and Caylon turn from their conversation - with slight disapproving looks on their faces - and give their attention to the two men. Raena crosses her arms, and raises and eyebrow at Rodney - something he thinks she must have learned from Elizabeth - causing him to remember his earlier trip on Elizabeth's ship. His nervousness rises to the surface a bit more, but she switches her gaze to Carson before replying. "Dr. Beckett, if you are willing, we would like to do an in-depth scan of your body's systems." She smiles gently, "The scan is not invasive - it's actually much like the scanners that you, yourself, use on Atlantis." She glances back to Rodney with an almost superior expression on her face, "But more sophisticated."

Carson looks between Rodney and Raena, and chuckles - he knew there was a double-meaning to what the Asuran just said. Caylon caught it, too, observing the silent battle of wills that seemed to be taking place between Dr. McKay and Raena. He smirks; this is certainly going to be interesting....

Caylon decides to break the tension, and speaks to Carson for the first time. "There is, of course, no pain involved with getting scanned. So......if you will just come with me?"

Raena and Rodney both snap out of their stare-down, and sheepishly follow the doctors to the scanner - both telling themselves to remember that this was about Carson and not them, but both also having a few choice thoughts about the other.

Carson followed Caylon chuckling quietly...anyone who stood up to Rodney won major points from him and Raena had done just that.

"I'm ready to be scanned," he told Caylon.

Keller stared at the massive ship awed by it. She entered the infirmary and realized she had entered doctor heaven.

"Not without your doctor present." She smiled at the shock on Carson's face.

Carson composed himself quickly.

"Of course Doctor," he said flashing her charming smile. "And now that you've arrived...we can get started..."

Raena nods, dismissing the Asuran who escorted Dr. Keller. She steps forward, giving the young doctor a polite, welcoming smile. "I assume that you are Dr. Keller?" At Keller's nod, she introduces herself and her partner. "Welcome aboard. This is Caylon, and I am Raena. We were just about to do an in-depth scan of Dr. Beckett.......you are, of course, welcome to join us." She smiles again, and leads the group over the Asuran equipment.

She let out a laugh realizing she had been a little uptight, but all things considered she had a right to be. "Don't worry Doctor I won't stop anything I just wish to see how things are done here. You all have fascinating equipment. I would love it if you would share your medical knowledge with me some time." She smiled at the Asurans who seemed to have no change in expression.

She watched as Carson just stood watching her as the Asuran asked him to lie down.
"Lay down, Carson." she raised her voice to get his attention.

Carson jumped slightly and then hurried to comply with the command.

"Blithering idiot," he thought to himself. "Here you are getting helped and you're off in lala land."

She watched him snap to and go sit down. She just wondered what had him so out of it.

Raena smiled at the young doctor again. "Of course, Dr. Keller. We would be happy to share our knowledge with you. Commander Weir has instructed us to provide you with as much assistance as you need, and we are pleased to do so." She gestures to Caylon, "We Asurans do not have the need of a normal medical doctor, but Caylon is equivalent to one. He is actually quite knowledgeable in the biology of an extensive number of species, and I'm sure that he would be happy to share all he knows with you."

Keller liked the woman who stood in front of her. "Thank you Raena. I would love to learn more about my profession for you all."

Raena smiles at Keller. "Good. It appears that our collaboration will be mutually beneficial, as well as pleasurable." The young doctor smiles in return, then they both switch their attention to the scanner.

Caylon steps forward and smiles, "It would, of course, be my honor to share my knowledge, as well as exchange experiences, with both you and Dr. Beckett. I have never before had the opportunity to consult with others who are experienced in medical matters." He looks at Carson, "Commander Weir has often spoken very highly about Dr. Beckett, so I was very pleased to hear that he was alive and would be on this ship." Carson blushes and looks at the floor. Caylon returns his gaze to Keller, "You do not need to worry about him while he is with us. He will receive the best care that we can provide, and you can be involved in anything that we do. In fact, we welcome your help, Dr. Keller." The young doctor smiles, seemingly relieved by the Asurans' acceptance of her presence there.

Caylon turns back towards the scanner, and notices the expression on Rodney's face. He looks about to say something, but before he can, Caylon smiles politely and says, "Of course, we welcome your help, as well, Dr. McKay."

A short laugh is heard from Raena, and Rodney glares at her, but she ignores him turning to the scanner. "Dr. Beckett, if you would just lay down right here........" She turns from the scanner when he doesn't move, "Dr. Beckett?" He still doesn't seem to hear her - apparently lost in thought - but she is relieved when the younger doctor manages to snap him out of it and he lies down.

Caylon touches a screen, and the scan begins. Rodney and Keller listen as Caylon explains the different phases of the scans, while Raena monitors the readings. All three of the Atlantians are shocked to hear that the scanner can actually scan down to the molecular level. Rodney is excited about the capabilities of the machine, while Carson and Keller are more excited by its potential applications. The scan does not take long, and Carson sits up - relieved that it hadn't been a drawn out process.

Raena looks up from her screen with a pleased expression on her face. "Your body seems to be adjusting very well to the nanites, Dr. Beckett. In fact, your body is adjusting to them faster than Commander Weir's body did." She sees the surprise on Dr. Keller's face, so she explains. "The healing process is almost immediate - Dr. Beckett has already been completely restored - but the full integration of the nanites into the body takes a little longer." She smiles at Carson, genuine warmth in her eyes, "I am very pleased with your body's progress." He smiles in relief, although he still looks just a little nervous.

Raena looks into his eyes. You have nothing to fear, Dr. Beckett.....you are quite well. His eyes widen in shock, and he stares at her in disbelief. She hears his unspoken question, and replies silently. Yes....I am communicating with you. Do not be alarmed - your nanites are what make this possible.....you now have the ability to communicate with all Asurans.

Rodney only rolls his eyes at Raena at her laugh at him. He looked pleased at their equipment and knowing that Carson would be fine. "This technology is quite remarkable."

Carson smiled in delight at the news. He had been feeling better...but hadn't wanted to count his chickens before they hatched.

Standing up, he walked over to the two Asurans and shook their hands heartily. He blinked in surprise when he heard Raena's voice in his head...but, it did not shock him as it might have a week ago. It certainly made sense from a scientific point of view. He thanked her in his head in reply and then turned to Rodney, who was a bit speechless at the moment.

Carson swung his hand and gave Rodney a hearty whack on the back...much harder than Rodney had been expecting as he stumbled forward and then quickly straightened up.

"I must tell you old friend," He said happily as he stretched out his arms. "This is the best I've felt in my entire life!"

Rodney rubbed his back and grunted.

Rodney shakes his head as he looks at Carson. "At least you aren't looking younger or anything or that might be a problem."

"Well, at any rate...I'm looking younger than you."
Carson turned to Keller.
"I believe I've been given a clean bill of health!" He said to her. "Shall we get going?"

She was happy to see that Carson was feeling more himself and to know just how good his body was adjusting. She saw the connection between Carson and Raena but said nothing. "Of course, Carson."

As Sheppard listens to Elizabeth introduce Carson and Rodney to their Asuran counterparts, his mind begins to think back over the day's events. So far, Colonel Carter has been kidnapped, he had found out that his best friend and his niece were dating, there had been fights over their dating, Elizabeth was in fact alive and well and she had her own replicator army, and to top all of that off now Teyla and Tagan were in the clutches of Michael. This day was shaping up to be very long indeed. Elizabeth dismisses Reina and Caylon and they leave the bridge followed by Rodney and Carson. Sheppard catches Elizabeth's eye as she turns back toward the Atlantis group and then looks at his team. "I'm going for a walk."...he says somewhat distractedly. With that, Sheppard leaves the bridge.

Harper looked as her uncle walked off. Though he was older then her she felt like she had to be there for him remembering her father's death and his wish for John to raise her which he ultimately turned down, her father, Will, was John's hero as a kid and now John was her hero. She had to make sure he was ok. She looked at the group and shrugged and then walked off following the way her uncle had gone.

She had found him looking out the ship's window knowing they haven't left Atlantis yet. She stood next to him looking outside the window seeing the ocean. "You know grandpa loved the beach." She knew she stated the obvious but she had to try to break the ice somehow.

Lost in his thoughts, Sheppard didn't notice Harper enter the room. "You know grandpa loved the beach"...Harper said. Still looking out the window, Sheppard responds..."I remember. He loved the water." He falls silent as he stares out at the blue ocean surrounding Atlantis. Finally, Sheppard glances at Harper. "What's wrong?"

Harper shrugs. "That depends on you." She then leans on the wall now facing Sheppard. "Want to tell me about it?"

Sheppard pushes himself up off of the wall he has been leaning on and meets Harper's gaze. "What makes you think there's something to tell?"

Harper smiles and she folds her arms on her chest. "Uncle John, remember me? I know when you have something on your mind. I still remember the expression on you face when we got the call." She lowered her head remembering that John had been watching her as he dad died in the hospital.

Sheppard also remembers the day his brother died. He remembers how hard Harper took it and how useless he felt watching his brother lie in a bed and take his last breathe. That same hurt and sorrow of losing someone close to him had surfaced many times since that day and each time Sheppard felt like he lost a little piece of himself. The losses had been especially deep felt during his years on Atlantis, but he had managed to cover it up well. However, this day, with all of its ups and downs, had worn on him more than usual. At last, Sheppard grins slightly and in an almost dreamy tone he says... "Leave it up to you to notice something like that."

Harper smiles and shrugs her shoulders. "What do you say I'm an observer? I notice things that people don't want others to notice. It must be a gift. So are you feeling up to talk about what is wrong with you?"

Sheppard smiles at Harper. "If I do promise you won't tell? After all, I have a reputation to uphold."

Harper puts her left arm out. "Well if I do tell me what would they think of me?" She asked placing her hand on her chest.

Sheppard chuckles at Harper's statement. "Okay, I doubt you'll leave alone if I don't anyway. I've just been thinking is all."

Harper rolls her eyes at him. "Oh thinking about what? The sky?"

Sheppard smiles slightly at Harper. Just because he said that he would tell Harper what was on his mind didn't mean that he wouldn't make her work for it. "Nope, just been thinking about what has happened today." He looks down at the window sill as the roller coaster ride of emotions play across his face once again. "That's all."

Harper sighed knowing that she was one of the reasons why Sheppard had been thinking about the day. "Again I'm sorry I didn't tell you before about Ronon and me." She then looked at him. "Are you glad Elizabeth's back?"

Still looking down at the window sill, Sheppard responds to Harper with slightly more emotion than he had intended. "Of course I'm glad that Elizabeth's back." He stops to regain his composure slightly. "I thought that we had lost her, just like we had lost Carson. And now to find out that she is still alive.....it's a big shock. And, I'm not mad about that anymore...just wish you guys would have told me."

Harper touches her uncle's hand. "It's ok she might stay here but I know she won't be that far away." She then smiled at the mention of Ronon. "He wanted to tell you he was about to one time but I stopped him. This whole dating thing is new to me as much as it is to him. I didn't want anyone to know if it didn't work out."

Sheppard finally raises his eyes to meet Harper's. "I can understand that...it was just a lot to handle in one day. And now with Michael having Teyla and Tagan..." He lets his sentence trail off not wanting to think about the two of them are going through right now. Taking in a deep breath, Sheppard continues..."Let's just say I'll feel a lot better when this day is over with."

Harper smiled and leaned down now sitting on the floor. "Well now we have to go get Teyla no wonder you're always cranky you don't get much sleep do you?"

Sheppard looked at Harper with mock-surprise. "Who me cranky? Never. I get plenty of sleep!"

Harper rolled her eyes. "And you do not call that cranky." She laughed as she got up leaning back on the wall. "Did you even get to eat today? You don't look so hot."

Sheppard grinned as Harper rolled her eyes. "No, I call that normal." He paused and turned back toward the window before he answered her next question in a somber tone. "I had a good breakfast." At that, Sheppard just stares out of the window completely ignoring Harper's last statement.

Harper glared at her uncle knowing he wasn't telling her the whole truth, "Do you want to see if Elizabeth has a turkey sandwich? I have power bars back with my bag." She looked at him and sighed seeing her uncle's look. "If you aren't at your best well then we kind of would be lost here. Let me help you."

Sheppard pivots to look at Harper. "I'm okay Harper...really." He sees the distrusting look in her eyes and knows that she isn't buying it. Sighing, he says..."But if it'll make you feel better I'll find something."

Harper smiled at her uncle. "Ok good do you want me to find you something?"

Meanwhile...Teyla began to reflect on her life...and the new life in front of her. Maybe being on Atlantis was too much...Should I leave with my people? She continued to ponder her situation hoping for a rescue soon. John, please hurry. She turned and looked at Netia for a moment before hearing a noise. She looked toward the door of her prison...

After Michael finished with his so called drug he then walked to the cage that held Teyla and Netia. "Why hello again. I was thinking would either you be interested in seeing my research?"

Teyla glared at Michael as he entered. Looking back at Netia, she said, "I think I can speak for both us...we are not interested." Teyla clutched Tagan tightly for fear that Michael had come to take him away from her.

Michael snickered at the women. "Oh don't worry I have no plans of taking the boy from you not till he sees me as his father of course. Are you sure you don't want to come and see my plan?"

"Only if you will let us out of our cells," Teyla replies looking at Netia. Maybe, we can try to escape, Teyla thinks to herself still looking at Netia.

Michael nods as his guards open the cell door. "Sure now do you want to come see what I have been up to?"

Teyla looks at Netia whose cell is still closed. "Only if Netia is allowed to come also. What have you been doing while I was gone?"

Michael nods. "Yes she may come. I've been doing things." He states as his guards open the gate for the women to come out and follow him.

Teyla glances at Netia connecting her mind to Netia, We are going to escape so follow my lead. Both women follow Michael out of their cells ready to "see" his work.

Michael walks down the hall with the women to his lab that has tubes of blood all around. "Do you think it's possible for humans to live forever?"

Teyla looks at Michael puzzled, "No everyone must die at some point in their life. Although most would want to ascend like the Ancients. Have you found a way to ascend?"

Michael shakes his head. "Nope but I might be getting there. Are you interested?"

Teyla raises one of her eyebrows in state of surprise. "You are close to ascension? Are you going to share this with anyone besides myself and Netia?"

Michael smiles and opens up his lab top which was searching for something. "One day after I can first make sure there are only some wraith left. With the war I hope to rule them one day maybe I could even make a deal with Atlantis."

Teyla looks at him puzzled, "I would look forward to a day without the Wraith, but the people of Atlantis will never trust you. If you wanted an alliance with Atlantis, why didn't you try to contact them instead of kidnapping me? What do you want?"

As Teyla is talking to Netia about his research, Netia is secretly examining every where every hybrid guard and exit is. She knew that she can get a weapon from the guard to the right, but there are about four other guards who could hit Tagan with a stray shot. "Teyla," Netia connected with her through their minds. "We can escape to my right but you have to run fast and cover Tagan. Don't do anything but get out." There was sternness in Netia's voice as she slowly inched towards the guard.

Teyla received the message from Netia responding, Wait, until he is distracted and turned around....then we will all escape. I will not leave you behind. Teyla appeared to be listening to Michael as he continued explaining his work.

Michael smiles and touches Teyla's cheek. "I want you to be my queen of course." He sensed the tension in the air. He had noticed Netia off looking for means of escape. Why bother you won't get out of here. He then turned back to Teyla waiting for her reply.

Teyla glares at Michael, "I will NEVER be your queen." She pauses looking at Netia, "There is only one who I would ever dream of being with and he is definitely NOT YOU!" Teyla holds Tagan close to her glancing down at him to make sure he was still asleep.

Michael turns away for a moment looking at his lab equipment. "That's true but he will never love you like I do."

Teyla looks angrily at Michael, "You're insane!" She pauses for a moment and then glances at Netia, "If you won't let me go, then please allow Netia to take Tagan and go back to Atlantis."

Michael looks at her. "I need Tagan more then I need you. The reason you are here is because the boy needs a mother and well Wraith queens aren't motherly at all."

Teyla tries to plead with him, "Please let Netia go home. You do not need her."

"You run on my count and don't look back," Netia connected with Teyla through their minds for the escape. "If either of them gets hurt, Michael will greatly pay," Netia thought as she waited uneasily for Michael to turn around. Michael's ramblings made Netia sick with disgust in the stomach. To use a child for his selfish experiments was unjust and a far cry from 'loving' him.

Michael finally turned his back towards them. "Now," Netia shouted as she knocked out the guard next to her, grabbed his weapon and started to shoot the guards that were shooting back. Teyla ran pass her, shielding Tagan as much as possible. Netia had managed to take down one guard just before she hid behind a pillar. Out of breath, Netia shot back at the guards but it seemed more had come and were closing in on her. She pushes her back close to the pillars as the lasers flew all around. Netia looked forward in the darkness of the hall ahead and saw a body on the floor. "Teyla?" No response. She must've been hit by a stray. Panic ran through Netia's mind as she ran to her friend forgetting the guards behind her. As she came closer, she was hit and fell to the ground. Before it went black, the body had faded away.

Teyla struggles to regain consciousness as she lay on the ground. She searches the room for anyone else realizing that she is back in a cell. As her eyes begin to focus more, she notices that Tagan and Netia are nowhere to be found. She jumps up quickly becoming disoriented so she sits back down on the ground. She yells, "MICHAEL....where is my son?"

Meanwhile…Carson beamed at everyone around him and said, "Where to now?"

Rodney looked at Carson. "I guess we go find Teyla."

Caylon and Raena smile a little at Carson's enthusiasm. They feel at bit awkward with the human custom of shaking hands, but neither of them show it. They both grin at the interaction between Carson and Rodney - Raena very pleased with how Carson is handling this new experience. She remembered the emotional struggle that Elizabeth had, though that woman hid it well, so she had an idea of what to expect from Carson. This was not it, but she was glad of that. She knew that, once everything really hit him, it would be different, however, but for now......he could just enjoy being alive and focus on the task ahead.

Raena is pulled from her observations by Rodney and Carson's conversation. She steps around her console, and says. "You will all need energy for your mission. May I suggest that you take some sustenance? We do not need to eat, but Cmdr. Weir does - of course - so we have a full selection of foods that I believe will more than satisfy you all."

The three humans all smile and nod, so Raena smiles in return, and then gestures to an Asuran who had just entered. "This is Jela.......He will escort you to our equivalent of what you call a 'mess hall'." At their questioning looks, she explains. "Caylon and I have some further work to do here. We will continue to monitor Dr. Beckett, but I do not foresee any problems occurring with him." She smiles at all of them - her smile a bit forced as her eyes land on Rodney. Arlon was not exaggerating about that one. "I believe that I can speak for Caylon, as well as myself, and say that it was a pleasure meeting you. We look forward to our future collaboration." She and Caylon both give them a final friendly smile, then Raena nods to Jela, and he escorts the trio out of the lab.

Rodney notices Raena questioning well more of controlling look on to him. He grunts as they start down to the mess hall. "Well they were nice." He states in a sarcastic way.

Lorne walked over to Ronon. "Hey do you know where Sheppard went to we need to plan out the escape route."

Ronon shrugged. "He left the bridge and Harper followed. The last I saw they took a left." Lorne exhales slightly frustrated. Adjusting his stance, Ronon asks..."Want to go find him?"

Elizabeth was a bit surprised when John decided to take a walk, but she thought it best not to follow him. She smiled in relief when Harper got up to follow him. She had to grin at the thought of the young woman being able to pester her uncle into telling her what he was feeling. If anyone can, she can.

Her smile fades as she thinks back over everything that had occurred that day. It was no wonder John was having a bit of a rough time - and her sudden appearance hadn't helped any. She sighs, and excuses herself from Ronon and Lorne. She walks over to the communications console, and contacts Atlantis - letting them know that they were about to leave orbit. She speaks with Sam briefly, and then looks up from the console to see that the entire Atlantis team had left the bridge. I wonder where they have all gotten to.

Elizabeth's thoughts are interrupted by Raena contacting her and letting her know that they had finished with Carson and that he, Rodney, and Keller were on their way to the "mess hall". She smiles, knowing that Rodney is always up for some food. Her stomach growls a little, and she realizes that she hasn't had anything to eat, herself, all day. She decides to join the trio, and heads towards the hall - after instructing Arlon to leave orbit and head to the coordinates that Harper had given them.

Sheppard suppressed a sarcastic remark as a small grin played across his face. "I think I can manage but thanks." He started to head toward the door but stopped short. Twisting, Sheppard looks at Harper and says..."You coming?"

Lorne nods. "Sure. I hope we find Teyla I mean from the practical point of view it doesn't seem likely if Michael has a plan he has a plan."

Harper gets up and walks over to her uncle. "Well I wouldn't want to sit and mope like you."

Ronon nods and heads off of the bridge followed by Lorne. He sneers as he thinks about Michael. We're coming, Teyla.

Sheppard shrugs as he slyly remarks... "So who's moping?" The two exchange a look as they head off to go raid the mess.

Lorne looks at Ronon as they walk. "So do you think Sheppard has a plan because just killing Michael?"

Harper walks with Sheppard as they reach the walk way that that she had follow him. "Um do these guys even eat?"

Ronon glances at Lorne. "He does."

Sheppard smiles at Harper's question. "Hard to say. I'm guessing that since this is Elizabeth's ship and Elizabeth is human that there is food in the mess hall. Besides, why have a mess hall if you don't have food to eat in it?"

Lorne shakes his head. "Always with the one worded answers."

Harper shrugs. "Well I mean they did just copy the Ancients I mean they don't have to use that room or anything."

Ronon shrugs. "Yep." Lorne rolls his eyes as the two of them continue down the hall.

Sheppard glances at Harper. "Like I said, Elizabeth still needs to eat and I'm sure that the Asurans have to eat something." He is about to say something else when he someone coming toward them, the voices unrecognizable.

Lorne hears footsteps putting his hand up with a fist making Ronon stop that has his gun out. Lorne grabs and loads his gun as they wait for the people to come around the corner. Lorne's energy got a blast when this stuff would happen. Come on big baddie!
As Harper and Sheppard glance at each other not sure if it is one of Elizabeth's crew or not but continue to walk. As they turn the corner they are stopped by two guns pointed at them. Harper throws her hands up in the air and Sheppard grabs his gun only to notice it was Lorne and Ronon.

"Thanks for scaring us guys!" The two men look at Harper with apologetic faces as Sheppard just looks at Harper with an "I so wasn't scared" face on.

Sheppard releases the butt of his gun as he looks away from Harper to Ronon and Lorne. "What's with the two of you? You guys are jumpy." Ronon holsters his gun as he answers Sheppard. "Looking for you." Nonchalantly, Sheppard says..."Well, here I am."

Lorne nods. "We can see that. So where you heading?"

"Uncle John needs food so the mess hall you?" Harper questions as she looks from Sheppard to Ronon knowing she was indeed jumpy.

Carson chuckled as he walked next to Rodney and says, "Yes, they were lovely folk!"

Rodney rolls his eyes. "I guess so but still not sure about these people. They aren't even people." He looks at Carson. "No offense buddy."

Carson glanced at Rodney as they entered the "mess hall". "No offense taken, why don't you have a glass of orange juice?"

Rodney looks at him as he raises his hands up in defense. "When did this come to killing me?"

Carson smirked, "Just a suggestion." He then headed over to the tables loaded with food and began selecting his choices.

Rodney went with Carson and starts to get his food also. "Looks like it's good for people who don't eat."

Elizabeth walks into the "mess hall" in time to hear Rodney's observation. "Well, I still eat Rodney." She grins at Carson, "And the orange juice is very good........"

Carson turned at the sound of Elizabeth's voice.
"I was about to suggest that you'd had a part in this!"
He sat down and speared a pink colored fruit and munched on it thoughtfully.
"I'm anxious to get going...poor Teyla, who knows what Michael has put her through."
He sipped his orange juice and winked over Rodney's head at Elizabeth.

Food!! Keller hadn't eaten an actual meal in days. She sat down at the table feasting on the glorious food in front of her. Worry had eaten at her stomach but it seemed to shut up. The reason why they were there nearly escaped her but Carson's words brought it back.
"Don't worry Carson they found you and weren't even looking." She let out a small smile.
"Dr. Weir thank you for the food. I can't remember when I last and a meal that wasn't normally found in vending machines."

Elizabeth smiles, "You are very welcome, Dr. Keller....feel free to come here whenever you are hungry. My crew tends to be overly concerned for my well-being, so there is always more than enough." She looks around the table, "All of you....please, make yourselves at home here."

"Thank you Elizabeth. The foods amazing."

Rodney only glared at Carson. "Still here!" He then turned to Elizabeth. "Well I hope it is."

Elizabeth grins at Carson again, and then turns back to Rodney. "Oh, it is!" She takes a nice long sip of the orange juice she had just picked up, noticing that Carson is trying not to laugh, and having to look away from him to keep from doing so herself.

She sees Rodney's hurt expression, so she decides to take a little bit of pity on him. She picks up a cup of purple juice and hands it to him. "This is basically grape juice, Rodney, so it's safe for you to drink." She points to several different varieties of fruit and says, "These fruits are all non-citrus, and they are excellent.....so please, help yourself."

She can't resist one more long sip of her orange juice, before she takes her now full tray of food and sits down next to Carson. "So, how are you feeling, Carson? Raena tells me that your body is adapting well......."

Rodney grabs an apple and his tray and sits across from Carson. He starts to eat, this is great. He takes a bigger bite of his turkey sandwich waiting to hear what Carson says.

Carson sipped a long sip of his orange juice and then turned to Elizabeth.
"Well, I feel fine...ready to go and get Teyla back!!"

Elizabeth smiles, "Well, I'm glad to hear it!" Her smile fades just a little, "But you tell me if you start to have any problems with dealing with anything.......I mean it, Carson." She looks right into his eyes, "I know what it's like adjusting to being part replicator, so I'm here if you ever need me." She smiles again, turning back to her food. "I'm so glad to have you back, my friend!"

Elizabeth's face grows serious as she swallows a bite of her food, "And it'll be even better when I have all of my friends back!" Carson and Rodney nod - also with serious expressions on their faces - and she continues, "We've just left orbit.....so we are on our way. We need to come up with a plan for when we reach the planet....but I suppose we'll have to wait for John and the others before we can discuss that."

She glances at Keller, noticing that she is somewhat quiet, but turns her attention to Rodney and Carson again. "Any idea where the rest of the team has gotten to?"

Rodney swallows his food. "Um no probably looking around this place. It is huge!"

Elizabeth smiles, "Yes, it's a pretty good size.......it serves our purpose quite well." She takes a bite of her salad, and then looks at Rodney - who is enjoying his meal. She winks at Carson, and then says to Rodney, "Rodney.......does the food taste okay to you?" Rodney's mouth is full, so he just nods enthusiastically. Elizabeth casually takes a sip out of her glass of water - that she had placed on the tray with her juice - and continues, "It's just that I'd think it would taste strange after eating a entire pack of mints........."

Carson tossed a disgusted look toward Rodney, who was chewing into his food with wild abandon.
"You know Rodney; you can go back for seconds..."

He then turned toward Keller. "Yes, you better eat up Doctor...won't do us any good with you fainting on the job." He immediately regretted adding the fainting part when he saw a shadow pass over Keller's face. She must have remembered all her past failures. He reached over and patted her hand.
"Of course, I'm sure you'll do fine."

She flashed a weary smile at Carson. A small surge of energy coursed through her body at the touch of his hand. "No you're probably right Doctor. I'll probably go and crash 'til we get there."

Elizabeth laughs softly at Carson's comment, and looks at Rodney. "Yes, as I said, Rodney.......there's more than enough."

Carson nudged a lemon meringue pie slice toward Rodney.
"Make sure you save room for dessert."

Elizabeth and Keller both turn away from Rodney to hide their amusement. Elizabeth gets her expression under control first, and turns back to the table. "You know Carson, my 'cook' makes excellent lemonade, and I think it will wash down my salad nicely......would you like a glass, as well?"

Carson cracked a smile, "Aye, I think I would!"

Elizabeth turns to the young woman across from her - who is now barely containing her amusement, "Dr. Keller, would you like a glass?" The doctor nods and Elizabeth stands up from the table. She walks past Carson, ignoring the askance look that Rodney is giving her.

She heads into the kitchen, and takes the lemonade pitcher out of the refrigeration unit, pouring three nice sized glasses of the drink. She places them on a small tray, and returns to the table - handing both doctors their glasses, and placing hers in front of her plate. She places the tray on a nearby table, and returns to her seat - all while maintaining a perfectly straight face.

Rodney has stopped eating, and is staring at her in disbelief as she takes a nice long sip of her lemonade. She makes an "Ahhh" noise, then smiles. "That really hit the spot!" There is a twinkle in her eye, as she gives Carson a sidelong glance. How long do you think he'll be able to take this? She sets down her glass with a smile, and turns her head fully towards him, "What do you think, Carson? Isn't it refreshing?"

Rodney looks at Carson and stops eating. "I'm done." He looks at the dessert that Carson has and also looking at Weir's lemonade. "Don't temp me there. You need me I can't die on you now." He smirked walking up to the food and grabs some blue jello and extra whip cream and heads back and sits down.

Elizabeth smirks as Rodney sits down, "Um, Rodney........that cream is lemon flavored." Rodney jumps away from the dish as if burned, and both Carson and Elizabeth burst out laughing. Elizabeth calms herself to a small chuckle, and looks at Rodney. "It's ok, Rodney....I was just kidding. It's plain, so you're safe." She winks at Carson, "At least I'm pretty sure, anyway......."

Rodney looks at the group then Elizabeth. "Ha ha very funny." He then eats his whip cream smiling knowing it was safe.

They all start to head for the mess hall which was only a hall away. Lorne could smell the food as he opened the doors to the mess. "Well looks like everyone had the same plan."

Sheppard looks around the table that everyone has gathered at. "Guess so. Looks like Rodney didn't waste any time digging in either."

Elizabeth looks up the group that has just entered the mess hall and smiles. "Ah, there you all are! Care to join us?" She glances at Carson and Rodney, then back to the group. "The lemonade is particularly refreshing."

Keller sat back enjoying the show deciding with her exhaustion the jokes she would make wouldn't make sense. So she just sat there... drinking her lemonade and eating orange jello. She did what she could.

Sheppard smiles. They've been torturing Rodney. Good job guys. Out loud he says..."Sure."

Elizabeth grins, "Carson has also been enjoying some lemon meringue pie, if you'd like some of that when you finish your lunch." She smiles at the rest of the group, "Would the rest of you like some lemonade, too?"

Harper went and grabbed a plate with a salad on it and got a drink. She sat down with Lorne right behind her with his food. She handed a sandwich to Ronon. "Want one?" She then gave Sheppard his turkey sandwich. "Eat up now."

Harper nods to Elizabeth's question. "Sure I love lemonade."

Sheppard tries to hide a smile. "I'll be sure to grab a piece for dessert." Harper places a turkey sandwich in front of him as she tells him to eat up. Seeing the smile on Elizabeth's face, Sheppard innocently responds..."What?"

Elizabeth smiles at the two Sheppards - her eyes twinkling at John, then heads into the kitchen to get the newcomers some of the delicious beverage.

Elizabeth returns from the kitchen with another tray of lemonade glasses. She places them on the table and sits back down, smiling as Harper sits next to her and John sits across from his niece. Lorne and Ronan finish loading up their trays, and join the rest of the group at the table.

Elizabeth looks at all of them, "So what have you all been up to?" She glances to John, "Oh, by the way, John.....we left orbit about 10 minutes ago. I thought you should know."

Harper shrugs as she takes a bite of her food and steals a fry off Ronon's plate. "Nothing just been talking."

Lorne sips his lemonade. "Yum want some Rodney?"

Rodney rolls his eyes. "This isn't the pick on McKay table."

Sheppard takes a bite of his sandwich and glances from Harper to Lorne and Ronon. "That and pulling guns on each other, stuff like that...the usual." After taking a sip of lemonade, Sheppard looks at Elizabeth. "10 minutes ago? What's the ETA to the planet?"

Ronon stares at Rodney as he tries to conceal a smile.

Elizabeth quirks an eyebrow, "ETA is about 3 hours......and what's this about pulling guns on each other????"

Sheppard laughs as he explains what happened out in the hall way a while ago with a twinkle in his eye. "If I didn't know any better I'd say they were a bit on the jumpy side." He takes another sip of lemonade as a thought suddenly occurs to him. Setting down his glass, he leans so that only Elizabeth can hear him. "I see that Carson's body has taken to the nanites."

Medical talk. That made her wake up. "Yes his blood count it up. As well as his appetite." She said as Carson shoved the rest of his pie in his mouth which was about the whole thing. "Carson seems to be getting his mojo back. I believe that's the technical term." She sent out what she hoped was a shining smile.

Elizabeth smiles at John's story, and then is a little startled by what he had said next. She wonders if John had noticed the silent communication between herself and Carson, but then realizes that he is just referring to Carson's good spirits and healthy appetite. Elizabeth leans forward, as well, and quietly answers, "Yes. My scientists tell me that his body is adapting to them even better than mine did." She gives the Scottish doctor a warm look then turns back to John. "Emotionally, he seems to be handling it really well too." She looks down at her plate, "For now, anyway......."

Sheppard frowns as Elizabeth looks down at her plate. He looks over to where Carson is still joking around with Rodney. Silently, he watches Carson for a moment. As he turns back to look at Elizabeth with a heart-felt grin on his face. "Carson'll be fine. He may not look it but he is a fighter in his own way." Looking down at his own plate he continues. "Besides, he has the best doctors from two planets helping him, not to mention his friends."

Elizabeth looks up from her plate in time to catch John's grin, and returns it with one of her own. Nobody has ever been able to cheer me up like John does! She shakes off her memories of when she first became part replicator, and replies. "You're right, of course.......and once we get Teyla back, he'll have all of his 'family' to help him."

Her face grows serious, and she looks John right in the eye, "So, what's the plan, John?"

Carson glanced toward Rodney.
"Rodney, you want the rest of this dark chocolate?"

Rodney's head shot up in eagerness and he shot his hand out for the morsel. Carson reached over to pass it to him and then, at the last moment, took it back. He smiled apologetically at Rodney as he popped the chocolate into his mouth.
"Sorry, I forgot...it's dark chocolate orange."

Rodney looks at Carson. "You just wait till I need to save the day then we will see who is joking."

Hiding a smile, Sheppard looks over at Carson and Rodney. "All right kids. Don't make me come over there." Turning back to Elizabeth, Sheppard gives a sly wink.

Elizabeth grins, and then turns to Carson and Rodney - putting on a mock stern expression. "Yes, really boys.......don't make me turn this ship around!"

She glances at Carson. Keep it up....I haven't had this much fun in a long time! He grins, and she returns to finishing her lunch.

Rodney only glares at them and finishes his jello.

Lorne and Harper laugh at Rodney as they finish up eating.

Carson chuckled and sent a mock salute Elizabeth's way, "Yes ma'am!"

Rodney looks at Carson and holds out a small brownie bite. "Want a brownie?" He then stuffs it into his mouth. "Too bad."

Carson raises an eyebrow at Rodney, "I can tell the time away from me did wonders for your manners."

Rodney laughs, "Like you helped at all."

"Ah yes, I'm always one to help! Remember when you invited me over to dinner with Katie?"

Rodney lowers his head somewhat sad thinking of Katie. "Cadman ask you that wasn't really me."

Carson smiled, "Yeah, I was tipped off by feminine hands.

Rodney looks at Carson. "My hands aren't feminine!"

Carson just shrugs and goes back to his orange juice.

Ronon, who is sitting beside Harper, has been watching the banter between Rodney and Carson with amusement. As the conversation steers to Rodney and Cadman's little mishap with a Wraith dart, Ronon nudges Harper in the arm. "If you ask me that was an improvement."

Harper rolls her eyes at Ronon. "Shh! Or they will hear you. I mean it was but Rodney helping people isn't Rodney."

Ronon smiles at Harper playfully. "So what if they do?"

Harper smiles as she looks at Ronon then to Rodney and back to Ronon looking down at his muscles. "Never mind you would win the fight." She then takes another of Ronon's fries.

Ronon grins as Harper looks at his muscles. "Yep." As Harper steals another of his fries, he leans over to talk to Lorne. "You going to talk to Sheppard?"

After Ronon turns his head back looking at Harper she smirks. "You know I would want to see that fight. Can you arrange that?"

Lorne nods to Ronon then turns his attention to Sheppard seeing him talking to Elizabeth he deices to wait till they are done.

Rodney then looks at Carson as Lorne sips at his lemonade.
"So I think someone is cranky. What would you say Carson?" Lorne questions as Rodney sighs.

Ronon sees Lorne's response to his question as he turns his attention back to Harper. "I think I might be able to arrange something. Come in the next time I'm teaching Rodney some fighting techniques." He winks as he picks up some fries from his plate.

Harper laughs as she looks at Rodney who only turns away from her. She then focuses on her uncle waiting to hear the plan.

Lorne pipes in, "Yes Col. What is the plan?"

Rodney sits and looks at Keller. Is she ok? Wait why do I care? He then shakes his head glancing at her for a moment then back onto the group.

Carson looked at John, "And where will you need me, Colonel?"

Elizabeth looks at Carson, "Carson, I think you should stay with me. Your body is still adjusting to the nanites, so I'd like to be able to keep an eye on you."

Sheppard looks over at Harper and sighs. "I figured that you'd probably sneak onto the jumper again anyways and I'd rather know where you were." He pauses to glance at Lorne. "Besides, you'll be with Lorne and I trust him to keep you safe." Picking up his glass of lemonade, Sheppard turns to look at Rodney. "Wrong Rodney. You'll be with my squad." His eyes then peer at Carson. "I'm going to have to agree with Elizabeth, Carson. I want you and Keller to stay with Elizabeth and Ronon at all times while we're down there. If we're lucky everyone will make it out in one piece." Sighing, Sheppard looks around the table at each person. "We have about 2 hours before we reach the planet. I want everyone to rest up because once we get there there'll be no stopping. Okay?"

Elizabeth listens as John outlines his plan. She considers it while the others voice their opinions, and then responds. "It sounds like a good plan to me."

Harper smiles and nods at her uncle. "Thanks so much Uncle John." She then gets up and stretches. "Well I guess I'm going to rest someone come get me." She then walks off to the big comfy chair she had seen earlier and goes and sits down in it since it was in the hallway.

Rodney looks somewhat disappointed. "Man! Come on." He looks down and starts to eat his rest of his food.

Lorne smiles and sips his drink. "Sounds like a plan."

Ronon nods in agreement as he finishes off the food on his plate.

Carson opens his mouth to argue, and then the doctor in him realizes the common sense is what Elizabeth had said. Sighing, he replies. "If you insist Elizabeth, but I don't mind telling you...I certainly feel well enough to go down there and fight for Teyla!!!"

Elizabeth smiles, "I'm sure you do...but I'd still like to keep you were I can see you. You'll still be down there fighting for Teyla....you'll just be with me while doing it." She winks, "Now drink up that orange juice..........it's good for you!"

Sheppard eyes Rodney. "I'm sure you can wait until after we get Teyla back to look at Elizabeth's gadgets."

Carson sees no point in arguing so he smiles and raises his glass in toast to her. "Whatever you say ma'am!" He turns to Lorne, "Have you tried the orange dark chocolate?"

Lorne smiles at Carson and shakes his hands. "No thanks I can't sweets before going out to kill people…well Wraith."

"I can." Keller grabbed the piece of chocolate from Carson's hand inhaling it. "Man may not be able to live on chocolate alone but woman sure can." She smiled getting that warm feeling most women get. "I'm off to bed. Can someone wake me before we land so I can suit up and gain some consciousness?" Keller left without hearing the answer.

When she got to her temp courters she collapsed on the soft warm bed. With what energy she had she pulled up the thick blanket draping it over herself slipping into a deep sleep.

Carson shrugs, "Whatever works for you."

Lorne looks at Carson. "It works well with me doc or I would have to come see you more often."

Carson raises an eyebrow. "You probably need to visit the infirmary more often than you do!"

Lorne shakes his head. "I'm very healthy."

Carson stretched out his arms and pushed his plate away. "Well, I'm full." Turning to Elizabeth he asks, "Any chance I could get a tour of your medical facility?"

Elizabeth smiles, "You absolutely can! Would you like me to take you, or would you like Raena or Caylon to do the honors?"

Rodney looks at Sheppard. "But I don't want to wait!" He tries to pull off a dog face but it doesn't work. He sighs. "It's not fair. I never get captured by anyone good and now I have to go see Michael. What a day."

Sheppard rolls his eyes. "You've waited years before, I'm sure you can wait a few more hours." A frown appears on Sheppard's face as he sighs. "It has definitely been one of those days."

Carson flashes Elizabeth a charming smile. "Whatever is your choice, I'm sure I'll have a lovely time regardless."

"But he hates you. He likes me remember!" Rodney states as he turns his head to Elizabeth. "Have Raena take him. Carson is in love with her."

Carson looks at Rodney rather flabbergasted. "Oh and you're the expert?"

Elizabeth is about to reply to Carson when she hears Rodney's comment, and the resulting banter. She gives Rodney a stern look then turns back to Carson. "I'd be happy to take you myself, Carson. Caylon, of course, knows more about all the equipment than I do, but I know a fair amount."

Rodney smiles. "I am the genius aren't I?" No don't answer that."

Sheppard raises one of his eyebrows. "He only likes you for that brain of yours." He shrugs. "I'd rather Michael hate me anyway. Makes it easier to do what I have in mind."

Rodney rolls his eyes. "Oh right fine I'll give you that one."

Sheppard grins slightly. "Well, I'm going to go get a cup of coffee."

Carson tosses a glare Rodney's way and then gestures to Elizabeth. "After you my fair lady!"

Elizabeth blushes at Carson's chivalry. "Why thank you, good sir!" She smiles at him as she stands up. I've missed you Carson! Thank you for making me smile!

Carson grins. He thinks, Always a pleasure.

Elizabeth's smile grows larger as she and Carson head out of the "mess hall".

Rodney smiles and then goes to throw his stuff away. He walks back to the table looking around with his eyes seeing some of the crew staring at him. "Oh Sheppard do you need help?"

Lorne rolls his eyes as he loads his guns up.

Harper was in the hallway watching the crew work about. She had always been a people watcher but today was different she was studying on if these people were good enough for Elizabeth.

Sheppard rolls his eyes at Rodney and with more than just a hint of sarcasm in his voice he says..."I think I can handle it Rodney. Besides, you might drink it all."

Rodney sits and waits looking at Lorne who is cracking up. "Shut up."

Lorne rolls his eyes and shakes his head. "Whatever you say Rodney."

"I said shut up!"

Lorne looks at him and points his gun to Rodney.

Rodney gulps. "Ok I will shut up."

Sheppard gets his cup of coffee and returns to the table to sit. He notices that Rodney is being quiet for once. Glancing at Lorne, Sheppard asks..."What's with him?"

"I showed him my gun." He smirks pulling it out. "I think he thought I would shoot him if he didn't shut up."

Rodney looks at him angry. "You weren't going to shoot me? That's it!" He slams his hands down. "I liked area 51 better."

Covering a grin, Sheppard replies..."Calm down Rodney." He turns to look at Lorne. "Now Major, what have I told you about guns and Rodney?"

Lorne looks at him. "Um don't give him one?"

Sheppard smiles as he shakes his head. "That's one of them but no. Care to try again?"

Lorne looks at him. "I'm sorry sir I don't remember."

Rodney only glares at Lorne. "Um how about not killing Rodney!"

Sheppard glances at Rodney. "That's not even one of them Rodney." Rodney glares at him as he looks back at Lorne as he tries hold in a laugh. Folding his arms across his chest, Sheppard stares at Lorne with mock-seriousness and sarcasm in his voice as he speaks. "You mean you don't remember the No-holding-Rodney-at-gunpoint rule Major?!"

Lorne shakes his head. "Um nope."

Rodney only laughs. "Nice job, Sheppard."

Sheppard keeps his face stern as he addresses both Rodney and Lorne. "Then let me restate it. The No-holding-Rodney-at-gunpoint rule states that only I get to threaten Rodney with a gun. Is that clear Major?"

Lorne nods. "Yes Col."

Rodney looks at Sheppard. "That doesn't help me."

Sheppard nods at Lorne and then peers at Rodney, a smirk on his face. "Buck up! It helps you a little bit."

"Yeah but you would probably kill me." Rodney states as he crosses his arms on his chest.

Sheppard gives Rodney a defensive look. "Only if you annoyed me!"

Rodney rolls his eyes. "Please…I do that every day."

Sheppard gives him a sardonic smile. "And you haven't been shot yet...have you?"

On the way to the ship's infirmary, Carson and Elizabeth spot Harper sitting in a chair. They pause and Elizabeth says, "I thought you were going to get some rest Harper? Are you okay?"

Harper smiles at the two. "I like this chair I figure it's better than finding a bed that's not mine. Do they even use beds?"

"Aye," says Carson to Harper. "Are you alright my dear?"

Harper nods. "I'm fine we should be worrying about you not me."

Elizabeth smiles, knowing that the team must be curious about how replicators do things. "Well, I sleep, of course, but my crew doesn't. They do, however, need to recharge every now and then, so each of them have their own quarters." She puts her hand on Harper's shoulder, "I make sure that there are always comfortable guest quarters available.....if you decide that you would like to take a short nap."

Harper smiles. "Ok I'll take you up on that if I need sleep."

Carson frowns softly. "That's where you're wrong luv, I'm no more important than anyone else in Atlantis. We need to worry about you just as much as anyone else."

Harper gets up and hugs Carson. "Thanks Doc but I'm ok just like people watching in a non stalkerish way."

Carson hugs Harper back. "Just make sure you don't keep all your feelings bottled up."

Elizabeth glances at Carson. The same goes for you, Carson.

Carson smiles and looks at the ground as Elizabeth's comment rings in his head.

Harper smiles. "I know I know so where are you guys going?"

Elizabeth returns her gaze to Harper. "I'm going to give Carson a tour of our version of an infirmary."

Harper smiles. "Have fun then."

Carson winks at her. "Aye will do!"

Elizabeth smirks, "Don't get into any trouble, Harper..." She sees Carson hide a smile as they both turn and head towards the infirmary.

Carson sighs as they walk along and then glances back at Harper. "Such a doll she is!"

Elizabeth smiles warmly, "Yes, she really is....I love that girl!"

Carson nods his agreement. "Aye, as do I."

Elizabeth leads Carson into a large room and begins to point out some things that she thinks may interest him. "Each one of these stations is equipped with the same scanner that was used on you in the lab. I'm sure that Raena and Caylon explained it's capabilities to you." Carson nods, so she continues pointing out other things. "This console is linked to the one in the lab, and contains all of Caylon's medical research, as well as Raena's scientific research. Since true medical services are really only necessary for me - and that rarely, thanks to the nanites - Caylon spends the majority of his time with Raena and the other scientists in the laboratory. He conducts the bulk of his research there."

Elizabeth smiles, "His work is quite impressive, Carson....especially considering that his 'patients' are mainly replicators. I'm really the only human that he has consistent contact with - and I'm only half human, at that." Her expression darkens, but only briefly. She shakes it off, knowing that Carson didn't need to be hearing that kind of thing right after becoming part replicator, himself. She pastes on a smile, masking any other emotion. "I think you would find the progress that he's made quite interesting."

Carson nods eagerly. "Aye, it's all fascinating, I'd love to see his progress."

Elizabeth grins - this is the Carson that she remembers. "I'm sure that he'd be more than happy to share it with you, as well. Raena's research is pretty interesting, also. Most recently, she and Caylon have been studying the genetic changes that occur to cause a human to become a Wraith hybrid."

Carson looks startled at this revelation, so she explains, "Some months ago, we received intel that Michael was planning a raid on a defenseless planet. Unfortunately, our informant did not know which defenseless planet it would be. By the time that we were able to get that information, it was too late. We arrived there about five hours too late."

Elizabeth looks away, lost in thought. "The village appeared to have fought hard - there were several hybrid bodies - but they lost. Three quarters of the village was taken, with about an eighth of them dead, and an eighth that had somehow managed to hide during the attack."

She sighs, her expression a mixture of anger and sorrow. "We helped them bury their dead, but we took the hybrid bodies for study. If Michael is using some kind of virus to alter these people, then maybe there is a way to create immunity to it.....and not only that, but perhaps those who've already been turned can be turned back."

She turns to Carson, "The genetic changes that Michael effects are quite complicated, however. Raena and Caylon have yet to completely understand it......um, you're experience with the retro-virus could probably be an incredibly valuable asset to their research." She smiles, "If you are willing, of course......"

Carson nods slowly...processing all that Elizabeth had just revealed. "Of course, I'd love to help in any way possible!"

Elizabeth smiles warmly, "I thought you would. Both Caylon and Raena will be very glad to hear it."

She returns to giving Carson the "tour" - pointing out several other pieces of equipment that she thinks would interest him. She shows him their supply of various medicines and medical supplies, then asks, "What would you like to see next? Operation rooms, autopsy rooms, morgue, or the infirmary's lab?"

"Lab definitely!" Carson says with a touch of eagerness. This place was more than he could have imagined.

Elizabeth grins, and guides him through the infirmary and through a doorway into the lab. "A lot of the equipment in here is the same as what you saw in Raena's lab, but there are more medically specialized tools in here."

Carson has just begun to look around when Caylon steps into the room, and looks at Elizabeth. "Reporting as requested, Commander Weir."

Elizabeth smiles, "Thank you Caylon. I am giving Dr. Beckett a tour of your infirmary, and I thought that it might help if you were here, as well - as I may not be able to answer all of his questions."

"Aye," says Carson turning to face Caylon. "I was just wondering what tests you put the tissue samples you got from the hybrids through."

Caylon steps further into the room. "We've done numerous in-depth tests, but we have most recently been focusing on the altered loci within individual chromosomes. We've found some unexpected alleles, beyond the usual varying of the locus. Where we would usually expect to find it homozygous, it has been heterozygous."

He walks over to a console and pulls up his research on the screen - for Carson to inspect. "A measure of that is normal, of course, but the levels of it that we've discovered in the hybrids is abnormal."

Carson studies the sample. "Aye, it is."

Caylon looks up from the console to Carson, "I'd value your opinion on this, Dr. Beckett."

Carson frowns. "It's almost as if he's duplicating just the heterozygous alleles and eradicating the homozygous alleles...but why? Heterozygous alleles are both dominant and recessive. He's obviously manipulating the genes for his purpose. Why the heterozygous over the homozygous?"

Carson gets lost in thought as he studies the samples. Something from his time with Michael should help with this. He goes back to all the things he did for Michael...OF COURSE!!!

"Heterozygous alleles are easier to change for a specific need as they can be either or. Homozygous alleles can only be one or the other...much harder to change! By duplicating the heterozygous alleles and eradicating the homozygous alleles...he essentially gives himself a much cleaner canvas to work on...you follow?"

Carson glances at Caylon and Elizabeth hoping they understand.

Elizabeth and Caylon both nod, but Caylon is much more excited. "Precisely. It is my understanding that Michael does not wish to completely irradiate the human aspects of his hybrids - hence their being 'hybrids'. He wishes to keep select human genetic traits, but add some of his own. Having heterozygous alleles allows him alter half of the chromosome pair with Wraith genetic traits, while keeping the human genetics of the other half."

Caylon touches a control on the console, and brings up another screen. "Not only that, but he has made the Wraith version of the allele dominant. Humans, animals, and plants are primarily diploid, with two copies of each gene, one inherited from each parent. So, if the two copies are not identical, their combined effect may be different than the effect of having two identical copies of a single allele - hence his lessening of the homozygous alleles."

Caylon looks at Elizabeth, who is trying to keep up, but feels a little out of her depth. He explains, "The advantage of the heterozygote is when the heterozygote genotype has a higher relative fitness than either the homozygote dominant or homozygote recessive genotype. This selection favoring the heterozygote helps to explain some kinds of genetic variability. Often, the heterozygote conveys certain advantages and some disadvantages while both versions of homozygote are only at disadvantages."

Elizabeth nods in understanding, so Caylon returns his attention to Carson. "Do you agree, Dr. Beckett?"

Carson nods his agreement.

Harper spots Ronon coming out of the mess hall. "Well hey there." She smiles patting the seat next to her. "Want to keep me company?"

Ronon looks at Harper and then at the seat next to her. He shrugs and plops down onto the seat. "Sure....Anything interesting going on out here?"

Harper looks at him then to some crew members that passed by. "I have been watching them. Hoping to find out why Elizabeth won't come back to Atlantis. There has to be a reason right?" She looked at Ronon and smiled touching his hand. "She knows that Atlantis is home but for some reason she doesn't want to come back. I can't understand that since I first came to Atlantis to help fight the Wraith when the siege started I all I wanted was to be back on Earth but when I went back home all I thought about was Atlantis." She placed her hands over her eyes knowing she wasn't going to cry at this point but still wanted to make sure. "Atlantis is more home to be then Earth ever was. How can she not feel the same?"

Ronon glances over at Harper and shrugs. "Maybe she does."

Harper looks at him. "Yeah, maybe. You always seen to make me feel better without trying to."

Rodney looks at Sheppard trying to remember any time Sheppard had shot him. He looked down somewhat sad. "No but it still doesn't mean you won't." He huffed and then looked at Lorne. "You better not think about it?"

"About what McKay?"

"Shooting me."

"If I did shoot you. You would end up having kids to spite me."

Rodney smirked, "I would so be careful will ya."

Sheppard grins at Rodney and Lorne banter. If you ask me, either option is bad.

Rodney looks at Sheppard. "What are you thinking?"

Sheppard just grins mischievously. "Oh nothing really."

Raena walks in on the tail end of the conversation. Elizabeth looks up from the console and smiles, "Excellent timing, Raena. While this conversation has been.....er, scintillating.....I think I should go and check on the others." She smirks at Carson, "I need to make sure that they haven't injured Dr. McKay in my absence."

Raena nods with a sardonic smile, "It amazes me that he has not been injured before this......"

Elizabeth laughs, "He gets better once you get you know him.......well, mostly anyway." She smiles at Raena's skeptical expression and Carson's quiet chuckle, "Now, if you will excuse me......."

They all nod, and Elizabeth heads to door. She pauses before exiting and looks at Carson. If you need me, you know how to find me. She touches her first and middle finger to her temple waits for Carson to nod, then turns and leaves.

Carson smiles after Elizabeth and then turns to Caylon and Raena.

"It would seem that perhaps we've figured out a way to reverse the process...we need to eradicate the alien genes and replace them with human ones."

He glanced at the two replicators with a wry smile. "Easier said than done, of course!"

Caylon and Raena both nod, and Caylon replies, "Yes, that is the difficulty that we have been having with our research.......we have essentially figured out how Michael is making the changes, but undoing those changes is another thing entirely."

Elizabeth walks back down the hall towards the "mess hall". She notices that Harper is no longer sitting alone, and smiles. She walks up to the couple, crosses her arms, and raises and eyebrow. "What are you two up to?" She smiles mischievously, "Am I going to need to get you a chaperone while you're here?"

Harper notices Elizabeth walking up them and she pulls away her hand from Ronon. Harper laughs at her statement. "Don't worry we aren't doing anything that would make us needed to be watched. I can keep my urges in." She then stalled for a second knowing that didn't come out right. She smiles it off hoping that Elizabeth wouldn't turn it into anything. "So how was the tour?"

Elizabeth grins knowingly - she hadn't missed the hand holding or Harper's sudden change of subject. She was tempted to continue with the teasing, but decided to give the young woman a break. Rodney teases her more than enough, anyway. She just replies, "It was good......Carson seemed to enjoy it. He's there with Caylon and Raena now - discussing things that are really over my head."

She laughs, and then looks down the hall. "So what exactly are you two doing out here? What is so interesting about this hallway?"

Harper smiles and shrugs. "I made Ronon sit with me. I been people watching. Your crew seems to get a lot done from what I can tell."

Elizabeth replies, "Yes, they are very efficient......" She sighs and looks down the hall again. "Precise, orderly.......basically flawless." She sighs and looks back at the couple - noticing their expressions. "Oh, don't get me wrong, that's a good thing......I suppose......and I'm grateful to have them, but......it's just that they're not.....I don't.....what I mean is....." She sighs again, "They're not my family......."

She shakes off her sadness, and changes the subject before either of them can reply. She turns her head to keep them from seeing the moisture forming there. "I'm going to go check on Rodney......I have to make sure that the guys haven't been torturing him too much....but if I find that they haven't been doing it enough, I'll have to remedy that."

"Have fun!" Harper calls out as she watches Elizabeth leave then turns back to Ronon. "See what I mean!"

Ronon just shrugs as Harper looks at him. Before he can say anything, Elizabeth walks up to them and talks to Harper. As Elizabeth and Harper talk, Elizabeth's eyes begin to well with tears. She turns away to keep the two from noticing but Ronon, and Harper, had already noticed them. Elizabeth puts on a smile and walks off to go check on Sheppard, Rodney, and Lorne. Harper turns back to Ronon and says "See what I mean!" Meeting Harper's gaze, Ronon says "She's upset. Wouldn't you be if you had to choose between going home and doing what's best for that home?!"

Harper looks at Ronon somewhat sad. "Yes but I want no I need her back. Can you understand that? She is like my mom Ronon and my first one left before I even was a month old. Everyone leaves no matter what you do."

Ronon looks into Harper's saddened eyes. "I understand." He falls silent and stares at the floor as he tries to think about what to say next. Still looking at the floor, Ronon says "Do you understand it Harper?"

Harper looks at Ronon then turns away. "Why do you think I'm not on Earth? People always leave but I won't let it happen anymore."

Ronon sees that Harper is trying hard not to cry. "I'm still here and so is Sheppard."

Harper looks at Ronon. "I know but it's still hard....So do you think what Elizabeth said is true?" She sees Ronon confusion. "If we needed a chaperone."

Ronon hides a smile as Harper looks at him. "No, unlike someone I can control myself."

Harper's eyes grow huge as she hits Ronon's arm. "Will you stop it? Elizabeth already thinks I'm doing something bad out here. I don't need you saying that too." She rolls her eyes. "Anyways I haven't said or done anything to make you think that way. You're the one whose mind is in the gutter." She crosses her arms placing them on her chest. "Gutter boy."

Ronon moves away as Harper swats his arm and smiles playfully.

Harper rolls her eyes. "So are you ready for the big fight?"

Ronon's smile fades as he thinks about the upcoming battle. His voice takes on an eerie undertone "I'm ready for it. Michael's going to be sorry for what he's done."

Harper touches Ronon's hand. "I know he will just don't try to kill everyone while there get Michael get Teyla and the others and get out. I know you and well this isn't a kill all the Wraith mission." She looks away for a second hoping Ronon had his head on the right way today.

Ronon touches Harper's shoulder and she turns her head back toward him. He meets her gaze, the serious expression still on his face. "I'll be fine. You don't have to worry about me."

Harper smiles and grabs his hand squeezing it. "I know but you worry about me so I'm going to worry about you."

Ronon bows his head but still keeps his eyes locked with Harper's. "You know why I worry about you."

Harper shakes her head in acknowledgement "I know but I'm a big girl I can handle myself."

Ronon squeezes Harper's hand. "I know that but still..."

Harper smiles at Ronon. "So promise me not to worry when you are out killing the Wraith."

Ronon smiles back at Harper. "You know I can't promise that."

Harper shakes her head as she stands up. "I can't think that you are worrying about me when you're out. If you do you might die."

Ronon continues to sit as his eyes follow Harper. He smiles slightly at Harper's statement. "Will it make you feel better if I promise not to die?"

Harper nods to Ronon. "That would help a lot."

Ronon thinks for a moment. He stands up and looks Harper in the eye. "Okay, then I promise not to die."

Harper smiles and claps her hands together. "Good we agree on something."

Ronon smiles at Harper slyly. "Don't we always?"

Harper shoots Ronon a look. "We had a fight this morning so no."

Ronon's smile fades a little as he thinks about the reason for their argument earlier. "Only because someone disobeyed Sheppard's orders."

Elizabeth wipes all traces of sadness from her face before reentering the "mess hall". She smiles at the banter that is still going on, walks over to get a drink, and then sits down next to John. She notices Rodney's expression, and looks from him to Lorne, then to John. She smirks, raising an eyebrow. "Have you boys been playing nice?"

Rodney looks at Sheppard and then notices Elizabeth walking in. "Playing nice would be Christmas but you know these two."

Lorne makes a hurt face and laughs.

Sheppard looks up as Elizabeth enters the room. Before he can say anything in regards to her question, Rodney interjects. As Lorne makes a hurt face and laughs, Sheppard turns to Elizabeth. With a playful look in his eye, Sheppard says "We've been having a nice little chat about the Shooting-Rodney rule!"

Elizabeth raises an eyebrow, trying to look serious, "Ah, you mean the rule about him only being shot when I order it - that all other times a lemon is to be used?"

Sheppard raises an eyebrow back, playful inquisitiveness in his eyes. "Are you sure that was it? I could have sworn that I got to shoot Rodney if he annoyed me!"

Elizabeth pretends to think about it, "Now that you mention it that could have been the rule......but only in extreme cases of annoyance. I distinctly remember that the lemon was to be used at all other times." She takes a sip of her water to hide her grin, but sends a subtle wink to John. She sets her glass down, "Guns are just so messy, Colonel.......lemons require much less clean-up."

Rodney looks at Elizabeth somewhat hurt. "Oh great. Now it is pick on Rodney day...man I miss Ford." He says as he sighs in annoyance.

Sheppard squashes a laugh at Rodney's statement as he grins at Elizabeth. "Hey, they're messy, but efficient. Now that you mention it though..." He pretends to think about the lemon vs. gun thing for a moment. "...yeah, I remember something about that now. Maybe that's why I haven't shot McKay yet."

Rodney rolls his eyes and pretends to do some work on his tablet. He starts to hum so Sheppard and Elizabeth would think he didn't care.

Elizabeth grins - She sees Rodney pretending to ignore them, but she knows that he's still listening to everything they say. She looks back at John, "And maybe that's why you kept that lemon in your vest pocket?" She lowers her voice and leans towards him, "Do you still do that?"

As Rodney continues to pretend to ignore them, Sheppard's smile takes on a mischievous look. "Oh yeah, that's right. I knew I started doing that for some reason!" Leaning closer to Elizabeth he says "Yep. Works great when my gun is out of reach."

Sheppard just smiles at Rodney knowing that they had succeeded in annoying him. He gives Elizabeth and Lorne a knowing look. "Find something interesting on your computer Rodney?"

Rodney only glares at Sheppard as he puts his tablet down. "No not really if you must know."

Lorne gets done cleaning and fixing his guns. "Maybe I will get a lemon too."

Rodney glares at Lorne and he watches the gun being set down.

Elizabeth grins. I've really missed this! Her grin fades a little. And I'll really miss it again.....

She shakes herself out of her thoughts, and laughs at both Lorne and John's comments. To John see says, "I'm sure it's quite handy." She then turns to Lorne, and smirks. "That might be a good idea, Major. You never know when you might need it."

"Oh I know when I'll need it." Lorne smiles at Elizabeth then eyes Rodney. This is fun.

Sheppard nods at Elizabeth and throws Rodney a sly smile. "Yep, it's a nice little weapon to have."

Elizabeth grins, "No doubt."

Rodney lets out a noise somewhat displeased and annoy. "I bet it is."

Sheppard looks squarely at Rodney, a serious expression on his face. "It's kept you from annoying me hasn't it?!"

Rodney shakes his head. "Oh I think I still annoy."

Sheppard eyes Rodney. "Don't push it Rodney or I'll go get some more lemonade."

Rodney grunts. "What are you going to do melt me to death with it?"

Sheppard just shrugs. "No, I was thinking more along the lines of making you drink it."

Rodney sipped his coffee. "And that would be manslaughter."

Sheppard acts like he is thinking about what Rodney said. Shrugging he says "I guess I'll just have to plead guilty by reason of annoyance then."

Rodney points a figure at Sheppard. "You're not funny."

Sheppard looks at Elizabeth as he acts offended. "I think that I'm hilarious when I want to be!"

Rodney looks at Elizabeth. "Is he serious?"

Elizabeth laughs, "No, Rodney........I believe that's the point."

At Elizabeth's comment, it's all Sheppard can do to keep from burst out laughing and keep a serious face. He turns to Elizabeth with a hurt expression now on his face. "That time I was being serious."

Elizabeth turns to John with a mock contrite expression on her face, "I'm sorry John, you're right..........you are very serious about not being serious."

She tries to keep a straight face, but the laughter bubbles up and destroys it. She looks away, takes a quick sip of her water, then turns to Rodney, "I have to say, Rodney, nobody can make me smile like John does, so.........he does have a point."

Sheppard holds down his laughter as he gives Rodney a smirk. "Yep."

Rodney looks from Sheppard to Elizabeth. "What point is that? He wants to kill me. You need me here."

Lorne mumbles. "We don't need you that much."

Sheppard hears Lorne's remark and throws a sly smile at him. He then turns his attention back to Rodney, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. "Now Major, Rodney's right you know."

Lorne rolls his eyes at Sheppard. "He always says he is right but he did blow up a solar system didn't he?"

"Not all of it!" Rodney remarks as he looks over at Elizabeth. "Can you believe them?"

Sheppard nods his head and looks at Rodney, sarcasm and indignation on his face. "Right more like 2/3 of it!"

Elizabeth rolls her eyes, "Ok boys, enough." She looks at Rodney, "The point, Rodney, was that Sheppard can be funny when he wants to, not that he could kill you if he wanted to..........although that is true too." Rodney glances at John, and Elizabeth takes that opportunity to subtly wink at both the military men. When Rodney looks back to her, her expression looks completely innocent.

As Rodney turns back toward Elizabeth, Sheppard chuckles unable to be serious any longer.

Rodney shakes his head. "Well it wasn't liked anyone lived there."

Lorne looks out the window. "I think we are getting close to the planet."

Sheppard is about to make a sarcastic remark when Lorne interrupts. Following Lorne's gaze out the window, Sheppard nods and turns back to look at the others. "Guess it's time to get ready and get everyone up."

Elizabeth c0cks her head to the side, as if hearing something. She then looks at the men, "Yes, Arlon confirms that we are nearing the planet. We will be there in just under 30 minutes." She looks at John, "I ordered him to cloak the ship, so Michael will not be able to detect our approach." She stands up, "I've sent one of my crew to wake up Dr. Keller, and I'll let Carson know that it's time to get ready to head down to the planet."

Carson turns to Caylon, "Do you have any more tissue samples? An anti-virus is our best bet and those tissue samples are the place to start."

Caylon nods, "Not only that, but we actually still have the hybrid bodies in our morgue."

"Wonderful!" said Carson. "Shall we have a look?"

Caylon nods and he and Raena lead Carson back into the infirmary, then through a door at the end of that room. As Caylon walks toward one of the walls in the morgue, Raena turns her sea green eyes to Carson. "Since we are not organic, we do not actually require a morgue for ourselves, but it has proved quite useful, none the less."

Caylon touches a panel, and a drawer opens from the wall to reveal a perfectly preserved hybrid corpse, although it has many wounds. Caylon looks up from the body, "This was the least damaged of the bodies recovered. The hybrids apparently do not die easily."

"Aye," said Carson as he surveyed the body. "It certainly appears that way." He rubbed the back of his neck as he thought. "Well, is there any way we can do an autopsy?"

Caylon nods, "Certainly. We've already performed an autopsy on this particular hybrid, so if you wish to perform one yourself, we will have to use one of the three other bodies." Caylon closes the drawer, and pulls a metal gurney over to another drawer in the wall. Just as he is about to open it, Elizabeth walks into the room.

She's a little curious about why they are in the morgue, but doesn't ask them - either verbally or mentally. Instead she looks at Carson, "Sorry if I'm interrupting something, but, Carson, we are nearing the planet, and need to get ready."

Carson looks up in surprise, "Oh, I thought I was staying here to work on anti-virus?"

Elizabeth is surprised herself, "It was my understanding that you would be going with us." She crosses her arms and thinks for a moment. "Dr. Keller will be going down to the planet, so I suppose that your presence is not absolutely necessary. She can supply whatever medical needs arise, but I thought you wanted to be a part of the rescue?"

She looks at Caylon and Raena, then back to Carson, "Would you prefer to remain aboard the ship?"

Carson nods. "Aye, I'd like to stay here and get a jump start on this anti-virus."

Elizabeth looks at Carson curiously, "Anti-virus?" She looks to Caylon and Raena, then back to Carson. "You believe that Michael is using some kind of virus to alter DNA?"

"Aye, I think he is..." Carson nods.

Elizabeth clasps her hands behind her back. "Well then an anti-virus would certainly be a great help." She looks at Carson. "Very well, Carson. I'll let John know that you will be staying here." She turns to leave, saying, "Hopefully when I return, we will have Teyla and you three will be well on your way to creating an effective anti-virus for the hybrids." She smiles at Carson just before exiting the room, "Perhaps Tagan will be able to have his father after all......"

Carson turns to Raena and Caylon, "All right...let's get to work!"

Michael walked to the cell and looked at Teyla who was looking into his arms. "Tagan wanted to see the darts. Didn't you son." He asked the baby who he held in his arms. Tagan seemed ok with Michael which was weird.

Teyla bites her lip with concern written all over her face. "Please, Michael," she pauses for a moment, "Give me my son."

Michael smiles at her. "In time we are going to bond. Don't worry I will sit here so you don't worry." Michael sat down with the baby as he played with Tagan.

Teyla tries to reach her hands toward the bars of the cell which is met by an electric shock knocking her back. She lands on her back and groans in pain from the shock.

Michael shakes his head at Teyla. "Don't worry so much. I'm just bonding with our boy. You will get him back soon."

Teyla glares at Michael. "Tagan is NOT your son and never will be," she pauses for a moment before continuing, "Col. Sheppard will find me and you will pay!" She looks around the room glancing in the cell where Netia was before, "Where's Netia?"

The light stings Netia eyes as they adjust. She has a bad headache as she remembers the failed escape. She tries to get up, however her arms and legs won't move. As she looks around she sees hybrid slaves working on the machines next to her. As Netia struggles with the restraints, she asks the slave next to her why she's tied down. "You, like the master's mistress, have a unique Wraith DNA gene," the slave said as she stuck a needle into Netia's arm and withdrew blood. "What are you doing!?" The slave ignored Netia and continued, "But as you also know, you are influenced by other's emotions, humans or wraith. And since that 'gift' is a part of your human DNA, the master just wants to 'experiment' with it," The slave turned to face Netia. "And you."

Kalia walks to Dr. Keller's assigned quarters, and activates the chimes. When she gets no response, she tries again. She gets no response again, so she opens the door and steps into the room, noticing the sleeping form of the doctor on the bed. She walks over and gently shakes the young woman's shoulder, "Dr. Keller....Dr. Keller?" The doctor stirs and turns groggy eyes to the Asuran.

Kalia steps back from the bed to allow Keller to sit up, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but Cmdr. Weir sent me to wake you. We are approaching the planet, so the teams are getting ready....they would like you to meet them in the jumper bay." She gives the doctor a friendly smile, "Do you remember the way, or would you like me to take you there?"

Keller blinked her vision back. "No I remember thank you." She sat up pulling on the pants she had stripped off. The medical bag she had laid beside her bag felt lighter. She dug into it finding most of her equipment had been replaced by the more compact instruments of Weir's crew along with instructions on how to use them. No doubt this was Weir's doing. Keller gathered up her stuff and walked to the jumper bay.

Teyla waits for Michael to respond but he just continues to smile at her. "Where is Netia!" she says angrily. Not waiting again for a response, she tries to connect mentally to Netia. Netia, where are you? Are you ok?

Michael smiled. "Don't worry I have a plan for her."

Sheppard nods approvingly as Elizabeth leaves the mess. Turning his attention to Lorne and Rodney, Sheppard takes a deep breath and gets up from the table. "Alright, time to get going." With that, Sheppard leaves. Upon exiting the mess hall, Sheppard sees Ronon and Harper talking to each other. He catches Ronon's eye. "Hate to break up the talk you two but we're almost to the planet. We need to get suited up and ready to go."

Harper smiles at Ronon. "Hey I wanted in on the fight can you blame a girl?" She then sees Sheppard and she gets up taking Ronon's hand pulling him up with her. "See we need to get ready to go."

Ronon looks at Harper with the most serious expression he can muster. "When it comes to a Sheppard...yes!" As Sheppard walks out of the mess hall, Ronon meets his gaze and nods in response to his call. "Right behind you Sheppard."

Rodney and Lorne get up and start to walk out when Lorne turns back to Elizabeth. "Did he say where we were meeting?"

Elizabeth is heading out the door, but she turns to answer Lorne. "No, he didn't, but I'd say that the jumper bay is a pretty safe guess. I'll get Carson and meet you there." With that, she smiles and heads into the hall.

Lorne nods to Elizabeth as Rodney and him head for the jumper bay. Lorne looks at Rodney. "Don't talk."

Rodney rolls his eyes as they walk.

Harper starts to walk with Ronon to the jumper bay as they walk she pulls out her knives and starts to toss it around. "I can't believe I can't actually fight Michael and his gang no I'm on the puddle jumpers which is fine but still I better be able to blow something up."

Ronon smiles widely as he shakes his head. "You're starting to sound more and more like Sheppard."

Harper smirks. "Does that surprise you? If it does I think we should talk after all I learned from the best."

Ronon shrugs. "Not really. I just wanted to make sure you knew that you sounded like him."

Harper rolled her eyes as they reached the jumper bay where Lorne and Rodney were bickering. Harper turns back to Ronon. "Very funny but I do think I can act like him when I want to. Don't want me to remind you on the little sparing accident that he gave to your face do you?"

Ronon frowns slightly at Harper's comment and then looks at Sheppard, who is watching Lorne and Rodney with amusement. Turning back to Harper, he shrugs. "It was a lucky shot."

Harper looks at John then up and down at Ronon. "Yeah a lucky shot. That's why you can't train at night. You two get too tired to pay attention."

Ronon gives Harper a somewhat indignant look. "Nighttime is the best time to train...and we do pay attention."

"And you certainly wouldn't if I was there," Harper states as she walks away going up to Sheppard, Lorne and Rodney.

Ronon follows Harper with his eyes as she walks up to where the three men are standing. Smiling, he mumbles to himself..."Nope."

Elizabeth is deep in thought as she walks into the jumper bay. An anti-virus would be so wonderful - she sincerely hoped that Carson, Caylon, and Raena would be able to create one. She smiled thinking about what good it could do. If anyone can figure it out, it's those three!

She looks up to see John watching her curiously. Before he can say anything, she speaks. "Carson will not be coming on the mission with us, John. He and my scientists think that they may be able to create an antivirus to reverse the hybrid process, and he wants to stay onboard to work on it."

Sheppard nods as Elizabeth explains why Carson is staying behind. "Do they think that they can get it done in enough time?"

Elizabeth starts to reply, but is stopped when Dr. Keller pulls her into a hug.

Keller walked over to Elizabeth gathering up in her arms. "Thank you so much for the new equipment from what I've read I really do have the entire infirmary."

Elizabeth is startled by Keller's embrace, but recovers quickly and gently hugs her back. I guess she's not upset with me anymore. She smiles as they release each other. "You are very welcome, Dr. Keller. I wasn't sure what you would think, but I thought that it would make things easier for you."

She laughs a little, "That pack is, at the very least, much lighter than the one you brought with you from Atlantis. The equipment is also very similar to what you are accustomed to using - it's simply more compact."

Keller wiped a single tear from her face not realizing she had been holding them in. "Sorry don't know what's come over me. Just guess I've had a lot thrown at me the last couple days." She took in a breath whipping at her face. "Ok I'm good."

Elizabeth gives her an understanding smile, "It's alright, Jennifer. I completely understand......the past few days have certainly been.......shall we say, unusual?" She observes the young woman's weariness, "I wish you could have gotten more rest, but it could not be helped, I'm afraid. Hopefully when this is all finished, you will be able to sleep as long as you need."

"Are you kidding me? I'm not waking up for about three days." Keller picked up her stuff and found Rodney poking and getting punched by everyone. "Rodney I swear if they hurt you I will not patch you up it's your own fault."

Rodney looks at Keller. "Yeah you will. I mean you all need me."

"Oh I'm sure we could just get Zelenka here if we truly need a genius." She laughed as the others muffled theirs.

Rodney looked at Keller. "I thought I liked you but I was wrong." He smiled knowing that she didn't care either way but he could always black mail her and tell the others that she asked him out once.

Keller narrowed her eyes at Rodney knowing what he had in mind. "Really well who agreed to the date," she whispered in his ear.

Rodney looks shocked and then looks at her with a smile on his face. "Hey did we ever have that date?"

Keller gave him a sly smile. "I think you'd remember if we did."

Rodney leans into her. "Well maybe we should go out then after all you did ask me and all."

Keller let out a tiny laugh. "Another galaxy away on an alien ship off to safe a friend captured by hybrids and I get asked out. My life."

Rodney looks at her. "Is that a yes?"

She gave him a wink.

Rodney looks at her in shock. "So is that a yes? I need it to be said out loud. Am I dreaming? Wait I need this written in writing so people will believe this."

She took out a pen and paper from her jacket.
June 5th 1800 my quarters.
Handed it to Rodney.

Rodney looked at it and then put it in his jacket. "I'll see you there." He stated waiting for the team to get there plan going.

When the young woman walks away, Elizabeth turns back to John. "Well, that was.......unexpected." Sheppard nods with a small smile, and Elizabeth answers his question. "I don't know how long it will take them, but they are certainly determined!"

Carson rubs the back of his neck. "Now, whatever virus Michael has infected these people with...he did it by an injection...like we did with him...so, I think something we can inject the hybrids with is our best bet as opposed to something you'd put in food or in the air."

He taps his chin as he thinks. "Although...when we turned the wraith into humans on the hive ship...we did it through the air and had success." Smiling ruefully he turns to Caylon and Raena,
"However, I suppose our first concern is the actual anti-virus...not the distribution process!"

Raena glances at Caylon with a smile, and then turns back to Carson, "The delivery system will actually not be a problem. We already have a fairly effective way to accomplish that, so it is the least of our concerns." Her smiles fades a little, "As you said, we must first create an effective anti-virus."

Caylon nods, "Our study of the hybrid tissue has shown that the virus's host cells are not being destroyed, so it is obviously a temperate virus. Also, as you know, viruses typically can only infect a limited number of hosts, so not all of the cells have been affected by the virus."

Caylon leads Carson over to the single console at one end of the morgue. He again pulls up their research, and directs Carson's attention to a particular section, "Again, as you know, the viral genome can consist of a very small number of genes or up to hundreds of genes depending on the type of virus. Once the viral progeny components are produced by the cellular machinery, the assembly of the viral genome and the viral capsids is a non-enzymatic process. It is usually spontaneous."

He looks at Raena, then back at Carson, "We believe that it is possible to create an anti-virus that works in the same way." He touches a control, and pulls up another screen. "Our concern is replacing the human DNA that has been destroyed and replaced by Wraith DNA. Simply eradicating that DNA would be insufficient - only half of each of the heterogeneous chromosomes would remain, and a human could not function if that happened."

Raena speaks up then, "We have concluded that the most effective way to avoid this would be to create an antivirus that seeks out the unaffected cells first, and uses them to replicate the DNA necessary to replace the Wraith DNA in the affected cells."

Carson nods..."Aye, that's a marvelous idea...I have an idea of how Michael did the original transformation as I was with him at the time..."

Caylon and Raena both smile, and Raena replies, "Excellent. That will be a great help."

Rodney sees Harper walking up to them as he sees Ronon staring at her from behind. He smirks and throws his hands up in the air. "Where have you been young lady?"

Harper sighs, "Around."

"Yeah around probably getting some action." Rodney rolls his eyes as Harper punches his shoulder.

"Gross McKay. Is all you think about is sex? Wonder why Carter doesn't like you."

"She likes me." He scrunches his face in disbelief. "I didn't say sex I said action. Which is the process of doing something in order to achieve a purpose."

"Yeah the process of getting laid." Lorne states out of the blue.

Harper holds her hands on her ears. "La la la I can't hear you."

"Oh sure you can I mean humming a song and covering your ears doesn't make anyone deaf."

Harper looks at Rodney who continues on. "Sex sex sex. You and Mister Dex having...."

With that Harper punches Rodney in the gut. Rodney looks up to her. "What? Want me to say sex-less cause I know that would be a lie."

As Sheppard is about to say something to Elizabeth, he overhears Lorne's little statement. He whips around in enough time to hear what Rodney has to say after Harper hits him. "Alright you three...that's enough! Some people here would rather not think about those things."

"Well you are the leader here so you wouldn't do anything like that sir." Lorne states as Rodney glares at him.

"Quit sucking up! I don't have the energy just got hit here."

Harper starts to walk away as Rodney pulls her back.

"You're not leaving don't you dare or I will finish my little song."

Harper sulks and stands back with them rolling her eyes. That's why I never had brothers.

Elizabeth sees what's going on, and is not about to give Rodney that satisfaction of further teasing Harper - especially about that. She steps past John and glares at Rodney and Lorne, "Harper, will you help me go get some more PCDs? I don't believe we have enough here for everyone."

Harper nods and hits Rodney again and slaps the back of Lorne. "Have fun you two." She starts walking with Elizabeth. "Thanks now I know what's it like to have brothers. Can you believe those two?"

Elizabeth smiles, "You're welcome......and, unfortunately, yes, I can believe it." She laughs a little as she puts her arm around the young woman, "Aren't we just the family that you've always dreamed of having?"

As Sheppard watches Harper and Elizabeth walk off, he rounds on Lorne and Rodney. "Okay, I don't want to hear any more of that on this mission. There are better things to talk about than what Harper and Ronon do on their down time."

"Oh come on you want to know. I mean you would kill him right?"

"Rodney of course he would but get your mind out of the gutter."

Rodney looks at Lorne then to Sheppard. "Fine! I'm done annoying you I'll just wait till later. So do I get any weapons?"

Harper smiles and laughs a bit. "Yeah I think so well except for Rodney no one could ever dream of him. So is everyone ready for the big plan?"

Elizabeth removes her arm from Harper's shoulder as they enter the equipment room. She grins as she walks up to one of the lockers. "Yes, Rodney is certainly beyond imagining....."

She punches in a code on the pad, and the door swings open. She reaches in a pulls out the containers of PCDs and glasses, handing a few of them to Harper, and taking a few of them herself. "I certainly hope that everyone is ready."

She closes the locker door and picks up her containers. "I'm pretty sure that this will be enough." Harper nods, and the two of them head back out to the jumper bay.

Harper starts putting on one of the glasses. "These are so glamorous aren't they?" She questions as she makes a pose showing off the glasses.

Elizabeth laughs at Harper's antics. "I've never really thought about it....but I suppose they are. They're not Rabands, but they work pretty well." She grins knowing that Harper is too young to have been a part of the Raband craze, but she knows that the others will get it........well, the others from earth anyway.

Harper only stares at Elizabeth as she tries to hold on to the other glasses as she walks. "Whatever floats your boat."

Elizabeth chuckles, then gives Harper a fond look. "You know, Harper, I'm really going to miss having you on my ship."

Harper claps her hands together as she still holds onto the glasses. "Well I could stay for awhile with you on the ship."

Michael looked at Teyla as he handed her son back to her. "Here you go son back to your mother. I'll deal with you later." He states as he looks at Teyla as he swifts his hand across her shoulder. He then goes into his lab and starts on his project.

Teyla sighs with relief but concern still on her face for her friend, Netia. She cradles Tagan close soothing his whimpers. She hoped her friends from Atlantis arrived very soon before it was too late for Netia.

Elizabeth smiles sadly, "Sweetie, there is nothing that I would like more, but they need you on Atlantis.......besides, you'd miss Ronon too much!" She tries to be light hearted, but finds it hard. She looks away to hide any sadness that might be showing on her face.

She suddenly grins as she looks at the group on the other side of the room. There is a mischievous glint in her eye as she turns to Harper, "Nobody has noticed us yet, Harper........we could have some fun with the PCDs."

Harper smiled knowing she wished she had to choose between staying with Elizabeth and not seeing any of her friends again. This is what Elizabeth must feel. Harper snaps out of her thought and nods to Elizabeth. "Sure that sounds great."

Elizabeth grins wickedly and pulls two PCDs from the box at the top of her stack. She hands one to Harper, then puts one on herself, setting her stack of containers quietly down by a wall, a motioning for Harper to do the same.

She activates her PCD and Harper does the same. She leans over and whispers, "Remember to keep those glasses on, or you won't be able to see me." The young woman nods, and they both begin to sneak towards the unsuspecting group.

The two women stealthily approach Harper's "brothers", each one then bending down at their feet. Elizabeth begins to untie Lorne's bootlaces, and Harper does the same with Rodney's. They then tie the laces together, and stand up, not alerting either man in anyway. Elizabeth grins and nods to Harper.

Harper walks up to Rodney and starts to whisper in his ear. "That hot replicator is checking you out." Rodney turns and looks at the girl crew member who was in the room and fixes his jacket up as he starts to walk up to her. He falls flat on his face as Lorne gets drugged down with him. Rodney looks at Lorne. "Get off me!" Lorne gets up only to fall again because Rodney moved his leg. Rodney seems that they are tied together and looks at the girl who is now laughing. Man there's no chance she wants me now. He looks up. "Who did this?"

Harper starts laughing knowing she can't hold it in and looks at Elizabeth giving her the thumbs up sign.

Elizabeth starts laughing too, and knows that their cover is now blown, so she taps her PCD and uncloaks. Harper does the same one second later. Elizabeth crosses her arms, but cannot hide the humor on her face. "Now boys, are you still fooling around?"

"You!" Rodney points to Harper with anger in his face. "And you!" He now points at Weir. "Which one of you planned this?"

Lorne starts to laugh as he unties himself from Rodney and helps him up. "Does it matter it was funny."

Rodney looks at Elizabeth and hugs her. "This is for not letting me get killed yet."

Elizabeth grin's at Lorne's comment, "I'm glad you can be a good sport, Major."

She is about to say something else, but is grabbed by Rodney. She is startled by the hug - this was not a reaction she was expecting. She looks at the others with confusion, but then puts her arms around him. "Um.......you're welcome, I suppose."

Rodney lets go on her. "Well your crew seems to hate me and with my comment about you and John I'm surprised that no one killed me yet."

Harper rolls her eyes as she picks up the boxes that Elizabeth and her set down and handed them to Lorne who started to hand them out.

Elizabeth smiles gently, "My crew doesn't hate you, Rodney.......they're just very protective of me." She pats him on the shoulder, "It would take a really good reason for them to hurt you.......so don't give them one, okay?"

Rodney looks at her. "Does that mean I can't ask one out on a date? That girl over there was checking me out."

Elizabeth glances towards the Asuran he is referring to, and smiles. "Asurans don't really check anyone out, Rodney." She manages to keep a straight face despite Harper's giggles, "But if you wish to talk to her when we get back from the mission, by all means, do so."

Rodney puts a hand on his chin thinking about that idea and then looks at Elizabeth. "Maybe but Carter will be there and she is so in love with me. I couldn't do that to her."

Elizabeth hears John burst out laughing at that comment, but she doesn't look at him for fear of bursting into laughter herself. "Ah........no comment on that Rodney."

She looks at the group, "Is everyone ready?"

Rodney looks around at the group who are all snickering. "What she does! Ask her!"

Harper and Lorne nod to Elizabeth as they start to get out their weapons. Harper tries to take one of the guns laid on the table but Lorne grabs it and hands her a knife. "You'll be in a jumper you don't need a gun."

Elizabeth looks at Lorne, "You of all people know that anything could happen down there, Major. We all need to be prepared, so give her back the gun."

Lorne rolled his eyes and did what he was told and handed Harper a gun. Harper grabbed it and smiled. "Thank you Lorne."

"Let's start with some the unaffected DNA first and see if we can transform it to get it to work as an anti-Wraith DNA virus so to speak...reversing the process..." Carson says.

Carson takes the samples Caylon hands him and prepares to begin the arduous task of splicing. Raena and Caylon also assume their own workstations to begin the same tedious job.

Caylon and Raena both nod and they all return to the lab. All three are very focused as they begin their work.

As the others have been bantering, Sheppard has been running over the plan in his head. Satisfied with it, he turns his attention to the others in time to hear Elizabeth say "We've reached the planet." Sheppard catches her eye and she nods to let him know that everyone is ready. "Alright, everyone, listen up..." The room falls silent as Sheppard speaks. "You all know your positions. Stay with your teams at all times...no heroics." He says this more so to the non-military members of the party, specifically eyeing Harper when he says it. "Got it?" Everyone nods in agreement. "Okay, teams Alpha and Charlie you're in jumper one with me. Beta...in jumper three with Lorne and Elizabeth. Let's load up and get this rescue mission started." With that, the party breaks into two groups and loads into the jumpers. After running the pre-flight checks, the two jumpers lift off from the jumper bay of Elizabeth's ship and head down to the planet.

Lorne and Harper got into jumper 3 and started off following behind Sheppard's jumper. Lorne flicked his ear piece to contact the Alpha team. "Whenever you are ready to land sir. We have your back. Weapons are already in target."

Rodney sat in a chair trying to figure out if he could device Teyla from air but no such luck.

Sheppard hits his ear piece to respond. "Here we go then."

Lorne watches as Sheppard and his team make their way down to the planet. Waiting for any signs of trouble.

Meanwhile Michael was in his lab working on his project. He was heavily into it and his guards were around the areas where they thought the girls might escape from.

Rodney looked at Sheppard. "I can't detect Teyla from this device anymore its dead. We will have to do this on foot. I can try to configure the beam technology Elizabeth gave us but it will take some time for that."

Elizabeth nods and heads into her jumper. Nalu sits in the pilot's seat and powers up the jumper. Lorne takes the co-pilot's seat, with Elizabeth directly behind him and Harper across from her. Elizabeth takes a seat, then looks at Nalu, "Nalu, stay cloaked until John gives the order. We don't want them to know we're there before he's ready." Nalu nods, and guides the jumper out of the bay close behind the Atlantis jumper.

In the lab Carson throws up his arms in frustration, "Ach, this is much harder than I thought it was going to be." He turns to Raena and Caylon who are regarding his outburst with a look of interest.
"Any luck?"

Caylon shakes his head slightly, "Very little, I'm afraid, Doctor. It took us some time just to discover what we have shown you thus far." Raena nods at that, but says, "I am confident that our combined efforts will be successful, however."

Raena's console suddenly beeps, and she looks down. "Interesting....."

Carson looks up at Raena, "What's interesting?"

Raena motions him over, "Take a look at this, Doctor."

Carson frowns, "Aye...I see what you mean...what do you make of it?"

Raena looks at Carson as Caylon joins them at the console. "I am not quite sure. Have you seen anything like this in your retro-virus research?"

Carson studies the DNA sample again...closer this time. "Actually..." he says, "I have." He straightens up and looks at Caylon and Raena...and struggles from cracking a grin. "We call it dust."

Caylon and Raena exchange a look.

"Your glass tray is dirty..." He explains...somehow managing to keep a straight face.

Keller slung the bag over her shoulders heading off with the Alpha team. She jogged up to Ronon. "John said to stick with you. I'll try not to get in your way." She tried a smile.

Ronon glanced at Keller, a slight smile on his face. "Just stay behind me and we won't have a problem."

"I can do that," Keller replies.

Harper looks at Elizabeth as she then turns back to her work station as Lorne tries to see if he can find any trouble.

Caylon and Raena look at each other, and then Caylon looks at Carson. "That would be quite impossible, Doctor. All of our tools are kept completely sanitary." He thinks for a moment, "Unless it came from the specimen itself." A thought occurs to him, and he glances at Raena then back to Carson.

"Correct me if I am wrong, but dust is just a broad term for dry particles. It is the substance to which something, such as a dead human body, is ultimately reduced by disintegration or decay." Excitement begins to build in his face and he looks at Carson, "This may actually work in our favor."

Carson frowned...a bit confused, "I'm afraid I can't say I know what you mean."

Caylon touches a few controls, deep in thought. He looks up when he hears Carson's statement and explains, "As you know, once death occurs, human decomposition takes place in four stages: autolysis, putrefaction, decay, and diagenesis - or in simpler terms: fresh, bloat, decay, and dry. In the first stage of decomposition, the process is limited to the production of vapors. In the second stage, liquid materials form and the flesh begins to decompose, and so on......."

"There are, of course, environmental influences that will affect decomposition, but the process of tissue breakdown normally takes from several days to years. This specimen has already reached the diagenesis stage - in only a matter of hours! This sample was taken from the body almost immediately after we recovered it - which was only hours after the attack, in which they died. It has been carefully preserved since that time and could not have decayed further. That being the case, it should only be in the earliest of the fresh stage. It should not have even yet progressed to the putrefaction stage, let alone already reach diagenesis."

Caylon looks at Raena, "This was taken from the brain tissue, correct?" When Raena nods, he returns his attention to Carson. "The Wraith DNA appears to be breaking down the brain cells of the hybrids, and I believe that Michael's attempts to control their minds is responsible for it. No doubt this is not a side-effect that he anticipated."

He looks down at the screen again, "The speed with which Michael's virus is breaking down the host cells works in our favor, in that I believe - now that I understand what it is doing - we will be able to create an anti-virus that works just as quickly to repair that damage. However, it is also a concern to me - I have no way of knowing how much damage has already occurred in each hybrid, nor do I know how much more will have occurred by the time we are able to successfully create an anti-virus."

He looks up sadly, "Some may already be past helping."

Carson nodded in response, "Aye, but we can try to help as many as possible! Now, how should we start? As I feel you are really onto something here?"

Caylon touches some controls and studies the screen before replying, "The brain cells appear to be the only cells that are degrading, so I believe we should focus on targeting them first." He looks up, "I believe it would also be wise to include something in the anti-virus that would inhibit Michael's mental interference while repairing the cells."

Carson nods and studies the display closely. "Maybe," he says thoughtfully. "We could incorporate nanites to counterattack mental interference and also help with the rebuilding and repairing of the cells. And then program the nanites to render themselves inert when they have finished their task. What do you think?"

Sheppard kept his eyes on the screen in front of him as he piloted the puddle jumper. "We don't have that much time Rodney." He pulled up the HUD and scanned for any life signs. A large number of dots appear on the screen, some of them more scattered than others. "That's where we need to go." Sheppard remarks as he points to a clearing next to the largest concentration of dots. Tapping his earpiece, he calls jumper 3. "Lorne, we're going to set down in a clearing east of the largest number of life signs."

Lorne taps his ear piece. "Ok stay safe sir."

Rodney looks at Sheppard. "Are you sure you don't want to be in Mensa. It's fun."

Sheppard shoots Rodney a look. "Yeah, I'm sure." To himself, Sheppard thinks..."That was random." Hearing Lorne's response, Sheppard replies..."Will do." At that, Sheppard takes the jumper to a lower altitude to prepare for a landing.

Rodney then takes his gun and puts it in his belt then looks over at Ronon and Keller. "Ronon take care of Keller will ya. I have a date with her when we get back and well I would hate if something were to happen."

Ronon just stares back at Rodney before nodding his head slightly.

Rodney rolls his eyes. "What you don't believe me! Come on! Give me some credit here."

Sheppard looks at Rodney. "I think he was agreeing to protect Keller, Rodney." He glances back at Ronon who has a smile on his face. "Yep."

"Oh," Rodney stated as he lowered his head to the floor.

Keller shook her head and began checking out her sidearm. She had been taught how to handle a gun but only used it at practice. She just hoped when the time came she could aim just as well as she did out in the field.

Rodney looked at Keller and her side arm. "Woh! Don't shoot!"

Keller let out a sly smile. "Don't worry Rodney I'd probably miss any major organs but I'm guessing you could call your balls major."

Rodney glared at Keller. "Fine see if I come to you as my doctor from here on out."

"I took an oath to do no harm but if I don't know about it I should be just fine so fine next time you get a splinter just deal with it." Keller smiled.

Rodney looked hurt and shocked at the same time. "Fine you can be my doctor just to let you know I'm not happy about it." He rolled his eyes as he got ready to look over the display panels as Sheppard and Ronon got ready to scope the area out.

Keller held in a laugh at the child like ways of the man she had just agreed to go out on a date with.

Raena smiles, "That was my thought exactly, Dr. Beckett."

Caylon nods, "Yes, I believe that nanites are the only way that we will be able to accomplish what needs to be done."

He glances at Raena, who nods, then turns back to Carson. "Caylon has extensive knowledge of the workings of a great many species, but I have an extensive knowledge of the workings of our species - in particular, the intricacies of our nanites." She smiles, "Programming the nanites will not be difficult." Her smile fades slightly, "Creating the anti-virus will be."

Her smile returns as she looks into Carson's eyes. I am pleased that not only have you accepted having nanites in yourself, but that that acceptance has led you to suggest using them to help others. I have no doubt that this will also please Cmdr. Weir.

Carson smiles at her words and hopes against hope that his cheeks aren't flushing...although...the fact that they feel rather warm is a clue that they probably are. "You're very kind," he responds. "I'm afraid the doctor in me will do just about anything to help people."

He stretches his arms over his head, "Shall we start on the anti-virus?"

Both the Asurans nod, and return to their individual consoles. Caylon touches his screen, then looks at Carson. "I have transferred the rate of brain cell degeneration to your console. I believe that understanding the rapidity of the virus will help us in creating the anti-virus."

"Aye!" Carson nods in agreement.

They work quietly on their consoles for a time, all deeply focused. Caylon looks up from his console briefly, and notices a strange expression on Raena's face. "Raena? What is it?"

She looks up, startled from her thoughts. "I am not quite sure." She looks at Carson as he walks over to her, "What do you make of this, Dr. Beckett?"

"There's the clearing." Sheppard says suddenly. "I'm going to set her down closer to the tree line."

Sheppard checks his weapon and looks over at Ronon. "You ready?" Ronon raises an eyebrow as he switches his gun's setting to kill. "Yep." Nodding, Sheppard shifts his gaze to Rodney and Keller. "We're heading out. If we're not back in 30 minutes, take the jumper to the rendezvous point and wait for Lorne."

Rodney nods to Sheppard. "Got ya."

With that, Sheppard looks at Ronon and motions with his head to move out. Just before they exit the jumper, Sheppard stops and taps the radio in his ear. "Lorne, we're going to scout the perimeter. I want complete radio silence from this point on. Okay?"

Lorne taps his radio twice telling Sheppard he understands. Atlantis had so many codes Lorne learned them all in a week before leaving.

Sheppard taps his radio once in reply and turns to Ronon. "Let's go." Looking back at Rodney, he says..."30 minutes." With that, Sheppard and Ronon leave the jumper to begin their scouting mission.

After a 10 minute trek through the woods, Sheppard and Ronon come upon a one-story complex consisting of four inter-connected buildings. "This should be fun." Sheppard remarks sarcastically as he takes in the complex. He pulls out his binoculars to survey the area. "Looks like there are two guards at every door. Question is, which door leads to Teyla and the others?" Ronon smiles slightly. "You'll just have to find out." "That's exactly what I was thinking." With that, the two men circle around to the back of the complex, being sure not to alert the guards to their presence. As soon as they settle into their hiding spot, Sheppard notices that the door to one of the buildings is built differently than the others. Tapping Ronon on the arm, he hands over his binoculars and points. "See that?" Ronon grunts. "See what?" Sheppard rolls his eyes as he takes the binoculars back from Ronon. "Let's head back to the jumper and I'll explain there." Quickly, the two of them double back and make their way back to the jumper.

Rodney was watching Keller as Sheppard and Ronon came back. He looks at the men. "I guess we are ready?" Sheppard nods.

A couple minutes later Rodney was with Sheppard walking to their spot. "Do you know what room she is in?"

Keller swung on her bag. "Tell me what to do and I'll do it."

Sheppard shakes his head. "We didn't get to go in. The lock on the door is more complicated than the others and the door itself is set into the walls." He lets out a sigh and scratches his head. "We'll just have to do it the hard way."

While Sheppard and Rodney talk, Ronon and Keller follow closely behind. "Are you ready for this?" Ronon asks Keller as he glances over at her.

Keller let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Yes." she shook her head erratically.

Ronon's eyes gleam with a smile. "We'll make a soldier out of you yet."

She let out a small laugh. "Oh I think I'll just stick with the infirmary after this although a couple of lessons in how to fight wouldn't be so bad. I guess."

A small smile appears on Ronon's face. "Whenever you're ready..."

"After this is over I think I'll be ready for anything. I say we go find Teyla and kick some butt."

Ronon lets out a laugh at Keller's enthusiasm. Pulling out his gun, he gives it a good twirl and sets it back in its holster. "I'm ready."

"Good then let's go kick some Wraith butt." Keller felt at ease knowing Ronon would protect her.

Ronon just smiles and shakes his head. "Women..."

"Make your life complete. Right?" She eyed him daring him to saying anything. "Needles just remember needles."

Rodney looks at John. "Wait, you mean you want me to pick a lock?" I can't do that."

Sheppard shoots Rodney a look. "Don't worry, McKay. All we have to do is wait for Lorne and Elizabeth to make some noise and the door will be opened for us."

Rodney smiles at him. "Ah yes well I hope it's that easy."

Keller shot Rodney a look. "Needles."

Rodney looks at Keller as the guards pass them. He then goes off with Sheppard.

Lorne started up the weapons and looks at Elizabeth. "Let's hope this works." He states as he blasted the drones out of the jumper and they head for a small building that Sheppard had stated was a target.

With the blast making the ground shake Michael ran out to his men looking angry. "What are you doing just standing there? Go now!" He yelled as his men ran past the hall Teyla was in to the door that Sheppard and his team was waiting on the other side of. The men opened the door and saw that no people were around so they ran off to the direction the blast came from as Lorne blasted some more of the targeted area. Michael had thought nothing of this and went back to his lab knowing very well these men could take care of the problem.

As Michael's men rush out of the building, Sheppard deftly sticks his boot in the doorway to keep it from closing. "Good thing Elizabeth had these PCDs." He thinks to himself as he motions for his team to enter. Once his team is inside, Sheppard takes one last look in Ronon's and Keller's direction before letting the door slide shut. Glancing around, Sheppard taps his radio once to let Lorne and Ronon know that his team is inside the complex.

"They're in." Ronon says with a glance at Keller as he hears the signal.

Keller began to pray as she moved with him. No one could get hurt on this expedition. "Where do we go from here?"

Rodney looks and watches Sheppard looks around the room making sure no one was coming when Rodney gets out his device and looks for 3 live signs together. The device was still not working to its fullest but he did notice 3 people all together in the south corner of the building. He hands the device to Sheppard to take look to see where they will be going.

Lorne smiles and turns to Elizabeth and Harper. "They are in now all we need to do is keep the wraith away from that tower." He pointed to the one building that was quite larger than the others.

Harper looks at the weapons screen. "We have enough for another round in a bit."

Hearing the commotion and the quick footsteps outside her door, Teyla knew something unexpected was happening. She hoped and prayed that Netia was ok and that Michael was not hurting her. She could hear the sound of P-90 fire and knew the Atlantis team and finally come. She begin yelling, "John....John!"

Elizabeth nods, seeing John and Rodney's life signs on the jumper's detector. "There are three life signs not too far from their position; they are heading towards them." She looks at Lorne, "Let's hope they are Teyla, her son, and Netia."

She then turns to Nalu. "You know what to do, Nalu." The Asuran nods, and the jumper uncloaks after one of the hybrid's shot barely misses it. Elizabeth explains to Harper, "They were shooting blind, but we want them to think that one of their shots caused our cloak to fail so they will follow us without suspecting anything."

She smiles as the girl nods, but notices that she still looks a little uneasy. "Don't worry, Harper, Nalu is one of the best pilots in three galaxies. They won't be able to shoot us down...or even damage us, for that matter."

Harper smiles at Elizabeth and then looks at Nalu hoping he could fly the jumper.

Michael's men ran around on the ground shooting up in the air where they saw the jumper appear. "Keep shooting!" one of the men stated as another one ran to get into a dart.

Sheppard takes the life-signs detector from Rodney and looks at the screen. Handing the detector back to Rodney, Sheppard motions for his team to deactivate the PCDs and head in the direction of the three life signs. Cautiously, they move through the building.

Rodney points to the way where Teyla should be but they stop and see two wraith guards standing next to the door going into the room they needed to get into.

Sheppard waves his team back into the shadows before the Wraith guards notice them. Pointing at the life-signs detector, Sheppard shoots Rodney a "What happened?" look.

Rodney glares at him and rolls his eyes as he starts choking himself and looking at the guards knowing Sheppard wouldn't get what he was saying anyways.

Sheppard glares at Rodney for a moment before shifting his gaze to the other members of the team. Using his free hand, Sheppard signs to his men to fan out and open fire on the Wraith guards on his mark. He takes a deep breath and steps out of the shadows so that the Wraith will see him. "Hi ya fellas."

Ronon and Keller are outside of the complex shooting any soldiers that come out of the buildings.

More and more Wraith soldiers pour from the complex. Popping up from his spot behind a ridge, Ronon takes aim and fires off a couple of rounds before ducking back down. Ronon glances over at Keller as he checks his weapon. "How are you doing' on ammo?"

"Running low." Keller emptied her clip replacing it with another shooting at the Wraith that just seemed to pour from everywhere. She took a breath moved and took aim firing.

Reaching behind his back, Ronon pulls out an extra clip from his back pocket. "Here!" He yells as he tosses the extra clip to Keller. "That's the last clip!"

Keller emptied her last clip clicking in Ronon's. "If we don't get a miracle soon it won't matter." She was a doctor for cryin' out loud not a soldier. But she'd be dammed if she didn't do her best to fight.

Ronon nods at Keller's statement as he takes aim at another Wraith hybrid. "Now would be a good time for reinforcements." He thinks to himself.

One wraith guard jumps on Sheppard trying to rip him to pieces as Rodney shoots another guard that is coming up to him. "They are surrounding us!"

"Now!" Sheppard yells as he struggles to throw the Wraith guard off of him. The sound of P-90 fire explodes throughout the room as Sheppard's team opens fire on the incoming Wraith soldiers.

Rodney starts shooting around really not getting any wraiths. The guard on Sheppard gets thrown off and lands on the floor exposing his keys to the door. He looks up and tries to grab them.

Elizabeth is monitoring the life signs detector, when she suddenly stops and tilts her head slightly. Her eyes narrow and she turns to Lorne. "One of my crew that is with John has just communicated to me that they have engaged some hybrids outside of what they believe to be Teyla's cell. The team outside of the facility has also been engaged, so our distraction is no longer of use."

She turns to Nalu, "Nalu, recloak and head back. We need to cover them."

The Wraith guard twists out of McKay's reach just as he grabs for the keys. Sheppard quickly raises his gun and pulls the trigger. As the Wraith falls, Sheppard snatches the keys off of its belt and jerks his head in the direction of the door. "Let's move!"

Lorne nods. "Well I was hoping to get some more shots in but I guess I can wait for that later on."

Rodney looks around at the 12 dead Wraith that had come to attack them. "Wow Sheppard how many did you take out?"

Sheppard raises an unamused eyebrow at Rodney. "Wanna pick up the pace Rodney?" With that, Sheppard jogs over to the door and uses the newly confiscated keys to unlock it. He pushes the door open to see that there are two rows of cells lined up on either wall. "Teyla?!"

Elizabeth suddenly looks at Lorne. "Ronon and his team are running low on ammunition." She turns to her pilot, "Nalu, head to their position; we need to take out the hybrids that are attacking them.....but do not uncloak."

She turns to Harper, "They are going to need more ammunition, Harper. Once we subdue the hybrids that are currently attacking them, we need to resupply the team's ammunition by dropping some out of the back hatch. We will need to do it quickly so that the hatch is only open very briefly....are you ready for this?"

Harper nods and jumps out of her seat. "I'm ready." She states grabbing more ammo and heading for the back of the jumper. "Tell me when you are ready."

Nalu expertly maneuvers the jumper and quickly takes out the hybrids attacking Ronon's team. He moves the jumper to hover directly over Ronon's position, and touches a control to open the back hatch.

Elizabeth hears the hatch opening and stands up, "Oh and, Harper, make sure that you strap in before...." She turns toward the hatch, her sentence dying in her throat. "Harper?????"

Harper with the ammo in her hands falls out of the jumper landing on the box of ammo and a dead wraith. She looks up to the jumper then to Ronon and Keller. "Hey guys how's it going?"

Keller watched the enemy ships blow up then look to her friend who was laying on a wraith. "Harper!" Keller kept her gun up and held out her hand to her friend. "You always do make an entrance."

Harper grabs Keller's hand and gets up. "Thanks I need to make my presence known."

Lorne looks at Elizabeth and smirks. "She isn't the brightest is she?"

Ronon's eyes light up in semi-amusement at Harper's little gymnastic trick. "It's going." He says with a shrug as he shoots yet another Wraith warrior.

Elizabeth shakes her head at Lorne as she quickly straps in, then leans out of the hatch, "She's actually the brightest young woman I have ever met, but in this particular case....I'm going to have to go with no."

She looks down at Harper who is awkwardly strewn below the jumper, and actually has to stifle laughter at the site. "Harper, are you alright?"

Harper looks at the dead wraith underneath her and slowly stands up and looks up at Elizabeth. "Just peachy! Might as well throw the other ammo down here since I'm here and all."

Elizabeth shakes her head again, and turns to take the remaining ammo from Lorne. She turns back and drops it to the ground. "Congratulations, Harper.....you've just earned yourself a spot on Ronon's team." She smirks, "You're going to have to explain this one to your uncle, though."

She then gives Ronon a mischievous look, "Good luck, Ronon." With that, she leans back into the jumper and the hatch closes, leaving Harper staring up at nothing.

Ronon smiles up at Elizabeth and returns the look. "Same to you."

Harper looks back to Ronon and Keller only smiling.

Lorne looks at Elizabeth. "Good call. Make Ronon and Keller deal with her wanting to fight. So have you been fighting since you been gone? Maybe you need someone to help you fight whatever you guys are fighting."

Elizabeth grins as she removes the strap. "Yes, and I'm sure that John is going to be SO happy to see her down there, too!"

Her smile fades at Lorne's question. She heads back to the front of the jumper as they move away from the ground team and takes a seat before answering, "Yes, I've been fighting.....in fact I don't think I've ever stopped fighting."

She looks at him, "Our enemies are the same as Atlantis - the Wraith." There is sadness in her eyes as she continues, "While I would, of course, welcome your help....your life is in Atlantis. You're needed there, and the City shouldn't lose another of its people." She smiles, although the smile doesn't reach her eyes. "Thank you for offering, though, Major."

Lorne smiles at her statement. "I guess wanted to let you know you don't have to be alone out here."

Harper smiles and nods. "That's good." She states as she fires a gun at a wraith coming their way. "How many does Michael have?"

"A lot." Ronon says simply.

Harper looks at Ronon. "Lucky I am here. I can do a lot."

Rodney nods as he then turns to the women and hands each a PCD'S. "This will make it easier for us to get out of here. Plus that means I won't have to try to kill any wraith."

Ronon just shakes his head as they continue to fight. "I bet."

Rodney looks at the team. "Okay guys let's move out." He states as they all put the cloaks on.

Harper looks at Ronon as a Wraith comes up from behind her. She tosses herself backwards knocking him out of place and then double kicks him on the ground shooting him. She then sees foot prints in the dirt and no one around them. "I think they found Teyla." Pointing to the foot prints.

Sheppard stands at the doorway waiting for Teyla to respond to his call. As he looks around the room, he hears a soft cry from the farthest cell to the left. "Tagan." He whispers to himself, rushing to the cell. He finds Teyla holding Tagan in her arms trying to calm the little boy down, Netia in the cell next to hers. Without a word, Sheppard swiftly unlocks each of their doors and motions them toward the exit. "We have to hurry. Our guys can't keep this up very much longer." Sheppard replies noticing the inquisitive look on Teyla's and Netia's faces.

Teyla nods her head sighing in relief. Netia and Teyla, holding Tagan, follow Sheppard outside of the cell.

Rodney sees Teyla, Tagan and Netia coming out and he runs and hugs them. "Thank God you are ok." Rodney now looks at Sheppard. "I can only guess what you are going to do now."

"Get them to the jumper." Sheppard replies with an air of finality.

Teyla grabs John's arm before he can leave. "John, don't forget your promise." Before he can respond, Netia collapses. Teyla is unable to catch her since she is carrying her son. "Netia...Netia!"

Sheppard frowns down at Netia's unconscious form. Kneeling down, Sheppard gently picks up Netia and carries her over to one of his men. "Johnston...take her." The soldier drops his P-90 by his side as Sheppard places Netia in his arms. He turns back to Rodney and nods. "Go. I'll be there as soon as I take care of something."

Teyla looks back at John and states, "John, be careful."

Sheppard nods reassuringly to Teyla before heading off to track down Michael.

Elizabeth and Lorne continued to provide cover when Elizabeth suddenly turns to Lorne with a smile. "They found them, Major! They are on their way out."

Lorne smiles and claps his hands together. "Great I say we blast these suckers then."

Teyla follows Johnston, carrying Netia, and Rodney back to the jumper to wait for Sheppard to return.

Rodney uncloaks and sees Harper, Ronon and Keller. "Keller we need you come back with us to the jumper Netia fainted." Keller follows them to John's jumper and Rodney starts it up flying to Elizabeth's ship. "Teyla are you okay?"

"Rodney, I am fine," Teyla replies caressing Tagan who is sleeping.

Harper looks at Ronon as the team leaves. "Looks like its just us."

Ronon looks at Harper with raised eyebrow. Tapping his radio, Ronon says "You forgot somebody McKay."

Michael sat in his lab working on yet another virus he had created. This one has to be perfect. He looks up and drops his test tube shattering on the floor. "Sheppard."

"Hello Michael." Sheppard says flatly as he steps further into the room. "You've been busy."

Michael smirks. "Making viruses killing people and you?"

Elizabeth smiles, "Agreed." She then turns to the pilot, "Nalu, John is still in the building and Ronon and Harper are still on the ground, and we need to make sure that they all remain safe, so stay in this area so we can continue to provide cover fire."

She returns her gaze to Lorne, "Major, we need to be prepared to pick the three of them up quickly as soon as John comes out, so Nalu isn't going to land.....he's just going to get as close to the ground as possible so that they can jump in."

Lorne nods and gets up from his seat. "I'll make a nice tied rope for them to get up easier." He then grabs some rope from the storage.

Elizabeth turns to Lorne and says in a mock stern voice, "Do I need to remind you to strap in, Major?"

Lorne chuckled. "Ha don't worry about me Dr. Weir." He states as he fixes up the rope.

Rodney taps his ear piece again. "No she asked to stay plus you might need help out there big guy. See you soon." He then turns to Teyla. "How's Tagan?"

Teyla smiles at Rodney, "He is sleeping. Thank you for your concern." The smile fades followed by concern on her face. "Can you track Col. Sheppard?"

Rodney drives the jumper into the ship. "Michael didn't do anything to him did he? Why am I the only person here that can fly this thing. I suck at this. I'm worse then Carson. No we cant the devices are broken. thats why we are on a Asurans space ship."

"Michael did not harm him. You are doing just fine, Rodney," Teyla replies. She looks back toward Netia who is still unconscious, "Dr. Keller, is she going to be ok?"

Netia couldn't see at first, her eyes were hazy. As they adjusted she could see a dark figure. Her eyesight still blurry, she tried to reach out to touch it. She tried to talk, the words were stuck, frozen. The world spun as it went dark again.

Keller opened Netia eye's shinning her light in them. She flipped off her bag getting out her stethescope placing it to Netia's heart. "Ok she's in shock." The needle she had prepared shoting it into Netia's arm. "Come on Netia snap out of it." She wrapped her in a blanket.

Teyla eyes widen at the concern she reads from Jennifer's face.

Netia could hear a familar voice above her worry, "Why is this happening? She was just fine while we were locked up in that cell". She could hear more mumbling, but couldn't move. The cold, small pinch shot through Netia's arm as she gave a grunt of discomfort.

At hearing Rodney's response, Ronon turns angry eyes on Harper. "I don't NEED help."

Rodney only stops contact with Ronon.

Harper looks at Ronon. "No one said you needed help."

Ronon narrows his eyes at Harper. "You're not staying down here."

Harper looked at him. "Where do you want me to go? The Sky? They already left!"

"That's not the only jumper around here." Ronon remarks somewhat annoyed.

Harper shakes her head as she takes down a wraith. "Do you want me to fly up to Lorne's then?"

Ronon rolls his eyes at Harper before tapping his radio again. "Lorne, come in."

Lorne sets down the rope and taps his ear. "Yes Ronon. How's the fight?"

Ronon casually shoots a Wraith hybrid without looking away from Harper. "Come get Harper."

Harper rolls her eyes at Ronon. "Ronon!" She was starting to get ticked off at her boyfriend.
Lorne smiles. "Sorry can't trying to make a rope for you guys to climb up fast when Sheppard returns."

"I don't want her to be down here Lorne." Ronon states angrily, ignoring Harper.

Lorne chuckles. "Cheer up buddy it will all be over soon. Lorne out." He taps his radio off and finishes up the rope looking at Elizabeth. "Lovers corral."

Elizabeth shakes her head and laughs quietly. "They'll get over it, and Harper can actually be a great help.....when she's not falling out of jumpers that is."

Lorne smiles. "Remind me not to get a girlfriend while defending the world."

Ronon turns his gaze on Harper as Lorne cuts off communication. He lets out a frustrated sigh. "Why didn't you go with McKay and the others?!"

Harper shakes her hand and glares at Ronon. "I couldn't just leave you by yourself. You would be half dead by the time Sheppard comes back." She knew that Ronon would hate not being able to kill all the hybrids by himself but she didn't want to admit that she was always worried by his heroic acts. Sure she did know that Ronon was well Ronon way before she even started to like him like that.

"I'd rather be half dead than see you get hurt." Ronon fires back, obviously agitated with the situation. "Sheppard had you on the jumper team for a REASON, Harper."

"Just because you two want to protect me so damn hard doesn't mean I can't help." She then shoots two Wraith coming up to them. "Plus I like killing these things. If you have a problem with everything I do maybe we shouldn't even be in a relationship."

Not responding to Harper's statement, Ronon takes aim and fires off a few shots, killing the Wraith that had come up behind her. "Don't complicate this, Harper." Ronon says as he finally meets her gaze.

Sheppard shrugs as he moves to face Michael. "The usual...saving the galaxy from guys like you."

Michael chuckles. "How is that working out for you?"

Pulling his gun out of its holster, Sheppard takes aim at Michael. "I'd say it's working quite well actually."

Michael rolls his eyes as he whips around Sheppard tossing his gun far away. "If we are going to fight let it be hand to hand." He then turns and his eyes staying on John. "What do you say John?' He states pulling his fists up.

Sheppard stares at Michael intently for a moment. "Your funeral."

Michael chuckles as he punches Sheppard's cheek. "I say it will be yours."

Sheppard stumbles back from Michael's blow. Placing his finger on his lip, Sheppard draws it back to see blood. "Not if you keep fighting like that." He remarks straightening up.

Michael runs and tackles John down to the ground but John pushes him backwards. Michael now on the ground jumps back up and smirks. "That's all you got." He states as he punches John's chest as John grabs his arm.

Sheppard grabs Michael's arm and twists it behind his back. "I'm just getting started."

Michael smiles as he kicks Sheppard's knee and slams his hand into Sheppard's nose. He then turns around watching Sheppard in pain. Anger filled his eyes when he thought on the first time they had met and to the second time they met his anger roared!

Sheppard struggles to regain his balance as he reels from Michael's blows. "A-hole" He thinks to himself, shaking his head to clear the cobwebs. "He's better than I thought."

Michael then scratches Sheppard's cheek. "Come on where is this famous Colonel John Sheppard at? You are not him for sure."

Sheppard stares angrily at Michael for a second before charging him at full speed. He slams into Michael forcing the two of them to the floor. The two struggle on the floor for a bit, each punching and deflecting the other's blows. Finally, Sheppard is able to land a solid punch to Michael's jaw and sends him reeling into one of the lab's work stations. Test tubes full of chemicals fly onto the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces as Michael and Sheppard glare at one another.

Michael stands up and lowers his arms to his sides facing his palms outward laughing. "How dare you break my research! Now you been infected with my virus. Happy now Sheppy?" With that Michael rams Sheppard into the wall placing his hand over Sheppard's heart. "I should have done this when I was back on Atlantis." His eyes glow almost a yellow color but it was Michael's pure joy and anger over this man who turn him into this thing that will make him never stop running. Running from everything and everyone till he could be the best.

Teyla looks at Rodney with concern on her face, "Will you try to contact Col. Sheppard to see if he is ok? He has been gone for some time now." Tagan's eyes opened and he looked at his mother and smiled.

Rodney looks at Teyla. "No he is busy. He will be here." Rodney then turns around after landing the jumper into the ship then looking at Netia then to Teyla. "I thought you said he didn't do anything to you guys."

Teyla nods her head at Rodney and states, "I'm just worried about him, Rodney. After everything Michael has done, I hope he doesn't hurt him." She looks at Tagan and then down at Netia who was still unconscious. "I don't know what Michael did to her, but he did not harm myself or Tagan."

Rodney nods. "Well, don't worry. Keller will find something out soon."

"Damn right Rodney." Netia let out a grunt. "That's right come on Netia."

Caylon, Raena, and Carson are all broken from their concentration on Raena's console and look up simultaneously, all having received the communication that part of the team had returned to the ship with Teyla, Netia, and Tagan.

Raena looks at both males, "I believe that you both could be of assistance to them now.....they will need to be taken to the infirmary and given full exams."

They nod and both head out the door, Raena staying behind to continue the work on the ant-virus.

Sheppard glares at Michael as he grabs at the hand on his chest. Pushing with all of his might, Sheppard slowly breaks Michael's hold. "You're not taking me out that easily." At that, Sheppard knees Michael in the stomach, forcing him back.

Michael falls backwards and to the ground. Planning his next move he kicks Sheppard's foot making him fall down also. The tow start to fight each other while on the floor using chair's and broken pieces of glass really anything that would hurt the other. "Wanna bet?"

"Yeah." Sheppard says with determination in his eyes. Using what little momentum he has, Sheppard pushes Michael off of him and quickly rams an elbow in his face. He somewhat crawls, somewhat walks over to a standing table to gain his footing. "Time to finish this Michael."

Michael grabs something from his pocket and pulls it out. It took like a pen till Sheppard looked closer. Michael turned the switch on showing the large blade. He rams Sheppard on to the table barely fitting the man. He goes for Sheppard's shoulder.

Sheppard's eyes widen as he realizes what Michael is holding in his hand. Before he can react, Michael has him on the table and jabs the blade into his right shoulder. Pain courses through Sheppard's arm as he grabs Michael's hand and forces him back.

Michael smirks and pushes the blade deeper into Sheppard's shoulder. "How does that feel?" He backs away from Sheppard looking at him in pure amusement.

There is a sharp intake of breathe as Sheppard rolls off of the table and onto his feet. Grabbing the hilt, Sheppard grinds his teeth and slowly pulls the knife out of his shoulder. Blood seeps from the wound while Sheppard fends off a dizzy spell.

Michael rolls his eyes then stops it right on Sheppard's wound. "I can taste the blood."

Sheppard glares at Michael as he tightens his grip on the blade. Bracing himself against the pain, Sheppard races toward Michael with his knife at the ready. The force of the impact knocks Michael into the wall and Sheppard holds him there. "It's over Michael." With that, Sheppard plunges the knife into Michael's chest before he can react.

Michael's eyes stare at John. With his last breath Michael tries to get out a sentence. "Sheppard....I'm" With that Michael is dead.

Sheppard lowers his hand from the hilt of the blade, slowly moving away from Michael's lifeless body. His body aches from the exertion of the fight as his head spins from the loss of blood. He stumbles into the only remaining table and uses it to steady himself. Once his head clears a bit, Sheppard presses the button on his radio. "This is Sheppard. I'm on my way to the jumper." With that, he takes one last glance at the Wraith hybrid that has caused so many problems for his team and walks out of the lab.

Harper looks at Ronon as he points the gun to her. She can't stop shaking wondering if it was the real Ronon. Her eyes close and she hears a bang then quickly opens them to see a wraith lying on the ground dead behind her. She gazes back at him almost tearing up but she shakes it off. "Complicate this? Complicate what? You are yelling at me for staying! You're the one making this a big deal." Harper keeps ranting as a Wraith guard grabs her from behind and puts his hand on her chest. Harper looks at Ronon in shock.

Anger enters Ronon's eyes as the Wraith guard grabs Harper. Quickly, Ronon raises his gun and fires at the Wraith all the while charging toward it. As the Wraith jerks from the impact of weapon's fire, Ronon slams into it and rips it away from Harper. He shoots the Wraith a few more times for insurance, turning to Harper only after he's sure it is dead. "Are you okay?!"

Harper looks at Ronon then to her hand that she had put on her chest. She slowly moved it away seeing the blood. "I don't know."

Concern in his eyes, Ronon walks over to where Harper is now sitting. He kneels down beside her and looks at the blood on her hand and chest. "Do you feel any different?" Ronon asks, a deep frown on his face.

Harper shakes her head. "Not really." She starts to speak on how she felt different a black rope fell from the sky. Ronon and she look up to see Lorne's jumper with Lorne hanging on the rope. "You two killed all the wraith guards on the life signs detector. It's time to come up."

Harper smiles as she covers the upper part of her eyes since the sun glares right at them. "We killed everything?" Lorne nods and Harper points to her chest, "I got hurt so getting up might be a problem." She then looks to Ronon, "I can't move my left arm. it stings can you help me up?"

Ronon's frown becomes darker as he extends his hand to help Harper up. Wordlessly, Ronon takes the rope and ties it around Harper's waist. "Alright, Lorne," he says pulling on the rope as a signal. Once Harper is in the jumper, Ronon follows suit.

Lorne shuts the jumper's hatch. "Are you guys ok?" Harper nods then turns to Ronon and hugs him. "Thanks for saving me........again." She smiles and closes her eyes since the pain felt worst.

Ronon does not return Harper's smile knowing that she is in pain. "We need to get you to the infirmary." Turning to Lorne and Elizabeth, he continues. "Have you heard from Sheppard?"

Elizabeth starts to reply, but Lorne beats her to it. Lorne shakes his head. "No not yet."

Harper takes her time fixing herself into her seat. "He will be okay. I know it."

Ronon nods as he turns to look at Harper's wound. "I don't like the look of that."

Elizabeth becomes alarmed when she sees Harper's wound and rushes over to the girl's side. "What happened?"

Harper sighs in relife that her uncle is ok. She then turns back to Ronon and Elizabeth. "I'm fine its not that bad anymore."

Lorne turns to Elizabeth. "So should we leave now?"

Elizabeth reaches up and pulls down the first aid kit, beginning to treat Harper's wound. "Not bad? It's not that good either." She sighs as she gently cleans it out, then bandages it. "I'm not Carson, but this will do until we get back to the ship."

She gently places her hand on Harper's cheek, love and concern shining in her eyes. She smiles humorlessly, "Why are you Sheppards always getting yourselves hurt?"

Elizabeth is then distracted by Lorne's question, but before she can reply, John contacts them. Elizabeth's is instantly all business. "Nalu, head to the facility." Nalu nods and maneuvers the jumper to where John is just exiting and manages to lower it enough that John can just jump in with little effort.

Elizabeth's look of relief disappears when she sees the blood on John's jacket. "John! Not you too!"

Sheppard looks down at his shoulder before gazing at Elizabeth with a sheepish grin on his face. "It's nothing...just a little farewell present from Michael." His smile fades as he sees the blood on Harper's shirt. "What happened?"

As Keller cleaned up the needle wound, Netia slowly opened her eyes. The slits of light were extremely bright. "Jennifer, make this is the first and last time you stick me with those things," Netia said as she tried to stand up. However, Keller's mysteriously strong arm pushed her back down. Netia looked shocked as she wrapped herself in the blanket next to her.

"Only if you stay out of trouble," Keller responds.

"Oh, but what's the fun in that?" Netia laughs with Keller as the jumper takes off.

A smile forms on Teyla's face as Netia begins to regain consciousness. "Netia! I'm so glad you are awake. What did Michael do to you while you were in his lab?" Tagan cooed as Teyla spoke to Netia.

"I.. I don't really know. He kept talking about..." Netia froze. As Keller was about to ask what was wrong, Netia screamed out in pain. Confused, Keller tried to find the source of pain. "It's Michael." Netia felt dizzy and couldn't focus. Her breathes became short and rapid. Keller tried desperately to help Netia.

Ronon looks at the wound for another moment before meeting Harper's gaze. "This is why I didn't want you down there."

Harper looked at her wound then to Ronon smiling. "And this is why I wanted down there. What can I say; I like the action."

Ronon shakes his head, the frown returning to his face. "I'm not the one that got hurt."

Harper smiles she is now patched up and sees blood on her uncle's jacket. "I can ask you the same thing. A wraith got me. I'm fine though."

Lorne is about to speak but an annoying voice is heard in his ear. "Where are you guys?" Lorne shakes his head. "The moon. We are at the moon Rodney."

Rodney shakes his head and laughs. "Ha ha very funny. Just get up here soon ok."

Lorne smiles. "Ok McKay." He then taps his ear piece off. "McKay wants to know when we are coming." He then looks at Sheppard. "Wait did I heard a farewell present?"

Rodney walks to where the others are. "I just got a hold of Lorne. I guess they are coming very soon. Netia are you doing any better?"

Netia, after regaining her breaths, looked at Rodney and smiled as she slowly stood up. "I am doing wonderful, I just want to get back to Atlantis," Netia sighs as she plays with Tagan.

Rodney looks at her and touches her shoulder lightly then looks at his hand and pulls back. "Um don't worry the others will be coming soon."

Elizabeth crosses her arms, her gaze alternating between the two Sheppards. "I don't know what I'm going to do with you two!" She sighs, motioning for John to sit down and begins tending his wound.

Without breaking her concentration on John, she shortly replies to Lorne, "Rodney will just have to be patient."

Sheppard frowns darkly at Harper. "I thought I told you to stay in the jumper? How did you get near a Wraith?" Before Harper can respond, Lorne breaks in with his question. Nodding, Sheppard turns to face Lorne. "Let's just say that Michael won't be doing anymore experiments." At that, Sheppard sits down next to Harper to let Elizabeth tend to his wound.

Lorne grins as Harper looks at Ronon then to John then back at Ronon. "And you called me complicated."

A small smile briefly flashes onto Ronon's face. "You are. At least with Sheppard I know what I'm getting into."

Harper rolls her eyes at Ronon. "We were friends first you should have found out then."

"It's different." Ronon replies with little explanation.

A mischievous grin plays across Sheppard's face as he looks at Elizabeth. "By the way, you'll do the same thing you always do."

Elizabeth looks up from John's wound to look him in the eyes, "What's that? Grow gray hairs?" She shakes her head and returns to dressing the wound, while muttering, "Between the two of you, I'm amazed that I'm not completely gray already....especially with that swan dive Harper decided to take out of the back of the jumper....."

Sheppard immediately jerks his head around to look at his niece. "Say what?!"

Harper is about to say something to Ronon but looks at her uncle. "And you think I meant to?" She rolled her eyes. "Please." She then looks at Elizabeth somewhat angry. "Thanks for telling him Dr. Weir."

Lorne tries to hold in his chuckles but lets it out. "Sir it was pretty funny."

Elizabeth looks hurt at Harper's tone, and her use of "Dr. Weir" does not go unnoticed either. "Do you really think he wouldn't have found out? Do you see any Wraith in here to explain it??"

She then looks at John and smirks, "I wish I could say it was graceful, but......"

Sheppard shakes his head, a smile on his face. "Reminds me of when she did a backflip off of the porch when she was six."

She looks at Elizabeth. "True you got me on that one." She looks at John. "Hey not my fault someone wouldn't take me to gymnastics on time."

Sheppard raises an eyebrow. "Don't look at me. I was misinformed."

Elizabeth's face lights with amusement as she finishes bandaging John's wound. "You should hear some of the things she got into at Georgetown....." She chuckles, "I had to get her out of so many scrapes!" She smirks, "It was good practice for when I started working with her uncle....."

"I don't even want to know," Sheppard remarks, raising his hand to stop Elizabeth. "And what do you mean it was 'good practice'? I'm not that much trouble."

Elizabeth looks back at John, "I'm not even going to comment on that one......"

"He got in trouble with the law too!" She laughs shaking her head. Lorne looks at Harper. "Do we even want to know?" She shakes her head. "No."

Elizabeth suddenly turns her gaze to Harper, "I wasn't going to mention that time, Harper......"

Sheppard turns his gaze to Harper, serious expression on his face. "Yes, we do actually."

Elizabeth notices Harper's embarrassed expression and stops her before she can say anything.

The former leader's face is stern, and her posture is extremely reminiscent of her time as Atlantis's commander. "No, we don't. I'm sorry I even brought up Georgetown.....what happened there is between Harper and me." She turns to John, "I mean it, Sheppard."

A thought suddenly occurs to her, and she says, "What did you say about Michael, John?"

A hurt look crosses Sheppard's face followed closely by a boyish grin. The grin is quickly replaced by a questioning look at Harper and Elizabeth before Sheppard decides to let the subject drop for now. Shifting slightly in his seat, Sheppard glances over at Elizabeth. "I'll explain when we get to the ship."

Elizabeth isn't satisfied by that answer, but decides not to push it since they were almost to the ship anyway.

Lorne looks at Elizabeth somewhat hurt more like a hurt puppy that lost its bone. He looks at Sheppard trying to be funny. "You ate him didn't you?" He looks around with no responds. "What trying to be funny here people."

Harper smiles at Elizabeth and mouths thank you. "Shouldn't some one take us to the ship now?"

Elizabeth smiles at Harper, giving an almost imperceptible nod that only Harper sees. She mouths Always, then turns to Lorne. She manages to keep a straight face as she replies, "I'm afraid you failed, Major." There is silence for a second, and then Ronon, Harper, John, and Elizabeth all start laughing.

The laughter is interrupted by Nalu turning in his seat and saying, "We are now entering the ship, Ma'am."

Lorne shurgs and looks at them. "I thought it was funny. Just don't tell McKay."

Harper looks at Nalu. "Finally! Thank God!"

Elizabeth chuckles, "But Major......if it was funny, why couldn't we tell Rodney?"

Nalu nods at Harper, "Yes Ma'am.....the jumper will be landed in just a couple of minutes." With that, he turns back towards the front window.

Lorne looks at Elizabeth. "If he knew no one laughed right after I said it. Well I would never live it down."

Harper smiles, "Thanks Nalu!"

Elizabeth grins, "That's very true......well, I won't tell him..." She glances at the others who are still chuckling, "....but I can't speak for everyone else."

Lorne smiles, "Thank you. That goes for all of you." With that they had landed in the ship.

Caylon and Carson arrive in the jumper bay just as Netia is regaining consciousness. They take a quick assessment of the situation, and herd them all to the infirmary for exams.

About 30 minutes later, Elizabeth's jumper lands in the bay. As the back hatch opens, Elizabeth c0cks her head to the side slightly. "The team is in the infirmary.....Carson and Caylon are with them." She looks at both of the Sheppards, "I let them know that the two of you are injured, and they are ready to attend to you as soon as we get to the infirmary."

She can't help but smile at John in anticipation, "I'll finally get to see Teyla again....and meet her son!"

Sheppard smiles back at Elizabeth as they head toward the infirmary. "You're gonna love him."

Elizabeth grins as she easily falls into step with John. "I'm sure I will! He's Teyla's son, after all."

Sheppard nods his head. "True." He is silent for a moment as he thinks about Teyla's reaction to seeing Elizabeth. As they round a corner, Sheppard says "She missed you a lot Elizabeth."

Once again a deep sadness flashes across Elizabeth's face, but is instantly gone...although a small amount of it remains as she replies, "I've missed her too......I've missed all of you!" She looks away so that John won't see the tears that she is fighting to keep from falling. "These past couple of days have been like old times....."

She turns back once she's sure that no tears will escape, and makes a small attempt at humor. "I could do without all the near death experiences......but then it wouldn't be exactly like old times then, would it?"

Sheppard sees the sadness flash across Elizabeth's face and is immediately angry with himself for bringing up the subject. He bites his lower lip trying to figure out what to say when Elizabeth speaks. A small grin on his face, Sheppard shrugs, immediately regretting it. "I guess not." comes the reply through gritted teeth.

Elizabeth notices that John has tensed up, and at first thinks her attempt at humor has fallen flat. She looks into his eyes - reading his expression - and realizes what has really made him tense up. She places her hand on his arm, and stops him. The others seem to recognize that they just need a moment, and continue on their way to the infirmary.

"John, you telling me I've been missed doesn't hurt me......quite the contrary - it actually helps to know that I haven't been forgotten." She crosses her arms and looks away again. "I'm sorry if I always seem sad.......I try not to show it......I just really miss what I can't have anymore."

Sheppard's eyes soften a bit as he looks at Elizabeth. "I know, but I still shouldn't have brought it back up." Looking down at the floor, Sheppard uses his good arm to rub the back of his neck. "Hey, but you're back now and that's all that matters. Right?"

Elizabeth looked at him, sadness still on her face. "I suppose....if you can call this..." She gestures to her ship, ".....being back." She sighs and crosses her arms again, looking out a window that is near where they are standing. "This is my life now, and soon you and the others will have to return to yours'.....and I'll miss all of you all over again."

See returns her gaze to John, but this time her expression is one of anger. "If only the SGC had listened to me to about attacking the Asuran homeworld in the first place....then I wouldn't be in this position!"

She sighs again, regaining control of her emotions - her anger melting away to be replaced by the resigned sadness that has become her usual expression. "But then all the good that I and my crews have accomplished would never have happened....so I suppose that in the grand scheme of things, it's better that it happened."

She looks out the window again, "What I've had to give up, and what I feel are basically irrelevant." She smiles a little smile, that again doesn't reach her eyes. "To quote Spock, 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.' Or in my case, the one."

She turns then, intending to resume her walk to the infirmary.

Sheppard stares at Elizabeth's back in silence for a moment not knowing how to respond. Finally, he walks up to her and briefly touches her shoulder to get her attention. He stares at the floor as he says "They're not irrelevant, Elizabeth. What happened we can't change, but that doesn't mean that you can't be happy." With that, he raises his gaze to pointedly meet hers and gives her his trademark grin before continuing on to the infirmary.

Harper and Lorne walk into the infirmary. Lorne spots Carson and walks over to him. "How are your patients Doc? Now add two more to your list."

Rodney walks over to Elizabeth as she comes into the infirmary. "Finally! So what's the damage?"

Harper tries to get up on a stretcher but with her upper body still lagging from the almost drain of her life force it was hard. She kicked the stretcher before hopping up on to it.

Keller gave a sigh and chose to help Harper, "Harper care to tell me what happened?"

Sheppard walks into the infirmary a few steps behind Elizabeth, stepping around her and Rodney to survey the group. "Looks like the gang's finally back together." He says with a smile.

Rodney shakes his head. "Ah yes nothing is more pleasing then getting the gang back together when a kidnapping is involved."

Harper smiled at Keller. "I kind got carried away from fighting with Ronon then a guard went up behind me. So much for peace and love huh?" She smiled as she felt the pain on her chest.

"Hate to break it to you but the Wraith aren't all on peace and love. Ok so what hurts? Don't even try to lie to me I see your pain."

Harper smiled and rolled her eyes at Keller. "My chest that's about it but it burns."

Keller took the scissors from the tray cutting through Harpers shirt. Pilling it away Keller saw the signs that she had been feed upon. "'That's about it?' Harper. Someone get me an alcohol swab."

Sheppard looks over to where Harper is sitting, a concerned look in his eyes. He doesn't say anything; instead, he decides to wait until Keller does a full diagnostic and then speak his mind.

Harper sighs and looks at her wound. "I didn't know that he fed. I thought Ronon got him before he had." She looks down to the ground now realizing the wraith might have feed on her and now years were down a few.

"If he didn't, then you are the luckiest woman in the universe. We'll take some blood test to determine it." Keller picked up a gaze taping it to Harper's chest. She drew some blood and handed it off to an aide. "Run this for Wraith enzymes."

Harper looked at Keller. "It was only for a second before Ronon killed that thing. If....if he did he wouldn't haven't taken much of my life right?" She sighed and now teary eyed now understanding that she would have fewer years now than before if the Wraith had fed.

Keller cupped Harper's chin in her hand. "Don't worry. We'll find out soon enough just rest ok."

Elizabeth steps into the infirmary, followed closely by John. She begins to scan the room, but pauses to answer Rodney's question, "Well, Harper decided to go sky diving, and then had a run in with a Wraith who tried to feed on her." She grins when Harper throws her a look, and continues. "John is just a bit worse for wear after his run in with Michael.....who gave him a nasty parting gift."

Elizabeth stops instantly when she feels John's hand on her shoulder. She turns and looks at him, waiting for him to say something, and smiles slightly when he finally does. "I appreciate what you're saying John......I really do, but I'll never be as happy as I was when I was in Atlantis." Warmth enters her gaze as she continues, "Still, there is a level of happiness in knowing that I'm helping to keep my family and my home safe....whether I can be there with them or not."

She then surprises John by reaching over and gently hugging him - making sure not to apply any pressure to his injured shoulder. The hug is brief, but she sees John's questioning gaze when she steps backs. "That was a thanks......and because, besides Teyla, you're the only one that I hadn't gotten a hug from yet." She mischievously grins and pokes him in his good side, "Even Dr Keller gave me a hug, John!" Her actions are rewarded by a sheepish look, and then his trademark grin.

Elizabeth knows that, soon, her family will all be gone from her again....but she doesn't let her smile falter as she and John continue to the infirmary. It even grows with the thought that she is about to see Teyla again.

Caylon walks over and guides John over to another table.

Sheppard rolls his eyes at Rodney as Caylon leads him over to a table. "You know what I meant." He mumbles under his breath not really in the best mood for any argument.

Rodney smirks. "Whatever!" He then goes and sits down on a stretcher. "Can anyone check to see if I have a splinter?"

Sheppard just frowns at Rodney's back as he walks away. "Where's a lemon when you need one?" He whispers to himself.

"Unless you are bleeding I don't have time. Sheppard, what's going on with you?," Keller continued to work on Harper.

"Just a little scratch," Sheppard replies casually staring down at his wounded shoulder.

Elizabeth does not hear either John's or Rodney's comments, as her eyes have returned to scanning the room. They finally land on the exact person they were seeking. Elizabeth's face alights with a smile. Teyla.

The Athosian leader has said nothing since Elizabeth and John entered, and is now staring at the former Atlantis leader in shock. Elizabeth's smile fades as she looks at Rodney in confusion. "No one told her?"

Rodney looks at Elizabeth somewhat annoyed with her question. "Busy here. I had to get everyone back to safely and try not to crash the jumper in the process." He grunts as he then starts to look at his tablet.

Elizabeth has also become somewhat annoyed with Rodney as Teyla continues to stare at her in silent shock. "Busy or not......did it not occur to anyone to at least briefly explain why she is on an Asuran ship???"

She crosses her arms, "Teyla has already had quite a shock....she didn't need another one." She glares at him, then slowly starts walking towards her stunned old friend.

Teyla sits by Netia on the examining table holding Tagan. She smiles at Netia giving her a hug. "I'm so glad you are ok." Before Netia can respond, Teyla sees Elizabeth approaching her. Her eyes widen with an expression of shock on her face. She gently puts Tagan in Netia's arms and hops off the table rushing to her. She gives her a big hug. "Elizabeth, I can't believe you are here!"

"Weir, I think someone over here is very eager to meet you," Netia says as she tries to hold Tagan who is reaching out to Weir.

Elizabeth is a little startled by how quickly Teyla recovered from her shock, but is pleased that she doesn't seem to doubt who she is. Elizabeth hugs her friend tightly, "Yes....well that's a long story." She pulls back slightly so she can look into her face, "I'm just so glad that we found you! Are you okay?"

Teyla responds, "I am fine. Come meet my son, Tagan." She reaches back for Tagan from Netia who willingly hands the baby to his mother. Tagan smiles at Elizabeth and giggles.

Elizabeth's grin is huge as she releases Teyla and turns to meet the youngest member of Atlantis. "Oh, I've been looking forward to meeting this little man!" Her smile widens even more as the baby giggles at her. "He's adorable....and he looks so much like you, Teyla!"

She reaches her hand out, "Hello Tagan, I'm Elizabeth......it's nice to finally meet you." Tagan's grasps one of her fingers and she laughs softly, "That's quite a grip he has......he's already well on his way to being a great warrior like his parents." She looks up from the baby and asks, "May I hold him?"

Teyla smiles at Elizabeth, "Certainly." She carefully hands Tagan over to Elizabeth's waiting arms. Tagan coos and gives her a big smile.

Elizabeth's smile is warm as she takes Tagan into her arms, and she can't help but chuckle as the baby grins at her. She looks at Teyla, "I think he likes me."

Teyla nods in agreement, "He sure does." Looking around the room, she notices Caylon starting to work on Sheppard. She sees Harper all bandaged up and Rodney walking around complaining about a splinter. Looking back at Elizabeth, she asks, "Where is Ronon?"

Elizabeth glances around the room, "I'm not sure.....perhaps he went to join Major Lorne in the hall."

Teyla nods her head at Elizabeth.

Harper smiled back at her friend. "So anything happen around here while we were out getting Teyla."

Rodney smiles and waves at Keller as he walks by and up to Harper, "So what happened?"

Keller shook her head smiling when Rodney came over. "Well Harper just had a little run in with a Wraith. You get that life threatening splinter out?"

Harper chuckled at Rodney, "A splinter?"

Rodney looked at Harper. "You're the one that just got fed on." He then looked at Keller. "Someone else got it out. It would have been better if you got on top of me." He looked at himself. "I....I meant it would have been better if you got it out of me." He blushed and started to turn red. "I....I...I"

Keller just watched Rodney dig himself his own hole.

Harper covers her eyes as Rodney walks away sitting down next to John, "Oh good grief." Harper looks up to Jen, "Well seems like he has a crush on you too."

Keller snorted out a laugh, "Yeah we're actually going on a date so we'll have to have a girl's night."

Harper chuckles a bit then looks to her friend, "Sorry I couldn't help it. Well I hope you have fun on that date."

Keller laughed, "Oh from your mouth."

Harper smiles and glances over to where Rodney is, "Well let's say Rodney McKay can be on your soft side that is till he screws something up."

Keller held in a laugh thinking the worst of that sentence, "Oh this is going to be fun."

"Try not to die!" Harper states as she taps her friend on the shoulder.

"Oh that's going to be hard since I'm always the one who gets into those hairy situations, Harper."

Harper smiles as she feels relief on her chest, "Hey you never know with McKay."

Keller just shook her head and laughed, "Yeah maybe I should pack a medical kit."

Caylon instructs John to remove his shirt, and then he removes the temporary bandage that Elizabeth had placed over the wound. He begins to gently clean what his commander was unable to do with just a first aid kit.

He looks up at John, "The wound is deep...you will most certainly need stitches." He frowns slightly as he looks at the wound again, "I do not know what damage has been done beneath the skin; a scan will be necessary to determine that."

The Asuran gently smoothes a gel-like substance over the wound. Seeing John's questioning gaze, he explains, "This will prevent your wound from bleeding until I can seal it." At John's nod of understanding, Caylon helps him to lie down on the table and begins the scan.

"If I had a dime for every time I've had one of these done..." Sheppard quips as Caylon begins the scan.

She looked over at Caylon hearing what he told John, "I do get to study some of your stuff later don't I?"

Caylon looks from the control panel to Dr. Keller, "Certainly, Doctor. You are welcome to use whatever equipment you like, and should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask." He gives her a friendly smile, and returns to focusing on the scan.

Keller looked back at Harper a goofy smile plastered to her face, "So cool."

Caylon finishes the scan and helps John to sit back up. "Well, Colonel, it appears that the knife nicked your shoulder blade, and sliced through one of your tendons. You also have two cracked ribs, and several deep bruises."

He notices John grimace and gives him a sympathetic smile. "The bones and bruises will heal on their own, but I'm afraid that I will have to repair the tendon."

He turns to Keller, "Perhaps you would like to observe the procedure, Doctor?"

Sheppard grimaces as Caylon recites the damage report. "Great," he responds with a roll of his eyes and an expression that is somewhere between sarcasm and annoyance.

"Of course Caylon thank you." Keller gave a friendly pat to Harper pulling off her gloves going over to Caylon and John. "Come on John if you're a good little boy I'll give you a sucker." She put on a fresh pair of gloves touching John's wound in a doctoral way. "This is what you call a scratch?"

A sheepish grin on his face, Sheppard meets Keller's gaze. "You should see the other guy."

"Isn't that what they always say when the other guy looks better than them?" Keller's eyes sparkled.

Sheppard makes his best attempt at a shrug, "Guess I'm the exception."

Caylon smiles and shakes his head. Human humor. He walks over to a cabinet and removes a medium sized device; returning to the table with it. He shows it to Keller, "This device will allow me to repair the tendon without being too invasive."

He looks at John, "I am afraid that I will have to have you lie down again, Colonel. Though this device allows me to be much less invasive than normal surgery, I still need you to be completely still while I am using it."

While speaking to John, Caylon had inserted a needle into his arm, but it was done so smoothly and quickly that John didn't even feel it. He discards the needle, then looks at John. "You should already be feeling the effects of the pain killer that I have just injected into you."

Keller was like a kid on Christmas. She was amazed by the fact that John didn't protest about the needle. "How does this device work? Bones has got nothing on this."

Looking up at Caylon, Sheppard notices that the pain has indeed begun to subside. He lies down on the table again so that Caylon can do his thing. "That's fast acting stuff."

Keller just shook her head. "Of course you are. Caylon, that's fascinating usually it takes longer for our pain medication to fully numb the area."

Sheppard smiles back at Keller as Caylon prepares to fix his tendon.

Caylon smiles, "Yes, all of my tests have shown it to be quite effective, although it did take some time before I was able to eliminate side effects such as drowsiness."

He cleans the gel-like substance from the wound, and then gently places the rectangular device over it. He touches a button on the top, and it extends to completely cover the entire opening. He then pushes another button, and light begins to emit from the device into John's wound.

Caylon looks at Keller, "This device will be able to repair his severed tendon by using nanites." He notices a look of alarm on both Keller and John's faces, so he rushes to explain, "Please, do not be alarmed. The nanites are enclosed within a force field that is being emitted from the device, and that force field is only as large as the wound itself."

Relief shows on both of the human's faces, so he continues. "Once the nanites have repaired the tendon, the force field will retract - taking the nanites with it. I have also programmed the device to close the wound. It will use something that is similar to what Commander Weir calls 'Super Glue'. The 'glue' will dissolve as the wound heals."

He gives them both an apologetic look. "I'm afraid that the process will take several minutes - the wound is quite severe."

"Do either of you have any questions?" He steps back as he says this, to monitor the process on the scanner's screen, and bumps into Rodney who had been standing directly behind him. He turns around, "I am very sorry, Dr. McKay! I did not realize that you were there!"

Sheppard nearly bolts upright at hearing the word "nanites." However, he settles back down after Caylon reassures him that no nanites will remain. "That's good." He thinks to himself.

Keller's heart did a flip when she heard nanites but calmed once the instrument was explained. Normally a surgery like this would take at least an hour and involved cutting. Rodney had seemed to forget all out his splinter. "How long does a normal procedure take? Why the side effect?"

Caylon returns his attention to Keller, "The time needed varies depending on the extent of the injury. Because Colonel Sheppard's injury is deep, the procedure will most likely take 15 to 20 minutes.......I apologize, but I am not able to make it work any faster."

He looks at John, "There are no side effects to the device, but once the procedure is completed, you will need to temporarily wear a sling - you need to use that shoulder as little as possible in order to speed healing." He looks at Keller, "I am sure that your doctor will agree with me on that."

Frowning, Sheppard glances at the device covering his wound. "So I guess that means no sparring for awhile, huh?"

Caylon shakes his head, "I am afraid not, Colonel. No physical activity that would require the use of this arm until Dr Keller or Dr Beckett clears you to do so."

Sheppard frowns at the thought of not being able to spar or go off-world. "Looks like I'll get to finish my book then."

"Apologize without this device Col. Sheppard would have to go under the knife and it would take a lot longer with possible results. I do agree on the sling and trust me he will wear it." She gave John her best doctor glare. "Thank you for patching up one of our finest men. I actually have a question on bone mending since if I heard you correctly Col. Sheppard has broken ribs could you not use the same method for bones?"

Sheppard merely gives Keller one of his trademark grins. His smile becomes slightly bigger at her compliment. "I wouldn't say that now."

Caylon looks at her, apologetic once again, "I'm afraid not. You see, the force field primarily works within an opening that has already been created - it cannot penetrate tissue very deeply without causing damage. Currently, the field can only safely extend into tissues by approximately one centimeter."

He smiles, glad to have someone who not only understands what he is talking about, but is also interested in it. "I have been working on improvements that would allow it to penetrate further without damage, but I have yet to perfect it."

Keller was sure her smile was stick permanently. "Would a small cut in the area where the bone needs to be healed actually fix that problem while it may take longer it would speed up the healing process tremendously. And what about internal injures do you have a machine to combat that problem in the field?" She had never seen anything like this other than on television although she practically lived in a science fiction show.

Caylon glances at John hesitantly, "Yes, that is possible.....however, the incision would have to go completely to the bone and would need to be exactly over the area that needed repaired."

"As to internal injuries, I have yet to encounter any that could be repaired by a means other than some form of surgery. However, we do have medication that would sustain the injured party until they could be taken to a medical facility. In fact, I believe we included it in the medical kit that was supplied to you."

Keller was bubbling with questions and excitement. "Aren't your X-Rays extremely accurate? I mean I don't mean to put you under the knife figuratively and literary John but this could cut your repair time in half if not more." Keller ran over getting her bag digging through it as she came over. "Which one is it? How does it work?"

Shaking his head, Sheppard meets Caylon's gaze with a smile in his eyes. "And suddenly I'm a guinea pig."

Caylon smiles apologetically, "It would appear so....your doctor certainly is enthusiastic." He glances at her with a bit of admiration, and then his expression becomes serious again as he looks at John and says, "I assure you, we will not perform the procedure on your ribs without your permission."

"That's Keller for you." Sheppard remarks with a knowing grin as Caylon glances over at her. At hearing Caylon's second statement, Sheppard is tempted to raise his free hand and wave it but instead settles for a slight shake of his head. "Don't worry about it."

Caylon turns back to Keller and smiles, "Yes, our scanners are able to scan down to the molecular level." As Keller runs to get her medical bag, he unconsciously glances at the results of John's previous scan, and pauses - something is not quite right. He narrows his eyes as he studies the screen. What is that?

He turns to his assistant, Lera - who had been nearby - and hands her the sample of John's blood that he had taken just prior to the scan. Lera, please take this to Raena in the lab. I have alerted her that you will bring it. The Asuran nods, and exits the infirmary.

Caylon turns back to Keller just as she returns with her medical bag. The young woman was so absorbed in what she was doing, that she did not notice the exchange between Caylon and his assistant. He looks into her bag and points to the appropriate medication.

"This is the medicine that you would use in the situation that you referred to. It is injected, and it essentially puts the injured organs into a state of semi-stasis. They continue to work, but at the most minimal levels possible without damage. The medication also prevents swelling and any further damage."

Rodney made been in shock of the new device he just had seen he didn't pay much attention to anyone else. He then looked up to Caylon. "Does this work on splinters?"

Caylon looks at Rodney, trying to determine if his question is serious, then replies, "I suppose that it could, but a splinter is much too minor an injury to use it on."

Rodney looks at Caylon and smirks. "Wanna try it out? See I got this splinter right here on the tip of my pointer finger." He rams his finger right in front of Caylon's face.

Caylon steps back, becoming slightly annoyed. Arlon really was not exaggerating about this one! "As I said, Dr McKay, a splinter is much too minor to use the device on."

He glances at Keller, "I'm sure that your doctor is more than capable of removing it by traditional means."

Keller just shook her head. She realized a long time ago if you just ignored Rodney he would eventually go away.

Rodney looks at him then to Keller annoyed. "She would only hurt me. She has done me a lot and I mean a lot of pain. Just ask her about falling into a hole that left us down there for hours."

Caylon looks at Keller in confusion, "Dr Keller pushed you into a hole?" He narrows his eyes at Rodney, "I find this hard to believe." Although, I am beginning to understand why someone would feel motivated to push him into a hole.

Rodney looked at him then to the ground. "Um no she fell into a hole and then it made the ground moved which made me fall into it with her. So it is her fault."

Caylon tilts his head slightly, alternating his gaze between Keller and Rodney. "I am unsure what you mean, Dr McKay. Commander Weir explained Christmas as a pleasant event......I fail to see how falling into a deep hole would be considered pleasant."

Rodney looked at the man. You would think Weir would have told them about love. "Well it was pleasant to me. They are both beautiful women."

Keller was about to punch Rodney when he explained himself. Maybe this date wouldn't be so bad as long as she kept food in his mouth.

Caylon nods in agreement, "That goes without saying, of course." He smiles at Keller - causing her to blush - then returns his attention to Rodney. "However, I would think that the situation would have forced you to focus on the immediate need, rather than any romantic imaginings."

He crosses his arms, raising an eyebrow in a very Weir-like fashion. Does this human have no common sense? "I certainly would not have considered that an appropriate time or place in which to engage in that kind of behavior."

Two compliments in a day she was doing well and she was in scrubs since her normal uniform was dirty.

Rodney smirked. "I'm a genius I could have gotten us out of there easy as pie."

"Could have being the operative word," She mumbled.

Caylon's look is somewhat incredulous as he asks, "Ah...and did you?"

Rodney looks to the ground. "I...um um. I got rope burn from lowering them down to safety. Some would say I saved the day."

Caylon looks at Keller for confirmation, simply saying, "Ah....." He then turns back to John, touching some controls on the scanner and checking the progress of the "surgery".

"How's it coming?" Sheppard asks ready to get up and move around.

Caylon shifts his attention from the screen back to John, "It will be just a bit longer, I am afraid. You are doing quite well.....please continue to remain perfectly still."

"That's easier said than done." Sheppard quips using all of his will power to do what Caylon asks. "I'm not good at the whole take-it-easy and sit-still thing."

Lorne was seated just outside the infirmary waiting till Sheppard was ready to tell them what happened with Michael. He sighs thinking about how much he wished he could be back on Atlantis joking around with his team and Kale. He thought of Kale and wondered if he missed the fight. He probably did since the two met at their first day of base training. Lorne looked at his dog tags and remembered who they would save each other's lives all the time and now Kale was subject to sitting around Atlantis till he was ready to get back into the fight. Oh they needed him.

Harper sat on the medical table Keller had fixed her up on. She was oblivious to everything around her till she heard super glue. She looked up to see what was going on and saw her uncle's shoulder. She tried to shake off the fear she had in mind but somehow she knew that Michael or someone was still out there ready to hurt her uncle once again.

Elizabeth looks over to Harper, noticing that Dr Keller had finished with her. She grins at they make eye contact, "Look Harper.....I think Tagan likes me!"

Harper walks over to Elizabeth, Teyla and the baby. "He must he doesn't go to anyone new. He even cries if Rodney talks when he is around him." Harper smiled to Elizabeth as she watched her play with Tagan almost said that Elizabeth wouldn't get to have kids well if they way she knew the nanites worked. She didn't even know if Elizabeth wanted kids but she always thought her and John would be perfect together but that was a long conversation she shouldn't have with her.

Elizabeth laughs at Harper, "Somehow the thought of Rodney frightening babies does not surprise me....." She looks back at Tagan, and coos, "He's scary, isn't he Tagan? Yes, he is."

Tagan gurgles, and then makes a sound like, "Yah yah", causing Elizabeth to look at Teyla and Harper with humor in her eyes, "See......he agrees."

"How are you feeling, Harper?" Teyla asks concern written on her face. She glances over to where John is lying down being cared for by Caylon.

Harper smiles at Teyla. "I'm better it wasn't that bad or anything. Now how are you?" She looks at Tagan and chuckles. "I guess he does."

"I am feeling just fine. However, I am more concerned about yourself and John. Did Ronon sustain any injuries?" Teyla asks Harper.

Elizabeth smiles, then says to Teyla, "Your son is quite sharp, Teyla." Laughing, she then turns to Harper and gives her a warm look, "I wonder what you were like as a baby, Harper?" She sighs, looking down again at her precious bundle, "I think I would have liked to see that......."

Harper chuckled at Elizabeth as she made a funny face at Tagan. "Well from what my dad told me I was a handful but that could have been due to the fact he was a single father in his twenties." She gleamed in enjoy of Weir's last statement. "Well he could have used some help that's for sure."

Harper faked a smile at Teyla, "Not any physical ones or not yet." She mumbled to herself but loud enough for the women to hear.

Hearing Harper's confession, Teyla becomes even more concerned, "What happened, Harper?"

Elizabeth also glances sharply at Harper, concern clearly on her face. "What do you mean, Harper? What did Dr Keller say?"

Harper sighed. "He started to fight with me for staying down to "help him." She said using air quotes. "Then when I started to yell a stupid Wraith attacks me."

Teyla puts an arm around Harper to comfort her. Knowing firsthand how overprotective Sheppard and Ronon could be, she replies, "He just worries about you which is understandable. Did the Wraith feed on you?"

Elizabeth is somewhat relieved, having been concerned about something else. "He's just very protective, Harper......you know that." She grimaces slightly, "And I'm sure that the fact that a Wraith managed to grab you didn't help your case any, either."

Harper rolls her eyes, "Story of my life. Um Keller has someone doing some test to find out." She looked to Weir. "I know I know now I'm never going to be able to leave Atlantis only to go back to Earth."

Teyla gives Harper an encouraging smile, "We will have to work on convincing your uncle that you are an integral part of the Atlantis team. Besides, I think Ronon would fight John before he let you leave Atlantis." She gives Harper a gentle squeeze and moves her arm away from around Harper's shoulders.

Elizabeth shifts Tagan to her hip, and places her free hand on Harper's cheek. "Sweetie, don't let him get to you.......I never let your uncle dictate what I could or could not do." She grins, "He tried, but....well, you know me." She moves her hand to Harper's shoulder and gently squeezes, "It'll all work out. You'll see."

Harper smiles at both women's action. "Thanks both of you I needed that." She sighed looking around trying to find Ronon 'cause they needed to talk. "So does anyone know what Sheppard did to Michael or won't he tell yet?"

Elizabeth looks up from tickling Tagan, and glances over to John. "He said he would explain once we were all on the ship, but it looks like he's a bit busy at the moment." Having seen the severity of John's wound, she is a little concerned for him, but she has no doubt that Caylon is giving him the best care that he possibly can.

She turns back when Tagan pulls on a lock of her hair. She gently extricates her hair from his grasp, and then kisses his cheek before returning her attention to Harper. "We still have plenty of time before we reach Atlantis."

Teyla remembers John's promise to her...Michael isn't getting away this time. Teyla's face fills with concern, "I don't know. I'm going to go check on him. Elizabeth, will you watch Tagan?"

Elizabeth glances at Teyla, "Of course, I don't mind watching this little guy, but I think it would be best if you waited until Caylon finishes working on John, before you go over there." She smiles gently, "I know that you would try to stay out of the way, but Caylon already seems to have a bit of an audience and he needs some space to work."

A thought suddenly occurs to her, "Forgive me, Teyla....I haven't asked if you or Netia need anything. Are you hungry? Did Michael feed you?"

Harper nods,"Yeah too much time if you ask me."

Elizabeth glances back to Harper, "You could get cleaned up and rest if you would like to, Harper. You wouldn't have time to get completely rested, but you could take a nice nap if you'd like."

Harper shakes her head. "I'm not tired. I feel fine really."

Rodney starts looking at the device again. "Um well if something were to happened to me would you use that on me?"

Caylon doesn't look up from what he's doing, but does reply, "The scanner or the surgical device?"

Rodney looks at him more neurotic now, "Anything!" He then grabs Caylon by his shirt, "I need to be sure I can be saved if I get hurt up here."

Elizabeth studies Harper's face - having learned to read the young woman extremely well over the years - and is satisfied by what she finds there. Well, you should at least change your shirt....the ripped look went out years ago." She chuckles, then continues, "You could even use my personal quarters....they are the nicest and you would not be bothered there."

Caylon firmly removes Rodney's hands from his shirt, and guides him back a couple of steps from the machine. His voice is very controlled as he says, "Calm yourself, Dr McKay. Rest assured that, should you incur an actual injury, we have the tools necessary to attend to you."

He turns then and returns to what he was doing, focusing his thoughts on Raena. This Dr McKay really is most exasperating!

Down in the lab, Raena suddenly smiles. As the humans say, "Better you than me, my friend."

Harper smiled at her questioning whether or not to go change. "Um sure I guess I should change into something." She stated as she got up and walked to the door. "Um do you have a shirt for me?"

Rodney backs away and seats down on a chair and starts to pout like a 5 year old. "My splinter is still here people!"

Keller took an oath to first do no harm and if she tried to get that splinter out now harm would come.

As Rodney bugs Caylon about whether or not the technology can remove a splinter, Sheppard closes his eyes in a vain attempt to make him disappear for awhile. After another minute or so, Rodney is still bugging Caylon so Sheppard decides to open his eyes. Turning his head to stare at Rodney, he says "Rodney, shut up and let the man do his job so that I can get off of this thing."

Caylon is just a bit taken aback by John's outburst, but then smiles in appreciation. He leans down and says in a low voice, "Thank you, Colonel....I have never met someone so adept at taxing one's patience."

A smile appears on Sheppard's face as he turns his attention to Caylon. "Any time...Rodney has a tendency to do that to people. Believe me, once you get to know him he's just as annoying."

"I am fine, and Netia is resting right now," Teyla pauses rolling her eyes as she hears Rodney irritating Caylon. "Do you think maybe I should go speak with Rodney so Caylon can finish his work?"

Elizabeth had been observing what was going on over by John, but turns to Harper, "Yes, I do......I'll actually take you to my quarters."

She turns back to Teyla as she hears her question and smiles in relief, "Thank you, Teyla....I think that would actually be a great help." She looks at Caylon, "My crew has an incredible level of patience......but I wouldn't put it past Rodney to find the end of it." She looks down at Tagan who has begun to fall asleep with his head on his shoulder, "Do you mind if I take Tagan with me to show Harper my quarters?"

Teyla replies, "He should be fine. He has eaten and it looks like he's taking his nap now." She kisses the top of Tagan's forehead and heads off to save Caylon and rid him of Rodney's pestering.

As they get into the hall way and walk to Elizabeth quarters Harper watches Tagan on Elizabeth. "Did you ever want kids?"

Rodney is still waiting for someone to get his splinter out.

Teyla walks up to Rodney and smiles, "Do you need assistance?" She holds out her hand waiting for him to put his hand with the splinter in her hand. Seeing his reluctance, she continues, "I have had many splinters and helped many others who were injured back on Athos before I met everyone on Atlantis. Let me help."

Rodney smiles then hands her his hand. He closes his eyes as she pulls the splinter out. He wipes his eyes and then opens them. "Thank you Teyla." He then glares at Caylon then returns to looking at Teyla. "Some others wouldn't help me."

Teyla smiles at Rodney, "Maybe you would like to go get something to eat? I am sure all the worry over your injury has made you hungry." She smiles at Caylon realizing he seems very relieved. Before Rodney can answer, she asks, "Will John be ok, Caylon?"

Caylon smiles warmly at her, relieved to have Rodney no longer bothering him. "Yes, ma'am....he will make a full recovery. The device is repairing his severed tendon, and it will just take a bit more time before it has completed the procedure."

Teyla lets out a breath of relief, very thankful that John was not going to die because of her. "Thank you for all your hard work." Turning to Rodney, she says, "Come along. Let's get you something to eat."

Rodney looks at Teyla and nods. "Sure food will help from the pain."

Elizabeth falls into step beside Harper, gently cradling Tagan against her neck. She looks at Harper, somewhat surprised by the question. "Well....yes, I have......and I always thought that I would have some one day - if I ever managed to find the right man - but I don't know if that's possible now........."

She sighs and looks away, determined to hide the sadness that just kept refusing to stay hidden. "Besides..." Having gotten her expression under control, she turns back to Harper with a warm smile and a wink, "....I have you, don't I?"

Harper smiles as they step into Elizabeth's room. "I guess so I mean I'm enough trouble for anyone." She sits down on the bed looking around this was nothing like Elizabeth's room back on Atlantis. Harper couldn't spot anything from her past life till she came to the wall which had a lot of pictures of the Atlantis team members. "I would guess your crew would be like your kids now. How did you get these pictures? I mean you left Atlantis and never did come back."

Harper sighs as she gets out of her memory. She knew not having anything of Elizabeth's would make it harder. At first when they were hoping she hadn't died she kept Elizabeth's favorite thing but that was before she had to return it when her uncle had went and gave Elizabeth's mom her things. Things would be easier this time or so she hoped. She placed the ear piece back into her pocket as she sat there listening to the echoes, silence, patience and grace that filled her head.

Elizabeth chuckles as she gently lays down the now fully asleep Tagan on her bed, and places a pillow on either side of him. "That is certainly true!"

She walks over to her closet and opens it, but turns and looks at Harper when she hears her comments and question. "No, Harper...my crew are not my kids, they're not even family. Don't get me wrong, they are wonderful, and I am very happy to have them - I'm even close to several of them - but they are just my crew."

She turns back to the closet and begins to look for an appropriate shirt for Harper to wear. "Those pictures are from my memory Harper...you'll notice that I am not in any of them." She pauses her search to look back at the young woman, "Except for that small one next to my bed. I had always kept that one with me, so I had it when I went with John and the team to the Asuran homeworld." She returns to her search as Harper turns to look at the photo, "It's from your graduation.....do you remember that picture?"

Harper stops and looks at that picture and almost get teary eyed. "Yeah everyone kept asking if you and Uncle John were my parents. Since I had wanted you two to meet and I kept bothering you about it that's what they thought. The other students also thought you still taught there and kept asking you for notes from class." She smiled remembering that day and how glad she was that the two had made it there since her grandfather was sick and Uncle David had to work.

Teyla takes Rodney by the arm both walking out of the infirmary heading towards the Asuran version of a mess hall.

"They better not have any lemons. Chicken... now that sounds good." Rodney states as they make their way into the mess hall.

Teyla giggles at Rodney's comments, "I am sure we will find something to satisfy your tastes."

Elizabeth smiles at the memory, as she returns to the bed - taking a seat next to Harper and handing her the shirt. "If I remember correctly, you didn't make any effort to correct their assumptions either."

She grins suddenly and bumps Harper, "I must say.....it was nice being back on campus and hearing all the stories about what you got into after I left....."

Harper smiles, "Hey they couldn't know the truth. Oh Dr. Weir and my Uncle work at Stargate Command and go to a different world called Atlantis." She takes off her shirt and puts the one Elizabeth gave her on. "Hey what can I say after I got informed about the SGC I needed someone to contact about it. It's not my fault that Daniel didn't get back to me in time."

Elizabeth rolls her eyes, "Don't even get me started on your antics regarding Daniel Jackson.......and you could simply have said that John was your uncle, and I was a friend - most of them remembered me from when I taught there anyway."

She grins then and puts her arm around the young woman, "Not that I mind anyone thinking I'm your mom.....or your aunt for that matter. It actually flatters me to no end when people make that assumption."

Rodney looks at the food they do have and found that they a plank steak. He took some and sat down with Teyla and started eating. "This is good."

Teyla smiles as Rodney scarfs down his food. "Maybe you should take it a little slower, Rodney. You have plenty of time to eat."

Harper smiles, "Hey it was better that way. And I really liked that they thought that way." She smiled as she looked at Tagan. "He is a great baby. Everyone loves him so much I'm glad Michael didn't do anything to him."

Elizabeth removes her arm from Harper's shoulders so she can turn towards the peacefully sleeping infant, "Yes, he really is......I can see why everyone loves him!" She leans over and lightly runs her hand over his soft hair, "And now I have a memory of him to add to the rest of you on my wall." She leans over further and whispers to Tagan, "I wish I could watch you grow up, little warrior."

She stands then, and gently lifts the baby from the bed. He stirs a little, but does not awaken - settling back into Elizabeth's arms with a sweet little baby sigh that makes the former leader smile. "We should probably be heading back.....Caylon should be done with your uncle soon."

Harper nods and starts to walk back with Elizabeth. She then looks down the wall. "I hope Uncle John is okay. I never have seen him his badly hurt." She sighs. "He once got badly hurt and went to a D.C. hospital but I was young and was only allowed to see him for a second before David pulled me out of the room. It reminds me..." She closes her eyes, "When my dad was in the hospital."

Elizabeth threads her free arm through one of Harper's, "Don't worry, Harper.....John will be fine - he's strong, and he's actually survived much worse than this." She sighs, "But I know how you feel - I went through that with my own dad......but it won't be like that with John."

"I can't help my curiosity." Once Rodney was gone Keller resumed her questions. "What about arterial injuries? Do you have a faster method of getting them under control?"

Caylon returns his attention to Keller, "As a matter of fact, we do. Raena and I have created a substance that essentially creates a membrane within the severed artery, staving off further bleeding." He glances back to the screen briefly and, satisfied with what he sees on it, turns back to the doctor.

"The substance is utilized by injecting it directly into the damaged artery - immediately below the damaged area. The substance then travels to that area, forming the membrane. This insures that the injured party will not bleed out before they can be properly treated."

A smile appears on Caylon's face, triggered by Keller's rapt interest. "It is actually quite effective on all vascular injuries. However, it is only a temporary solution....this device is what we would use to permanently repair the damage."

"This is truly fascinating. Sometime when it is less hectic around here maybe Dr. Beckett, myself, and you could sit down and discuss all of your medical equipment. I suspect Dr. Beckett has been able to explore it more than myself." The small movement in Elizabeth's arms made Keller wonder. Seeing little Tagan her smile widened if that was at all possible. "Hey Elizabeth seems like you've got the touch."

Caylon smiles, "Should we be able to remain near your city for a length of time, I would certainly be more than willing to do so, Doctor."

Elizabeth grins at Keller, "He does seem to like me....."

"Thank you Caylon for putting up with my persistent questions," Keller responds.

Sweat pours from his face as he throws a few more punches at the air in front of him and follows them with a solid kick. After another minute or so, he finally decides to stop and take a breather. Ronon walks over to the bench placed in the corner of the Asuran version of a gym. He had been air-sparring for about an 45 minutes now, ever since Keller and Caylon had begun working on Harper and Sheppard. Thinking it better to leave the infirmary, Ronon had walked around the ship until he had found what looked like a gym. Ever since Harper had refused to leave him and had gotten hurt he had needed to blow off some steam, something which gyms are extremely useful for when a Wraith isn't around. "Maybe I should go see how it's going." He thinks to himself, standing up as he does so. Ronon leaves the gym and heads toward the infirmary, passing by the mess hall on his way. At seeing Teyla sitting at one of the tables with Rodney, Ronon stops and decides to grab a little something to eat before going to the infirmary.

Rodney rambles on about how much is finger still hurt while stuffing his face. Teyla rolls her eyes in annoyance and sighs a breath of relief as Ronon enters the mess hall. "Ronon, how are you feeling? Were you hurt?" Teyla asks.

Ronon grabs a piece of fruit before sitting down beside Teyla. "I'm fine." He remarks shortly as he takes a bite of fruit and meets her gaze. "What about you? Did Michael do anything?"

Rodney only rolls his eyes as he eats when Teyla and Ronon talk.

Teyla replies, "I am fine. Michael did not harm any of us." As she watches Ronon and Rodney eat, she begins to get hungry and grabs a few pieces of fruit.

Elizabeth releases Harper's arm to allow the young woman to step back into the infirmary ahead of her. As she follows her in, she looks over to the little group at the other side of the room and smiles, noticing Keller's animated expression as she talks to Caylon, and John's resigned one as he just lays there. She knew that it had to be driving him nuts to have to stay still like that.

John looks her way then - making eye contact with her - so she starts to walk over to him.

Sheppard's eyes are filled with slight annoyance as he looks over at Elizabeth. The annoyance turns to laughter when he notices the little bundle in her arms. "I see you've made a new friend."

Elizabeth grins, cuddling the baby fondly, "Yes, Tagan and I have been getting along famously! He is such a sweet baby.....and he likes me!" Her smile fades slightly, "How's it going over here?"

"It's going," Sheppard remarks resisting the urge to shrug again. "Caylon says that it shouldn't take much longer but you know how I am about lying around."

Elizabeth chuckles, "I certainly do!" The slight movement caused by her chuckling awakens Tagan, and she looks down at him. "Oh...I'm sorry, little warrior....its okay, go back to sleep." He give her the sweetest little baby smile as his eyes droop closed again, and she sighs - momentarily oblivious of John.

Sheppard watches the way Elizabeth interacts with Tagan, a grin slowly forming on his lips. "You're really good with him Elizabeth." He pauses momentarily as he glances down at Tagan. A look of concern enters his eyes. "How are Teyla and Harper doing?"

Elizabeth is a little startled when John speaks, and sheepishly realizes that she had gotten lost in her thoughts. She smiles, pleased by what he just said, "Oh....thank you, John. I am enjoying being able to get to know him a little."

Her smile fades somewhat as she sees his expression change, and she replies quickly to ease his worry, "They're both fine. I'm not sure where Teyla has gotten to, but Harper is just over there getting her things." She gestures to an area that is just out of John's line of vision. "I'm fairly sure that the Wraith did not get the chance to actually feed on her, and she only has a flesh wound.....so I think she'll be quite fine."

The device on John's chest then beeps, and shuts off - the extensions retracting back into it. "Oh...it looks like it's done...." She looks over to the side, "Caylon?"

Caylon quickly steps over, and looks at the control screen. "You are correct, Commander......the procedure is now complete." He moves over to John, removing the device and helping him to sit up, "The tendon has been repaired and the wound is now sealed."

He steps back as John moves to stand up, then gently maneuvers his arm into a sling. "The pain killer should last for several more hours, but please let me know if the pain returns before then."

Sheppard frowns slightly as Elizabeth answers his question. "Do we know for sure that he didn't feed?" Before anyone can answer, the machine beeps and Caylon informs Sheppard that the procedure is done. "About time," he says happily, standing up as quickly as possible. As Caylon helps him with his sling, Sheppard meets his gaze. "I'll be sure to do that." He then returns his attention to Elizabeth. "After all that, I could use a turkey sandwich. You and Harper wanna join me?"

"We're doing test John. We'll find out for sure soon. You'll be the second to know." Keller could since his worry it was almost palpable.

Elizabeth turns back to John, "We are not absolutely sure, but we are fairly certain. Tests are currently being run on her blood to determine it for sure."

Caylon nods to John, then turns to everyone. "Now, if you all will please excuse me....since I am no longer neaded here, I will return to the laboratory." He bows slightly, and heads out of the infirmary.

Elizabeth nods in answer to John's question. "Yes, I think we'd like that." She turns to Keller, "Will you join us, Doctor?"

Sheppard nods in understanding. "That's good. She doesn't look like she's aged any, but..." He trails off as he looks down to readjust his sling. "This thing is going to be a pain." is all that he mumbles before looking back up at Elizabeth with a smile. "I'll go tell Harper then." Just then, Harper appears next to Keller with a curious expression on her face. "Speak of the devil...we're going to the mess hall. Wanna come?" Harper nods and the group heads out of the infirmary, picking up Major Lorne as they go.

"Yes I can't remember the last time I've eaten." Keller touched Harper's arm giving it a comforting squeeze.

Elizabeth laughs lightly, "Well, you have to wear it.....doctor's orders!"

Harper smiled warmly as she saw her uncle and Elizabeth interact. She walked with them to the mess hall and then looked at Keller. "How long do you think the test will take?"

"Couple of more minutes. Don't worry we'll know soon enough." Keller knew her friend was stressing. So was she.

Harper smiled at her friend as she went into stress mode. She tried to keep cool but inside she was worried. She walked into the mess hall and sat down next to Rodney only looking down at her hands.

As they turn and head out of the infirmary, she gently switches Tagan to her other shoulder, making sure that he doesn't awaken again. She kisses his forehead and quietly says, "Your Uncle John can be a very stubborn man, little warrior. Keep an eye on him for me, okay?" He sighs contentedly in his sleep, and Elizabeth smiles warmly. "I'll take that as a yes....."

She glances at John, and then cuddles the baby closer as they near the mess hall.

"Yeah, yeah." Sheppard remarks with a sigh. He watches as she shifts Tagan from one shoulder to the other and speaks to him. "I'm sure he will." Sheppard says.

Elizabeth blushes when she realizes that John heard her little "conversation" with Tagan, but then grins mischievously, "Well, someone has to do it when I'm away......" She gestures to his shoulder, a mock serious expression on her face, "Look what happens when I let you out of my sight!"

Sheppard glances down at his shoulder before looking back at Elizabeth with an equally mischevious smile. "What, this little scratch? I've gotten worse sparring with Teyla and Ronon."

Keller shook her head, "True I've had to patch you up enough to know."

Elizabeth raises her eyebrow in return, "Oh really? I can't seem to recall any injuries incured from your sparring with either Ronon or Teyla that even came close to a severed tendon." She then smirks, "Your sparring with the Iratus bug, however........"

Sheppard grimaces at the thought of the iratus bug. "I thought we agreed to never bring that up again?"

Elizabeth grins, but then her smile fades as she remembers the incident. "You're right....I'm sorry."

"You should see the dislocated shoulder I fixed three weeks ago," Keller says.

"What is this, talk about Sheppard day?" Sheppard quips with a defensive expression on his face. "That dislocated shoulder wasn't that bad." He says as they enter the mess hall.

"No I think that's tomorrow and yes it was." Keller went and pilled food on to her plate.

Rodney looks up at Lorne who had been watching him eat since he walked into the mess hall. Rodney was getting annoyed by Lorne's attempt to well annoy him.

"I'm trying to eat here." Rodney states matter of fact.

Lorne snickered. "I'm just enjoying the view."

Rodney gulped his food down. "Is that a pick up line?"

Lorne shakes his head. "No McKay just trying to lighten the mood in here."

Rodney looks around seeing that most of the members were talking to one another. "Why did they leave me here with you?"

"Cause no one else is willing to talk to you for long." Lorne mumbles under his breath.

Rodney looks at him and slides his food to Lorne. "I can hear you."

Lorne smiles, "I know. I wanted you too."

Rodney then belly flops on the table grabbing Lorne's jacket. "Bring it on Evan!"

"Shut up McKay."

With that Rodney McKay had been defeated yet again by Major Evan Lorne. One day soon he would come out the winner of their sibling rivalry.

Ronon looks over at the door when the group enters into the mess hall, following Harper with his eyes as she sits down. "What did Keller say?" He asks Harper since Keller wasn't within earshot at the moment.

Harper doesn't look up to him. "Nothing yet....she knows nothing." Harper then looks up to him. "It's my fault I should have listened to you."

Ronon nods slightly at hearing the uncertainty of Harper's diagnosis. Looking down at the apple in his hand, he answers quietly. "Yeah, well we all learn from experience. Maybe now you see why I worry about you sometimes."

Harper looks away from Ronon. "Yeah I guess so. Maybe that's why I shouldn't learn to fight it would make things a lot easier." She looks back up at him with a questionable look on her face.

Ronon meets her gaze without blinking. "Part of fighting is knowing when you are outmatched and being able to follow directions." He glances over at Sheppard before looking back at Harper. "We all learn that at some point."

Harper smiles at Ronon. "I should be getting back to what I'm supposed to be doing on Atlantis." She smirks at his eye brow raise and then blushes not sure if he knew what she meant, "Computers."

Ronon smiles at Harper, knowing exactly what she was talking about. "You can still spar in your off-time. Just because you're on Atlantis to do one thing doesn't mean you can't learn to fight." He leans back in his seat to stretch out. "I don't see you sitting at a computer all day anyway."

Harper smiles at him. "I can try at least." She playfully touches his arm. "Do you wonder why I haven't been in Earth for awhile all I did was being on the computer usually fixing it after someone screwed something up or hacking into the SGC?"

Ronon gives Harper a questioning look, "Really? Still can't see you sitting at a computer all day...never seen you do it on Atlantis anyway."

Harper gives a sly smile. "That's because I'm the head of the computer and engineering department. Do you ever wonder why Chuck is always in the operations center?"

Ronon shakes his head. "Not really."

One of the aids in the infirmary came in to the mess hall cornering Keller in line. "Dr. Keller the results of that test you ordered are in."

"Thank you. Harper can I see you for a second," Keller opens the file.

Sheppard frowns at Keller with mock-hurt in his eyes. "It wasn't bad." He remarks, turning back to Elizabeth with a nod. His expression becomes serious again when he notices one of the infirmary aids walk up to Keller and hand her Harper's file. "Looks like the test results are back."

"Cause I don't want to be." Harper smiles at Ronon as she gets up and walks over to Keller. "Yup so tell me good news or bad news?"

Ronon chuckles a little as Harper stands up and leaves the table. "That's Harper for you."

Keller pulled Harper to her whispering in her ear, "You're fine."

Harper pulls her friend for a hug. "You don't know how much that means to me Jen." She then pulls out. "So you liking the devices Elizabeth has on board?"

"You kidding me. I've been writing down questions for the next time I see Caylon. Go talk to Ronon." Keller watched Harper practically skip over to Ronon. She went to Sheppard trying to keep her promise to him, "Sheppard. It's good."

Sheppard glances up from the buffet of food when he sees Keller walking up to him. At hearing that his niece is in the clear, his face fills with relief and the knot that had formed in his chest dissipated. "Thanks doc. That takes a lot off my mind." With that, he follows after Harper and takes a seat beside Rodney, eyeing both him and Lorne commandingly. "Did I hear you two having another friendly discussion over here?"

Harper hugged Keller and walked back over to Ronon giving him a huge hug. She closed her eyes smelling his scent. It was like no other person she had smelt before. She looked up to him knowing he was questioning her jump to PDA. "I'm fine."

Ronon smiles a mischievous smile at Harper, thinking of a different meaning for that sentence. "That's good to hear." He says with his usual air of calmness.

She questioned his mischievous smile as she shook her head now understanding what he had meant. "I thought you said no flirting while working?" She looked around making sure no one was noticing them she stood on the tips of her toes going to Ronon's ear and whispering. "In less you call that work."

Ronon shrugs, leaning forward in his seat. "Who says I'm working right now?" He smiles, a gleam in his eyes, as Harper leans up to whisper in his ear. Looking her in the eyes, he lifts an eyebrow. "Not really."

She playfully pushes him away and smiles. "You make it sound like I'm easy on the eyes." She then straightens, "Which I am not."

"Sure you're not." Ronon remarks with a playful light in his eyes.

"Do you want me to sic my uncle on you?" She questions while pushing her face up to Ronon's.

Harper's threat doesn't faze Ronon as he peers over at Sheppard. "I can take him with one arm tied behind my back." He quips, returning his gaze to her, a small smile playing across his lips.

She then sat down in her chair and leaned back. "Well I guess then you can't do anything wrong to me because then I would have no one to beat you up."

Ronon scratches the side of his head while he peers at Harper. "Why would I do anything to you to begin with? That's asking for trouble."

Harper leans towards him. "Well usually people in relationships break up over something or take the relationship to the next level. Why don't you guys do the same? Or do most people stay at the same level for years?" She had never thought about traditions that Ronon and her might differ from. Dating someone from a different planet wasn't what she thought it would be.

Ronon looks at Harper in confusion for a second before he realizes what she is referring to. Bowing his head in thought, he thinks back to the happy times he had with his now deceased girlfriend. He lifts his eyes to meet Harper's. "There's no set way to it. If you want to stay at the same level then it's your decision...same thing if you want to step up. Sheppard told me that it works the same way on Earth."

Harper smiles and nods, "I guess he is right I mean I had no parents who were together. My mom was dead before I was one and well my dad was too sick to remarry and don't even get me started on uncle Sheppard's ex-wife Nancy." She then looked to the ground then back to him. "I guess this is the first normal thing I had in my life." She laughed. "The most normal thing is in another galaxy."

Ronon shrugs nonchalantly. "Always expect the unexpected."

Harper nods. "Definitely someone said that to me after I got out of my night in jail." Ronon looked confused so Harper went on. "Let's say one of my wild college parties went out of hand and I ended up outside naked." She looked down to the floor now beat red in embarrassment. Her blonde locks hid her face somewhat as she smiled. "Don't ask bad memories. That's why I can drink the Athosian's festival drink.

Keller had heard there entire conversation. With a small smile she looked over her shoulder. "Harper take a cold shower. That hole in your chest still needs to heal. Oh and no festival drinks of any people."

Harper only glared at her friend waiting for Ronon to reply to her.

Ronon smiles over at Keller, a mixture of warmness and sternness in his eyes. "Don't worry about her, doc. I'll make sure that she follows doctor's orders."

Ronon stares at Harper for a moment; the look in his eyes seems almost as if he's sizing her up. A smile suddenly lights up his face, a rare showing of impression and approval in it. "Anything else I should know about?"

Harper shakes her head. "Nope I haven't got anything else to share." She then listens to Ronon's reply to Keller and raises an eyebrow and laughs. "Do you realize that her orders were for me to go take a cold shower.........which you cannot help me with. Plus I don't want to take one I'll wait to jump into my bed on Atlantis to rest I might be needed here."

Ronon grins at Harper before picking up his apple from the table. "You might not get the chance when we get back with the way our luck's been going." He remarks nonchalantly as he slices off a piece of the apple and pops it into his mouth.

Harper smiles and then puts her head on the table. "Why must you ruin my idea of rest?"

Ronon chews on his apple for a bit, laughter in his eyes, "Keeps life interesting."

Harper looks up Ronon who is smiling at her. She shakes her head. "I might as well fall asleep here if we are going to get blown up or something when we get back."

Ronon shrugs, standing up to get another piece of fruit. "Might as well. Never know what can happen with this group."

Harper rolls her eyes and then closes her eyes drifting off to sleep or so she thought.

Elizabeth had followed the others into the Mess Hall, but remained standing near the door - just enjoying seeing her family all together once again. She smiles as she watches them interact with each other, imprinting the moment into her memory.

She sighs, looking down to the little bundle in her arms, and is surprised to see two bleary little eyes blinking up at her. She smiles affectionately, then laughs softly as Tagan yawns hugely. "My my....that was quite a yawn for such a little guy!" He grins as if he understands, and she can't help but chuckle again. She starts to say something, but then notices Teyla heading in their direction. She smiles down at him again and says, "Oh look...you're mama is coming over."

Teyla finishes eating, stands up walking towards Elizabeth. "And how is my little one?" she asks.

Her smile remains on her face as she looks back up to Teyla and answers her question. "He's wonderful!" She turns back to the baby, and tickles his neck, "Aren't you, little warrior?" He laughs and Elizabeth turns back to his mother with a wide grin, "He's such a sweetie, Teyla! I absolutely love him!"

Teyla smiles and motions for Elizabeth to move away from the group. "Can we talk privately, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth's smile falters just slightly, but still remains on her face as she follows Teyla over to a secluded corner, "Of course."

Teyla pats Elizabeth's shoulder and says, "I want you to know that you have been greatly missed." Tears start to form in her eyes as she continues, "I have missed our talks we used to have and all the worry about the IOA and John." She pauses a moment before finishing, "Where have you been all this time? Why didn't you come to us sooner?"

Elizabeth's expression is warm as she looks at Teyla. "I have missed you too, Teyla! You have no idea....."

Her smile then fades completely, a deep sadness settling on her face. She knew this conversation would happen, but she wasn't sure how her friend would react to her answer - or how she would react when she learned that Elizabeth would not be staying in Atlantis. Harper and John had both expressed a level of anger, and she was afraid that Teyla would as well.

She felt that she deserved the truth, however, so she continues, "I have been with a group of rogue Asurans - commanding them actually. They helped me to escape from Oberoth....they believe that I am the key to their being able to ascend." She smiles a little, "Since our escape, we have been building a fleet and taking out as many Wraith as we can. You see, we have the ability to cloak not just our jumpers, but our ships as well.....this really comes in handy when attacking Wraith!"

She sighs then, and looks at Tagan - who has latched onto one of her fingers - sadness clearly written on her face, "As to why I didn't come sooner......well, that's a long story...."

Teyla sighs, "We have plenty of time." She pauses for a moment, "Please tell your story."

Elizabeth nods, and begins to tell her story once again, "When I was captured, Oberoth decided to keep me prisoner rather than kill me. He thought that he would be able to get information from me." She smiles slightly, "He was, of course, wrong."

"While I was being held prisoner, I met a rogue replicator named Arlon. He told me that there was a group of Asurans who were against Oberoth. They were seeking a way to ascend, and, as I mentioned, they believed that I was the key." She looks away, "Long story short, they helped me escape and we stole one of the Asuran ships."

"However, I wasn't able to escape from Oberoth right away." She winces, and subconsciously puts a hand to her forehead, just as she had done when telling her story to John. "I was his prisoner for awhile....it took time and considerable effort before I was finally able to escape. By that time, I had no idea where the city had been relocated."

She sighs, dropping her hand, "The rogue Asurans and I had to go into hiding. Oberoth was never going to stop looking for me - he had become obsessed with me...with making me pay......"

Elizabeth sighs, then looks back to Teyla, "We stayed in hiding until your team detroyed the Asuran planet. My new 'crew' took good care of me - I wouldn't be here if it weren't for them. Anyway, as I told John, while we were still in hiding, we managed to make some friends who have stayed our allies to this day. Once we no longer had to worry about Oberoth, we were able to forge even more alliances until, finally, we had a pretty expansive information network in place. It's because of these alliances, and this network, that I knew about Sam's abduction."

"However, even though this network became quite effective, I was never able to get any information on the whereabouts of Atlantis. As far as anyone knew, it had just vanished. I had almost given up hope of ever finding it again...until word reached me that the new leader of our great city had been kidnapped."

She sees an expression on Teyla's face that is similar to John's when she told that to him, so she quickly continues, "I know....I could have used the network to get word to Atlantis that I was alive - and I actually did try a few times - but something always seemed to happen, and word never reached there."

She looks away again, "So much time had passed by then, and I knew that, for the sake of the city, you all would have already accepted that I was dead, grieved, and begun to move on. One of our allies told me about a group of people who came to his planet from Atlantis in order to trade. He overheard them talking to his village elder about a new leader of Atlantis, who was named Col. Carter, and I knew then that life in the city had returned to normal. Well, as normal as life can be on Atlantis, anyway. That's pretty much when I just decided that it would be best to leave it the way it was....at least until I knew the time was really right. Until that time came, I was determined to do all I could in the war against the Wraith."

"I knew that I could do a lot of good with the Asurans. I found out that you all believed that I was dead, and I knew that if you knew that wasn't true, you'd never stop looking for me. You all already had enough to deal with without my adding to it." Moisture gathers in her eyes as she says, "I wanted to contact you guys so many times...the timing just wasn't right. I wanted to come back as an ally, not as someone that the IOA could turn into a science experiment."

"Anyway, I started with a small crew of Asuran's, and one ship, but I now have a full crew and five ships. A sixth ship is currently being built..er...replicated. It takes a lot of time and power to replicate anything, so it has taken all this time to create what I currently have."

Teyla's eyes widen as Elizabeth tells her story. When she finishes, Teyla reaches over to hug Elizabeth who was still holding Tagan. "I wish you would have told us sooner you were alive. I understand that you couldn't at the time, but let me tell you none of us have accepted your supposed death." Tears begin forming in Teyla's eyes as she continues, "John never gave up hope that you were alive as did I. While others believe you to be dead, John and I both knew one day we would find you." She wipes her eyes and regains her composure, "Elizabeth, we want you to come back to Atlantis."

Elizabeth hugs Teyla back, being careful to not squish Tagan between them. She releases her, then looks into her eyes - hating what she is about to tell her and hating that it has to be the way that it does.

She sighs sadly, "I can't come back to Atlantis, Teyla. I'm afraid that too much has changed.....not to mention that the IOA would probably never allow me to remain there anyway."

"Please don't misunderstand, I would like nothing more than to return home to the life I once had....." She looks down at Tagan - who had been quietly watching the two women talk - and smiles longingly, "...and I would love to be able to watch this little warrior grow up.......but that life doesn't exist anymore."

She looks back up to her friend, "If I were to return to Atlantis, the IOA would just turn me into a guinea pig. I couldn't live like that......with the Asurans, I can at least help to insure that the City - and all those precious to me - remain safe."

Teyla nods her head knowing in her heart that Elizabeth wasn't going to return. "I kind of knew you would not stay, but please let us know where you are so we can keep in contact." She looks at Tagan and then back at Elizabeth, "Besides, we still need you and I want Tagan to one day meet you. You are a strong woman and I will still miss you but I respect your decision that you must stay with your new people."

Elizabeth smiles, glad that Teyla understands, but then looks startled at her friend's last statement. "Oh Teyla, the Asurans are not my 'new people'...they are just my crew!" She reaches out and takes her hand, squeezing it gently and placing her forehead against hers. "You all are my 'people' - my family, and nothing will ever change that! It can't - it's just not possible."

She looks into her eyes, trying to make her understand. "I love you all more than you know.....you're the main reason I stay where I am." She smiles slightly then, "And even though I won't be living in Atlantis, I'll still be contact as much as I can. As I told Harper, I can be contacted whenever I'm needed.....or even just wanted for that matter."

Teyla smiles, "I know...we love you too and you will always be a part of our family." She gives her another hug and asks, "Will you watch Tagan so I can speak with Col. Sheppard?"

Elizabeth grins, and lifts Tagan, tossing him onto the air and catching him - his laughter ringing across the room. "Of course, I would love to hang out with him for a bit longer."

Teyla smiles at Elizabeth and kisses Tagan's forehead before heading off to speak with Sheppard.

Elizabeth watches as Teyla walks towards John, then shifts Tagan to her hip and heads over to the food table. She grabs a plate with her free hand, setting it on the table and placing a variety of fruits on it. She feels Tagan start to bounce on her hip in excitement, so she smashes a piece of banana and puts it into his mouth, grinning as he makes a baby "Mmmmm" sound. "Oh, is that good, little warrior?"

The baby grins and begins to bounce again, so Elizabeth gives him another mouthful of smashed banana, then places her plate on a tray along with a glass of water. She turns and looks around the room, trying to decide who she should ask to carry her tray to a table.

Keller snatched Elizabeth's tray, "So where we going?"

Elizabeth smiles as Keller seems to read her mind - grabbing her tray before she even has the chance to open her mouth. "Thank you, Doctor, and right over there would be fine." She gestures to the end of the table where the team is sitting, then smirks. "Just not next to Rodney.....I wouldn't want Tagan to get sick watching him eat....."

"Of course I think I could be sued for malpractice if he was placed with in viewing." Keller put down both trays and began picking at her salad.

Elizabeth sat down next to Keller, and positioned Tagan on her knee. She fed him another bit of banana, then took a sip of her water. She popped a grape into her mouth, and then looked at Keller - noticing that she was just picking at her salad. "Is everything okay, Dr Keller?"

Keller let out the breath she didn't know she was holding. "I am a doctor my job is to help people. To save them, but I can't even do that. I was down there in the middle of a battle and could do nothing but point aimlessly and shoot. If right now someone tried to take this ship all I could do is flip over this table and pray."

Elizabeth glances at the young woman in surprise, "From what I understand, you held your own down there, Doctor." She places her free hand on her shoulder, "It's perfectly normal for it to feel awkward....you're not trained for battle. It was pretty awkward for me at first, too."

She squeezes her shoulder gently, "We are alike in that way, I think. Neither of us were trained to be fighters - or really wanted to be, for that matter - but being here in the Pegasus Galaxy has forced us to change." She returns her hand to the table as she says, "We do what me must....and we adapt."

Keller smiled at Elizabeth glad to have someone there who understood. "I had the perfect childhood…Mom, dad, picket fence. I was in a neighborhood where the biggest gossip was Mr. and Mrs. Weston didn't kiss each other that morning. I went to medical school because my dad was a doctor ear, nose, and throat. I hate conflict, didn't ever want to be near a fight, and lived a pretty boring life. When they asked me to be on a top secret project I thought some bioweapon vaccine. Don't get me wrong this is a dream job. I'm privy to every known medical anything in two galaxies but I'm out of my element. How did you deal with not being the soldier?"

Elizabeth turns back to the young doctor, after taking a few bites of her food and giving Tagan more banana. "Well, when I was still 100% human, and the leader of Atlantis.....I basically left the soldiering up to John." She laughs a little before continuing, "I was a diplomat....I made the hard decisions and negotiations. I didn't have to physically fight, and I didn't want to......John was.....is.....more than capable of taking care of that end of things, so I left it to him."

"But once I became part replicator and was captured by Oberoth.....well, things changed." She sighs and takes a sip of water before continuing, "It was either fight or die......I chose to fight."

"Me too. Thanks Elizabeth." Keller shoved a fork full of salad smiling as Tagan giggled. "So cute."

Elizabeth gives her a friendly smile, "Glad that I could help." She laughs as she hears Tagan's giggle, and nods in agreement to Keller. "He is quite possibly the cutest baby I have ever met!" She coos down to him, "Aren't you, little warrior? And your Auntie Elizabeth loves you, doesn't she?"

The baby chortles happily and begins to bounce on his "Auntie Elizabeth's" knee again, signaling that he wants more banana. She obliges him, then turns to Keller with a somewhat embarrassed smile, "Please don't tell Rodney that I called myself Tagan's 'Auntie'.....I honestly don't know what has come over me since I've gotten to meet this sweet little baby."

"Probably the same thing that would happen to anyone with a beating heart and sanity. Don't worry about Rodney. I have actually seen him cooing over this young man before." Keller tickled Tagan any problems seemed to disappear at the sound of his laughter.

Elizabeth grins, "Harper tells me that just seeing Rodney can make him cry."

Her grin grows wider as the baby's laughter rings out across the room once again.

Keller laughed, "Yeah I think Rodney cooing at him was a stressor."

Teyla walks over to where Sheppard is seated munching on some food. "John, can we speak alone?" Teyla asks him.

"Long time no see." Sheppard quips, his trade-mark grin spreading across his face. His smile wanes slightly when Teyla asks to speak to him alone but he quickly covers it up. "Yeah..." He says as he lays his fork down onto his plate and stands up to go with Teyla. Before he leaves, Sheppard looks down at Rodney with a serious expression on his face. "Don't even think about touching my sandwich McKay."

Teyla smiles a little trying to hide a snicker at John's remarks to Rodney. Teyla looks into John's eyes for a moment before walking out of the mess hall and into the empty hallway.

Rodney only glares at John as he leaves the table.

Sheppard meets Teyla's gaze before she turns to walk out into the hallway. He watches her go, shooting one last warning look at Rodney as he follows after her. Stepping out into the hallway, Sheppard searches until his eyes land on Teyla standing near a window. "Never gets old, does it?" is the only thing that he says, coming to stand beside Teyla to peer out into space.

Teyla turns to look at John and her mouth forms a half-smile, "Yes I have missed his comments while I was gone." Her facial expression changes as she begins to think about her captor. "John, first I want to thank you for coming after me again. I was so afraid you would not reach me in time before Michael began his experiments on..." she pauses as tears begin to form in her eyes, "Tagan and Netia."

Sheppard turns to face Teyla, a softness reflected in his eyes that contrasted with the firmness of his facial expression. "I made a promise, didn't I?" He asks in his usual laid back tone. "I wasn't about to just sit around and do nothing."

Tears begin to roll down her cheeks as she begins thinking about her captor. She wipes her face trying to stop the tears but they continue to come. Her voice quavers as she speaks, "I don't think you have ever sat around doing nothing." She pauses waiting for her voice to return normal before continuing, "What happened when you met with Michael?"

Sheppard frowns down at the floor uncomfortably at seeing Teyla so vulnerable. He has never seen her act quite like this before with her heart so open and frankly, he isn't sure exactly how to react. Just like with Elizabeth, Shepp thinks to himself. Sighing deeply, Sheppard raises his gaze to meet Teyla's as he gently runs his hand through his hair. "You don't need to worry about him anymore," comes his quiet response.

Teyla's eyes widen at John's confession, a small smile beginning to form on her face to replace the tears. She begins to speak his name but does not finish her sentence. Instead, she steps closer to him wrapping her arms around his neck giving him a hug resting her head on his shoulder. For a moment, there is silence before she whispers, "Thank you, John."

Sheppard stands in uncertain silence as Teyla wraps her arms around his neck. After a moment, he slowly raises his good arm to return the hug. Pulling away from Teyla slightly, Sheppard gives her a warm, friendly smile. "Hey, I made a promise right?"

Teyla returns the smile responding, "Yes, John. I appreciate all you have done for me today." She glances at his previously injured arm and asks, "How are you feeling?"

Caylon and Carson step back into the lab, and instantly notice a look of excitement on Raena's face. She grins at them, then says, "I think I've found something!"

Caylon looks at Raena, "In Col. Sheppard's blood?" Carson glances sharply at him, and Caylon suddenly realizes that he had not yet shared his concerns with the Scottish Doctor. He looks at him apologetically. I am sorry, Dr Beckett.....I will explain momentarily.

Carson nods hesitantly, then looks at Raena - who has stopped what she is about to say, briefly confused. It lasts barely a second, though, as she shakes her head and replies, "No. The Colonel's blood is still in the processor." She smiles again, "I was referring to the anti-virus."

Carson looks up with interest, "Aye? What have you discovered?"

Raena gestures to the screen on her console, "See for yourself."

Carson looks carefully at the screen. "Well, I'll be," he says. "It would appear you've had a major break-through!!"

Raena grins, "We have had a break-through, gentlemen!" She touches some controls and brings up another screen. "We just have to make these adjustments," She points to a spot on the screen. "...and the anti-virus should work effectively."

She crosses her arms, and looks at the men triumphantly. "All that we need to do now is how to manufacture it."

Carson nods and pushes his sleeves up, "Well then, shall we get to work?"

TO BE CONTINUED….