Author Notes: Sorry again for the delay. You'd think holidays would make me update faster, but apparently not... Thanks for the continued support, and I hope you enjoy this chapter. Time has moved forwards again.

Chapter 4: Hell

"He won't like it, and you know it." Laura sighed as she and her daughter sorted through their ammo reserves.

Hannah rolled her eyes, "Yeah, but what if I'm right? You've seen my calculations. You helped! And you agree with me!"

"He doesn't even know you go down there. If it were up to him you wouldn't even leave the main rooms."

Hannah opened a clip, checked it, and reinserted it into the gun she had stolen a few days previously, "I know, I know, as far as he's concerned, I'm just a kid…"

Laura smiled, "You know he doesn't think of you that way, it's just where he comes from-"

Hannah waved her hand dismissively, "That's exactly my point. I know Dad doesn't like to talk about it much, but he's taught me everything he knows, and I think there's a very slim chance he's unstable." Laura raised an eyebrow, "C'mon, Mum, you know what I mean. Just because you don't like him doesn't mean he shouldn't know. What if we could all leave?"

"Now you're just dreaming, Hannah, and you know it."

The girl smirked, "Yeah, but you have to admit, when have I ever been wrong?"

Laura sighed, "There is far too much of Rodney in you."

"Damn straight." At fourteen years old, Hannah McKay, daughter of two of the most intelligent, albeit abrasive, characters on their planet, was a complete enigma. She had so many sides to her that sometimes it was hard to keep up, even for her parents. Thanks the insistence of Rodney and his desire 'not to have a brain-dead bimbo for a daughter', Hannah was smart. Not necessarily in the conventional sense, but she had a natural ability for anything different; anything that the catacombs and her father could teach her. On the other hand, there was her mother's complete disregard for self preservation, combined with the simple fact that however hard Rodney had tried to keep his daughter as 'normal' as possible, she was a human of Earth, and that meant she was hardly a pacifist. Then again, neither was her father, not anymore.

Laura sighed once more, something she always seemed to be doing around Hannah, "Fine, he's due back from the scout mission any second. Go break the news."

Hannah grinned, holstering her new gun as she walked swiftly in the direction of the surface tunnels. Sure enough, Den was already on his way to get something to eat; the scouts had been away for over a day. She scanned the group, giving a wide berth to Yarek, before crouching down next to a man checking his kit, "Hey Dad. Have fun?"

Rodney glared, "Oh yeah, bucket loads." His eyes narrowed, "What have you done?"

Hannah put on a mock affronted look, before her face spilt into a grin, "Come on, you're gonna like it - promise."

Rodney stood, and began following his daughter down the tunnels that led to the deeper catacombs, "The last time you said that, you had made everyone boiled dirt for dinner."

"So I'm not a great cook. Neither are you. Deal with it."

"Hannah, I'm tired; this had better be important."

"Trust me."

"Hannah, what-" Rodney froze. He had been so tired, he hadn't particularly been paying attention to where they were going, until he found himself staring at the damn Ancient pedestal. He hadn't been down here in weeks, and at first it looked as if nothing had changed, until he saw a mass of chalk scrawlings on the floor; translations. "What is this?"

"Just bear with me, okay?"

"Hannah, look, I'm sorry to burst your bubble here, but I think if there was a way to make this damn thing work, I would have found it already."

Hannah smiled softly, ignoring her father's jibe, "Maybe you just needed a fresh pair of eyes. Take a look."

"Hannah, there is no way…" Rodney trailed off, "Huh. Well, that looks vaguely…I suppose you…"

Hannah raised an eyebrow, "Oh yeah, I am so much smarter than you."

"This part can't be right." Rodney gestured to a section translated from the device itself.

Laughing, Hannah placed her hands on her hips, "No offence Dad, but no one ages as well as you are; especially not with the kind of lifestyle we lead. You're being kept this age."

"No, it doesn't work that way. Parallel universes-"

"You're living proof! Your universe must be stood still or something!"

"No, no, now you're just being stupid."

"Well, what then? Because I know my translations are right. This thing is a learning tool. For Ancients or whoever to see how other universes turned out. I guess they picked the most extreme to make it more interesting. And you're not aging because you're still tied to the one you were born in." She folded her arms stubbornly.

"No, no that's wrong. Time is relative, true, but this device couldn't simply stop time from moving in my universe. Even though that could explain my age, it's just not possible."

Hannah shrugged, "Well, I don't know Dad, maybe it shoves the whole other universe into a freaking time loop; I just thought you might be interested."

For a second, Rodney looked like he was actually considering his daughter's wild suggestion, but he quickly dismissed it for something more plausible. Hannah watched as her father's face turned slowly from a look of confusion to one of utter shock, "God, I've been so stupid!"

"Don't let Mum hear you say that."

"The very theory of multiverse means that anything is possible. Somewhere, there's a universe where humans never evolved, or where the Goa'uld chose to use Asgard for hosts, or whatever!"

"Dad…"

"The point is, it also works in relatives for time, so much so that it has been theorised that the person doing the travelling might alter the destination universe. You're right, to a point – my universe could be seen as standing still. But in actual fact, it's us who are moving faster."

"Dad."

"My presence here is accelerating everything in this universe, so that years can pass in only a few seconds for me. I'm like exotic particles, if you will, but as there's no other me here, there's no rejection, and as I'm larger than simple particles, I don't affect this universe to any detrimental degree. Yet. I suppose this device wouldn't be used for too extended a period, or the invasion would break the universe apart-"

"Dad!"

"Yes?"

"Shut up!"

"Look, basically, it means I can go home. All I need to do is configure the crystals to the reset stage, something I hadn't wanted to do before in case it killed me."

Hannah smiled, but then, "Wait, what about me? The rest of us?"

Rodney paused for a moment, and then his face fell, "You would be theoretically fine – you have DNA from both universes, you wouldn't affect mine, the device would see you as a returning traveller. But everyone else…"

"They'd put your universe on fast-forward."

"Basically."

Hannah sighed, "But you can't stay."

"No."

As was her habit when nervous, Hannah removed a small blade from her wristcuff and began twirling it between her fingers, "Don't make me choose, Dad."

"I-"

Rodney broke off as footsteps echoed from the doorway, running at full pelt. Emily jumped into view – literally – by leaping down the last flight of five steps into the room. She gasped out, "Jaffa. Those new creepy ones. They followed the scout party back. And their god Anubis has landed."

Hannah blinked, "What's a god doing here?"

Rodney paled, "Anubis and Ancient technology. Crap. Where is everybody?"

An explosion showered dust from the ceiling. Emily shook her head, "Making it out any escape route possible – those who survived the first blast." Her voice caught slightly, indicating that either one or both of her parents were dead, "Come on!" She disappeared, not wanting to risk her life further.

Shots rang louder; Hannah drew and charged her gun, "Dad?"

Rodney was already at work, hands flitting over crystals and panels. He ignored her.

"Dad! There's still the north tunnel. We can make it, it's the only way out of this room that isn't up those stairs!"

"Wrong." The control crystal flared into life, and then dulled, just as it had done the first time, so many years ago by Rodney's point of view.

"I am not leaving Mum!"

Rodney stood so that he was taller than his daughter, "You and I both know she's already dead – or worse. It's not a camp raid; it's an organised Jaffa attack. No one is getting out alive!"

Hannah looked at her Dad, knowing he spoke the truth. She trusted him, "Alright. You first."

Voices rang above them, getting closer. Rodney grabbed his daughter's hand, and grasped the crystal. He felt the same sensation as before, and then his feet smashed into solid ground. Of a lab. Dazed, he smiled, and then realised something. His hand felt strangely empty, as if grasping only air. He whirled around. Hannah was no where to be seen. His clothes were the same as a few seconds ago, he still had a gun and a blade, and yet his daughter was nowhere to be seen, and the coffee mug on his desk was still steaming from when he had poured it so many years ago. His legs turned to jelly as he leant against the desk. He felt sick. He had abandoned her. Blinking furiously, he forced his mind to remember everything so common to his Earth, and checked the power levels on the device. He closed his eyes, trying to make the readings wrong. There was no way he had enough power to go back for her. He would never see Hannah again; she was probably already dead.

Hannah was confused. Her whole being felt weird, like her very cells had been rejected. One second her Dad had been cutting off the circulation in her hand, the next she was grasping at thin air, and her surroundings were exactly the same. Her mind froze up, completely terrified, but her instincts weren't in accord. Her body worked automatically, snatching the control crystal out of its holder, in case Anubis ruined any chance she had of finding her father, and ran full pelt down the north tunnel. She did the only thing a human was truly good at. She hid.

He felt numb. It wasn't the cold. It wasn't the familiar yet unfamiliar and trivial surroundings. He just felt…numb. The past twenty four hours had passed in surreal form of normalcy. Everything was perfect. The car to the airport, the flight to Antarctica, the ride to the outpost, the tour of the outpost…the list went on. He was vaguely aware of making increasingly snarky comments, but wasn't quite sure how he came up with them when he couldn't even work out what anyone was saying.

Dr Carson Beckett scanned the large medical file of his new patient. Ever since he had taken up this new posting, he had taken upon himself to meet and check-up every new addition to the base. It wasn't particularly necessary, but he had a strange feeling they might be here a while, and odd things, usually of the dangerous variety, tended to happen quite frequently around the scientists. He was about to meet the new Head of Science, and from the rumours he had heard, the guy was going to be a tough one to crack. Nevertheless, he smiled as a new face entered his makeshift infirmary under the ice, watching with curiosity as the man dismissed the escorting Marine with more than simple distain.

The check-up was meant to be simply talking, going over medical history, the normal get-to-know stuff. But as their little interview continued, Carson began to get more and more worried. Dr McKay was disturbingly pale, even considering the cold, and his gaze always seemed to be unfocused. Finally, Carson smiled as casually as he could, and gently took the physicist's wrist. By this point in their conversation – which had been deteriorating for a while – Rodney barely seemed to notice. Carson was shocked to find a rapid, weak pulse, and immediately shifted to full Doctor mode. The man didn't even protest, as if any fight that had been keeping him going had simply drained away.

Three hours later, Carson was seated on an adjoining medical bed, making a few notes while still watching his patient – hardly a great first meeting, but it made him increasingly glad he had insisted on check-ups, or he was certain the poor lad would have collapsed in the labs of exhaustion. What had brought it on, Carson could only guess, but Rodney had fallen into a rapid state of shock. Not only that, but considering his hypoglycaemic condition, it looked like he wasn't getting all the food he should have been. Currently asleep, wrapped in numerous blankets, Dr Beckett was just trying to work out whether this fell under any jurisdiction that meant he had to inform them when Rodney sat up sharply, making the doctor jump.

Rodney began to pull out his IV, confused, and scrambled to get up in the oddly comfortable bed before Carson placed a hand on his shoulder, and it all came rushing back. He couldn't prevent the small sob that escaped, "Oh God…"

Call it Scottish intuition, but Carson had a feeling this might be a long night. He wasn't wrong. It hadn't taken much to break through Rodney's exhausted and weakened defences and make him recount, well, just about everything. The device, Laura, Yarek, Hannah, thousands of Jaffa, a living hell. Carson listened patiently, until Rodney stopped talking, and slumped exhausted onto the pillows, "I s'pose you're gonna have me committed, right?"

Carson raised an eyebrow, contemplating his answer, "No, lad, I'm not."

Rodney looked at him in sheer disbelief, "You're sure? Not just some case of a genius gone a little too loony?"

Carson smiled softly, "I am currently on Earth, in an alien outpost, doing research with international specialists on an alien gene that has somehow surfaced in the human genome. You'll forgive me if I don't discount you completely."

"But…"

Carson waved a hand, rising to leave the room and leave the scientist alone in his thoughts to finally accept what had happened, "Goodnight Rodney."

No more conversation was needed. No one else was told. For three whole years, Rodney McKay lived and breathed Ancient technology, hiding the empty part of him from the world. Occasionally, his other self would surface, like when a sudden paternal instinct emerged on the children's planet, making the two little ones learn how to hide, even when he had seemed hateful to them at all other times. At other times, when he was not in control thanks to pain, drugs or withdrawal, Carson always made sure that he stayed with his friend, never letting anyone else find out about the little secret found only now in Rodney's nightmares.

Until one day, when family suddenly once more became a slight possibility in his life, with the arrival of Jeannie Miller on Atlantis.

To Be Continued…

Author Notes: I know this was not the direction most people expected this story to go, but I hope you like it anyway. Please review :)