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Jennifer McKay made her way to the mess hall late that evening. The newlyweds didn't make it out of their room to grab dinner, so Jennifer went to bring food back for her sleeping husband. Knowing his personality she knew he'd be straight out for weeks trying to catch up on what happened in his absence, especially if the rumor of Daniel Jackson moving to Atlantis was true.

Upon entry she noticed a figure slumped over at a corner table. The physician rushed to him or her. "Are you okay?"

"Huh?" Radek Zelenka said, raising his head.

"Radek?" Jennifer's eyes widened as she saw a bruise on the Czech's face. "What happened to you? Did you go to the infirmary?"

"Yes," Radek said, shaking his head. He was dressed in BDUs, which was extremely odd. "I'm fine. Took a stick… Bantos, I believe… to my face."

"Why are you sparing?" Jennifer sat down next to one of her oldest friends on Atlantis.

"If I'm going to be on Sheppard's team I have to measure up," Radek sighed, resting his head on his hands.

"Sheppard's team?" Jennifer asked, looking with a critical eye at Radek to ensure he was not suffering from a concussion. Why would he be on Sheppard's team? John wants two scientists, what for?

"I can't believe he wants me, but Porter works well with Lorne and no one wants Kavanagh. He'll probably end up with Cadman. Poor thing. Her first team and getting stuck with that…" Lifting his head, Radek's voice tapered off and his eyes widened. "I shouldn't have said that."

"Radek?" The tone of her voice was unlike any she'd ever used with her friend before. Jennifer had worked with Radek since she arrived on Atlantis and played chess with him frequently, so she knew him well.

"Colonel Shep…" Radek started.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Jennifer hit her earwig and shouted the name of her husband's best man.

A sleepy sound came over her earwig, but it sounded enough like the Colonel for her to believe he was awake.

"Are you in your quarters?" she asked. She knew Radek would eventually tell her about these teams and why he was joining her husband's, but she didn't want her friend in any more trouble. I'll go straight to the source.

"It's 1:00am, of course I am," an annoyed John Sheppard replied.

"I'm on my way," she said. "Get some rest Radek and put an ice pack on your face."

The scientist nodded and began to get up slowly.

Dammit. John dragged himself out of bed and pulled some pants on. Who the hell told her? There was no doubt in the Colonel's mind as to why his best friend's new wife was headed to his quarters in the middle of the night. She found out about the mission and the fact that Rodney isn't invited.

Before he could do much more than pull a t-shirt over his head, pounding came from his door. Raising the lights, he opened it to find Jennifer McKay clad in a sweat suit and pink fuzzy slippers. The sight almost made him laugh until he saw the pissed off expression on her face. "Come on in, Doc."

"You're going back," she stated.

No questioning. No what's going on? Straight to the point, just like her husband. God help us all if she turns into a female McKay.

"Yes." John decided to play it cool, or try to anyways.

"Without Rodney?" she asked eyes blazing.

"Yes," he replied.

"It'll kill him you know," Jennifer said. "The wonderful man he is now will be gone. Betrayed by his best friend."

"Jennifer…"

"You're replacing my husband because he got married," she stated, stepping into his personal space and glaring at him.

"Not officially," he said, stepping back. "Will you sit down? So I can explain."

"No," Jennifer said, crossing her arms.

"Fine." John ran a hand through his hair and let out a long sigh. "It's an intelligence gathering mission. We're going on the Daedalus with three teams: Lorne's, a new team for Cadman and mine. We're taking three jumpers and seeing what's happened since we've been gone. And to bring Teyla back to her son."

"You're taking Radek, Porter and…" Jennifer paused for effect, "Kavanagh?"

"Unfortunately, he's done the best on the tests," John said groaning. The man was a hundred times worse than McKay was when he first met the astrophysicist.

"John," Jennifer's voice softened. "You can't do this to Rodney."

"I won't make him chose between you and me," John said. "I know how much he'll feel obligated to the team, but you two…" Sheppard stopped speaking before he admitted too much. "As the mission commander, I can't have a team member who won't give one hundred percent to the mission." John stood a bit taller with that declaration. This would probably destroy his friendship with the genius for a while, but hopefully Rodney would forgive him, eventually.

"What if I go?" she added.

"This is a focused mission with a few objectives: gather intelligence, see if we can find some Ancient tech to help us defend Earth and get back in one piece," John explained. He knew Jennifer was as intelligent as her husband, so hiding the facts wasn't going to help. "The Daedalus already has a doctor."

"Give me two days," she said, her mind obviously racing to form a plan before his eyes.

"Two days for what?" John asked, curious what the physician was thinking. Crap, she is turning into him.

"A way to solve all your problems," she said, turning to leave. "Promise me you'll keep Zelenka and the others from telling Rodney?"

"I should have known. Zelenka can't resist a pretty face," John smiled. Honestly he couldn't imagine any reason for Jennifer McKay to accompany them, but he'd give her a shot at coming up with one. I doubt Caldwell will allow it even if she does.

Two days later, Sheppard, Caldwell, O'Neill and Woolsey were in the conference room with Jennifer McKay and Carson Beckett who were about to give a presentation. He knew the physician spent the last two days holed up with Beckett because the young woman asked him to keep Rodney busy, so she could work on her idea.

Rodney had his own problems and didn't need John to occupy his time. Daniel Jackson was taking over half of Rodney's department and the astrophysicist was ready to toss Woolsey off the balcony because of it. To be fair, it wasn't Woolsey's doing nor was it a bad thing since Jackson knew more about the Ancients than anyone. However, his best friend considered Atlantis as much his as his new wife.

The military commander of Atlantis took a moment to watch Jennifer and Carson. When Jennifer Keller came to Atlantis, Carson was her mentor. He recruited her and set her on the track to be his replacement, which happened sooner than they expected. To see them now, Jennifer seemed to be in the mentor role. This Carson Beckett owed her his life and John knew the original CMO never forgot that his American friend was the current CMO. Jennifer was willing to step aside for him when he returned, but the Scotsman would have no part of it.

"I want to thank you gentlemen for allowing us to take some of your valuable time," Jennifer began, wringing her hands and looking at Carson with a smile.

"Doctor Keller," Caldwell started only to pause, "…I mean Doctor McKay, I'm not sure why we're here. I already have a full medical staff…"

"I agreed to let them speak so pipe down, Colonel," Jack O'Neill said. "Proceed Doctor… McKay." A grin spread over Jack's face as he used her new last name.

"Thank you, General O'Neill," Jennifer replied. "Doctor Beckett and I believe we have a way of assisting you on this mission."

John leaned forward and rested his arms on the table. Even though Caldwell was the official Commander in Charge because he had been a Colonel much longer than John, Sheppard was in charge of anything relating to the teams, their missions and interactions with people in the Pegasus Galaxy. Any assistance his best friend's wife could provide should be his decision to accept.

"Go ahead," Jack said. "We're all ears."

Jennifer swallowed and forced a smile. Even though she knew all the men around the table, seeing them staring at her send a shaft of fear through her. She quickly looked down at her laptop and her screensaver was on, a photo of her and Rodney hugging outside a castle from their honeymoon. Memories of waking up in her husband's arms and staring into his smiling face since their wedding fixed her resolve. You're doing this so your husband is not left out because of you. Suck it up and talk.

Glancing at Carson who smiled encouragingly, Jennifer turned to her audience. Carson was adamant since this was her idea and most of the research had been hers that she presented. "We know that the Wraith feed via specialized cells that extract human DNA or part of human…"

"Why are we talking about Wraith feeding?" Caldwell interrupted.

"Because Todd is currently in stasis because he's starving to death," Jennifer said coldly. For some reason, the Daedalus Commander seemed to view Rodney and Jennifer, now that they were married, as some kind of a pariah. She rarely interacted with Caldwell and honestly didn't know why he had even been invited to their wedding, but Rodney felt Caldwell saved their lives on numerous occasions and merited an invitation.

"Todd?" John's interest was raised. Even though the Wraith always betrayed them, he did help them in the process. A double-edged sword.

"Yes, Colonel, Todd," Jennifer said with a tight smile. "Carson and I believe we have a way to feed Todd, in a manner of speaking, without sacrificing people."

"What do we need him for?" Caldwell said. "He's betrayed us…"

"He'll want to get out of stasis," Jennifer said.

"She's right," John continued. "He's gotta be desperate after the deep freeze he's been in for a couple weeks."

"Desperate enough to do what?" Woolsey asked.

"Lead you to more ZPMs perhaps," Jennifer chimed in.

"More?" O'Neill cocked an eyebrow and looked at the physician.

"Rodney said that replicator city had dozens of ZPM rooms," Jennifer replied quietly, forgetting she should not be advising the military. "It only makes sense that Todd took more than four."

The men around the table looked at one another, silently agreeing with the CMO. O'Neill looked back at Jennifer. "So you think you can feed Todd, allowing him to join this expedition?"

"Yes," Jennifer said firmly.

"How?" Mister Woolsey asked.

"Injecting human DNA into him so he can regenerate," Jennifer explained.

"Human DNA?" John asked, raising his eyebrows. "From where?"

"Don't worry about Todd turning into you." Jennifer smiled. "Carson and I have a way to get the DNA without asking for samples from everyone."

"Aye, we cannot feed him enough to match the regenerative capability a live person can provide, but it'll be enough to sustain him," Carson chimed in.

"Until Carson and I can perfect the gene therapy I was working on before Todd took it," Jennifer said.

"More genetic experiments?" Caldwell said bitterly. He was still upset his ship was hijacked due to her experiment.

"It's difficult to determine how a treatment will work without trying it on test subjects," Jennifer began, feeling her cheeks heat up. "Carson and I did some more research into Michael's database and believe we found a contributing factor to Michael's ability not to feed that I had not taken into account."

"What was that?" Woolsey asked, looking between the doctors.

"My retrovirus," Carson said, looking troubled. The Scotsman never spoke about Michael and no one brought it up.

"Every time we genetically manipulate the Wraith, disastrous results come from it," Caldwell said, glancing at Woolsey and O'Neill. "When are we going to stop randomly messing with them?"

"I can assure you, Colonel, that I won't randomly do experiments on him. Todd can make a decision if he wants to try this or not. I'll monitor everything that happens if he decides to go ahead," Jennifer said. "I can share our progress with you daily, if you'd like?"

A cough from John drew her attention to the Colonel who glanced quickly at Carson. Understanding dawned on Jennifer and she suddenly felt horrible.

Before she could correct her gaff, O'Neill asked the ultimate question. "What about your day job, Doctor McKay?"

"If you agree to let Carson and I join this expedition, I will resign as CMO of Atlantis. Doctor Lam or Major Cole would both be excellent replacements," Jennifer said. It broke her heart to leave, but she was doing this for Rodney.

O'Neill looked around the room, Colonel Caldwell looked disgusted, Richard Woolsey looked saddened to lose his most efficient staff member and Sheppard looked like a kid in a candy store. "We need to discuss this for a few minutes. Can you step outside?"

"Not a problem," Jennifer said, turning to Carson she spoke quietly. "I'm sorry if it sounded like I…"

"I can assure you, love, I ask myself daily why I randomly experimented on an unknown Wraith," Carson confided as Jennifer's eyes welled up with tears.

"I'm sorry…"

"Don't fret none, love." Her mentor put his arm around her shoulders. "You did a fantastic job with them by the way."

"Thanks. But Carson…" Jennifer could not let the subject drop.

"Jennifer, I honestly believe if you'd been with me from the beginning, working by my side, I never would have done what I did with Michael," he confessed.

"I doubt that. You can be really stubborn when you set your mind to something," Jennifer said, happy that Carson could finally talk about Michael freely.

Carson paused to let her out the door before him. "Aye, but you would've been beating me over the head with a book of ethics, I'm sure."

Jack O'Neill smiled after the young woman left. Jennifer Keller was always likable and very approachable. Her ready smile and friendly nature won favor with everyone in the SGC. To see her deal with the pompous Air Force Colonel left him chuckling.

"We can use Todd, sir," Sheppard said. "If anything to at least get him the hell off Earth."

"I don't want that Wraith…" Caldwell started.

"You know Steven, I'm beginning to wonder if you really want to be part of this expedition. I can give it to Ellis or the Odyssey, now that it's back?" Jack questioned.

Caldwell looked taken aback. "I'm prepared to carry out this mission, sir."

"You sure's hell don't sound like it," Jack replied, leaning back in his chair. "Sheppard?"

"Sir?" John asked, expectantly.

"Can you and your teams handle Todd?" He knew the answer but had to see the dynamic with Caldwell. Having two Colonels who have butted heads since the get-go on the same mission might not be wise.

"Absolutely, sir," Sheppard replied. "Richards and Ronon would be glad to put him down in a heartbeat if he gets rabid on us."

O'Neill had to laugh. Sam said Sheppard had a wicked sense of humor, I see she's right about that.

"What about Doctor McKay?" Woolsey asked.

"Which one?" John asked with a smile. "The pretty one?"

"I'll trade you one Daniel Jackson for your Rodney McKay," O'Neill said. "You can interview for the CMO. I've got no preference for that position."

"General," Caldwell said. "Need I remind you that the McKays…"

"You better not tell me they're married since I was at the wedding." Jack cautioned, having reached his limit with the Colonel.

Steven Caldwell blinked and let out a long breath. "I take it both McKays will be joining this expedition, sir?"

"Look at it this way, Steven," Jack said as he stood up. "You'll only need to give up one room and you will have increased the IQ on your boat exponentially."

TBC

I realize the start is slow, but I refuse to just ship them off without a clear mission that makes sense to me. I hope you stay with this and trust where I'm going.