A/N: Thanks as always to my Beta-buddy, ladygris. In case they helped and I don't remember, I'd also like to thank Shadows-of-Realm, dwparsnip, Lithane and DaniWilder.

Thanks,

~Sandy

Not a Hero

Chapter 11

Troublesome Transitions

Twisting her fingers together, Jennifer paced to the window and looked out at the Stargate. The ones here in the Milky Way were much larger than the ones in Pegasus and a dark gray in color. She preferred the ones in Pegasus. "Yes, it's about…him."

"So, talk."

"Every time I get around him it's like…" she made a sound of frustration, "…I'm not sure how to describe it. He makes me feel like I've never felt before. And I want to get closer to him but he's not that easy to know. It seems like he wants the same thing but, well, the other night, um…" pink stained her cheeks.

"You made the offer and he turned you down."

Jennifer nodded and turned to face her friend when she laughed. "Thanks for finding humor in my discomfort."

"Sorry. It's just that it was the same with Rodney. His break-up with Katie hurt him badly and he didn't want to rush into anything, so he took lots of cold showers. One day, I just stopped taking no for an answer."

"Oh. So you really think…"

A knock on the door came before Rodney stuck his head in. "Sorry to interrupt but I have to take a quick trip."

"Where?"

"San Francisco." He gave his wife a quick kiss, waved to Jennifer and was gone.

Jennifer sat down next to her friend as she closed the laptop and pushed it away. "How you feeling? Still dealing with the telekinesis?"

Nodding, Sam tried to get up but wasn't able to. With a loud huff she blew a few strands of hair off her forehead. "Actually, at times like this it comes in very handy though I'm trying not to get used to it just in case." She relaxed and said to the air, "Two bottles of water please." The small 'fridge opened, two plastic bottles floated out and over to land gently on the table in front of them. "Thanks." As she took a drink, her face twitched as if she were in pain.

"Sam?"

"It's okay. Been having Braxton Hicks contractions all day. They never get worse and come at irregular intervals." Sam sighed. "And don't think I didn't notice you've changed the subject."

With a shy sheepish smile, Jennifer opened her bottle and took a drink. "Mind if I ask a personal question?"

"Sure." She gestured at her belly. "We are listening. Literally."

"How did you know…"

"…that Rodney was the one?"

Jennifer nodded and looked down at her lap.

Sam smiled at the memory. "When we first met, it was like adding water to concentrated sulfuric acid."

"Boom?"

Sam mimed an explosion. "We loathed each other on sight. Every time we were forced to work together we got into a shouting match. I even decked him once." A laugh burst out of Jennifer and she slapped a hand over her mouth. "He didn't tell you?"

Jennifer couldn't help snickering at the picture Sam presented. "No."

"Gave him a black eye. It happened about a week before he got hit by the ascension machine and became a super-evolved human. The Ancients should have dismantled that thing instead of leaving it around for someone with his insatiable curiosity to stumble across." Sam made no effort to diminish the amount of scorn she had for the Ancients who'd almost deprived her of the man she eventually fell in love with and whose children she was having. "I don't even remember what the argument was about."

"Um, is this gonna be a flashback?"

Sam grinned and nodded. "Pretty much." Her hands rested on the upper curve of her belly. "The kids enjoy hearing stories about mom and dad."

"Then by all means, go ahead."

"I was on Atlantis studying the coronal mass ejection that almost destroyed Athos when Rodney and his team found the…Oh!"

"What is it?"

"Whoa! That was a big one." Sam took a deep breath, held it then let it out. "Better now."

Sam continued with her story while Jennifer made a note of the time.

"As I was saying…"

San Francisco

Beltway Apartments

Evan emptied his pockets onto the dresser then hung his jacket in the closet. He removed the rest of his clothes except for his undershirt and boxers sitting wearily on the wooden trunk at the foot of his bed. His first day as an Inspector had been a long one. He would be riding with a man and woman who'd been partners for ten years for at least a month. At the end of that time, he'd be assigned a partner.

While he relished the chance to prove himself in this new position, he missed his old partner, whom he hadn't seen since the peace conference. He and Dr. Weir had left with a group from Stargate Command, headed for the secret base that his limited NDA hadn't allowed him to know the specifics of. Anthony's cell phone hadn't been answered when he called and no one at their substation had seen him. All they would say is Anthony was on leave.

Pushing a hand through his hair, he rested the other elbow on his knee debating on whether to go straight to bed or eat first. His musings came to an end when someone knocked on his door and he went to answer it.

"Yeah?" Evan perked up immediately at seeing the man he'd just been thinking about. "James."

"Hello, Evan. May we come in?"

Now Evan noticed that Anthony had someone with him, a scowling man about forty with a slightly receding hairline. He stood back to let them in, inviting them to sit while he went to the bedroom to get dressed, realizing belatedly that he was still in his underclothes. He pulled on slacks, a shirt, shoes and socks, returning to the living room via the kitchen where he started a pot of decaf. He didn't know why he added the footwear but instinct told him he'd need them.

His visitors were sitting on the sofa leaving the armchair for him. "What can I do for you?"

Anthony exchanged a glance with the other man. "This is Dr. Rodney McKay. We're here to…"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just cut to the chase. What did O'Neill tell you?" McKay kept glancing at his watch and rubbing his hands together agitatedly.

"About…?"

"Did he use the words Stargate, wormhole or Pegasus?"

"Uh…" The coffeemaker beeped and Evan went to get them each a cup. Both he and Anthony took theirs black and he assumed McKay did as well. He just seemed the type. McKay snatched the cup from his hand and downed a third of the hot liquid before setting it on the end table.

"Thanks. I haven't had coffee since my wife got pregnant."

Evan lifted his eyebrows in surprise. "To answer your question, Doctor, no. The words Stargate, wormhole and Pegasus never came up. What's going on?"

With a grin, Anthony got up and went to the kitchen, returning with a bottle of beer which he handed to Evan. "You'll need this after you've heard what we've come to say."

"Which is?"

As Anthony sat down again, McKay began his pitch. "In 1928, a device called the Stargate was discovered on an archaeological dig in Giza. The Stargate creates a stable wormhole allowing travel between two points in space, and with enough power, between galaxies…"

Atlantis

Three Years Ago

"She's here and she's not leaving, Rodney. Get over it." Elizabeth dismissed Rodney by opening her computer and going back to work.

Still sputtering with irritation, he left Elizabeth's office, crossed the bridge, took the stairs to the Gate Room and kept going until he reached his office. He needed to be in the lab but she was working there and he couldn't get anything done when she was around. Yeah, he knew her name and her rank with the Air Force. She reminded him of it all the time. And the worst part about her being here now was that she'd witnessed him being hit by the beam from the ascension machine. So far, the side effects have been minor. Enhanced hearing, sight, smell, appetite, telekinesis.

He'd just accessed the network remotely when the PA came to life. "AR-1 and Colonel Carter to the Gate Room immediately. AR-1 and Colonel Carter!"

~~O~~

Answering the summons, Sam and Rodney arrived at the same transporter at the same time.

"What did you do now?" Rodney said accusingly as the door opened and he followed her in.

"Me? I didn't do anything." Sam crossed her arms and stood as far from him as she could in the glorified closet. "You're the one whose DNA is being altered. Maybe your telekinesis is getting out of control."

Rodney huffed. "My ability to move things with my super-evolved mind is working perfectly, thank you very much."

Sam made a sound indicative of scorn. "Prove it."

"Any time, blue-eyes."

She rolled those blue eyes at the annoying nickname he'd given her completely ignoring the fact that his eyes were the same color. "Now would be good."

"Fine!" He glanced around, his eyes looking past Sam to the wall behind her. Or so she thought. Without moving a muscle he concentrated and a second later the front of Sam's uniform started unbuttoning itself.

At first she didn't realize what was happening then she saw his smirk. When the fourth button came undone, she gasped, her arms dropping and her hands flexing at her sides. Growling, she took two steps forward as her right hand came up. His left arm just barely managed to deflect the strike. Her left arm followed the right automatically and hit his right cheek with a resounding smack!

"Oh, now you've done it! Bring it on, Carter!"

Staring at him boldly, she exclaimed, "It's been brought, McKay!"

Knowing he wouldn't be able to best a career soldier in a real fight, Rodney used his superior upper body strength to trap Sam's arms at her sides with a bear hug. They struggled together banging into the wall, rolling back and forth, neither of them able to get the upper hand in the confined space.

Impatient to end this farce, Sam's fingers dug into the flesh of Rodney's waist making him convulse and dissolve into a fit of giggles. Using it to her advantage, she grinned wickedly as she held on tight when he tried to get away. They fell against the control panel, their legs entangling. A flash of light enveloped them and when they reappeared, they continued their downward descent coming to an abrupt stop with her on top of him.

~~O~~

The door of the transporter opened and Caldwell looked down at Sam and Rodney on the floor. "What's going on here?"

"Oh, Colonel, sir." Sam planted her hands on either side of Rodney and climbed to her feet. Brushing the short hairs off her forehead and breathing hard, she waited for Caldwell to speak again. When he didn't, she began trying to explain. "Uh…"

Beside her, Rodney got to his feet, straightening his clothes. "It was my fault, Colonel. I tripped, she tried to catch me and…"

The no-nonsense military leader of Atlantis pierced Sam with a glare aimed at her forehead, his hands at his sides. "Lieutenant Colonel Cater, you're almost out of uniform." He made a perfect about face and joined Elizabeth in the Operations.

"Holy Hannah." Sam did up her buttons, stealing a quick glance at Rodney. The physicist kept his eyes averted and she actually felt something other than contempt for him because of it. When she started forward, he put a hand on her arm to stop her.

His voice lowered so only she could hear. "I'm, you know, sorry if I got you in trouble with your boss."

Her eyes dashed over his face and found only sincerity. For the first time, she actually smiled at him, trying not to show surprise when he smiled back because it changed him, made him look boyish. "No big." Rodney nodded and when he started forward, this time she stopped him. "But if you ever do anything like that again, McKay, I know at least a hundred ways to kill you that would look like natural causes."

~~O~~

Sam walked alongside Rodney to the Operations area, part of her mind still on the incidents in the transporter and immediately after. The most surprising thing about it was she'd discovered that he really had cared about how Caldwell saw her. She never thought Rodney McKay, of all people, would think of anyone other than himself. But now she knew differently, and that made her rethink her assumptions about the obnoxious, arrogant, supercilious… She pushed those thoughts to the side as they climbed the last few steps to Operations.

~~O~~

Elizabeth gathered her people around her. "Major Teldy and her team are trapped in a building they were exploring." She nodded and Chuck activated the display. On it was a pyramid-shaped building with markings that looked Egyptian.

Sam stepped closer. "They look like hieroglyphics. I can read some of it." She pointed to one area. "I think this says something about danger…uh, and this symbol means intruders…" One hand pressed to her mouth in thought, she was interrupted by Rodney.

"…will be eliminated."

Sam nodded in agreement. "I don't know what the rest means. Where's…"

"Dr. Sontag, his assistants and AR-7 are on M22-766 studying some ruins that he said might be Incan."

"They're out of radio contact, Colonel, and aren't scheduled to check in for at least six hours," Chuck told her without being asked. He knew his job and did it very well. "We can recall them but it'll take some time." Chuck began doing just that at Elizabeth's nod.

Elizabeth faced the civilians and soldiers around her. "Rodney, take your team, AR-5 and Colonel Carter. See what you can do."

"Me? I don't know anything about…that." He waved a hand at the screen.

Sam scoffed. "Neither do I but we can't just leave them there…"

In response, Rodney huffed at her. "I know that. No, I'm not refusing to go. I'm just saying…" he swung around. "Oh, yeah? Well, that's just too damn bad." He took off walking very fast. "I just need to pick up my equipment. Yes, I'll meet you in the Jumper Bay. Five minutes."

When he'd gone the others exchanged perplexed looks. Sam voiced what they were all thinking. "What the hell was that all about?"

~~O~~

Rodney was the last to arrive at the Jumper Bay causing him to complain about not being able to sit in his usual seat at shotgun. He took a seat in the back between two Marines and glared at the back of Sam's head. She ignored him as she always did.

On the ride from the Stargate to the city Rodney heard whispering from the people around him. If he concentrated, he could distinguish the words and one voice stood out.

That McKay's a right old prat. Thinks we're all a bunch of ghits. Why doesn't he just smeg off and let the rest of us do our jobs?

Looking around, Rodney located the tech sitting across from him, but he wasn't talking. His attention was on the computer tablet in his hands though he could still hear the man's voice inside his head.

I can read minds! This is cool!

About ten minutes later Rodney revised his assessment of his new ability from cool down to aggravating. Mostly because he now knew what people thought of him and didn't like that they all thought the same as the tech if worded a little differently.

Pressing a hand to his forehead as if that would help, he managed to shut out all the voices but one. Only this time it wasn't the tech. It was Sam.

I wish Daniel were here. He'd have them out in no time. If I'd only listened to what he was saying when he prattled on about his precious dead languages. Maybe I can remember enough to save Teldy and her team.

Argh! You can do this, Carter. You only have to be around McKay a few more days then you'll be home where it doesn't matter how you feel about…

"We're on approach, Dr. McKay." Captain Reed said from the pilot's seat. "ETA, three minutes."

~~O~~

Rodney and Sam stood staring at the front of the building scanners going full tilt while all but two of the soldiers did a recon of the perimeter reporting only the one entrance. For once, the physicist didn't purposely start an argument with Sam. The situation was far too dire to worry about their petty differences.

His concentration slipped and thoughts from Sam intruded into his mind. Within that intrusion he could see what she'd seen while on missions with Daniel Jackson though it had meant next to nothing to her at the time.

Sam jumped when he touched her on the arm and indicated they should speak in private. "Before you get mad at me, let me just say it started just before we left for this mission."

"What?"

He let out a long breath. "Mind reading." She didn't say anything, just gave him a wide-eyed stare. "I ignore it as best I can but… What I'm saying is, before I knew it, some of your thoughts came through." He held up a hand to stave off the angry response he knew was come, could feel in her mind. "I didn't 'read' anything embarrassing, I promise. But I did see enough to know that you have the knowledge inside you to solve the riddle of opening the pyramid and freeing AR-2 before whatever's going to happen happens."

"Yeah, so?" Sam was more than a little suspicious but thought it couldn't hurt to listen to what he had to say.

"If you're agreeable, and only if you agree, you think about the missions with Daniel where his specialized knowledge was the deciding factor while I go in and pull it out." With as much honesty as he could, he made a solemn vow. "I promise not to intrude in places that have nothing to do with the information we need. What d'you say?"

Thinking it over, Sam scanned his face much as she did after the transporter. If she'd been a betting woman, she'd say he was being completely truthful, no subterfuge. Reluctantly, she nodded. "Okay. Just remember what I said before."

"Do you really think I'd risk the lives of the team just for my own perverse pleasure?"

They stared at each other, Sam finally looking away and shaking her head. "No. Sorry if I gave that impression. So…what do I have to do?"

"Um, not sure. Wanna sit or stand?"

"Sit, I think."

Rodney followed her to stone that had fallen from one of the upper tiers. She laid her scanner and weapon aside, took a deep breath and nodded.

~~O~~

Closing his eyes, Rodney began searching Sam's memories. The knowledge they sought was there. He just had to find it.

Dr. Daniel Jackson, the foremost archaeological authority on the pyramids and their extraterrestrial origins had died of radiation poisoning several years back. Sam believed that Daniel had ascended but he'd never made an appearance to confirm it so she was skeptical of her conclusion. That no one in his scientific community knew that his theories had been proven correct troubled her considerably. He moved past that to what they would need to rescue Teldy, Mehra, Porter and Vega.

He quickly skipped over the memories of her childhood, teenaged years, university and her enlistment in the Air Force. By this time, she had her first doctorate and two Masters Degrees, just as he'd done and in the same subjects.

Now he could see that she and he were equals when it came to intellect though hers was tempered by a wisdom that he didn't possess. Without meaning to, he saw things, thoughts and feelings that he should never have seen. But he couldn't take the time now to wonder what they meant. The team didn't have much more time. If they didn't get them out soon, the pyramid would collapse in on itself, crushing and killing the four women.

Rodney had reached the place in her mind where what they needed was stored when the ground around them shook. More chunks of stone fell, the soldiers barely getting out of the way in time. He turned away from Sam to get an audio confirmation that everyone inside was alright then checked on the patrols.

What he didn't see was that while he was getting reports from the teams, an enormous stone had worked its way loose and was teetering on the edge about fifty meters above him. Sand continued to drift down the sides of the structure but Rodney's attention was on other things though Sam noticed.

"Rodney! Look out!" She tackled him to the ground, again landing on top of him. When he heard the stone slamming against the side as gravity drew it toward the ground, he wrapped both arms around her and rolled until she was under him to protect her.

The shaking stopped and Rodney slowly lifted his head and looked around. A feeling of warmth made him look down to see Sam's blonde head pressed to his chest. Both hands were clenched on his TAC vest.

"Sam! You okay?"

"Yeah. You?" She looked up at him then over his shoulder to see that they'd missed being crushed by no more than a meter. The stone had made an indention in the hard ground at least five centimeters deep. They both sagged, chuckling in relief until they realized they were still embracing, their bodies pressed together and legs entangled.

Rodney rolled quickly away as Ronon, Teyla, Reed and two other soldiers arrived to help them to their feet. The medics tried to check them over but were waved away.

Reaching into one of the many pockets of her uniform pants, she pulled out a bottle of water while Rodney did the same. "We better get back to it."

"What? Oh, not necessary." He stepped away to speak to Major Teldy, describing in detail what she and her team needed to do to get out. And it would take all four of them working together to do it. "Now do exactly as I say when I say, got it? Okay, look for a set of symbols…"

A few minutes later AR-2 emerged into the fading light of the planet's afternoon, battered but alive, Porter and Mehra supporting Vega between them. The medics rushed forward drawing the four women far enough away to be relatively safe from the still falling debris.

Sam watched them still thinking about a friend who was gone. Can't believe how much I still miss Daniel. And no one will ever know what a wonderful man and gifted scientist he was.

The thoughts from Sam entered Rodney's mind before he could shut them out and it set him to thinking about Daniel as well.

Stargate Command

Present Day

"That's it?"

"I just poured my heart out, told you my innermost secrets and all you can say is 'that's it?'" Sam groaned and rubbed her pregnant belly again.

"What do you want me to say?"

"How about I tell you about the first time we…" Sam wiggled her eyebrows.

Jennifer blushed and looked away. "That would be way too much information about either of you. Um, first kiss."

"Good. 'Cause I really didn't wanna go there. Ready?"

Nodding, Jennifer grinned as she snuck a look at the clock again. Six and a half minutes. Almost time.

TBC