Hunt managed to stay away for about an hour before he started asking for information about what was wrong with his shield – and more importantly, how to fix it and how long it would take. McKay, being McKay, told him that he'd let him know and tried to leave it at that. Hunt hovered, though, watching over his shoulder. Which had lasted about three minutes before McKay made a huffing noise and turned to look at him, annoyed.

"Every minute you stand there I'm going to add an hour to my estimate." Before Hunt could say anything, he'd interrupted. "It's distracting and annoying and there's no way I can work under these circumstances."

"You've worked under a lot more pressure than this before, Doctor," the General reminded him.

"Well then my life depended on it and now it doesn't," Rodney had told him, stiffly. "I work better under the pressure of a life or death situation – but it still doesn't mean I want you hovering over me." He scowled as Hunt's face reddened and he started to open his mouth to retort. "Don't you have a base to run or something?"

Realizing that he wasn't going to win this one – there wasn't anything he could think of to say that might motivate McKay to go any faster – he'd just turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Rodney to turn back to his work.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"We're supposed to be going to the restaurant," Shawn reminded Ian.

"I know."

"We're not going the right direction. I told you it was on-"

"Eighth Street," Ian interrupted. "I know."

"Then why are we going the other direction? Did you forget where Eighth Street was?"

Ian snorted in amusement.

"We're going to stop and get your birthday present."

Shawn looked over at him.

"What?"

"Are you hard of hearing?" Ian told him, amused. "We're going to stop and get your birthday present."

"My birthday isn't until tomorrow."

"Yeah, but then you'll have lots of people giving you presents. I do it this way, and I'm the only one that gets you a present today."

"What kind of present?" Shawn asked, curiously. Who was he to complain about getting a present early?

"The birthday kind," Ian answered, evasively.

Shawn looked over his shoulder at the twins – who were both grinning.

"Do you guys know what he got me?"

"Yeah."

"Are you going to tell me?"

"No."

"Daddy said if we gave it away he'd skin us and make identical rugs," Carter added.

Shawn glanced at Ian, who was still looking smug.

"Seriously?"

"Yup."

He looked back at the twins.

"You know he didn't mean it, right?" he told them. "Your skins are way too thin to make rugs…"

Michael grinned – and when he did he looked just like his father at his most amused, Shawn realized, amused – and shook his head.

"We still can't tell."

"Aww, come on… you can tell me…"

Carter shook his head.

"We promised."

"Promised not to tell me?" Shawn asked.

"Right."

"So you tell Dotty, and she can tell me."

The little girl giggled, even though she wasn't entirely sure what was so funny, and Carter and Michael shook their heads at the same time.

"No."

Shawn groaned in mock agony, which didn't make the twins – or Ian – even feel guilty.

"You'll find out soon enough," Ian said. "Just enjoy the suspense…"

Which only earned him a scowl. Of course, that didn't bother the New Yorker a bit. He just snickered and turned his attention back to the road.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"This is nuts…"

The technician who had been seated near at hand in case McKay needed anything – which he hadn't thus far – looked over, uncertain if the comment warranted a response. The abrasive scientist had turned to him, looking at him with a look that was crossed between annoyed and curious. Curious enough that the tech spoke up.

"What is?"

"When the shield went down did the gate power up?"

"I don't know."

McKay scowled.

"Check the logs."

The technician frowned, but he rolled his chair over to one of the secondary system computers and brought up the system logs that McKay wanted.

"Yes," he finally reported. "But only for a moment. It didn't try to dial, it just had a power surge."

McKay stood up and went over to look over his shoulder.

"It's not what happened, though…" he muttered, frowning. "This is bad. Very bad."

"What do you mean?"

Rodney went back over to the shield computer, tapping a few more keys and bringing up another set of displays.

"The gate didn't have a power surge. Someone used it as a conductor…"

"What?"

"They brought the shield down on purpose – and used the gate to do it."

"Who?"

"The who isn't nearly as important as the how or the why," McKay answered, absently, as he turned his attention completely back on the computer. "Or how to undo it."

"Undo what?" The tech asked, completely confused.

"They broke into the shield," Rodney murmured, more to himself than as a reply. "How could they have done that? No one has the knowledge…"

"What?"

McKay turned, his expression stunned and his face even more pale than was normal for him.

"I need to get hold of Ian."