"Uh…sorry to interrupt. But, that's impossible."

Both the men turned to look at the girl standing before them.

"Exactly," stated McKay. He turned to glare accusingly at Sheppard. "What did you do?"

Sheppard did a double take between the two before turning to McKay, shock on his face.

"What did I do?! What the hell McKay? You dialed the damn gate! You sent the MALP through! What else could I possibly do from this platform while you ran off to your lab for – for – whatever?!"

"Well, there's no way she could have walked through without our gate being shut down and redialed from somewhere else."

"I know that," Sheppard retorted, glaring down at his scientist friend. Always have to explain, don't'cha McKay. Always gotta be the smart guy.

McKay simply glared back, as if he knew exactly what Sheppard was thinking.

"Ahem…" The quiet noise broke up the staring contest as both men again turned to the girl.

"Sorry. Again. I don't understand any more than you guys. But it really was an accident. I didn't mean to end up here. Heck, I don't even know where here is! So…if we could just open this puppy back up, I'm more than willing to get out of your hair." She threw in a grin for emphasis, but it quickly faded as the security team finally filed up and around the platform to investigate. "Seriously!" she continued, hands flying back up, "it was a mistake! Took a right instead of a left. Coulda happened to anyone."

Security had escorted her out of the gateroom, protesting the whole way.

"Come on! Anywhere. Drop me anywhere! – viable! Anywhere VIABLE! I'll make my own way home. Promise! 'N I won't come back. Don't see how I could, since I don't know how I got here… But really! You'll never see me again!"

McKay triple-checked the gate systems, trying to figure out how – no, not how – what happened. Because there was simply no way for this…this…girl! to have walked into Atlantis through an outgoing wormhole.

Absolutely. No. Way.

Even when the systems diagnostic says the wormhole was definitely connected the whole time. And was definitely outgoing.

No. Way.

He triple-checked some more.

Sheppard stood looking into the room currently being used as secure isolation. "The girl" was pacing the room, mumbling under her breath. She paused in the center of the room and turned to look in the mirrored glass.

"Ellie."

Sheppard focused more into the room, to look at her looking at – him. She wasn't looking at her reflection in the glass.

She was looking through it.

"What?"

"My name is Ellie," she said with a sad smirk. "No offense, but the girl doesn't really suit me."

Now how the heck…

"Where am I? What is this place called?" She had sat herself in the chair finally, arms crossed across her chest, looking at him curiously.

"Atlantis. You're on Atlantis," Sheppard replied through the microphone, just as Richard Woolsey walked in behind him.

"Do you really think that's wise, Colonel?"

Sheppard released the intercom button and turned to look over his shoulder as Woolsey stepped closer.

"Honestly? Yeah. I mean, we searched her. She's got nothing outwardly dangerous on her. Zalenka is doing his thing with the toys she had and Dr. Keller is working on the med screening. Telling her where she is can't hurt – either she knows or she doesn't. Not much of a difference."

He looked back at Ellie. She wasn't looking into the outside room as blatantly, but he knew, somehow, she heard everything they were saying. The look on her face was an odd mixture of concentration and sorrowful contemplation. Somehow, the knowledge of where she was had thrown her. And that just made Sheppard believe her even more. He reached over and hit the intercom switch again.

"Ellie, do you know anything about Atlantis?"

"Stories. Ancient race. Knowledgeable folks." She smirked that sad little grin again as she looked up at him. "I was supposed to visit once. A long-short time ago…" Again, that look of sorrow crossed her face.

That was enough confirmation for Sheppard – this girl wasn't here to hurt them. It looked like the city had, somehow, hurt her.

Woolsey reached over and flipped the switch, getting ready for some tirade or another. Sheppard was given a temporary reprieve as Doctor Keller walked in, looking slightly flustered.

"So…we ran everything we could think of. She's got no diseases, no bombs, nothing harmful or dangerous…" She drifted off, absently playing with the file folder in her arms.

"Doc…?" Sheppard gave her a curious look, watching as she blinked from him to Woolsey's stoic face and back.

"She's got the ATA gene. Strong. As strong, if not more so, than you or even General O'Neill."

"Okay…" Sure, it was odd to get a random person walking through the gate with the ATA gene, but not unheard of. The Ancients were still a hot topic, with a complete history still being worked out. Who knew how far they stretched in the universe.

Somehow, Sheppard didn't think that's what was bothering their doctor.

"Come on Doc. What else? Where's the bad news?"

Jennifer looked at him with a look that attempted to cover her obvious discomfort with amusement.

"It's…not exactly…bad…per se…" And with that cryptic note, she opened the file she held and showed both men the results inside.

Sheppard reeled.

"Oh no. Not bad at all." He looked over to Woolsey, who suddenly appeared a bit green around the edges. "We're gonna have to call SGC." And by we…I completely mean you.