Katerina took a deep breath and knocked on Weir's office door. After sparring with Ronon, she had taken a shower, trying to figure out how to tell her new family about the secret her planet had kept for generations. She had eventually decided to show Weir; otherwise, there was no way she would believe Katerina.
"Come in."
Katerina took another deep breath, and opened the door.
"Katerina, hello," said Weir with a smile. "Do you like your room?" She wanted to know.
"Yes, it's very nice" Kat smiled. "I wanted to tell you... oh jeez. I don't know how to say this." Weir gestured to the chair in front of her desk, very confused.
"I'm sorry, it's just that I wanted to show you something before you made any decision about whether or not to keep me. It is the most closely guarded secret that we had on Selania, and it's hard to break a life-time of silence about it." Kat said nervously, wringing her hands in her lap. This was the hardest thing she had ever had to do, besides almost marrying the nobleman her father chose for her. Karerina's mind was a whirlwind of smoke and spider webs, as the innermost parts of her tried to figure out ways of not telling the secret she had been trained to keep even in the painful claws of torture and death.
"Well, now you've got me interested!" Said Weir with a smile, waiting patiently for the woman to spill the beans.
Katerina took a deep breath. "I thought maybe it would be easier to show you, because there's no way you'd believe me if I just told you to take my word for it." And without pausing, so she didn't have time for second thoughts, she pictured her home planet, about running through the forest as a child, not on two legs, but on four, as a white tiger. She slowly transformed into her preferred halfway form, between a human and her white tiger body. She was still on two legs, but she was covered in fur (her clothes were made of a special material that disappeared as she turned into a tiger), she had a tail and cat ears, fangs, and retractable claws. Weir gasped.
Katerina reversed her transformation, her clothes re-appearing as they were needed, thankfully.
They sat in silence as Weir's brain tried to process what it had just seen.
"That was only halfway," Katerina said quietly. "I can become a twelve-foot-tall white tiger, but there's no room in here." She smirked, looking around Weir's office. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her chest, and Katerina knew that it wouldn't be so hard to tell the people who needed to know.
"Wha...?" Katerina burst out laughing. It felt good to have the pressure of the secret off her chest, and Weir's facial expression was priceless.
"The Ancients altered our genetic code, made us faster, stronger, and our senses sharper as humans, and we're able to turn into large cats," Katerina thought of her neighbour, Mrs. Finnigann, unable to turn into a cat since her husband died after fifteen years of marriage. "Well, most of us. Oh, and when I show you my full form, make sure to warn everyone that I'm grumpy after changing back." She smirked. The transformation back left her extremely hungry, and generally irritable. No one really knew why, but if there wasn't food nearby, shapeshifters were more likely to lose their temper if people annoyed them.
~~~
"Whatever this is, it had better be important. I have MUCH better things to be doing with me time." Rodney said, sounding extremely irritated.
"It is definitely worth your time, Rodney." Said Weir
"We'll see." He muttered darkly.
Weir had called Rodney, Zelenka, Ronon, Teyla and Sheppard to the viewing area of the infirmary, where Katerina was sitting, fully human, in a paper thin hospital gown, on a hospital bed. Weir had passed on Katerina's warning about her being irritable after the change, getting a sarcastic snort from Rodney.
"Katerina was telling me that the Ancestors tweaked her genetic code, and it sort of... moved the process of evolution along. When she's a human, she's super strong, and has heightened senses. The genetic tweaks also let her and her people turn into large cats."
Rodney blinked. "No, that's quite impossible. There is no way the ancients were able to…"
Zelenka looked through the observation room window, watching Katerina sitting on the bed in the medical room, clunking her ankles together as the dangled a few inches off the ground.
"I really don't see how what you are describing is possible. I mean yes, zee ancients were foolink around with their DNA but-"
"No, Zelenka, it shouldn't be possible, I know what I saw." Said Weir, cutting Zelenka off.
Ronon stood, looking out the window at the slim girl, thinking of all the time they had spent together when he was injured, wondering if it was true. Maybe the real Katerina had been kidnapped and replaced.
"Could you move these beds to the side?" Katerina asked one of the doctors who were milling around diagnostic machines on the edge of the room. Her voice sounded a little distorted through the speakers, but it was definitely her.
Doctor Beckett opened the door to the observation room, and handed Weir the results of Katerina's blood tests.
"Nothing unusual about the results, except her blood cells are abnormally active. And the DNA results found a strange code in her DNA that we couldn't figure out." He glanced at Katerina. "She only has minimal signs of damage from diseases or broken bones, it's strange."
"Alright. Let's see this," Said Weir, tapping her earpiece. "Clear the medical room."
The doctors had moved all the beds to the walls, leaving am empty space around Katerina.
She nodded to Weir, and glanced up at the ceiling about eight feet from the floor.
"I'll do my best to not damage the ceiling."She smirked.
"She was about, what, twelve feet tall on the planet?" Sheppard asked, sort of throwing the question to the room.
"I'd say ten feet at the back, then it just depends what she's doing with her head after that." Rodney said absentmindedly, taking a sip from his coffee and wondering when he'd be able to get back to important things, rather than humouring the strange girl in the medical room.
Katerina's eyes flashed a golden yellow, then back to blue, and she started growing. Even from the observation room, it sounded painful, but Katerina showed no sign of pain. There were popping sounds as her joints re-formed, and she sank to all fours as her knees popped backwards. They could hear the slooshing sounds of internal organs reforming and moving around, and fur sprouted out of her now striped skin, and the paper hospital gown ripped. Now they knew why she insisted on either performing her change by herself, naked, or in a hospital gown. It would hurt to rip out of normal clothes. Her facial structure changed and became distinctly feline, canines appearing indenting her lower jaw, claws pushing out of now fully formed paws.
Zelenka dropped his cup of coffee, Rodney fumbling with his in shock.
Katerina had had to bend her legs to avoid hitting the ceiling, and now lay down on the medical room floor, curling her legs to the side, keeping her eyes on the observation room window. If you had been in Katerina's position, you would have noticed she was actually looking at Ronon, trying to read his face for signs of revulsion, or fear. But not being in Katerina's position, she just seemed to be looking at the observation area in general. Ronon's usually impassive expression was only slightly altered in surprise, but Kat found no fear or disgust in his gaze, and minutely relaxed.
"Bloody hell." Beckett said, leaving the observation room in favour of the medical room, now filled with giant white tiger.
"Whoa," said Ronon.
"And you had no idea about this?" Teyla asked, once she got her voice back.
"'Cause that's a huge thing to look over. 'oh yeah, these people are great, not like they turn into giant cats or anything'" Said Sheppard sarcastically. Ronon shook his head.
"I never knew."
~~~
An hour later, Katerina was still being poked with needles and scanned with various beeping things. She sighed and closed her eyes, putting her head on her paws.
"I don't know how your people kept a secret like this all those years," said Ronon from his perch on one of the beds near the wall, using his knife to peel an apple.
Katerina opened one eye, peered at him for a couple seconds, then grunted and closed it again.
"I mean, I can keep a secret, don't get me wrong, but that is a huge secret." He said, taking a bite from his apple.
Rodney burst in, a glowing pad in his hand. "That was phenomenal! Do you know how the ancients were able to do that?" Rodney was on her, his scientific curiosity outweighing his caution.
Katerina gave him a snarl, glaring at him with bright blue eyes with dangerous, glowing gold in the middle.
"You honestly think she can talk like that?" Ronon asked, raising an eyebrow. Katerina was back to ignoring them, and was about to snarl a bit, to make them shut up so she could nap, when Beckett sighed and shut off the latest beeping monstrosity.
"Well, we're done here," He said to the tiger, shooing everyone out of the room. "I'll get Teyla to bring your clothes. Rodney seemed a bit disappointed, but left with everyone else,
Ronon shrugged, took another huge chomp out of the apple, and left, spinning the hilt of his knife on the tip of his finger.
When she got her clothes, and Teyla had pulled the door shut behind her, Katerina changed back into her human form and pulled her clothes on, and put all the hospital beds back where they belonged before leaving.