'Holy crap holy crap holy crap'

Kait shifted from foot to foot eagerly, everyone else finishing their last minute prep. She had done that earlier, the specs of their mission to M4J-616 having intrigued her. The local people had found an Ancient lab of some kind in the catacombs under their city, and not only have they not touched the place, but no one has touched it in about 10,000 years. It's been left the same as it was the day the Ancients abandoned it, and the only reason they knew about now, was because of the fact that word had gotten around the Pegasus galaxy that the people of Atlantis were studying the Ancients and living in their city.

The thought of new, untouched Ancient technology was making her anxious to get there.

As they prepped to go, a flash of light signaled the beaming in of one last Ancient expert. Dr. Daniel Jackson, and with that, McKay let out an audible groan of annoyance. However, with that, they were ready.

"Ok, team, we have a go. Let's move out." Dr. Weir called out.

Kait sucked in a breath, and shifted her backpack. She watched as one by one they entered the event horizon… and as she was face to face with it, she sucked in her breath and stepped forward, the blue-silver of the stargate surrounding her as she felt the tell-tale jerk behind her belly button. It was always just like a page out of Harry Potter.

Her foot hit the ground outside of the stargate, her stride never breaking. She finished exiting, and shuddered as she glanced behind her. Her head turned, and she took in the sights. The area they were in was almost like an Oasis from a picture. They were in a green, lush area, but the nearby mountains were dusty looking desert.

A young man stood ready to greet them. Dr. Weir and himself began to speak, and, while Sheppard and McKay began to join them, she turned and began to check out some of the spires nearby. Long, Ancient towers lined the path to the stargate. She reached up to touch one, trying to brush the moss off the towers so she could decipher them. Even Daniel was trying to look over her shoulder to read what was on the towers.

"Do not touch the towers!"

Kait's hand fell and her eyes widened as a weapon was shoved into her face.

"Korvak, call off your soldier! You asked us here to help you!" Weir said to the man in front of her, as Kait's hands went up and she backed up.

"Nichols, what were you doing…?" McKay asked her, and she raised her hands up, shaking her head with wide eyes as the weapon in her face lit up.

"Nothing! I was brushing off the moss to read the Ancient writings! That's part of my job last time I checked!"

Korvak, as his name apparently was, stepped forward and looked at his soldier. "Put your weapon down." He said, then looked to Kait. "You do not need to touch these towers. They are very sacred to us, and no one is permitted to touch them." He gave her and the rest of them a stern look. "Not even your scientists."

As he went back to Weir and the others, she looked confusedly at the towers, as Carson came up behind her. "You alright love?"

She turned to him, nodding as they all began following Korvak to the city. "I'm fine, all they did was point a weapon at me."

As they arrived in the city, she couldn't help but openly stare. It was probably one of the most advanced things she'd seen, outside of Atlantis itself. The whole place was wall to wall buildings, almost like you'd imagine the New York of the year 3000. It was simply astounding.

They were led into the main building, and taken to a room with a long table.

"Please, sit. Your main members of your science team, and any others you deem necessary, should wait here. We have a room for any non-essential people to wait while we discuss the specifics of your visit here on Sokra." Korvak said as Dr. Weir nodded and sent the non-essential staff to the side room, while she, Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon, McKay, Nichols, Zelenka, and Daniel all waited in the room.

Sheppard began to pace impatiently, his face annoyed. "Something feels fishy here."

"You always say that, John." Elizabeth said, sitting and rubbing her head tiredly. "I had no idea about their custom pertaining to those towers, I should have asked more when we were first contacted."

"You had no idea about that, Elizabeth. You can't possibly feel guilty about something you had no idea about." Rodney said, sitting a few seats away from her. He glanced up at Kait. "Certain people should have known better than to touch things that didn't belong to them, though…"

"McKay, I was a second from doing the same thing."

"Yeah well no one ever claimed you were the brightest crayon in our little box, Daniel."

The two glared at each other, a verbal fight ensuing, as Elizabeth raised her hands up, as a way of putting a stop to the nonsense. "None of that, and I am serious. I will not have my science team acting like impetulant children." She said, shooting them a glare, as Kait, who had sat next to Zelenka and Beckett, tapped her feet under the table, as a robed man walked into the room. He was tall, with red robes and black hair streaked with white.

The man walked to the head of the table, sat, and tilted his head in welcome. "Atlantis, welcome." The man smiled warmly. "I am Governor Xerkis, it is a pleasure to meet you all. I apologize for the treatment at the stargate, it will not happen again."

Elizabeth smiled at him. "Governor Xerkis, we're honored to meet you. I can't tell you how anxious and excited we are to get to work. Can you tell us what you know about the Ancient technology here?"

"Certainly. You see, it is deep in the city's catacombs. It has not been accessed for thousands of years, we have no idea what it could possibly be, and we have heard rumors that you may be more capable of inspecting it and finding out what it contains than we are."

"Well, I'm sure that is a distinct possibility… I mean, that we're more than qualified to figure out what's in there." Rodney said, his eyes flashing a slightly 'more superior than you' look.

Elizabeth shot him a look, and continued speaking to the Governor. "We would be happy to assist your people with discovering what is in there."

"Wonderful! Now, you see, we can begin first thing in the morning! In the meantime, we have set up quarters for you and your people here, and there is to be a banquet and a ball tonight to honor you coming to help up. Your men can pass in the clothing they have, but we generally insist that the women adorn a gown."

Kait bit back a groan, but hid it well. Dresses were not her thing…

"So, Kait, are you as mortified as I am by the prospect of a formal ball with a bunch of strange people?"

She turned and grinned at Daniel. "You have NO idea." She whispered back. "Dancing I can do. I can even tolerate the pomp and circumstance. I HATE ballgowns."

He chuckled and nodded. "You ladies did get the short end of the stick, huh?"

"We generally do, for the most part." She said, absentmindedly noting the markings in the room.

"So, how have you been, Daniel?" she asked as he shrugged.

"Eh. Busy, as usual. SG-1 has been pretty swamped lately, this is my first mission away from them in a few months."

McKay, having finally finished with the Governor, came up to them and shot her a look. "Ok, so don't go poking around anything. Apparently these people are jumpy."

"Gee, you think McKay?" she said, rolling her eyes. "I didn't notice."

"Hey, the tone isn't needed. You were the one touching things like a child in a candy store."

Her arms crossed and she glared. "McKay… not now."

He shot her a look and just looked at her before turning and heading back to the others, his look clearly said to behave.

"Ooooh, if he keeps treating me like a child, I swear to all that's holy…" she kicked her foot on the ground and glared daggers at his back.

Daniel nodded next to her. "Yeah, get used to that. That's pretty typical McKay behavior."

She glared at McKay's back. "Well, it's obnoxious as hell."

"Yeah, it is. Out of curiosity, are you going to go to this banquet with anyone? Generally speaking, it's better for women to come as the guest of someone to things like these, from what I understand, and- you know. We do make a good pair."

She shrugged. "Considering I've known about it all of 10 minutes, I hadn't thought about it yet. And that's a bit… no a lot… sexist." She said.

"Well, in my experience from what I've seen of civilizations similar to these, they seem to work similar to Shakespearean culture. It's nothing personal, you know that Kait." He put his hands up in a surrendering motion.

"No, you're fine… Maybe it'll be fun, even though I had no intention of doing anything like this." She said, as the Governor came up to her and smiled.

"You must be the doctor that my men pulled their weapons on today. You have my apologies. Please, feel free to use all of our facilities, and the dressmaker's shop, as a way of apology." He said, as she looked at him in surprise.

"Oh, well… thank you. I suppose that'll be… er… great." She said, trying her best to look enthusiastic, even though she was aching to crawl in a hole and bury herself at this point.

"Please, you, Dr. Weir, and any other females of your group who will be in attendance tonight, follow Reyla to the dressmaker's, then she shall take you wherever else you need to go." He said, walking back to Sheppard as a younger lady in a rather extravagant dress walked up and smiled.

"Please… this way." She smiled, motioning for the women to follow her. Teyla shook her head.

"I'm going to stay behind tonight and guard our equipment. These kinds of…functions… are not really my thing, as it were."

As the other two females from the other room in their group came up to join them, Teyla took a seat. Kait stole a look at Teyla and mouthed 'Save me…' to her, making Teyla smile and give them all a little wave as they were led out.

"OW! Watch that needle!" she yelped, as the others simply sat back. "Why are they done already?"

"Their dresses did not need the modifications in the… er… top and waist… as yours did."

She blushed crimson but quieted after that. It was not the first time, nor would it be the last time, that she had been foiled by her boobs…

Dr. Weir's dress had been a simple black, sleeved gown. One of the other ones had a blue dress, and the second scientist had a pale pink that went with her blond hair. And then, there was her dress. She had insisted it have a collar if nothing else, and some semblance of a sleeve. The dress that the maker had was a satiny lilac, almost like a business jacket vest or something similar with a collar in the top, and the bottom ruffled on the sides, and laid straight down the front. And it had needed some taking in at the waist, since the thing was built for bigger girls. Her top fit that bill, her waist did not. Initially, it had looked like a bag on her, but she had slightly warmed up to it with each adjustment.

She still hated dresses… but this was tolerable.

"I really do not want to go to this thing…" she called to Daniel, who was waiting at the door of the rather large home they had all been put in. The others had left ages ago. She had… honestly… not wanted to leave.

"Well we don't really have a choice, Teyla is keeping guard of the equipment, so unless you want to join her…"

"Not really…" she sighed, as she straightened her dress and made sure the annoying heels she had been provided with were on firmly. She took one last glance in the mirror, making sure the sleek bun her hair had been pulled into (painfully, I may add) was staying into place. And with a deep breath, she left the room.

Daniel let out a whistle. "Well, don't you clean up nicely?" he said, grinning a bit as she swatted him.

"Let's get this over with." She said, as he took her hand and tucked it into his arm, leading her down the short path to the palace and the ballroom.

As they stepped in, she had to cover her eyes to block out the influx of light. The place was lit brighter than the Christmas Tree in Times Square… People were giving her looks, though. Not the best ones she'd ever received either.

"Hey, everyone else is wearing gloves." Daniel noted.

Oh, right… the gloves. She had thought they were optional. She couldn't really do anything of use with gloves on, she liked the feel of bare hands.

"I didn't think I needed them." She said honestly. He chuckled, and led her to the table where the rest of them were sitting, in their simple grey and color-streaked uniforms.

As they sat, Sheppard leaned forward. "Not too bad, Nichols." He whispered. "Then again, all of our ladies seem to look great tonight." He said, as she rolled her eyes.

"Seriously Sheppard? I'm glad you seem to be enjoying this." She said, as Daniel grinned.

Rodney simply blinked. No one had told him they were taking dates! He had thought this was a formality! And what was up with that dress? It looked 100% different from every other person in the place. Hell, the top looked like it could be work clothes. If it wasn't made of some kind of shiny fabric that he knew had a name but didn't care to remember right now, he would swear that it was made for rolling in the dirt on the top.

And what was with Jackson taking Nichols to this thing? Now not only were the military kirking their women, but the scientists that worked WITH the US military on a more formal basis were doing it too!

He grumbled under his breath, nursing his drink.

Daniel noted the people dancing. "Shall we, Nichols?" he asked, offering her a hand.

She blushed lightly (earning another quiet grumble from Rodney) and nodded, allowing Daniel to lead her to the floor and begin leading her in a dance similar to the other dancers.

Beckett, noting the annoyance on Rodney's face, elbowed him. "What's eating you?"

Rodney didn't even wait to start in. "It's not even fair. Did you know we were supposed to escort the women?"

"Well, it's pretty customary Rodney…"

"Since when?!"

"Since… your first grade school dance, Rodney. I know you've asked girls to dances before… besides, I thought you were thinking this whole thing was silly, so why does it bother you so much?"

Rodney's eyes grew annoyed, and they flitted up to Nichols, who's eyes had glanced in his general direction before locking on his for a moment.

Carson noted the interaction… and he looked at Rodney. "How long have you been nursing a soft spot for the lass?"

Rodney's eyes widened and looked at Carson. "I'm not! Who said I was?! Whoever it was is a filthy liar, they have no proof, and to be logical about it, that makes no sense." He pithered on and on, making Carson roll his eyes.

'Aye, he does. Question is, why not say something?'

With an annoyed grunt, Rodney got up and, not giving a good god damn about being polite, walked right out for a walk.

Kait had managed to excuse herself away from Daniel after about an hour, and after complaining of a fully imaginary headache, she had snuck off to her room in that large, and very disconcerting house. As she walked in, closing the door behind her, she let her hair fall down and hang loose around her face. She stretched, and felt the relief in her feet as she removed the heels, kicking them to the side.

As she removed her second shoe, the door opened behind her, and, well…

Rodney hadn't meant to be out walking for so long, to be fair. He'd meant to go right back to the house, but his mind had become preoccupied. It wasn't a thought he much liked. Honestly, he wanted to just worry about all of this after they finished what they were doing in this city, but, well…

Damn Carson and his inability to mind his own business.

Hence, why he apparently was walking in the door directly after Kait.

Another thing he wasn't good at…

"Hey… have a good time with Daniel?" he asked, his annoyance at the fact that Daniel had been her escort seeping into his words.

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head. "I don't like big ceremonies. All that was, was a show of power if you ask me… So… well… I lied and told them I wasn't feeling well."

He looked at her in surprise, but nodded. He had thought all women liked these huge parties and dancing.

"Well… I'm tired…so…"

"Wait."

One word had shut down function to her lower extremities and made her freeze in place. He walked up, and… well…

He was debating on what to say.

"Get some rest… we're going to need it tomorrow." He said, as she nodded and turned, walking off.

As she went to her rooms, the door clicking shut behind her, he shook his head.

'Well… I sure blew that in my typical McKay fashion. Way to go, loser.'

Sighing, not sure what he was thinking, he headed to his own rooms.

**Author's Note: Well, they're getting there! Slowly but surely. I figured, by the way, that a good 3 month time skip would A- give them time to now know each other and actually have hidden feelings, and B- give HER time to get settled and actually be considered for a bigger mission. As always, reviews are welcome! Hope you enjoy!

Also: I have edited this chapter to reflect a bit on a former tryst between Daniel and Kait, as per a one shot named The One that Got Away**