On the other side of the infirmary, in the lab, Drs McKay, Beckett, and Keller were all hunched over a computer running simulations of the effect of different ATA gene strengths on ancient technologies.
"For the last time Rodney, I am NOT drawing blood from her without her permission! This is not an emergency right now!" Keller sounded like she was losing her patience.
"Now, now children, play nice." said Carson.
"What? It's not like she's going to miss it, she won't care! She has like 50 piercings! What's a little blood sample?!" Rodney knew he wan't going to win but figured it was worth a shot.
Carson opted to try and discuss theories "So, let's try and just come up with a few theories for now, OK Rodney? The lass will be awake soon enough."
Keller started, "OK, so we have plenty of people here with the gene. Granted no one comes nearly as close to the density occurrence of it in the DNA as Colonel Sheppard. Carson, you're actually next in highest density. Then Major Lorne. Most people have the ATA gene expressed in maybe one out of every 100,000 strands in their DNA; Your's and Major Lorne come in at 1:50,000, but get this- the colonel's density occurrence is more like one expression of the gene in every 1,000 strands."
Carson and Rodney looked up at this "Really?! What the hell!", "Oh Crikey!". Apparently neither of them were aware of just how strong the gene expression was in him. Jennifer had had a lot more time to work on her lab studies of the ATA gene ever since Carson came back from visiting is mother in Scotland. Now that the infirmary had two full time attending physicians, she had more time to devote to genetic studies and Carson had more time to hold wellness clinics off world. They were both much happier now that the head honchos finally approved this change after 3 years of requests, bribes, and finally- begging.
"Yeah" Jennifer continued, "I am very interested to see how Rowan's blood measures up. And what reason is there behind two people possibly having a really strong gene presence in causing the ancient technology its supposed to work with- to go haywire?! How did the proximity of two strong gene carriers result in a physical external manifestation?" she asked.
Rodney wondered aloud "Yeah, is it the mere presence of the gene or was it linked to them both getting seriously, emotionally, out of control?"
Carson said "Well now, there's a certain kind of beauty to that idea isn't there? To have such a strong emotional connection to the city that it reacts to you? I wonder if she was reacting to John or to his sister?
Jennifer laughed "and by SHE you mean Atlantis, or maybe she was reacting to both?"
"Well aye," Carson replied sheepishly. "Now stop teasing me, you know what I meant!"
Jennifer stood up and stretched her back , "Well we're not getting anywhere until we get a sample from Ms. Sheppard, so you men will have to excuse me, I have other patients to attend to."
"Aye, so do I, see you Rodney, we'll let you know what we find. " Carson and Jennifer put on their white coats and went into the patient treatment areas, leaving Rodney to fiddle with the simulations a few more minutes before he too got up and left the lab. He figured he'd go yell at Zalenka until crazy girl woke up.
John came awake slowly. He realized immediately where he was and it didn't take him too much longer to remember how he ended up here. Ronan! He was going to have to talk to him about his "stun first, ask forgiveness later" policy.
Dr. Keller noticed his movements from across the infirmary, and she crossed over to him. "Good afternoon Sleeping Beauty!"
"Ugh, where is Ronan? I want a word with that guy." said the Colonel blearily.
"Oh, he's probably putting the fear of God into the new recruits. Orientation is still going on today. How are you feeling Colonel?" she asked as she shined the dreaded penlight in the eyes.
"Fine." he stated, as his eyes slid over to the next bed, where he noticed his sister was laying.
"Uh-huh" said Dr. Keller, "...and...can I pry-"
"No." John said, cutting her off.
"Mm Hm." Nodded the doctor. "Well, Colonel, aside from a huge headache, I'm sure you'll be fine. Do you want me to alert you when Ms. Sheppard wakes up?"
"Uh...yeah, sure. Thanks Doc." John hopped off the bed, and stood for a moment sheepishly. "Listen Doc, I didn't mean to be short just now. I just, well, I might as well tell you this much because everyone will know soon enough- and feel free to inform your staff and anyone else for me: that woman (he pointed to the other bed and his sister in it)- is my twin sister. Her name is Rowan. We had a falling out a long time ago, and her coming here was a surprise to me. I think it was a surprise to her as well."
John paused for a breath, while Jennifer looked on kindly. "It's gonna take me a while to figure this out, so please be patient with us, ok? I love her, but...some times...well...it's just hard, ya know?"
"Of course, Colonel. I'm sure everyone will understand. Thanks for letting me know. Now scoot- I'm sure you have things to do tady. Oh! and take these Motrin for your headache." She handed him the two small pills and dismissed him.
Rowan awoke from the stunner blast very suddenly, sitting bolt upright and scaring the living daylights out of Dr. Beckett who had just come to check on her. The staff had left her in her civilian clothes and hadn't removed any of her piercings or jewelry. They were all pretty familiar with Ronon's stunner and its effects, they knew she'd be fine.
"Oh my sainted aunt! You gave me a fright lass. I'm Dr. Beckett, I'll be your attending physician here in the City, we have another doctor on staff as well, her name is Dr. Keller. How are you feeling?"
His patient just stared at him, as Dr. Keller came running up to them, "Oh Carson! we forgot to tell you- Ms. Sheppard is deaf. We are working on getting a translator over here. Apparently Dr. Parrish, from the botany labs, knows some rudimentary ASL. Believe it or not, he's the only one."
Right at the moment, Dr. Parrish came jogging in, he looked tot he left and right of the infirmary before his eyes landed on the trio sitting to his left.
It had only been 30 minutes since Colonel Sheppard had left he infirmary, but every single person on base already knew about his insano sister who attacked her military detail in the gate room and nearly blew the place up with a sign fight with the Military Commander!
"hey guys, sorry, I got here as fast as I could."
"No worries, lad. We appreciate that you can help us out here." said Dr. Beckett.
Looking at Rowan, he said "How are you feeling?" Dr. Parrishs tood off to the side where Rowan could see him and signed very slowly, the words.
Rowan looked to him, but looked back at Dr. Beckett when she made a few short signs.
"I'm fine, can I go now?" translated Dr. Parrish.
"Yes, very soon, just once I check a few reflexes. Do you have a headache?"
"No." said her translator.
Beckett checked her pupils, and listened to her breath sounds- everything seemed fine. "Alright now lassie, I know you've had the pre-Atlantis physical, but everyone that comes is required to have a follow-up physical within 1 week of arrival, so be sure to schedule that before you leave here."
David Parrish slowly and hesitatingly signed out the words as best he could. He turned to speak to Dr. Beckett- "I don't think I got it all exactly, but I'm sure I got the point across. Sorry, its' been so long since I had to sign- I only took a few classes in college."
"No, no you're helping out a lot David. Thank you." responded Carson.
Rowantapped David on the sleeve and made a few signs.
"Can I go now?" David verbalized.
Carson muttered under his breath, "yup, just like him...", he did look a bit abashed when he saw David sign this to his patient.
"Well, the daft fool left here without checking with me first! I don't care if he's been stunned 500 times by that other daft idiot, I have a job to do, and I can't do it if my patients leave behind my back!" He looked even more abashed after his rant.
"Forgive me lassie. It's just his usual hijinks. So you're feeling ok?" He quickly ran through the rest of his post stunner blast exam, and she seemed fine. "Would you mind my dear, if we, uh, that is Dr. Keller and I would like a blood sample from you."
"Why?" she signed after David translated.
"Oh, you must know about the ATA gene. And well, we're all very interested to see how your DNA expresses it, if at all. I mean after the light show you and the Colonel put on down in the gateroom we all have our theories... and a blood sample would illuminate a few things for us."
David said, "I just signed that you needed it to study because of big boom in gate room. Sorry". Carson laughed, and said "It's fine lad. You're doing great."
"No. I'd like to go to my room now." Rowan repeated.
Carson looked a bit crestfallen, "OK, aye, of course. Would you consider maybe later? We really do need a sample anyway at some point. We like to keep all staff and personnel blood in storage in case of emergency, at least a pint. OK? You can do that later. I know you just got here. I don't want to overwhelm you with procedure and protocols. But you are here now, and for the safety of the city, you have to live by the same rules as we all do."
David translated all of this to her as best he could. She responded with "Am I free to go now?"
"Yes, lassie. But you have to come back later for a complete physical in the next week, otherwise I will send for you."
"Fine. I need someone to show me to my room and my lab."
"Of course, let me get Rodney." Dr. Beckett called into his earpiece, "Rodney, we need you in the infirmary to show Ms. Sheppard where her rooms and your lab are".
He tilted his head slightly as he listened to Dr. McKay's response. "He'll be here in a minute, if you can just wait." Then he thank Dr. Parrish once again for his services, and left them alone.
David was a little uncomfortable. The Colonel's sister just sat on the edge of the bed not saying anything. So they just stood there for about two minutes before McKay came jogging into the room.
"Hi! He said, I'm Dr. Rodney McKay, I'm the one who helped arrange for you to be here! You doin' ok? You wanna go see the lab or your rooms first?"
David translated this and extra slowly finger spelled Dr. McKay's name.
Always the planner- Rodney handed Rowan a smallish tablet and said she could use it to type out anything she needed to communicate and that he reconfigured the keyboard to work one handed. David didn't bother translating any of this since Rodney just shoved the tablet in Rowan's face and made wiggly finger motions at it.
Rowan grabbed the offending tablet from in front of her face and took a look at it. McKay had thoughtfully attached a miniature mechanical keyboard to the bottom of a tablet and it seemed the only purpose of the device was to act as an effient word processor. She tried it out, typing with her left hand and holding onto the screen with her right [I'd like to go see the lab first. Then my room]
The screen worked great. She turned it to face David and showed him: [You can go now. Thank you].
David blinked, let out a breath of tension, and very happily left them alone. But not before signing to Rowan that anytime she needed and him, and if he was free- he would come help.
As he walked back down into the botany labs he thought 'Wow, that is one intimidating lady. Are all Sheppards kind of crazy?" The he moved on to thinking about the latest imported hibiscus-y plant he needed to tend, and continued on with his day.
Back in the infirmary, Carson radio'ed the colonel "Colonel Sheppard? I thought you'd like to know, our latest resident is fine, she and Dr. McKay went to his labs and then I believe he is showing her her quarters."
The rest of the day went pretty routinely for the rest of Atlantis. There was an established schedule to days when new recruits came and Major Lorne was always the one in charge of getting all the new people from the gateroom, to their quarters, then to either the quartermaster or their lab section leaders. Since Colonel Sheppard was taking a personal day it seemed, he just continued on doing what he'd do normally. Save for the excitement in the Gateroom, everything was going fine.
He was surprised to see his commanding officer walking towards him. Lorne said, "Dr. Beckett know you're out?"
"Watch it Major..." said the Colonel without any real sting behind it.
"I was just checking in to see how New Recuit day was going" Sheppard said as he turned to walk in step with his 2IC.
"Fine sir."
They had been walking toward one of the training rooms where Ronan and/or Teyla would be orienting the the recruits on their training schedules which they had to complete before they were cleared for off world teams. When they arrived at the room and before they stepped in Major Lorne turned to John and asked "Sir, if I may ask, is everything OK? We've all heard that she's your sister, the transfer. I guess you guys had a falling out?"
John stopped and leaned on the wall for a moment. "Yeah. You could say that. I, I...really can't believe she's here. Its been a long time. I know we're going to have to work out our differences and we will. But... I think it's best for both of us if we steer clear of each other for a while."
"City's not that big sir." Lorne said with a side eye to his boss.
"I know. I have some off world missions coming up and she's going to have to get settled into working with McKay, so really, I think it'll be OK for now. Thanks for asking. I mean it."
He pushed off from the wall and they both went into the training room.
Ronan was just tossing some newbie over his shoulder when they entered. He hit the ground with a thud and an "ugh". All the new recruits looked about 12 years old to Ronan. But he knew that most of them would be OK, they'd train up alright as long as they listened to him. The soldier, Hanson was his name, scrambled up and said "Sorry sir, I saw the throw coming, but didn't react fast enough. I should have swept out your left leg"
"Damn right. That might have worked. NEXT!"...
Teyla walked over to the colonel and the major and said "Colonel, I am glad to see you are well. Should you not be spending time with your sister?"
John sighed. The he sighed again. He figured he'd be having the conversation he just had outside the room a lot more times before this day was through. "Yeah. I should." is all he said.
Teyla, who probably understood him best of all out of his Atlantis family, simply said "Do not wait too long. It would be unhealthy for both of you I suspect."
John gave her a sidelong glance at that but said "Yeah. I know." He saw that everything was going well in the training, so he decided he'd go have a similar conversation with Elizabeth, before she came to him.
John left the training and went straight to Elizabeth's office. Everyone in the halls were staring or trying to secretly stare at him as he walked by. He knew people were just curious about what the hell was going on between him and his sister, but damn it! that was his own business. By the time he got to her office he was starting to lose it, just a little.
Elizabeth saw him coming and stood up to meet him. "John, Hi. How are you? How is Ms. Sheppard?"
"I'm fine. As far as I know, she's is too."
They stood awkwardly for a moment before Elizabeth said "...um, it's going to be a little tricky with the paperwork. ALL of her paperwork has the wrong name on it! I don't know what to do! You know her alias 'slash' name she gave the SGC and the US Government is , let's see...Gwendolyn Domino Hutchins, right? What kind of whack a doodle name is that?"
John laughed and said "eh. Just leave it. I figure it'll cause less problems. I know who she is, you know who she is. What's the big deal?"
"John. Come on, we can't just leave it. It's a false identity!"
"Yes, Elizabeth, you CAN just leave it. Believe me. It'll just create more problems if you try and change it. If and when my sister decides to rejoin the world under our family name, she can take care of it."
Dr. Weir seemed to struggle with the dilemma a few moments before acquiescing. "OK. I guess you're right. It seems so WRONG though."
"Welcome to the Dark Side Dr. Weir" he said with a grin.
Since the mood lightened just a bit, John took advantage and said "Look. Elizabeth, I know I owe everyone an explanation. And I will explain. I promise. I just...I never thought I'd ever see her again. I thought I came to terms with that idea a long time ago. And now...she's here...and I want to fix US. I do. But...it's going to take some time. And believe me, we both need time to figure this out. So I'm going to go on these missions we have coming up. Really, I'm fine. They should all be cakewalks. And in a few days, I'll go see her. I seriously doubt she's going to come in search of me."
Dr. Weir looked in his eyes and saw that he was thinking clearly. "OK John. But I can't have you compromised or preoccupied when you go on these missions. You understand that right? This place, this world..you need to be present and accounted for. I need you here, all of you- mind and body. Take your time. But be safe."
"Thanks Elizabeth, Thanks for understanding" John stood up to leave.
Elizabeth called after him "John, good luck, I hope it works out. I'm glad you have some family here. And I'd hate to have to space one of you."