She tried to staunch the flow of blood from her hand as she made her way to the medical wing, but found that her spandex workout clothes didn't offer much in the way of liquid absorption. By the time she arrived at the infirmary, with her shirt and right forearm smeared in red, her left hand precautionarily cupped under her elbow to catch any drops that might trickle down and fall to the floor, she was a rather ghastly sight to behold.

At midday, the infirmary was bustling with staff, but relatively low on patients. Plenty of nurses or doctors could have helped her, but of course it was Dr. Keller who noticed her first. Eva performed an about face and hoped she hadn't been spotted.

It wasn't that Eva didn't like Dr. Keller. In fact, she had always preferred the Chief Medical Officer over all the other doctors on Atlantis, and not just for her expertise. Dr. Keller was the only doctor she had known her entire life; according to her parents, she had actually been the one – in the middle of a Wraith siege, no less – who delivered her. But today of all days, she wished for any other medic to tend to her. Though hers wasn't a gunshot wound, it probably still qualified as a firearm-related injury, which according to base protocol meant that a formal incident report would need to be filed. Since there was no bullet actually involved, another less experienced or less dedicated medical professional would maybe (intentionally or not) skip that step, but not Keller. You don't become CMO of a largescale expedition by leavings your Ts uncrossed, after all.

"Eva?" Dr. Keller asked with surprise from behind her. "What are you doing here?"

Eva turned around and laid eyes on the doctor. "I…uh…I cut my hand," she was forced to answer.

Keller's gaze jumped to the wound, then followed the rivulets of blood dripping down Eva's arm. "Oh geez," she breathed as she set down the box of medical supplies she had been carrying. "Okay. Well, let's take a look at it, then. Hop up here," she indicated, patting the edge of the nearest bed, next to the medical freezer.

Eva hoisted herself up and held her hand out for the doctor to examine.

"How did this happen?" she inquired as she took the girl's hand into her own and closely inspected it.

"I was sharpening my knife and my hand slipped," she supplied.

Keller narrowed her eyes, sighed, and straightened her back. "Sharpening a knife?" she confirmed.

Eva nodded.

"All right. We'll clean this up and then see if you need stitches." She reached for a bottle of saline solution and began to rinse the jagged laceration. The initial sting made Eva hiss in pain and she involuntarily jerked her arm away. "Sorry," Keller winced, but then took back her wrist to continue washing out the cut. "At least you won't fight me on numbing you up a little before I start your sutures like your dad always does." She grabbed the anesthetic. "Where is he?" she asked, sneaking a quick glimpse up at Eva's face. "I usually prefer to treat my pediatric patients with a parent present."

Eva shrugged.

The doctor raised two chiding eyebrows at her.

"I haven't told him," she finally admitted. "We sparred this morning and then we got in a fight and so I left. I guess I was just a little angry and not really paying attention while I was sharpening the knife."

"Sparring," Keller sighed. "I see… You at least get a few good licks in?" she smirked.

Eva tried to hide her smile. "A few," she grinned in spite of herself.

"Well if you ask me, I think your dad needs to start easing up on you a little. You've been in here quite a bit recently."

Eva's head fell. She looked away from Dr. Keller and down at her knees.

Keller picked up a hooked needle and thread and began to sew the damaged skin back together. "Okay…good news is, it's only gonna take about three stitches."

Eva nodded.

"And what about your mom? She couldn't come here with you?"

"She's been on Earth for the past week," Eva revealed. "My cousin is graduating from her PhD program."

"Your cousin?"

She nodded again. "Allie."

"Why didn't you go?" Keller asked, tying up her first stitch.

"Finals."

Keller nodded in understanding. "And how old is your cousin?"

"24."

"Wow," Keller breathed. "That's pretty young to already have a doctorate."

"Yeah." Eva bit the inside of her cheek. "She's like a genius or something."

"What's her degree in?"

"Linguistics," Eva answered, then made eye contact with the doctor. "Just like my mom."

Keller stared back at her for a moment, but thereafter remained suspiciously quiet until she finished suturing the wound. "I'm gonna go grab a bandage and some antibiotic ointment for you, and then I'll be right back," Keller finally said. "Should I grab a lollipop, too, for being such a brave patient?" she joked.

"Very funny," Eva called to her as she walked away.

She glanced aimlessly about the room as she waited for Keller to return. She didn't much like to wait. She peeked inside the box of medical supplies the doctor had set down earlier. Inside there were a few bags of saline, some latex gloves, and several packages of syringes. Then, a nurse passed by and deposited a blue container into the freezer to the left of Eva's bed. Another, tablet in hand, started sifting through a shelf of supplies and making notes.

Keller returned after a few moments with the bandage, ointment, and a red lollipop. She evidently remembered the red ones had always been Eva's favorite when she was younger.

Eva glanced down at the sucker. "Seriously?" She raised her eyebrows.

Keller shrugged. "I'll just leave it right here," she said with a smirk on her face as she set it on the silver tray next to the bed. "Maybe someone will take it, maybe they won't."

Eva smiled, rolled her eyes, and shook her head.

"Dr. Keller!" a panicked voice from the opposite end of the infirmary summoned. "We've got a patient coming in with an electrical burn!"

By the time the nurse had finished her sentence, Keller was already halfway across the room. "You know the deal!" she shouted back to Eva. "Keep it clean. Stitches will dissolve on their own."

Eva put the bandage on herself, gathered her things, and stood up to leave, but the blue container from behind the frosted glass of the infirmary freezer caught her eye once more. She looked over her shoulder to observe the minor chaos on the other side, then got closer so she could read the label.

ATA Gene Therapy Batch No. 463

"What's up, doc?" Ronon asked as he ducked through the infirmary doors, the stench of burnt flesh and antiseptic assailing his nostrils.

Standing near the bedside of a heavily-bandaged and unconscious patient, Dr. Keller looked up from her tablet. "Shouldn't you be munching on a carrot while you say that?" she quipped.

He wrinkled his brow. "What?"

"Never mind," she muttered with a dismissive shake of her head. "Thanks for making it down here so quickly."

"Yeah. You wanted to talk?" he asked as he leaned against an unoccupied gurney.

"Yep." Keller took a deep breath. "Eva was in here earlier," she told him. "About three hours ago."

He squinted and gestured to his nose. "Is one of those damn piercings infected again? I told her not to –"

"It was a cut on the hand," Keller interrupted. "A pretty nasty one, actually."

"A cut on the hand?" he repeated. "She didn't mention anything to me."

Keller glanced to the side, momentarily avoiding his gaze.

Ronon narrowed his eyes. Keller had her break difficult news to a patient look on her face. "What?" he prodded.

"She told me she got it from sharpening a knife, but…" She pursed her lips.

"But what?"

"It was on her right hand." Keller mimicked the action of sharpening a knife. "If she's righthanded –"

"Then the cut should be on her left hand," Ronon finished for her. He inhaled deeply and tugged at the edges of his hair, then exhaled slowly. "She lied."

Keller tilted her head. "Ronon, she smelled like gunpowder."

He stared at her, eyes wide with surprise.

"It's an injury I see a lot with younger recruits or with scientists first learning how to use their newly issued sidearms. I think she was firing a gun and her hand got caught in it."

He shook his head. "Eva knows better than that." He had trained her better than that. Slide cuts happened from improper grip; Eva's form was usually flawless, even with firearms that most would deem too large or heavy for a girl as petite as her.

"Maybe she got distracted," she shrugged, "lost her focus."

Ronon emitted a low groan and brought a hand to his face.

"Now, I haven't seen any gunshot wounds today and Eva seemed pretty calm, so I don't think she hurt anyone else. My best guess is that this somehow happened in the firing range." She paused. "That said, it was still technically a firearm-related injury and for safety reasons, I should report it."

Ronon studied her expression, reading into the pause in their conversation. He crossed his arms. "But?"

"But… there's actually a bigger issue I need to let you know about."

A wave of intense heat rolled through his entire body and his stomach somersaulted while his mind jumped to conclusions and worst-case scenarios. "Is my daughter pregnant?" he finally dared to ask.

Keller's eyes widened and she gave her head a rough jerk. "No! No no no," she quickly reassured him.

He let his head fall back with relief. "You're killin' me, doc!" he growled.

"Sorry," she winced. "No, it's not anything like that."

Heart still pounding from the adrenaline rush, he lifted his head back up and refocused on the doctor.

"Eva came in while we were doing inventory today," Keller explained, "and when we went over our stock numbers about half an hour ago, everything seemed to be in order except for two things."

Ronon raised an eyebrow.

"We're missing a package of newly-delivered syringes, which in and of itself is not a huge concern, except… one of the vials of the ATA therapy is also unaccounted for," she revealed.

"The Ancient gene?" he clarified.

She nodded. "So, either we counted wrong, it's lost, or…"

"Or someone stole it."

A/N: Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know if you did. Thank you again for reading, reviewing, following, and all that good stuff. I also love to see your speculations of what you think will happen next.

Also, if you're reading this because you saw it was tagged as "Romance" and you're thinking, "Hey...where's the romance?" don't worry! There will be plenty to come later, I promise. I can't not write romance. It'll take a few more chapters, though, before we get there.