A/N: And we're back! I'm trying to make up for the lack of updates this past week. This chapter is heavy on exposition, but I hope I've done it well. Let me know what you think. :)
Hope you all enjoy!
Mr. Woolsey, Colonel Sheppard, Dr. Rogers and Ronon congregated in the observation deck overlooking the interrogation room, their own reflections staring back at them through the thick glass window. Eva sat down below, her legs tied to the chair, her wrists held together in a pair of long-chained handcuffs that afforded her a bit more movement than the standard ziptie. Hunched over the table, her head rested on her crossed forearms, face hidden from view.
"This is ridiculous," Dr. Rogers muttered under her breath. She turned her back to the window and leaned against it as if to rid her mind of the pathetic scene below.
Sheppard stepped closer to her. "We need to figure out who she is."
"And that can wait," she argued. "She's clearly exhausted, emaciated, recovering from major surgery and most likely delirious. I'm sorry, but what we need is for her to eat a big meal and get some rest." She waved a dismissive hand. "Interrogate her later."
Ronon scoffed and she glared back at him in return. The linguist had apparently believed this girl's delusional load of crap and was now determined to play mommy.
"I assure you Dr. Beckett has cleared her for questioning, Dr. Rogers," Mr. Woolsey replied.
Rogers folded her arms and shifted her stern glance from Ronon over to Woolsey. "Are the restraints really necessary? She's just a kid."
"A dangerous kid." Sheppard gingerly shifted his weight from one leg to the other. "You should take a look at the bruise on my shin."
She rolled her eyes. "Oh, please."
"You didn't see her fight, Rogers." Sheppard's tone quickly lost its usual good-natured humor. "She took down a Wraith soldier, single-handed, armed with nothing but a knife. And I doubt it was the first time she had to do that."
"Fine. She's dangerous." She lifted her shoulders in concession. "That aside, we can't even get a bed in there for her? She's been on the run for months and now we're making her sleep on some hard, plastic chair with a cold metal table for a pillow?"
Ronon had heard enough. "As long as she's safe, she won't mind one more night without a bed."
She rounded on him. "How do you know?" she snapped.
He straightened to his full height and turned to face her. "Listen to me," he peered straight down into her face, "I know."
Daunted by his sheer size, Rogers immediately pressed herself against the glass behind her. But, once she recognized he spoke from experience, her eyes softened and she took a calming breath. "We could at least have the decency to roll an infirmary bed in there for her. Strap her to it if you need to, but the poor girl needs sleep."
"Doctor, I would remind you, due to the…unusual circumstances of this situation, you have been specially invited to watch this interrogation," Woolsey said. "You'll notice the other half of Colonel Sheppard's team isn't even here. Now, if you can't control your emotions, then I'm afraid that I'll have to ask you to leave."
Her fair skin blushed pink. "Sorry, sir," she said, turning around again to look out the observation window.
Ronon stared at Dr. Rogers whose own eyes fixated on Eva below. The opposite nature of their jobs meant they didn't interact much with each other, but in the time he had known her, he had never seen her lose her cool like that before. By this point, her cheeks and neck glowed bright red. He roused himself from his thoughts as he found himself wondering what else might make her flush like that.
Movement in the corner of the interrogation room caught his eye as Major Lorne and two armed guards entered. The guards found their place at the door, whereas Lorne took the empty seat across from the girl.
She lifted her face toward him, chin on her forearms. "Hi Colonel Lorne."
His eyes narrowed. "It's Major Lorne, actually," he corrected her.
She shrugged and closed her eyes. "If you say so."
"I'm here to ask you a few questions."
"I'd rather sleep." With her cheek pressed firmly against her arm, her words came out muffled.
Rogers clicked her tongue as if to say "I told you so."
"I'll try to be quick, then," Lorne replied.
The girl quietly snorted. "I bet women love it when you say that to them," she quipped, eyes still shut.
Lorne looked up to the crowd in the observation room, outstretched his arms in disbelief, and shook his head. "She's clearly still drugged up," he called to them.
Ronon scratched uncomfortably at one of his dreads while Rogers stared fixedly at the floor, trying to hide a smirk.
"Beckett did have to sedate her again," Sheppard explained. "She was making one hell of a racket and we were afraid she was gonna tear her stitches or hurt herself even more."
"Proceed anyway, Major," Woolsey spoke into the microphone.
Lorne sighed and nodded. "All right. Here we go. Please state your full name."
"What's with Bert and Ernie?" she asked, tilting her head in the direction of the guards stationed at the door.
"Just a precaution," Lorne assured her. "Now, your name, Miss."
"Eva…Michelle…Dex," she replied slowly.
Ronon heard Rogers take in a quick breath of air. "My sister's name is Michelle," she said to no one in particular.
He looked curiously over to her, then back into the interrogation room. Coincidence. It had to be.
"Michelle?" Lorne asked. "Sounds like an Earth name."
"That's because it's my aunt's name," Eva explained, slurring her words. "And she's from Earth."
"Oh my God," Rogers breathed.
Ronon's stomach did a flip. No. There was no possible way.
"And you said your parents are…?"
"Weapons Specialist Ronon Dex of Sateda and Doctor Emma Jane Rogers, linguist…of Texas." She paused. "That's on Earth," Eva said in a disparaging stage whisper.
Lorne inhaled deeply in an attempt to maintain the tenuous grip he still had on his patience. "I know where Texas is, thank you."
Sheppard took a sidelong glance at Ronon and the linguist. "Now you two are sure you never…?" he gestured suggestively back and forth between them.
Ronon raised just one eyebrow and shook his head.
Rogers's reaction was a bit more emphatic. She jerked her head back, the whites of her eyes clearly visible. Had she been wearing a strand of pearls around her neck, she would have clutched at them. "No!" she exclaimed.
Sheppard waved both of his hands in front of him in apology. "Sorry. Didn't mean to insult your Southern sensibilities… ma'am," he tacked on. "Just trying to get the whole picture here."
"Well, I'd sure appreciate it if you'd stop picturin' it." She crossed her arms self-consciously across her chest.
"How old are you?" Lorne continued, ignorant to the conversation taking place on the deck up above.
"Sixteen."
"Date of birth?"
Eva finally opened her eyes, lifted her head, and regarded Lorne with surprising lucidity. "Like according to Earth time or Standard Pegasus Log Time?" she asked back.
"Why don't you give us both?"
"I was born in Atlantis on Day 3725 SLPT…STLP…S…" she took a deep breath, "Standard Pegasus Log Time, or May 12, 2013 according to the Earth calendar."
A rush of blood flooded Ronon's head and thundered in his ears. 2013 was five years into the future. That would certainly explain a lot. Stranger things had happened to them.
"2013?" Lorne repeated, brows pinched together with confusion. "What year do you think it is?"
"I honestly have no clue." Eva shook her head. "All of you look so young. So y'all either got lots of beauty sleep while I was away, or it's not the year I think it is."
"Okay," Lorne pressed on, "let me rephrase the question. What year was it when you were captured by the Wraith?"
She sighed. "It was 2029."
Lorne's eyes widened and he leaned back. "It's not 2029."
Eva forced a breath of air through her nose in an attempt at laughter. "No shit."
"It's 2008, Eva."
Eva brought a hand to her temple, closed her eyes and shook her head. "What the hell is going on?" she whispered.
"Tell us about your capture."
She opened her eyes and crossed her arms across her chest.
A chill traveled up Ronon's spine as he glimpsed Dr. Rogers's reflection in the glass, her body language the perfect mirror of the girl's below.
"Why?" Eva asked with suspicion.
"Maybe we know who did this to you."
She sighed. "Did you know that I have the Ancient gene just like you and Sheppard?" she asked, her eyes slightly crossed.
Lorne shook his head.
"I do," she nodded. "Because I stole it. I stole a vial of it from the infirmary and injected myself with it."
"I don't see what this has to do with your capture by the Wraith."
"I'm getting there!" she whined with frustration. "What happened was, I stole the gene and my dad found out and he was pissed. We got into a huge fight and so I ran off, stole some supplies from the armory, knocked out the jumper bay guards, took one of the Puddle Jumpers for a joyride, and crashed said Jumper on the mainland.
"Do you now perhaps understand the necessity of the restraints?" Woolsey asked Rogers.
She sighed and reluctantly nodded. "Yeah," she admitted.
"Then my dad found me but there were Wraith on the mainland and we got picked up and I got turned into a Runner and well…here I am. Can I go to bed now?"
"Not yet."
"Ugh, you're the worst!" she groaned, her head falling back onto her forearms.
Sheppard coughed quietly into his fist. "Beckett did say the sedative might cause mood swings," he muttered.
"A common side effect of being a teenage girl, as well, I'm afraid," Woolsey added.
"Tell us more about the Wraith ship that picked you up," Lorne said.
"It was a Cruiser." Her voice echoed against the steel of the table. "It was a souped up Cruiser that could see through our cloaks and had special beaming technology."
"Explains why they could still see our Jumper even when it was cloaked," Sheppard said. "Guess we didn't need to take out her tracker, after all."
"It beamed up the entire Jumper. They…they put us into cocoons." Her voice caught in her throat. "The Wraith commander chose me first. He started to feed on me but decided I was more value to him as a Runner. They took me to the lab and there was a man there." She peeked up at Lorne.
"A man?" Lorne clarified. "Another prisoner?"
She shook her head. "No. He called the Wraith his master. He…he had the Ancient gene, too. He had a bunch of Ancient technology, some of it I'd never seen before. He's the one who created the tracker they put in me," she explained, tears starting to well in her eyes. "I don't…I don't think it was a normal tracker."
"What do you mean it's not a normal tracker?" Lorned asked.
Eva, absorbed in the memory, ignored his question. "They put the tracker in me," she recalled, "and they sent me to some desert planet and I knew I needed to find my way to Sateda so my dad could find me but he never did," she cried. "He never came for me! I waited and I waited but he never came!" Even from the deck, Ronon could see the tears falling down her cheeks. She covered her face with her hand and released a sob.
"That's enough," Rogers whispered.
He glanced over to her and saw that she, too, had teardrops forming along her lower lashes.
"Stop the interrogation," she demanded. "She's had enough for now."
Woolsey nodded almost imperceptibly and spoke into the microphone. "Thank you, Major Lorne. We'll continue with this later."
Lorne reached across the table to place his hand on top of the girl's, but she yanked her hand from his reach. He splayed his fingers across the table instead. "You're safe now, Eva," he assured her.
Rogers sniffed, swallowing her emotion, and mustered every ounce of authority she possessed as she turned to face Woolsey. "What about that bed?"
"There will be no need," he told her.
She opened her mouth to argue but he spoke over her.
"I'll make sure we transfer her to guest quarters and post a guard at her door."
She blinked in surprise, but eventually nodded. "Thank you." She turned on her heel and hurried out of the room.
Woolsey and Sheppard discussed the logistics of finding Eva an empty room as well as a security detail until they, too, departed. A moment later in the interrogation room below, undoubtedly beckoned by the city's commander and the Colonel, Lorne got up from his seat and exited through the pneumatic door.
Apart from the two silent guards who seemed to fade into the walls like fixtures of the room, Eva was left alone. Ronon watched her bony shoulder blades shake while she wept and he was once again struck by how little she was. Time travel and tall tales aside, her small stature alone made it nearly impossible to believe that she could be in any way related to him. But if it was true…if what she said to Lorne was true, then he only had five years. Five short years and he would be a father – a father to a baby girl.
He shook his head, turned his back on her, and started on the path to the sparring room. There had to be another explanation.
A/N: Thank you for reading, reviewing, favorite-ing and following! Can't wait to hear from you.