Reminder:
"This is spoken English."
"This is spoken Czech."
This is a thought.

Previously: Anna's birthday. That's pretty much it.

Chapter 63. Have What It Takes.

The cupcakes didn't seem to help. There were four left, perfect with violet frosting and sprinkles in the shape of flowers. Radek had no idea who made them, but the people of Atlantis seemed to have strange hobbies. Maybe there was a 'gate technician who dreamed of opening a pastry shop in retirement.

Radek needed to get himself a hobby. Raising pigeons was one of those weird, not-very-useful things he did with his time. A while ago. He enjoyed it, but he couldn't imagine it being helpful. Even in retirement.

Who was he kidding? He wasn't going to retire. He figured he was going to die slumped over a bunch of papers littered with equations and diagrams. In large handwriting, because if his eyesight was bad now…

Why did birthdays these days lead to such macabre thoughts?

Because it was better than regretting the outcome of this birthday, probably.

In retrospect, he should have waited for the ATA gene therapy until Sheppard was ready to give the Puddle Jumper lessons. On the other hand, how in the world was he supposed to know that he would run amok of some sort of medical-thing on his mission last night?

Maybe the better question was how did he not predict that?

They'd watched Star Wars. They ate cupcakes. They played a few games of chess and Anna took Radek to see a section of the city that Radek hadn't seen before. It was some sort of central gathering place with a defunct fountain in the center. They had dinner and Anna ate her chocolate.

They were playing chess again.

This was the worst birthday ever.

"I'm sure Colonel Sheppard will come soon," Radek offered.

"Maybe he forgot?" Anna somehow sounded hopeful about that.

How was being forgotten a better outcome? Radek guessed he'd prefer to not be forgotten and have some strange extenuating circumstances hold someone back. Like being in another galaxy at the critical time…

Maybe that wasn't better. How did he know?

He'd almost forgotten Christmas, and that was almost unforgivable. He'd been in another galaxy when his ex-wife died and… well, that was almost unforgiveable, too. Couldn't win around this place.

"Beckett to Lab Two. Radek? Are you there?"

So it was a personal call. Radek couldn't imagine what was keeping Colonel Sheppard and, frankly, a call from Doctor Beckett was almost what he expected at this point. Radek leaned back in his chair to pick up the radio from the desk. He hooked it in his ear and answered, "Yes?"

"Ah, I've got bad news…" Carson said quietly, as if Anna might hear him through the radio or something. "Sheppard was infected with the Wraith retrovirus on the mission yesterday and he's not taking kindly to it. I'm afraid he'll have to reschedule flying lessons."

Radek sighed. "Yeah, okay. Thanks."

Carson apparently felt about the same way. "I feel terrible about this. But it's better to be safe than… Well, we'll know tomorrow whether the virus is breaking down in his system or no, but I don't think it would be safe to let him fly a Puddle Jumper in his condition."

"Is he alright?" Radek asked the question, but he was surprised how little he cared about the actual answer. Sheppard was usually fine. In fact, it was hard to imagine Sheppard anywhere but in danger. It was a constant state of being for Sheppard, like Radek spent most of his time thinking.

And now he was thinking about how disappointed Anna would be.

"Oh, I think… I don't know," Carson mumbled. "We'll see. Tomorrow."

"Alright." Radek was keenly aware of Anna's eyes on him as he wished Carson good luck and set the radio aside. He leaned his elbows on the chess board. He looked past the pieces, past the checked board.

"What's wrong?" Anna asked. "You have to work?"

Radek shook his head, looking toward the ceiling. First time in his life this would ever happen.

Next time he looked down, he noticed that Anna could put him in check in four moves if he kept playing the way he had been. He must have been more nervous about this whole "learning to fly a Puddle Jumper" thing than he thought.

"I don't have to work," Radek said. "Colonel Sheppard got infected with a strain of retrovirus on the mission last night. We'll have to go for another day of Puddle Jumper lessons."

Anna nodded immediately, but it was easy to see how completely disappointed she was. Radek could almost feel it himself. He wasn't usually this empathetic, was he? On the other hand, this was something he'd literally already done himself. He remembered quite well his day of wondering whether the ATA gene would take.

When he finally decided at three in the morning it wouldn't.

Probably felt something like that. All the disappointments in his life, and that was certainly one of the most potent.

"Come on." Radek stood up and motioned for her to follow.

Anna looked at him, then at the board. "Is this just because I'm winning?" She grinned.

He chuckled. "No." Winning was a little generous. He probably could have gotten out of that mess he'd gotten himself into. He still had both his knights. "I can't teach you how to fly a Puddle Jumper, but we're going to go see if you can."

"We are?" Anna looked skeptical.

Radek wandered through the hallways to the Jumper Bay. Why was he nervous like this? His heart was pounding like the first time he walked through the Stargate. The test trip to the Alpha Site meant to assure no one went to Pegasus completely cold. Coming out into the Air Force base on a faraway planet was no comparison to skipping across their galaxy to another, though.

And, so far anyway, nothing was more terrifying than the idea Radek potentially handed his sixteen-year-old the keys to a spaceship.

He opened the door to Jumper Four and waited for her to go inside. "Take a seat." He motioned to the pilot's seat. He never sat there, not even to work on the Jumper.

Anna sat down and looked at the controls. "This looks complicated…" she mumbled.

"It is complicated." Lest she think space travel was easy. "Alright. I don't know exactly how it works. Colonel Sheppard says he has only to think about what he wants the Puddle Jumper to do and it does. It's considerably harder for Rodney, but I've never seen anyone else have as much difficulty as he does."

"John told me he has to… clear his mind or something."

Radek almost quipped that explained a lot, but held himself back. It was probably a lot easier for Sheppard to clear his mind than—no, Colonel Sheppard could have been Mensa. He could put Rodney in his place sometimes.

But Rodney didn't know how to not think. And not thinking was a lot harder than thinking.

"So I just… think for it to turn on?" Anna asked.

"Yes." More or less, as Radek understood it anyway.

"I don't feel any different…" Anna mumbled, sounding a bit dejected.

Radek sighed. Maybe he should get all the gene carriers in here right now, give them a crash course on what it meant to have the gene. And then impress upon them how stupidly lucky they all were. "You won't. The ATA gene lets the ship sense you, not you sense the ship."

"Oh…" Anna closed her eyes.

Radek imagined she was trying to clear her mind. Radek tried to clear his mind, too, just to see how long it took, or even if he could do it. It must have been really difficult to fly this thing with Wraith darts in pursuit. How was one supposed to maintain that stillness with death just waiting to happen? Sheppard seemed to be a natural.

Suddenly, the Puddle Jumper hummed, the console in front of Anna lit up.

Anna's eyes popped open. She grinned at him.

Radek smiled, too. Sort of. Your teenager will be flying a spaceship tomorrow.

#

Radek made her turn off the Puddle Jumper a second later. But it didn't matter. It worked. The gene took. She could only barely contain her excitement.

She never wanted to jump up and dance before, not for anything, but she almost wanted to now. She didn't care what happened for the rest of the day. She didn't care what happened tomorrow or the day after.

This was the best birthday ever.

"I hope that Colonel Sheppard is okay," she said, for the moment too excited to be concerned that anything was too terribly wrong with Colonel Sheppard.

Radek, on the other hand, seemed concerned. "So do I." Maybe it was about Sheppard.

Maybe it wasn't. Anna had the feeling that he was beginning to regret letting her take the gene therapy. After all, he was danger-shy when it came to her. And himself. He wasn't doing anything dangerous, after all. Nothing but sit in his lab most of the time.

"Anna, I have something to tell you," he said suddenly. "I'm not sure if anything will come of it, but I wanted you to know before any decision had been made… It will change things around here."

Anna snapped her mouth shut and turned Puddle Jumper's pilot chair toward him. "What is it?" she asked.

"Doctor Weir told me they're looking at adding me to a reconnaissance team. Like what Rodney does with Colonel Sheppard," he said.

Anna smiled. That seemed almost exciting as having the ATA gene therapy actually take. She tried to be sensitive about that now, though. Since she was thinking about it, it hadn't worked for him. Anna couldn't imagine how jealous she'd be if she was in his place.

Then again, he was offered a position on a 'gate team. That was neat, wasn't it?

"That's good!" She managed to wipe the smile off her face when she saw his. "Isn't that good?"

He shrugged. He seemed to be thinking it was good in one way and not so much in other ways. "It means I will be busier than I am now," he said. "I will be offworld sometimes."

He didn't mention danger. That was unusual. Maybe he wasn't thinking about that.

No, he was certainly thinking about danger. He always thought of danger. Maybe he wasn't mentioning it for her benefit. "It will also be more dangerous, probably," she offered, to save him the trouble on saying it himself.

He nodded. "Most likely." He watched her, apparently for a reaction that she wasn't giving. He finally sighed and rose from his chair.

Anna did, too. They couldn't stay in the Puddle Jumper forever, especially not without a certified Puddle Jumper pilot. "But Major Lorne is second in command of the military things in the city, after John," she offered. "It's an important position."

John was the most important military officer and Doctor McKay was on his team. They were on equal footing in terms of their own areas of expertise. Doctor McKay was the most important scientist on Atlantis. If Major Lorne was second most important, and Radek was on his team…

Second was a pretty good place to be, especially when surrounded by so many people who knew so much.

Radek might not have seen it that way. "It is," Radek allowed. "As I said, I am not yet sure, but I didn't want to catch you off-guard."

"When will you know?" Anna asked.

He shrugged.

It probably didn't matter. If they were considering it and Radek didn't object too loudly, he'd be put on the team. Anna was almost sure of it. Radek didn't look thrilled, but…

She could only smile at this development.

If Radek, of all people, could be on an offworld team, she suddenly had plenty of hope that someday she could do the same. She could be as smart as Radek someday. She could shoot a gun, throw knives, and defend herself in a fight. Sort of.

And even without the ATA gene, Radek was on a 'gate team. Something about him was good enough for it. In more ways than one, she knew she had a chance.

She had the genes.

A/N: Eyyy, gene therapy worked! Because, you know, of course it would.
Honestly, despite that advertised 47-48% success rate, has it failed to work for anyone other than Radek? The answer is no. It hasn't. Radek is the only one we know of—in the show, mind you—for whom gene therapy did not work. I call shenanigans. Except the explanation for gene therapy activating a dormant gene that the recipient already has makes a heck of a lot more sense, no? So, I guess Anna's mother has an Ancient ancestor somewhere. Except why hasn't Beckett figured out that the only people for whom therapy works are the ones with this certain dormant gene (because, by at least season 3, anyway, he's still treating the gene therapy like it's a coin toss)? He's obviously a brilliant geneticist, but... I don't know. I guess nothing is perfect.

Next time: I miss the years that were erased.