a/n Once again, thanks to Koschka and Kodiak for the wonderful Beta help and to everyone who has enjoyed the fic and let me know. Now its time to wrap it up and bring it back into canon. Enjoy!

Solution: Asymptotic

The asymptote– a curve which is approached, but never reached, by a graph. Think of it as the mathematical equivalent of close but no cigar. The scientific way of saying, "Psych!" when you come within reach of your ultimate goal but don't quite achieve it. The graphical manifestation of the school bully that holds your textbook over your head just out of reach. Or, more eloquently put, the tangent of infinity. And it seemed there were an infinite number of ways this story could end for me and Sheppard.

He could have died in the middle of a Jaffa battlefield. I could have been eaten alive by a cougar. We could have drowned in a pond, been burned at the stake, or fed upon by Wraith. But none of those had happened.

What would happen when we jumped again? Would we end up in a volcano? Would we be exposed to a deadly disease? Would we be shot in a liquor store robbery? At this point anything could happen. And what should we do if we really returned to our own time? Should we tell them of the impending attack on Atlantis, the domino effect that would lead the Wraith to Earth, the dark future awaiting them if they didn't act? Or should we do as Adina told us and keep it to ourselves or suffer the consequences if we didn't?

Shoulda, coulda, woulda. The Universe was filled with choices made and opportunities lost. An infinite number of multiverses, each formed by what could have been done, changed by what would be done, or even facing destruction based on what should have be done but wasn't, with an equal number being saved by the same act. And we had barely brushed against all the possibilities; we were little more than a tangent on the curve of the infinite number of chances that were out there.

We had almost made it home. Almost. We were the epitome of living asymptotes to the graph of our existence. But there had been differences, subtle but there, that had let each of us know that the reality of where we each landed wasn't our own. And that revelation was more of a relief than a disappointment for me, because it was hard enough thinking of Sheppard being several hundred miles away on a daily basis but to think that he wasn't there at all, that he was still trapped on the curve of time and would never find his way back, was an ending that I shouldn't, couldn't, or wouldn't accept.

So it had been pretty easy to jump again, to leave behind a Carson I really didn't know and go in search of the one that I did. But I couldn't find him alone. Sheppard and I had started this trip together and it only seemed right that we should end it that way. Adina had told us to think of where we were, to think of when, so I just took it a step further. Think about where Sheppard is in the solar system.

And it worked.

I didn't know why we had been separated in the first place. Maybe it had been the Wraith stunner that hit us at the moment we jumped from the Hive ship. Maybe it had disrupted the energy field enough to send us in opposite directions. Maybe it had been my semi-conscious state following the Wraith Queen's interrogation and I wasn't concentrating hard enough. But when I eventually found not only Sheppard, but Adina, as well, I started to suspect that maybe it had been interference from a group of beings torn between their desire to save their ancestral home and their self-imposed restrictions not to interfere with us mortal beings.

"You will not be allowed to remember," Adina told us, her voice filled with remorse. "The others feel that you have seen too much. If I send you back to your own reality, they will not allow you to warn your people."

"Then what was the goddamn point of all this?" Sheppard demanded.

But I knew the point.

It didn't matter what we'd seen. Even if we had never seen anything, we would respond to the attack on Atlantis. One way or another, I knew Sheppard and I would do everything in our power to save the city. And it had nothing to do with saving Earth. It had to do with saving a place that had come to define home and the chance to reunite the family we had found there. The point of this entire misadventure had been to give the two of us a belief that eventually we would get a second chance, we would get to return to Atlantis, that the team would come together again.

Over the past couple of days we'd traversed across tens of thousands of years, we'd traveled millions of kilometers between planets, and we'd exceeded the speed of light to do it. Distance equals rate times time. The variables had been immense, so large they had spanned an entire galaxy. All for a solution that was limited to two people that had formed an unlikely friendship in the midst of an extraordinary journey that had begun the day we walked through a stargate in Colorado and emerged in an Ancient city sunk beneath an alien ocean. The results were asymptotic; we would never really reach the end. But as far as I was concerned, that was fine. I really had no desire for the solution to be finite.

No, when you get right down to it, we hadn't been given the answers on how to save Atlantis or Earth.

We'd simply been given hope.

And that was something I had no intentions of forgetting.

xxxx

Carson Beckett had spent the past two and a half days in a near panic. It had all started when he nearly missed his flight to Area 51 with Colonel Sheppard. He'd left his identification in his office, seeing as he was still adjusting to carrying a wallet again in the first place, and he'd had to run back in an all-out sprint to retrieve it while the colonel stalled the flight crew for time. He had then spent the entire flight, short as it was, trying to learn the rules to craps and pai gow poker from Sheppard while the man grew increasingly flustered with Carson's inability to understand the concept of the pass line.

Then, after a quick hello to Rodney upon their arrival at Area 51, he had darted off to find Dr. Warren and drop off a report which Dr. Gill from the SGC had requested that he deliver. Dr. Warren, of course, had had questions about the prognosis for the airman in question and Carson, seeing as how he wasn't a psychiatrist nor did he play one on television nor had he ever laid eyes on the young man in question, had no way of answering. After explaining that fact to Dr. Warren for almost twenty minutes, he managed to pry himself away and go in search of Rodney and the colonel and begin their road trip to Las Vegas.

The women in the office next to Rodney's informed him that the two had gone to Rodney's research lab. The lab, which housed a humming contraption the size of a commercial airliner jet engine, was empty of any personnel. After spending another half hour roaming around the area looking for them, he finally decided to find a phone and call them, seeing that he was still adjusting to carrying a cell phone instead of wearing a radio headset and he'd left his own phone sitting on his desk back at the SGC.

When Colonel Sheppard's phone had delivered a recorded message stating that the person he was trying to reach was outside of their calling area, he had thought that was odd, but dialed Rodney's instead. When he received the same message, he had them paged over the intercom system. When they still didn't show up, and Rodney's car still sat with their luggage in the parking lot, base security was notified and an office-to-office search was undertaken. It was almost three hours after he'd arrived at Area 51, that Carson sat watching the security camera footage from outside Rodney's lab showing the two men going in followed approximately twenty minutes later by Carson entering the lab and almost immediately exiting it. Sheppard and McKay, meanwhile, had never come out of the room and that door was the only way out.

"So where are they, then?" he had asked with that feeling of dread that usually seemed to accompany anything that Rodney and the colonel undertook.

The answer had been complicated and theoretical and involved lots of equations on the white board and in the end came down to the fact that no one really knew but there was a good chance that the humming jet engine in Rodney's lab had simply gobbled them up and spit them out who knew where.

The next two days Carson spent listening to a lot of theories and watching the humming apparatus, which he learned was an experimental energy generator, while scientists he didn't know asked him a great deal of questions he couldn't answer. That damnable gene again. Evidently the generator relied on some Ancient technology that required the gene to operate. And seeing as he wasn't going anywhere for the time being and he had been born with the ATA gene, surely he could help them figure out how Sheppard and McKay had disappeared and how to get them back. That was if they hadn't simply vaporized on the spot. Carson wasn't entirely sure which option he found most dreadful─ instantaneous and irreversible demolecularization of his friends, or having to do anything that involved his gene.

The first time they brought him into the lab, they had told him, "Think them back."

"What do you mean, think them back? Back from where? We don't even know where they've scampered off to."

"He has a point," one of the men in a white lab coat pointed out. "If we don't know their point of origin, how do we know the energy field will be able to bring them back properly?"

"This isn't the stargate, Roger," a woman with narrow, wire-rimmed glasses, pointed out. "You don't have to program in the information; the point of origin is automatically calculated by the field."

"Yes," he countered shortly, "when the field is connected to the navigation system of the craft. Duh."

"Don't 'duh' me, you condescending little troll. I know how the generator links to the ship's systems; I designed the interconnections."

"Then you should know how it relies on the long range sensors and navigation to calculate the points of origin and destination."

"Yes, I am well aware of that fact."

"When it's connected to that system."

Roger just stared at the woman and let what he had said sink in, and she finally said, "Oh."

Carson's attention pivoted desperately between the two. "I take it, then, that the generator is not connected into any navigational system?"

"No," Roger gloated, "it is not."

"So, should I think them back or not?"

The two scientists looked to each other before the woman pushed her glasses up academically, "We'll get back to you." And he was taken back to the break room, given another cup of coffee, and told to wait, someone would be with him shortly.

That's how things had gone over and over. They would usher him into the lab, ask him to do something, more likely than not argue amongst themselves, then usher him back out to wait until the next idea occurred to someone.

Today was no different. They had brought him into the lab again, placed him near the generator, which pretty much buggered his nerves every time they did that seeing as how he could just as easily be gobbled up by the contrivance as John and Rodney had, and asked if he could sense anything in the field. Could he detect their presence? Maybe they were there but were out of phase and they couldn't see them. And he winced in anticipation of someone asking him to shift the phase and how the bloody hell was he supposed to do that? Maybe if he turned the generator off, someone suggested, they would appear. No, someone else argued, that could trap them forever. Carson had heard rumors that Radek was on his way from Prague and wished he would arrive this very instant and put these people in their place.

But instead of Dr. Zelenka appearing on demand, Rodney did. One minute there had been no one, the next his friend flickered into existence and crumpled to the ground.

The scientists stopped arguing and simply stared at the man in a cross between dumbfounded awe and disappointment that McKay had somehow managed to return himself before they could figure out how to do it on their own. Carson snapped at them even as he moved to kneel beside Rodney, "For God's sake, get a bloody medical team in here."

Pulling the penlight from his pocket, because he couldn't remember his wallet or cell phone but the penlight was such second nature that he took it along even on holiday, he shined the small light in McKay's eyes, watching them react slowly to stimulus. "Rodney, can you hear me, lad?"

"Colonel, can you hear me, lad?"

"R'ney?"

He couldn't help but look around hopefully for Rodney as well, but the man wasn't there. No need to tell Sheppard that just yet, seeing as the man was obviously expecting him to be there. "It's Carson, Colonel. Rest easy, we're going to take care of you."

The reassurance did little to ease Rodney's mind. "Where's Sheppard?" he slurred. "He was…was…" but he drifted into unconsciousness before he could explain exactly what the colonel was doing.

"Turn off the generator," someone ordered, and Carson knew that wasn't a good idea.

"No! Don't do that! The colonel made it back; Rodney may be following soon enough." A few nods of agreement had him relaxing and turning his attention to the medical team pushing a gurney through the door. "All right, let's get him transferred to the infirmary so that I can check him over proper."

The examination of Rodney revealed an arm with large puncture wounds and claw marks on his chest, indicating that he had been attacked by a large animal. And in all honesty, the man was lucky he hadn't gone septic from the infection. In addition, the bruised and raw marks on his wrists suggested he had been bound with a rope, bruising across his back and shoulders appeared to have come from being struck from behind, and his neurological results were similar to when he had been stunned by a Wraith weapon back on Atlantis.

McKay moaned, his face twisting in discomfort, even though his eyes were still closed, but Carson encouraged him back into lucidity. "Rodney, can you open your eyes for me lad?"

Hazel eyes blinked open in confusion that only grew when he focused on Carson's face, "Doc?"

"Aye, Colonel," he smiled comfortingly, "It's good to have you back."

"Where am I?" He tried to sit and Carson placed a halting hand on his shoulder. "What happened?"

"You're in the infirmary at Area 51. As to what happened, I was hoping you could tell me. You have a broken nose, a few cracked ribs and a bruise that runs along your entire left side, not to mention raw scrapes along your back , a partially healed burn to your shoulder that looks remarkably like a staff weapon wound, and a neural scan that I've never seen the likes of before. It's as if the energy field completely overloaded your entire neurological system. The closest comparison I can come up with would be a zat blast."

"Pins and needles," Sheppard groaned, "from the Wraith stunner."

"Wraith?" Carson asked in confusion.

"Yeah, we were held on a Hive Ship… in the future," Rodney explained with an impatient shake of his head. "How long were we gone anyway?"

"Over two day," Carson made a notation on the chart he had started. "And I don't mind telling you I've been worried sick. No one really knows how or what happened. And they sure didn't know when it was going to end. If you hadn't shown back up, it could have gone on for months I suppose. I was starting to worry that my lizards would starve to death if I didn't get back to Colorado soon."

"Lizards? I thought you were getting turtles?"

"Rodney, you never pay any attention. I e-mailed you last week about the lizards. Wee little geckos that can climb up the side of their tank." The scientist didn't seem the least bit impressed by the miming hand motions mimicking lizards traversing glass walls.

"Carson, I distinctly remember you e-mailing me about turtles. You were asking my opinion about a red-eared slider versus an eastern box turtle. Like I have any idea what the difference is, much less which one is the easiest to care for."

"Yeah, Wraith," Sheppard said, as if that would explain everything. "They'll invade Earth in a few years if we don't stop them."

"So you did travel through time. The scientists here theorized that you might." Carson shook his head in fascination. "So what sort of creatures are these Wraith you ran into?"

The look the colonel gave him suggested maybe Carson was the one that had become disoriented while he had been gone. "The Wraith, Carson. The same ones from Atlantis."

"Atlantis?" Perhaps the energy field had done more neurological damage to the colonel than he had originally thought. He made a note in the chart to run another CT scan.

Carson's confusion had Sheppard sitting up despite his protests. "You don't know about Atlantis?"

"Beyond the mythological city destroyed and sunk beneath the waves, no."

"When did we meet?" the colonel demanded.

The physician considered for a moment before telling him, "Almost three years ago. When you were first assigned to the SGC. Rodney started on full time there about a month or so after you did and was just recently reassigned here to Area 51 to oversee research and development."

Sheppard's eyes widened in growing agitation and he looked frantically around the infirmary. "Where's McKay? Is he okay?"

"Rodney," Carson sighed sympathetically, "Colonel Sheppard hasn't returned yet."

The look on Rodney's face told the physician that he had understood but refused to accept the news. "Hasn't returned from where?"

"Wherever the two of you were."

"No, this doesn't make any sense. All the other times we jumped together. And he was right beside me."

"Rodney, you need to calm down. If you came back, I'm sure Colonel Sheppard will, too. Why wouldn't he?"

"This isn't right. Something's not right here, Carson. You're not right here. I need to go. I need to find Sheppard." He threw his legs over the edge of the bed.

Carson shook his head adamantly. "You aren't going anywhere. As soon as that I.V. replenishes your fluid levels, I'm starting you on intravenous antibiotics. Leave the searching for Colonel Sheppard to the others. If it makes you feel any better, Radek should be in this evening…"

"Radek won't help any, Carson," Sheppard insisted as he pulled the I.V. from his hand with a wince. "I'm the only one that can find him. Now, where did I jump in?"

The colonel wobbled when he stood, steadying himself against the edge of the bed before taking a delicate step forward. "Colonel, you should be in bed, not running around the facility."

"Carson," Rodney threatened as he fought to maintain his balance, "tell me where I jumped in, or I swear to God I will tell everyone in the SGC that you collect tea cups."

"That's not that unusual of a hobby," he defended warily.

"And you have tea parties with your stuffed sheep."

"I don't even own a stuffed sheep, you lying bastard."

"You will by the time you get back to Colorado… a whole goddamn flock of them sitting around the desk in your office with your mother's heirloom-rose tea set."

Carson's eyes widened in outrage. "You wouldn't dare."

That stubborn jaw rose in defiance. "I'm definitely in the wrong reality if you truly believe I won't."

Carson sighed. "You appeared in Rodney's lab. Right next to the energy generator."

"Thanks, Doc, I knew you'd see things my way."

"Only because you know where Rodney has hidden the thumb drive with those photos." Taking the colonel's arm, he helped him toward the door. "It won't do me a bit of good to have you fall and bash your head and forget what you promised me." And hopefully once Sheppard saw the empty lab, as heartbreaking as it would be, he'd be willing to go back to bed and recoup from his injuries.

But when they arrived, Sheppard moved into the area Carson indicated. "Here? Right here's where I appeared?"

"Yes, Rodney, right there." He didn't even try to hide the exasperation from his voice. "Why is it so important to know exactly where you were?"

"Because I'll have a better chance of finding Sheppard when I jump out again."

"What do you mean, jump out again? Colonel, what are you doing?" And Carson decided no doctored photos were worth what Sheppard was planning to do.

"Think about where McKay is in the solar system," he mumbled, closing his eyes and concentrating hard.

"Rodney, stop this. You just got back." But the man's image flickered and an excited murmur spread through the scientists in the room that grew into complete chaos when he disappeared.

"Colonel?" Carson called as he waved a hand through the air where the man had just stood. "Colonel Sheppard?" he called a little louder, knowing it wouldn't do him a bit of good.

He was gone. Vanished into thin air once again. And there wasn't a damnable thing anyone could have done to stop it.

"Well, lad, I sure hope you know what you're doing." Because Carson sure didn't know what he was doing. He decided returning to panicking was as good a plan as any.

xxxx

Adina had decided that she enjoyed the sound of flowing water. Nothing too wild, nothing too dangerous, nothing that would pass above her knees, but a little brook with a waterfall had become one of her favorite places to pass the time. And these days, she had plenty of time to pass. Not like the first several hundred years of her existence. Then there was always something to do, someone who needed her help, and she had always been more than willing to provide it. And maybe that was why she was not a perfect fit with the others that had passed on.

She had loved her time on the ice, had been sorrowed to see it end. Of course the eventual loss of her people had been the truly heartbreaking part. They had aged and died, passed on to join the others, or left through the portal to finish out their lives on other worlds or in the hot sands of the land where the newest gate on their own world had been built. She had watched them go, remaining in the lodge until the very last one left her, and then she had left her mortal existence behind and passed on, as well.

This existence was easier, there was no doubt. No aching joints, no slow shuffle to reach her seat by the fire, no failing eyesight to blur the view of the children at play. But she could not deny there were times that she longed for the old ways. The sounds of the lodge when the inhabitants were just waking, the gentle rattle of snores when they slept, the knowledge that there was always someone there to sit with and chat while they wove a basket or tanned a hide─ it was a comfort she had not realized she would miss so much.

The others were always with her. Always in the back of her mind, but it was not the same. The presence was never ending whereas the lodge had given her a sense of privacy she no longer felt even though she spent most of her time alone. Large groups of people living together develop a way of cohabitating that allows them to live within imaginary walls. There may be people literally on all sides of you, but if you did not acknowledge them, they politely returned the favor. And that was why she started finding these secluded meadows and mountain streams at which to spend her time. Here she could at least pretend she was alone and unobserved as she dipped a foot into the frigid cold waters of the spring melt washing down from the peaks and remember the chill of the ice and the counteracting warmth of her people that had been gone for thousands of years now.

Perhaps that was why she chose the clearing, with a small stream winding through a pale spring meadow, purple wild flowers dotting the carpet of green, and warm sun heating the rock she sat on, to greet John and Rodney when they arrived. Any time now, she thought, as she watched the grasshoppers leap across the sea of grass. Surely they had figured out by now that they were not where they should be. The men were smarter than to be fooled by the tricks of the others, she knew. And a slight tingle in the air let her know she was right.

Rodney was the first to appear, wearing the same clothes he had been wearing when she first met him ten thousand years before. But of course it had just been a matter of days in his frame of reference since he had arrived on the ice, and even less since she had appeared in his dreams to warn him of the men approaching their hiding place in the barn. In that short time he had been injured, in more ways than one, and although the bandaging on his arm was new, the pain was evident on his face.

"I should have known that you would be the first to realize things were not as they should be, Rodney."

He furrowed his brow in thought when he saw her sitting on her stone seat. "Do I know you?"

She laughed lightly at the question, brushing back a strand of long dark hair that had been blown by the breeze across her unwrinkled face. "I am not sure if I should be insulted or flattered that you would forget me so soon."

"Adina?" When she smiled in acknowledgment, he just stared at her in wonder.

"You seem surprised to see me again."

"I'm surprised to see you less…" He seemed to struggle for the proper word, finally giving up on being polite and going with what he was thinking. "… old."

"Given the choice of being an arthritic old woman or one a little more agile, which would you choose?"

"I guess there are perks to being ascended."

The smile turned melancholy at his observation. "There are also draw backs, Rodney."

"I don't suppose you're going to tell me what those are. Or what I'm doing here. Or where Sheppard is for that matter. Or how we're supposed to get back."

Adina held up a hand. "All in due time. You are the most impatient man I have ever met in my life. And seeing as I am almost ten-thousand years old, that is saying a great deal."

"Well, seeing as I don't have the luxury of living ten thousand years, I'm under a little more of a time constraint than you are." She titled her head, as if listening for a distant sound, and Rodney demanded, "What? What do you hear?"

"John is arriving," she told him with a brisk wave of her hand. "Move a few steps to the right."

For once he did not argue, just moved to the side as she had requested and John blinked into existence where Rodney had stood a few seconds before.

"Well, I'll be damned," John grinned happily when he saw Rodney standing beside him. "It worked."

"Yes, we've successfully managed to jump into Adina World." Rodney brandished a disgruntled arm toward the woman who ignored his brash introduction and instead smiled warmly at the new arrival.

"John, it is good to see you again."

"Adina." The name was spoken as much as a greeting as it was confirmation of what Rodney had told him, and John raised his eyebrows at her youthful appearance. "Evidently the warm weather suits you."

"Actually, I do occasionally become homesick for the ice, although I have grown accustomed to the sunlight."

"Speaking of homesick," John started steering the conversation toward his and Rodney's real interests. "Why aren't we back in Area 51… our Area 51?"

"I promise, I will explain everything. But first it seems that you are in need of my healing skills once again. Both of you are, in fact. I am a little more proficient than I was the last time we met."

She stood, closed the small distance between her and the men, and placed a hand on a shoulder of each. Rodney seemed ready to question what she was preparing to do, but the query never had a chance to form on his lips. The warmth passed easily from her, encompassing the two of them in a golden light that caused the small purple flowers growing nearest to them to turn their faces into the glow. She held them like this for several seconds before the radiance extinguished and she stepped away. John and Rodney seemed almost suspended before her, swaying gently like extensions of the grass in the breeze, a mesmerized expression on both of their faces that didn't disappear even when their knees gave out and they dropped hard to an unsteady sit on the ground.

Adina reclaimed her seat on the boulder with a great deal more grace. "Is that better?"

Rodney held up a finger, as if he were about to make a point, but he instead toppled backward into the meadow and smiled up into the deep blue sky. John propped himself on one hand to keep from doing the same as he touched tentatively at his nose. When he felt no pain there, he looked to his shoulder, then his side, both of which were completely unmarred.

Adina returned his grin and watched as he turned Rodney's arm to look for any signs of the rope burns on his wrist. "McKay, check your arm."

"Huh?' he asked dazedly.

"Your arm." When he tapped it and Rodney didn't flinch away, he started unwrapping it himself. "I think it's healed."

"Yeah," Rodney agreed with a contented sigh, not bothering to stop John or take over the task, "it is. And my head… I'm not sure which was worse, the ribbon device, the Wraith interrogation, or the caffeine withdrawal. This is the longest I've gone without coffee since the Daedalus started restocking Atlantis on a regular basis."

As he finished exposing the arm that had been mauled, Sheppard shook his head in wonder. "That's… incredible." He looked up at Adina, planning to thank her, but instead asked in worry, "What's wrong?"

It wasn't a surprising question given the way Adina's disposition had changed from pleasure at seeing the men healed to consternation when Rodney mentioned Atlantis. Well, this was the reason she had brought them here. No use putting it off any longer.

"The memories of what you have endured are also painful, are they not? I can remove them, as well." It was a slight possibility, but maybe they would agree on their own. But, as she had known all along, that was not the case.

Curiosity over seeing his restored arm may not have been enough to pull Rodney from his euphoric mood, but evidently her suggestion had. Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked at her across his chest and bluntly said, "No."

"I am sorry, Rodney, but you do not have a choice in this matter."

Sitting up even further, he looked urgently to John beside him who wore the same expression on his face. "What? Why not?"

"You will not be allowed to remember." Adina would regret doing this, but she had been given little choice. "The others feel that you have seen too much. If I send you back to your own reality, they will not allow you to warn your people."

"Then what was the goddamn point of all this?"

Sheppard's outrage had her pointing out, "John, I told you how to return home before you were taken by the Wraith. Janus had the others swayed and we had hoped that they would not interfere after you returned to your own time."

"So, what? I was supposed to let a woman and her children face the Wraith by themselves?"

Adina gave John a sympathetic shake of her head. "You care too much for things that are not yours to care for."

"Then why do you care what happens to us?"

"A family flaw, I suppose," she sighed. "One we will probably never overcome and one that's consequences you will now have to accept. When you did not go when I warned you, enough of the others changed their minds that they made sure what you saw would have little significance. They sent you to other places than your own. Places where your people never traveled to Atlantis and where Atlantis was never abandoned by her builders. Places where your knowledge would have no influence."

"But they let us jump out again," John observed. "Why do that if they want to stop us?"

"They cannot stop you from jumping. Not yet, anyway."

John's obvious attempt to reason this out for himself was interrupted by Rodney snapping his fingers in understanding. "We're still in the field. As long as they don't turn off the energy generator in our reality we still have some control."

"How much control?"

It was Adina who answered John's question. "Not enough to send you back to your own time. Not unless the others allow it."

"And in order for them to allow it, we have to lose the memories." Sheppard spoke the implications she had not.

"What if we promise not to tell anyone?" Rodney offered quickly.

Before she could respond, John practically sulked, "What's the difference between that and not remembering in the first place?"

"Sheppard, even if we didn't know anything about the attack, I'd still do everything in my power to save the city when word comes that there's trouble. Not because Earth is at risk, but because Atlantis is at risk. And you'd do the same."

"But if we could warn the SGC about it in advance, there's a chance they could possibly do something to stop it from happening in the first place," John countered.

Rodney rolled his eyes at the suggestion. "Like what? Offer our assistance to the Ancients? The ones who booted us out for not being worthy of staying in their home in the first place? Do you really think they would take any help we offered? I'm honestly kind of looking forward to seeing them get their arrogant asses kicked by their little nanite creations. We sure the hell dealt with the fallout of their mistakes enough over the past couple of years, it's about time they clean up their own mess."

"McKay," John hissed with a meaningful hitch of his head toward Adina who sat watching them with barely contained humor. She knew the others were watching this exchange, as well, but she herself had pointed out that they were not entirely without blame in this situation. And it hardly seemed fair that John and Rodney should bare the brunt of the punishment.

Rodney followed the inclination of John's head and it seemed to take him longer to understand the not-so-subtle hint he was being given than it did for him to realize that they were still trapped in the energy field. Finally the light bulb went off for him. "Oh! Uhm… no offense, Adina. After all, you weren't even born when they created these problems."

"No, but my grandfather was. In fact, many believe he overstepped his bounds when he manipulated the time flow and sent you to see me."

"Did he do this?" Rodney questioned angrily. "Did he cause the energy field to escape confinement in the first place?"

"No, he did not." At least that is what he claimed. Although with Janus, one never knew what the man might do. He had defied the orders of those in command numerous times before while still in his mortal form. Why would he stop now that he had passed on? "He only took advantage of your predicament to have me deliver a simple warning to John. It was never his intentions that you learn more than what I told you."

"But we did learn more," John challenged, "and now we're being punished? That hardly seems fair."

"I assure you, he is working very hard to present your case to the others." And in his own, undiplomatic way, so was Rodney, which prompted her to ask her next question. "So, tell me, Rodney, if the memories of your experiences here will not persuade you to act any differently when the time comes, why are you so adamant that you remember them?"

"Because they're mine." Rodney's defensive justification wavered slightly. "… ours."

"But you were lost, frightened, hurt, worried. Why would you wish to remember this?"

"Because… because…" Hands flew through the air, causing the grasshoppers to take flight around him, before both hands and insects came to rest in frustration as the flustered man blurted out, "Because that's what we do."

"Because those things you said are only half of the memories." Rodney gave John a look of utter relief when he spoke since he finally seemed to understand why the physicist wanted to remember, even if they couldn't say anything to anyone else. "The other half are… better. Definitely worth keeping."

Adina could feel the others questioning their decision and she smiled to herself. "You make a very persuasive argument."

"We won't tell anyone," John promised and Rodney nodded his head in agreement.

"We won't. You have our word."

In that portion of her mind that connected to the others, she could feel them weighing their options. She could sense her grandfather giving them each a mental nudge, delivering a cerebral elbow to the ribs and demanding that they acknowledge he had been right about entrusting these two with the wellbeing of their glorious city. It amazed her that they would be willing to let Atlantis fall in favor of their self-imposed restrictions. They claimed they were above such concerns, that they said they were no longer troubled with the fate of the material world, and yet, she could feel the way they yearned for Atlantis as if it were a phantom limb.

And eventually, that long deserted passion for the city they had left behind was enough to persuade them that John and Rodney could be trusted to keep their secret… with a minor stipulation.

"No," she informed them as she stood from her seat, "you will not tell anyone. Because if you do, the others will make sure that neither of you ever steps foot on Atlantis again."

The two frowned at the news. "Well," Rodney observed dryly, "that sounds ominous."

"We won't say a word," John swore again. "You and the others don't have to worry about it. Mum's the word."

"Actually, what is the word? We have to tell everyone back at the SGC something about where we've been and mum just isn't going to cut it."

"We tell them we don't remember."

Evidently Rodney didn't think much of John's suggestion. "I suppose you used the dog ate my homework excuse in elementary school, too."

"Bought me an extra week on my 'Treasure Island' book report." John's shrug was accompanied by a boyish grin that Adina decided probably went further in the extension his teacher had granted him than his excuse. "Besides, that's exactly what we would have said if we had lost our memories."

"I suppose that's better than a complicated story to remember," Rodney relented.

"With your lying skills, McKay, trust me; the simpler the better."

"If it is any consolation," Adina offered, "I do not think you will have to keep your secret for too long."

"And then we'll be able to go back to Atlantis?"

The eagerness in Rodney's voice almost had Adina telling them more than she should have. Catching herself before she did, she shook her head. "You already know more than you should. Do you really want to chance any more?"

"No!" John cut in earnestly. "Just send us back, before something slips out or the others change their mind again or something else attacks us."

"I think that would be for the best," Adina agreed with a knowing laugh before sobering. "What lies ahead of you… it will not be easy."

"Of course not," Rodney lamented. "It never is."

"Watch out for one other. That is the best protection that I can give you." She took a hand from each and pulled them up from where they sat to stand before her. "But from what I have seen, that is all you need."

"Thank you," John told her sincerely.

And Rodney added, "Really. For everything."

"I bid you firm footing on your passage and warm destinations for your journeys to come." With a final squeeze to their hands, she stepped back from the men. "Very well, it is now up to you."

The two men looked at each other, as if ensuring that each knew what they needed to do. "I feel like we should be clicking our heels together or something," John told his companion.

"Where and when, Sheppard. Just concentrate on where and when we are."

"Right," John closed his eyes and Rodney followed suit. "Where and when."

A single flicker and Adina was once again the only person in the meadow. Returning to the edge of the creek, she pulled her skirts up to expose her knees and stepped into the chilly water, watching the way the eddies formed around her ankles.

"You did well, little one."

Not turning to look at the man that had appeared on the bank, she snorted. "I am ten-thousand years old; I think you can stop calling me 'little one'."

"It is a grandfather's prerogative to use pet names for his grandchildren." Janus kicked off his shoes and stepped into the water beside her, not even bothering to roll up his pants legs. When she just flexed her foot and watched the water rush up the arch and around the obstruction he bumped her shoulder good-naturedly. "There is no need to worry for them, little one."

"You have looked ahead again," she accused.

"Unlike some spoil sports I know, I do not have any qualms about doing that. Besides, do you not want to know how this will end?"

Bending, she retrieved a small stone from the creek bed, "What is the point of knowing if we can do nothing about the outcome anyway?"

"Do you honestly believe that? Time flows, like this stream. Your presence may not stop the water from flowing, but it can cause it to divert, to bend, to change how and where it goes. Just like your presence in the lives of John and Rodney changed their destinies. Just like their friendship has changed them."

Glancing up at her grandfather, she asked hesitantly, "So, they will be well?"

"I thought you did not want to know such things?"

She rolled her eyes at his teasing grin. "You are the most infuriating old man sometimes."

"Old man? For being ten-thousand years old yourself, you certainly are smug."

Ignoring his insinuation about her own age, she insisted, "Are you going to tell me, or not?"

He considered for a few seconds before shaking his head, "No, I do not think I will."

Tossing the stone away, she snorted again, "Like I said, infuriating."

"But I will tell you this; saving Atlantis from the Asurans is the least of the problems they will be facing in the times to come."

Adina looked to the heavens in exasperation. "Taking care of family business can be so tiring some times."

"Well, there is some family business that keeps rearing its ugly head."

Narrowing her eyes at her grandfather, she asked, "What business is that?" When the only answer he provided was to take a step up stream and stare at her knowingly, her eyes widened in understanding. "Your time travel device."

"I admit, it has been as much a blessing as a curse."

"You did cause them to be trapped in the field, after all."

Janus sighed in response to her accusation. "I had to ensure that they did not use the device improperly. The temptation to change what should not be changed would be too great if they succeeded with the research. And Rodney was very close to succeeding."

"And what of Atlantis?"

Janus smiled. "Rodney was right; their actions will be no different in knowing what is to come than they would have been if they had remained oblivious."

"But what if they had died during their time in the energy field, or never found their way back?"

"Then Atlantis would have fallen in their reality, just as it has or will in numerous other ones." Janus stepped forward again and placed his hands on her shoulders sympathetically. "The events are not necessarily as important as the fact that they be allowed to happen as they are meant to."

"You are one to preach such lessons," Adina scoffed. "You have interfered on more than one occasion."

"And it is now my punishment to make sure that others cannot, and any interference on my behalf will be to assure the least impact on the time line."

"So John and Rodney were just pawns in all of this? Their well-being was of no concern to you?"

"Take your own advice, little one. You care too much for things that are not yours to care for."

"If they are not ours to care for, then who will care for them?"

Janus smiled affectionately. "They care for one another."

And in the end, Adina realized, as long as they could remember that, it would be more than enough to see them through.

xxxx

Radek Zelenka had arrived at the Area 51 research facility with a gloating smile and a massive case of jet lag. He had spent almost twenty-two hours in transit between Prague and Nevada, most of that on a military transport out of Germany, flying backwards, wrapped in a blanket, and wearing earplugs, while staring at the cargo being transported between Europe and the United States. But given the reason why he was flying across nine time zones to reach his destination, he might as well have been flying first class.

The phone call he had received had been vague and blunt. His presence was required to assist Dr. Rodney McKay with a problem he was having on a new project. He was to report immediately and he would be briefed further upon arrival. Rodney needed his assistance. The thought filled him with glee, so much so that he had demanded, "Why does Dr. McKay not ask for this assistance he so desperately needs himself?"

The answer from the other end of the line had been succinct. "Dr. McKay is unavailable at this time."

Dr. McKay is too much of a self-absorbed toddler to ask for help himself, was more like it. It must have killed Rodney to admit he needed help, to relent that something was beyond his magnificence and that he required the aid of someone who knew better. And who would know better than Radek? So Rodney had obviously gone to the SGC and requested Zelenka be brought in and managed not to have to ask on his own behalf.

He had thought of saying, 'No, I will not come until Rodney begs for me to come in person'. But he knew better than to do that. He still held out hope that eventually they would be allowed to return to Atlantis, to once again reside in that glorious city and resume their research. And the best way to be invited back if the time ever came would be to do as the SGC asked and come to the United States once again. And that was fine. He could taunt Rodney's inability to manage his new position for barely a month to his face. It was much more fun to see McKay turn red and stammer in person anyway.

But when he arrived at Area 51, eyes burning from lack of sleep and back aching from lack of lumbar support on the plane, he was greeted not by a desperate Rodney McKay but a desperately relieved Carson Beckett.

"Radek, thank God you're here." The physician looked as if he had slept less than Radek had.

"Carson," he frowned in confusion, "why are you here? Where is Rodney?"

"They didn't tell you? That's why you're here. He and Colonel Sheppard have vanished thanks to that bloody device he was working on."

"What device? Where did they vanish to? Why was Colonel Sheppard even here? I thought you and the colonel were in Colorado?" This was not what he had expected to hear. This was not what he had expected to deal with when he agreed to come. Although, to be completely honest, he could not say that he was surprised that Rodney and the colonel had managed to find themselves in some sort of critical predicament yet again.

Carson blinked at all the questions. "They really didn't tell you anything did they? Well, I suppose that's why they have a briefing set up for you and General Landry."

Less than an hour later, they were all convened in the conference room and General Landry seemed none too pleased to be there. "I thought Dr. McKay and Colonel Sheppard were supposed to be on leave."

"We never made it that far," Dr. Beckett admitted reluctantly.

The general shook his head in disbelief. "You would have thought separating those two by a couple of states would be enough to keep them out of trouble. Apparently, that would be an incorrect assumption." He waved a short-tempered hand at the scientist leading the briefing. "All right, let's get on with this. And might I remind you, Doctor, the term is briefing for a reason."

General Landry lasted an hour and half before he announced that he had heard all he needed to hear and that he wanted an update in four hours from Dr. Zelenka, whom he was putting in charge of the operation from here on out.

Radek had straightened from the exhausted slump he had found himself sinking into and pushed his glasses up with an alarmed, "Me?"

"You don't think I flew you all the way over here just to sleep through the presentation did you, Doctor?"

"No, no, it is just… I have just arrived; I know nothing of this project Rodney was working on…"

Radek's protests were cut short by Landry. "When did you ever know anything about what you were working on when you were on Atlantis?" The Czech couldn't argue the point and when his only answer was silence, the general continued. "You know more about Ancient technology than anyone in this room. More than that, you know more about how Dr. McKay works than anyone in this room. And seeing as the team that has been working on this project since its inception hasn't been able to figure out how to fix it, I'm thinking the traits you possess may be more important in coming to a conclusion on this… one way or another."

That last was very clear to Radek what he meant. He expected the scientist to determine if Sheppard and McKay could ever be brought back, just as much as he expected him to figure out how to do it. And that thought, that he might have to make that decision to abandon any attempt at rescue, was more daunting than that of fixing the problem ever could be.

"I think," Radek said with a sufficient amount of dread, "I will need more coffee."

Zelenka started a thorough review of McKay's notes even as he ate the first real meal he had had in over a day, becoming so engrossed in the research that half the food sat uneaten by the time he reached the end. As was typical with Rodney, the approach he was taking with the energy field generator was ingenious. As was also typical, there were way too many unknowns to have attempted a field test, and, yet, Rodney had done it anyway.

His conclusion after the initial pass was, yes, they could still be alive. Yes, they could possibly come back, but there did not seem to be too much that could be done from outside the field to help them. They would have to manipulate the field from inside, which, theoretically, would be possible considering both men possessed the ATA gene. But unless they could somehow locate themselves precisely in relation to both time and space, they would just move randomly from place to place and time to time.

Perhaps the scientists here could somehow give the two a homing beacon to hone in on that would assist them. Bringing up the schematics of the generator once again, he looked for any way to hook into the system without turning it off or frying anyone attempting to make a connection. It did not look promising. But maybe they could send something into the field to do the same thing.

Radek glanced up from his seat in the lab to watch as the scientists assigned to work with him continued to pour over data as the generator hummed happily along… then accelerated for a second, only to return to its normal evenly pitched hum. "What was that?"

At his question, one of the others dismissed. "It does that occasionally. At first it happened at predictable intervals, each twice as long as the last, then it started happening randomly. McKay had noticed something similar earlier. He thought it was some sort of instability in the field, a ripple effect caused by the quantum tunneling."

"But if the field has instabilities, then it could send the ship it is transporting off-course," Radek observed.

"Which is why we hadn't tried to transport anything yet. McKay was monitoring it for a pattern to see if he could establish the frequency and strength so that we could program in a buffer that would autocorrect during transport."

"Do you have previous monitoring data?" Radek had an idea, nothing solid yet, but if he could see what was happening with these ripples maybe he could at least figure out what was happening with Rodney and the colonel. And that would be the first step to getting them back.

When it was time to brief General Landry, he had a theory as to what was happening. "So, you can see from past data, the patterns are very consistent. There is blip here, here, here, and so on." He pointed out the distortions on the grids that were displayed on the screen behind him.

General Landry nodded with hands clasped together on the table before him. "Fascinating. But what does past data have to do with what is happening now?"

"Because, the pattern has changed since they have been in field." Bringing up a new screen showing the historical data compared to the data collected since Rodney and Colonel Sheppard had disappeared, he pointed out differences. "See, in beginning it is same, then, here, it diverges. Here it is longer than it should be. Here is shorter, and again here and here."

"What do you think this means, Doctor?" Landry seemed curious by this new data.

"I think that Dr. McKay and Colonel Sheppard have figured out how to manipulate the field from inside. These early disruptions would have been the field impacting their location, making them appear then disappear in various places and times. But these are where they impacted the field and changed locations themselves."

Carson, who was also sitting in on the briefing spoke up then. "If they can change on their own, why haven't they come back yet?"

Radek shrugged. "Maybe they have not perfected ability as of yet. Think of it like control chair in Atlantis or Antarctica. With their ATA gene they can exert some control over the energy field by sending mental commands, just like they could fire a drone from chair. But chair provides a point of reference for navigating the drone to destinations desired by person sitting in chair. Without that point of reference, the drone would rarely hit its target. It would simply fly randomly. Much as I believe Rodney and Colonel Sheppard are doing."

"Will they ever perfect the ability?" the general asked succinctly.

"Possibly. But it will be difficult if they cannot manipulate it to the precise time and location they need to return."

"But this is a good sign, right?" Carson looked to him hopefully for confirmation of his assumption.

"Unfortunately, if we are to help them, it is not. If they had continued on with the same pattern, perhaps we could have developed some way to calculate where and when they would appear and be able to buffer that and redirect them here. But if they are making changes themselves, I have no way to predict where they will go next."

"They're here!" The woman with the wire-rimmed glasses that had been working in the lab slid to a halt inside the door and breathed rapidly from her run to deliver the news. "They just appeared. One second nothing and then bam! They were there."

The people in the room stood in excitement at the news. Carson was already moving toward the door. "Are they injured? Did you call a medical team?"

Radek, given his position at the front of the conference room, was the last to make his way out the door, but he jogged to catch up with Carson and General Landry who had taken the lead with the woman who was leading them back.

"They both had dried blood on them, but they appear fine. The medics were on their way when I left to come get you."

"Did they say anything about where the hell they've been?"

The scientist shook her head in response to the general's question. "I didn't stay around long enough to hear, but they sure seemed glad to be back." Looking around, Radek saw that they weren't the only ones glad they were back. He couldn't seem to stop the smile on his own face that matched the ones surrounding him.

By the time they arrived in the lab, the medics were already there, but that didn't stop Carson from pushing his way through to check the two himself. As soon as Rodney saw the physician he tried to stand, only to be yanked back down by the medic checking his blood pressure.

"Carson!"

"Oh, you two are a sight for sore eyes, to be sure." The Scot's smile dimmed when he noticed the blood on their clothes. "What happened? Are you hurt?"

"We're fine," Rodney dismissed with a tug at the shirt that looked to be in much worse shape than the man wearing it. "But I need to know, did you get turtles or lizards?"

Beckett seemed taken aback by the question. "What? What difference does it make…?"

"Just answer me, turtles or lizards?"

"Turtles," he answered with a confused frown at McKay but his attention was quickly drawn to Sheppard.

"And you've been to Atlantis, right?"

"Aye, Colonel, we all have." Pulling the penlight from his pocket he flashed it quickly in Sheppard's eyes. "Are you sure the two of you didn't suffer a bump to the head?"

The colonel waved the small light away, smiling widely and hitting McKay's shoulder happily. "Son of bitch, it worked."

"What worked?"

General Landry's question had both men sobering. "The fact that we're back, Sir."

"Would you mind expanding on that, Colonel Sheppard, and telling me exactly where you're back from?"

"We don't remember," Rodney blurted in response.

Landry's eyes narrowed suspiciously, causing the thick eyebrows to converge above the bridge of his nose. "How are you so sure Colonel Sheppard doesn't remember?"

"Well, I'm assuming… that is… since I personally can't remember…"

Sheppard cut off the babbling physicist. "McKay's right. One minute he was showing me his lab, the next we were back here with everyone excited to see us."

"And you don't remember anything from the last three days?" The general may have asked the question, but he wasn't the only one regarding the men with skepticism.

"Nothing, Sir," Sheppard swore.

Carson asked in disbelief, "Not even how you ended up with blood all over a shirt covered with horses?"

"Mustangs," both men corrected in unison.

Radek rolled his eyes. He always knew Rodney couldn't lie his way out of bed, but he had expected more from the colonel, although he had to give both men credit with how they were holding a straight face after that fiasco.

"Are you sure you don't remember anything about your time in the energy field?" General Landry asked one final time.

"General, I swear to you," Sheppard said as he looked his commanding officer in the eye. "There isn't anything I can tell you about what's happened the last three days."

The men locked stares for a long moment, before Landry finally relented. "We'll discuss this further when you report to work tomorrow, Colonel."

"Yes, Sir."

But Landry had already turned on his heels and was heading out of the room. "Turn that damn thing off before somebody else disappears and develops selective amnesia."

Zelenka had to jump out of the way to keep from being run down by the scientists literally diving to do just that. When he did, Rodney noticed him for the first time. "Radek? What the hell are you doing here?"

"As is always the case, I have been called in to fix what you have broken." The Czech crossed his arms and leaned back against the lab bench, watching the rest of the scientists drift from the room. "Is too bad, you have disappointed many young coeds that were to attend my lecture at University today."

"Ha! The only thing your students will be disappointed about is that they missed out on a chance for a good nap. Otherwise, it was a wasted trip on your behalf, seeing as we didn't need your help to get back."

"Really?" Radek challenged casually. "If you do not remember what happened, how do you know it was not me who brought you back?"

Rodney's mouth opened, closed, then opened again as he turned redder with each attempt at trying to talk and stopping himself. Sheppard, on the other hand, grinned smoothly.

"Thanks for the help, Radek. It sounds like we owe you."

"What?" Rodney demanded of his friend in outrage.

"For saving our lives," the colonel reasoned. "It's the only logical explanation I can think of for how we made it back."

"But he didn't… we… why should he get…"

Sheppard spoke slowly and meaningfully. "It's the only logical explanation, McKay."

Rodney clamped his mouth shut and his arms across his chest. "Fine," he ground out between clenched teeth.

Carson, who had been hovering anxiously over the medics, had finally had enough. "All right, then, I'll take it from here. Let's get you two to the infirmary so I can check you over proper."

The two men stood and followed obediently after the physician, years of training as Carson's patients overriding any protests that they may have had. Radek grinned smugly as Rodney passed, which just earned him a warning. "You just wait until I get you back on Atlantis, you scene stealing hack."

There was something about the way that Rodney said it that convinced Zelenka he meant every word. And as much as he dreaded the retaliation that was to come, he would gladly take it if it meant getting back to Pegasus.

He followed along with the three men that a few weeks ago he had worked with on a regular basis as they made their way to the infirmary. Once there, Carson started running his tests, basically pushing the base physician aside and assuming responsibility for the two men. Radek commandeered one of the hospital beds nearby for a quick nap. Jet lag was always difficult. The body's internal clock saying it was time to be awake while every muscle was saying, hit snooze, it's time for sleep. So that Radek found himself drifting in and out of a doze.

And that was how he had overheard Sheppard and McKay talking quietly in the infirmary from their own beds. Carson had insisted on keeping them there for observation until he and Sheppard flew back to Colorado the next morning. And Radek would make his flight plans back to Europe then, as well. But for tonight, they would sleep… eventually.

"So, do you think they bought it?' Rodney asked barely above a whisper.

"No, I don't, not after that whole mustang flub."

"Hey, I wasn't the only one that did it. And if you hadn't been so adamant about correcting me in the first place, I never would have said anything."

"I don't suppose you saw what Carson did with the shirt when we changed into the scrubs, did you?"

"Colonel, you are way too enamored with that shirt for your own good."

"I could say the same thing about you. And no, you can't borrow it when we get back to…"

"Don't say it!" Rodney ordered nervously.

"I'm not. Christ, paranoid much McKay?"

"In this case, yes. And for very good reason seeing as what's at stake and the fact that they already know we're lying."

"As long as we don't tell them what we're not supposed to," the colonel reasoned, "the fact that they know we're lying shouldn't matter too much."

"Do you really think we'll go back… you know?"

Even with his eyes closed, Radek could hear the smile in Sheppard's voice. "Yeah, I really do."

"Good, because I'm more than ready."

"Me, too."

"Although it kind of sucks that we won't get a chance to go to Vegas. I was kind of looking forward to seeing Carson in a strip club."

The colonel snickered quietly. "It would have been the only chance he had of getting lucky all weekend. He never would have at the tables, that's for sure."

"It would have been nice to hang out with you two again, too."

"What? Running for our lives for a weekend isn't good enough quality time for you, McKay?"

"Smart ass," Rodney snorted. "You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do."

"It's just not the same here, you know?"

"Yeah," Sheppard sighed, "I know."

"I keep expecting you to walk into my lab or to meet Carson for lunch or to see Elizabeth in the morning staff meetings. And I can't tell you how many times I've called one of the scientists here Radek or Miko."

Radek smiled to himself. He had done the same numerous times since being back on Earth, each occurrence followed by as much melancholy as embarrassment.

"It's not like we're separated by an entire galaxy, Rodney. Not like with…" The colonel took a deep breath and cleared his throat before continuing. "You can pick up the phone and call me."

"I'm not good on the phone. I tend to ramble on."

"Gee, who would have ever thought?"

"See? I'm right; you wouldn't like me calling."

"Actually, McKay, I've kind of gotten used to your rambling."

"Really?"

"Really," he affirmed. "Besides, I'll just hang up on you when it gets to be too much."

Ignoring the threat, Rodney considered for a second before agreeing. "Okay, I'll call, and you can do the same. Hey, I'm supposed to be at the SGC in a couple of weeks to give a status report on the project. I have a feeling it's going to be more of a final project closeout report given Landry's reaction today, but since I'm going to be in town, are you up for dinner? Carson, too, and maybe Elizabeth if she's willing to come out of seclusion."

"Sounds like a plan. I'll sic Carson on Elizabeth. He can work wonders with those baby blues of his."

"It's the brogue," Rodney countered. "Women just don't appreciate the subtleties of the Canadian accent."

"I'm sure that's it," Sheppard consoled around a broad yawn that triggered one in Rodney in return. "It's been one hell of a couple of days."

"No kidding." Rodney yawned again and shifted in his bed before saying, "I'm glad you came down this weekend, Sheppard."

"Wouldn't have missed it for the world, McKay…any of them."

They drifted off to sleep then but Radek lay in the dim room continuing to feign sleep. They were going back to Atlantis! For some reason, he didn't doubt it for one minute. Somehow Sheppard and McKay had figured out a way to get it back for them, for all of them. And while he had the satisfaction of holding their secret over the two men for favors once they made it back to Atlantis, they would have the satisfaction of making sure they made it back to the city in the first place.

When all was said and done, Radek decided they would have the better reason to gloat in the end.

THE END