In six hours they would reach Atlantis. Cameron stood at the back of the bridge waiting. He knew they were close enough now to use the long-range scanners. They were just waiting for Caldwell's decision to do it.

He reflected on the changes that had happened over the last few days. He'd completely expected Don Eppes to finally throw that punch once he'd learned they were still heading full long into what was mostly likely a trap, but the Agent had surprised Cameron. Instead of anger, the man had become easier to be around.

It had only taken that one night of Q & A for Cameron to realize why. The agent was a professional, through and through, and this was no longer just a 'trip' to him. He also had shown a lot more insight into events than Cameron had strung together, for all his experience off world. Like how none of the other societies they came across seemed to really understand the concepts of gorilla warfare. Cameron just figured it was due to their arrogant tendencies, but Eppes had remarked that it was more likely to a lack of civil war in their histories. Less democracy and far more imperialism.

Cameron knew Charlie was the genius in the Eppes family, but he knew better than to underestimate either of them.

"Major, see what you can find on the long-range scanners," Colonel Caldwell ordered one of his helmsmen.

Snapping his attention back, Cameron waited with everyone else for the reply.

"I'm not getting anything, sir. They could be cloaked."

"All right. Keep trying every thirty minutes."

"Yes, sir."

Then something very strange happened. The lights flickered. An event of small consequence, but in a ship in peak form, it could only mean one thing. The words were out of Cameron's mouth before he knew it. "Ah, crap!"

x.x.x.x.x

"Hermiod, lets try reversing the factors. I want to see what would happen if a sun were in the vicinity of the dimensional tap." Charlie suggested. They'd been over the equation again and again, and found it to work flawlessly, but Charlie knew he had to keep his mind busy to keep from worrying, so now they were just having 'fun' with it. Testing out worst-case scenarios. In the computer simulations Charlie had already destroyed twelve planets, three complete solar systems, created five massive black holes, and inversed numerous realities. He had yet to actually cause the universe to implode.

If Larry knew what he was doing to pass his time, Charlie was sure his best friend would disown him.

"As you wish," Hermiod said, letting out a long drawn out sigh. Apparently the little alien didn't agree with Charlie's new hobby, either. But then a moment later the computer generated alien disappeared.

Sitting up, Charlie tried reactivating the program with no success. Confused, he watch as several lines of code slipped across the screen. He tried again, noticing once more the same pattern of numbers with one variance at the end. He tried opening other programs, seeing the same interrupting code come through, each long string of line with it's own variance. The coded line filled the entire screen, and only remained up for a couple seconds, but his mind had no problem picking out the unique singularities.

He was so distracted by the new phenomenon that he didn't hear Don calling him until his brother grabbed his shoulder. Charlie jerked in surprise, openly complaining, "Don!"

"Charlie, come on," Don said, half walking back out of the room before he realized Charlie wasn't following him. "Forget about the Equation, Charlie, right now we need to go."

But Charlie just blinked at him in confusion, unable to understand why Don was suddenly in a rush. "Don, what's going on?"

His brother turned completely around to face him, lips thin as he demanded with exasperation, "Charlie, are you serious? You haven't noticed? The flickering lights? The crazy doors? The announcement to get to battle stations? The emergency light?" And he motioned to the where there really was a red light flashing in the corner.

Charlie blinked. No, he really hadn't noticed any of that. And then Cameron came skidding into the room. "Come on, we got to go!"

But even as Don all but dragged Charlie out of the room, Charlie once again asked, "What's going on?"

"There's a virus in the system. We're going to shut everything down and wipe the system but I'm putting you both into a 302 just in case."

Charlie pulled free of Don's gripped, forcing them to a halt. "The ZPM Equation!" he exclaimed, horrified at the mere thought of loosing all that work.

But Cameron just tapped his pocket, pointedly stating, "Is on a back up drive. It's perfectly safe. Now come on!"

Charlie had no idea what a 302 was, but all too soon discovered it was some kind of plane. As Cameron all but pushed them into the two seats, he showed Don what buttons to press. "Okay, this is a separate system, but we don't want to do a full boot up or it'll connect to the ship and defeat the whole purpose of putting you guys in here. What ever you do, don't touch anything!"

"Yeah, I read the file," Don stated, sounding far calmer than Charlie currently felt.

"Right. Okay, this will bring up life support. Do it once I close the cockpit. You got several hours of air, so just be patient. Without radios you'll have to wait for me to knock on the glass, got it?"

With the seat in the way, Charlie couldn't see his brother, but a moment later Cameron was pulling the cockpit down, closing it manually while Charlie assumed his brother was following the Colonel's directions.

Suddenly Charlie felt extremely claustrophobic. He wondered if he should put his seat straps on, but Cameron's warning about not touching anything rang sharply in his mind. He took a small breath, surprised to find he was shaking.

"Charlie? You okay, Buddy?" Don called back to him.

"I don't know. Are we?"

But his brother sounded confident in his reply. "Yeah. We'll be fine. They've already been through this one before."

Charlie was shocked. Shocked because he knew Don had been having a hard time with being in space, and now…well now suddenly he wasn't. He knew his brother hadn't been hanging around the lab anymore, but as he sat there, he realized he also hadn't known just what it was his brother had been doing.

"Seriously Charlie. We're going to be fine."

It was hard not to believe his brother. Charlie trusted Don with his life. And Don was his big brother. Big brothers were supposed to know things like if it was safe or not. "Okay." He sunk back into his seat, once again trying to pretend he wasn't trapped in a plane on a space ship not even in a galaxy but the middle of nowhere. Perhaps by now they were close enough to the Pegasus Galaxy they could find a different planet to land on.

Then the lights went out, plunging them into perfect darkness. "Donnie?"

"It's okay, Charlie. I promise you're going to be okay," he brother told him with passionate determination. Charlie clung to the confident reassurance, and then he started to do the only thing that truly calmed him down. He thought of numbers.

Initially, his mind thought of the ZPM Equation, and then of the Cognitive Emergence Theory, but it kept going back to the string of numbers he'd seen when this trouble began. He supposed it was the virus, and in all honestly, Amita knew far more about computers and viruses than Charlie did. Yet the string of numbers hadn't seemed like a virus to Charlie, and the more he thought about it, the more connections he drew to various patterns he'd noticed.

The lights had come on again, but they went out almost immediately after. It was another ten minutes at least before they came back on a second time, and another five before Cameron appeared, knocking on the cockpit. But he didn't look relieved.

As soon as Don had the hatch open Cameron half leaned in, looking at the black and silent monitors. "It's not us," Don stated.

"I didn't think it was," Cameron replied, but the unspoken 'I had to check anyway' was clear in the air. Obviously they hadn't managed to eradicate the virus.

"I've been thinking," Charlie said before Cameron could leave again. "A lot of the sequences in the virus are random, reacting to the changes on a level of intelligence that far exceeds that of a computer program."

"Charlie, we've come across some truly intelligent programs before."

"Yes, but even the greatest Artificial Intelligence still has to make its decisions based upon a logic chart. Even Hermiod with his personality factored in, still works off a decision tree, it's just there are so many factors involved it's easy to confuse part of its decision making process as a unique outcome. This virus isn't like that. I noticed several variations in its pattern that just don't make sense. Not because they're not reacting to the programs it was encountering but because its decision were truly random."

Cameron's face turned pained and Charlie wondered how else he could explain his theory, but before he even had a chance Don asked bluntly, "Charlie. You saying this thing's alive?"

Was he? "Yes."

Then Cameron shook his head, negating the idea. "Even if it was some kind of energy entity, there's no place for it to go."

Then Don said something that seemed rather naive, and yet ingenious. "What about that whole matter to energy thing?"

"The amount of energy required to theoretically make even one spec of matter would be at least ten times what this ship's computer could contain. If it had that much energy we'd be fried like an egg right now." But it got Charlie to thinking, because wasn't that part of the ZPM Equation?

And the more he thought about it, the more he was convinced this virus really was alive, however it was surviving their attempts to purge it. "We have to talk to it."

Charlie pushed himself out of the seat, against many protests by both Cameron and Don, but Charlie already had an idea of what he needed to do. The patterns in the code, it was more than just numbers, it was a kind of speech.

x.x.x.x.x

Don watched his brother work with crossed arms. He didn't like it. He didn't like a lot of things, but he'd learned the hard way there were some things out of his control, even when it came to protecting Charlie.

Mitchell had told Colonel Caldwell what Charlie was trying to do, but everyone in the room could only watch…and wait. Especially since they'd lost the hyper drive system only minutes before. Charlie's fingers were typing furiously, his eyes glued to the constantly flickering screen in rapt attention.

Beside him, Mitchell leaned over, whispering so as not to disrupt Charlie, "What's he doing?"

As if Don had any better understand that he did. "What he does best. Talk in numbers."

Mitchell nodded as if he understood, but then asked again, "But what is he doing?"

"Asking it to surrender? Your guess is as good as mine," Don dryly remarked.

"I'm using the variables in its pattern to determine its next course of action, then reciprocation the pattern to see if I can effect the outcome," Charlie responded, never once taking his eyes of the screen.

"Oh," Mitchell said and Don snorted, knowing full well that Charlie's explanation didn't make a damn bit of sense to the Colonel either.

Don knew something had change even before Charlie said anything. "I think I'm getting through to it. It's starting to answer some of my questions."

"Questions?" Mitchell automatically echoed.

"Yes. I noticed some of the patterns were representations of certain universal truths, like Pi or the Golden Ratio, so I'm using them to help translate other mathematical expressions."

Mitchell's face scrunched up in confusion once again, and making a wry face, finally guessed, "So, basically, you're flirting with it?"

Charlie made a face like the one he often made at Don when he simplified something far below what it really was. "No. I'm talking to it."

"Oh." But Mitchell looked vary much like he felt it was the same thing.

Internally, Don smiled, glad to know he wasn't the only one who had to be confused by Charlie's brain. Outwardly, he got more impatient the longer it took. At least they hadn't lost life support, but what if they did? Charlie couldn't do his thing in that fighter plane, but Don also couldn't do a thing to protect him out here.

Don wasn't the only one getting impatient. "Colonel Mitchell," Caldwell's voice asked, coming over the little mic Don was now wearing in one ear. It was far more comfortable that the white ones he and his team used. "What's the status?"

"They've started courting, sir," Mitchell replied completely seriously.

There was a pause and then a not so amused voice responded, "Estimated time?"

"Charlie?" Mitchell inquired.

"Um," Charlie replied, distracted. "Not too much longer."

Don knew that answer had no real value, not when Charlie was absorbed it didn't. But he didn't bother to correct the Colonel as Mitchell replied into the mic, "Should be soon, sir."

Caldwell didn't bother to reply, and once again they were left waiting.

For once, Charlie hadn't been too far off. A great grin spread across his face, and half turning in his seat he told them, "You can start the system up again, he's agreed not to take anything off line again."

"He?" Don inquired, but Mitchell was already on the line with Caldwell and a moment later Don felt the slight jerk of the ship once again entering hyperspace.

"It's really amazing how fast he's adapting. I think I even have an idea of how to explain the verbal language to him," Charlie stated, his face lighting up so bright it might start glowing.

Don would even be fine with that if it meant the danger was over, but as much as Charlie was reassuring him, Don wasn't ready to completely trust some strange alien energy entity. Then, suddenly, there was a glow, and Hermiod appeared again, only it wasn't Hermiod. This image was acting much different than the one of the Asgard. This was the entity, communicating in a new way.

Charlie didn't seem surprised by the sudden apparition, and in fact started talking even as he was typing. And just like that, Don knew Charlie was trying to do exactly what he had said he would do, he was teaching it how to talk.

Don's head began to hurt, badly. He remembered now why he had avoided learning all this stuff about aliens and such. It could be overwhelmingly mind-boggling.

Beside him, Mitchell blurted out exactly the same thing on Don's mind. "Whoa! That's just creepy!"

x.x.x.x.x

John Sheppard roamed the near empty halls of Atlantis with Ronon at his side. With the city shut down, half the people had temporarily moved to the mainland with the other half were still trying to figure out just what the hell happened.

Rodney insisted it was related to his team's recent…naps. That the reason they couldn't just purge these pesky beings out of Atlantis' systems was because they partially existed in an alternate dimension. Rodney had said a lot more than just that, but for Sheppard that was the just of it.

What he didn't like was knowing his team's sudden trip to the twilight zone had lead to Atlantis not having even a drop of power. They had turned things on again in limited areas, only after making sure it was completely disconnected from the rest of the city, to discover the same thing over and over again. These alternate dimensional beings had complete control over every one of their systems. In the end they'd had to disconnect all the generators and the ZPM just to ensure their safety.

That was almost a week ago, and still Rodney had yet to find a way of getting rid of the things. Sheppard had no doubt in his mind Rodney would eventually figure it out, especially since Carter and Zelenka were helping him out, but he hated waiting. He also hated feeling useless and so had taken up the duty of assigning teams to constantly patrol the city while they were such sitting ducks.

Checking his watch, he flicked on his radio and waiting for the check in. They didn't have a way of recharging the batteries so had established times for meeting up. Lorne's team was the first to report, nothing yet. The rest said much the same thing and Sheppard desperately hoped it continued to stay that way.

In a way it was a good thing they had a new address. Meant fewer people knew where to come calling. As an added measure, they'd blocked up the gate to prevent incoming calls as well as outgoing ones, just in case the entities could travel against the grain on an incoming wormhole. The only thing they had done, was chance a message out to the Daedalus in the hopes of keeping them out of the same predicament they were in.

"This is boring," Ronon complained, twirling his energy pistol as they walked the blackened halls. There was just enough light here that Sheppard had the flashlight off.

"I prefer it that way," Sheppard told him, although secretly, he didn't.

The light got stronger as they neared the control rooms. It was one of the areas of the city with the most natural light and so Carter, Rodney and Zelenka had set up lab there. Not to mention it was in sight of the stargate…just in case.

The three scientists were busy discussing some sort of theory, Sheppard didn't know what, just listening to them made his head hurt, but as Colonel Carter spotted them, they stopped. "Everything's clear, Ma'am," Sheppard reported to his boss.

"Thank you," she replied, and stepped away from the other two scientists. "I think we're getting somewhere with these energy beings, but it'll probably still take a bit of time."

"Then you've started communicating with them?" Sheppard guessed, taking that as good news.

"Yes. Though it's only on a rudimentary level and I'll still feel much better if we can figure out a way of blocking their connection to this dimension altogether," she told him, looking a little worn around the edges.

"We could always go back to sleeping beauty's place," he suggested, using the nickname that had circulated for the planet his team had so disastrously explored.

"Not yet we can't."

And that was the truth of the matter. Until they got a handle on things here, they couldn't risk opening the stargate. But he was really bored, and ready to argue his way into getting her to let him go, he was taken completely off guard by the sudden flash of white light.

He recognized it instantly as Asgard beaming technology, but regardless, both he and Ronon had their guns up and point down into the gate room. There, in the center of the floor appeared Colonel Mitchell, a team of marines…and a cop?

He stood with the rest, dressed in black BDUs and carrying a MP5, but the badge on his belt glinted off the sunlight streaming through the window. As their small group descended the stairs to meet the new arrivals, Sheppard got a closer look at the badge and realized the guy wasn't just a cop, but a Fed. Out here in the Pegasus Galaxy? He wondered if Earth had suddenly become desperate for recruits.

"Oh great!" Rodney loudly complained, joining them. "Let me guess. You ignored our warning and came anyway, and now you're experiencing technical difficulties. Not only do I have to save us, but now I've got to save you, too!"

Rodney wasn't the only one visibly upset. "We sent that message for very good reasons, Cameron," Carter stated with firm disapproval.

"I know Sam, I'm sorry," Mitchell immediately apologized. She was a rank higher, but she used to be on his team. Before her big promotion. Still, he defended his reaction, saying adamantly, "But it wouldn't have stopped you, either. Beside, we don't have any technical problems. Not anymore." And he grinned, looking far too smug.

Sheppard completely expected Rodney to explode on them. Their leading scientist had several issues with an almost justifiable ego, and over the last few weeks, first with their team coming out of pseudo comas, and then with this, his already intolerable mood had only gotten worse.

But Rodney didn't explode. Instead, his eyes lit up with so much excitement Sheppard almost fainted in shock. "Charlie's on the Daedalus!"

"Who?" Sheppard asked, but suddenly saw the Fed shift his feet, pulling at Sheppard's curiosity once again.

The Fed's eyes were scanning the room, the people, taking it all in at a glance before he asked McKay, "You know my brother?"

"Yes, yes. We went to Math Camp together," Rodney impatiently replied, his face once again lighting up with excitement. "Well, where is he? You can send him down, it's perfectly safe."

Sheppard confirmed this for the group, saying, "The City's fine. We're just having a bit of a power outage."

Oddly, Mitchell looked at the Fed for permission, receiving it in the form of a nod before he radioed up to the Daedalus. When the new Asgard beam vanished, Sheppard looked at this 'Charlie' Rodney knew from 'Math Camp,' finding someone that both fit and didn't fit his expectations.

Charlie was very unlike his brother in that he was the typical toothpick most geeks tended to be, but he still managed to maintain his good looks, knocking the whole 'nerdy' image out the door.

The man's eyes blinked as he readjusted to the light and new surroundings, but they lit up in imitation of Rodney's the moment he spotted McKay. "Meredith!" Charlie exclaimed with keen pleasure. "No one told me you were here! No wonder I haven't seen any papers from you."

Sheppard fully expected Rodney to berate this man for using his real first name that practically no one knew, but flooring his team leader once again, Rodney didn't even seem to notice.

"Well, you know how it is. Secret work and all that. By the way I loved the Eppes Convergence, truly ingenious, although I noticed a problem in-"

"With the infinite factor, I know, I've already fixed it. It was my first paper," Charlie replied defensively, although he was grinning like an idiot.

"Too true," Rodney beamed. "Now that you're here I'll have to show you some of the things I've done."

Before the two could end up absorbed in their geeky reminiscing, Sheppard bluntly asked, "Not to be a party crasher, but first, can we fix our current problem?"

"Of course, of course," Rodney all but shrugged him off.

Then Mitchell introduced, "Sam, Sheppard, this is Professor Charlie Eppes, and his brother, Special Agent Don Eppes. Guys, I give you the beautiful Colonel Samantha Carter, Colonel John Sheppard, and Ronon Dex." Just like the marines in the group, Zelenka and the rest were left out. There'd be time enough for full name exchanging later.

"Ma'am," Don Eppes replied, nodding to Carter. "I hope we're not too much of an inconvenience."

But before she could answer McKay cut in with a wave of his hand. "Of course not! Charlie, did you figure out the ZPM Equation I wrote?"

Charlie looked at him in shock. "You wrote that? Then why did you need it translated?"

"It a long story," but already Rodney was telling him and the two scientists naturally started to walk off, already consumed in their conversation. Agent Eppes took a half step after them, but held himself back.

"He'll be fine," Sheppard reassured the Fed, realizing for the first time why the man was really there. It was an overprotective brother kind of deal.

Eppes nodded his head, but he didn't relax, and his eyes never left his brother's back.

Then Carter pointedly asked Mitchell, "You mentioned you found a way to fix the technical problems?"

"Ah…we better get the professor to explain it."

They did, but the most Sheppard was able to grasp was that this Charlie had taught one of the entities to communicate using math. It spoke full English now, in the form of an Asgard projection, but when Charlie found out Atlantis was plagued with hundred of the beings, things suddenly came to a head.

Charlie's new friend could mediate for them with the rest, but only if they turned on practically every single system in the city, which was a huge risk, not to mention, they still needed a way to get the entities completely out of their dimension altogether.

But did they really have much choice? It was either take the risk or do nothing, so they took the risk, letting Charlie's alien buddy communicate for them. It was a tense several hours of negotiations, but finally the other entities agreed not to 'destroy' anything.

Now, with lights back on, and the majority of the doors working, a group of them were discussing the situation in the conference room. They still needed to go back to the planet to find the device that could reverse things.

"I don't like sending your team back there," Carter stated, voicing her opinion outright. That was one of things Sheppard like about his new boss, she was upfront.

"My team has the advantage. We already know the layout," he told her. Plus, he was more than willing to chance another week in the medical wing if it meant doing something.

Rodney added, much as Sheppard expected him to, "Plus, you'll need me to identify the right device. There were a hundred different items in that abandoned lab."

She pursed her lips, but acquitted, "All right. Sheppard, your team leaves in 30 minutes. Dr. Zelenka, get the stargate up and running again."

They were about to split off into their own directions, but before they could, John thought he'd extend an invitation out to Mitchell. "Wanna come?"

As he figured, the Colonel eyes lit up in a yes, but to his surprise he glance at the Fed quietly watching their proceeding with a calm gaze while his mathematician brother seemed to be scratching furiously on a pad of paper next to him. Mitchell made a motion of his head, not needing to speak the request out loud but saying it, none the less.

John hesitated. Mitchell was one thing, he had at least met the Colonel before, but the Fed was a completely different matter. He wasn't even sure how Fed's operated in combat situations. But Mitchell tilted his head again, more insistently, and John inwardly sighed. Turning to look at Carter he raised an eyebrow in question. She had the same troubled look John felt, but then she nodded, and turning to look down the table, John lightly asked, "Agent Eppes, wanna come?"

The man raised both his eyebrows in surprise, and before he could really reply, McKay excitedly exclaimed, "Then Charlie could come, too!"

Four very strong and adamant voices gave him a resounding, "No!"

For his part, Charlie just looked up and smiling, told Rodney, "It's okay, Mere. I've already well exceeded my excitement quota for the week."

Rodney looked ready to protest so Sheppard said again, "No, McKay." Then he turned back to the Fed, still awaiting the answer. "Eppes?"

The elder Eppes brother thought about it hard for a few seconds, but with a soft sigh finally said, "Sure."

Sheppard wasn't so sure if he'd been hoping for a yes or a no, but he put it out of his mind to turn to business. If Mitchell wanted the Fed there, then he could look after him, and looking pointedly at the Colonel, he glance told Mitchell exactly that.

As his team was rising, Professor Eppes rose, handing his notebook to Rodney, saying, "I've pulled together the data we have so far on the dimensional beings. Calculating the energy output we're getting from them, you'll be looking for some kind of matter converter that can handle at least this much energy."

Rodney looked at it, and 'uhmed' in the way he did to say he agreed with the figures. Then remarked, "This looks a lot like part of the ZPM Equation."

"It is, with a few alterations. Your equation is actually what gave me the idea."

Sheppard didn't know if the professor was aware of the phrasing of his words, or how they stroked Rodney's ego by referring to the ZPM Equation as Rodney's, but it made his scientist beam with pleasure.

"I'm glad I could help," Rodney stated, and the two walked out praising each other's works.

Sheppard shook his head, mystified. Rodney didn't praise anyone without being coerced into it. As Agent Eppes slowly approached, Sheppard gave him a look and asked, "You brother doesn't drink any strange potions does he? Made from a unknown weed perhaps?"

"Not that I'm aware of," the Fed replied, but even he seemed perturbed by the two scientist's instant bond.

x.x.x.x.x

Don took a big breath, continuing his forward momentum as he walked through the gate. As he did when firing a rifle, he had forced his breathing to stay calm, and breathing out, stepped through the shimmering pool of the stargate in anticipation. Keeping the adrenalin down hadn't been easy, but Don was an experienced risk taker, and was more than a little pleased to find he hadn't stumbled when he emerged on the other side.

Mitchell, a long with Shepard's team, which surprisingly included the scientist, McKay, and two locals of the Pegasus Galaxy, though completely human, Ronon Dex and Teyla Emmagan. She was the first to actually ask him about the badge, not knowing a thing about it, but picking up that it set him apart.

He'd tried to keep it simple, telling her he was normally a domestic peace officer on Earth. She said 'ah' and nodded like she understood, but Ronon held nothing back, saying bluntly that the military was the military. So Don had settled on a new tactic, keeping his explanation to 'I'm usually more localized.'

In the end it didn't really seem to make a difference to them, and as soon as he'd donned the flack jacket like the rest of them, well, except Ronon who apparently didn't need one, to them, Don was just one of the team.

He watched them as they moved through the forest toward the abandoned lab. The moved like a well oiled machine, with completely trust. It was crazy. Him being here was crazy. Not for the first time, Don asked himself why he'd said yes. Perhaps it was because he was finally getting used to all this alien 'stuff,' or out of curiosity to see all the things he'd spent the last several days reading about. In the end, he decided it was because he was tired of sitting around and wanted to really do something.

Charlie was safe in Atlantis. He knew that now, and if he had to stay and listen to the babble of scientists that Charlie was submersed in, Don figured he'd grow crazy. It was like when Charlie and Larry talked, quadrupled.

And if Meredith…Rodney McKay, hadn't been with them now, Don figured it'd be even worse. What was it about those two? They obviously hadn't seen each other in years, but they acted like it was yesterday. Don wracked his memory trying to remember when Charlie might have gone to 'Math Camp' but all he kept coming up with was a two week summer program that Charlie had gone to when he was nine.

Was that really where the two geniuses had first met? But like many things in Charlie's life, Don hadn't been close enough to his brother to really know much about them.

"Hey, you doing okay?" Mitchell asked, walking at his side.

"Oh yeah. Do most planets look a lot like this?" He asked, motioning to the rather common looking trees with his free hand.

"You mean like Earth?" Mitchell chuckled. "Actually, yeah. Although they don't seem to be nearly as big as our fair green and blue world."

Don nodded, thinking that made sense. Well, assuming that it did because most of the cultures he'd read about were really very small in comparison. Almost none of the other planets had more than one country, maybe two.

The path seemed to be thinning, and soon they emerged in front of the broken down building. Much of the entrance had long since caved in, and Don noticed the old blast marks still visible where the foliage had protected the stone and metal from the elements. Sheppard lead his team inside, Don and Mitchell following.

It was automatic for Don to treat this like an operation, reading the hand motions Sheppard made with ease. Most were the same as the ones he knew and used with his own team. As part of the rear he walked half turned, to prevent anyone from sneaking up from behind, and noticed Mitchell automatically doing the same thing.

Sheppard had already told them he didn't expect to find anyone here, they hadn't the first time, but everyone took precautions, staying completely on guard until they were in the building.

It was much the way Don imaged an abandoned alien lab…just like any other kind of abandoned lab. He'd been to enough crime scenes that his eyes automatically picked out the scorch marks, most of which were consistent with the ones outside. Yet from the pattern of the marks, he guessed they were made from some kind of projectile energy weapon rather than any kind of bomb.

"Be careful not to touch anything," McKay cautioned, but it wasn't necessary. Sheppard's team was obviously used to maneuvering around sensitive materials, and Don just thought of the place like a crime scene, following footprints, and keeping his hands to himself.

And just like in a crime scene, he looked around, trying to find the items 'out of place.' It was a little harder than sorting out a murder scene, but Don soon found the evidence he was looking for. "Over here. This is your matter converter."

"Oh right, because you would know what one looks like," McKay criticized in a scalding voice.

Don shrugged. Off all the items in the room, the device was one of the few that was both mostly intact and had been displaced sometime after the initial destruction of the lab. A layer of dust showed where it had been, and where it was now, and if they actually had a forensics team, Don was sure they'd find scuffmarks on the device where it had likely been kicked. But he didn't want to explain all this, so he shrugged, and simply stated, "It's got a blue crystal in it."

"What does that have to do with anything?!" But as McKay bent down to examine the device his attitude changed and he made the 'uhm' noise.

"What?" Sheppard asked, "Is he right? Is that it?"

"It was a lucky guess!" McKay gripped, but that was as good as a yes.

"Nice!" Sheppard grinned at Don and Don oddly, found himself smiling back.

The walk back was somewhat more interesting for Don, than the walk in. The team had packed up the device, Sheppard promising McKay they could come back to snoop around more later, and headed back for the stargate.

This time there wasn't the tension, the anticipation of not knowing what he would find. Don doubted most off world missions went so smoothly, and in fact, he knew they didn't, but for his first time to an alien world through a wormhole, Don was really quite satisfied. And he'd been useful.

Mitchell smiled a lopsided smile, and with sidelong look, he asked, "How did you know. Really?"

"Like I said, it had a blue crystal in it," Don stated completely seriously. He still hadn't forgiven the Colonel for dragging him here, but Don had grown a grudging respect for the man.

"Okay, serious. How did you know?"

He considered dragging it out, but finally just shook his head, saying, "It was just a crime scene, like any other."

A step ahead of him, Sheppard snorted. He'd dropped back a step leaving Teyla and Ronon in the lead with the box, and McKay in the middle. The scientist had his head down and was looking at the ground almost as if he expected to trip. Either that or he was working on something in his head. Don knew his brother had that tendency sometimes. Again Don found himself smiling.

"Hey," Sheppard asked with mild curiosity, "Has your brother ever mentioned McKay before?"

Don shook his head, then openly told the Colonel, "My brother and I didn't used to be that close."

Sheppard took that into consideration, but then asked, "And does your brother have a lot of impossible friends?"

"Well, since we started this trip, he's made friends with a computer simulated alien, an entity from another dimension, and your friend there," Don replied, finding that saying it out loud made it seem that much more surreal.

Mitchell argued, "I don't think Rodney counts, they already knew each other. Although I don't get why Charlie calls him Meredith."

Sheppard's grin was fit to crack his face. "It's Rodney's first name."

"For real?"

At that, McKay seemed to come out of his walking coma and giving them a scalding glare exclaimed, "I can hear you, you know! I'm right here!"

Now all three men were smiling.

Yes, this hadn't been a bad first time, Don decided with satisfaction.

x.x.x.x.x

Alan had taken up pacing the floor. It had been nine days from that last message. In fact, it had been ten, and still there was no new message. Amita had her laptop open on the table, with the volume turned up so they could hear the beep. And it had beeped many times that day and the day previous when another message had been promised, but so far none of the beeps had been his boys.

"Alan, why don't you sit down?" Amita encouraged from her position on the couch. She had skipped classes that day, just like he had, and the two of them had tried everything to keep themselves occupied, but the stress was only getting worse the longer they were forced to wait.

"No," he told her. "I couldn't."

She didn't bother to push him on the matter but folded her arm and rested her head on the back of the couch.

The computer beeped.

Alan knew by now what to look for, scanning the newest email subject line with his old eyes. He really needed glasses to read, but with a joyful start he recognized his name listed next to Amita's just like in had been in the first message.

He hadn't needed to say anything. Amita was up off the couch in an instant. Alan pulled out his glasses from his pocket and sat down at the table next to her. Just like before, it was a video message, and with a simple double click, the image of his youngest appeared on the screen.

"Hi dad! Sorry this took so long, we had a few technical difficulties, but it's nothing to worry about, we're doing just find. We're here actually, and if everything goes well the return trip will be much faster. I finished the problem, but we're still testing, and I don't know how long that will take." The excitement on Charlie's face was catching, and Alan found himself grinning at the screen.

"I'm learning a lot of new things, and making a bunch of new friends," Charlie continued on, "I wish you guys were here to share it with me, or that I could tell you any of the details. I know time is moving fast for me, so we should be home soon. We'll send another message before he have to leave."

A voice off screen good-naturedly complained, "Charlie, hurry up! I haven't even shown you my lab yet!"

Charlie's eyes lit up with excitement and he grinned off screen. "I'll be done in a second." He turned back to the camera. "Okay, I've got to go. I love you, dad, Amita. I'll see you soon."

And then he was gone. There was a momentary pause and then they could hear Don's voice complain, "Where did Charlie go? I just walked away for a second!"

They heard Mitchell's voice reply, "You know Charlie."

"Yeah, I do. That's the problem!"

But then Don sat down in front of the camera, and making a face, said, "Hey dad. Charlie's fine. We're both fine."

Alan looked closely at his eldest son's face, and determined for himself that it was true. Don looked better than in the last video. More relaxed, although perhaps not as rested.

"Anyway," Don said, slouching back in the chair, "I don't know when we'll be done here, might be a few days, but if everything works right, and it being Charlie's math, I'm sure it will, we'll be home shortly after that. Say hi to the team for me. And take care of yourself. Don't go fretting about us. Amita, if you're there, make sure you look after Alan and don't let him get obsessed over this."

Alan snorted with disagreement, but how was he supposed to argue his point with a video? Amita just grinned at him.

"Dad," Don said, sounding suddenly serious again as he leaned forward. "We're okay. It's a good group here. We'll talk to you again, soon."

He stood up, but with a motion from someone off screen sat down again, saying, "Mitchell says if you want to send a reply email it'll get to us in a day or so. All right, I guess that's it. I need to go make sure Charlie doesn't get himself lost in his excitement. See ya, dad."

And then the video ended.

Alan leaned back with relief. At last he felt sure that his sons were really okay. He'd still feel better when they actually got home and he could smother then to death with his love, but for now, this would suffice.

"Charlie looks so young," Amita remarked, the smile on her face reaching her eyes.

"He is young!" Alan stated, but then grinned. "How about some tea?"

"I would love that."

They didn't need to talk about it, they were both relieved and that was enough.

x.x.x.x.x

Charlie felt like he was on an adrenalin kick. There was a ninety-eight percent chance he really was. He just couldn't believe everything that had happened in the last two days.

Atlantis was just a living wonder for Charlie. More because of the people living here than the technology it contained, but that helped to fuel his excitement, too. It was just so different, no new, and so full of people he didn't have to explain things too. Especially Meredith. But it was like that back when they were kids, too.

Meredith had been the first person Charlie had met with the same intellectual capacity as himself. It didn't take much for them to become quick friends. After so many years of hearing nothing, Charlie had assumed he would never see Meredith again, but here he was. Not only that, he was surrounded by people just like them. Even Samantha Carter, the person in charge of the entire city, was an extremely intelligent scientist.

Mere had confided in Charlie his early fantasies with Samantha, but was then quick to introduce Charlie to his girlfriend, Katie, a botanist.

Charlie just laughed, and then told him all about Amita. That was the only hard part about being here. He missed her. He missed dad, too. But with so much to see, and so many people to talk to, Charlie was surprised to find himself so comfortable here in Atlantis. An entire galaxy away, and he didn't want to go home.

"Charlie, check this out," Mere said, sliding into the seat next to them. They were in the mess hall eating lunch while they waited for the proper approvals to do the final test. Apparently the last two times they had messed with multidimensional physics, Mere had blown up half a solar system, and his sister had practically collapsed an alternate universe. And none of it had been by simulation. It was staggering to think his math might be just as devastating, but Mere had been quick to tell him it wasn't likely.

The biggest problem they had discovered was that the matter side of the equation took more than just any crystal. So while they wouldn't be able to create brand new ZPMs, if everything worked right, they'd at least be able to recharge current ones. And they already had a couple 'empties' to experiment with.

But it was still a huge decision, one that apparently had to come from Earth.

"What are you doing?" Charlie asked him, even while his curious eyes leaned over to see.

Meredith pushed the tablet over between them and on it Charlie saw several screens, One had a program running, another a list of perpetually changing data points, and another a screen that could almost be a video except it showed image through movement rather than any kind of video lens.

"Atlantis' sensors work as a serious of various energy waves. Enough to tell us life signs and other such rudimentary information, but I've been working on a new program that will fine tune them to the point of giving us an image."

"Like a sonar," Charlie realized with fascination. "The NSA have some bugs that use sound waves to generate image by calculating the echoes off of known objects."

"This is a little different in that it uses more than just sound waves. I'll have to show you the new kind of energy waves we have on file now."

Charlie easily agreed. There was a lot he wanted Mere to show him. The person in the screen was currently walking down a hallway. There was no color, but the outline was perfectly clear and the various depths were clearly marked by a matching gray scale, giving the person an impression of real substance. "Who is it?"

"Sheppard. Want to see your brother? I've already got him tagged in the system."

And before Charlie could object, Mere had changed the screen to show a room with several people in it. But Charlie's keen eyes easily picked out his brother among the crowd. Completely fascinated, they watched the screen as they talked and ate. He was so consumed in their conversation that Charlie didn't realize Don was in the mess hall until he was standing over their shoulders. And even then Charlie didn't really realize it till he noticed himself in the screen.

He felt a nudge in his ribs by Mere and guiltily blinked up at Don. His brother just frowned down at him in confusion, to which Mere was sniggering over. "Hi Don, what's up?"

Don continued to frown at them and Charlie fidgeted even harder, half pushing the guilty tablet away, hopefully out of sight. Then, with a small hopeless shake of his head, Don said, "We got a letter from Dad."

"Really? Where?" But then the tablet was pushed back under his nose, its incriminating screen replaced by an open email.

Charlie grabbed it, his eyes hungrily reading every word at least three times. When he was done he looked up to tell Don what Don had probably already read, but his brother was gone again. Charlie looked around, seeing him just in time as he left.

"So, Charlie, what does it say?" Mere prodded.

Charlie could help it, he grinned. "They miss me."

For a moment Meredith played with his fork, and then he hesitantly asked, "Do you think they'd miss you a lot if you stayed here?"

"What?" The question took Charlie completely by surprise and he turned in his seat to face his childhood friend. "You want me to stay?"

"Come on, Charlie, this is where you belong! A mind like yours, and mine, we could make so many technological leaps," Mere exclaimed, his eyes actually pleading.

Charlie shook his head, astounded. "I not an engineer or a physicist like you. I'm just a mathematician."

"And that makes us the perfect team!"

To hear it made Charlie's heart soar. To be part of a team, just like how he felt like part of Don's team sometimes. But a moment later he knew he couldn't do it. No matter how much he might want to. If he stayed, he couldn't be part of Don's team anymore. And what about Amita? Or Larry? Or his students? Or his dad? He wasn't some kid with his whole like ahead of him anymore, he had a life, and he like it.

Meredith's face fell even as Charlie fought with his own emotions. "You can't stay, can you?"

Charlie just shook his head, surprised to find his throat too constricted to talk.

In a very decisive motion, Meredith stood up, briskly stating, "Well, then, we're just going to have to make the most of your time here."

Still unable to talk, Charlie could only follow, and then listen as Mere took him on a much much more in-depth tour of the City. A tour only a scientist could really appreciate. One filled with numbers.

He was really going to miss this place.

x.x.x.x.x

Leaning against the railing, Don looked out over Atlantis. As far as alien cities went, it was by far the most beautiful and spectacular one he'd ever seen. Of course, it was the only alien city he'd seen. Momentarily content, he drunk it all in, the smell of salt in the air, the faint sounds of waves crashing against the floating city's edges far below, and the faint murmur of the people inside the control tower as they went about their business. The city was far from full, but it felt so alive to Don it was hard to ignore.

And Charlie was happy here.

He couldn't deny it. It went far deeper than his reunion with a long lost friend. Don had seen changes in his brother he'd never even imagined before. As dangerous as this place could be, it was full of people just like Charlie. Geniuses.

He sighed, looking down at his hands, and then further down the length of the tower he stood on. There were other observation areas in the city, but this was the tallest, and had fast become Don's favorite.

As soon as he had become sure that nothing untoward would happen to Charlie, Don had made himself scarce. Taking the Colonels up on their offer to show him around, go over the base procedures, even spare with Mitchell. Although he'd been far more amused to watch Mitchell try sparing with those in Sheppard's team. Made Don glad they were some of the good guys.

Overall, he'd done everything he could to keep out of Charlie's way. First as the scientists confirmed Charlie's work, then as they ironed out the details of the test, even the test itself, which had been conducted by the Daedalus safely outside the Pegasus Galaxy, and then after as the scientists poured over the resulting successful data. But that had been almost five days ago, and Charlie still hadn't slowed down. Don always knew exactly where he'd find him. In a lab, working on…something. Several somethings by the looks of things.

He worried that his brother was on some kind of math geek adrenalin rush, but he worried even more what might happen if he tried to take Charlie away from all that.

Don heard the operation sounds of the control room increase briefly as the door slid open and someone walked out. It was a large balcony and Don didn't have a monopoly on it so he just waited.

A moment later the person leaned on the balcony next to Don and he looked over to see Sheppard staring out over the city much the same as Don had been doing moments before. "You know," Sheppard stated slowly, "I think your brother's high jacked my scientist."

A smile curled at Don's lips as he felt much the same way in reverse. "Yeah." It still surprised Don that Sheppard actually let McKay go off world with him. It was obvious there was a close bond among his teammates, even as different as they were, but Don just couldn't see him doing the same thing. Charlie on a tactical mission? The very thought was laughable, and terrifying.

"Still trying to take it all in?" Sheppard asked, giving him a shred look.

Wryly, Don told him, "No offence, you have a beautiful city, but I'm ready to go home. I just don't think Charlie is."

Silent for a minute, Sheppard turned around, leaning back against the railing before he finally said, "In my experience, life never likes to wait for us to be ready."

Don couldn't disagree with that statement. He'd never planned to return to LA, had honestly intended to stay away from the city he grew up in a much as humanly possible. But when his mother had died, everything changed. For the worse, and then for the better.

"So what was it like your first time through the gate?" Don asked, remembering bits of the reports he'd read.

Sheppard laughed. "It was a nightmare! I was the guy no one wanted here. Well, no one but Elizabeth. You'd have like her." He paused as pain creased his eyes, but forcing another grin, he continued humorously, "Actually, I got blackmailed into coming."

"Yeah?" Don found that hard to believe.

"One minute I'm minding my own business, flying 'copters in Antarctica, keeping my nose clean, and in the next I'm learning about aliens, hidden bases, impending threats to Earth, intergalactic travel, and oh…apparently I'm some kind of freaky mutant!"

"The ATA Gene," Don guessed.

Nodding, Sheppard continued, but he was smiling, "All I did was sit down in a chair. That's it, and suddenly my life is completely turned around. I was basically told I could either walk through the gate to an unknown destination in an unknown galaxy with unknown baddies on what was likely a one way trip, under a commander who hated my guts…or be discharged."

Years ago, Don wouldn't have thought that such a hard decision, but if he'd ever had to leave the Bureau Don easily guessed he'd be completely lost. Being a Fed was who he was. "So how'd you decide?"

"I flipped a coin."

Don laughed, he couldn't help it.

Then Sheppard added with a frown, "To this day I'm still not convinced the coin was rigged. I flipped it like twenty times and it kept coming up the same."

"A statistic impossibility," Don agreed.

It was easy to talk to Sheppard. In many respects, they were a lot a like, but it still didn't resolve his problem. Then the door opened again and Mitchell came out to join them. "I just got word, Daedalus will be heading back tomorrow. Now that we have a couple extra ZPMs it's just a four day trip back."

Don acknowledged the news with a curt nod, but he didn't say anything. What could he say? He might be ready to go, but Charlie wasn't. Would Charlie ever be ready to go home?

Likely reading his expression, Sheppard lightly offered, "We can send you back through the gate anytime. It doesn't have to be now."

But Don already knew the answer to his dilemma, he just didn't want to admit it. "Thanks, but I'm ready to go. If…if Charlie wants to stay, think there'd be a spot for him here?"

"There's a spot for both of you, if that was what you wanted," Sheppard immediately stated. "I've already talked to Carter about it, and we agree, your expertise could give us a new look at things."

Even Mitchell chimed in, agreeing with Sheppard, "And this isn't exactly your typical Military base. It's a city, with it's own laws and stuff."

Don shook his head. This wasn't just a city, and the last thing he needed was to be a cop here. But he knew that wasn't quite what Mitchell was getting at. "I appreciate the offer, but no, I need to get back to my own team." And that was the end of the discussion.

With one last look over his shoulder at the breathtaking landscape these people lived in, he smiled, realizing he might be ready to go home, but part of him was going to miss this, too. "I better go find Charlie, see what he says."

They let him leave without another word, and Don headed to the labs with a bit of reluctance. The last thing he wanted to do was force Charlie into a decision, but he knew breaking the news that he was leaving wouldn't be easy on his brother either way.

As Don had expected, Charlie was in the lab, head bent over a table with McKay and Zelenka as they went over the math and plans of some new idea of there's. Word was, there'd been a lot of new ideas coming out of this lab of late. Don was hesitant to break it up, but he cleared his throat anyway. All three heads looked up, and then went right back down, their voices carrying far enough for Don to know he didn't have a hope in Hell of understanding what they were talking about.

He cleared his throat again, this time saying, "Hey, Charlie, can I have a word?"

This time Charlie actually turned around. "Sure Don, what is it?"

Don motioned with his head and his brother followed him to a corner of the near empty room. Don couldn't help but notice the sudden worry showing up on McKay's face. Inwardly, Don sighed.

"Don?" Charlie asked, his face scrunching up in questioning concern.

"The Daedalus is going to be leaving tomorrow," Don told him, deciding on the direct approach.

"What? Already? We just got here!" Charlie exclaimed, and Don was sure to his genius brother they had just gotten there, but in reality, it had been over a week.

"You don't have to go."

"What about you?" Charlie asked, looking even more confused than before.

"I'm going, but you don't have to go," Don repeated, seeing Charlie's eyes glisten with comprehension as he took in the full implications of was Don was trying to say.

"I…" Charlie looked away, back to the others who were watching, waiting for Charlie to return. McKay's face had turned pained and Don knew the physicist had guessed what the brothers were talking about. Then Charlie looked back, a sigh on his lips, but his face set with determination. "I guess I better get packed."

"Charlie, are you sure?" Don asked, having expected the opposite reaction from his brother. "I know how much you like it here. These are your kind of people, and you can use your talents here unlike anyway you can at CalSci, or for the FBI."

Pain suddenly creased Charlie's face, and he quietly asked, "I thought you liked me helping you out?"

"Ya, of course I do. I'm not saying I don't. It's just here, with all this alien…stuff…" Don suddenly found himself feeling very confused. Over the last few days he'd become so sure that this was where Charlie would want to be. "I thought you loved it here."

"I do!" Charlie exclaimed, and then added with a smile, "But this isn't my home. At least, not right now it not."

"Oh. Well…" Now that he knew his brother would be going back with him, Don wasn't nearly so apprehensive, of going or of staying. He rubbed the back of his neck, letting the tension just fall away. "We could always stay a few more days and just take the stargate back," he suggested lightly.

Charlie positively beamed at him.

x.x.x.x.x

Rodney furiously wrote across the whiteboard. It was ironically reminiscent of the previous month, without perhaps so much chaos, but once again, he found himself burying himself in the equations.

When he saw Sheppard walk in, Rodney didn't bother to give the Colonel more than a glance, snapping out, "What do you want, Colonel, I'm busy!"

"I thought I'd find you in here," Sheppard said, blatantly ignoring him. Rodney just wrote that much harder, the press of his hand bending the marker. "Hey, you know they're about to leave, you should come say good-bye."

"I've got to get this done first," Rodney stated with a scowl. "My time is very important. I can't be expected to just leave this work unfinished." But his mind wasn't very focused on the math. Not wanting Sheppard to know, he kept writing anyway, letting his hand put down on the board the first expression that came to mind.

"Rodney," Sheppard drawled out with reproach.

His hand stopped moving. Rodney practically glowered at it in accusation, as if it were his hand's fault he couldn't think.

"Rodney," Sheppard said again. "I know you're going to miss him, but you can't sulk in here. It's not right. You owe it to him and yourself to at least say goodbye."

"I know," Rodney snapped, and then in a complete betrayal of his feelings, whined, "I know." With a sigh he lowered his hand, forcing his eyes away from the math to meet Sheppard's gaze. "Why does he have to go at all? I mean, can't Charlie see how much more use he could be here? With us? In Atlantis? He's just going to waste on Earth." Rodney knew he was sounding like a petulant child, but he didn't care.

"They were here an extra four days."

"That doesn't count," Rodney immediately shot down. "They'd have gotten back at the same time even if they'd taken the Daedalus."

With a sudden rise of anger, Rodney raised his hand again to focus on the board, but stopped short when Sheppard chastised him. "Rodney. Charlie's your friend. And the only person I've ever met who you don't argue with, which I think says something. Don't let him leave without personally sending him off."

Rodney bit his lip. He knew Sheppard was right, and more than anything he wanted the chance to say goodbye to Charlie, he just didn't want to say goodbye at all. "Yeah, okay." He capped the damaged marker and slowly followed Sheppard out.

"It's not like you guys can't keep in touch," Sheppard said, giving him a worried look.

"It's not the same," Rodney argued. Sheppard wouldn't understand, but, "Do you know when I first met Charlie I absolutely hated his guts? Here was this kid, a year younger than me and two grades ahead. His parents had started him with tutors from the age of four, and mine, well," Rodney grimaced, "I think mine just didn't know what to do with me. I completely resented him and his perfect life. And then we started talking and suddenly, here was a kid about my age who not only talked like I did but also understood the same things I did. I wasn't the only one anymore. You have no idea what that's like as a kid."

"I may not be a genius, but I know what it's like to feel left out," Sheppard remarked, and then curiously asked, "How old were you?"

Rodney grinned. "Ten. It was the best two years of camp I'd ever had."

John frowned at him the way he did when he didn't understand something. "And you never kept in touch?"

Rodney just shrugged. "We were kids, and technology wasn't what it's like today. There wasn't the world wide web back then. Plus, I'd already started working for the CIA."

Sheppard made another face that made Rodney smile with pride, but then they were in the control tower and there was everyone waiting in front of the stargate. Charlie looked up, his face lighting up with a gigantic smile. For all his trepidation, Rodney found himself grinning back.

"Well, you got everything?" He asked as they joined the group.

"Didn't really come with much," Charlie laughingly replied. And then suddenly he was hugging Rodney. "I'm going to miss you, Meredith. This has been one of the most amazing trips I've ever been on."

"Are you sure you want it to end?" Rodney asked, his voice tight with emotion but unable to resist asking just one more time.

Charlie's smile never faltered. "Next time you're on Earth you'll have to drop by and meet everyone. I'll get dad to make his special roasted chicken pie."

"No lemons," Rodney quickly reminded.

Vaguely, Rodney was aware of Sheppard and the others saying goodbye to Charlie's brother, and then the order was giving to dial the gate. He emblazed Charlie's reaction to the gate opening in his mind, happy to see that none of the excitement had left his friend's face. Looking at the pool of blue, Rodney gave Charlie a sad smile. "Well, I guess this is it."

"Is this ever it?" Charlie asked in a surprising philosophical manner, and then said more seriously, "I'll come back someday."

"Goodbye, Charlie."

"Goodbye, Mere."

And then Charlie was gone. The gate closed, and everyone else slowly walked off, once again returning to the daily routines that existed in Atlantis. Rodney just stared at the wall through the gate, through where Charlie had gone.

"You okay, buddy?" Sheppard cautiously asked, touching his arm.

Rodney's throat was tight, his chest felt heavy, and he eyes burn suspiciously with tears, but Rodney sharply turned, stating matter of fact, "Of course I am. Now, if you don't mind, I've got work to do."

"Yeah," Sheppard completely agreed. "I'm gonna miss them, too."

x.x.x.x.x

Charlie was getting impatient. It was a full day since they'd returned to Earth, and they were still stuck inside the SGC. Now that he was back and the excitement had dwindled down, he was anxious to get back home. To see his dad, and Amita, and his office…there must be a layer of dust on everything by now.

The SGC's General Landry had met them when they came back, along with an IOA representative that reminded Charlie of one of his old English professors, English not being one of his favorite subjects. But Woolsey had keenly pushed to be allowed to debrief them. That was where Don was now. Still. Charlie wasn't sure if he was more surprised or annoyed to find they wanted to talk to Don more than him, but after a day of having nothing to do, he reasoned he was just bored.

Charlie laughed at the thought, thinking this must have been how Don felt while they were on the Daedalus. Cameron had come back with them, and assuring Charlie that the long interviews with Don was nothing to worry about, had tried to take his mind off things by introducing him to the rest of his team, Teal'c, Daniel, and Vala. And for a while all the different things Cameron's team showed him had fascinated Charlie, but now he was just anxious.

When at last Don emerged he looked tired and just as anxious to go. "What is it with those guys, they're worse than being up in front of a Review Board," Don full out gripped to Cameron.

The Colonel just shrugged. "They like to think they're the ones saving the world."

Don made a noise that showed exactly what he thought of that.

Then had followed another meeting with the General, but it wasn't anything serious. He had wanted to officially thank them for their help, and extend an open invitation for them to return anytime they were ready.

And then at last, they were finally allowed to leave. Cameron drove them personally to the airport where they boarded a plan for LA, just like any other normal person. When they sat down, first class, courtesy of the Air Force, Charlie finally let himself relax. "I can't believe we're back."

"I can't believe I didn't have to drag you back kicking and screaming," Don remarked with half a smile.

Charlie shot him a glare but his smile soon returned. "I'll have you know, I'm perfectly capable of self-restraint."

Don just laughed. "Yeah, admit it. You're already miss it."

Charlie did, but he wasn't about to say that. "Maybe a little." His brother just laughed some more and Charlie reflected on how good it felt to hear Don laugh. That was the real sign they were home.

x.x.x.x

Anxiously, Alan waited right outside the terminal gate. If it weren't so immoral, he'd have had Megan use her badge so they could wait outside the plane's gate. As the minutes dragged on he was still considering it. Megan and Amita were waiting with him, and from the way they sat on the edge of the seats he knew they were just as anxious as he.

Earlier that morning Alan had received a call from the mysterious Colonel Mitchell to tell him the plane his sons were flying in on. He hadn't wasted any time in getting here, and now he was back to what he always seemed to be doing. Waiting.

Then, at last, he spotted the heads of his sons among the crowd. And the moment they saw him their faces lit up. "Dad!" Charlie actually called out, rushing forward and pushing his way through the gate exit as quickly as possible.

Alan was up and embracing his son as soon as he reached them. "Charlie! Doing okay? Did you have a good time? I'm so glad to see you!"

Charlie laughed at Alan's exuberance, but Alan still had to critically look over his son to ensure he really was there and uninjured. "I'm fine, dad. I missed you, too."

As soon as he let go of Charlie, Amita took her turn, saying nothing but instead grabbing Charlie and leaning in for a deep and long overdue kiss. Charlie seemed surprised at first but then leaned right back, their arms entwining as they quickly forgot anyone else was there.

"I guess that's to be expected," Don remarked, looking at the love locked pair. Then, with a casual grin, greeted. "Hey, dad. You doing okay?"

"Better than okay now that my boys are home!" Alan stated, and ignoring his eldest son's tendency to look the macho man, gruffly gave Don a tight hug.

Don easily reciprocated, and after they separated he turned to the patiently waiting Megan. "How's the team?"

"Good. We've got a new stack of cases."

"Not until they've had at least one night at home!" Alan quickly argued.

"I wouldn't dream of pulling him away already, Alan," Megan quickly soothed. And then she grinned, saying emphatically to Don, "I'm glad you're back, boss."

He grinned. "Me, too."

Then they all looked pointedly at the pair still kissing. "Hey, you two," Don friendly chastised, "Get a room!"

"Better yet," Alan suggested, "Why don't we take them back to their room."

At last the two lovers broke apart, and Charlie questioned, "Our room?"

Amita just grinned at him, saying suggestively, "You know how we were talking about the possibility of me moving in? Well, I kind of did while you were gone."

He actually gave a small sort of drunken laugh. The sight made Alan warm all over and for the first time in over a month he finally felt like things were okay again. "Let's grab your bags."

"What you see is what we have," Don remarked, looking down at the strange black clothes he was dressed in with a wry smile. They headed for the doors. As they walked, Don asked with a curious expression, "Dad, do you remember anyone named Meredith is Charlie's life?"

Alan thought about it with a frown, and quickly came up with one memory. "Ah, yes, from his time at Math Camp. She was some girl Charlie had a crush on."

Charlie looked horrified, sputtering out, "I did not have a crush!"

"Yes, I'm fairly sure you did. You wouldn't stop talking about her the whole month after you got back. A father knows these things, Charlie."

Alan frowned at his sons. Charlie still looked like he was going to have coronary, and Don was cracking up so hard he was practically doubled over. "What?"

Still laughing, Don told him, "I got to meet him while we were there."

"Him?"

"Yeah dad. Meredith is a guy."

"Oh."

Charlie swatted his brother on the arm, but Don's mirth didn't cease. The news was a bit of a shock to Alan, but he was glad to see their recently grown friendship hadn't suffered in their absence.

Just what had happened to his boys while they were gone? Somehow he doubted he would ever know. And as long as they didn't have to leave home again, he figured that was fine with him.

End.