“How are you feeling then, Rodney?” Carson asked as he took the man’s vitals. AR-1 had just returned from a trading mission, and since it had only been a couple of days since Rodney had been given the ATA therapy, Carson wanted to make sure all was well.
Rodney scowled. “I’m going to be black and blue this time tomorrow.”
Raising his eyebrows in alarm, Carson looked up, then turned his attention to John when he piped up from the next bed, “Aww come on, McKay. It wasn’t that bad. So I pushed you down. It’s not my fault there were rocks hidden under that pile of leaves, and at least you didn’t get beamed up by a dart.”
Somewhat mollified, Rodney nodded. “True. I suppose bruises do beat being eaten by the Wraith.”
“Indeed, Dr. McKay,” interjected Teyla who stood waiting her turn to be checked out. “We were very lucky to have escaped the culling.”
Carson blinked as his eyes met Major Sheppard’s. “Again?” Wasn’t this the third time their team had walked in on a culling?
The major’s jaw set, he nodded. “Yeah. Say, Teyla, were the Wraith always this active?”
Teyla shook her head. “No, Major. It has not been that long since the Melorans were culled. They should have been safe for another generation at least.” She sounded both puzzled and extremely worried.
Major Sheppard scowled down at his arm as the nurse took his blood. Carson felt for the man. He knew that he blamed himself for waking the Wraith and the subsequent loss of life his actions had brought about. Sighing, Carson shook his head and shared a knowing look with Rodney, who seemed genuinely concerned for his teammate.
Getting ready to take Rodney’s blood, he tried to push thoughts of Wraith out of his head so he could focus on the here and now. “I’m going to have to take a little more than normal, Rodney,” he cautioned.
Alarmed, Rodney stared at him wide-eyed. “Why? Is something wrong?”
Smiling reassuringly, he patted his friend’s thigh. “No need to worry, I just need to run some tests to see how the gene therapy’s affected you. See if there’s anything that I need to be aware of, or that needs tweaking before we start to administer it to the rest of the expedition.”
“Well, if you must,” Rodney conceded with ill grace. “I feel perfectly fine, you know. Not like I grew a second head or anything.”
Fighting a grin, Carson ducked his head and kept his thoughts that while what he said was true, he thought perhaps that Rodney’s head had gotten a little bigger. Carson wasn’t stupid enough to say that aloud, however. He liked having warms showers, after all.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
“Penny for your thoughts,” his brother said quietly as he bumped Ioan’s shoulder.
Ioan felt the heat rise on his cheeks as he cast a sidelong glance a couple of tables over to where Kimberly sat having breakfast with several colleagues. Running his fingers through his hair, he sighed and turned to look at his brother fully. “You’ll think I’m nuts.”
“Guess you’re safe then, because I already do, so spill,” Evan teased, earning him a glower.
“I haven’t been able to stop thinking about her,” Ioan confessed. “It’s insane, I mean… I’ve been into girls before and stuff, but nothing like this.”
Evan leaned forward a little to see past Ioan in order to check out Kimberly. “I can honestly say you’ve never met a girl like her before. She’s way out of your league,” he said, grinning. “Gorgeous, funny, beautiful smile. Incredibly smart. She could run circles around both of us, intellectually.”
Grumbling, Ioan sunk lower in his seat. “Tell me about it.” Tracing the edge of his plate with his finger, he stared morosely at it. He could tell from the corner of his eye that his brother was watching him closely.
“You really have it bad for her, don’t you?” Evan asked finally, his voice low and gentle.
Scrubbing his face with both hands, he nodded. “Not that it matters. Regulations won’t allow it-” Ioan started, only to have Evan cut him off.
“Screw the regs, Ioan. Don’t get me wrong, the rules are there for a reason, and I’m all for them on the whole, but we’re in another galaxy, in case you hadn’t noticed. On top of that, it isn’t looking very promising on the ZPM front from what I can tell, so who knows if we’ll ever get back home. What are they going to do? Court-martial us? Throw us in the brig? Decommission us? They can’t, Ioan, they need every single one of us.”
Ioan sat up straight, shocked at the vehemence in his brother’s voice. Both he and Evan had been brought up to believe in following orders. Leaving no man behind. Everything that the Air Force stood for. They both held it sacred, and yet here was Evan basically telling him to flaunt the regulations.
Evan’s jaw twitched stubbornly, a look of defiance in his eyes that Ioan hadn’t seen there in a very long time. “Don’t give me that look, either. It isn’t like I’m suggesting mutiny here, or going on a murder spree. All I’m saying is, at some point Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard are going to have to realize that the rules from back home can’t all apply here in Atlantis. It isn’t feasible in the long run. We’re basically a new colony now, Ioan. Surely you realize that, too?”
Tilting his head, Ioan gazed thoughtfully at his brother. He had to admit, he had a point. They were cut off from Earth and unless they started to look to the Pegasus natives, there would be very limited options for the people of the expedition when it came to dating. Ioan caught sight of Mac and Carson walking into the mess hall out of the corner of his eye, and suddenly another thought occurred to him. He grinned. “Your inciting to break the rules wouldn’t have anything to do with a certain Scottish charmer having gotten under your skin, would it?” he teased.
Turning his head to see who Ioan was looking at, Evan blushed. Even so, he feigned nonchalance when he refocused on his brother. “Don’t know what you’re on about. Carson and I are just friends.”
“Uhhuh, yeah,” Ioan said, grinning wryly,” because that was who I was referring to.” Mac’s laughter rang from across the mess hall and Evan’s blush deepened, proving Ioan’s point. Ioan nudged his brother’s arm, his smile fading as he grew serious. “All kidding aside here, Ev, but it’s about time. It’s been what? Five years since Jim passed away?”
A pained expression flitted over Evan’s face at the mention of his late fiancé. “Yeah, I know,” he ground out hoarsely as he fidgeted with his napkin, refusing to look at Ioan.
Placing his hand on Evan’s wrist, Ioan sighed. “Jim wouldn’t want you to be alone forever, Ev. You know that. I haven’t seen you interested in anyone since he died. Not until Mac, and if he’s the one who has you paying attention again, then I say go for it.” At Evan’s flinch, Ioan added quickly, “Finding someone else attractive doesn’t mean you’re betraying Jim’s memory, Evan. Hell, it doesn’t even have to mean that you’ll end up with Mac. For all you know, it is just infatuation and it leads nowhere aside from friendship, but that’s still a chance worth taking, isn’t it?”
Casting a sidelong glance to where Mac stood talking to a couple of nurses, Evan sighed. “You’re right,” he said quietly, cupping his hands in front of his face. “I know you are, Ioan. I just… I still miss Jim. Every day. I don’t know if that’ll ever really go away.”
Ioan nodded in understanding. “Whoever you end up with’ll get that, Evan.”
“Yeah,” Evan said with a sad smile. Shooting another look at the doctor, he sighed. “It’s stupid. It’s as if I can’t even help myself around him,” he mumbled under his breath.
Chuckling, Ioan tapped his brother’s foot with his. “Yeah, I noticed.” Then sneaking a peek at Kimberly’s table, he sighed, too. “I know the feeling. Guess we’re both pretty gone, huh?”
Evan snorted, rolling his eyes. “Oh no. You’ve got it way worse, little brother. You’re hell and gone already. Now, what are you going to do about it?” he challenged.
The look in his eyes told Ioan the subject of Evan’s infatuation with Mac was firmly closed for the time being, which was fine. Evan knew Ioan was there for him if he needed someone to talk to. Scratching the back of his head, he leaned back in his chair and stared at Kimberly as he gathered his thoughts. “I don’t know, man. Not like I can ask her to go out with me on a date.”
Raising his eyebrows, Evan huffed. “And why not?”
Turning to his brother, he gaped at him. “Have you forgotten where we are? In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a decided lack of nice restaurants and cinemas around here.”
A sly smile formed on Evan’s lips and his eyes twinkled with mirth. “Yeah, but the city has great views, the mess hall will pack a picnic if you ask them, and the logs say there’s land several miles from here. You have the gene, so you could pilot a jumper and take her for a ride.”
Ioan blinked, mulling that over. “That actually doesn’t sound half bad. Except… there’s no way I’d be given permission for that, Ev.”
Quirking a brow, Evan grinned. “Have you forgotten that with Sumner gone, I’m second in command again? Besides, Sheppard and I have already talked about sending people to scout the mainland, so if you don’t mind taking a few scans and stuff, you’d have a good excuse on paper.”
Ioan stared at his brother, perplexed. “You’ve got it all figured out, haven’t you?”
Taking a sip of water, Evan nodded, looking smug. “Yep.” All humor suddenly gone, he met Ioan’s gaze and murmured, “I’ve got your back, Ioan. No matter what.”
“Thanks, Ev.” Ioan smiled, then swallowed hard when Evan urged him to go ask Kimberly out already. Steeling himself, Ioan wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs, got up and walked over to her table. “Hey,” he managed, trying to smile.
“Hey, yourself,” Kimberly said, beaming up at him, amusement and curiosity clear in her eyes.
“Can I talk to you for a sec?” Ioan hedged, casting a furtive glance to her companions.
“Sure.” She followed him out into the hallway away from prying ears. “Everything alright?”
She watched him carefully, which made him laugh nervously. Good grief, why did he have to feel so jittery? It wasn’t as if he’d never asked a girl out before. Still, this felt… different, somehow. “Yeah, sorry, I just… I didn’t want to do this in front of everybody.”
Surprised, she stared at him a moment. “Do what?”
Biting the corner of his lip, Ioan rubbed the back of his neck. “Er… ask you out?” he asked stupidly, flinching. “Sorry, I didn’t… I mean.” Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes briefly, then tried again. “I was wondering if you’d like to go on a date with me.” Ioan crossed his fingers behind his back, waiting anxiously for her answer. Seriously, what was he, fifteen again? It was ridiculous how his stomach was trying to tie itself into knots over this woman.
Kimberly was obviously fighting laughter, as her mouth twitched and her eyes fairly danced as she watched him flounder. “A date? With you?” she clarified, and Ioan felt his heart sink to his knees. A giggle escaped her as she reached for his hand and squeezed it. “I’d like that a lot,” she mused, eyes intent on his.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Carson peered at his screen as the results of Rodney’s DNA test post-therapy came up. Pulling up both Rodney’s pre-therapy results and Major Sheppard’s results for comparison, Carson carefully went over every change he could find. It never ceased to amaze him just how little was still known about the human genome, really. Carson had noted long ago, when he first started doing research after General O’Neill’s encounters with Ancient technology, that there were some minor differences between ATA and non-ATA people. It was what had led him to the gene therapy, after all.
Frowning, he checked against the two others. “Well, this is odd,” he murmured. Pulling up General O’Neill’s DNA results, he compared them to both Rodney and Sheppard’s, but the discrepancy wasn’t the same. If you could call it a discrepancy. Post-therapy, Rodney appeared to have a marker in common with the major, but that same marker wasn’t present in General O’Neill. Or rather, O’Neill had a marker, but it was slightly different again from the other two men.
“I wonder,” he murmured as he found his own DNA results and checked it. Like O’Neill, Carson, too had a marker in the same area, but it was different again from the other men. Sitting back in his seat, he frowned up at the ceiling as he let his thoughts drift. In all his years as a geneticist, he had never encountered the like. He’d seen genomes that differed because of a variation in species, like rat to mouse and such. Or even human and Ancient, but this appeared to be something else entirely. Filing it away for later thought, Carson focused on what was pertinent: whether the therapy worked. The rest, he would figure out at a later date, since it was apparent that there were variations within the ATA itself. He promised himself he would find out what that meant.
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