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Author's Chapter Notes: Carson finds more than he bargained for. John and Elizabeth find each other and the Artemis finds the Asgard. contains adult situations


one hundred six days after Earth



Carson hadn't been sleeping. He'd had a brush with insomnia in medical school that had lasted almost three days during his final examinations. Back then he'd felt like he couldn't sleep. He had so many things to do and finish before he could graduate and the stress had weighed on him so heavily that he couldn't shut down long enough to sleep.

Now he felt like he didn't need to. Days faded into each other as he only left the laboratory to periodically shower and eat. He lost track of time. He lost track of days and changed his uniform only when his spare was clean. Both of them were starting to wear out but his lab coats were holding up fairly well. It didn't matter really, Carson reminded himself. The entirety of the Atlantian refugees looked more ragged by the day. Mitchell and Lorne had been heading trading missions to increase their stores the last he'd heard but he was fairly certain he'd missed the last few briefings.

No one had bothered to contact him. He'd left the medical center in Simon's capable hands as soon as the other doctor he'd gotten over his bout with the plague. The strange illness had faded as oddly as it had come on. For a week he'd insisted that Elizabeth keep out of contact with anyone who did not already possess the gene he'd come to know as LK476, and the plague stopped.

The broken blood vessels healed and the fevers went down. Ronon was back to normal in less than twenty-four hours and his miraculous healing ability faded with his injuries. It was not still in his system and nor had it passed on the multifaceted LK476 gene. The first outbreak of the plague had been a failure. Mab's notes suggested that if she had truly found the answer to the Wraith problem, the gene would have taken hold far better than that.

Carson turned the protein of the virus over on the monitor and studied it as time flew away from him. It was simple, almost primitive even, and once it had passed the initial infectious stage it had been easily eradicated by the immune systems of everyone infected. There was nothing in the protein coat that suggested why Ronon and Laden had healed so quickly or how the tiniest contact with Elizabeth seemed to be enough to turn anyone into a carrier.

He tapped the display; the coat vanished and he started the computer unstringing the little coil of RNA inside. Deep inside the virus, a tiny sequence that could rewrite everything was lurking somewhere. He touched the display with his hand and removed the piece of RNA that was Elizabeth's. Pausing for a moment, he removed what he recognized as John's.

Carson was about to turn the strand and try to twist it into the separate nucleotides when he realized his hands hadn't moved. He'd touched the screen to move Elizabeth's RNA but John's RNA had moved with his hands firmly in his pockets. Maybe he was so tired he was hallucinating, but he didn't feel tired. He didn't feel like he hadn't sleep in days.

He felt like he could fly.

The RNA strand sat forgotten for a moment, but when he saw it out of his peripheral vision it finally hit him. In a rush of motion the strand broke, twisted and reshaped itself. Two more monomers and it would have been perfect.

Carson's hands were still in his pockets. He experimentally thought of moving the display to the left and the virus moved. He spliced a adenine on instead of the uracil and it changed. Backing slowly away from the display he felt the walls shifting. Instead of the stone being opaque, he swore for a moment he could see the figure moving toward him in the hallway as if the stone were glass.

Shaking the thought out of his head, he knew before she spoke that it was Elizabeth.

"Still at it?"

"I'm getting close," Carson insisted as he turned around to apologize for being so distant. "There's something here. Something important."

"What did you say?" Her eyebrows knotted suddenly in concentration and her smile faded immediately as her lips tightened.

"I think I can find something in her work," Carson continued as he took a step towards her. "There's something here."

"Wait," Elizabeth held up a hand for him to stop. She narrowed her eyes further and he could see her confusion in her eyes. "Speak slowly."

"Are you all right, Elizabeth?" Reaching out to her, Carson tried to guide her into his chair.

"You're speaking Ancient," she explained as she stared at him in shock.

"I don't know it, love," he replied with a soft smile as he tried to figure out what kind of joke she was trying to pull over his eyes. "Did John put you up to this?"

"Carson, I'm serious," she put her hand on her hip and continued to stare. "You're not speaking English. You have an accent I've never heard before and I can't make all of it out, but it is Ancient."

"Are you feeling all right?" He asked starting to be concerned. Putting a hand to her forehead, Carson felt her flinch back from his touch.

"Your fingers are burning up." She kept backing up and shook her head quickly as if it hurt her. "Do you understand me?"

"Perfectly," he snapped in confusion.

Elizabeth's hand stayed on her forehead but she managed to smile at him. "That makes one of us. Can you speak more slowly?"

"Isn't it impossible that I'd be able to speak Ancient?" he asked as slowly as he could and feeling rather foolish as he did.

"Impossible is a word we should learn to use less often in the Pegasus galaxy," Elizabeth mused softly as she rubbed at her temples. Her dark hair slipped around her fingers as she dealt with what appeared to be a vicious headache. "Everything I'm saying sounds normal to you?"

Carson nodded and sank into his chair with a sigh. He'd heard of being overtired, but this was ridiculous. He stared at the RNA strand and let her work it out. Languages were her forte after all.

"I'l come back," Elizabeth offered calmly. "Don't go anywhere."

He waved over his shoulder politely but the RNA was starting to speak to him and he didn't notice her go.




"So he's all gobbledy-gook?" John asked through a yawn as she nudged him off the bed.

"If I didn't know better I'd think you were pregnant, sleepyhead." Elizabeth folded her arms over her chest and waited for John to drag himself up from his nap.

"Lorne and Ronon's re-con came in at oh-three-hundred," John complained gruffly as he tore his jacket from the hook on the wall. "What am I supposed to do? Wait until morning to brief them?"

"Get some sleep before three?" She suggested as she reached for his cheek. John's protesting stopped as he stared at her.

"You're beautiful when you want something from me." He started to trudge out the door into the chill air but she stopped him with a hand on his jacket. Pulling him close, she kissed him until protesting was the last thing on his mind. With the taste of her still on his lips, he sighed. "What was that for?"

"I'm sorry the baby kept you up all night."

John's hand tangled itself in her hair and he shrugged. "Healthy, active little guy- girl- you know--"

By the time she went to bed, Elizabeth was usually so tired she slept through all of the nighttime football John insisted their child played. Ironically, the slightest movement within her dragged him out of his sleep and he hadn't yet been able to get used to it. As a result, his hair was worse than usual and the water shortages that had kept him from shaving for the last couple days made him look in over a week but his eyes still lit up when she smiled at him.

"Shouldn't we be dragging him off to Simon or scanning his brain or something?" John yawned again and lazily dropped an arm on her shoulders.

"Simon's already over there," Elizabeth promised as she smiled nervously. "Would you settle for I'd like you to be there?"

He snuggled his head into her shoulder and pretended to fall asleep walking. "When did you get sentimental?"

"You see things differently than I do," Elizabeth reminded him softly. Bringing his hand over to the side of her belly, she laughed and waited for him to feel what she felt. Since she'd first begun to notice it, the baby had gotten stronger. Becoming less like the fluttering of her stomach and more like something actually living inside of her, the baby was her silence confidant.

John blushed faintly and his eyes took on that terrified wonder she found so endearing. "He or she was quiet until I got here," she teased him ruthlessly.

"You're saying I already bring out the worst in our child?" The last two words caught in John's mouth. He managed to smile like he was joking, but his eyes were still overly bright.

"One of us had too."

"Just don't let Rodney get ahold of him..." John paused and let her guide him as he stared at her belly. Even his t-shirt was starting to get tight around the widest point of her stomach. "...Or her?" he wondered as he squeezed her shoulders a little tighter. "Do you want to know?"

Elizabeth shook her head quickly and tightened her grip on his hand in response. "I'm sure Carson could tell us, but I--" she bit her lip and tried to decide what she wanted to say. "My mother thought I was a boy until the moment they handed me to her. She wanted to call me Edward and she had my life nearly planned in my head. She was so surprised she forgot to consider that I might be a girl that it completely changed the way she thought about me."

"No sailor suits?" John teased lightly watching her eyes start to tear up.

"Still wanted me to go to Harvard Law," Elizabeth shrugged and let go of his fingers to wipe her eyes. John's roughened fingers did it for her and she stopped them in the stone entrance to the inner city. "I want you to know something."

"Been trying for years."

Elizabeth closed her eyes against the stinging that heralded more tears but gave up as she stared at him. His carefully cheerful smile was overwhelmed by the nervousness in his eyes. "I couldn't handle this if I didn't know I had you here..."

"...You'd be fine," he interrupted immediately.

"No," Elizabeth argued as she put a finger over his lips. "I would have tried my best, but I'd be a wreck. Without my mother- without Atlantis- here, like this- I'd be--"

Taking her finger from his lips, John pressed his lips into the palm of her hand without saying anything.

When he leaned back against the wall, Elizabeth rested her head on the worn fabric of his uniform jacket. His hands met behind her back and he held her against him. His chest was harder than she remembered from the first time they'd hugged but that was so long ago that it seemed like a different world. It had taken him a moment to realize what was happening and her a moment just to keep the tears out of her eyes before she scared him more.

"You always seem to show up when I need saving," she murmured into his neck as John kissed the hairline above her forehead.

"I thought I was just lucky enough to see you when your shields are down," he whispered back.

His scraggly beard tickled her skin and Elizabeth kept her eyes closed until she could trust them. "Don't have a ZPM to keep them up all the time."

Sighing as he held on a little tighter, John's tone lightened. "Maybe you can convince Rodney to lend you one."

Chuckling slightly as she breathed him in before letting go, Elizabeth kept her fingers wrapped in the loose fabric of his jacket. "You miss him."

"Only because Zelenka is better at chess."

"Think they're all right?" she wondered as lightly as she could. The Artemis wasn't yet overdue, but they'd all thought the Asgard would find a way to get a message through the 'gate sooner rather than later.

"Probably too caught up fixing the city," John promised optimistically. "McKay's probably arguing with Carter and some pants-less, genius alien about how to repair a whole wing of Atlantis with bubblegum and a toothpick."

Elizabeth clung to him as long as she dared before they reached the medical lab. If John noticed that she let go and straightened her posture before going into the lab, he said nothing. She toyed with the idea that he understood why she had to be strong in front of the team. He was a leader, he had to understand that just because she wanted to cling to him for comfort, she wasn't free to do so.

Doctor Jackson grinned at her over Carson's shoulder as he scribbled in a crude notebook. "We found out we can actually use whatever this as a perfect English to Ancient program."

Carson rolled his eyes and sank his head into his hands muttering something Elizabeth translated as a rebuke of everyone for making light of the situation. "He's upset," she offered for John who settled into the lab by the doorway.

"I would be," John offered to Carson with a slight smile of understanding. "So you understand us perfectly?"

He began to respond enthusiastically but his face darkened when he read the confusion on John's face.

"He doesn't feel like anything is different," Daniel offered for anyone who didn't understand. "Simon's been running brain scans and, I'm not a medical doctor, but I can't help thinking it looks a lot like Jack's when he was..."

"...exposed to the Ancient Library," John finished as he put down a small piece of medical equipment and tried to stop fidgeting. "Is it possible Carson found one of those devices?"

"No, no" Daniel translated for Carson's immediate response. "He hasn't left the lab. Hasn't touched anything."

Elizabeth's lower back spasmed painfully and she tried to sink into a chair without letting it show in her face. Carson saw right through her and pushed past Daniel and Simon to touch her shoulder. As he berated her for not being more careful and asked several questions she didn't quite understand Elizabeth felt John move up behind her as well.

"She's fine," Daniel offered for John before Elizabeth even had a chance to reply to Carson. "Carson's asking her if she's taking care of herself."

"No," John answered quickly. "She's not sleeping enough, she's not being careful..."

Elizabeth turned to hush John but Carson's concern was so evident on his face that she stopped. "I think I'm allowed to be sore once in awhile without everyone worrying," she reminded them all as firmly as she dared. "Do you feel all right Carson?"

Carson nodded and insisted that everyone around him was insane.

Elizabeth started to translate but John just smiled. "I got it."

"Well, the computer's done processing the brain scan," Simon interrupted from the rear of the lab. He scratched his head and handed the results to Carson with an apologetic look. "It doesn't look like anything is seriously wrong; I just don't have the slightest idea what I'm looking at."

Carson tapped the top of the pad and drew Elizabeth's attention to the reading there. Even in his waking stake, excited and frustrated that he'd somehow become incapable of speaking anything but a language dead for eons, his bran waves were only functioning at twelve hertz.

"Normal brain waves should be around twenty-four. Even thirty for someone so excited," Simon explained when Elizabeth gave him a confused look. "This part of the reading makes it look like he's in a coma but nothing else would seem to indicate that."

"When a human ascends," Daniel began softly. "Their brain patterns start to change."

Elizabeth watched Carson's surprise play over his face. His protesting was immediate and she didn't have to translate to know what he was saying.

"We don't know much about ascension," Elizabeth reminded him as she rubbed the renewed ache in her back. "It could take a lifetime of work, or you could be able to stumble into it by just being yourself. We don't know." Her head started to throb and she started to wonder if there was a connection there as well. Rodney usually gave her headaches much faster than anyone else, and as far as she could remember being around Carson had never given her one.

Sighing and rubbing her forehead for a moment, Elizabeth looked up at Daniel. "Ever feel like we woke up on the wrong side of the Pegasus Galaxy?"

He smiled patiently and translated for Carson as he and Simon got into a deep debate over the nature of human brain waves and the mysterious condition of ascension. Elizabeth only half-listened as she rubbed the back of her head She had the kind of headache that lanced through her skull and altered her sense of perception. The lab was starting to smell strange. Her mind wanted to make the connection to rain and hot ashes but she couldn't consciously believe it was that.

She was missing the conversation. Elizabeth had forgotten it was even still going on when she realized Simon was staring at her. more accurately, Simon was staring through her as she turned around. The piece of equipment John had been playing earlier with was floating behind her head.

Carson shook his head in disbelief and Daniel whistled in surprise.

"You wanted it, didn't you?" John asked as he moved behind Carson. His hand on the doctor's shoulder calmed him slightly as he stared open-mouthed at the device. "Are you sure you didn't touch anything Ancienty?"

Vigorously shaking his head, Carson promised he hadn't done anything but lose himself in Mab's notes. The piece of equipment dropped to the counter and bounced towards the floor as he lost his concentration. Elizabeth couldn't stop staring at it. She'd read about telekinesis in ascended Ancients but she'd never seen it before.

Daniel scrolled through the computer and looked up in surprise. "And her personal logs," he exclaimed as he scrolled down curiously.

"Is it possible there's something in there?" Elizabeth wondered as she pushed herself out of her chair. Simon and John's hands both came out for her and she smiled softly. "Thank you." As she looked over Daniel's shoulder, her eyebrow went up in surprise. "Carson, these are in Ancient."

He sputtered that he couldn't read Ancient and when Daniel started to translate Simon and John waved him off.

"I think we got it," John assured him as he switched his attention to Elizabeth. His thumbs found their way to her lower back and made her eyes water as they ran along her spine. Sometimes she didn't realize how sore she was until someone touched her. "You okay?" he murmured softly enough that only she heard.

"Just sore," Elizabeth promised as she leaned into his hands. "Can you read our minds yet?" she asked Carson as he seemed to shrink into himself.

Shyly picking up the piece of equipment he'd dropped, he shrugged towards her. "Fere." Carson set the scanner aside and watched his friends worry about him. "Alubre vitreo solumnustra."

"We're just trying to take care of you," Elizabeth reminded him. "We've lost so much Carson. We need to keep you with us."

Carson smiled softly at her and she watched his good eye light up. She missed seeing both eyes. She missed Teyla's quiet counsel when she was lost. Elizabeth started slightly when part of her child intersected painfully with her ribs and realized how much she missed her body just being hers.

"Elizabeth, look at this," Daniel demanded and pulled her out of daydreams. He moved out of the way and John followed her. His hands almost made the pain in her back tolerable. She tried to focus on the ramblings of Mab's personal logs without losing herself in the continuous background noise of her body. John pushed too hard and she gasped.

"Sorry," she licked her lips and shook off Daniel's excitement. "What did you want me to see?"

"Esoreble noctum exiute nostallia et horius e fabian," he quoted as he pointed to it with his finger. "'Through the night and our past, we put ourselves aside and learn to see from within', classic pre-ascension dogma." He turned to Elizabeth, leaning on the computer with his chin in his hand thoughtfully. "Subliminal ascension? Plant the seed in someone's mind and wait as it takes over?"

"Correlectae uous lingea fosse elo malarium," Carson argued. Growing frustrated with his inability to communicate with anyone but Daniel and Elizabeth, he tapped something and all of a sudden John and Simon stopped dead as if they'd been struck.

It took Elizabeth and Daniel a moment to notice. Elizabeth felt John's hands fall away from her back and she turned around to thank him but he was just staring at Carson.

"What are you doing in my head?" John asked softly.

Carson's apology echoed in her mind as if he was speaking inside of her. Elizabeth shivered and felt her stomach contract involuntarily. Her shock and surprise must have reverberated back through the connection because Carson was immediately at her side.

It was definitely strange to have him promising her everything was fine in a language no one had spoken aloud for generations. She wasn't sure if the sudden pain lancing across her abdomen had something to do with Carson or not, but it hurt. John who caught her face in his hands. His eyes locked with hers and radiated as much calm as he could muster.

"You're okay," he promised her even though his hands were trembling.

"It's a muscle cramp," Simon explained from behind her and Elizabeth had never been more relieved to hear his voice. "It's perfectly normal."

John's hands went solid against her face and she let out her breath and leaned into John's chest. Carson and Daniel started to speak behind her. Daniel had fallen into Ancient as well and instead of protesting Carson was starting to understand. Elizabeth just wanted to take a moment and collect herself but Carson was already planning.

"You can't go after her," she interrupted him in English as she turned around. "You don't know where she went."

"Not to mention she's insane," John interjected as he tightened his grip on her shoulders. Elizabeth touched his hand, reminding him she was all right now. It surprised her how unsteady her voice sounded and she fought with her nerves to be more calm.

Carson promised he knew where to find her. If he was ascending, he paused and shook his head in disbelief, he had a right to know. If he could speak in their minds inadvertently what other problems could he cause? He was fervently opposed to putting anyone in danger.

John waited impatiently for Daniel to translate and kept shaking his head. "Haven't you learned not to follow crazy women to other planets?" he offered as Elizabeth felt his hands squirm nervously on her shoulders.

"He thinks he won't have a problem getting back," Daniel explained as he tucked his hands into his pockets. "I hate to bring this up, but he would like you to know that he might not survive this. Ascension's not a sure thing. If he's being pushed prematurely he might not be ready for what lies ahead."

Carson smiled at them all patiently and added that nothing Mab had tried to do so far made any sense. Perhaps if his mind was broader, he'd understand it.

"You need to take a radio, and keep in contact," Elizabeth insisted as she realized she wasn't going to be able to stop him. "I want you to check in often."

Carson reached for her cheek and his hand sent a strange shiver running through her body as he made contact. He whispered that he needed to do this.




"When I was eight, Pumpkin got hit by a car," Elizabeth started to explain as John slid her bra strap from her shoulder and kissed the empty skin. "Mum found her and brought her back but she only stuck around until dad wasn't looking and she managed to get out the back door."

John nuzzled his way up to her neck and held her hair to the side so he could attacked the knots of muscle there. "Dogs are like that," he murmured as he watched her face in the weak reflection of their crude mirror on the wall. "Can't let you watch them die."

"Do you think he'll make it?" Elizabeth wondered as she reached up for his hands and found his chin instead. John kissed her fingers and realized why she was thinking about her dog.

"Out of all of us, Carson's the closest to sainthood," he drawled as he traced her spine down towards the middle of her back. "I doubt he's the type to crawl under the porch and die either." Her skin glowed in the candlelight and he slipped off the other bra strap. The skin beneath it was pink and strained and he wondered if he'd have to try and trade for a bigger bra. Not that he had any idea who to trade with.

She shivered as he stripped her of the bra but Elizabeth smiled when he wrapped his arms around her naked chest. "He'll be okay. He's the one who wanted to save the Wraith, remember?"

Turning around to kiss him, Elizabeth rested her forehead on his cheek. "That was years ago wasn't it?"

"Well, it was before this..." John teased as he ran a hand over the skin of her belly. "Everything before this seems like years ago."

"You're not even the one who gets to throw up!" Elizabeth shot back softly as she lowered her head to watch his hands. He slipped them around and started unrolling the waist of her pants.

"When did these stop fitting?" he asked as he hugged her belly with his fingers.

"Last week?" Elizabeth wondered with him as she started to chuckle. "They stay on if I roll them over a couple times."

"You know, you're going to be after my pants now," John complained as he slid around her on the bed to stand up in front of her and study the problem.

Elizabeth's dark hair had only gotten longer, but he liked the way it almost fell to her breasts now. She leaned back on her arms and watched his face with a contented smile. He liked seeing her that way. When she finally relaxed and just let herself be she was more beautiful than anyone he'd ever seen.

"No more muscle cramps?" he asked as he ran lazy hands over her belly and waited for the baby to react.

Elizabeth shook her head and bit back a yawn. "Simon said to stop worrying," she reminded him. Her smile faded just enough to show him that she hadn't completely. Contractions weren't unheard of in the sixth month, everyone kept reminding him. Carson had even told him everything was going to be fine before going through the gate.

John put the thought that he'd never see Carson again out of his head and kissed the skin of Elizabeth's belly. "Is it going to be strange? Having to see him?"

"I'll see Doctor Keller," she replied quickly as she ran a hand through his hair. "She's very sweet."

"She's no Carson," John muttered as he watched Elizabeth's skin stretch as the baby moved beneath it. He still wasn't sure if he really saw it, or if his eyes made it up to make him feel more like it was real.

"He'll be back," Elizabeth's fingers dug into his neck and prickles ran down his spine.

Resting his head between her swollen breasts for a moment, he kissed one and moved his way nonchalantly up to her chin. "Weird day," he offered as he nibbled up to her mouth.

Laughing as she turned aside, Elizabeth sighed. "Don't ask me a question and then try to kiss me," she retorted as she caught his chin in her hand.

"It was a comment," John replied as he kissed her palm. "I can kiss other parts of you while you talk." Leaning over her, he left a trail on her chest as he kept his promise.

"Do you really want to?" she asked turning her face down to catch his eyes. "You don't have to prove anything to me."

Sighing in mock frustration, John tore his shirt up over his head and started taking off his pants. "You're gorgeous," he started with a sigh. "I'm a guy. I'm a guy who's in love with you. You're nearly naked in my bed and I've never seen your breasts look quite this..."

"..big?"

"Tasty," John corrected as he pretended to take a bite. "Why do you even ask? I always want you."

Blushing faintly as she scooted back on the bed, Elizabeth started to slip beneath the blankets and John felt her legs brush against his as he crawled in with her. "I think I like that about you."

"I aim to please," John whispered as he pulled her over him. "I want to watch."

She narrowed her eyes for a moment in mock annoyance, but Elizabeth allowed him to position himself beneath her. John's nearly immediate arousal surprised them both and he saw a wicked smile start to curl her lips. "I suppose we should do this more often."

John moaned slightly before he managed to choke out his words. "You look amazing," he explained even though she wouldn't believe him entirely. It was hard to make it make sense to her. Her breasts had gotten big enough that he could hold one with two hands and she would never understand how gleeful that made him.

Maybe it was just the fact that enough free time to have sex was so hard to scrounge up that his body knew better immediately than to waste any time. He felt himself going rigid against her thigh and pulled her lips down to meet his. Somehow, Elizabeth could always kiss as if she'd been planning the motion in her head for the last hour. Her tongue did things to the inside of his mouth that made his head spin and he couldn't get enough.

He squished her breasts together and laughed at the face she made at the foreign line of cleavage he'd created. Elizabeth's belly pressed against his stomach and John reminded himself again that the baby wouldn't know. Elizabeth was wet as she rubbed herself along his thigh and John groaned and tried not too get too far into the fantasy of being inside of her.

Elizabeth teased him with her dry hand before pulling herself up to her knees to let him in. Her eyes widened immediately and he nearly lost his control when the moan burned out of her throat. She was in charge and she moved agonizingly slowly as she started to get the feel of him. John wasn't entirely sure what was different, he couldn't pay attention whenever any of the doctor's tried to explain it to him, but she felt softer.

All of her was rounded, from her hips to her newly full breasts. John dug his fingertips into her lower back and eased her a little higher up. Elizabeth dropped down to his chest and playfully bit into the skin just beneath his collarbone. John gasped and thrust deeper, drawing a groan of excitement in return. Her eyes rolled before focusing on him and he wondered when they'd both lost their stamina. She was wet and tight like hot silk around him and he could feel the cool touch of her nipples against his chest.

Grabbing a handful of the flesh of her butt, John felt her twist her hips and biting his lip suddenly wasn't enough. "Elizabeth," he growled her name like it was an expletive and she started to shake against his chest. Orgasm shuddered through her like a chain reaction and he watched her eyebrows tighten in concentration before she let go.

Elizabeth moaned again and kissed him hard enough to crush his sounds back into his throat. He made himself take his time and hold off until she was ready. Instead, she was the one who started to move faster. Elizabeth tilted her hips coyly and started to press against him. John's head started to spin and he tangled his hands in her hair as she sat up and began to rock. Letting go of her head, he ran his hands adoringly down her body before digging them into her hips.

Elizabeth twisted herself up and slammed back down. Dragging a staggered grunt from his throat as she teased him, John clung to her chest as he released within her. When they collapsed, her head stayed on his shoulder. Her belly was a warm weight on his stomach, and he covered her breast with his left arm.

"Now it's an exceptional day," John teased as he coughed his voice back into his throat. Elizabeth's lips left a mark in the sweat of his neck and he hugged her closer.

"You always look so happy," she murmured into his skin. "So enthralled, like you're flying through something strange and beautiful."

"This eyebrow," he rubbed his finger down her right and grinned. "This one narrows right before you start to go."

"I'll remember that," Elizabeth teased and wrapped herself closer. "I'll have to try and fool you. Move the other one first or hold them still--"

"You wouldn't--"




"What do you mean you can't fix it?" Jack groaned and stared down at Thor. "You guys can fix anything!" He looked from Thor to Carter and then back at Thor. "You're the Asgard."

"It is not our technology," Thor explained sadly. "Yes, we were allies, but we shared only the knowledge of our respective technologies. Among my people, the Altarrens were thought of as somewhat eccentric."

"What's the problem?" Rodney demanded as he pushed his way past Jack and Sam. "It's advanced technology, you're quite possibly the most advanced race left in these galaxies--" he trailed off as he saw no pity in the alien face. "You have to help us. We've traveled for three weeks. We have everything that's left of our entire planet living in tents and barns and a god-forsaken planet waiting for us. If this is some high-and-mighty-we're-better-than-you-because-we're-not-human bullshit..."

"...we are no better than you," Thor replied sadly as he sank further into his chair. "In fact, when history judges us I fear the Asgard will come out looking the fools."

"Hey," Jack stopped Thor from continuing gently. "Don't be so hard on yourselves, you're good guys."

"We're dying," Thor corrected as he activated a control on the arm of his chair. "Eighty percent of our population has already fallen victim to complete nucleic collapse. They can no longer replicate their DNA and die terribly once their cells can no longer be replaced."

"How is that possible?" Sam demanded in shock as Rodney just opened and closed his mouth.

"Eons of cloning," Thor offered as the simplest explanation. He coughed and Sam and Jack looked at each other as he wiped black blood from his lips. "I'm afraid no amount of technology can replace the simplicity of sexual reproduction. Perhaps if we had realized it sooner--"

Rodney watched as Jack took Sam's hand and held it tightly in his.

"What can we do?" Jack asked as he took a step closer to the dying Asgard. "Is there anything you guys need?"

Thor shook his head slowly and Rodney wondered if the twitching of his eyes was as close as the alien got to a smile. "I will see that a copy of our entire database makes it onboard your vessel."

"Will it tell us how to fix Atlantis?" Rodney demanded as he felt Sam's eyes burn through him. "I know it sounds terrible, but we're down to our last resort and if you can't help us--"

"Lantian technology has a genetic component," Thor explained patiently as Rodney realized he hadn't seen the Asgard move anything besides his right hand. "The more copies of the gene are present, the more the city will respond." Thor's eyelids crawled over his black eyes and he realized even that motion was terribly painful.

"As our allies, we always admired the Lantian, and later the human, capacity to return for the brink of destruction with ingenuity and courage," Thor's voice cracked in a way Rodney had never heard.

"Hey, you okay?" Jack asked as he reached for Thor's hand instead of Sam's.

"Much energy had to be expanded in order for me to reach you while I was still alive," Thor explained dully reaching across to pat Jack's wrist. "You have been a good friend and ally, Jack O'Neill. And you, Samantha Carter..."

"..actually," Sam interrupted with a tiny smile. "Jack and I got married."

Thor blinked and looked from one to the other. "That is good news Samantha O'Neill."

"Nice," Jack murmured as he knelt beside Thor's great chair. "It's nice isn't it dear?"

"Perhaps that is why you will succeed when all others have failed," Thor struggled to turn his head to Jack. "Humanity has nothing but luck and determination to drive it. Perhaps with your inability to give up such trivialities as love, you will be successful where we and the Lantians have failed."

"Don't create an unstoppable force bent on our destruction?" Rodney suggested under his breath. He didn't intend anyone to hear him but Sam choked back what sounded like a laugh.

Thor's head lolled slightly to the right and Rodney wondered if it was even a voluntary motion. "I have very little time," the alien explained with endless patience of a nearly immortal being realizing the end was finally catching up with him. "I am glad I will be spending it with you, O'Neill and O'Neill."

Rodney couldn't help smirking when Jack grinned proudly and Sam looked like she'd been grossly insulted.

"What can you tell us?" Sam asked as she headed for Thor's main computer interface. "How many copies of the gene will we need?"

"It is unfortunately not that simple," Thor's head settled on his left side and Jack moved to keep up eye contact with the alien. "You will be able to repair Atlantis. You just need to look at it in a different way, Samantha O'Neill. Alterran technology is not what it seems to be. I wish I could give you more of a gift."

In a last display of strength, Thor pulled himself out of his chair and walked shakily to Sam's side at the computer. "The DanielJackson's computer core will give you the collected knowledge of all of my people." His tiny hand rested on hers for a moment as he reached for the crystal to transport them away. "You will be successful, Samantha O'Neill."

All of Rodney's protests vanished with the deck of the DanielJackson as he re-materialized along with Jack and Sam on the bridge of the Artemis. Sam's eyes were tearing up and Jack had the same quiet look John got when he lost a marine.

"Ever feel like we showed up at the end of the party and were too young to understand what everyone was celebrating?" Jack asked no one in particular as the DanielJackson became a white ball of light on the viewscreen.

"More like we got stuck with the tab," Rodney muttered as he turned to one of Sam's technicians. "A new computer core was beamed over with us."

The tech, Rodney couldn't remember his name, danced her fingers across her computer. "It's in the cargo bay, doctor."

Rodney rubbed his hands together and took one last look over his shoulder at the fading light that had been the Asgard flagship. Sam was stiffly facing the screen and Jack had his hands in his pockets as he stood behind her. He spent a moment wondering if Jack would be able to get her through. Sam had never given up on anything and it was one of the things he found most intriguing about her.

There were moments when Rodney knew he wouldn't have been able to help her if he had been her husband. He wasn't ready for the quiet grief that Sam couldn't let go of. He watched as Jack took her arm and then hugged her to his chest.

For a moment in the transporter, Rodney felt a pang of jealousy because no woman let him hold her like that. He shook his head and let his mind win over his emotions. He had a new computer core to examine.


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