crossoverfic | The Saints of Atlantis 28

Title: The Saints of Atlantis
Fandoms: The Boondock Saints/Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG15/Teen for swearing and violence
Author: Dragonfan

As usual on Daedalus day, the infirmary was a mad house. There were over fifty new members of the Atlantis expedition to process, not to mention the twenty members returning from Earth leave and the five members of the McManus family, a larger number than usual. To keep their family out of the crush, the twins moved them over to the small alcove that held the baby machines. Ronon and Teyla were there, keeping an eye on the babies and the new personnel. “Taking a look at your new toys Ronon?” Murphy joked. As was their custom he and Conner traded off translating for Gretchen.

Ronon grunted; his attention on the Marines. Teyla laughed. “We are protecting the babies from unintentional injury as well as observing the new personnel from Earth.” She looked pointedly at the twins, her eyes flickering to the other ladies and Jacob.

It was Conner who took the hint. “Teyla, Ronon, this is Gretchen and Annabelle McManus, our wife and mother. These are our sons; Jacob, Redmond, and Breandon.” He turned to his family. “Teyla and Ronon are two of our team mates. We’re all part of Atlantis Recon Team 1. The other two members you’ll meet later.”

“Aye, Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay are busy getting their new people settled in,” Murphy explained. “The Colonel is in charge of the military around here, and us because of the deal we made. Doctor McKay is in charge of all of the scientists.”

“What babies?” Jacob piped up. He’d been peering around his fathers’ legs looking for a crib or something, but couldn’t see anything that he recognized as a place to put a baby.

Teyla smiled and knelt down to the young child. “My babies and my sister-friend’s baby are growing in these machines.” She pointed at the two machines at the back of the alcove. “They were built by the Ancestors to help those who cannot have a child the usual way. Would you like to see them?” Jacob nodded frantically. He was completely awestruck at the idea of babies growing inside a machine. Teyla led him over to the machine that held her daughters and lifted him up so that he could see inside the window.

“Conner, Murphy, did you bring me some new patients?” a cheerful voice with a deep southern drawl asked from behind the group. A very petite woman with long blond hair tied up in braids in a bun at the back of her neck and deep blue eyes smiled at them.

“For sure we have Doctor,” Conner said proudly. “This is Jacob, Redmond and Breandon, your new patients, and their mother Gretchen and our Ma, Annabelle McManus. Everyone, this is Doctor Holbrook, she’s the pediatrician for Atlantis.”

“I’m so glad to meet all of you,” she said. “Why don’t we go over to my office and get out of this rush, ok?” Doctor Holbrook’s office was in a small room at one end of the infirmary, well away from the chaos happening in the main treatment area.

“Are you a baby doctor?” Jacob wanted to know. Conner helped him up onto the examination table.

“Well, I take care of people from the time they’re born until they’re grownups,” Doctor Holbrook said. “My partner, Doctor Felder takes care of babies before they’re born and their mommies. I think that makes both of us baby doctors. What do you think?” She had out her tablet and was making a lot of notes, setting up files for all three children.

Jacob pondered her question as she ran him through a quick physical using mostly Ancient equipment, which was less invasive for the most part. “I think bof of you are baby doctors,” he pronounced seriously when she was done.

“Why thank you Jacob,” she said with a grin. “Now, since you were a good boy and didn’t fuss you get a piece of fruit.” She produced a large basket overflowing with Pegasus fruit. “I know it isn’t lollipops, but we can’t get them out here very often and I still haven’t figured out how to make them from what we’ve got around here,” she explained seriously. She felt it was best to let Jacob know up front that there were a lot of things that were scarce around here that he had probably taken for granted before. While Jacob examined the basket with a look of dubiousness, Doctor Holbrook moved on to examine the twins.

“What’s this?” Jacob asked, holding up a stick.

Conner snickered while Murphy blushed a little. “Those are your Da’s favorites,” Conner teased. “They’re chewing sticks and they taste kinda like a banana and a pineapple mixed up together.”

While Conner went over the contents of the basket with Jacob explaining everything that was in it, Doctor Holbrook went over the results of the physicals with the rest of the family. “Everything looks good, but it looks like both of the twins were having allergic reactions to something back on Earth. I’d like to make an appointment with you for later this week so I can run some allergy tests. If we’re lucky, whatever it was is something that isn’t in Pegasus. I can tell you it was environmental as they’re still nursing.”

“That’s what caused the colic?” Annabelle asked, relieved to finally have an answer to why the twins were so difficult to get to settle down.

Doctor Holbrook nodded. “Did they have any trouble on the Daedalus?”

Gretchen shook her head and said something in German. “She said not after the first week. They started calming down within the first couple of days, but the colic stopped completely by the end of the fifth day,” Murphy translated.

“It’s definitely something environmental then. Everything is very strictly regulated on the Daedalus. I’ll check with Lieutenant Novak to see what they were exposed to during the trip. The last thing you need to know is that all three boys are strongly ATA positive, so I’m warning you now, Atlantis loves children and she will do her best to take care of them. If the boys want the lights on, they’ll probably stay on, she’ll play their favorite music, let them through doors that are locked, stuff like that. Get Conner or Murphy to tell Atlantis when to knock it off. The good news is that she’s very strict about safety protocols. They won’t be able to talk her into letting them go somewhere dangerous or get into something that’s dangerous for them. Two of the Genii kids are ATA positive, although not as strong as your three, so I do know what I’m talking about with this.”

“Girl, do you ever stop smiling?” Annabelle asked. This woman doctor was more cheerful than her boys after pulling a successful prank.

“Only during a Wraith attack,” she admitted cheerfully. “If you’d like I can get yours and Gretchen’s baseline so you can get out of here without having to deal with the mob.” Both women gratefully agreed and that was taken care of by the time Jacob had finally picked out one of the chewing sticks from the basket.

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Sergeant Broomer and two privates had taken Mr. Woolsey, Miss Huang and Mr. Skoglund to their assigned guest quarters, showing them how everything worked and generally settling them in before their meeting with Doctor Weir. Personally the sergeant was glad that Doctor Weir was accompanied by at least one shepherd, if not two while she was on duty. He knew Woolsey; the man was ok for a paper pusher. The other two however, made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. A man learned to trust his instincts when he worked on an off world team, and his were telling him not to trust these two. The only questions that he was concerned about were whether or not these two were eligible to become targets for the shepherds and if they were, would he be able to arrange a suitable ‘accident’ to explain how they died without getting them all into trouble.

After giving the IOA representatives time to unpack, Broomer led the way to the command center. He knew that Doctor Weir would be in her office waiting for them. Walking into the command center he was pleased to see that everything looked good for the inspection. The guards were standing at attention without losing their primary focus of watching for trouble. The geek manning the gate controls was maintaining an almost military level of alertness and tidiness. ‘Doctor McKay must have said something,’ Broomer grinned to himself. It was well known that few of the scientists were brave enough, or stupid enough, to ignore Doctor McKay’s orders.

Broomer knocked on Doctor Weir’s office door and ushered in the IOA representatives in when he heard her acknowledgement. “Doctor Weir? The IOA reps are here,” he said, voluntarily giving the civilian head of the expedition a salute.

“Thank you sergeant,” Elizabeth said as she looked up. The sergeant nodded and left the room leaving the three civilians behind. Seeing Woolsey was a relief. If he’d been sent then there was a good chance that she had some room to work. The man was honest to a fault, although he was a stickler for the rules. Huang was someone she could work with, although she’d have to keep an eye on her at all times. The woman wouldn’t hesitate to stab anyone in the back if she thought it would help her to achieve her goals. Skoglund was probably the worst possible person that the IOA could have sent. As far as he was concerned, Earth was the only planet of importance and anyone not born there was automatically and simultaneously discounted as beneath him and watched with xenophobic suspicion that the alien was only out to cause trouble for Earth. They were the best and the worst possible from the IOA. Still, she thought she could make this work, given half a chance.

“Hello everyone, welcome to Atlantis,” Elizabeth said warmly.

“You did not meet us at the Daedalus,” Huang remarked, her voice chilly.

“It’s Daedalus day, Miss Huang,” Elizabeth replied serenely. “There are procedures that have to be followed, and that includes my staying out of the way of my subordinates so that they can get their work done. The last thing we need is for anything to delay the unloading of supplies and personnel as it is a strategic weak point in our supply line.

“Now, there have been some changes since you left Earth that the three of you should be made aware of,” Elizabeth said, changing the subject. She wasn’t going to indulge Huang or anyone else in pointless self grandstanding.

“Does this include the reason there are so many civilians around here?” Woolsey asked; a disturbed look on his face as he looked out of the windows of her office.

“Mr. Woolsey, those are our refugees. I know that I informed the IOA of their presence here,” Elizabeth said; slightly alarmed at his ignorance.

“I was under the impression that most of the refugees who chose to stay on Lantia moved to the mainland with the Athosians,” Woolsey said.

“That was true until the Genii leadership was killed,” Elizabeth said. “Most of those that survived their encounter with the mila poppaaem were in poor enough health that Doctor Beckett refused to allow them to leave Atlantis. As most of them were technicians or at least had some technical skills, they’ve been making themselves as useful as they can. Most of them who are mobile are working in the greenhouses and taking on any unskilled chores they can. You wouldn’t believe how many of them are willing to wash dishes and sweep floors.”

“Is that why you’ve got bodyguards?” Skoglund asked; looking over at the two men who were leaning against the back wall of Elizabeth’s office.

“The Genii here in Atlantis are no threat to me or anyone else. They all have some form of cancer. Without the treatment they are getting from Doctor Beckett they’ll die and they know it.” Elizabeth sighed over the seriousness of that situation. Then she grinned wryly. “The bodyguards are mostly ceremonial. Colonel Sheppard got tired of trying to figure out who was available from his men and the security teams to stand in when visitors showed up. Now I have two bodyguards whenever I’m on duty and when I’m not, two stand guard on my office so it at least looks like my people treat me the way the people of this galaxy think I should be treated. It’s nothing more than a pain, but it keeps those officials I have to deal with from being insulted so I put up with it.”

“Why would they be insulted and why should you have to put up with them?” Skoglund wanted to know.

“Because making them deal with someone of lesser rank is an insult,” Elizabeth explained. “Leaders only deal with leaders so I have to look like a leader. As for why I put up with them Mr. Skoglund, it is part of my job here to find as many diplomatic alliances as possible. The only way we are going to defeat the Wraith is to work together.”