A/N This is a work I began while season two was airing, and I've come back again and again to add to it. I know where it's going, but it is a long road to get there. In hopes that posting will encourage me to finish, I begin, with no promises about how often I will post updates or how long this is likely to be. I'll start it with a T rating which will be changed to M eventually. Feedback is likely to get me editing and posting existing material, as well as writing new, so if you like this, please review!

Unconditional: A Love Story Across Time and Space

Chapter 1

Doctor Meredith Rodney McKay was dying. He'd been known as Mar (a slurring of his first and middle initials) to his wife for so long that it felt strange to think of the whole thing as his name. They'd had decades together. Centuries. And yet it wasn't long enough. Forever was the only time frame which would satisfy him. He wanted to be with Doctor Leah Francesca Elton-McKay, known to him as Elf, forever. Their first meetings were nearly lost to ancient memory, but with her help, they recalled their story to one another.

One last time.

~~~SGA~~~

Leah shook her head, attempting to clear it. Her mouth was dry and her brain felt too big for her skull. She heard voices around her, but the phrases seemed not to make sense to her.

"—said her mixture was fine, she just started twisting around and swimming away like she saw something—"

"—experienced divers, not at fault—"

"—suffering hypothermia—"

"—asking if I saw the lights she saw, I don't know what she was talking—"

"—lawsuit would shut us down here—"

"—her father's a Senator, he's gonna—"

A face slid into view above Leah's face. It was dominated by cocoa brown eyes, and she knew she ought to recognize it, but her mind was working so slowly, she felt like she was stoned.

"—awake again. Cher, can you understand me?"

Leah blinked slowly and tried to nod.

"—if ya'll'd be quiet! Leah, d'you know where you are?"

Suddenly there was silence and three more faces swam into view over her. She looked from one to the other to the other, then squinted as she peered beyond them. She licked her lips.

"Antarctica, Phellon," she cleared her throat, "research station, 80 miles from—McMurdo," she coughed slightly at the hoarseness of her cracking voice. "Infirmary, apparently. Can I have some damn water, I'm parched here."

A straw was placed at her lips and she drank.

"What happened out there? Matt said you swam away from him."

"There were lights-that came on, like …an instrument panel. They were in—in the ice and… more started lighting up and I—followed them. There's something, something..some kind of machine embedded in the—ice. And it was like… it recognized me." She frowned. "There was hole, and—I reached in to-to, uh, touch it and there was this flash, then I was floating, floating…" Her mind swirled with images of flying up through the ice, of sky, stars, of a blur of grey and then a glistening city spread below her, surrounded by ocean. Then the images became chaotic. She recalled floating down into the city, she saw people moving around, but none of them seemed aware of her. There were military items around, and glowing panels like the one she'd seen in the ice, then a lean, dark-haired man looked right at her and called out. She felt as if she had been hit and she retreated. His eyes seemed to follow her, like he could reach out with his mind and seize her. She writhed, trying to escape, and then she recalled struggling with her scuba mask, choking on icy sea water, then darkness.

More questions followed, but Leah's mind seemed to lose focus and she drifted away on a fog, and her eyes closed.

But she dreamed. Flying, sky, stars, grey, then the ocean and the city. She floated down the corridors, past people. This time she felt clearer. The images around her didn't feel chaotic or dreamlike, just foreign. She didn't recognize most of the uniforms the people wore, but some were American military, she thought. None of them seemed to see her. She caught whispers, impressions of emotions from those she passed closely to, but she couldn't focus on them. Another whisper, this one more focused and somehow familiar, called her in a particular direction, and she floated after it. A bearded man in a white lab coat stood over a cage holding white mice. He seemed engrossed in making notes on a clipboard. Leah floated closer, trying to read what the man was writing. He heard a murmur of voice and felt a sense of concentration. She focused on the voice and began to make out words. 'L-Lysine and L-Glutamine in the cells increased—' the voice was masculine and had a burr to it she recognized as Scottish. 'Those are amino acids,' she thought to herself. Suddenly he jumped as if he felt her. He stared around wildly, then his eyes focused on her. He squinted, then backed away, fear flowing out from him toward her like a grey fog. Leah tried to make a pacifying gesture, tried to speak to him.

'Can you see me? Where am I?' She asked. The man stumbled away, slipping, catching himself on the edge of a table, then ran away. The man's fear left a mistiness in the room, trailing after him. She tried to look down at herself, but saw only light. She moved her hands and saw a swirling of silvery ribbons of brightness, but she saw nothing familiar. She moved to where the clipboard had fallen from the man's hands and peered at it. It was notes on something regarding genetics. Her own background in marine biology allowed her to understand some of it, but there were notations she didn't recognize cognitively. The unknown symbols seemed familiar somehow, but she couldn't remember ever seeing them before. Their meaning felt just beyond her grasp.

Men with guns swarmed into the room, and she whirled, looking from one to the other. They all wore military uniforms, but none seemed to be able to see her. The niggle of familiarity that had drawn her to this lab grew, and then redoubled as two more men entered the room. One was the bearded man. His grey fear clung to him, and he pointed at her. The other man was the man she'd seen in her previous vision. Her mind registered that he was very handsome, then he raised his weapon. Leah backed away from them, shaking her head. She tried to hold her hands out from her body, to be unthreatening, but the man's gaze was cold. He yelled something to the other soldiers and stared hard at her. She felt herself captured by his gaze and heard a voice in her mind. '—made of light, not darkness like the energy creature, but the men can't see it. It seems immaterial, but I cannot let it harm the people here. This is what you're here for, John, to protect these people. But if only Carson and I can see it, it must have something to do with the Ancients. Even so, I will not let it hurt Atlantis!'

Leah felt herself trembling. She tried to call out to the voice in her mind.

'I don't want to hurt anyone! Where am I? What is this place? What's happening?' She cried. The lead soldier's eyes narrowed as if he might have heard her. She moved toward him, desperate to have him hear her. 'Can you hear me? I don't know what's going on!'

Bullets tore through the room, passing harmlessly through Leah, but she recoiled, screaming. She sensed the bearded man collapse with the sound of her scream in his mind, but the lead soldier kept firing. She flew backward, through the walls, the ceiling, and suddenly she was hovering in the atmosphere above the city. She was shaking, trembling, but she knew she wasn't in a corporeal body to have the shakes. 'I want to wake up, I want to wake up!' She cried out in her mind.

And sat up in the infirmary bed, gasping and sweating.

Leah held her hands out in front of her, staring at the hard lines of her normal flesh. She touched her face, felt the perspiration, the heat of her skin. She looked around the room.

"Jamie?" She said. The young doctor turned from his computer and smiled. He came to the edge of her bed.

"Hey, cher, how you feelin'?" He asked, his Cajun accent lilting his words.

"I had a—a nightmare."

He took her hand, unobtrusively checked her pulse. It was rapid, but slowing.

"Okay. How does your body feel?"

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and took stock of how she felt.

"Shaky, a little lethargic, but no pain or anything." She opened her eyes and looked at Jamie. "What happened to me?" He shook his head.

"We were hopin' you'd be able to tell us. What d'you remember?"

"Flying. A floating city, and people who couldn't see me…wait, that was my dream." She shook her head.

"Yesterday you and Matt went on a dive. D'you remember that?"

Leah searched her memory, going past the very vivid dream images. She nodded.

"We were checking out that blip we got under the ice. He was east of me, and I saw something in the ice. I swam closer, and there were lights inside the ice. I followed the bank of lights off to my right, then there was a hole, and I could reach the panel embedded in the ice. I touched it, and there was a flash of brightness, but it—" she frowned, trying to find the words to describe a completely foreign sensation. "It was a flash of brightness inside me, in my mind. Then I…I floated up. I was insubstantial and I went through the ice, up into the air, into space, moving faster and faster. I was flying through this grey…nothingness, then I was in the air over the ocean." She concentrated, trying to reach past the dream she'd just had of the same place to the real memory. They felt so similar… "There was a city below me, with towers. It was floating in the ocean, and I flew down toward it—"

"That's what you said about what you just dreamed, Leah. Can you 'member what happened on the dive?"

She frowned at Jamie. "I am remembering what happened on the dive. It…it's like I was there once, when I touched the panel, then I dreamed about it again. It was different the first time. Let me finish chasing down the memory." She closed her eyes, focusing on coming down toward the city.

"I went through the walls of the place just like I'd gone through the ice. I could see people, walking around. Regular people, in some sort of uniform… I don't recognize the uniform. But there are a few people in what looks like US Military uniforms. I'm coming down this hallway and then there's a tall, dark haired guy. He looked right at me, and I heard, no, I felt him yell at me. He…his mind grabbed me and I couldn't get away, I tried to pull away from him, I struggled, and—and then I was back underwater, and my mask was askew, the water was touching my face. I still had air, but it was so cold, and someone was grabbing me, and I struggled…then nothing. I woke up here. You all were talking and you gave me water and asked if I knew where I was and what had happened and I think I talked a little, then I drifted off to sleep." She opened her eyes and Jamie stared at her, concern apparent in his large brown eyes.

"Well, the first part and the last part I can confirm, but you seem to have had some sort of hallucination under d'ice. D' cold, d' dark down there, maybe your mixture was off, but I think you had a funny little dream, cher." Jamie said. He patted her hand and stood. "Are you still tired? D'you want to sleep some more?"

Leah shook her head. She went over and over it in her head. Both the memory of the city when she had been underwater and the dream felt as real as what she was feeling at this moment.

~~~SGA~~~

When Leah was released from the infirmary Jamie told her to take it easy for a few days and report any more 'hallucinations'. She had nodded silently at the instructions and walked back to the dorm. After dinner, she went into what the inhabitants of the research outpost called the quiet room. Anyone who wanted peace to read, research, meditate, or any other quiet task, could do so there. All of the noisier recreations were reserved for the other rec room, which also served as the dining room.

Leah had her yoga mat with her, as well as a small blanket. She chose an empty corner of the room and unrolled her mat. She sank down onto it and folded herself into full lotus. Then she wrapped her blanket around her shoulders and began deep breathing exercises. After several minutes of deepened breaths, she had her pulse and breathing down to a very slow rate. She was in a deep meditative state. She turned her mind to reaching up and out of herself. Her self seemed to swell outside her body, then contract into it, but she did not rise up. She tried to feel lighter and lighter, that she could float up, but she didn't. Then she focused on the city she had seen, floating amidst a vast ocean, and she shot up like a cork. So fast this time, the sky and stars barely flashed past before she was in the grey, then at the city. It was night this time, and as she moved into the hallways, she saw fewer people. She decided to explore the place this time, and try to avoid another confrontation. As she moved around, she saw panels which glowed with foreign symbols that were almost familiar. In rooms, she found some places were draped in silky-looking material, so she couldn't tell what the furniture was that was covered. But as she moved farther into the city, she found more places which were obviously in use regularly. She tried to skirt those, only investigating the edges to as not to encounter any people. She saw one title on many of the crates and uniforms; Atlantis. These people seemed to be an expeditionary force.

The little tickle in her mind told her one of those people who would perceive her was near, and she moved away from the sensation. She wondered what made those people able to see her. Maybe there would be more of them who wouldn't freak out at her glowiness, but she wasn't yet willing to risk it.

Then suddenly, she moved into a room which she took to be yet another lab, and a man with that familiar feeling was there in front of her. His back was to her, and she studied him for a moment, ready to will herself back through the wall and away. He had short brown hair, a nice set of shoulders, and a stocky body. He wore a blue long sleeved shirt and tan pants, and he seemed to be engrossed in a small glowing panel. She moved toward him hesitantly, and sensed his mind was intensely devoted to his task. She immediately recognized that his thoughts were much more focused than the other two men's. She could tell precisely what he was thinking, though it was far beyond her comprehension. A thrill ran through her. 'A scientist! Perhaps he'll find this fascinating instead of terrifying.' She thought. The man jerked upright and whirled around as if she had spoken unexpectedly in his ear.

Leah moved back to the wall and studied him. He had a broad, late thirty-something face, clean-shaven, with a frown line seemingly etched between thick eyebrows. A pointed nose and slightly cleft double chin framed a versatile mouth which was working soundlessly. She was now far enough away to have to concentrate to hear his thoughts, though she could see the grey fog of fear hovering at the back of his neck. It didn't flow out to encompass everything yet, but she could tell it was barely held in check. His mind was running, leaping through possibilities, some which were so technical in nature she didn't understand them. She caught something about a gene which must be within the viewer to see her. A flicker to the names she'd heard before of the other two men, John and Carson, then a technical possibility regarding quantum fields. She withdrew her listening and decided to try to speak to him.

Leah focused her own mind as much as she could on her words, thinking them carefully as she said them.

'I am not here to harm you. I am a scientist in Antarctica. My name is Leah Elton. What is your name?'

Immediately, he stared in comprehension. Leah nearly sighed in relief.

"I'm Dr Rodney McKay. I lead the scientific division of the expedition. But why don't you already know that if you're a scientist on the Stargate program?" He pointed as he asked his question.

'I don't know anything about a Stargate program. I'm a marine biologist working at a research outpost. I was on a dive and found a glowing panel like those here in the ice. I touched it, and since then, I've been able to come here twice. You're the first person who can see me who isn't terrified or aggressive.'

He smirked. "I'm sure Carson was the terrified and Sheppard the aggressive." He gave a little head bobble of superiority with that statement. The fear cloud was gone from him, and he sat down. "I heard about your encounters. It's…fortuitous? That you finally came to see me. I'm certain I'll be able to figure this out. Now, you say you saw a panel like those here under the ice in Antarctica. Can you describe it?"

'Well, it was similar to…" She looked around and saw one on the opposite wall. "This one.' She approached it. 'It started to glow when I swam toward it. I followed the lights to an opening in the ice and I reached out to touch it. There was a flash of brightness in my mind, then I was flying up and eventually I was here. I saw many people, but it wasn't until I saw… I think you called him Sheppard. His first name is John, right?' He nodded, studying her. He stared intently at what she perceived as her face. 'When he saw me, it was like his mind tried to trap me, and I had to break away violently. I was suddenly back on Earth, choking on seawater. What do you see when you look at me?'

His head jerked at the abrupt change of subject. He looked at her all over. "I see an amorphous glowing cloud. When you speak, I get an impression of a face here." He gestured where he'd been looking. "It's actually quite…beautiful." He said softly. Then he raised his head and looked piercingly at her. She could see his eyes were blue and very attentive. "So how did you come back? Are you underwater again?"

'The second time, I was dreaming, or at least I thought I was. Now I'm in a deep state of meditation, and I consciously chose to come. It seems I can only come here, not go flying all over the world. I had to focus on the city to be able to get, well, out of my body, I guess you could say. Where are we here? The middle of the Pacific? Or…farther?'

"Atlantis is in the Pegasus galaxy. Now how was the panel different from this one?" He gestured at the panel she'd indicated.

'The…I'm in a different galaxy?' Leah felt faint. She almost giggled. 'How could I faint when I'm not in my body?'

McKay stared at her. "Yes, the Pegasus galaxy. We came through the Stargate, and we haven't had contact with Earth in several months." He seemed impatient. "Now, how was the panel—"

'Whoa, whoa… this is so huge.' Her mind raced. 'But wait, there's no way, I—I… doesn't relativity say something about not being able to move faster than light without a time distortion kind of thing? Like the… I'd still be young, but everyone else would be dead and gone back home by the time I returned? The—the twin paradox, Einstein, right?'

McKay waved impatiently. "I thought you said you were a scientist. Obviously the twin paradox deals only with those still in a human body, not with a consciousness removed from that body. Besides, wormhole theory, as proved in the last 8 years, completely changes the field of quantum physics. For example—" He dove into a technical description of something about quantum field variances, and she waved her arms.

'Shut up!' She cried. He stopped cold, hands in mid gesture. He looked as crestfallen as a little boy, and she softened her tone. 'Dr McKay, I am a biologist. I never even took basic physics in high school. My knowledge of the theory of relativity and Einstein's twin paradox comes from science fiction. I'm 28 years old and I'm a little overwhelmed by this. Give me a minute to try to grasp it.'

His lips pressed into a thin line and he crossed his arms. "Fine." He stood there for a long moment, looking around the lab. Leah tried to breathe deeply, but realized that without a body, she couldn't use that as a relaxation technique. She focused on a mantra, imagining her breath with the sounds.

"Are you done yet?" McKay's impatient voice cut through her concentration. She looked at him in frustration.

'Why is this happening to me?' She asked. She hoped it didn't sound as plaintive as it might.

"I believe you must have the Ancient gene which allows you to initialize Ancient technology. Your presence activated the panel in the ice. You touched it, and it…did whatever it was designed to do. Perhaps it's a communication device those who returned to Earth used to stay in contact with those left behind on Atlantis. In any case, you are the first link we have truly had to home. I intend to utilize you. I need to understand all I can about the device that brought you here, and you will have to get into contact with Stargate Command to relay information we've gathered here." He looked around, suddenly looking very excited, his fingers snapping repeatedly. "That's it, you can be our relay to Earth. Maybe we even find some way to allow others to use the device. I've got to talk with Elizabeth…"

She stared at him as he started to head for the door. 'Wait!' He stopped and turned. 'I have no idea what you're talking about. Who are the Ancients, and what is Stargate Command?'

His mouth opened as if to explain, then he sighed. She heard his thoughts. 'Explain all this? To a kid from Earth who found a toy while swimming? Great!'

'I'm not a kid. I am a research scientist, top of my class at UCLA. MS in marine biology from Texas A&M, I've been published 12 times in the last 4 years.' She stated, sensing he might respond better to her credentials than to her amorphous self. His arrogance was annoying.

"I didn't say you were a kid—" He protested.

'No, you thought it. That's another little benefit of being a floating consciousness. I can hear your thoughts.' Leah added as much rancor as she could to her tone.

McKay stared at her for a long moment, then she caught the brief thought. 'Crap…' and he bolted form the room.

'Oh, shit. Brilliant. Alienate the first person who's stopped to talk to me. Great.' She floated quickly after him. 'Dr McKay, wait!' She called. He was at the end of the hall, maybe 20 feet from her. He stopped and looked back.

"I don't want you reading my mind," he said forcefully. She stopped moving toward him.

'Distance blocks it. I can only hear what you say now, not your thoughts.'

"Good. Stay there, then."

'Look, you need to tell me what the hell is going on here, and I take it it's a rather complicated tale. Will you come back into the lab and sit down? I promise to stay far enough away so I won't be able to hear you thinking.' 'As if I understand half of it anyway, this guy's a fucking genius…'

He finally agreed, and she didn't tell him that she could still hear his more forceful thoughts from where she settled across the lab from him. He began a narrative to rival any sci-fi she'd ever read or seen.

'So Asimov was definitely wrong…' She said softly, referring to the science fiction master who'd written mainly of a universe with no alien life.

"About what?" McKay rolled his chair a bit closer.

'Nothing. The government has known this for so long. It's pretty amazing that no one has blown the lid off it. I think my head hurts from all this, but considering my head is however many million…crap, I don't even know the appropriate astronomical term. Not A.U.s. Maybe…you tell me.' She said. He moved forward a little more, and she caught a thought of him wondering what she looked like.

"Uh, that would be light years? That's what you'd use to measure the distance between galaxies." His tone said 'duh', but his mind was happy to show off something he knew that she didn't.

'How long have I been here?' She asked, dropping her voice so he'd come a bit closer still. She didn't care about reading his incomprehensible thoughts, but it was a strain to project her 'voice' across the room. And it seemed to be getting harder.

McKay checked his watch. "We've been talking for about three hours. Look, now that you have the basics of the situation, I hope you understand how important it is that we have this chance to communicate. What can you tell me about the panel you found?"

'I…I really didn't have a chance to study it…' Leah's mind drifted. McKay said something and she missed it. 'What? I'm having a really hard time focusing.'

"You're no good if you can't even complete a sentence. Do you think you'll be able to come back after you rest?" His emotional concern was overlaid with the sense of impatience at her weakness.

'I'm not weak…I'm—I'm tired. I've, I've gotta go…'

"Wait, you have to contact Stargate Command. Talk to Colonel Carter and Dr. Jackson. Tell them…" She drifted out for a moment. "They need to look at that panel you found. Tell Colonel Carter…" He thought for a moment, and she began drifting up toward the ceiling. "No, not that," he said to himself. His obvious attraction to the Colonel in his memory covered any specific thoughts he had. "Just tell them what you've told me, and tell them Atlantis base has a lot to report."

She began to feel that it was urgent to return to her body. She was nearly to the ceiling when she paused.

'Doctor, will you please tell them not to shoot at me next time? I'll try to come back soon…'

McKay watched her fading into further insubstantiality. He suddenly realized he had not told her any way to reach the super secret Stargate Command.

"Wait—Colonel Carter's first name is Samantha," he frowned, "but I know she's not listed. Try Dr Daniel Jackson or General Jack O'Neill, Colorado Springs, Colorado!" He called out to the vague mist, hoping she'd heard him. He sank into his chair, wondering at the abilities of the Ancients. He finally shook himself and, with a smirk, headed out to wake some people up.

~~~SGA~~~