They haven't argued like this since that very first year.

The thing is, John understands her course of action. He really does but-

"I was under the impression that you trusted my judgment."

"I do trust you, John," Elizabeth snaps at him annoyed at the constant circling their discussion has taken on.

"You obviously don't. I told you what I wanted to do. Heightmeyer and I had the entire thing scheduled. You couldn't have waited two more hours?"

"As leader of this expedition, it is my responsibility to ensure the safety of our people."

"You forget, Dr. Weir," John replies coolly, knowing that what he says next was going to put a definite strain on their relationship. " That I am the military commander of this base and any concerns about the safety of this base and it's inhabitants will go through me. Do we understand each other, Dr. Weir?"

She purses her lips and meets his gaze head on, "I understand you're upset Colonel but don't let that color your judgment. Nothing that I have done has been outside my purview and you know that. I will admit that I should have informed you of my intentions first but I was afraid that you would let your personal feelings control you."

John blinks, taken back. "What?"

"You're too close to this. Can you honestly tell me that this situation doesn't effect you in anyway?" Elizabeth gently asks, grateful when some of the tension in the room dissipates.

"You think I would ever knowingly allow anyone to endanger Atlantis? That I wouldn't take precautions?"

John was insulted but before he couldn't wind up for a truly impressive dressing down, Elizabeth adds, "I don't want you to get hurt either. This entire situation is outrageous and I can't help but think you're being targeted in someway."

'Its hard to keep up any righteous indignation when the person you're angry with goes and makes sense.' John thinks, grinding his teeth.

'Of course the Colonel's nephew would try to kill himself on my watch' Private Lewis thinks in absolute dismay.

No one was supposed to know about any familial relations between their guest and CO but, this being Atlantis, no secret was safe.

This was suppose to be an easy assignment and so far the only trouble they'd have with their newest arrival was coaxing him out of his room so imagine their surprise when Atlantis' alarms suddenly goes nuts and the room door opens.

Lewis has survived this long by being prepared for anything.

He is not prepared to see their ward standing in the middle of his room digging a scalpel into his arm. There is a beat of horrified silence as he and his partner Ruiz just stare, then he's calling for a medical team and Ruiz is trying to talk him down.

"It's okay, son, just put the knife down," Ruiz inches forward, hand out appeasing and body language open.

Connor stares at him, eyes wide in surprise before dropping the scalpel, "I wasn't-this isn't- I was not trying to kill my-self!"

"Then what were you doing?" Ruiz questions keeping the conversation going as Lewis disappears into the bathroom and comes back with a towel.

Connor doesn't move as Lewis grabs his arm and wraps the towel around it keeping a firm pressure on it.

"I just wanted to leave," Connor looks dazed and Lewis doesn't blame him since his arm looks like it went through a meat grinder. He really doesn't want to know what was going through the guy's head that he could just do that to him self.

The blood soaks through the towel pretty fast and he wraps another one over it wishing that the Doc and his team would hurry the hell up as Connor sways and drops to his knees. He kneels next to him taking his weight as Connor leans on him.

"I don't feels so good," Connor declares.

"I know you don't but Doctor Carson is on the way and he'll have you right as rain."

"Right as rain," Connor slurs, "the hell does that even mean?"

"It's just a saying. It means you'll be okay."

"It's a stupid saying." Connor finally says after a moment of consideration, "It's not going to be okay."

When the med team shows up, Connor is unconscious in a recovery position and Lewis' pants are completely soaked in blood.

Beckett takes everything in at a glance and starts barking orders to everyone in the room. One of his nurses manages to smoothly switch places with the private and in a matter of moments they have Connor on his way to the infirmary, leaving the two marines to stare at each other.

As per protocol, the senior staff is automatically notified whenever a med-team is requested.

Sheppard finds himself pacing up and down the corridor constantly shifting from worried to rage.

Elizabeth left about an hour before either fed up with his glares or to resolve some problem in the gate-room. Any resolution he'd found with Elizabeth had gone straight out the window and though he knew he wasn't being fair it made him feel better to know he has someone to blame.

I just wanted to leave, that's what Connor told Lewis. Was being reminded of whom he was so bad that Connor would go to such extremes to escape?

Sheppard was sure and to be honest he didn't know Connor. He had no pass experiences with his nephew that he could possibly use to predict his reactions.

He didn't want to think about what it says about him that the only time he'd shown any interest in him was when Connor had gone missing.

He grimaces and shook the thought from his head as Beckett finally walks out into the hall.

While Atlantis' leaders were at each other throats and her father and SG-1 are fooling around on the set of the Wormhole Extreme show, Doctor Carolyn Lam is busy in the lab running the blood sample sent by Doctor Beckett against the three provided to her by General O'Neill.

As the computer does its comparisons she automatically does a check for any infections in the sample from Atlantis while Nurse Michaels looks on. The Lieutenant arrived on the base at the same time she did and they had bonded over being the newcomers.

And he'd been the only one that didn't expect her to be the next Doctor Major Janet Fraiser.

"Whose samples are these?" Michaels asks curiously. He normally wouldn't but if this was something confidential then Lam would never have perform the tests in a room full of people.

Carolyn shrugs distractedly as she studied the first results; 100% match. "General O'Neill requested I do the test blind. I suspect he doesn't want prior knowledge to in any way contaminate my findings."

Blaring sirens cuts off any further inquires that Michaels could make.

"Unscheduled Off-World Activation."

Like a well oiled machine medical personnel headed into the infirmary ready for any incoming patients. It wasn't until she hears Walter's voice requesting a medical team to the Gate Room that Carolyn pulls herself away from the screen to await any patients the Orange team brought back.

Finding himself alone in the lab, curiosity gets the best of him and he picks up the yellow envelope on the desk and takes out the flash drive. Quickly sliding it into the computer, Michaels opens the only file on the drive and is surprised to see only three lines.

Sample # 1: Connor Sheppard taken by LAPD crime scene unit

Sample # 2: David Sheppard

Sample # 3: Colonel John Sheppard

Michaels raises an eyebrow and looks for the message Doctor Beckett sent through and could only stare in disbelief.

Hours later when Carolyn final makes it back to the lab everything is as she left it and all the results are done. The second result shows a 99.999% percent match for paternity and the third shows a kinship index of above 1.00.

That done she picks up the envelope and lets the flash drive slide into her hand slightly bewildered because she could swear it was on the left side of the desk.

She completely forgets any suspicion once she reads what's in the file.