@@@@@

Together Buffy and Ronon left the gate room, walking slowly to their destination. His protective instinct kicked in and Ronon slowed his pace considerably in consideration of the girl by his side. She looked tired and worn out. Fighting the Wraith could do that to a person.

His mind went back to the scene he stumbled upon on the planet. How could one so small and so young fight the way she did? And some of those moves she used on the Wraith he had never seen before. She fought with strength and stamina like that of soldiers on his planet.

He looked down at her blonde head, he was easily two heads taller than she was, he felt that one so small should be protected, yet he knew she was able to fight and hold her own with the Wraith. She was very interesting but he could wait to find out the answers he wanted to know.

There was something else nagging at him. Her attire was not like the other villagers; she was wearing garments similar to what John would wear on his downtime. She had on torn blue rugged pants and dirty white shoes. I think John called them jeans, and the footwear were called sneakers. 

-----

Buffy kept stealing glances at Ronon. Her mind was spinning; all the questions she would like to ask would have to wait. She tried to hold them in, really she did, but they all came tumbling out.

“Where are we, what is this place, not that it’s not cool and all, but I still need to know where I am, did you see the monks, hopefully, maybe you killed them because that would save me a lot of trouble, and …” Buffy noticed Ronon was not by her side any more. She turned around to see a disgruntled look on his face, “Did I do something wrong, say something wrong, why are you looking at me like that?”

He blinked slowly, great, he thought, another talker; she was like the female version of Dr. McKay. Thinking he would like to drop her off at the infirmary to get checked out, hang around there until she was done, just in case she would need him, and then head back to his quarters for some quiet. He started walking again, with her falling into step beside him.

“Why do I have to see the doctor? I’m fine just tired from all the travel, just show me a place where I can rest and I will be all better tomorrow. Just get me a bed, a pillow, and I will sleep the sleep of the innocent, I promise I will be fine, I’m just tired,” she noticed she was babbling again and quickly shut her mouth.

Several more times she tried to make conversion, but all her attempts failed. He would just turn his head look at her, and then continue on like she had not spoken. She had to all but run to catch up and match his long strides. But oh, was he a quiet one. The strong and silent type, ooh she liked that.

She must be channeling Willow, because babbling was something she didn’t  normally  do but when she was weirded out, but she did tend to talk a lot. She was even babbling in her head. It was sometimes hard to keep quiet but she took great pains to do so.

And this place, this Atlantis was definitely part of the weird factor that made her babble. But Hell dimensions were always weird, not that she remembered many, partial amnesia is a typical after effect of any hell portal travel. But she remembered everything, every little thing, the village, the screams, the Wraith and the portal with a telephone, everything right down to what she didn’t have for breakfast.

Buffy followed Ronon down hall after hall, turning this way and that. She knew she would get lost if she had to find the infirmary on her own; this place was like a maze. He stopped abruptly turned and waved a hand across the wall, a panel slid open to reveal a very small room.

He pulled her into what appeared to be an elevator; she could feel a slight shift, off setting her balance for a moment, as she watched a panel, which appeared to be a map, tracing their ride to see the doctor.  And faster than any elevator ride she had ever been on, the door opened into a hallway that was right in front of their intended destination, the infirmary.

Boy was the place busy, medics rushing to and fro making sure the few surviving villagers got the medical attention they needed without scaring them.

Touching her shoulder Ronon pointed to bed and gave her a look that told her to stay, “Dr. Becket will take good care of you.” With a squeeze of his hand he went off to wait for her, out of the way, by one of the infirmary doors.

-----

John entered the infirmary a few minutes later, followed by Teyla; they walked over to where Ronon was watching the girl as she waited to get looked at by Dr. Becket’s staff.

“So Ronon, who’s your new friend?” John asked, as he watched her get up and walk to a different bed that was in the far corner.

Ronon watched in approval as she moved, her new location was a wise choice. She chose a spot in the corner away from the action, with her back to the wall she could assess the situation making it hard for someone to sneak up on her.

Her eyes were darting back and forth, trying to see everything at once. Her eyes lit on a metal cabinet. He saw she could see her reflection, because her hand went immediately to her hair. Grass, sticks and dust floated to the floor as she tried to tame the wild mane.

A medic dropped an instrument nearby, startled, she jumped up, with muscles tensing ready to fight. She looked to Ronon to make sure he was still there when she realized her mistake; she realized she had stopped paying to the things around her and so she resumed her surveillance of the room.

With no threat apparent she relaxed somewhat and climbed back upon the bed. Maybe, he thought, she was a warrior after all, a beautiful warrior at that.

 “All I know is what you do,” Ronon replied, “she said her name is Buffy, I found her fighting a Wraith, and then I killed it and brought her back with us.”

“She looks like she is mad at something,” John said seeing the disgruntled look on her face. He noticed what she was doing by switching the beds. John saw the same thing Ronon did, the surveillance, fighting stance, and the readiness to fight. He hoped he didn’t have a problem on his hands.

Ronon slightly smiled when he saw her push a hand away, “Yes, she insists she is fine and all she needs is rest.”

“Well, if I have to have a physical every time we return from a mission, then so does she,” John returned smirking.

-----

Along with the other villagers, she waited on the last bed for her turn to get checked out by the doctor. She knew she was fine but she heard the doctor tell the others that physicals were standard protocol for after any mission. All she needed was rest and she was not going to be able to do that here in the busy infirmary. She just needed a room and a bed, oh and some food would be nice. She rubbed her belly trying to remember when the last time she ate was.

The tall one named John appeared at the foot of her bed, along with Ronon and the woman from his team. They stood silently by John’s side, staring at her, waiting for him to speak.

“Welcome to Atlantis, we need to make introductions; running for your life tends to make those things seem trivial and unimportant. Hi, I’m Major Sheppard, this is Teyla, you already met Ronon and the loud one over there is Dr. Rodney McKay,” he pointed to one of the filled beds.

She looked over to see a very persistent man trying to get off the bed, and they kept pushing him back down. He tried several times to get up but from the looks of things that was not going to happen.

She heard Rodney furiously complain, “I’m fine, nothing wrong with me. Ouch! Damn it, that hurt.  Let me go, pleeeaassee! I have to go back to work and keep this place from ruin. John could you please tell them I’m not hurt.”

She laughed and turned back to Major Sheppard, only to see an indulgent smile on his face as he looked at Rodney. John turned back to her with a questioning eyebrow raised, the eye brow said, “What is your name?” He waited patiently for her reply.

Clearing her throat, she stood tall, well as tall as she could sitting on the bed, “Buffy Summers at your service,” he looked to be the leader so the saying fit.

How could they be here in this dimension, if the military was here, did that mean they started up the program again. But then again maybe they weren’t the Initiative, they killed the demons, they did not even try to bring one back to their base. She did not trust the military after what happened with Adam, the super demon soldier that the Army created.

They recruited her to help with the capturing of demons and she found out after the fact that the military doctor used her to further exploit her absolutely insane cause. Buffy and her friends almost died that night, barely escaping the collapse of their underground base. She would just have to wait and be patient to find out what they are doing here.

“Major? As in US military? Obviously from the patch on your shirt, I know where you are from but what are you doing here in another dimension? So where are we? Is this some kind of secret base or a royal palace?” oh my god she was babbling again, head falling she groaned into her hands.

All three exchanged startled looks over her head. She looked up to find John staring at her.  She was so very close to the truth, that he was starting to get worried. He raked his gaze over her and narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but he recovered so quickly that he thought she would not notice.

Staring her down John all but shouted, “Wait a minute, what do you know about the US military and who sent you, why are you here?”

“It’s there on your shirt, the flag and why wouldn’t I know about the US military if I am not from the United States, everybody in America knows about the military,” Buffy fired back, “and I am here because you brought me here.”

John huffed and looked ready to start again with the integration but looks from Ronon and Teyla stopped him cold. He would wait until they were at next morning’s briefing to find out what he needed to know. Elizabeth needed to know this information also and should be there for the questioning.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and looked up to see Ronon offering her silent support. His eyes said to trust them.

“Sorry, I apologize; we better wait until tomorrow when we meet with Dr. Weir, the expedition leader, to discuss this,” John grudgingly replied, “Ronon take Buffy to the west tower and find her some sleeping quarters. A marine will be posted at your door for your convenience, of course, should you need anything. Have a good night.”

Turning on his heel he left the infirmary with Teyla following.

“Well that was fun, let’s do it again, not,” Buffy grimaced. She hopped up off the table and started for the door. This time she made sure Ronon had no choice but to follow.

@@@@@

Ronon showed to her room and when they arrived there was a marine waiting with a tray of food in his hands. He nodded his head in greeting to Ronon as he handed off the tray and took up position, eyes front and center, just left of the door.

The door was a little larger than the door to the mini elevator, worked the same way too. He waved his hand and it opened, cool, kind of like the sensor doors on Star Trek.

He walked into the room and dropped the tray off on a small bedside table. He waited for her to enter behind him before speaking. “If you need assistance let the marine outside your door know,” Ronon informed her, as he took his leave.

Left to her own devices, she explored the room. Wait how do you open the door? Great she gest to figure it out all by herself. She grabbed a sandwich then walked over to the entrance, while taking a bite she waved her hand over the wall and the door opened immediately.

-----

The door chimes woke her up. She had slept soundly; she’d gotten more sleep this one night than she had had in awhile. The good kind of sleep, the dreamless, wakes you up refreshed, kind of sleep. After the day she had yesterday she needed it.

She opened the door to reveal the woman, named Teyla, from Ronon’s team. The brunette was small, the same in height and similar in build to Buffy’s own. She was dressed in beautiful homemade leather clothes that suited her body much better than the uncomfortable looking uniform she had worn yesterday on the planet.  She was caught staring and Teyla smiled.

Embarrassed Buffy gushed, “Good morning, Teyla. Yes, you have come to rescue me from boredom, and for that I thank you,” sounding way to chipper this early in the morning.

“Good morning to you too. Dr. Weir would like to see you and has asked that I escort you to the briefing room to meet with her,” Teyla’s laughing voice was pleasant, unlike the Majors from the night before and it was a most welcome change.

Since she was meeting the leader today, she wanted to be prepared, and ready to defend herself if need be. She had made herself as presentable as she could, even though she was wearing yesterday’s dirty and torn clothes.

Putting on her game face, she fingered combed her hair into some kind of style and grabbed what food was left on the tray. “Lead away,” she said with a wave and followed Teyla out the door of her temporary room.

-----

Earlier that morning John, Elizabeth, and Ronon met in the mess hall to discuss the girl before she was scheduled to appear. They wanted to have a game plan to prepare for her explanation just in case they had to act.

“John, you spoke with her last night, what did she say and what is your take on her,” Elizabeth asked while she sipped her coffee.

“She knows about us Elizabeth, she says she is from earth, the US to be exact, she doesn’t look like a threat but that does not mean that she isn’t,” John exclaimed, pointing his spoon at her almost flinging soggy oatmeal on her person. He was just pissed that he could think that this little girl could be that big of a threat.

“John calm down, maybe she is or maybe she isn’t a threat, I don’t know, we will have to wait and see,” she replied diplomatically trying to get him to relax. “I would like to hear her side of the story and make my own decision. Then we can determine what needs to be done after we talk with her.”

“If she does not want to go back to the planet, which by the way is hostile and would be a bad idea, we are going to have to tell her something. We might to have to tell her everything about us because we are stuck here and right now we have no way home. And if she really is from earth we need to protect her,” John grudgingly replied.

There was a snort from across the table. Both heads turned in that direction. Ronon sat there with a small smile. He was remembering the speed and the stamina of her fight with the Wraith, she would not like to be protected, he suspected.

“She needs no protection, she can fight, almost took down a Wraith with no weapon,” he said proudly, taking a huge bite of Althosian fruit.

He waited for Ronon to finish chewing. “What do you mean she took it down, and without a weapon, I thought you said you killed it?” John asked surprised.

“She fought hard and from the looks of it the battle lasted awhile. She got tired and the Wraith used that weakness to take advantage of her so I killed it,” shrugging his shoulders he sat back, “and if I was not there to kill it she would have eventually on her own, destroyed the Wraith.”

Elizabeth was surprised about two things, very few could fight the Wraith without weapons and live to tell about, Ronon and John were the only two that she knew about. And the other surprising thing was Ronon was very hard to impress and obviously this girl did just that.

“We will have to see what she says and go from there,” Elizabeth concluded that line of thought because they had other matters to talk about, like the relocation of the villagers, before they would meet this new mysterious girl, named Buffy.

“I am only trying to protect the city from potential threats, but I will support whatever you decide Dr. Weir,” John said knowing that he would have to follow what Elizabeth said because she was after all the leader of Atlantis.

-----

Buffy walked into the room, stiffening when she felt the tension, there was lots of it. The boys were seated at the table. John sat with a scowl on his face, looking like he wanted to yell again, and Ronon, sloughed in a relaxed manner was silent as usual. Wait did he just wink at her, she would have to pay better attention next time, she did not know if he did wink but she felt her shoulders relax a fraction. 

She looked to Dr. Weir, who stood when they entered, at least she didn’t look to hostile; she waved us over to the table. She could tell that they had already talked about her before she arrived and she had the feeling she had a lot of explaining to do.

“Welcome, have a seat and we will get started,” Dr. Weir said as she took her seat.

“I would like to talk to you and find out more about you, John told us some but I would like to hear it from you,” she asked politely, with a look to John that said, quiet and keep an open mind.

Where should she start, she did not want a repeat of the events of yesterday but with a story like hers, it probably could not be helped. Maybe she should just start at the beginning. She knew nothing about them and wondered how much she should tell them. If they were military then this place could be classified and they may not tell her anything.

“Alright let’s get the formal introductions out of the way as we wait for Dr. McKay to join us. My name is Dr. Elizabeth Weir,” she pointed around the table, “and you have already met Major John Sheppard US Airforce, Teyla Emmagan leader of the Althosians, and your rescuer is Specialist Ronon Dex of the planet Sateda. We are here to find out more about you and what we can do about…” she was interrupted by the arrival of Dr. McKay.

He rushed into the room, arms full of papers, a laptop and what looked to be crystals, “So sorry I’m late, power drain again on level one, north tower, had to hook it back up. Those engineers masquerading as technicians forced the power lines together and several systems merged and voila no power…” he dumped his load onto the table and looked up and noticed the stares, “What you know only I can fix it so that is why I am late.”

“Glad you could join us,” smiling John drawled catching a rolling crystal to keep it from falling off the table, he sat it down in front of Buffy, “we are here to meet the new girl Buffy, not talk about you and your disasters.”

“Ok I knew that was just explaining to you why I was late, if everyone did their jobs correctly ---- Wait a minute my disasters, I’ll have you know…” he was silenced by the clearing John’s throat, and he received a pointed look which told him to be quiet.

“And this is Dr. Rodney McKay, the man solely responsible for keeping our city up and running.” John smiled at him. Rodney’s scowl was instantly transformed and he sat there beaming smugly.  John looked back towards Dr. Weir and nodded for her to begin again.

With an affectionate roll of her eyes Elizabeth continued, “Welcome to the city of Atlantis Buffy, as I was saying, we would like to know more about you and find out how you came to be here.”

The ball was in her court. She needed to decide what to say and decided that full disclosure was best. There it went again, her gut. But she couldn’t believe it, she heard it this time. Her gut was whispering to her, “Confide in them, they will not hurt you.”

Her gut trusted Ronon and Ronon trusted them, so she began her story with confidence, “My name, as you know is Buffy Summers, and I’m from what was known as Sunndydale, California, otherwise known as the hell mouth. I am called the Slayer, Vampire Slayer the Chosen One is my official title. In every generation a Slayer is chosen to fight evil. In my generation I was chosen to fight the vampires and demons of earth and keep their evil from spreading, and I am good at it too, I have special powers kinda like Super Girl, and no I can’t fly.”

Every eyebrow around the table was raised in surprise, she continued, “I was following the Lorack monks, who were trying to destroy the planet again, into a portal to their home world in another dimension. I needed to catch them to keep them from coming back and killing us all. I knew that I might not return to earth, so as the one with nothing to lose I volunteered to go. I was supposed wind up in the their dimension, but something must have happened in the portal because I ended up here, well not here on Atlantis, but in this dimension. I woke up on the planet in the middle of a battle, fought a very ugly new demon, that was how Ronon found me by the way, and then you guys brought me here.” She was babbling again, they must think she is crazy. Either she was going to be accepted or locked up under going psych evaluations. She sat back patiently waiting for the inevitable rantings of disbelief.

The expressions passing across their faces were varied, a mix of; vampires yah right who are you kidding, oh how sad she must be crazy, oh my god she didn’t take a breath, she’s lying she’s a spy, that’s why she can do what she did. That last look was from Ronon, and with a wink, he showed a look of acceptance like he finally knew what was going on with her, that he had somehow known that she was a fellow warrior.

 Everyone opened their mouths to speak at once. Rodney was the first one out of the gate and beat them to it, “So what you are saying is you are from the United States, you are the Slayer with super powers but you can’t fly and you kill vampires. Oh wait there’s no such thing because -- vampires -- don’t -- exist! Did you really think we are going to believe your story?”   

John momentarily speechless waved his hand in a circle, “Yah, what he said.” Elizabeth, Teyla and Ronon sat quietly absorbing this new information. All but Ronon stared at her daring her to retract her answer, she stared right back saying nothing.

“How can we not believe in these vampires? Are not vampires the same as the Wraith, they suck your life blood until your death, and do not the Wraith suck your life energy until one dies,” came the voice of reason from Teyla who remembered the movie, Dracula, from one of John’s movie nights.

With a resigned sigh, Elizabeth took back control of the conversation, “John, Rodney. Teyla’s right; vampires are similar to the Wraith and who are we to throw stones. We have our very own fantastic story to tell.”

John knew right then that Elizabeth was going to tell Buffy everything about Atlantis. They were cut off from earth and with no way home; they knew that Buffy would be in danger just like the rest of them. So maybe telling her would be a good idea.

Instead of a potential threat, she could be a welcomed asset. Also, if she does have these special Super Girl powers, that she says she has, they might just come in handy in the fight against our own vampires, the Wraith.

TBC…