GH/SGA Fic - Part 3/?
Title: Untitled
Author: normative_jean
Fandom: General Hospital/Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG/PG-13
Timeline: takes place July 2006 in the middle of the Robin/Patrick breakup, and post Atlantis episode 3x02 (canon gets shot to hell for both shows after this)
Chapter 3 - Clashes
Robin walked into the locker room, sank down on the bench, and let out a belly-shaking laugh.
She leaned forward, covering her face with her hands and trying desperately to control her hysteria. As the adrenaline rush from the surgery had faded -- although witnessing Patrick perform a surgical procedure she had only ever read about -- the strange situation of the last few hours reasserted itself. Robin had left the operating room and headed for the waiting area with Patrick, intending to tell the patient's family the good news that he had not only survived the surgery, but that a new drug regiment would be prescribed by GH physicians that would dramatically increase his chances of survival. When she had scanned the waiting room for the family, however, she had seen Carson and Elizabeth in the corner, deep in discussion. Before they could see her, Robin had turned around and bolted for the nearest locker room.
In truth, she had almost forgotten about the strange job offer she had received earlier that day. In the OR, Carson had been just like any other doctor, albeit one who was obviously at the forefront of medical knowledge. He had stood back at first, just observing. But soon enough, Carson had been standing beside Robin, looking over Patrick's shoulder and actively participating in the discussion of the procedure. Robin vaguely remembered wondering whether Carson even had an American medical license, but she had dismissed the thought, figuring that with the kind of security clearance he must have had, clearing him to participate in a surgery probably wouldn't take much.
Now, though, the day was catching up with her. Robin had always sworn she would never enter the kind of world that had taken so many people from her. Her parents and her godfathers, people whom she loved so much, had eventually left and been swallowed up by the world of secrets and lies. Robin had sworn she would never walk down that road, and her entire life she had instead followed a path that allowed her to walk in the sunlight.
She had consciously chosen not to enter a world where battles were won in secret, where the rest of the planet would never know the sacrifices made and the people making them. Robin had sworn she would never be like her parents. It seemed only fitting, then, that her parents' world would come looking for her.
The door to the locker room opened and Robin bolted upright, surprise overriding her system. She stayed silent, hoping that whoever had entered stayed on the other side of the locker bank.
When she heard muffled cursing and a male voice muttering "Damn Scottish bastard, trying to run my OR," Robin couldn't hold back the bubble of nervous laughter that escaped her chest. Slapping her hands over her mouth, Robin tried to keep quiet.
"Hello?" Patrick called, walking around the bank of lockers. "Who's...oh." He casually leaned against the cool metal, watching as Robin curled up in a ball on the bench and buried her face in her hands, her body shaking with suppressed laughter. "I didn't realize you got such a kick out of near-dead cancer patients. I've gotta say, I never pegged you for a sadist."
That sobered Robin up quickly. "Once again, Patrick, you prove that when you open your mouth, utterly stupid things come out." She glared at him, but was happy that, at least for once, he had pegged her completely wrong.
"Oh?" Patrick's tone lost its cocky edge. The now-familiar attitude of frustration and hostility settled over the room. "Then what's got you so worked up? I didn't think you even knew how to laugh."
Robin stood up and whirled around to face Patrick, arms crossed over her chest in defiance. "Trust me, it's nothing I care to talk about with you."
"Ah." Patrick nodded and pursed his lips, shoving his hands onto his hips. "Then I'm going to guess that it had something to do with the good doctor who stormed my OR."
"He didn't storm," Robin said. "He asked to watch. And since when is having a world-renowned geneticist in your OR a bad thing?"
"What was he doing here?" Patrick asked, deliberately leaving Robin's quite sensible question unanswered. "I haven't heard anything about him in nearly three years, and then all of the sudden he shows up here?" He narrowed his eyes at Robin. "What were you two talking about?"
"That's none of your business," Robin scoffed. "You decided you didn't want to be involved in my personal affairs anymore, remember?"
"So why was he really here?" Patrick pressed, anger growing inside him at Robin's deliberate jab. "You two snuggle over cafe au lait in good ol' Paris?"
Robin's jaw dropped. "I can't believe you!" she forced out. "Where the hell do you get off even thinking something like that?"
Patrick clenched his jaw. "Hey, you're the one who latches onto any man passing by."
"I knew it!" she seethed. "I knew you were jealous of Nikolas! Only you would turn an innocent hug with a friend into a reason to go crazy!"
"I am not jealous!" Patrick shouted back. "But every time I turned around, there you were, getting close with the Prince of Darkness."
"Because he's my friend," Robin repeated.
"So, what?" Patrick asked nonchalantly, his voice hard. "The Cassadine Prince not enough for you any more? Now you've got your sights set on a world-famous doctor? Or, I should say, another world-famous doctor?"
Robin stormed over to him, her entire body tight with rage. "You don't get to do that!" she spat. "For months you called me cold and frigid and aloof, anything you could think of to rub your sex life in my face. And then suddenly, once I actually slept with you and gave you no-strings sex which, if I can remind you, was exactly what you wanted, you freak out when I so much as hug one of my oldest friends?" She poked Patrick in the chest and looked up at him, her dark eyes glittering like coals. "You can't have it both ways, Patrick. Either I'm a frigid ice queen, or I'm a giant slut. Either we're only in a superficial, physical relationship, or you want some right to keep me away from every man except you." She backed up, still staring at him. "You lost any right you had to comment on my life."
Robin quickly walked back to the bench and grabbed her lab coat. "And you're completely off the mark," she added casually, swallowing back her anger. "Dr. Beckett was here to offer me a job." She stormed around Patrick and headed for the door to leave the locker room. Before she could grab the handle, the door swung open and Carson walked inside.
"Ah, good! I've been looking for the two of ye." He smiled affably, though his expression dimmed slightly as he took in the anger radiating off of the two young doctors. "Oh, dear..." he muttered under his breath. "Listen. That was a bloody brilliant surgery, and I really would like the chance to talk to the both of ye."
Robin tried to squeeze around Carson. "Sorry, Dr. Beckett," she said tightly. "But I've already given you my answer."
"Yeah, sure run away," Patrick called after her. "It's what you're so good at."
Robin stalked back into the locker room. "Shut up, Patrick!" she cried. "You ended things with me, so don't you dare make another comment like that ever again."
"Ah..." Carson looked furtively from Robin to Patrick, realizing that he had walked in on something he really wanted no part of. "Look, could the two of you just come with me? Please?" He rested a hand on Robin's arm and smiled gently. "I've gotten permission to tell you a bit more about that job offer."
Robin paused and raised her eyes. "And him?" She tilted her head in Patrick's direction, relishing that he was staring at where Carson's hand was resting on her arm. "Now you want him, too?"
"Hard as that is for you to believe, Dr. Scorpio," Patrick retorted. He smiled genially at Carson. "I, Dr. Becket, am intrigued to find out about what sort of job offer you're making." He smirked at Robin. "After all, I've never been scared of a challenge."
Seething, Robin turned to Carson and nodded jerkily. "Fine," she said through clenched teeth. "I'd love to hear what this is all about." Returning Patrick's smirk, she added, "I mean, you did come all this way to ask me personally to join your research team."
Patrick's expression darkened and he pointed towards the door. "Fine!" he bit out. "Let's just go."
"Fine!" Robin snapped, turning and walking out the door.
"Fine!" Patrick stormed out after her, pushing the door with such ferocity that it swung wildly in his wake.
Carson stood alone in the locker room, staring at the door. "Oh, bugger," he said aloud. "Elizabeth is going to kill me."
***
"You so owe me for this."
Elizabeth smiled warmly at the man who addressed her as he stepped out of the elevator, surrounded by several Marines. "It's good to see you again, General."
Major General Jack O'Neill rolled his eyes. "I mean it, Doc," he said again. Waving a hand in the general direction of the tenth floor, he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how much arm-twisting I had to do to get emergency authorization to let two civilians who have not signed the national security forms do this?"
"You're the head of Homeworld Security, a senior advisor to the President, and you've saved the world so many times that every government on Earth is in your debt." Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow. "Exactly who's arms did you have to twist to get authorization for something that you ultimately would have had to authorize anyway?"
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, well...It took some time to get the Power Point presentation loaded into my laptop." He squinted and looked more intensely at the interior of the hospital. "Hey, this place looks kind of familiar."
Elizabeth nodded to one of the Marines and took a briefcase from him. "Is this it?" she asked Jack. "Carson is very excited about getting them to do this."
Jack flinched slightly. "Thanks for the warning, Doc. The last time Dr. Beckett got excited, he nearly blew me and Sheppard out of the sky. You do remember that, right?"
"Oh," Elizabeth waved him off. "That only happened once. He's really gotten a lot better about controlling his ATA gene." She looked pointedly at Jack. "And unless I'm very much mistaken, there's no Ancient technology at General Hospital that he could potentially activate."
Jack looked around at the main waiting area again, his eyes settling on the Nurses Station desk. "I could swear that I've been here before."
Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. "Have you ever been here before?"
"No!"
"Okay." Elizabeth blinked, momentarily taken aback. "So...should I have them page Dr. Scorpio and Dr. Drake?"
Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, sure. Let's get this over with. Nothing says 'fun happy time' like disclosing the biggest secret known to mankind to a couple of civilians."
Elizabeth chuckled good-naturedly as they walked to the Nurses Station. "I trust Carson's judgment in matters like this." She sobered and nodded to Jack. "If he says that these two are worth the risk, then I believe him."
"Right," Jack sighed. "Excuse me," he said to the nurse behind the desk, "But could you help us locate two doctors?"
Epiphany Johnson propped a hand on her hip and gave Jack a disparaging glare. "This is a hospital, Mister Military. Would you care to be a bit more specific?"
Jack looked at Elizabeth, who was trying to bite back a smile. Her expression clearly said "Don't look at me."
"Of course," Jack groaned to himself. Putting on his most innocent expression -- no easy feat for a former Black Ops soldier -- he tried again. "I'll rephrase. Could you help us find one Dr. Robin Scorpio and one Dr. Patrick Drake?"
Epiphany looked at Jack, then leaned to peer around him at the several armed Marines stationed at various points around the waiting room. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the computer to pull up the post-op schedule for the doctors. "What the hell did those damn fools get themselves into this time?" she asked.
Elizabeth smiled solicitously. "We merely have something we want to discuss with them. Don't worry, they're not in any trouble."
"Maybe not with you," Epiphany muttered. "But those two idiots got soldiers with guns marching all over my surgical floor, and that'll get them in trouble with me."
Jack glanced at Elizabeth and gulped. "Ten years fighting the Goa'uld, and I think I finally met the scariest thing in the galaxy," he said under his breath.
"Is there a problem over here?" Dr. Monica Quartermaine asked, stepping up onto the platform behind the desk. She grabbed a chart and barely looked up at the people she was talking to. "When Epiphany starts getting snippy with visitors, it's never a good..." Monica trailed off when she looked up, her eyes widening when she saw Jack. "Oh...oh my God."
Jack's eyes widened as well and he whipped his head around, praying that there was something besides him that had caused her reaction. "What, what?" Monica didn't say anything and continued gaping at Jack. To Elizabeth, he said, "I knew coming here was a bad idea."
Monica shook her head to clear it. "No, no. It's just..." She chuckled nervously. "Well, you look a heck of a lot like my ex-husband."
Elizabeth cast a highly amused expression Jack's way. "Oh really?"
Jack quickly held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I don't know what she's talking about! I've only got one ex-wife, and I promise that she isn't you."
"Right. Yes." Monica nodded, still a little shaky. "The resemblance is just really uncanny."
Jack pursed his lips and looked over at Epiphany. "Hey, how's it coming over there?" he asked eagerly. "You almost found them?"
Epiphany glared at him again, walking over to the microphone. "Do I look like your personal assistant to you?"
Before Jack could respond, a cheery Scottish-accented voice sounded behind him.
"Don' ya worry, General," Carson said. "I've got them right here."
Jack turned around and took his first look at Robin and Patrick. He told himself that the murderous glares the two young doctors were shooting each other was just his imagination, and not at all indicative of how badly this whole thing was going to go. Jack O'Neill had long since learned that denial was the better part of valor. "Right," he said warily. "This them?"
Carson nodded. "Aye. Dr. Robin Scorpio and Dr. Patrick Drake." His voice tight, he kept the smile on his face and looked apologetically at Elizabeth and Jack. "Two of the most gifted doctors I've ever encountered."
"Yeah, well, they'd better be," Jack muttered. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. "Well? Shall we get this over with?"
Elizabeth nodded at Jack and Carson, then turned to Robin. "Is there someplace private we could go to show you something? A conference room, perhaps?"
Snapping her eyes away from Patrick, Robin nodded. "Yeah, there's one just down the hall."
Gesturing for them to lead the way, Elizabeth leaned into Carson. "What's going on between those two?" she whispered.
Carson shrugged. "Damned if I know," he replied. "They were like that when I found them."
They started walking down the hall after Robin and Patrick, Jack couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose again. "Great," he said. "This is going to be great."
Once they were out of earshot, Monica turned to Epiphany. "I swear," the doctor said, brushing her hair away from her eyes. "He looked exactly like my ex-husband."
"Doctor," Epiphany replied with a shake of her head, "That man can be the spitting image of MacGuyver for all I care, as long as Dr. Scorpio and Dr. Drake are his problem and not mine."
Author: normative_jean
Fandom: General Hospital/Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG/PG-13
Timeline: takes place July 2006 in the middle of the Robin/Patrick breakup, and post Atlantis episode 3x02 (canon gets shot to hell for both shows after this)
Chapter 3 - Clashes
Robin walked into the locker room, sank down on the bench, and let out a belly-shaking laugh.
She leaned forward, covering her face with her hands and trying desperately to control her hysteria. As the adrenaline rush from the surgery had faded -- although witnessing Patrick perform a surgical procedure she had only ever read about -- the strange situation of the last few hours reasserted itself. Robin had left the operating room and headed for the waiting area with Patrick, intending to tell the patient's family the good news that he had not only survived the surgery, but that a new drug regiment would be prescribed by GH physicians that would dramatically increase his chances of survival. When she had scanned the waiting room for the family, however, she had seen Carson and Elizabeth in the corner, deep in discussion. Before they could see her, Robin had turned around and bolted for the nearest locker room.
In truth, she had almost forgotten about the strange job offer she had received earlier that day. In the OR, Carson had been just like any other doctor, albeit one who was obviously at the forefront of medical knowledge. He had stood back at first, just observing. But soon enough, Carson had been standing beside Robin, looking over Patrick's shoulder and actively participating in the discussion of the procedure. Robin vaguely remembered wondering whether Carson even had an American medical license, but she had dismissed the thought, figuring that with the kind of security clearance he must have had, clearing him to participate in a surgery probably wouldn't take much.
Now, though, the day was catching up with her. Robin had always sworn she would never enter the kind of world that had taken so many people from her. Her parents and her godfathers, people whom she loved so much, had eventually left and been swallowed up by the world of secrets and lies. Robin had sworn she would never walk down that road, and her entire life she had instead followed a path that allowed her to walk in the sunlight.
She had consciously chosen not to enter a world where battles were won in secret, where the rest of the planet would never know the sacrifices made and the people making them. Robin had sworn she would never be like her parents. It seemed only fitting, then, that her parents' world would come looking for her.
The door to the locker room opened and Robin bolted upright, surprise overriding her system. She stayed silent, hoping that whoever had entered stayed on the other side of the locker bank.
When she heard muffled cursing and a male voice muttering "Damn Scottish bastard, trying to run my OR," Robin couldn't hold back the bubble of nervous laughter that escaped her chest. Slapping her hands over her mouth, Robin tried to keep quiet.
"Hello?" Patrick called, walking around the bank of lockers. "Who's...oh." He casually leaned against the cool metal, watching as Robin curled up in a ball on the bench and buried her face in her hands, her body shaking with suppressed laughter. "I didn't realize you got such a kick out of near-dead cancer patients. I've gotta say, I never pegged you for a sadist."
That sobered Robin up quickly. "Once again, Patrick, you prove that when you open your mouth, utterly stupid things come out." She glared at him, but was happy that, at least for once, he had pegged her completely wrong.
"Oh?" Patrick's tone lost its cocky edge. The now-familiar attitude of frustration and hostility settled over the room. "Then what's got you so worked up? I didn't think you even knew how to laugh."
Robin stood up and whirled around to face Patrick, arms crossed over her chest in defiance. "Trust me, it's nothing I care to talk about with you."
"Ah." Patrick nodded and pursed his lips, shoving his hands onto his hips. "Then I'm going to guess that it had something to do with the good doctor who stormed my OR."
"He didn't storm," Robin said. "He asked to watch. And since when is having a world-renowned geneticist in your OR a bad thing?"
"What was he doing here?" Patrick asked, deliberately leaving Robin's quite sensible question unanswered. "I haven't heard anything about him in nearly three years, and then all of the sudden he shows up here?" He narrowed his eyes at Robin. "What were you two talking about?"
"That's none of your business," Robin scoffed. "You decided you didn't want to be involved in my personal affairs anymore, remember?"
"So why was he really here?" Patrick pressed, anger growing inside him at Robin's deliberate jab. "You two snuggle over cafe au lait in good ol' Paris?"
Robin's jaw dropped. "I can't believe you!" she forced out. "Where the hell do you get off even thinking something like that?"
Patrick clenched his jaw. "Hey, you're the one who latches onto any man passing by."
"I knew it!" she seethed. "I knew you were jealous of Nikolas! Only you would turn an innocent hug with a friend into a reason to go crazy!"
"I am not jealous!" Patrick shouted back. "But every time I turned around, there you were, getting close with the Prince of Darkness."
"Because he's my friend," Robin repeated.
"So, what?" Patrick asked nonchalantly, his voice hard. "The Cassadine Prince not enough for you any more? Now you've got your sights set on a world-famous doctor? Or, I should say, another world-famous doctor?"
Robin stormed over to him, her entire body tight with rage. "You don't get to do that!" she spat. "For months you called me cold and frigid and aloof, anything you could think of to rub your sex life in my face. And then suddenly, once I actually slept with you and gave you no-strings sex which, if I can remind you, was exactly what you wanted, you freak out when I so much as hug one of my oldest friends?" She poked Patrick in the chest and looked up at him, her dark eyes glittering like coals. "You can't have it both ways, Patrick. Either I'm a frigid ice queen, or I'm a giant slut. Either we're only in a superficial, physical relationship, or you want some right to keep me away from every man except you." She backed up, still staring at him. "You lost any right you had to comment on my life."
Robin quickly walked back to the bench and grabbed her lab coat. "And you're completely off the mark," she added casually, swallowing back her anger. "Dr. Beckett was here to offer me a job." She stormed around Patrick and headed for the door to leave the locker room. Before she could grab the handle, the door swung open and Carson walked inside.
"Ah, good! I've been looking for the two of ye." He smiled affably, though his expression dimmed slightly as he took in the anger radiating off of the two young doctors. "Oh, dear..." he muttered under his breath. "Listen. That was a bloody brilliant surgery, and I really would like the chance to talk to the both of ye."
Robin tried to squeeze around Carson. "Sorry, Dr. Beckett," she said tightly. "But I've already given you my answer."
"Yeah, sure run away," Patrick called after her. "It's what you're so good at."
Robin stalked back into the locker room. "Shut up, Patrick!" she cried. "You ended things with me, so don't you dare make another comment like that ever again."
"Ah..." Carson looked furtively from Robin to Patrick, realizing that he had walked in on something he really wanted no part of. "Look, could the two of you just come with me? Please?" He rested a hand on Robin's arm and smiled gently. "I've gotten permission to tell you a bit more about that job offer."
Robin paused and raised her eyes. "And him?" She tilted her head in Patrick's direction, relishing that he was staring at where Carson's hand was resting on her arm. "Now you want him, too?"
"Hard as that is for you to believe, Dr. Scorpio," Patrick retorted. He smiled genially at Carson. "I, Dr. Becket, am intrigued to find out about what sort of job offer you're making." He smirked at Robin. "After all, I've never been scared of a challenge."
Seething, Robin turned to Carson and nodded jerkily. "Fine," she said through clenched teeth. "I'd love to hear what this is all about." Returning Patrick's smirk, she added, "I mean, you did come all this way to ask me personally to join your research team."
Patrick's expression darkened and he pointed towards the door. "Fine!" he bit out. "Let's just go."
"Fine!" Robin snapped, turning and walking out the door.
"Fine!" Patrick stormed out after her, pushing the door with such ferocity that it swung wildly in his wake.
Carson stood alone in the locker room, staring at the door. "Oh, bugger," he said aloud. "Elizabeth is going to kill me."
***
"You so owe me for this."
Elizabeth smiled warmly at the man who addressed her as he stepped out of the elevator, surrounded by several Marines. "It's good to see you again, General."
Major General Jack O'Neill rolled his eyes. "I mean it, Doc," he said again. Waving a hand in the general direction of the tenth floor, he raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Do you have any idea how much arm-twisting I had to do to get emergency authorization to let two civilians who have not signed the national security forms do this?"
"You're the head of Homeworld Security, a senior advisor to the President, and you've saved the world so many times that every government on Earth is in your debt." Elizabeth quirked an eyebrow. "Exactly who's arms did you have to twist to get authorization for something that you ultimately would have had to authorize anyway?"
Jack shrugged. "Yeah, well...It took some time to get the Power Point presentation loaded into my laptop." He squinted and looked more intensely at the interior of the hospital. "Hey, this place looks kind of familiar."
Elizabeth nodded to one of the Marines and took a briefcase from him. "Is this it?" she asked Jack. "Carson is very excited about getting them to do this."
Jack flinched slightly. "Thanks for the warning, Doc. The last time Dr. Beckett got excited, he nearly blew me and Sheppard out of the sky. You do remember that, right?"
"Oh," Elizabeth waved him off. "That only happened once. He's really gotten a lot better about controlling his ATA gene." She looked pointedly at Jack. "And unless I'm very much mistaken, there's no Ancient technology at General Hospital that he could potentially activate."
Jack looked around at the main waiting area again, his eyes settling on the Nurses Station desk. "I could swear that I've been here before."
Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. "Have you ever been here before?"
"No!"
"Okay." Elizabeth blinked, momentarily taken aback. "So...should I have them page Dr. Scorpio and Dr. Drake?"
Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yeah, sure. Let's get this over with. Nothing says 'fun happy time' like disclosing the biggest secret known to mankind to a couple of civilians."
Elizabeth chuckled good-naturedly as they walked to the Nurses Station. "I trust Carson's judgment in matters like this." She sobered and nodded to Jack. "If he says that these two are worth the risk, then I believe him."
"Right," Jack sighed. "Excuse me," he said to the nurse behind the desk, "But could you help us locate two doctors?"
Epiphany Johnson propped a hand on her hip and gave Jack a disparaging glare. "This is a hospital, Mister Military. Would you care to be a bit more specific?"
Jack looked at Elizabeth, who was trying to bite back a smile. Her expression clearly said "Don't look at me."
"Of course," Jack groaned to himself. Putting on his most innocent expression -- no easy feat for a former Black Ops soldier -- he tried again. "I'll rephrase. Could you help us find one Dr. Robin Scorpio and one Dr. Patrick Drake?"
Epiphany looked at Jack, then leaned to peer around him at the several armed Marines stationed at various points around the waiting room. She rolled her eyes and walked over to the computer to pull up the post-op schedule for the doctors. "What the hell did those damn fools get themselves into this time?" she asked.
Elizabeth smiled solicitously. "We merely have something we want to discuss with them. Don't worry, they're not in any trouble."
"Maybe not with you," Epiphany muttered. "But those two idiots got soldiers with guns marching all over my surgical floor, and that'll get them in trouble with me."
Jack glanced at Elizabeth and gulped. "Ten years fighting the Goa'uld, and I think I finally met the scariest thing in the galaxy," he said under his breath.
"Is there a problem over here?" Dr. Monica Quartermaine asked, stepping up onto the platform behind the desk. She grabbed a chart and barely looked up at the people she was talking to. "When Epiphany starts getting snippy with visitors, it's never a good..." Monica trailed off when she looked up, her eyes widening when she saw Jack. "Oh...oh my God."
Jack's eyes widened as well and he whipped his head around, praying that there was something besides him that had caused her reaction. "What, what?" Monica didn't say anything and continued gaping at Jack. To Elizabeth, he said, "I knew coming here was a bad idea."
Monica shook her head to clear it. "No, no. It's just..." She chuckled nervously. "Well, you look a heck of a lot like my ex-husband."
Elizabeth cast a highly amused expression Jack's way. "Oh really?"
Jack quickly held up his hands in defense. "Hey, I don't know what she's talking about! I've only got one ex-wife, and I promise that she isn't you."
"Right. Yes." Monica nodded, still a little shaky. "The resemblance is just really uncanny."
Jack pursed his lips and looked over at Epiphany. "Hey, how's it coming over there?" he asked eagerly. "You almost found them?"
Epiphany glared at him again, walking over to the microphone. "Do I look like your personal assistant to you?"
Before Jack could respond, a cheery Scottish-accented voice sounded behind him.
"Don' ya worry, General," Carson said. "I've got them right here."
Jack turned around and took his first look at Robin and Patrick. He told himself that the murderous glares the two young doctors were shooting each other was just his imagination, and not at all indicative of how badly this whole thing was going to go. Jack O'Neill had long since learned that denial was the better part of valor. "Right," he said warily. "This them?"
Carson nodded. "Aye. Dr. Robin Scorpio and Dr. Patrick Drake." His voice tight, he kept the smile on his face and looked apologetically at Elizabeth and Jack. "Two of the most gifted doctors I've ever encountered."
"Yeah, well, they'd better be," Jack muttered. He raised his eyebrows expectantly. "Well? Shall we get this over with?"
Elizabeth nodded at Jack and Carson, then turned to Robin. "Is there someplace private we could go to show you something? A conference room, perhaps?"
Snapping her eyes away from Patrick, Robin nodded. "Yeah, there's one just down the hall."
Gesturing for them to lead the way, Elizabeth leaned into Carson. "What's going on between those two?" she whispered.
Carson shrugged. "Damned if I know," he replied. "They were like that when I found them."
They started walking down the hall after Robin and Patrick, Jack couldn't help but pinch the bridge of his nose again. "Great," he said. "This is going to be great."
Once they were out of earshot, Monica turned to Epiphany. "I swear," the doctor said, brushing her hair away from her eyes. "He looked exactly like my ex-husband."
"Doctor," Epiphany replied with a shake of her head, "That man can be the spitting image of MacGuyver for all I care, as long as Dr. Scorpio and Dr. Drake are his problem and not mine."