The Long Way Home

Chapter One Hundred and Twelve: The Cavalry

The meeting was one of the most sombre that Rodney McKay had ever attended. They were all gathered in the conference room around the huge oak spacious table. Elizabeth was setting at the head of the table, looking extremely grave, her fingers were knotted together and rested upon the surface in front of her as she stared into her own reflection contemplatively. Flanking her on either side was Sheppard and Colonel Caldwell.

Sheppard looked determined, his jaw was set and Rodney could see the muscle twitching in his cheek, another severe sign of stress. His fists were clenched so hard McKay could see the knuckles of his hands were turning white.

Caldwell looked positively enraged by the turn of events, his eyes were narrowed and his finger was tapping at his temple in that agitated way of his.

Ronon was leaning back in his seat, his bulging arms were crossed over his chest as the hulking Satedan stared at the centre of the room shaking his head over and over again. He was biting his lower lip, a trait that McKay associated with the same feeling of repugnance that burned in the back of his throat. Hope was beside him, her lips pursed together in shock and disbelief. She had been the one to spend the last few hours with Cass in that cell where they were being held and according to Carson she was one hundred percent human.

Lorne was sitting beside her, his fingers clasped tightly around a pen tapping out a tune that appeared to have no rhythm. He fiddled when he was agitated and the noise was echoing around the silence of the room while

Carson Beckett hugged the paperwork to his chest waiting for the news he had just delivered to sink in. This was a sensitive operation, one of the worse that Rodney had ever been involved in. This betrayal vibrated through every inch of his core. He had participated in such an act unknowingly and he wasn't the only one who had played such a dreadful role.

They had been unwittingly conned and it pissed him off that Michael had been a step ahead of them. The key to this plan was preparation, to create something as ingenious as a clone Michael had to have incredible resources at his disposal and time. They could only reason that Hartfort had given him a sample of Cass's DNA, they couldn't ask the other man because he was still in a coma from an overdose of the enzyme. Some people simply didn't survive the come down.

Beckett had told them that Hartford wouldn't last the night, his screams of excruciating agony were confined to the isolation chamber. Only a rare breed of people survived the horrendous side effects of a come down like this and Hartford simply wasn't one of them.

Sheppard couldn't help but think that was exactly what the other man deserved, he only wished that Hartford could have been sober enough to tell them what was happening to Cassandra.

"So what your telling us is that we've had a Replicator running around Atlantis for the past month?" Caldwell remarked in tempestuousness as he struggled to comprehend the details. "How did you miss that?"

"She's not a Replicator." Carson informed the other man haughtily. "She's not made up of nanites, I wouldn't have missed that on the scans."

"So when you say clone..." Lorne prompted cautiously. "You literally mean like something out of Star Trek?"

"I mean that Michael managed to get a snippet of Cass's DNA and created this thing out of test tube and that's what's been living and breathing with us for the past four weeks. Physically it is Cass, she's the same down to the DNA which is why when we checked her over after she came back there were no anomalies." Carson explained as patiently as he could.

"Except in her behaviour which could have been explained by post traumatic stress." Lorne found himself adding as the pieces started to slip into place.

"It was only by looking deeper that I was able to ascertain the truth behind the woman we brought back with Hope. Her Telomeres are thirty percent shorter than they should be for a woman her age which means this is not the real Cass Sheppard." Carson informed the room his Scottish accent becoming more pronounced as he held up his hand to cut off Caldwell. "And before you say it, I have tested Hope, she is everything she says she is."

The relief was evident on Ronon's face as he huffed through his nose at the suggestion. He would know if his mate wasn't who she said she was, the same way Sheppard had known all along. The irate Satedan was kicking himself for having not seen it before now. He had allowed himself to be wrapped up in other things and he hadn't noticed that there wasn't a chance this could be the real Cassandra Sheppard. He had thought she wanted him to keep his distance, he understood how hard it was to repair yourself and recover after such an ordeal. Now he knew the truth and the guilt that they were all feeling was chewing him up deep inside.

They had left her behind, Ronon didn't know how she would begin to forgive them for that. Hope sensed her mate's distress, it coursed through her as the remorse rattled through him violently. She felt what he was going through, the emotional paces that he was enduring and the crushing sorrow he felt. Her fingers crept into his lap under the table, her soft fingertips gliding over the indentations of his knuckles slotting between the gaps in his fingers.

Ronon tilted his head towards her, she could see the woe in those jade green eyes and she felt a similar feeling raising up inside of her as she felt those hours she's spent in the company of the clone tick by in her memory.

"I think the question becomes what happened to the real Cassandra?" Elizabeth said quietly.

"Currently imprisoned on M2S-985 in one of Michael's secret hideaways." Rodney announced to the room as he tapped the screen of his tablet twice bringing up an image on the large screen behind Weir. "I implanted a transmitter on the set of dog tags we gave Cass before the refugee camp was culled. I took apart the ancient shield device and used the DNA conduit so it would only work when attached to Cassandra. If it's taken away from her it would cease to work."

"So she's still wearing it?" Caldwell questioned.

"Yes." Rodney nodded his affirmation with enthusiasm. "All I need is a few minutes tinkering on the Daedalus with Hermia to calibrate it to the transmitter's frequency and we can zip in, beam her up and bring her home. The place she's being held isn't shielded otherwise we wouldn't have picked up the signal in the first place."

"What about Michael's Hive?" Caldwell responded, surveying all the angles.

"It's not in the area." Rodney informed them.

"Which is why we have to go now." Sheppard remarked, his voice devoid of all emotion as he rose to his feet, palms pressed flat onto the surface of the table.

The Colonel had taken over once more and the man was buried deep within him. This mission was the most important one that he would ever embark upon. His wife's life hung in the balance, he didn't know if there was any part of Cassandra left anymore.

The dreams they shared had stopped and their connection had become thin and wavering. He couldn't feel her, couldn't reach out and touch her. He took this as a sign that she was losing the battle that she had been embroiled in. She was dying inside. If they were going to launch a rescue mission it had to be now while there was something left for them to save.

"Bring her home." Elizabeth summarised as she rose to her feet.

"The clone?" Sheppard questioned, his voice glacial as he spoke.

It was clear what exactly he thought should be done about the situation. Sheppard wanted the clone putting down like a damn dog. Elizabeth met his soulless hazel gaze with one of equal measure as she spoke.

"I'll take care of her."