--------------------------------------
Title:Time Out
Author:Keenir.
Beta-reader:Fififolle.
all errs are my own.
Reply to McWeirFicathon2006 challenge from Alice Ahn:Radek, Sheppard, and Teyla lock Rodney and Elizabeth in a closet.
Author's Note:Yeah, I'm giving Miko the same surname as in another story of mine…not sure if there's a connection. Given that this fic takes place during Season One, I leave that decision in the minds of the readers. :D
Characters:Elizabeth Weir, Rodney McKay, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Radek Zelenka, Miko Haraldursen.
Warning:Yes, I know Weir's Czech is rusty...that was deliberate.
-----------------------------------
"Really, this isn't called for," Elizabeth protested, wishing for once that the Ancients had built floors with traction in mind -- more particularly, for keeping her feet from sliding uselessly as she was dragged away from her desk.
"We disagree," Sheppard said. "Besides, Carson's got a full infirmary right now, so we can't just tranq you and leave you on one of his beds," even if that would be easier.
"That doesn't mean you need to do this," neither wanting to know nor intent on arriving at wherever they were taking her to. If Rodney were here….well, I don't know what he'd do - but I know he'd do something.
"You've got bloodshot eyes -"
"The wind blew in my face when I was on the balcony earlier."
"- your skin's pale, -"
"My ancestors came from northern England."
"- and your tic's really bad."
"I don't have a tic."
John shrugged. "Its nothing to be ashamed of. I had an iratus."
Elizabeth muttered dark imprecations in Attic Greek about Sheppard having dozens of women and farmyard animals.
"Huh?"
"It was Greek to me, Colonel," Teyla said.
"Attic," Weir specified.
"I see. Now please see, among my people, Doctor Weir, a sojourn of solitude refreshes our ananjur- what you call 'body and soul.'"
"Et tu, Teyla?" trying to escape, and failing: Teyla and John each had a firm grip on one of her arms.
Teyla blushed, making Weir wonder worryingly what 'e tu' meant in Athosian. "Radek has agreed to help me with the other Romance languages only after we have suitably mastered Czech." If I am reading her face right, their language lessons are not purely academic.
Fine by me. "Nashedanou," jerking forward, and still failing to free herself, though that was a good thing this time, since one foot slipped and she would've landed face-first if she'd escaped.
"No, Doctor Weir. We are almost there, though."
Grumbling, she asked, "Do you have any plans for your next date with Dr. Zelenka?"
"Oh yes," and as good as she'd become at speaking English, for this she lapsed into Athosian as she went into great detail. Less than a minute later -
"Too much information," John said. "Way way too much. Believe me, Doctor, you're going to thank us for doing this."
"You're sorely mistaken, Lt Colonel."
"Yeah well, you can demote me to Private afterward."
"You won't have any afterward."
Teyla chuckled, and they were now at the closet door.
"Answer me this," Elizabeth said. "Why a closet?"
"For one," John said, "it's close by, so we don't have to escort you halfway across the Base. For two, closets can be comforting places to just sit in quiet, avoiding the hustle and bustle of the wider world."
"Personal experience, Lt. Colonel?"
Sheppard nodded, "We'll unlock it in five minutes, see how you're doing," pushed Weir into the closet, and then he and Teyla shut the closet door, locking it.
Elizabeth stood there for a minute, taking deep breaths, going over in her mind all she knew about the closet system of Atlantis. After Jinto's little walkabout, she'd made sure that the closets and the transporters were all carefully labeled as such; it didn't help that the Ancients had left behind a computer system that didn't distinguish them, leaving it to Rodney (with a little help from Radek) to devise a program that would. Opening her eyes and turning around, she noticed that, while this closet was very short back-to-front, it was practically a corridor in right-to-left. Curiosity getting the better of her, and figuring that John'd sweet-talked one of the female computer techs into writing a program that would do exactly what he'd said it would - lock her in here for five minutes - Elizabeth strode down the closet path to her left. After a dozen paces, the path widened into part of a room: no door present. Biggest walk-in closet I've ever seen.
Turning the corner into the room, she came upon Rodney sitting between two tusks, staring the tusks' owner in the eyes…or where the eyes would've been, had it been more than a well-kept pile of bones. Not quite dog-sized, the elephants of Atlantis were nonetheless still small creatures. It was a pity there were no more of them anymore.
Then again, perhaps there still was a population of surviving Atlantean mammoths. The Athosians periodically sent out hunting parties on the Mainland, and Teyla never told anyone what any of those parties had been after -- not even when the hunters had trapped Carson and Aiden on the Mainland during the hurricane last month.
Rodney scooted back and to the side a little, patting the bare floor beside him. "You can sit here if you want to, Elizabeth." Unlike some species of mammoths on Earth, Atlantean mammoths didn't have tusks that jutted directly forwards, instead following a slow outward curve. With a nod and a smile, Elizabeth accepted his offer, sitting alongside him.
It felt good to be sitting here, next to him, breathing in as much of him as of the room itself, and the faint ozone smell of whatever the Atlantis security system used for auto-cleaning unoccupied rooms; for all their advancement, thankfully the Ancients seemed oblivious to the concept of scented cleaners. There was a stronger manly scent of Rodney in the air, allowing her to ignore any other odor.
She's wondering why I'm in here, Rodney thought to himself. She probably won't ask, like I won't ask why she's here…but if she needs any help, I'll give it, gladly. He'd heard the doors open and close, followed by Elizabeth walking in here. Somewhere, there must be a spacial shortcut of some sort..hm, wonder if this was intended to be a sealed bunker, linked only by those doors to the rest of Atlantis. And the next time Radek says he found a spare room, I'm going to listen better.
"Radek locked me in here."
"Why would he've done that?" Unflappable Dr. Zelenka? Now Kavanagh, I could believe him doing something like that.
Sounding none too proud of it, Rodney said, "Because I mdmkr," his words indistinguishable from one another, thanks to his near mumble.
"Rodney?"
"I made mkr."
"You made an Arabic root word?" At least, I'm reasonably sure it's a root word. I'm out of practice with that whole language family.
He looked up at her, and she saw that she wasn't guessing right - because if she had, he would've nodded.
So she explained: "You used a triconsonant - three consonants in a row… it's used as a base for building words, adding vowels…" and realized she was rodneying: she was rambling on a topic she knew well and the intended recipient knew none or little of it. So she rodneyed again: "I guessed."
"Well, nobody's perfect." You're just a lot closer than most everyone else. "I said…what I said was…" and shook his head. "I made Miko cry. The three of us were working in the lab, and…and I said something, and she started crying." She didn't run out, didn't throw anything. She just hung her head and sobbed.
"I'm sure you didn't mean to -- Wait a minute. You were in one of the labs?" When he nodded, "In the main lab?"
Rodney nodded. "Of course."
"That's on the other side of the snowflake from my office," and realized that she'd finally picked up on the nickname the expedition members had given to Atlantis. Of course, Elizabeth mused, the Ancients built the stargates…we shouldn't've assumed that they'd stop working on instantaneous transportation.
All her Rodney did was nod. Apparently he'd figured it out before she'd been locked in here.
After a while, enjoying the closeness very much all the while, "Rodney?"
"Hm?"
"I'm just wondering…what did you say to Dr. Haraldursen that made her cry?"
Rodney sighed. "Oh you know, just me being my usual charming self." Miko deserved better. She's always been good to me, supporting me when I needed help, doing what she could for me….and I know I couldn't give her what she wanted… But that's not an excuse for being blunter and stupider than I've ever been.
"I happen to know that you can be very charming, Rodney," Elizabeth said.
"Yes, well, you, me, and the walls know that," he said. "And now Olaf knows too," casually waving one hand toward the cyclopean-looking skull.
"I find that…" and stopped herself from finishing the sentence with 'very hard to believe.' She'd seen Rodney abruptly find himself with foot-in-mouth syndrome in social situations. "'Olaf'?"
"Does this face strike you as being a 'Horton'?"
"Now that you mention it, no."
More time in quiet, contemplative duotude -- as solitude was obviously inaccurate; they were together, alone together…so perhaps the cherished form of solitude.
Making the first move, Elizabeth put an arm around Rodney's shoulders. No, not the first move, as that'd been Rodney making room for her.
It was only then that the doorlocks audibly released, the sound of the doors sliding open once more. Neither of them noticed for a while.
When they finally did, it was absently, with Rodney tilting his head a little. "Huh," he said. "I wonder if they saved any cake for us."
"Cake?" Elizabeth asked. "I wasn't aware the science contingent of Atlantis was throwing a party today." When Rodney ducked his head, averting his eyes, "Rodney?"
"There's no party. Or there wasn't a party last I checked."
"So who's the cake for?"
"Me. Or it was."
Adding that comment to what he'd alluded to earlier, "I take it Dr. Haraldursen made the cake?"
He nodded. "Put a cute little pun in the icing too." It'd been neat how she had the pictographic -eye- followed by the Kanji character -ai- and then the English letter -u-.
"I'm sure you…" and Elizabeth stopped, not sure how Miko'd gone from giving Rodney a cake, to breaking out in tears. 'What happened?"
No point in denying or obfuscating, Rodney thought to himself. "I thanked her for the cake, said how much I appreciated it, and…"
"Rodney?"
"I said I love you."
"I can see why she'd cry -" I'd be happy too, if you'd told me you love me.
"Yeah."
"- But why would Dr. Zelenka lock you in here? Did he misinterpret her tears?" Has Radek been carrying a torch for her all this time?
"Radek, misinterpret?" Rodney gave an amused snort, then looked properly apologetic. "How could he misinterpret any of it? He was at our table when all of this happened." At last realizing the misunderstanding, "Of course! I didn't tell Miko I love her -- I told her 'I love Elizabeth.' She looked at me with wide eyes, nodded, sniffled, and hung her head." Rodney sighed. "It stung to hurt her, but she needed to know. And that's how I ended up in here."
Elizabeth nodded. "Thank you."
"For what?"
"Telling me."
--------------------------------------------
The End