Author: RowenaR

Rating: K

Category: Humor

Disclaimer: Stargate belongs to Gekko and… all those other people making money with it. Anyway, I don't. Honestly. So – I don't own, you don't sue. Deal?

Summary: Laura Cadman has a protective streak of her own, most of all if it's about Evan Lorne... and sometimes it just messes things up considerably.

A/N: And here we go again... let's see where this is taking me (BTW, this is by far one of the worst summaries I've ever written). And don't worry, there will be a family visit piece, but this one begged to be written first. So everyone still remembers what I said about the phrase I wanted Rodney to say? Here comes the corresponding story.

Anyway, as always: Not a native speaker, so please excuse any weird grammatical constructions, run-ons and typos. Feedback will earn you a cookie, flames will roast my marshmellows.

Protect and Survive VII: Show the world

"Stand by your man
And show the world
You love him."

Tammy Wynette, "Stand by your man"

Prologue

Ah, finally. Finally the I.O.A. have made up their mind and given them their reply to weeks of hard work, impatience, fights and a lot of other unpleasant things. When Sheppard had told them that they have finally received an answer, he had suddenly felt a few pounds lighter, as if a burden worth several field packs was just lifted off him. And now he's on his way down to the explosives lab to lift the same burden off someone else.

So if he just could… oh, there she is. All alone in the lab, sitting in front of a laptop, her right foot up on the seat with her and her chin up on her knee… he'll never understand how she can work in such a position. He's even tried to do it himself secretly, but all he managed was a cramp in his right calf and the absolute certainty that there are some things about her he'll never figure out.

She still hasn't acknowledged him, and the way she's staring at the screen biting her lip and now and then typing something tells him that she's deep in concentration. Seems to be quite the puzzle. But it's already 2000, and he's dying to tell her something, so he folds his arms and leans against the door frame. "Still working, Captain?"

To his surprise, she doesn't twitch or jump, but calmly replies without even looking up from her screen: "You just have to say it over and over again, don't you?"

He grins. "Yep. Captain Cadman. Really has a nice ring to it." And it has, not only because of the alliteration. It's already been a month since her – like he thinks overdue – promotion, but the pride he felt when Sheppard finally gave her the bars is still enduring. He knows it sounds ridiculous, but he'd felt the strong impulse to tell everyone that this was his girlfriend Sheppard was making a Captain. His girlfriend who'd exposed the one who'd planted that bomb all those years ago and his girlfriend who'd fought Goa'uld and Ori and Wraith and his girlfriend who'd saved his own life and that of many other people over the course of the years and of course his girlfriend who'd stubbornly refused to let an ex-Genii get the better of her.

Well, and his girlfriend who's still not looking up from her screen. "You're only saying that because you think that's somehow your merit."

Whatever it is, it must be really mind-boggling, if it consumes all of her attention like this. And so he decides to taunt her a little. "Well… isn't it?"

It doesn't have the desired effect, though. She's still not looking up. "Last time I checked, I was the one who had to put up the effort to get those bars."

Well… not that she's wrong about that. "Yeah, uh… whatever. " But it's really starting to bug him that she's paying her screen more attention than him, so he walks up to her and puts his hands down on the desk on either side of her from behind her. "What are you working on?"

And finally she stops typing and leans back in her seat, with her head against his chest. He can't resist putting a little kiss in the crook of her neck. "Fixing something Rodney screwed up." Uh-oh, he thinks he knows what she's referring to. And he already feels uncharacteristic sympathy for Rodney welling up.

She reaches up to rub her eyes. Makes him wonder if she's been on this practically the whole day. The only time he saw her today had been at lunch where she had just grumbled something about feeling cabin fever coming on and had artfully avoided talking about whatever she was doing down here. Sighing soundlessly, he draws up another chair beside her. "What's he done now?"

She makes a face. "The force shield around the containment chamber was screwed up when he did this power tweaking stuff last week. But we need the field for all our pretty experiments. And since everyone else is either on leave, off-world or simply not in the mood to do this, I'm stuck with it. I swear, the moment I get my hands on Rodney McKay…"

Yep, major bout of sympathy now. He's been on the receiving end of Laura's wrath enough to know that Rodney's in for an unpleasant experience, and probably not only from Laura, but the whole military and civilian rest of the Dynamite Gang – or Blow Jobs, like a careless Private had dared to call the soldiers and civilians concerned with explosives in his vicinity. "Just make sure it's one of the darker corners, right. And don't leave any traceable marks. Wouldn't look too good if newly promoted Captain Cadman…"

She sticks out her tongue and nudges him with her bare foot. "You said it agahain."

Pretending he hasn't heard her, he simply catches her foot and puts it in his lap and simply continues: "If newly promoted Captain Cadman would lose her promotion because she had to show Rodney McKay what she thinks of his scientific achievements for the power supply of this city."

Smugly, she puts the other foot in his lap as well. "Huh, you just want to save yourself the trouble of having to read all the reports on that. But anyway, you didn't come here to see if I was really working for my paycheck, right?"

Ah, such a clever woman, his Captain. He gives her half-grin. "Mh, no. In fact… Even if it's not official yet, I thought I'd tell you that the I.O.A. have approved of our proposal. They loosened less rules than we suggested, but all in all… we're not doing something illegal anymore."

Her face lights up and the frustration at Rodney's endeavors evaporates, as she says: "Cool."

Mh. Considering how much irritation and frustration the whole thing has caused both of them, "Cool." is not really what he has expected. But then again… "Yeah, that's what Sheppard said, too."

She rolls her eyes, probably because she's already guessed how he feels about her rather monosyllabic response. "So… what are the details?"

Originally, he'd came down to tell her that they are officially allowed to share quarters now and had wanted to suggest that they apply for new, bigger quarters, but suddenly he gets a little afraid of his own courage, maybe because a little niggling voice inside of him is fretting about her very simple answer. "Patience, young padawan. There will be a memo from Sheppard and Woolsey tomorrow."

"A Sheppard memo? Yay!" He raises his eyebrows as if to say "You were saying?", and she actually blushes a little and adds a little sheepishly: "Uh… Sheppard's memos are by far the best?"

Let's see if we can get a little more of that blush, he thinks. "Ah, so my memos are…"

"Professional. Uh… yeah. Very… professional." He just bets she wanted to say "boring", but he has to give her credit for caring enough about his ego to find at least an euphemism.

But he doesn't want her to get away so easily with putting Sheppard's memos above his own. With a mocked frown, he asks: "Why does that sound like an insult now?"

She makes a pitying face and pushes her own chair so near to him that she can run her hand through his hair. "Don't wrack your pretty head over it, farm boy." With that she caresses his cheek and then pats it.

He catches her hand and makes a disapproving face: "Hate to say it, Buttercup, but that's still a no-no."

Now she's pouting. "Ah, but you kissing me in my lab is allowed?"

Defeated he raises his hands. "Guilty as charged. Now… stop working? It's been a hell of a day, and it's going to be one tomorrow, too."

He hopes she just complies, but it simply wouldn't be her if she didn't voice her suspicions as to what caused him his frustration. The pout is gone, and she's genuinely worried now. "Simmons still bugging you?" He sighs. He hasn't told her much about his difficulties with Lieutenant Simmons, but she's not dumb and she's always been able to read him well. Additionally, he wouldn't be surprised if she hasn't already somehow wheedled it out of Will Meyers. Or maybe wheedled it out of Meyers' newly arrived wife.

But he has this feeling that he shouldn't talk too much about this because she'll just get worked up about this, and he really wants a quiet evening today. "He'll come around. Just give the kid a little time." Personally, he's not so sure about that. After rescuing Laura from that ex-Genii he had indeed offered individual talks to both Simmons and McPherson. The Sergeant had taken up the offer after a little hesitation, but the Lieutenant had simply declined with that distanced, stiff-necked way of his that is so often typical of officers straight out of OCS or the Academy. Ever since then, Simmons has not been exactly insolent or disobeying, but the Lieutenant still managed to give him the feeling that he has little to no respect for his CO. And he is slowly starting to run out of ways to get access to this young, promising officer. Short of grabbing him, dragging him to the work-out room and simply battle it out with him, there's not much more he can think of.

Laura looks a little like she wants to be blunt and tell him what exactly she thinks the kid deserves instead of time, but then she only throws a look back to the screen, takes her feet off his lap and shuts down the laptop. "You're his CO, you should know." Did that sound a little like "But don't come whining to me when he doesn't come around."? Or maybe more like "Still doesn't mean I am not allowed to give him an earful."? Nah, he just imagined that. Both of that. "Anyway… there, I called it a night. Happy?"

"Absolutely." Glad he didn't have to confront her rather head-strong and impulsive side tonight, he gets up and waits for her to gather up her stuff. Probably it's really better to let the whole changing-quarters-thing rest for tonight and simply enjoy the first quiet evening they have in weeks. He can still ask her tomorrow.