Title: Speed
Author: OXBastetXO
Rating: K
Archive: Please ask first
Status: complete
Category: Stand alone
Summary: Something always seems to be on the line.
Spoilers: None really
Sequel/Season: Four
Authors Note: I know. I haven't posted or written anything in a long while. With work stress, family stress, and health problems. I haven't been doing a whole lot lately fandomwize other than lurking on my list group SGAHC.
Special thanks to Ellymelly for the beta! (((huggles)))
I don't own them, Scifi does. I'm just borrowing them for while and promise to give them back when I'm done, though I might just keep Rodney and Ronan for little longer ;-)
Speed
by
OXBastetXO
Doctor Rodney McKay, resident genius of Atlantis, holder of not one, but two Nobels (well, not really – but would he actually be allowed to publish any of his work, he'd be a shoo win hands down) sat staring at the fractured crystal in front of him in dismay.
"Well?" Sheppard asked, leaning in over his shoulder.
"Would you stop hovering?" McKay snapped back. "I'm trying to work."
"Well, work already," Sheppard snarked back, but he did have the grace to retreat a step.
McKay huffed and glared at the crystal. The fate of the universe rested on this and he was still short a crystal.
"I should be able to reroute things around this, but it's going to take me some time."
"Time is something we're kind of short on," Sheppard reminded him.
"Well, you should have thought of that before you started monkeying around with this panel," McKay shot back testily as he shifted his tablet compute around in his hands, studying the readouts and checking just what things he could route around to get it back up and running.
"'Monkeying around'?" Sheppard growled indignantly. "If you hadn't-"
"Yes, yes," McKay cut him off. "I know what happened, but we can't help that now, can we?"
Sheppard just glared at him and McKay shifted uneasily. "Could you not do that?" he finally snapped.
Sheppard just smirked and crossed his arms and didn't budge.
McKay sighed deeply and kept working. He reached into the panel and started shifting crystals around rerouting the power and processors.
"Well?" Sheppard said impatiently.
"Almost-" he said, reaching a little deeper into the panel, struggling to get his fingertips on the last crystal he needed to move.
Sheppard shifted to glance around him. "Hurry, we're almost out of time," he hissed.
"I've almost got it," he said, straining to reach the crystal. He finally got a hold of it pulling it out. He gave a strangled yelp as it started to slip from his grasp, but he managed to get a better grip before he dropped it. He plugged it into the proper slot and the panel lit up with a bluish glow and he let out a sigh of relief.
"Gentleman, is there a problem?" Colonial Samantha Carter's voice came from behind them.
McKay struggled not to flinch.
"No. No problem," he said quickly, perhaps a shade too quickly from the look Sheppard was giving him.
"Nope, just peachy," Sheppard responded with a smooth smile.
Carter gave them both a suspicious look, but let it drop.
"Good," she said a bit warily. "Well, then. Good evening," she said, heading into her quarters.
McKay nearly wilted with relief when she left. "Man, I thought we were dead," he said, leaning heavily against the wall a moment before putting the cover back on the panel.
"Remind me to never let you play poker unless it's against me," Sheppard said dryly. "You are pathetic at bluffing."
"I already told you that," he responded.
"So, she's got hot water," Sheppard asked.
"She should," McKay responded, "or we'll be in it shortly."
Sheppard just snorted in response.
"I have to check the my controller for my car. I totally make a left turn there," McKay said, scooping up the small radio controlled car he had kicked back into the alcove.
"You so did not," Sheppard countered. "The controller is fine. You just can't drive," he said retrieving his own radio controlled vehicle. "You drove it right into that panel hard enough to pop the panel and crack the crystal."
"Please-" McKay argued as the two headed down and back to his lab. "That panel was obviously already loose and the crystal must have already been flawed."
"Right," Sheppard said, rolling his eyes. "Last piece of the apple pie says your 'obviously flawed' driving skills hold no threat to my far superior skill," he said, putting his car down and revving the engine.
"Oh, you are so on," McKay said, setting his own car down beside it. Sheppard's car took off with a jump and McKay's protest of, "Hey, I wasn't ready," as the two men took off after their speeding cars.
Behind them, the door to Carter's door opened and she peaked out with a grin.
"Boys," she said, shaking her head and heading back into her quarters.
*fin*