The thoughtful gift
When I found out about Colonel Sheppard's birthday, it was by looking at his file. He hadn't told anyone about it, and few people knew him well enough to be straight and ask him about it. His grunts were too damned afraid of being rotated back to Earth, and it wasn't 'proper' to ask a personal question of your CO. Cadman would ask, maybe Lorne, but no one else.
Anyway, when I found out, I thought I'd make something for him especially since we can't get things at most markets we go through.
It was easy deciding what to make, but how to make it without him knowing, would be rather hard. He spends a lot of time in the labs, and Lorne tells me he's dodging paperwork.
I ended up spending time between midnight and 3am creating his gift. Occasionally, I had to get Zelenka to lend a hand as the engineering was fiddly and I have enough to do keeping the city afloat.
I finished it 2 days before his birthday, and painted it with as many details as I could manage. All I had to do was wait. For me, that was quite difficult to do.
Finally his birthday arrived, and I made my way to his quarters with a package in my arms. I rang the bell and he opened the door quite quickly to let me in.
"Happy Birthday Colonel" I held out the gift
"How'd you...?" I raised my eyebrows
"I looked at your file moron. Just open it." He opened the package dubiously, as though it might explode. But when he took out the mini remote-controlled puddle-jumper, I wish I'd had a camera. It may have taken a lot've time, but just the look on his face was worth it.
A/N I'm sure this has been done to death, the mini puddle jumper, but I wasn't sure about the remote-controlled part, and I just wanted to share my take on it.