Disclaimer

Not mine

"Rodney! Pick up your stuff and haul ass," shouted Sheppard, as the place around them started to fall down on them.

"Im coming!" shouted Rodney, throwing him a look over his shoulder as he attempted to stuff as much as possible into his rucksack.

Sheppard walked over to him, grabbed him by the back of his vest and pulled him to his feet, "Are you quite ready?" he looked down at Rodney's hands. "What are they?"

"I don't know Major, if I did I wouldn't be grabbing them now," Rodney retorted sarcastically.

"Just dial the damn gate," said Sheppard.

They had discovered what they thought to be an ancient outpost, but a couple of hours into their investigations, earthquakes had begun to shake the structure. Not severely at first, but after the seventeenth bit of rubble pinged Sheppard on the head, he decided it was time to make a quick exit. However, Rodney and the word quick didn't exactly go together and Rodney had insisted on picking up as much junk as possible.

The gate opened and Sheppard tapped in his IDC code and began to speak, "Doctor Weir we have some minor problems here. Permission to come through."

Weirs gave them the go ahead and Sheppard instructed Teyla and Ford to go through. They did as instructed but when it came time for him to tell Rodney he just gave him a pleading look, "I just need to go back into that last room, get that round thing on the table. It looked interesting."

"Important interesting?" asked Sheppard loosing his balance as the floor moved beneath him.

"Why do you keep asking me that? What am I psychic? I can only say it looks interesting, but if I say its important and you let me go back…well then…its important."

Sheppard shook his head, "The gate Rodney", he said and pushed him towards it. Rodney tried to twist away from him but he pushed him through the puddle backwards.

Just as Sheppard was about to step through a chunk of rock hit him of his temple. He sank to the ground, his legs crumpling under him and he cursed. He looked up again and saw another rock coming towards him, he dove out of the way and then quickly scrambled to his feet and went through the gate.

--------------------------------------------

When Sheppard stepped out the other side, he could feel the blood running down the side of his face. Weir walked over to him and gave him a smile, "What happened out there?"

"Earthquakes," said Sheppard readjusting his P90 into a more comfortable position.

Rodney walked over to them, "I would really like to go back there," he said eyeing Sheppard up and down, "What happened to you?"

"Big piece of rock," said Sheppard swiping some of the blood off his cheek, "Don't anyone say I never bled for you Rodney."

"Oh please, you're blaming me," he said putting his hands on his hips.

"All im saying is that if you hadn't stood around arguing with me, I might not have been stood there when that particular bit of rock hit me," he shrugged, "That's all im saying."

Weir put her hands up, "Come on guys, give it a break," she muttered under her breath, "Nobodies going back to that planet until we know its stable and safe. We'll send a MALP through in a couple of hours and see what condition the outpost is in," she paused, "Until then I suggest you get Beckett to check out your head."

"First things first," said Rodney bringing a finger up, "Major, I put some artefacts in your bag, can you bring them to my lab first."

Sheppard nodded.

They began to walk away but as they did something fell from McKay's bag, it made a pretty loud clunk noise, but Rodney and Shepard were to busy arguing for him to have heard the object fall.

It rolled towards Weir and she stooped to pick it up. It was an ornate looking bracelet, she looked at it inquisitively and was about to run after Rodney when Peter Grodin requested she come up to talk to him.

-------------------------------

Sheppard walked into McKay's lab and dropped the bag he had been carrying onto the table in the centre of the room.

"Thanks," said Rodney putting his bag up on the table with difficulty.

"So what did you pick up then?" he said starting to unzip one of the bags.

Rodney angrily swatted his hand away and annoyed said, "Shouldn't you go see Beckett?"

"I'll go in a minute," said Sheppard. He had managed to rub most of the blood off his face and the cut was small and had clotted. Besides he was due for a full physical today so was in no hurry to hasten its arrival.

Sheppard watched whilst Rodney took out all of the objects and laid them on the table. They were all shapes and sizes and of differing colours. Sheppard wanted to poke and prod all of them, but Rodney kept knocking his hand away from them.

"What's this?" he asked picking up a plain silver band which looked like a bracelet, it had two hooks either side which could open up.

"Put that down," said Rodney grasping for it.

"Oh you want this?" said Sheppard holding it up to him.

Rodney nodded, "Yes."

"Say please," said Sheppard putting it behind his back.

Rodney went to grab for it but Sheppard turned around and held it in the air, just out of reach, "Say please," he said again laughing.

Rodney shook his head, "You're such a child, you know that?"

Sheppard nodded, "I know," he said and looked at the bracelet closer. He clasped it around his wrist and admired it, "A bit girly," he said turning his face up at it.

"Yeah, now take it off so I can actually look at it," said Rodney holding out his hand.

Sheppard raised his eyebrows, "please"

"Please," said Rodney.

Rodney watched as the Major struggled to get the thing off, and on closer inspection it would seem that there were no buttons to push, or any hook to unlatch. The previous opening had seemingly fused together so the bracelet was undeniably stuck.

"Take it off."

"It wont come off," said Shepard trying to prise it off, "Its stuck."

"Stuck?"

Sheppard nodded, "Great, this is the most girly looking thing in the world and its stuck on my wrist. Im the CO, I cant have jewellery on," he paused, "Well that's it, i'll have to resign my position and go into hiding."

"Its ok," said Rodney, "Im sure there some way to get it off," he stood still, thinking.

"Anytime today Rodney."

"Hey you put it on," said Rodney crossing his arms over his chest.

"Maybe I could…" Sheppard felt around his back and pulled out his dagger, he pushed it towards the bracelet and tried to prise it underneath – it wouldn't fit –"No stupid idea."

"Although you could cut your arm off," said Rodney.

Sheppard gave him a dark look, "Ill cut some kind of appendage off you if you don't help me."

"I repeat. You put it on."

"Ok, yes so its my fault," he stopped, "I have got to go to my physical with Beckett," he said eyes downcast, "By the time I get back I want you to have thought of something."

Rodney looked onto the table and saw he had two more similar bracelets, "Okay," he nodded.

----------------------------------

Sheppard ran down the corridor, wishing that he had worn his jacket today and not settled with the T-shirt and vest. As he was pushing past personnel and making tracks to the infirmary, he could see Weir up ahead of him. She looked flustered and angry and was making her way towards him, though he was pretty sure it wasn't directed at him.

"Hey Doctor Weir, scuse me," he shouted as he ran passed her, but all of sudden he felt something grab his wrist and tug him back. He hit the ground ass first and closed his eyes, "Ow."

When he looked he saws Weir sat beside him..

"What the hell happened?" he asked looking at her.

She stuttered, "I…uh..i don't know." It was then that they both realised that their wrists were pinned together. Weir was wearing a bracelet similar to his.

----------------------------------------------

"Why are you back? I thought you were going to see Beckett," said Rodney when he heard Sheppard walk back into the room. He turned around from what he was doing and shook his head, "Uh…"

Sheppard was holding his hand up and Weir was holding hers up, seemingly against her will, "We're stuck together."

"What?" But Rodney couldn't mask the small smile.

"Oh don't you…dare," said Sheppard.

"What…is that the other bracelet?" asked Rodney taking a step forward and inspecting the predicament they were in.

"You dropped it when you came through the gate, I was going to return it when I got distracted, I tried it on.."she paused, "Look Rodney, I need you to get this thing off. I have a very important meeting in half an hour." She went to cross her arms but realising she was attached to Sheppard she puffed out her cheeks in despair.

"So how's it stuck?" asked Rodney pursing his lips and examining the bracelets.

"Stuck," said Sheppard shrugging.

"We can prise them apart for a moment, but its like a magnet, they get drawn back together and.." she shrugged, "I cannot believe this."

Sheppard rubbed at his eyes and inwardly cursed the fact that he hadn't been to the bathroom earlier. He peeked through one of his fingers and thought better of telling Weir when he saw that she looked pissed off.

Rodney was looking at the bracelet and umming and ahhing, "Curious," he said, and then stood up straight and put his hands on his hips, "Well this is going to take some figuring out. Do they hurt?"

"No," said Weir glancing up at Sheppard. Well not the worst person to be stuck to, she thought.

Rodney ran a hand through his hair, "Okay i'm going to have to take a look at the other bracelets-"

"Can we stop calling them bracelets?" said Sheppard throwing one hand up in the air, the other being stopped by Weir, "Cant we call them devices, or arm bands or-"

"Okay," said Rodney, "Because the name of them is sooo important at this moment in time." He pursed his lips, "Go away for a bit, let me think, run up some simulations."

"Rodney are you sure there's nothing that can be done now?" pleaded Weir.

Rodney shook his head, "I cant see any way of getting those things off, they're sealed shut. Hard metal, cant saw through it," he looked at the devices he had on his desk.

"These are ancient devices?" offered Sheppard.

"Ancient yes. Wow how did you figure that one out. Could it be that we found them on an atlantian outpost?"

"Your not helping with the sarcasm," said Weir before Sheppard could say something smart.

"If its ancient, its tricky. They're way of thinking was complicated to say the least." Rodney sat at his laptop and lifted the screen, "Trust me. I cant help you until I know all the facts."

---------------------------------------------

Sheppard sat next to Weir in the debriefing room, so close that they looked ridiculous at the head of the table, everyone one else in the room were well spaced out. Their hands were held down between their chairs, dangling loosely, the bracelets chinking the side of the chairs every now and then.

"So," started Weir as she ignored Sheppard's glare from beside her, "What was it that you found on MX465 Andrews?"

"Uh, Why are you and Major Sheppard-" he paused and licked his lips not wanting to continue asking that particular question.

Weir scanned the room and could see that everybody had leant forward slightly in their seats to get a closer look.

"Oh this" she said smiling, "This is-"

"Bondage gear," said Sheppard quietly and Weir shot him a look. He looked hurt and mimicked putting a zip across his lips.

"This is a little experiment that we are running. At the moment its need to know, so can we continue with things of relevance," she composed herself, "okay mx465?"

"We're not sure. There are some strange ruins by the gate. They don't look ancient."

"And you're qualified to make that assertation?" asked Weir.

"Well uh no but…"

"I am," said one of the men who were sat to her left, he had his hand up and was smiling like an idiot. "It looked something like cuneiform," he said sniffing and pushing up his glasses, "Although it could have sumaic influences, its just tool fascinating to quantify here. I would really like-" He continued to talk about the ruins and their importance, but Elizabeth could not concentrate on what he was saying. She had become aware of Sheppard's movements beside her. She looked out of the corner of her eye and saw him fiddling with his vest pockets, opening each one and inspecting the contents. She shook her head and fought to focus on the ruins and the cuneiform.

Sheppard opened the last pocket and found what he was looking for. A power bar. He managed to prise it out of the pocket. He went to move his hand but remembered it was incapacitated and attempted to open the chocolate bar with one hand. Being right handed and only having his left hand available made the task all the more tricky and he dropped the bar on more than one occasion. Fixed on his task though he ripped the top open with his teeth and then managed to prise the wrapper down very slowly. One of the sides got stuck so he had to get his teeth involved again, the wrapper split and his chocolate was free. He took a bite and looked up.

He was trying to open a chocolate bar and Weir felt herself cringe. The amount of noise he was making was unbearable, the crinkling of the wrapper combined with his occasional groans when the wrapper would not budge was making her stress levels rise. Sheppard had yet to notice that the whole room had become fixated on his quest to release the chocolate from its foil prison. When he finally managed to free it and take a bite, he looked up and with a mouthful of chocolate said, "You want some?"

Weir shook her head and cleared her throat, "Uh back to the ruins," she said and Sheppard smiled at her and had another bite of his chocolate. "David's, please continue."

"Well I suggest we go back and expl-"

"Oh god," spat Sheppard suddenly and Weir whipped her head around, "There's nuts or some kind of fruit, is that fruit?" he said thrusting the bar in her face and leaning forward, "It says chocolate," he said shaking his head and pointing at the wrapper. "Why would it lie to me?"

She gave him a look and he quickly closed his mouth and swallowed the fruit/nut/chocolate combination and placed the half eaten bar on the table.

Weir shook her head, "Lets continue this tomorrow," she said trying to arrange the papers in front of her, "I think that would be a good idea."

Shuffling of paper and scraping of chairs ensued as everybody left the room. Only Sheppard and Weir remained seated and she turned to him, "What the hell was that all about? Do you not think that was unprofessional?" she asked, "Not least rude?"

"Don't you think it was rude you saying, 'lets have a seat in the debriefing room' and not telling me you were going to have a meeting," he went to stand, "I told you I was hungry-"

"Look I know that this is problematic, but we have jobs to do. I especially need to do my job."

"Yeah well, I was supposed to instruct my men on the effectiveness of stealth." He held his right hand up, which meant Weir had to raise hers too, "Im not exactly stealthy at the moment."

"Ok, ok. We'll just have to go to my office, sit and do our paperwork until McKay finds a solution."

Sheppard groaned, "Paperwork?"

"I am aware that you only produce a mission report after I have asked the magic hundredth time but its about the only thing we can do together."

Sheppard nodded, "Fine, but we're stopping at the commissary for some food."

Well that's what I have so far, should I continue. Please review and let me know.