The Brotherhood Drabble
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate: Atlantis or any of its characters or story lines. No infringement is intended upon anyone or any subsidiary connected to Stargate: Atlantis or its parent series, Stargate: SG-1 or Stargate The Movie. I'm poor, you'll get nothing out of me!
Summary: The happier and shorter version of a story I'm thinking of burning. McKay realizes John's smarter than he thought.
Rating: G
Warnings: None
Category: Friendship
Author note: This is a one shot piece, but please give me feedback cause this is my second attempt at Stargate: Atlantis and I need to know how to fix it if I wish to write another in the future. Please be kind about it though! Send feedback to if you want a response to your review.
"Ah, Major. There you are. How come when you want to find someone, they're always in the last place you look?" Rodney McKay asked as he entered the ammunitions room where Major John Sheppard sat cleaning a gun.
John looked up and gave McKay an incredulous look.
"And they say you're a genius." He said, sounding disgusted.
McKay sputtered at this, not even sure why he had been insulted this early in the verbal sparring game.
"What are you talking about?" He demanded.
"McKay, would you continue to look for me after you had already found me?"
McKay looked offended at this.
"Of course not. Don't be ridiculous."
"I'm just telling you now so you'll know why people laugh at you when they ask you if you found what you were looking for and tell them 'yes,' but you're still looking."
McKay frowned at the Major's logic but could find no error in it. Realizing something, he blurted, "You got that off of that movie! That one, um, with the redneck guys telling jokes!"
"Blue Collar Comedy Tour?" Sheppard asked innocently.
"Yeah! That one. That's plagiarism!"
"Only if I write it and claim I came up with it myself." John replied smugly.
"Oh, well excuse me. I didn't realize I was in the presence of genius." McKay sneered back sarcastically. He suddenly remembered why he had been seeking John in the first place and continued.
"Speaking of which though, Major, how come you never told me you took the Mensa?"
Without even looking up or missing a beat John replied, "I was afraid you'd come to the correct conclusion that I was counting cards on poker night and unfairly winning your rations of chocolate."
McKay looked shocked at this, then contemplative.
"Were you?"
John looked up exasperated at Mckay.
"Rodney, we don't even have a poker night."
"Well, we should." Rodney justified. "What percentile did you score in?"
"99th."
"Well, how old were you then? I was 20 when I took it so I only got in the 98th percentile, but I think I could have done better if I had retaken it." Rodney said cockily.
"Really." John said, uninterested in stroking McKay's ego.
"Really. And you didn't answer my question. How old were you?"
"15."
McKay's eyes bugged out and he choked out, "15! What in God's name made you take probably the foremost test of intelligence in the Western hemisphere at 15!"
John looked up with a wolf that ate the cat that ate the canary smile and said, "It was either that or spend some time in jail."
"What for?" McKay asked, genuinely curious.
"Counting cards in Vegas with my older brother. He put a hearing aid in that I had modified to serve as a radio with a button camera we bought from a magazine and I gave him instructions on what to do based on the cards I had seen."
"How much did you two make off with?" Asked Rodney, shocked at his military friend's dishonesty and ability to pull off such a scam.
"Nothing. We would have had close to $2 million bucks, but we got too greedy and security caught on." John smiled at the memory.
"So your punishment was to take the Mensa? That's it?"
"Oh no, McKay. That's not all. After they got the results of the test and considering my age, they decided they'd settle for 3 years probation working as an assistant to a math genius from MIT. My brother was told he could either sign up with the military for a minimum of two years, or do hard time for the same period of time. He chose the military and ended up liking it so much he convinced me to join. Said they might even let me fly. I signed up two years after I turned 18. First I got my Masters in mathematics."
Rodney positively looked ready to pass out right then and there.
"You got a Masters in two years?" He asked weakly.
"No. Took three years. I had to graduate High School early to do it though. I tested out of a lot of the lower level college classes and just had to submit a paper for each one to get the credit, and I took as many courses as possible over the summer, but by the time I finally got the degree, I realized I didn't even really like math. I was just good at it. So, I went the way of my brother and signed up in the Air Force."
John continued to clean his gun as McKay contemplated this new information.
"So, you're really a genius then?"
"Yeah."
"So why hide it behind the uniform? I can't remember how many times I've given you the Cliff Notes version of a problem because I didn't think you'd understand, and all this time, you probably could have helped me find the solution."
"Rodney-I'm not hiding behind the uniform. I am the uniform. I am first and foremost a soldier, second a man-a funny, disarming, handsome man, but a man all the same, and third a closet genius. Besides, you have this thing with the completing of sentences with Zelenka and I wouldn't want to intrude on such a happy relationship." Sheppard said with the straightest of faces as he clicked the last piece of his weapon together and put it in the rack, walking out. About 15 feet down the hall, Rodney was finally able to form a reply through his outrage.
"We do not complete each other's sentences! We just work together well! Sheppard!"
Whistling as he turned another corner to avoid the wrath of McKay, John smiled to himself. There was nothing he loved more than harassing McKay to the point of confusion and sputtering. Ah, life is good!