*Disclaimer* I do not own Stargate nor any part of this wonderful franchise. If I did it new seasons would still be in production. This is only for entertainment.
Thanks to Sidney James TD Lemon 1900 for their wonderful work as Beta and challenging me to do better. You are amazing.
Lt. Colonel John Sheppard strolled down a Lantean hallway, with a smile on his face and ease in his posture.
Today was a great day. It was one of those picture perfect days that you dreamed of but never expected to actually get to enjoy, at least not on Atlantis. The sky was robin's egg blue, the air was warm but not hot, and there was a slight breeze from the ocean filling the air with a scent that invigorated anybody lucky enough to experience it. As far as John was concerned there was nothing that could make his day better. That's why John also found himself regularly looking over his shoulder. With his luck, there had to be some 'wonderful" new surprise that Pegasus was just waiting to spring at them and, consequently, destroy his wonderful mood.
Now John wouldn't go so far as to call himself a pessimist. He definitely preferred to classify himself under the category of realist, at least when he bothered to classifying himself at all. Experience had simply taught him that between Pegasus and his men's creative outlets, boring wasn't a realistic expectation in life. Sometimes it seemed like the galaxy enjoyed seeing him get injured and having to spend time under guard in the infirmary, or pull his hair out while keeping bored scientists and Marines from blowing themselves up and/or causing permanent harm. (John didn't mind these particular extracurricular pursuits but seriously, if Elizabeth was going to yell at him, shouldn't he at least get to have some fun participating beforehand?)
This past week had been a prime example of Pegasus' relation to Murphy's Law, and John still slightly cringed as he reflected back a week earlier.
The week had started off normally enough. Simple away missions had been planned and executed without complications (apparently miracles did still occur). SGA-3 and SGA-11 had been able to broker much needed trade agreements for fresh food stuffs and support against the Wraith, during their specific missions, while SGA-6 had found some fascinating ruins that warranted extra exploration and the talents of Dr. Kavanaugh for an entire month. Experiments were quietly held throughout the city. Maintenance was run, general city repairs were finished, and the senior staff completed enough paperwork to put the SGC in danger of shock during the next data burst.
To help kill some of the abundant downtime, the Marines had attempted to goad some scientists into a citywide lacrosse tournament, citing intercultural education and inter disciplinary cooperation as the motivation. Surprisingly enough, the Canadian scientists (minus Rodney) had jumped at the chance to spread the love of their second national sport. Carson had spent the rest of his day patching up both sides after the match had been called due to injury. Carson was less than pleased with the participants' necessary occupation of his infirmary (the Canadian scientists, much to the marines surprise, had proven both proficient and vicious during the game) and made his displeasure known as he and his team stitched cuts, reset dislocations, wrapped sprains, and set the odd broken bone.
Yes, all in all it had been a normal, quiet week in Atlantis. What had been abnormal, however, was Rodney. The head scientist had been driving the entire expedition crazy with his high anxiety, low patience, and antsy behaviour all week.
Now John would be the first to admit Rodney's behaviour was often less than welcoming at times but he was just as quick to point out that each behaviour had a clearly defined motivator behind it. There was "highly stressed Rodney" who was often slightly panicked, short tempered and snarky, but as of late also had confidence and an air of expertise. This was the Rodney who appeared during attacks, missions gone wrong, and their general everyday life or death situations. There was also annoyed Rodney. He was full of a superiority which came from explaining something only he could understand, from having been proven right (yet) again, or any circumstances when his intelligence saved the day. The Marines had been rumoured to refer to this as "Default Rodney" but John hadn't been able to find any definitive proof. None of the Marines had been stupid enough to try it within earshot of SGA-1 yet. Finally, there was normal Rodney, who whined and complained but did so out of fear of failure or to show he cared, who laughed and joked with his team, who could hold his own against the odds in situations he had never been trained to handle, and who would risk his own life to save his friends. This was the Rodney his team was most familiar with and John was proud of the ways the scientist has grown in the two years since joining SGA-1.
The Rodney of this week, however, didn't fit into any of the above categories. He was stressed, twitchy, and on guard. Teyla had originally thought that Rodney had become stuck in the middle of the unofficial prank war, rumoured to have started up between the science and medical teams following the now infamous lacrosse game and infirmary stay. John had gone to see if Doctor Beckett had finally enforced the coffee rationing that he had been threatened to Rodney since the expedition's early days. Ronon, on the other hand, just found himself tempted to shoot the annoying scientist. To be honest, John had been sorely tempted to allow Ronon an "accidental stun" when the two of them ended up on the receiving end of an impossible to follow and unprovoked McKay lecture.
After 4 days of patience, gentle questioning, and outright bribery, Rodney still refused to reveal the reasoning for his odd behaviour. Even Elizabeth, for all her patience and diplomacy, was beginning to get annoyed by the scientists' behaviour.
That's why Atlantis considered it a blessing when P7X – M4G, an industrialized planet on par with 1940's earth, had contacted them with a reminder concerning their science conference, set to begin the next morning. Dr. Weir had first been approached by the people of P7X-M4G two months earlier regarding their annual science conference, extending invitations to a Lantean delegation. Dr. Weir had been thrilled. The conference offered the perfect opportunity to strengthen relationships with allied worlds (many would be in attendance) as well as provide some of the science teams a safe opportunity to go off world, lessening their risk of cabin fever.
Unsurprisingly, between the loss of Ford, the arrival of Ronon, the Wraith threat, and day-to-day Lantean life, the invitation had slipped everyone's minds. The reminder and the conference came at the perfect time. Before Rodney knew what was happening, he had been swept away with a team of 5 scientists to a 3 day conference of science, debate, and the local caffeinated brew, much to everyone's relief.
Too bad such things never last.