A/N: So, it's been a while since I wrote a SGA fic and well, this sort of popped into my head and I thought, hey why not. Hope it's a good read considering I wrote in like 30 minutes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but Lily. If I did, it would still be airing.

Whoever said that parenting came naturally had never met one Lillian Masie McKay. At the moment, he didn't have a single clue on how to get her to eat again after not accepting anything for a whole day and not exactly being on the best of behaviors.

All Rodney could think of was that the person who invented that line wasn't thinking straight and was probably in a near drug or alcohol induced coma, their head obviously not thinking straight. "Come on, please? For daddy," he tried again, offering the spoon of spaghetti out to his daughter. 'She had to have one of her moods on her lately.' He sighed and gave up, throwing his hands up in the air and turning his full attention back onto his work.

The lab wasn't a great place to keep a five year old child for a day, but he had work to do and Jennifer was busy doing medical checkups on the mainland with the Athosians. They both were knees deep in work and McKay couldn't think of anyone to baby-sit for him. Teyla was on the mainland with Torren, visiting the Athosians so they were both out of the question.

He didn't trust the Setedan one bit to take care of a fragile child. Sure Rodney could stand the guy, but he wouldn't actually want to willingly leave his only child alone with him.

Zalenka was an idiot in his opinion and McKay was sure that the Czech would actually forget about the child. Woolsey was 'busy' leading the city, or as Sheppard had put it once, "Planning our funerals in his office." The 'other' Carson was full with patients in the infirmary thanks to the 'training' week that Sheppard had somehow managed to get an approval for and this was the reason why McKay couldn't ask John.

Sighing once again he began to tap onto a laptop, checking over another new piece of ancient technology, glancing every few seconds at Lily.

She had stared at him the whole time, arms crossed over her chest with her small blonde curls hanging in front of her face, a frown firmly planted on her usual cheery face. Her brown eyes were cast a shady look of annoyance and anger and McKay had enough practice in him to not squirm underneath her gaze.

He had concluded that if she didn't want to eat than she could just starve. Nobody had had any luck trying to convince her to eat yesterday and they were having the same luck today.

After another hour of Rodney working and Lily staring and huffing every now and again, Sheppard walked into the unusually quiet lab where the only sounds he could hear was the tapping of the keys on the laptop. "Hey Sheppard," McKay spared him a glance before continuing on with his work.

"Hey Rodney," he answered back, his gaze falling onto the arm crossed girl who was sat on a chair. "Hey Lily," he made his way over to her and crouched down to eye level, "are you still not eating yet?" He was greeted by an angry 'you're-so-stupid' glare that he had seen McKay produce one too many times before. "And not talking either."

She huffed in response and drew her arms closer to her, looking away and glaring at an empty space on the wall. "Don't bother she's in one of her moods," McKay told the Colonel.

"That so huh?" He raised his eyebrows at the child and waited as she slowly looked at him, her hard gaze falling slightly, "Is Daddy not playing with you again?"

"Hey!"

McKay shouted but John ignored him as he continued with his talking as if he was never interrupted, "well, you know how your Daddy gets when he finds a new toy to play with, you see, he's kinda forgetful about other things. Kind of like you forgetting to eat." He watched as her eyes fell, the truth hitting her slightly and Sheppard smiled at the small step. "Tell you what, you stop being forgetful just like Daddy, and stubborn, and lets go get you some food shall we?"

He waited for a response and he was surprised by the answer he received, "Stupid hot headed, air filled flyboys. Daddy's not forgetdul, he jus' busy with saving Atlantis Dumbo. He save you too you know. Stupid solder thinks he knows everything just because he has the ATA and can fly a puddle jumper." His eyebrows shot up at her words and big vocabulary for a five year old child, he faintly heard the small sniggering of the girls' father behind him.

"Move!" She ordered, shoving Sheppard out of the way and making her way towards the door, "Your stupidness has made me hungry, need me some food. Uncle Ronan! Uncle John's being stupid big Dumbo again!" She shouted down the hall and McKay held onto the work top just to stop himself from falling with laughter as his body shook.

John rounded on the scientist, "What have you been teaching her?"

"Oh please," he started after another minute of laughing, "I haven't taught her that."

"Well she is definitely your child," Sheppard concluded, resting his elbows on the worktop as he looked over the various bits of ancient technology.

"Yeah well, I'm not the one who just got insulted and ordered around by a kid." Sheppard made some sort of grunt in response before retreating from the lab and leaving McKay alone to avoid anymore teasing.

Once Sheppard had left McKay laughed to himself once more before pressing enter on the keyboard.

Days later, when Sheppard began his daily routine, he found a note on his office door stating 'Hot headed Dumbo.' He had thought nothing of it and had taken it down, screwing it up in his hands and throwing it into the bin.

When he sat down for lunch with Ronan he couldn't help but feel like he was being talked about behind his back. When he had talked to Chuck the gate technician he was pretty sure that the technician was laughing at a private joke, he just couldn't figure out what. When Lorne had laughed to his face and he had demanded to know what it was, the second in command had walked away, dismissing it before bursting out laughing again, Glancing up at the Setedan who was smirking to himself. "Alright that's it. What's so funny?"

"Nothing," Ronan replied, digging into his food with the smile still there.

"Is it some kind of joke that everyone's in on but me?" Ronan shook his head almost laughing before Teyla joined them having arrived back in Atlantis that morning. "Teyla, how were the Athosians?"

"They were good and are doing fine thank you John," she replied, avoiding eye contact with him. This just increased his curiosity.

He gave it a few more minutes before dropping his fork and asking her what was wrong, "Nothing, it's just…"

"Just what?"

She cleared her throat and spared Ronan a glance before turning back to John, "When I arrived back I had received a very, amusing video. Asking around I found that everybody had been sent the same thing."

Not quite sure where this was going John nodded absently, "Okay."

"Well," she stared at Ronan again for a split second before a smile erupted onto her face, "It's a video of you."

"Of me?"

She nodded and John almost paled at the thought of some embarrassing private moment being spread around the base. "Yes, well, it's a conversation you had with Lillian, three days ago in Rodney's lab." She paused for dramatic effect before giving him a summary, "Hot headed, air filled Dumbo?"

For the days that followed Rodney crept around the base avoiding the Colonel at all costs as he was hunted by the marine. He was successful until he was caught hiding in the infirmary.

The day after Woolsey administered a very immediate warning about configuring the Deadalus' Asgard beam device to transport people systematically all over the city at odd intervals, to the furthest parts of the city as well.

Everybody questioned how John had managed to figure out how to work the machine and he had answered, "Keep quiet or you'll be taking a nice long walk for the next few days."

A/N: So, what do you think? Good? Bad? Terrible? Tell me whatever you thought of it.