"Yeah, so I'll see you later." Sheppard turned, hand raised for a farewell clap on the shoulder, only to find McKay gone and Kavanagh standing there, with the oddest expression on his face. He had a clipboard in one hand and a pen in the other.
"Colonel Sheppard."
"Dr...Kavanagh...ah..." Sheppard forced a smile and looked at his hand, poised in mid-air.
"Ah..."
Kavanagh looked down quickly.
"It's all right. You don't have to pretend to like me, Colonel." He pushed his glasses a little further up his nose, snapped open a control panel beside Sheppard and examined the contents.
"I wasn't...uh..." Sheppard searched for an explanation.
"See, I was talking to McKay, you know, he's one of the team...so then, when he left, I was going to..."
Kavanagh just looked at him and Sheppard realized he was digging himself in deeper with every word. He scratched his head and looked at Kavanagh with exasperation.
"Well, you know...maybe if you'd try a little harder to get along with people..."
Kavanagh's mouth set itself in the thin, unhappy line that was so familiar to Sheppard and the rest
of the base.
"Oh, and me doing my best to keep you all from destroying yourselves in hideously painful ways, and mopping up your messes when you're done being the heroes? I guess that doesn't count for anything."
"Well..."
Kavanagh met his eyes deliberately and mouthed the word "jumper".
Sheppard rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, ok, so you saved our asses with that one. We all save each other's asses on a regular basis. It's what we do around here, if you haven't noticed. Doesn't make you some kind of special cookie. You were also completely out of line to be giving Elizabeth that crap about being mistreated while the jumper was still in jeopardy."
"Whatever. Look, if you don't mind, I have work to do. The power conduits don't keep themselves in working order, you know." He turned back to the panel beside Sheppard.
"O...kay then..." Sheppard glanced at him once more, thoughtfully, then clapped a hand on his shoulder, twice, firmly, and turned on his heel.
Kavanagh threw a sour look after him, his cheeks reddening, and fixed his attention on the panel, grumbling to himself as the sound of Sheppard's footsteps retreated down the hall.