The Price of Boredom
Summary: Boredom sometimes leads to some not so great ideas as John Sheppard finds out.
Disclaimer: I do not own Stargate Atlantis or Indiana Jones, wish I did though.
A/N: Not much to say other than trust me, what happens in this story is completely possible.
Great, just great, exactly what he needed. These were going to be the worst weeks of his life. Ok, that might be a little exaggerating, but still. Why did he have to be so stupid! Me and my great ideas. If he hadn't been so bored at the time he would have never thought of such an idea and now because of that he was stuck in his quarters. He should have kept doing his paperwork instead, but no, he had to go and get himself thrown back into the infirmary. The one place he tried to avoid and he seemed to be attracted to it like a moth to the light. He was about to get up when he heard the beeping of the doors, and he immediately sat back down.
"Yeah, come in," he answered.
The doors swished open to reveal Teyla.
"You have not gotten up from there have you?" she asked as she walked inside, the doors closing behind her.
"No, still here, right where you left me." She had volunteered to accompany him to his quarters after visiting the infirmary mostly to make sure that he didn't wander off.
"Good. Rodney and Ronon are on their way. We thought we could watch some of your movies to entertain you."
"Sounds nice," he sighed.
"Are you all right, is there anything you need?"
"Yeah, I need to get out of this room, run, walk, or something, I don't want to be cooped up in here." He was lying on his bed with his back against the wall and his foot was propped up by a pillow, covered in gauze.
"You need to rest for now, then we will see what Dr. Beckett says. I am sure you will not be cooped up in here for very long," she answered with a sweet smile.
"Fine," he sighed. He had only been stuck in his quarters for two hours and he was already starting to go crazy, how was he suppose to last the whole week?
"Here, I will get you more ice," she offered.
"Thanks."
They heard loud voices right outside the door, easily recognizing the agitated voice of Rodney and the few grunts from Ronon. The doors opened and they let themselves in, still deep in their argument.
John ran a hand over his face, he wasn't in the mood to deal with the scientist's attitude.
"McKay." Nothing.
"McKay." Not even a glance.
"MCKAY!"
That seemed to have done the trick as they stopped their argument to look at a very annoyed John Sheppard.
"Boy, aren't we grumpy."
"Shut up, McKay. This is all your fault!" he said pointing a finger at Rodney.
"My fault? Why is it my fault? I wasn't the one who was riding a stupid skateboard down the hall," he said as his voice rose by an octave.
"Stupid skateboard? Just because you don't know how to use one doesn't mean you can insult it and you're the one that drove that stupid race car in my way!" He knew that he shouldn't be shouting at Rodney, after all it had been his idea but his frustration was starting to boil over and it had nowhere else to go.
"Hey, I can learn if I want to! Besides, it wasn't my fault and it was your bright-"
Someone loudly cleared their throat, interrupting their argument. Both turned to look sheepishly over at Teyla, who looked about ready to strangle them both.
"Here, how about I fluff those pillows for you?" Rodney offered.
"Yeah, thanks."
"And I'll put the movie on," Ronon said, managing not to laugh at the scared faces of his friends.
"I have another ice pack," Teyla said as she moved to replace the old one. "It looks like the swelling is down, how is the pain?"
"I think the pain killers that Beckett gave me are working, doesn't feel that bad anymore. Look guys, you don't have to do this, I'll be fine," he told them. He didn't want them to feel obligated to be there with him and he didn't really want people taking care of him.
"You're not gonna get rid of us Sheppard, so suck it up," Ronon told him as the others agreed. "Wouldn't you do the same thing for us?"
"No," he lied.
His team just smiled, he knew that somehow they knew him too well, he would do anything for them and they knew it. He sighed and let them continue although he felt very weird about the whole thing, he wasn't used to being taken care of or people making a big fuss over him but since he had arrived in Atlantis it had happened a lot especially every time he landed in the infirmary, which was very often, much to his annoyance.
"So, what happened?" Ronon asked, suddenly curious.
John sighed and reluctantly started his story. "Well, I was bored and had the bright idea of racing Rodney's car with my skateboard down the hall." He looked over at Ronon and Teyla's incredulous faces, "yeah, yeah not one of my best ideas."
"When have you ever had a great idea?" Rodney interrupted.
John rolled his eyes."At least it was better than my other idea."
"Which was?"
He looked at the three curious faces.
"Never mind. Anyway," he continued. "I let Rodney have a head start, cause, c'mon, there was no way he was gonna beat me, he's too slow."
"I am not."
"Shh, I'm telling the story here. So, we thought the hall was empty so I was going pretty fast, when a scientist came out of nowhere, right onto the path of Rodney's car, who managed to avoid her but the car swerved in front of me. I managed to avoid it but lost my balance, fell off my skateboard and crashed right into the wall."
"That's how you got that sprained ankle?" Ronon asked pointing at John's foot.
"And the busted lip," Rodney added. "But I don't know how he could have possibly gotten that cut above his eye," he wondered.
"Yeah, that's how and I wouldn't know Rodney I only remember losing my balance and falling, the rest is a blur." He really didn't know but he had felt like a crash test dummy when he had arrived at the infirmary. Everything hurt but the throbbing pain in his ankle took the prize, he had brushed blood from somewhere and he wondered if he had broken his nose or something. After being looked over he was glad that he only had a mild sprain, a busted lip and a cut. He was glad it wasn't any worse.
"But you are all right now and we are glad," Teyla added with a smile.
"Yeah, I guess," he shrugged. "So, what are we watching?" he asked changing the subject before things got mushy.
"Raiders of the Lost Ark," Ronon answered.
"Cool! Indiana Jones," John said excitedly.
"I do not believe I have seen this one," Teyla told them.
"Oh, you'll love it!" he told her as he sat up a little straighter, eager to tell her more about it. "It has action, adventure and even a bit of romance," he told her. "Hey, is that popcorn I smell?"
"Yeah, figured you'll want some," Rodney answered, glad that his mood seemed to have lightened up.
Halfway through the movie, Ronon looked over at John to ask him something when he noticed that he had fallen asleep. He nudged the other two as they turned over to look. Sometime during the movie he had slid down the bed so that he no longer had his back against the wall behind his bed and was now resting comfortably against the pillows.
"We should probably leave," Teyla whispered, not wanting him to wake up.
"But the movie's not over yet," Rodney complained.
"We can watch it tomorrow, McKay," Ronon told the scientist.
"Oh, right."
They picked up their mess and turned off the movie, covering John with a blanket before leaving. As they exited his quarters Rodney told them, "You know being off duty is going to drive him nuts and then he's going to drive us nuts. I think I'm going to shut myself in my lab until this is all over."
Teyla and Ronon just chuckled.
XXXXXXXXXX
He slowly made his way into the lab and found Rodney working on an ancient piece of technology. He didn't even look up as he entered, too engrossed in his work.
"So, what's so important about this one?" he asked, looking over Rodney's shoulder.
Rodney jumped, "would it kill you to knock!"
"The door was open. Didn't you hear me come in? I mean these crutches do make a lot of noise."
"No, can't you see I'm busy and what are you doing here anyway? I thought you would be hanging out with Ronon or something," he said as he returned his focus back to his work.
John found a chair and sat down, "he was busy."
"What about Teyla?"
"Busy too," he answered as he picked up a weird looking object from the table.
"Don't touch that, you might activate it and blow us up or something."
He quickly put it down, he didn't need another trip to the infirmary. "What does it do anyways?"
"I'm not really sureā¦yet," he said not looking up. "So again what are you doing here?"
"Just came to visit my buddy," he said with a grin.
"Well, I'm busy."
"Oh c'mon, Rodney. I'm bored out of my mind."
"Oh yeah, remember what happened the last time you were bored?"
John didn't need a reminder as he looked down at his foot. "We'll do something safer, no skateboards this time."
Rodney groaned, "fine, just let me finish here."
"Can't it wait, it's not going anywhere."
"No."
"Fine, I guess I'll have to wait."
After a few minutes of sitting and doing nothing he asked again, "you finished yet?"
"For the hundredth time, not yet."
John sighed dramatically, earning a glare from the annoyed scientist. He looked around for something that might entertain him while he waited and found that his chair swiveled. He gave a few turns, well this will keep me entertained for now, it's kinda fun anyways. After a few more turns he became really dizzy and stopped. When the world stopped spinning he saw Rodney scowling at him.
"What?"
"Are you a child? Can't you sit still for a moment, Madison behaves better than you do."
"Yeah, well your niece doesn't have to deal with you everyday and will you please hurry up with that."
Rodney huffed and turned back to his work. John looked for something else to do and found papers lying all over the table, and suddenly an idea hit him.
"All right, I think that's as much as I can do now. Especially with you hanging around," Rodney finally said.
He chose to ignore the last comment. "Great, I've got an idea," he said as he turned to gather up some of the papers.
XXXXXXXXXXXX
Ronon and Teyla walked into the infirmary and immediately heard two very loud and familiar voices arguing.
"Maybe we should leave them here," Ronon told Teyla.
Teyla only smiled and continued to walk, almost running into a frazzled looking nurse.
"They can leave now," she told them and left before any of them could answer. They walked over and the two men immediately became quiet. They were sitting on the edge of their respective beds their feet dangling over the edge of the bed. Rodney was sporting what looked to be the beginning of a black eye and was holding a cold compress to the side of his head. They noticed that John was sporting new injuries, a black eye as well, a bandaged hand and was holding a cold compress to the back of his head.
"What happened to you two?" Ronon asked suppressing a laugh.
"Ask him," he said pointing a finger accusingly at John as he jumped off the bed. As they looked over at the accused man, he just rolled his eyes.
"Something safe, he said. Paper airplanes, really! How is that even possible? The guy's a trouble magnet," he muttered as he walked away.
Hope you enjoyed it and reviews are welcome :)
