Fortunate Journey Birthday Surprises Chapter 1: Ignition, a stargate: atlantis fanfic

Birthday surprises ... Sheppard style!

Author: ShaViva

Rating: T

Content Warning: Some adult themes is about all.

Season: Between 2 and 3

Summary: Should a Birthday present really be this hard to receive? Okay, now that Christmas is over I can do the story I wanted to do. Again this is mostly fluff with just a little bit of plot thrown in. OC 1st person perspective story, established ShepOC relationship.

Classifications: Romance

Pairings: John Sheppard & Original Character

Spoilers for: Nothing really

Disclaimer: The Stargate characters, storylines, etc aren't mine – we went on a long cross country journey together and now I'm just heading down to the beach for a small vacation. I am unfortunately not associated in any way with the creators, owners, or producers of Stargate or any of its media franchises. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, equipment, etc are the property of whoever owns them. The original characters and plot and anything else I made up are the property of me, the author. No copyright infringement is intended.

Phase 1: Ignition

After the whole Christmas gift exchange thing I found myself hoping that John would have satisfied his urges regarding surprising me and not feel the need to do something for my 'birthday'. I had joined Team Sheppard in the commissary for dinner a couple of days after Christmas. The others were talking amongst themselves and I was trying subtlety to work out whether John did in fact have something planned.

"You ah ... don't have any plans for New Years, do you?" I asked hesitantly.

"After your reluctance with the whole Christmas mass celebration," John replied, "I would have thought you'd be all partied out."

"I'm not asking because I want to do something," I pointed out irritably. "I'm asking because I wanted to make sure you weren't doing anything!"

"Why would I be doing something for New Years?" John frowned at me in confusion.

"Because of that ... conversation we had a while back," I almost groaned in frustration. "You know ... when Rodney tried to find out something but there was nothing to find?!"

'Did I hear my name mentioned?" Rodney's head snapped up and he turned to us curiously.

"Not really," I told him. "I was just trying to remind John of that conversation we had where you couldn't find out something and had to ask me."

"Oh you mean about your birthday?" Rodney asked innocently.

"No," I growled. "Perhaps you'd like me to talk to Dr Weir about what actually happened?"

"I don't think that'll be necessary," Rodney said quickly, turning back to Ronon and Teyla. Of course it was too late.

"Is your birthday approaching?" Teyla asked curiously, clearly sensing the undercurrents of tension but confused about why a simple birthday would create them.

"No," I replied, trying to smile casually.

John had been silent since I'd brought Rodney's name up - he scoffed when I answered Teyla but otherwise said nothing.

"Is it a big secret then?" Ronon asked, looking from John back to me.

"Arg," I groaned in frustration. "There is no birthday, okay?!" Getting up with my tray I turned back to John with a raised eyebrow. "Happy now?" I asked grumpily.

"You were the one who mentioned New Years," John denied any responsibility for my current mood.

"Yeah, right," I returned, completely unconvinced by his innocent air. He'd known full well what I was asking - he just didn't want to tell me anything. "I'll just have to find out some other way." I turned and headed for the exit.

"Good luck with that!" John called after me.

"And good luck getting into our quarters tonight!" I returned over my shoulder.

"I better ..." I could hear John behind me hastily packing up before running to catch up with me. "That wasn't nice," John scolded me, clearly trying not to show that he was amused by my grumpiness. "You wouldn't really lock me out would you?"

"I'd try," I said without any remorse. "But Atlantis likes you enough you'd probably be able to override it."

"Good to know," John replied. Putting an arm around my shoulders he guided me down the corridor at an easy pace. "Don't worry," he reassured me.

"I'm not ... worried," I denied. "Just ... you know the library thing was ... huge ... I don't need anything else."

"We'll see," John's tone said clearly that he wouldn't be revealing anything else.

"What's this?" I asked Rodney the next day. I looked down curiously at the envelope he'd casually handed me.

"Don't know," Rodney replied distractedly. "It was on my desk this morning and since it's got your name on it I assumed it was for you."

"Who'd be leaving me a note in your office?" I asked suspiciously, ripping the envelope and taking out a sheet of actual paper. I opened the folded page, finding a note written in a hand I didn't recognise. The writing was bold and confident, each letter well formed and clearly evident.

"Fill in the blanks in the following number sequence. To get the final answer you will need to convert the missing numbers in some way. 5, 15, 20, 2, 18, 5, --, 9, 14, --, 19, --, --, 5, 23, 18, --. Give your answer to the secret hiding place."

"Did you write this?" I asked, intrigued in spite of my confusion about what it all meant.

"Write what?" Rodney craned his head forward, trying to see what was on the paper. I hastily moved it away from his view.

"It's a puzzle," I revealed, folding the sheet back up before Rodney could read what was on there. "John must have done this ... but why would John give me a puzzle?"

"You'd have a much better chance of explaining the weird eccentricities of Sheppard's mind than me," Rodney pointed out snidely.

"Very funny," I replied. "So John didn't mention anything about this?" I waved the paper at Rodney vaguely.

"Since you won't let me look at it," Rodney said sarcastically, "I can't help you work out what Sheppard is up to, if indeed he is the one who left you that note."

"You know something, don't you?" I looked at Rodney intently. He looked back without any hint of agitation - if he was in on this he was being very unRodney like in keeping it a secret. "I'll figure it out," I said confidently. "See you later Rodney," I called as I jumped up and headed out to my own lab, paper held tightly in hand.

Phase 1 authors note:

So what's the answer?? I'll give you a couple of days to work it out. (I'll source the puzzle after the answer is revealed so there's no chance for spoiling it.)

Completely unrelated to this chapter – does anyone know if Major Lorne has the ATA gene naturally or through the gene treatment? Also mostly unrelated, does anyone know Sheppard's birthday? I've searched all the bios I could find but haven't come up with anything.