Title: Company
Author: stella_pegasi
Rating: K
Words: 2,869
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Characters:John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Carson Beckett, others, OC's.
Summary: A late night in the Atlantis mess hall.
Follow-up companion piece to Among the Honorable; not necessary to read that story first, however, circumstances from that story are mentioned here.
Disclaimer: I do not own them; I would have treated them better.
Notes: Written for SGA_Last Fiction Writer Standing (sga_lfws) warm-up round on LiveJounal
Was asked to write two stories of different genres and stories could or could not be related.
Prompt selected was "A man is known by the company he keeps."
Company
"You cheated, Rodney."
Rodney threw up his hands as he followed Sheppard into the mess hall, "I did not che…"
"Yeah, you did, McKay." Ronon growled, as he brushed past McKay and headed for the food line.
Rodney stopped and stared at both of his teammates, "Why the hell do you think I cheated?
Sheppard, following Ronon to get a snack, laughed and glanced over his shoulder, "Rodney, you won a poker game, it's a given…you cheated."
Aha…you're just mad that I won and that I won money from you…Mr. Math Genius aka card shark…I beat you!!
It was nearly midnight and their weekly poker game had just broken up, earlier than usual, because Rodney had won a pot and then decided to cash out, not giving anyone an opportunity to win back their money.
"Rodney, you winning is either a fluke or cheating. And you royally pissed off the Marines who were playing with us by not sticking around and giving them a chance to win their money back," Sheppard retorted.
Ronon had picked up two pieces of cake, jello, and four cookies, about to head to a table. He leaned down and quietly told Rodney, "Yeah, little man… if I were you, I'd be scared if any of those Marines were on your next mission."
A slight look of panic crossed Rodney's face at Ronon's words but he recovered quickly and turned back to Sheppard.
"Ha, you are just mad because I won…admit it, Sheppard, I won, I won…." Rodney was flashing his goofy 'I'm cool' grin that Sheppard hated, at least until Sheppard turned around and gave him the Sheppard glare.
"Admit it Rodney, you cheated; I don't know how but ya cheated." Sheppard picked up an apple and banana, then put them back and got a piece of coconut cake and a dish of ice cream.
Ronon had found a table on the outside patio and Sheppard followed with Rodney in tow. It was a warm night on New Lantia and there were several people still sitting out on the patio enjoying the beautiful night. The twin moons over New Lantia were high in the clear star speckled sky and cast a soft bluish glow over Atlantis.
Rodney had his usual cupcakes, two of them, and coffee. He sat down across from Sheppard and Ronon and as he was peeling the paper from his cupcake, continued to grin and whisper under his breath, "I won, I won…" As he took a big bite of chocolate gooeyness, he looked up and Sheppard was staring at him.
"Whah?" Rodney tried to talk with chocolate icing stuck to the roof of mouth, making him incoherent.
"Geez, McKay, it's rude to speak with your mouth full," Sheppard frowned. Rodney mouthed the word 'what' again making certain all the cupcake he had crammed in his mouth was visible.
Sheppard continued to frown and added, "…and juvenile."
Rodney took a sip of coffee to clear his mouth, "Face it, fly-boy, you are just mad because you thought you were going to take that hand and I beat you…no, I bluffed you. That's what you are really mad about." He sat back in his chair with a self-satisfied grin on his face, devouring the other half of his cupcake.
"Rodney, you can't bluff, and I didn't lose to your ass because of your bluffing; you cheated." Sheppard shoved a large bite of coconut cake into his mouth with a flourish.
Rodney leaned his elbows on the table and said, "Prove it." His grin wide and taunting.
Knowing the scientist very well, Sheppard realized that Rodney as much as just admitted that he had cheated and was throwing down the gauntlet. For Rodney, the prize wasn't the money, the prize was fooling him. So, that's the way McKay wanted to play it; well, game on.
"About to bust to tell me how you did it, aren't you, doctor? Well, don't worry, I'll figure it out and when I do…you pay back all of the money. Deal?" Sheppard's smiley smirk was accompanied by a little head shake just to let Rodney know he was on to the game.
McKay laughed, "No deal, you will never be able to prove I cheated." He went back to concentrating on his second cupcake.
Sheppard's COM crackled, it was Major Lorne. "Colonel, you wanted to talk to me?" Lorne sounded tired.
"Yeah, I wanted an update on Panceras. You in the infirmary?"
"No sir, I am just leaving my quarters, took a quick shower and meeting the guys in the mess hall…we never got dinner. I can meet you wherever to give you an update."
"Mess hall's fine, major. I'm here on the patio. You guys come out and join us." Sheppard heard an affirmative from Lorne and clicked off his COM.
Ronon stirred from his sugar feast, "Lorne just get back?"
"Yeah, he's been helping the mayor and the engineers on Daedalus with logistics on the equipment they delivered a couple of days ago, garbage skips, dump trucks and backhoes. They can't move debris moved quickly without big equipment. The Daedalus crew is helping out for a week or so while our people rest up."
A major quake hit Panceras three weeks before and Atlantis along with many volunteers from other worlds had mobilized to aid the victims. The teams that had been on the planet for nearly three weeks straight, were now back in Atlantis, grounded by Dr. Keller for at least a week of rest.
"Well, you could have bloody well called me to join you." The three men looked up to see Dr. Carson Beckett standing with a cup of coffee and a piece of pie, looking like he had been asleep for a month.
"Doc, you look like crap." Sheppard said with a smile, motioning for Beckett to sit by Rodney.
"Thank you so much, colonel, and you are so not looking like George Clooney these days." Beckett was not in a good mood.
"Hey, doc, I am so much better looking than Clooney on a bad day." Smiling at Beckett, he winked and nodded toward Rodney who wasn't looking at him when he replied to Beckett. Both Sheppard and Beckett knew that Rodney would have a snarky reply to his statement and were silently counting backwards from ten…they got to seven before Rodney reacted.
"Right, Cap'n Kirk, maybe the George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou, not the Clooney in Ocean's Eleven…you will never be that cool.
"You're just jealous, McKay. Even your sister thinks I'm better looking than you."
"Well, Jeanie has no taste, have you seen Kaleb? 'Mr. Stringbean.'"
Beckett admonished McKay, "Rodney that is not a nice thing to say about your brother-in-law."
Sheppard added, "McKay, Kaleb is a nice guy, a handsome guy, and Jeanie loves him…be nice."
They were saved from any more of McKay's insults by the arrival of Lorne and his team. They were obviously tired but looked somewhat refreshed after getting showers. They sat down at the table next to Sheppard's and began devouring the sandwiches and chips available in the mess at the late hour.
"How goes it, major." Sheppard leaned back in his chair and stretched out his long legs.
"Good, sir. The mayor told me that they were amazed at how much help people from other worlds had been. He also told me that the death toll stands at 983 with most of the injured recovering and out of danger. I think the only patients still in critical condition are the ones here in the infirmary."
"They were lucky, with a 7.5 quake, that they didn't lose any more people than that." Rodney said.
"Yeah, well, doc, they think we are the reason that more people didn't die and if we were to admit it, they are right, sir." Lorne took a bite of his sandwich as one of his team was opening his mail.
"Hey, look what I got from my brother." Lieutenant Lane Schmidt held up a plain DVD case that was in the mail drop from the Daedalus. "It's Avatar, he got hold of a bootleg copy."
Behind him, Dr. Zelenka and a couple of scientists who'd come out on the patio with coffee cups in hand at the same time Lorne's team did, quickly turned their heads at the word, 'Avatar'. Zelenka excitedly said, "You have Avatar? How cool, we are dying to see it."
Sheppard got up and walked over to the lieutenant, "Let me see that, Schmidt." Handing the movie to the colonel, the lieutenant was pretty sure that was the last he would see of the movie. "Bootleg, huh? Well, can't have that on Atlantis can we? Let me think, isn't tomorrow night a movie night? I guess we're gonna have to find a movie to show." He walked back to his chair and sat down, DVD in hand, smiling at the lieutenant who grinned back.
Lorne looked at McKay, "Hey, doc, I hear you won at the poker game tonight. How'd that happen, hell hasn't frozen over has it?"
McKay sneered at Lorne, "Har de har har, major."
Zelenka's head popped up once more, immediately looking over at Colonel Sheppard. Right then, Sheppard knew that Zelenka had a clue about Rodney's poker victory. Catching Zelenka's eye, he moved his coffee cup slightly.
"Anybody want anything? I'm getting more coffee." With that he left for the coffee bar and within a few minutes, Zelenka followed.
The colonel did not return for about ten minutes and when he did, he patted Zelenka on the shoulder as he walked past him. Sitting down in his chair, he saw Rodney gaze at him intently; he knew Sheppard was up to something. Sheppard just took a sip of coffee and didn't say anything.
That something walked out onto the patio a few minutes later. Three pissed off Marines who had lost money in the poker game and one very scared biophysicist headed directly for McKay.
Lieutenant Vasquez looked at Colonel Sheppard, "Colonel, I believe that Dr. Perkins has something to say."
Sheppard looked at Rodney, "Doctor, you would prefer to tell us what Dr. Perkins is about to say? Or should I just say, busted, McKay?"
Dejected, Rodney shook his head, "You got me, Sheppard, but how did you find out?" Then he realized that Sheppard and Zelenka were gone at the same time. Turning to Zelenka, "You…you told on me? Way to go, just you wait, worst assignments ever."
Sheppard put up his hand, "McKay, don't threaten Dr. Z; he just had a theory. Dr. Perkins gave up the goods, about how he bet you that he could teach you a card trick that would allow you to switch the cards in your hand. You decided to use it in the poker game. Right?"
McKay turned to Perkins, "You just had to tell him didn't you, I told you it was a joke and I was going to give back the money, I just wanted to pull off a joke on Sheppard. You could have kept your mouth shut."
Perkins glared down at Rodney, "You try to keep your mouth shut when three Marines bigger than you break in your quarters and drag you in front of the colonel. You'd squeal, McKay."
"I would not, you're a wimp."
"I might be a wimp, McKay, but Colonel Sheppard has a gun. I wasn't taking any chances."
Sheppard laughed, Ronon joined in, then Beckett and finally everyone but McKay and Perkins were laughing. "Rodney, good try because I really didn't have a clue. Next time, you should be more careful where you plot your little games so you are not overheard. Now, pay up."
Sheppard sat back in his chair and watched McKay count out money to the Marines and Ronon, then throw his money across the table. Everyone including Perkins was laughing and talking, one of the Marines had even pulled out a deck of cards and Perkins was showing them how the card trick worked. McKay and Zelenka were still bickering but that was nothing new; all was as it usually was on Atlantis.
On Pangaras, just after they had rescued a family of four, he had been reminded of the old adage; a man is measured by the company he keeps. As he watched the Atlantians work side-by-side with volunteers from all over the galaxy to rescue victims without a care to their own safety; he knew he was keeping company with honorable people; then and now.
As he observed his grunts and geeks laughing and having a good time so late at night on the patio, he was convinced there was something to that old saying. The people he served with on Atlantis were honorable and most importantly they respected each other. They may bicker with each other, the grunts complained about the scientists and vice versa but when either one needed the other, they were one team. From the toughest Marine to the slightest scientist, they were courageous, inventive, loyal, mischievous, playful, and they took care of each other.
Sheppard had thought himself lucky when he first considered that saying and he hadn't changed his mind. He was keeping company with the best people in two galaxies. If he was measured by them, then that was fine with him.
The End…