"Colonel, would you care to explain what I just saw?" Beckett's voice was whip sharp as the doctor stood glaring at him, arms crossed over his chest.
"I uh...Umm no?" John ducked his head, a sheepish grin raising one corner of his mouth.
The attempt to charm failed miserably. Carson's glare turned positively glacial as he stepped into Sheppard's personal space. He uncrossed his arms and poked the colonel in the chest.
"You don't want to explain why I saw you give Colonel Mitchell a lemon to use on Rodney?" Beckett punctuated each angry word with a sharp poke to John's chest.
John stepped back out of range of Carson's angry finger. Raising a hand he rubbed the back of his neck before looking at the CMO imploringly. There was no way he could deny it. He had indeed given Colonel Mitchell a lemon along with instructions on how to use it. He just would prefer to keep his motives to himself. Although it didn't look likely that Beckett would allow him that luxury.
"You cannot tell me that you are unaware of the severity of Rodney's allergy. You requisitioned extra epi-pens after he had that reaction on K5-6GG. In fact you implemented the policy that anyone accompanying him off world carries spare pens." The doctor's tone and body language were growing steadily louder and more outraged with each passing second. The confrontation was starting to draw attention from people passing by in the halls and that was not be a good thing.
John took Beckett's arm and steered him around a corner out of the flow of traffic and hopefully away from prying ears.
"Relax Carson, it was a fake lemon. There is no danger to Rodney." John's tone was soft and reasonable.
"What? Why do it at all? Fine, it won't hurt him physically, but you got to know it's going to cause tension. If it's your idea of joke Colonel, I must say it's a rather mean one. " The doctor stared at Sheppard in confusion.
John sighed and bit his lower lip, clearly uneasy with this conversation. "Look it wasn't a joke. I just didn't want McKay getting too comfortable with them. He belongs here on Atlantis."
Carson stared at him in shock as understanding slowly dawned. "Oh my word Colonel. Has anyone ever told you, that you are a right manipulative bastard?"
John glanced away several emotions crossing his face to fast to be recognized. When he looked back at Carson his features had settled into a bland mask that revealed nothing of his thoughts. " I believe my ex-wife may have mentioned it a couple of times."
"Ex-wife...?" Even though he knew it was an attempt to distract him, Carson couldn't stop himself from rising to the bait.
With a lazy shrug, and a smirk that didn't even come close to reaching his eyes, Sheppard pointed at his wrist watch. "Sorry doc, got to go. I have a pile of paperwork to finish up before the next data burst. I'll tell you all about it some other time."
Carson watched as John disappeared down the hall, heading in the exact opposite direction of his office. Shaking his head, Beckett wondered if the Colonel realized how much he had revealed regarding his feelings towards McKay. Well one thing the doctor knew for sure, he was damn glad he wouldn't be in Sheppard's shoes when Rodney returned home. McKay was a creative and vindictive man when provoked and the Colonel had just waved the citrus equivalent of a red flag in the scientist's face. Of course, there was always the chance that Rodney would react like a mature adult. Snickering under his breath Carson headed back to the infirmary, maybe he would start a betting pool. He rather fancied the odds of an attack on the Colonel's hair. Ah yes things were about to become very interesting in Atlantis.