Chewing the end of her stylus, Kait glared at the screen with an annoyed grunt, the calculations on her screen frustrating her immensely. Radek was insisting they were correct, but something was off. They were trying to incorporate a new backup power drive onto the puddle jumpers, but it was being stubborn, and they had no way of telling if it was working without numerous failed simulations. Glancing around and spotting no one, she let out a frustrated sigh and pulled her hair loose, pulled her outer jacket and t-shirt off, and grabbed her mobile music player, which she had found tucked away. She plugged it into her ears and, wearing her camisole undershirt, she began to get back to work, this time, oblivious to the world around her.

Let's see… move this number here… and that one to there… round it up… no, wait, the Naquadah generators can't do that… and we can't shove ZPM's in every single puddle jumper…

She continued her work, for about, say, an hour, or three, adding that to the time she had already spent on her work, well, her self-assigned job of fixing Radek's work… and after that awesome time frame, she sat up with a jolt, her eyes wide.

"Damnit Radek, why did you overcomplicate it!?" she exclaimed, bounding out of her chair and heading down the halls, her tablet in her hands as she took off.

Turn left here, and right down here… damn it, where was he…

She hadn't had a chance to really learn the place yet, so she was still easily able to get lost. She did love the city however, it was gorgeous… the Ancients had made a truly magnificent city. She had been learning some of the basics of fighting from Sheppard and Ronon, and had even had a lesson or two with Teyla. Sheppard had taught her some of the basics of the weapons, as well. Unfortunately, that had meant that she hadn't had much time to learn her way around some of the back areas of the city.

Ugh, now where was the chair room again…?


Rodney and Radek were in the middle of some important work on the chair, the control chair for Atlantis, making sure that it stayed in good working order and that it was ready in case of attack… meaning that Colonel Sheppard was in the room too, using the chair in minor ways while they took notes and argued about various things, such as…

"It's fine, Radek…"

"No, Rodney, it's not, there's a distinct fluctuation in the chair's power when he accesses the weapons."

"Which has always been there, I'm guessing there's a failsafe code underlying in there."

"Guessing, Rodney?"

"Do you want to be the one to rip apart the chair and explain to Elizabeth as to why, exactly, you thought we needed to tear it up and play with it to find one line of failsafe coding that is probably buried far, far underneath all of the main coding and probably not even part of the main chair itself?"

Silence greeted Rodney after that statement, and he went back to his tablet, as Sheppard snorted in the chair.

"As amusing as this always is, guys, do you mind hurrying up? I've got things to do, too." He said, shooting both scientists a look.

"Colonel Sheppard, this is very important, and you know it is. We need to make sure the chair is in good shape in case of a Wraith att-"

"FINALLY! There it is!"

As the door slid open, the interrupter ran into the room, skidding to a halt as she entered the room swiftly. Sheppard grinned, and waved. "Hey Kait. We still on for weapons practice?"

"Huh? Oh, yes, yes." She said, dismissively, as she held the tablet basically under Radek's nose. He took it from her, and then peered at her.

"These were my calculations for the puddle jumpers… why do you have them?"

"I was bored. Anyhow, just look at them. Look at the simulation." She said, impatiently.

He glanced at the tablet again, as Rodney simply shot her a look. "And this couldn't wait until we were done? And what in the world are you wearing?" he asked, averting his eyes as she glanced down.

Oops. So apparently all of Atlantis had gotten a nice view of her boobs in her undershirt. "I forgot to grab my t-shirt. You act like you've never seen boobs before, McKay." She shot him a look as he sputtered and flushed lightly.

"He probably forgot what they look like, Kait. Don't mind him." Sheppard quipped, making Rodney shoot him a venomous look and Kait, well, she simply went back to showing Radek the equations.

Rodney blinked. Well, at least Sheppard couldn't kirk this one. That was a plus.

"Wait, you removed a whole set of coding! It can't work without the power restrictions-"

"Radek, did you ever think about wiring the secondary generators into the current restrictors? Using the same coding? Why make all new coding for something that isn't broken?"

"Because, it's not that simple, we're dealing with different power sources, their restrictor codes are for the ZPM and not our generators, which is what we'd be using."

"But, honestly, they seem to be able to exchange pretty easily. I mean to say, we use Naquadah generators with ZPM coding around here all the time, and Naquadah coding with ZPM power, too. It's worth a shot."

Glancing over, Rodney grabbed the tablet, then shot Radek a look. "What have I told you about overcomplicating things, Radek? C'mon. We've done this before."

"The risk that it will blow up in our faces is greater than you would like to think."

"You sound like Kavanagh now, Radek. You know I hated Kavanagh."

"GUYS! What do you think?" she tapped her foot impatiently.

"I don't think it will work, or that it's a good idea to try."

"…I say we try it. It can't hurt to give it a shot. Even if Doctor Shaking in my boots doesn't want to." He said, glancing to Radek, as Radek shook his head.

"I want to be a part of this, guys. I'm tired of working on side projects that don't do any real use to the city." Kait crossed her arms, as Radek looked kindly at her.

"Dr. Weir just thought to get you involved slowly, not overwhelm you. This can be a lot for anyone to take in." Radek said kindly, as she shook her head.

"I don't care, and I'm not overwhelmed. I'm bored out of my mind. I'm tired of working on stuff that the lower staff science team is working on. I mean… water filtration? Come on…"

Radek sighed. "Well if you're going to try this, Rodney, I want no part of it, I think it's a poor idea…"

"Noted, Radek. Nichols can help if you're so scared of it."

She blinked and stared at Rodney, who hadn't looked at her since noting her clothing. He glanced her way and shrugged, before refocusing on Radek.

"I'm not scared, I just think it is a waste of time, Rodney, and you know it." He said, as McKay shook his head.

"You do this, you know-"

"Guys, can I go now?" Sheppard asked, having been forgotten about temporarily. Rodney looked up, as if he hadn't realized he was still there, and nodded, waving him off. "Oh, yeah, go. We're pretty much done." He said, as Radek threw his hands up and started swearing in Czech.

"C'mon, Nichols, let's go try this out." Rodney said, as Sheppard took off as fast as he could, and Radek glared at Rodney and headed back to the lab.

Rodney motioned for Kait to follow him, and she did, albeit a bit surprised. "Er… Rodney…"

"Oh do you have some issue that you need to take care of now too that just can't wait until we're done working on this for a while?" he asked, as she crossed her arms.

"Well, unless you think my shirt half falling off while we're working on the puddle jumpers is a great idea… I'd LIKE to grab a shirt." She said, as his look changed and he flushed again.

"Oh. Right. Well we'll run by your quarters then…" he said, clearing his throat as she hurried to keep up.

"Rodney, why is this such a big deal anyhow? I mean I get that it's a great idea, that it's great to have secondary power, but why can it not really wait?"

"I've been on one too many of those Ancient metal death traps, and been trapped somewhere or in them with no power one too many times. Trust me, you want them to have a backup, protected power source."

As they neared the quarters, he stopped, and looked at her. "Ok, look… I want to get started. My quarters are here and yours are farther away, and … oh just hang on." He said, and headed into his room. She waited for a second as he came right back out, and tossed her a t-shirt.

"Just throw this on. As long as I get it back, I don't care." He said, as she unfolded the shirt and snorted at the words on it.

"I'm with genius? Really?"

"What? It's true." He said, as he motioned her into the opposite direction. She pulled the shirt on and followed him, a bit surprised that he had offered her a shirt, to be honest. He seemed to be the kind of person who wouldn't lend his things.


Working on the puddle jumpers had gone surprisingly well. There had yet to be any serious issues, and aside from it being hotter than hades in the jumper due to the exposed power sources, things were going great.

"I'm going to talk to Elizabeth about getting air conditioning installed in these things!"

"It's not that bad…"

"Honestly, do you just not like to complain or something? I mean, I get that you like it here and all, but come on some of the stuff that happens here has to annoy you." Rodney glanced over his shoulder as he worked on his tablet, as she glanced up from her position sitting criss-cross applesauce (what, she was a kid at heart ok?) on the floor.

"It's not that. I think it's hot too, but at least if you wanted to, you could go shirtless. Imagine how it sucks to not be able to do that. Yay societal norms."

"Please, you could too… wait…" he made a slight noise and went back to his work, re-thinking that line of conversation.

'Chalk this one to a win.' She thought with a snort, tucked a stray strand of hair out of her face. She glanced at her readings, and looked up at McKay. "Hey, do you see those fluctuations?" she asked, as he glanced down.

"Yeah, I'm compensating." He said, as she shook her head.

"Rodney they're rising too fast, we're going to blow a fuse. The coding hasn't fully been applied to our backup system yet…" she said, as he looked at her.

"I thought you had already finished uploading it?" he said, giving her a look.

"I said almost. I had to re-type the whole code." She said, as he blinked.

"Move away now…" he said, as she continued typing. "Nichols! MOVE!" he yelled, as the panel sparked. She threw her hand up, trying to scramble back as sparks started to fly from the open panel in front of her into her face. She closed her eyes, as a pair of hands grabbed her under her arms and tugged her backwards, away from the sparks.

"Nichols! Kait! Are you alright?" she heard McKay asking her, and she winced, her hand burned from the sparks, but she nodded.

"I'm fine. I should have typed faster." She winced, as he nodded and gave her a look.

"Yeah, you should have. Damn it, we could have been badly hurt if we I hadn't shut the power when I did. And it STILL sparked. I don't get it."

"I think I do. We overloaded it. We almost had it, but the coding didn't get input fast enough to take before you turned it on."

He had the decency to look sheepish at least. "Oh. Well, we'll try again tomorrow. Not a big deal." He started, but she stopped him and stood up.

"No, we can finish now. It just stings a bit."

"That's because you burned your arm, woman. Go get it bandaged."

"Look, one last try. We've just about got it, so we can try one more time. It's not like there'll be permanent damage if we wait for a few minutes." She said, as he crossed his arms.

"Fine. But don't get mad at me when Beckett chews you out." He said, as they headed back to work, checking their screens. After a few moments of making sure the coding took properly this time, they started the power again. This time, with the coding having been properly implemented, the generator activated as a backup power source with no issues. They sat and watched, making sure it worked alright, and as the readings showed everything being alright… she grinned up at him, and crossed her arms, albeit carefully.

"Yessssss!" she said, as he gave a smirk.

"Well, you were using Ancient codes and my own personal codes, which I have to say make the job much easier for you." He said, as she continued grinning at him. "What?"

"You're welcome."

He sputtered a bit, before raising his eyebrow at her. "And why would I need to thank you? I'd have figured it out." He said, as she grinned more.

"Uh huh. Sure you would have." She said, as she hoisted herself to her feet and held her arm to her chest gingerly. "And now, I'm going to get this wrapped up. I'll make sure not to get anything on your shirt." She said, as she headed for the infirmary.


Rodney simply stared at the door as she left, glancing at the coding. Yeah, he would have gotten it eventually, but he had to admit… she had figured out Radek's mistake pretty quickly. And besides that, she hadn't run off to medical to get patched up, insisting on staying… not something you saw often anymore.

And she didn't look that god-awful either. Part of him, the less-gentlemanly part, was almost wishing he had told her not to worry about an overshirt.

"McKay!" Sheppard. Just great. Now what?

"What is it, Sheppard?" he asked, annoyed.

"I was supposed to have weapons training with Nichols hours ago, have you guys been here this whole time?" he asked, as Rodney checked the time… 5 hours?!

"We didn't realize that much time had gone by. She's in the infirmary-"

"Oh now what happened Rodney?" Sheppard was being an ass again.

"Nothing! We just had a bit of an overload, but we fixed it. We now have a way to install back up power to the puddle jumpers in case of emergency. I'm going to get Colonel Caldwell to bring a ton of Naquadah generators as soon as he can, I think they have enough to spare on the Daedalus." He said, as Sheppard shook his head.

"Well, you do that Rodney. Is she ok at least?"

"Hm? Nichols? She's fine, just a scorch. Like I said she's getting patched up now." He gave Sheppard a look.

"Alright, I'm going to go check on her, see how she's doing."

"Oh for heaven's sake, Sheppard, it's not like she got into a fight with Ronon, she's got a singe on her arm. I've had worse than that. She'll have worse than that."

"Yeah, but unlike you, maybe I want some brownie points with her. Couldn't hurt to try." He grinned and left, as McKay groaned at him.

Figured. Probably would have been better for Nichols if she kept the coat on from her first day here. Sheppard wouldn't give it a rest until he'd kirked her like he had everyone else he wanted. It got annoying. Incredibly, mind-numbingly annoying. And it didn't matter what he said to ANYONE about it, he was just allowed to do whatever he pleased with the female staff, hell with the females of other freaking planets.

"Horny bastard is constantly kirking our women." He muttered under his breath.


Sheppard was in for a pretty big surprise anyhow.

"Kait, you ok? I ran into Rodney, he told me about your hand." He said, as she nodded.

"I'm fine, really. It's just a burn. It's already bandaged up."

"Oh, well good. That's good. So, since you missed weapons training, I figured you might want to go have lunch and go over what you missed today."

"Er, not really… I'm not really in a weapons mood, I'd honestly like to get back to the puddle jumpers…"

"Well you can do that. After some lunch. Well, dinner now actually. Guess I haven't eaten either. But yeah, we can grab a bite, talk."

"Sheppard…" she started, and held up a finger. "As much as I appreciate what I'm pretty sure you're doing, and find it flattering, especially since my hair right now is rivaling Hermione Granger mixed with Don King, I have to tell you, I'm really not into military types."

"Neither am I. See, look, something in common." He grinned at her. She smirked, but shook her head.

"Seriously. You're a friend, and one of the few that I've made here, but I really can't see it being more than that." She said, as he gave a sheepish grin and nodded.

"Alright, I get it. Friends works. You can't blame a guy for trying though." He said, shooting her a grin. "Especially after the chair room. I'm shocked you didn't get wolf calls through the halls, and speaking of which why do you have Rodney's shirt?"

"Oh! He grabbed it so I could work on the puddle jumpers with him without having a…er… wardrobe malfunction, so to speak." She said, grinning. He nodded, as Beckett came around the corner.

"Your scans show that it's just superficial-"

"Which I told you earlier."

"Pipe down, lass. You're clear to go, but don't bump that arm on anything or you'll risk pulling off skin. You're healing, remember that." Beckett scolded her, as she nodded and got out of bed.

"Great, thanks! Sheppard, it's been great, but I've got to get back to helping Rodney with those puddle jumpers. I don't want him to get hurt because he's trying to finish up without help. And you KNOW he didn't call Radek to help him." She said, as she took off before she could get a reply.

"Huh." Sheppard said, as Beckett shook his head.

"I swear, the scientists keep us medical team in a job when you military guys aren't out there getting shot at. Once a day or more, at least 4 science team members seem to roll in here with varying degrees of injuries, and I have to patch them up." Beckett shook his head, as Sheppard plopped into a chair.

"I think that she's the first person to actually LIKE working with Mr. Arrogant." Sheppard said, as Beckett snorted.

"Well, that's not all that shocking. The two have similar knowledge, even if there is a good few years of age difference."

"Huh. Imagine that."


As she got back to the puddle jumper hangar, she noted a grumpy Rodney. Well, wonderful. She entered the jumper they had been working on, and grabbed her monitor.

"So, where are you at?"

"Well, I'm shocked you're back here. Usually Colonel I-wanna-be-Kirk Sheppard would have most females on a date at this point. And I say females, because species doesn't matter…" he grumbled, stylus in his mouth. She blinked.

"I wanted to make sure you were alright. Besides that…" she said, going next to him and reaching up to grab a hanging wire that was in his face, moving it. "I don't like military types. Not like that anyhow." She made a face.

Rodney just turned to look at her, a strange look on his face. Well, miracles do happen, he supposed. She checked her tablet and smirked.

"Want some dinner?"

He glanced at his work, then looked at his tablet for a second. Everything was stable. Why not.

"I'm a bit peckish…" he said, as she snickered.

"Meaning the cafeteria is about to run short on food."

"Hey! Last time I saw, you were the one smuggling out a whole half gallon of cotton candy ice cream out of there."

She simply shrugged as they left the jumper.

"Eh, you do what you gotta do." She said, eliciting a snort of amusement from him.


As the two scientists walked in, Sheppard, from his table, tilted his head. "Huh."

"What is it, John?" Teyla asked him, concerned. Surprisingly, for them, Rodney went to sit at another table, discussing something in depth with the female scientist.

"Nothing." He chuckled lightly. "Nothing at all."