Chess.

"You will be fine McKay" Dr Jennifer Keller reassured the nervy physicist as they walked. "Getting pins and needles in your leg after spending all day perched on a lab stool is not really surprising. Just get a bit more exercise."

"I was spending that time working on vital plans for power conservation, it's not like I could just get up and go for a jog." McKay replied a bit petulantly.

Smiling patiently, well used to his sometimes abrasive personality, Jennifer answered as they turned the corner into the mess hall. "Do a lap of the lab then."

"Oh yeah, because that's not at all odd." He grumbled sarcastically.

"Walk, Rodney. You don't need to train for the 100 metre sprint or anything. Just get up off the stool every so often and walk a bit. Problem solved." Suppressing a sigh Jennifer glanced around the hall and made for a table. There, heads bent in concentration, two colonels were locked in battle.

"It's your move you know." Sam Carter said, moving a chair out for the approaching doctor with her foot.

"I know. I'm just considering my options."

"And how long have you been considering?"

"I'm being thorough." John Sheppard glared at the board and rubbed the back of his neck. "Hey Rodney. Doc."

"How's it going?" Jennifer asked sliding into the seat. Rodney took the one opposite her and studied the chessboard.

"Slowly." Both players answered, identically rueful expressions on their faces. She glanced at Rodney, who shook his head. She sighed. It was going to be a long evening. The game of chess had become a regular between the two colonels after a bet between John and Rodney, a bet that John had lost after Sam beat him decisively. Rodney, who had played chess with Sam before had been annoyingly smug about that. However since then the two had been pretty much evenly matched, which sometimes led to very, very long games.

Rodney reached over to snitch a piece of jello from the bowl by Sam. Her hand whipped out, slapping him lighting fast on the wrist.

"Ah ah" she warned, not looking up.

Rodney turned with an injured expression to Jennifer, who stifled a giggle and reached for a coffee mug beside her.

"Just how many moves ahead are you thinking?" she asked, swirling the ice cold dregs that suggested the colonel's attention had not wavered for some time.

"The amount of time he is taking to move I would say he has played out entire games in his head" Sam said flashing a grin at the woman beside her, "games that clearly I won which is why he still hasn't moved".

"Or maybe that's what I want you to think..." John put in, still not looking up.

"Yeah yeah" Sam scoffed good-naturedly, leaning over for the mug.

"I wouldn't" Jennifer said.

"Hmm? Oh. Eugh. Ok, what's the time?"

"Past Rodney's bedtime"

The scientist, who had only been half following the conversation while prodding and massaging his leg, looked up with a start, "What?"

Jennifer sighed, "Pins and needles, Rodney, PINS AND NEEDLES! Stop fussing."

Even John glanced up at this outburst and chuckled. "Been bothering the Doc again, McKay?"

"It was a valid medical inquiry" Rodney huffed.

John raised his hand as if to move a piece, then retreated again with a frown.

"Ok, enough is enough!" Jennifer moved fast, tipping both kings over at the same time.

"Hey!" both players turned to her indignantly.

"Had you decided on a move?" she asked looking pointedly at John.

"I was narrowing down the options..." he replied evasively.

"And – honestly - whatever move he made, would you have finished the game in the next hour?" this was directed at Sam.

"Not unless he was even dafter than normal" Sam lent back rolling tension out of her shoulders. "I would have won this time you know."

"Hey, I was planning out a brilliant, fool-proof strategy." Rodney eyed John sceptically at this statement, "well, I was" he muttered

"Then you can both be happy, can't you?" Jennifer said with the ruthless practicality normally seen in someone dealing with stubborn children.

Sam chuckled, giving her a fond smile. "Is this one of your subtle hints that we really have been up too long?"

Jen slowly looked over the table with its abandoned plates, drifting paperwork and long forgotten coffee cups. "I don't know what you could mean." She stood pointedly until Sam stretched and joined her, shuffling the papers together.

"Tipping the kings was a good way to end the game" she said to the smaller woman as they headed towards the door.

"Well, you both surrendering at the same time was the best way I could see. Plus, if you really wanted to keep going all the pieces were in the right place." Sam smiled at her characteristically thoughtful solution.

"You play chess, don't you?" she said slowly, "you knew how to surrender."

Jennifer snorted softly "all that shows is that I know how to play badly, so don't get any ideas!"

Sam grinned and elbowed her gently. "Have some confidence."

Still at the table John finished clearing the pieces away and glanced down at Rodney. "Something's not right here. You're very quiet McKay. Is there some disaster you haven't told us about?"

"I think" Sam threw back over her shoulder as she left the room, "he's worrying about the pins and needles again."