At 12:30, Ronon sat in his office with the lights off and his head resting against the desk. He could hear Liz talking outside but did everything he could to tune her out. He cringed when the door opened and the light shined in his eyes. He was a little less angry when he saw that it was Kate with a glass of water and Advil.
"Thank you."
He took the pills and swallowed the entire glass before handing it back to her.
"No problem, sweetie. How was lunch?"
"Hell."
"What did he talk about?"
"I have no idea; I stopped listening when I heard the word quantum."
She let out a small laugh.
"Good idea."
He nodded before putting his head back down on his desk.
"They will be here in half an hour; I'll let you rest until then."
With that, she walked out of the office and left him in the dark.
The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force dealt with classified information on a daily basis. Therefore, their offices were separated from the rest of the ones in the building. They had a suite with a moderately sized common room, or the bullpen, and four offices attached. There were no windows to the hallway but it was made up for with the large windows that gave them a view of the city. On one side of the room were Ronon and Elizabeth's offices and on the other side were the offices of Special Agent Evan Lorne and Dr. Kate Heightmeyer. Ronon and Elizabeth had been partners for five years. Elizabeth had previously worked with the United Nations negotiating treaties. She was the team expert on political science and international relations. Ronon had been in the military before he joined the FBI. Kate and Evan had been partners for the last four years when Kate joined the team. Kate specialized in criminal profiling and behavioral analysis. Evan dealt with most of their media relations. Together the four of them were one of the most successful FBI teams.
At 12:50, the Advil had just started to kick in and Ronon was almost asleep. He was taken out of his slumber by a beeping sound from the computer next to his head. Grudgingly he sat up to figure out what was happening. On the screen was a message from Jeanie that had been forwarded from his phone. He broke the phones so often that when he didn't pick up all text messages were immediately forwarded to both his computer and Liz's cell. Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he read the message.
Hey Ronon,
We finally got the information from the NYPD crime lab. It took forever, what is wrong with them, are they stupid? Anyway, we should get most of the results to you by tomorrow morning.
So how was lunch with my brother? Were you totally bored? Did you even listen to a word he said? I doubt you did because I know most of the same things he knows and I never follow what he's saying. I hope your headache isn't too bad and that you have taken the prescribed number of Advil for spending an hour with Rodney. Wow, I can write a lot when I want to. Hope you get a new phone soon, and when you do call me so I can tell you what happened with the good doctor. And I guess we could talk about work.
-Jeanie
Ronon let out a small laugh before responding. When he was done, he got up, walked into the bullpen, and sat down in one of the chairs around the circular table. Kate was sitting next to him reading some of the files and taking notes.
"Where's Liz?"
"She went down to greet the Detectives."
"Fun."
A few moments later Elizabeth opened the door and was followed in by John and Teyla.
"Okay, this is the bullpen, where we do most of the work; our offices are off to the sides. This is Dr. Kate Heightmeyer, another member of our team. Kate, this is Detective Teyla Emmagan and Detective John Sheppard from the NYPD."
"It's nice to meet you Detective Emmagan, Detective Sheppard."
"Please, just call us John and Teyla."
"Well, then you can just call me Kate."
She sat back down after greeting them and John and Teyla took seats on the other side of the table.
"And you two already know Ronon."
His head was down on the table and he hadn't looked up since he sat down.
"Lunch didn't go well."
He grunted in response John's question so Kate answered for him.
"No not really, he has an awful headache, but the painkillers will kick in soon and he'll be fine."
"O'Neil wants to see you." Lorne said to Ronon before taking his seat at the table.
"Shit."
Ronon slowly got out of his chair and walked out of the room. "Evan, this is Detective John Sheppard and Detective Teyla Emmagan. John, Teyla, this is Special Agent Evan Lorne." The three of them shook hands then sat back down. Once the introductions were finished John leaned over the table to talk to Elizabeth.
"Who's O'Neil?"
"Deputy Director Jack O'Neil, he's our boss."
"Ohhh, Ronon's in trouble?"
"Sort of."
"Sort of, what does that mean?"
"Well he needs to get a new phone."
"That does not sound like he is in trouble."
"Yeah, I can't believe you guys get in trouble for that."
"The reason he's in trouble is not that he broke the phone…"
Liz was stalling because she didn't want them to get a bad image of her partner, Lorne on the other hand didn't care.
"… It's how he broke the phone."
"How did he break the phone?"
"Well, he may have, kind of, sort of…"
She stalled again and so again, Lorne cut her off and answered. This was his new favorite story and he really wanted to tell it.
"He threw it at someone."
"What!"
"Yeah, he threw it at someone's head, it hit them and broke."
"Who did he throw it at?"
"One of the doctors in the crime lab."
"Kavanagh." Kate grumbled from her seat.
"Don't like the guy?" Sheppard asked, Lorne answered for her too.
"No one does and the twenty minutes of yelling O'Neil is gunna do is strictly protocol, he hates him too."
"Protocol? Really?"
"Yeah, it's in the deputy director handbook: yell at Ronon for twenty minutes after he throws something at Dr. Kavanagh."
John and Teyla both laughed. Teyla stayed out of the conversation, content on listening and let her partner do the talking.
"So this happens a lot."
"Yeah."
"Well what happened this time?"
"It's a long story." Liz said, trying to move them to another topic.
"Cliff notes version." This time Elizabeth cut off Lorne so he couldn't tell them the entire story, which he found extremely hilarious.
"Ronon went to the lab to pick up test results, Dr. Kavanagh annoyed him, Ronon got mad, threw the phone at his head, the phone broke and the doctor went to the hospital."
"So we don't get to know why he threw it."
"No you don't." Elizabeth answered and the conversation ended there.
A little over twenty minutes after he left Ronon walked back into the room, while he programmed numbers into his cell phone.
"How was the latest chewing out session?" Lorne asked as Ronon sat back down in his seat.
"Fine, nothing new."
"You didn't listen did you?" Kate said knowingly from her seat next to him.
"No, he gave me the phone as soon as I walked in so I spent the time picking my settings and putting in numbers."
"Okay, as much as I would love to spend our time listening to Ronon tell us the latest thing he has done to piss off O'Neil we need to get to work."
"Okay Liz. Jeanie said they got the info from the NYPD and it should all be done by tomorrow."
"Good. Well, until we get all of that why don't we read and reread these files and see what we come up with.
"Fun." John muttered under his breath earning him a glare from Elizabeth who was still slightly annoyed at him from their argument earlier.
Five boxes of files and seven pots of coffee later it was 6:45. Lorne rubbed his eyes and looked at the large pile of files that lay in front of him.
"I'm hungry."
"Good for you."
"Shut up Ronon. Can we get something to eat?"
"I have the menu for that Chinese place in my office." Kate supplied helpfully.
"That's fine."
Kate nodded and put down the file she had been reading to go get it. While she was gone, Ronon's phone began to ring.
"Hello… how's it goin?"
"Is that Jeanie?" Ronon shushed his partner before going back to his call.
"Sorry, what were you saying… that's tonight, I totally forgot… no don't cancel… I'm leaving right now… okay I'll meet you there… love you too. Bye." Ronon hung up the phone and got up from the table. He put the files he still had to read in a box and walked into his office to get his coat. "I'm so sorry guys, I need to leave. I'll finish reading this stuff tonight."
"Everything okay?" Teyla asked worriedly.
"Yeah everything's fine; I just forgot I had to do something."
"Alright."
"You want me to order you something?" Evan asked as he looked over the menu Kate had given him.
"No, I'm good thanks."
"Call me when you get home?" Liz asked.
"Always." He kissed her cheek before picking the box back up and walking to the door. "Bye everyone."
He waved and quickly walked out of the office leaving everyone else sitting there wondering what had just happened.
