A BEE IN THE BONNET
By NotTasha

PART 2: RUSSIANS

"Major Sheppard?"

John looked up from his book, happy for any interruption in the comings and goings of the Rostov Family and the Bolkonsky princesses. "Ford," he greeted with a smile, as the soldier stepped within his room. Then he noted the distraught look on the Lieutenant's face. "What's up?"

"I found this letter," Aiden began and paused as he held up the missive.

"A letter?" John brightened. "We're getting mail service now?"

"No… no," Ford sighed. "I found it in my pack. It'd been there since we got here and… well… I was reading some of it to Doctor McKay and…"

"Reading to McKay?" Sheppard smiled, trying to imagine it. "Hope he wasn't correcting the grammar or your pronunciation or…"

"No!" Ford cut Sheppard off with enough intensity to startle the Major. "No… it's …." He shook his head unhappily. "I screwed up!"

"What about?" Sheppard set aside the book.

Ford groaned and explained, "I was called away, so I left the letter. I told Dr. McKay that he could finish reading it if he wanted. I'd only read as far as the first page and he seemed interested. He knew Roger, the guy who wrote it – liked him," and Ford paused a moment. "I was gone for about an hour. I came back to clean up my stuff." With a disgusted sigh, Ford shoved the letter at Sheppard. "That's when I read the rest of it."

"What?" John queried as he grabbed the pages.

"Just read it starting there," Ford stated, pointing to a spot halfway down the second page.

Sheppard took the pages, glad to look at anything that didn't have to do with Russians and their unpronounceable names, men-of-destiny or the most eligible bachelor in Petersburg. He read where Ford had indicated. "Hope things are working out for you in the Pegasus galaxy, but honestly, I wouldn't give that problem to a monkey on a rock. I heard who else was going. Stuck in Antarctica is bad enough, but being trapped for all eternity with McKay sounds like inhumane treatment. Doesn't the Geneva Convention have something to say about that?" John stopped and gazed up at Ford. "McKay read this?" he asked.

Ford grimaced. "I left the letter on my things. When I came back, it was in the garbage. I only found it by accident. Read the rest." He shook his head woefully. "It gets worse."

With a narrow expression, John continued the letter in silence. "The worst days of my life were when I had to work with him. He explains EVERYTHING to me, as if I give a damn about anything he has to say. Calls himself a genius, yet can't figure out that NO ONE gives a rat's ass about anything he has to say."

John groaned and Ford bowed his head as the Major continued to read, "You should hear Red. He does the best impression – got that whiney, superior tone just right. It gets me to laughing when I hear McKay himself. I have to pretend to sneeze to cover up. He thinks I have allergies! LOL. He thought we had some common ground… like I'd ever want to be like him. He can have his goddamn genius. I'd rather stick around human beings. I hate sucking up to that pissy bastard. I can't think of one person on base who can stand him. If you're lucky he'll choke on a lemon on his first day. Things will get a lot brighter for everyone after that. Good luck with that."

The letter changed topics and John raised his eyes to meet Ford's. "This is a friend of yours?" he asked incredulously.

Ford muttered, "I guess I didn't know him at all."

Sheppard slapped the pages against one hand and muttered, "Crap."

"What do we do?" Ford asked.

"We?" Sheppard responded, lifting an eyebrow.

"I can't go up to him and say, 'Doctor McKay, about that letter…'" Ford explained, spreading his arms in exasperation.

Sheppard nodded. "Yeah, bet McKay won't be much fun to be around for awhile." John jabbed the papers back at Ford. Nikolay Rostov and Prince Andrey would have to wait for another day. "He wasn't in the lab?"

"No, at least not in his lab."

"I'll see if I can find him," John resolved as he stood. "He'll get over it," Sheppard promised. "But, I figure I should go looking for him. Talk to him a bit."

"Thanks," Ford responded, shoving the sheets back into his pocket. "I really feel bad about this."

"Pick better friends next time," John muttered as he prepared to leave the room.

TBC -

A/N: Okay. so Dodge isn't such a good guy... I don't think I like him