A/N: Just a quick note I forgot to put in the first chapter. I know that the pairings I have for this story may not float every body's boat but I hope you won't let that keep you from reading. This story is more about the kids than parents so chances are most of the time you won't see any kind of romance or stuff like that except for on a small occasion here or there.
Ch2 summary: Who would have thought something so small and harmless could be so much trouble.
"Come on, come on…where are you?" An eight year old Duke softly muttered to himself as he frantically searched his room, tossing clothes around not caring where they landed as well as moving furniture around.
Ignoring the knock on his door Duke continued his frantic search.
"Hey Dookie you in here?" Duke heard his best friend Xander call out. Even though Xander was a year older and the two were on completely different sides of the social scale – Duke was a geek, Xander was cool – they were still best friends. Had they been back on earth the odds of them being friends let alone best friends would have been zip to none, but this wasn't earth it was Atlantis and there weren't that many kids around for them to choose their friends from.
"I thought I told you to stop calling me that." Duke replied not stopping his search.
"…" Whatever Xander had been about to say was cut off when a shirt came flying at his head hitting him smack dab in the face. "Um Dookie…do I wanna know why you're ripping your room apart?" Xander peeled the shirt off his face and tossed it aside.
At hearing this Duke stopped what he was doing for a moment and finally looked at Xander for the first time since he'd come into the room.
"Again!" Xander exclaimed when he saw the Duh-do-you-even-have-to-ask look on Duke's face. "I don't believe this you let Speedy get out again. Are you trying to get yourself killed?"
"Hey last time that was all your fault, if you hadn't insisted on trying to feed him and left the cage open he never would have got out." Duke jumped to his own defense.
Again before Xander could say anything he was once again cut off, this time by two very girlish screams coming from the direction of Casey's room at the end of the corridor. Giving each other Oh-Crap-We're-Screwed looks the two boys bolted from the room out into the corridor just in time to see two very unhappy and pissed looking girls – Casey and Aria- come out of Casey's room.
"Speedy!" Duke hollered when he saw Aria holding his pet mouse by the tail out in front of her. For Duke's eighth birthday Carson had given him one of his lab mice and the kid loved the thing to death. "Hey don't hold him like that you're hurting him." Duke quickly swiped the mouse away from his sister.
While Duke was busy checking Speedy over making sure the mean nasty girls hadn't hurt him, Xander looked at the two girls and could have sworn he saw smoke coming out of their ears. Hastily taking a few steps back Xander grabbed Duke's arm and pulled Duke, with him.
"Uh yeah Dookie as much as I'm feelin' for you and Speedy right now, I really think now would be a good time to RUN!" Xander turned and bolted down the corridor. Taking a second to look up at the girls Duke saw the same thing Xander had and with survival instincts kicking in took off like a bat out of hell just like Xander.
Knowing from experience that it was easier to lose the girls if they ran through crowded places the boys headed in the general direction of where most people would be that time of day, which was usually either the commissary, the gyms, the rec rooms, or the control room.
"Look out people comin' through, comin' through." "Make a hole, come on we're runnin' for our lives here." Both Duke and Xander called out as they dodged around people never stopping any longer than absolutely necessary.
After passing through the commissary, all the gyms, and the rec rooms Xander and Duke had yet to lose their sisters, leaving them with no choice but to make a break for the control room and hope they could barricade themselves inside Xander's mom's office for a while.
Sprinting up the stairs and entering the control room the boys spotted John, Elizabeth, and Rodney talking about something – probably city business – but neither stopped to make small talk, they could hear the girls catching up with them.
"This was so not my fault." Duke called as he whizzed by the surprised adults.
"Yeah and I had nothing to do with this I'm totally innocent!" Xander called over his shoulder as well as he passed by his parents, thinking that maybe he should probably cover his own backside.
The two boys were almost to the office – their sanctuary – when suddenly Aria appeared in front of the door.
'Crap they split up!' Both boys thought as they turned hoping to go back the way they'd come from only to find Casey standing at the top of the stairs. They were trapped. There was only one chance of survival left, making leaping dives both boys came to a skidding stop behind their parents. Duke shamelessly used his dad as a human shield, as did Xander with his mom and dad. For a few minutes there was a silent stand off before John finally broke the silence.
"Someone wanna tell me what's going on here?" John crossed his arms looking down at his son.
"They let that stupid mouse lose in my room." "I didn't do anything, I'm an innocent by stander." "That rodent tried eating my finger." "It was an accident, speedy got out all on his own." All four kids burst out talking at once making it hard for the adults to understand what was going on.
"Quiet!" John raised his voice slightly so he could be heard over the kids, who instantly stopped talking. "Thank you now one at a time what's going on?"
Not sure who should start talking first the four kids stood silently looking at each other, until Elizabeth gave Xander a slight nudge in the back signaling he should start talking.
"Hey don't look at me. I for once am completely 100 percent innocent." Xander quickly defended himself. "I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was all Dookie and Speedy this time."
"Speedy as in that mouse Carson gave you?" Rodney spoke looking at Duke, who nodded his head yes.
"Yeah but it was an accident dad I swear. I'm positive I closed his cage after feeding him this morning."
"If that's true then how did he end up in my room?" Casey demanded giving Duke her best Don't-Mess-With-Me look.
"I don't know how he got out honest. One minute he was in his cage happily eating away then I left him alone for like two seconds and when I came back he was gone."
"Yeah give the guy a break. He and Speedy have had a rough morning."
"You be quiet Mr. I'm Innocent I Swear, we all know you had something to do with this so stop playing innocent." Aria spoke up.
"Since you four can't seem to talk this out and settle it in a civilized manner I see only one way to end this." Elizabeth stated before the kids could get into a full-blown argument.
"Not 'The Corner'!" The kids let out a collective groan when they saw semi serious semi amused look on Elizabeth's face.
"Yes that sounds like an idea to me." "Only option I can see." Rodney and John agreed with Elizabeth. The kids let out another groan when it became obvious they weren't going to get any help from their dads.
'The Corner' was probably the worst torture any kid could go through. When ever one of the kids did something wrong or couldn't settle an argument peacefully they were sent to either a corner in Elizabeth's office, Rodney's lab or in the infirmary – basically wherever the adults thought they'd be most bored and have the least distractions – the kid(s) then had to stand there staring at the wall thinking about what they'd done wrong.
They were not allowed to talk, turn around, or do anything but stand there staring at the wall, until such a time that they could tell the adult who'd put them there what they'd done wrong, why they did it, and why it was wrong or in case of an argument that they couldn't settle peacefully all parties involved had to stay there until everyone decided that they could settle the disagreement in a civilized way.
"Dookie your head is so going in the toilet when this is over." Hearing Xander's whispered threat made the adults grin slightly as they herded the four kids into Elizabeth's office after confiscating anything the kids had, had on their person that the adults thought the kids could entertain themselves with.