I DON"T OWN ANYTHING….
Hope you enjoy. So enjoy already. By the way this is not a McKay bashing fic, Carter is just a little ignorant at the moment but that's soon to be corrected. Also, I'm not a romance writer so though some things will be mildly (very mildly) hinted at, there will be NO romance.
Sam Carter was excited. No, scratch that, she was ecstatic. Now that regular travel was possible between Earth and Atlantis, she was going to get her chance to see it. Although before she was mildly deterred by the 18 day journey on the Daedalus to get to her destination, now that Earth had its own ZPM, Atlantis was only steps away. And now she was getting her chance to see the city of the Ancients, if Daniel could see her now. Unfortunately for him, he was away on a mission that could take over three weeks, when she'd told him where she was going he'd stacked her up with enough rolls of film and tapes for his video camera to last a year.
She felt an excited shiver run through her as she stood at the bottom of the ramp, surrounded by personnel ready to give Atlantis it's weekly supplies shipment. As the chevrons locked Sam vaguely thought over all her plans for the next month on Atlantis, she'd of course get Dr. Rodney McKay to show her around the science labs, or if she were lucky, another scientist, because dispite his brilliance, Rodney was a little too much to take. She was also excited to see Elizabeth Weir again, one of the best female friends she'd ever had, being surrounded by men everyday in a very time consuming job, she loved it but was never granted very much girl time. That was one thing she was REALLY looking forward to. And, aswell, after reading countless mission reports, she was DYING to meet SGA-1. Even with Rodney on their team they'd managed some pretty miraculous missions and she couldn't wait to sit down with them.
Finally the last chevron locked and the wormhole exploded in front of her. General O'Neil gave her the go ahead and she walked up the ramp and through the puddle.
…..
It was beautiful, the pictures and video didn't do it justice. Sam walked out the other side of the wormhole and was severely blown away and this was only the gateroom.
"Sam!" she heard a familiar voice call from the top of the staircase, she looked up to see the form of Elizabeth Weir run down the stairs and hug her.
"Elizabeth, its been forever." Sam smiled at her as she pulled away, she gestured around her.
"It's gorgeous." The expression on Elizabeth's face told her that she'd seen this awed reaction before.
"Come on, I'll show you around."
As they toured the city, Sam asked about SGA-1 and what they were like, she was incredibly curious as they reminded her of her own team.
"Well there's Teyla, she's an Athosian as you probibly already know." Sam nodded, "what can I say, Incredible leader, experienced fighter, and quite possibly the sweetest woman you'll ever meet."
"Then there's Ronan." Elizabeth paused, "He's still a bit of a challenge, I don't know much about him yet, but he is very loyal to his team and is handy when you need some help intimidating some of the scientists when they have ego-trips." Sam grinned, feeling there was a story behind this but didn't ask, she then nodded for Elizabeth to continue.
"Then of course Rodney, who, though sometimes requiring a lot of patience, has captured our hearts with his loyalty and brilliance." Sam's eyebrows rose at that, the thought of Rodney McKay actually having friends surprised her.
"Then there's John, who's taken it upon himself to be the biggest pain in the ass possible," Elizabeth said with a grin, "But he tends to remind us that its not all 'run for your life' around here." At the look on her face when she said that last statement, Sam gave her a pointed look and she blushed and quickly changed the subject.
"Lastly, you need to meet Carson, he's our CMO and also a good friend. He takes good care of us, reminds some of us not to die" she rolled her eyes, "because sometimes they need a reminder." Sam smiled and continued with the tour.
…….
After the tour around the city, Elizabeth told her that she had some people she wanted Sam to meet. They walked towards the mess which was a plus because Sam was starved. The room was only half full so there wasn't mush of a line as they grabbed their food and made their way to a table where four people already sat.
"Spare a little room?" Elizabeth asked, they all moved over, letting the two women sit down.
"Greetings, I do not believe we have met," the darkskinned, young woman across the table greeted Sam, she shook her hand,
"Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, you must be Teyla." The woman nodded, Sam looked to the man next to Teyla who extended his hand towards her and greeted her with a lovely Scottish brogue.
"Nice to meet ya, Lass. Dr. Carson Beckett. Rodney's told us so much about ya." He winked then grinned at Rodney who was sitting beside him, now blushing and refusing to look up from his laptop.
"Hello Rodney," Sam called, he breifly looked up from his computer nodded, then returned to his work, still blushing. Lastly was an exceptionally large man that was the picture of intimidation. He grunted at her through his dreads.
"Ronan I presume." He grunted again and literally dug into his food.
…….
"So, this is the main lab." Rodney was giving Sam a tour of the labs, proceeding into the largest of them as she followed. Carter noticed during lunch that Rodney seemed very much a part of the group which still surprised her, considering his personality. Though at the time she'd noticed he seemed to have an almost…lonesome aura around him, tinged with boredom. When Sam had asked Elizabeth about it she just smiled and said,
"John's offworld," as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It seemed Rodney had found himself a best friend. Still a little bit shocked by that one, she returned her attention to the other three men in the room all of whom were argueing. The two strangers were obviously scientists and in the middle of a heated argument.
One man, the one with the ponytail, who wore a sneer that said he thought both the other men were supremely inferior. The other man had hair that could rival Einstein and spoke broken English, interlaced with some obviously very colourful words. Though Sam couldn't understand them, they appeared to be in Czech although she wasn't sure, Daniel was the linguist. Anyway, Rodney appeared to have taken his side.
"Oh Kavanaugh for once in your life, shut the hell up!" McKay roared at him, very annoyed. The ponytailed man, Kavanaugh apparently, was momentarily distracted when he spotted her.
"Who's that?" he said with a sneer, obviously his trademark. Sam felt mildly afronted at his tone but answered anyway.
"Lt. Col. Sam Carter." At this the man rolled his eyes.
"Another one? Its bad enough that we're subjected to Sheppard, now we need more military? The only thing they're good for is a human sheild and trust me," he glared at McKay, "I look forward to Sheppard's turn."
Even before she could blink, both Rodney and the Czech scientist leapt for Kavanaugh, who let out a high pitched shreek and ran out of the room. Rodney was barely being restrained from going after him.
"He is disgusting man. I take Col. Sheppard over him any day." As the other scientist spoke, McKay seemed to calm down slowly. Carter watched him, any man who can make Rodney McKay that loyal, she had to meet.
…….
Her first two days had gone quickly, too quickly. Sam had spent some girl time with Elizabeth and Teyla, did some work in the labs, and taken over four hours of video for Daniel, he'd better appreciate it.
At the moment she was sitting down to lunch with three members of SGA-1 and Elizabeth Weir, this was apparantly become a ritual for them, which she enjoyed, her own team had lost track of the ritual long ago and she missed it.
A disembodied voice came around the room,
"Unschedualed activation, Dr. Weir to the gateroom." Weir nodded to them and hurried out the door, the others showed mild curiousity but were too lazy to investigate. Moments later the voice came again, this time it was Elizabeth's.
"Medical emergency in the gateroom!" Sam was shocked by the utter panic in Elizabeth's voice, although it seemed as though the others had heard it before and knew exactly what it meant because they shot out of their seats and ran out the doors. Sam followed.
…….
Once they'd reached the gateroom, it appeared they were too late, though Zelenka, the Czech scientist that Sam had now gotten to know quite well, ran up to the group,
"It was Col. Sheppard, they brought him to the infirmary." With that the other three turned and ran full speed out of the gateroom and towards the infirmary.
…….
It appeared the Colonel had been shot in his lower left side while retreating to the gate after him and the team he was with, SGA-3, discovered the local natives, who were seemingly hospitable, were allied with the Genii. Sam had observed her friends, new and old, as they went through the motions, all obviously deeply affected by the colonel's injury. Beckett refused to let them visit until the next day, the group had grudgingly agreed, though showed their annoyance at his order by sleeping in the waiting room.
Sam had stayed with them, bringing them food and coffee as well as dealing with the shockingly large amount of people that had come to both assess the Colonel's condition and give their support to his closest friends.
Yes, thought Sam, this was a man she had to meet.
……..
Though Col. Sheppard was now awake and talking three days later, Sam felt it wasn't her place to visit yet as she was still a stranger, she would wait until he was up and about.
She walked down the hall with Teyla and Elizabeth, heading towards the rec room for a movie when they spotted Ronan, strolling down the hall with a large bag of sugar. Confused, they approached him, falling into step beside the large man.
"What's the sugar for?" Sam asked, noting the idea of the Satedan baking cookies was an odd one.
"McKay promised Sheppard he'd bake him a cake." Ronan said simply as if it were the obvious answer.
"And why is that?" Elizabeth questioned, looking as though she was barely the surpressing the urge to refer to him as Errand Boy.
"It is his birthday."
"What!" Elizabeth shouted, "Why did he tell Rodney and not me?" her face changed to one of hurt and Sam once again gave her another look that made her blush. Ronan was oblivious to this exchange and answered.
"McKay is ….nosy" he appeared to be testing a new word, "He checked Sheppards medical sheet."
They soon reached the mess hall and proceeded to the kitchen behind it. It was huge, counters and cupboards all around the outside of the kitchen and a huge island in the middle on which a man with messy, dark hair, and was absolutely covered in flour, seemed to be sleeping.
Around him, McKay was stirring a large bowl with a spatula, ranting about a home ec class he once took.
"Sheppard, You shoulda seen the looks on their faces when I pulled out a flawless lemon merangue pie, and they called it a girl's course!" apparently the man on the island was the Colonel.
Carson was sitting on a stool near Sheppard's prone form, rolling his eyes.
"Ah, Ronan, you brought my sugar," said Rodney when he noticed their enterance when Ronan put the bag down beside Sheppard he couldn't resist commenting, "Good boy, sit." Ronan growled in response.
Elizabeth and Teyla approached the Colonel, a worried expression on both faces,
"You okay?" Elizabeth spoke, Sheppard nodded, eyes closed.
"Good, now, WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME IT WAS YOUR BIRTHDAY!" she exclaimed, obviously intensely annoyed. Sheppard flinched at her volume but made no move to explain himself. At his silence Elizabeth commented,
"You're not going to pout and explain your way out of this one?" he responded with loud snoring sounds, Weir grinned in response and rolled her eyes.
"Up Sheppard!" McKay exclaimed, carefully dragging the Colonel up to a sitting position with his legs over the side of the island he then placed a bowl in his hands.
"Here's the icing, I need you to stir and don't screw it up, it's taken me forever to make it after you ate the last two mixes and I still can't find the can of icing that's supposed to be in stock, maybe if these so called 'cooks' could keep track of their-" he stopped himself from going on another rant, "Just stir it!"
"No, Really?" was the sarcastic reply, though his expression was that of exhaustion not humor. Rodney turned to the group,
"The rest of you I need some help with the cake. Sam, can you watch John?" he asked Carter, who nodded.
"Watch? What am I six?" with that the others left the room to the next kitchen over. Carter walked over and sat beside Sheppard on the counter.
"Lt. Col. Samantha Carter, I presume." He said, nonchallantly.
"That'd be me." Sam replied.
"Heard a lot about you." This statement was followed by a grin and a wink, Sam's expression turned stoney.
"Me and Rodney are going to have a serious talk." He growled to herself. Sheppard chuckled as he scooped the spatula into the bowl and licked the icing off of it.
"Well what about you?" Carter questioned.
"What about me?" was the response.
"I have heard MUCH more about you, Lt. Col. John Sheppard."
"Have you now." He stated, not bothering to ask what she'd been told.
"Yes I have. You must be some kind of miracle. Everyone on this base seems quite taken with you." Carter grabbed a nearby spoon and helped herself to some icing form his bowl.
"What makes you say that?"
"The way they talk about you, they're so…I don't know, loyal. And Rodney! Don't get me started on Rodney." She laughed, digging into more icing.
"What about him?" John asked, looking towards her.
"He's so different, loyal, happy, loved. He's just….different."
"How do you know he wasn't all those things before?" the icing was now forgotten. Sam frowned in thought.
"I guess I don't." maybe she had got him wrong, maybe Rodney was always like this and she never looked deep enough. Her train of thought was interupted when a young soldier walked into the room, he froze when he spotted them.
"Oh- I'm s-sorry, sir. I didn't mean to- I'll go now." The poor intimidated young officer, turned sharply to leave when Sheppard stopped him.
"White." He called, the man turned with a shocked look on his face.
"Y-You know my name sir?" he asked obviously surprised, he'd probibly never spoken to his commanding officer before.
"'Course I do, White, I know everyone under my command." Sheppard seemed surprised himself that White hadn't known that.
"Oh. W-What can I do for you sir?" White asked, nervously. Sheppard reached underneath him into one of the drawers in the island and pulled out a tin can.
"You like Chocolate?" White was confused but nodded anyway. Sheppard threw him the can.
"Icing, the last can on Atlantis." He explained, the White was now beyond confused.
"Enjoy, but don't tell anybody about it, you never know with some people they might try and take it for themselves." He gave the young officer a grin and then nodded that he was dismissed. White left with a smile on his face.
Sam looked over at Sheppard, about to say something but was interupted when the others came into the room with the cake. They set it down and McKay walked over to the duo and took the bowl from Sheppard's hands, he looked in it then glared at the pilot.
"I told you not to eat any of it! Now I have to start all over again!" he threw his hands up in the air in annoyance, "This would be so much easier if we could find that missing can of icing!" he continued his rant but Sam was far from listening, she was looking at the Colonel who smiled and said,
"Good ole Rodney."
&$$&#(
HOPE YOU ENJOYED THAT. I've been meaning to write for Atlantis for awhile.