A/N: … so ffnet is behaving enough for me to post this, hopefully it's behaving enough for you all to read/review!

I'm currently riding high from Techie's review of the last chapter, it seems ffnet is really not liking her tonight...

If this seems a little loopy in parts or more grammar-type mistakes than usual I'm blaming it on 1- The pain meds. 2- The bum knee. 3- The upset stomach.

Part 10- Musical Revisited

Charlie chewed on the end of one of her cigars that she seemed in endless supply of, not daring to light it inside the mountain since the sprinklers would go off, and being sopping wet was not something she wanted right then.

What she wanted was the geek of the team front-and-center so she could lay into her.

Madison shifted her weight from foot to foot; she was always uncomfortable when Charlotte got into one of her moods… usually set off by said Lennon. She could almost feel the anger radiating off her CO. But she had to do something to lighten her up… especially if the cigar was any indication. It was being gnawed into a stub.

"I'm sure she didn't mean to get you mad."

Charlotte grunted, "She knew it would."

"Everything's fine."

"It easily may not have been." Charlie checked her watch, "She's late."

"The elevator could have been backed up."

"Then she should've climbed through the escape hatch the couple of floors, the science sections are two below us."

"She does have that wound."

"Yes, the ship arrow…" Charlotte trailed off, thinking.

A few knocks in a distinct pattern came from the door before it opened and Lennon stepped in, "Uh, hi." She had made sure her hair wasn't all tousled a few moments before and took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

It hadn't worked very well. Her heart was still about to leap out of her chest and her legs were weak… all out of fear and trepidation.

Charlotte glared like a mother scolding her child, "Have fun?"

"Ye-… uh no. Not at all." Lennon stood with her back almost against the door.

Charlotte circled as much as she could around Lenny, not saying a word, but continuing to gnaw at the cigar, both hands in her pockets, practically strolling like nothing was wrong.

It was very unnerving.

Lennon swallowed, "So, are we going to be heading out to wrap up soon or what? The longer we stay in a healthy universe, the more chances there are to influence what's happening."

"I'm perfectly aware of that, Fisk."

Madison looked back and forth between the two and took a step back, wanting to be out of the line of fire. It was like a bad military movie gone wrong. One where the commander was about to shoot the disobeying subordinate in the head and bury him in the jungle. There was that much tension in the air.

"We gonna go then, or what?" Lennon really wanted to get out of that little room and get some air, of the not-dusty and tension-fee kind.

"We will." Charlotte stopped her circling Lenny like she was prey and faced her, "What do you think you were doing?"

It came out of her mouth instantly, "Working, like usual. That is what we came here for."

"Don't lie to me, Fisk. I don't like being lied to."

"What makes you think I'm lying? That hurts, Charlie. It really does. How long have we known each other?"

"Exactly. I know when you're hiding something. You've never ran off like this, the earlier instance with the ship-bunny excluded, without telling me where you're going, and it worries me."

"You were knocked out, snoring. Excuse me for not wanting to bother you." Lennon snarked like she usually did.

"I do not snore."

Madge snorted. Her first 'comment' in the whole conversation.

Lennon laughed a little.

"I do not snore." Charlotte repeated to head shakes from the other two members of the team. To reassert her authority and to check something out, she ordered, "Madge, check her arrow wound."

"It's fine, Charlie." Lennon insisted.

"There could be some lingering side effects. Check it, Madison."

Madge, who thought it strange Charlie addressed her by her actual name, looked back and forth between the two and decided it was best to follow orders. "You may want to sit, Lenny."

"Fine, but there's nothing wrong with me. It. Me or it." Lennon plopped unceremoniously to the ground and rolled up her left pants leg.

Madison knelt beside her and gently lifted up the white bandage. It looked like a normal cut to her. "No funny colors from a bad allergic reaction or anything. It'll heal up nicely, though it'll scar."

"You sure?" Charlotte questioned.

Madison reaffixed the bandage, "Yeah. All hunky-dory here."

"See? I'm fine." Lenny hopped to her feet and started to roll her pants leg back down.

Charlotte scratched her chin, debating whether or not to ask it. Catching Lennon off-guard might help, "Lenny, are you shipped?

Lennon kept her head down and smoothed out her pants, "No." Straightening up she continued, "Course not. I was careful during the window of opportunity." She kept her face annoyed and tried to get the shock out of it, "For someone who thinks they know me so well, I'm disappointed in you." She hated lying, but what it was necessary…wasn't it?

"It's a serious thing, don't downplay it." Charlotte crossed her arms.

"I'm not. Stop being such a mashuganeh." The thought crossed her mind that maybe she should have told her, but then it got pushed away by her plan to fix it.

"Can we go now?" Madison pitched in from the sidelines.

"Hold on." Charlotte turned back to Lenny, choosing to ignore the 'crazy woman' comment, "On your ill-advised outing, did you come across any intel about the Gate situation?"

"The scientists were ranting about having 25 hours before it blows up." Lennon reasoned that it wasn't a total lie.

"Let's be out of here by then, just in case. Anyone hungry?"

Lennon and Madison both shook their heads.

"How are you guys not hungry? Did you both sneak off to the cafeteria? Never mind, I know you did Lenny. Madge?"

"It was on my floor…"

Charlotte gripped the bride of her nose, closed her eyes, and muttered something that didn't sound like English.

Madison recognized some of it, "Since when do you speak Chinese?"

"Since I spent some time in one of the Core planet's hospitals. There was this nice doctor… Tam."

"And here I was thinking Madge was the one with the knack for stumbling across cute canons."

"Hey!" Madison slapped Lenny's arm, "You say that like it's a bad thing."

Lenny flinched away, "Always with the hitting."

Charlotte let a smile creep up, "She can hit if she wants to."

Without really hearing that comment, Madison was already in the process of hitting Charlie in the arm, "You met Simon Tam! Did you get any pictures?"

"I was laid up in an Alliance Hospital bed, I wasn't too worried about getting a picture of him as I was getting out and back to the rim." Charlie made sure she had all her stuff, "Let's move out. We're sticking together this time."

---Post-cafeteria stop later---

"I really do not need a babysitter." Lenny huffed as they continued to scour the civilian labs.

"Don't think of it as babysitting, think of this as teamwork." Charlotte looked behind her and glanced at Lenny, still suspicious but with no way to prove anything.

"There's no 'I' in team." Madison offered, clearly not worried about much.

Lenny contradicted, "There's a 'me.'

"But those letters aren't next to each other."

Lenny rolled her eyes, "That's not the point, Madge."

"What is then?"

"It's an expression; I'm not going to explain it to you."

"If you can't explain it, then why'd you bring it up?" Madison asked, after poking her head in one of the labs.

"I never said I couldn't."

"Then why don't you?"

Lenny's frustration rose, "Because I don't want to."

"That's not a very good reason."

"It's as good a reason as any."

Charlotte considered zatting the two of them and leaving them for the MP's to find, then realized it would have been a little extreme. So she did the next best thing.

She waited until they were both by her and smacked the back of their heads at the same time. "You done squabbling now?"

"We were having a conversation." Lenny defended. "And it isn't my fault if Madge is in her own little dream world where everything and everyone is happy."

"Never said it was." Charlotte resumed the pace and routine of checking the empty labs. It was nearing the wee-hours of the morning so there were few people in the labs, especially considering it was the social sciences floor and they weren't needed to solve the Gate problem, so they all headed to bed like normal people.

"I don't think exactly like that." Madison went on to sing-song, "Here little bunnies, bunnies, bunnies…come out and play…"

"They're not just going to hop out at the sound of your voice." Lenny gestured to Madge as proof-of-point.

Charlie started to reconsider the zatting idea.

"Although," Lenny grinned, "we do have our very own Pied Piper in our midst."

Charlie opened her mouth to give what probably would have been a very good retort when she heard whistling. Honest-to-god whistling. She held up her hand to quiet the other two women and tried to follow the source when the source found them.

The man walked out of one of the labs nonchalantly and smiled wearily due to the late hour. "Madge."

She returned the smile, "Jonas."

At sight of him, the three women had made sure their zats were well hid.

Charlotte questioned a little acusedly to Madison, "Aren't you going to introduce us, Madge?"

She fought back a blush, "Charlie, Lenny, this is Jonas Quinn. Jonas, this is Charlie and Lenny." She gestured accordingly.

Lennon kept back a snort, "Hi." It was just so typical of Madison to meet up with the cute canons.

"It's nice to meet you both." Jonas held out his hand to Charlie.

"You too." She shook it a little forcefully out of habit.

He offered to shake Lenny's hand next, and Lenny gave it a short shake. "Yep."

"Are you nurses too?" He asked the both of them.

Charlotte's eyebrow rose at the question, it had to have been one of the most ridiculous things she heard. Her, a nurse? Let alone Lenny. Lenny in one of those nurse's outfits, the white ones with the funny hats… it was almost too much.

"Not in the least." Lennon also had a similar train of thought and joked, "Though Charlie would look great in a nurse's outfit."

Madison giggled while Charlie gave her evil-glare-of-death to Lenny

Madison covered, "They're sergeants."

Luckily, and by sheer will of TPTB in charge, that answer satisfied Jonas, "I thought you would be gone by now."

"No, still here. I have a little while before I leave."

"In that case," Jonas checked his watch, "we have five hours before the cafeteria serves breakfast. Join me then?" He ended with a smile. You know the type- hopeful, enchanting… guaranteed to make women swoon.

Madison happened to be the swooning type, but also not one to go against orders, and she shot Charlie an optimistic look.

While Lenny gave the biggest eye-roll of her life knowing, Charlotte once again pinched the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She then gave the slightest of nods.

Madison practically squealed, "Shiny!" She addressed Jonas, "I'll see you then."

"Great. Bye Madge, ladies." He nodded and continued on his way, whistling even louder.

Ignoring the talk behind her, Madison checked out Jonas's retreating form, and beamed as she looked back to her team.

Lenny had collapsed laughing while Charlie looked like she was going to kick the geek.

"What?" Madison asked innocently.

Between laughs Lenny managed to get out, "He's whistling 'I Feel Pretty.' "

A/N: I know… no McKay/Lenny. But you can have too much of a good thing. And Jonas is just so cute. Next chapter shall have more Mckay! I think. (thinks)… sure. Why not.

Now, where are those crutches so I can actually move around the house…

If you couldn't tell, I've been reading way too much Firefly fic… hence the Chinese and Shiny.

Oh and hoped you liked it!