Sorry I know I should have put this on the first chapter but I forgot. So here it is.
Better late then never.
-Disclaimer- I don't own anything. Not a thing. Sadly it has all been spoken for. Sniff, sniff..
"Where the hell is Rodney?" Shepard yelled out to no one in particular.
Rodney had asked Shepard to meet him in his lab that morning and he had INSISTED that it be early, which of course John thought was insane considering it was his day off and he had planned on sleeping in. But Rodney had begged him to help with trying to activate some ancient devises. Rodney can be a very convincing man when he wants his way, he just goes on and on until finally you give in just to get him to be quite. Which is exactly what happened to John yesterday.
John tapped his foot impatiently and looked at his watch for about the tenth time in the matter of two minutes.
"fifteen minutes late! I get up before the break of dawn just to sit around and wait for him!".
John turned towards Dr. Zelenka who was sitting at one of the desks doing research on one the devises. Curiosity, for the moment, making him forget about how late Rodney was. As he looked over Zelenka's shoulder under one of the microscopes was what looked like to John some kind of crystal, maybe it was diamond he didn't really know, but it looked like some kind of charm. You know the kind you wear. He couldn't remember the word for it. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by his watch that beeped at him saying that another five minutes had gone by which brought John right back to his thoughts of Rodney wasting his day off.
"Do you not think this is insane?" John asked in desperation for some backup on his opinion of the situation.
Zelenka who had been so enamored in his work hadn't even noticed that Rodney was late until Shepard had said something about it. He made a worried glance to his watch,
"I don't know what could be keeping Rodney. He is never this late for anything. Especially when it comes to turning on Ancient devices." Zelenka's worried response was very obvious in his tone.
The nervousness in Zelenka's voice yanked John out of his bad mood and snapped him into his military mode of thinking of all the things that could be wrong.
John immediately tapped his radio, "Rodney this is Col. Shepard, where are you?." No response.
John thought for moment, anxiety starting to creep up on him as all the scenarios of what could be wrong raced through his head.
"Why didn't I think something was wrong before?" he thought to himself in frustration.
Having an idea he once again tapped his radio on, "Dr. Weir this is Shepard, have you seen Rodney any where?"
Dr. Weir's worried voice responded over the radio "No I haven't seen him. Is something wrong?"
John was really starting to get worried now.
"I don't really know. He was supposed to meet me twenty minutes ago in his lab and he's yet to show. I've been trying to get him on his radio all morning with no luck."
"Okay, then I'll start asking around and see if anyone has seen him, in the mean time why don't you go down to his room and make sure every things all right." She managed to say very proficiently.
"Will do." Shepard answered trying to sound calm.
"Oh and Shepard give me an update when ever you find anything out. Okay?" She asked sounding amazingly light hearted which John knew better then to believe. She was really good at hiding her feelings much to John's dismay of trying to read her true thoughts.
"Of course. You'll be the first to know. Shepard out." he said with a click to his radio.
Shepard was just about to walk out of the lab when Zelenka stopped him, "Would you please let me know as well when you find something." he asked
"Of course." Shepard answered trying to sound confident. Zelenka just nodded his thanks as Shepard turned on his heals and left the room.
Trying to fight the urge to run all the way there in panic, Shepard managed to keep it at a fast walk and a dead pan face. All the while his mind reeling with theories of disaster.
Quickly he made a turn running right into one of the many doctors in Atlantis.
"Oh, I'm so sorry Col. Shepard! I, I didn't see you!" The female doctor barely managed to spit out.
Shepard unwillingly turned his worried thoughts from Rodney to this woman who was standing in front of him, who for the life of him could not remember her name. She had rather frizzy curly red hair, big blue eyes and freckles covered her pale skin. She was medium in height. About 5.4 Shepard guessed. Her body type was average, kind of bulky on the shoulders which kind of made her resemble a foot ball player. She wore the usual doctors uniform a white coat and black pants and she had, to Shepard's surprise, a rather high pitched voice that didn't seem to go with the way she looked.
"It's fine. It was my fault I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going." Shepard said while trying to walk past her,
"Oh, no it really was my fault." She said lightly touching John's shoulder to get his attention." You see I was reading this report and not even looking to where I was going ."
The woman was babbling now and John was getting a little annoyed. If something was wrong with Rodney he needed to go. He didn't have time for this. John tried to take a small step towards the direction of Rodney's room.
"Maybe if I just start walking away she'll get the hint that I don't want to talk." John thought to himself, but it didn't work the woman just went on all the while.
As John was taking slow steady steps away from her, she continued "When I start working I just get in the zone." She said this with much enthusiasm making hand gestures indicating some kind of tunnel. "You know what I mean? What am I saying? Of course you do! Your only the chief military officer on base!"
After saying this she did a kind of giggle mixed with a sigh. John tried to give her a smile but ended up just giving her an uneasy expression of being uncomfortable Which of course she completely missed or ignored.
All the while John who had been slowly walking away from her the entire time and was now walking backwards still having to face her because she just kept on talking to him.
He was way over the edge, this woman was driving him crazy he had to leave! If not for anything else but to get away from her high pitch babbling.
Putting up a hand indicating that he wanted her stop speaking he said very calmly "I'm sorry but I really have to go check up on some things. It was really nice talking to you" Shepard said politely and fake at the same time.
Then he made another attempted at leaving. Just when he thought he had gotten away she stopped him in mid turn around. John clenched his fists "So close!" he whispered to himself.
"Of course you have things to check up on! You being you and all! I mean I'm so sorry for keeping you . I tend to babble a lot." She said in one breath.
"Babble? What? You? No way!." Shepard thought sarcastically to himself. "It's fine I'll just catch up with you later." he said forcing a smile.
"Oh, no you really don't have to, I mean that is of course if you really want to." She started to babble out again.
Shepard was on the verge of just grabbing this woman and shaking her in frustration. He could visualize himself doing it.
"No can't go there…as much as I would like to." he thought to himself evilly. Shepard grabbed her hand and shook it instead, "yes, yes of course lets do lunch" he heard himself saying much to his dread of having to spend more time with this amazingly annoying woman.
Quickly he turned on his heals and half walked half leapt away from her. She was yelling something at him now but he just pretended like he didn't hear her.
"If I stop she'll start talking to me again." he said as if he had to convince himself.
Right after thinking those thoughts he ran once again into somebody else who of course with Shepard's luck was carrying a pot of hot coffee which was dumped all over him. The pain of having hot coffee poured on him stopped him in his tracks. The babbling woman was by his side in an instant.
"Col. Shepard! Oh no, did you not hear me when I was calling you to look out? Of course you didn't if you had, this wouldn't of happened! I'm so sorry!"
Shepard closed his eyes, he didn't know which was worse getting burnt by hot coffee or this woman talking to him again.
"I'm fine, I just need to get a change of clothes" he breathed his words out through clenched teeth.
"Oh, no your not. Your going to go down to the infirmary to get checked out first." said a familiar voice with a thick Scottish accent.
"Oh, no." Shepard mumbled to himself.
He looked up from the ground to Dr. Becket who now had a good grip on Shepard's arm keeping him from making an escape.
"Look, you don't understand I need to go find Rodney you see..." He was cut off by the worried doctor "Rodney can wait. That was very hot coffee. You may have second degree burns in which case you need to go down to the infirmary for treatment." Carson set his jaw when he said this letting him know that he would not be moved.
"But Rodney.." Shepard tried to get out, "No buts. Any more complaining about it and I'll make it an order., It won't take more then a few seconds." Carson tried to reassure him.
Shepard seeing no way out bowed his head in compliance and started to stalk off to the infirmary with that blasted babbling woman following him. "What ever is going on with Rodney, I'm sure its not as bad as what I'm going through right now!" he thought to himself.
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