A/N: I know you're all eager to find out where everyone went, but I swear I'll only beat around the bush for a little longer…
Chapter 4: McKay has a point there…
"Sheppard?"
Sigh. "What, Rodney?"
"I don't suppose you'd know where Beckett's room is?"
"No, I don't."
"Then how am I-"
"I don't know, McKay. Knock on all the doors or something."
"Knock on ALL the DOORS! Sheppard, I don't think you kn-"
John turned the radio off. Stupid idea, he knew, but he wasn't sure if he could take one more second of McKay's griping.
No one was in the control room. Not like he had expected anyone to be, but he just wanted to be sure. Plus, it got McKay off his back for the time being.
The major had the radar up on screen. One white dot moving. It didn't look like Beckett or anyone else with the Ancient gene was in the city. No harm in checking, though.
Now, where could everybody have gone? John's initial panic and worry about his friends had been temporarily replaced by a general curiosity. He was still concerned, but for the moment he just couldn't worry anymore. There were no immediate signs of kidnap or plague. Well, there wasn't much of anything. It's not like everyone just got up and walked away.
"Hmm…" he said.
-
"—must be over 50 quarters in this section alone! You don't seriously expect me to search every one of them! Are you listening to me?" McKay momentarily stopped his barrage to hear Sheppard's reaction. "You turned off your radio, didn't you?" Pause. "Fine. Be that way."
McKay walked up to the nearest door, knocked on it, shouted, "Hello? Beckett? Anybody in there?" When there was no response, he walked up to the next door and repeated the procedure.
"…expecting me to check them all. Stupid military types always think they can order everyone around. Let's see him try and get all the doors…" streamed a constant muttering under McKay's breath.
About 5 minutes and 10 doors later, Sheppard came in on the radio. "McKay, you can stop knocking o doors now."
"Finally! You turned your radio off! How can you expect me-"
"I get it. You don't have to check doors, McKay. Just look for Beckett in the infirmary and meet me back in the gate room."
"Oh? And where will you be?"
"I'm looking in the jumper bay."
"Is that all you can think of in a time like this? If your precious puddlejumper is okay? You really need to straighten out you priorities!" Pause. "You're ignoring me again, aren't you?"
-
Yes, though Sheppard as he gleefully shut his radio off. I am ignoring you.
It wasn't as stupid as McKay made it sound. If the rest of Atlantis had left, they'd have taken the puddlejumpers.
Okay, maybe it is stupid. The crew would take hours to shuttle out using all the jumpers. Besides, if everyone was to leave, they'd take the gate, not the jumper. And Weir would alert me before anyone left. But I'm willing to check anything now.
When he arrived in the jumper bay, it only took a second to count the jumpers. They were all there. No one escaped using the ships, anyway.
McKay must have reached the infirmary by now. Sheppard turned his radio back on. "Rodney?"
"There you are. Beckett's not here. Are the puddlejumpers okay?" he asked sarcastically.
"All of them are here. I'm going to fly an orbit around the planet to see if anything is out of the ordinary."
"Knock yourself out. What am I supposed to do in the meantime?"
"I dunno. Knock on doors."
"Ha ha. Very funny."
-
Ten minutes later, Sheppard returned to find McKay sitting on the top step of the stairs leading into the gate room.
"Find anything?" he asked blandly.
"No ships, no storms, no black holes, nothing remotely strange and nothing that could possibly explain this. Do you have any more ideas?"
"Nothing that could explain why Atlantis is empty. For once, I am at a loss for ideas," he glumly admitted.
"What? The legendary Rodney McKay out of ideas? The horror!" Sheppard mocked. Rodney glared up at him for a few seconds. The attempted humor evidentially hadn't worked. "You really have nothing?" McKay nodded, not making eye contact. Sheppard sat down on the third step.
"Just a strange and random thought," McKay stated suddenly.
"Sheppard turned around, interested. "Oh?"
"Now that no one's here, we can do whatever we want."
"You're right. That is random."
After a few seconds of silence, McKay stood up and asked "You know what I've always wanted to do?"
