Disclaimer – I have no claim on Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlantis other than the chance to live out a few fantasies. Dr. Melody Hayden is my own creation and alter ego in this story.

Chapter 4 – Mess Hall Fun

Mel walked into the mess hall, wondering if any of the people she actually knew would be here at this late hour. I can't believe that I slept for that long! It must be the ocean lapping at the city. I haven't heard anything that soothing since we spent that summer on Cape Cod when I was a kid. She went through the line and got her usual breakfast of coffee, juice, cereal, and fruit. As she got to the end of the line, her eyes scanned the occupants of the various tables. Glancing behind her, Mel smiled as she saw Radek wave her over.

"I was wondering when you would see me!" Radek got up and helped Mel with her chair.

"I was getting there! You can only look at so much at a time."

"How did you sleep?" Radek smiled at her.

Mel sighed deeply and smiled back. "I haven't slept that well since I was a kid that summer we spent on Cape Cod."

"That is good to hear. Are you settling in?" Radek toyed with the coffee cup in front of him.

"Haven't even started unpacking yet. After we stopped by your lab yesterday, Weir took me to the infirmary." Mel looked up at her ex. "But not after a very interesting talk."

Radek's eyes went blank with confusion. "What did you talk about?"

Mel sat and poured milk on her cereal slowly, looking at Radek the whole time. She raised an eyebrow as she raised the first spoonful to her mouth.

A light bulb went off in Radek's mind. "Me? Why would Elizabeth talk to you about me?" His voice had rising notes of panic in it to Mel's ears.

Mel continued to look at Radek with an eyebrow raised as she raised another spoonful of cereal to her mouth. She took her time chewing before answering. "I do believe Radek Zelenka has a fan club president."

"What?" The word came out as a strangled scream.

"I think our fearless leader has a crush on scientist number two. Wait, I think it's more than a crush." Mel's face was turning red with the strain of not laughing at the look on Radek's face. She reached across the table and gently pressed on his lower jaw so his mouth would shut.

Radek jerked as if she had slapped him awake. "What are you doing?"

"Closing your mouth so the flies can't get in!"

"Melody, you can't be serious!" Radek shook his finger at her.

"I am being totally honest, Rad. Elizabeth Weir seriously likes you. She got positively glacial after we left your lab. Then I explained a few things to her."

Radek's head was bent slightly towards the table, but he looked over his glasses at Mel. "What did you tell her?" His voice was low and dangerous.

Mel leaned forward as if to tell him a secret. "First, you have to tell me something."

"And what would that be, demon woman?"

"Is the good Doctor Beckett seeing anyone?" Mel leaned back, waiting for the answer.

Radek shook his head, wondering if her had heard her correctly. "You want to know if Carson is single?"

Her smile blossomed across her face slowly, and then she winked at Radek. "Yep. Is the Doc single?"

Radek relaxed back into his seat, out his elbows on the armrests of his chair, and tented his fingers. The look on his face told Melody that he was going to play this game just as hard as she was. "You first, Humr."

Mel stuck her tongue out and gave him the raspberries. "You turkey! Okay, I do believe that Doctor Weir likes you. A lot. And tries to drown all that feeling with reasons of ethics and propriety."

"She is a good friend and colleague, but we have never..." Radek's eyes got that spacey, dreamy look to them.

"All I told her was that you are a good man. And that we are only friends. And I told her to go after you."

"WHAT! You said what!" Radek's face turned bright red, and everyone else in the mess hall turned to see what was going on.

"What in blazes is going on here?" Carson laid his tray between Melody and Radek, and was looking back and forth between them. Radek looks more furious than when he came back from M7G-677. And Melody looks like the cat who ate the canary!

"Hello, Carson. How are you today?" Radek's voice was way too chipper as he stared down Melody.

Mel gasped and her eyes narrowed. "You wouldn't dare!"

Radek just answered her by raising an eyebrow, smiling deviously, and blowing on his left knuckle, followed by polishing on his shirt.

"Did I come in the middle of a wee tiff, now?" Carson was bewildered by the both of them.

"Please excuse my ex-husband, Carson. He thinks he has the ability to blackmail me."

Carson chuckled. "Does he now? And do you have something equally as evil to hang over his head?"

Mel leaned back and grinned as she looked over at Beckett. "Oh, yeah. And it's really good."

Radek sputtered for a moment, and then mumbled something about a 'devil woman' before grabbing his coffee cup, rising from his seat so fast that the chair clattered back, and rushing out of the mess hall without so much as a backward glance.

"Who lit the fire under Radek?" Rodney lifted up and then sat in the chair Radek had pushed over.

"That would be his lovely former wife, Doctor Hayden." Carson smiled at Melody.

Wow, blue eyes and dimples? It is going to be hard trying not to jump his bones in the middle of the mess hall. Mel blinked. Wait, where did that thought come from?

"Melody, I hope you haven't traumatized Radek so much that he'll be useless the rest of the day." Rodney dug into his food.

"I highly doubt it. Radek is usually furious for only a few minutes, and then he cools down. Now, if you will excuse me, I have to get back to my quarters and start unpacking." Mel picked up her tray and took it over to the dish washing line. After walking out of the mess hall, she had to sag momentarily onto the nearest wall. Why I am I so turned on by blue eyes and a Scottish accent? I may have to take freezing cold showers before my shifts if this continues!