Yay for the reviews I've received! It's so nice to know my writing is appreciated.

Now, let's talk about this...I've gotten a reputation? REALLY? For what?


Chapter Two: Bling (Confession of a King)

Atlantis, for all it's centralized activity, was still a hive of corridors and compartments, all with a purpose in the day to day existence of the city. For two years now, slowly but surely, that activity has begun to spread out amongst the cavernous city of the Ancients, all whilst the "teams" went out and explored the gargantuan proportions of the new galaxy they inhabited.

For all these months, spending almost half his time on other planets, getting shot at, doing the shooting, getting hit on, or doing the hitting, had made Lt. Colonel Sheppard a bit of a novice as to the intricacies of keeping such a city as theirs cohesive and smoothly running.

In point of fact, he wasn't good at it. Not a little bit, not at all.

The first week following Elizabeth's disappearance had been chaos, all around. The laundry had stop running as the fragile handmaidens of cleanliness broke out crying over the missing "queen" of Atlantis. The cooks (who were oddly mostly male) threw hissy fits over every little thing. John had delighted in stepping back and letting the "superior" officer handle things for that week, and the second.

By the third week, Colonel Caldwell had run back to his ship on the pretense of it being time to return to Earth. John knew the truth behind Mr. Clean's about face. The man simply couldn't handle the task of guiding Atlantis. Smiling serenely and proud, John had stepped in and taken over for Caldwell...and immediately stepped into shit.

Between the bickering scientists and dueling budgets, the abundance of papers (who really needed three copies of everything?), not to mention the personnel squabbles, the trade negotiations, the overseeing of further exploration of the city, the excavation of un-numbered amounts of sites, and the re-selection of an "alpha site", it was any wonder John got any sleep at all! It is interesting to note, that while he didn't get much sleep, he had ample time to flirt with the new arrivals of bosom buddies.

One month after she went missing, seven teams out looking for her, the Genii base searched top to bottom twice, and a migraine almost constantly behind his right eye (his left eye had a tick), and John almost felt a semblance of insanity pressuring him to pick up the ornate letter opener on Elizabeth's desk and stab Rodney in the eye. Twice.

Leaning back in the desk chair, wishing that this room had a dimmer switch, John listened for the third time (today) as Radek and McKay argued. Just as the prior two times, John had very little, if any, idea of what they were talking about.

"This experiment is integral to the future of the city, and some willy nilly tests you want to run on the nervous system in the science wing are not going to cause me to abandon this project!" Rodney McKay yelled (for the third time, word for word) at his subordinate Dr. Radek Zelenka. Zelenka, a glasses-wearing, children-hating, Czech of questionable temper, was screaming right back.

"We've been experiencing surges in the energy for over a week causing countless problems, and you and your stupid pointless plankton gene manipulation and extrapolation observation is going nowhere!"

"There is a very likely chance," Rodney started, "that the Ancient arrival here could have circumvented the evolution of a species that would eventually have become on par with our own in both temperament and technology!"

"Hey!" John interrupted as the two scientists surged to their feet. Though neither of them seemed physically inclined, they looked like they were about to come to blows. John gave a small consideration to letting them, if only to enjoy the girl-screams they would surely emit as they slap-fought.

"What?" Radek and Rodney asked as they dropped back into their seats.

John continued in that quiet "I'm so sensible and gosh darn cute" voice of his, "Why can't you just put the plank experiment on hold for a few hours so Zelenka can run a few tests?"

Rodney look offended at the suggestion, his eyes wide and holding his breath. "He wants to shut down the all energy going into that wing to run those stupid tests! Without power, the plankton in the tank would die." John hated it when Rodney talked as if he was explaining things to a child. What the hell was plankton anyways?

"It is necessary, Colonel Sheppard," Radek stressed, "these surges have shorted out three computer systems, ruined two other vital experiments, and caused the transporter to shut down, isolating two of the excavation teams in unexplored sections of the city."

John nodded slowly. "That sounds serious."

The duo across from him stared at him over the desk. Elizabeth's desk cluttered with Elizabeth's things, and here he was sitting there, an Elizabeth imposter. Radek and Rodney were clearly expecting an answer.

"Okay...Dr. Zelenka, run your tests," John held up a hand (very Elizabeth-like in his patience) and halted Rodney's renewed vehemence, "and Rodney can moved his plankto somewhere else."

Rodney gaped while Zelenka looked satisfied. "But...it's a 300 gallon tank! I've been preparing this experiment for months!"

John smiled maliciously. "Then you'll just have to start over."

Radek was already moving to leave, and Rodney, still gaping, rose to follow. As he drifted into the control center, he could be heard muttering vaguely threatening words, apparently directed at the interim leader Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. Even as John moved to close his door, hoping for a few moments peace before Major Lorne's team would return from another verified gate address ("verified" meaning there was a gate and a world on the other end), Ronon and Teyla slipped through, taking the recently vacated seats of "discord".

The door firmly shut, John began a time-honored practice, one he enjoyed in his time off, as sparse as that was.

Bump.

Teyla and Ronon watched with matching serenely amused looks on their faces.

Bump.

It somehow eased the pain of the day-to-day tediousness that he'd embraced in Elizabeth's absence.

Bump.

Then again...

Bump.

Slamming one's head into the wall couldn't be a good sign of mental health.

Bump.

With a sigh, Sheppard returned to the seat of power and stared at his two friends, who were just as "out of action" as he was.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked with a small smile.

"We were wondering..." Teyla started.

Ronon finished. "We want assigned to another team."

John quirked an eyebrow. "What?"

Teyla shot an irritated look at Ronon, before turning back to John. "With Elizabeth still gone, and you assigned here, Ronon and I are at a bit of a loss. Since we cannot go out as a team of three, and without a leader, we would like to be temporarily," she stressed temporary, just as everyone stressed temporary. Elizabeth would be coming back, because the people of Atlantis would accept nothing less, "assigned to another team."

"Well, if you need something to do, I can find you things here on Atlantis," John started.

Ronon interrupted. "We want to go out."

John sighed. "I want to go out," he replied with all the petulance of a five-year-old child. Teyla laughed as he pouted. Teyla and Ronon had, in the past month, spent more than one day keeping him from going insane or drowning in paperwork. They'd done thankless jobs, just to save him the trouble of it. In the end, they were explorers, gypsies at heart, aching for the wonder and awe of new worlds.

John ignored the Cher song in the back of his head, and stood. "If that's what you want, then I can do it."

He intended to say more, but at that moment the gate began to dial, and Lorne's team was incoming. He shrugged and headed into the control room, watching as the wormhole opened, Teyla and Ronon at his back. The control room was unusually hushed, but it had been for weeks. The absence of their fearless leader had driven many people to a morale low, and John was at a loss for how to fix it.

He sighed and leaned back against the console, watching as yet again, the exploring team returned, and it wasn't him and his friends. However, watching Lorne and his three fellow teammates walk through that silvery light set a spark of expectation in him. All four had big grins on their faces.

Walking quickly to the door and staring down at the four men, John looked at them expectedly, imagining a goldmine or a bevy of beautiful women, or even a weapon against the Wraith created by an underground alien people who were all women and all beautiful and wore tons of gold.

He did not expect Lorne's proud exclamation.

"We found Dr. Weir!"