Chapter Two: Lieutenant Colonel Errand Boy gets a mission
a/n: Well now it gets better, at least not so sappy and more on the funny side. Plus the rest of the gang makes their first appearance.
Well it's all settled Elizabeth thought as she walked away from the gate room after her regularly scheduled meeting with the SGC. All she had left to do was fill everyone in on her sneaky, but wonderful, plan. Thankfully there had hardly been anyone in the gate room during her conference and those that had, had been sworn to secrecy until she saw fit to announce it to the city. Although things, even things meant to be secret, moved pretty quickly around the Atlantis grapevine so she had better get a move on and spill the beans before someone else did. And there was no time like to present to do it.
As she neared the conference room the familiar sounds of childish, yet semi-amusing, bickering reached her ears. Yep it was that time again, time for the always eventful senior staff meeting.
"McKay, the Daedalus has been here what two, three days and you have already managed to eat all of the blue jello, horde enough power bars to last you from now until Christmas, and stockpile almost the entire shipment of coffee to use as your personal supply."
They had turned the corner and Elizabeth could see them now as she walked into the room.
"What? Hey that is so unfair. Firstly ok, I need the power bars for health reasons. Two I didn't eat all of the blue jello. Ronan ate some of it. He likes it too. And thirdly I didn't take the entire supply of coffee, only enough so satisfy my needs!" whined McKay.
They entered the conference room and set down. Elizabeth, Teyla, Ronon, Dr. Beckett, and Colonel Caldwell were already seated getting ready to begin.
"Those needs being such so that you never have to sleep again?"
"Back up the bus, you wanna talk about hogging stuff? When you left the supply room all of the hair care products went with you!" Cried McKay.
At this point everyone looked up from what they were doing to watch the two go at it.
Rather loudly Sheppard replied "I DO NOT USE HAIR CARE PRODUCTS!"
"And I suppose Caldwell took them?" This got Rodney an evil glare and a "hey!" from Colonel Caldwell. " Who are you kidding?" Remarked Rodney.
Ronon getting in his word quota for the meeting decided to jump in and asked, "So how do you get your hair to go like that then?"
Everyone seated around the table smirked at this, even Elizabeth had to hide a smile. Sheppard just glared at everyone and looked about ready to give a smart-ass remark when Teyla intervened. "I believe we are here for a meeting, are we not?"
This caused John to put on his wounded puppy dog look; he would deal with Rodney and now Ronon later, everyone else focused their attention on Elizabeth.
"Alright, first on the agenda Major Lorne's team brought back some interesting artifacts from their last mission off world. Rodney, I would like you and Radek to find out what they do. Secondly we have a bunch of new people Colonel Caldwell has kindly brought to stay at our humble abode who need to been shown the ropes and brought up to speed. John, Ronon, and Teyla would you all be so kind as to put them through do's and don'ts of the Pegasus Galaxy just so they are prepared."
This was received with affirmative nods from all of the respective parties. Now to the best part of all.
Elizabeth began, "As you all know we are always in need to fresh supplies and variety in our food supplies so I have a particular request for you all."
"Wait, what about all of the supplies we brought on the Daedalus?" Caldwell interjected.
"Yeah, well, we always need food 'cuz someone who shall remain NAMELESS, likes to eat everything!" Sheppard cut in.
This earned him a glare from Elizabeth, "Yes well then I guess you would not mind going on a little trip to pick up some more."
"A supply run? Can't we get some newbies to do that? Come on we are so past this! We have several allies who would so share food with us so it's not like there is a huge risk in going!" Rodney complained.
"Yes Rodney we could, you are going to a planet that you are fairly familiar with and like, I hope, I just thought you could kill two birds with one stone since at least one of you will already be there tomorrow anyway, so why not make it a group outing." Replied Elizabeth.
"Whoa, you don't mean what I think you mean?" John said. "I was looking at a nice easy McKay free day. But now you want to make me some kind of errand runner?"
"That would be Lieutenant Colonel Errand Boy." Chimed Rodney.
"Ok I am soo going to kill you McKay!" Snapped John.
"Would someone please be kind enough to enlighten the rest of us?" questioned Teyla.
"Yes, of course Teyla," replied Elizabeth," as you know the intergalactic bridge was destroyed by the SGC after we decided to sneak back to the city. Well it has been rebuilt and tomorrow Colonel Sheppard was scheduled to test it, again, and have a slight stay over time on Earth. Well since it is nearing Thanksgiving I thought we could celebrate our return to the city with a feast of our own, with a little twist of course."
"Thanksgiving is what?" Interrupted Ronon.
"Pilgrims, football, turkey, napping, and more football. A really good holiday actually, I'll explain it to you later" Said John.
"Yes, well I thought that it would boost morale if anyone who wanted to, made their favorite dish. Only I added a little twist to spice things up a bit. We could have a little contest to see who is the best cook. Anyone who wants to can submit their name and dish under a certain category and the best dish will be declared the winner and receive a prize." Elizabeth continued.
Teyla spoke up," I think it is a wonderful idea Elizabeth. May I invite anyone from the mainland to partake in this celebration and contest?"
"Of course Teyla. I will be posting a list in the mess for anyone to sign up and make a list of the supplies and ingredients they will need. I am asking you all to go with John on his run and pick up the supplies. I have already cleared this with the SGC who actually liked the idea."
Elizabeth looked at everyone. Teyla seemed into it, Caldwell kind of indifferent, Beckett seemed to be pondering potential dishes, John well he was just being John, and Rodney looked like he was just itching to ask a question. "Yes Rodney?"
"Uhh who is going to judge? You?" Rodney asked. "I mean I never though of you as the cooking type?"
"Oh that's nice Rodney!" Beckett said.
Elizabeth let the comment in one ear and out the other, "Actually I was hoping we could find a way to randomly pick a couple people who would be the official judges. This can be finalized later; right now I just want a list of who is making what, and what they need."
"Well that about covers everything for this meeting. I know you all have lots to do. Just make sure you are ready tomorrow since all of you will be going."
"Yeah great, so we can all have a great big family outing to the local supermarket. Oh joy!" snarked Rodney. "Ow!"
This earned him a slap on the back of the head from Sheppard. With that Elizabeth, Caldwell, and Beckett quickly left the conference room.