Chapter Three: There to Earth

Surprisingly many of the expedition members had been receptive to the idea of a Thanksgiving bake-off and when Elizabeth collected the list, she was rather shocked by the response. She headed to her office to make a quick copy of the list before proceeding to the jumper bay to give it to the team before they left for earth.

In the jumper bay the Colonel was already prepping for the flight. However the rest of his team had not arrived by the time Elizabeth entered bringing with her a copy of the list. She walked over to the back of the jumper, up the ramp inside, and sat down next to the pilot.

"Hey," said John without looking at her looking at the HUD instead.

"Hey yourself," replied Elizabeth, "So I brought the sign-up sheet for the dinner."

"Goodie I get to go grocery shopping with McKay. Do you realize how horrible that's going to be?" whined John playfully.

"Somehow I think you'll survive," retorted Elizabeth. "I was reading who signed up on the walk over here and a surprising number of people are interested in this. Teyla is making some Athosian dish; Carson is making some Scottish thing…"

"You know he'll never hear the end of it from Rodney if it involves anything weird," cut in John.

"However, there is one on here I am most interested about," began Elizabeth.

"Mmm really….and what's that?"

"Name: Sheppard. Dish: It's a secret," said Elizabeth playfully. "So since when can you cook?"

John put on a very innocent face and replied, "That's for me to know and you to find out. I am not telling you anything. What part of 'it's a secret' don't you get?"

Elizabeth was forestalled from trying to pry anymore due to the loud whining of McKay as he entered the jumper with Ronon and Teyla. "Yes, yes, this is not that big of a deal. It's a large building with lots of shelves full of everything you could want to eat."

"Let me get this straight," said Ronon as he sat down behind the passenger's seat. "One building contains an entire market?"

"Yes, are their not individual stalls for each vendor?" chimed in Teyla.

"Ok kids," cut in John to stop Rodney from having a meltdown. He had obviously been over this a few times, and was still having problems try to explain to them what a supermarket was. "You guys will see it when we get there."

"Well I had better leave you all to it," said Elizabeth as she exited the jumper leaving the list on the console of the jumper in which Rodney picked up soon after.

"Huh," scoffed Rodney.

"McKay…not a word," cautioned John.

A few minutes afterwards he burst out into laughter. "Sheppard you are on this list? And Ronon? What are you going to do, poison us all?"

"Gee Rodney you are so supportive. Wait what are you making Ronon?" John asked turning around to face him.

Ronon just smiled saying, "That's my business isn't it?" as he slouched back and folded his arms across him chest.

"Okaaayy well are we ready now?" asked Rodney impatiently.

"Yeah let's get this show on the road," replied John.

"What show?" asked Teyla inquisitively.

John sighed, "Never mind."

With a final 'good luck' from Elizabeth up in the control room, the jumper headed through the gate to Earth via the newly completely second midway station.

They arrived at the SGC without a hitch and docked the jumper in the bay attached to the Gateroom. However, when they disembarked they found a couple visitors waiting for them.

As the team exited the jumper they met Teal'c, Vala, and Cam who were milling by the entrance.

"Hey look, a welcoming party," called John.

"Well we heard through the grapevine that some special visitors were coming to the SGC and had some down time," Cam replied.

"Well, actually Cameron, I thought that we needed to give a proper welcoming to our guests from Pegasus," Vala chimed in smiling.

"I didn't get a welcoming party the last time," said John putting on a pouty look.

"Well that was just you Sheppard," Rodney snarked, "We are a little more important."

"Actually Doctor McKay, we are here to welcome Miss Emmagan and Specialist Dex who are not from this planet," replied Teal'c.

"Yeah people from Earth can be a little weird," said Vala.

"Yes, we have certainly noticed," responded Teyla.

"Ok well Vala and Teal'c why don't you show Teyla and Ronon around. Shep, you and I have a briefing to attend," suggested Cam.

"Yep see you guys afterwards for our little errand," said John as they parted ways.

Vala was already talking animatedly with Teyla and Ronon and Teal'c were sizing each other up. Cam turned to John and said, "So how long do you thing before those two test each other out in the gym?"

"Not long, my money's on Ronon though," replied John as they started to walk down the hall.

"HEY, so what about me?" asked McKay rather angrily.

"What you wanna attend the briefing?" snarked John.

"And I though he was supposed to be a genius," replied Cam solemnly.

"Hey…." spluttered McKay.

"Well that's what you get for thinking," added John

"True," replied Cam.

"But…" started McKay.

"Why don't you go bug Carter or something?" suggested Cam causing Rodney to stop walking as he pondered the suggestion.

"McKay!?!" shouted John as he smacked him on the back of the head, startling Rodney out of his reverie.

"Leaving!" and with that the pilots waved goodbye to one rather annoying astrophysicist.

"Yep Sam is going to kill us," stated Cam matter-of-factually as they headed down the hall towards the briefing. He turned to his fellow pilot and smiled.

"Not us, you. I fully intend to miss that little conversation," replied John grinning.

"Do you intend to miss this conversation gentleman?" asked General Landry who had snuck up behind them.

"No sir!" replied both Colonels as they entered the briefing room after the general.

After the briefing, which was relatively short, the two air force colonels left to find their missing team mates because SG-1 actually had a mission it was scheduled for and SGA-1 had to finish theirs. They checked the gym first for Ronon and Teal'c and to Cam's surprise it was Teal'c picking himself up from the mat. Ronon just looked at them with a smug grin on his face as he lent a hand to help Teal'c. Sheppard leaned over to Mitchell and said, "Pay up." So Cam begrudgingly had to do just that.

Finding McKay was pretty easy as well; they just had to listen for fighting. McKay had indeed gone to visit a certain blonde colonel and the two could be heard going at it a hallway away. They looked into the lab and John leaning on the doorway said, "McKay can't you just play nice offworld at all?"

"He can't play nice on any world Colonel," replied Sam smiling at the visitors.

"'He' is standing right here," snarked Rodney.

"We're leaving McKay," said Ronon.

John replied, "Well actually, once we find Teyla and Vala we are."

"I can help you with that actually," said Sam.

Cam spoke up and said, "Yeah we kinda have a present for you guys since you don't make it to Earth all that frequently."

With that Sam picked up three shopping bags from under a table and presented them to John, Ronon, and Rodney. "We thought that you guys might look a little weird going to the grocery in your Atlantis uniforms," explained Sam.

"Yeah and Ronon's blaster might scare some of the kiddies out with their moms," added Cam.

Sam left them to change as she went to go see how Vala and Teyla were doing.

"Hope you guys like what we picked out," said Cam as Carter shut the door.

"Yes it was the focus of our last team night out," added Teal'c.

"Yeah Vala and Sam picked out Teyla's outfit and Jackson, Teal'c and I did your guys'," explained Cam.

"Thanks, I think," replied John, "Well let's see what the damage is."

They guys of SG-1 had done a pretty good job. They had picked out jeans for all three. Rodney had a long sleeve t-shirt that was blue with a short sleeve white t-shirt to go over it saying "I don't know what makes you dumb. But it really works." For Ronon they had picked out a red shirt that said "The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it's still on the list" and a navy zip up Adidas jacket to go with it. For John they got him a black t-shirt that said, "Sarcasm is one of the services I offer," and a black button up shirt to go over it. (Which of course he rolled up the sleeves and left un-buttoned.) The guys had finished changing and were just starting to make fun of each other when they heard a knock on the door and in came Sam, Vala, and Teyla.

The girls had certainly done a number on Teyla as they were speechless when she entered. She looked very much the part of a sexy earth female and was wearing nice fitting jeans, brown boots, a white halter top, and tan leather jacket. She also had her hair pulled back in a messy bun. "Well see, I told you they'd be speechless," said Vala rather smugly.

"Wow, Teyla you look…..er…nice," said John.

Teyla smiled and replied, "Thank you. Should we not be going though?"

"Yeah we probably should, uhh thanks guys it's been fun," said John.

They were just entering the hallway when Cam remembered he still had something left to give them. He tossed John a pair of keys who recognized them as he caught them.

"Well I you never did take your car anywhere after that stunt you guys pulled to get your city back," explained Cam. "I just took it out for a spin and totally trashed it for you though, but I did gas it up."

"Thanks a bunch," replied John rolling his eyes. "I'll remember that when I am at store looking at several things I could get to pay you back," turning back to his team he asked, 'So we ready?"

With that the team waved goodbye to SG-1 and headed to the elevator that would take them to the parking garage to go finish their mission. 'Operation Shopping'