Physician and Physicist by AndromedaMarine
0943 ZULU
John hobbled angrily down the hall, still talking heatedly to Evan over the earwig. "Listen, Major, I don't give a flying rat's ass if they're bigger than you. Take Ronon and First Lieutenant Masterson with you, but get them in my office before I get there!" He paused, his face still emanating a peculiar combination of rage and extreme annoyance. "Seven minutes, Evan." He paused again. "Yes, seven minutes. Now it's six and forty eight seconds. Now, Evan!"
The colonel stepped wrong and he tripped, falling headlong into Teyla's shins. He groaned and rolled on his side, cursing the daughter of that village's leader. Teyla knelt beside him. "John, are you unharmed?"
"Relatively," he wheezed. "I need to be in my office in five minutes. Help me up?"
Teyla obliged, hooking him under the arms and pulling upwards. Once he was on his own two feet, the Athosian said, "Do not hurt yourself further, John. We can only be on stand down for a specific number of days." She smiled and walked away.
John grumbled and continued to hurry to his office. Four and a half minutes until he would chew out those Marines. He rounded three corners and slowed his limping pace to something more manageable. John entered his office as smoothly as his gimp knee would let him, his "I'm not joking about how pissed I am" game face on, and his eyes dark with anger. Evan stood behind John's desk, his arms crossed as he leaned up against the wall, Ronon was in John's chair, glaring at the Marines, and Sergeant Masterson hovered next to the door, his big frame as menacing as Ronon's glare. Five Marines stood in front of the desk, all at attention.
As the full bird passed them, he noticed sweat on two of their necks. One had broad shoulders and the other kept trying not to wipe the sweat from beneath his nose. John stood next to where Ronon sat, and crossed his arms. "Which one of you holds the highest rank?" An innocuous question, to be sure, but one that John would use to his advantage.
Broad Shoulders saluted, still rigid. "Captain McGrass, sir."
John studied him. "Captain, would you please recite to me the SGC's policy number six-thirteen?"
Captain McGrass swallowed. "No, sir."
"No?" John's voice was low, threatening. "Should I refresh your memory, Captain?"
"Yes, sir."
Beside him, Ronon let a smirk seep into his eyes. John was good at tearing down the new recruits.
"Six-thirteen refers to that nasty thing bureaucrats like to call sexual harassment. Now, Captain, can you recite it?"
McGrass swallowed harder. He spoke in a rigid voice to mask his nervousness. He knew he was screwed. "No member of the SGC, civilian or military, is exempt from the following regulation: sexual harassment, in every definition known, is not tolerated under any circumstance. If any member of the SGC, civilian or military, is found to have committed sexual harassment, the highest ranking officer in charge of operations has authority to mete out whatever punishment he or she deems necessary."
Looking satisfied (a tactic to relax his enemy), John nodded. "Now, Captain McGrass, if you are so well versed in policy six-thirteen, would you care to tell me why the hell I have had two separate complaints concerning your inappropriate behavior with senior staff?"
Evan lurched forward from the wall to get a better view of the Marines' facial expressions. He focused in on Sweaty Nose.
"I don't know, sir."
Ronon stood up slowly, letting his hand conspicuously brush his blaster. All three men, Ronon, Evan, and John, were very protective of Jennifer. She was their little sister, and the Marines were about to find out just how much they loved her.
"You don't know. That seems to be the popular answer today, gentlemen. You don't know. Let me make this perfectly crystal clear. The women on this base are not objects. You are not to treat them as such. I pay particular attention to Doctor Jennifer Keller here, since she reported to me that two of you used language around her that is best kept to the brig."
Sweaty Nose finally let his gaze drop from the freckle on John's earlobe (which he had been looking at so not to actually meet the colonel's eyes) to the gray, drab floor. His shoulders sagged.
John turned to him. "What do you have to say for yourself?"
"It will not happen again," Corporal Lancer said quietly, and the rest of the Marines, including McGrass, nodded in emphatic agreement.
"Now that we have resolved the issue of what has happened in the past, you Jarheads, everyone but Captain McGrass is at ease and dismissed."
Ronon noted that the captain had a look of terror in his eyes. Physically, John stood about four inches below McGrass, but John knew from experience that size didn't always matter. He could be as intimidating as Ronon (okay, not as) even though he had a smaller frame.
"Captain, when you leave this office, you will do three things. First, you will instruct the men under your command that breaking policy six-thirteen again will result in consequences even a Wraith would fear. Second, you and Corporal Lancer will report to Mr. Dex and Major Lorne at 0430 tomorrow for high-intensity training. Do you understand?"
McGrass bowed his head once and looked back up at John.
"And thirdly, during Dr. Keller's next shift, you will go to her and publicly apologize for your vulgar and entirely inappropriate behavior." When the captain curtly acknowledged his understanding, John said, "Dismissed."
As McGrass left the office, Evan let out a low whistle. "You really got into him, huh?"
John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Make sure Rodney's at that apology."
"Yes, sir!"
1010 ZULU
Jennifer snapped a piece off the bacon strip and ate it, her eyes never leaving some part of Rodney. The oblivious physicist tried to consume his breakfast as inconspicuously as possible as he looked over the other emails in his inbox. He harrumphed slightly when he saw the messages from Woolsey, and decided that their leader's office door wasn't quite as important as his blossoming relationship with Jennifer Keller.
"Rodney," the physician said, "you grew up in Vancouver, right?"
He blinked a few times. "Yeah, but that's in my medical file. You knew that already."
Jennifer crossed her legs and leaned back on her hands, sinking slightly into the soft mattress. "So? I'm trying to make conversation. Didn't you say that you wanted to spend today just talking?"
Rodney swiveled in the chair to face her. "Yes, I just – " he cut himself off when he saw the smile on Jennifer's lips. "I just still don't know if I should trust my eyesight. It will take me a while to fully accept that I can call you mine." His voice had dropped in octave and volume.
"Hmm. If I'm yours, then it's fair to say that you're my Rodney."
A scarlet wave passed over the physicist's cheeks and the corners of his lips turned upwards. He looked at the floor.
Jennifer changed the subject before the physicist could object. "When did you first learn about your citrus allergy?" She cocked her head to the side and studied him.
"Well...I was four and someone gave me a glass of lemonade. I was in the emergency room for ten hours. Do you have any allergies?"
He'd cut through the question more quickly than she expected. "Only to idiots and vulgar men."
Rodney smiled.
They stared at each other for a while, mirroring each other's grins as tinges of pink spread across their cheeks. Abruptly Jennifer broke eye contact and looked at her knees. "Have you ever cuddled before?"
The physicist did a double take. "Cuddle?"
Physician chuckled. "You know, just lie together in each other's arms. Cuddle."
Rodney scratched his head. "Uh, well, you're the first woman who's actually wanted to..."
"Come here," she said softly, and wordlessly Rodney obeyed. She stretched out lengthwise on his bed and when he joined her she rested her head on his shoulder. Tentatively he put his arms around her. "See? Isn't this nice?"
"Yeah," he agreed, smiling down at her. "So, really, do you have any allergies? That I should know about?"
"Well, I'd recommend keeping me away from NyQuil, hairspray, and tofu."
"NyQuil, huh? And hairspray and tofu. What a combination." Rodney chuckled at a stray memory. "John once told me that I'm allergic to women."
Jennifer burst out in laughter. "What? Really? What did you do?"
Rodney thought back. "Well, he made a bet with me that if I could get Teyla to go out on a date with me I could have his Johnny Cash poster."
"And?" she prompted.
"And it turned out that both Teyla and Ronon had overheard so the whole thing was a bust. They all started laughing and fell on the gym floor. It's not like I actually would've gone through with it. Everyone knew at that point that Teyla had a thing for Ronon – everyone except Teyla and Ronon."
Jennifer smiled into Rodney's chest. "I'll bet you handled it like a man. I'll bet you laughed along with them."
"You're right, I did." Rodney sighed and his fingers began to ghost over the skin of Jennifer's arm.
"I love spending time with you," Jennifer said with her eyes closed.
"I love it too."
1306 ZULU
Richard Woolsey paced back and forth across the balcony leading to his office, his arms crossed and a dour expression gracing his face. When he saw Radek enter the Gateroom below he stopped pacing, and then stood and tapped one foot in a staccato on the floor. Radek hurried up the stairs and over towards the base commander.
"What seems to be the problem?"
Exasperated, Richard said, "The problem is that I haven't been able to get into my office all day, Doctor. How am I supposed to run this city without access to my office?"
Radek incorrectly assumed it was a rhetorical question and remained silent. He pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at the doorframe.
"Doctor?"
"Yes?"
"Well?"
"Well what? Your door will not open. That much is quite obvious."
"I meant well what's your answer?"
Radek looked around at the IOA agent. "About running the city? You cannot do it without access to your office, I agree." He turned back to the doorframe and rolled his eyes to himself. After inspecting the frame for another few moments he faced Mr. Woolsey again. "Judging from the clear yet distinctive substance that has hardened on the frame of your office door, Richard, I believe someone has glued it shut."
Woolsey stared at him for a few seconds. "Someone glued my door shut? This isn't college, Doctor. Can you get it open?"
Radek nodded. "I will mix a solution to dissolve the glue. You will be in your office in another hour."
After groaning, Richard said, "Thank you, Doctor."
The Czech made his way toward the labs, wondering who would pull such a prank and seal the leader out of his office. He ran a few names across his mind, narrowing the list down to three. He'd ask that one assistant, who used to fawn over Kavanaugh, about it later. Dr. Fox was on that list.
1412 ZULU
Rodney and Jennifer walked arm in arm down the deserted corridors of the lower East Pier, meandering their way through the city. The silence wasn't awkward, a fact that Jennifer noticed and recognized as reassuring that their relationship was solid. She leaned her head against his shoulder.
Of the several thoughts that strolled across her mind, Jennifer found that the one she focused most on involved spending quite a bit more time with the physicist.
"I could get used to this," Rodney said quietly, almost to himself, as if hoping she'd hear him.
She reached up to kiss his cheek. "I already have."
A/N: Okay sorry for the two week delay, this time I have no really good excuse other than my trig class. Long-time readers may notice I borrowed some of the allergy bit from an earlier piece entitled, predictably, "Allergies," which was a friendship story for Team Sheppard. At the time of its creation I don't think I'd actually even heard of Jennifer Keller, but it worked, so hey. Chapter 12 will put about a week between the end of their three day date and the next batch of emails. Expect the timeline to get spread out as this story develops – it's turning into a long one! R&R!