Narrowing his eyes and adopting his slouchiest posture John sauntered into the room. Projecting an air of lethal grace he casually drawled, "Hey guys whatcha doing?"
Lorne dropped the decidedly phallic looking object he had been caressing and looked up in concern. "Sir?"
John discreetly disposed of the ruined muffins before leaning into Rodney's personal space, ostensibly reading the computer screen over the scientist's shoulder. He aimed a vague smirk in Lorne's direction. "At ease Major, I'm here for McKay."
Rodney looked up his lips twisted into a disgruntled frown at the distraction. "Oh it's you Colonel."
"Well that's a warm welcome McKay, especially since I took time out of my busy day to come touch things for you."
"Oh that's ok, Major Lorne here volunteered to give me a helping hand." Rodney waved his hand in a circle indicating both Lorne and the pile of ancient artifacts the Major was examining.
Oh I just bet he did, John thought as he widened his smirk into a toothy not quite grin and looked at Lorne. "Well Major I hate to spoil the fun, but Doctor Parrish was looking for you in the mess earlier. He said something about a scheduled trip to the mainland."
"Uh oh, I forgot." Lorne glanced at Rodney apologetically as he stood and gathered his stuff from the table. John felt his stomach dip and turn to lead at the sight of the major's damned sketchbook.
Affecting a relaxed drawl, and an even more relaxed sprawl against the table Sheppard let his thigh lightly touch McKay's forearm. "Don't worry Major I'm well practiced at handling the doc's stuff for him. You go take your botanist to the mainland, so he can look at the flora."
Rodney spluttered and looked up at Sheppard incredulously, the tips of his ears turning pink. "Wha....huh?"
"Aw come on Rodney, you know I'm always happy to turn stuff on for you. Oh by the way that equation is wrong." Sheppard almost fell into McKay's lap as he pointed at the laptop screen.
John let his smile soften indulgently as Rodney blustered and promptly forgot all about Major Lorne. The scientist's attention now directed at proving to John that the sequence was in fact correct, oh hey except for maybe that part and oh ok the Colonel was right the equation was wrong, was he happy knowing that? It was obviously just a fluke. Letting McKay's irate ramble wash over him, John watched from the corner of his eye as Lorne cast a puzzled glance at both of them before hurrying from the Lab to find Parrish. A loose sheet fell from the Major's hastily gathered pile of papers and wafted to the floor unnoticed by him on his way out.
McKay hummed to himself as he worked on correcting the math, his attention now narrowed to laser focus on the laptop. His fingers flying over the keys. Effectively alone in the lab John straightened quickly and snatched up the sheet that Lorne had dropped. Unfolding it, his jaw clenched as he looked at the hastily sketched hands filling the page. McKay's hands. John would recognize those blunt, yet oddly elegant fingers anywhere. And if he was able to recognize them, surely anyone else could as well.
Lorne was really playing with fire and he didn't seem to want to stop. He must have it bad for Rodney. John could kind of understand that. While McKay would never be considered classically handsome, he had a quirky appeal that Sheppard could see growing on people, people who liked that sort of thing. Rodney's eyes, (two of his best features) were such a clear and brilliant blue, the colour of high altitude sky on a warm spring day. They would turn positively luminous when he was caught up in the thrill of discovery. Then there was the fact that despite, Rodney's fiercely scary intelligence, the man projected such an air of innocence and naivety at times, it would be bound to trigger Major Lorne's protective instincts. So yes John could see why the Major would be attracted, he just didn't want Lorne to throw away his future on an ill advised crush.
Obviously he wouldn't be able to talk directly to Lorne about this. Not that he wanted to anyway, just the thought of that conversation or any semi-personal conversations made his stomach feel like it was trying to claw it's way up and out of his body. Besides he didn't think he could sit and listen to the Major detailing the extent of his feelings for McKay, at least not with out screaming. He would have to enlist the help of someone he could trust, someone not military. Rodney was out of the question for all the obvious reasons. He also couldn't go to Elizabeth with this situation. Not only was she the expedition leader, a small voice in the back of his head whispered that she might be ok with it, and how would that help John? Or Lorne? Or Rodney? Nope Elizabeth was out of the question. Ronon wasn't a likely candidate either, just the thought of trying to explain DADT to the Sateadan was enough to trigger a migraine. That left Teyla. And really she was the perfect choice. Having been with the Atlanteans almost from the beginning she was aware of DADT. She was tactful and diplomatic. Yes unlike John, she would be able listen as Lorne poured out his heart and soul, and not have the childish urge to stick her fingers in her ears and shout LALALALA as loud as possible.
Looking over at McKay mumbling to himself, lost in his own little world, Sheppard felt a rush of affection, the sooner this was fixed the better. Resting his hand lightly on Rodney's shoulder he smiled fondly as the scientist jumped in surprise.
"Colonel, still here?" Already Rodney's attention was wandering back to his laptop.
"Is there anything important you need me to turn on?" Sheppard's hand lingered briefly on Rodney's shoulder, before sliding away.
Oddly McKay flushed slightly, then seemed to regroup his thoughts. "No, no. It can keep, go do something Colonel-y."
Sheppard raised both eyebrows in amusement. "Colonel-y?"
"What? Yes. Just do it somewhere that's not here." Mckay's tone was distracted and tinged with exasperation.
Sensing the CSO's patience was nearing it's limit John placed a power bar on the table at Rodney's elbow and headed towards the exit. As the door whooshed open, Sheppard turned back to look at the man hunched over the laptop.
"See you at supper?"
Receiving only a non committal grunt in response John stepped back into the room.
"McKay!" Sheppard used his off world voice. The one that McKay usually instinctively obeyed.
This time the reaction was marginally better. His eyes still not leaving the screen Rodney angled his head towards John indicating that he was listening. Huh, apparently the voice only worked off world or in times of immanent danger.
"Be at the mess hall for supper Rodney, don't make me come and drag you out of here." John sighed inwardly, recognizing that he would probably have to make good on this threat.
That finally got the scientist's attention. He looked up at John, blue eyes soft and wide holding an expression Sheppard didn't fully recognize. Then with a blink McKay was back to himself. Irritation and impatience etched on his features.
"Yes. Yes. Supper, the mess. Busy now." McKay noticed the power bar sitting on the table, and picked it up. Turning back to his computer, his nimble fingers stripped off the wrapper and he shoved half the bar into his mouth.
Realising he had just been dismissed, Sheppard ambled out of the Lab grinning to himself. McKay might be many things but boring was never one of them. Now he just had to find Teyla and in a round about way, ask for her help. John was pretty confident that once she knew what was at stake here, she would be more than willing to have a discrete chat with Major Lorne. And then things could go back to being blissfully normal, even if it was the skewed Pegasus Galaxy version of normal. At the very least the sketchbook would disappear and John thought he could live quite happily with it's absence.