Ficlet: Emergency

[mayachain]

Title: Emergency
Characters: Evan Lorne, Radek Zelenka, McKay/Sheppard, Team
Genre: friendship
Rating: PG
Word Count: ~510
Summary: Sometimes there's an emergency situation even when there's no screaming.
Notes: for mcsheplets challenge #002, "downtime". Loosely connected to Censured and Jane Wyatt did it first.

Until Atlantis had been stranded on Earth for nearly 10 weeks, Evan would never have thought he’d be grateful to Col. Caldwell outside a far-too frequent crisis. But the man had put in a request with General Landry to have Dr. McKay help Dr. Novak with something to do with the Daedalus’ engines, and had strongly suggested “for the sanity of his crew” that all his team members accompany him. Landry must really like Caldwell, for not only had he granted the request, he had sent Evan and Radek along for good measure. So here they were. “That was a complete waste of my time,” Rodney complained while Radek nodded his agreement. “Yes, was basically taking a screwdriver and fastening a single screw.” “Surely the problem was more complicated than you make it sound,” Teyla said with a careful look at Novak who was handing something to Sheppard at the other end of the deserted mess hall. “No, it really wasn't,” Rodney scoffed. “You could have solved it.” Curiously enough, he did not then elaborate on the uselessness of the mission. Evan looked up to see Ronon frown and Teyla smile at what she chose to take as a compliment. Then, “did you hear that Caldwell refuses to beam us down ahead of schedule?” Sheppard said as he joined them, none of the annoyance Evan would have expected in his voice. “’This ship is not a shuttle service’” he quoted, “’and it’s not like your good doctors did anything of value.’” Dr. McKay opened his mouth. He might have felt uncharacteristically mellow before, but he sure had something to say about that. That was when Sheppard pressed a bottle Evan hadn’t seen him holding into McKay’s hand. McKay hesitated. His eyes widened when he read the label. “About half a cota for each of us,” he breathed. “Real Athosian Ruus wine.” Teyla’s eyes shone as Dr. Novak brought them a couple of glasses, smiled at them and left them alone. “How did they know Dr. Zelenka’s ‘secret stash’ was confiscated?” she wondered. “Don’t know, don’t care,” Sheppard said. He took the bottle from Rodney, flipped the lid with a move he had probably learned from their marines and measured out six not-quite half cotar. “We’ll somehow smuggle the rest down to Woolsey. Cheers!” “Now that I think of it, I wonder why Novak would need our help in first place. Surely she could have asked Hermiod?” Zelenka said after downing most of his glass in one contented go. “Don’t care,” McKay echoed. Teyla shook her head. Ronon looked at Zelenka seriously and then vowed to write a formal complaint about the five hours they were now needlessly spending “in this tin can”. Five more hours in orbit, Evan thought. Five more hours out of reach of ANY of the what Teldy had dubbed ‘SGC spies’ and the seemingly numberless representatives of the IOA. And Sheppard and McKay were standing shoulder to shoulder, leaning against each other. Evan looked out of the window and felt like he could breathe again. .

Comments

[popkin16]

Cute story ♥ It seems like everybody needed a break. I'm so glad you included Evan and Radek :D

[ami-ven.livejournal.com]

Very nice little scene!

[tarlanx]

Lovely ficlet! Loved the idea of Caldwell looking out for them :)

If you don't mind a very small amount of concrit, there are a couple of things that you should easily catch on a read through

[tarlanx]

Loved the small changes you made :) Enjoyed this very much :)