Chez Sheppard-McKay

Title: Chez Sheppard-McKay
Author: Mira
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: 2066
Summary: "John! Where the hell's my tea?"

for Tex

Chez Sheppard-McKay

"That's disgusting," Rodney said staring into his kleenex.

"No, you're disgusting," John corrected him. "Throw it away and wash your hands."

"My god, you even sound like each other," Sam said, looking around. "Wow, what a great view." She pushed open the windows and leaned out over the sill, taking a deep breath. "If I'd known about this place when I was stationed here, I'd be here still."

"You hear how we found it?" John asked, coming to stand by her.

"No. Some big adventure involving explosions, invasions, life-threatening aliens?"

"Um, kind of," John said.

"I'll tell it," Rodney said. "You tell it stupid."

"It's a stupid story."

"Well, yeah, but you don't have to make it sound any stupider than it is."

"Are you gonna make yourself the hero this time?"

"Why, jealous because for once I was the hero? You spotlight-grabbing big damn space hero."

Sam said, "Okay, you know what? I'm not all that interested in how you found it. But it's great. When did you open up this wing of Atlantis?"

John and Rodney looked at each other. Finally John said, "Go ahead, I can see it's killing you."

Rodney sneezed, and blew into another kleenex. "No, it's okay. You tell. My throat's sore."

"I'll make more tea. Sam, you want tea? It's stuff Teyla says is good for you. Tastes okay."

"She calls it wilge -- do you remember where it's from?" Rodney called to John, and then started coughing.

"Shut up," John shouted back. Sam shook her head and followed John into another spacious room, this one with a balcony that had a table and four chairs on it. "We use this as a kitchen, kind of," he explained. She watched as he twisted the tap on a large clay urn and steaming water bubbled out into a yellow teapot. "From Rodney's sister," he said, gesturing with the teapot. Sam saw it had two red roosters painted on one side. When it was full, he counted in four scoops of loose tea that immediately filled the room with a restful odor.

"What is that?"

"The wilge," John said, setting the teapot on the counter and crossing him arms. "Medical says it's full of vitamin C but in a form Rodney can tolerate."

"Ah, yes, citrus allergy," Sam nodded, remembering.

They stood silently for a few moments, waiting for the wilge to steep. Sam was reminded how quiet Atlantis was. No automobiles, no airplanes, no engines running anywhere: just the sound of distant waves rolling against the piers of the city, John's quiet breathing, and her own heartbeat in her ears.

"John! Where the hell's my tea?"

And Rodney.

"Shut up! You're going to strip your throat, you doofus."

And John.

"I don't remember you being so, uh, vocal," she ventured.

He shrugged. "Try living with McKay for a dozen years," he offered in explanation. She shuddered dramatically. He gathered three mugs, looping their handles over one finger, and the teapot, then led her back into the living room. Rodney had stretched out on the daybed set up by the window, and had tied a scarf or something around his head. John started to laugh, so she took the teapot from him before he could spill it.

"Hey, my ears were cold," Rodney explained, but his eyes flicked up to Sam and she could tell he was a little embarrassed. He looked miserable: eyes and nose red, voice husky and breaking, face pale and a little sweaty.

"I like the look, McKay," she said, setting down the teapot on a low table in front of the sofa.

John poured them all tea, filtering it through a small strainer. Sam took her mug in both hands and breathed deeply. "Wonderful scent," she murmured, and took a sip. Definitely alien, she thought. It didn't remind her of anything she'd known on Earth, but maybe the tea Daniel had brought back from Abydos. Maybe.

They sipped without talking for a few moments, and then Sam said, "Okay, I give. How did you find this place?"

Rodney looked at John and for an instant, Sam was disconcerted by what she saw on his face. She wasn't used to a tender McKay, or one proud for someone else. He clearly was sappily in love with John, and that too disconcerted her. She'd gotten used to McKay chasing after her, even though when she'd moved to Atlantis he'd been joking. Mostly.

"Well, in fact, it was an emergency, five or six years ago," John said. "Just the usual: surprise Wraith attack on the city, not enough power for the shield, big explosions, a surprise counter-attack by us," he said, gesturing between Rodney and himself, "and we blew those fuckers out of the sky."

"Ha," Rodney said hoarsely, smiling in recollection. Sam wondered what they'd done. It was unlike Rodney not to insist on detailing every heroic action he'd taken, so she knew it had been dangerous and that they'd barely survived.

John said, "But the city was damaged. It took a long time to sort things out. The tower where most of us lived had been cracked and the engineers weren't sure it was structurally sound."

"Lorne," Rodney said to Sam, who nodded; she remembered Lorne from his engineering days on SG-11.

"And Radek, and even Rodney, plus a couple dozen others. In the meantime, some of us went looking for living quarters."

"This is the cool part," Rodney said.

"Yeah, it is. Anyway, after dinner one night, Rodney and I decided to check out the northwest pier. We'd never done much with it, but the engineers said it had stood up well under the attack. It's not as big as the other towers, but there was still plenty of room for us all, and the transporters worked fine."

"Except you have to take two to get to the control room."

"Yeah, yeah, big hardship. It takes five seconds to get there instead of two and a half. This was in winter, so it was already dark and both moons were up. Their light was shining in every window, these long beams coming in."

"Crepuscular rays," Rodney explained. Sam nodded, not taking her eyes off John.

"We used the transporter to get as far out and up as we could, and then saw there were stairs."

"Of course he had to take the stairs," Rodney said.

"We climbed all the way to the very top, and then into onto a kind of dormer, I guess, with a big window overlooking the pier." He paused, and looked at Rodney.

"What? What?" He rolled his eyes dramatically. "What the colonel isn't saying is that, well, we're standing at this one big window, very dramatic lighting, and he leans over and touches the, uh, window sill, I guess. Only it wasn't just a sill. We know this because it, the tower, started to grow."

"To grow," Sam repeated after a moment.

John shrugged, tilting his head to one side. "Yeah, grow. The floor started to shake really hard. Knocked us on our asses."

"You should have seen the bruise I had on mine," Rodney said.

"Give me a break, McKay," Sam told him. "Then what?"

"Nothing," John said. "Well, I mean, not nothing, but just more of the same. We couldn't see what was happening because we were inside, but it shook us all over that floor. Lasted a long time."

"Six minutes and seventeen seconds," Rodney said.

"When it was over we just lay there for a minute, then I jumped up, made sure McKay was okay, and looked out the window. Except the window wasn't the same window. It was huge, like, as long as the mess hall's windows."

"The tower grew," Sam said, understanding.

"Seriously," Rodney said. "We got out of there in case it fell down, but after the engineers checked it out, and then I checked it out, and then John checked it out, Miko found mention of it in the database. Turns out that the city shrank itself when it submerged. All of the towers could expand if we wanted them to. We just don't want them to."

Sam frowned. "How big is this place? At the SGC, they say it's the size of Manhattan."

John looked at Rodney again, who said, "We're not entirely sure, but our best estimation is, if it were unfolded, it would be more the size of L'Île-d'Orléans -- about three times the size of Manhattan."

"Holy shit," Sam said, trying to imagine an Atlantis that big. "That's some origami."

"Yeah, that's what we thought." John rubbed the back of his neck. "Ran around doing a lot more structural checks after that, but the old girl's in great shape."

"Till the next Wraith attack," Rodney said bitterly, and blew his nose again.

"Throw it away," John growled at him. "Stop obsessing."

"Oh, oh, just who is the bigger baby when sick, that's what I want to know," Rodney said, but he started to cough.

"Drink your tea," John said. Rodney glared at him. Sam rolled her eyes.

"So, this is a bit more personal, but how'd you guys end up, you know. Here. Together." Sam felt herself blushing, but damn if she wasn't going to figure this out.

They looked at each other. "Oh, hell, Sam," Rodney finally said.

"Uh, I'll clean up," John said, grabbing their mugs and heading to the other room.

"Chicken," Rodney called after him, but affectionately.

"Sorry," Sam said. "But seriously. You two are not, I mean, well. I'd never. You know."

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You have a problem?"

"Jesus, no, Rodney. You know me better than that after all these years."

He settled back into the daybed, and looked out the window. Her gaze followed. It was a glorious day, she thought. The sky here was so clear, the air so fresh. A new world in which anything was possible.

"He's a good man," Rodney finally said quietly. "And we're home now. I don't go in much for destiny or crap like that, but sometimes I think."

When he didn't continue, she said gingerly, "Sometimes you think?"

He looked at her. "Sometimes people come into our lives because we need them. That's what I think." He sounded almost accusatory.

She nodded. She thought of Jack and Daniel, and how Daniel had come into his life when he'd reached his lowest point, when he'd lost everything. And how Jack had come back into Daniel's life when he'd lost so much. "Yeah," she said quietly. "If you're lucky, sometimes they do."

Rodney cleared his throat. "Well." He sniffed vigorously, and she plucked a kleenex from the box and handed it to him.

"Listen," she continued. "None of my business, but were you together when I was here? I mean, DADT, I know, but that ended years ago, and I don't care anyway. It's just I thought you were. You know."

Rodney looked over his shoulder toward the kitchen, but John was still invisible and making lots of noise. "Occasionally," he said, speaking very quietly. "But that Wraith attack, the one that wrecked the tower with the living quarters. That was bad."

"I actually had read about it," she said, just as quietly.

"Then you know. We lost some good people, Marines mostly. Radek was injured. Marie, from the infirmary. We all started bunking together, and John and I." He looked out the window at the fine day. Almost whispering, he said, "I knew I didn't want to waste a minute more."

She took Rodney's hand, the one not clutching a kleenex, but didn't say anything. Couldn't, really. John fell silent, came to stand in the doorway, slouching against the door frame. He looked at Rodney, still staring out the window, and the look on his face made Sam squeeze Rodney's hand and stand up.

"Thanks for the tea. I hope you feel better soon, Rodney."

"Good to see you, Sam," he said, and cleared his throat. "Go see Radek. Wear something tight or low-cut."

She smacked his shoulder. "See you, John," she said. He nodded at her, a slight smile curling his lips. She added, "Take care of the missus."

"Hey," Rodney croaked, and John laughed.

Sam left, smiling to herself.