out_there | SGA Drabbles: Some Days; The Pot Calling the Kettle--

From the Drabble Meme last weekend. (I was going to wait until I'd finished them all, but since the SN ones are the only ones outstanding, I'm going to post them in fandoms.)

***

For

scribewraith: Some Days (SGA, Zelenka)

There are days when McKay comes into the lab yelling, hands flailing, insults flying fast and furious from his mouth. He is impatient and cutting, demanding answers now and using his intellect as an excuse for obliviousness to others' feelings. But he saves them all, coming up with the solution no-one else saw, and therefore is forgiven.

There are other days when McKay still yells, still insults, still waves his hands around and compliments his own genius simply because he is Rodney McKay and sees it as his god-given right. Sometimes, Radek has slept well and will humour him; other times, he will sit at his desk and mutter Czech curses under his breath.

Other times, when McKay will not be quiet, will not stop crowing about his latest success -- when Radek is tired and sick of working for an egomaniac -- Radek will be a little devious. When McKay points to the items sitting unclassified on his desk, and asks why it's taking him so long to finish with them, and has Radek even started them because McKay is brilliant and has finished his work, Radek will shrug and say, "No time to experiment, Rodney. Have not looked yet."

He will let McKay grab at the most interesting looking one, will let him take it back to his workstation and start to poke it, and he will not once open his mouth to say, "We already know what that one does." On days when McKay is particularly boisterous, particularly obnoxious, no-one else in the lab will warn him either.

So McKay will prod and poke, will attack it the way he attacks food and then will be amazed when he loses his voice for six hours or his hair turns blue.

There will be complaints for hours about this always happening to him, that he must be unlucky and asking why it is always him who provides amusement in the mess hall. But the flailing hands will settle, the yelling will soften and the self-congratulation will stop... at least for a few days.

***

For

scribblinlenore: "The Pot Calling the Kettle--" (SGA, McShep, prompt: kiss and make up.)

"You're an idiot!"

"Better than being suicidal."

Carson sighed. He tried reading from the top of the page.

"Suicidal, suicidal? Me? If that isn't the pot calling the kettle--"

"There were a dozen guys with spears, Rodney!"

Carson had been trying to read this article for the last half hour. But he had Rodney McKay and John Sheppard in his infirmary. Having those two constantly within hearing distance made reading -- or just thinking -- extremely difficult.

"I had a gun!"

"You had no bullets."

"They didn't know that."

Sighing, Carson stood up from behind his desk. After four attempts to read the same paragraph, it was time to either admit defeat or give them each a sedative. The sedative seemed the far more attractive solution.

"They would have known that very soon."

"So you decided to charge them? To physically run into a group of burly men holding spears? That seemed like the smart option to you?"

"It was better than returning with a McKay-shish-kabab."

There was silence. Carson paused at his doorway, enjoying the moment of pure, utter peace. He debated giving the pair sedatives anyway -- it would make his afternoon a great deal more relaxing -- and then stepped sideways to peer behind the privacy curtain and check the two invalids (who had been incapacitated not by spears but by avoiding said spears and rolling in that planets' version of poison ivy). John, ever the rebel, was out of bed and leaning over Rodney, pressing his lips to Rodney's forehead, which was the one part of his face free of the bright red rash.

Pretending to ignore the illicit kiss, Carson closed his door and went back to his desk. He managed to read an entire paragraph before he heard:

"You need to stop taking us to planets where the natives are stupid and carry spears."

"I'll work on that, Rodney."