Payback Is a Bitch

By Mickey

Status: Completed 11/30/2008

Word Count: 698

John was surprised when Zelenka came to a skidding stop in front of him, struggling with an overstuffed pack. He sighed then asked, "What are doing? Where's Rodney?"

Zelenka looked startled for a minute the said, "I thought you knew. I'm going in Rodney's place. He said you were okay with it."

Biting his tongue, John merely nodded. He wasn't sure what McKay was playing at, but he wasn't going to get away with it. There was no way in hell he was spending an entire weekend on a deserted planet surrounded by geeks without Rodney there to keep them in check. It was bad enough that Ronon had gone off-world with Lorne's team and Teyla was visiting her people. It wasn't that he didn't respect Zelenka, he did, it was just that at least Rodney could keep the scientists under his thumb. Zelenka did okay, but he just wasn't as tough as Rodney.

"Did McKay say why he wasn't coming?"

"He was very vague. Just said something about new research in old Ancient lab we found in one of the parts of the city we hadn't explored yet." Zelenka paused. John noted that he seemed a little nervous.

The more he looked around, the more John got the feeling he'd been set up. After nearly three years working with these people, he was pretty familiar with almost all of the scientists on Atlantis. Every single one that was in the gate room right then was . . . outspoken. And that was putting it politely. To make matters worse, Kavanagh was back and was assigned to this mission. Rodney was the only one besides himself and Elizabeth who could keep the jerk in check. Kavanagh generally tended to run roughshod over the other geeks. Especially Zelenka.

John tapped the button on his earpiece. "McKay. This is your mission. Get your ass to the gate room on the double!"

He waited impatiently for Rodney to reply, smiling as Kavanagh stumbled, tripping over another geek's foot that she had "accidentally" stuck out in his path. It amused him, just a little, to see the arrogant bastard nearly lose his footing. He threw the offending geek a dirty look then readjusted his pack.

Finally, Rodney answered, "Sorry, Colonel, no can do. I have very important . . . stuff to do down here. I've already cleared this with Elizabeth. You have fun on that nice, hot planet for three days."

Yep. Definitely something fishy going on. He was almost certain now that Rodney had set the whole damn thing up. Probably pissed over that whole citrus thing from a few days ago in the game that turned out to not actually be a game.

Rodney's voice came back over his radio interrupting John's thoughts.

"You really should get going. The suns on that planet rise in about an hour and you really want to make sure you have your camp set up by then. It gets up to about a hundred and five degrees and stays there for about fourteen hours or so." He paused then added, "It isn't much cooler at night."

And that just sounded way to damn cheerful. Apparently, Rodney didn't realize he hadn't turned his radio off because his voice came over it again.

"Maybe next time he'll find a better way to resolve an issue than trying to poison me."

"Colonel Sheppard." Zelenka was standing in front of him. John could only imagine what his face must look like because Zelenka looked like he'd rather be doing anything other than facing the Air Force colonel right then.

"What?" He barked.

"We are ready to go."

John sighed. He turned to see the expectant, impatient faces of several scientists. "Let’s move out people." Addressing one of the three Marines who were accompanying him, he said, "Gibbons, cover our six." That said, he turned and signaled to the sergeant on duty in the control room that he was ready to move out.

The 'gate technician nodded and started dialing. After a few seconds, the 'gate opened with a swoosh. As John stepped through the shimmering puddle followed closely by the members of the "Geek Squad", he had already started plotting his revenge.

THE END