Title: Distracting Text Messages
Author: Ami Ven
Rating: G
Word Count: 650
Prompt:
mcsheplets challenge #142 ‘dirty’
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Summary: Jeannie is helping her brother with some equations, but something’s got him distracted.
Distracting Text Messages
About every ten minutes, Mer’s phone would beep. Even in the middle of a sentence, he’d glance at the screen, turn faintly pink, then continue on with the equations he and Jeannie were working through as though nothing had happened.
After an hour, Jeannie was starting to get worried. Her brother was supposed to be on vacation, but if something really disastrous happened, she knew he’d want to be reachable. “Mer,” she said. “There’s nothing wrong back on Atlantis, is there? Or something you think will go wrong?”
“What?” he asked. “No, no, of course not. Radek is in charge, and he’s at least smart enough to keep anyone from doing anything disastrously stupid until I get back.”
“Right,” Jeannie agreed, because she knew that her brother actually considered Radek almost as smart as he was, and a friend, too. “Then you could enjoy being home, even a little bit.”
“I am enjoying being back on Earth,” Mer protested. “I’m really glad we worked things out, and I’d love to visit more often. But Atlantis is home, now.”
“I know,” she said, smiling. “That’s why I agreed to help you work on the macros for re-establishing the ‘gate bridge between our galaxies- and, honestly, there’s something I never thought I’d hear myself say- so you can visit more often.”
“And I’m grateful, really. I just-”
Mer’s phone beeped again. He looked at it, turned pink, and went quickly back to their whiteboard.
Jeannie frowned. “But you are on vacation, right? Because if that’s someone from the Air Force keeping tabs on you, that’s really-”
“What?” Mer interrupted. “No, no- well, yes, it is someone from the- but only because-”
The front door banged open.
“We’re home!” called John’s voice, just before Madison came racing in, a stuffed giraffe under one arm.
That morning, John had taken one look at the pages and pages and spreadsheets of physics that Mer had spread across the breakfast table and said, “Hey, Maddie, wanna go to the zoo?”
“Me and Uncle John had a great time!” she announced, plopping down beside her mother. “We saw the monkeys, and the elephants, and we watched the polar bear swim, and-”
“We’ll give you the play-by-play at dinner,” John interrupted, grinning just as broadly as Madison. “Did you guys have fun while we were gone?”
Mer rolled his eyes. “You know, Sheppard, some of us were doing actual work while you were out reliving your childhood.”
John just smiled. “Looks like somebody skipped his afternoon snack,” he said.
“I guess we did,” Jeannie agreed. “And lunch.”
“And you’re not farther than this?” John asked, waving a hand at their equation-covered whiteboard.
“Well, we would be if-” Mer started indignantly, then stopped and flushed pink again. He lowered his voice. “If someone hadn’t kept sending me distracting text messages.”
So, that’s what they were, Jeannie thought, and stifled a giggle.
“I have no idea who would do such a thing,” said John, the picture of innocence, reaching out to grab Mer’s elbow. “That low blood sugar’s probably making you hallucinate. We’d better get you something to eat. Right, Maddie?”
“Yes, yes, very funny,” said Mer, but allowed John and Madison to lead him toward the kitchen.
As soon as he’d gone, his phone beeped again- the low battery alert. Jeannie picked it up, intending to plug it in to recharge for him, then paused.
She shouldn’t, she really shouldn’t, but… The texts were still on the screen when she flipped it open, and Jeannie shook her head, smiling.
It was equations, a dozen of them at least, each one more complex than the last, and- Jeannie ran the first few in her head quickly- all of them with ‘two’ as the solution.
She laughed, and plugged the phone into the recharger. Only her brother and his boyfriend would use math as dirty talk.
THE END
Current Mood:
tired