[advent 08] december eight
Okay! So, this is the start of an AU I started for atlantis_9to5 last year. The concept was the Atlantis team working regular type jobs. I signed up to do SGA at The Bookstore, but never really, ah, you know. Finished it. Anyway, taking another swing. Here is the introduction!
As a note, some of the situational stuff is based on my Bookstore (like the goddamn doorbell), but the characters are entirely based on SGA. I really only wish I worked with Teyla and Ronon and Sam and Radek. Oh, and Laura Cadman. I really wish I worked with Laura Cadman. And, oh man, this is also ridiculously fun. I really want to finish it now, because I want to get to the part where Radek steals Sam right out from under Rodney's nose. Rodney, of course, is too busy being obsessed with and stalking John to notice at first, but once he does he's very put out XD
Anyway. AU time.
***
advent - day eight
sga - pegasus books - in which there's a minor staff change-over and we meet our plucky cast of booksellers, all of whom Rodney McKay hates.
***
There were benefits to working at The Bookstore. In fact, at times the job seemed to be an absolute godsend to Rodney, swooping in at just the right moment so he could continue to afford the things his grad school scholarships didn't cover, like food and rent. He enjoyed the actual employment benefits as well. His medical insurance was pretty crappy, but still better than going to Health Services and sitting in the germ infested waiting room while a med student blindly guessed at what must be afflicting his fellow students. And really, between the discount and the ability to borrow books from the store, he had saved hundreds of dollars on text books and research materials.
Still, at seven am on Monday mornings, none of that seemed to matter. Working for Pegasus Books was the worst idea he had ever had.
"Let me in!" he shouted, banging on the window behind cashwrap. The cleaning guy had his headphones on and was bobbing his head to whatever was blasting through his eardrums. Rodney really wanted to reach through the window and throttle him, but he settled for pulling out his cellphone and calling the store's number.
"Thank you for calling Pegasus Books in Atlantis," the automated message said in Elizabeth's cheerful voice. "Our store hours are nine am to eleven pm Monday through Saturday and nine to nine on Sunday. Please hold for a bookseller!"
It took five rings for someone to pick up.
"Someone open the goddamnned door!" Rodney barked, not even waiting for the standard phone schpeil to start. "It's twenty below out here and Chachi the cleaning boy is too busy jamming to Cyndi Lauper to let me in!"
"Calm down, McKay," Radek muttered, and if Rodney stood on his tiptoes he could just see the door to the back office swinging open. "It is not that cold out."
"That's hardly the point!" Rodney shouted into his cellphone. "It's five of seven! People are going to be showing up for the next thirty minutes! Wouldn't it make sense to have someone standing at the door to let them in, instead of making them call every time? Or, here's a thought!, we could shell out the five bucks it will probably cost to get the stupid doorbell fixed!"
He could see Radek rolling his eyes as he crossed the floor to the locked front doors. Rodney tapped his foot impatiently, hanging up his phone as Radek twisted the locks.
"It's about time!" he snapped.
"Patience, Rodney," Radek said. "I believe it is the virtue whose absence has kept your employment hanging by a tenuous thread for the past several months."
"Oh, shut up," Rodney muttered, stalking towards the back room and not waiting to see if Radek bothered to follow him. "Elizabeth would never fire me and you know it. My knowledge is too valuable." It wasn't just his ego talking, either. He knew that he was invaluable to the store. He'd read a healthy selection of everything from cheap romance novels to computer manuals. He knew the right book for any feasible question. He also had a remarkably encyclopedic memory for book titles, despite the fact that he couldn't remember the names of half the people he worked with.
"Elizabeth, yes, but--" Radek stopped himself and bit his lip. And that was interesting. Radek was usually the source of the best gossip in the store and usually he was more than willing to share. If he was holding himself back, the rumor must have been magnificent.
"But what?" Rodney asked.
"Ah, let's just get to the meeting, yes? I believe it may be enlightening."
Rodney snorted. These meetings were rarely worth his time, let alone enlightening. Everyone reported in on their departments, Elizabeth talked about upcoming promotions and how well the store was doing, and invariably someone brought breakfast that included orange juice but did not include coffee. He didn't see how this meeting was going to be any different than the rest.
Nearly all the other full-time department associates were already in the office when Rodney and Radek arrived. Sumner and Dex were missing. Ford was too, but Rodney had already heard from Radek the night before that someone had caught Aiden stealing a fuckton of coffee from the cafe and he'd then taken off. No one had been able to find him since the afternoon and Rodney was pretty certain that they'd be looking to hire a new cafe manager sometime soon.
Rodney and Radek took their customary seats as far from Elizabeth as possible (Rodney so he could get away with making notes on his thesis during meetings; Radek because he had finally been shot down one too many times by Elizabeth) and a few moments later Ronon Dex appeared.
"All right, everyone, let's get started," Elizabeth said. "I know we're doing this a little bit earlier than usual, but this is going to be a big meeting and I wanted to make sure we had enough time to cover everyone." Rodney snorted. To Elizabeth's credit, she didn't acknowledge him. "As some of you may have heard, Aiden Ford is no longer with us, and in the interim, I'm pulling Laura from music and putting her on cafe and cookbooks while I try to find a new cafe manager. Rodney, I'd very much appreciate it if you could manage to cover both music and customer service in the mean time."
The rest of the staff turned to stare at him as one. He didn't know most of them. Aside from Elizabeth and himself, Radek, Dex, Teyla Emmagen, Laura Cadman, and Marcia Sumner made up the rest of the management team now that Ford was gone, and he only knew them because he was forced to attend twice weekly scheduling meetings with them. He couldn't remember the names of any of the rest of the fulltime staff, but it seemed they had learn to fear him despite that. Maybe because of it.
They were clearly waiting for a reaction from him, and while he wanted more than anything to fuss and whine and complain about how moronic it was that he was being punished because Ford was stupid enough to steal and get caught, he grit his teeth and nodded.
"I can handle that, I suppose," he muttered. At least music was quiet most of the time. Everyone slumped with disappointment and turned back to Elizabeth. She seemed just as surprised that he hadn't complained as the rest of them, but merely nodded and looked back at the list on her notebook.
"Moving on," she said, " On a more somber note, Marica's father passed away last night and she resigned this morning to she could devote herself to taking care of her mother. Luckily, one of the candidates for the part-time children's position has some managerial experience and is willing to take on the full-time children's job in Marcia's absence. His name is John Sheppard and he'll be starting today."
"A guy?" Rodney whispered to Radek. "Seriously?" Marcia Sumner seemed to exclusively hire women and young girls for the children's department. She was the kind of man-hating, tough as nails lesbian that Rodney tried to steer clear of, and he was completely shocked that this Sheppard guy was being considered for the part-time job, let alone for the lead children's job. "He's probably the lumpiest, blandest guy she could find."
Radek chuckled in a vaguely superior way that meant he had yet more information that he was sitting on. Rodney glared at him.
"Gentlemen? Do you have anything to add?" Elizabeth had a habit of looking at them like they were naughty children when they interrupted her staff meetings. It was a good thing Rodney hadn't responded to looks like that even when he was a naughty child.
"Continue," Rodney said, waving her on dismissively. She sighed.
"As I was saying," she continued, "he should be here any moment. I asked him if he could make this meeting at the last minute, and he told me he might be a little--"
The phone rang, cutting her off.
"That's probably him now!" she said. She was already leaving the breakroom when she answered her phone, and Rodney rolled his eyes at Radek, only to discover that Radek was too busy watching Elizabeth. Typical. One of these days, Radek was going to realize that Elizabeth was completely out of his league, but until that day came, Rodney was going to be stuck watching him pant over someone who was way too hot to waste her time with a schlubby physics doctoral candidate. Radek seriously needed to--
He lost his train of thought when Elizabeth reappeared. More accurately, he lost his train of thought when the Elizabeth reappeared with a guy who was really too hot to be real.
"Who the hell is that?" Rodney whispered to Radek, still staring rather blatantly at the guy trailing behind Elizabeth, at his ridiculously perky hair and the pants falling down his hips and the black shirt rolled up off his forearms.
"The new children's manager," Radek replied, looking far too smug for Rodney's comfort.
"There is no way Sumner hired that guy," Rodney hissed. "I mean... look at him! You've got to be kidding me."
"I think you are doing plenty of looking for both of us, McKay," Radek muttered. "And he is the new manager."
"You're a horrible liar," Rodney replied. "No one that pretty is smart enough to be in charge of anyone."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Elizabeth announced, putting a hand on the hot guy's shoulder, "I'd like to introduce you to John Sheppard, our new Children's Department Manger."
Rodney's jaw dropped.
"Hi everyone," Sheppard said, hands shoved in his pockets, smiling with some kind of 'aw, shucks, ma'am' charm. "I'm looking forward to working with you guys here at Pegasus Books."
Rodney barely resisted dropping his head onto the filthy breakroom table. Working at Pegasus Books was definitely the worst decision he'd ever made.
As a note, some of the situational stuff is based on my Bookstore (like the goddamn doorbell), but the characters are entirely based on SGA. I really only wish I worked with Teyla and Ronon and Sam and Radek. Oh, and Laura Cadman. I really wish I worked with Laura Cadman. And, oh man, this is also ridiculously fun. I really want to finish it now, because I want to get to the part where Radek steals Sam right out from under Rodney's nose. Rodney, of course, is too busy being obsessed with and stalking John to notice at first, but once he does he's very put out XD
Anyway. AU time.
***
advent - day eight
sga - pegasus books - in which there's a minor staff change-over and we meet our plucky cast of booksellers, all of whom Rodney McKay hates.
***
There were benefits to working at The Bookstore. In fact, at times the job seemed to be an absolute godsend to Rodney, swooping in at just the right moment so he could continue to afford the things his grad school scholarships didn't cover, like food and rent. He enjoyed the actual employment benefits as well. His medical insurance was pretty crappy, but still better than going to Health Services and sitting in the germ infested waiting room while a med student blindly guessed at what must be afflicting his fellow students. And really, between the discount and the ability to borrow books from the store, he had saved hundreds of dollars on text books and research materials.
Still, at seven am on Monday mornings, none of that seemed to matter. Working for Pegasus Books was the worst idea he had ever had.
"Let me in!" he shouted, banging on the window behind cashwrap. The cleaning guy had his headphones on and was bobbing his head to whatever was blasting through his eardrums. Rodney really wanted to reach through the window and throttle him, but he settled for pulling out his cellphone and calling the store's number.
"Thank you for calling Pegasus Books in Atlantis," the automated message said in Elizabeth's cheerful voice. "Our store hours are nine am to eleven pm Monday through Saturday and nine to nine on Sunday. Please hold for a bookseller!"
It took five rings for someone to pick up.
"Someone open the goddamnned door!" Rodney barked, not even waiting for the standard phone schpeil to start. "It's twenty below out here and Chachi the cleaning boy is too busy jamming to Cyndi Lauper to let me in!"
"Calm down, McKay," Radek muttered, and if Rodney stood on his tiptoes he could just see the door to the back office swinging open. "It is not that cold out."
"That's hardly the point!" Rodney shouted into his cellphone. "It's five of seven! People are going to be showing up for the next thirty minutes! Wouldn't it make sense to have someone standing at the door to let them in, instead of making them call every time? Or, here's a thought!, we could shell out the five bucks it will probably cost to get the stupid doorbell fixed!"
He could see Radek rolling his eyes as he crossed the floor to the locked front doors. Rodney tapped his foot impatiently, hanging up his phone as Radek twisted the locks.
"It's about time!" he snapped.
"Patience, Rodney," Radek said. "I believe it is the virtue whose absence has kept your employment hanging by a tenuous thread for the past several months."
"Oh, shut up," Rodney muttered, stalking towards the back room and not waiting to see if Radek bothered to follow him. "Elizabeth would never fire me and you know it. My knowledge is too valuable." It wasn't just his ego talking, either. He knew that he was invaluable to the store. He'd read a healthy selection of everything from cheap romance novels to computer manuals. He knew the right book for any feasible question. He also had a remarkably encyclopedic memory for book titles, despite the fact that he couldn't remember the names of half the people he worked with.
"Elizabeth, yes, but--" Radek stopped himself and bit his lip. And that was interesting. Radek was usually the source of the best gossip in the store and usually he was more than willing to share. If he was holding himself back, the rumor must have been magnificent.
"But what?" Rodney asked.
"Ah, let's just get to the meeting, yes? I believe it may be enlightening."
Rodney snorted. These meetings were rarely worth his time, let alone enlightening. Everyone reported in on their departments, Elizabeth talked about upcoming promotions and how well the store was doing, and invariably someone brought breakfast that included orange juice but did not include coffee. He didn't see how this meeting was going to be any different than the rest.
Nearly all the other full-time department associates were already in the office when Rodney and Radek arrived. Sumner and Dex were missing. Ford was too, but Rodney had already heard from Radek the night before that someone had caught Aiden stealing a fuckton of coffee from the cafe and he'd then taken off. No one had been able to find him since the afternoon and Rodney was pretty certain that they'd be looking to hire a new cafe manager sometime soon.
Rodney and Radek took their customary seats as far from Elizabeth as possible (Rodney so he could get away with making notes on his thesis during meetings; Radek because he had finally been shot down one too many times by Elizabeth) and a few moments later Ronon Dex appeared.
"All right, everyone, let's get started," Elizabeth said. "I know we're doing this a little bit earlier than usual, but this is going to be a big meeting and I wanted to make sure we had enough time to cover everyone." Rodney snorted. To Elizabeth's credit, she didn't acknowledge him. "As some of you may have heard, Aiden Ford is no longer with us, and in the interim, I'm pulling Laura from music and putting her on cafe and cookbooks while I try to find a new cafe manager. Rodney, I'd very much appreciate it if you could manage to cover both music and customer service in the mean time."
The rest of the staff turned to stare at him as one. He didn't know most of them. Aside from Elizabeth and himself, Radek, Dex, Teyla Emmagen, Laura Cadman, and Marcia Sumner made up the rest of the management team now that Ford was gone, and he only knew them because he was forced to attend twice weekly scheduling meetings with them. He couldn't remember the names of any of the rest of the fulltime staff, but it seemed they had learn to fear him despite that. Maybe because of it.
They were clearly waiting for a reaction from him, and while he wanted more than anything to fuss and whine and complain about how moronic it was that he was being punished because Ford was stupid enough to steal and get caught, he grit his teeth and nodded.
"I can handle that, I suppose," he muttered. At least music was quiet most of the time. Everyone slumped with disappointment and turned back to Elizabeth. She seemed just as surprised that he hadn't complained as the rest of them, but merely nodded and looked back at the list on her notebook.
"Moving on," she said, " On a more somber note, Marica's father passed away last night and she resigned this morning to she could devote herself to taking care of her mother. Luckily, one of the candidates for the part-time children's position has some managerial experience and is willing to take on the full-time children's job in Marcia's absence. His name is John Sheppard and he'll be starting today."
"A guy?" Rodney whispered to Radek. "Seriously?" Marcia Sumner seemed to exclusively hire women and young girls for the children's department. She was the kind of man-hating, tough as nails lesbian that Rodney tried to steer clear of, and he was completely shocked that this Sheppard guy was being considered for the part-time job, let alone for the lead children's job. "He's probably the lumpiest, blandest guy she could find."
Radek chuckled in a vaguely superior way that meant he had yet more information that he was sitting on. Rodney glared at him.
"Gentlemen? Do you have anything to add?" Elizabeth had a habit of looking at them like they were naughty children when they interrupted her staff meetings. It was a good thing Rodney hadn't responded to looks like that even when he was a naughty child.
"Continue," Rodney said, waving her on dismissively. She sighed.
"As I was saying," she continued, "he should be here any moment. I asked him if he could make this meeting at the last minute, and he told me he might be a little--"
The phone rang, cutting her off.
"That's probably him now!" she said. She was already leaving the breakroom when she answered her phone, and Rodney rolled his eyes at Radek, only to discover that Radek was too busy watching Elizabeth. Typical. One of these days, Radek was going to realize that Elizabeth was completely out of his league, but until that day came, Rodney was going to be stuck watching him pant over someone who was way too hot to waste her time with a schlubby physics doctoral candidate. Radek seriously needed to--
He lost his train of thought when Elizabeth reappeared. More accurately, he lost his train of thought when the Elizabeth reappeared with a guy who was really too hot to be real.
"Who the hell is that?" Rodney whispered to Radek, still staring rather blatantly at the guy trailing behind Elizabeth, at his ridiculously perky hair and the pants falling down his hips and the black shirt rolled up off his forearms.
"The new children's manager," Radek replied, looking far too smug for Rodney's comfort.
"There is no way Sumner hired that guy," Rodney hissed. "I mean... look at him! You've got to be kidding me."
"I think you are doing plenty of looking for both of us, McKay," Radek muttered. "And he is the new manager."
"You're a horrible liar," Rodney replied. "No one that pretty is smart enough to be in charge of anyone."
"Ladies and gentlemen," Elizabeth announced, putting a hand on the hot guy's shoulder, "I'd like to introduce you to John Sheppard, our new Children's Department Manger."
Rodney's jaw dropped.
"Hi everyone," Sheppard said, hands shoved in his pockets, smiling with some kind of 'aw, shucks, ma'am' charm. "I'm looking forward to working with you guys here at Pegasus Books."
Rodney barely resisted dropping his head onto the filthy breakroom table. Working at Pegasus Books was definitely the worst decision he'd ever made.