(Untitled)

[scientificsnark]

It was almost too much to take in at once. It was a good thing Rodney was a genius, or he might not have absorbed any of it. As it was, he was getting there.

As far as he understood it, he was on a weird island populated by people from varying dimensions, realities and universes, not to mention dinosaurs, tigers, monkeys, elephants and mummy-

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[flyboy_shepp]

John couldn't really knock on Rodney's door or anything, and even if the huts had still been there, he wouldn't really have bothered. He just stuck his head inside, and once he saw Rodney there, strolled in.

Giddy wasn't exactly the word John would use to describe how he'd felt the past few days, but it might have come close. When he was ten.

Either way, John found it comforting to be able to stroll in, toss the extra empty sidearm and two clips onto Rodney's mattress, and stand over him, arms crossed. Including leaning over his laptop to see what he was doing, just to piss him off.

[scientificsnark]

"Don't you knock?" Rodney asked irritably, not even looking up. He typed away for a couple of seconds longer before he caught sight of the gun and the clips.

"What is that for?"

[flyboy_shepp]

John just shrugged in answer to the knocking thing. Rodney already knew that one.

"That's yours," he said, gesturing toward them, then at his bandaged left forearm. At least blood wasn't seeping through the gauze anymore. "Sidearm's good, and you're probably going to need it."

[scientificsnark]

"For what?" Rodney moved the computer off his lap and took the gun, looking at it as if he'd never seen one before. "Shooting tigers? Trust me, if a tiger's coming at me the last thing I'm gonna do is stand there and shoot at it. Not so good with the facing down of danger, remember? I'm much better at the running away and hiding."

Nevertheless, he shrugged, and loaded one of the clips into the pistol, tucking the other beneath his pillow. "Thanks, though. I think."

[flyboy_shepp]

"You don't have to shoot at it," John said, trying not to look too impressed at how much better Rodney was at the whole handling guns thing. "Just, you know. Scare it a little so you can get away. Besides, it's not always safe around here."

[scientificsnark]

"Oh really, Colonel Whiz-Kid? I hadn't noticed," said Rodney sarcastically. "Still, it's gotta be better than the inside of your head." He shuddered.

"I'm working on a way to increase the Zed-PM's power output," he said then, gesturing at the computer. "Hopefully when I'm done we'll have an extra three months of power." An extra three months of not being eviscerated by dinosaurs seemed like a good prospect to Rodney.

[flyboy_shepp]

"Cool," John said, and although it was, he was a little more annoyed with the crack about being inside his head.

Granted, uncomfortable didn't even begin to describe thinking about Rodney being in there (however the hell that worked), but it wasn't like he was crazy, or anything. "And the inside of my head isn't that bad."

[scientificsnark]

Rodney rolled his eyes. He was writing a program from scratch with infinitely complicated coding that could potentially save their lives and all Sheppard had to say about it was 'Cool'? Go figure.

"Whatever, it was creepy," he said, of John's subconscious. "Anyways, I don't really want to talk about it. It's done, I saved your life, I'm here now, the end."

And he sighed.

[flyboy_shepp]

John rolled his own eyes, and resisted reaching for the pillow to hit Rodney right in the face with. That was just childish.

Instead, he sat down on the mattress uninvited, then flopped back across it, his head nearly hanging off the other end. He started tapping one of his boots to Johnny Cash in his head.

"You've got chess programmed on there somewhere," he said vaguely, though in this case, vague meant 'I'm bored, and I'm going to annoy the hell out of you until you entertain me'.

[scientificsnark]

Rodney wrinkled his nose with distaste as John stretched out on his bed, probably getting dirt on the sheets. But he knew better than to ask him to leave - if he showed any sign that he was annoying him, the Colonel would inevitably redouble his efforts rather than stop.

"You hate chess," he pointed out. "I am not here solely for your entertainment, you know." Come to think of it, he still didn't know why he was here.

[flyboy_shepp]

John was just going to have to disabuse Rodney of that notion soon enough. Just having Rodney annoyed at him was good entertainment.

"You're just saying that because I beat you nine times out of ten," he pointed out.

[scientificsnark]

"Shut up," said Rodney irritably. For all that he was from three years ago, Sheppard sure hadn't changed much.

"Say," he said, remembering something, "you're still a Major, aren't you?"

[flyboy_shepp]

"Yeah," John said slowly, lifting his head a little to look at Rodney. He'd gotten used to Carson and Daniel calling him Colonel all the time, and he wouldn't mind it continuing. "Why?"

[scientificsnark]

"Oh, no reason...Major," Rodney said smugly. He quite liked knowing things Sheppard didn't, though really, he always did. In this case, though, he had a bit more of a leg up.

[flyboy_shepp]

John let his head fall back again with an eye roll that almost hurt, and he banged his foot into Rodney's leg. By accident.

A moment later something came to him. "Hey, three years is about average for a promotion. I'm not full bird Colonel yet, am I?"

[scientificsnark]

Rodney jerked his leg away and glared. "Lieutenant Colonel," he said. "I'm sure that after they promoted you, they decided once was enough." He looked smug again.

"They almost made me head of Atlantis, you know."