Blue
So, yeah, I know I haven't posted anything on this in a while- but then again, I haven't really written all that much in a while, so at least it's not a story-specific laziness. Moving out and into my own place and all this free time to myself is such hard work. And having my own cable tv with DVR? Very distracting.
XVII.
Radek liked working with McKay, though he’d never tell the man that. He liked it because they thought on the same wavelength, could understand each other’s ideas and finish each other’s sentences. He also liked it because when he was working with McKay, everyone expected McKay to perform the miracles, and all he had to do was hold the metaphorical wrench.
Of course, there were some things Radek very much did not like about working with McKay. The man’s personality, for one, and his complete lack of ability to focus whenever a certain Lt. Colonel was in the lab.
Another was his irritating and, considering his hatred of children and small animals, distinctly odd habit of adopting strays. Of course, he usually forgot about them soon after, leaving it up to Radek to make sure they were trained and usefully employed.
Admittedly, Rodney’s pets usually turned out to be extremely useful in the long run, no matter how odd their personality quirks. Eldon, Rodney’s adoptee from the prison planet, still twitched oddly and muttered to himself and looked perpetually grubby no matter how many times he washed, but he was absolutely brilliant at the simple engineering and repair tasks that all of the scientists hated, and he seemed to enjoy doing them. Since Zelenka, as Rodney’s unofficial second-in-command, had before ended up with all of those tasks, he was grateful for the chance to foist them off onto someone else who was actually good at them.
And then there was Norina, the Taranan woman who had followed Rodney home like some sort of beautiful blonde puppy after he’d used the Orion to save her planet from Wraith attack. He’d been distracted but he’d worked with her, taught her some of the basics, and she’d been amazingly fast to pick things up on her own, even so. But then Rodney and Ronon were culled, and she was cast adrift on an alien planet among an alien people. Radek had taken her under his wing, so to speak, and had gained himself a capable and clever lab assistant in the bargain. He thought that he made out the better from any angle, since under her deceptively sweet and pretty exterior was a woman who has the entire lab terrified (even Kavanaugh!), and she made his transition from Rodney’s unofficial second-in-command to actual head of the science department much, much simpler.
But now Rodney was home again, and he’d brought back yet another stray. He and the large alien Sheppard had adopted had returned with friends in tow, a man and a woman clad in leather and wool and weapons, with shaved, tattooed heads and a gleam to their smiles that said that they could kill you without breathing hard and they knew it perfectly well. Hammal had returned to his homeworld to begin negotiations, but Rodney’s friend Mia had apparently gotten bored of the training gyms quickly and had spent the last several days in the labs, harassing McKay.
Or trying to, anyway. He ignored her with the blithe ease of a man who knows that he is the most annoying in the room, and nothing else that anyone can try to do can top him on his worst day. It didn’t stop her from trying, but recently her roving eye had started looking for other targets, and Radek had been going out of his way to make himself as small a target as possible. It was a difficult task, considering how closely he was working with Rodney on the ZPM-recharge project and getting him back up to speed as the hastily reinstated Head of Science, and somehow, he just knew that he’d catch her heckling attention sooner or later.
He wasn’t looking forward to it. It didn’t matter that he liked to watch her and listen to her talk, to hear the odd cadence of her speech, harsh vowels and lilted consonants, that he liked to watch her and the way the light played along the elegant curve of her bare skull. None of that mattered, because she was just as dangerous as the overly large Ronon (who was also spending far too much time in the lab, for what reason nobody knew) and more importantly, because she was annoying.
He told himself this several times a day, aloud if necessary. Norina, of course, laughed at him, in her sly, silent way. But this did not matter. Radek was immune to her amusements and mocking, because there was absolutely nothing to mock. He had no interest in Mia or her attention, no matter what anyone said. And that was that.
Continued here.
XVII.
Radek liked working with McKay, though he’d never tell the man that. He liked it because they thought on the same wavelength, could understand each other’s ideas and finish each other’s sentences. He also liked it because when he was working with McKay, everyone expected McKay to perform the miracles, and all he had to do was hold the metaphorical wrench.
Of course, there were some things Radek very much did not like about working with McKay. The man’s personality, for one, and his complete lack of ability to focus whenever a certain Lt. Colonel was in the lab.
Another was his irritating and, considering his hatred of children and small animals, distinctly odd habit of adopting strays. Of course, he usually forgot about them soon after, leaving it up to Radek to make sure they were trained and usefully employed.
Admittedly, Rodney’s pets usually turned out to be extremely useful in the long run, no matter how odd their personality quirks. Eldon, Rodney’s adoptee from the prison planet, still twitched oddly and muttered to himself and looked perpetually grubby no matter how many times he washed, but he was absolutely brilliant at the simple engineering and repair tasks that all of the scientists hated, and he seemed to enjoy doing them. Since Zelenka, as Rodney’s unofficial second-in-command, had before ended up with all of those tasks, he was grateful for the chance to foist them off onto someone else who was actually good at them.
And then there was Norina, the Taranan woman who had followed Rodney home like some sort of beautiful blonde puppy after he’d used the Orion to save her planet from Wraith attack. He’d been distracted but he’d worked with her, taught her some of the basics, and she’d been amazingly fast to pick things up on her own, even so. But then Rodney and Ronon were culled, and she was cast adrift on an alien planet among an alien people. Radek had taken her under his wing, so to speak, and had gained himself a capable and clever lab assistant in the bargain. He thought that he made out the better from any angle, since under her deceptively sweet and pretty exterior was a woman who has the entire lab terrified (even Kavanaugh!), and she made his transition from Rodney’s unofficial second-in-command to actual head of the science department much, much simpler.
But now Rodney was home again, and he’d brought back yet another stray. He and the large alien Sheppard had adopted had returned with friends in tow, a man and a woman clad in leather and wool and weapons, with shaved, tattooed heads and a gleam to their smiles that said that they could kill you without breathing hard and they knew it perfectly well. Hammal had returned to his homeworld to begin negotiations, but Rodney’s friend Mia had apparently gotten bored of the training gyms quickly and had spent the last several days in the labs, harassing McKay.
Or trying to, anyway. He ignored her with the blithe ease of a man who knows that he is the most annoying in the room, and nothing else that anyone can try to do can top him on his worst day. It didn’t stop her from trying, but recently her roving eye had started looking for other targets, and Radek had been going out of his way to make himself as small a target as possible. It was a difficult task, considering how closely he was working with Rodney on the ZPM-recharge project and getting him back up to speed as the hastily reinstated Head of Science, and somehow, he just knew that he’d catch her heckling attention sooner or later.
He wasn’t looking forward to it. It didn’t matter that he liked to watch her and listen to her talk, to hear the odd cadence of her speech, harsh vowels and lilted consonants, that he liked to watch her and the way the light played along the elegant curve of her bare skull. None of that mattered, because she was just as dangerous as the overly large Ronon (who was also spending far too much time in the lab, for what reason nobody knew) and more importantly, because she was annoying.
He told himself this several times a day, aloud if necessary. Norina, of course, laughed at him, in her sly, silent way. But this did not matter. Radek was immune to her amusements and mocking, because there was absolutely nothing to mock. He had no interest in Mia or her attention, no matter what anyone said. And that was that.
Continued here.