Faulty Plumbing
This is my first Langford U fic, so be kind and give lots of feedback. Also it's one in the morning here so please ignore any mistakes.
FAULTY PLUMBING
Elizabeth Weir did the only thing she could not to laugh at the sight in front of her. She had entered her office after getting out of a meeting to find Doctor John Sheppard standing in the middle of the room tapping his foot at her.
The mathematician wasn’t just standing in the middle of the room, he was standing there sopping wet and with the most enraged expression on his face that she’d ever seen. His normally wild hair was plastered to his head and the suit that he absolutely despised was darker then she’d ever seen it. The Dean couldn’t hold it in anymore and she burst out laughing as she pushed the door closed behind her.
“This is not funny.”
“Yes…it is,” she almost got herself under control when he placed his hands on his hips and started tapping his foot again, which sent her into another reel.
“Come on, this isn’t funny. I’m soaking wet and I have to be here for another three hours,” the pout on his face made her stop laughing and almost pity him, almost.
“How did this happen?”
“I don’t know. I was just minding my own business, when all of a sudden all this water is pouring on top of me. In my office! It was suddenly monsoon season in the building and I was at the center!” if anyone had walked in at that moment to see a wet John Sheppard flapping his arms around like a bird and Elizabeth Weir laughing harder then she had in years all credibility would have been lost for the rest of their lives.
“It’s raining in your office?”
“Yes! A pipe must have broken or something, but it’s flooding,” he waved his arms in a wide pattern again, spraying water all over the place.
“Then shouldn’t you be trying to salvage what you can?”
“I can’t! As soon as the maintenance guys saw the water they shoved me out and barricaded the door!” Elizabeth let out another laugh and dropped her briefcase onto her desk. John really did look like a wreck.
“Well if you want, you can use my office for as long as you need to,” he glanced at her out of the corner of his eye, probably trying to decide if she was jerking his chain, “and you can use my bathroom to clean up if you want.”
“Yeah sure...wait, you have your own bathroom?! You have a spacious office and your own bathroom while I have a pond!” she smiled slightly and pointed in the direction of her bathroom. John looked indignant for a second before squishing toward the closed door.
She shook her head as the door closed behind him. She had just opened her briefcase to pull out some papers when the door to her office swung open.
“Have you heard that it’s raining in Sheppard’s office?” she looked up at the sound of Paul Davis’ voice.
The man was standing just inside her door with an amused expression on his face.
“Yeah, just heard about it. What happened; did a pipe burst?”
“I don’t know. The guy can never catch a break can he? First the asbestos and now bad plumbing,” Paul looked around the office for a moment.
“Is there something you wanted?”
“Nothing really, I was just kind of bored,” he smiled and had the distinct impression that he was lying to her.
“Well I do have some work to do so if you don’t mind…” Elizabeth made a vague gesture toward the door and Paul took the hint.
“Alright, I’ll go find someone else to bother, or maybe I’ll just watch the show over at Sheppard’s office. I hear one of the janitors fell flat on his ass and dragged three of the others down when he was trying to get up,” Paul turned and walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.
She glanced down at the papers from her briefcase and started reading them when the door to her bathroom opened.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be properly dry again,” John’s voice floated over to her and she looked up to reply, but the retort died on her lips.
John Sheppard was walking out of the bathroom trying to squeeze the water out of his hair with her towel. He had shed the suit jacket, shirt and shoes leaving John clothed in only his dress pants. Everyone in the school knew that he was an exceptionally attractive man, but not all of them got to see him shirtless and half wet. A whistling sound brought her out of her John induced reverie.
“Hello, Earth to Elizabeth anybody home?”
“What?”
She had to blink a couple of times to get herself to focus on his hazel eyes.
“I think we just found our new headline: ‘Doctor Elizabeth Weir gawks at shirtless Doctor John Sheppard.’ I think it has a nice ring to it don’t you think?”
Elizabeth blushed at being caught and looked down at the papers on her desk. She couldn’t deny that John was a handsome man, she’d have to be blind not to notice, but that didn’t mean she had to stare at him like all of his groupies.
“Sorry, would you believe me if I said it was just the hair?” he flashed her one of his flyboy smiles, that always made her want to melt, “So, what are you going to do about the rest of the day? I think all of the women in the building might stage a riot if you walk out of here like that.”
“I honestly don’t know. If I go to class with my clothes glued to my body I think it would have the same effect.”
“Definitely would,” she muttered under her breath while sorting through the papers on her desk again.
“What?”
“Nothing,” her expression was pure innocence, but by his mischievous expression she knew that he had heard her, “If you want I can have one of my RAs run to your house and pick something up.”
“Naw, I don’t really want to let female undergrads into my house; I could go home and not have any pants. Do you know of anyone I could borrow something from?”
“Well, Daniel would lend you something, but he and Jonas are out of town on a lecture. Paul doesn’t keep any other clothes here and neither do any of the other men I know. Rodney does, but he’s been here so often lately I think that all of his clothes are dirty,” Elizabeth ran a hand through her hair as she stared up at the ceiling trying to think of any men who could give John some clothes, “You could always try Carson.”
“No way, he’s annoyed with me. Mainly because of all the guys I’ve ‘allegedly’ convinced to climb the ‘the Big, Round Circly Thing’.”
“We really need to get a better name for that thing,” she muttered under her breath.
“Plus I still won’t go into the infirmary since Fraiser threatened to stick a needle in my butt.”
Elizabeth smiled at the memory of when John had come running into her office and dove behind the desk with the petite doctor hot on his heels.
“Well what are you going to do John?”
“I don’t know; do you have anything that might fit me?”
“Me? You’re kidding right?” the look on his face told her all she needed to know, “You think that walking into class in a shirt that is three sizes too small isn’t going to have the same effect as the prior options?” the puppy dog look was back and Elizabeth couldn’t resist it any more now then she could before, “Alright, let me see what I’ve got.”
Elizabeth moved over to a small door in her wall where she usually kept a change of clothes. There wasn’t much there, especially not in the size that John would need.
“Have any preference? Silk? Cotton? Long sleeve, short sleeve?” she looked back to see him trying to clean out his ears with her towel.
“Something that would fit would be nice.”
“Here try this,” she tossed one of her larger dress shirts at the mathematician, who promptly caught it.
John stood up to try it on. She was looking back in her closet for another shirt when the sound of a throat clearing behind her caught her attention. Elizabeth turned and for the second time in less then an hour she burst out laughing.
“Again, not funny,” John was standing behind her with her blouse on…well, not really on. About four inches of skin was showing on each arm and it was several inches too short; and she noticed that he had actually managed to get one of the buttons done up so that the shirt was all scrunched up.
“I guess that ones out,” she looked back into the small opening and something caught her eye, “Try this.”
He caught the oversized white tank top that she kept around in case anyone needed her to help them move their office, again. The red blouse was quickly shed and tossed back at her before he pulled the new one over his head. It was definitely not made for him, but it worked. The fabric just barely covered his torso and it was tighter then what he would normally wear, but it wasn’t apparent that he was in her shirt.
“It works; what do you think?”
“I guess. Will the women still chase me down the hallway?”
“Don’t they do that anyway?”
“Good point,” John followed her back to her desk and flopped down into the chair he’d been occupying earlier. He pulled War & Peace off of her desk and started reading at the same spot he’d left off on, which was page 17 the last time she’d checked.
“I thought you said you had a class to teach?” Elizabeth slid into her chair and turned on her computer.
“I do, but that’s not for another,” John glanced away from the book to look at the clock on her desk, “fifteen minutes. I always make a point to be fashionably late to all my classes.”
“Riiiiiight.”
Elizabeth tried to ignore the man sitting across from her, even though he was just as much of a distraction as she’d always thought he was. The reports that had been e-mailed to her from various members of the legal staff were usually enough to keep her interest, but not when a half wet handsome man was sitting on the other side of her desk and humming the theme song to Scooby Doo. After several excruciating minutes, where she had re-read the same line seven times, she finally snapped.
“How do you ever get any work done?”
John stopped whistling and looked up from the page he was reading.
“I don’t; that’s the secret to a stress free life,” he grinned at her lazily, “that and certain recreational activities. Like surfing, flying, eating cheesecake, having certain physical relations with certain Law Professors…”
“I think you should go to your class now. Your students are waiting,” she gave him a polite smile and motioned toward the door.
“Alright, alright, I know when I’m not wanted.”
John marked his place in the book and moved toward the door. He opened it and walked most of the way through before sticking his head back in.
“You know, if you ever want to get me out of my shirt again all you have to do is ask,” he just managed to pull his head back out of the room before the book she’d thrown connected with the door.