SGA Fic: Reprogrammed (original) (raw)
Title: Reprogrammed Part Two
Rating: PG, Rodney gets very irrate and uses some bad bad language
Character: McKay, Sheppard
Category: General, Angst, Friendship
Summary: Having returned from Lorania and released from Duyell's machine, Sheppard and McKay should be recovering nicely, shouldn't they? Apparently not, and the promised help to correct the reprogramming the machine did is no where to be seen. How will Rodney and John deal with the basic changes in their personalities? Will the effects of the change be more harmful than they initially suspected?
A/N: a comment by 
space1traveler had me searching for this unfinished fic on my hard-drive and pieceing it back together. There was about 5000 words already there so I've filled in parts that were corrupted and have given it a read through and edit. It's yet to be completed but I've found pages of notes on the ending so its as good as. Posting it in parts though, just in case :)
Catch Up: --PART 1--In the likely event you have no recollection of this story. It's a sequel to the following....
Title: The Program
Rating: All
Character: McKay, Sheppard
Category: General, Action Adventure maybe? Intrigue? Mystery? Oh no, suspense, that fits!
Summary: Meet Doctor Rodney McKay M.D. & Detective John Sheppard. Sheppard ends up in hospital from a gunshot wound on a failed raid with colleagues Lorne&Dex & finds himself under Dr. McKay's care. Both are experiencing strange flashbacks & memories. Not AU
When the call from Elizabeth for them to go the briefing room came over the radio later, Sheppard groaned inwardly. When he spotted Rodney walking into the room just ahead of him with cotton wool still stuck up his nose he groaned out loud.
He heard Elizabeth’s shocked "What happened?" just before he entered, and contemplated turning round again. Unfortunately Caldwell spotted him, his eyes darting to Sheppard’s black eye and quickly put two and two together.
"I think the answer to that question has just arrived Doctor Weir," he said with a hint of a smirk as Sheppard entered the briefing room.
"I s’ose you walked into a door too?" Beckett asked with a glare.
"Funnily enough-" he began.
"Don’t even try it John," Elizabeth said sternly. There was a pause where everyone in the room looked at John and Rodney expectantly.
"We may have had a slight disagreement," Sheppard said eventually. He winced as Teyla gave them a disapproving look, whilst Ronon just smirked.
"Way to keep it a secret there Colonel," Rodney muttered.
"Over what?" Caldwell asked, perhaps a little too eagerly. Elizabeth looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Oh don’t tell me you’re not interested as to why the military leader and chief scientist of Atlantis resorted to fists."
"He has a point gentleman," Elizabeth turned to them expectantly.
"Well it’s going to sound stupid now-"
"Colonel," Elizabeth said sternly.
"We were having an argument about the fact that I’m not hysterical and Sheppard is," Rodney explained quickly. "And then he hit me," he added. Sheppard kicked him.
"You’re kidding," Caldwell said.
"Nope, hysterical like a little girl," Rodney said with a smirk, Sheppard hit him round the back of the head.
"Have I missed something?" Caldwell asked.
"Yes Colonel, which was exactly why I called this meeting," Elizabeth said, and began to explain the situation.
* * *
John hung back for a moment after they concluded the meeting, until the room had cleared of all but Elizabeth and Caldwell.
"Sir," he said as Caldwell was leaving. "Can I have a word?" he asked, watching Elizabeth walk off to her office. Caldwell nodded and they walked back into the briefing room.
"Go ahead Sheppard," Caldwell said. John took a steadying breath, whilst being simultaneously irritated with himself that he had to do so.
"I’m," he paused. "I’m compromised, sir." Caldwell’s eyes widened for a moment in surprise, but otherwise he kept his expression neutral.
"What exactly are you saying Colonel?" he asked.
"I’d like to, temporarily, hand over military control of this base over to you," John gritted out, doing a poor job of hiding the fact that this was killing him.
"I-" John watched as Caldwell restrained himself from gloating. "Very well, I’ll extend the Daedalus’ stay by a few days, if the situation hasn’t changed by then I’ll have Lorne take temporary command," he said.
"Yes sir," John agreed, only letting himself relax when Caldwell was out of sight, he dropped into the nearest chair and ran an agitated hand through his hair. After a few moments he stood up again and strode out of the room.
* * *
"You look like crap," Sheppard said as he entered the lab, Rodney didn’t bother looking up from the computer screen.
"Hmmm," he agreed. "No worse than you’re feeling, I doubt," he commented. Sheppard paused mid-step and Rodney looked up at him. "I- sorry. I shouldn’t have said that," he apologised quietly, and looked back at the screen.
"N-o-o," Sheppard drawled, as he walked round the bench Rodney was sitting at and glanced at random items with an almost bored curiousness. Rodney studiously ignored him. "So," he said, waiting for Rodney to look up. He didn’t. "When was the last time you got any sleep?"
"When was the last time you did?" Rodney countered. Sheppard frowned.
"I guess I’ll have plenty of time for that now," Sheppard said, turning away from Rodney and glancing at a white board of equations. Rodney looked up in annoyance.
"And what exactly is that cryptic statement supposed to mean?" he asked with an irritated sigh..
"What?" Sheppard asked distractedly as he erased a portion of one of the equations on the whiteboard with his thumb and reached for a nearby pen.
"And now you’re doing my work for me?" Rodney asked incredulously. "What exactly is the reason for your sudden limitless amounts of spare time?"
"Oh, I er," he paused as he scribbled a new set of numbers on the board. "I handed over command to Caldwell."
"Oh," he turned back to the laptop before looking up again at Sheppard. "Hang on!" He stood up, "You did what?"
"Temporarily, relinquished my command," he said as he capped the pen.
"This drove you crazy faster than I’d thought it would," Rodney muttered.
"Thanks Rodney, for those wonderful words of encouragement," Sheppard said sarcastically, snagging himself a stool and dropping down onto it.
"Seriously Sheppard, why?"
"I felt I was incapable of doing my job," Sheppard shrugged as he idly swung his legs back and forth.
"Don’t be a ridiculous. A little of you game, maybe. But incapable?"
"Rodney," Sheppard said warningly. "Drop it." Rodney looked at him wide-eyed for a moment before nodding and sitting back down.
They sat in a companionable silence, which was only broken for a few moments with a stream of muttered Czech as Zelenka walked in, looked at the whiteboard, and walked out again. Rodney and Sheppard shared a grin before Rodney turned back to his work and Sheppard hopped off the stool and exited the labs.