allyndra | Fic: Girls' Night Out (McKay/Sheppard)

*blushes* I posted about the fics I had in progress in hopes of shaking something loose. Look what shook - something completely different. Sorry!

Title: Girls’ Night Out

Author: Allyndra

Pairing: McKay/Sheppard

Rating: FRT
Word Count: 737
Summary: The ladies of Atlantis do and see the most entertaining things.

Disclaimer: Somewhere through a quantum mirror there’s a world where the fans own these characters, but this is not that world. They are not mine, and I make no profit.

Anyone who said that all scientists were boring or all Marines were dour had never encountered the ladies of Atlantis on their night off. It had started out as a coincidence, a group of women who just happened to be heading to the mess at the same time, around the end of the evening shift. There was only one free table, and they'd all wound up together, an odd amalgamation of social scientists, hard scientists, and soldiers. Conversation had been stilted and awkward until Ronon walked past. The group ass-staring and collective sighing broke the ice surprisingly well.

Laura Cadman and Katie Brown were the ringleaders. They set up girls-only training classes with Teyla, which combined stick fighting and step aerobics, bartered with Zelenka for alcohol to liven up their parties, and hoarded snacks for their poker games. Miko Kusanagi was much less boisterous, but she made important contributions of her own. Miko was the one who discovered the room with heated pools of different sizes and kept quiet about her discovery until *after* the ladies' hot tub party.

Over the months that they'd been getting together, the group had created some pretty entertaining nights. Laura considered their greatest success the time she'd convinced both Elizabeth Weir *and* Kate Heightmeyer to join their party. She'd not only gotten them drunk on Zelenka's moonshine and convinced them to sing karaoke, she'd managed to videotape the whole thing.

Tonight, the group was small, just Laura, Katie, Miko, and Lt. Allison Crown. They were taking the long way through the halls on their way to the south pier, where Katie had planned a picnic.

"Okay, okay. Dr. Zelenka," Allison suggested, swinging her basket of food in one hand.

"Haircut," several women chorused.

"But other than that, he's really not bad," Laura insisted. "He's got pretty eyes, and you gotta love a man with an accent." Which, of course, left her wide open to teasing about her predilection for blue-eyed European men.

"Dr. Kavanaugh?" Katie asked, wrinkling her nose even as she said it.

"Oh God! Definitely a haircut," Laura responded. "Get him to ditch the glasses and find some Ancient device to give him a personality transplant." They talked as they walked, working their way through the majority of their mutual male acquaintances, suggesting criticisms and describing what changes would be required to make them attractive.

Then Allison laughed and asked, "Dr. McKay?" The group was silent for a variety of reasons. Katie had dated the man, so she clearly found him attractive, Laura had a soft spot for him, courtesy of her time stuck in his head (even if she occasionally threatened to tap dance on his smug little face, she meant it affectionately), and Miko had been nursing a hero-worshipping crush on her boss since she'd first joined his team.

"Well," Katie finally ventured, "It's not like he isn't *physically* attractive ..."

"If only there were a way to shut him up," Laura concluded. The other three nodded their agreement, Miko a little shamefacedly. They walked on in silent contemplation of the potential hotness of a non-verbally-abusive Rodney McKay.

They'd just turned a corner when Allison, who was at the front of the pack, stopped dead in her tracks, a quiet whimpering noise escaping her throat. The other women almost piled into her before they saw why she'd stopped.

Just ahead of them was one of the walls that opened like a series of screens. It was halfway open, and framed between two of the panels was the sight of Colonel Sheppard pressing Dr. McKay back against a table, kissing him fiercely. He had McKay pinned to the table with his hips, one hand cradling the back of McKay's head, while the other cupped his jaw, holding him still. From the way McKay's fists were curled into Sheppard's shirt, he wasn't trying to get away.

"Oh, yeah," Laura breathed. "That would work."

Allison and Katie nodded. Miko just stared, her eyes huge behind her glasses. Katie reached into one of the picnic baskets and pulled out a bag of dried fruit. It wasn't as good as popcorn, but it gave them something to munch as the women settled back silently against the corridor wall to watch the show.

It was generally agreed to be the best Atlantis girls' night ever.

Until Katie held her illicit harvest and Ronon accepted her invitation to come sample the herbs with them.