Fic: Prospet Fair
For as long as anyone could remember, the first weekend
after Spring Break had been a busy one at Langford
University. The admissions office invited all admitted
high school seniors for a Prospect Fair, three days of activities and
overnights meant to convince them to choose Langford for their college
education. The entire campus got
involved, and the majority of the events took place on the Quad, on the grounds
surrounding the bizarre stone ring sculpture.
Over the weekend, prospective students would be entertained with parties, ice cream socials, and fraternity and sorority events (usually jello tug-of-war, if the weather was nice). Before the fun started, however, Friday afternoon was reserved for the “Academics and Activities Fair.” Each school, department, program, and club set up a table on the quad and prepared to answer any questions the high schoolers might have.
Those manning the booths were always the same. The math department put out John Sheppard, who was irresistible to the female prospectives and whose sense of humor appealed to the male ones. Currently, he was tipping his chair back on two legs, staring at the sky and thanking heaven that there were no girls at his table.
Next to him, Radek Zelenka hosted the table for the physics department. He always jumped at the chance to escape his feuding coworkers for an afternoon. His expression soured slightly as he noticed Rodney McKay working his way through the tables, undoubtedly coming to complain about something Sam Carter had just done.
The afternoon was relatively quiet. Most of the high school students had already met with the chairs of the departments that interested them, and only a few took advantage of the fair. Most of the action took place in the shadow of the ring sculpture, where the clubs and athletic teams set up. As footballs, Frisbees, and the occasional rock came flying through the center of the ring, it seemed only natural to have the medical school table set up nearby.
It was towards this table that Janet Fraiser was striding determinedly, dragging in her wake a reluctant Carson Beckett. He had been quietly preparing in his office for his day off tomorrow when the petite director of the campus health clinic appeared at his door.
When she first appeared at his door, he was pleased to see her. “Janet! Come in. What can I do for you?”
She smiled, and Carson could have sworn he saw fangs. “You’re coming to the academics fair with me.”
This wasn’t what he expected. “Why?” he asked, warily.
“Because there’s an idiot representing this school there, and you’d do a much better job. Besides, I need to go see how many of these kids have managed to injure themselves.”
Carson held up the file he was looking through. “I’m sorry, Janet, I can’t. I’m trying to finish up so I can enjoy my day off tomorrow. Besides, I’m sure whoever is there is doing fine. For me to go would be a waste of time.”
She snatched the file from his hand and tossed it on his desk. “This will only take about an hour. You’ll have plenty of time to finish later.” And before he knew what was happening, he was being steered out of his building and pulled across the Quad by a woman whose strength belied her small frame.
He kept up a running protest all the way there, and she didn’t deign to answer until they reached the edge of the tables. “Enough, Carson. We’re here, so why don’t we just go rescue the medical school’s reputation.”
It was then that Carson realized why she’d come up with the excuse of bringing him to the fair. The tables had been set up in such a way that the medical school was back-to-back with the archaeology department table, which was being manned by none other than Dr. Daniel Jackson. Carson might not have been one of the more social faculty members, but he still heard things. Turning towards Janet, he surreptitiously rubbed the wrist she’d been grabbing and muttered, “I see.”
At that, she turned to him and arched an eyebrow. “See what?” she asked in a dangerous voice.
Carson decided silence was the wisest course.
Satisfied with his lack of answer, Janet nodded and moved to the tables. The fair was quiet enough that Daniel had already struck up a conversation with the... Carson blinked. Whose idea was it to have the medical school represented by the undergraduate work-study student who served as the secretary’s assistant? Janet easily inserted herself into the conversation, and the student eventually looked away, bored.
Deciding that since he was here, he might as well see what was going on, Carson turned to observe the rest of the fair. He noticed that Elizabeth Weir had left her office for the afternoon, although she was standing not at the law school table but rather at the math department one, trading quips with John Sheppard. The student athletes seemed to have given up on attracting prospectives for the day, and were engaged in a friendly competition that involved hitting golf balls through the stone ring.
He felt someone bump by him and had barely registered Rodney McKay heading single-mindedly towards the physics table, muttering to himself when another voice broke into his thoughts.
“Look out!” The cry came from a young woman in a Langford Track and Field t-shirt standing at the end of a line of tables. Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Carson was knocked to the ground by a whirlwind force.
“Oof!” he cried out as he landed on his back. The whirlwind resolved into an undergraduate girl, and she leapt off him in dismay.
“Oh, God, I didn’t see you! I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I’m so so sorry!”
Carson held up a hand to stop her, and gingerly got to his feet. Janet was instantly at his side, as the doctor in her took over. “I expected to have to patch up the students,” she said, “not you.” She surreptitiously looked for Rodney McKay, adding one to her mental tally when she spotted him nearby.
The young woman who had called out jogged up to join them. “Sorry about that,” she said. “It’s been so dead here that we decided to leave the table for a bit and have some fun.”
Janet arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you have a track for that?”
Before the woman could answer, the undergraduate decided attention had been off her long enough. “Coach Cadman, I so totally didn’t see him there. I didn’t mean to run into him. I was just -”
Laura Cadman, track and field coach, put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Jen. Why don’t you go back to the table and tell the others to start packing up.” When the girl had left, she turned to Janet.
“Sorry about that, Janet.”
Carson wasn’t surprised to find that the coach and Janet knew each other. Janet was usually on a first name basis with every athlete on the campus within the first week of practice.
Janet smiled slightly. “No problem to me, Laura, but I think Carson here might feel differently.”
Laura turned to him. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “I’ve had the wind knocked out of me, lass, nothing more.”
When she smiled at him, he couldn’t help but notice how her whole face lit up. “That’s good, then.” The three of them stood for a moment in awkward silence before Carson spoke up.
“Janet, I think I’ve had my fun for the day. I’m going to head back to my office now, but I’ll see if I can find someone better to watch the table.” Turning to Laura, he offered her a smile. “It was nice to meet you,” he mumbled, before moving down the row of tables towards his building. Behind his back, Laura caught at Janet’s sleeve before the other doctor could turn back to Daniel.
Carson was nearly halfway to his building when he heard Laura’s voice behind him.
“Dr. Beckett!” she called.
He stopped to wait for her to catch up. “Carson, please,” he said.
She grinned. “Carson. Look, I wanted to make up for what happened back there. I shouldn’t have been encouraging them to run there.”
Confused, he raised his eyebrows; it had been an accident, and a small one at that. “There’s really no need,” he said.
“No, I want to. What do you say to dinner Saturday?”
That startled him. It took Carson a minute to muster a response, before he replied, “That sounds wonderful.”
Laura’s smile lit her face again. “Great,” she said. “I’ll call you a bit later with the when and where.” With that, she turned and began jogging away.
“Wait!” Carson called. “You don’t have my number!”
She spun around and ran backwards for a few paces. “I got in from Janet! Just in case I didn’t catch you!” she yelled back. Then, with a cheery wave, she resumed her run back to the Quad.
Carson bemusedly watched her go for a moment. As he turned to continue the walk to his office, he decided he owed Janet an apology and a thank you. The fair hadn’t been such a waste of time after all.
Over the weekend, prospective students would be entertained with parties, ice cream socials, and fraternity and sorority events (usually jello tug-of-war, if the weather was nice). Before the fun started, however, Friday afternoon was reserved for the “Academics and Activities Fair.” Each school, department, program, and club set up a table on the quad and prepared to answer any questions the high schoolers might have.
Those manning the booths were always the same. The math department put out John Sheppard, who was irresistible to the female prospectives and whose sense of humor appealed to the male ones. Currently, he was tipping his chair back on two legs, staring at the sky and thanking heaven that there were no girls at his table.
Next to him, Radek Zelenka hosted the table for the physics department. He always jumped at the chance to escape his feuding coworkers for an afternoon. His expression soured slightly as he noticed Rodney McKay working his way through the tables, undoubtedly coming to complain about something Sam Carter had just done.
The afternoon was relatively quiet. Most of the high school students had already met with the chairs of the departments that interested them, and only a few took advantage of the fair. Most of the action took place in the shadow of the ring sculpture, where the clubs and athletic teams set up. As footballs, Frisbees, and the occasional rock came flying through the center of the ring, it seemed only natural to have the medical school table set up nearby.
It was towards this table that Janet Fraiser was striding determinedly, dragging in her wake a reluctant Carson Beckett. He had been quietly preparing in his office for his day off tomorrow when the petite director of the campus health clinic appeared at his door.
When she first appeared at his door, he was pleased to see her. “Janet! Come in. What can I do for you?”
She smiled, and Carson could have sworn he saw fangs. “You’re coming to the academics fair with me.”
This wasn’t what he expected. “Why?” he asked, warily.
“Because there’s an idiot representing this school there, and you’d do a much better job. Besides, I need to go see how many of these kids have managed to injure themselves.”
Carson held up the file he was looking through. “I’m sorry, Janet, I can’t. I’m trying to finish up so I can enjoy my day off tomorrow. Besides, I’m sure whoever is there is doing fine. For me to go would be a waste of time.”
She snatched the file from his hand and tossed it on his desk. “This will only take about an hour. You’ll have plenty of time to finish later.” And before he knew what was happening, he was being steered out of his building and pulled across the Quad by a woman whose strength belied her small frame.
He kept up a running protest all the way there, and she didn’t deign to answer until they reached the edge of the tables. “Enough, Carson. We’re here, so why don’t we just go rescue the medical school’s reputation.”
It was then that Carson realized why she’d come up with the excuse of bringing him to the fair. The tables had been set up in such a way that the medical school was back-to-back with the archaeology department table, which was being manned by none other than Dr. Daniel Jackson. Carson might not have been one of the more social faculty members, but he still heard things. Turning towards Janet, he surreptitiously rubbed the wrist she’d been grabbing and muttered, “I see.”
At that, she turned to him and arched an eyebrow. “See what?” she asked in a dangerous voice.
Carson decided silence was the wisest course.
Satisfied with his lack of answer, Janet nodded and moved to the tables. The fair was quiet enough that Daniel had already struck up a conversation with the... Carson blinked. Whose idea was it to have the medical school represented by the undergraduate work-study student who served as the secretary’s assistant? Janet easily inserted herself into the conversation, and the student eventually looked away, bored.
Deciding that since he was here, he might as well see what was going on, Carson turned to observe the rest of the fair. He noticed that Elizabeth Weir had left her office for the afternoon, although she was standing not at the law school table but rather at the math department one, trading quips with John Sheppard. The student athletes seemed to have given up on attracting prospectives for the day, and were engaged in a friendly competition that involved hitting golf balls through the stone ring.
He felt someone bump by him and had barely registered Rodney McKay heading single-mindedly towards the physics table, muttering to himself when another voice broke into his thoughts.
“Look out!” The cry came from a young woman in a Langford Track and Field t-shirt standing at the end of a line of tables. Almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, Carson was knocked to the ground by a whirlwind force.
“Oof!” he cried out as he landed on his back. The whirlwind resolved into an undergraduate girl, and she leapt off him in dismay.
“Oh, God, I didn’t see you! I’m so sorry. Are you okay? I’m so so sorry!”
Carson held up a hand to stop her, and gingerly got to his feet. Janet was instantly at his side, as the doctor in her took over. “I expected to have to patch up the students,” she said, “not you.” She surreptitiously looked for Rodney McKay, adding one to her mental tally when she spotted him nearby.
The young woman who had called out jogged up to join them. “Sorry about that,” she said. “It’s been so dead here that we decided to leave the table for a bit and have some fun.”
Janet arched an eyebrow. “Don’t you have a track for that?”
Before the woman could answer, the undergraduate decided attention had been off her long enough. “Coach Cadman, I so totally didn’t see him there. I didn’t mean to run into him. I was just -”
Laura Cadman, track and field coach, put a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “It’s okay, Jen. Why don’t you go back to the table and tell the others to start packing up.” When the girl had left, she turned to Janet.
“Sorry about that, Janet.”
Carson wasn’t surprised to find that the coach and Janet knew each other. Janet was usually on a first name basis with every athlete on the campus within the first week of practice.
Janet smiled slightly. “No problem to me, Laura, but I think Carson here might feel differently.”
Laura turned to him. “Are you hurt?”
He shook his head. “I’ve had the wind knocked out of me, lass, nothing more.”
When she smiled at him, he couldn’t help but notice how her whole face lit up. “That’s good, then.” The three of them stood for a moment in awkward silence before Carson spoke up.
“Janet, I think I’ve had my fun for the day. I’m going to head back to my office now, but I’ll see if I can find someone better to watch the table.” Turning to Laura, he offered her a smile. “It was nice to meet you,” he mumbled, before moving down the row of tables towards his building. Behind his back, Laura caught at Janet’s sleeve before the other doctor could turn back to Daniel.
Carson was nearly halfway to his building when he heard Laura’s voice behind him.
“Dr. Beckett!” she called.
He stopped to wait for her to catch up. “Carson, please,” he said.
She grinned. “Carson. Look, I wanted to make up for what happened back there. I shouldn’t have been encouraging them to run there.”
Confused, he raised his eyebrows; it had been an accident, and a small one at that. “There’s really no need,” he said.
“No, I want to. What do you say to dinner Saturday?”
That startled him. It took Carson a minute to muster a response, before he replied, “That sounds wonderful.”
Laura’s smile lit her face again. “Great,” she said. “I’ll call you a bit later with the when and where.” With that, she turned and began jogging away.
“Wait!” Carson called. “You don’t have my number!”
She spun around and ran backwards for a few paces. “I got in from Janet! Just in case I didn’t catch you!” she yelled back. Then, with a cheery wave, she resumed her run back to the Quad.
Carson bemusedly watched her go for a moment. As he turned to continue the walk to his office, he decided he owed Janet an apology and a thank you. The fair hadn’t been such a waste of time after all.