TEAM WORK: pass the buck, "The Office"
Title: The Office
Author: beachlass
Team: Work
Prompt: pass the buck
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: John doesn't spend much time in his office.
Once you've read the story, please take a moment to vote in the poll below. Ratings go from 1 (low) to 9 (high), so all you need to do is enter a single number in that range into each text entry box. You'll be able to see the Prompt and Team (Genre) information in the header above.
More details about the voting procedure can be found here.
**
On Major Lorne’s bookshelf often rests a small hunting knife with an antler handle. Evan can’t quite remember whether someone brought it from Earth, or picked it up somewhere in Pegasus. For a while it was used as the dealer’s marker in the weekly poker game.
Sometimes the knife is tucked into Radek’s desk drawer, thrown in with his good pens and equations scribbled on scrap paper. Radek’s the one who modified it; slipping a miniscule cheater ID chip into the join of the hilt.
Most days the knife rests on John Sheppard’s desk for a while. Not that John notices. He is never the one who puts it there.
Evan tries to start each day with administrative duties. If he didn’t begin with them, none of it would ever get done, especially as he does most of the Colonel’s admin duties as well as his own.
After Lorne first surrendered to the inevitability of doing Sheppard’s paperwork, he would do it in his own office. Most of it was electronic, but he still needed to collect some actual paper from the Colonel’s office on a fairly regular basis. And Sheppard was never there. So eventually Lorne got into the habit of staying on top of Sheppard’s work from Sheppard’s office.
For a while Lorne assumed that he never saw Sheppard because he was busy running with Ronon, or offworld, at meetings or just bothering McKay. But eventually he began to wonder whether Sheppard ever used his office. Lorne left a note on the desk asking Sheppard to call him on the comm. ASAP. When that note sat undisturbed on Sheppard’s desk for a week, Lorne escalated to a box of Smarties. The candy sat there for two weeks, and given what McKay would trade for them, Lorne was pretty sure that Sheppard never set foot in the office.
Evan doesn’t mind working in Sheppard’s office. It’s quiet, out of the way, and no one ever looks for him there. Especially Sheppard. It isn’t until Lorne is listening to SGA-1 complain in debriefing again about the Colonel’s hopeless sense of direction that the thought even occurs to Lorne that Sheppard may not actually remember where his office is… Sheppard does his work at the conference table, or in his quarters or sprawled out on the couch in McKay’s office.
It’s the day Lorne finds Radek trying to work through his own share of administrative details in the messhall (“Where it is noisy, but at least far away from Rodney”, Radek explains), that Lorne offers to share Sheppard’s office. He has shared it before, when they had to stop using the offices in one of the other wings, and relocated the chaplain temporarily into Sheppard’s office. Lorne doesn’t know it, but the last time Sheppard did actually find his office, the chaplain was working at the desk, and he made his excuses and left, because chaplains were almost as bad as psychiatrists about wanting you to talk.
So Radek starts to use the office too, and when Keller wishes aloud she had somewhere quiet to work, they invite her, and Radek does the clever bit of programming to the chip he puts into the knife. It allows the bearer entry into the Colonel’s office, provided that they have a high enough clearance. In return for access to the office no one ever looks in, Lorne asks for some help with the military paperwork, and so whoever has the knife has the use of Sheppard’s office for the day, and at the very least sorts through the incoming mail. It works well, they pass the buck-horned knife around and share Sheppard’s workload and the luxury of quiet uninterrupted space.
John knows that the Major uses his office, and suspects that Lorne has figured out that John can’t find it. Atlantis is no help, asking the city to identify “his place of work” only ever leads to the places where John actually works, and since he is never in his office…. well. Bit of a circular problem.
So he tries surreptitiously following Lorne to his office. In the process, he runs into the chaplain, who he never remembers is in the city. She’s reading, and John suspects she gets a lot of reading done, because an awful lot of the contingent is atheist. John secretly hopes she prays for them, though he’d never admit it (especially to Rodney), and he’d be too embarrassed to ask, but they need any help they can get.
Next John tries to trick Lorne into disclosing his office location, and although it begins with a genuine wish not to be humiliated by someone (like Caldwell) discovering that the military commander of the Lost City of the Ancients has misplaced his office, it quickly turns into a long running game between John and Evan. John’s consolation is the tone of definite assurance that he can bring to his commendation of Major Lorne’s ability to keep secrets, employ misdirection and subterfuge while in the field. If he can keep John’s office hidden, John has no worries about Lorne’s team accidentally disclosing the location of the City. When Lorne is off-world with his team for two weeks, and the requisition papers move from John’s office to Rodney’s couch while John is in the gym with Teyla, John finally realizes that Lorne has help with the whole office thing.
Teyla uses John’s office to meditate, sometimes. She likes the sound of the waves from the balcony and learns quite a bit about Earth politics and structure from helping with John’s paperwork.
Keller usually asks for a day when the cloned Carson has been in the city, his presence always makes her feel out of place.
Ronon keeps a romance novel in the bottom drawer.
Rodney borrows the knife one afternoon. (For certain values of borrowing, he picks the lock on Radek’s desk and leaves a neon sticky note promising to forget where Radek hides from him.) Rodney talks John into accompanying him on an electrical repair, and takes him on a long, circuitous route to John’s office. The office is bare of personal effects, and although there’s a lingering scent like Teyla’s incense, one of Radek’s pens is on the desk, beside one of Lorne’s coffee mugs, John can’t quite place whose office they are in.
“Lock the door, John” Rodney suggests, and John does, even as he thinks that whoever has this office will be able to override his lock. But he doesn’t think about that long, because Rodney is steering him toward the desk, crowding him against it and kissing him. It’s… fuck… unexpected and dangerous and completely hot to have Rodney pinning him against someone’s desk, middle of the afternoon in the city, and John’s doesn’t even know whose office this is as Rodney slides his hand between them and starts to undo John’s pants.
“Rodney, wha…?” John manages before Rodney’s hand slips into his boxers and begins to work him. “The door… who’s office is FUCK”, before Rodney’s thumb finds the spot under the crown. Rodney’s hand feels amazing, but it’s the thrill that’s getting to him, the fact that he doesn’t know who the office belongs to, who could walk in and find the military commander getting a hand job against their desk.
Rodney is looking at him, lip curled up, cheeks flushed. John can see the outline of Rodney’s cock against his pants and oh, fuck, if Rodney keeps doing that to him, John is going to come, and when he does he’s going to sink to his knees and blow Rodney, and it’s the thought of that (here, oh God, where they could be caught) combined with the delicious rubbing and the knowing smirk on Rodney’s face that sends John over the edge.
When they go back to John’s quarters for a shower, Rodney takes a different meandering path. John never figures out whose office that was, and figures it is just as well, he doesn’t know how he could look them in the face without reacting. Rodney returns the knife to Radek’s desk and spends an hour before supper helping John with his paperwork, so it’s ready before the Major comes looking for it.
**
Poll
Author: beachlass
Team: Work
Prompt: pass the buck
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: None
Summary: John doesn't spend much time in his office.
Once you've read the story, please take a moment to vote in the poll below. Ratings go from 1 (low) to 9 (high), so all you need to do is enter a single number in that range into each text entry box. You'll be able to see the Prompt and Team (Genre) information in the header above.
More details about the voting procedure can be found here.
**
On Major Lorne’s bookshelf often rests a small hunting knife with an antler handle. Evan can’t quite remember whether someone brought it from Earth, or picked it up somewhere in Pegasus. For a while it was used as the dealer’s marker in the weekly poker game.
Sometimes the knife is tucked into Radek’s desk drawer, thrown in with his good pens and equations scribbled on scrap paper. Radek’s the one who modified it; slipping a miniscule cheater ID chip into the join of the hilt.
Most days the knife rests on John Sheppard’s desk for a while. Not that John notices. He is never the one who puts it there.
Evan tries to start each day with administrative duties. If he didn’t begin with them, none of it would ever get done, especially as he does most of the Colonel’s admin duties as well as his own.
After Lorne first surrendered to the inevitability of doing Sheppard’s paperwork, he would do it in his own office. Most of it was electronic, but he still needed to collect some actual paper from the Colonel’s office on a fairly regular basis. And Sheppard was never there. So eventually Lorne got into the habit of staying on top of Sheppard’s work from Sheppard’s office.
For a while Lorne assumed that he never saw Sheppard because he was busy running with Ronon, or offworld, at meetings or just bothering McKay. But eventually he began to wonder whether Sheppard ever used his office. Lorne left a note on the desk asking Sheppard to call him on the comm. ASAP. When that note sat undisturbed on Sheppard’s desk for a week, Lorne escalated to a box of Smarties. The candy sat there for two weeks, and given what McKay would trade for them, Lorne was pretty sure that Sheppard never set foot in the office.
Evan doesn’t mind working in Sheppard’s office. It’s quiet, out of the way, and no one ever looks for him there. Especially Sheppard. It isn’t until Lorne is listening to SGA-1 complain in debriefing again about the Colonel’s hopeless sense of direction that the thought even occurs to Lorne that Sheppard may not actually remember where his office is… Sheppard does his work at the conference table, or in his quarters or sprawled out on the couch in McKay’s office.
It’s the day Lorne finds Radek trying to work through his own share of administrative details in the messhall (“Where it is noisy, but at least far away from Rodney”, Radek explains), that Lorne offers to share Sheppard’s office. He has shared it before, when they had to stop using the offices in one of the other wings, and relocated the chaplain temporarily into Sheppard’s office. Lorne doesn’t know it, but the last time Sheppard did actually find his office, the chaplain was working at the desk, and he made his excuses and left, because chaplains were almost as bad as psychiatrists about wanting you to talk.
So Radek starts to use the office too, and when Keller wishes aloud she had somewhere quiet to work, they invite her, and Radek does the clever bit of programming to the chip he puts into the knife. It allows the bearer entry into the Colonel’s office, provided that they have a high enough clearance. In return for access to the office no one ever looks in, Lorne asks for some help with the military paperwork, and so whoever has the knife has the use of Sheppard’s office for the day, and at the very least sorts through the incoming mail. It works well, they pass the buck-horned knife around and share Sheppard’s workload and the luxury of quiet uninterrupted space.
John knows that the Major uses his office, and suspects that Lorne has figured out that John can’t find it. Atlantis is no help, asking the city to identify “his place of work” only ever leads to the places where John actually works, and since he is never in his office…. well. Bit of a circular problem.
So he tries surreptitiously following Lorne to his office. In the process, he runs into the chaplain, who he never remembers is in the city. She’s reading, and John suspects she gets a lot of reading done, because an awful lot of the contingent is atheist. John secretly hopes she prays for them, though he’d never admit it (especially to Rodney), and he’d be too embarrassed to ask, but they need any help they can get.
Next John tries to trick Lorne into disclosing his office location, and although it begins with a genuine wish not to be humiliated by someone (like Caldwell) discovering that the military commander of the Lost City of the Ancients has misplaced his office, it quickly turns into a long running game between John and Evan. John’s consolation is the tone of definite assurance that he can bring to his commendation of Major Lorne’s ability to keep secrets, employ misdirection and subterfuge while in the field. If he can keep John’s office hidden, John has no worries about Lorne’s team accidentally disclosing the location of the City. When Lorne is off-world with his team for two weeks, and the requisition papers move from John’s office to Rodney’s couch while John is in the gym with Teyla, John finally realizes that Lorne has help with the whole office thing.
Teyla uses John’s office to meditate, sometimes. She likes the sound of the waves from the balcony and learns quite a bit about Earth politics and structure from helping with John’s paperwork.
Keller usually asks for a day when the cloned Carson has been in the city, his presence always makes her feel out of place.
Ronon keeps a romance novel in the bottom drawer.
Rodney borrows the knife one afternoon. (For certain values of borrowing, he picks the lock on Radek’s desk and leaves a neon sticky note promising to forget where Radek hides from him.) Rodney talks John into accompanying him on an electrical repair, and takes him on a long, circuitous route to John’s office. The office is bare of personal effects, and although there’s a lingering scent like Teyla’s incense, one of Radek’s pens is on the desk, beside one of Lorne’s coffee mugs, John can’t quite place whose office they are in.
“Lock the door, John” Rodney suggests, and John does, even as he thinks that whoever has this office will be able to override his lock. But he doesn’t think about that long, because Rodney is steering him toward the desk, crowding him against it and kissing him. It’s… fuck… unexpected and dangerous and completely hot to have Rodney pinning him against someone’s desk, middle of the afternoon in the city, and John’s doesn’t even know whose office this is as Rodney slides his hand between them and starts to undo John’s pants.
“Rodney, wha…?” John manages before Rodney’s hand slips into his boxers and begins to work him. “The door… who’s office is FUCK”, before Rodney’s thumb finds the spot under the crown. Rodney’s hand feels amazing, but it’s the thrill that’s getting to him, the fact that he doesn’t know who the office belongs to, who could walk in and find the military commander getting a hand job against their desk.
Rodney is looking at him, lip curled up, cheeks flushed. John can see the outline of Rodney’s cock against his pants and oh, fuck, if Rodney keeps doing that to him, John is going to come, and when he does he’s going to sink to his knees and blow Rodney, and it’s the thought of that (here, oh God, where they could be caught) combined with the delicious rubbing and the knowing smirk on Rodney’s face that sends John over the edge.
When they go back to John’s quarters for a shower, Rodney takes a different meandering path. John never figures out whose office that was, and figures it is just as well, he doesn’t know how he could look them in the face without reacting. Rodney returns the knife to Radek’s desk and spends an hour before supper helping John with his paperwork, so it’s ready before the Major comes looking for it.
**
Poll