{"id":2352,"date":"2014-03-30T03:39:25","date_gmt":"2014-03-30T03:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/?p=2352"},"modified":"2014-03-30T04:29:44","modified_gmt":"2014-03-30T04:29:44","slug":"fic-another-48-hours-sg-1-gen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/?p=2352","title":{"rendered":"Fic: Another 48 Hours (SG-1, gen)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Author’s Note:<\/strong> Written for Amy (Dragonsinger) for Christmas 2005, using her genderswapped version of McKay, Rose. Inspired by “Grace Under Pressure,” “48 Hours,” and the question, so who would be Rose’s big crush at the SGC? This was my answer. \ud83d\ude09<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

\"samrose\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Sam did not need this right now. With Teal\u2019c trapped in the Stargate\u2019s pattern buffer, Daniel in Russia trying to get them a DHD to fix the problem, and Colonel O\u2019Neill moping around like he\u2019d just lost his best friend–an implication that he resented in spite of himself–the last thing he needed was some hot-headed feminist with a stick up her ass from Area 51. One who had absolutely no practical experience and was, despite her protestations, not helping in the slightest.<\/p>\n

Reaching for a parfait glass of blue jello, Sam did his best not to give into the temptation to snap McKay\u2019s head off–a rather remarkable testament to just how aggravating the woman was, considering she was exactly the sort of tall, leggy brunette he normally found attractive.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no switch,\u201d she was insisting now. \u201cThe crystals were wiped clean by an unstable vortex of a forming wormhole. You have any idea how much excess energy one of those blasts gives off?\u201d<\/p>\n

He shut the door of the desert case a little harder than necessary. \u201cAs a matter of fact, I do. Now what we need to do is find a way to establish an event horizon without the vortex.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose–clearly her parents had been thinking of a particularly thorny variety when they named her–shook her head. \u201cIt\u2019s impossible. Which you would realize if you could just see past your fragile male ego.\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not the one with the ego problem here,\u00a0Sam narrowly stopped himself from saying. \u201cI\u2019ve seen it done before,\u201d he stated instead, thinking of the strange hand device the older Cassandra had been wearing when she sent them home from…whatever year it was they\u2019d overshot to on their return from 1969.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy magical fairy beings, no doubt,\u201d was the snide response. McKay then turned her critical stare on the poor airman who\u2019d pulled KP today. \u201cIs there lemon on the chicken?\u201d<\/p>\n

Said server gave her the same dumbfounded look that Carter had been reining in ever since they\u2019d met. \u201cIt\u2019s lemon chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it is,\u201d she sighed in a lofty tone of persecution. \u201cI\u2019m mortally allergic to citrus: one drop of lemon and I could die. I\u2019ll have whatever that is.\u201d She pointed to a square tin of some unidentifiable gloop before turning back to Sam. \u201cI have to be very careful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam made a mental note to stock up on lemons, just in case. Oranges and grapefruit too, maybe even a few pomelos.<\/p>\n

As they reached the table and sat down, McKay picked back up the conversation, picking at her food in a manner that was the first dainty thing he\u2019d seen her do. \u201cSo, what would this fictional event horizon be connected to?\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam was still fascinated by her imitation of a magpie. \u201cHungry?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cStarving,\u201d she quipped back cheerfully. \u201cLet me tell you, it\u2019s not easy balancing societal pressures to be thin–not that you would know anything about that–against the possibility of a hypoglycemic reaction. Though it helps that this is even worse than it looks, and fortunately I have excellent metabolism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which was, no doubt, why she was eating like a woman with no metabolism. Shaking his head, Sam forced himself to answer her question. \u201cThe event horizon is what dematerializes you and sends you into the wormhole. Now maybe we don\u2019t need to connect to a wormhole to form an event horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomehow, someday, somewhere,\u201d was the breezy reply. \u201cPerhaps down the street from where Tony and Maria are living happily ever after.\u201d<\/p>\n

At his blank stare, she sighed. \u201cRight. Because having a working knowledge of classic Broadway musicals would be a terrible blow to your masculinity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Count to ten. Breathe. \u201cLook, all we need to do is get the rematerialization process to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor, even if you managed to create a viable event horizon without connecting a wormhole, you\u2019d never get the wormhole to reintegrate Teal\u2019c.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy not?\u201d he challenged.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe crystals that retain the energy pattern before reintegration, they\u2019re not like magnetic hard drives,\u201d she pointed out unnecessarily.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know. That\u2019s why we call them crystals, because they\u2019re crystals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t just ignore the laws of thermodynamics. Entropy dictates that the crystals won\u2019t retain their energy patterns permanently. I\u2019ve measured it. It\u2019s what we call quantitative evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sam was fuming now. More than McKay\u2019s arrogance, it was her casual dismissal of Teal\u2019c that really burned him. \u201cBelieve it or not, I am familiar with the concept. I just think the energy itself is unimportant past its initial imprint on the crystals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd this fantasy is based on?\u201d Rose raised one skeptical eyebrow and planted her chin in her hands, her mouth pulled into a scornful smile.<\/p>\n

It was getting harder and harder not to stuff his own plate of lemon chicken down her throat. \u201cI suspect the Gate is storing its ones and zeros on the subatomic level within the structure of the crystals. So even though the energy is dissipating, the most recent pattern still exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou suspect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are dealing with a level of quantum physics here that is way beyond us, Princess,\u201d Sam reminded her.<\/p>\n

McKay shook her head. \u201cMore than a third of the energy pattern the Gate requires to reintegrate Teal\u2019c is already gone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so–\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose waved her fork at him. \u201cYou\u2019re guessing wildly, like you always do. In fact, if our positions were reversed, most of your ideas would be dismissed out of hand as flights of feminine fancy. Fortunately for you, you\u2019re a man, so people listen to you even when you\u2019ve completely departed from both logic and common sense. Maybe you could find a way to fool the Gate into reintegrating whatever it has stored in memory. But I say you won\u2019t like what comes out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess we\u2019ll just have to see, won\u2019t we?\u201d Sam leaned forward across the table, a challenge in his eyes. \u201cAnd while we\u2019re at it, why don\u2019t you take a feminine flight of fancy of your own and think about someone else for a change? Seeing as how you\u2019re supposed to be the more emotional, sentimental gender and all.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMajor, Teal\u2019c is dead. And this argument is a waste of time because the Pentagon is going to order Hammond to resume operations in…\u201d she glanced at her watch. \u201c…sixteen hours anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sudden, cold realization settled into the pit of his stomach. Dear God–the woman really didn\u2019t have any human feelings. \u201cThat\u2019s how they came up with the 48 hour deadline, isn\u2019t it? You told them Teal\u2019c would already be dead.\u201d<\/p>\n

She met his eyes evenly, not even bothering to deny it. \u201cThat\u2019s why it\u2019s called a deadline.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy God…\u201d He shook his head in amazement and stood to leave, taking his tray with him. Knowing that she had not only written off Teal\u2019c herself, but was responsible for the higher-ups doing so as well…he wasn\u2019t sure he could stand to be in the same room with her any longer. \u201cYou really are a bitch. And for the record, you\u2019re the first woman I\u2019ve ever said that to who wasn\u2019t a Goa\u2019uld.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rose shrugged and let out an exaggerated sigh as she leaned one cheek on her hand. \u201cI wish I didn\u2019t find you so attractive. I\u2019ve always had a thing for dumb jocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumb jocks? Sam sputtered. \u201cWell, thank you so much for making me feel like a slab of meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

McKay just smirked at him. \u201cNot used to being on the receiving end, Major?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHey…\u201d the Major strode back over to the table, setting down his tray and placing one hand firmly on either side of it. \u201cI may have had my fair share of casual relationships, but if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned, it\u2019s that you don\u2019t get far with someone by insulting them. And that…\u201d he pointed one finger straight at her chest. \u201c…applies to either sex. Now, if you\u2019ll forgive me, I\u2019m going to go find a way to do the impossible and rescue my friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I\u2019ll–\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou–\u201d He offered her a sickly sweet fake smile. \u201c–can go suck a lemon.\u201d<\/p>\n

As he stormed out, Rose stared after him with an unreadable look, then glanced down at her tray and pushed it away. It was just as well. She\u2019d learned a long time ago not to let her emotions interfere with her work. Not if she wanted to play with the big boys.<\/p>\n

Emotion was for artists. Pianists. People with parents who didn\u2019t hate them for being the first of two daughters instead of a son. For a female scientist in a predominantly male field, there was no room for error and getting attached led to nothing but, as Sam Carter\u2019s stubborn insistence on trying to save his friend only proved.<\/p>\n

Besides–better to drive the good-looking major away now than wait until she woke up alone the morning after with a broken heart. It was better this way.<\/p>\n

So why did she feel like she might have just lost something infinitely precious?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Author’s Note: Written for Amy (Dragonsinger) for Christmas 2005, using her genderswapped version of McKay, Rose. Inspired by “Grace Under Pressure,” “48 Hours,” and the question, so who would be Rose’s big crush at the SGC? This was my answer. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[159,158,50,49],"tags":[113,193,112,415,825,613,827,180,826,227],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2389,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/azar.ink-and-quill.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}