skoosiepants | I am, essentially, done what I was supposed to have done

So now I can play. Toying with another AU. Not sure if it's going anywhere or not:

After a few moments heavily laden with even more thumps and curses and one very strident, “We are all infinitely dumber for even breathing his air!” the door jerked open with a sharp, “What?”

John leaned a hip against the top of the stair railing, shifting for a better view in the narrow vestibule.

A man with wispy hair and blue, blue eyes split a glower between them, half his mouth pulled down. “Cadman.” He held out his hand and snapped his fingers impatiently.

“Hi, Rodney. What’s shakin’?”

“I don’t have time for social niceties, you harpy,” he groused, but he stepped aside, letting her into the room. “Where’s Bates?” He eyed John curiously, and John straightened up, mouth sliding into a practiced, slow grin.

“Transferred out,” Cadman said happily, slapping his back. “We had a party.”

“John Sheppard,” John introduced himself, following Cadman in to the... lab? There were a lot of mechanical devices and shiny metal surfaces and one enormous chalkboard packed with tiny, tiny calculations, and the room, despite being perched at the top of a loosely renovated old Victorian, slanted ceilings and all, was big and surprisingly open.

“Oh, my manners.” Cadman rolled her eyes. “Rodney, John. John, Rodney. And that little guy hiding under the desk is Radek—”

“Am busy!” he shouted. He peeked out to scowl at them, glasses askew and hair tufting out in every direction.

“Where’s Kavanagh?” Cadman asked, gazing around the room.

“Locked himself in the bathroom after I threw a wrench at his head,” Rodney said blithely. Then he held out a hand and said, “Dr. Rodney McKay,” and John shook it with a genuine smile.

He was kind of hot, in a rumpled professor sort of way, with his white lab coat and black-smudged khakis, and he was blatantly staring at John. John arched his brows, catching his eyes, and Rodney’s cheeks pinked just the slightest little bit before he turned back to Cadman.

“Warning or fine this time?” he demanded with a huff.

She picked up a round metal chip. “What’s this?”

“Don’t touch,” he snapped, lunging for her and wrestling it out of her hands. “Keep your grubby paws off everything, Cadman.”

Cadman wagged a finger at him. “Hey, no attacking an officer of the law,” she teased, then John watched her eyes melt and she placed her hand on Rodney’s arm, squeezing slightly. “You all right?”

Rodney darted a nervous look towards John, then nodded and rubbed a palm over his forehead. “Yeah,” he breathed. “It’s.” He paused. “It’s getting to be... really okay.”

Cadman grinned. “I hear the big guy’s been a help.”

Rodney’s mouth quirked up. “You wouldn’t think it to look at him.”

“Is that a robot?” John blurted out incredulously. It was small and had about fifteen arms and looked a little like a metal octopus on wheels. While he watched, it grabbed a box full of tools and disappeared back under the desk next to Radek.

“That’s a HelperBot,” Rodney said, tipping his chin up, smug around the mouth.

“It’s cool,” John said, and he felt that cool was totally an understatement – because: robot! - but lately saying awesome made Daisy look at him funny, so he’d been trying to cut back.

Rodney snorted. “Of course it’s cool. It’s a semi-autonomous machine that responds to our specific voice patterns. Although,” he frowned, “it occasionally gets stuck in the closet, and we can’t figure out why.”

“I have been taking him home,” Radek said, popping out again, pushing his glasses up his nose with the blunt end of a phillips head. “He is scared of my wife’s yappy dog. Possible glitch in brain microchip.”

“We never gave him emotions,” Rodney pointed out, and John muttered, “Number five is alive,” under his breath.

Rodney jabbed a finger at him. “Semi-autonomous. It’s learning. Also, I’m choosing to overlook your Short Circuit reference. You may redeem yourself with any number of sci-fi quotes or mathematical applications.”

John set his hands on his hips, tilting his head to the side. “I’ll get back to you about that redemption.”

“And you get a warning this time,” Cadman said. “Miss Gloria wants jelly donuts tomorrow.”

“Crazy old bat,” Rodney grumbled, then went on pointedly, “If that’s all? Because we’d actually like to get some work done today—” The floorboards creaked towards the back of the lab, and Rodney shouted without turning around, “I am not done being angry beyond your possible comprehension!”

“Try to keep it down, guys,” Cadman admonished. She almost managed to keep a straight face.

Radek waved a hand out of his hidey-hole. “Yes, bye, go away now.”

“He’s really quite sweet,” Cadman assured John earnestly, eyes twinkling. Then she pecked Rodney’s cheek and, bright red, Rodney growled, “Out, out,” and shoved her towards the door, grabbing John’s shoulder, pushing him along as well, and John, too stunned by Rodney’s firm grip and wide hands, stumbled docilely into the hall after Cadman.

Rodney slammed the door shut behind them, shaking the frame.