Beyond the Iris: A Stargate Story

Chapter 16

Eleanor

"I don't know why he has to be here." Dr. Bill Lee sat at the lab table, arms folded across his chest. "We can figure this out without his help."

"Don't be a petulant child." I tsked back. "Now, Simon," I looked over at Dr. Coombs sitting on the other end of the table. "We are going to be nice to Dr. McKay. He's a bit much, I agree, but..."

"A bit much?!" Jay Felger shouted next to him. "The man acts like we are imbeciles. Like we don't belong here."

"I know all too well gentlemen, in fact he has referred to me as Dr. Jackson's secretary twice yesterday. I am neither a secretary nor do I work for Daniel. Yet, I am trying to keep the peace here. We as a whole need his help. Look at Sam, she has to essentially walk him around on a leash the entire time he's here." I sighed and plopped into an office chair between them.

"On that alone I am envious of him." Felger groaned and I shot him a look.

"What I'm saying is, you can't withhold information from McKay just because he thinks he's smarter than you. We know he's not. He's just an outside perspective that we need. If anything he is jealous of you all. You're a clan here in the SGC, and he's like," I turned to Coombs, "he's like the Gorn. His brain is very strong, but you three Kirks can beat him in a fight."

"That's not a good analogy." He grimaced back.

"My Star Trek knowledge is limited. You'll have to make do." I snapped back. "Be nice, stop offering him lemon jell-o from the mess hall when you know he is allergic to citrus. Maybe figure out the problem on your own, then he won't need a reason to come back."

"But it's fun to offer him lemon jell-o." Bill shrugged.

I turned to him attempting to keep my cool, "I don't know why I am the problem solver here. I don't even work in this department but I get dragged into your shenanigans every time I get a crate that's ready to be processed in my office."

"Yes mother," Felger rolled his eyes. At that moment McKay's head popped into the doorframe.

"I see we're having a chat instead of finding the resolution to a conduit problem with the generator?" He smirked.

"Dr. McKay we were just talking about you." Bill smiled back and McKay's brow rose.

"About how much we all appreciate your help," I stood up and made my way into the hall. "The science department here was just going over the details of my last unit to archive. I was very confused, science is not my field of expertise." The added emphasis on the last sentence made me nauseous, but I knew if I at least played into his delusion of me being a moron I could slip past and go back to my office.

"Fair enough," he nodded and continued into the lab while I made my way down the hall and up the flight of stairs to my floor. I checked my watch, it was close to noon. I had hyped myself up for this all morning, to the point where I had to stop downing caffeine because I was starting to twitch from the anticipation.

I was going to be a conflict resolutionist today. I had dealt with the ongoing strain that McKay was putting on my friends in the science department, and now I was going to drag Daniel out of his doom and gloom room and out into some fresh air. It had felt like every opportunity he had to avoid me he took, and I was going to try and get to the bottom of it with a friendly walk outside.

My knuckles thumped against Daniel's door but didn't hear a welcome. I knew he was inside, knew he was busy with his work, but his door was always shut away, as soon as he came back from off-world he shut himself out. With no response I just let myself in and closed the door quietly behind me. If I could pull him out of this funk with an hour outside in the fresh air, even thirty minutes to just think about something other than impending doom, maybe he could come back to the Daniel we knew.