Chasing Sheppard

[rachael-recs.livejournal.com]

My Sheppard/McKay rec50 table.

Claim: Stargate Atlantis: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Title: Chasing Sheppard
Author: scrunchy (scrunchy)
Characters: Sheppard/McKay, Beckett
Prompt:17 - Jealousy
Rating: Mature
Length: Long
Brief summary: Confession time: I have never seen Chasing Amy so any wonderful allusions and translations to the movie went right over my head in this story. Still, the story captured me as a type of fan fiction loosely based on my guys, as I could see in them glints of the characters I enjoyed even though they had been translated into a vastly different world.

A world where the core motivations are friendship, jealousy and sexual attraction, with great pacing and dialog that just snaps.


There was a girl, a hideously drunk girl, a few seats down from Rodney. Next to her was an incredibly hot guy who looked like he'd rather be eating a heaping plate of staples than sitting in the storm path of the girl's inebriated flirtation. His white coat had the logo of the restaurant across the street embroidered on the breast, and was unbuttoned to reveal a worn-thin Dinosaur Jr. shirt.

"That poor guy," Rodney winced as the girl's shrill laugh rattled around his head. She was enthusing all over him for being a chef, asking him to make her dinner sometime.

"Seriously, that girl's barking up the wrong tree." John leaned forward onto the bar too close to Rodney. "Besides, you don't ask a world class chef like Jack over there to make you dinner."

"Oh no?" Rodney cleared his throat and moved to sip his beer.

"Nahh," John flipped a wet rag down from his shoulder and brought it whipcracking down on the bar. "You ask him to make you breakfast."

Rodney didn't exactly choke on his beer, but if you weren't paying close attention, it sure looked like it.

"You ... ask a lot of chefs to make you breakfast then?" He was now totally sure that operation 'Is he gay or not?' was a go.

"Not so much Jack ... but I do all right." John leaned back, and the clink of the bottles he jostled sounded like they were sighing against him.

"I bet."

"I mean ... there are tons of guys here every night, obviously," John made a vague sweeping gesture and Rodney followed his movement.

"Mainly it's just ... I've met many a girl who got abandoned on a girls' night out when her gay boyfriend hooked up and ran off."

"And you swoop in?"

"I dunno' if it's swooping, really." And he smiled, and Rodney knew John Sheppard didn't need to swoop so much as just be. He half expected panties to come flying through the air every time John smiled.

"That's charming. A love story for the ages, I mean." Rodney's beer had turned bitter on his tongue.

"Hey," John leaned forward and picked an invisible something off Rodney's shoulder. "There's not a one love story that doesn't end in heartbreak."

"You're a cynic." Rodney pushed his beer away. His skin, the spot where John's fingers had been for a half-second, burned beneath his shirt. "Normally, that'd be a huge check in the plus column of my esteem for you. But the way you say that just sounds so sad."

John shrugged.

"I'm just speaking from experience." He took the half-empty glass from Rodney, emptied it into the sink, and tossed the glass into an already full bus tray. The sound was nothing like a cadre of vodka bottles sighing around John's shoulders.

"We should go home." Carson came up behind Rodney, flushed and blinking far too quickly. "Now would be a good time for us to go home."

Rodney smirked and turned to comment, but John had moved down to talk to Jack.

"Rodney. Stop memorizing John's ass and let's get the fuck out of here."

"Ok, ok, you whiny bitch. Let's go."


Link to the story: Chasing Sheppard