Title: Office Space
Author: goddess47
Rating: G
Warnings/Spoilers: None
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay implied
Words: 900
Summary: "Do you really think we need all this space?" John asked Lorne.


Note: For fan_flashworks prompt: Wings

Also for Bingo square "air"







John turned slowly in place, looking at the space around him. It was relatively standard Atlantis corridors, going off in different directions. Someone had, fortunately, already cleaned out any dead plants. They were still finding those in odd places.

"Do you really think we need all this space?" John asked Lorne. "Two wings of this building is a lot of office space, even if it is on one floor."

Lorne shrugged. "We'll fill it up soon enough. And we need more space for logistics and other groups that haven't had offices."

"Well, we really haven't needed that until now," John replied.

"With the influx of troops O'Neill is sending us, we need to have places to put them," Lorne said patiently. "And if any of them are ATA positive, and there will be at least a few, we need spaces we've already cleared. Doing any of that at the last minute isn't practical."

"And dangerous," John agreed.

"Too true," Lorne said.

John wandered down one hall. "Tell me what you were thinking," John said.

Lorne pointed down the hall, "This wing would be primarily military. Your office-" he laughed as John grimaced -- "your secretary, my office, meeting space for military related meetings, and some classroom space for training. There will be more officers coming who need workspace away from their rooms, so they can have the other offices down this wing."

"Okay. And the other wing?" Johna asked.

"Quartermaster corp mostly," Lorne said. "But a security office, housekeeping and more training rooms."

"Have Rodney and Radek looked at what you want for a security office?" John asked.

"They're the ones who suggested this area, actually," Lorne admitted. "It's near a couple of different transporters, the proposed security office can have hard-wire and wireless access to the computer system and there's multiple stairwells that can be used to get here."

"Physical security?" John asked.

"There are lockable doors on the ends of both corridors and there's a cubby here," Lorne pointed to a small room where the corridors came together, "that can be set up as a security checkpoint, if needed. It needs some reinforcing in case someone gets this far, but that's work for the new guys to do."

"Good to know," John replied. "Okay, show me my office."

Lorne grinned. "This way." He led the way down the corridor to the middle of the wing.

Opening a door, he pointed. "This space would be your secretary." He held up a hand. "Yes, you need one."

John sighed. "Okay, okay."

"Having someone to filter out the low level crap that should come to me or someone else will make your life easier."

"I know, just, well, it's good to know everything," John replied.

"And do you really want to know when someone forgets to replace the toilet paper in the john?" Lorne asked.

John laughed. "You're right. Just..."

Lorne looked at John in sympathy. "Yeah. We're not quite alone out here anymore, and we're going to triple our size in the next few months. That means dealing with lots of newbies who don't know anything about Pegasus."

"O'Neill promised as many gate-ready soldiers as he could get," John reminded Lorne.

"And we have to be practical," Lorne replied. "The SGC isn't going to leave itself bare of trained troops. So we have to be prepared for more green soldiers than we'd like. It's only being realistic."

"You're right. Again," John sighed. "Okay. What else do you have?"

"Your office," Lorne moved through a door. He motioned for John to go ahead of him.

John took a step into the room and stopped. The room was brighter, and airier, than he had even expected. It had a balcony on the outside and looked out at the main tower where the gate room was located. One couldn't see the actual exit, they weren't high enough, but the Jumper Bay was on this side and anyone in the office could see when Jumpers were coming and going.

"This is... nice," John admitted.

"It is," Lorne replied, letting his commander absorb the space. He personally thought McKay had picked this space out for Sheppard and made the rest work. But he wasn't going to say that out loud. He liked taking hot showers.

Lorne pointed. "There's space for Dr. McKay to have an office next door, if he wants. It's not as big as this, since he also has an office in the labs. But giving him space here makes meetings and things easier."

John grinned. "That's a good thing!"

"And his office has access to the same balcony, so you share that space," Lorne went on.

John hummed in approval, but didn't say anything.

"I'll be across the hall," Lorne went on. "So I'll be close but I have an inside office, as well as crawl-space access to one of the stairwells. So my office can be a bolt hole in an emergency."

"Let's hope we don't need that!" John said.

"Agreed. But there's a similar set-up in the other wing, the security office has crawl-space access not only to the stairwells, but vertical access so someone can go up or down a level."

"Sounds like you've thought of everything," John commented.

"Been in the works for a while," Lorne admitted. "We haven't needed it until now."

"Sounds like a plan!" John replied. "Let's do this!"