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[scruffyduck.livejournal.com]

Title: Lights Out
Author: rolleson
Fandom: Stargate AU:the_library_au
Rating: PG
Character/Pairing: McKay/Weir
Warnings: Explicit fluff.
Summery: Written for live_brave who wanted mistaken identity, a celebration, and a drunken confession. For the auficathon
Notes: Thanks to million_moments for the beta. 2799 words.



“I’m going to pretend you’re not looking up my skirt, Rodney,” Elizabeth called from the top of the step ladder, pinning the streamer to the wall as she addressed the man holding the ladder.

“You don’t have to pretend,” he told her. “I’m looking at your breasts. John is looking up your skirt.”

She almost dropped the streamer and looked down immediately to see Rodney grinning at her and John, thankfully, looking at one of their regular customers as she bent to pull out a book from a bottom shelf.

“That isn’t funny,” she said trying not to laugh, “and stop staring at the customers John.” He ignored her and she shrugged, climbing down the step ladder.

“John!” She hissed, trying to get his attention but not create a disturbance in her own library.

“What?” He hissed back. She sighed, rolling her eyes,.

“Never mind,” She said, he smiled at her, and then went back to watching Teyla instead of helping her. “I don’t know why I bother.”

“Neither do I.” He lifted the step ladder and moved it across a few feet. Elizabeth climbed up, pinned the next bit of streamer to the wall and climbed back down again.

“You don’t have to have help me with this.”

“I know. I thought it’s what a good boyfriend would do,” He shrugged.

“And teaching an adult numeracy class?” He shrugged again and she was sure a blush was starting.

“Where are you putting the banner?”

“Just above those stacks, so it’ll be the first thing you see when you walk in,” she said, “then a few more decorations, set up the tables, bring out the food and drinks.“

“Drinks?“

”Mayor Kinsey’s office insisted on champagne.”

“For a library centenary and the opening of an Adult Learning Centre?”

“I know, I think it’s just Woolsey’s excuse, so he can try and make an impression.”

“Kinsey won’t even notice.”

“No,” She smoothed down her skirt for the sixth time in five minutes, not that Rodney was counting, or even looking in that general direction.

“You hate wearing skirts don’t you?”

“At work. It’s just not practical.”

“You look very pretty though.” Elizabeth put her hands on her hips and glared at him. “I’m just trying to make you feel better!”

“Sorry Rodney, this whole thing is getting out of control.”

“It’s okay. I’ll just get out of your way. Come back later.” He kissed her on the cheek, and was out of the library before she could protest.

*****

He was back before the celebration was due to start, with a face like a wounded puppy. She’d have to grovel later, she knew that, but right now she had other things to worry about. Teachers arriving, enrolment forms, food, members of the public, Kinsey, getting John and Carson to actually help.

She should’ve asked Zelenka to come in.

The library had been decorated with streamers and bunting, bright colours all around the main rooms, and hanging off the shelves. There were posters ‘advertising’ their new adult learning service, displays outlining 100 years of the library’s history, and food and drinks already set out and that Rodney was already working his way through.

“These cheese things are really good,” He said, swallowing after finishing his sentence, a glass of wine in one hand, another cheese ‘thing’ in the other.

“I’m glad you like them.” She said, trying to decide if she was annoyed or amused.

“Everything ready?”

“Yes.” She said, with a huff of air. “Just waiting for the teachers to arrive, then we can let the public in.”

“When does the Mayor get here?”

“Half past seven,” She watched him down the rest of his wine, then take another. She let him, there was far too much food and wine, Woolsy had over ordered and the fridge was full of white and there were two boxes of red white sat outside of the fridge. She was considering getting Carson and John to move some of it into the attic before the end of the night so her boss couldn’t claim what was left for himself.

In the name of library services.


*****

At half past seven twelve teachers were helping themselves to wine and nibbles, and around thirty members of the public were doing similar while looking at the displays and information. Rodney had set up camp by the food and wine, watching Elizabeth mingle and smile at everyone, a glass of red wine in her own hand that she hadn’t took a single sip of. She was just trying to make everyone feel comfortable; he knew that, she was really good at these sorts of things. John was chatting to Teyla, or chatting her up, he couldn’t be sure, and with John, it was hard to know if there was a difference. He hadn’t seen Carson all night, but he didn’t care if he was on his own, because he had all the wine and cheese thing a man could ever need.

Though he should probably hold back on the wine.

With that he finished his glass, and decided that a change of pace would nice, and chose a glass of red wine and some kind of chicken ‘thing’.

“Uh-oh!” Rodney had looked away from his chicken thing to see John come stumbling past, having twisted and turned his way through the small crowd, with Ronon right behind him.

“Kinsey?” he asked, as both men took a glass of wine as they passed the table and headed behind the main desk.

“Kinsey,” Ronon confirmed, following John into the junk room that also doubled as their staff room. Rodney looked over through the crowd to main door and caught glimpses of Elizabeth greeting the Mayor, two security guards and two aides standing close to him. He considered going over there, introducing himself and supporting his girlfriend, but when he stood up, wobbled and then sat down again, he decided to have another cheese ‘thing’ instead.

*****

“Thank you for coming Mayor, as you can see we’ve had a good turn out.”

“I see, I see.”

She could tell, just by the look on the man’s face, that he wasn’t listening to a word she said, but he had everyone’s attention and knew that she just had to go along with whatever the man wanted to do now. Hopefully he would just make a short speech, then leave again.

“Well, let’s have a look around then shall we?” Elizabeth held back a groan and gave the man a short tour of the facilities, taking him upstairs to where they planned to hold the classes, introducing him to some of the teachers, her staff (well, Carson) and avoiding an obviously tipsy Rodney.

When they came back down the stairs, he immediately addressed his ‘public’ arms stretched out, the fake smile he’d been wearing since he’d stepped through the door, pulled a little wider. He opened his mouth to speak.

“Ladies and gentleman,”

Crack. Pop. Ding.

The lights went out.

“Don’t panic,” Elizabeth called out immediately, “we probably just need to flip the fuses.”

“Everyone stay where they are, we’ll continue shortly.” Kinsey said, loudly. He turned to Elizabeth, who was already turning to make her way through the crowd. “Fix this.” He whispered angrily. She glared at him, knowing he couldn’t see her in the darkness. His two bodyguards moved to flank him, and one of his aides took it upon himself to follow Elizabeth through the crowd, with much less grace. For every person Elizabeth avoided, the aide bumped into two. She was pretty sure by time she’d reached the desk the man had bumped into everyone except Rodney.

She rounded the desk into the back room, where she could hear rummaging and see Ronon’s legs from the fridge light.

“John?” She called out.

“I’m here. Just looking for a torch.”

“We need to check the fuses,” she said, “quickly.”

“Not without a torch.”

“Where are they anyway?” She asked.

“In the basement.”

“We have a basement?” Carson’s voice came out of the darkness, making the aide jump. Elizabeth smiled.

“Yes,” she replied, “it’s only small, just the electrics and some plumbing.”

“Yes, just electrics and plumbing.” Ronon said, a little too quickly and Elizabeth frowned, but then, this wasn’t the time to be asking questions about what Ronon had been doing in the library’s basement.

John cried, “a-ha,” then a beam of light hit her. She raised an arm in protest.

“Good, now go fix the power.”

“Yes m’am.” In the torchlight she could make out both Ronon and John saluting and she rolled her eyes at them.

******

Ten minutes later, Elizabeth could see the torch light coming towards her and Kinsey through the murmuring crowd. With the lights still not on, she assumed that they had not been successful.

“It’s not the fuses,” Ronon said. “I don’t know what it is.”

“You’re an electrician?” Kinsey asked.

“No, or I would’ve been able to fix it.”

Elizabeth grimaced at his lack of tact with the mayor.

“Rest of the town’s got power, it’s just us,” John said. “Sorry Liz.”

“That’s okay.”

Next to her, Kinsey was quietly conferring with his aides and security guards. When he finished, a guard and an aide left the library, carefully and quickly.

“Well, it’s unfortunate, but it seems the power cut has cut short our night,” there was a low ripple of laughter, “I’m sure we’ve all learnt all we need, met everyone we wanted,” he continued and Elizabeth knew where he was going and when he was put in charge of her celebration. “I suggest we all go home for the night, don’t you.” There was more murmuring and Kinsey was being led away out of the library. She sighed, taking the torch from John and went over to the main door.

“This way everyone, mind your step,” She called out, the small crowd followed her light and Elizabeth found her thanking and apologising to each person. When they were gone, she shut the door and locked the door.

“That was a disaster.”

“It was going well until the power went out,” Ronon said, she smiled at him.

“And the power going really wasn’t your fault,” Rodney called out, slurring his words a little.

“Thank you, both,” She said, she handed John the torch. “Better try and fix this, you can go John, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Sure you’ll be okay?”

”Rodney is here, I’ll be fine,” She smiled again and with Ronon in tow, John left the library. She locked the door behind him again and went over to Rodney.

“I’m going to try and call out an electrician,” She told him, he didn’t stand.

“Can’t it wait until tomorrow?”

“No, I’d better do it now.” He nodded and she sighed. Great, the library had no power and her boyfriend was drunk. She really didn’t need this. “Don’t move, I don’t want you to stumble and get hurt.” Or break anything she thought.

“Okay.” He smiled at her but she had already disappeared into the darkness.

*****


Rodney reached for something to eat and found the plate empty. He sighed, and reached for his wine, but found that too was empty. No food, no wine, no girlfriend. Though she wasn’t far and he could go find her. He just had to stand up.

He didn’t get drunk often, in fact, he had found that he had a high tolerance for alcohol somehow. A tolerance he was planning to use to drink John and Ronon under the table one day, when he was adequately pushed to do so. Perhaps he could learn to play poker too, he suspected he’d be good at that, it was mathematics from what he understood, he’d just never had much interest in it before, or drinking. Didn’t really now, but John Sheppard tried to get under his skin and usually he snapped and came out of it looking like a geek. And he was determined not to be the geek forever. Not now he had a girlfriend. Not that he should really care about these things at thirty and teaching, but still, he wasn’t perfect, just pretty damn close.

Thinking of his girlfriend though…

He pushed himself up off the chair and made his way to the main desk, using the light and shadows created by the street lamps outside to guide his way. He stumbled around the desk, holding on and went into the back room. It was darker in there, there were shadows and darkness, and Rodney couldn’t see much at all, just a shape sitting on the sofa.

“Elizabeth?” There was silence so he made his way over to her, stubbing his toes on a few random items here and there, but even when right in front of the sofa he still couldn’t distinguish much. “Elizabeth, it’s not that bad, it’s not even your fault.”

Still there was no answer.

“You know I don’t like the silent treatment, and I’m sorry I’m drunk, really I am,” he was slurring and rambling and barely noticed the shape on the sofa shifting a bit. “But I don’t do very well in social situations, you know that, you know me, you know me better than anyone.”

He started to well up, and he realised something in his drunken stupor. He almost threw himself at the sofa, collapsing next the dark shape, becoming a dark shape himself.

“I love you,” There was more silence. “I know, it’s a shock, it’s a surprise to me too, but I do, I really,”

“Rodney?” A confused and sleepy Carson mumbled. “What are you doing?”

Rodney jumped to his feet again, almost falling over.

“Confessing my love to Elizabeth.”

“I’m not Elizabeth.”

“I know that now!”

“How could you mistake me for Elizabeth?”

“It’s dark!”

“I cannae believe this.”

“I saw Elizabeth come in here, where did she go?”

“I went upstairs.” Rodney whirled around and Carson looked past him to where Elizabeth stood in the doorway, partly lit by torchlight, “what’s going on?”

“Rodney was confessing his love for me.”

“For you, I was confessing my love for you.” Rodney jumped in, panic in his voice, “but you weren’t here.”

“You love me?” She asked, a little shocked. Four months in and she wasn’t expecting this, not from Rodney.

“Yes.” That was the Rodney she knew.

“I love you.”

“Really?”

“Yes!” He wanted to run over to her, and decided against it, that it would probably be sappy. That and he would probably fall over - he wasn’t exactly feeling steady right now. He made his way to her slowly and she hugged him tightly. They kissed, and then he pulled away, to look at Carson, but he couldn’t see the man, just a shape on the sofa.

“That could be anyone on the sofa, it’s so dark,” He said, still trying to explain, she couldn’t help but laugh.

“Did you call an electrician?” This was the Rodney she knew, moving away from a conversation that made him feel a little awkward and defending himself to the end.

“Yes, no one can get here until tomorrow.”

“So we can go home?” Carson asked from the darkness.

*****

Rodney woke the next day with the worst headache he had ever experienced. He may be able to hold his alcohol but his brain certainly objected. Right now it felt like it was trying to force its way out of his skull. The room was still dark but that wasn’t much of an indication of the time, Elizabeth had thick curtains, and thinking of her, he reached out to touch her, only to find she wasn’t there.

Groaning in disappointment and pain he forced himself to move over to her side of the bed and look at the clock there. When he read the time, half eleven, he shot up. The pain he felt almost made him pass out, so he lay down again and took deep breaths. He was not going to let a hangover get the better of him, and he closed his eyes.

When he felt able to move again he looked back at the clock and noticed a glass of water, some painkillers and note lying next to it. He reached out and took the painkillers, popping them out and throwing the packet to the floor. He swallowed them without water and reached for the note.

‘Rodney,
I had to go and deal with the library. I’ve called in sick for you so don’t worry about school. Please swallow the painkillers with the water. Love you, Elizabeth.’

He let the note drop to the floor and closed his eyes. He felt sick, but he wasn’t sure if it was because of the hangover or because he was in love.

Possibly both.