Too Many Scientists Spoil the Plot by Purpleyin

Too Many Scientists Spoil the Plot von Purpleyin

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### Chapter 1: One and one can make more than two ###

Sheppard's head moved back and forth between the two. It was crazy, two McKay's?

He did the only sensible thing there was and gathered them up, grabbing them both, one by each hand leading them like children.

"I think this calls for a trip to the infirmary, even if it's only to get Beckett to check my eyes out."

The McKay's were too busy studying each other over his shoulders to make any kind of comment.

Stack house followed, gun pointed suspiciously. "You're eyes are fine sir, I see both of them too."

Sheppard groaned, "I was kidding Stackhouse."

He just knew this was going to be a long day.

###

Carson had dropped the clipboard he was holding when they'd walked into the infirmary and Sheppard had been worried he would faint from shock, his face had been so pale.

"Doc?" he snapped his fingers, pushing the two silent McKays towards the man.

His first question in a thick Scottish accent of his confusion was "How?"

"You tell me."

At that Carson had shuffled the patients plural through to the examination area, still doing a double take.

Meanwhile Sheppard activated his comm, knowing this it was his job to inform a certain someone of whatever had happened. Oh joy.

"Weir, come in. We have a situation you are going to want to know about."

"What is it?" she asked, a strain evident.

"It's..." pausing, unsure whether he could really phrase it correctly, "Rodney."

"Is he hurt?"

Sheppard noticed the fear in her voice and replied quickly, easing that off.

"Nooo.... he's fine, perhaps more than fine you might say. This is hard to explain, just meet us in the infirmary."

###

By the time she'd arrived with Teyla and Ford, Beckett had almost finished, both of the McKays behind a screen away from sight. The three of them entered; Weir had her arms crossed, still evidently worried, with the other two straight behind her.

"Whats going on?" she asked, peering over his shoulder anxiously at the three silhouettes behind the screen.

He wasn't sure how to say it and twisted his mouth around, angling for the words when Beckett drew back the screen sharply exclaiming "There we go, all done."

Weir's eyebrows shot up and her mouth dropped open at the sight, with Teyla and Ford holding equally amused and confused looks on their now pale faces.

"Oh there you are. I think I can explain now." Beckett said smiling cheerfully.

"There are two of him!" came the rather blank response from a shocked Ford.

"How astute of you." relied one of the McKay's with a look of disdain.

"Yes, we hadn't noticed that ourselves yet." finished the other, who nearly sneered the sentence. Somehow he didn't think they were taking it well.

"Please do." Elizabeth said.

It was Beckett's turn to be confused once more. "What?"

She elaborated, annoyed at having to and rather abnormally showing that. "Please do explain this."

"Oh, yes, right.. of course. Both of these men" he swayed his arm toward the two figures " are Doctor Rodney McKay."

"Yeah but how?" asked Ford, exasperated that they'd made no progress other than establishing there were two of them.

Beckett placed his hands on his hips, his strained mood firing up at Fords second bad choice of what to say. "Well I don't know how do ah. Only that both of them are genetically identical, except for the lack of ATA gene in one of them, making him for lack of a better word the clone."

The one on the right seemed to bristle at the use of that particular term.

Another question came from Ford, the only one actually saying much about it all other than the McKay's. "How do we tell them apart?"

"Well you can't aside from the lack of ATA in one and the big bump on the head the other has."

Sheppard wondered if it would cease to amaze the Lieutenant anytime soon. His questions nearly as bad as his talent for naming things. And he hoped to God that Ford wouldn't get round to naming the McKay's. He could just imagine the young mans voice piping 'Dr McKay 2! Wait up'. He had to think of something better before Ford got the idea.

Weirs eyes glanced down thoughtfully, the air tense.

Sheppard thought the situation could do with a little injection of humour.

"Looks like you got your very own Kirk moment McKay." he said smirking, then stopping to ponder and adding "....'s" for the fact there were more than one.

"Ha ha, very funny Major", both McKay's saying the same thing at same time, identical expressions of sarcastic wonder and then looking oddly across to each other clearly not happy.

"What do we do about this?" A further silly question from Ford which prompted an outburst from the cloned McKay.

"What do you mean do about this? We're both me."

"Well, speak for yourself, you haven't got a bruise the size of Antarctica on your head for one." retorted the first McKay.

At that squabbling broke out between it seemed everyone but himself and Weir. He thought the situation was hopeless until she spoke up.

At her voice the McKay's both stopped stock still and Ford broke off his argument with Teyla on the implications of having two McKay's on base.

"Everyone be quiet. This is perfectly simple. Carson, what do you recommend?"

The doctor looked put on the spot for a second before coming into his element.

"Well the clone, sorry to call ya that, is fit as a fiddle but I'll need to keep the other McKay here for observation for at least a few hours due to his head injury."

She looked around beaming at them, meeting everyones eyes and forcing weak smiles back in return

"That's settled then. And I think after all this excitement I could do with lunch." She started off towards the door, the others exiting first.

McKay sat on the bed, whilst Carson began poking him, watching the other him jog up to Elizabeth

"Mind if I join you for lunch Elizabeth?"

"Of course not Rodney, it'd be a pleasure."

She smiled a gorgeous smile up at the other him and Rodney felt jealous. The other guy had all the luck to escape uninjured. A second later his ears picked up her second sentence before she left his range of hearing.

"I'm just glad you're ok." she said as she took the proffered arm of his clone.

He huffed, had she completely forgotten he wasn't all ok considering he was sitting on an infirmary bed about to be nearly tortured with Carson's overattentive administrations.

He found himself already developing a dislike for the 'other' him.

A dislike he found deepened when he finally caught up with Elizabeth later on, having been given the all clear by the good doctor.

He'd turned the corner, about to call out to her when he'd just come into the range where he could see who she was talking to. His clone.

Furthermore his clone moved in closer, much closer than necessary or appropriate, as he told her something she obviously found funny, her head tipping back as she giggled. He'd never made her giggle before, what could he have possibly said to her?

They both looked up, the moment interrupted gladfully by his proximity.

He tried to sound casual and unaffected as he called out to them.

"Elizabeth" he greeted her cheerfully, then turning stiffly and looking his clone up and down settling for saying nothing.

He turned his attention back to her as she started to address him.

"Ford suggested that it might be easier to tell which one of you is which if you wear different shirts or something, Anything we can distinguish you by."

"Sure, that's fine, whatever you want." he replied eager to please her.

She smiled warmly, at both of them he noted, before she bid them farewell.

Without paying any further time to the thought he began walking to his quarters, stopping when he picked up on the second set of footsteps that appeared to be following him.

"What do you want?" he asked, frustrated at his clone. This day had been far too stressful already and all he wanted was to get back to his room and relax.

"I'm going to my quarters,"

He blinked unsure he'd heard the man correctly.

"Your quarters?"

"Yes, my quarters. In fact they're our quarters and have our clothes. How else did you think we were both going to get different shirts to separate ourselves."

"Let me get this straight, you, expect me, to give you, some of my clothes?"

The meaning of the emphasis in the statement seemed completely lost on his clone who stubbornly said a simple "Yes."

He grumpily conceded as they approached the door. "Fine, but you get yourself your own quarters. I was here first." he said as he pressed the control crystals to open it.

It had been a mistake for him to collapse on his bed first thing upon getting inside the room.

He'd lay there face down, groaning into the covers in pain. Even though Carson had cleared the injury it didn't make it hurt less.

He'd looked up at the noise of the door opening to see the clone making off with a large bundle of clothes but quickly rushed out after him when he saw what one of the items was.

"Hey, get back here."

The clone stopped, looking back at him annoyed.

"You can't take that, it's my favourite shirt." he said as he moved to take one of the items.

"Too bad you weren't paying attention earlier then isn't it. I got there first." the clone said tugging it back harshly before sprinting off into the distance so quickly Rodney couldn't protest further.

He pouted unhappily at the empty corridor. That had been his favourite shirt as well, the one he was sure made him look his absolute best. He'd been saving it in case he needed it for a special occasion even though there weren't really any such events on Atlantis.

He returned to the room, rooting through the makeshift wardrobe, holding up piece after piece of clothing.

He whined, realising that all he'd been left with were his comfortable but lame geeky tshirt and shirts combos. The only good thing about that was at least no one could mistake them if there was one smartly dressed and one geekily dressed, only it made him look bad and the clone look good, perhaps too good he thought as he considered the earlier exchange when he'd gone to meet Elizabeth.

He tried to rationalise that he was sure he'd imagined it, after all he'd never do anything like that with Elizabeth. Only he couldn't shake off the feeling since it wasn't really him he was talking about.

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Too Many Scientists Spoil the Plot von Purpleyin

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