Supplemental by Lierdumoa [School Challenge]

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Title: Supplemental
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis
Pairing: gen, (loud) hints of John/Rodney
Rating: PG
Summary: Teyla gets a lesson in mechanics. The physics kind, not the car kind. Rodney loses his pudding cup. Hijinks.
A/N: Thanks to fashes, rageprufrock and seperis for the readthrough, in depth edit, and audiencing (respectively), all on very short notice. You guys are awesome!



It began when Rodney asked Teyla what kind of mathematics the Athosians taught their children.

To be more accurate, it began when Sheppard asked Ronon about his gun. They were sitting in the mess hall, Rodney with a pile of incomprehensible notes he'd taken with him to lunch. The question somehow led to Ronon grabbing a piece of paper and a pen off of Rodney and drawing some rough schematics. That got Dr. McKay curious for a brief while as he asked about the physics that went into the pulse emission. He lost interest the instant Ronon informed him that the particulars of it were over his head, all attention focusing back on his nearly finished lunch.

As it turned out, Ronon's area of study had been better suited to knowing the material chemistry of the gun's inner and outer casing, his knowledge merely basement level, as he put it. John got curious and asked a few questions regarding Satedan education.

Rodney scribbled down a couple problems and asked Ronon to solve them. John snatched the paper from him. "Rodney, this isn't a class and he's not some helpless undergrad here to do your bidding."

"Well yes, but it's not unreasonable that I would want to evaluate the knowledge level of my team. Particularly considering I risk my life next to—"

"Rodney, I don't know if your parents ever taught you the magic word as a child. I'll give you a hint. It isn't 'now.'"

Rodney turned back to Ronon scowling. "So?"

Ronon gave him a thoughtful look. "What's in it for me?"

"A more smoothly running group dynamic?"

Ronon raised an eyebrow.

"....I'll give you my pudding cup?"

John frowned. "Rodney, we're not in the second—"

"Deal."

Teyla looked from one to the other with a mildly amused expression before burying her smile behind an fruit she'd picked up from the day's lunch offerings. Ronon grabbed the paper and stared at the problems for a moment before looking questioningly at Rodney. "I'm not sure what—"

John rounded the table to look over Ronon's shoulder, and a crease appeared between his eyebrows. "Rodney, this is a trick question."

"If he can answer it, he can answer it."

"Not if it's a trick question. And also? How exactly do you expect him to—hey, do you mind if I?" Ronon handed the paper to John, "—figure these out?" John eliminated one sentence.

"You're making blatant cultural references. They don't even have these in South America, let alone on Sateda, what is this, the SAT's?" He crossed out three more words.

"The SA ... oh, you're accusing me of writing a biased problem? You're certainly one to talk when it comes to blatant and incomprehensible cultural—"

"We're trying to figure out how much he knows, not screw with his brains Rodney what are you—"

"I'm trying to—"

"Rodney would you just let go of. Let go the paper Rodneyletgo."

John managed hand the paper over to Ronon with only a slight rip, pointing out which letters signified variables and which signified constants. Rodney was of course, quick to point out that such information should be clear based on the wording of the question, but any further complaints he might have made went unsaid after John glared him into silence.

Fifteen minutes later, Rodney was tapping his foot impatiently, John was slouched comfortably in his chair and Teyla had perched herself on the table next to Ronon's work,, looking down on it from over her shoulder with varying levels of comprehension. Five minutes after that, Ronon dropped his pen and thrust the sheet of paper back at Rodney, simultaneously grabbing Rodney's pudding cup off his tray with his other hand.

Rodney snatched it up from his hands and blinked at it for a few moments slamming the paper back down in front of him, finger spearing viciously onto Ronon's circled answer, snapping out quick questions as to which symbols signified multiplication and division. He then started grilling him for a clear cut explanation of the Satedan standard for order of operations, pausing briefly to glare when John rolled up a ripped piece of paper into a ball and threw it at his forehead.

He continued his interrogation, though with somewhat more politeness. Finally he snatched up the pencil, scrawling in his own handwriting Ronon's answer, translated into typical North American textbook syntax.

"It's wrong."

John peered over his shoulder. "He was close."

"Yes, but still wrong."

"Got something against partial credit, McKay?"

Teyla had long since taken to ignoring the two of them in favor of neatly opening a powerbar she'd been carrying on her person.

"He's not being graded," Rodney pointed out. "He doesn't get partial credit."

Teyla cleared her throat softly to get Ronon's attention. "What do you think they are speaking of now?"

Ronon raised his eyebrows. "Not sure."

"He hasn't done math in over seven years, Rodney," John said. "I'm frankly surprised he remembered any of it."

Teyla smiled mysteriously. "We show similar behavior among my people. Usually it comes as a precursor to, I believe their term is ... making out?"

Ronon snorted. Quietly. "Think that's what it means?"

Teyla smiled secretively at Ronon. "I thought so, but it has been at least thirteen moons since I first noticed it. I have concluded that Dr. McKay in particular is unaware of his behavior. He shows a social ... disability ... unfamiliar among my people."

Rodney frowned at John, oblivious to the conversation happening a few feet away. "Huh. Well I suppose you have a point." At John's faux shocked look, Rodney quickly snapped. "Oh, don't let it go to your head." Turning back to Ronon, he pursed his lips in a patronizingly considering look. "So you know a little more than I'd thought.

Teyla offered the last half of her power bar to Rodney, remembering that food made him somewhat more complacent. He took it from her with a grateful mumble, not taking his eyes of Ronon, the look of ill-disguised surprise still lingering on his face.

John smirked. "Don't be so shocked Rodney. His people's technology was obviously more advanced than Earth's before their civilization was destroyed. What, you think they didn't have universities?"

"Huh. You know I wonder about that." He turned back to Ronon. "How much did your people manage to salvage anyway?"

The conversation then degenerated into a rather depressing discussion of how much of the knowledge of Ronon's race was likely to be lost over the next generation. Well, depressing for Ronon, Teyla and John. Rodney's speculation on the matter was purely scientific. And, of course, discussion of Ronon's culture quickly led to curiosity on the preservation of knowledge among Teyla's people following their forced transition into a nomadic lifestyle.

---

Teyla agreed to working out a set of written problems on account of curiosity as to how her own people's knowledge stood against that of the people of the Atlantis expedition. That and a favor of unspecified magnitude. Teyla did, after all, know how to barter.

Half an hour and another problem sheet later, Rodney announced that Teyla, having the least amount of math and science knowledge, owed it to them to learn some in the interests of remaining on equal standing with the rest of the team. Whereupon one glare and two raised eyebrows forced him to immediately retract the latter part of his statement.

"But, my point still stands. She should learn some physics. She's clearly displayed that her math is at a level to understand simple Euclidean geometry and a fair amount of algebra II. We can teach her calculus. I've got whiteboards in the labs."

John cocked his head, passing a contemplative look back and forth between Rodney and Teyla, then shrugging at Ronon. "Sure let's head over. But skip the calculus for now. Mechanics is probably more practical."

Rodney frowned at that, simultaneously stuffing his papers back into the divider he was carrying under his arm. "She should learn calculus first before even attempting mechanics."

"Calculus?" Teyla smiled, curious.

The four of them stepped into the transporter. "It's a branch of math," John explained, looking back at Teyla as he followed Rodney out of the transporter and towards the entrance to Lab 6. "It comes right after trigonometry, which is kind of like geometry except. Not."

Rodney barked a laugh. "Oh, thank you Sheppard. I'm sure that clears things right up for her. Now like I was saying, if she's going to learn mechanics, she needs to learn single variable calculus first."

"It's not that much calculus, she can pick it up as she goes along."

"What, like you did?"

"As a matter of fact, yes."

"Wait, seriously?" Rodney pointed an imperious finger at John. "See, now explain that to me. I don't get that. If you're this intuitive with math why the hell were you piloting helicopters in Antarctica?"

"I really don't think what I decided to do with my life has anything to do with—"

"Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard," Teyla cut in. "Dr. McKay. Perhaps now that we are in your lab it would be appropriate to speak at a volume more suited for indoors."

The three swung their gazes over to a glowering Dr. Simpson. Ronon let out a snort that sounded suspiciously like a giggle.

Rodney grimaced. John's face did not change, but for the tips of his ears turning ever so faintly pink. Rodney looked back at John, regarding him carefully for a moment before firmly repeating, "Calculus first."

"Well if you're going to just teach her straight math, I'm pretty sure, like I mentioned earlier, that trig comes after algebra II, not calculus."

"Trigonometry is useless and you know it."

"It's not totally—"

"You memorize identities! Identities which you later learn how to derive in, oh what was it? Oh yes. Calculus! Trigonometry isn't math, it's geography."

"Hey, I liked geography."

"Oh and why does that not surprise—"

"Dr. McKay," Radek interjected.

Rodney paused, as if suddenly realizing that his face was less than three inches from John's. Rodney quickly stepped back and swung around to pin Radek with a glare. "What?"

Radek walked up to him and snatched the divider full of notes out from under his arm, setting it on the table next to Rodney's laptop. "I think that I can take it from here." He smiled lightly at Teyla and motioned for her to follow him to the nearest empty whiteboard.

Rodney was silent behind Teyla for a few moments before growling at John to help him look over some newly discovered Ancient devices. Radek began outlining a few fundamental laws on the whiteboard. She picked things up fairly quickly, to Dr. Zelenka's obvious delight. Or perhaps not so surprisingly, as she'd managed to glean most of the basic principles from John and Rodney over the past year and a half.

Two hours later Ronon got bored and went to grab food from the mess hall. Rodney was typing at his laptop. John was lying across the desk in front of him, calling out numbers in a casual yet completely ruthless game of prime, not prime.

"Please," Teyla said, "Show me again how to solve this problem in vector format?"

Radek began outlining it again when Ronon returned with a handful of nuts and took to munching loudly behind Teyla. A few minutes later, John and Rodney, who were once again embroiled in a small shouting match.
"... the city's systems can't take that. And don't you have a job your supposed to be doing?"

"Don't you? Not that Teyla's education isn't important, but I wouldn't exactly call it priority, especially considering Radek's doing all the work."

Radek put his hand to his forehead and let out a quiet sigh. Teyla smiled encouragingly, attempting to draw out in the format he'd shown her solution for a new problem

"I am doing work and it has nothing to do with the two of them. What do you think I've been doing on my laptop this whole time?"

"Playing minesweeper."

"Do you really think that I would just. I'll have you know I. I am not just standing here being nonconstructive and cheating at dumb math games with my—"

"Maybe I'm not cheating, maybe I'm just smarter than—"

"Oh, you did not just—Ow! You made me bite my tongue!"

"I did not—"

Ronon started to laugh softly.

Teyla glanced back to find that Rodney had spun around in a sulk, face red with anger. John glared at the back of his head as if, Teyla imagined, he were trying to figure out a way to pull one of Rodney's nonexistent braids. "McKay, you're the one who asked me to sit here and start touching things for you; don't think I don't have better things to do than this."

"Well if you do you should just—"

"Rodney!"

Radek had his arms crossed over his chest and was leveling a considerable glare at Rodney's scowling face. Rodney opened his mouth as if to argue. He paused. His mouth closed as he slowly turned his gaze from Zelenka to Ronon, who was now leaning against the far wall of the room, clutching his stomach and shaking with silent laughter.

"I'm leaving," he hissed, stalking to the door only to turn back to John and snap, "Are you coming or not?"

The lesson quieted down considerably after this.

---

It ended half an hour after that, with Zelenka setting down his dry erase marker and pulling out a piece of paper to write out problems as neatly as possible. He handed the problem set to Teyla with a smile. "Perhaps we can pick this up later in the week?"

Teyla smiled. "I would like that."

Zelenka slumped down in the nearest chair, grabbing a half finished, lukewarm mug of coffee off the table. Teyla put down her own marker, frowning briefly at the blue and black smudging her fingertips before giving her work on the board one last look over and dropping into the chair next to Radek. "It was generous of you to show me this."

"I never taught in any formal capacity. I always thought I'd have done well, should I have attempted it."

Teyla smiled. "I have often thought the same of myself. I've helped train in fighting, but I often wished for a younger sister or brother that I could have taught to read or write."

They fell silent again, staring at the remains of the day's lesson.

"Do you have work to get back to?"

"Not at the moment. Rodney is taking care of it. Colonel Sheppard is helping, I'm sure. He knows the city almost as well as us here in the labs, I think."

"Yes, him and Dr. McKay are very ... close."

Radek gave her a curious smile. "You know, there are rumors that you and Col. Sheppard might have become ... close over the past year. Although, there are a few who believe that Ronon has now caught your fancy."

Teyla's lips quirked at the thought. "Do your people often tell tales such as these?"

"Occasionaly. Mostly, it would seem, in regards to your team. The other teams, not as much."

"And you take part in this?"

Zelenka hid his expression behind the rim of his coffee mug. "I dabble. Tiny bit. For curiosity."

Teyla glanced over to him with a sly look. "Perhaps I can correct these assumptions." She reached over and patted him lightly on the knee. "It is not the way of my people to consort with children."

Radek cocked an eyebrow, then raised his cup to her.

"Well put."