SG5 - Give the Ki a clue - Sawyer/Cochraine/Svaboda

[Kitty]

The spicy scent of Marrakesh coffee filled Svaboda's tiny office.
After her talk with Mac she'd curled into her desk chair, flipped on
the computer and started on the second half of her lengthy fight with
after mission reports. It was slow going even using the most
perfunctory of descriptions, reminding Mieke why she'd pawned the task
off on her XO every chance she'd gotten. Now the rights for that task
were officially transferred to Cochraine. Whether he'd been informed
of this yet or not though she wasn't sure. Might as well break the
news she thought to herself as she pulled Eddie off the coffee maker
into her lap and petted the prop's fluff of cottony hair lazily. Mieke
picked up the phone with her free hand and dialed out to Ki's cell.
Wherever he was the call would find him. That was the beautiful of the
military and its fantastic electronic leashes.

~+~+~+~

"And so I jokingly asked Mieke if she thought I could put in an
expenses claim for my Prada shoes but judging by the look on her face
and the steam coming out of her ears I decided it would be wiser to
drop the -" Aidan glanced at Ki as there was a weird noise, "is that
your mobile?"

Ki grabbed his phone and opened it. "Cochraine here. It's your
dime."

"That's fascinating Ki. I'm so glad you think of those kinds of
details." Svaboda's nose wrinkled in glee as the beginnings of a plan
was coming to mind. "Where are you? Have you congratulated Mac yet?"

"What?" He wrinkled his brows in confusion. "Aidan and I are just
leaving the DFAC, headed out on our respective ways, Major. What am I
congratulating Mac for?" He turned a shoulder to Aidan and looked
questioningly at her.

She tilted her head and raised an eyebrow in confusion before giving
Ki a helpless shrug. She was a clueless as he.

"Oh - you can both come back to the office for a sec so I can properly
break the news then. I'll start another pot of coffee for you two. See
you in a few." Mieke hung up with a cackle. An audience! The joy!

Ki slowly folded the phone closed. He turned to his teammate with a
worried expression. "She was cackling as she hung up the phone,
Aidan. She wants us in her office. Are you as nervous as I am?"

"Partly," she flashed him a half smile, "but more intrigued. When
Mieke cackles, it usually involves torturing teachers and dead frogs."

"Ribbit." Ki muttered as they headed down the hallway.

~+~+~+~+~

There was a rap on the door, sharp as a gunshot.

"Come in!" Mieke yelled. She was sitting far too primly behind her
desk, smiling like the cat that ate the canary.

Ki opened the door, strode into the room and one pace away from her
desk. He executed a right-face, and fired off a salute. "Ma'am!
First Lieutenant Malachi Cochraine reporting as ordered, Ma'am!" It
was mostly in jest - but just in case...

Aidan raised an eyebrow at him but merely gave Mieke a lazy half wave.
"What's going on?"

"Coffee's on the burner, toots. Sit your butt down, Cochraine. So
news: right after we got done with the briefing Mac was given his own
team. You've got to give him a cheer when you see him. Effective
immediately he's on to greener pastures." Svaboda dumped a small mound
of sugar into her coffee cup, pausing for dramatic effect.

Ki's grin split from ear to ear. "That's great! Mac deserves his own
Team - he'll be great at doing it, too." He snagged a coffee cup that
said 'I'm not crazy - my reality is just different than yours.' He
poured it mostly full, and topped it off with cream before taking the
offered seat. "We have new team members coming in as well, I've
heard..."

"Yes a Corporal Bishop and a Lt. Zhu. I'll be expecting you to help
with whatever training that they'll need in order to get them caught
up with the rest of the Team and whatever provisioning extras that
they'll be needing in their kits as part of the standard requests.
You're the form man now, Ki." Taking a quarter of the thick as hell
ream of papers off the corner of her desk Mieke stretched across and
set them in Cochraine's hands. "These were Mac's. They're yours now."

"Oh, joy..." He thumbed through the stack, noting the various
different forms in it. "Poor guy. Well, maybe I can get it sorted
through before the new XO gets here. Fresh start, and all that..."

"Um Ki..." Aidan had seen that look on Mieke's face before. Fresh
blood, new victim...glee. A wide smile broke on the diplomat's face
as she rolled her eyes at Ki, "you're being a twit dear,
congratulations. You're our team second in command. Right, Mieke?"

"Right. See, this is why we keep you around, Aidan. You can interpret
my crazy for practical applications. Now, Ki: are you up for this?"
Riding in the tin can had been hard on him she knew. Mieke didn't want
to overwhelm him. "We've got time to get all of this done."

It took a moment to register what the pair of them were saying; but
once it hit, he stopped his imitation of a dying fish and looked
carefully at his CO. Kit took the moment to sit back; he sipped his
coffee, and thumbed through the paperwork for a moment. "I'm up for
it, Major. It's a responsibility I've actually been looking forward
to. I consider it an honor that you'd ask for me, rather than
bringing in a more seasoned, higher ranking officer from the
outside." He paused quietly for a moment, then nodded. "I accept.
Thank you, Ma'am."

Awww, Mieke thought to herself. His response was so damn proper. Thank
goodness that one of them was. "I'm glad you accept. If you tried to
run away screaming I'd have pegged you with a paper weight and drug
you back in any how. Since you've accepted however I can re-release
you into the wild. You, too, Aidan until I haul you in for more target
practice."

"Oh." Aidan went pale at the thought but blustered though. "Of
course, Mieke. Get some rest too alright?" There was no way she was
picking up again any time soon, but she wasn't going to bring this up
in front of Ki. The 'told you so' song would not be a happy sound to
her ears right now.

"Coolness." Ki stood up and tossed back the rest of his coffee. "I
signed out for local area leave, so I'm on my cell phone if you need
me, Ma'am. I'm gonna go figure out how to do this XO thing, I
guess..."

"You know how to reach me if you need to talk about any of it. Now get
out of here since you can. No use in all of us being stuck here. Go
have fun." Svaboda shooed the two away with a remaining folder sitting
on her desk. "If you see Reznik make sure that he's okay. And no
putting the new guys through hell without me."

"You got it, Boss." Ki waved his fingers in the general direction of
his forehead and headed out the door.

As he went out, Aidan turned and flashed a smile at Mieke, "I'll take
care of Sol if I see him. You take care of yourself, alright? Don't
work too hard, get some rest." She waved and followed Ki out the
door.

----------

1Lt Malachi Cochraine
Newly-Appointed Assistant Looney Herder
SG-5

Ms Aidan Sawyer
Diplomat
SG5 - Sidewinders

Here's my philosophy on dating. It's important to have somebody that
can make you laugh, somebody you can trust, somebody that, y'know,
turns you on... And it's really, really important that these three
people don't know each other. ~ Brooke, One Tree Hill
Major Mieke Svaboda
SG5’s CO and Medic

"Oh. We're in Hell. Neat." - Joel, MST3K, Lost Continent