a remix of chopchica's Take A Chance On Me:

I'm the first in line
by Pares


"Huh," said John.

"Huh," said John. The other John.

They stared at each other. It was weird looking into his own face; it looked off, somehow, but that was probably due to years of looking at it in reverse in mirrors and not because he was eyeball to eyeball with his very own evil twin. Unless he was the evil twin. John closed his eyes briefly; he didn't feel evil, so he said, "I? not the evil twin," just as the other John said the same thing.

"Dear God. Sheppard in stereo," said Rodney, sounding genuinely dismayed.

The Johns shrugged. Rodney hadn't been even a little bit killed, and while the talking disco ball had been pushy in its touchy-feely-inner-truth sort of way, but it hadn't seemed overtly malevolent. John figured one more member of his team beat one less any day.

*

John changed his mind about that when John refused to let him pilot the jumper home.

Once they'd left the Pegasus version of Studio 54, John and his double walked out to meet Teyla and Ronon with Rodney trailing behind them with his mouth hanging open. Both Teyla and Ronon had frowned, but while Ronon had pulled his gun and loomed at them, Teyla had introduced herself. After a minute, Ronon had stopped doing whatever it was he'd been doing (John was tempted to call it 'sniffing at his hair', but then he didn't actually want to call it anything, so he resolved to stop thinking about it) and Teyla had merely waved her hand to indicate that the Johns should take the lead back to the jumper.

Once they got there, both he and John went for the command chair at the same time, which turned into wedging their shoulders against each other trying to shove the other one back, and then they were grappling with one another and possibly it would have devolved into hairpulling if Teyla hadn't cracked the whip.

"Stop this at once," said Teyla sharply. The Johns let each other go and tried to make their faces neutral. "Rodney will take us home. Ronon, you will see that they are comfortably settled in the back of the jumper. I will dial ahead and inform Elizabeth of the... change in our complement."

On the short flight home, Ronon kept a baleful eye on them, finally asking, "Which one of you is Sheppard?"

Rodney made a squeaking sound and leaned out of his chair to crane around and stare at them.

"Jesus. What if neither of them are Sheppard? What if we left the real one back on the planet and these two are just... decoys?" He looked well and truly horrified, and John couldn't help but feel his gut clench?hat if Rodney was right? John looked down at his hands helplessly, noting that the other him was doing the same thing, but Ronon sounded absolutely confident when he rumbled, "No, they're him, all right. They smell like Sheppard."

John looked back at Ronon feeling almost lightheaded with gratitude.

*

He spent an annoying day: prodded by Carlson, given the fish eye by a wary Elizabeth, and arguing with Rodney, Zelenka and... himself. It put a whole new meaning to the phrase, "Where ever you go, there you are." His ex-wife had complained about his competitive nature, and seeing as how he'd basically spent the day in endless pissing contests with a guy who looked exactly like him, he found out the hard way that it was just as obnoxious as she'd told him it was. Unfortunately, they both seemed incapable of backing down.

After Rodney left the lab, the place seemed even less interesting, so John took the opportunity to ditch his doppelganger and stroll toward Rodney's quarters. He checked a few times, but he didn't seem to have an escort trailing him maybe they figured the security cameras were enough. Or maybe his genuine DNA was worth a free pass, magic disco twin notwithstanding. John made himself try not to think about it.

He was still trying not to think about it as he left Rodney's room. The whole conversation had made his teeth clench?he last thing he'd expected from Rodney was a whole load of "get to know the inner you" crap.

*

He'd promised Beckett that he'd spend the night in the infirmary,

so he made his unhurried way back, whistling to himself, low and tuneless.

but he found himself heading for Ronon's quarters.

but he found himself heading for Teyla's quarters.

but he swung by his own room instead.