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Peja's Wonderful World of Makebelieve Import
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Published:
2020-11-04
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873
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1/1
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5
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Cold Comfort

Summary:

Comfort can come in many forms in many different ways.
Notes: Response to another PEJA's line challenge...
Dedication: This one definitely has to be dedicated to the folks at the pegasus_gate that actually brought this pairing to my
attention. :)
Distribution: WWOMB, anyone else, please ask.
Feedback: Yes, please. How else will I improve?
Spoilers: SG1 S8 ep. "New Order" and SG Atlantis ep. "Rising"

Work Text:

Cold Comfort
by C. Harper

 

"I saw what you did last night." Rodney McKay whispered, moving out onto the Atlantean balcony to stare out at the vast ocean before him. "I saw you."

At his best guess, Rodney would have bet they were at least an hour away from true daylight. Out on the horizon the stars were fading and the sky was changing from a near blackness to a deep shade of blue. It reminded him of the few times he'd actually been awake to see the sun rise on Earth. Not that that had happened often. As a rule, when not on a mission, Rodney tried not to be up until the sun's already up and blaring in the sky. It wasn't a firm rule, of course, but it was still there.

Then again, that rule only applied on earth and since it's been almost twenty-four hours since he's stepped through the event horizon from Earth to Atlantis...well...

The astrophysicist sighed, glancing over at the figure next to him. John Sheppard. Major John Sheppard whom, somehow, knew just how many gate combinations there was even though the scientist would swear up, down and sideways that he didn't think Sheppard had read a single *piece* of material on the project.

Sheppard, who had that goddamn gene of the ancients that connected him to, it seemed, all things. From the moment the Air Force Major had sat down in the chair-of-the-ancients things came alive for him. Things moved and started and powered up because Sheppard was there. He was linked in a way Rodney could only dream about.

"Oh, yeah?" Sheppard whispered back, turning from where he's leaning against the railing to stare at Rodney's profile. He looked...well, Rodney wouldn't say 'at home' here but it's certainly an apt description with the way the man's leaning casually against the railing, one hand dangling over the side and the other resting gently on the standard issue P90. He looks like he hasn't got a care in the world. Even with the bags under his eyes.

"Yes. I saw what you were doing." Rodney murmured, making sure to keep his eyes out on the ocean. The waves are docile as ever still; Lapping against one another and gently spraying the sides of the Atlantis. It would have been an amazing day for the ocean to be this calm on one of Earth's beaches. Even he, who had rarely gotten the chance to get out over the last few years, would have jumped at the chance to spend some time there.

The scientist frowned, casting a glance at his companion. The breeze coming off the waves below are making Sheppards hair blow across his forehead, tussling it in a way that makes him look younger and more rested than he is. Rodney knows otherwise though. At least about the latter. He'd seen Sheppard last night. If the man had gotten an hour of sleep, Rodney would throw himself over the ledge.

"You can't just learn all of that overnight, you know. Even those of us who've been working on the gate project for more years than we haven't, know we can't learn it all. It's impossible." Hey says suddenly, shocking himself. He shouldn't really have cared what the Major did. If the man wanted to stay up all night, that was none of Rodney's business.

'Yeah, right.' Rodney thought, 'You noticed him last night Rodney. You kept an eye on him even if he you "didn't" care.'

The scientist shook his head. He doesn't even know why he's telling Sheppard any of this in the first place.

'Liar'

It's not like he owes the air force officer anything, anyway. Just because the man sat in the chair-of-the-ancients and brought going to Atlantis to reality...well, that doesn't mean much. Right?

'And it doesn't mean anything that he makes you nervous and you're stomach tight whenever he's around, either, does it?'

He wishes he could believe that. He really does.

"Impossible?"

Rodney nodded, swallowing. A part of him wished Sheppard had just come to him last night instead instead of staying up all night reading files and listening intently to anything anyone happened to mention of value about the Stargate. Not that Sheppard had been obvious about it, no. But Rodney knew what he was doing.

"Is that right?"

Rodney's eyes flickered to Sheppard then back to the ocean. "Yeah, that's right."

Silence descended over the two of them then but Rodney really didn't care. Sheppard wasn't the only one who had been up all night. Hour after hour he'd spent processing any data his team had managed to pull together. Hours of trying to get his mind to twist and bend in every possible direction so he'd get the right calculations and wouldn't fail them. One misstep and...he's not really sure *what* will happen but he'll be damned if he lets him...them... find out anytime soon.