Work Text:
He heard neither the door open nor the approaching footsteps, but when an MRE was dropped onto his tablet, Rodney McKay looked up intending to do someone serious harm. “What do you think…” he trailed off at the look on Samantha Carter’s face.
“Your team tells me you’ve been in here working for two days straight. I thought you could use that.” She helped herself to a chair, rolling it over, sitting down close enough to get a look at what he’d been working on.
He brushed the brown packet aside and continued hitting buttons and typing numbers. “Yeah, well, I’ve been busy trying to keep the city from locking us up again. I would have thought you’d be especially happy with that. Unless you liked being trapped in a transporter with Zalenka so much you want a repeat.”
“God, no. Though we did develop a nice bond. He came to see me an hour ago. He’s worried about you.”
Muttering under his breath, “tattletale,” only made her laugh.
“What are you? Five?”
He looked up. “No, I’m…” He trailed off. He was a grown adult who saved the galaxy on practically a weekly basis and whose only other responsibility was a cat approximately 3 million light years away. And it looked like that’s how it was going to remain for the foreseeable future, at least. “I’m busy,” he finished, and pretended to be even more absorbed in his work, though he tapped the screen in annoyance and entered a wrong figure he had to go back and edit because he was sure she’d point it out otherwise.
“Too busy to eat?”
“Yes.”
“I didn’t realize that was possible for you.”
“Well, it is.”
“Well, all right then.” Sam got up and walked toward the door. This time Rodney was acutely aware of each of her footfalls, counting to gauge how close she was to leaving, how close he was to having his lab to himself again. His stomach rumbled at all the talk of food, and he did love a good MRE. He had no intention of going back to the cafeteria any time soon. Meals only reminded him of his botched attempt at lunch with Katie.
“Rodney?”
Rodney tensed, his hand freezing in place. He closed his eyes, his back to the door and to Sam. “What?”
When she spoke, there wasn’t a hint of Air Force Colonel in her voice. She sounded calm and sympathetic. “This will pass, you know. You’ll get through it.”
“Get through what?” Apparently, denying the problem was the wrong thing to say, because he could hear her coming toward him again. He winced and opened his eyes, trying to put on a brave face.
But she stopped behind him and put a hand on his shoulder. “I know you were going to propose. It’s been a rough week for you.”
Rough was being cocooned on a wraith hive or trapped under water in a flooding ship or being shot at from all directions while he tried to dial the gate for team members who might not make it through after him. Deciding that he’d wasted the last two years of his life on a romance that had no serious future wasn’t exactly what he’d call rough. He forced a smile, even though Sam was behind him and couldn’t see it. “Too bad you’re my boss now, or I might have had a shot. I guess that sort of thing is frowned upon, right?”
He heard her take a sharp breath in before she replied, “Yes, that definitely is.”
There was silence for a few moments. Rodney was aware of the warmth of her hand still sitting on his shoulder. Then the touch changed as she moved around to the side, leaning over and kissing him on his cheek.
“But being there for someone you care about isn’t. You know where to find me if you want to talk.” She left for real this time, and he sat alone in the silence for nearly a full minute before he ripped open the military rations pack and took a bite.