“Jennifer, I’m fine!” Rodney groaned as he padded through his small flat. His foot hit something; he cringed as he hopped several inches. Suppressing a shiver, he cursed himself for not staying in the bathroom three minutes more to get dressed and for not at least bothering to finish towelling off. “I’m trying to-” he cut himself off, realizing that that trail of thought wasn’t something he wanted to share with whoever was outside the door. “I don’t need-” he cut himself off again just as he threw the door open. Sam was standing out in the hallway, clad with a tight blue top and formfitting jeans, a leather jacket draped over her shoulders, and a laptop case slung over the right. He gapped at her a moment, suddenly realizing he was standing, open to the world- but mostly Sam Carter- with nothing covering him but a towel. “You’re not Jennifer.”
“No.” Sam’s eyes trailed over his dripping body and Rodney tried to pretend that it wasn’t flattering. She looked back up at his face, pretending that she wasn’t surprised by his muscular physique or affected by the droplets of water running down his bare chest. “Who’s Jennifer?”
“She’s the woman down the hall from… somewhere unpronounceable… Was that jealousy in your voice?”
“Casual curiosity,” she shrugged.
He just nodded, though there was a shadow of a smile on his lips. “You wanna come in?” She raised an eyebrow at his question, allowing her eyes to glance his body once more as a means of explanation. He looked down at himself, almost as if he had forgotten what he was wearing. “I could go get dressed.”
Sam just shook her head. “No, um… I just brought your laptop.”
“Oh… I didn’t… realize that I forgot it.” His voice trailed off near the end of his sentence. He took the case from her, setting it down on the floor near the wall. He only took his eyes off her for a few seconds to do so. “Sure you don’t want to come in? We, uh, we never did finish.” He stopped, eyes widening and mouth gapping opened as he read into his words. “Work. I mean we never did finish working on- on the, um, thing.”
She just laughed at him, smiling at his nervousness. Rodney was mesmerized by it. He couldn’t look away from the gleam in her blue eyes. “No… No, I-I really should get going.”
“Okay. Thanks for bringing this back.”
“Yeah. No problem.”
She turned to walk away, but made it only a few steps before Rodney called out after her. “Sam?” She turned slowly to look at him, her face a question, asking him to continue. “About last night- I-I didn’t leave because I didn’t want to… I just thought… I thought that you didn’t and so I-I just-” Finally he just sighed, hanging his head in defeat. She smirked at him, but Rodney didn’t see it.
“I know, Rodney.”
“Okay. See you later?”
Her mouth opened to respond with a good-bye, but she paused, mouth half-opened as she considered something else. “Rodney?” He looked at her. “I have this… thing tomorrow night I have to go to. One of those stupid cocktail parties to suck up to the higher ups…” She sighed, looking away from his eyes and finally settling on the doorframe near his head. “Anyway, Daniel has this archaeology thing and Mitchell agreed to baby-sit to get out of tomorrow evening. And Teal’c’s going to see his son and Bra’tac. And so basically I’m on my own. So-”
“You want me to be your date?”
She tossed her head from side to side, making a gesture somewhere between a shrug and shaking her head. “Yes,” she finally decided.
“I’d love to. What time?”
“Pick me up at seven?”
“Seven it is.”
She tossed him a smile. Rodney knew it wasn’t the brightest her eyes could shine, but he knew it was genuine, that the offer wasn’t out of pity or her own need for anybody to come. “Okay. I’ll see you tomorrow then.”
“Tomorrow… This is a dressy thing, right?”
“Tie and everything.”
“Yeah…”
Her smile transformed; Rodney watched as it turned cocky, seductive. She took a few steps closer to him, as if predicting his desire to walk out into the hall and stopping the thought before it had a chance to be processed. “I always bring a change of clothing and leave it in the car, that way the guys and I can go out after.”
“You saying you want to go out afterwards?”
She laughed. Rodney had learned recently that the sound was musical, intoxicating. “I can’t believe that’s what I am doing.”
He smirked back, matching her previously coy smile with his own sarcastic wit and cocky ego. “I’m gonna go get dressed.”
“You do that.”
“And maybe get some work done.”
“Okay.”
“Or I could go get dressed,” he continued. His voice was low, nearing a whisper. They were standing close together, so close that he was nearly whispering in her ear. His voice was gentle, pleading but there was no begging tone present. “And make you some coffee.”
Sam wet her lips, stepping even closer despite the screaming protests of her rational mind. He felt her breath brushing against his skin, coming in uneven waves, attacking his nerves. She met his grey-blue eyes with her bright blue and he could almost tell that she was fighting the urge to lean into him. He fought harder not to do it for her. “It almost scares me that I want to say yes.”
“Scares you?”
“Doesn’t it scare you?”
He wanted to smile. To be his cocky self. To say something sarcastic. McKayish. But he had nothing. His heart threatened to leap from his chest. His lungs threatened to stop working. His mind was determined to confuse him. “Come in for some coffee,” he managed to get, leaning into her. He thought for a moment he would kiss her, perhaps she did too, but just before their lips would have made contact, he turned his head and rested his temple against hers.
She closed her eyes. She was surprised at her awareness of his touch, and even stunned by the fact that she didn’t mind his touch. That she didn’t mind the feel of his skin against hers, of the heat that radiated from his still damp body, that she had enjoyed the taste of his lips and what she imaged the gentle caresses of his hands over her back would be like. It truly did surprise her that she hadn’t thought so much about these things. That, standing there next to him while he was practically naked, she wasn’t bothered, wasn’t disturbed by his state.
“I really should go,” she said again, into his ear. But this time, unlike the others, she felt no compulsion to leave. No interest in moving. She felt for the first time during that conversation like being lead into his flat. Felt like sitting and drinking coffee with the Canadian. Like trading stories of her youth- she realized she never told the General or Daniel or even Janet much about that topic and yet she wanted Rodney to know at least a crumb of it. Maybe she even felt like more than talking, more than coffee, more than a night on the town tomorrow. Her lips grazed across his freshly shaved cheek as she pulled away from him.
“Tomorrow?”
He nodded, flashing the dimples she didn’t know he had. Rodney wasn’t smiling, not in a happy sort of way. He didn’t feel rejected really- he knew she probably wasn’t going to accept- but somewhere deep within him had desperately hoped that she would. He hadn’t had many girlfriends in his life as he had always been too busy with other things to keep them around, but he knew what he had asked, and he knew that she had understood what he meant. He wanted her- what idiot wouldn’t- but what he really wanted was to know her. To know her life. To know about her mother and much more than he already knew about her father. Wanted to know if she had any siblings. He wanted to tell her about his fall out with his parents and about his baby sister.
“Okay.”
Maybe tomorrow he would. Maybe she would like to take a walk with him so they could just talk. Or maybe they could go visit the coffee place down the street he had seen the other day. And, somewhere in his ranting thoughts, he realized that maybes ruled his life far too often.
She turned and walked away from him. He stayed at the door, watching her walk away. He wondered if she would turn. He watched and smiled when she did. She waved and he raised his hand in a half wave, half awkward gesture. She smiled and then disappeared down the stairs. He smiled at her.
Fate was cruel- he had learned that throughout his life, but mostly since he had joined the Stargate Program. Too many people promised to return to their families and spouses and children. Too many of them never did. Fate seemed desperate to keep Sam and him apart- perhaps it hadn’t yet gone to any drastic measures and it had after all returned him to Earth- but he had a feeling. A feeling that too many more maybes were ahead of him.
“Why don’t you get some clothes on!”
“Oh god!” He started, surprised by the shrill female voice down the hall. Rodney jumped back into his room and slammed the door closed. Looking down at his laptop abandoned on the floor, he knew he would never get anything done. With a sigh he retreated back into his bathroom, swearing as he stubbed his toe again on the side of the couch.
/-
It had plagued him since he first realized that it was in question. He had been standing in his bathroom, towel wrapped around his waist, his hair wet and askew, bent over his sink brushing his teeth when it hit him. He was almost positive that Sam had begun to think of him as a friend and she had invited him to this thing. And, even though she called it a date, it seemed to him more like she needed a friend of some sort to talk to than a date. And, so, since that moment, he had battled with the question of whether or not he was about to embark on his first date with Sam Carter or not.
It struck him that she wouldn’t see it as a date. They were friends- if they were that. He was a friend who was there to save her from boredom, and that was the answer he had stuck too for a while.
Clothing wasn’t much of a debate- he had one outfit to choose from and that was a suit and tie he had rented from a nearby place.
Hair- well, he couldn’t do much to the short tuffs he had. He brushed it out and left it at that. He wondered for a moment if he should gel it, but he never liked that way it felt to run a hand through gelled hair and he wondered briefly it Sam disliked the feeling as much as him. He stopped, shook his head as if it could erase the thought, and moved on.
That was when his problems began anew. He stood staring into his closet of not even twenty pieces of clothing- the allotment that U.S. government had made on his wardrobe. Two pairs of jeans, a couple of worn shirts, and finally a well used sweatshirt. She had told him it was a dress down kind excursion after the dinner, but for some reason he feared looking too casual. Then he began thinking over each shirt and how well they exhibited- or didn’t exhibit- his form. At first he wanted the tighter ones, a shirt to show that he did in fact own muscles. Then he changed his mind and decided that he wanted something safer. In the end he sighed and shook his head, and finally just grabbed the first shirt he saw and the closest pair of jeans and tossed them in a pile on his bed.
Money was his next consideration. He had plenty of it in his wallet- only because he had gone out to an ATM not long after she had left- but he wasn’t sure whether he’d be expected to pay for anything at the dinner, or if he would be expected to pay for anything they did after the dinner. It was at about that point that he began worrying over what they would actually be doing after the dinner- a movie, a stroll somewhere, a second dinner, dessert, drinks. He tried to remember places he knew in the area as he organized a few last minute things, but the fact was that he knew almost nothing of the city. He knew that coffee shop down the block, a good dry cleaners three blocks over, and he had found a tux rental place. Other than that, the city was a mystery, one he hoped Sam might unlock for him.
Twenty minutes later he was out the door and in his car, his mind actively trying to find the right street and debating the unanswered issue of whether or not he was about to enter into a relationship with the smartest and undeniably most lovely woman he had ever met.
/-
The room had been stifling. That, combined with a reminder of why he hated ties and Sam in her dress uniform, was all he remembered.
Someone had made a speech, but what was said and why it was said would forever be a mystery to him. They served something expensive, he was sure, but he didn’t eat much of it. He wasn’t a drinker, and didn’t often enjoy champagne and wine was far from his cup of tea. But someone still managed to get some concoction into his hand. There was soft music playing in the background, but no one was dancing and so he didn’t feel comfortable extending the invitation to Sam.
After they ate, Sam had led him to a small group of Air Force officers. She spoke briefly like she knew them, but it was as if she were at her High School reunion, recognizing the faces but not much more. They introduced themselves to Rodney and he awkwardly corrected them, saying he and Sam were just friends, acquaintances from work. One of them scoffed and it was clear they all knew what kind of “work” Sam did. He didn’t bother defending the stargate. It was the first time he had encountered the challenge of knowing something the rest of the world would never understand.
Sam saved him from the group by spotting another Colonel. Rodney wasn’t excited about meeting the man, but found that he at least knew what the stargate was. They talked for a short while; Rodney even managed to convincingly look interested the entire time. He didn’t check to see whether Sam was impressed, but he noticed that she too was only half engaged. The Colonel excused himself and they stayed there, swirling their drinks and observing the stiff crowd.
“You wanna try to escape?”
“They won’t notice?”
“Don’t you think everyone else wants to do the same thing?”
“I guess.”
“Come on,” she said with a smirk and a tilt of her head. He grinned back at her, glancing off into the crowd before he followed.
And so three hours after they had entered the party, they escaped out into the parking lot where she easily stripped out of her uniform, surprising him when she reveal the t-shirt she had been wearing underneath. He laughed and removed his tie and dress shirt, replacing it with a more comfortable button down. He considered changing into the jeans he brought, but felt too awkward to do it at first. Sam laughed at him, throwing the jeans at him just before she slammed the car door closed to change out of her skirt. When she opened the door, he was fumbling with his zipper. She laughed when he swore at her, having been startled by the door. She wouldn’t stop laughing and only laughed harder when he threw his dress pants at her.
“Where are we going?” she asked a few minutes later when they were situated in the car. Rodney just shrugged as he backed the car out of the parking space.
“Where do you want to go?”
“Do you play pool?” Rodney turned his head to look at her, shaking it as he did. He recognized the wicked smile as it pulled over her lips, but didn’t yet know its meaning. Twenty minutes later, they pulled into restaurant down town. It was nice, well decorated, and with a mellow vibe to it.
“So is this where you guys hang?”
“Oh, not too often anymore.”
“Why not? It’s nice here.”
“Yeah, well we really haven’t come back ever since we were kicked out.”
“Kicked out? For what?”
Sam laughed, looking up at him as she prepared the table. “Starting a brawl.”
“A brawl?”
She shrugged, as if the entire event was no big deal. “Some biker called Daniel a geek.”
“You were defending Daniel’s honour in a bar fight?”
“Well, you have to realize that we were under… certain influences at the time.”
“Ah!” Rodney said with a dramatic flare, nodding his head in understanding. She smirked back at him as she finished raking the balls.
“So you’ve never played before… ever?”
“Well not really. I know the rules. It’s just geometry and physics, really, isn’t it?”
“Exactly.”
Two hours, a couple of won and lost bets, and some number of rounds later, they left the bar and had found themselves wandering around in the nearby public park. It was dark, Rodney had no idea of the hour, and the night was steadily becoming colder. He stuffed his hands in his pockets, easily continuing their conversation as they walked.
“So,” he said carefully, “what happened to the cop?”
“You knew about him?”
He looked to her, his face scrunched together as if saying she was insane. “Everyone knew about that.” She looked at him for a long moment before she remembered the Osiris report and Rodney’s inevitable access to it. “Sorry,” Rodney said slowly, sure he had seen pain flash across her face. He didn’t know how fresh the wound was or how long ago it had ended. “Bad topic.”
“No, it’s okay.” She paused to stop about. “He- he bought a house… he was thinking about the white picket kind-” Rodney nodded, knowing she meant a perfect house, a normal life, the kind people like them would never have. “With an open yard, maybe a dog… the possibility of kids…”
“And you saw the destruction of the world. Aliens and bad guys with glowing eyes.”
“Sort of, I guess. He was a cop- he’s seen bad things before but- I don’t- is it contemptuous for saying that I don’t think he could understand what you or I have been through? What we’ve seen and done and know? We had problems because I didn’t open up to him, but I didn’t think… he’d have never understood.”
“I don’t think it’s contemptuous. I don’t think most people will ever understand. Honestly, whenever the ‘gate goes public, I… I honestly think the majority with hate us, not peg us as heroes. And those that do- those that worship the ground we walk on and want to give us metals- will never understand. They’ll never know how much we’d rather not talk about it. Call me a pessimist but… they’ll never get it, no matter how much we try to open up. So we’ll stay quiet and then they’ll be pissed at us because of it.”
“Yeah. It’s a loose, loose situation no matter how you look at it.”
“Pretty much.”
The pair fell silent, strolling casually down the path. Rodney looked up around them, inspecting the Colorado trees spasmodically placed around the path. “I’m not much of a tree person.”
“Sorry?”
“Trees are everywhere. Every country here, every planet out there. But I’m not much of a tree person.”
“No?”
“No.” He looked at her and, without a hint of a smile, said, “I got stuck in a tree once, it wasn’t very pleasant. But that was a while ago.”
“Haven’t got stuck in any since?”
“Oh, no, one other time. But we’ll save those stories for later.”
“Okay,” she laughed. “I rather like trees. We used to have this huge tree with lots of branches- a great climbing tree. Mark and I were going to build a treehouse, but we moved.”
“You guys moved a lot?”
“Well, we were military brats.” She smirked. “Yeah, I lived all over the U.S. I was actually born in Ireland.”
“Really? You’re Irish then?” She just laughed, mostly at the horrible attempt at an Irish accent, and slapped him on the shoulder as they continued on their way. “I lived in the same house from birth to the age of seventeen.”
“Then off to college?”
“Yep.” He paused, then asked, “So Mark is your brother?” She nodded. “Is he the only one?”
“Yeah. He’s… four years older than me.”
“You get along well?”
“We used to.” She looked away and Rodney turned his eyes to her. “That is, until our mom died. He got distant, he was so angry. We didn’t speak much after he went to college and then he got married and I was in the Air Force. We just started to get back in touch a little while ago.”
“That’s good.”
“Yeah.” She looked over at him, he was staring off at the swings down the path. “You have any brothers or sisters?”
“Hmm? Yeah, a little sister. We’re… three years apart.”
“You two close?”
“Used to be, yeah. Kind of hard to explain.”
“Had a falling out?”
“My parents and I did, and she sort of got pulled into it. I told you once, I don’t know if you really listened-”
“Your parents hate each other and you blame yourself for it.” He looked sharply at her, but then nodded. “I listened, I just might not have shown too much interest at the time. I had, after all, just been electrocuted and was facing imminent destruction.”
“Excuses, excuses… well, I used college to get away from them. Came here to America.”
“Really?”
“You didn’t know that?” She just shrugged. “MIT.”
“Wow. Never would have guessed.”
“My sister and I talked a lot for a while. But she… she just kept pestering me to come up and see our parents and I just didn’t want to. Then I started work and got too into it- you know how it is. So… we just sort of… lost touch.”
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“Saw her? Um… before I went to Antarctica.”
“You didn’t go see her before you left for Atlantis?”
Rodney gave a half shrug, half shake of the head. “Didn’t have time. I know, that sounds horrible but…” his voice trailed off. Sam turned to look at him, slowing and stopping when she realized he was no longer following behind her. His gaze was off in the distance; she let him pause to consider his words. Eventually he looked up at her and forced a smile to his lips. “Want to go sit on the swings?”
“What?”
“Come on,” he beckoned her, already moving off the path towards the swing set. He swaggered backwards, smirking at her in a silent dare. She laughed and shook her head, but joined him. They swung back and forth absently, allowing the sounds of night to fill the void of words.
“Ever thought about getting married?”
An eyebrow rose at the randomness of her question; the corner of his lips twitched. He leaned forward, gripping the chain as he looked at her. “Yes, actually. Once… Mariska Herrington. I almost proposed.”
“What changed?”
She searched his face as she waited for an answer, noting the pain that flashed in his eyes. “I caught her with a woman, actually.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
“How long ago?”
“Well, it was right before I found out about the stargate program, so… a long time ago. You? I mean besides, uh…?”
“Pete. Yes. There was Jonas. A huge mistake.” She gave an exaggerated shudder. “We were engaged for a little while, then I broke it off.”
“Didn’t work out?”
“No,” she made a face and he laughed. “Oh, and there was, of course, Jonathon Flint.”
“Jonathon? Jesus girl, how many guys you got?”
Sam’s face creased with her laughter and Rodney laughed with her. “It was in the third grade I’ll have you know.”
“Grade three?”
“He proposed in the school yard.”
“Aw, how romantic.”
“Yes. The next day we got married. There was a big ceremony and everything.”
“Really?”
“Yep. Tina Marsh was the maid of honour and Kyle… Kyle something was the priest and- oh what was his name, he was this little dorky kid with glasses was the best man. He was Jon’s best friend… Anyway we got married,” she said, making air quotes with her fingers, “and then at the end of the year I had to move. When I came back for sixth grade, a bunch of the old group remembered the whole thing.”
“Ah, and brought back the joke?”
“Yes. So I was Mrs. Samantha Flint again.”
“Really?”
“Mmhmm. We were actually dating that time. He was basically my first boyfriend. When we broke up, it was this huge thing. There were these fake divorce papers, and court, and… oh god, it was so pathetic but-”
“So I’m dating a divorcee. I don’t know how I feel about that.”
She reached awkwardly past the chains to slap him, but he veered away from her. “Oh shut up!”
“Any children I should know about?” She laughed but chose not to answer. Rodney smirked, shaking off the topic with a different question, “What is your most embarrassing memory?”
“Embarrassing memory? Oh god, um… well there was this one time when we went to… I don’t remember what the planet was called, but they had this ceremony to celebrate our arrival and they had this drink,” Rodney started to chuckle, “it was really good and I think- I know I drank way too much of it before I realize-”
“That it was alcoholic.”
“Yeah. I was rather drunk. Apparently I tried to remove my shirt,” Rodney started to laugh out loud, finding it all too easy to picture the scene with Sam surrounded by poorly dressed natives and the males members of SG-1 as she danced awkwardly, attempting to strip in front of the group. Sam looked at him. Her smile faltered as she realized that she’d never heard him really laugh until that night. “I was never really told everything that happened that night, but I can be pretty sure it was rather embarrassing.”
“I can imagine,” he said once his breathing calmed.
“Okay, and what about you? You’re most embarrassing memory?”
“The time I got the laws of thermodynamics wrong.”
“Rodney.”
“No, seriously. That was a traumatizing moment for me.” She glared at him, but his face was straight. It took a while for a smirk to crack over his face, his lips spreading into a smile. “Umm… that probably would have been… oh, god, um… okay, so you know how I told you about not being a tree person?”
“Yeah?”
“Well… we were on this planet and, well it’s a long story, but anyway, I was walking- or rather running and wasn’t paying attention and I got… my foot got caught in a trap and I got stuck in a tree.”
“Stuck in a tree?”
“Alright, I was tied upside-down to a tree. Go ahead, laugh. You wouldn’t be if you’d ever hung off a tree.” She tried to shake her head and apologize but couldn’t stop laughing. With one hand on her stomach, she gripped the chain to keep from falling off the swing.
If he were on a date with any other woman- not that he was actually on a date with her- he might have asked if she had any interesting scars. But Rodney didn’t need to ask, he already knew that there must be some scar hidden beneath a layer of make-up. Or that there must be a burn or a crooked line or some discoloration against her perfect skin. Something hidden beneath the clothing she wore. He didn’t have to ask to get an idea of where most of them came from or how she got them. He didn’t need to be told that for every physical scar, a hundred others laid deeper, buried somewhere back in the deepest crevasses of her brilliant mind.
“Any interesting scars?”
He looked at her quickly, and he was afraid that she noticed his shock. He had assumed that she would be grateful he had skipped the question. But he flashed a smirk, hoping to keep her from realizing what he had been thinking, and with ease he slid into the story about the pox marks on his chest- explaining that it was all Dominic Bradley’s fault in grade two. She was laughing by the time he finished; she was more amused than others had even been at the narration. Encouraged, he trailed into an anecdote about the scar on his stomach from when he had had his appendix removed and how he had been sure he was going to die when he arrived at the hospital.
“You were that sick?”
“Oh hardly,” he said with a laugh, brushing off the thought. “But for a nine year old, I’m sure I was in terrific pain.” She snorted. Silence fell over them as Rodney raked his brain for any scars he had received recently. One was a story he’d never tell any one else. For the longest time he could only come up with the scar on his arm where Kolya had cut him, but that wasn’t something he wished to share right then, leaving them to sit there quietly, swaying lightly in the fading light. Then he remembered the burn on his finger. His features softened, his face cracking into a smile, after a moment of reliving the memory, he began to laugh.
“What?”
“I just remembered one.” He held up his finger as proof, even though he himself hadn’t been able to find the scar for some time. “Can’t really see if any more but on one of my first missions-” Sam snorted. He tossed a glare at her, not entirely sure why she found that particularly funny. “I- I was trying to help Ford build a fire-” He looked to her and saw her biting her bottom lip, obviously trying to suppress the thoughts coming to mind and stave off her laughter. “Long story short, Ford made me burn my finger- not badly of course- but if you weren’t laughing so hard-” this comment only served to cause Sam to actually begin laughing, “Then I would tell you the whole thing.”
“Tell me,” she said through giggles.
“No.”
“Fine.” She tried to hold a straight face, but with only one look to him, she relapsed into another fit of giggles. When she finally calmed herself, she realized distractedly that it must have been nearing midnight. She pulled herself up off the swing and Rodney followed her lead. She started heading back towards the path and he worried for a moment that she was heading back towards the car. Instead she continued deeper into the park. “You haven’t asked me yet.”
“No,” he sighed quietly, his eyes finding his feet.
“That’s very sweet, Rodney.” She paused for only a moment, remember the anecdote about on zigzagged scar on her hip. “Ever had one of those… those- well, it looked like a house or a fire truck or whatever, but it was made out of monkey bars.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Okay, whatever, but we used to have a bunch at one of my schools… in New York, maybe. Anyway, we used to be allowed to climb all the way to the top. And once,” she started to smirk. Rodney watched her but she wasn’t looking at him, too lost in the memory. “This boy- James… something… Griffin, James Griffin.”
“Your first crush?”
“More like I was his first crush. He climbed up and was sitting next to me. I think it was a dare or something but…”
“He kissed you on the jungle gym.” Rodney smirked, imagining a miniature Sam on top of a house constructed of bars with some kid supporting a scruff of brown hair and horrible seventies’ clothes.
“Yes.”
“Wait, we’re on scars, not old romances.”
“I’m getting there,” Rodney laughed at the scold, holding his hands up, mockingly surrendering to her. “So, when he went to kiss me, he knocked me off balance and- since I was so little in fourth grade- I slid right through the bars and landed on some poor kid’s toy car.”
“Ouch. That had to hurt.”
“Got stitches for it.”
“I don’t get to see?”
Rodney smiled dumbly as she walked coyly in front of him, halting their roaming through the park. She was smiling at him- it wasn’t one had have ever seen her direct toward him. It was seductive, but not in a lustful manner. Her eyes looked him over; Rodney felt heat rush to his cheeks. She stood close to him, their stomachs rubbing together. She even surprised him by looping her fingers through the belt loops on his jeans and pulling him against her body. She brought her lips to his ear. Rodney felt chills run through his body at the contact of her cheek against his. “Not today.”
He smirked despite himself. “Where is it?”
Sam leaned back, smiling and cocking an eyebrow. She titled her head to the side as she walked away. Rodney laughed, hurrying to catch back up to her. “You’re back?” She just looked at him. “Your thigh?” he said quieter, but she didn’t respond. “Don’t tell me it’s on your-”
“On my hip.”
He just laughed and after a few steps Sam joined him, laughing because she could. Laughing because it felt good. Laughing because she didn’t know if she would find anything funny in a few days.
They continued their banter, wandering their way around the park path and eventually coming to Rodney’s car. Without pause, they slipped into their seats. Rodney laughed as he pulled out and turned onto the dark road. Twenty minutes later, he pulled up into her driveway, sighing as he turned off the car. He glanced over at her and saw her open her mouth, fearing that she was about to say goodbye. He turned off the engine and pulled out the keys, looking to her to see if she was going to open her door. She smirked at him, but he didn’t see as she was looking out the window.
Rodney smirked and got out, rushing around the nose of the car to catch up with her. He walked her up the walkway to the patio. She stopped at the door, fishing out her keys. He could see that the drinks and the time was finally getting to her as her hands shook trying to unlock the door.
“I was thinking about coming into work tomorrow- well, today, but I might not be there until later, if at all.”
“Well I’ll unfortunately be there. I’ll save you a cup of coffee even.”
“How kind.”
“I always am.”
He smirked at her as she offered a coy smile. “I had fun tonight… after leaving that place, of course.”
“Of course,” she smirked, “Too bad you can’t play pool.”
“I can to! I won.”
“Once.” He shrugged. “But I’ll admit: you’re better than the other guys. Daniel and Cam are pathetic. The General still gives me a run for my money though.”
“Well, as long as I’m some kind of competition.”
“You’re a bit of a challenge,” she said as she pulled open the door. She turned and looked up at him, leaning with her cheek against the side of the door. He smiled, finding her stance adorably childish. He could barely contain the urge to bring his hand to her cheek. It was a power curiosity, a thought that had plagued his mind- he wondered how cool her skin was, how soft, how delicate. His eyes glanced over her lips, full and inviting. He wanted so badly to just step forward, lean his body against hers and run his hand along her cheek, along the back of her neck, through her silky hair, to capture her lips with his. But some rational thought halted him and instead he found himself whispering the words, “I should probably go.” She nodded and he vaguely felt as if she was asking him to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“I guess. If you come to the mountain.”
He half shrugged, half nodded at her comment. And then, softly, he sighed, “Goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” she called after him, slipping into her dark house. He waited there for a moment, feeling the late hour getting to him. His eyes drooped and he took a deep breath to force himself to walk to his car.
/-
Leaning back against the elevator wall, he mindlessly tapped against it, bobbing his head to the beat. Some damn song on the radio was stuck in his head. It wasn’t even a good one and he couldn’t remember more than two lines of the refrain.
The elevator slowed to a stop. He pushed off the wall, stepping out into the concrete hallway. As he walked down, heading for Sam’s lab, he didn’t notice the subtle spring in his step or the fact that he was softly humming to himself. It took a passing airman smirking at him for him to notice that he was doing it. He paused for a moment and straightened his shirt, pulling his jacket more comfortably over his shoulders. Glancing back at the officer, then around to make sure no one else had seen, he shoved his hands in his pockets and continued towards her office.
Knocking, the door creaked open. He peeked inside; it was dark but that didn’t mean much to him, he had his days where lights were an inconvenience. He called her name but no one responded. Flicking on the lights, he glanced over the room but found no one.
“Can I help you, sir?”
Rodney jumped at the Sergeant’s voice. He spun so quickly that he bashed his head against the doorway. Swearing under his breath at the man, “No I’m fine.”
“This is Colonel Carter’s lab.”
“Yes, I know that.” He sucked in a deep breath and looked up at the Sergeant’s eyes. “I was just looking for her. She’s not in there.”
“No.”
He shook his head as he rubbed his forehead. He stung, but there was no blood. Didn’t mean it wouldn’t bruise- he bruised easily, but he didn’t bother telling the man that. Instead he simply brushed past him and followed his original path.
Sam spent her time between four places- her lab, the control room, the infirmary, and the commissary.
The elevator took him down a few more levels. The song keep playing in his head, agitating him more, but he stopped himself from tapping or humming again. The hall led him up a spiral set of stairs, which lead him to the control room. A few technicians were at their posts, silently typing, but no Sam. He sighed, turning towards the stairs. He figured his best bet would be somewhere with coffee. The commissary maybe.
His hand grazed over the rail, but the sudden shrieking of the klaxons startled him, causing him to yank his hand back away from the railing out of reflex. He looked over at the technicians as they promptly came alive and tilted his head to hear the footsteps above him. He looked up at the General as the man rushed down the stairs, and then to the stargate’s inner ring spinning into place. The General silently took his place behind the chief sergeant and waited to see what happened. Rodney turned his eyes back to the gate. He wasn’t needed, he knew that, but he stood there waiting to see the worst.
The event horizon burst opened, leaving a shimmering puddle behind it. He waited, holding his breath as he watched the iris close over it. He spared a glance at the technician, listening as the General asked, “You have something to report, Colonel?”
“We found the underground chamber the locals told us about.”
“And what have you got?”
“Not much yet. But I can tell you that I’m almost certain we’ve found where the device came from.”
The General nodded. “Otherwise, how does it look?”
“We haven’t seen anyone else but the small settlement. They’re very helpful.”
“No problems then?”
“None, sir.”
“Good-”
“Sir? Dr. McKay wouldn’t happen to be nearby?”
Rodney’s head perked up and he looked up to see the General’s eyes on him. Landry seemed shocked to find him there, but nodding his head to gesture him forward. Rodney glanced back at the stairs before walking towards the computer.
“He’s right here.”
“Sam? Thought you were saving me some coffee.”
“Have to take a rain check. We think we’ve found the planet where the Ko'tal found the device.”
“You think?”
“Well, we had one of them tell us about this planet.”
“That it? Those kinds of sources aren’t always reliable.”
“Yeah, that’s what we were concerned about. But I found some of the same symbols in the room as on the device.”
“The weird Ancient?”
“Yeah.”
“Does Daniel have any idea what they say yet?”
“Not the last time I checked.”
“He’s not there?”
“No, he’s still on P45-3329.”
“I’ll have him recalled, if you think he could help,” Landry interrupted. Rodney looked over at him, before shrugging at the image of Sam.
“Sure. But, along with Daniel, I could use Rodney and the device. It might help us to figure out what it does.”
Rodney sighed and shrugged, already dreading his next trip to some unknown planet. He turned and retreated down to the locker room, as per the General’s orders, hearing the gate shut down in the distance as he rounded the corner.
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