Fic - Lonely Hearts
Here is the third chapter - just two left.
Author’s Notes:- Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.
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Rodney stood on the bridge of the Daedalus looking out on the world where Atlantis stood. They’d not named it despite Ford’s best efforts during that first year.
“We’ll be landing in a few moments,” Caldwell told him.
Rodney nodded before murmuring, “Home sweet home.”
With a shrug he headed back to his quarters to pick up his gear. The past eighteen days had been uneventful; he’d spent most of it working on the ships systems and computer programmes. It kept his mind busy and he knew that he was fine now, he didn’t feel anything anymore.
He felt the ship’s gravity shift slightly as it entered the atmosphere, he was home.
“Finally,” John cried as he met Rodney heading through the corridors towards his rooms, “Thank God you’re back. Zelenka’s on the verge of a meltdown.”
“Nice to see you too,” Rodney replied dryly, “You know you could at least let me unpack before you annoy me.”
John looked at him confused, “Where’s the fun in that?”
Rodney rolled his eyes, “Is there anything you actually wanted, Colonel?”
John grinned, “Just wanted to say hi. You’ve been away for over a month, Rodney, I just wanted to say hi.”
“Hi,” Rodney gave him a sarcastic grimace.
“How was your vacation?” John asked falling into step with him continuing along the corridors.
Rodney shrugged, “I was at a funeral, Colonel.”
“But you also had some time off,” John reminded him, “So, what’d you do?”
Rodney sighed, “I stayed with my sister and niece. Alright? Are you happy now?”
“How’s your sister then?” John asked grinning enjoying teasing the other man. John had missed him.
Rodney stopped walking and turned to him, “Why do you care? You’ve never met her.”
“It’s called polite conversation,” John told Rodney grinning, “It’s what normal people do.”
Rodney stalked away from his friend muttering under his breath as John stood laughing.
“Welcome home, Rodney,” Elizabeth greeted him as he entered her office.
Rodney paused for a moment at those words wondering when Atlantis had become home and Earth was just someplace they visited every once in a while.
“I see the place managed not to fall apart in my absence,” he replied with a slight smirk taking a seat, “Though John did mention Radek is close to madness.”
“I think you may need to settle a few people,” Elizabeth told him, “But Radek did just fine.”
Rodney shrugged, “Well I did train him.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Elizabeth warned before she gave him a concerned look, “How did things go?”
Rodney shrugged, “Fine. And,” he cut off her next question, “I went nowhere near the Daedalus until the day before we left.”
Amusement covered her face, “Really? Did General Landry tie you to a chair?”
Rodney scowled at her, “Very funny,” he shrugged again, “I visited my sister, Spent a little time with her and my niece.”
Elizabeth smiled; she’d been worried about him while he’d been away. At least when Rodney was here John was usually more than willing to seek out the scientist so that he wouldn’t spend all his time working or alone. Rodney was prickly at the best of times, if he was working on something he would ignore almost everything and it took someone like John to keep him grounded.
“I even have a picture if you want to see,” Rodney told her softly breaking her train of thought.
“I’d love to,” Elizabeth smiled at him as he handed over a photograph of Emma and Jeannie, “What’s her name again?”
“My sister’s Jeannie,” Rodney told her, “And the little one’s Emma.”
Elizabeth smiled again especially at how proud Rodney seemed at showing off his niece.
“She has your eyes,” Elizabeth noted laughing at the astonished look on his face, “Well, her mother’s eyes.”
Rodney glanced at the photo and smiled, “I never noticed that.”
Elizabeth handed him back the picture, “I know you want to get back to work straight away but at least take the night off.”
Rodney rolled her eyes, “Fine.”
“Good,” Elizabeth smiled as he left her office.
“Rodney,” Teyla smiled as she met him in the corridor near the gym, “It is good to see you back.”
“Really?” Rodney asked suspiciously.
“This place has not been the same without you,” she told him amused by his suspicion.
“Oh.”
“Are you heading to the mess?” Teyla asked.
“Yeah, I was going to see if there’s anything edible,” he replied a little surprised when she took his arm.
“Good,” Teyla started them walking through the corridors again, “I have missed you, Rodney. Though I hope your time at your home was well spent.”
“It was good,” Rodney told her before glancing around him and back down at her, “But this is home.”
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Cadman walked towards the labs to meet Kim, they were having lunch together again today. Cadman quite liked the scientist; they’d had lunch together quite a few times in the past few weeks which was a good thing to help her as she got over the break-up with Carson. Even though she knew it was the best thing and they were still very good friends she was quite depressed about it. Especially what he said about how he was not who she was supposed to be with.
As she walked towards the labs she was surprised to see the light was on in Rodney’s lab. She hadn’t realised the Daedalus had arrived back, which considering she was stuck on Atlantis all day every day because of her injured arm, meant she really had to start paying attention to what was going on around her.
She peeked inside the lab and felt her stomach flip seeing Rodney sitting in front of his laptop his head resting on his hand as he leaned on his elbow. He looked relaxed, a slight smile was on his lips and she couldn’t stop herself from walking over to him. Without the mask of arrogance she could see how handsome he actually was. He was so engrossed on what was on the computer screen that he didn’t notice her even when she was standing at his shoulder. Cadman smiled as she discovered he was looking at photographs and not working. The pictures were of a little girl and woman before one of Rodney sleeping with the girl asleep on top of him.
“You look so sweet,” she laughed making him jump and spin to where she stood, his eyes were wide with shock.
“What are you doing here, Cadman?” he demanded sharply quickly closing the pictures down.
Cadman frowned at him annoyed, “I thought I’d say hi and find out how you were.”
“I’m fine,” Rodney replied before his eyes caught her arm resting in the sling, “What did you do to yourself?”
She shrugged wincing, “I…it was…”
“What?” he snapped annoyed at the way she hesitated.
“I fell when I was off-world,” she cried, “Alright I tripped and fell, dislocating my shoulder.”
Rodney started to laugh, amusement sparkling in his blue eyes.
“It isn’t funny,” Cadman protested unable to stop the smile that spread across her own face. They both finally stopped laughing and she studied him for a moment, he looked different.
“Was that your niece?” she asked moving the conversation back to him.
Rodney nodded his smile genuine filled with fondness as he reopened the picture, “Yeah, that’s Emma.”
“So,” she took a seat beside him, “How are you after…”
“Fine,” he cut her off, “The funeral was what I expected, filled with people I haven’t seen in years as well as an awkward reunion with my parents.”
Cadman stopped herself from reaching out and touching his arm in comfort, “So what did you do while you were on Earth?”
Rodney shrugged, “Stayed with Jeannie and relaxed for a while.”
“That must have been an unusual thing for you,” she teased.
Rodney frowned at her suddenly realising they were having an actual conversation, “I have work to do, Lieutenant, so I’d appreciate it if you let me.”
Annoyed by his sudden frostiness she stood up, “I wouldn’t want to interrupt you staring into space, Rodney.”
She turned and marched out of his lab heading to meet Kim for lunch raging at how he had done his usual split personality act around her. Whenever they seemed to be having a normal conversation he would revert to the acerbic persona that pushed everyone away.
Rodney dropped his head into his hands annoyed at himself, he had been sure his feelings for her had been quashed but then she had to appear and prove him wrong.
Rodney opened up one of the many reports that had been sitting waiting for him to return trying not to think about her. He gave up reading the reports after a few minutes unable to focus on them.
“Stupid, stupid,” he muttered to himself, he should have known better than thinking she was out of his system, the woman drove him crazy purposely and it didn’t surprise him his feelings for her were doing the exact same thing.
With a sigh he shut everything down and headed to go see Radek, despite knowing the Czech scientist was at the moment wanting to kill him. At least this way he could get reports first hand rather than trying to read them.
Pulling himself to his feet Rodney started along the corridors stopping dead as he saw Cadman again walking out of one of the labs with Kim Matthews.
That made him shudder, having dated Kim and the things Cadman knew about him, the combination didn’t bode well for him if he got near them so he hid until they passed him.
As soon as they were gone he continued on to see Radek not surprised the other man swore at him in Czech the moment he walked through the door.
“Nice to see you too, Radek” Rodney told him dryly, “You can rant in a minute just let me get comfortable before you start.”
Radek frowned at him, “You make being angry no fun, Rodney. I had a lot to say and you just interrupt me.”
Rodney pulled over a seat, “Then just tell me what’s been going on.”
Radek sighed and they started to talk.
Kim frowned as she realised Cadman wasn’t listening to a word she was saying.
“Am I boring you?” she asked a little sharper than she meant.
Cadman glanced up from her soup, “Huh?”
“Is there something bothering you?” Kim probed irritated that she was being ignored.
“Not really,” Cadman replied before dropping her spoon, “You would think the man would be able to have a normal conversation without turning into the ass he usually is.”
“Are we talking about anyone in particular?” Kim leaned forward interested.
Cadman sighed in annoyance, “Rodney.”
“Oh,” Kim firmed her lips deciding to see what she could get from the other woman on this subject now, “I didn’t know you two were close.”
“We’re not,” Cadman replied, “We just seem to end up running into one another every so often.”
Kim could see something in the other woman’s face and decided to press on, “It’s just that I’ve heard a few rumours about you two.”
“Rumours?” Cadman stared at her suspiciously.
“Just people seem to think there’s something going on between you two,” Kim told her watching carefully.
“I just broke up with Carson,” Cadman snapped her hands waving in annoyance, “And he wasn't even here when that happened.”
“I think they meant before that,” Kim smiled at how flustered the other woman was getting.
“Utter nonsense,” Cadman snapped, “You get your consciousness stuck in a guy’s body and people think you’re sleeping with him.”
“Stuck in his body?” Kim asked very interested now.
Cadman covered her eyes with her hand for a few seconds, “It happened not long after I came here, an accident involving a Wraith Dart meant my consciousness was stuck in his body.”
Genuinely interested Kim leaned forward, “That’s incredible.”
“Unless it’s you it’s happening to,” Cadman told her, “I sort of took control of his body a few times so he gets a little antsy around me.”
“And that’s why you’re in a bad mood?” Kim gave an amused smile.
Cadman closed her eyes trying to keep herself from clenching her fists, “It just irritates me that the man cannot get over it despite everything that’s happened since then. We were trapped in a cave in and he looked after me, then when he came to save us on your only off world mission while we were in the cellar we talked, and in normal people that would possibly be called friendship but he just…”
Kim frowned as Cadman trailed off; she didn’t like where this was leading and decided it was time to remove her competition before there was any real chance that they would become involved with one another properly. As Cadman started eating Kim chewed her lip wondering how to get her there. She’d found it while working for that idiot Kavanagh. Now he had been easily charmed and Kim could do whatever she wanted without him questioning her at all. The rest of their lunch was spent in silence.
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Rodney frowned, the readings he was getting were confusing him. He shouldn’t be getting readings like this from anywhere in Atlantis. Rodney scrubbed his hand across his face; he’d been back on Atlantis a week now and felt like he had never left. Work had piled up despite Radek’s best efforts and he found himself having to put out fires among his staff over several decisions Radek had made.
In the end he’d gathered them all up in one of the labs annoyed at how much they were bitching about being there for those few minutes.
“Alright,” he snapped entering the room feeling slightly proud that everyone jumped to him silence instantly filling the room, “I have had enough of the constant stream of complaints I’ve had since I returned. Every decision Dr Zelenka made in my absence is being upheld and if you have a problem then tough, because at the moment nothing is changing. Dismissed.”
Without another word he turned and left them all standing staring after him. That had been yesterday and thankfully there had been peace for the past day. As he tried to pinpoint the source of the readings Rodney’s mind flicked back to the last time he’d seen Cadman.
After yelling at his staff he’d gone to get some peace and found himself at his favourite balcony. He wasn't sure why he came here, he’d stumbled across it not long after they’d arrived on Atlantis and for some reason very few people went to it. Maybe it was because it was so close to his lab, most people avoided him if they could. As he was about to step onto it he’d stopped dead, Cadman was standing there leaning on the railing looked at the stars. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue top, the way she was leaning on the railing meant that it sat just above her waist exposing the skin at the small of her back to him.
Rodney stood staring at her for a few moments before turning and heading to his room for a cold shower.
His computer beeped at him and Rodney let out a noise of disgust, he couldn’t be bothered talking to anyone just now, never mind explaining what he wanted done so Rodney headed into the bowels of the city to fix this himself.
Cadman frowned as she checked the instructions Kim had given her wondering why she was in the depths of Atlantis but her friend has assured her this was worth the travel.
“I’ll meet you there,” Kim told her, “I’ve just got to finish a few things then I’ll be able to leave the lab.”
Cadman was beginning to regret agreeing to this but she was half-way to whatever Kim had sent her to see so she decided just to keep going. Finally she reached the door with the strange mark on it Kim had told her about.
“You’ll love this, Cadman,” she remembered the other woman grinning at her.
With a roll of her eyes she opened the door and found a huge room before her, it was completely empty. Stepping inside Cadman looked around jumping as a man stalked in behind who stopped suddenly staring at her in surprise.
“Cadman?” Rodney demanded, “What the hell are you doing down here?”
Before she could answer the door slammed shut behind them and an ominous groaning sound filled the air.
“What’s going on?” she demanded staring at him.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Rodney replied, his eyes wide with worry
.
Author’s Notes:- Thanks to Stonedtoad for betaing.
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Rodney stood on the bridge of the Daedalus looking out on the world where Atlantis stood. They’d not named it despite Ford’s best efforts during that first year.
“We’ll be landing in a few moments,” Caldwell told him.
Rodney nodded before murmuring, “Home sweet home.”
With a shrug he headed back to his quarters to pick up his gear. The past eighteen days had been uneventful; he’d spent most of it working on the ships systems and computer programmes. It kept his mind busy and he knew that he was fine now, he didn’t feel anything anymore.
He felt the ship’s gravity shift slightly as it entered the atmosphere, he was home.
“Finally,” John cried as he met Rodney heading through the corridors towards his rooms, “Thank God you’re back. Zelenka’s on the verge of a meltdown.”
“Nice to see you too,” Rodney replied dryly, “You know you could at least let me unpack before you annoy me.”
John looked at him confused, “Where’s the fun in that?”
Rodney rolled his eyes, “Is there anything you actually wanted, Colonel?”
John grinned, “Just wanted to say hi. You’ve been away for over a month, Rodney, I just wanted to say hi.”
“Hi,” Rodney gave him a sarcastic grimace.
“How was your vacation?” John asked falling into step with him continuing along the corridors.
Rodney shrugged, “I was at a funeral, Colonel.”
“But you also had some time off,” John reminded him, “So, what’d you do?”
Rodney sighed, “I stayed with my sister and niece. Alright? Are you happy now?”
“How’s your sister then?” John asked grinning enjoying teasing the other man. John had missed him.
Rodney stopped walking and turned to him, “Why do you care? You’ve never met her.”
“It’s called polite conversation,” John told Rodney grinning, “It’s what normal people do.”
Rodney stalked away from his friend muttering under his breath as John stood laughing.
“Welcome home, Rodney,” Elizabeth greeted him as he entered her office.
Rodney paused for a moment at those words wondering when Atlantis had become home and Earth was just someplace they visited every once in a while.
“I see the place managed not to fall apart in my absence,” he replied with a slight smirk taking a seat, “Though John did mention Radek is close to madness.”
“I think you may need to settle a few people,” Elizabeth told him, “But Radek did just fine.”
Rodney shrugged, “Well I did train him.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Elizabeth warned before she gave him a concerned look, “How did things go?”
Rodney shrugged, “Fine. And,” he cut off her next question, “I went nowhere near the Daedalus until the day before we left.”
Amusement covered her face, “Really? Did General Landry tie you to a chair?”
Rodney scowled at her, “Very funny,” he shrugged again, “I visited my sister, Spent a little time with her and my niece.”
Elizabeth smiled; she’d been worried about him while he’d been away. At least when Rodney was here John was usually more than willing to seek out the scientist so that he wouldn’t spend all his time working or alone. Rodney was prickly at the best of times, if he was working on something he would ignore almost everything and it took someone like John to keep him grounded.
“I even have a picture if you want to see,” Rodney told her softly breaking her train of thought.
“I’d love to,” Elizabeth smiled at him as he handed over a photograph of Emma and Jeannie, “What’s her name again?”
“My sister’s Jeannie,” Rodney told her, “And the little one’s Emma.”
Elizabeth smiled again especially at how proud Rodney seemed at showing off his niece.
“She has your eyes,” Elizabeth noted laughing at the astonished look on his face, “Well, her mother’s eyes.”
Rodney glanced at the photo and smiled, “I never noticed that.”
Elizabeth handed him back the picture, “I know you want to get back to work straight away but at least take the night off.”
Rodney rolled her eyes, “Fine.”
“Good,” Elizabeth smiled as he left her office.
“Rodney,” Teyla smiled as she met him in the corridor near the gym, “It is good to see you back.”
“Really?” Rodney asked suspiciously.
“This place has not been the same without you,” she told him amused by his suspicion.
“Oh.”
“Are you heading to the mess?” Teyla asked.
“Yeah, I was going to see if there’s anything edible,” he replied a little surprised when she took his arm.
“Good,” Teyla started them walking through the corridors again, “I have missed you, Rodney. Though I hope your time at your home was well spent.”
“It was good,” Rodney told her before glancing around him and back down at her, “But this is home.”
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Cadman walked towards the labs to meet Kim, they were having lunch together again today. Cadman quite liked the scientist; they’d had lunch together quite a few times in the past few weeks which was a good thing to help her as she got over the break-up with Carson. Even though she knew it was the best thing and they were still very good friends she was quite depressed about it. Especially what he said about how he was not who she was supposed to be with.
As she walked towards the labs she was surprised to see the light was on in Rodney’s lab. She hadn’t realised the Daedalus had arrived back, which considering she was stuck on Atlantis all day every day because of her injured arm, meant she really had to start paying attention to what was going on around her.
She peeked inside the lab and felt her stomach flip seeing Rodney sitting in front of his laptop his head resting on his hand as he leaned on his elbow. He looked relaxed, a slight smile was on his lips and she couldn’t stop herself from walking over to him. Without the mask of arrogance she could see how handsome he actually was. He was so engrossed on what was on the computer screen that he didn’t notice her even when she was standing at his shoulder. Cadman smiled as she discovered he was looking at photographs and not working. The pictures were of a little girl and woman before one of Rodney sleeping with the girl asleep on top of him.
“You look so sweet,” she laughed making him jump and spin to where she stood, his eyes were wide with shock.
“What are you doing here, Cadman?” he demanded sharply quickly closing the pictures down.
Cadman frowned at him annoyed, “I thought I’d say hi and find out how you were.”
“I’m fine,” Rodney replied before his eyes caught her arm resting in the sling, “What did you do to yourself?”
She shrugged wincing, “I…it was…”
“What?” he snapped annoyed at the way she hesitated.
“I fell when I was off-world,” she cried, “Alright I tripped and fell, dislocating my shoulder.”
Rodney started to laugh, amusement sparkling in his blue eyes.
“It isn’t funny,” Cadman protested unable to stop the smile that spread across her own face. They both finally stopped laughing and she studied him for a moment, he looked different.
“Was that your niece?” she asked moving the conversation back to him.
Rodney nodded his smile genuine filled with fondness as he reopened the picture, “Yeah, that’s Emma.”
“So,” she took a seat beside him, “How are you after…”
“Fine,” he cut her off, “The funeral was what I expected, filled with people I haven’t seen in years as well as an awkward reunion with my parents.”
Cadman stopped herself from reaching out and touching his arm in comfort, “So what did you do while you were on Earth?”
Rodney shrugged, “Stayed with Jeannie and relaxed for a while.”
“That must have been an unusual thing for you,” she teased.
Rodney frowned at her suddenly realising they were having an actual conversation, “I have work to do, Lieutenant, so I’d appreciate it if you let me.”
Annoyed by his sudden frostiness she stood up, “I wouldn’t want to interrupt you staring into space, Rodney.”
She turned and marched out of his lab heading to meet Kim for lunch raging at how he had done his usual split personality act around her. Whenever they seemed to be having a normal conversation he would revert to the acerbic persona that pushed everyone away.
Rodney dropped his head into his hands annoyed at himself, he had been sure his feelings for her had been quashed but then she had to appear and prove him wrong.
Rodney opened up one of the many reports that had been sitting waiting for him to return trying not to think about her. He gave up reading the reports after a few minutes unable to focus on them.
“Stupid, stupid,” he muttered to himself, he should have known better than thinking she was out of his system, the woman drove him crazy purposely and it didn’t surprise him his feelings for her were doing the exact same thing.
With a sigh he shut everything down and headed to go see Radek, despite knowing the Czech scientist was at the moment wanting to kill him. At least this way he could get reports first hand rather than trying to read them.
Pulling himself to his feet Rodney started along the corridors stopping dead as he saw Cadman again walking out of one of the labs with Kim Matthews.
That made him shudder, having dated Kim and the things Cadman knew about him, the combination didn’t bode well for him if he got near them so he hid until they passed him.
As soon as they were gone he continued on to see Radek not surprised the other man swore at him in Czech the moment he walked through the door.
“Nice to see you too, Radek” Rodney told him dryly, “You can rant in a minute just let me get comfortable before you start.”
Radek frowned at him, “You make being angry no fun, Rodney. I had a lot to say and you just interrupt me.”
Rodney pulled over a seat, “Then just tell me what’s been going on.”
Radek sighed and they started to talk.
Kim frowned as she realised Cadman wasn’t listening to a word she was saying.
“Am I boring you?” she asked a little sharper than she meant.
Cadman glanced up from her soup, “Huh?”
“Is there something bothering you?” Kim probed irritated that she was being ignored.
“Not really,” Cadman replied before dropping her spoon, “You would think the man would be able to have a normal conversation without turning into the ass he usually is.”
“Are we talking about anyone in particular?” Kim leaned forward interested.
Cadman sighed in annoyance, “Rodney.”
“Oh,” Kim firmed her lips deciding to see what she could get from the other woman on this subject now, “I didn’t know you two were close.”
“We’re not,” Cadman replied, “We just seem to end up running into one another every so often.”
Kim could see something in the other woman’s face and decided to press on, “It’s just that I’ve heard a few rumours about you two.”
“Rumours?” Cadman stared at her suspiciously.
“Just people seem to think there’s something going on between you two,” Kim told her watching carefully.
“I just broke up with Carson,” Cadman snapped her hands waving in annoyance, “And he wasn't even here when that happened.”
“I think they meant before that,” Kim smiled at how flustered the other woman was getting.
“Utter nonsense,” Cadman snapped, “You get your consciousness stuck in a guy’s body and people think you’re sleeping with him.”
“Stuck in his body?” Kim asked very interested now.
Cadman covered her eyes with her hand for a few seconds, “It happened not long after I came here, an accident involving a Wraith Dart meant my consciousness was stuck in his body.”
Genuinely interested Kim leaned forward, “That’s incredible.”
“Unless it’s you it’s happening to,” Cadman told her, “I sort of took control of his body a few times so he gets a little antsy around me.”
“And that’s why you’re in a bad mood?” Kim gave an amused smile.
Cadman closed her eyes trying to keep herself from clenching her fists, “It just irritates me that the man cannot get over it despite everything that’s happened since then. We were trapped in a cave in and he looked after me, then when he came to save us on your only off world mission while we were in the cellar we talked, and in normal people that would possibly be called friendship but he just…”
Kim frowned as Cadman trailed off; she didn’t like where this was leading and decided it was time to remove her competition before there was any real chance that they would become involved with one another properly. As Cadman started eating Kim chewed her lip wondering how to get her there. She’d found it while working for that idiot Kavanagh. Now he had been easily charmed and Kim could do whatever she wanted without him questioning her at all. The rest of their lunch was spent in silence.
*********************************************
Rodney frowned, the readings he was getting were confusing him. He shouldn’t be getting readings like this from anywhere in Atlantis. Rodney scrubbed his hand across his face; he’d been back on Atlantis a week now and felt like he had never left. Work had piled up despite Radek’s best efforts and he found himself having to put out fires among his staff over several decisions Radek had made.
In the end he’d gathered them all up in one of the labs annoyed at how much they were bitching about being there for those few minutes.
“Alright,” he snapped entering the room feeling slightly proud that everyone jumped to him silence instantly filling the room, “I have had enough of the constant stream of complaints I’ve had since I returned. Every decision Dr Zelenka made in my absence is being upheld and if you have a problem then tough, because at the moment nothing is changing. Dismissed.”
Without another word he turned and left them all standing staring after him. That had been yesterday and thankfully there had been peace for the past day. As he tried to pinpoint the source of the readings Rodney’s mind flicked back to the last time he’d seen Cadman.
After yelling at his staff he’d gone to get some peace and found himself at his favourite balcony. He wasn't sure why he came here, he’d stumbled across it not long after they’d arrived on Atlantis and for some reason very few people went to it. Maybe it was because it was so close to his lab, most people avoided him if they could. As he was about to step onto it he’d stopped dead, Cadman was standing there leaning on the railing looked at the stars. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a blue top, the way she was leaning on the railing meant that it sat just above her waist exposing the skin at the small of her back to him.
Rodney stood staring at her for a few moments before turning and heading to his room for a cold shower.
His computer beeped at him and Rodney let out a noise of disgust, he couldn’t be bothered talking to anyone just now, never mind explaining what he wanted done so Rodney headed into the bowels of the city to fix this himself.
Cadman frowned as she checked the instructions Kim had given her wondering why she was in the depths of Atlantis but her friend has assured her this was worth the travel.
“I’ll meet you there,” Kim told her, “I’ve just got to finish a few things then I’ll be able to leave the lab.”
Cadman was beginning to regret agreeing to this but she was half-way to whatever Kim had sent her to see so she decided just to keep going. Finally she reached the door with the strange mark on it Kim had told her about.
“You’ll love this, Cadman,” she remembered the other woman grinning at her.
With a roll of her eyes she opened the door and found a huge room before her, it was completely empty. Stepping inside Cadman looked around jumping as a man stalked in behind who stopped suddenly staring at her in surprise.
“Cadman?” Rodney demanded, “What the hell are you doing down here?”
Before she could answer the door slammed shut behind them and an ominous groaning sound filled the air.
“What’s going on?” she demanded staring at him.
“I think we’re in trouble,” Rodney replied, his eyes wide with worry
.