The Rodney Multiplex

[nessalynna]

TITLE: The Rodney Multiplex (superhero challenge)
AUTHOR: Nessalynna
PAIRING: Sheppard/McKay
RATING: R
SPOILERS: Conversion, Trinity
DISCLAIMER: These characters do not belong to me. Sigh

beta'd by short_n_short who is wonderful. all other mistakes are mine.

John was stuck in the infirmary for days while his body painfully changed back to human inch by inch. Every scale he lost was another small victory and how crazy was his life that he had scales? He was so lost in the pain of the transformation that he really didn’t notice the other change at first. The fact that he was seeing things that weren’t actually there. While the rest of him was healing, this was not waning, but increasing day by day. He was released from the infirmary on doctor’s orders to stay in the city and to keep it easy.

He’d have plenty of time to explore this new development, because if it was what he thought it was, then he was going to have some fun. It had started slowly. At first he had only been able to see the things that were at the top of everyone’s mind. He’d see holographic images of food over Ronan’s head when he was hungry, which was pretty much always and inevitably an animal leg covered in mashed space spud of some sort.

He could see little exclamation points above Rodney’s head before a major rant was on its way and therefore, prepare his most irritatingly calm expression to exasperate the man. Rodney really hated it when he used his “talk softly to the crazy person voice”. Sometimes, if he could stop from smiling and therefore, giving away the game, he could make the scientist twitch.

Plus, he could also predict where Teyla was going to hit him during their stick fights. It helped him almost beat her. Almost. It was proving to be a useful skill.

After a couple of days it expanded to little quirks. Like the fact that Carson thought of oranges when he picked up needles (and how frightening was that?) or that Elizabeth wrote trade agreements almost constantly and in several languages.

And then there was Rodney, who as in all things was special. Rodney’s thoughts filled the entire room. Diagnostics flashed open on tables and walls following Rodney around. Each one would flash more rapidly depending on the urgency of its solution. Rodney’s mind was constantly filled and filing and zooming. It was so fast when he was really geeking out that it almost gave John a headache. The man had so many equations and theories running through his mind all the time that even the ceiling was utilized.

He’d always known that Rodney was a genius, but until he saw the insane amount of multitasking going on at such unbelievable speeds, he’d quite honestly not understood the scope. After Duranda, he’d been worried that he’d overestimated the man, but now he realized that he had definitely underestimated him.

It was so fascinating that he’d started to visit Rodney in the labs more often, bearing coffee or power bars, and had taken to sitting quietly in the corner with a book while the scientist worked. Rodney gave him strange searching looks the first few times, but now he seemed to have accepted John’s presence as normal. Despite constantly railing him about how he should be doing something “soldiery”, he actually seemed to like it when John came to visit. Zelenka always gave a relieved sigh and escaped to get something to eat while flashing John a grateful look.
And this was how John began to truly understand how Rodney’s brain worked. A scientist who had been carrying around a problem for hours would come to Rodney and he would solve it with nary a blink of the eye and without any of his other thoughts even slowing down. John watched them walk away with appreciation or jealousy while Rodney commented loudly on their incompetence and then moved on. He had yet to see anyone stump the man. John was starting to see the ego thing. Really.

Sometimes when he watched the others walk away their unspoken curse words would fiercely darting across the air towards McKay, but they always dissipated as they struck his seemingly invisible shield, which seemed to protect him. The man had literally erected an emotional wall around himself. He saw how Rodney would ignore their reactions and remain in his own world. He wondered if the scientist was really that self-absorbed or if he had simply learned to ignore them all out of self-preservation. He looked so alone in his own mental landscape that John kind of felt sorry for him. So he’d needle him and challenge his math and generally try to draw the man out of his self-made shell. He was starting to crave this time with the Rodney. It was so blissfully normal.

He had a great deal more patience with the man- at least until the scientist said something insensitive and cutting. Then it was back to their married couple bickering. He still had to admit that he’d never been so insightful or given McKay so much thought before-it was unsettling. He’d strike it up to mental disturbance, because if McKay ever caught Sheppard feeling sorry for him, he’d probably bust a vein.

New insights aside, this new level of psychic recognition was kind of fun and he really didn’t feel too guilty about what he saw. He was only seeing images of a mostly impersonal nature. It was fun to see a marine’s face when John caught him in the middle of a prank or to beat Rodney or Zelenka at chess.

It was too good to last because by the end of the week he had started to see what people were thinking about each other. Like the fact that the scientists whom had appointments with Rodney would have little Rodney holograms following them around looking fierce and disappointed for days beforehand. Which was really quite humorous until he started seeing the images of a more personal nature.

These images made John hide blushes and avert his gaze more than once because WOW were the people on this expedition horny. He really didn’t need to know what Cadman was thinking about Carson or the various positions Teyla was thinking about pushing Ronan into. He felt like washing his eyes out with soap and then bleaching his brain. Hell, he felt like bleaching out their brains.

It was bad enough that he had to see the scenarios being played out involving other people but when they started involving him? That was just a whole new level of disturbing. Not that he minded the attention but one really didn’t want to see those kind of things in 3D holographic visions in the middle of giving a military briefing. The other stuff he’d seen before had at least taught him new and interesting facts about the people he lived and worked with- this new stuff only taught him that there were some really kinky women on this expedition and some very amorous men. How many cases of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ had the SGC exiled to another galaxy anyways?

He knew that the Atlantis expedition was a rather motley crew, but now he began to wonder if perhaps the SGC would have been happy if they’d never heard from any of them again. He’d known they were all rather unique. Besides the whole never seeing earth again thing, there was the fact that the chief scientist had been previously exiled to Russia, and that the chief military officer had been previously exiled to Antarctica and had gained his position through the mercy killing of his superior officer. The reality was that the more he saw of these people’s thoughts, the quirkier he realized they all were.

If only Rodney knew how many Kirkian possibilities he had been unintentionally avoiding, he’d be completely proud- or possibly confounded. Which was another cosmic ‘huh’ because Rodney never had any visions of anyone, not even that Katie girl. John had been rather curious over whom the scientist would pine and had even made a special trip to see Rodney after he’d discovered his new power. Everyone else, including John, had contemplated hook ups with various expedition members. Quite a few of the scientists even fantasized about McKay. They were a rather small community on the adventure of their lives and it was only natural. But the only comfort that Rodney seemed to fantasize about was a small cat rubbing up against the man’s leg when he was really stressed out. Was the man celibate or just really really repressed? And why the hell did John care?

It was all starting to freak Sheppard out but he schooled himself to wear his patented “everything’s peachy in John-land grin” and marshaled on. He was still grounded from missions while he recovered from his mutation (yeah, that’s right, mutation) and he was bored. This was at least distracting him from the fact that he’d almost become a monster and that there were plenty of more monsters out there just waiting to devour them all. Plus, when he wasn’t personally involved in saving the city or going on off-world missions, his job was b-o-r-i-n-g. It was all paperwork and disciplining the ranks and acting like he hadn’t handed most of those responsibilities off to Lorne by pretending to occupy himself with supervision (and honestly, Elizabeth probably knew anyways because that woman was as sharp as a tack and... hey! Maybe Elizabeth was psychic, too!). Either way he still had to keep up appearances, which meant he spent an awful lot of time walking around the city with an “are you doing your job” look on his face. Ugh.

So reading peoples’ little thought bubbles of a cinematic nature was a welcome distraction, even if a great deal of it was NC-17. Or maybe because it was. Okay. Let’s not think about that. The point was, he was adapting and using his new skill in a positive way. He had the soldiers wondering who the mole was with how quickly he was stopping their ‘torture the scientist’ fun- because only he was allowed to play that game. As long as he maintained eye contact and therefore, focused away from the kinky pornographic visions dancing above a large percentage of the Atlantis expeditions heads, then he could once again cope. Inevitably, as soon as he adapted, things once again changed and threw him on his ass, because as always, this was the Pegasus galaxy.

By the end of the week the thought bubbles began to expand and morph until they filled the room with new images. These were things that must have been hidden deeper in the individuals’ heads- more of their constant overriding musings than their instantaneous mental images. He could see the scientists’ individual projects more completely. Sometimes, when they were really immersed, it looked like they were still in the lab. Equations and notations, diagrams and data floating around them, sometimes highlighting when they added or corrected something in particular.

The marines could occasionally be seen in full combat gear from old battles walking through jungles or deserts as they occupied their minds while patrolling the halls. The images were no longer contained, they had become panoramas that expanded up to a few feet around them depending on the persons personality or mood.

Behind these new views there were other images that were darker, faded, and flickering. He began to see their memories and their mental struggles. He saw their past loved ones and dearly missed families, their wants and desires, hurts and hauntings, the deepest fears and the greatest joys of every single expedition member graphically represented before his eyes.

The first time he’d seen a wraith following Teyla down the hall had been quite an experience. He’d had to do some quick back peddling once he’d realized it wasn’t real and she had accompanied him directly to the infirmary. He had told Carson that he was tired.

He didn’t want to explain that he could see flashes of every single person that had ever died while under Carson’s care flickering behind the doctor’s left ear. He got used to seeing wraith following most of the original expedition members and he started to feel guilty. He was seeing too much.

Soldiers are so much easier to deal with when they are just soldiers. It’s really hard to discipline Wachowski (who was a jerk and totally deserved it) when he could see a flickering image of him covered in blood cradling the body of his dying friend in the middle of the woods somewhere. He wasn’t good with complications, especially when they involved dealing with his feelings. He was a man who liked to live in a healthy state of denial, taking the hits as they came and trying hard to repress the inevitable ‘what-ifs’. Its how he avoided burning out and why he’d appreciated his assignment to the arctic. Playing taxi driver rarely ended with blood on your hands.

Now he was being forced to feel too much about everything and everyone. He wasn’t worthy of their secrets and God knows he was already burdened with enough of his own. On top of that, he could no longer trust what he saw. Some of the expedition members, like Zelenka or Rodney, could project entire rooms or streets onto the hallways of Atlantis so that it felt like walking through a dream. He had been following Zelenka down some cobblestone road from his hometown and walked right into a wall. It was a little more than disconcerting.

He became more quiet and soft spoken. He started to avoid contact with people period. He didn’t want to see anything more. No more pretending to supervise.

He read in his room, went on runs to the remote parts of the city, tested the puddle jumpers, and visited Rodney in his lab. He contemplated going to Carson and spilling it all. He knew that soon people would start noticing his strange behavior. He was the military leader of Atlantis after all. There was only so much time they could give until they could no longer wrack it up to recovery and started planning the happy trip to the padded room.

Really, there was only one thing holding him back. Well, one person, actually, and that was Rodney.

Because somewhere in the midst of all of this, he’d become fascinated and even a little bit enamored with the man. He was the only one John could hang out with anymore. He had started to haunt the man at night when they were both gripped by insomnia. He would lean against the wall and watch the beauty of Rodney’s thoughts dance across the room and feel completely at peace. Although Rodney seemed to be a big bundle of chaos, his mind was perfectly organized and compartmentalized. There was beauty in its complex simplicity.

And John had finally started to see little fractures in the wall around the man. Personal flashes would appear when no one else was around but the two of them. It was a big step- because up until then John hadn’t seen anything personal around Rodney-well, except the cat. Beyond all the fears (and there were a plethora, from lemons and sunburn to wraith and nano viruses that attacked your brain) and his constant concentration on a million different problems, there was another layer. Rodney’s mind was organized like a computer, each thought a file that would run to its completion and then be filed neatly away. Now, files would pop up that played like films. Little flickering home-movie looking memories of a laughing little blonde girl, a smiling older woman or a stern older man who kind of reminded John of Rodney-  would occupy an open laptop or a window. Sometimes he saw musical notations floating in the air above Rodney’s head as the man hummed.

The rooms around him started to shine a little brighter and everything inside it identified itself. When Rodney walked down a corridor you could see blueprints in actual size lining the walls. The conduits were identified and the notes were scribbled in neat lines across it all. Atlantis was one gigantic engineering problem that was slowly being solved and Rodney’s mind remembered every single part and projected it as he passed. It was like seeing the world through Rodney’s eyes and the man really did live in a different world.

On top of all this, John had found a new game. He’d discovered it when Rodney and him were working on Ancient circuit board in one of the west corridors. When he handed Rodney a data pad, their fingers had brushed together and all of Rodney’s little thought bubbles flickered and flashed static.

That had never happened before-the man’s thoughts ran like a database, never pausing, a continuous stream of information. John looked at Rodney and saw a small blush on his cheeks. Was Rodney? Of course he was. That explained why John hadn’t seen Rodney lusting after anyone else and why the man kept such a contained wall of emotions around him at all times. He was crushing on John.

So repressed it was. But now John was worried. He’d done denial for a large portion of his life, he accepted it and understood it. But McKay’s level of repressing was so deep that he didn’t even allow himself to think about it inside his own head.

Wow. I wonder what happened that made him that way? John experimented with his new knowledge. He touched Rodney’s shoulder or the back of his neck as often as he could and every single time, he, and only he, made Rodney stop thinking. Talk about a superpower. He became obsessed with it because he wanted more. He wanted to see an image of something. Because this was the Pegasus galaxy and he was sick of repressing.

He wanted to see what McKay was thinking when John made him blush. He decided he would keep with his little experiment until it brought results.

One night when John came down to visit he had walked in on Rodney working through a list of possible planets for their next mission. He was quiet and McKay hadn’t noticed him enter the room. Projected above their heads was a solar map like the one he had projected from the chair. Except this one was filled with tiny notations, highlights, little images and mission summaries. He silently walked forward to examine it. One of the planets was blackened with a wraith skeleton face before it and a headstone to Gaul and Abrams hovered nearby. There was a dark section on it that kept blinking on and off like a broken neon sign. Duranda. Every time it blinked off an image of Collins horribly disfigured face would flash before him. Oh my god. Then, for the first time, John saw himself. A flash of him standing cold and disapproving in the transporter. He gasped in understanding. Which made the entire solar system disappear and Rodney sit up straight and turn around.

“Hey! For once you being here could actually be helpful colonel! I have a list of new planets for us to go to, I thought maybe you could look over them with me before the briefing tomorrow morning. Did you bring any coffee?”

And that was that. He’d seen the first crack and it hadn’t been comforting. No wonder McKay was repressing if he thought that Sheppard was still upset about Duranda.

He had been upset. He felt like his best friend had used him. He felt just as responsible for their failure as Rodney. Or he thought he had. Seeing that vision though. He realized that part of his anger had been from his own confusion. He didn’t understand how Rodney could be wrong. He was always right. He always saved the day if you applied enough pressure and the fact that he hadn’t had kind of thrown John for a loop. He’d taken it out on Rodney. He thought that they had healed somewhat, especially in the past couple of weeks, and seeing that Rodney still carried that burden made John’s insides twist. He’d put that burden there.

John decided to implement a new facet of the plan. He started to treat Rodney how he had before Duranda. He joked and teased but it was all with a smile and a good-natured smirk. It made Rodney kinda twitchy. Like he was waiting for the other shoe to drop. John kept it up and one night when he came down to the lab he walked in on Rodney staring into space with a vision of a smiling John above his head. A smiling John that was soon joined by a smiling Rodney who walked forward and kissed John. He held back a moan because wow that was hot. It wasn’t embarrassing to watch like the others had been because John wanted this. It was intimate and perfect and it made his skin tingle. He must have made a sound because it flickered off and then Rodney turned towards him, his eyes wide, and the walls rapidly refilled with whatever he’d been working on before. He looked like a kid caught with his hand in the candy jar, but he quickly recovered and became his normal blustering self.

But the fortress had been breached and now when Rodney forgot that John was there, or maybe when he thought John had dozed off, little visions of a blessedly personal nature would start playing on the wall in all their cinematic glory. It would be worthy of popcorn if it weren’t so damn hot. It was becoming more difficult to watch from afar.

Because John had gotten over his own repression and he was ready to move to the next level with the other man but he didn’t know how to elevate their relationship from friendship to something else. He hadn’t felt this enamored for a long time and he felt like a teenager again. Rodney didn’t know that Sheppard could see his thoughts and John really would rather keep it that way because he knew Rodney would be pissed. He’d finally worked past all the crap with the other man and he didn’t want to ruin it.

He didn’t know how to approach the man without being able to use the thoughts though, because other than those there was only blushing and slight pauses. On top of that, he really was feeling guilty and he didn’t want to actually do anything with Rodney until he was cured. It felt wrong. He felt wrong for being able to see what he could see. But there was another not too small worry niggling at his brain. What if he and Rodney could never be together? What if the scientist couldn’t or wouldn’t risk it? He didn’t know if he could give up what he could see for nothing.

For the rest of the week he worried over how he was going to tell Carson and he avoiding coming to a resolution, but as would inevitably happen, because (say it together) this was the Pegasus galaxy, the problem took care of itself.

He had gone for a run and picked up some dinner and headed down to Rodney’s lab. As was usual this past week, he’d walked in on Rodney/John naughty thoughts that blinked out when John entered the room.

“Whatcha doing?” he asked Rodney in his most innocent voice.

Rodney answered with an irritated edge to his voice, “I’m working on a personal project. It’s too impossibly complex for even you, Mr. Mensa. Just go sit with your book for a bit. I’ll be done in one second. Oooh food. Sweet. Blue jello!” He clicked his fingers towards a chair across from him and John smiled and settled in as they both ate dinner.

He watched the equations running like a stock ticker across the main screen. John loved math and Rodney did it in a way that- wait a minute.

“Your equation on page 10 is wrong.” He said.

Rodney gave him a ‘I’ll humor him’ look and said, “Ha ha colonel. You may be good at math but first of all, I’m not wrong, and second of all, there’s no way you could have figured that out by just looking over my shoulder.” Rodney rolled his eyes and continued working. But John saw that he was going over the equation again on the wall behind him.

“Sure I can. See, right there.” John pointed towards the screen and watched as Rodney did the math at lightning speed. The equation highlighted where Rodney stopped.

“Nope not there.” John said.

“What?” Rodney was wary now.

“Further down. Uh. Uh. Uh. Not there.”

“I don’t see where you’re-“

“Uh huh. Right there.”

Rodney stopped. “I’m sure that- oh-“, his eyes went wide as he saw the mistake and corrected it.

“See?” John said with a smile.

“Well, I’ll be. I guess you are smarter than I give you credit for colonel, of course you’re still not near-“ Rodney’s surprise changed to a narrowed study of John.

John’s smile faded and realizing what he’d just done he started to squirm.

“Colonel?” Rodney asked him, his eyes searching. “How did you just do that?”

“I’m good at math?” John answered with a question and an uneasy look.

Rodney got up and walked toward him. John noticed the room was dark. No Rodney thoughts projecting themselves on the wall. Apparently he was fully focused on John. Yay. He stalked forward, forcing John to retreat warily from his chair and ending up with his back to the wall.

“John?” Rodney asked his name like he was questioning a small child who’d just broken a vase.

John gulped under Rodney’s intense stare. He seemed able to read John’s soul.

Well, I guess its only fair.

He put a hand on either side of John’s face against the wall. He moved his face close. John was lost in his charged blue eyes.

“You walk in here, glance over my shoulder, and then proceed to walk me through an equation like you can-“ he paused, “read… my... mind.” Rodney’s eyes widened in realization. John winced involuntarily.

“You can!” Rodney backed up and his hands started flailing. “How? How long? Did you touch a piece of Ancient technology with telling me? What am I saying, of course you did! You’re like an obstinate child! What can you see? Is it just thoughts or-“ He stopped in mid rant as another realization struck him. “Oh my god, you can read minds! That means you can read my mind!” He paled and then blushed, the vein on his forward started to throb. “Stop! Right now!”

“Rodney-“ John reached out a calming hand and used his most soothing voice but the scientist put his hand up to stop him and retreated away looking at the floor, and then aiming an angry gaze at John.

“Don’t you use your ‘placate the natives’ voice with me!” Then he paused, “Answers. Now.” He said softly. It was more intimidating than when he yelled.

John’s stomach dropped. He had thought about what would happen if anyone found out. He’d just really really hoped it wouldn’t be McKay. With his insane obsession over privacy and the barriers and - how was John going to explain this to him without completely losing him? He replied softly, “Four weeks. Since the Bug. I think it’s a side effect of the mutation.”

“Four weeks? Four weeks! Are you kidding me? Oh my God. You’ve got to be kidding me!” Rodney was hyperventilating.

John grabbed the paper bag he kept in his TAC vest (Rodney hyperventilated a lot) and handed it to Rodney. He rubbed his hand soothingly over the scientists back. Now he saw images flying over Rodney’s head. All the thoughts Rodney knew John might have seen. The porn. Fuck. Rodney regained his breath and looked at John who was staring, spaced out at a spot above his head. He punched him hard on the arm.

“Ow!”

“You’re doing it again!”

“Was not!” But John blushed.

“You were too! I can’t believe you! I need to made a helmet like Magneto or something!” John saw the blueprints for the helmet flash above Rodney’s head and chuckled.

“It’s not funny! It’s not nice to- and why do you keep looking above my head?” Rodney looked up and seeing nothing looked back at John like he was completely bonkers.

“I, um, can see everyone’s thoughts like images- usually right above their heads.”

“Really?” Rodney’s curiosity was getting the better of him.” So you can just look at a person and see their thoughts floating like little images above their head? I was wondering why you’ve had that dazed look so much lately. I mean it was way more than usual. I didn’t want to say anything in case, you know, you were losing it or something-”

“Rodney.” John gave him a patient look.

“What? Oh, sorry. Wait what am I apologizing for? You’re the one who’s been invading my brain! Watching little thought bubbles of my deepest darkest secrets!”

“Actually your thoughts tend to spread out across the entire room.”

“I- well of course I do.” Rodney stood tall and looked at John with a smug smile, “I’m a genius after all. I have a lot on my mind.”

“Yeah.” John smiled impishly. “It’s like being at the 3D multiplex.”

Rodney positively preened and then frowned. John saw images of himself in the lab over the past few weeks flash in fast forward in the corner of the room where he usually sat.

“That’s why you’ve been hanging out here so much these past few weeks!” Rodney said in a startled voice, pointing accusingly at John.

John blushed. Rodney paced looking horrified, then unsure, and then a sudden look of comprehension flashed like lightning through his blue eyes. He stopped. Turned. And then stalked forward again and pushed John against the wall. (This was new). In a soft steady voice he said, “No looking anywhere else but here.” Rodney said as he pointed to his eyes.

John swallowed. He should just push Rodney off and run because he wasn’t sure what the man was going to do. But there was a chance that it wouldn’t be bad and he couldn’t help but enjoy feeling Rodney pushed up against him radiating heat. He’d stay and take his chances.

Rodney smiled quietly, like he did before he was about to ream out one of ‘the idiots’ or when he was about to start attacking a new problem that he knew he would solve.

“So, you’ve been entertaining yourself at the Rodney multiplex, huh John?”

“Um…”

“You could read the mind of anybody in the entire city of Atlantis and you stalked me. Which means you know how I feel about you.” Rodney looked unsure and just a little bit insecure as he stroked John’s cheek and made him shiver.

“I-“ John was lost in Rodney, his intent eyes holding John’s, his hand scratching and cupping John’s scalp. Waiting. He wanted to reassure the man but he couldn’t get the words to come.

“And knowing what I was thinking, you stayed, in fact you came back.”

Rodney looked a little surer now. Like he had figured it out. John, still unable to form words, simply nodded and smiled weakly. He’d been caught. Now it was up to Rodney. He pushed against him, not to escape, but to feel the other man’s body pressed against his own. He struggled not to moan.

Rodney pushed his hips forward, pinning John and pushing a leg between his thighs. Rubbing. This time John couldn’t suppress the moan. Rodney smiled softly, and his eyes held a predatory glint.

“You can look up now, John.”

John looked up and his entire body vibrated with arousal. Because above Rodney’s head was the hottest thing he’d ever seen. Rodney nuzzled his neck and nipped at his earlobe. The man really was a genius.

“See anything you’d like to try?”

John whimpered.

“Hmm.” Rodney hummed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

John nodded. Rodney smiled softly, but then a shadow crossed over his face and he took a step back. John growled in frustration and reached for him. “Rodney?”

Rodney shook his head ruefully and then looked up, “I’m still furious with you.”

John took Rodney’s hand and coaxed him back. “I’m sorry.” He said as earnestly as he could. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

“But you could have stopped it. Carson-“

“I know. It’s just- I could see inside your head.” Rodney looked ready to rant. “Wait. Just hear me out, okay?” Rodney closed his mouth and waited. “Um. Your not an easy guy to get to know, you know?” John paused, took a deep breath and then just blurted it all out, “When I got to see all the equations and theories and how beautiful everything is to your eyes. I started to fall for you. I wasn’t sure you felt the same way and then when I saw that you did- I didn’t want to lose it. I didn’t think I could ever have anything more. I just didn’t want to lose what little I could see-“

Rodney silenced him with a kiss. John’s brain melted and it took a second to get with the program and kiss Rodney back. When they finally stopped to gather breath, John asked quietly, “So we’re okay?”

Rodney smiled and then kissed the spot under his ear that John loved, “Not even close.” He shifted to his Adam’s apple, “But I think that-“ he kissed sucked on John’s earlobe, “if your willing to work for it then maybe, in time we’ll be okay.”

John listened intently through the haze of arousal. Oh god. He’s throwing my words right in my face. John looked into Rodney’s eyes, darkened with desire, and asked meekly. “What will it take?”

Rodney shifted so that there lips were pressed close, almost touching, “Coffee, chocolate, some of the dirt you learned, after you go to Carson and have him figure this out, and-“ John could feel him smiling rather than see it, “-some more of this.” Rodney dove in for another kiss.

When John regained his ability to speak, he replied, “I think I can do that.”

Rodney smiled wide and genuinely. “Good. Then I think it’s time that we went back to my place and got on with the kissing and the groping and whatnot.”

He clicked his fingers and bounced forward on his heals looking very happy.

John smiled back in return. “You are the resident genius. Lead on.” John followed Rodney out of the labs.

“You do know we are going to be having a very long talk after this, right?” Rodney said as they walked out the door.

“Hopefully not until the morning.” John said with a gleam in his eye.

“You plan on being occupied until then?” Rodney replied with faux innocence that couldn’t erase the heat in his eyes.

“Oh yeah. Lot’s of plans...and whatnot.”

Rodney slapped him on the ass and then ran towards his quarters. There was really nothing left for John to do, except to follow. And that was perfectly fine with him.
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