Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate

A/N: Just a short story that popped in my head the other day when I was getting ready for work. Again, I'd like to apologize for any mistakes, this story is not
betaed (any volunteers? ;o) ). Thank you for reading!!


Rodney stood in front of his laptop trying to figure out the best way to distribute power throughout the city from their nearly empty ZPM. His latest experiment hadn't been very helpful, draining much needed power with no results and Weir had told him to fix it. For the last four hours he had been stuck here, in his lab with nothing to go on. What was more important, he had skipped dinner for this. His stomach wasn't happy about that fact at all, grumbling every now and then.

He heard someone coming into the lab. Zelenka was there so he didn't bother to turn around and take a look at the intruder. It was probably one of his people anyway.

Soon enough he heard Zelenka's excited voice greeting. "Hello Dr. Keller, so nice of you to join us, what brings you here?"

Keller? Never heard that name before. Not that he remembered the names of his subordinates. Probably one of the new ones Daedalus had dropped off two weeks ago. That bunch was especially annoying, not listening to his orders at all. Based on Zelenka's tone he guessed it was a woman, even though he had no idea who could've attracted that much attention. Last time he checked his female colleagues they were all middle-aged women who did awesome job at glaring but were totally useless when it came to following the simplest instructions. But hey, it was Zelenka. Who understood that guy?

"Oh, I just wanted to look around a little. You know, get familiar with the city." She replied.

That definitely hadn't sounded like middle-aged woman, Rodney thought as he curiously turned around and looked at her. He made a rather awkward smile when he set his eyes on her. She was one of the prettiest scientists he had ever seen with her blond hair, warm brown eyes and slim figure.

"Hi, I'm Dr. Keller. You must be Dr. McKay. I've been told the only person that's still in the lab at this hour is you." She smiled, outstretching her arm towards him.

He looked at her sheepishly and then at her hand. It looked very small compared to his own. She tilted her head to one side a little and raised her eyebrow. He finally took a hint and shook it. She smiled even more and his heart melted. She definitely was one of a kind.

"Uhmm.. Ma-maybe you can take that station." He pointed at a laptop that sat on one of the desks. "Or that one." He waved to another one. "It doesn't really matter. Whichever works best for you. Not that you have to start right now. I understand it's late and you are just looking around, to.. to familiarize yourself with this place. It's a big city, takes a while to go through. Believe me, I know, it.." He stopped, thinking. "Wait. You've been here for two weeks, why wouldn't you check the lab earlier?"

She suppressed a laugh. "I'm a medical doctor."

He blushed. "Oh, I see. That figures. There are not usually beautiful young women in my field of work." Hearing himself say that he blushed again, gesturing with his hands. "Not that I want to imply you are not smart enough to be a scientist. Or old enough! It's not my place to be speculating about your age! I'm sure you studied hard and are successful, otherwise you wouldn't be here. Dr. Weir wouldn't take anyone who is not smart enough." He paused. "With one exception of Sheppard."

"Rodney!" Zelenka interrupted him, looking very amused.

"What?" Rodney put his hands in his pockets. "It's true! He knows nothing about science!" He nearly squeaked. "Or anything that doesn't include guns."

"Well, I'm sure Dr. Keller isn't interested in any of this." Radek informed him.

"Oh, that's okay. It was very..very.." She cleared her throat. "Yeah." She said, trying her best not to laugh out loud at his rambling. She was warned about him, she had been told many stories about his mood swings, his huge ego but apparently that occurred only in front of male population of Atlantis. He seemed very uncomfortable around women. She felt safe to think it applied to all women because she didn't see herself as anything special.

She watched him as he blushed again, looking at her with totally embarrassed expression on his face. When she met his eyes he quickly looked down, suddenly interested in floor he was standing on. Or his shoes. Or hers. It was hard to tell. She heard quiet chuckling noise coming from the other scientist and watched as McKay's head came up sending warning glances towards the source. Zelenka only grinned, waved his hand, shook his head and left the room. Sometimes it was better to leave all comments aside.

"So," Jennifer began, "got anything interesting going on?" She asked him hopefully. There was something about him that appealed to her. She decided to ignore all the rumors about him and make her own opinion starting with taking him out somewhere. "'Cause if you don't, I could use the company. I know it's late but this is my first time in this part of the city, I could use a guide." She shrugged.

He gave her a look of pure confusion. "Why would you want my company?"

"Why not? So what do you say?"

"I..I don't know. I should probably.." He turned around and looked at the screen of his laptop. "I'm pretty much stuck here for the rest of my life." He signed.

Jennifer wasn't about to give up. The days when she was this shy ugly duckling were long gone. She wanted to spend some time with him to get to know him better and that was exactly what she was going to do. "You've gotta eat sometime. How about we have a lunch together or something like that?" She tried.

He stared at her, trying to form an answer that made sense but his over-active brain was apparently unable to do so at this moment. He cleared his throat but that was pretty much all the response she was going to get. She smiled at him anyway and did couple of steps back, towards the door.

"Let me know when you are hungry." She demanded turning on her heel and walking away. "And by the way.." She leaned on the door frame. "my name is Jennifer." She informed him hoping we will take the hint and call her by her first name. She pushed herself off the cold metal and disappeared in the hallway.

His stomach grumbled loudly. He was hungry all right. He patted his belly, looked at his computer again and then at his watch, considering his options. He took a couple of deep breaths, turned off his computer and went to look for the newest doctor on the base. If he was about to make a fool of himself in front of her, he might as well do it today. Plus she was really beautiful.

The End