Elizabeth Weir had been impressed by how well her team was working with one another. These were men and women from around the globe who had never met each other and most could not even communicate in the same language. And yet, somehow, a small family was being formed out here in the chill whiteness of the Antarctic.

She knew that in this time deep friendships would form that would last a lifetime whether or not the mission got off the ground. People were here for a common reason and thus could find common ground with one another, either among the comrades of their own team or without in some other unit of the Outpost team.

Well, most people at any rate.

Elizabeth had discovered early on that one of the newest members of her team, and recently appointed Chief of Science, did not easily make new friends. In fact, it was a wonder he could make friends at all with most human beings. It seemed the only people who could even stand to talk to him on any level outside of a working one were herself and Dr. Carson Beckett.

Elizabeth Weir, from the very beginning, had been intrigued by Rodney McKay. She didn't know how to explain it, even to herself, but she figured it was something akin to seeing a new kind of animal.

The man was brilliant. There was no denying that he was painfully intelligent. But he had the social graces of a wolverine. He snapped and growled at everyone around him that he did not agree with and only grudgingly accepted comments that were useful or—God forbid—intelligent. He was grating, annoying, loud, arrogant, pushy, snappish and sometimes he was simply out and out mean. And yet Elizabeth found him… well, maybe fascinating wasn't the right word, but he was certainly interesting. For the past two weeks she had been trying to figure out what made this unlikable man so out of the ordinary to her and finally, as they swung into their third week of living in this isolated little Outpost, she thought she identified what made his character so appealing to her.

He was a challenge.

Dr. Elizabeth Weir, from trying to run the SGC to trying to run negotiations in Antarctica, had her hands full. From day one in the outpost she had been busy making sure everyone could get along, which in itself was a difficult challenge. From her experience the minds of the military and the scientific didn't always mingle well and here she was in the melting pot trying to make them do just that. As a negotiator she always had her hands full trying to smooth out this conflict or trying to get this side see that reasoning but this was almost ridiculous. She was constantly running around trying to smooth raised hackles and keep people from shoving feet into their mouths and so far her efforts were paying off, but not without a lot of effort.

And then there was Rodney McKay. He should have been the worst of the lot and he should have been the one to shove her over the edge of sanity. And yet… he was helping her. At first she hadn't seen him as any help at all. He tried to take over other people's projects and was constantly correcting even the smallest mistakes. He was the one making other people rethink their being here so far from home. Anyone else would have seen this as a deconstruction of the foundation that Elizabeth had been working so hard to create. And yet Elizabeth saw it as a monumental help. She didn't want anyone on her team that could be scared away by one irritable scientist. Granted, Rodney was about as irritable as they got, but she wanted to know now what these people could handle and what they could not. Elizabeth was—and always had been—uncomfortable with saying to a person's face: If you can't handle this then get out. She had done it before and she knew she would be doing it again, but that did nothing to make it easier.

Rodney McKay took that painful job from her without even thinking about it. The wall that he had formed around him had long ago seemed to dull him to the emotions of others. He could—and would—bluntly tell you what he thought of you and more than once he had taken the words out of Elizabeth's mouth and pointedly told someone, "You can't handle this so get out." Already six people had quit, but instead of destabilizing the foundation of their team their absence had opened the eyes of those who remained to mistakes they had make or questions they had forgotten to ask. While Elizabeth often wished he could be a little gentler about it, he was defiantly weeding out the weak and making her team all the stronger for it.

And yet—or perhaps because of it—Rodney McKay was almost friendless. Yes, there were those who respected him, but in Elizabeth's thinking respect and friendship were two completely different things. You could certainly have both, and you could have one or the other, but they were feelings that could survive completely independent of each other.

Elizabeth, though, thought of Rodney as a friend. She knew Beckett did, too, though the two doctors had certainly not hit it off right away. Rodney, blunt as always, had pointed out immediately upon seeing Carson that he had no respect for medicine and the only reason he was here right now was because he was hopeful that the leader of the outpost wasn't stupid enough to put a crackpot behind a needle. Carson, a calm and level-headed individual who could see the good in almost everyone, had instantly declared to Rodney that he didn't care a wit about what the man thought and that he had better sit still so that this crackpot could stick a needle in his arm. A small fight had ensued after that—more verbal than physical—but when Elizabeth had returned to the infirmary she found Carson the victor and Rodney strapped to a bed.

After Rodney had left, rubbing his arm and grumbling under his breath about the resurrection of Dr. Frankenstein, Elizabeth had spoken with Carson.

"What do you think, Carson?" she had asked, watching the Canadian astrophysicist immediately leap into a heated debate with a handful of younger scientists.

"About Rodney?" he asked. The doctor shrugged. Normally he had rarely a harsh word to say about a human being, but in this instance he had several. "I think he is a right pain in th' ass. But I have to say, he's not afraid to share his mind."

"And…?" Elizabeth pushed. Carson smiled at her.

"An' if anyone can handle a man like tha', Dr. Weir, you can." He grinned when she smiled back and he shoved his hands into the pockets of his white lab coat. He sighed as the heated debate became a shouting contest. "He's gonna be trouble, Dr. Weir, bu' I think tha'… well, there's just somethin' about him. Maybe I'm just overly hopeful, bu' I think he's a man tha' we're gonna be wantin' on our side."

Elizabeth smiled, watching the debate finally break up as Rodney stormed away to yell at someone else.

"I was hoping you'd say that." She said. Carson smiled. "And you're right. There is something about him…"

"He's not afraid to speak his mind, aye," Carson nodded, sensing her thoughts were along the same line as his own, "bu' I have a feelin' tha' there is a lot he's not sayin'. He's gonna be a hard one, Elizabeth."

Elizabeth smiled slightly.

"Maybe."