World to come
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„I don't know what you want from me!" Jennifer shouts. Her blood pressure is at a dangerous level even for her age, and she hates the desperation that has snuck into her voice, wishes she could just walk away from that accusatory McKay stare.
The image on her laptop screen quickly recovers from the shock at her outburst and draws a breath to respond. Jennifer cringes inwardly, then fights not to let herself sag, so, so relieved when she hears the drawl, „Hi Jeannie, bye Jeannie" before Colonel Sheppard leans over her shoulder and cuts the connection.
She had not heard him come in, but then, among the senior staff of Atlantis, she is the only one that is not good at stealth. „I don't know what she wants from me," she repeats in a small voice, head in her hands. „Was I a bitch? Did I do anything to Rodney to make her hate me like this?"
She wants to lean into the hand awkwardly patting her back, knows she can't, but the small, aborted touches help her relax. „She wants her brother to be happy," the Colonel says, voice soothing and a little helpless.
„He is happy!" Jennifer protests, gratified by the relief at her assessment so easily read in the way Sheppard shifts.
It would be a lie to say that it doesn't still hurt, that letting three shared years go has been easy. But the fingers tapping her scapula hesitates, then finds its way upward to rest almost against her neck, and she never would have had this, had his friendship, had she not decided to end her marriage.
„And we will tell her," John promises.
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