Okay, this is what I had written before I came up with 'Post Op'. I wasn't going to bother posting it, but since our beloved McKeller fics are being outnumbered in the ship battle, I decided what the hell.
It's another little tag for 'The Shrine' (beware of spoilers) and involves the same characters in the same setting as 'Post Op', it's just different, as in not as serious, long or detailed.
Hope you like it anyway.
Thanks for reading.
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"You know I really shouldn't be eating this?" Jennifer proclaimed to the room at large, which was really just Rodney. After fussing over Rodney for almost half an hour after he admonished them for talking while he was trying to sleep, Jeannie had babied her brother to the point where he ordered her to leave, leaving them alone.
"Why not?" asked Rodney as he cut off a piece of ham. The tray Jennifer ordered for him after he woke up had arrived only a few moments before and the ham had been number one on his hit list.
"One, this is yours," she said seriously as she held the fruit cup in the space between them. "Two, there's a little too much sugar in this for me at this late hour."
"Is that it?" asked Rodney with an incredulous frown.
Jennifer looked at him with a bemused expression on her face. "What do you mean 'is that it'?"
Rodney shook his head in mock admonishment. "You're going to have to come up with better excuses than that if you think you're going to worm out of having dinner with me."
Jennifer was just about to retort when Rodney's attention was diverted away from her. She turned around to follow Rodney's gaze and saw Ronon approaching the bed.
"Hey, McKay," said the big Satedan.
Jennifer stood up from the edge of the bed and said, "I'll leave you two alone."
She was about to place the fruit cup on Rodney's tray when Ronon said, "That's okay, Doc. I just came to check on him before I went to bed."
"I'm glad you did," announced Rodney. "I wanted to say, you know, thanks for…"
"You would have done the same for me," interrupted Ronon.
Rodney glanced to Jennifer before looking back to Ronon and saying with his trademark arrogant quickness, "I really don't think I would have."
Jennifer waited for Ronon to say something else, but they all knew that Rodney had just lied through his teeth. Ronon said in Woolsey's office that he owed Rodney, and he was right. They all owed each other so much; debts that could never be repaid in full, and that they would do anything for one another went without saying. They were friends, teammates and family.
That was one of the beauties of Atlantis.
Ronon tapped McKay's leg and started to turn away when Rodney said, "I mean it, Ronon. Thank you."
Ronon nodded a 'you're welcome' and turned towards the door. He walked towards it, and just as he got to the door he added over his shoulder, "We'll figure out what you owe me later."
"Why you…" But it was no use. He was gone.
He looked up to Jennifer and she shrugged in response.
Rodney patted the edge of the bed where she had been sitting and said, "Now that we're alone again, sit down and eat your fruit cup."
She gave him a playful grin and did as he told her. As she started taking the lid off the cup she glanced to McKay, and was slightly startled to see that he was watching her intently instead of eating.
"What?" she asked a little nervously.
"Nothing," came his instant reply. "I just…did I thank you for, you know, everything?"
She smiled and said, "Yes you did."
He gave an abrupt single nod and said, "Good."
She picked up the spoon from the tray and dipped it into the fruit cup, and as she lifted it to her mouth she watched Rodney out of the corner of her eye take a bite out of his piece of ham and realized that perhaps, just perhaps, a well and normal Rodney McKay was another beauty of Atlantis.