You didn't spent time at the heights of theoretical physics, especially in America and not hear about Dr Rodney McKay. McKay was like a planet, he drew people into his orbit; graduate students, students, colleagues; and spat them out again, often dazed, usually bitter, but always better scientists for it.
Dr Samuel Derringer, first met Dr Rodney McKay before either of them held those titles. He'd thought Rodney was an ass, an admittedly brilliant one, but an ass none the less and had avoided him as much as possible.
Except with Rodney that was a hard thing to do, he'd be gesturing angrily at the servers in the cafeteria, informing them, and anyone in shouting distance that he thought putting lemon into his food was tantamount to an assassination attempt. He'd invade people's labs at strange times of the morning and scrawl harsh criticisms across their whiteboards.
He was always there, always doing something loud and attention grabbing, something you couldn't help but hear about on the college grapevine. Until he got his doctorate and all but disappeared from the field, he wasn't working at any of the colleges, or any of the major private firms, they would have counted him as dead except for two things.
Firstly, he was still publishing, although sporadically and never releasing the brilliant next steps that Samuel could see were so obvious in all his work. The second reason was simpler, McKay was still drawing people in and spitting them out, every few months there would be bitter mumblings from this doctor or other who turned up with a few years (months, weeks, days?) missing from their CV and some uncomplimentary or even stranger, awed things to say about Rodney McKay.
Everything Samuel heard about McKay in these years fit with what he remembered of him as a grad student, brash, brilliant, abrasive and firmly ensconced in his ivory tower. Which is why the Rodney McKay he was seeing now was so unbelievable.
He did some things the same, he still snuck into labs and scrawled criticism over the equations, except now the proofs he used Samuel had never seen before but try as he might could not disprove. He visited more labs now too, the engineering labs, the chemistry labs, even the biology and botany labs, which he'd have never touched before but in which the criticism was just as cutting and just as right. The parts he could understand that is, Rodney's handwriting was quite terrible but he was pretty sure that criticism in the engineering labs at least was in a foreign language and that there were a few Japanese Kanji in the chemistry labs.
He still badgered the servers in the cafeteria about his citrus allergy, but he called it the mess now and snarked at his military shadow about threats against his life and torment thrust upon him by someone called Mitchell.
The military shadow, that was something very different, the tallish man with wild black hair who followed McKay around in camouflage with a gun at his hip. But what really got Samuel was the fact that McKay didn't seem to notice the gun at all and just went on badgering the soldier about his lack of brain power, though by the level of insults McKay had either mellowed or the man was very intelligent to truly brilliant.
Samuel wasn't quite sure what to make of the new McKay, just as abrasive as the old one but if possible even more brilliant and with more idiosyncrasies.
Every few hours the military escort, who Samuel had discovered was called Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard and was starting to suspect was something more than an escort, would hand McKay a music player, just as the man was getting twitchy and almost completely rude, and settle him into a corner with it until he calmed down. Sometimes McKay would just wear it all day, so quiet Samuel couldn't even hear the slightest hiss from the headphones. He'd grabbed it from the desk one day, slipping the ear bud into one ear and frowning confusedly when all he could hear was the crash of ocean waves and the low hiss rumble of the sea pushing around a manmade obstruction.
McKay had always been slightly oblivious to people around him, to sounds, to movements, it was as if the world around him didn't meet his standards so he was ignoring it. He wasn't like that now, Samuel had missed it for days, still clinging onto his memories of McKay until he'd come up behind him quietly and startled him. McKay had spun, right hand groping at his side, the other pressing against his ear, Sheppard reacted to his movement and before Samuel could speak they were standing shoulder to shoulder, turned slightly so their right hands could move freely. Sheppard had relaxed once he recognised him and both he and McKay turned back to their work without so much as a flinch or evidence of embarrassment.
Then there were the scars, the jagged slice down his forearm and the shiny new skin of healed burns on his arms. Almost more telling were the tiny numerous ones, the ones that showed not just one incident, but many, time and time again being injured.
None of this fit with the man Samuel had known.
He finally tried to confront it directly, he asked a question that would have had old Rodney laying forth for hours about his brilliance.
"So what is it that you do now?"
But this new Rodney had just smirked secretly.
"I save the universe."
Colonel Sheppard coughed purposefully and Rodney whined.
"Can I at least get the galaxy then?"
Sheppard looked thoughtful for a while before nodding and Rodney turned back towards him.
"I save the galaxy. A lot."
The only problem was that there was no humour in that statement, no jest and no exaggeration. Just truth.
Samuel was very glad to see Dr Rodney McKay return to wherever he had come from with his changes and his terrifying new self.