Dr. Rodney McKay breathed in heavily and then breathed out, the sound exaggerated in order to draw the attention of one Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard. Sheppard, not taking the bait, sat back comfortably in the chair in his quarters, seemingly mesmerized by this current passage in 'War and Peace'.

Rodney sighed dramatically. He was lounging on Sheppard's bed, his notebook computer and assorted documents and binders scattered on every available space on the bedcovers.

John continued to read, though when he saw the receding hairline dip back down to the computer screen he chanced a glance, smiling at the overt attempts to grab his attention.

The physicist typed a little more, but neither his heart nor his mind was really interested in the work at hand. He pulled all of the paperwork together, stacking everything neatly, and then powered down the notebook. He placed the substantial pile on the floor beside the bed and then laid down, his head resting on the pillow. He sighed another huge sigh, and then purposefully stared over at the Air Force colonel; there wasn't much else to do now that he'd given up on working, and all things being equal, there was little else that would be at the top of his list of ways to spend his down time anyway. Or 'up' time for that matter.

Sheppard kept on scanning the page, though he was no longer able to concentrate on Tolstoy's epic. Something was bugging McKay, or maybe McKay just wasn't so good at letting others enjoy their down time if he was going to be bored with his own. In any event, it was clear that McKay meant for him to be paid some attention. John kept reading, but after about the fifth sneak peek of those amazingly blue eyes staring him down, the last time irritated blue eyes staring him down, he decided he'd better play the hand he'd been dealt.

"Rodney, is something wrong?"

"Oh, well, it's about time. I hope you would be more observant if there was a fire, or Wraith darts attacking Atlantis."

Sheppard set the book down and leaned forward in his seat, laying his arms lazily on his knees and bending his back, sending a loud crack reverberating through the room.

"If there'd been a fire, I would have seen smoke or flames, and probably smelled something funny, though," he sniffed loudly at the room in general and then added, "I do have laundry to do. A lot of laundry. Your subtlety, however, is truly awe-inspiring," John said as he stood and stretched some more.

"Hm. Very funny." He looked sadly at his team leader getting the kinks out. "I wish I could do that," he added morosely.

"Yeah, sorry." Sheppard stopped the calisthenics. "But Carson said no physical exertion for another day or so."

"Yes, I know. Why do these things always happen to me?" he asked as he moved to his side, his head now raised as he propped it up, leaning on his elbow. He frowned and winced slightly. "Wasn't it someone else's turn to get hurt?"

"I don't think we're taking turns," Sheppard said with all seriousness. On a lighter note he added, "Besides, you didn't get hurt until after we came back through the gate."

McKay whined in frustration, a sad sounding 'nnnuunh' kind of thing, and laid back down, the other position more of a strain on his sore and in some places swollen body than he'd expected.

"Why was Ronon just standing there like that?"

"We've been through this. He said he heard something just before coming back through the gate. He said he was a little disoriented by it as he came through, and then he stopped, planning to turn around to check out the noise."

Unfortunately, as Rodney came through, Ronon appeared like a large tree just half a step in front of him. His forward motion left the physicist little choice: he either barreled into the big man and his big, hard gun, thereby assured of serious injury, or he had to try to avoid the flesh and blood oak tree that was Ronon Dex. He opted for the latter.

McKay twisted quickly to the left, as though trying to avoid a bullet heading straight his way. As John remembered it, it was right out of 'The Matrix'. But not for long. Rodney's boot still had some of the muck from the planet they'd just visited, and his foot slipped out from under him, sending him falling backwards on the hard Atlantis floor. Though he was saved from a concussion due to his backpack, the pack actually did more harm than good, with the added load of an assortment of rocks that McKay had brought back for study. The initial readings showed a similar composition to Naquada, and any chance to harvest an element as strong and useful as that in this galaxy would be a good thing for their prospects of staying in the Pegasus Galaxy for any length of time. The rocks had caused some nasty bruising. With rest and muscle relaxants and an old fashioned heating pad that Carson had included in his medical equipment, Rodney would be, in Dr. Beckett's words, 'Right as rain' in a few days.

Two long days had passed; Rodney was still sore, bored and unable to concentrate for long periods after taking the medication. In other words, Rodney McKay this very second. And for what John Sheppard estimated was approximately the twenty-fifth time in the last hour, McKay sighed. Loudly.

And then out of the blue, Rodney shook his head, rubbed his eyes, leaving his hand covering them, and snorted. "I am such a pathetic loser."

"What?" John asked. They both knew that Rodney was many things, but he certainly wasn't that.

"I can hardly, excuse the pun, believe that I am getting hard having this discussion."

Sheppard walked over to the bed and sat, pushing lightly at Rodney's hip and then grabbed hold of the growing bulge at the scientist's crotch.

"Nice," he admired as he took his other hand and moved McKay's hand from his face, leaned in, massaging Rodney's penis through his pants, and kissed him. John pulled back and smiled at his lover.

"Well, that's nice, too," McKay said, taking John by the neck and then pulling him down for another kiss. "But you'll have to do all the work if you want anything reciprocated," he warned.

"Gee, wouldn't that be a hardship, no pun intended," John smiled as he leaned back and began to undo Rodney's pants. McKay started to lift off of the bed to help with the effort. "Don't do that. I'll take care of it." And so he did, pulling the pants and boxers off of McKay's hips at once, the effort complicated by Rodney's dead weight and enlarged shaft. He finally got them down to Rodney's legs, where the rest of the job was a piece of cake.

"An anxious little puppy, aren't you?" John asked as Rodney's cock found the room to show its impressive length and still growing width. John leaned down and took the head for a brief suckle and then removed his mouth. He stalled the immediate whine of dissatisfaction from the physicist by asking, "Any preferences?"

"Well, just anything so long as it's now would be nice, especially since I can't be an active participant."

"Yeah. Right." It was now John's turn for snorting. "You know how you are, Rodney. I'm going to have to hold you down while I have my way with you so that you don't aggravate your injuries. And besides, the proud junior Canadian seems more than interested in active participation," he added, pushing his finger against Rodney's dick and watching it spring back in place.

"Why are we talking?" McKay asked impatiently, his toes wiggling in anticipation; John took note that Rodney's toes and penis seemed to be the only active parts of his anatomy at the moment.

Oh. And his mouth.

"Right," Sheppard said, clapping his hands together. "Let's get the balls rolling, pun completely intended," he added, providing the scientist with a lopsided grin.

"Yes, very funny. Your comedic talents are far and away better than your sexu…aaaaah!" McKay didn't finish the thought; there were now far more interesting goings on than conversation. John dove in, taking the full penis fully into his mouth. He worked the length after that initial envelopment, knowing that he needed to give Rodney what he wanted quickly; it was pretty obvious that his lover wasn't going to last very long. He twirled his tongue on the head, around and around, making Rodney pant and moan some more, and then once again took the throbbing and leaking cock into his mouth. He sucked and licked like the pro that he was, all the while doing amazing things to Rodney's balls with his right hand when he wasn't grasping the base of his favorite scientist's penis and playing games with that as well.

His other hand he kept well grounded on McKay's stomach, attempting to keep the abused torso in place the best that he could. John took a glance up at Rodney's face. What he saw more than anything else in the familiar and well-loved face was pain, and that was something he never wanted to see while pleasuring this man. He also noted that Rodney's arms were pushing hard down into the mattress. McKay was clearly in pain and trying everything that he could to absorb it, though his cock was showing no signs that it noticed the painful reactions of the rest of his body.

John lathed Rodney's length one more time and then pulled away, giving McKay's sizable sacs one last squeeze.

He lifted his head slightly and said, "Rodney, you…" He started to speak but stopped quickly as semen squirted haphazardly onto his face. Sheppard closed his eyes and shook his head slightly with a grin, and then licked off what he could reach with his tongue.

"Oops," the physicist said, realizing what had just happened. "I…um," Rodney eked out through heavy breaths.

"No, it's okay," John said as he started to stand up. He opened his eyes, knowing that Rodney's aim had, certainly by dumb luck only, been to the lower part of his face. "I knew you were gonna blow." He grabbed McKay's boxers and wiped from his face what remained from the geyser that was Rodney. He tossed the shorts into the bathroom and added, "Really. Who gets hard just lying around like that?"

Rodney glared at his partner and then rolled his eyes. "Who do you think you're kidding?" he asked, his breathing beginning to even out. He pushed himself into a more upright position. "Ow," he said, and then rested his body against the pillow at the head of the bed. "Besides, I didn't get hard 'just lying around'," he continued, switching to his best John Sheppard drawl. "You're to blame."

"Me? I was just reading," Sheppard defended as he sat next to Rodney on the bed. "You okay?"

"My back is sore," McKay answered sadly. "And you are such a dunderhead. Do you not know how incredibly hot you are? You don't have to be doing much of anything to turn me on. That was actually on my "Con" list when I weighed whether this," he pointed back and forth between the two of them with a floppy, tired hand, "was the right thing to do."

"Con, huh? Well, gee Rodney, I don't know what to say."

McKay rolled his eyes again. "This is not fair. You know I'm on drugs, I'm easily distracted by pain, and I get a little stupid in my post-coital bliss, even mild versions of such. That's a triple whammy for yours truly."

John grinned as Rodney rambled on. "What I meant was, watching you read 'War and Peace' always gets me thinking about your intelligence. Not that you're intelligent for reading 'War and Peace'. Anybody can get through 'War and Peace' at that pace." John stuck his tongue out at McKay for the slight insult. "Very mature," McKay noted. "But when I see you reading it, I think about math and Mensa," Rodney closed his eyes, "and then I picture you in front of a chalkboard…" John interrupted him.

"Not a whiteboard? What, is a chalkboard sexier than a whiteboard?"

Rodney opened his eyes and gave Sheppard the evil one. "Shut up and let me finish?"

"The floor's all yours," John said with amusement, bobbing his head in motion at the intentional rhyme.

"I can give you the rest of the 'Con' list if you want," Rodney warned.

"Sorry. Go ahead, though it would be interesting to hear both lists one day."

"You are a pain in my ass," McKay shot back in jest. He smiled, though, because that actually was funny, and sometimes true in more ways than one. He closed his eyes once more. "You're in front of the chalkboard and you've got dust from all of your equations and tangents and it's all over the front of your shirt. Your hair's, well, your hair," John gave him the finger, but Rodney was still thinking through his imagining with his eyes closed, "which is sexy god knows why. You drop the chalk and then you bend over, and your jeans form over the shape of your tight ass and, well," he slowed his narrative, opened his eyes and looked into John's, which were not surprisingly darker than normal at the moment.

And Rodney's dick was coming to life once more.

"You see what you do to me?" McKay asked hesitantly. He was laying himself pretty bare here, both literally and figuratively.

John grabbed him again, trying to calm the junior Canadian down rather than get it and Rodney more excited. He teased just a little first, massaging it up and down and then shook it like waving a flag. "But I think we're done for the day," he added, leaning over and kissing the tip lightly. Then he scooted closer to the head of the bed, leaned down and kissed McKay. It was sweet and long and languid, both men tasting the remnants of what had just gone on moments earlier. It was the kind of kiss you would want to start and end every day of your life with. "You're hurting," John said, finally breaking away, "and tired," he finished as he rose to remove his own clothing.

Rodney grabbed for John's hand. A small grunt of pain emanated from the scientist, despite his efforts to hide any discomfort. "Wait, you're next. Remember?" He began to move, but quickly admitted defeat. "Rain check?" he sighed, releasing John's hand and sinking back into the pillow.

"Rain check, schmain check," John replied. He finished stripping quickly, washed up, cleaned up his lover and then snuggled in next to him on the bed, throwing the sheet overtop of them both.

"This isn't a contest, Rodney. And I hope our relationship is more than just about sex." Sheppard seemed very serious now, his comment almost a question waiting to be answered. But surely John knew better, he had to know how Rodney felt about him. His body had shown the way he reacted physically to John Sheppard just a minute ago, but did John really not know how deeply he was loved? Surely John knew better. Right? He started to answer the 'sort of' question but stopped short, pretty sure that Sheppard was up to something. He pulled back, looked John square in the face, and waited. And then he waited some more. And Sheppard looked him right back in the eyes. Rodney could do this. Maybe normally he couldn't…he and everyone else knew that he didn't have much of a poker face. But right now, with how tired he was, all he should have to do was let his eyes glaze over and think about how nice it would be to not be in pain. He'd make like a horse, sleeping standing up with its eyes open. Only he'd do it lying in bed next to John Sheppard. Yeah, he could do this, so he waited some more.

And Sheppard cracked. "Uncle! Jesus, you're freaking me out, McKay."

Rodney woke from his self-imposed catatonia and said, "You were thinking 'The Godfather', weren't you? Asshole," McKay added as he closed his eyes for the night.

"Yes I was, and yes I am. But I'm your asshole and you love me anyway," John said as he rested his crazy hair up against McKay's shoulder.

"I really do," Rodney said as he clasped John's hand and fell fast asleep.

The End.