AN: Um, I'm not really sure...
.
A Week Passed
Prompts: groom; genetic; trinket; candle; chandelier; yacht; air; badge;
.
.
Rodney McKay was at his desk, alone in his lab.
There was a wedding today. His wedding. He was the groom. He went back to work.
"Rodney?" A voice called through the halls.
"Dr McKay?" Another, closer, at the door.
Teyla entered the lab but paused just short of Rodney's workstation.
"I'm busy." McKay said without turning.
"Rodney..." Teyla began softly.
"No. I'm busy. I've got to do this."
Teyla peered around him to see what 'this' was. With all the fragments of wires and other parts scattered haphazardly she couldn't tell.
"I know you're nervous. It's understandable."
"It's genetic."
Teyla hesitated, just for a moment. "I suppose... It is common. Everyone who's ever got married has prob-"
"No. This."
Rodney held what seemed to Teyla merely a small trinket. But she knew better from his elated smile than to say so.
"How do you mean?" She asked carefully.
"It's like the Lantean and Wraith tech. It'll only work for someone with the correct genetic marker." He suddenly sobered. "But I can't make out what the marker is. I'm so close."
"Rodney. You have a wedding to go to. Your wedding. Surely this can wait?"
"Why?" Rodney said turning back to his desk.
"I'm sorry?"
"Why? Why me? Why not John or, or Chuck even? Why me? What was so special about me?"
She understood.
"Dr Keller."
"Yes." He said enthusiastically, turning to face her with just as much vigour. "Jennifer. What about her? I would've married her, I don't know, maybe, I'll never know now, but-"
"I understand, Rodney." Teyla said, placing a comforting arm on his shoulder.
.
Teyla handed him a candle as they got ready to leave. "Here." She said. "It's their tradition after all."
Literally holding a candle for his soon-to-be wife, Rodney followed Teyla to meet the waiting congregation.
.
There were candles everywhere. The whole room bathed in candlelight. A chandelier hung serenely above their heads, wax dripping slowly down its mass of candles.
John stared at the candle nearest him.
"Do you think-"
"He'll be here." Ronon.
"Maybe Teyla-"
"He'll be here."
"He's-"
"Sheppard. Teyla knows how to talk to him about this kind of stuff."
"Better than you or me, that's for sure."
Ronon grunted in agreement.
The room waited.
.
They walked through the corridors silently.
.
If he was on Earth he would have called it a yacht. Here, they called it a Geddon. A joke about the Armageddon sprang to his mind and he smirked between frowns.
Teyla caught the look and smiled back reassuringly.
"I can't do this." Rodney said suddenly.
Teyla didn't belittle him with clichés or false words. "You have to." She told him. "I'm sure she's a lovely girl, Rodney. You've met her. What do you think?"
"Once." He muttered. "Could be worse, they could've been Wraith." He tried to joke.
Teyla cringed. "True. But I doubt anyone would have agreed with that."
Rodney didn't say anything.
Teyla sighed. "Come one. They're waiting."
.
A week passed.
.
He breathed in the fresh air. Freedom.
"Rodney."
He turned. The woman walking towards him bowed her head.
"I-" "I'm sorry." She said it as she reached him. McKay shut his mouth.
"I was wrong to ask this of you. We were wrong to. All of us. I'm sorry."
He didn't speak. Speechless. He just stared at her.
"Forgive me?" She asked quietly.
"How could I not." It surprised even himself how easily that fell out.
She hugged him. It was brief but friendly.
A man walked up the hill behind her, a badge on his arm declaring him to their people's chief scientist.
"Father." The woman said on seeing him. She stepped away from Rodney.
"I see you are still here." The man said.
Rodney swallowed. "My team will be here soon."
Deresa's father nodded once and then turned and walked away.
Deresa smiled chastely at Rodney and followed.
After a few steps she paused and turned back to McKay.
"Don't be a stranger." She offered with a warmer smile.
Rodney didn't say a word, he just smiled back, then returned to watching the horizon.
.
AN: You can make up your own ideas for why he was marrying Deresa or what happened in the week that passed. I have no idea myself and don't plan to come up with one. Although I don't think they're still married, if they even did get married at all.
edit 28/10/13: spacing corrected.