Summary – Elizabeth can tell more about John and Rodney's relationship than most people. Ficlet, McShep
Rating – PG
Disclaimer – I don't own them, their creators do
Evidentiary Support
Elizabeth can tell more about John and Rodney's relationship than most people.
She watches them and she has the benefit of having inadvertently observed them more than once to be able to match the situations with the reactions.
If a mission went wrong then they'll burn off frustration in one of the 'Jumpers, cloaked or otherwise, and John will stumble into the debriefing late only to be yelled at by Rodney.
If it's a problem in Atlantis then they'll spend their few free moments before returning to life in the city on their favourite balcony. Rodney will arrive late and John will belittle Rodney more than usual during the meeting. Rodney, of course, will respond in kind as John mocks him, cutting through the babble he usually indulges.
She'd never worried about it until today, until they both arrived at an early morning briefing late and not speaking to each other. She'd panicked quietly but immediately. No matter what arguments they were having they'd always snarked at each other. They were friends, even before or without the casual sex. The last time she'd seen them quiet was just after Arcturus.
So she'd checked, quietly checked the logs and realised that they finally crossed a line she didn't even know they were teetering on the edge of.
For a moment she debated saying something and then decided against it, if nothing else briefings will be quieter now or at least until they get over the silent phase.
Besides, she couldn't think of a tactful way to ask John why his bed wasn't slept in last night, or why the cameras caught him coming out of Rodney's this morning.