The air was crisp and cool as it blew over the balcony. The sun was just peeking over the horizon, casting brilliant shades of pink and orange over the horizon. John let out a contented sigh as he watched the new day's sun cast and orange glow on Atlantis. The city's spires shown in an almost golden hue. John took a couple steps forward and bent to rest his elbows on the railing, bringing his coffee to his lips with both hands, soaking up the warmth. Taking a deep breath, John let the aroma of coffee and salty sea air wash over his senses. He loved Atlantis at this time of day. Most of the people were still sleeping at this early hour (except for the diehard scientist and the patrolling marines). John liked to take this time to relax for a few minutes before he had to report for duty.

As the ranking military officer on the city John had a lot of responsibilities to attend to. There were good things and bad that came with the job. One thing that John liked was not having to just blindly follow orders from a superior, not that he always did. Technically Atlantis is a civilian scientific research base and as such, Dr. Elizabeth Weir, a negotiations specialist back on earth, was the leader. But all military decisions were handled by John. The military presence on Atlantis was prominent, but in the few years since they had defeated the Wraith (only a few were still brave enough to pop up every now and again) Atlantis has become more focused on its real purpose as a research base. Unlike other superiors John has had in the past, he got along well with Elisabeth and day to day operations flowed fairly smoothly, most of the time. The days when he had to make tough decisions that could affect the entire population of Atlantis were hardest for him, he carried the weight of those decisions on his shoulders every day. When John lost any member of the expedition it affected him more than he would ever let anyone see. But in the end the rewards outweighed the risks. Yet another benefit to being the military leader of Atlantis, meant that he could get Major Lorne, his second in command, to do all his boring paperwork for him. John hated paperwork.

Smiling to himself John brought his cup of steaming coffee back to his lips. Man that's good. John thought. Rodney really does have the best coffee.

Just as he was about to take another sip John heard the whoosh of the balcony door sliding open. John didn't have to look to know who had joined him.

Pressing up against John's side Rodney sleepily looked into John's mug. "That had better not be my good coffee." He said in a groggy tone.

John sighed and handed the cup over to Rodney, never taking his eyes off the sunrise that was now turning into reds and purples.

Rodney reached for the warm mug with greedy hands. He brought it to his nose and inhaled the godly aroma. Although he would never admit it to anyone, Rodney let out a small whimper, and hastily took a big gulp of the steaming liquid.

John had heard Rodney's coffee moans before and just chuckled softly to himself. Turning now to get a good look at the man, John could only stare. Rodney had walked from the bedroom to the balcony in nothing but a thin gray t-shirt and his striped boxers. He had the thin white sheet from their bed draped around his shoulders. Rodney was oblivious to John's inspection; now caught up in the beauty of the sunrise himself as he continued to take big gulps from his cup.

John reached out to Rodney and combed his fingers through Rodney's disheveled hair tugging lightly.

Rodney turned accusing eyes to John. "Hey! Don't you have enough of your own hair to mess with?" Rodney asked, reaching up with his own hand to smooth out what John had done. Feeling that no damage had been done, he let his hand fall back to his cup. Rodney continued on more gently, seeing the wounded expression John was wearing. "Well…I don't have as much as you, so I have to be careful with it. Not everyone can be as fortunate as you." He finished sounding defensive, casting his eyes on John's thick, dark, unruly mop of hair.

John tried but he couldn't hold his laughter in. "Rodney you have plenty of hair. Besides I like your bald spots." John only said the last part to get a rise out of Rodney. He knew it was a sensitive subject for him. But the faces Rodney made when he was flustered always made John smile.

Rodney's eyes grew huge as he reached back up to inspect his head. "Wha…what do you mean 'bald spots'? I don't have a bald spot. Yes it's thinning in places but I don't-" The amused crinkle at the corners of John's eyes and the way his lips twitched ready to split into a huge grin stopped Rodney mid-rant. He glared at John then, leaving his now empty coffee mug on the railing.

"What?" John asked trying to sound innocent, the smile he wore not helping him prove his innocence.

Rodney was not having any of it. Stabbing his finger in John's chest he screeched, "You are evil. Pure evil! And here I am at the ass-crack of dawn, watching a stupid sunrise with you when I could be in my lab yelling at Zelenka or my minions for their incompetence. No doubt they are wrecking havoc down in my labs. It's astonishing that they can walk and talk at the same time, let alone run the lab successfully." Rodney was grumbling to himself now and pacing, waving his hands around trying to punctuate his point. It was a good thing Rodney had set aside his coffee otherwise John was sure he would have spilt it all over himself by now.

John was still staring, enjoying his Rodney rant. Most people would either be crying or ready to kill Rodney by this stage. John just found it amusing. It was one of the things he loved about him, Rodney was never shy about telling anyone what he thought about them and the man wasn't gentle when doing so either.

Rodney finally calmed down enough to look back at John. He was doing that leaning thing he did that made him look oh so sexy, Rodney observed. John had one hip against the railing, arms crossed across his chest and his legs crossed at his ankles. His black military uniform hugged his lean body in all the right places, but what caught Rodney's eyes were John's bare feet. Something about seeing him dressed with no shoes or socks on really got to Rodney. When he pulled his eyes away, the look in John's eyes said it all, he was enjoying this.

"You!" Rodney said, pointing his blunt finger at John again, trying to keep the sheet from slipping off his broad shoulders with his other hand. "You are enjoying making me suffer."

Uncrossing his arms and stepping away from the railing John said, "I have no idea what you're talking about Rodney." Smiling, John continued over to Rodney, who had paced himself to the other side of the balcony during his tirade.

Rodney Hardened his features into a scowl, took a step back and held his chin up in defiance. "Yes you do. You did it on purpose."

Once John had positioned his body directly in front of Rodney, he reached out and placed both hands on Rodney's hips. John could feel the heat from Rodney's body seep into his hands. He Pulled Rodney closer until they were touching from hips to chest, John smiled brightly and bent down and closed the couple of inches that separated them to place a chaste kiss on Rodney's soft lips.

When John pulled back to look at Rodney's eyes he saw the scowl Rodney still wore, but it had softened a little from John's tender kiss. John's grip grew a bit tighter and he pressed even closer, if that was possible, and circled his hands around to Rodney's lower back.

Rodney stretched his arms out, which had been gripping the sheer sheet at his neck and brought his arm back in. He rested his hands on John's forearms and slowly moved them up until he had loosely encircled John's neck and let the sheet fall to the ground.

Rodney had given in to John the moment he had pulled them together. He hated that John could do that to him; make him forget anything and everything just from a simple touch. Smiling now as well, Rodney moved to kiss John again when suddenly a loud siren began to blare. They immediately pulled apart, both John and Rodney ran into their shared quarters. John grabbed for his radio at the same time Rodney was shoving his into his ear and simultaneously pulling on a pair of pants.

"This is Sheppard. What's going on?" John radioed the tower as he was stuffing his unsocked feet into a pair of military issue boots. Not bothering with the laces he made his way to the door, Rodney right on his heels zipping up his blue and tan science uniform top.

Chuck answered instantly, his voice not giving away that he was panicking. "We're not entirely sure Sir. The alarm was activated in the science labs."

"Which lab?" John was already heading to the transporter when he heard Rodney shout next to him.

"They were doing what?...Who authorized that?... Oh I don't think so!" Rodney looked over to John; the look on his face told him what he already knew. A moment later they were in the transporter and John reached out his hand and pressed the destination in, without having to be told where.

As they stepped out of the transporter and into the hall the alarm suddenly went silent. Looking to each other they picked up the pace and burst into the last lab at the end of the long hallway. What they had found was two of the youngest and smartest scientists the city had ever seen. One of which was Rodney and John's daughter, Rachel. Rachel was actually Rodney's niece. She was three when Rodney's sister and her husband had been killed in a car accident, Rodney had gained custody and adopted her. John had officially adopted her as well just last year. The other, Kurt Hummel, was the son of one of John's Marines and close friend. Both teens were frighteningly smart and when given the chance the pair could even give Rodney a run for his money.

The two young scientists looked up at the same time, hearing the whoosh of the doors open. When they saw who had burst in on them, they both spoke at the same time. "He did it." "She did it." They were both pointing at the other, as they noticed this…they turned to scowl at each other.

"This was your idea." The tone left nothing to be argued but Kurt should have known who he was dealing with; Rachel wouldn't go down without a fight.

"No it wasn't. You were the one who said it should be fine to move forward with it."

Before the two could continue their bickering John cut in holding a finger up. "First are you two okay and second is the city going to sink…or is the crisis adverted?" He looked from one to the other, waiting for one of them to respond.

"We're fine. And No, the city is not going to sink, everything is under control." Kurt answered, running his fingers through his bangs and pulling them to the side. He continued on and looked critically at Rodney. "Oh…Dr. McKay, the 'slept in' look is really not working for you."

John could feel Rodney relax at first and then tense at his side from Kurt's comments. Letting out a sigh John pointed to the two young faces before him. "Rachel, Kurt, you two have a lot of explaining to do. But first, is that thing safe?" John said pointing warily at the square device sitting innocently enough between the teens on the lab table.

"Of course!" They answered in unison.