Sorry for the long(ish) wait for the next chapter. Thanks for sticking with me and for all reviews, they were greatly appreciated. A big thanks to DaniWilder for encouragement and beta.


The sun was streaming through the clouds in rays of light. Whenever the golden-haired doctor walked underneath the strings of daylight, her hair lit up, giving her an angelic glow. Of course the bright and carefree smile she was sporting only helped the saintly image.

Looking over at her first and only love, Jennifer noticed his smile was not just on his lips, but in his eyes. Her hand tightened its hold on his and the radiantly shining blues turned to face her. Her breath caught deep in her throat as she saw all of the different shades of a cloudless sky looking directly into her tawny browns. Flashing him her devious pixie grin in return, she pulled him forward by their joined hands and started running in laughter toward a large oak tree standing alone in the rolling meadow of barley and grass.

Regretfully, Jennifer let go of his hand and ran freely toward the tree as she had a million times before as a child. The fresh May air blew her radiant hair back from her face in sinuous waves. She was nearing the tree and suddenly started slowing down with every step she took. Her eyes were closed and she was breathing in the sweet scent of the wind in controlled breaths. An arm snaked around her waist from the back and her eyes flew open as she was lifted up into the arms of the man she loved and twirled in a gracious circle with cloth flowing everywhere. An unnoticed, moment's wince passed over her flawless features but disappeared just as quickly to be replaced with untainted joy. The young woman's face glowed with laughter as her hair was lifted around her face by the breeze.

He set her back down and she turned in his embrace to face him, placing her hands onto his shoulders. The physicist was grinning at her with delight's true smile as she kissed him heartily on the lips. Her hold on his shoulders tightened as his tongue delicately reached out to trace her upper lip in response. The physician's head was swimming with emotions but not a single thought dared to cross her mind as he lifted her in his arms, barely raising her off the ground, to further press her body against his. His mouth burned a trail from her bottom lip upwards until she was left pulling at his lower lip to keep him from going too far. It was a short trail but left the medical doctor gasping for breath when the kiss deepened on its own accord.

The physicist stopped focusing on balance and started walking backwards to make up for it, never separating from her soft, tender lips. Thoughts of her consumed his mind, pushing all else to the side, even pi. His heel caught a winding root sticking fairly highly out of the ground and his eyebrows shot up in surprise. He released Jennifer's waist and pin wheeled his arms in a vain attempt to stop from falling. Supported by him fully and gripping his shoulders tightly, Jennifer had no choice but to follow. Both doctors crashed to the ground in a fit of short, surprised cries as their mouths broke apart.

Determined not to moan in front of the blond physician on top of him, he kept his face next to expressionless, settling on crushing his eyelids together to absorb the discomfort.

"Are you okay Rodney?" Jennifer asked after a moment of closed eyes and semi-deep breaths. She looked down at him critically, concerned when not a single sound came from his overused mouth. Her hands had relocated to his warm, strong chest to keep herself upright as she checked over him with observing eyes.

"Uh… I… I'm fine," and I'll always be fine with you so close. The flustered scientist replied, leaving out his personal thoughts. For once, and for just a moment, he was completely still, loving the feel of her slender hands moving across his body and finding a place next to his heart to stop. Noticing a loose lock of hair hanging down from the side of her face, he reached up to sweep it behind her ear with his fingers and then brush a trail down the length of her arm with the back of his roughened hand. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean… I, uh… are you all right? Of course you're not all right; I just made us fall to the ground."

Jennifer met his eyes and gave him a wide smirk, almost daring him to say again that she wasn't all right lying on top of him from head to toe. "I'm fine Rodney," she answered with a soft, soothing voice.

Hearing the forgiveness in her tone, Rodney let out the sigh he barely registered he had been holding and relaxed underneath her touch. His eyebrows shot up as Jennifer's leg moved, brushing past a particularly sensitive spot. The astrophysicist's back tensed up as he stiffened and became painfully aware of the soreness emanating from his lower shoulders. Rodney took a sharp intake of breath when the blond doctor above him pressed against the sensitive spot again. Don't think about it. Don't think about it.

"So… ah… um," he uncomfortably started, glancing around for something, anything, to distract him. Looking at her definitely isn't helping. "Clouds!"

Jennifer looked slightly taken aback with one eyebrow arched and the other scrunched together in confused curiosity with his enthusiasm on such a strange topic. "Clouds? What about them?"

"They're so…" fluffy. No, that's a girl's description. "gossamer," he endeavored to answer casually, trying to hide his lack of intelligent thoughts around her.

The physician's smile spread thinly up her cheeks and her eyes lit up with barely contained laughter when he hesitated, "Why don't you say what you really mean, Mr. Fancy Vocabulary. That they're fluffy." Her grin was now bursting at the sides at his obvious attempt to avoid the cutesy word. The teasing woman slid off his chest and curled in close to his right side, using his upper arm and shoulder as a pillow so she could gaze up at the featherlike clouds as well.

His arm bent at the elbow to pull her even closer to him in a one arm hug, noticing from her reactions earlier that closer was better. "Because fluffy is a child's word for low level cumulus clouds. People don't know how to properly describe them when so many words have been given for classification. A sun pillar, stratus, cumulus, cirrus, nimbus…"

"You're not very good at this, are you?" She cut him off. "You're supposed to look at the clouds and point things out. For example: that one there looks like a bunny," Jennifer pointed to a cloud slightly off to their right.

"Typical," There was a smirk planted in the middle of his face. "Girls and their descriptions, you associate cars with colors and clouds with rabbits. It's a fact of life," Rodney huffed lightly, teasing her because by the look on her face, she knew this was a debate she couldn't win.

"Hey, that's not true of all women. I don't classify cars by color. Just ask my dad," Jennifer answered indignantly. She couldn't defend all women on this one but at least she could defend herself.

Her dad? I'm going to meet him today? Some of the confidence he had recently gained disappeared just as quickly as thoughts raced across his mind, blocking out most else. I can handle Wraith, small parasitic organisms, imminent death situations and the IOA, but her dad? I… I can do this for Jennifer. Who am I kidding, I'm going to make a fool of myself and I'll never get to spend time with the love of my life again.

"Although that will have to wait until tomorrow when he comes home from his month long excursion to Australia," she continued, oblivious to his worry. She looked up at his face to see reflecting blue eyes laden with worry. After a moment of scrunched eyebrows at what he could possibly be worried about from her statement, she reached up, touched her right hand tenderly to his cheek, and traced the concerned lines until they softened. "What's wrong Rodney?"

His simple yet deep gaze pierced her own as he barely audibly muttered, "I have to meet, not to mention impress, the only man on Earth to ever create an angel. I've never had a more terrifying task."

Jennifer's face lost all concern as tears started to form behind her eyes. Without her notice, one brave tear made a wet path down her cheek but Rodney caught it with the pad of his right thumb next to her mouth. He was feathering his thumb over her lips as she finally whispered, "That's the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me." The caressing hand still on his cheek slipped downward until it reached the joining of his neck and shoulder. Sliding her fingertips along his soft, yielding skin for leverage, she bent over his closer shoulder to touch her lips to his. The gentle kiss didn't go quite as she had planned as his mouth followed her when she leaned back up.

The physician giggled after a moment at his actions to keep her moist lips in contact with his, but it suddenly switched to a silent widening of her closed eyes accompanied as his hands, previously on her face, got a hold on her waist, possessively and selfishly keeping her close to him. She moaned into his mouth against her wishes and he immediately released her sides.

"I'm sorry," he pushed her back slightly. " I… I don't know what came over me." What was I doing? I've never been so forward with a woman before. She's not just another woman though. This is Jennifer. She's the woman I'm going to spend every day working my hardest to bring joy to and show her the kind of love she deserves. He took on a slightly glossy look until he heard a low echoing growl. He glanced up to see an embarrassed expression on the beautiful woman's face. He quirked an eyebrow at the conflict of face and noise until it hit him. "Oh, that was your stomach. I should have thought of getting food earlier. What restaurant would you like to go to? You have the layout of the land."

With a beet-red face and avoiding eyes, she answered, "Oh, I was just thinking we could go home and cook, unless you'd rather go out?" She looked around at the tree, then finally at him. The doctor stood up and reached down to pull him to his feet as well with a watchful eye.

Cooking with Jennifer? Could this day get any better? Looking up, the sun illuminated her hair to form a halo of gold around her. She really is an angel. The grinning man took her hand, only barely using it to get to his feet. He held in a low groan as his back stretched out fully and offered her an honest smile, giving his doctor nothing to worry about. "I wouldn't want it any other way than spending more time with you." He tucked her into his arm as they started their walk back to the car, making her face even deeper in color with the new wave of heat.

The young woman bent down and picked a simple dandelion with a long hollow stem. Rodney stopped beside her and watched as she tucked it behind her left ear along with any wayward strands of hair, creating a nice accent to the silky petals in between them.

Rodney smoothed the hair down around the weed with his fingertips, pointing out this fact as they continued on their walk.

"Yes, I know it's a weed. I used to stick one in my hair every time I came out here as a child. I have ever since my mother first did years ago. She'd tell me that a weed was as beautiful as any flower if you looked hard enough. She always called them misunderstood wild flowers. I think I'm starting to understand why." A smile crept up her cheeks as she glanced at Rodney and he surprised her by saying nothing at all, simply enclosing her hand with his. His twinkling blue eyes held hers as they searched her soul, listening to her innermost thoughts and comforting with silence.

Her fingers curled around his and her cheek pressed against his shoulder as their steps matched pace. They reached the blue rental car parked by the side of the rarely used road in a matter of minutes because both were lost in their own happily content moments. Walking around to the other side of the car, Rodney exchanged his right hand for his left in holding hers so he could open her door.

"Why thank you kind sir," Jennifer said, chuckling the whole while.

"My pleasure ma'am," Rodney answered honestly, sweetly kissing her hand.

Jennifer raised an eyebrow at his sudden gentlemanly nature, not yet getting in the car.

The look did not go unnoticed as Rodney replied, "I'm only showing you how you should be treated every day."

Tears again threatened to overwhelm her but she instead chose to reach up and give him an appreciative kiss. He returned her kiss with a small peck of his own after she pulled away and smiled. Jennifer then lowered herself into the car, smoothing her dress out from under her as she sat upon the cushioned seat.

Before Rodney shut the door, he pointed out to her, "Oh, and by the way, that cloud wasn't a bunny. It was a sideways duck." With that, he shut the door on an unbelievably giggly Jennifer, muffling her bursts of laughter as he gave a slight chuckle himself.


There's at least one more chapter to come. Hope you're enjoying, any feedback and/or tips would be appreciated.