A/N: Sorry, y'all, I meant to put this in my first note. Since this story has a more initimate feel to it, I'm switching from "Sheppard" to "John". Zelenka will also mostly be reffered to as "Radek."

One Month Old - May 2006

"Wish I could somehow let you know, that all the way from here to Mexico you're the one and only girl for me. Hehe. Tu es un. Bonjour. Oui, oui. And my tongue gets tied so quick. I get so nervous, I'm feelin' sick. And turn into the worlds worst Romeo every time I try to say 'hello'. You're so fine. Been on my mind. Get nervous every time I see you hop online. Every time I want to say 'hello'. Every time I want to stay, I go. Can't ever find the words to let you know. Sometimes you play my mind a million times." - Hawk Nelson, "Hello"

"…and to love, honor, and cherish him all the days of your life?"

"I do," the jittery bride promised.

Father Braddick repeated the vows to the nervous groom, who then answered shakily, "I do," as he squeezed his bride's hands.

"Then by the power vested in me, I pronounce you man and wife," Braddick announced with a smile. "You may kiss the bride."

The happy groom grinned and lovingly kissed his new wife. The rest of Atlantis rose to their feet and applauded. Excited at the prospect of the reception, the man took his radiant bride's hand and the two of them skipped back down the aisle, grinning widely.

The reception was indeed everything the groom had hoped for. Drinks all around! He decided that it was a good thing he and his bride weren't leaving for their honeymoon until the next morning; he figured by the time the reception was over he'd be too drunk to treat his wife to a proper honeymoon. However, one of his friends, upon seeing the amount of alcohol his bud had consumed, stopped him from drinking any more.

XXXXXX

"I don't wanna know if it's a boy or girl," Summer said later that evening with a blissful smile. "I want to be surprised."

Michael nodded. "Yeah. Ooh! We get to name it, don't we?" he said perkily, as if the thought had never occurred to him before.

Summer and Evie laughed. "Yes, Michael," she giggled. "We get to name it."

"How about Michael, Jr?" he suggested jokingly.

Summer rolled her eyes. "I think one Michael is more than enough," she teased, then looked thoughtful for a minute. "Although…Michael would make a nice middle name," she mused.

"Yeah," her husband nodded in agreement.

"Evie, where's your baby name book?" Summer asked, turning to her friend.

Evie shook her head and answered, "I never had one. As soon as I found out it was a boy, I knew wanted to name him after Ford."

Summer nodded sadly, remembering fond memories of the Lieutenant.

"What about Cameron?" Michael suggested. "I had a cousin named Cameron."

"Babe, didn't he end up in jail?" Summer questioned.

"Okay, no Cameron…"

"And what makes you think it's going to be a boy, anyway?" Summer asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't," Michael answered. "Just hoping," he grinned.

"Well, I suggest we pick out a boy and a girl name," she stated.

"Hilary!" her husband tossed out after a pause.

"As in Clinton? I think not."

"Isabelle?" he joked. Summer just rolled her eyes, trying to think of a name that she liked.

"Brianna?"

Summer made a face.

"Are you just going to veto every name I suggest?" he asked, slightly annoyed. "It's not like you're throwing any out there."

Summer just shrugged.

After about ten minutes, they had decided upon "Skylar" if their baby turned out to be a girl, but they still had no baby boy name.

"Arom!" Evie suddenly cried, then started giggling.

"Where on earth did you hear that one?" Summer asked.

"One time when I was talking to Dr. Jackson about his ascension," Evie answered. "He told me that when he was sent back the first time, naked, the people who found him named him Arom. It means 'naked one.'" She giggled again.

"Definitely not Arom, then," Summer replied.

"Hmm… Aaron, on the other hand, is kind of nice, don't you think?" Michael asked.

Summer tried it out, "Aaron Murphy… Aaron Michael Murphy." She nodded. "I think I like that."

"Hey, guys," Mary said, approaching their table. "What's up?"

"Hey, Mary," Summer greeted. "Pull up a chair." Mary did so. "And Michael and I named our baby is what's up," she announced with a happy smile.

Mary smiled as well. "Awesome. What did you pick?"

"Aaron if it's a boy," Michael answered with a grin, proud that Summer had finally accepted one of his choices. "And Skylar if it's a girl."

Mary nodded. "Nice."

Summer then turned to Evie. "What about you, girl? You two gonna have another one anytime soon?"

Evie choked on her drink at the same time as Mary cried, "You two who?!"

Summer's eyes widened. "Oh…crap…"

Michael raised his eyebrows as he lightly patted Evie on the back whilst she coughed. "She doesn't know?" he asked, shocked.

"I don't know what?" Mary asked, starting to get upset.

Evie groaned and banged her head on the table a few times.

"Evie, if you're still making moves on my boyfriend, I swear--"

"Believe me, I would never," Evie muttered. When Mary looked confused, Evie sighed. "Mary…can you keep a secret?" she asked. "Like, I mean, you will tell no one, you will take this to your grave?"

Mary looked at her quizzically, then answered. "Yes…"

"I never had sex with Rodney," Evie informed her, a little more bluntly than she meant to.

"What?!" Mary cried.

Evie sighed and grabbed Mary's arm, pulling her closer. Then she proceeded to whisper the truth into the other woman's ear.

Mary's eyebrows continued to rise up and up and up as Evie explained Rodney's "heroic" sacrifice. When Evie was done, Mary sat there in shock for a moment, then she jumped up. "I-I have to go talk to Rodney!" she said, starting to leave. Suddenly, she turned back around and hugged Evie tightly. "Thank you."

"No problem!" Evie called, watching Mary run off in the direction of McKay's lab.

As luck would have it, Rodney was working late in his lab, all by himself. He looked up when he heard the door whoosh open and saw Mary moving quickly towards him. "Oh, you wonderful man!" she gushed.

"Of course I am," he said with that smug McKay grin. "To what wonderful action are you referr--" Mary silenced him with a passionate kiss. After recovering from his initial surprise, Rodney began tangling his fingers through her soft hair.

Several minutes later, Rodney pushed her back, gasping for oxygen. "What was that for?"

"Evie told me what you did for her and John," she said, gazing at him adoringly.

"Oh. That."

"That is the sweetest thing I've ever heard," she said, sitting down in the chair next to him.

"Glad you approve," he said, returning his attention momentarily to the tablet in front of him. Propping her elbows on the desk, Mary rested her head on her hands and continued to watch him.

After thinking for a moment, rather than actually reading the data before him, Rodney decided to retry his plan from the other night. Mary's recent display of affection had given him the courage to ask the Question. But how to go about it? "Do you like me?" As soon as the words were out of his mouth he wanted to kick himself for asking such a stupid question.

"No, not at all," Mary answered without pausing. "I just have this thing for kissing people I consider to be jerks."

Rodney laughed nervously. After a pause, he remarked casually, "It was a nice wedding, don't you think?"

"Mmhmm. She looked so beautiful in that dress," Mary replied.

Another pause. "So…what do you think of marriage?"

Mary smiled, thinking that she might have an inkling of where this was going. "I think it would be wonderful. Once you're sure you've found the right person," she added, just to mess with his head a little.

Growing slightly flustered, Rodney tried a different approach. "We went to this planet once with an interesting ritual, mating ritual actually – well, not a mating ritual, that sounds primitive – well, they were primitive, but not that primitive, I suppo--"

"There you are, Rodney!" John said, entering the lab. "I was wondering if you cou--What?" If looks could kill, the glare Rodney was shooting the Colonel would have John on the floor, gasping for air.

"I'm. Busy." If Rodney could have one super-power, he would have struck down this man with lightning for interrupting him.

'Ooh, one-word sentences,' John thought to himself sarcastically. 'I'm really scared.' Then he looked from Rodney to Mary and back again. His eyebrows shot up as his mind connected the dots. "Well…I guess it can wait. I'll just… You two have a pleasant evening." And with that, he quickly ducked out of the lab. Mary and Rodney were alone once more.

After a pause, Mary turned to Rodney. "You were saying?"

"Right, right," Rodney tried to remember where he had left off. "I, uhh…" The look Mary was giving him was definitely not helping. It was that sweet, attentive-yet-flirtatious, eyelash-batting one. 'Buck up, Rodney!' he ordered himself. Noting Mary's still expectant look, he tried frantically to think of what he had said last. "Wo-would you like to try covalent bonding?" he asked, beginning to grow desperate.

"Well…I think I walked in during the wrong part of that conversation…" Zelenka said as he entered the lab.

Rodney groaned in frustration. "What do you need?" he nearly snarled at the Czech.

Radek frowned at Rodney. "I left my tablet in here and am returning for it," he said, crossing to where he had set the data pad and picking it up.

"Well, now you have it," Rodney said snippily. "Goodbye."

Zelenka shot the astrophysicist an evil glare before turning to leave. "Někdo potřebovat co naléhavě kafe," he muttered to himself as he left the lab.

Mary tried to hide her amused smile. She now knew very well where Rodney was headed. "Where was I?" he asked, flustered.

"Mating rituals," she reminded.

"Mating rituals?" he repeated. "Wh-why was I talking about mating rituals?"

She stifled a laugh. "No idea, dear."

"Huh…" He returned to his tablet for a minute, then looked back up at her. "If, hypothetically speaking, I were to hypothetically ask you to hypothetically marry me…what would you, hypothetically, say?"

Mary thought for a minute, then smiled. "Well, if we're speaking hypothetically, I'd have to hypothetically decline your hypothetical proposal, because I'd already hypothetically be married to Ralph Fiennes."

When Rodney looked slightly hurt by this comment, Mary opened her mouth to apologize, but was cut off by a perky female voice.

"Mary, Mary, quite contrary," said Kate as she came into the lab. "You're late for our ice cream date."

"Umm, y'know I was thinking we might need to reschedule that," Mary said, motioning with her head and eyes for her sister to leave. "I'm having a scientific discussion with Dr. McKay right now." More head-jerking.

"I see," Kate said, nodding slowly with that knowing smile. "Well, tomorrow night then."

"Sounds good," Mary agreed, then quickly added, "Bye."

Kate tried her best to hide her smirk as she left the lovebirds alone.

Rodney sighed in frustration. "I swear, if one more person comes in here while I'm tryi--"

"Good evening, Rodney," Carson said as he entered the room. "If you'll excuse me, Mary, I just need to steal Rodney away for a minute."

Rodney couldn't take it anymore. "For crying out loud, can't a man propose?!" he hollered exasperatedly.

Carson's face lit up and Mary barely contained her excited squeal. "Oh, my goodness!" Carson explained. "How very wonderful! Well, I'll just leave ye to that then!" he said, rushing out of the lab to give them some privacy.

Growing close to hyperventilating, Rodney took Mary's hands into his own trembling ones and began nervously, "I know I've never told you, but…I love you. Really a lot." Mary smiled and nodded anxiously. "Mary, will you marry...wait... Marry Mary...wait, no…Mary--"

"Yes."

"Will you--huh?"

"Yes," she repeated, that ecstatic smile that Rodney loved lighting up her face. Before he had a chance to react, she wrapped her arms around his neck and proceeded to kiss him senseless for the second time that night.

This was truly the happiest moment of Rodney McKay's life, and there was only one thing that could ruin it. And, as Rodney had apparently ticked off the powers that be, that one thing decided to rear it's ugly head. Or rather, his ugly head.

"Dr. McKay, have you seen my-- For pete's sake, McKay, this is a lab, not a hotel."

Rodney tore himself away from Mary and glared at Kavanagh. But he was too happy to let the other scientist destroy the moment. "Kavanagh, that hairstyle violates the dress code," he announced, marching over to the other man.

Kavanagh rolled his eyes. "What dress code?"

"The one I just implemented," Rodney answered, grabbing Kavanagh's ponytail and dragging him across the room by it.

"Oww! McKay, let go, dammit!"

Rodney did let go once he'd reached the threshold of the lab. Then he shoved Kavanagh out into the hall and closed the door, ordering it, 'Lock, damn you!' "Now," he said, turning to Mary, who was looking very much impressed by her fiance's show of bravado, "where were we?"

From outside the lab, the group of waiting people cheered. "Well," John said, "Carson and Laura down, Rodney and Mary to go."

"Někdo potřebovat co naléhavě kafe" means "Somebody needs coffee." :D