MGM owns all characters. Some dialogue from GateWorld.

A/N: Thanks for the reviews and to Betherdy Babe. Yes, this story has a hold on my muse right now.


As they left the auditorium Rodney practically ripped a copy of the brief from the hands of one of the ushers and walked quickly to a far corner of the reception area near a staircase. Jennifer's hand was firmly clutched in his other one so she moved quickly along beside him. Just her presence kept him from seeking out Tunney to punch him.

They stopped near a life-size cardboard cutout of Tunney smiling and holding the Earth with a thermometer in the middle, which dropped from 74 degrees to 73 degrees. Rodney opened the brief and stared in disbelief. "Well, this is... this is... How'd he even get a hold of my work?" he gasped as the calculations he flipped through looked extremely familiar.

"I don't know but I'm sure we'll find out at the SGC," Jennifer said, catching her breath from the near jog to this secluded location. She couldn't help but notice several stares of annoyance or disgust directed at the man she loved. It took years of being forced to act mature beyond her years to keep her from sticking her tongue out or doing anything even more juvenile.

"You really believe me?" Rodney realized Jennifer didn't question him. She seemed to believe him unconditionally. He felt a fleeting second of joy as once again this amazing woman made him love her even more.

"Of course I do. I read the file and talked with Jeannie about it," Jennifer said, reaching out to stroke his arm. "They won't get away with this. Once we get back…"

"I know. There's just no way he came up with this on his own. We've gotta... we've gotta..." Rodney trailed off as he looked around and noticed a roped-off area behind him leading to a corridor. "We've... Come on."

He ran to the ropes and hopped over them, dumping the brief into a nearby trashcan as he went. Looking around nervously to ensure that nobody was watching, Jennifer followed him down a long corridor. The physicist walked past a door, stopped, moved back and went in.

Jennifer hurried to the door that said MALCOLM TUNNEY, PhD and followed Rodney in. Rodney was on Tunney's computer, which has a picture of the man himself seated next to the monitor.

Jennifer stood nervously at the door, waiting for security to come. The last time she felt so much fear was on the Daedalus when Todd commandeered the ship. "We shouldn't be in here."

"Shh! Just stand guard there," Rodney said as he attempted to get into the computer.

"Why?"

"It'll take me a couple of seconds to hack into his computer."

"What are you doing? You know that…" Jennifer heard voices and stepped into the room. When the voices faded she looked at Rodney.

"If that son of a bitch thinks he can humiliate me in front of my peers and get away with it, he's got another thing coming. I'm gonna destroy him." Rodney was into the files on Tunney's computer, so he allowed himself an opportunity to vent some of the anger he felt.

"Now is not the time for this, Rodney," Jennifer scolded. "I know stealing someone's research is the lowest thing one scientist can do to another. It's even happened to me, but you need to stop."

"There's gotta be something in here I can use to discredit the pretentious tool," Rodney continued ranting, not hearing Jennifer at all.

"Hurry up, hurry up. Somebody's coming," Jennifer yelled, finally getting the physicist's attention. "Come on, come on, come on!" She beckoned him away from the desk and they hurried out of the room.

"This way," Jennifer said, tugging Rodney into a darkened alcove in the hopes that the security guards wouldn't see them.

"Jennifer, this is…" Rodney stopped because Jennifer suddenly threw her arms around his shoulders and pulled him close. Extremely close.

"Kiss me," she said as he felt her lips touching his cheek near his ear.

"What?" Rodney grabbed her waist to push her back. His body wanted to hold her close while his mind was afraid his date suddenly lost hers.

"Rodney…"

"Hey, what are you two doing back here?" an angry voice shouted.

Jennifer sighed heavily and rested her head briefly on Rodney's shoulders.

The memory of an extremely embarrassed nurse Marie Cho and an Air Force Captain named Joseph Kidd making out in a linen closet came to mind. Trying to emulate her friend, Jennifer began giggling and looked coyly at the guard that stood behind Rodney. "Oops. Just wanted to spend some alone time," she said as she reluctantly removed her arms from Rodney's shoulders.

"Get back to the reception hall, please," the gruff guard said, motioning toward the main hall.

"Of course," she said, trying to smile. Inside she was quite upset that Rodney didn't seem to want to kiss her when she gave him the chance.

"Jennifer, what was that…" the physicist started once they were out of ear shot of the guard.

"There was no reason for us to be alone in a darkened corridor. I thought if the guards expected we just snuck off for… You know?" Jennifer interrupted and glared up at Rodney who looked very confused.

Rodney looked at the beautiful angry face in front of him. "So you figured making out in the corner was a good cover?"

"Better than saying you were trying to hack into their server to protect your reputation," she snapped.

"Jennifer, I was looking for proof he stole the work," Rodney said as they stopped near the stairwell they started from.

"Is that what you were going to tell security?" she asked with hostility in her voice. Crossing her arms to stay warm and out of her own private humiliation, Jennifer looked back out over the crowd. Why didn't Rodney kiss me? Tears of rejection began to well up in her eyes so she turned her back on her date.

"No, of course not," Rodney said as his breathing returned to normal. He lost all thought and could barely walk after feeling her pressed against the length of him. The shock of finding her in his arms momentarily kept him from taking what he'd wanted for so long. "Jennifer," the physicist said as he reached out to touch her shoulder and turn her back to face him.

"What?" she hissed as she looked back at him, unable to hide the pain on her face.

"Are you okay?" Rodney asked. "Listen, I'm sorry I dragged you back there but he can't…"

"Rodney, I thought this was about him endangering people and not your reputation?" Jennifer asked.

"It is," Rodney replied. "If you or anyone else gets hurt because of this bastard, I'll have him hung out to dry."

Jennifer closed her eyes. He just said it, you or anyone else. You're no different than the others here. At least he cares about other people now. Before it would have only been about his reputation.

"Hey," Rodney's voice came from close to her shoulder and his hand touched her bare arm, snapping her eyes open.

"What?" Jennifer asked, pulling away from him.

"Were you really going to let me kiss you?" he asked quietly, glancing at the floor and then back into her eyes.

"It doesn't matter because you obviously have no interest in kissing me." Might as well admit it and move on. You'll always love him so start dealing with being just friends.

"No interest?" Rodney said incredulously. "I've fantasized about you every night since I met you. I…" Rodney's face turned white. "Oh God, please tell me I didn't just say that?"

Jennifer's eyes widened and she suddenly couldn't breath. The cold that she felt as the temperature continued to lower in the facility was gone. A warmth she'd never felt before crept from her heart throughout the rest of her body causing a pink flush to cover her exposed skin. Rodney's been fantasizing about me.

"McKay," the voice of Bill Nye interrupted their conversation at the worst possible moment. "That was out of line, man!"

Regaining some composure as a he looked from the totally embarrassed woman in front of him to the annoying Bill Nye, Rodney barked, "He stole the work!"

"Hey, come on. It was in the middle of his presentation," Bill said.

"He was about to start the thing up. It couldn't wait," Rodney countered, furious at the interruption to his conversation with Jennifer. If Tunney is going to be the death of us, I have to know if Jennifer really wanted me to kiss her.

"He brought you here as an olive branch. He wanted to bury the hatchet," Bill said.

"Yeah, in my back," Rodney snarked. Looking back at his date he noticed she stood almost exactly in the same spot with the same perplexed expression on her face. The coffee-colored eyes he loved stared at him as if no one else existed.

"Doctor McKay, Doctor Keller," the annoying receptionist said.

"What!" Rodney shouted as yet another person kept him from talking to Jennifer about the biggest slip-up he ever made.

"Mister Tunney would like a word," he replied.

"Ah-ha! Well, I'm guessing that that word is I apologize," Rodney said to Bill as he walked away followed by Jennifer.

"That's two words, genius," Bill called after them.


Rodney and Jennifer followed the receptionist into a small conference room. They said nothing to each other during the walk and as soon as the receptionist left, Jennifer leaned close to Rodney and asked, "Is it true?"

"Is what true?" He tried to sound casual.

"What you said?" Jennifer held her breath. The next words Rodney said were going to change her life.

"Uh… I… You know I…" Rodney looked at the beautiful woman next to him and suddenly realized it didn't matter what happened to his pride. He loved her. She was the most important thing in the world to him. If he couldn't be honest with her, nothing else mattered. "Yes. It's true. Since the moment I saw you in the Gateroom."

Jennifer's heart soared. A grin unlike any other spread over her face as she found the courage to say, "I…"

The door opened and Kramer walked in, followed by Tunney. They sat down on the other side of the table.

"Ah. Well, it takes a big man to admit that he's wrong and much as I appreciate it I really would prefer that this whole apology thing took place a little more publicly," Rodney said. His heart was racing after the beautiful smile on Jennifer's face, but it couldn't keep the anger he felt at this jerk for endangering them and stealing classified work. His classified work.

"Are you kidding?! You are the one who should be apologizing to me," Tunney said.

"What the hell for?" Rodney suddenly tried to remember everything Ronon or Richards taught him in his hand-to-hand fighting classes Sheppard forced him to take. Just one quick jab across the table should break his nose. Serves no purpose but I know I'll feel better after.

"I invited you here as a courtesy; out of kindness. You know, most people think you've lost your mind… that you've gone Howard Hughes," Malcolm said.

"Just because I don't call any more doesn't mean I'm keeping my urine in jars! Look, I don't need you to..."

"Shut up. I don't have time for this. What have you two done?" Kramer yelled.

"What have we done?" Jennifer's excitement at finding out that Rodney liked her even if it was just for her body was replaced by the anger she had earlier. This little creep stole classified research and he has the nerve to yell at us.

"We can't shut the device down," Tunney said.

"I told you not to turn it on. I practically begged you. But would you listen? No." Rodney knew he was vindicated but now his fears were being realized. Jennifer and the other couple hundred people here were in danger.

"Tell us what you did and how to undo it and I'll consider not pressing charges," Kramer replied.

"We didn't do anything," Jennifer said, glancing at Rodney. What are they talking about?

"Oh, really? Explain this, then." Kramer nodded to the video monitor, which showed Rodney entering a darkened office.

Jennifer shot her date an I-told-you-so look and let out a sigh as the video captured Rodney's rant.

"Now look, I can see how…out of context…that could seem incriminating," Rodney said, avoiding direct contact with Jennifer's eyes. He knew she had been right.

"Out of context?" Tunney echoed.

"Just tell him what you were looking for," Jennifer said. Rodney met her eyes for the first time and nodded.

"I was looking for a paper I published a little over two years ago, one that dealt with a matter bridge," Rodney said. Be humble for Jennifer. The sooner you get this cleaned up, the sooner you'll get her alone.

"Rodney, you have not published a paper in a very long time," Tunney replied smugly.

"You probably didn't even know it was my work," Rodney said.

"Oh, you're publishing under a nom de plume now?" Tunney chuckled.

"Okay, here's how I think it went down: you were working with the government. Someone there trusted you, a lot, and let you see something you weren't supposed to see. Or maybe you were sent something by accident. Who knows? You saw a paper about a matter bridge… a project that was shut down due to the adverse effects of exotic particles. You read it; you realized that if the bridge was used merely as transfer of energy… say, heat… there would be no exotic particle creation and thus no adverse effects. So, you co-opted the science as your own, made a few changes to make yourself feel better and got to work, dismissing the original author's warnings about the inherent instability of time/space bridges. How'm I doing so far?" Rodney said, glaring at Tunney.

Jennifer looked at Rodney's old graduate school peer and saw a man who was caught in a lie. Anger at the affront to the man she adored coursed through her. A desire to punch Tunney came over the normally peaceful doctor. What did Gunny say; a quick jab to the nose might break it?

"That's preposterous. Doctor Tunney's been working on this for years," Kramer spat.

Ignoring the outburst Rodney looked at Tunney with a hurt expression on his face. "That was my work, Malcolm. I wrote that paper."

Jennifer almost launched herself at Doctor Tunney for causing the confident man she loved so much pain. The tone of Rodney's voice spoke of the ultimate betrayal having been committed against him.

Tunney looked at Rodney for a long moment and without looking away from Rodney, he spoke to the man at his side. "Terence, these people may be able to help us."

TBC


A/N: Sorry for all the near-fluff in here. Just came to me earlier today. I didn't change a lot of dialogue because the confrontation scene in the conference room is one of my favorite McKay rants of the entire series.