Hi all, another chapter for you. I hope you like it and I'd love to hear what you think.

Atlantis

John sighed, dropping down onto one of the chairs in the room they had designated for gearing up in preparation for missions, feeling like he'd just run a marathon. They were alive, Atlantis was on top of the water, they'd awoken a terrifying enemy, made some new friends in the Athosians, he'd managed to save O'Neill before the wraith queen had started eating him and they were finally back and alive.

He'd definitely made an impression on the other military personnel; they'd seen what he was capable of now and he doubted they'd think twice about following any orders he gave in the future. O'Neill was certainly impressed and grateful for the save, Sam had been exceptionally grateful as well when she'd found out, hugging John tightly and thanking him several times. He could tell they were all glad he'd come along and he was grateful to have made such a good impression.

He was tired though, exceptionally tired and all he wanted to do was sleep, but he'd barely seen Rodney since he'd left Atlantis to try and find them somewhere to go, and while of course no one else knew this, one of the reasons he'd been so ruthless towards the wraith out on that mission was because he'd been so scared that Atlantis was going to go under while they were gone and Rodney was going to die. He needed to find the man and see for himself that he was all right, but he had no idea where he was.

After that he needed to find out where a sleeping bag was so he could finally get some sleep. He had to get up from this chair, but he really didn't have the energy. Maybe he could just fall asleep here.

"Hey," Rodney's voice drew his attention towards the door and he saw the man walking in, looking at him worriedly. "I heard what happened, are you okay?" he asked, stopping just in front of John, studying him closely with those incredible eyes.

"Yeah, just exhausted," John admitted. "Are you okay?" he asked in return, taking his own catalogue of Rodney's condition.

"Yeah, fine," Rodney replied, still studying John as if he was concerned that there were some hidden injuries that he couldn't see. "I'm sure you're exhausted, but if you can handle just a short walk, I have something to show you."

As worn oout as he was John couldn't say no to Rodney. He pushed himself up onto his feet and motioned for Rodney to lead the way, hoping the scientist was being honest when he said it was only a short walk. They moved through a corridor until they reached a room that was mostly open, but had a small circle in the centre of the floor. Rodney got John to stand on it with him then pressed something on his tablet that John hadn't even noticed him holding earlier.

The outer ring of the platform glowed, then a cylinder of what appeared to be glass slid up from the floor and encased them on all sides, reaching to the roof. Before John could ask what was happening the platform they were standing on began to move upwards, passing through a few different levels before finally coming to a stop. The cylinder of glass disappeared back into the floor to let them step off, then the platform lowered back down and the floor filled in with metal, in much the same way as the roof of the jumper bay

John was suitably impressed, even though he was so tired he could barely think. Rodney called him over to a door and waved a hand over the crystal panel beside it. The door slid open and Rodney motioned for John to precede him into the room.

What he walked into was a beautiful, open room, with the wall opposite the door made entirely of clear glass revealing a large balcony. It was unusually shaped, a half semi circle, but very spacious. The wall on the left was straight with one door on it, the wall on the right had a curved shape to it and three doors.

"Where are we?" John asked.

"Your room, if you like it," Rodney replied and John turned around to look at him in shock.

"Really?" he asked, wondering if he was hearing wrong. In his entire military career he'd never had a room this big all to himself. "Am I sharing it with anyone?"

"Really and … well, here's where it gets interesting," Rodney replied. "This is the command tower, for lack of a better name, where the families of Atlantis' highest ranking staff lived. They are designed to all be interlinked, although some more than others." He pointed to the doors on the right hand wall. "The door closest to the balcony leads to your bathroom, the next one leads to a closet and the last one leads to a short hallway that connects this room to the one beside it," he explained, then turned his attention to the door on the opposite side of the room.

"This one is a little different, it still leads to the next room, however, it shares a wall with this one, so no hallway, and if you do this," Rodney pressed a few buttons on his tablet and suddenly the entire wall dropped down into the floor revealing a room the same size as the one he was in only it was inverted, and suddenly the shape started making sense. If you took that wall down it turned the room into a full semicircle, making it much larger. So, if the ancients were a couple wanting to live in the same space they could remove the wall and make it bigger, but if they had children who didn't want to share they could have the wall up to separate the rooms, while still being able to access both rooms through the interconnecting doors. It was genius really.

When the panel was completely gone the doors to the balcony came together to fill in the gap it left and John could see that the two balconies, like the rooms, were now one space and closed in on either end by curved metal panels. It was incredible.

"This is amazing," he said in awe.

"Isn't it," Rodney replied, looking out of the window for a moment with him before continuing. "Back to your question. That room is officially mine, so it's up to us what we want to do with our space. You've spent your life having to share with other people, so I'm sure you'd like to not have to share for once. I've also spent most of my life sharing space with other people, but I'm pretty used to it by now, it doesn't bother me either way.

Share the space? With Rodney? The very idea made him feel giddy, which was saying something when he was so tired. Of course they should really give it more thought, so maybe sleeping on it would be a good idea, for both of them. Rodney might decide he wanted to keep them separate once he'd had a chance to sleep and recover from the day they'd had. He hadn't really noticed it before, but the other man looked as tired as he felt.

"How about we sleep on it and give it some more thought tomorrow, maybe discuss it a little when we're not so exhausted. Once we've discussed how we like to use our space when we're not just going to be somewhere for a short time, we'll have a better idea of whether sharing the space would work," he suggested, looking around the room for a few more moments before turning to look at Rodney to get a reading on what he thought of the idea.

Rodney had an odd look on his face that John couldn't read and he was just about to ask what was wrong when Rodney moved towards him, "I'm sorry, can I just …" John was surprised when Rodney closed the gap between them and slipped his arms around John, holding him tightly.

John froze, caught between feeling shocked and elated. Rodney was hugging him, he couldn't remember the last time anyone had hugged him and it certainly hadn't been anything like this. He was still getting over the shock of it all when he felt Rodney start to pull away, and not wanting that to happen so soon, John slipped his arms around Rodney in return, stopping his retreat. He was thrilled when Rodney melted back against him, at the same time he was equally glad that his body was too tired to react the way it probably would have if he weren't. Rodney's body felt incredible against his, even more than John had imagined it would.

"I'm sorry, I just … I was worried about you today," Rodney said quietly.

"It's okay, I was worried about you too," John replied, not wanting Rodney to think that the contact was at all unwelcome.

They held each other like that, in the most incredible, blessed moment of John's life, until he felt himself almost starting to fall asleep. He must have startled awake because Rodney asked if he was all right.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm just really tired," John replied.

"Of course, sorry," Rodney said pulling away. "We haven't gotten beds set up at all, low priority after today of course, but I stole us some sleeping bags and pillows and managed to snag our clothes."

He moved over to a spot next to one wall and grabbed the sleeping bags and pillows, taking them over to a spot almost in the middle of both rooms. John moved over to him and helped Rodney get the sleeping bags out and cover the pillows with pillowcases Rodney had stashed along with them. When they were done, they both crawled into a sleeping bag exhausted.

"I'm glad you're okay," Rodney said sleepily when he was settled on his pillow.

"You too," John replied, looking over at the other man with half lidded eyes. Being so close to Rodney like this was incredible and if he weren't so tired he would have been doing a happy dance in his head. When he saw the man's eyes close, he reached out on impulse and gently took his hand, hoping the contact didn't freak Rodney out too much.

He was delighted when Rodney's fingers gripped his hand back and he fell asleep with a soft smile on his face.

XX

Setting up Atlantis was a full time job in itself. It took two weeks to find places for everything, but finally they were settled in. Rodney and John hadn't really discussed their room at all, in fact they'd been so busy that they barely saw each other during the day unless John was being a lightbulb for Rodney, and he always volunteered for the job just so he could be closer to the man. At night they were so exhausted that they grabbed whatever was easiest to eat from the mess hall that had been set up and practically stumbled back to their room.

They ate as much as they could while being so tired then crawled into their sleeping bags, that were still next to each other, and slipped off to sleep to Johnny Cash. John didn't always outlast Rodney, but when he did, he would often slip his hand over and gently touch Rodney's hair before he fell asleep. The longer he knew Rodney the more time he wanted to spend with Rodney and the closer he wanted to be to him; the man's presence was intoxicating.

He still didn't know what these feelings were, but they just kept getting stronger and he puzzled over them every moment. Even when he was doing other things, Rodney, and his feelings for Rodney, were in the back of his mind.

Finally, they were settled in and John was keen to relax a bit and hopefully with Rodney. When he was finished everything he had to do that day he headed for Rodney's lab, hoping to find him. When he got there, he was surprised to find Rodney, and another scientist John had seen but not met, leaning into a computer, very close to each other, discussing something.

Something cold and dark filled John's gut at the sight of someone else standing so close to Rodney, particularly when he knew Rodney's feelings about people being in his space. The thing was Rodney didn't seem at all bothered by their close proximity and was actually chatting with them pretty amiably. John wasn't sure what he was feeling, but he didn't like it; he wanted to grab this person and throw them out the door, regardless of the fact that it was a woman.

He knew he shouldn't, but he wanted all of Rodney's attention on him, he didn't want to share it. Of course they both had jobs to do and they'd need to spend work hours with other people, he got that, but Rodney looked far too cosy with this other scientist and John didn't like it. He wanted to walk in and see how Rodney reacted to his presence, hoping that he would look up and give him that bright smile John loved so much, but at the same time he was scared that Rodney would barely acknowledge him and that would be crushing.

He was trying to decide whether to stay or go when one of the other scientists entered the room and came to stand beside John, "Can we help you with something, Major?" she asked, drawing Rodney and the other scientist's attention.

"No thank you," John replied amiably with a polite smile. The other scientist gave him a polite smile of her own before moving further into the room and John turned back to see Rodney and the scientist he'd been chatting to, looking at him.

"Hey," Rodney greeted him and John was thrilled to see that bright smile he loved so much. "What brings you down here?"

"I was finished for the day and thought I'd swing by and see if you were ready for dinner," John began. "But you looked like you were pretty engrossed in whatever you were doing, so I wasn't sure whether I should interrupt."

"You're never an interruption," Rodney assured him with a warm look in those beautiful eyes that made John's heart race. "We weren't doing anything important anyway, we were just talking. Oh, I forgot, you two haven't met have you? Major John Sheppard this is Dr Jeanie McKay, my little sister."

The woman gave John an unusual smile, "Ah, you're John, I was wondering when I'd meet you," she said, moving over towards him with her hand outstretched. "It's nice to finally meet you, I've heard plenty about you from Mord here." she motioned to Rodney with her thumb

"Must you, Morg?" Rodney groaned and Jeanie glared back at him. "Hey, If you don't like it, don't do it to me," Rodney returned her glare with one of his own and after a short glaring contest Jeanie finally relented.

"Okay, you're right." She turned back to look at John. "Sorry, our parents had a sick sense of humour when they named us and neither of us like our first names, that's why we go by our middle names," she explained.

"Okay, you've got me curious, what are you first names?" John asked, looking between them both. "Don't worry, I don't like mine either, that's why I go by John."

"I'll tell if you tell," Rodney replied.

"Okay," John agreed easily, "Arcturus." Rodney looked surprised. He studied John closely then shook his head.

"Doesn't suit you at all."

"Not in the least," John agreed.

"Our parents named us Mordred and Morrigan," Rodney replied and John looked at Rodney incredulously.

"Really?"

"Yep, I told you they had a sick sense of humour," Rodney replied. "Mordred Rodney McKay and Morrigan Jeanie McKay. More than a little weird, aren't they?"

"Yeah, and here I thought Arcturus Jonathan Sheppard was bad."

"Please keep that to yourself," Rodney beseeched. "I really don't want people to start calling me Mordred."

"That's okay, as long as you keep mine, I'll keep yours," John agreed.

"Done," the siblings agreed and John motioned to the door.

"Ready for dinner?"

"Yeah," Rodney replied, both of them following John out of the lab.

John completely missed the over excited way Jeanie was mouthing things to Rodney and the way Rodney was angrily motioning for her to stop.

XX

How could Rodney describe John Sheppard? Beautiful, divine, incredible, perfect … no, there really wasn't a word good enough.

The moment he saw him back in Antarctica his heart had raced and his mind had gone blank. The man was beauty personified, a handsome face framed by that crazy hair, beautiful, soft green eyes, a tall, lean, graceful figure full of muscles; everything that Rodney could ever physically want in a man.

Rodney knew all too well that most of those people were pretty two-dimensional, beautiful people usually didn't need to be much else, or if they were they tended to be assholes, so Rodney hadn't been expecting much from him.

Finding out John had been the poor pilot Carson had nearly shot out of the sky had made him feel terrible and had led to Rodney talking to John more than he usually would a random soldier. What he'd uncovered during that conversation had been incredible. John wasn't just beautiful to look at, he was funny, intelligent, talented and kind. It had taken all of a few minutes for Rodney to fall for him and he'd fallen hard.

Something about John Sheppard pulled at him in ways no one ever had. It didn't matter how much Rodney saw him or spent time with him, he always wanted more. After everything with the chair that day he'd been expecting John to buddy up with the other military guys, make friends and never want to talk to Rodney again. It had been disappointing, but that was how Rodney's life had always gone, so he'd buried himself in his work, trying to block out the disappointment. When John had come looking for him that evening he'd been thrilled, thinking maybe he might make a new friend after all. He loved all the others from the SGC of course, but John was different, special.

Over the next week they'd spent countless hours together and Rodney had enjoyed it so much. He knew he behaved differently around John than he did around other people and he knew the others noticed, but he couldn't help it, he liked John so much. When he'd invited him to share his room at the Antarctic base he'd never dreamed that John would agree, but he was thrilled that he had, it meant more time they got to spend together. What was even more amazing was the fact that John seemed to want to be around him as much. Rodney hadn't gone out of his way to seek John out for anything other than work initially, not wanting to seem too eager, John had always been the one to come looking for him and that was so amazing.

Like Rodney John was reserved around people he didn't know very well. He was polite and easy going, things that Rodney had never been very good at with people outside his circle, but whenever he was with Rodney his demeanour changed. He was still polite and easy going, but he looked at Rodney with a warmth he didn't show towards other people. He joked and laughed with Rodney, bantered and played games, it was so much fun and Rodney loved it.

Falling asleep at night in that room beside him, listening to Johnny Cash who Rodney decided really needed to see a good therapist because the man was obviously depressed, was like heaven. He rarely outlasted John, he was almost always asleep before him, but he watched him as long as he could before he fell asleep and when he woke up during the night, which was a frequent occurrence for Rodney when his brain didn't shut up, he looked over at the man's handsome face and felt a calm wash over him that lulled him back to sleep better than anything he'd ever tried before.

John made him feel so many things, safe, calm, excited, nervous, happy, exhilarated, terrified and … love. Rodney hadn't admitted that to anyone, he'd only admitted it to himself the night before when John had fallen asleep before him for once and he'd dared to reach out and gently touch that beautiful face. Rodney had it bad and he knew it, he also knew that his love was one sided and would likely always be; but John was his friend and if that's all he could get, he'd take it and be grateful for it.

But he loved John with a depth that staggered him and he couldn't deny it. It was impossible not to love someone so perfect.

When they'd found those rooms Rodney and Daniel had been thrilled with the find and Rodney had put himself and John next to each other before he'd realised the wall moved. When he had made that discovery it had been amazing and it opened up the space so much. He gave John the option about whether they should share or not, but Rodney definitely wanted to, he wanted to be as close to John as he could get and he'd been thrilled when John hadn't been immediately averse to the idea.

When he'd hugged John that night he hadn't been expecting the other man to hug him back, in fact he was worried John would push him away. When he hadn't reacted at all in the beginning Rodney had figured that was the best he could hope for and gone to pull away. He'd been thrilled beyond all belief when John had hugged him back and he'd practically melted against the man's incredible body, his heart racing in his chest. John hadn't mentioned it, so Rodney hoped he'd just been too tired to notice, and with the way John nearly fell asleep holding him he figured he probably was.

Rodney had brought both of the sleeping bags into the middle of the room figuring John could move his away if he wanted to, he'd been so happy when he hadn't and when Rodney had been falling asleep and John had taken his hand it had felt so beautiful and natural, Rodney had struggled not to stroke John's hand with his thumb.

They hadn't had a chance to discuss the room since and Rodney wasn't in a hurry to, he loved falling asleep beside John listening to Johnny Cash. They were getting beds soon so he knew the conversation was bound to come up again; he just figured he'd let John bring it up when he was ready.

He knew the rest of his friends -and even after all these years that was a weird word to associate with himself in relation to anyone other than Sam and triple J- had noticed he behaved differently towards John and he'd been warmed by their willingness to include the Major in their circle for Rodney's sake. He knew Jack's decision to make John his 2IC was a tactical manoeuvre, but he also knew it was to entice John to come to Atlantis and part of that was for Rodney's sake. Jack wanted him to be happy, all of them did, which was lovely.

He hadn't admitted anything to any of them though, not even Sam, because he was worried that it would get back to John and ruin the friendship they'd started to form; he couldn't handle that.

Now Jeanie had met John and as they all left the room she was mouthing about how cute John was and gesticulating wildly about how Rodney should take the chance and kiss him. Rodney mouthed for her to stop it several times before finally grabbing her hands and holding them still. John started asking Jeanie a question, and as he turned around to face them they quickly stopped their little twin struggle and did their best to look as normal as possible, although John eyed them oddly for a moment before he continued with his question. It was a polite query about how Jeanie was liking Atlantis, which thankfully got her talking about the city and its technology for a while and spared Rodney any further struggles with her. It also meant she moved up to walk beside John, which would have been fine, except she seemed to be in thorough 'getting to know you' mode and hadn't shut up after she'd answered John's initial question, meaning Rodney didn't get to talk to John at all.

As they made their way to the mess hall Rodney watched their interaction with more than a little jealousy. In the time he'd known John he'd never seen him be as friendly towards someone as he was being towards Jeanie; usually that kind of friendliness was reserved for Rodney. Of course it would make sense though, while he hated to admit it his sister was a beautiful woman and John had no way of knowing she was gay; why wouldn't he want to be friendly towards her?

Sighing quietly Rodney shook his head at himself. He'd tried not to get his hopes up too high, he was certain John was straight and of course this was what was bound to happen, but he had anyway and now he had to deal with the disappointment. He tried to ignore the dark voice in his head that reminded him how pathetic and ordinary he was and sneered that of course someone like John would never love him; even if he wasn't straight the man may as well have been a god.

Suddenly his appetite was gone and he was trying to figure out how to strategically disappear when other members of his circle started joining them in the corridor. Jennifer was next and Jeanie quickly introduced John. Jennifer smiled brightly and squeezed in to John's other side, taking their walk to get as familiar with John as she could; although this time Rodney knew she was straight and therefore it wasn't just John's reactions he was worried about, but hers as well.

Of course she would like John, why wouldn't she? And of course John would like her back, she was beautiful and smart, if Rodney weren't gay and didn't love her like a sister he'd certainly like her. She was flirting with John, that made Rodney feel worse, but at least she was a little subtle about it. When Vala jumped into the corridor and got properly introduced to John it was a completely different story; Vala was never subtle about her flirting. Most people at the SGC were now immune to her attention, but of course John wasn't having never really met her before.

When Rodney was about to attempt his escape, Sam slipped in to the corridor beside him and asked what was up and Rodney motioned with his head in the direction of John and the girls. Sam glanced over at them and shook her head, "God, can those two never give it a rest?" she asked.

"Apparently not," Rodney replied glumly. "Look I really don't feel like eating anything now, I'm just going to go back to my room. I'll see you later."

"No, come on, you have to eat," Sam argued, slipping her arm through his. "Look, I'll get them away from him before we sit down."

Rodney shook his head, "No, if he wants to talk to them that's his decision, it's not up to us to stop them. It's not like they're doing anything wrong, any of them; I let myself develop feelings for him when I knew I shouldn't, if I'm upset right now I've only got myself to blame. Let them have a fun dinner together, I just … don't want to watch."

They reached the mess hall then and Jennifer paused in the doorway to wait for them. "Oh my god, that man is such a fox!" Jennifer gushed.

Rodney looked down at the floor, slipping his arm out of Sam's hold. "Tell the others I have a headache," he told her, turning to head back up the corridor.

"What's wrong?" he heard Jennifer ask.

"Really?" Sam asked as if she was the dumbest person ever to walk the Earth.

"What?" Jennifer asked again, sounding genuinely confused.

Rodney crossed his arms over his chest and blocked out the rest of the conversation. He made his way back to his room and headed out onto the balcony, sliding down onto the floor and leaning his back against the glass. Closing his eyes, he bit his lip and did his best to push the tears away; he'd done this to himself, there was no point crying about it now.

XX

As John reached the food line Jeanie and Vala were still talking a mile a minute and Vala was overtly flirting with John. Jennifer made him uncomfortable enough and she was at least a little bit subtle about it, Vala on the other hand was not subtle at all and made him really uncomfortable.

This wasn't how he wanted his evening to go. When he'd found out Jeanie was Rodney's sister he wanted to make a good impression on her. After all, if there was one person whose bad side you didn't want to get on it was the sister of the person you liked. So, he'd been happy to talk to her and get to know her, but he hadn't been expecting Rodney to hang back so much. He'd tried to find a break in the conversation where he could get Rodney involved, but Jeanie seemed as keen to get to know him as he was to make a good impression on her and there never seemed to be a gap. Then Jennifer had turned up and then Vala and he'd been stuck. Now he had no idea how to get away from them without being rude and these were Rodney's friends, Jennifer had been telling him about their time at the boarding school together, he didn't want to be rude to them.

He grabbed some food on his tray and let them usher him over to a table, still wondering how he was going to escape. When he got to the table and they were telling him to sit down he finally got a chance to look around the room hoping to spot Rodney and find a way to covertly ask for help. He searched the entire room and Rodney was nowhere to be seen, which had him worried.

He saw Jennifer and Sam heading over from the food line and he knew Sam had been walking with Rodney earlier; he'd managed to catch a small glimpse of them while he was being accosted.

"Hey, Sam, where's Rodney?" he greeted the blonde as she reached the table.

"He went back to his room," she replied, her gaze moving to his captors. "He had a headache." she finished, giving them a pointed look.

Rodney had a headache? He hadn't mentioned that earlier. What had happened?

"Is he okay?" John asked worriedly.

"He gets stress headaches sometimes," Sam replied, not really answering the question which let John know he wasn't fine.

"I'm going to check on him, excuse me," he said to the group of women, completely uncaring whether he was being rude now.

He completely missed the acidic look Sam threw the others as he walked away or how they all shrank back away from her.

He went back to the food line and grabbed some food for Rodney, choosing things John had noticed he liked during previous weeks. He made his way quickly back to his and Rodney's room, walking through the door and immediately spotting Rodney sitting outside on the balcony. He strode out onto the deck, placing the tray down on the floor beside Rodney and kneeling down to look at him.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked.

Rodney looked back at him, surprise obvious in his expressive and currently glassy, blue eyes. "Hey, what are you doing back so early?" he asked.

"Sam said you had a headache, I wanted to make sure you were okay," John replied, studying him closely.

"Oh … well I'm okay, thanks, I just get headaches sometimes," Rodney replied, looking down. "Sorry, I would have come up and told you, but I didn't want to interrupt your conversation."

Rodney sounded sad, why was he sad?

"Can I be honest with you about something?" John asked, still pondering over the mystery but not really sure how to ask about it. He hoped he wasn't about to offend Rodney, but he needed to tell the other man the truth.

"Sure," Rodney replied quietly.

"I know Jeanie's your sister and I know Jennifer and Vala are your friends, but man are they full on," John replied. "I mean talking to Jeanie was fine, she's your sister so I wanted to get to know her, but I didn't expect the conversation to be quite so … all encompassing. Then Jennifer came along and Vala and … I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life. I didn't want to be rude but … how do you tell people to back off or that you're really not interested and they're just making you uncomfortable without sounding rude? I've never been particularly good with things like this and usually it doesn't matter because they're not people you have to see again, but these are your friends and I don't want to offend them," John asked, trying to sound as little like an ass as possible.

"Oh … I didn't realise you felt that way," Rodney replied quietly. "I mean I'd noticed that you tend to be a bit reserved around people you don't know that well, but I didn't notice it while you were talking to the girls. Sorry."

"That's okay, I mean I was hoping you'd come up and save me after a minute or two, but you weren't feeling well so I get why you didn't. I wish you'd told me you had a headache, I would have come back here with you instead of going down to the mess hall … unless you wanted to be alone. Sorry I didn't even consider that," John said, feeling more than a little dumb. "Did you just want some space? Should I go?"

"No." Rodney looked up at him with earnest eyes. "I meant it before when I said you're never an interruption." He gave John a soft smile. "I like spending time with you, your presence never feels like an intrusion; I certainly didn't leave the mess hall to get away from you. Truth of the matter is I find the girls' presence a little much sometimes, particularly when they're in 'flirting/getting to know you' mode. It was hard to deal with before, now that Vala's around it's even worse. I love the girls, they're like family to me and I like Vala on her own, but … all together they're a bit much sometimes."

He sighed, "I don't want to sound mean, but the last few weeks have been so draining and … I just wanted a quiet evening. A chance to eat a decent meal, a little time up here with you and Mr Cash," he gave John a small grin, and John chuckled. "Before maybe being able to get a decent nights sleep for once. I feel awful saying it, but I liked my evenings at the SGC when Jennifer and Jeanie weren't there. The group we had was nice, Vala is pretty tolerable when it's just her or her and Janet, and adding you to it has made it even better, but now that JJJ are all here, with Vala egging them on, it's a whole new dynamic to adjust to and I don't know that I'm overly happy about it. And tonight I just couldn't handle it. I felt the headache coming on as soon as we got to the mess hall and … I wouldn't have been good company, so I left. I didn't realise I'd left you in the lurch, I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry, I get it I really do," John replied. "I … had the same hopes for our evening honestly. Quiet dinner, a bit of a chance to talk to you about something other than work, some Johnny and hopefully some sleep. I would have told you as much when I first got to the lab, but I didn't want to be rude to your sister.," he explained. "Can I tell you something though?"

"Sure," Rodney agreed.

"It doesn't matter who is talking to me, I'd rather leave and come up here with you than stay … anywhere else. I like the group, they're great people, but I still don't feel quite … right being with them when you're not there. So next time you're not feeling up to it, let me know, even if it's just a hand on my arm or something, and I'll leave with you. Chances are you'll be saving me from a lot of awkwardness," John explained and Rodney chuckled.

"Okay, I will if you will," Rodney agreed.

"Deal," John agreed, sitting down beside Rodney and grabbing the tray he'd brought up. He turned it so the things he'd grabbed for Rodney were in front of the scientist and placed it down on their laps. "I don't know if you're hungry, but I grabbed a few of the things I noticed you liked the last couple of weeks in case you were," he explained.

Rodney looked up at him with that beautiful smile and John's heart fluttered; nothing had ever been more beautiful than this man.

"You really are the nicest person I've ever met," he said softly and John returned the smile with a warm one of his own.

"Only to you," John admitted honestly and John couldn't name the emotion that flitted across the scientist's face. John was suddenly gripped with the overwhelming desire to kiss him, something he'd never really done with anyone since he was a teenager, but then Rodney made him feel and want all sorts of things he never had before.

To stop himself from doing something he shouldn't John turned his attention to his food and watched Rodney do the same, glad to see he ate a decent amount.

When they were finished they sat out on the deck for a while longer, enjoying the view of the stars and the sounds of the ocean. John felt so peaceful sitting out here with Rodney, he always felt relaxed when they were together, Rodney felt like home. The only thing that would make it better would be to have Rodney in his arms; sitting between his legs, reclined back against his chest … that would be incredible.

When they were too tired to stay out there anymore John helped Rodney up and they made their way inside the room to their sleeping bags. As John started Johnny Cash playing, Rodney, who was already half asleep, said, "I'm going to miss this when we finally get beds in here."

"What? Sleeping on the floor?" John asked with a chuckle.

"No, having you so close," Rodney replied and John's entire body felt warm.

"And why would you lose that?" John asked softly.

"Well, I figured once the beds started being distributed you'd probably want to put the wall up. You said yourself you always had to share a space in the air force, I figured you'd probably want your own space now that you could have it," Rodney replied.

"Well, you figured wrong," John replied. "Sharing a space is difficult when it's a small, cramped space, this certainly isn't, and what I really hated were the damn bunk beds. No grown adult should sleep in a bunk bed," he growled, but he smiled over at Rodney. "And I like having you close too," he admitted, not at all sure Rodney was even awake enough to hear him, but wanting to say it anyway. "Good night, Rodney," he said softly.

"Night, John," Rodney replied, startling him. Maybe Rodney was more awake than he thought. The way his breathing evened out a few moments later said otherwise and John grinned, wondering how much of this conversation Rodney would actually remember tomorrow.

He was asleep before the thought could even process.

XX

There we go. So John had met most of JJJ now and yes Janet will be making an appearance soon too, for those of you who watch SG1 she'll be her same bossy self at work, she just becomes a bit of a prankster/party animal at night. There has been a lot of build up in the story so far, the next chapter will get onto a bit more of the story.

Oh and I wanted to explain, John is a little different in this story, he has a lot more emotional extremes because of the way his life has gone up until this point. He's a strong, very capable fighter with advanced combat skills, which will come into play more when they start sparing with Teyla, he's also got a bit more of a dark side than we see in the show when something pisses him off (but honestly I think that is true in the show as well, we just only see little hints of it). As for O'Neill not getting eaten like Sumner did in the show, we've all see how well O'Neill talks himself out of things and it has been suggested that having a strong ancient gene makes he and Sheppard more resistant to things like the wraith mind control, so I think he would have lasted longer against the queen before she started eating him and with John being desperate to get back to Atlantis and make sure Rodney was all right he was very savage towards the wraith he managed to get there in time to save O'Neill. And come on, as if I was going to kill him off, he's one of my favourite characters of all time.

If you're reading and liking please let me know what you think.