Authors Note: This is my first SGA fanfic and it hasn't been beta-read so I apologize if it has grammar/spelling errors in or if the characters sound a bit off. Please let me know what you think of this, complaints, suggestions; any feedback would be helpful as long as it is constructive.

Please read "Window to the Soul" and "A Sour Taste in the Mouth", as they tie in with this fanfic (as does another fanfic I've yet to finish entitled "The Days Today"), so the painting mentioned in particular will make a lot more sense.

Also I really shouldn't have written this since I have any essay to do but I got so many supportive reviews I was inspired to carry on and write another chapter sooner than planned. Hope you like.

Spoilers: Possible spoilers for any episodes 1-14 Season one, though definitely for "The Eye" and "The Storm"

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Stargate in any incarnations of course and I'm not making any money, this is just some harmless fanfic fun.

Chapter 2: You can answer truthfully without answering completely

Previously....

Sheppard looked up bravely and said it outright, about the best way it could come from him.
"What she's saying, is they expect you to be married...", he took a another breath in before blurting out the rest of the truth, "... and I kinda told them you were."

and...

"And here he is, Doctor Weirs other half. The very modest Doctor McKay"
The Deluthions turned around to a suddenly smiling Rodney McKay who never the less was sending otherwise imperceivable death glares to Major Sheppard.

Elizabeth Weir made her way down to the lab. She entered, smiling to herself that she had been right to presume this would be his refuge.
"Rodney?" she said cheerfully, hoping to get him in a better mood. She had to get him to agree to this after all.

He turned around a grimace on his face. "You look cheerful, I take it Sheppard can't have told you yet."
"Actually he has" she replied as she sat down against the side of the table, angling herself towards him."And you are smiling why?".She laughed to herself briefly at his look of utter confusion, it was quite endearing.

"I know this is not an ideal situation..."
'Understatement of the year' came the answer from him as he went back to his work
"..but this is important. Necessary even for the survival of Atlantis and I can't do this without you."

"And whose fault is that?" he replied bitterly as he mixed two glowing liquids into a beaker, "Sheppard should have thought of that before opening his mouth just to spite me."
She stopped immediately, her reply caught in her head as she processed what he'd said. "To spite you?" she asked, growing concerned. "The Major said you were the most logical choice and Teyla said the Deluthions seemed to like the idea of the leader of Atlantis partnered with the smartest guy here."

For once he didn't take the bait for his ego, carrying on with his tirade against the Major's decision.
"Yes, well, they might but its not even logical to lie so blatantly to the Deluthions and put yourself and I at risk at trying to keep up such a facade."

"I understand what you're saying Rodney and I definitely don't condone what John did but under the circumstances you should be able to see that it was better he choose you than anyone else."

His voice raised as he defied her reasoning.
"But we shouldn't be under these circumstances at all. And I'm a scientist not a diplomat."He stuck his chin out defensively, eyes to the ceiling as he struggled to formulate his argument. Finally he looked back down to her, face full of honesty.
"Plus I'm awful at acting and you've seen how badly I bluff too."His voice peaked in a fear as he'd said that and she realised too late he must have been remembering what Koyla had done to him, the conversation somehow mirroring part of what he had said to her out on the pier that time.

She stood, moving closer to place hand on his shoulder, pleading with him for some consideration on the matter and hoping to comfort him somewhat, to forget his other thoughts of the unpleasant past experience they had shared. Thinking briefly that it had effected him more than she had been aware.
"Rodney please consider it more before you say no because no matter how much of a bad idea it was, we are here now and have to make the best of this opportunity to talk to the Deluthions."

He turned his face to her, straining to meet her eyes over his shoulder. He studied her face briefly before answering.
"Alright"

At that she broke out into the largest smile he'd seen for a while and he continued, his voice softer having lost the angry edge it had had when he'd been thinking of Sheppard's stupidity, "...but just as long as you know I'm only doing his for you." he shuffled a bit on the spot guiltily before adding "You did say they had lots of luxuries right?"
Where was he was going with that?"Yes, thats true, the variety of food and materials they possess is very diverse."

She noticed a sudden look in his eyes and the corners of his mouth turn up slightly as he appeared occupied with a fantastic thought.
Then he turned back to her pronouncing as if a resolution, "I'm also doing this for the possibility of chocolate you understand. I will be severely disappointed if they don't have anything deliciously sweet to offer us.""I'm sure we can find something like that"At that he looked more relaxed and hopeful.She smiled back at him, was there was a moment that went by when he didn't think about his stomach?

"You realise we need to get our story straight before we meet with them"
"Story?" His eyebrows furrowed and she found herself amazed at how obtuse he could be at times with things other than science."We have to get things right Rodney, if they suspect anything we don't know if the might be hostile to us"

His head shot up from the microscope he had been looking down as she said this and he turned around quickly to face her.
"But I just told you I'm rubbish at bluffing."She tried to infuse her voice with a sense of tranquility. This all seemed to be worrying him considerably and she didn't blame him for finding it hard to believe they wouldn't screw it up somehow. It was quite a pretense they had to follow."So we keep it simple, close to the truth as possible. We say we've been friends since we were assigned the mission in Antarctica and we've recently gotten married."

His features twisted up as he thought about it and he opened his mouth to contest the idea, a panicked look clouding his face as he said so.
"But then they might expect us to be lovey-dovey newlyweds..."She hadn't considered that possibility, the idea having just come straight off the top of her head."...and we'd have to act all sappy and... and..."His arms flew about as he tried explain, what she took to be disdain, further; clearly lost for the right word.

"Not that recently married, don't worry. As for the wedding, thats easier. They don't know what Earth ceremonies are like so if we both keep it simple and only one of us answers that if we are asked then there should be no problem."
He'd turned away back to work which she took to be a sign he'd calmed down form the slight hysteria of the previous moment.

" Have you ever been to a wedding?"she put out as a last thought, oddly curious of the fact.
She'd thought he'd begun to get used to the idea as she reassured him but at her last question he had moved away to fetch something and she wasn't sure if it had been necessary or not.

He took a minute to answer, when he was furtherest away from her she noticed, his voice quiet.
"Just the one."

She walked over to him slowly, hoping she'd merely imagined his avoidance of her.
"Any good?"

She'd arrived halfway over to him, a compromise incase he for some reason wanted distance, settling her crossed arms against a lab bench to support her position.

She could barely hear his strained voice over him pouring a cup of coffee.
"I'm sure it was very amusing depending on who you were."Somehow he didn't sound like he believed what he'd said and she felt compelled to know why."Really?"

"No, not if you were the groom anyway. He got jilted, left at the altar."
She frowned for a second in sympathy for the poor man, not that McKay could see and wondered whether the person had been a relative or friend of his. He at least didn't seem too amused to recount the story.

"Maybe that's not the best example of a wedding but I'm sure you've seen enough of them in films and on TV to think of something if it comes up."
"Yeah" he said as he turned around, eyes strictly on his coffee as he took a slurp.Such a neutral and short reply from him seemed out of character but she didn't press him on it.

She stood up, her back straight, in control and prepared to leave, with just one final thing to sort out.
"Well now thats settled we will be leaving in four hours. The Deluthions provided us with traditional dress we are expected wear whilst in the palace. Teyla quite rightly suggested its better if we change before we leave to make a good impression on them. I'll get someone to drop off your costume to your quarters."

He mumbled thanks in between drinking his coffee as she left his lab but she noticed it was far from pleased and surprisingly not even a sarcastic response as per usual. She attributed it to his nerves and walked on out thinking 'wait until he sees our clothes'.

An unrelenting high pitched voice could be heard all across the control centre as Rodney McKay whined, motioning to what he was wearing, which was floaty linen trousers and a tight shirt tunic with a cloth belt around the middle.

"This is ridiculous. I look like a cross between a ninja and someone form Harry Potter."

Teyla looked up at the Doctor, beginning the explaination for that particular detail again, as she tied the belt in the manner it was meant to be.
"Dr McKay, these clothes are the traditional royal dress of the Deluthions. Only their honoured guests and socially elite are allowed to wear them."
"Why's that, so all the lower classes can make fun of them all the better."
Teyla looked at the scowling doctor and sighed, he made such a fuss at times.

"Look on the bright side McKay, the colour brings out your eyes." joked the Major from a distance.
Sheppard entered dressed in unusually casual clothes for the occasion but it was certain he'd have a holster hidden somewhere on his person as he was coming along with Lieutenant Ford for security.

McKay pointed to the Major asking incredulously "How come he gets to dress normal?"
Teyla rolled her eyes, glad her face was not in view of him, as she started to answer in a tone she usually reserved for use with young children
"As I have already explained, it is a great honour to wear such dress and to not do so would severely offend the Deluthions."

Sheppard joined the arguement, coming to stand behind Teyla in support.
"Yeah, don't look a gift horse in the mouth McKay. Besides they really aren't that bad. They look surprisingly good on you infact." Sheppard said as he took a good look at the Doctor, slight disbelief overcoming his face.

"You don't have to sound so surprised that I look good Major" bristled McKay as he straightened his blue tunic-shirt.
Sheppard ignored the comment totally, clearly quite confused, before opening his mouth to question that.
"And how do you even have any muscles to show off in that thing, all we ever seem to see is you filling your mouth with energy bars. How is it possible?"
Sheppard's mind began to boggle at the engima, which appeared to also hit a spot with the Teyla who took on a thoughtful expression which was interrupted by the entrance of Ford and Dr. Weir.

Which was when Sheppard's mouth gaped open in curious surprise and Teyla smiled gently, leaving Rodney to turn around to see what was so interesting. And he'd swallowed nervously at the scene, his mouth suddenly unexplainably dry.

Ford was completely unremarkable as Rodney usually considered him to be as far as looks went but Elizabeth...

Her clothes weren't dissimilar to his, black trousers and shades of blue for the top but they were considerably tighter, obviously made to accentuate the female form, which they'd done very well at.
The top was different too, long sleeves fluted at the cuffs in a rather feminine medieval style and embroidered in an intricate organic pattern that would have made him think Celtic, had he been able to think at all that was.

Teyla's voice broke the silence.
"You look very lovely Dr Weir."
He however hadn't noticed that, nor Weir's reply.
"Why thank you Teyla. "

Or even her visage turning to the awed John.
"John, do you like?" she asked an eyebrow in the air at his initial expression.
That appeared to be when John had come back to reality, only very mildly embarrassed.
"Oh yeah, sure. Those Deluthions really know how to make good fitting clothes. Even McKay looks good." he smirked in good humour at her.

"Rodney?"
He realised he must have been staring and so tried to compensate, blurting out the start of the first sentence that came to his crawling mind."You look,.." and this was when he had to swallow, quickly going through the words he could use to describe her and settling on the only appropriate one, "very...nice, Elizabeth. You do"
Sounding at least sure of the last two words he'd used.

She smiled warmly and returned the sentiment. "You don't look so bad yourself Rodney."
Infact she'd never seen him in something so flattering as the Deluthion dress.
She made herself turn away however, to the rest of them. Everyone was assembled. Ford and Sheppard for security, Teyla as the liaison to the Deluthions and herself and Rodney.
"Time to go I think."She called up to the control room
"Dial up the gate Grodin, we're ready to go."

About time Rodney thought as he waited for the wormhole to establish, tearing his eyes away from his leader to watch the chevrons light up. He reminded himself she was also his partner in crime in this mock play of theirs.

This wasn't going to be as easy as he hoped it would but it his fear had nothing to do with how bad an actor he was. Quite the opposite.

Infact he got the feeling this was a much worse an idea than she thought it was but he stepped through the gate nevertheless, idly wondering what the Deluthion greeting was that Teyla had rather anxiously mentioned but skipped the details of.