Warning: Spoiler for "38 Minutes" - sort of

Rating: PG-13

I decided. It is Sheppard/McKay preslash. If you don't like it, don't read further, but I promise it's pretty tame.

Getting To Know You

Chapter Six: Insects and Invitations

It wasn't more than a few days later – less than twenty-four hours before McKay's first off-world mission since the Genii had tried to take over Atlantis – that the bugs came.

The swarm was huge, blackening the sky for three hours as it flew over the city. Naturally the Expedition team had brought an entomologist – two, in fact. General O'Neill had been extremely vociferous when making that recommendation. "When visiting alien planets, you can always count on one thing: bugs. Lots and lots of bugs," he had said, and Doctors Spalding and Kasprcyk liked to repeat this quote to their colleagues on a regular basis.

At first there had been only a few of the bugs, buzzing against the windows and landing on the balconies. They were pronounced harmless in fairly short order – Doctor Spalding said they were migratory insects that seemed to eat the local version of seaweed – but with a body the size of a football and a four foot wingspan, they weren't exactly pleasant to have around.

Unfortunately, they were just large enough to be detected by the door sensors, so a number of them got into the city before McKay figured out how to adjust the sensors. Then the main body of the swarm began to fly over, and Weir ordered all the outer doors locked. Spalding and Kasprcyk happily volunteered to find and catch the harmless intruders, and could be seen roaming the halls with oversize butterfly nets cobbled together from Athosian fishing nets.

It didn't take long for McKay to notice the way Sheppard involuntarily flinched every time a bug hit one of the windows. His face darkened into a scowl, his usual good humor vanished, and he even snapped at Ford.

McKay brought up the city's internal lights as the swarm darkened the sky, then approached Sheppard cautiously.

"There isn't really anything more to do here, Major. Perhaps you'd like to join me in my lab? I have a few Ancient devices I'd like you to try out."

"I'm not your damn guinea pig, McKay," Sheppard growled.

Rodney's mouth tightened as he struggled to suppress his normal snarky reaction. "I just thought you might like a distraction." He turned on his heel and walked stiffly away.

John sat in his quarters and rubbed his forehead. He hadn't meant to be mean to McKay; it was just that those damn bugs made him feel so twitchy. No, he was trying to be honest with himself – he'd been working really hard on that lately, the being honest thing, because how was he ever going to be honest with anyone else if he couldn't do it in his own mind? And the reality was, the bugs scared the crap out of him. The thought of one of them coming anywhere near him was almost unbearable. And sitting here, unable to concentrate on his book or the paperwork that piled up (and how could there still be paperwork this far from Earth – even if it was all on computers and not actual paper?), he had nothing to distract himself from the vague crawling sensation on his skin or the notion that he kept seeing something out of the corner of his eye.

Alright then. He'd go see Rodney and apologize. Take him up on the offer to play around with Ancient technology. Spend quality time with the one person on Atlantis that didn't make him feel like he had to live up to his position as ranking military officer at all times. Even if he had no idea whether or not Rodney would ever feel for him what he had to admit – because he was trying to be honest with himself – he felt for the socially inept scientist.

"McKay?"

Rodney cursed as he dropped the crystal he'd been examining. It shattered when it hit the table, and he stared wearily at the device he'd been working on. It just didn't seem to want to work, and he couldn't figure out why.

He sighed and turned around to find Sheppard standing in the doorway, uncharacteristically looking at the floor. That was surprising – Sheppard never seemed to have trouble looking anyone in the eye, seemingly oblivious to the fact that his intense gaze was sometimes a little uncomfortable. Rodney felt he'd been on the receiving end of that gaze a little too often lately. The Major didn't seem to think he was recovered enough to go through the Stargate yet, and Rodney was getting more than a little irritated. He was perfectly aware of his own uselessness in crisis situations, but he was also the most brilliant mind on Atlantis (Rodney didn't believe in false modesty) and if they found any technology on another world, he would be needed to figure it out.

"I'm, ummm…sorry I snapped."

Rodney's eyebrows shot up. An apology from Sheppard was the last thing he'd ever expected to get.

"Ah – that's okay. You just seemed …well. Those are the biggest damn bugs I've ever seen. Spalding says the swarm should – "

A chitinous skittering sound from the far corner of the room interrupted McKay, and this time John really DID see something move out of the corner of his eye. He instinctively reached for his sidearm, but his suddenly numb fingers couldn't grasp it and it fell to the floor. The bug crept forward into the light and John backed away on legs that felt like they belonged to someone else. His breath came fast and short and his vision narrowed to the huge bug that he couldn't stand to look at, even though he couldn't look anywhere else. The only thought in his mind was that if it touched him, he would die. His heart would just stop, and right now it was pounding so hard it hurt.

Something came between him and the bug, and a large crate crushed it with a loud splat. A moment later, his tunnel vision was filled with McKay's concerned face.

"Sheppard? Major, it's dead. It's harmless."

Finally, John's lungs seemed to open and he drew in a huge, frantic lungful of air. He slid down the wall he had backed into, the felling slowly returning to his fear-numbed extremities. He put his face in his hands, knowing he was trembling like a child and on the verge of tears, but unable to do anything but wait for the panic to recede.

He heard McKay kneeling beside him and managed not to flinch when he felt the scientist's tentative hand on his shoulder.

"John? It was just one of Spalding's water bugs. It can't hurt you…" McKay paused, then resumed, quiet and incredibly gentle, full of an understanding that John found almost painful to hear.

"Oh. It's too much like the Wraith tick. I had a few nightmares about that thing myself. I can't imagine what it must have been like for you."

McKay sat down beside him, back to the wall, and put his arm around John's shoulders, pulling him close. John only resisted for a moment before pressing his face into Rodney's broad shoulder and giving in to the tremors that wracked his thin frame. He wrapped his arms around himself and concentrated on the firm hand rubbing his upper arm reassuringly.

John didn't know how much time passed before the shaking subsided and his eyes stopped threatening to spill tears on Rodney's shirt. At first it was weariness that kept him from moving, but then his body began to respond in a different way to the man next to him, to the surprisingly strong arm around his shoulders.

And suddenly his heart was racing, and the blood was pounding in his ears, and he felt hot and cold all at the same time – and he could smell that odd scent that was Rodney McKay, like chocolate and coffee and ocean air and the slight metallic tang of static electricity.

He breathed in that scent and found himself lifting his head, leaning forward, reaching up to tangle his fingers in the soft, fine hair on the back of Rodney's skull, placing his mouth over those thin, expressive lips. He gently sucked at them, then pressed harder. The soft lips parted slightly, and he began to explore that mouth, finding his teeth, tongue, tasting and sucking and finding that Rodney tasted of chocolate and coffee, too.

And then his brain finally took back control of his body and he scrambled away, feeling his face turn red and hot while the pulsing in his groin disappeared as if he'd been dowsed with ice water.

Rodney stared at him, eyes glassy and darkened to the color of the ocean. His hand crept up to his mouth, lips bruised and puffy and flushed against the sudden pallor of his face.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" John gasped, then rose abruptly to his feet. Rodney's eyes followed him but he didn't move from his position on the floor, and he had that pole-axed look on his face that always made John's stomach do a slow flip-flop every time he saw it.

Then all his fears and anxieties came rushing back and he said harshly, "I was confused. I didn't know what I was doing. And if you say anything about this, to anybody, I will beat the crap out of you, McKay."

Rodney blinked at him, startled, then stood and said stiffly, "I can't imagine why you'd think I would say anything, Major. As far as I'm concerned, nothing happened here. I haven't seen you since I left the Command Center." His face was cold and stony, his gaze fixed on the floor.

John turned and stalked from the room, and never knew that the moment the door closed behind him, Rodney collapsed into a chair, his hand creeping back up to his swollen mouth, his eyes full of wonder.

Finis

A/N: Doctors Spalding and Kasprcyk exist only within my imagination. Ditto the quote from O'Neill.

The sequel will be entitled "Into the Woods". A seemingly routine off-world mission goes terribly wrong (naturally), bad things happen to McKay (again), and John learns some very interesting things about a certain machinist and the man he can't admit to being in love with.