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'Rodney!' Dr. Elizabeth Weir, expedition leader of the Atlantis team exclaimed at her lead scientist.

'What?' the usually snarky Canadian in question asked loudly, in response. 'Elizabeth, how else would you expect me to respond? You did just ask me the one question pretty much every man in Atlantis would say yes to unless they were gay.' His hands were moving in response to his words to prove the point.

Elizabeth, arms folded across her chest, leaned back in her chair and looked over to Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard. 'Would you agree, John?'

In a tone that suggested she was daft for asking, he responded, 'Yeah!' He and Rodney shared a look as she eyed both of them curiously for a moment before sighing lightly.

'Rodney, do you stick by your claim?'

'When don't I?' he challenged.

Narrowing her gaze on the physicist, Elizabeth asked in an all business tone, 'How would you like to put a wager on that?'

Sheppard, not wanting anything unseemly to happen, quickly jumped in. 'Elizabeth, I don't think you really want to do this. I mean, Rodney and I . . .'

'Colonel Sheppard, you and Rodney only represent a small part of men in Atlantis. I'd like to find out for myself.'

Sheppard, backing down, replied incredulously, 'Okay,' drawing the word out.

Rodney, who had remained quiet up until this time mulling over the idea, looked over the table to Elizabeth. 'What are the stakes?'

She thought for a moment. Smiling, she replied, 'Whoever loses will have to do what the winner wants, as long as it's within reason and appropriate.'

'Who decides what's appropriate?'

'The loser?'

Rodney rolled his eyes. 'So then if I win you could just say you don't think whatever I ask is appropriate. That'll work well!' he said sarcastically.

'I will,' Sheppard interjected. 'And yes, I'll be fair,' he added, directing the comment toward Elizabeth.

Rodney and Elizabeth looked to each other, gestured a bit in thought, and then nodded to each other that it was a good deal. They stood and met halfway to shake hands briefly.

'Let's put this to the test, shall we?' Elizabeth asked. 'Let's ask, Dr. Beckett what he would say,' she smiled, thinking about the polite Scottish doctor who would probably prove the two other men wrong, or rather, she hoped he would have the decency to do so.

: P

'Dr. Weir, what brings you three here this morning?' Carson asked. Elizabeth, deciding that being direct would be the best way to go about the whole thing, whispered the question in his ear and he blushed a bit. 'Well, uh,' he started a bit flustered, 'honestly, the answer would be yes.' Carson had a sheepish smile on his face. 'Why do you want to know?'

Rodney and Sheppard looked at him, and Rodney said, 'Let's just say Elizabeth and I have a little wager going. Thanks for helping us out, Carson.' Elizabeth sent a glare his way, but he smiled smugly at her in return.

'Thank you, Carson,' Elizabeth said curtly before turning sharply and leaving. Carson raised an eyebrow in question. Sheppard shrugged in response before following the retreating forms of Rodney McKay and Elizabeth Weir.

: P

It was fortunate that it was one of those slow times in Atlantis because over the next few days, Elizabeth could be seen everywhere with Rodney and Sheppard questioning the male staff of Atlantis. Finally, the only males who remained were Radek Zelenka and Ronan Dex. Finding Zelenka was easy enough as he was in his usual place. Not having Rodney around made it possible for him to get some work done, so he was unhappy when the other scientist suddenly reappeared in the lab with Sheppard and Weir in tow.

'Radek, I thought I'd find you here,' Rodney greeted him.

'Rodney,' Zelenka said shortly. 'If you don't mind, I have work to do.'

'We will only take a moment of your time, Dr. Zelenka' Elizabeth said nicely to him.

Zelenka smiled a little, and said, 'What can I do for you Dr. Weir?' She posed the question to him, and he smiled goofily. 'In truth, the answer would be yes.' He looked away, muttering something in Czech.

Elizabeth frowned briefly, but quickly neutralized her look. 'Thank you for you help, Dr. Zelenka.'

He nodded and turned back to his work. The other three left in search of Ronan. They had been saving him for last for a reason. Ronan, while known for his military prowess, was not known for his bedside manner. Elizabeth wanted to be sure she had Sheppard and McKay around when posing the question to him because there was no way any of them could predict how he would react. After asking several random Atlantis personal, they found him in the commissary. Elizabeth hesitated a minute.

'Go on. We'll be right behind you,' Sheppard nudged her. She turned and looked at him to make sure he was not lying. Finding nothing suspicious in neither Sheppard nor McKay's face, she walked over to Ronan. He nodded his acknowledgment of their presence and continued eating.

'Ronan' she started trying to sound less anxious than she felt, 'can I ask you a personal question.' He made no indication one way or the other. Elizabeth looked at the two men with her for help. Sheppard nodded for her to go ahead while Rodney shrugged. Taking strength from the fact she was surrounded by people who would help if Ronan got out of hand, she whispered the question in his ear. He stopped eating and stared at her, expression unreadable. Elizabeth stood and backed up a little.

'So?' Sheppard asked Ronan.

'This is a joke, right?' he asked, standing to his full height. Sheppard instinctively put himself in a position to protect Dr. Weir if necessary, hoping that he would not have to.

Rodney, in the meanwhile, debated hiding under the table briefly. However, he opted to stand next to Elizabeth in an attempt to reassure her, which he doubted he was doing anyway. When no one else responded, though, he found himself suddenly speaking. 'It's merely a hypothetical question with a simple answer: yes or no.'

Ronan looked at him, and Rodney blanched, but did not move from where he was standing next to Elizabeth. Ronan sat down and began eating again. A collective sigh escaped the lips of everyone else. 'The answer's yes,' Ronan said in an off hand manner between bites. Sheppard motioned for them to leave.

Elizabeth, shaking briefly from the experience, said, 'Thank you for your time, Ronan.' He did not respond, per usual. The trio left the commissary for Weir's office.

: P

To say that Rodney McKay looked smug would be an understatement. He was absolutely beaming with pride at the fact that he won the bet. Elizabeth sat tiredly in her chair. She really did not want to have to put up with him now that he had been proven right. He would be hell to even be near for the next week. She suddenly felt very sorry for Zelenka who, inevitably, would have to put up with him the most, but she still had to fulfill her part of the deal. God knows what Rodney would ask. He would probably want her to be part of an experiment or something. Well, at least she had Sheppard to act on her behalf, but she was not entirely sure where he stood on the whole thing. She just had to hope for the best.

'All right, Rodney, you won,' she said quietly in resignation.

'As if I would be wrong,' he replied. She glared. He smiled.

'So,' Sheppard said, drawing the word out, 'Rodney, have you thought about what you're going to ask Dr. Weir to do?' Rodney smiled and whispered something in Sheppard's ear. He nodded. 'That sounds fair to me.' Elizabeth looked at him worriedly for a moment. 'And yes, I'm being objective Elizabeth,' he replied rolling his eyes. 'I promised, remember?' She nodded. 'Well, I'll leave you two kids to it.' With that, Sheppard left to be about his own business for the first time in days.

Rodney walked over to Elizabeth and pulled her to her feet. He whispered in her ear and she blushed. She looked down shaking her head. When she looked back up, Rodney noticed that she was laughing. 'What's so funny about that?' he demanded.

'Nothing,' she replied. 'I just can't believe you'd actually ask me that.'

'Well, you started it,' he said. 'Did you not ask me, in the hypothetical situation that you asked me to kiss you if I would?'

'I did. I just didn't expect you to ask me the same thing.'

'But it's not hypothetical this time, Elizabeth. I asked you to kiss me. It's part of our deal,' Rodney responded, sounding a little whiny and disappointed, along with something else she could not quite place.

She smiled at him, putting a finger to his lips to quiet him down. 'I never said I wouldn't,' she said quietly to calm his fears.

He was smiling at her, but none of his previous pride showed. This time it was the awkward with women Rodney McKay she saw. He was suddenly unsure, hesitant even. 'Elizabeth,' he replied, 'you don't have to do this if you don't want to.'

'And what if I do?' She was beginning to understand what made her pose the question to him originally several days ago. At the time, it had just slipped out at random, but having been faced with it for three days, everything was coming into perspective. She had come to grips with Simon's indiscretion and was finding more and more that she was ready to move on. It had been a mystery as to whom she might even be remotely interested in, but Rodney, she realized, was becoming increasingly more important to her. She just had to let him know that, because she was sure he felt something for her and probably had for quite some time.

He just watched her for a minute before answering. He watched as several emotions flitted across her features before she finally looked him in the eye, drawing his gaze to hers. 'I won't stop you,' Rodney finally said, remembering that she had asked him a question. He stood there as she leaned toward him. The kiss took several seconds to register in Rodney's brain, and by the time it did, she had pulled back. He pulled her toward him again, this time initiating the kiss. Unbeknownst to them, John Sheppard was watching from the gate room, glad to see his two friends finally find each other despite the slight pang in his heart at the sight of Elizabeth with someone else. He shook it off, knowing that nothing could have happened between them anyway.

Teyla, returning from an off world mission, noticed Sheppard and followed his gaze up to Weir's office. She smiled at the sight of Elizabeth and Rodney in an embrace that suggested more than friendship. 'How did Dr. Weir and Dr. McKay get together?' she asked, pulling Sheppard from his thoughts.

He took one of the bags of seed she was carrying and responded, 'Let's just say a little wager had a big payoff for now, shall we?' She smiled at him and his worries faded. He smiled back at her. 'Here, let's get this to the jumper and I'll give you a lift to land.' As she followed Sheppard, Teyla glanced up once more to find Rodney and Elizabeth kiss briefly before going there separate ways.

End

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