Disclaimer: not mine, wish they were, Christmas is 6 months away so if you'd like to give them as a gift I would gratefully accept.
When Dr Rodney McKay hobbled into Dr Heightmeyer's office around 8:30am (Atlantis time), she never expected to get so much from him. Considering he was ordered here after a particularly disastrous mission. He was currently sporting a broken ankle in its own cast and his very own top of the market concussion that was doing its best to take him from the smartest man on Atlantis to just a normal genius. He was also 17 years old. And couldn't remember a thing since that's happened since he really was that age.
The mission was supposed to be a meet and greet with the locals, but since when do they ever happen? The day started off normal enough, upon entering the gate room easy patterns situated themselves between Major Sheppard and Rodney.
"Nice of you to join us McKay"
"Least I could do Major, you're all dressed up and such. You even did your hair."
"I would of worn something different if I knew we were going to match, but I have to admit, the black and grey does wonders for your complexion compared to your usual beige."
"How are you feeling today Rodney?" Asked Dr Heightmeyer in her lively and professional tone.
"Fine. You?"
"Good thank you. How do you feel about what has happened to you."
"I don't know what happened to me, I woke up with a broken ankle in a field, I thought I'd fallen out of a tree or something. Then Jack..."
"John"
"…..John, told me he'd explain everything soon and that we had to keep moving, he had a gun so I didn't want to argue." Young McKay said with a hint of fear. There was something else in his eyes she couldn't quite distinguish. He almost looked the same, younger obviously, but if anything this version of Rodney looked haunted for lack of a better word.
"How did you feel when everything was explained to you"
"I thought somebody was playing a joke on me, I understood everything they were saying but I didn't want to accept it, I still don't." Replied Rodney seriously.
"How about we leave that for now, tell me about you. What's the last thing you remember doing"
"I was arguing with my dad, he threw me out of the house, I don't think he intended for me to come quite this far though. His imagination wasn't that great." He said with a familiar hint of the sarcasm she was used to.. Heightmeyer noted that he still, twenty years younger, used his humour to deflect a serious situation. "Tell me about your argument Rodney." She explored carefully.
"Dad, they want to move me to college early! They tried last year and you wouldn't let me, why won't you let me just go!"
"Rodney, you're not as clever as everyone says, I don't care if they said you were cleverer than Einstein, you need to settle down and get a proper job instead of spending your life chasing the stars, you'll never get an closer to them than with your telescope so just give it up!"
"People have landed on the moon, people fly to space all the time, why can't you get it into your tiny little brain that its what I want to do."
"…….your nothing, you need a good job not a degree"
"…..I need to learn, I want to, just because your happy, reading your bible and blaming everything that you can't explain on God, doesn't mean I am"
"I will not have you speak this way in my house! You will not blaspheme, you will not disrespect me and you certainly won't spend your life thinking your something your not."
"You know what dad, I just realised my problem here, you're the one not intelligent enough to understand why I want to do what I want to do. You can't understand that I would want to do something that didn't involve being a lapdog to people that will always be better than me, your nothing, you put me down because your scared that maybe, just maybe I might be better than you, I can't believe its taken me this long to figure it out, your just a coward!" The slap came quick Rodney didn't know what had hit him until the sting in his cheek told his brain it was a backhand from the left. Sharp and swift, stings like a bitch. He was to shocked to react for a minute, couldn't process the fact his dad hated him because he wanted to learn. Rodney just couldn't understand, maybe his dad was right maybe he wasn't as intelligent as he thought. But those thoughts were quickly discarded when his father spoke.
"I have had enough of you, enough of all your whining, your lucky I didn't hit you harder." Something snapped in Rodney, he realised his dad wasn't in control anymore and replied:
"No dad, your lucky I didn't hit you back"
"GET OUT! OUT OF MY HOUSE NOW! And don't ever come back." His father spat. So he left.
"That's the last thing that happened to you? Your father threw you out of your home?" Heightmeyer asked disgusted, she had never received anything but encouragement from her family.
"Yeah, it wasn't the last thing that happened. That was around a week ago, haven't spoken to him since don't really want to." He replied with a detachment a 17 year old shouldn't be able to muster.
"Where did you go? If this happened a week ago, where have you been staying?"
"I went to a friends house. I know him from some college courses I took over the summer, he's 22 so he's got his own place. I'm actually dating his sister. Have been for 8 months. Look my head is starting to hurt, you mind if we carry this on tomorrow?" He knew he was bailing he knew he'd have to explain more and more to her and just didn't feel like spilling all of his guts at once to a complete stranger, from the future in a floating city in another galaxy. He went to bed hoping that night to wake up in his adopted bed, next to Evie, with nothing more than his dad to worry about.