It had taken nearly twenty minutes, but John Sheppard had found Rodney. Rodney, with his head down and his steps slow, was almost unrecognizable. Seeing him, John rushed forward. "Rodney!" he exclaimed.

McKay faced him, a faint, dim curiosity in his eyes. "Is Atlantis in danger?" he questioned flatly.

John frowned. "No…"

"Good. Then this can wait until later," Rodney said, turning away from John. His eyelids shut for a long moment. How had it gotten this bad? Why couldn't he stand to be within ten feet of his teammate, of his friend? How had this animosity grown between them so quickly? There was a little part of him that blamed John – shouldn't he have been able to tell that Rodney liked Elizabeth? The rational part of his mind knew that the notion was stupid and ridiculous, but it didn't change things.

"Rodney, this is important," John said, his voice going from friendly to firm. Rodney stopped, but didn't look back to meet him in the eye. He had promised Radek that he'd talk to him about the situation, and Rodney needed some time to think about the situation before that happened.

"If Atlantis isn't going to be destroyed, invaded, or damaged in the near future, there's nothing important enough to keep me from my beauty sleep," Rodney said sourly. "Not much can change in a half an hour," he added, turning around.

Rodney's mood grating on his nerves, John found himself snapping back. "Is that all you care about? Atlantis?" Rodney suppressed the urge to roll his eyes and instead clenched his jaw, waiting for John to continue. "I need to talk to you," John muttered crossly.

"Fine," Rodney folded his arms across his chest. "Then talk."

John's glare intensified. "Somewhere private," he said impatiently. After a minute of silence, John quickly decided on where to go. "In here," he informed Rodney, entering the mess hall. At this hour, the mess hall was practically empty except for a small group of scientists in the back corner. The door slid shut behind the two men softly.

"What do you want to talk about?" Rodney questioned.

"Elizabeth," John said. Rodney narrowed his eyes slightly as John's face closed off emotion. He knew very well what this meant. Whenever they tried bluffing their way out of things, whenever John was in a fight, whenever John was speaking to Elizabeth about defying her orders again, that look came on John's face. The look of nothingness – if you don't show emotion, you must not feel it. Rodney frowned at the idiocy of the military men for believing this tactic, but he didn't dwell long on it.

"What about her?" Rodney stonewalled.

"Rodney," John growled his name, warningly. "You know damn well what I mean." Rodney stared at John for a long moment, feeling a dark, hollow pit dig itself into his stomach. John knew. He knew it would have come to this eventually, but… Rodney blinked, his mouth set in a thin line. John stared at Rodney, his gaze unrelenting. Until now, he hadn't been positive that Rodney shared Elizabeth's feelings for him. It had been painfully obvious, but now he had proof. "Why?" John said tonelessly.

"What?" Rodney said, the word falling quickly from his lips, "Why what?"

"Why her? Why now?" John questioned. He wondered what difference in Rodney's and Elizabeth's relationship with one another had changed so dramatically that both of them seemed to have newfound 'love' for each other. John had pushed several ideas out of his head: Rodney, however cynical and obnoxious, wouldn't betray his teammate like that. But now he found himself pondering if that was true. Finding out that Elizabeth might be in love with Rodney was like a stab to the heart…or the back, depending on who you were talking about. Elizabeth had been the one to stab him in his heart, holding his emotions tenderly and gentle, only to crush them with this new observation of her own feelings. Rodney, it had felt – it still felt, had stabbed him in the back.

Rodney's shoulders slumped. 'I give up,' he thought. He was going to tell John the answer; not try and block all of his questions. "How do you explain love?" Rodney asked, his voice quiet. There really was no explanation: no words were adequate to describe his feelings for her. "Why now?" Rodney repeated the question. "It didn't happen 'now', not for me." At the emotionless mask still in place on John's face, Rodney continued. "I fell in love with her a long time ago, John." The words felt odd coming out of his mouth, but he used them all the less. "I was going to tell her on Valentine's Day."

Shock managed to penetrate John's carefully placed mask. Valentine's Day…the day John told Elizabeth. He must've just beaten Rodney there… John blinked. The only rational thought he could get out of his head was, 'For all of his criticism about how military people put on masks to hide our emotions from others…he's pretty good at it.' For the past few days, all he could think about was 'How could Rodney do this to me?', but now he knew…now he knew that it wasn't Rodney who had done the 'betraying'…it was John. But was it really betrayal? They both loved the same woman, and the woman loved both of them. What were they expected to do?

Although feeling bad about what he'd done, John's lips moved to form another question. "Why this sudden thing with Elizabeth, then?" Because even though John had unknowingly beaten Rodney to 'the prize', there were other questions to be asked. Rodney, knowing the two were in love, should've given up and moved on. At the harshness of that idea, John winced. 'All the same,' John thought, 'He could've told me what was going on.' But would it have made any difference? John wouldn't willingly give up Elizabeth, even for Rodney. He loved her.

"She found the necklace I made for her," Rodney said after a long pause.

"You made her a necklace," John stated, his voiced hovering suspiciously. If Rodney had made that necklace while he and Elizabeth were together… Had Rodney been trying to steal Elizabeth away from him? John felt a surge of anger at the thought.

"Yeah," Rodney replied, oblivious to the suspicious thoughts roaming in John's mind. "She found it somewhere, and came to me with it and asked about my feelings for her," he tried to be nonchalant about it, but his voice was strained.

"So you told her you loved her!" John shouted. A few of the scientists, including Radek Zelenka, looked up sharply at the outburst. "Look, I know you liked her and all," John continued, his voice distinctly lower, but none the less venom like, "but why would you do that? What, did you not care that Elizabeth and I were together?"

Rodney couldn't help the anger that his statement unleashed inside of him. "What would you have me do? Lie to her? And if you even cared to ask what I told her, you would know that I didn't tell her how I felt about her," Rodney glared at John, the emotional strain of the last few days exploding in anger within him. "And how did you expect me to know, anyway?" Rodney asked, his voice accusing, "You kept it under wraps; the only reason I found out is that I walked in on you two kissing."

John's hands clenched into fists at his side, two very different emotions tearing at him from the inside. There was the need to keep Elizabeth by his side; the urge to attack Rodney – verbally, for now – because of Elizabeth's new, changed emotions, and then there was the heart wrenching guilt and pity he felt for the man – the friend – standing before him. John took a small step back, unsure of what to do. The air was thick with tension as the two stared at each other for a long moment before John spoke again. "I'm sorry Rodney," John said, his voice hoarse, "but I love her. I'm not going to give her up for anybody or anything."

"You're not sorry," Rodney had been looking at the ground as John spoke, but now he raised his eyes, a heated look on his face. "I know I screwed up your perfect life, okay?" Rodney's voice trembled between anger and guilt as he spoke. "I would wait for her for the rest of my life – I already had been. I wasn't trying to ruin your relationship, so don't think I was. It's Elizabeth's decision on her feelings…or is it only your feelings that matter now, Sheppard?" Rodney spat.

John took a step forward, anger flaring in his eyes. How dare Rodney think that he didn't care about Elizabeth! "I love her and she loves me," he said vehemently. Rodney raised his chin slightly, his eyes betraying nothing. "You didn't respect that enough to tell her you didn't like her?" John questioned. Rodney was frozen, his mouth clamped shut. "What kind of friend are you?"

McKay narrowed his eyes slightly and replied in an icy voice, "Who said we were friends?" John stared at Rodney for a long moment, surprised by the other man's reply. His surprise didn't last long, and he fired with just the same iciness.

"We aren't." John glared at him for a long, hard moment before turning around and walking out of the mess hall. The Ancient door closed behind him and John broke into a jog, slowly progressing into a run. Regret of what he'd said just minutes ago quickly began to settle around him. His pace quickened, as if he could outrun his short temper and wild emotions, but they consumed him.

Back in the mess hall, Rodney stared wordlessly at the door that John had just exited, fighting to keep the emotions off of his face. "Going after Sheppard's woman, now are you?" the vulgar yell behind him assaulted his ears, but he remained silent. There was a small scrape as the speaker stood from his seat. "What makes you think she'll like you over her? What makes you think any woman would like you over anyone here?"

"Shut up, Kavanagh," a distinctly accented voice announced loudly. Rodney felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Radek Zelenka standing next to him. "How bout we get out of here?" he suggested to Rodney.

Rodney couldn't agree more.

Author's Note: :) Hope you guys liked this chapter! A little longer than usual, not that it matters. Okay, so it's almost twice the size of a regular chapter...but...yeah :) Wanted to post this before they revamp the login section, as it will probably take me forever to relearn, lol. I don't know when the next update will be. This week is my last full week of my freshman year at HS (yeey!) so I've got a kazillion projects and tests due, and then next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have finals. Most likely this will be updated sometime after the fifteenth. Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviewed! They really make my day! Just to be annoying...:)...In the next chapter: John'sreaction and Elizabeth's decision (or something like that, my writing doesn't like to follow my mind :) ). And for anyone who was wondering, there are several chapters still left. ;) Elizabeth's decision leads to a fatal situation for one of the men... Okay, I swear I'm done baiting you guys. :) Hope you liked, and please review!