Getting to Yes
A/N: Blame this on the workings of a feverish mind – never run a half-marathon when you think you have the flu coming on. Like a lot of you, I felt Epiphany was too short an episode, and there were a few too many loose ends, most of which have been dealt with brilliantly by some great authors. This is one of my sticking points: would the genius Dr. Rodney McKay take a simple 'no' concerning the Cloister? Technically this is McWeir, although very one sided.
"If Colonel Sheppard's going to grab his gear, I'd like to take fifteen minutes and explore this place. To dilate time at such a rate, the energy demands must be enormous, I'd love to know if the Ancients have a ZPM here."
"I said 'no' Rodney," Dr. Weir said a little tiredly.
"Elizabeth, I'm not going to dismantle anything. I just want to study, to research this phenomena," he threw up his hands partly in surrender, as if this small concession might change her mind. She'd listened to him the jumper, explaining the magnitude of the forcefield, the fact it could rip apart Wraith ships. Surely it was worth exploring, power like that could be very handy the next time the Wraith came calling.
"Rodney," there was a warning tone to her voice, uncannily similar to the one used by his first grade teacher, when she tired of his questions. Not surprisingly, he could identify with his seven-year-old self: the coolest, sparkliest toy in the universe was right before him, and he couldn't play with it. Colonel Sheppard was fine, although Rodney wasn't sure about the grizzly mountain man look, he'd figured out what was going on, asked for a better puddlejumper pilot (pushing his ego aside briefly), so where was his reward? Just a little poking around…
"Elizabeth," he tried once more. She wouldn't meet his eyes, just gave him a single raised eyebrow conveying not so subtly that if he kept this up, she'd have Ronon forcibly carry him back to the Portal. He tried looking at Carson, for all his voodoo jokes, he knew the Scotsman was a man of science, but he got no support there, either.
Rodney sighed quietly and started back. Couldn't they see past his arrogance, his bravado? Somehow, ever so subtly, had they begun to lose faith in him, the genius Rodney McKay, especially her, the one whose opinion really mattered? Had it started with the incident on Arcturus? Were his actions when he was tweaking on the Wraith enzyme misinterpreted? It wasn't as if he could get a coffee mug with 'I snark, because I care' on it. Didn't they see he only had only their best interests at heart, even if his demeanor sometimes said otherwise? He was brilliant, and it was mission in life to use his genius talents to protect everyone around him, especially her. Elizabeth.