Title: 7 Days
Author: Trill
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: McKay/Lorne pre-slash
Rating: PG-13, just in case
Words: more than usual
Spoilers: Coup D'etat
Summary: On Thursday he starts to wonder if maybe he's attracted to the rank.
Notes: Beta'd by the awesome uraniablack. I finished a fic! Now it's time for the taxes...
I.
On Sunday he wakes up and realizes that it's his birthday.
Sometime around 1300 he decides that it's not his birthday because no one has said anything to him all day.
At 1500 he decides they must be planning a surprise party because why else would they be ignoring him like this?
By 2600, though, they're still ignoring him and it occurs to him that they must have forgotten.
II.
On Monday he takes matters into his own hands.
He eats lunch with Zelenka and, of all people, Lorne. Afterwards they sneak into the entertainment room, short circuit the locks and watch Dr. Who for six hours.
"This is the new series," Zelenka says, holding up a DVD, "It's very good."
"Oh, please," Rodney snorts, "you've just got the hots for Christopher Eccleston."
"I'm a Tom Baker man myself," Lorne says, changing the subject. Or maybe not, because he's staring at Rodney while he says it.
Zelenka starts the player and Lorne stretches out on one of the massive couches.
That's when the doors slide open, revealing a very pissed off Kavanaugh. "Oh, I knew it."
Sheppard storms past him and snaps on Lorne's com. "Don't ever do this again," he growls at all of them.
Lorne, who's suddenly sitting ramrod straight, is the only one to respond. "Yes, sir," he says as he leaves the room.
Sheppard pauses in the doorway to turn and glare at Rodney. "Come with me. Ronan's invisible."
III.
On Tuesday he sleeps for 10 hours.
Which, thanks to the length of the Atlantean day, still allows him to wake up in the late morning.
He decides that it still isn't his birthday, because there's no blue jell-o anywhere in this galaxy and Sheppard is still mad at him. He doesn't care, though, because he's mad at Sheppard.
Ronan never would have been invisible if the Greatest American Hero didn't touch everything he saw.
IV.
On Wednesday he wakes up in the infirmary, cold and nauseous.
Lorne is in the bed to his right, his forehead swathed in bandages and an oxygen mask strapped to his face. "Marcus?" is what he tries to say but "Ahc?" is closer to what actually come out.
To his left are Sheppard and Beckett. Beckett's telling him that he needs to alternate the marines more often and that Lorne and McKay have been spending entirely too much time in the infirmary lately.
When Sheppard starts to reply in that 'aww, shucks' manner that always seems to work on Weir but not really anybody else Rodney tunes them out and focuses on himself. He lifts his hands and wiggles his fingers in front of his face. His arms are covered with nasty red gashes, and he remembers that something blew up.
He looks back to Lorne and wonders if maybe it was his fault, but then Sheppard appears beside him, his uniform dusty and two inches of stitches across his cheek. "Hey, buddy, you're awake," he says, and Rodney realizes that it's his fault or Lorne's, but Sheppard's, whatever it was exactly that happened.
His second attempt to talk ends much like the first.
"Here," Beckett says, holding a straw up to his lips, "drink."
He does. "What happened?" he finally chokes out.
Sheppard smiles with one side of his face. "We got blown up real good."
"Who?"
"Mostly you and Lorne," he looks down at his hands and mumbles something else.
Rodney's too tired to push the point, but he thinks he apologized.
V.
On Thursday he starts to wonder if, maybe, he's attracted to the rank.
Sheppard was certainly a lot more appealing when he was a major.
Lorne woke up sometime during the night, and once Rodney's sure he's okay he demands to be discharged before Kavanuagh and Zelenka break something vital.
Early in the evening he looks up to see Lorne leaning in the doorway to his lab, arms crossed tightly across his chest.
"Shouldn't you be resting?" he asks.
Rodney drops his eye back to the ancient device he was working on. "I could say the same to you, Major."
"No, I feel okay." Lorne says, pushing off of the doorframe and approaching him.
Rodney surveys him critically. Aside from the dressing on his forehead, there was no trace left of the pale, disheveled Lorne he'd last seen. He's not sure if it says something about the kind of person Lorne is or the kind of person he's been forced to become, but neither is reassuring like he wanted it to be.
VI.
On Friday he gets ridiculously drunk on the paint thinner Zelenka dares call alcohol and somehow they end up in the mess hall, singing They Might Be Giants songs.
Several hours later, when he wakes up tucked into his bed, Lorne tells him he was dancing, too. The shock of finding out that others had seen him dancing is momentarily enough to overcome the shock of waking up in Lorne's quarters. But only momentarily, because Rodney very quickly realizes that he's naked.
"What the hell…" he starts, and he's not sure if it's the hangover hitting him early or the alcohol making a comeback, but he feels sick.
"Relax," Lorne laughs, tosses a pair of sweats at him. "You threw up and passed out. Me and Cadman didn't feel like dragging you all the way back across the city."
Rodney accepts the answer, until it occurs to him that, still, he's naked in Lorne's bed.
VII.
On Saturday, he tells him that he would have fought for him.
"What?" Lorne asks, because he genuinely doesn't know what Rodney means.
"On… that dumb planet. I wouldn't have gone back to the gate." Rodney can't stop staring at the gash on his forehead and thinking that, really, it should still have a dressing on it.
"And they would have caught both of us," he said, laughing at how stupid this genius could be.
"We both were captured," Rodney counters, but Lorne's still not ready to concede the point.
"You wouldn't have been able to help with that daring rescue mission of Sheppard's."
"Oh, please. There was no daring rescue mission. We thought you were dead." It's silly, since Lorne is obviously not dead, but he regrets the words before he even finishes saying them.
Lorne smiles then, remembering the exchange he'd had with Sheppard in the cage. "Well then, I would have liked the company."
Rodney smiles too, a little forced. It's still not his birthday, but maybe it's somewhere closer to it.
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