The Strange Encounters of Rodney McKay

by Soledad

Author's Note:

Alexandra Rietz is a character from my other SGA story, "Moments of Joy". She's borrowed from a German cop show. The civilian security team is my invention. They are supposed to have come with the German scientists.

Spoilers: Hot Zone, Letters from Pegasus.

Chapter 07 – Miko

At first he found that she was the most annoying woman in the world – or, at the very least, in Atlantis. Servility always brought out the worst of him. That was why he liked to work with Nelenka… Zolinka… whatever his name was. That scrawny little Czech blithely ignored his outbursts most of the time, and when reached the limits of his endurance, wasn't afraid to stand up to Rodney and give him a piece of his mind. Calmly and patiently. Which made him – aside from his brilliance – an invaluable asset to the science team.

Miko was the exact opposite. She seemed to live in permanent fear of Rodney's tempers, which could only partially be explained with the traditional Japanese respect towards authority figures. She made almost pitiful attempts to stay in Rodney's good graces, taking his constant verbal abuse as something that she'd deserved.

Because the shameful truth was that Rodney treated her like shit. He tortured her with acerbic remarks concerning her work – which, truth be told, was beyond brilliant. No one else could make computers do things Miko cajoled out of them. A Princeton graduate, she shared one of her fields with Za… with Radek, but in certain areas not even the talented little Czech could catch up with her. She and Peter Grodin were the only ones who could really understand the imagining system of Ancient computers. That made her so valuable for the team.

Everyone knew she was an ace in her chosen field, with an IQ as high as Radek's, which was close to Rodney's own. And yet she was such a doormat that Rodney could howl from sheer frustration. An almost-genius like her ought to know her own value. Hell, she even had the natural ATA gene – and a strong one at that, seconded by Sheppard's only. But she was afraid to use it for anything else than turning on lights and opening doors. Just like Carson. It was really, really annoying.

So Rodney, whose artificial gene was a lot less reliable, took out his frustration on her. He made her prepare coffee, just to spit it out and lecture her about her inability to make any decent coffee. He made her ring him sandwiches, only to threw them in her face, telling her that they were inedible. At least once in a week, he had her in tears. This sadistic streak he had never known he possessed before worried him sometimes, but he was unable to stop. Yes, she brought out the worst of him by never standing up to him.

The others – especially Grodin and Radek – watched this abusive game with growing concern. More and more frequently did he catch the little Czech shooting him warning glances, and he knew a mutiny was about to break out in the science department if he continued mistreating Miko. Radek could shrug off a lot of shit directed at him – growing up behind the Iron Curtain made a man resilient against mere nastiness – but he was very protective towards the weak, and had no understanding for pointless cruelty. Rodney knew that sooner or later Radek – or possibly Grodin, too – would confront him in this matter, and that it won't be pleasant.

And still, he was unable to stop.

Until the day when the flood broke one of the abandoned labs and released a deadly nanovirus from containment. Major Sheppard, in his sheer stupidity, couldn't sit on his ass as ordered (because, apparently, orders given by the civilian leader of the expedition didn't count for military airheads). Due to his little personal mutiny (which Bates, dick-headed Marine as he was, felt obligated to support against the civilian leader) poor Petersen escaped and spread the virus all over the city.

It was a close call. They could have died, all of them, save the ones with the gene. When everything was over, and the Major got to play hero and destroy one of their invaluable naquadah generators, just to save them all from the consequences of his own stupidity, Rodney was sitting in his darkened lab, alone. Sheppard was celebrating with his buddies, Carson and his staff were dealing with the dead, Radek was most likely breaking down in the comforting arms of Marta, his Athosian wife, and he…. He was alone in the lab. As usual.

Wallowing in self-pity wasn't his wont, not usually. Time was always too valuable for that. Sure, he complained a lot, about nearly everything, but that was just a way to deal with his over-charged nerves. At the moment, however, loneliness weighed heavily on his heart.

He always made a lot of noise about how he didn't do close and how he didn't need friends. About people not needing to like him, as long as they listened to his instructions and did their job as he expected from them. But the truth was, deep down he yearned for understanding. For people simply liking him. Sure, he expected them to admire his genius, which they usually did (it would be hard not to), but sometimes he wished they'd see more of him than just his brains. That they didn't just tolerate him because he was useful.

A gentle touch on his forearm interrupted his brooding, sending a sharp jolt through his entire body. A small, warm female hand rested on his sleeve. The golden skin and the short fingernails revealed it to be Miko's. He didn't need to look at her. The faint scent of jasmine perfume was exclusively hers.

He turned to her nevertheless, meeting dark, almond eyes full of gentle understanding. Miko knew a great deal about loneliness, too. And in that long, wordless moment a connection he'd never thought possible was made.

He'd never seen Miko as a woman before. Despite his short – and unexpected – interlude with Jonas Quinn during his visit at SGC two years ago, his interest was still firmly focused on pretty blondes of the female kind. On Major Carter, for starters, who was everything he wanted for in a woman: smart, witty, funny – and blonde.

Or on Officer Rietz from the civilian security team, who was, in many things, like Carter, with the exception of a scientific mind. But in her own way, Alex Rietz was smart and witty and funny, too, not to mention slim and trim – and blonde. Had Rodney had a free chance to choose of all the women in Atlantis, he'd have chosen Rietz.

And yet he was kissing Miko now, his hands buried in the loosened strands of thick, jet-black hair, exploring her soft mouth that tasted faintly of green tea and of some elusive sweetness that was uniquely Miko. She yielded to his dominance willingly, wrapping her legs around his waist as he carried her to the lab table. She was pleasantly rounded and yet somehow fragile and barely weighed a thing, or was he too carried away to notice such irrelevant details? He didn't care.

He didn't care that having sex with a fellow scientist on a lab table – and with a direct subordinate at that – wasn't exactly considered appropriate behaviour. He didn't care that among the things he swept off the table to make room for them could have been sensitive pieces of equipment that might be irreparably broken as a result. He didn't care that someone could come in and catch them in a compromising situation. He needed this, he needed the only person who seemed to want him, despite the shitty way he'd been treating her.

He needed to feel that he was still alive.

Miko was not a very vocal lover. In fact, she was quiet like a butterfly. Apparently, she wasn't very experienced, either… almost clumsy, to tell the truth, and the lab table was far from comfortable. But their mutual need was much stronger than the small matters of creature comfort – or the lack thereof – and so they managed.

It certainly wasn't the most mind-blowing sex either of them had ever experienced. He didn't last long, and there were moments when he was sure he'd hurt her, though she didn't complain. When he finally broke – much too soon, but that's what the lack of practice did to a man – she suddenly went limp under him with a soft sigh, and her eyes clouded over.

And he noticed for the first time how beautiful she was.

On the next day, things continued as usual. Rodney yelled at Miko for just about everything, Miko was in tears and Radek and Grodin gave Rodney threatening looks. The same old routine, day after day.

But after they'd recorded their probably last messages for home, it was Rodney who sought out Miko, not in the lab this time, but in her quarters. She let him in wordlessly, and they made desperate love for hours, because despite his romantic enthusiasm for Carter or Rietz or any other woman, this was reality. Back on Earth, he only had an uncaring sister and a cat, hut here, in Atlantis, he had Miko. Whatever he might feel for other women, they were only daydreams, Miko, on the other hand, was his.

And he realized, to his mild surprise, that he wasn't willing to give her up. Unless the Wraith made dinner out of them in the near future, that is.

TBC