Disclaimers: I do not own these characters; this is written for fun, I make no money etc.

Spoilers: Home, Letters From Pegasus, Siege, Intruder, Trinity, Inferno

A/N: This fic falls into the "Absurd but shippy" category, as defined by dahan ;) Unlike my last absurd fic, this is intended to be angsty, but I hope some of you still enjoy it LOL. It's longer too, maybe 6000 words over 10 chapters or so…Hey, what else can I do without Central?

I think I have finally come up with a theory to satisfy my desire to know what happened to change the dynamics between McKay/Weir and Weir/Sheppard in the break between Seasons 1 and 2. It's angsty, but there's hope at the end of my tunnel. It's an age-old plot ;) and I swear dahan, I never saw that SG-1 ep either LOL.

You don't have to have read my fic Just a Theorem, but the basic substance of it is taken as read in this fic. You'll get the gist as we go along…

Summary:INTRUDER spoilers… Elizabeth needed a friend after Simon lets her down…what she ended up with isn't resolved for almost a year. Absurd, angsty, shippy McWeir.

Chapter One - SUNDAY

Elizabeth got out of the car and made her way to the door. She'd only been here once before in reality. He'd needed to stop at his apartment on the way to Cheyenne, when they'd come back from Antarctica for some meetings. It was the only place she felt she could be right now.

She certainly couldn't turn up at Cheyenne Mountain in this ridiculous blouse that mocked her. She'd only change one thing if she could have the last hour over again, and that was her blouse before she left. She'd left her home, and left Simon. Plus she had puffy, red eyes that had cried all the way down the highway. She needed a friend, and after a year away from 'home' the only friend she wanted to see was Rodney.

Simon had led her a merry dance for a week, but finally confessed that she was no longer part of his life, however much he claimed to want to pretend she was, that he hadn't want to hurt her. But she was hurt. And she had left, there and then. And ended up here.

She knocked quietly. As she stood, she could feel the muscles in the front of her neck hurting. She'd been so distraught even breathing was a problem. She didn't know how she hadn't crashed that damn car. Where was Rodney?

"Are you looking for that pain-in-the-ass?" A small, stooped woman was peering from a doorway nearby, her wrinkles accentuated by the dim light.

Elizabeth opened her mouth to reply, but the woman carried on anyway.

"Disappears for a whole year, and then all of a sudden he's Mr. Popular. Dumb ass! Make sure he doesn't come back next time!" She shook her walking stick at Elizabeth.

"Please, do you know if he's been here?"

"Oh, sure! Showed up on Wednesday. Large as life. But he isn't in."

Elizabeth turned around sadly.

"Hey! Where are you going? He's upstairs, if you really want him!"

Elizabeth frowned. "I'm sorry, I don't understand…"

"He's up there!" She pointed her stick straight up. "He's been staying with that girl upstairs. Number 14. Been there ever since he got back. Hasn't even left the apartment!"

Elizabeth took a shuddering breath in spite of herself. It was Sunday. She'd seen him on Thursday and Friday, so the old woman wasn't entirely truthful, but still…

"Number 14?"

"Yeah. Long hair, long legs. She's had his cat the whole time. Good luck, you'll need it." With that, the old woman seemed to melt away into the darkness.

Elizabeth almost jumped when the door slammed. She slumped against Rodney's door. Damn. Well, that was that. She couldn't exactly show up on her doorstep, expecting sympathy. Rodney would kill her for intruding. Blast him! Why did he have to suddenly become 'Mr. Popular', just when she needed him?

0o0o0

She'd given the all-night store assistant a hundred dollars for her black sweater. Once safely inside Cheyenne, she'd quickly changed into some of her spare things she kept in her temporary room.

She was tired, hungry and felt like someone had stamped all over her heart. Like a couple of people maybe had thrown a punch or two at it.

As she took the bar of chocolate from the mess officer, her heart sank a little further when she saw John approach.

"Elizabeth? What are you doing here?" he said brightly.

She forced a smile. "John! I wanted to do a little extra work before tomorrow. Might as well stay over."

"Right. Sure. Well, I'll see you in the morning." He smiled. "You look nice." He grabbed the apple from the counter, threw it in the air, caught it, and turned and walked away.

Watching him leave, she found herself still smiling. One person appreciated her, at least, she thought. She'd been right about Sheppard; he was what the mission needed. Granted, a few rough edges, but they were working on that. So, back to work. And what of Simon? Or Rodney? Forget they even exist. It won't hurt that way.

TBC