Seeking Absolution for Unnoticed Aberrations

Rodney was not sitting in Elizabeth's office sulking. He was there for her excellent company. He just wished she would stop teasing him, it made him a bit less inclined to stick around. Still, he was sure she was teasing because she cared...

"Perhaps if you didn't come on quite so strongly, Rodney, Colonel Carter might have been a little more interested, and not have practically run onto the Odyssey when you suggested she stay those 2 extra weeks and just gate back to Earth." Oh, she was so mocking him. Still, better her than Sheppard. At least there had been a bit of advice with the mocking.

"I will have you know my reasons for asking were purely professional! I'm a big enough man to admit she is extremely intelligent, and perhaps in a few areas, and I stress a few, more talented then me. Working together for two weeks on the 'Lantean systems, well, we could have learned many valuable things!" Rodney managed to get his protest to sound sincere. He was quite proud of himself considering his lack of acting skills.

Across her desk, with a game of chess between them abandoned for the apparently more fun sport of teasing, Elizabeth Weir leaned back and raised an eyebrow. "You forgot to mention that it would have been nice to have her round those two extra weeks because you find her sexy."

He tried not to go red. He really did. It was stupid because he had never made it anything less than perfectly clear that he thought Sam Carter was hot, but hearing it from Elizabeth made the whole thing seem ridiculous. There had to be away out of this...yes, feign nonchalance!

"Honestly, Elizabeth, if you think I would keep a woman around just because I find her attractive, then I am disappointed in you. If I was going to do that I would at least make the effort not to make it so clear I was attracted to her so people wouldn't see my true motives. And even though I may find the blond soldier scientist thing to my taste aesthetically, it does not mean I'm incapable of genuinely working with such an individual. In Atlantis I have to work with beautiful woman all the time."

He thought he was doing well throwing the compliment in. Instead Elizabeth just rolled her eyes and smirked at him. She leaned forward, wearing that quirky smile of hers which Rodney had learned to associate with her sharing something with him, between friends.

"Between you and me, Rodney," she began, her voice a loud whisper, "I really can't blame you for finding Colonel Carter attractive. The whole blonde soldier thing totally does it for me as well."

She immediately turned her attention back to the chess board, so she couldn't see the way Rodney furrowed his brow and immediately went through every blonde soldier in the expedition. Not that he needed to. He knew who she was talking about the moment she'd said the words.

Her attention was even more focused on the chess board than usual, almost as if she was avoiding his gaze.

Oh.

She was.

It had not actually occurred to him that such a confident woman as Elizabeth Weir might actually worry about his reaction to her last statement. They were friends, and she had told him something that she must have been making an effort to keep quiet. Now was the time to say something friendly or comforting or whatever.

Except all that came to mind was, "Yes, but I believe you prefer yours with much longer hair. So I can relax about any competition."

She looked back up at him with a smile on her face. Guess he'd said the right thing after all.

Rodney McKay sat and watched them eating dinner together, and felt a little bit ashamed he had not realised sooner.

When Cadman and he had shared bodies, he couldn't read her mind. This was annoying, as she seemed perfectly able to read his. All he could do was hear what she thought at him. However, he did realise he could pick up strong emotions from her, though unwillingly on her part he was sure. He didn't particularly enjoy feeling oddly attracted to Carson either.

He was confused at first that the feelings he got from her around Carson also seemed to arise whenever Elizabeth was in the room. On some occasions even stronger. Eventually he decided to think of it as a "schoolgirl crush", remembering when Jeanie had all but declared eternal love for her attractive trigonometry tutor. He thought it impossible that it could go further.

Apparently Rodney had been wrong for the first time (maybe second...wait...perhaps he shouldn't actually count) in his life. Yet being mistaken in this incidence did upset him. Not because he wanted Elizabeth for himself, no, they were good friends. Perhaps even his best friend here; he certainly found her easiest to talk to. And for these reasons, he should have perhaps known.

Rodney also felt pain, this time for Elizabeth who felt the need to hide the romance that he saw before him. Now that he knew, it was obvious in everything they did. Their body language, the warm way they shared their meal, the long easy smiles and slight blushes when Laura complimented Elizabeth.

The scandal, if their relationship was revealed to the expedition at large, would not lie in the fact they were women. When you share your planet with a race of people amongst whom polyandrous relationships were normal, even the most conservative members of the expedition were brought round to other view points. No, the problem lay in that as leader of the expedition, Weir held some kind of celibate air. A feeling that partaking in a relationship with another member of the expedition would bias her. The sacrifice of being a leader. Teyla, he noticed, suffered from the same problem.

Rodney had a plan. It was designed to kill many birds with one stone, as all the best plans were, though in this instance the saying was not a perfect match for the situation. Rodney was actually hoping his plan would make up for a series of past events. Including things he judged as offences against his friend as she was probably unaware of.

Last year, on her birthday, Elizabeth Weir had watched herself die. And though maybe in terms of physics equations and maths it has not really been her, he doubted showing her a bunch of formulae would make her feel better. Emotionally, she had watched herself die.

Last year, Rodney had also forgotten (well, not known) it was her birthday. Sheppard had remembered and gotten her a gift, but he had not. This was obviously not noticed given the major events of the day, but he still felt guilty about it when he found out later. Lastly, he hoped to make up for not realising sooner the depth of the relationship between herself and Laura. Not that he thought Elizabeth minded, but it was the principle of the matter.

Rodney's plan was a little unoriginal. For a genius, you'd think he could do better, but he did have limited resources. Rodney McKay was going to ensure that Elizabeth Weir had a nice birthday and that she got to spend it (undisturbed) with the person whom she most wanted to: Laura.

The first step was to get Laura on his side. This would not be hard. He had found out the hard way that Laura liked to go for a run before bed, and since he had become privy to the knowledge that she always took the same route, at the same time, because she really preferred to run alone, allowing her time to think.

He waited for her on the end of a pier on the east side of the city. The sun was setting, and he was absolutely freezing. Being as smart as he was, he had brought a blanket in preparation, and was huddled with it round his shoulders when he saw her approaching.

When she saw him blocking her path, the look on her face was most defiantly a glare. However, she did slow to a stop, breathing hard, obviously prepared to give him time if he had come out here to talk to her.

"I take it you have a good reason, McKay?" was what she opened with.

"Of course. Why else would I be out here freezing my butt off? I'm hardly doing it for the pleasure of seeing you run past me."

"And I thought you liked the blonde soldier type."

Now it was his turn to glare at her. "Next Tuesday is Elizabeth's birthday."

"Yes, McKay, I'm aware. Thanks for the warning, but I tend to remember the birthdays of people I'm in a relationship with." She turned to leave, clearly thinking he had come out here with some idea to make her look bad.

"No, Laura, wait! I want you to be able to spend her birthday together, so I came up with a plan...not much of a plan, but still, a plan!"

What Rodney did not know, was that Laura Cadman was perfectly able to formulate a way to spend the day with Elizabeth Weir. However, she understood this was his way of trying to help. So she turned back to face him.

"Here." The blanket fell from his shoulders and he scrambled through a bag she had not seen. She was passed a piece of paper with a map. "This shows the route to a balcony on one of the far outreaches of the city. Fantastic view and the floor is heated! I sometimes go there in the middle of the night to think. I've never seen anyone else there."

Laura smiled her thanks at him. She had indeed been scouting for a place such as this. However, it turned out Rodney McKay wasn't done with her yet.

"Here, I snuck this back from Earth last time I was there." He passed her a bottle, revealed to be a probably expensive bottle of French red wine. Alcohol had eventually been banned in Atlantis after several incidents; when people had to live and work together it just wasn't a good idea. Rodney was giving up a powerful thing with the bottle of wine: a bargaining chip with most of the expedition members. "I thought you might like it. You could go and have dinner. I plan to short out Elizabeth's radio so she can't hear any traffic from the control room but I'll leave yours on in case there really is an emergency. I'll do my best to divert it without you... I think that's it. Like I said, not the best of plans..."

"Thank you, Rodney." Laura meant it. It was sweet of him. She thought she could see why he and Elizabeth were such good friends now. "Shall we walk back to the city?"

"Oh, thank God, I'm freezing."

He watched them without them knowing. He wasn't being perverted, though if caught he was sure that was what he'd be accused of; he just wanted to ensure everything was going all right.

They lay on a blanket on the blessing of a heated floor, the bottle of red wine now mostly empty beside them. As Rodney watched them entwined in each other's arms (clothed! They were just looking at the stars!) he felt kind of warm and fuzzy inside. People often thought of him as selfish, but he did try to be loyal to the few friends he had.

When Laura reached out her hand to touch Elizabeth's face he walked away. He was pretty sure everything was going just fine.