Rush stared at the screen. he watched the seed ship data scroll across the screen. It raised some interesting ideas, images of systems and equations turning in his mind, but he was tired. He hadn't slept well since Destiny had refuelled and returned to normal temperatures in the living areas. Too much to think about. He needed some time alone to think and work through what was in his mind. Too much data, the seedship, the repair schedule for the hull and the cold area, and what the fuck he was going to do about Young. He flexed his hands, they were still aching despite the fact the ship was warm again. He looked down at the flaking reddened skin. Christ he just needed a break.

Eli, Chloe and Volker were chattering about something at another console and on the other side of the room Brody was reading something from a console to Park, who was commenting and correcting the statements he was making.

The console swam in front of his eyes. Rush tried to tune them out to focus on the data. He rubbed his temple with the heel of his hand, he couldn't concentrate. He couldn't cope with this. There was too much noise, too much movement, too many people.

"Will you lot just shut up!" It exploded out of him before he even realised the words were forming themselves. He slammed his hands down on the console and rounded on them finger stabbing out pointing. "Just shut up! I can't think with you all chattering on endlessly!"

They stared at him shocked and silent. Rush glared at them.

"Are you okay?" Eli asked nervously.

"No, I'm not fucking 'okay' Eli, I'm not fucking okay at all. What do I have to do to get some fucking peace and quiet round here?" Rush glared.

The science team did not move. Rush pushed away from the console and stormed out.

xxxoooxxx

Eli tapped at the door frame. Young looked up from the desk.

"Oh hey." Eli said awkwardly. "Um…"

Young put the pen down. "What is it Eli?"

"Doctor Rush is, uh, acting kinda stressed and I don't know why."

"Why are you telling me?" Young stomach was turning over, what had Eli seen? What did he know?

"Cause he won't listen to me about anything like that and…" Eli shifted uncomfortably. "He kinda, well he was hanging around with you when it was cold. Like I saw you were playing chess together in the mess? I thought you were…talking?" Eli stepped into the room. "He seems pretty pissed off with all of us, but he's not yelled at you for ages." Eli looked pleading.

Young looked at him. "What happened?"

"We were all working in the core room. Me, Brody, Volker and Park 'cause Calvos has the bridge shift. Rush was in there, he looked kind of tired but we all got working. Then like half an hour later he suddenly starts yelling at us and then leaves in a huff."

"Seems pretty standard for Rush." Young said. Eli frowned and Young relented. "I'll have a word."

xxxoooxxx

Young gave it a couple of hours, had lunch and waited to see if Rush reappeared before he went looking. The last thing he was going to do was appear to be overly concerned. He took a leisurely wander around the inhabited area of the ship.

"Rush?"

Young found Rush in the small conference room where they had planned the expedition in to Destiny's interior that had resulted in Rush being half frozen. Young stopped at the entryway leaning against the bulkhead, one hand in his pocket, the other resting on his cane. Bent over his laptop with a far away concentration across his face, Rush didn't hear him call his name.

Rush looked up from where he was working at the console. "I'm a little busy Colonel." Rush grated out.

"Eli mentioned you'd walked out on the science team earlier."

Rush glared at him. "I was trying to work." He snapped. "They were not."

Young gave him a long look. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine. Now, let me work." Rush deliberately looked back down at the console in front of him.

Young considered his options, then pressed the issue. "I want to make sure you were alright, we've all had a tough time the last week or so."

Rush's response was crisp. "Yes, Colonel I'm absolutely fine. I just have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it in." He sighed again tiredly then appeared to steel himself. "Now if you'll leave me alone I'm busy." He said a little belligerently.

Young looked at him, contemplating his options. Rush stared back like he was waiting for an argument.

Young took a step back unfolding his arms. "A lot of work." He said quietly. "I'll let you get on then." He walked away.

The rest of the afternoon was quiet. Young stopped at the Bridge. The program to provide more training and back up to the limited command staff had Brody in the chair. He was happy managing the bridge and the command data outputs at the chair but seemed bored that nothing really required his attention.

He spent some time stretching and jogging, testing out the strength and control in his knee. He was careful, very careful and stopped as soon as it began to twinge, going back to his quarters with his cane in his hand. He rested on his bed, reading through the latest reports from the exploratory groups on the planets.

Rush still had not appeared at dinner. Young sat with Scott, Greer and Brody and Volker and discussed the planets and the proposed mining on Hoth 2 and Tatouine. The reports from the temperate planets had come back clear and he was about to sign off on the shore leave and foraging schedule. That would make the crew very happy.

The work related conversation segued into a game of poker, which Young declined to join in but watched for an hour for want of anything better to do, then was distracted by Airman Chang's reading of a new short story he had written. It was pretty good, but Young thought his audience would have been equally as avid however terrible it had been, such was the desperation for new entertainment. It wasn't bad though even if Young wasn't usually a fan of horror stories, and a pleasant enough way to pass the evening.

xxxoooxxx

"Late night chess?" Young asked from the entrance of the observation lounge.

Rush's shoulders tensed, then his head came up slowly to look at Young. Damn the man was uptight. Young walked up to him. Rush's expression was flat and cold, but he looked tired. Young considered giving up and walking away, but there was something in Rush's posture and the set of his shoulders that seemed to belie the aggressive expression.

Maybe he was just getting better at reading the man. Rush had a very effective set of impenetrable expressions, but his body language, that seemed to speak volumes. All Young needed to do was learn to read.

He walked over, sat down opposite Rush and looked at the game. Rush's expression hadn't changed and he said nothing to Young, as if he was waiting for something. Young reached out and moved a piece. He was going to lose, almost certainly, it looked like Rush should be able to checkmate him in about five moves, but that wasn't the point. Rush stared at him then silently looked down at the board.

They played in silence, the game stringing out longer than Young had expected. Rush didn't make eye contact until the end of the game when he finally beat Young. He looked at Young, impassive as ever, lifting a hand to push the hair out his face, where it caught against his beard. Young shrugged, then set up the board again, watching Rush as he did so and catching the slight movement as the tension went out of Rush's shoulders.

Even as exhausted as he looked, Rush was good. Young lost another couple of games before he finally looked at his watch. He looked up at Rush who was staring at him. "Two thirty." He said. "Hey, you look as tired as I feel, Rush." Rush sighed. Young pursued his pips, paused then spoke. "We both ought to find our beds."

Rush took a couple of moments to react to his statement, then stood. "Yeah." It was the first word he had said since Young had arrived.

Young watched as Rush packed up the game, stood, then practically stumbled out of the hatch, before he finally left the room. He looked after Rush for a long moment before standing, a thoughtful look on his face.

Rush was cold. The bed retained the chill of the air longer when he was its only occupant. He tossed, turned over and shifted the covers, pulling them closer around him and drifted in and out of a fitful doze. He woke as the door opened, dopey and slow with lack of sleep, trying to place the noises and movement. There was a sudden draft of cold air as the covers were lifted and a body slid into the bed next to him.

"What?" He blinked in the semi-dark.

"Returning a favour." Young murmured, wrapping round him. "You don't seem to be managing not enough sleep as well as usual. Get some damn sleep Rush."

Still dopey, Rush let Young pull him in and settle him into his chest. He felt the covers pulled in tight around them. Warm, he was warm. He felt arms wrapped round him, could feel the movement of Young's breathing where his head was resting on his chest. Rush let himself relax with a sigh. He didn't expect sleep to arrive quickly, but it did.

He woke slowly from a heavy sleep, limbs intertwined with Young's, warm and swaddled tightly in the bedclothes. As he shifted trying to untangle his free leg from a fold of the bedclothes, Young woke.

"Morning." Young said.

Rush felt him shift as he pulled his arm out from under the covers to look at his watch.

"Half seven. I better shift." He scrubbed at the mess of his curls, dishevelled from sleep.

Rush agreed with an "mmm-hmm" and let Young untangle himself.

Young looked as if he was going to say something, but Rush looked at him silently from where he lay in the bed. Young remained blessedly quiet while he dragged on pants, shoes and jacket, just asking "You okay?" before he left and accepting a nod in response. Rush laid back on the bed and stared at the ceiling. This was getting out of hand. He stood, had a quick wash with a damp cloth, dragged his comb through his hair and beard and stared at himself in the mirror.

Young's company, his presence was pleasant. His body's warmth, the closeness in his bed was reassuring and helped him sleep. It was why he found it comforting, why Young's physical presence reassured him, that was what disquieted Rush. The whole situation filled him with a deep unease. He needed time to think, space to withdraw from this. Maybe when Young was on shore leave he'd have the space he needed to get a handle on how to deal with this. Until then, well, he would just have to manage.

xxxoooxxx

Young left quickly, partly to be out of Rush's quarters before the corridors got busier, partly as he thought Rush would probably not take well to company now he was awake. He nipped into his quarters to make himself a little more presentable. What he really needed was a wooden comb like Rush's, he thought as he combed his unruly curls with an increasingly toothless comb made for much finer hair. He put it down, stared into the mirror for a moment, then before he could start over-thinking anything, made for the mess hall to locate breakfast.

As Young had expected, the scientists from the SGC arrived that day shortly after he had finished his breakfast. Young had a quick chat with them before having them shown to where Rush was working in the core room. According to Airman Dunning, Rush had given them about five minutes of his time before palming them off on Brody and Eli.

Volker was on the first round of shore leave, but Brody and Eli had a party of capable crew and were fixing all of the repairable damage and breaches between the entry to the seedship and the accessible storage area. The plan was to secure the route and expand the usable space before moving the supplies across using any crew available rather than needing to worry about potential dangers.

The scientists spent half a day tolerating this, then had come back up to the inhabited area. Failing to find Rush they sent their leader to Young. Just great, Dr Gutierrez was another one of the SGC's golden kids, young, smart, egotistical and damn irritating. At least the older ones had more excuse for ego.

Young was busy watching the video display as Scott moved the shuttle from the manufactory bay doors to the largest hull breach they were aiming to fix, one directly on the route to the cold zone.

"Colonel Young?" Gutierrez' voice had a slightly peremptory note that grated on Young's nerves.

"One moment." Young watched as the shuttle manoeuvred slowly then Scott engaged the docking magnets on the feet. With a clunk he could hear through the communications, the shuttle clamped to a flat section of hull.

He toggled the communications to speak. "Nice job Lieutenant, I think you're good. I'll take my dry run after lunch. Get yourself back onboard." He flipped the switch and turned to the scientist, "Dr Gutierrez, how can I help you?"

The scientist looked irritated. "Your science team appear to be blocking us." He said with a frown.

"I doubt that." Young said. "My understanding is that they are undertaking much needed repairs to the ship as per my orders."

The scientist shifted from one foot to the other. "I'm not disputing your orders Colonel, but I'm just not sure how Doctor Rush has transmitted them to the science team."

Manipulative little shit thought Young unfortunately son the premise you're working on is a little out of date. At least partly. But I'd bet a dime to a dollar you've been speaking to David.

He wasn't entirely sure what project Rush was currently working on, but he could temporise. "Rush, this is Young. I've got Doctor Gutierrez here with a query. I'm assuming you're still busy with the project plan for the cold area?"

There was a pause then the radio crackled.

"I'm in the middle of checking the sensor readings surrounding the cold area for the hull fix, Colonel. Is this important?"

"Not really," Young looked at Gutierrez as he spoke, "that's the priority, keep on with what you're doing. I'll get Eli to help Dr Gutierrez and leave Brody to coordinate the repairs.

"What does Gutierrez want?"

Young looked at Gutierrez.

"Some one to show us round the seedship." Gutierrez said promptly.

"Send Greer as well." Rush advised. "He's as familiar with the layout as anyone else."

And had a low tolerance for bullshit.

"Good idea. Young out." Young turned to Gutierrez. "I'm sorry Doctor, but Rush and I agreed our priorities on this project."

Gutierrez gave him a dark look but did not challenge his statement.

"We have twenty six days total for foraging, moving everything possibly usable off the seedship and all the external repairs which can't be done in FTL Doctor." Young said. "My priority is the crew and the ship. I'm sorry if this slows you down, but if we starve or Destiny explodes, you're not gonna be coming out here anyway."

Unobtrusively Young let his finger off the send button on the radio. He knew every crew member who currently had a radio, which meant that at least Camile, Greer, Rush, TJ, Scott and the science team had heard the entire discussion. Rush must be rubbing off on him. Young sent Gutierrez back and radioed Eli and Greer to tell them to babysit the SGC scientists then James to order her to cover the bridge. He went to find Rush, lunch and a test flight in that order.

"What are you actually working on?" He asked Rush as he walked into the core room. Rush still looked drawn and there were dark circles under his eyes.

"Actually exactly what I told you." Rush snapped. "Is the cold area really the priority?"

Young snorted. "It's yours and Eli's priority."

Rush tilted his head. "But not yours."

Young hooked his thumbs in his pockets. "You know what I want done by the time we leave." He said reasonably. "You get it done I don't care what order you get it done in." Rush gave him a long look, but Young continued. "I haven't disagreed about the cold area work, but our engineering priority on the layover has to be the hull repairs, and anything else that requires us to be out of FTL."

"I'm perfectly aware of all of that." Rush said heatedly.

Young held up his hand to forestall a torrent. "I'm listening to you Rush. I know that the cold area is important, the power loss, the computer core and access to the other infirmary, but…" Rush opened his mouth to talk and Young lifted his hand again, "…but we have to do everything that needs us stationary or involves the seedship in the next 24 days."

"Maybe not." Rush said, surprising Young. "I've been checking the seedship. It's holding power, it's the control systems for the FTL that are the most damaged but some of the FTL modules are still intact. I think that though the seedship is damaged, I can slave it's systems to Destiny's and make a parallel jump like we did with Telford and the Ursini."

"Won't that have power issues for Destiny?"

Rush shook his head. "No, no, as I said, the seedship is holding power, it's FTL control systems are damaged but half of the FTL modules are still operational. Destiny can manage the control issues, and with the combined power output of both ships, my calculations prove the available FTL modules are sufficient to power both ships."

Young stared at him. "I'll need someone to check your calculations…"

"Yes, yes…"

"Chloe and Eli can check the math…"

"Yes, yes…"

"It's a good plan." He interrupted quietly "See if it will work, get Chloe and Eli to check the math. If you can confirm it in a week we can concentrate on foraging and repairs."

xxxoooxxx

The SGC science team appeared about an hour later with an animatedly talking Eli. Rush tolerated their presence in the core room for just long enough to send the data he required to the console in the small conference room and retreated there. He worked through in the blessed silence until he had run out of data and sat back in the chair steeling himself to go back to the twittering horde in the core room. He was feeling a little hungry, maybe he should stop by the mess hall.

He looked down at the console and realised from the display that it was gone eleven. No wonder he was hungry but it was too late to do anything about it. He sighed and walked out. Time for bed and to try to sleep for a few hours. Tomorrow was his first scheduled shore leave. He was torn between irritation at leaving his work and time out. Time completely out of all of this. He reached his quarters, stripped and slid into bed, pulling the covers tightly round him. Time now to try and get some sleep.

xxxoooxxx

The group met up in the gateroom at the scheduled time. Young looked around, wondering if Rush would actually turn up, or whether he would have to send someone to get him. Last time that had been particularly ineffective. He waited as the rest of the group assigned to this slot arrived. Last of all was Rush, bag in hand, no laptop this time, wearing a slightly oversized fatigue jacket and borrowed boots with the black BDU pants and undershirt that Young had found for him all those months ago. The pants were still baggy and slung low around his hips. He seriously needed to find Rush a belt. Maybe there would be some sort of fibre that could be braided into a rope belt. Maybe there was some sort of fibre that could be braided into rope full stop, he mused, still looking at Rush. They were very short on rope. Rope and string.

Rush caught sight of him and stopped. Their eyes met, Rush frowned, the frown swiftly deepening into a scowl. Time stopped, reality hung in the air for a second.

Then Young shifted from one foot to the other, breaking the moment. Rush's lip twitched, his eyes narrowed and he spun and strode out.