Young opened his eyes in Homeworld Command.
"It's Colonel Young." He said immediately. "I need to report to General O'Neill."
The airman nodded at him. "General O'Neill is in Colorado Springs, sir."
Young sighed. "Colonel Telford?"
"Colonel Telford is on leave."
Young's lip twitched irritated. "Okay. Take me to O'Neill's aide and I'll set up what I need with him."
He followed the airman out, passing the next member of staff to take his place in the seat at the stones device. With neither O'Neill nor Telford here, not that he wanted to see Telford, he would have to schedule a briefing later in the week and come back again.
The aide was as helpful as could be asked. The young man shuffled appointments and set up the briefing for a couple of days time, then left Young to access his email and other correspondence. Young typed a brief report to O'Neill, with a few bullets of the most recent arising issues on Destiny, then turned to his inbox. There were four emails from Emily. He left them till last, reading the most recent one first.
"Everett, I have no idea why you are ignoring my messages, although I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by you failing to face up to things by now..."
His face set in a scowl.
"...I need your decision on the finance issue..." He continued to scan through the message, "...I'm guessing you're behaving like this is because someone has told you I'm seeing someone, well you don't have the right to judge me, you don't get an opinion on this...Just tell your solicitor what you want to do about the..."
He sat back in his chair. Whilst he really ought to just make a decision about the money issue, at the moment he was not in any mood to make a rational decision about anything. What he really wanted to do was hit something - or someone - or have a drink. None of the above seemed like an option he could take. He could just imagine TJ's face if he turned up with a damaged hand like Rush. Rush himself would be insufferable at the hint of Young doing something foolish, though Young recognised it would likely only be in private these days.
He gritted his teeth and pushed away from the desk. He would be back in a couple of days anyway. He logged out of the computer, packed up his box of personal materials, handed it back to the aide and went back to the stones room.
Swapping back into his body on Destiny, he realised he was in the observation lounge, leaning on the rail staring out to space. When he turned round Rush was sitting at the counter, working one handed at a laptop, his broken hand resting next to it. Young stood and walked over to him.
He knew as soon as Rush looked up at him the other man had recognised it was him again.
"You're back." Rush said curiously. "That was fast."
"O'Neill and Telford were both unavailable." Young said, sitting down next to Rush. "I scheduled the briefing for two days."
Rush nodded.
"Will you attend it?" Young asked him.
Rush regarded him for a moment, then to Young's surprise gave another brief nod.
"Look, I wanted to talk to you anyway."
"What about?" Rush asked, more typical suspicion washing over his face.
"I want Scott to teach Volker how to fly the shuttle."
"Volker?" Rush scoffed. "He's the last I'd pick."
"He's the last you'd pick for anything." Young countered. "He's the best choice of the science team though. Brody's an engineer, Eli's a better programmer, Calvos has a better grasp of the sensor systems now and you're currently incapacitated. Even if you weren't when you're doing repairs, he's the least essential to actually undertake something practical, but he'd still understand what you needed the pilot to do shifting parts or where to be to get sensor readings, and as an astrophysicist, he's the most likely of you to actually need to leave Destiny to undertake work in his own field."
Rush gave him an appraising look. "I can see you've thought about this."
Young rolled his eyes. "Yes Rush, I've thought about this." He said irritatedly.
"Fine." Rush said. "Be my guest, it'll keep him out of my way."
Young nodded. "I'm going to pair him up with Scott, act as co-pilot when they start shifting the dome panels. Your plan only had him manning sensors on the bridge anyway, and I can get Calvos to do that."
Rush nodded. "I can do that." He said. "I'll put Calvos in the core room to monitor, he's faster with his hands than me at the moment." He said lifting his splint with a self deprecating look."
"Fine, good." Young said. He slid off the stool. "I'd better go see Scott, we're setting up the next training sessions for the military personnel and I'll let him know about Volker."
Rush was still watching him. "What else happened?" He asked Young.
Young paused, then shrugged and spoke. "Email from Emily, pushing me about the finance issues, she finally admitted she's seeing someone, didn't say who."
Rush gave him a tight-lipped but slightly sympathetic look. He did not ask if Young was alright, but the question was in his eyes.
"I'm managing." Young said in response.
Rush gave him another considering look. Young expected Rush didn't believe him.
"I'll see you later then?" Rush said, with a slight emphasis on the later.
Young gave him a slight smile back. "Yeah." He agreed. "See you later."
xxxoooxxx
Volker was extremely pleased with Young's plan. Young thought Brody and Eli were a little disappointed that they were not going to get a go though. Young was not averse to the others eventually being trained, but his next priority after Volker was Greer and TJ. Greer was already acting as a co-pilot, and, should he have to evacuate the ship again, TJ was the only person with a guaranteed place on that shuttle.
He spent a little time shuffling the rotas, wandering back to check a few things with Rush and setting up some training for two of the other crew to be able to take over some of Volker's bridge shifts. Barnes was already on Rush's list of crew he was interested in training so she was an easy choice, and Dawson, one of the civilians was gaining a good grasp of Ancient quickly so was another fairly straight forward choice. If only all of his decisions were that easy.
Lunch was soup, tasty enough if a little boring. Potato-ish with meat. Young was eating his way through it slowly when Rush came in with a face like thunder. He watched as Rush took his own bowl of soup and sat down opposite him angrily, almost spilling his soup.
"What's up?" Young asked.
"We have a problem with the dome repairs." Rush said, stirring his soup awkwardly with his left hand.
"What?" Young asked, putting his spoon down.
"Brody went out in the suit with Atienza to do the first removals of the warped metal." Rush said. "Unfortunately, the warped metal goes down much further than we expected. It's going to add about fourteen hours additional work to our plan cutting it away and repairing another six panels. I'm going to have to get additional panels from the manufactory on the seed ship." Rush took a mouthful of soup carefully. "I'm also going to have to look at the surrounding area. It's evidently not bad enough to have breached, we'd know, but we can't rebuild on a warped base. I'm not sure what we're going to have to shut down in order to remove the panel's in question."
Young frowned. "So, what now?"
"Brody and Atienza are going to go back out and take some more measurements and I'm going to update our plan based on their results and the areas around what we're going to have to rip out now."
Young nodded. "Fine. Let me know what you find out, and your changed plan. Will you need more personnel?"
"Not unless you can find me more spacesuits." Rush muttered.
Young chuckled. "Sadly, no."
They ate in silence for a moment, Young watching Rush's slow progress with his spoon in his left hand.
"I'm thinking of planning an expedition to the other storage room while we're stationary."
Rush looked up in interest.
"Thought that would get your attention." Young chuckled. "As you're going to be needing most of your science staff, I'm thinking of sending Chloe and Barnes to help them get through doors."
Rush scowled. "I note you've picked another time for an expedition when I'm incapacitated."
"That nothing to do with the decision." Young said, amused. "It just makes sense to do it, now and keep the crew busy, particularly as there's no planets within range."
Rush glowered, but nodded.
"You'll be needed to monitor what they find by kino anyway." Young added, receiving another nod in return.
He finished his soup. Rush was still only half way through his, but he stood.
"Let me know when you've rewritten your work plan." He told the scientist.
"Fine." Rush said. "I'll see you later."
xxxoooxxx
Young had managed to keep himself distracted most of the afternoon, involved in a training session for some of the civilians. He did not see Rush at dinner time. Eli mentioned that Rush was still working in the core room, and Young had Eli take some dinner to him, under no illusions about the likelihood of convincing the irascible scientist to leave what he was working on.
The evening was taken up with the latest offering from the entertainment committee, a showing of Casablanca, one of the few movies they had, and one which Young had not seen for over three months, so not too bad. It was not till he went to bed that his mind started turning over on the visit to Earth.
After an hour of lying there sleepless he gave up. Rush had said he would see him later, but no doubt the man was still working on the repair plan. Young looked at his watch, it was gone one in the morning. He pulled himself wearily out of bed, pulled some clothes on and went to find the other man.
He found Rush in the core room as he had expected, broken hand rested on the edge of the console, other tapping at the screen.
"You good?" Young asked him. He didn't look good, he looked exhausted.
"Tired."
Young walked up behind Rush and rested his arms on the other man's shoulders. Rush continued to tap at the console.
"It's almost two in the morning; you aren't going to fix it on your own tonight." He said conversationally, staring over Rush's shoulder at the unintelligible stream of Ancient scrolling on the screen. "It's late. Come to bed."
There was a small strangled noise from the doorway. Eli was standing there, barefooted, bed-headed and with a horrified expression on his face.
"How could you!" he said. He wasn't quite shouting but it was a close thing. "You're together? I can't believe you guys!"
They both looked at him surprised, taking a moment to gather their wits.
"I didn't have you pegged for homophobic, Eli." Young said mildly. "Come in and close the door."
Eli hovered for a split second before stepping in, talking and hitting the door closure at the same time. "Homopho…that's not it at all!" He walked forward till stopped by a console in front of him. "You don't even get it, do you? Neither of you! I can't believe you guys could DO this to me!"
Young squinted at Eli, not following the angry young man's conversation.
"You're being melodramatic Eli." Rush snapped, and Young could have told him that was not the right thing to say. "What is your problem?"
"Melodramatic?!" Eli was fully shouting now, gesticulating with both hands. "What is my problem? It's you guys! You make me choose, make me stress, make me run between, split my loyalties, spend years, YEARS, worrying about how I'm going to manage you both, and the whole time you've been screwing?"
Eli thumped his fist down on a console and Young could see he was on the verge of another outburst. Not moving from where he was leaning on Rush, Young spoke quietly.
"We're not screwing." He said. "Although we are sleeping in the same bed sometimes."
And kissing…he thought, don't forget the kissing. We have kissed.
"Oh and that makes it SO much better." Eli shot back.
Young gave him a long look, he could feel Rush tensing for a retort under his arms, and slid a hand down to squeeze his bicep warningly. Rush's injured hand shifted on the console.
"It's also not forever. Only since the volcano beach planet." Young told him.
Eli gave him a suspicious look and glanced at Rush for confirmation. Rush shrugged, although awkwardly with Young leaning on his shoulders.
"It's true Eli." Rush said with a slight nod.
Eli stared at them, his anger gradually melting into total confusion.
"How?" he asked finally. "Just, like, how? And why?"
"None of your business!" Rush rapped out.
Eli looked chastened.
"Am I the only one who knows?" he asked a moment later. "This isn't another one of your horrific secrets I'm going to have to keep all on my own again is it?"
Rush snorted and Young sighed, feeling a little guilty.
"No Eli," Young said, before Rush could speak, "TJ knows, go talk to TJ in private in the morning, get it off your chest."
He stood, squeezing Rush's bicep again. "Come on Rush, finish up. Let's go to bed."
Even to Young that sounded like a relationship sort of comment. Particularly as Rush did as he asked, closed the console down and stood.
"Good night Eli." Young said.
Bemusedly, Eli wished them both a good night.
Rush followed Young out of the room. Young wasn't entirely sure if he actually wanted to go to bed, or just the strong chance that was just because he did not want to have to talk to Eli. Young turned to Rush a little further down the corridor, waiting till they had moved out of the high traffic areas, despite the fact it was late.
"You want to crash with me tonight, or were you just escaping Eli?" He asked very quietly.
Rush paused mid step and looked at him a little surprised. "I'd have said if I didn't." He murmured. "Your quarters or mine?"
Young shrugged. "Yours are easier to sneak out of in the morning. My bed's cold by now."
"God it's like being fourteen again." Rush complained.
"You snuck out of other guys' rooms in the morning at fourteen?"
Rush gave him a derisive look. "Girls, but yes, Colonel."
"Fourteen, I'm impressed."
Rush made a disgusted noise.
The air was a little chilly in Rush's quarters as he slid out of his pants to stand in his underwear, watching Rush sit down on the edge of his bed and do the same. Rush slid into bed, shuddering as his skin hit the cold sheets.
"Well?" He looked up at Young from where he sat in the bed. "Are you getting in? I didn't invite you here to look pretty."
"No, it's my sparkling wit and personality." Young quipped.
"Or the fact that despite your wit and personality, you put out heat like you wouldn't believe, actually making it worth having you about. Get in bed."
Rush laid back and pushed the pillow up under his head, rolling to face Young.
"Now there's an offer I don't get often." Young said sarcastically. "Do you know exactly how dysfunctional this is?"
"Shut up." Rush said, as Young climbed into the bed. "I thought we'd agreed that talking about this was not something that was going to happen."
"Not in so many words, but I think we'd taken it as read." He regarded Rush without moving from where he was sitting up next to him. "Do you think Eli will talk to TJ?"
"Well, I think you can pretty much guarantee that one. Now, are you lying down, or staring at me all night?"
Young looked at Rush, who blinked at him, expectant and a little birdlike, sharp and quick. He scooted down the bed then rolled and spooned back into Rush. Rush wrapped an arm around his waist and relaxed with a sigh.