Rodney almost by-passed his earlier plan in favour of just going straight to Carson; but he knew that if he, at the very least, didn't try to explain to John, then there was a very strong likelihood that all of Atlantis would know what had happened in the lab before lunch. If there was one thing that Rodney wouldn't put up with; it was gossip about himself. He knew that Radek was probably just as embarrassed about the kiss as he was, so in the end he decided that talking to the other scientist about it was unnecessary.
He knew that it was John's day off so he checked his quarters first. He knew that there was a strong possibility that he would be on the pier shooting gulf balls into the water but he also knew that with all the near catastrophes they had over the last week; it was a stronger bet that he was drinking beer, eating junk food and listening to music in the solitude of his quarters.
He knocked on the door, going through his speech in his head. John answered the door, leaning on the door frame. Rodney wanted to wipe that smug grin right off of John's face.
"What is it McKay?" John sounded bored.
Rodney huffed, as if John didn't know, or at least couldn't guess why he was there. "Can I come in? Or are we really going to be talking in the hallway?"
John moved further into his room, allowing Rodney to enter. John sat on his bed, gesturing for Rodney to sit at the chair by his desk. "What is it?" He repeated.
Rodney sat in the offered chair, with his hands on his knees, leaning slightly forward. He was looking straight into John's eyes, trying to figure out if John was putting him on. He saw nothing there but curiosity. He took a deep breath, "I just wanted to clear the air about what you saw in the lab."Rodney scowled as that smug grin slowly made a reappearance.
"You mean the fact that I caught you kissing Zelenka in the lab earlier?" He all but laughed. John was one of Rodney's best friends, but at this point, Rodney had never wanted to punch John in the face so badly.
"Yeah, that." He mumbled. John gestured with his hand for Rodney to continue. "It wasn't a kiss, not really." Okay, that had sounded much better in his head. John quirked an eye brow but remained silent. "We were having an issue with the latest modifications that we made to the ZPM. We were trying to increase the power without causing it to implode or drain completely. After almost 72 hours of failed simulations; we finally managed to get it to work. Our emotions were running a little high." Rodney sighed, "And in the heat of the moment..." He let the sentence hang.
John shrugged, it didn't really matter. Neither Rodney or Zelenka were American or a soldier. "Rodney, you didn't have to explain. What you do and with who you choose to do it with, is none of my business. But I'm glad that you weren't trying to blame it on an alien parasite or something that you must have caught off world." John winked and gave a full grin. Rodney huffed and got out of the chair. He left John's quarters without saying goodbye. He was just hoping that his conversation with Carson would go a lot smoother.
Rodney walked into Carson's office and sat in the chair across from Carson's desk with a sigh. Carson was so used to Rodney just barging in and demanding tests for some ailment or another that he was convinced that he had, Carson barely looked up from his computer. "Yes Rodney?"
"I think I may have caught something on one of the recent off-world missions." He stated matter-of-factly. He knew that this was different from what he told John but Rodney felt justified in the differences; Carson never made fun of his claims and if it turned out that he was wrong and that he had kissed Radek entirely on purpose, well, Carson wouldn't tell a soul.
Carson made a small noise in the back of his throat but that was all. "Alright lad, up on the table. I'll do a complete physical the compare the results with the last physical that you had after the previous off-world mission. If there's anything there I'll find it."
Rodney nodded. "Thanks Carson."
After his physical was complete Rodney went back to his quarters. He was really hoping that Carson would find something. He couldn't be attracted to Radek, could he? Rodney shook his head. He never really considered himself as gay or bisexual. He always dated women. So, the only logical explanation was that he was slowly being taken over by an alien. He nodded to himself. He was quite sure that he was being very slowly taken over and he was just hoping that Carson would be able to identify whatever it was, and offer a solution before he kissed Radek again.