Chapter 3: Radek Takes a Breath
It had been a couple of days since the incident in the lab and Radek hadn't seen Rodney since. His desk that he usually occupied was empty. The day after the kiss happened when Radek had come into the lab, he realized that Rodney's laptop was gone. There was not a power bar wrapper or a coffee cup in sight. Radek scratched his head as he realized the last time he had seen the desk look that clean was when they first moved into the lab. He looked at the duty roster and noticed that Rodney had taken more night shifts, so that meant that he was working Dr. Sampson. She was nice enough and by all rights a brilliant scientist but she was no Rodney McKay.
He tries not to bombard her with questions when she comes in. So he decided to start with what he deemed as the most important one. "Why did you and Rodney switch?"
She took a sip of her coffee before setting the cup down on what had previously been Dr. McKay's work station. "I don't know. It wasn't my idea. He asked me if I wanted to switch shifts with him for awhile. I thought that it would be a nice reprieve for you, seeing as you rarely ever work nights and that means that he won't be yelling at you." She sat at the desk, while she plugged in her laptop and waited for it to boot up. She wasn't looking at Radek anymore and he assumed that meant that the conversation was over. As Radek sat down at his own desk, he knew that the only way that he was going to get to talk to Rodney was if he sought him out. He had to know if there was something behind the kiss that they had shared, he was just uncertain as to how he should approach the other scientist. He was unsure if he could face the truth, especially if it turned out to be nothing.
Radek was certain of a few things. The first being that he and Rodney needed to talk. The second being that Rodney was avoiding him and the third was that even if Rodney had said that it was just excitement filled, not-quite-sure-how-the-hell-that-happened-but-it-happened, it would be better then constantly wondering. Just as Radek had decided that was what he was going to do, he heard Sheppard's voice over the radio.
"Rodney, if you're in the lab, I need you with the rest of my team to the gate room. We leave in ten minutes. Ronon make sure that your gun is set to stun." His tone was serious.
Radek sat back down at his station. No matter what he thought that he was going to do, it was going to have to wait until they got back. He would bribe Rodney with coffee, if he had to but one way or another they were going to talk.