As soon as Rodney sat down, he glanced up at Jennifer and smirked, then looked down at his meal and dug in. Rodney took a bite of the steak and groaned, his eyes rolling back in near ecstasy. "Oh, this is sooo good! This is the absolute best MRE."
"Rodney, do you and your steak need some time alone?" Jennifer teased.
"I can't help it. It just tastes so good!"
"I've never really enjoyed the rations. Thank the lord that the Athosians are cultivating the mainland with veggies, or I'd have to rely on drowned and soggy ones in the MREs!"
"Vegetables are overrated. All you need is meat!"
"If I didn't know better, I'd think your name was Ronon!"
"Don't lump me in with that caveman!"
"Well, maybe you deserve to be if you have such disdain for vegetables." Jennifer teased.
"Fine. Vegetables have their place, and I do eat them regularly, but you'll never catch me eating a salad. How is a salad by itself part of a balanced diet?"
"You conceded rather quickly. I thought for sure I'd have you on a tirade right now and I'd have an excuse to touch your forearm to calm you down." Jennifer said, her eyes sparkling.
Rodney looked at Jennifer and grinned. "You do enjoy keeping me off-balance, don't you, Doctor?" He reached out to hold her hand. "Maybe I should start doing the same to even the score." He started moving his thumb in slow circles on the back of her hand.
Jennifer flushed and snatched her hand back and took up eating again, paying close attention to her meal and ignoring everything else.
Rodney grinned even wider. "For someone who wanted an excuse to touch me, you sure took your hand back quickly."
Jennifer looked up at him again. "Well…I needed both hands to eat. Don't think that you're the reason that I took it back."
Rodney crossed his arms, raising an eyebrow as if to say "really?". Jennifer squirmed in her seat.
Jennifer needed to change the topic if this date wasn't to get awkward.
"Uh, so, what are working on in the lab currently?" Jennifer asked, flitting her eyes to look at Rodney briefly before looking at her salad again, moving the leaves around her plate. Her cheeks were still quite pink.
Rodney grinned at her again but let her change the topic. "We're running more scans on the spacesuits we brought back from Janus' lab. We're trying to reverse engineer its adaptive capabilities and its composition. Y'know it's a collection of alloys of metals found on earth, so it's totally doable. I'm focusing on the tech used in the HUD and the software. It's such a shame no one outside of the air force will know that I developed it when it's eventually released on earth."
Jennifer internally sighed in relief. She knew she could count on Rodney to ramble about his work.
"Do you think there's anything in the HUD that we could use for medical?"
"Oh, yeah, temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, physical injuries, blood loss; definitely! But you don't need that stuff here; you've got the scanner and your other instruments, I don't think there's anything in the HUD that could give you more of an edge."
"So modest, I've never heard you say that you couldn't develop anything better when it comes to technology."
"Well, maybe it's me just not getting all the medical mumbo jumbo coming out of it. If you had a look at it, maybe we could find something outstanding." Rodney said defensively. "Do you want to join me after dinner and take a look?"
"A backhanded compliment and an invitation. Oh, I do feel special." Jennifer smirked at him.
"You know how I feel about the medical "sciences", but you are my favourite doctor, and I value your opinion." Rodney blushed and stuffed his mouth with food to stop from speaking.
It was Jennifer's turn to reach out and hold Rodney's hand. "Rodney, I'd love to help, but I need to take a raincheck. I've got an early shift, so I only have an hour left until I need to be asleep."
Rather than say anything, Rodney squeezed her hand and continued to eat. Once they finished eating, Rodney quickly took the initiative, "Can I walk you back to your room?"
"Yes, please" Jennifer walked around the table and hugged his arm.
When they got to Jennifer's room, Rodney could only think about the feel of Jennifer's body where it touched his arm and, her bet.
He brought her into a hug, after a moment asking, "Are you ready to go through with the bet yet?"
Jennifer was enjoying the hug up until that point when she stiffened and scrambled to find an answer. "Um, no, not yet, I thought we'd do it, I mean sleep together, No! I mean- schedule it for when we have a day off the next day, so it doesn't interfere with our work!"
Rodney smiled into her hair and stroked her back. "It's ok, Jen, I know what you meant." He said with delight in his voice.
Jennifer stepped back from him, embarrassed. "So you're laughing at me now? That's not really a nice way to end a-"
Rodney captured her lips in his, wrapping his arms around her and cradling the back of her neck. Rodney broke away first; Jennifer leaned forward trying to keep the kiss going, a whine escaping her throat in her disappointment. She spun around to face her door, her face now bright red.
"I-I'll see you tomorrow-"
"I think I won that round," Rodney said smugly, with his hands clasped behind his back.
"What?" Jennifer turned around, looking at him, confused.
"I won that round. I got four points, and you only got two, so I won."
"Huh?"
"The game was keeping each other off-balance, and I won."
Jennifer narrowed her eyes at him, and Rodney looked a bit worried. He went to apologise but lost his opportunity when Jennifer went up on tip-toes and brought Rodney's lips down to hers. She pressed her body up against his, shifting her mouth to deepen the kiss, stroking her tongue along his.
Rodney was lost in the sensation of the kiss. He wound his arms around her waist and crushed her against him. Jennifer pulled away first this time, panting a little, staying in his arms.
"You didn't win this round. I most definitely did." She said, licking her bottom lip.
Rodney was going to argue when Jennifer stepped away, and he stumbled a bit before recovering.
"See, you're clearly more off-balance than I am" she chuckled. "Good night Rodney", she said, blowing him a kiss, stepping into her room and closing the door.
"I still feel like a winner though," Rodney said softly before dazedly walking back to his room.