Disclaimer: Not mine, you know who they belong to

A/N: Wow it's been a long time...sorry for that but its really weird: others seem to update much faster during the holidays. I update faster during university...hmmm Anyway here is Chapter 7 with tidbits of Ronon and Teyla POV... hope I got them right! It is not much overread so mistakes are fair game.. Again, thank you very much for your reviews, please keep them coming!

Oh and I have so NO IDEA about technical stuff so it may sound all a bit squishy...

7. What are you looking at?

(And what do you see?)

Rodney had followed his friends to the Jumper Bay with a growing feeling of dread in his stomache. He had long since given up his resistance and protests when he'd realized that they weren't working, or more so, that nobody even listened anymore. He hadn't thought that there could be an increase of absurdity for today, but obviously he was wrong.

A Lieutnant... no wait, let's rephrase that; a male Lieutnant should be interested in him? Yeah, sure.

He would never ever believe that and he would never ever in hell try the same thing with Connolly as he had with Atlas. He had told them as much but even though Sheppard had seemed as wary as him he had nonetheless radioed the control room and asked where Connolly had duty right now and then pulled Rodney along to 'check him out'.

Sheppard had assured that the would just do it to convince Ronon (who had been surprisingly insistent on his point) that Lt. Connolly was not the one they were looking for. Rodney suspected that John wanted to convince himself as much as Ronon but hold his tongue and followed them.

Just to make sure they didn't do something stupid, of course.

Teyla had been quiet during the whole conversation but her gaze had wandered from John to Rodney and back almost constantly with a puzzled frown on her face. She continued to watch them like a hawk the whole way to the Bay and Rodney felt more and more self-concious by her gaze and worked himself slowly into a nervous fit. By the time they reached the Bay he didn't even notice until they were right in the middle of the room.

What he did notice were the Marines and Scientists which normally shouldn't be there, running around the place and shouting at each other.

"Ah Dr. McKay!" A big man appeared in front of Rodney and he had to throw his head back to look the stranger in the eye.

"Yes, how observing of you. So should I guess your name now or are you going to spare youself the embarrassment and just tell me?" Yes, although the day had gone to hell he could still enjoy insulting some dumb Marines.

Oddly enough the man just smiled sweetly at him, without any sign of annoyance when he answered, "Of course Doctor. I am Lieutnant James Connolly."

Rodney couldn't see Sheppard behind him but he would swear later on that he had been able to 'hear' the dark scrowl forming on his face.

Rodney tried to ignore this and took a good look at the guy in front of him: Lt. Connolly was as big as Ronon with balck hair and a nose that seemed to have been broken and never really reduced some years ago. But more unsettling were his eyes which held an admiring glint while he watched Rodney.

"Rodney! Finally!" Rodney's attention was pulled from those eyes when he saw Radek running towards him. The Czech looked horrible. His hair was rumpled (more than normally) and his clothes were drenched in sweat. "We've been trying to radio you for hours! Were have you been?"

Rodney ignored the question, not in the mood to recount the last few hours and the reason why is radio got wet, and therefore unusable.

"What is going on here?" he shouted instead, already highly alarmed by Zelenkas appereance and the way his voice had risen higher than normally, always a good indication for trouble.

Zelenka panted slightly when he came to a stop before Rodney, "Lt. Connolly" and with that he gestured to the figure besides them who seemed to ignore everyone but Rodney, "has discovered a problem with one of the Jumpers when it came back from a mission. Some of the systems refuse to power down and have been running on full power the last few hours."

Rodeny's eyebrows shot up in surprise and shock. Surprise because a Lieutnant had been smart enough to check the Jumper when it came back on his watch and had even actually recognized that something was wrong.

And shock because...

"Damnit!" he swore and immediately made a run for said Jumper which was surrounded by fussing scientists, Radek on his heels.

When some of the systems runned too long on full power they would overload in time and that would be not good. So not good. Rodney and Radek had worked on a solution for the problem, but didn't found it to be a urgend matter because it had never really happened to this extent. Even geniusses could be lazy fools sometimes. They were damn lucky that Connolly had discovered what he did in time, otherwise the whole Jumper Bay could have been destroyed.

Not that that wasn't still an option.

Rodney turned around while he sprinted. "Good work Lieutnant." He wasn't generous with compliments but when it was justified it was justified.

Connolly, who had looked after him still with that sweet yet creepy smile of his, now beamed openly at the praise. Rodeny found that reaction a bit odd, but all thoughts vanished when he looked over Connollys shoulder and got a good look of Sheppards face.

Rodney shivered involuntary. He knew that look. It was a look reserved for the Wraith and Kolya. It was the look he got when Atlantis was in danger.

It was a murderous look and it was directed at Lt. Connollys back.

Specialist Ronon Dex had witnessed many emergencies during his time on Atlantis and it never ceased to amaze him how everyone seemed to know exactly what to do in those situations.

The former runner probably knew better than anyone else that timing and organization was everything during a crisis and both were perfected under the gaze of Dr. Rodney McKay.

After a short glance over his shoulder McKay lapsed into his 'supervisor-mode' and shouted commands and directions at everyone and everything. His underlings did as they were told without hestitation and even the Marines seemed eager to comply. In moments like this nobody questions McKays authority and trusted him with their lifes.

During his first days on Atlantis, Ronon had been fooled by Rodneys often difficult behaviour and wondered how someone like McKay could be part of the lead team and how McKay and Sheppard could be friends when both of them were so completely different.

During a sparring with Teyla he had asked her but she had just smiled and shaked her head.

"You will see in time."

And he had seen. Seen how McKay had handled a power cicuit in one of the Gate systems, while he shouted orders like now, and in the end prevented the gate from blowing up. Taking the whole city with it. From this day on he had understood why Sheppard had chosen McKay for his team; no matter how much the chubby man whined about little things, when the pressure was on McKay knew exactly what had to be done. And did it.

Not long after that, Ronon had seen more.

After a particular bad mission Sheppard had been in a sour mood, almost self loathing. Ronon had sit with him in the mess hall, giving silent support while Teyla had attempted to convince Sheppard that it was not his fault that the villagers hadn't wanted to move to another planet, and that they knew the risk of the approaching Wraith and that nothing he could have done, would have prevented the culling from happening and so on, and so on.

Sheppard had seemed to withdraw even more, telling them that he was fine and that he didn't want to talk about it.

And then McKay had joined them with an overfilled plate, took one look at Sheppard and rolled his eyes in exasperation. "You look like shit! Go away, so I can enjoy my food."

And that's when the banter began.

It was the most amazing thing Ronon had ever seen: McKay insulted Sheppard, made inappropriate comments and stole his dessert and instead of getting angry or annoyed, Sheppard gradually grew more and more relaxed, the jibes coming more and more easy like the amused and affectionate smile.

Ronon had realized that McKay 'grounded' Sheppard, helped him move on. And with a bit of a surprise Ronon realized that he had fallen ínto the banter a few minutes ago without even realizing it, feeling more at peace than in the last seven years and forgetting for a moment the underlying anger at the universe he always felt and instead concentrated his whole being on the task of picking on McKay.

Teyla had shot him one of her famous "Now-you-get-it" smiles and he had ignored it good-naturedly.

Somehow, despite the differences, it had clicked between the four of them and during that particular night Ronon had finally acknowledged that.

His gaze wandered over to Rodney who disappeared into the damaged Jumper.

He would protect McKay with his life and make sure that nobody messed with him, like he would do for Teyla and Sheppard. He laid his eyes on the latter and narrowed his eyes. McKay was Sheppards best friend and if he was a bit overprotective over the others, he was almost obsessed with Rodney's safety. And that could mean trouble.

Especially when your name was Connolly and you watched said scientist like a hawk with an unsettling smile on your lips. Ronon was never one to avoid a good old fight, but he didn't think that Sheppard would leave it at that and decided to intervene before it came to that.

He really didn't like the way Sheppard was looking at Connolly.

Before he could take more than a few steps he heard a shout that sounded like Rodneys and a bunch of scientists rushed away from the damaged Jumper. Just secondes later a small explosion shook the Bay.

Teyla was confused.

Not a feeling she was unfamiliar with, since coming to Atlantis and learning earth customs like placing a dead tree in you house to celebrate the birthday of someone who died thousands of years ago... No, she was accustomed to confusion lately. But this confusion wasn't about distant things and customs from another planet. It was about two of her closest friends and that quite bothered her.

She observed Rodney giving orders and a find smile touched her lips.

'He sure has a bad day.' Teyla mused.

She had been honestly pleased to hear that someone had taken an interest in him...at first. Later there had been a nibbling feeling in her gut everytime she thought about it, distracting her from her meditation, and she had thought that, maybe, it wasn't such a good thing after all. It wasn't that she didn't grant him some attention or that she thought that he couldn't get some but everytime she thought about Rodney and his 'secret admirer' (another curious custom), she also thought instantly about John and Rodney.

About John, when he sits in the infirmary besides Rodneys bed, watching. About John's and Rodney's shoulders touching when they sit side by side on movie night. About Rodney shooting John odd looks when he thinks nobody is looking and about John doing the same thing but more open, almost as if he doesn't even realizes that he is doing it.

And between all these thoughts she just knew that this wasn't a good thing after all.

She had been more than relieved to hear that John shared her concerns the next morning, but she never would tell him her reasons when she didn't even knew what they meant herself.

That she couldn't pinpoint where the sudden resentment for this unknown person came from or why she couldn't stop thinking about John and Rodney, bothered and worried her equally.

It worried her almost as much as John's sudden change in behaviour.

Since he had been present when the second letter arrived, he seemed edgy and more serious than she had ever seen him. Teyla was glad that she seemed to be the only one who had seen how Sheppard had clenched his fists until the knuckles were white when they had watched Rodney and Dr. Altas from their hideout and how his eyes had shone with something she couldn't quite name.

Almost as worried as she was by his behaviour now.

She knew that Ronon saw it too and hoped that he would be able to calm John down.

She really didn't like the way John was looking at Connolly.

Before either of them could do something there were screams and then a nasty bang.

John really didn't like the way Connolly was looking at Rodney.

He had felt his insides knot when he'd heard the Lieutnant introduce himself to Rodney.

Then he had felt cold fury when he saw how Connolly smiled at Rodney.

And then he had realized that the knot in his insides and the cold fury combined felt a lot like the good old jealousy and that had made him even more furious.

He shouldn't be jealous because of some pathetic Lieutnant drooling over Rodney. Also he was able to read Rodney pretty well and knew by the way his friends posture had stiffened under Connollys gaze that Rodney was far from feeling comfortable around the big man.

Rodney was after all his best friend, his team member, his scientist, geek and genius. Rodney was his, damn it, and nobody looked at someone belonging to him the way Connolly did.

Sheppard was too furious to realize his own thoughts. Too focused to notice the growing panic in the Jumper Bay or the worried looks Teyla and Ronon gave him. Too convinced and too accusing to mind that he was staring at Connollys back with murderous intent in his eyes and that he flexed his hands repeatedly in growing tension

He was just too much of everything to be rational.

The only constant thought in his fogged brain was, that Connolly was 'Scientist's Lover'. Those lustful eyes that followed Rodney everywhere. The sneering grin that wouldn't vanish...

Yes, John was sure that Connolly was the one that started to send those flowers.

'And I will stop it!'

Before he could snap Connolly's neck or see how Ronon and Teyla took a step towards him, John was stopped by panic filled screams and the unmistakable sound of something exploding.

Rodney felt the eyes on him the whole time he worked and organized the repair of the Puddle Jumper and tried to ignore them.

Sure, most of the Marines where impressed when they saw him in action but nobody had ever stared at him quite this long and with so much intensity that he felt it without even looking.

And as much as he would have liked to go over there and snap at this Connolly to stop staring at him, there were more important things to do.

Nonetheless he was more than grateful when he finally finished instructing the scientists who would work on the outside of the Jumper and entered said Jumper through the hatch. Away from staring eyes.

He remembered Sheppards grim look and just hoped that the man wouldn't do something stupid... well nothing more stupid than usually.

He walked into the cockpit while Radek worked furiously on the panel in the rear compartment.

"I think I have stopped most of the systems but not all." Radek stated before muttering in Czech when he got a little electric shock.

Rodney meanwhile had locked into the main console in the cockpit with his pad and typed furiously. He breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered the problem fairly quick and began to reconfigure some of the codes in charge of the malfunctioning systems.

"I think I got it..." and with a last tap the last one of the systems powered down.

When Radek realized that the danger was over, not even five minutes after Rodney had joined them, he stared at his colleague with a mix of awe and irritation.

"You know McKay, would you have been available immediately you would have spared me some grey hairs..."

Rodney stared at him in disbelieve. "Well, how about a "Thank you, Dr. McKay for saving our lifes. Again!" Or at least a "Good work,Dr. McKay."" His shoulders stiffened a bit like they always did after an adrenaline surge subsiding. "It's not my problem that you couldn't-"

His rant was cut short by a popup on his pad. Red and blinking. Shit.

"Radek get out of here! " he screamed and was grateful when Radek seemed to understand that something was wrong and sprinted though the rear hatch without any hestitation, shouting to other scientists to get away from the Jumper. Rodney looked back down on his pad.

It seemed like they hadn't been fast enough to prevent at least one of the systems to explode... one of the systems located in the rear compartment.

In a matter of 4 seconds Rodney McKay realized two things.

First, there was no way that he could leave the Jumper in time to avoid the explosion. Would he try now he would most likely run right into the damn thing.

And would he keep standing there like a deer caught in the headlights he would be equally screwed.

So he did the only thing he could think of in his panic; he jumped behind the pilot seat and prayed to all the gods that he knew that the explosion would be small enough to leave him with all his limbs when this was over.

Not a second after his dive the rear erupted in blending light and deafening noise. Rodney couldn't entirely avoid the blast and felt himself being mercilessly pushed forward until his head hit the console with a sickening thud.

His last concious thought was that Sheppard would be pissed, before everything went black.

A/N: Wohoo my first 'evil' cliffhanger!^^ And seems like I cannot help myself...jealous John is just too fun to write!^^

Will Rodney survive? Is John overreacting? And what the hell is that in Elizabeth's arms when she comes to see them? Stay tuned and you may be told...oh and review please! XD