Word Count: 394 (WAY! over the 100 word limit)

Prompt: nwfairy suggested Carson and needles

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Carson Beckett always believed in facing your fears. As a child when he was afraid of the dark, he forced himself to get over it by turning off all the lights in his bedroom (even the nightlight he kept burning day and night in the corner) and then proceeded to just sit in the dark until he could stop seeing things that weren't there.

As a teenager, he had developed a horrible fear of needles. The reasons why were never important, just the fact the fear was there and that it was crippling was enough.

Naturally, to overcome his fear, he did the first thing that came to mind: he became a doctor.

Rodney McKay, on the other hand, while he shared the exact same phobia, never got over it. Rather than facing his fears, he ignored them, pretended they weren't there as often as possible, and generally denied their existence.

Of course, when it came time for his first check-up with Carson, there was no hiding it. Try as he might, the flinch when he saw those syringes come out of their sterile packaging was unmistakable.

Carson had seen it; Rodney saw Carson seeing it, and a new worry blossomed in his chest: the teasing that was sure to follow would be nothing short of legendary. Every other doctor he'd ever been to had made a fuss about a grown man being so terrified of needles, so naturally the physicist braced himself for the worst.

But the worst never came.

The Scottish doctor surprised him, and pleasantly at that. Rather than teasing him about it, Carson remained just as cheery as ever and continued his banter with Rodney as though nothing had happened.

Rodney was so floored by this fact that he completely forgot all about the needle and only barely registered the pin prick that followed.

"There now," Beckett said cheerfully as he taped down a piece of gauze on the tiny hole the needle had made, "All through."

The same thing happened the next few times that Rodney needed to be in the infirmary for tests, and each time he found himself more and more comfortable with the scenario. Carson didn't judge him for his phobia; instead, he treated it the same way that Rodney himself did: he pretended it wasn't there.

From then on, Rodney wasn't scared of needles anymore.