Physician and Physicist by AndromedaMarine

1849 ZULU

Halfway to the transporter that would take him to the barracks level, the notification went off on Rodney's data pad. He stopped in the corridor and opened the message, and stared at it for a decent five minutes. First of all, the email consisted of twelve words, ending with Yours, Jennifer. Had she been thinking straight while writing that? As he had while reading her other emails, Rodney felt warm inside. There was just something about the American doctor that canceled out most of the bad parts of his personality. He just couldn't be angry around her. The warm feeling stayed with him. Rodney realized he would be late if he didn't remember to use his feet, and he hoofed it down the rest of the corridor to jump in the transporter.

Just before the flash of white light engulfed him he thought, Why does she want to know what I think of the Babel Fish? It's just a creation of science fiction. A very good creation of scifi…

A moment later he stepped into the barracks hallway and set a brisk pace to Jennifer's quarters, which happened (by no fault of John Sheppard) to be only eight doors down from his own. At exactly 1900 he waved his hand across the sensor to let her know he had arrived. This was just Jennifer, so why were his palms sweating?

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1900 ZULU

Jennifer heard the "doorbell" go off and was startled that her heart began pounding. She smoothed the tank top that had been beneath her medical jacket, and reached for Rodney's file. She opened the door and stepped out into the hall. "Hi," she said with a smile.

"Yes, hello." Inconspicuously he dried his palms against the sides of his pants. "So, is that anomaly something serious? I'm not going to kick the bucket, am I?"

"Not if I have anything to do with it." Jennifer flipped open the folder and looked at it for a moment. "Actually… I don't think you even have to worry. After a week it's still there, but Carson says that something on that planet, whether you ate or drank it, or if it was just something in the air – whatever it was made an existing DNA marker activate."

Rodney swallowed, trying not to look at her tank top. "And what does that mean?"

"It means that the ATA gene you had before receiving the therapy has activated on its own. It's still not as strong as John's, but you'll be able to control Ancient tech more easily." She shifted her weight to her other foot, putting her hips off-balance. "Your gene was dormant before, and now it's not."

"Really? Is it going to last?" His expression radiated smug excitement. "Ha! Now Sheppard can't brag about having superior DNA anymore!"

"Oh, John's gene will still be the strongest of the naturals, but you just bumped Carson into third place and Evan into fourth. For how long, I don't know and couldn't even begin to guess. It could be permanent."

At this Rodney's grin grew wider. "Well, that explains why it wasn't as hard to access the Janus Database as I thought it would be after I fixed half of it. Usually I have to interface my laptop but this time it worked at the touch of a button. Which is weird considering Fox basically destroyed it."

Jennifer smiled. "That's good. That the console worked."

They fell into silence, both looking a little bit past other. "So," Rodney started, and began gesturing vaguely with his hands. "I should go get some food – you know, keep my glucose levels up..."

He made to walk away, but Jennifer caught his forearm. "I said I had a question, remember?"

Rodney nodded, looking bewildered.

"What's your scientific opinion of the Babel Fish?"

A grin spread across his face. "Check your email in an hour."

With that he went and got his dinner, leaving Jennifer slightly dazed, as he had leant in quite close to tell her that.

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1925 ZULU

Rodney knew he would have to wait until 2000 hours before sending that email. So he sat in the commissary for an inordinately long period of time, letting his brain go through different thought processes that it probably shouldn't have gone through. After all, his imagination was as broad as he was intelligent, and it didn't help that he vividly remembered Jennifer and that tank top of hers.

The physician and the physicist had known each other for almost five years but neither had made any definitive move (much to Rodney's chagrin – Jennifer was a gorgeous woman who seemed to show interest in him). He thought back on how he loathed her at first, her taking Carson's post after that blasted Sunday afternoon during which he should have been fishing. Then he had realized she was only doing her job, and she had been just as torn up over Carson's death as he had.

Rodney never knew that Beckett and Keller had been medical school classmates, and it had been Carson who suggested to Dr. Lam that Jennifer be his replacement if ever the time came. Now that the physicist thought back on it he realized what a total ass he had been to her. And she still thought the world of him.

God, he really didn't deserve her. Where did that come from? You're not even dating her, you idiot. Rodney huffed to himself as Teyla sat down across from him.

"It is late to be eating the evening meal," she said as plainly as she always did. She had Torren on her hip. "I have heard from Radek that there were problems in Janus's lab. Did you manage to fix them?"

Rodney picked at his food. "Only halfway. What's weird is that somehow..." He trailed off, looking intently at Torren. Quite unbidden, the thought of Jennifer having his child crossed his mind. He shook the image out of his head and looked back up at Teyla. "Somehow my dormant ATA gene has activated."

She looked confused. "Was it not activated by the retrovirus Carson developed?"

"My natural gene activated. It makes me the second-strongest natural on Atlantis. Before, it was only emulating what John has." He decided on what to eat and took a bite of the meatloaf.

Teyla took a sip of her tea. "How did that happen?"

"Jennifer thinks it was MG3-188. Something in the air, food. We don't know."

Teyla smiled to herself. "It is truly wonderful that good things are happening for you and Jennifer." Before Rodney realized what she said she left him alone, to mull over her (and his) words. He finished his meal and wandered to his quarters, to think of the American and write an email.

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2000 ZULU

He clicked send. Knowing she would respond within minutes, he looked around his quarters and for the heck of it, put a few stray articles of clothing away and tidied up around his bed. He hadn't been this nervous at all. Ever.

At 2006 his email notification went off.