Rodney rang the doorbell of Jeannie's house. He checked that the bottle of wine he was holding was still there. The door opened. Jeannie's husband was there.

"Oh. Hi, Meredith... or Rodney... Should I call you Meredith or Rodney?" he said.

"I prefer to go by Rodney." Rodney said.

"OK, Rodney. Um... Well, hi."

"Hi. Um... Is Jeannie in?"

"Yeah. She's just through there." He said, indicating a door behind him with his thumb. "Um... We have lunch in 5 minutes. Will you join us? It's..."

"Tofu chicken? No thanks. I'll pass. Got a lot of urgent things on my 'to do' list."

"Oh? Like what? 'save the world'?" he said with a slight chuckle.

"Ah yes. You know about the Stargate program. Yeah... Well save the world is at the bottom. Right now, at the top is this..." Rodney pulled out his ring-box. He opened it and showed the rings to him "I am going to propose to someone I love on Atlantis."

"Wow. Jeannie described you but..."

"You're surprised that I could ever settle down with anyone. Yeah, I've been getting that a lot lately. Um... excuse me." Rodney stepped inside to talk to Jeannie. He walked through the door he had indicated and he saw Jeannie noting down mathematics. There was a long pause before he said something.

"See you're back in the game." Rodney said with a smile. Jeannie looked up and looked back down at an equation.

"Yeah. I got a job at a new club-kind business. Right now, I'm working on a way to create Stargates."

"Really? Let me see... Ah, wait. That's not what I'm here for." The weight of the box in his pocket was really getting annoying. He had to get a safe made for it in his quarters. He took it out and opened it.

"Jeannie. I'm sure you know that I love Doctor Jennifer Anne Keller."

"Yes. And she loves you. Are you going to propose?"

"Yes. And I want to ask: should I do it?"

"Yes! Yes, you should! Call me when you 're there."

"Well actually. I'm proposing tomorrow so the wedding can be on Christmas day. Do you want to come to Atlantis for the wedding?"

"Sure! Sure, I'd love to!"

"Good. Now. I gotta rush to Jennifer's dad's house to ask him for her hand in marriage."

"OK. That's good, Rodney." Jeannie Hugged Rodney. He was surprised at this and patted her on the back. She retracted.

"Bye." she said, and went back to noting down mathematics. He went back into the hallway and left the house. He jogged down to his car.

New York

Danny David Keller. That was the full name of Jennifer's father. He felt nervous as he drove down the streets of New York. He had to be beamed to the Daedalus then to New York in his car. Not usually something that stray dogs in small alleyways saw. There was a plus about New York: it was a grid formation. It didn't take long to find the street Jennifer's father lived on. He stopped the car and locked it once he had stepped out. He walked up to door marked 56. Rodney knocked the woodpecker door-handle. After 4 seconds, someone answered it. It was Jennifer's father, Danny.

"Rod!" He said "Come in! Is Jennifer with you?"

"No. I thought it better to come alone for what I am about to say would be better heard by other ears."

"Ah! I know what you mean. So. Sit down!" He said indicating a chair in his living room.

"Thank you." Rodney sat down on the chair he indicated.

"So. What can I do for you, Rod?"

"Well. I am very nervous about this." He said with a slight laugh. "So I'm going to cut straight to the point about it: so, sir... I love your daughter, Jennifer. I love her so much that I'm willing to spend the rest of my life with her and have children if she wanted to. So... I would like to ask you for your daughters hand in marriage." Rodney felt more nervousness. Oh no! I think you screwed it up! His sub-conscientiousness said.

Shut up! He snapped in his thoughts I need this to work! You're undermining my confidence!

You shut up! You're arguing with yourself!

Well, you could have done better when you showed yourself as an hallucination of SAM in the back of a sinking Jumper!

There was a pause, then his sub-conscientiousness spoke again. That was necessary.

Necessary! If you do so much necessary help I need then to the necessary thing and shut up!

Fine! You're still arguing with yourself but fine!

Good!

The answer came after the one-second argument with his sub-conscientiousness.

"If it were any other man who said that, I would go all out on him and tell him to leave and if he didn't, he wouldn't live to see the end of the day," Rodney felt tense. Something hard in his neck was aching. He swallowed to get rid of it.

You know he's talking about other people, right?

Shut up! I know! I'm just worried!

OK! Just saying in case your conscientiousness said otherwise. I can't speak to him, you know. I don't have that many connections with you or him.

Yes, yes yes, of course. Now shut up ,for the last time! You're distracting me!

OK.

"But you: I know you love my daughter. All those calls from her. All this Atlantis conspiracy being kept by the president and the joint chiefs and the air-force and some of the army. I know you, Rod. You have my blessing, my permission, and my good luck. And also, it means you can stop calling me 'Sir'. Call me 'Dan'. That works best."

"Thank you, Dan."

"Good. Now. You deserve a drink after driving all the way from Cheyenne mountain. Or do you get beamed up and down by the Daedalus?"

"Beamed up and down by the Daedalus."

"Well, you might as well have a drink, anyway." Dan went into the open-to-living-room kitchen and poured a couple of cherry juices in large glasses. He came back and gave one of them to Rodney.

Nice...

I thought I told you to shut up?