581 words. A million thanks to theicemenace for letting me borrow her incredible creation, Dr. Charlotte Atherton, for this fic, and it's with her blessing that I bestow this chapter upon you all. This is a moment set during the final chapter of Ice's 'The Healing Touch'. More of an addition or alternate thingy I suppose.

Oh, and I don't own SGA or any of it's characters either.

Rodney knew the touch was coming before her skin feathered along his despite the fact that he'd had his eyes closed. He opened his eyes as Charlie's fingers closed around his and a smile, a true one that came on the expressway from his soul, formed on his lips.

"You okay, sugar?" she asked in that accent that Rodney loved so dearly.

He nodded and gave a quick glance around the reception hall. It was beautifully decorated and the lights had been dimmed several minutes earlier for Evan and Jennifer's first dance as husband and wife. The happy couple was now on the opposite side of the massive room engaging in what appeared to be small talk with people Rodney didn't know.

He'd gone quiet as their dance had commenced, as had everyone else in the room. Unlike everyone else, however, he hadn't been focused on the newlyweds as they'd danced. His mind had wandered to the unsolved power ratio dilemma currently plaguing the chair room of Atlantis. Thinking about it now though, anyone who'd noticed his distraction probably would have erroneously assumed that he'd been reminiscing about Jennifer or something of the sort, and as he looked into the green eyes of the woman he loved he wondered if she thought the same.

Before he could comment, Charlie quirked her perfectly shaped right eyebrow at him and said in a mock scolding drawl, "You're thinkin' about those blessed power ratios, aren't ya, darlin'?"

Rodney nodded, relieved and a little angry at himself for forgetting just how well Charlie had come to know him and just how well she could read him. She had touched parts of him that no one else had managed to touch. She'd seen parts of him that no one else had managed to see. She was… she was just incredible.

"Bless your heart, Rodney McKay," she said as she playfully tapped his hand before resting hers upon it again, "if you don't relax I'm just gonna have to employ some of that Southern charm that you can't seem to resist."

Rodney snorted in amusement. "Like you've been doing since the moment we met?"

There was a sparkle in her emerald gaze that matched the smile playing at her lips. "You know it, darlin'."

Rodney smiled again, or was still smiling, he couldn't tell. "I think it's time to go."

Charlie looked as though she were going to argue the point, but when Rodney turned his hand underneath hers so that they were palm to palm and then began gently squeezing her hand, she daintily cleared her throat. Her voice was playful and only minimally strained as she said, "How can I resist that Canadian charm you use so," she gasped slightly as his thumb massaged the side of her hand and said, "expertly?"

Rodney smirked as he got up out of his chair. "You can't."

Rodney helped Charlie up out of her seat and smiled when Rodney drew her close to him. "That's a fact, sugar." She waited several seconds for Rodney to release her. "You have to let go, Rodney."

Rodney stared straight into the seas of green that were her eyes. "I can't let go."

Charlie smiled warmly and said, "You have to, sugar." She leaned in closer and said, "Because what I want to happen next needs to happen in private."

A moment later all eyes turned towards the exit where an unmistakably female squeal of surprise had come from.

They saw nothing.

A/N: "Can't Let Go" was written by Alfie Zappacosta and released on his 1984 album Zappacosta.