Rodney looked up as John set his tray on the table and sat down across from him. It had become, somewhere along the way, a habit of sorts. Rodney would be in the Mess first, invariably with a tablet to his left and his tray of food to the right, his attention equally divided between his stomach and his work. Sheppard would show up a little while later and playful banter would ensue.

"Good morning, Rodney," said Sheppard as he lifted a steaming mug of coffee to his lips. He took a tentative sip and placed it back on the tray. "What are you working on this morning?"

"Power consumption system for the North Pier." Rodney looked up and rolled his eyes at Sheppard's raised eyebrow. "Yes… still. It's not my fault the Ancients didn't leave detailed instructions on installing and operating alternate power sources in the North Pier in case of ZedPM issues." He jammed a piece of bacon into his mouth and washed it down with a healthy gulp of sludge. "So you can just fu…"

"Easy, Rodney," interrupted John with a grin. He gave his cantankerous friend an appraising look. "What got your Batman boxers in a bunch this morning?"

Rodney shrugged, as much as an apology as he was going to offer. "What's on the…" He stopped when he noticed Sheppard looking off to the right with a slight smile on his lips. He glanced over and sighed when he saw one of the female anthropologists giving Sheppard a look. "I'll never understand why you get all the 'come hither' looks from all the hot girls," Rodney mumbled as he looked down to his tablet.

Sheppard smiled as though the reason was quite obvious and took a bite of toast. Oddly enough, the smile turned slightly maniacal as it contorted with his chewing. He swallowed the toast and said, "I wouldn't go talking there, Rodney. You've been getting some looks lately from some of Atlantis' more eligible bachelorettes."

Rodney slowly looked up at Sheppard and despite the sincerity in the Colonel's voice and on his face, he humphed and said with as much sarcasm as his awesome arsenal possessed, "Yeah… because like you it's a curse I've had all my life."

John slowly shook his head as Rodney looked back to his tablet, partly in admiration of Rodney's sarcastic remark and partly in pity, though mostly in the fact that it had been true and Rodney was clueless.

"Its true, Rodney," Sheppard said after a moment. When Rodney looked up he added, "In fact there's a certain eligible lady giving you a particularly intense look from your nine o'clock position."

Despite the fact that he knew the Colonel was messing with him, Rodney looked and was shocked to find an all too familiar strawberry blond Marine giving him a look, though it seemed to him to be an angry glare more than anything.

"Cadman!" groaned Rodney. "She looks like she wants to kill me. Again."

Sheppard smiled and rose from his seat. "Rodney, those aren't her angry eyes," he said as he leaned down towards his friend. "Those are hungry eyes."

Rodney glanced over to find Cadman looking away, though he did notice a healthy redness in her cheeks that hadn't been there before. "Her tray is empty, Sheppard. She can't be hungry."

John resisted the urge to slap his friend upside the head, opting instead to simply raise his eyebrows suggestively when Rodney looked at him. He nodded a few seconds later when Rodney's eyes bulged open, and then smiled when Rodney looked over to Cadman again and then back to him.

His work for the morning completed with a more than satisfactory result, John slapped Rodney's shoulder and started to make his way through the Mess towards his weekly ass kicking appointment with Teyla.

A/N: "Hungry Eyes" was written by John DeNicola and Franke Previte and performed by Eric Carmen in the film 'Dirty Dancing' and released on the film's 1987 soundtrack.