Chapter Text
A/N: It’s been forever, actually a couple of years since I tended to this story. It was my first ever story and I got a bit burned out and side tracked. 11 additional fic’s later, and while I can’t say I’ve improved a lot, I have improved. As such, I think this fic needs a MAJOR overhaul. So bare with me this winter while I pick away at it. Hopefully I’ll finish it!
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Taking time out of his busy day to respond to some menial request was not on his to-do list for the day. He didn’t have all the time in the world for anyone, even Sam Carter. Granted, she was hot and he often found his mind wandering many places she would likely deem inappropriate; but still, he was a busy man.
Sam looked up as he entered without knocking or greeting and plopped unceremoniously into a chair.
“Hey there Rodney.” Sam said giving him a small slightly distracted smile.
“Hey, you wanted to see me?” He huffed.
“Yeah, I need someone to fly me to Ja’leel for the trade summit”
Rodney rolled his eyes. “So why don’t you have Lorne do it?”
“Because he’s scheduled to take Teyla, Kanan, and Torrin to a visit to her people this afternoon and I’m not going to break that up. All other teams are off on missions or assigned to start missions before I get back. John was supposed to take me but since his arm is broke from that sparing accident with Ronin….” She gestured to indicate the obvious. “He did say he could still fly me with his one good arm, especially since it was a peaceful summit with our allies, but I’d rather he recuperate and have a pilot that can handle any trouble that could possibly arise.”
“Well, then you don’t’ want me, I couldn’t handle myself in a firefight, I’m not that great of a Pilot. I just recently mastered flying in a straight line.” He moved to stand up as if he was dismissed.
“Rodney” She said halting his movement. “I talked with Sheppard, he said you’ve been doing a lot of flying lately and are an adequate pilot. You’ve had some combat and weapons experiences with the jumper and from reports are better with that than a hand weapon.” ‘Thank God’ she thought. “Beside the point, everyone else is busy; you are the only one available”
“Well I wouldn’t exactly say available, there is that mystery machine they brought back from M2R…” He started to ramble.
She cut him off.“Rodney, you’re going, you’re my pilot end of story!”
“Fine.” He snapped conceding defeat. “When do you want to leave?”
“In an hour, I’ll meet you in the jumper bay”
He turned to leave and as an afterthought she said, “Get some lunch first, wouldn’t want my pilot on the verge of a hypoglycemic reaction.” She shot him a devilish smile as he turned around to quip back.
The look rattled his senses and the words on the tip of his tongue failed to form.
‘Dumb blondes, why do I always fall for dumb blondes. Ok, so she’s not exactly dumb but let’s face it, she’s not me.’ Still her smile was disarming and he found himself at a rare moment where he was at a loss for words.
After faltering a moment he flashed a half smile, turned and left.
‘Well,’ thought Carter ‘Commander or not I can still rattle him.’ She shook her head in spite of herself. What was she doing? Flirting? It was lonely at the top. There was no one else she was comfortable enough with to speak like that. Oh, she may make a joke now and again and flash one of her famous smiles, but even that was subconscious. She was full of life, loved life and as such had an “air” about her. She missed her team, missed her friends, missed their camaraderie, missed their fights and missed their banter.
She also missed being able to go out and turn a few heads. No one here was a stranger, and since she was commander of the base, it would be highly inappropriate for her to be on the prowl, even for some innocent fun.
Sam sighed and put her mind to the task at hand. She finished up a report, filled her pack with her necessary documents and decided that she too would grab a bite to eat before gearing up.
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McKay walked into the bay to find Carter already there, gear on the bench and panels open. Stylus in hand she held a tablet with the other. Her motions were fluid as she gracefully danced the stylus from one crystal to another, glancing down at the tablet now and again, sometimes nodding in approval over the results.
As McKay approached, Sam noted him out of the corner of her eye but never took them off of her task.
“Hey” she said. “Just checking things over, making sure all systems are fine before we go”
“I thought you had faith in my flying ability” he said in a grumpy tone. He was not thrilled to be going off world, or being her pilot. Not that spending time with her wouldn’t be nice he mused, but he would be bored out of his mind and most likely hungry thru the whole summit.
“Rodney, I know you’re not thrilled about going, but we have no other choice, so let’s make the best of it OK?” the last bit was said with a hint of annoyance in her voice.
‘Like you were my first choice anyway. I’m probably less happy about it then you’. Then again maybe this is a chance to talk with him. Something she had been meaning to do since he revealed that things were strained between him and Katie while they and Keller were stuck in that hole. A few weeks later Katie had returned to Earth and she wondered how he was doing out of general concern for a member of the expedition and a friend, such that he was.
..
They finished their pre-flight checks, informed control that they were ready and were off for a 2 day summit on the planet of Ja’leel.
After exiting the space-gate Rodney informed Sam that they’d be to the summit in about 15 minutes.
Awkwardly Sam spoke. “So, uh…. How have you been Rodney?”
“Uh fine, why do you ask?” he was still a bit testy and a hint of his irritation was evident in his voice. However, Sam knew it was irritation over having to sit thru a boring summit on a primitive planet and not her inquiry.
Sam pretended to be interested in the control panel in front of her and avoided eye contact. “Well I’ve been meaning to talk with you and see how you were faring since Dr. Brown returned to Earth. I realize that was several weeks ago now, but things have been busy.”
That was no joke; they had fought with wraith, outbreaks, lockdowns and the usual Atlantian drama day in and day out. Actually the past few days almost seemed like things had calmed down and allowed to return to “normal” activity (if anything on Atlantis could be considered “normal”).
“Oh, that.” He said awkwardly and a little under his breath as he pretended to be concentrating on the controls and their heading. “I’m fine. “
After a moment he took a breath and turned to look at her. “Actually it’s odd, I haven’t really been that upset. At first I figured it was because we’ve been kept pretty busy with one catastrophe or another, but even in the downtime…. I don’t really know how to explain it, other than I just haven’t been all that upset about it.”
Now she looked at him. “Really?!? I mean you practically purposed to the woman and you’re not upset she left?” She was happy he was opening up to her, she really didn’t expect him to.
“Odd, isn’t it?” “You could blame it on my lack of…. People skills, or emotion; but I find myself wondering why I decided to purpose in the first place”
She gave him a confused look.
“I know. It doesn’t make much sense”. “But the more I think about it, the more I think that I wasn’t really in love with her. I liked her, yes and she was a great girlfriend.” Smiling his arrogant, egotistical smile/grin he added, “I mean who can resist, Dr. Rodney McKay!”
Sam rolled her eyes and looked out the window to the scenery below.
Rodney continued rather humbly “I saw what my sister had. I saw her family, I saw that she could still be a great scientist and practically have it all. I guess I was a little… jealous” The last world barely audible.
Sam was silent, letting him get what must be a jumbled mess of emotions and thoughts out of his head.
“I know at times… I can be a little hard to put up with”
Sam repressed a grin, a scoff and a few comments about that all at once.
“Katie put up with me, even liked me. So, I guess I decided to settle for what I could get. I don’t want to belittle her and make her sound unworthy… Damn, I’m not doing a very good job at this… I guess I was just rushing my life after I realized my life was already flying by me.”
A little taken back as to just how much Rodney had changed over the years. He was still pure arrogance, but there was something more, layers had developed and she found she rather liked it.
“I’ve spent my entire life engrossed in my work. Figuring things out, working for the military” Puffing up a little like a peacock he smirked and said “Saving the world and all that. I decided it was time to have a smattering of a normal life. I finally realized it was a mistake to rush into things.”
Sam could relate to all of that. It was something she understood well. Focusing on work to the point where she would take whatever “best” she could that came along. Pete was a great guy, but not for her, she almost married him as well for all the same reasons. General O’Neill was another matter. What she felt for him was real, a real deep love. It took them both many years to realize just exactly what that “love” was. It was deepest friendship and the deepest understanding that two people could possibly share. Most people never found that, not in a friend, not even in a mate. They had found it on a deeper level than she had found it with Daniel and Teal’c. It took a few years of thinking that love was a romantic urge that needed to be suppressed, but after 10 years of life and death situations, being companions around the clock for most of that time, she had found a genuine, pure love with her teammates. It just went a little deeper with Jack.
She silently wondered to herself if she would ever find romantic love. She found loves deeper than anything most couples experience and it fulfilled her. But there was always that twinge when she would spy a young couple walking hand in hand in the park, the elderly couple arm in arm, or the new mom beaming with love and pride at her child as she strolled.
Sam made a mental note NOT to take walks in the park anymore when she visited Earth.
“I completely understand what you mean. I can sympathize. It’s a very difficult life, the ones we’ve chosen. I mean I wouldn’t do anything differently,” slightly lost in thought she quietly added “except maybe NOT drink that stuff on that one planet…”
“Excuse me?!” Rodney exclaimed, curiosity peaked and all thoughts of their conversation forgotten.
She flashed that characteristic brilliant smile of hers “Nothing, it was a mission about 10 years ago. Some lessons we all learn the hard way. Just take it from me, let the locals sample food and beverage and watch their reaction before diving in.”
He wasn’t about to let it drop when suddenly alarms sounded.
“What’s that?” asked Sam.
“I don’t know, it looks like…”
A weapons blast rocked their tiny ship.
“What the hell!!” Rodney grabbed the controls and tried his best to evade the attacker, failing miserably. ‘Thank God for inertial dampener’s he thought ‘else we would have been thrown all thru the cockpit by that move.’
“Rodney, I need you to focus! Bring weapons online”
Another blast took out their right drive pod.
The weapons display came up. McKay was obviously panicking, mumbling small oaths and curses under his breath
“Focus Rodney, you need to fire back” She placed a hand on his back for encouragement.
“I- I can’t”
“Yes you can, just concentrate”
Rodney closed his eyes and willed 4 drones to attack the other ship. The drones sped out from the jumper and encircled the attacking vessel. They ripped thru its hull and tore the ship asunder.
An explosion rocked the jumper as it sped toward the planet.
“I think you got them.” Sam said, relief evident in her voice. She looked over to find a frozen McKay. “Rodney. Rodney!”
“Hmmm?” was all he could manage, eyes still tightly held shut.
“Rodney open your eyes and fly this thing!”
“Huh?” he said opening his eyes.
They were speeding toward the planets ocean, land in sight. They were not going to make landfall, they were going to crash into the ocean.
When this thought finally dawned on him, his facial features twisted into a terrified expression as he mustered “Oh shiiii……”
And then they were under water.
Both froze for a moment, not really comprehending what was going on. Sam was the first to snap out of it.
Taking a deep breath she said, “Looks like inertial dampeners are still working, or we’d be lying somewhere injured.”
Rodney slumped back, let out and exasperate sigh and said “No kidding. Déjà vu anyone.”
They looked at each other. Rodney, with an expression of defeat, Sam with a questioning look.
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