[McKay] Visiting the crabs?
Who: McKay, Martha
When: During the luau (before the pig!)
Where: CCII
Invited: Anyone
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
When: During the luau (before the pig!)
Where: CCII
Invited: Anyone
Status: Incomplete ( Read more... )
Rodney's behavior was different. He managed to be appreciative and admiring while maintaining his shyness and never making her feel like she was about to be fawned over excessively. Nor did she feel like she had to worry that he was going to turn into an octopus as soon as they put the camp a little behind them. She wove her fingers encouragingly through his, and gave him a smile when their gazes met.
"Maybe I could help with that," Martha suggested. The words surprised her, but she meant them. "The racetrack," Martha clarified, "Not the pod."
The 'corral' was empty. Nothing to show for it except empty shells. Martha knelt in the sand, and looked carefully over the sand close by. "Moren'like they traded up for newer models or burrowed right down into the sand, yeah?"
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He didn't look for more than a few moments, however, before he pressed his lips together and leaned back. "I guess I'll have to catch more. Not sure when I'll get the time... and they were so close. They were getting used to their training schedules..." Hermit crabs have training schedules?
He looked sideways to his companion... and shook his head. Rodney didn't dwell too long on the disappointment. If he did that, he'd have never gotten anywhere in life; he was more than used to it by now. Instead, he offered her a smile and glanced up at the sky. Clear night. "Could show you the stars instead." Well, that sounded like a 'come on' line if ever HE heard one, and he was quick to add, "You asked about stories. I could tell you some. Granted, it wouldn't be anything like the Doctor, and I'd probably have to make some of the stuff up or have you sign some papers when we get rescued, or-or-or..." He was beginning to babble, and he knew it, and so, started to rise to his feet again, and once up, twisted around to gesture back to the fire, "Or we could go back--"
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"Rodney," Martha stopped his momentum with a gentle, but firm hand wrapping around his wrist. She tugged him back down to the sand, flashing him a winsome smile. "Honestly, I'd rather just stay here with you for a bit? We can talk, and you can show me the stars." Martha winked playfully at him. She linked her arm around and through his and patted his arm.
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Daring a little more, he shifted such that he could put his arm around her, wanting to hold the doctor close. With his free hand, he could point at the stars as he mentioned them. "With the Hubble telescope, we can find tens of thousands of galaxies and never even begin to scratch the surface of the vastness of space. In our own galaxy, I was amazed to find that there are... humans everywhere. People picked up in various times along our timeline and put on another world to serve as slaves for the go-- for snake aliens." Rodney chuckled and looked back. "We had help, though, even when we didn't know it. The Asgard... they're real, but they don't look like Norsemen. They look more like.... those aliens that woman had described back in the 1950s. Small, grey-green, big eyes... and no sense of humour. Really arrogant, too." Just because their society was hundreds of millions of years old...
Rodney jumped slightly and glanced sideways again, his voice lowering, "Promise me you'll sign a non-disclosure form? I know, I feel like an idiot asking now, but..." He tenses his arm, giving her a soft squeeze. "I'll probably get yelled at later by my bosses, but I feel comfortable talking to you... you know? You... minding your own business at work. Me, well... I was hired out of university, but I think they'd been watching me since I was in grade 6." When he built a model of The Bomb. "All I wanted to do when I was a kid was to be a concert pianist. Now? I'm a theoretical astrophysicist with more knowledge than I can even begin to explain... or even share, because I couldn't explain how I got it."
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Martha started to tell him that non-disclosure agreements wouldn't be a problem because she wasn't really from his burrough, but then thought better of it. How do I know that the Doctor and I won't be here for a good long while? Even after, if there's an island rescue, The Doctor and I still have to find a way home. It was a sobering thought and one that Martha didn't want to dwell on. She'd been having fun, enjoying Rodney's company and she wasn't about to get maudlin.
"I'll sign, I promise." Martha shifted and rested her hand lightly on his knee. "A concert pianist? Do you still play? Mum made me take up flute. I'm a flutist, can you believe it, and not a very good one at that. It always made sense to me, the rhythms and beat, but my heart just wasn't in it. I was the one patching up the squirrels and birds in the back garden, and wrapping up my brother and sister in plastics and splints when other girls were having tea parties with their dollies."
She'd known Rodney was a genius. Everyone knew Rodney was a genius and from what she understood, he never let anyone forget it. But hearing that he'd had skills and intellect to attract notice at such a young age was new.
"Not all theoretical though, is it?" Martha asked. "Only because no one knows that it's all ... it's all so very real and happening right here and right now. When I first met the Doctor, I couldn't tell my Mum what was going on, where I was running off to or any of it. It was so hard because it was so marvelous and I couldn't share it."
She leaned her head on his shoulder, her voice low, "It's all still so very, very amazing."
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Rodney sighed and placed his cheek against Martha, the smell of her causing him to pause briefly. "Hmmmm? Oh... no. I haven't played since I was 12. My teacher told me to give it up. I could play technically, but he said I wouldn't ever be any good because I didn't have 'feeling'. After that, I went into science. Made a working model of The Bomb for my science fair project. I was interviewed for 6 hours by the US to be sure I wasn't some terrorist, and I still didn't get first place in the show." He smiled against her and shook his head. "Not everyone is cut out for it. I learned that a long time ago. I thought that maybe I wasn't cut out for my job with the Air Force, but... after you do good a couple of times, and it counters the stupid stuff... you figure that maybe it'll be okay." Homesick... but that is countered, surprisingly enough for McKay, with Martha's presence.
"It's not all theoretical. Since coming here, the leaps and strides in power conversions, temporal physics with frequency arrays and-and-and--" Rodney sighed again, and apologized quickly, "I'm sorry. Yes, I could say that almost everything that I'd thought was purely theoretical has so many concrete applications... from string theory proving teleportation, to-- oh, I don't know... temporal displacement in alternate universes and slips of the timestream... it's just amazing. And there isn't a person, other than maybe the Doctor, Romana, or Zelenka, but even then... who could even begin to comprehend the potential uses, the applications, the ramification of every bit of knowledge gained. I could write paper after paper on the subject, and anyone reading it would only scratch their heads and look at it blankly."
As Martha relaxed her head against his shoulder, Rodney used his free hand to gently stroke her cheek. "Some of it is terrifying. But, yes... some of it is still very, very amazing." Like you. Smitten!
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Maybe it was because right now with Rodney, Martha didn't feel as though she were in competition with a ghost - or in the case of the island, a living, breathing memory of the past. She wasn't Rose's replacement or the girl trying to get the Time Lord to notice her as more than his loyal friend and companion. She was comfortable, confident, satisfied and a little bit excited. She had only gone over to talk to Rodney, to pull him out of his shell in the middle of the celebration, but now that she had time to sit and talk to him, Martha thought that she might have done a bit more than that.
She was glad of it.
His fingers on her cheek drew an unsteady breath from her lungs. His hand was warm, his fingertips soft, and his growing confidence and comfort with her was flattering. Encouraging. Intriguing. Exciting.
Turning her head to respond to what he said, the words caught in Martha's throat. Their faces were so close together, another few centimeters and their eyes would cross if they tried to look at one another. The music and laughter of the luau behind them, the steady crash and thrum of the waves against the beach faded to nothing. It was muted by the sound of her rapidly pounding heart, the quick breaths she drew in, the blood rushing in her ears.
She could kiss him now, she could. Martha wasn't shy about such things, but she also didn't want to spook Rodney and send him running in the opposite direction. She wasn't a cheap and easy doxy, and she wasn't out to trap a pissed man for a quick shag and -
Stop. Over. Thinking. Martha scolded herself.
Martha's gaze flickered down to his lips, a hint of warning of what was to come. Then her eyes fluttered close and she leaned in, pressing her mouth ever so softly against his. . .
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!!
How'd he get here? How'd he manage-- His mind's engine revved just short of the red line, his entire body tensing briefly, very ready to give her an out. To explain, to apologize that perhaps it was a mistake, and perhaps she'd rather be back at the party with everyone--
His world went upside down, however, in the instant that he kissed her... she kissed him? They kissed. His hand remained where it was, a light tough, and only migrated a short distance to the side of her face as he responded gently, tentatively, his own heart pounding in his chest as if he was about ready to suffer from a massive heart attack. If this was the way he was going to go, then so be it. The light show behind his eyes was amazing, something he hadn't seen for, well... since his first kiss, and even then, stolen in a dark theatre when one was a teenager really didn't count.
Rodney didn't want it to stop, didn't want it to end, and for a long few moments, the warmth of her skin against his, her breath, those eyes shut to him, it was his world. He could swear he could feel her heart beating in rhythm with his as he savoured the first kiss. He was... sorely disappointed when it came to an end; fleeting as a puff of wind, there and gone.. and he opened his mouth immediately to apologize. There was no way that he meant-- that he'd expected-- that-that-that...
Instead? A softly whispered, "Wow."
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It was wonderful and sweet, a slow touching and melding, touching and melding, savoring the moment and drawing it out for a several heartbeats. Martha's heart sped up, his hand on her cheek like a brand on her skin.
She kept her eyes closed for a few beats after they parted, licking her lips and filing the sweetness of the moment away in her memory. It wasn't normally like that, those first kisses, and Martha wanted to hang on it.
Rodney's soft, "Wow," reached her ears and Martha's eyes fluttered open.
A soft, hazy smile turned up the corners of her mouth. Her face felt warm and her body had that tingly-anticipation-something-is-going-to-happen feeling. "Yeah," Martha whispered in return. "Wow."
Now she reached up to trace his lips with her fingertips, "Thing about first kisses, they're always awkward like. Good thing that we got that out of the way, then?"
Martha wanted to kiss him again, but restrained herself. This wasn't a chat up and meet at a pub, and a quick shag-dress-fast-and-leave-in-the-morning. This, she wanted to take her time with.
She leaned back, but not too far, and not far enough to be discouraging. A delighted giggle the likes of which she hadn't heard from herself since her school days bubbled up in her throat. "I'm sorry, Rodney, but 'm 'fraid I don't quite recall what were talking about."
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The tracing of his lips with her fingers elicited a soft groan as he stared, the moment apart allowing time for all the alarm bells to start sounding. It's been, what, a day, since Martha'd arrived. He wasn't like -that-... as much as every guy in the world would like to posture and swagger about it. He was screwed up, but not -that- much. There was a need for some connection, some belief that as things progressed that he wouldn't be laughed at, or rebuffed... too badly, at least.
He shifted, the action more than a little awkward as there were certain physical considerations that had to be worked with *cough*, but never enough to get out of direct contact with Martha. He smiled at the giggle, the sound was encouraging, certainly, and he shook his head ever so slightly. His voice was soft and hoarse in the night's sky, and he found he had to clear it a couple of times before he could get something out that was more than a squeak. He wasn't in grade school anymore!
"I don't know." This didn't mean she wanted to go back, did it?
His arm was still around her, but his hand dropped back into his lap. This was the moment when the doubts crept back; was it the alcohol? Was it the fact that everyone was 'pairing off', and he was just desperate for something, any connection? But-but-but... she was patient, and he had no doubt that she could be quite the scrapper should anything happen. After all, she was on the moon, helping fight off aliens!
"I don't want to go back yet." How's that for stream of consciousness. "E-e-even if it means just sitting here for a few more minutes?" Rodney didn't mean to make that sound quite as much of a plead as it did, and he was finally able to tear his gaze away to look at the water, or rather, the reflections of the camps fires off the water. It was only briefly, however, as he returned his attention to his companion. "Yeah... first kisses... never really know if they lead to a second, or if it's some sort of test that you never really know how well you did... or how the other person grades."
He leaned in, though he didn't have too far, and his hand raised once more to caress the side of her face, the warm softness under his fingers just... amazing to him. A random thought assailed him, the voice of Sheppard telling him to 'give her time, she'll run'... and he'll end up some sort of weird stalker... "Even worse, I never know if it's posted somewhere where I can't get to anyway."
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She leaned into him, happy to sit away from the fire and the party for a bit longer. Slipping her arm around his waist, Martha dropped her head to Rodney's shoulder. "I'd like to stay a bit longer, too. It's nice out here, and I'm quite enjoying the company."
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What Martha had accomplished was something completely different. She'd managed to make him feel wanted, that the world could wait and that she thought he was 'worth' the time, the energy; she was attracted to him... and he wasn't sure if it was the alcohol with no food or the fact she really didn't know much about him (having only been on the island for a day and change) and so didn't have the time to either treat him with contempt or simply ignore him. Regardless of the reason, Rodney was, for the moment, happy. His head was reeling, his heart was pumping, keeping him on a dizzying high.
Of course, with the new information, his thoughts were racing, and he began to over analyze everything. Should he take her for a walk, show her the stars, tell her more stories about them? Go for a walk in the surf and-and-and...
Everything in the meeting of her eyes, and for a heartbeat, all forgotten before he leaned again and shifted to press a kiss against her lips. The hand that played with her warm cheek ran fingers along the side of her head, wanting this one to last 'forever', or at least longer than the first.
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*hee*
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*laughs*
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