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[scientificsnark]

Rodney's first morning back in Atlantis hadn't been the greatest up until now. Apparently, no time at all had elapsed since he'd 'left', which meant a year and a half spent on the island for him hadn't, in fact, been a year and a half for anyone else. Except Jill

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[dojustfine]

Jennifer's first clue that something was not right was that Sam was still on Atlantis. When Jennifer had left and shown up on the island, Sam was gone and Woolsey was in charge. Yet when Jennifer woke in her room on Atlantis, one of the first things she had done was go to the infirmary where Sam was waiting to ask her something. Jennifer hadn't tried to explain, even though Sam was probably one of the people most likely to figure it out.

Instead, Jennifer thought she would ask the only other person likely to figure it out, who was currently sitting at a table in the cafeteria going to town on a bowl of blue Jello.

"Hey, Rodney," she said, sliding into a chair across from him and eyeing the four trays. God, his cholesterol would be atrocious, but she would lecture him about that later. "Um, you want to tell me what's going on?" She was deliberately vague, just in case Rodney had no clue, just like Sam. Vague was easier to brush off as opposed to do you know why we aren't on a tropical island anymore?

[scientificsnark]

"Jennifer," Rodney said, beaming. Or tried to say, anyway - he had a mouthful of steak so it came out sounding more like "Enfurr". He swallowed the mouthful before trying again.

"Jennifer," he said. That was better. "I'm having breakfast. And lunch, incidentally. And possibly dinner. I was actually going to come and see you later," he continued, reaching for a pudding, "I need a checkup. Actually, a friend of mine needs a checkup, too." He wasn't completely sure if this Keller was the one from the Island, but it would look - and sound - quite odd if he started talking about it and she wasn't.

"A friend of mine named Jill," he concluded, watching her carefully as he opened the pudding one-handed, slopping half of it over his steak. He didn't appear to notice.

[dojustfine]

"Oh, thank goodness," said Jennifer, realizing that this was definitely the same Rodney from the island, "I'm not totally crazy." She lowered her voice a little as some Marines walked through the room. "Do you know what's weird? When I came to the island, Sam wasn't in charge of Atlantis anymore, Woolsey was. But I just came from talking to her in the infirmary! It's like a whole year went by and it's just poof, gone. Something is definitely not right."

She eyed the Jello-coated steak and repressed a shudder. "Where is Jill? Is she okay? How are you going to explain her?" She wanted to ask if any others from the island were here, especially Ronon, but this was definitely more of a Rodney problem at the moment.

[scientificsnark]

"You remember the island too?" Rodney was surprised, but pleasantly so. He supposed. It meant more people to corroborate his story when - or if - he went to Sam to explain. Or Katie.

He looked down at his steak and frowned, spooning off some of the pudding and stuffing it into his mouth before he spoke again. "I, uh, so far I've just told people she's a scientist visiting from Earth. This is disgusting," he added. "I let her have a look around my lab. Do...you think maybe that wasn't such a good idea?" He frowned some more. At the time, he'd been more concerned about food, but the pudding-steak did not taste promising. He took a swig of water and switched to a muffin.

[dojustfine]

"I think maybe you shouldn't let anyone else see Jill until we explain to Sam what happened," Jennifer suggested. "We should find out of anyone else is here from the island, and I should check us out. And then we should go talk to Sam. Actually, Jill being here is a good thing; Sam might be less likely to think we've had some kind of mass delusion. What do you think?"

[scientificsnark]

Rodney appeared to consider this, chewing intently.

"I think..." he began slowly, ponderously. "...this muffin is stale. What do you think? Here, try some."

It wasn't that he wasn't taking the situation seriously. He was just putting it off until he'd finished his food. After everything that had happened, he thought he deserved a little downtime.

[dojustfine]

"It can't be stale," Jennifer said, taking a piece of the muffin. "Everything is shipped from Earth in sealed plastic packs." (She did skip breakfast this morning, in her hurry to find out what the hell was going on, and while normally Rodney's table manners were a little off-putting.... well, she was hungry.) "Yeah... it's stale. Don't eat anymore of that, Rodney, stale baked goods are notorious for harboring all kinds of fungi. You don't want to spend your first week back in the infirmary with an Aspergillus infection."

[scientificsnark]

"Yeah, they obviously shipped it stale," Rodney said. "Someone should have a word to the catering guys." He grimaced, reaching for his water again.

"So," he continued, after a few swigs. "You're here, I'm here, Jill's here. Obviously the island wasn't some crazy dream or collective hallucination. I'm thinking it was a singularity or a wormhole, something like that; it could be anything caused by anything, it doesn't matter. Now that I'm back here, I have the equipment to find out. I will find out. And as for the time difference...well, you're from my future, but I was on the island first. So obviously whatever sent me there wasn't a singular occurrence, and it happened again, only this time it dragged you - and Jill - back with me." He'd been gesturing with a breadstick during his little speech, and he topped it off by biting off half of it. Thankfully, it wasn't stale. He took this as a good sign.

[dojustfine]

Jennifer nodded. It made as much sense as anything like this could--and the thing was, you just got used to weird things happening when you worked somewhere like Atlantis. Weird was the norm. "Okay," she said, "well after you've finished eating, you get on that, and I'll go and see if anyone else is here." She hadn't seen Ronon yet, but she was sure he was around here somewhere.

[scientificsnark]

"Exactly what I planned to do," Rodney said. Of course, he'd planned nothing of the sort. His immediate plans consisted of eating all the food in front of him, and after that, working it out as he went along.

Which would be easier on a full stomach, of course. His immense brain needed a lot of energy, and it was painfully obvious to him now that mangos and coconuts just hadn't cut it.