Vacation: All I (N)ever Wanted
Title: Vacation: All I (N)ever Wanted
Author: Beth Green
Characters: John & Rodney
Rating: G
Word Count: @3100
Summary: John gets to kiss a girl on vacation. Rodney gets struck by lightning.
*****
****
"Vacation?" Rodney paused a moment to consider his friend's unexpected offer of a joint vacation.
John's hope-filled grin faded when Rodney failed to reply, and the silence lengthened.
Rodney fumbled for words while mentally weighing the possible consequences of an outright refusal versus the discomfort of doing something he would rather not in order to please his friend. "I … That is …" Further self-assessment revealed the surprising fact that he wanted to accept the offer; however, past experience indicated that the wiser course of action would be to refuse. Rodney finally made up his mind, immediately regretting his decision. "That sounds like fun."
John frowned as he observed Rodney's body language. The physicist's arms crossed defensively across his chest, and he could not face John as he said something that he obviously did not believe. John let Rodney's unspoken refusal supersede his verbal response, and interpreted the evidence that the concept of 'vacation' on the physicist's personal ratings scale fell somewhere between carrying a fully-loaded pack on a forced five-mile hike, and an arrow in the ass. He decided to offer his friend an 'out.'
"Look, if you'd rather not …"
Rodney turned to face John, waving a hand as if he were erasing John's words. "No, no, no." The physicist folded his arms across his chest and lifted his chin to punctuate his final declaration. "If you want me to go on vacation with you, I'll go."
"Rodney …" John ran a hand through his hair and ground his teeth in frustration. He thought that Rodney would jump at the chance for some R & R. Instead, the man looked like a green recruit attempting to psych himself up for his first trip out into the field. John silently debated whether or not to ignore the problem, or to expend the effort to try to figure out what was really wrong. If Rodney didn't want to take John up on his offer of a shared vacation, in John's not-so-humble opinion he should just say so. John had been on vacation once with someone who hadn't had the guts to admit that she would rather have been anywhere else than with him. They'd both had a miserable time, and had mutually agreed to file for divorce shortly after their return home. The return of that unwanted memory made John's next words come easily.
"If you don't want to go, just tell me."
Rodney's brows pushed together in fretful worry. "Really, I'd like to go with you." He gave a quick, sharp nod as if he were trying to convince himself, and repeated, "Really."
John was not impressed with Rodney's tepid response. He tried to generate some enthusiasm by offering a few encouraging words. "Vacations are supposed to be fun. Don't you remember when you were a kid? Didn't you ever go to, I don't know, the beach, or camping, or the Canadian equivalent of Disneyland?"
Rodney's reply was more than a little bitter, with perhaps a hint of jealously leaking through as he spoke. "While I'm certain that you spent your formative years frolicking with Mickey Mouse in pointless activity on poorly constructed rides that had the potential to malfunction at any time, I had better things to do."
When John did not immediately respond, Rodney provided more historical details. "I remember one summer when my father triumphed over my mother in their annual vacation destination battle. He was allowed to choose our summer vacation locale, and decided to travel to Ontario Place. I don't suppose you've ever been there?"
John shook his head 'no' in answer to Rodney's question, so the physicist elaborated: "Ontario Place is a Canadian amusement park, happily nothing remotely like your Disneyland. While they have activities like a giant slide for anyone suicidally-inclined, there are many more reasonable entertainment choices available." Rodney smiled as remembered watching other children race small motorized boats while he successfully predicted the outcome of the races. His smile faded as he recalled begging his parents to allow him to participate. They'd refused.
He continued, "My mother considered the fact that Ontario Place had a bandstand to be a plus. I, on the other hand, sided with my father when he declared that listening to Prism was not entertainment. They loudly debated the pros and cons of attending the free concert, before my father decided to leave my mother to her concert and take me and my sister off to the nearby Ontario Science Center." Rodney smiled in fond remembrance. "The Science Center was absolutely wonderful. Had it been my decision to make, I would have gladly spent our entire vacation at the Science Center."
John returned the smile with one of his own. "Color me surprised." He made an open-handed gesture as he asked, "So, vacation equals fun?"
Rodney shook his head 'No,' and moved to slump sadly into a nearby chair. "No, actually, vacation equals Hell."
John scooted a chair up close to his friend before sitting down within touching distance. "That's because you've never been on vacation with me."
Rodney uncurled slightly from his slouched position and looked hopefully up at John. "I want to believe you." His hands twisted nervously in his lap as he continued, "Unfortunately, that would require ignoring years of personal experience."
John thought over what Rodney had shared regarding his Ontario vacation. He had no idea who or what Prism was, but if Rodney didn't like he/she or it, that was good enough for John. He offered his opinion. "Except for the part about Prism, your vacation didn't sound that bad."
Rodney frowned. "That's because you weren't there. My parents, while decent enough people individually, should have remained together only long enough to pass on their genetic material. I don't know if they married to satisfy a mutual tendency toward sadomasochism, or if they simply enjoyed the challenge of trying to permanently scar their children emotionally. Whatever their reasons, they were miserable when they were together, and couldn't help but share that misery with everyone around them."
John was kind enough not to utter his immediate thought in response: "So, that's where you get if from." Instead, he maintained his pose of expectant listening as Rodney continued.
"Vacation holidays are the source of some of my worst childhood memories, no doubt because of the unavoidable enforced togetherness. My mother would invariably bully my father into renting a vacation home in some out-of-the-way location so that we could be one big, unhappy family forced to live together in a confined space. As if that weren't enough fun, we always traveled in the family car, despite my tendency to become carsick." Rodney paused, then raised a finger as he continued, "Before you ask, I outgrew the motion sickness. It never happened again after I left home; which makes it all the more likely that the hellish traveling combined with the nonstop parental arguing is what made me physically ill in the first place.
"I remember one memorable vacation when I had to interrupt my parents' yelling to demand that they stop the car so that I could throw up somewhere other than inside of the car. My mother made a rapid and highly illegal lane change, but still wasn't able to make it to the curb before I began to vomit. As if the smell of vomit in the confines of an enclosed space in the heat of summer weren't bad enough, a traffic patrol officer had seen her make the lane change. The officer would not be dissuaded from the performance of his duty, or the need to make his ticket quota for the day, and diligently wrote out the traffic citation despite the graphic evidence provided by me of why my mother needed to get the hell off of the road. My mother fumed silently while Jeannie cried and my father cursed, and I was left to clean up after myself."
Rodney concluded his sad recitation. "So, you'll forgive me if the idea of going on vacation doesn't make me click my heels and do a little happy dance."
John decided it was time to steer the conversation in a lighter direction. "McKay, trust me, the last thing I want to do is watch you click your heels and do a dance, happy or otherwise."
John allowed his thoughts to drift while Rodney mulled over a suitable reply. He couldn't help but compare his own vacation memories with Rodney's. While John's family had more than their share of disagreements over the years, hostilities were always suspended whenever the family went on vacation.
Rodney remained atypically silent, so John shared his thoughts. "I wish you could have gone on vacation with us when I was a kid. Dad worked a lot of hours, and we didn't always have the time or the opportunity to take what you'd call a real vacation. But, whenever we did, we always had a great time. And it's not just because we got to go to Disneyland, and the rides there were cool. (Although they really were!) Sometimes we'd only make it to the local attractions, like the go-kart track, or the golf course. Other times, we'd go camping, or hiking, or to the beach." John's eyes lost focus, and he smiled as he recalled some of his best childhood memories. "I had some great times at the beach, even when we weren't on vacation." He confessed, "I kissed my first girl one summer at the beach."
Rodney rolled his eyes and responded, "Why am I not surprised?" He waved a hand as he continued, "You get to kiss a girl on vacation. I get struck by lightning."
John straightened up from his slouched position. "You' re kidding, right?"
Rodney shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Well, I wasn't struck directly, or I wouldn't be here, but still, another painfully bad vacation."
Concerned, John probed for further details. "How did you manage to get hit by lightning? I would've thought you'd have been more careful."
Rodney shrugged. "At the time, from the perspective of my nine-year old self, I was being heroic."
*****
The summer of Rodney's ninth year, the McKays' vacation rental was a lakeside home in Muskoka, on Sand Lake. The skies had been sunny right up until their arrival at the lake house. The darkened sky threatened rain. Rodney found the gray sky to be a perfect reflection of the family's mood. Rodney's parents were currently in the middle of a very loud, very intense argument inside the house. It had begun with bitter sniping forays in the car, and escalated into a full-out shouting match as they set up house. Rodney and his sister Jeannie decided to play outside, rather than subject themselves to the verbal assault taking place indoors. The first fat, heavy drops of rain gave way to heavier precipitation, finally convincing both children to hurry inside. They tried to ignore their parents' shouting, but it was difficult to do so.
They had been indoors less than five minutes when Jeannie let out of wail of distress. "Mer! Mer! My dolly's still outside!"
"So? What am I supposed to do about it?" Rodney tried to remain unaffected by his sister's misery, but he found it impossible to ignore the small child pulling at his arm.
"You've got to help me! Please!" Jeannie turned pleading blue eyes upon her big brother.
Rodney was about to ask Jeannie why she didn't simply run out and rescue her own doll, when a dull rumble of thunder provided the answer to his unasked question. Jeannie hated thunderstorms. Rodney was not very fond of them, either, but he was older and braver than his little sister.
Jeannie tugged at his arm, her eyes shining with tears. "Please? It will only take a minute. I left her sitting under the lamp post."
The vacation home's exterior decor included a five foot tall lamp post situated at the main curve of the front entryway. The lamp was nonfunctional, and Rodney considered it to be nothing more than a nuisance; not unlike his little sister, at the moment.
Jeannie upped the volume of her pleas at the same time that their parents upped the volume of their argument. Rodney decided that it would be better to spend a few minutes out in the rain rather than listen to his sister or parents for another second. He paused at the front door to put on his jacket, then hurried out the door.
Jeannie watched anxiously from the house, with her face pressed up against the windowpane.
Rodney found the doll sitting right where Jeannie indicated she'd be. He was bending to pick up the doll when he was blinded by a brilliant flash of light accompanied by a simultaneous deafening roar of thunder. The light seemed to jump from the lamp post to a button on his jacket. Time slowed, then stopped for a moment before he inexplicably found himself lying on the damp ground.
His parents came rushing out of the house, while Rodney registered the sound of Jeannie screaming in the background. The left side of Rodney's body seemed to have developed an odd twitch. Odder still, his father wore an expression Rodney had never seen before. Years later, as an adult looking back upon the events as they had occurred, Rodney could label that look as 'terror.' At the time, he was too dazed to do more than blink when his father scooped him up off of the ground and ran into the house. The child that he was was surprised that both of his parents were out in the rain without rain gear.
Despite Rodney's half-hearted protests, his mother quickly stripped him. He let out an 'Ow!' of protest when she touched his left shoulder. His mother redressed him quickly and efficiently, stating, "There's no point in screwing around waiting for an ambulance. We'll take him to the hospital ourselves."
Rodney had been doing okay right up until he heard the word 'hospital.' He couldn't help the tears that began to fall, nor the stuttering sobs that affected his breathing.
Rodney's mother drove, while his father held him in his lap. Rodney found his father's sudden desire for closeness quite odd, especially considering he hadn't really been cuddled since Jeannie had been born. The unexpected closeness was more than welcome. It seemed to ease some of the spasmodic twitching that continued to affect the left side of his body. More amazing, his father did not seem to mind the childish tears that Rodney was unable to control.
At the hospital, the doctor was kind enough to explain everything that he did. Rodney's blood was checked, and he was hooked up to an EKG monitor that recorded his heart's occasionally irregular rhythm. A red mark on his shoulder was diagnosed as the exit wound for the current that had entered Rodney's body. A charred metallic button on Rodney's coat revealed the probable entry point. Aside from a generalized achy feeling throughout his body, and the random muscular twitching, Rodney had been extremely fortunate. "Just to be on the safe side," or so they said, the doctors kept Rodney in the hospital overnight. Rodney was not pleased. The sights, smells, sounds, and activity surrounding him meant that he got very little sleep that night.
By the next day, after Rodney had gone eight full hours with no muscular twitching or irregular heartbeats, he was allowed to go home.
Rodney concluded his story.
*****
"My parents decided to cut their vacation short, and we went home." Rodney tapped a finger against his chin as he remembered, "Actually, as shitty as it was being nearly killed by lightning, that was one of our better vacations. I don't remember my parents arguing at all on the ride home, and Jeannie was almost nice to me, only once mentioning that I'd ruined our vacation before she turned around and thanked me for trying to rescue her doll."
John leaned back as Rodney finished speaking. "Wow." He had initially thought that Rodney had been exaggerating the unpleasantness of the ghosts of vacations past. In retrospect, the implied depth measurement of the shit seems to have been pretty damn accurate. It was easy to see now why Rodney had been reluctant to accept his invitation. If John was a psychologist, he might offer Rodney some counseling regarding letting go of the past, making new memories, and similar blah-blah-blah psychobabble. John suspected that Rodney would make a rude gesture and walk out if John said anything of the sort.
Instead, John turned to his friend with a wave of an up-turned hand. "If that's your idea of a good vacation, all the more reason you should come with me." When Rodney did not immediately respond with an enthusiastic 'Yes,' John leaned forward. He propped his elbows on his knees and interlaced his fingers, pointing his steepled index fingers at Rodney. "C'mon, we'll check the weather ahead of time, make sure there's no lightning to be found."
Rodney slowly nodded. "Yes, I suppose we could do that."
John sat straighter and clapped his palms against his thighs. "Great! I've got it all planned. We leave in two days." As John stood and prepared to leave the room, he smiled and declared, "I'm glad you're coming with me."
Rodney nodded, and returned the smile. Still somewhat uncomfortable with his decision, he truthfully stated, "I'm glad you're glad."
John tossed a farewell hand gesture over his shoulder as he turned toward the door. "Thanks, McKay. See you later." He couldn't resist adding a final teasing twist as he headed for the door. "Rock climbing is always safer when you have someone available to help you if you fall."
Rodney stood up, his words tripping over themselves as he hurried after his friend. "Rock climbing? Are you out of your mind? I never agreed to go rock climbing. That was something you and Ronon were talking about. I thought you and I were going to the beach? Fun and sun? Nearly naked women? Hello? Does any of this sound familiar?"
John had already made arrangements for accommodations at a sun-drenched beach as their shared vacation destination. That didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun first.
Rodney continued to rant. "You're kidding, right? Ha-ha, very funny. You are kidding; aren't you?"
John smiled enigmatically and continued to walk. He let Rodney ramble on, and smiled at the verbal evidence of his friend's misgivings. The lower his expectations, the easier it would be to surpass them; and, surpass them he would. John fully intended for this to be Rodney's best vacation EVER.
*****
~End
Author: Beth Green
Characters: John & Rodney
Rating: G
Word Count: @3100
Summary: John gets to kiss a girl on vacation. Rodney gets struck by lightning.
*****
****
"Vacation?" Rodney paused a moment to consider his friend's unexpected offer of a joint vacation.
John's hope-filled grin faded when Rodney failed to reply, and the silence lengthened.
Rodney fumbled for words while mentally weighing the possible consequences of an outright refusal versus the discomfort of doing something he would rather not in order to please his friend. "I … That is …" Further self-assessment revealed the surprising fact that he wanted to accept the offer; however, past experience indicated that the wiser course of action would be to refuse. Rodney finally made up his mind, immediately regretting his decision. "That sounds like fun."
John frowned as he observed Rodney's body language. The physicist's arms crossed defensively across his chest, and he could not face John as he said something that he obviously did not believe. John let Rodney's unspoken refusal supersede his verbal response, and interpreted the evidence that the concept of 'vacation' on the physicist's personal ratings scale fell somewhere between carrying a fully-loaded pack on a forced five-mile hike, and an arrow in the ass. He decided to offer his friend an 'out.'
"Look, if you'd rather not …"
Rodney turned to face John, waving a hand as if he were erasing John's words. "No, no, no." The physicist folded his arms across his chest and lifted his chin to punctuate his final declaration. "If you want me to go on vacation with you, I'll go."
"Rodney …" John ran a hand through his hair and ground his teeth in frustration. He thought that Rodney would jump at the chance for some R & R. Instead, the man looked like a green recruit attempting to psych himself up for his first trip out into the field. John silently debated whether or not to ignore the problem, or to expend the effort to try to figure out what was really wrong. If Rodney didn't want to take John up on his offer of a shared vacation, in John's not-so-humble opinion he should just say so. John had been on vacation once with someone who hadn't had the guts to admit that she would rather have been anywhere else than with him. They'd both had a miserable time, and had mutually agreed to file for divorce shortly after their return home. The return of that unwanted memory made John's next words come easily.
"If you don't want to go, just tell me."
Rodney's brows pushed together in fretful worry. "Really, I'd like to go with you." He gave a quick, sharp nod as if he were trying to convince himself, and repeated, "Really."
John was not impressed with Rodney's tepid response. He tried to generate some enthusiasm by offering a few encouraging words. "Vacations are supposed to be fun. Don't you remember when you were a kid? Didn't you ever go to, I don't know, the beach, or camping, or the Canadian equivalent of Disneyland?"
Rodney's reply was more than a little bitter, with perhaps a hint of jealously leaking through as he spoke. "While I'm certain that you spent your formative years frolicking with Mickey Mouse in pointless activity on poorly constructed rides that had the potential to malfunction at any time, I had better things to do."
When John did not immediately respond, Rodney provided more historical details. "I remember one summer when my father triumphed over my mother in their annual vacation destination battle. He was allowed to choose our summer vacation locale, and decided to travel to Ontario Place. I don't suppose you've ever been there?"
John shook his head 'no' in answer to Rodney's question, so the physicist elaborated: "Ontario Place is a Canadian amusement park, happily nothing remotely like your Disneyland. While they have activities like a giant slide for anyone suicidally-inclined, there are many more reasonable entertainment choices available." Rodney smiled as remembered watching other children race small motorized boats while he successfully predicted the outcome of the races. His smile faded as he recalled begging his parents to allow him to participate. They'd refused.
He continued, "My mother considered the fact that Ontario Place had a bandstand to be a plus. I, on the other hand, sided with my father when he declared that listening to Prism was not entertainment. They loudly debated the pros and cons of attending the free concert, before my father decided to leave my mother to her concert and take me and my sister off to the nearby Ontario Science Center." Rodney smiled in fond remembrance. "The Science Center was absolutely wonderful. Had it been my decision to make, I would have gladly spent our entire vacation at the Science Center."
John returned the smile with one of his own. "Color me surprised." He made an open-handed gesture as he asked, "So, vacation equals fun?"
Rodney shook his head 'No,' and moved to slump sadly into a nearby chair. "No, actually, vacation equals Hell."
John scooted a chair up close to his friend before sitting down within touching distance. "That's because you've never been on vacation with me."
Rodney uncurled slightly from his slouched position and looked hopefully up at John. "I want to believe you." His hands twisted nervously in his lap as he continued, "Unfortunately, that would require ignoring years of personal experience."
John thought over what Rodney had shared regarding his Ontario vacation. He had no idea who or what Prism was, but if Rodney didn't like he/she or it, that was good enough for John. He offered his opinion. "Except for the part about Prism, your vacation didn't sound that bad."
Rodney frowned. "That's because you weren't there. My parents, while decent enough people individually, should have remained together only long enough to pass on their genetic material. I don't know if they married to satisfy a mutual tendency toward sadomasochism, or if they simply enjoyed the challenge of trying to permanently scar their children emotionally. Whatever their reasons, they were miserable when they were together, and couldn't help but share that misery with everyone around them."
John was kind enough not to utter his immediate thought in response: "So, that's where you get if from." Instead, he maintained his pose of expectant listening as Rodney continued.
"Vacation holidays are the source of some of my worst childhood memories, no doubt because of the unavoidable enforced togetherness. My mother would invariably bully my father into renting a vacation home in some out-of-the-way location so that we could be one big, unhappy family forced to live together in a confined space. As if that weren't enough fun, we always traveled in the family car, despite my tendency to become carsick." Rodney paused, then raised a finger as he continued, "Before you ask, I outgrew the motion sickness. It never happened again after I left home; which makes it all the more likely that the hellish traveling combined with the nonstop parental arguing is what made me physically ill in the first place.
"I remember one memorable vacation when I had to interrupt my parents' yelling to demand that they stop the car so that I could throw up somewhere other than inside of the car. My mother made a rapid and highly illegal lane change, but still wasn't able to make it to the curb before I began to vomit. As if the smell of vomit in the confines of an enclosed space in the heat of summer weren't bad enough, a traffic patrol officer had seen her make the lane change. The officer would not be dissuaded from the performance of his duty, or the need to make his ticket quota for the day, and diligently wrote out the traffic citation despite the graphic evidence provided by me of why my mother needed to get the hell off of the road. My mother fumed silently while Jeannie cried and my father cursed, and I was left to clean up after myself."
Rodney concluded his sad recitation. "So, you'll forgive me if the idea of going on vacation doesn't make me click my heels and do a little happy dance."
John decided it was time to steer the conversation in a lighter direction. "McKay, trust me, the last thing I want to do is watch you click your heels and do a dance, happy or otherwise."
John allowed his thoughts to drift while Rodney mulled over a suitable reply. He couldn't help but compare his own vacation memories with Rodney's. While John's family had more than their share of disagreements over the years, hostilities were always suspended whenever the family went on vacation.
Rodney remained atypically silent, so John shared his thoughts. "I wish you could have gone on vacation with us when I was a kid. Dad worked a lot of hours, and we didn't always have the time or the opportunity to take what you'd call a real vacation. But, whenever we did, we always had a great time. And it's not just because we got to go to Disneyland, and the rides there were cool. (Although they really were!) Sometimes we'd only make it to the local attractions, like the go-kart track, or the golf course. Other times, we'd go camping, or hiking, or to the beach." John's eyes lost focus, and he smiled as he recalled some of his best childhood memories. "I had some great times at the beach, even when we weren't on vacation." He confessed, "I kissed my first girl one summer at the beach."
Rodney rolled his eyes and responded, "Why am I not surprised?" He waved a hand as he continued, "You get to kiss a girl on vacation. I get struck by lightning."
John straightened up from his slouched position. "You' re kidding, right?"
Rodney shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Well, I wasn't struck directly, or I wouldn't be here, but still, another painfully bad vacation."
Concerned, John probed for further details. "How did you manage to get hit by lightning? I would've thought you'd have been more careful."
Rodney shrugged. "At the time, from the perspective of my nine-year old self, I was being heroic."
*****
The summer of Rodney's ninth year, the McKays' vacation rental was a lakeside home in Muskoka, on Sand Lake. The skies had been sunny right up until their arrival at the lake house. The darkened sky threatened rain. Rodney found the gray sky to be a perfect reflection of the family's mood. Rodney's parents were currently in the middle of a very loud, very intense argument inside the house. It had begun with bitter sniping forays in the car, and escalated into a full-out shouting match as they set up house. Rodney and his sister Jeannie decided to play outside, rather than subject themselves to the verbal assault taking place indoors. The first fat, heavy drops of rain gave way to heavier precipitation, finally convincing both children to hurry inside. They tried to ignore their parents' shouting, but it was difficult to do so.
They had been indoors less than five minutes when Jeannie let out of wail of distress. "Mer! Mer! My dolly's still outside!"
"So? What am I supposed to do about it?" Rodney tried to remain unaffected by his sister's misery, but he found it impossible to ignore the small child pulling at his arm.
"You've got to help me! Please!" Jeannie turned pleading blue eyes upon her big brother.
Rodney was about to ask Jeannie why she didn't simply run out and rescue her own doll, when a dull rumble of thunder provided the answer to his unasked question. Jeannie hated thunderstorms. Rodney was not very fond of them, either, but he was older and braver than his little sister.
Jeannie tugged at his arm, her eyes shining with tears. "Please? It will only take a minute. I left her sitting under the lamp post."
The vacation home's exterior decor included a five foot tall lamp post situated at the main curve of the front entryway. The lamp was nonfunctional, and Rodney considered it to be nothing more than a nuisance; not unlike his little sister, at the moment.
Jeannie upped the volume of her pleas at the same time that their parents upped the volume of their argument. Rodney decided that it would be better to spend a few minutes out in the rain rather than listen to his sister or parents for another second. He paused at the front door to put on his jacket, then hurried out the door.
Jeannie watched anxiously from the house, with her face pressed up against the windowpane.
Rodney found the doll sitting right where Jeannie indicated she'd be. He was bending to pick up the doll when he was blinded by a brilliant flash of light accompanied by a simultaneous deafening roar of thunder. The light seemed to jump from the lamp post to a button on his jacket. Time slowed, then stopped for a moment before he inexplicably found himself lying on the damp ground.
His parents came rushing out of the house, while Rodney registered the sound of Jeannie screaming in the background. The left side of Rodney's body seemed to have developed an odd twitch. Odder still, his father wore an expression Rodney had never seen before. Years later, as an adult looking back upon the events as they had occurred, Rodney could label that look as 'terror.' At the time, he was too dazed to do more than blink when his father scooped him up off of the ground and ran into the house. The child that he was was surprised that both of his parents were out in the rain without rain gear.
Despite Rodney's half-hearted protests, his mother quickly stripped him. He let out an 'Ow!' of protest when she touched his left shoulder. His mother redressed him quickly and efficiently, stating, "There's no point in screwing around waiting for an ambulance. We'll take him to the hospital ourselves."
Rodney had been doing okay right up until he heard the word 'hospital.' He couldn't help the tears that began to fall, nor the stuttering sobs that affected his breathing.
Rodney's mother drove, while his father held him in his lap. Rodney found his father's sudden desire for closeness quite odd, especially considering he hadn't really been cuddled since Jeannie had been born. The unexpected closeness was more than welcome. It seemed to ease some of the spasmodic twitching that continued to affect the left side of his body. More amazing, his father did not seem to mind the childish tears that Rodney was unable to control.
At the hospital, the doctor was kind enough to explain everything that he did. Rodney's blood was checked, and he was hooked up to an EKG monitor that recorded his heart's occasionally irregular rhythm. A red mark on his shoulder was diagnosed as the exit wound for the current that had entered Rodney's body. A charred metallic button on Rodney's coat revealed the probable entry point. Aside from a generalized achy feeling throughout his body, and the random muscular twitching, Rodney had been extremely fortunate. "Just to be on the safe side," or so they said, the doctors kept Rodney in the hospital overnight. Rodney was not pleased. The sights, smells, sounds, and activity surrounding him meant that he got very little sleep that night.
By the next day, after Rodney had gone eight full hours with no muscular twitching or irregular heartbeats, he was allowed to go home.
Rodney concluded his story.
*****
"My parents decided to cut their vacation short, and we went home." Rodney tapped a finger against his chin as he remembered, "Actually, as shitty as it was being nearly killed by lightning, that was one of our better vacations. I don't remember my parents arguing at all on the ride home, and Jeannie was almost nice to me, only once mentioning that I'd ruined our vacation before she turned around and thanked me for trying to rescue her doll."
John leaned back as Rodney finished speaking. "Wow." He had initially thought that Rodney had been exaggerating the unpleasantness of the ghosts of vacations past. In retrospect, the implied depth measurement of the shit seems to have been pretty damn accurate. It was easy to see now why Rodney had been reluctant to accept his invitation. If John was a psychologist, he might offer Rodney some counseling regarding letting go of the past, making new memories, and similar blah-blah-blah psychobabble. John suspected that Rodney would make a rude gesture and walk out if John said anything of the sort.
Instead, John turned to his friend with a wave of an up-turned hand. "If that's your idea of a good vacation, all the more reason you should come with me." When Rodney did not immediately respond with an enthusiastic 'Yes,' John leaned forward. He propped his elbows on his knees and interlaced his fingers, pointing his steepled index fingers at Rodney. "C'mon, we'll check the weather ahead of time, make sure there's no lightning to be found."
Rodney slowly nodded. "Yes, I suppose we could do that."
John sat straighter and clapped his palms against his thighs. "Great! I've got it all planned. We leave in two days." As John stood and prepared to leave the room, he smiled and declared, "I'm glad you're coming with me."
Rodney nodded, and returned the smile. Still somewhat uncomfortable with his decision, he truthfully stated, "I'm glad you're glad."
John tossed a farewell hand gesture over his shoulder as he turned toward the door. "Thanks, McKay. See you later." He couldn't resist adding a final teasing twist as he headed for the door. "Rock climbing is always safer when you have someone available to help you if you fall."
Rodney stood up, his words tripping over themselves as he hurried after his friend. "Rock climbing? Are you out of your mind? I never agreed to go rock climbing. That was something you and Ronon were talking about. I thought you and I were going to the beach? Fun and sun? Nearly naked women? Hello? Does any of this sound familiar?"
John had already made arrangements for accommodations at a sun-drenched beach as their shared vacation destination. That didn't mean he couldn't have a little fun first.
Rodney continued to rant. "You're kidding, right? Ha-ha, very funny. You are kidding; aren't you?"
John smiled enigmatically and continued to walk. He let Rodney ramble on, and smiled at the verbal evidence of his friend's misgivings. The lower his expectations, the easier it would be to surpass them; and, surpass them he would. John fully intended for this to be Rodney's best vacation EVER.
*****
~End