Don't Trust the Rumor Mill - Cliche Bingo
Title: Don't Trust the Rumor Mill
Author: Sqweakie
Cliché: Everyone thinks we're doing it
Genre: Gen, Humor
Pairing: Teyla/Mckay friendship
Spoilers for Trinity, Instinct, Conversion, BAMSR, and Search and Rescue.
Rating: PG-13
Word Count: over 3700
Summary: Four snapshots of Rodney and Teyla's friendship. How it started and how Sheppard almost killed Rodney in the end because of it.
oOo
He leaned against the balcony, clutching the railing tighter than he wanted to admit. At ten years old he had made a similar type of decision, that time while sitting on the low porch roof just below his bedroom window, plotting out the pros and cons of giving up something that had meant so much to him.
Was it time to admit he couldn't do it anymore? Be the savior every one expected him to be before Doranda? To walk away like he did when he was ten years old?
He knew he wasn't an artist, his piano teacher made that abundantly clear when he was ten. He had made his decision and abandoned the dream of encores at Carnage Hall and PBS TV Concerts played again and again on Sunday nights. Was it time to put Atlantis in that same box?
He was mostly lost in his own world when he realized that a warm body sidled up next to his, a familiar shoulder pressed against his arm and the delicate scent of Pegasus herbs blended with his own faded aftershave.
"Nights are too long here," Teyla said quietly. "It always reminds me of Tallahdron, the endless night. That was the night of the last culling before my people met your people."
"Any dire superstitions linked to this Tala-whatsit?" he asked, just slightly curious.
"No, just sad memories."
"Is there something you want Teyla?" he asked as he finally looked at her, not wanting to make small talk about past losses or the erratic planetary tilt of Athos.
"I have not seen much of you lately," she answered. "I have found that I've missed your..." Her slight pause made Rodney's gut clench.
"My bitching and whining and rude comments," he interrupted her, not wanting to hear her excuses. "You missed my solar-system-destroying tendencies, what?!"
"I have missed you."
"Oh," and that stopped him cold. He could feel the blush creeping up his cheeks and had to look away from the honesty shining out of her face.
"Well, you'll get used to it eventually," he told her, trying out the phase he had a feeling he may be using again and again in the near future.
"Why?" she pressed on, cracking his resolve on not saying anything till he handed in his resignation.
"I don't… it's not worth it anymore. I can't stay here with everything I've lost."
"Rodney?" she asked, sounding more confused and worried.
"I mean, over a year before I fucked something up, fucked friendships up. I think that's a personal best for me. I should have expected to screw up some time soon. But… I can't stay here whey my former friends ignore me, mistrust me. God, how long do I have to 'really really try' to earn their trust back? Why even try at that point?
"I… I…" he stuttered to a stop when she turned him around by his shoulders, small hands griping fiercely, forcing him to look at her.
"I still trust you," she said slowly, clearly, certainly. "I believed in you those first weeks that we met and I still believe in you at this very moment. I may not respect you now if you had given up so easily, saying something was too hard or that it had never been done before. You failed but Doctor Zelenka said that the Ancestors had failed first, they gave up long before you ever will. I trust you Rodney McKay."
"Oh." His voice came out soft and shocked. He stared at her for a long time. "You believe in me?"
She broke out one of those dazzling grins. "Yes," she said patiently.
"You're not mad that I thought about leaving?"
"I am disappointed but I do not blame you,” Teyla told him. “I can not because I came out here tonight to make a similar decision."
"You can't leave?!" he exclaimed, grabbing at her elbows as to physically keep her on Atlantis. "You never give up."
"Neither do you." She was so certain that it hurt. He chuckled darkly and had to look away even as she held on to his shoulders.
"I have given up, numerous times." The admission hurt more but for some reason, with Teyla standing there and not turning away in disgust it made the ache a little more bearable. It made the night a little more bearable.
"I am here for you." She said, seemingly reading his mind and Rodney believed her. He believed that she trusted him and that meant so much, even if he could never tell her. Instead he offered her the only thing he had to give her, himself.
"Do you want to get something to eat?" he asked. She smiled and then stood up on tippy toes and kissed his cheek.
"I would love that, Rodney," and he couldn't stop the grin if he had wanted to. Holding out an arm to her, they left the balcony together and walked back into Atlantis. It was nice to finally talk to someone, especially when they had a first contact mission with the residents of M4P-733 and it's orbital gate bright and early in the morning.
oOo
Rodney didn't notice the whispers. He wasn't a gossip, he left that to Zelenka and the little old women masquerading as lab techs. So it literally took months and Teyla mentioning it during one of their private lessons for him to be clued in and of course she had picked the middle of one of their lessons to do the cluing.
He couldn't believe that she had talked him into taking stick lessons. A couple months ago he'd would have rather read Kavanaugh's latest administrative ideas for running the science division before spending ten minutes in Self Defense lessons with Teyla. It was supposed to be a one time thing to help her blow off steam after M4P-733 aka Zaddek and the Wraith Girl's Planet. He had offered to go the gym with her a couple days after Sheppard had received the cure for the retrovirus. She really wasn't talking to Ronon at the time and with Sheppard in a drug coma and still mostly buggy, Rodney had volunteered to take an hour out of his day just to stop her from pacing at the foot of Sheppard's and generally driving him crazy. It was supposed to be a one time thing that ended up not being a one time thing.
Today he found himself flat on his back, sweaty t-shirt sticking to the padded mat beneath him with Teyla posed above him, sticks held much too close to his throat. It was at this point, him defenseless and no way of escaping when Teyla asked him why people thought she was 'too good' for him and what 'out of his league' meant. It caught him a little offguard.
"What does that even mean? I mean, why are you asking now?" he asked, meaning why ask when he was exhausted and she was only half way done kicking his ass. She must have thought he meant in general because she didn't apologize for asking when he was exhausted and not thinking all that clearly.
"They tend to stare after our lessons when we head back towards our rooms. And there have been," she hesitated for a second, "comments that I have overheard."
True, they had spent more time alone together, starting just before the disastrous mission to Zaddek's planet and the whole 'bug' incident. It had been nice just to sit and talk with Teyla that first night, no judgment or scathing insults snuck into the conversation.
It was during the down time after the incident when she had asked him to show her something on the computer the day after he had willingly let her kick his ass around the sparring room. It had degenerated into a lesson on computer basics and base ten math. She had told him that she sometimes had a hard time because Athosions learned a math system based on eight like the ancients used. After spending a good two hours in his lab explaining the differences he saw that she looked restless and that was when he had offered to go back with her to the gym.
That second time had turned into a regular thing, with the two of them trading math for her with defense for him. She taught him Ancient, both written and verbal and he began teaching her simple repairs and about various systems on Atlantis. It only took up a couple hours a week but it helped and it brought the two of them closer, creating a friendship not based on nor hung up on conditions. Not that it meant that they were closer as in a physical relationship as some of the gossips thought. It was more like she was a sister to him, a very hot sister, but it was definitely a sibling-like relationship they shared.
A gentle tap to his nose by an entirely too close stick brought him immediately back to the present and to Teyla not so patiently waiting for his answer. "It means every one thinks we're doing it."
A sculpted eyebrow raised itself over one eye and he forced himself to elaborate. "They think we are having sex."
"So just because we spend our off time together occasionally,” she asked slowly, “it must mean we are having sex."
"Yes, because most people can't see a single man and a single woman spending time together as platonic," he bit out. She remained above him and he had to force himself to relax back.
"What if you were a woman?" she asked curiously.
"What!?" he squawked. She laughed but she finally pulled her sticks out of his personal space and helped him sit up.
"If we were the same gender, would it seem odd that we spent so much time together?" She had relaxed and the teasing was a good sign.
"Well, no, but…" he hesitated but continued quickly when her hand and weapon twitched, "a lot of people talk. They might think that we were sleeping together even if we were the same," he motioned with a hand between the two of them before stopping himself.
"So, when they talk about you and Colonel Sheppard, that is just 'talk' as well?" she asked, a wicked grin appearing at the same rate as the blush climbed his cheeks. She knew of his slight crush on Sheppard and occasionally teased him about it. In turn he was allowed to tease her about her cooking. He couldn't see how the two subjects were nearly equal but he had given up figuring out women about the same time his sister turned five.
"Yes, yes," he said, pushing up from the floor. "Just rumors from people with entirely too much time on their hands. Hey, did you happen to notice if any of my scientists were the ones talking. I need some one to run diagnostics on the waste disposal system on the south west pier and it would be worth it if the person I assigned was spending their time speculating on my love life instead of working."
She just laughed again and motioned for him to get his sticks into position for her next attack, refusing to answer his question. With a sigh he moved into position and tried to defend against her slowed down attacks while they continued to talk. Unfortunately he made the mistake of mentioning that he wouldn't mind if she did find him attractive and if she happened to think that the idea of him and her together was interesting…
He couldn't sit comfortably for a week after that because of the bruises.
oOo
Rodney didn't give the various rumors any more thought. If he listened to and believed them, supposedly he was sleeping with Teyla, Sheppard, Ronon, Zelenka (he shuddered at that one), Elizabeth and one memorable occasion had a three-way with Caldwell and Hermiod (and that one required a couple liters of mind bleach when he overheard it). Some days he wished he got a quarter of the sex that the rest of the base gossips thought he was getting. Instead he pushed all knowledge of the rumors to the side and got back to work trying to stop stupid people and save the city on a near daily basis.
So, out of sight, out of mind for years until he was slammed into a lab wall, Sheppard bright eyed and practically spitting only inches from his own face.
"You Son of a Bitch! When exactly were the two of you going to let the rest of us know that you knocked her up."
As conversation starters, Rodney couldn't really remember hearing in that one before. He had been busy, making last minute adjustments to the Replicator's code before Sheppard had shown up requesting a minute. Rodney assumed he was pissed about the human form replicator but she had warranted barely a glance and the colonel had pulled Rodney out of the room to a deserted lab farther down the hallway.
"Huh," was all he could get out before he was slammed into the wall again. Sheppard leaned even closer.
"Teyla…Is…Pregnant," he said through clenched teeth.
Rodney froze.
He had known that Teyla looked a little different lately but Rodney had believed that she was concerned about her missing people and the escalating Replicator threat. 'Pregnant' had never factored in anywhere. He couldn't move while Sheppard continued.
"Now, I know that she said it wasn't anyone on Atlantis but we both know Teyla. She knows how to play with words." He was so quiet and deadly serious Rodney started to squirm, trying to figure out how to break out of his hold. Before that he had only seen Sheppard for a couple minutes before they took a jumper out to meet with Todd. He didn't think that was enough time to 'knock' somebody up considering the deadlines he was working under at the moment.
"John, what?" he stuttered, wondering if the Wraith had slipped Sheppard any mind altering drugs while they were talking. Unfortunately he didn't get the chance to ask anything more as Sheppard interrupted him again.
"M2P-071 and the quaint little harvest festival.” He was angry and practically spit out the planet designation. “You and Teyla were pretty cozy all night before you disappeared and that would put it at the right time."
It took Rodney a couple of seconds to remember the exact planet. It was just after Teyla's last visit with the Athosians before they disappeared. They had been practically giddy that night from the local hooch, her smile wide and happy as she told him about meeting up with Kanaan on one of the rare times their visits coincided since she spent most of her time on Atlantis and he spent more and more time offworld negotiating individual trades for the Athosians.
She hadn't told Sheppard because she was still irked at him for letting it slip to the med staff that she had a crush on one of the marine corpsmen a couple months before. Sheppard tried to blame it on a reaction to some pain meds but Teyla still hadn't forgiven him at the time and had refused to tell him anything about her 'personal business' since it never would concern him. Obviously something had changed.
"She never told me she was pregnant," he told Sheppard indignantly. They hadn't had as much time together lately, with him working on all hours on the Replicator code while she worried about whatever was going on in her private life. She had also let him slack off on his defense lessons but Rodney had just wrote it off as her recognizing that he needed all the time he could get. He had been expecting extra lessons in his future, not this.
"Rodney," he growled and the scientist in question realized exactly how much trouble he was in. He wrapped one hand around Sheppard's bicep and pushed at his chest with the other. The other man refused to move and Rodney resigned himself to answering the ridiculous accusation. Sheppard continued before he could respond.
“I've seen the two of you together, leaving one another's rooms,” he continued to accuse. “The base talked about it when you and her had that big fight last year. I've seen her kiss you.”
“When the hell was that?” he may have squeaked. “I think I would have remembered that!”
Sheppard winced a little, whether from his denial or from the volume Rodney wasn't sure. His hands gripped a little tighter and he leaned in a little closer. “Just after Doranda. The two of you were talking on the balcony and she kissed you and the two of you left arm in arm. The rumor mill noticed that the two of you were pretty cozy after that.”
“That was just a kiss on the cheek from one friend to another,” he said. “Wait! Were you spying on us?
“That is not the point McKay,” he deflected. “The point is that you got Teyla pregnant!”
"I have not nor will I ever have sex with Teyla,” he enunciated slowly to the idiot pinning him to the wall. “She kicked my ass the one time I suggested it and I really never want to repeat that experience ever again. So, no, I did not knock her up!"
That made the man pause and loosen his grip slightly. Rodney waited as he saw John process the new information.
“You've never slept with her...but...” he shook his head slightly. “You actually propositioned Teyla?”
“Hey!” he yelped, going for indignant. “For a couple of minutes you thought I got her pregnant. Now it's totally unbelievable that I would take interest in a beautiful women?”
“Well, she let you live is what's surprising,” and Sheppard seemed less and less angry by the second, pulling back slightly and giving Rodney back some of his personal space.
“I'm just happy she let me keep my balls,” he admitted. Sheppard laughed and finally let go.
“Too much info there, Buddy,” he said but he looked a lot lighter. “So not you huh?”
Rodney shook his head in denial one last time. The fight finally drained out of Sheppard and let go. He cocked his head and asked almost slyly, “So any idea who it is?”
“Yeah, but I am not telling you.” Rodney mentally shook his head when John pouted. “Teyla would kick my ass and I am too busy to take time out of my schedule for that. Speaking of wasting time, was their any other reason you need to talk to me besides practicing your overbearing older brother routine for theoretically doing unspeakable things to Teyla?”
“No,” he drawled before finally taking a step back. “I actually should check in with Carter.” He made it almost a to the lab door before he turned around. “How is the Replicator block coming?”
“Umm, Sam will fill you in,” he hedged, not really wanting to get into another fight with Sheppard because he wasn't sure if he back could take any more hits against the wall. “I really need to get back to it.”
“Good luck and,” he paused and shifted nervously, “can you not mention this to Teyla. She's kinda pissed at me.”
“And you're still mad at her for not telling you she's pregnant,” Rodney finished with a sigh. “Don't worry, I won't mention it if we make it out of this whole thing alive.”
“Thanks. Take care,” John said before spinning around and disappearing out of the lab. Rodney took a moment for himself, boggling at the idea of Teyla pregnant. Then he slapped his hands together and headed back to the main lab. They could all worry about Teyla after they completed this crazy plan.
oOo
Rodney stood behind the line taped to the floor, eying the target in front of him. The whole team plus one was finally together after Teyla had been missing for a month and the rest of the team falling into Michael's trap. John and Teyla resting on floor mats behind him and Ronon caring the smallest of the group, Torren John Emmagen, somewhere farther back and off to the side.
Grabbing one knife off the table, he hefted it for a second before tossing it towards the target, missing the bulls-eye by only a couple of inches.
"I can't believe you taught him knife throwing," Sheppard said, sounding more horrified than Rodney thought he had any right to be. Keller had both him and Teyla were on restrictions so there was no sparring, no contorted yoga in their futures. Instead they all gathered in the small practice room Teyla had claimed down the hall from the main gym to watch Rodney practice said knife throwing. He was getting better, hitting the target almost every time, compared to when Teyla had first shown him how to throw a knife a few months ago. There were still puncture marks in the wall from his first attempts.
Rodney couldn't keep the smile off his face as he studied the impaled target. They were finally together again, Michael was defeated and at best dead, at worst on the run. They had found Teyla, John and Ronon were not dead and Teyla was a new mom. Picking up the next knife he hefted it and then threw it, striking closer to the heart of the target. He refused to turn around when he heard John shift uncomfortably behind him.
“I don't know why you let him have sharp objects. He's a danger to everyone with blunt objects. You're just asking for trouble,” John stage whispered, totally meaning for Rodney to overhear them.
“You're just jealous that she didn't teach you,” he said as he lifted the next knife from the dwindling selection.
“Rodney is an excellent student. I trust him to handle 'sharp objects' with the respect they deserve,” Teyla said serenely. Rodney's grin got wider when he heard the sound of a fist hitting Sheppard and his accompanying hiss. Everything was back to normal and as Sheppard, Ronon and Teyla discussed the latest tidbits out of the rumor mill Rodney knew he had made the right decision after Doranda. He was home.
edited: 9/6/09