To Have & To Hold: Part Two
Title: To Have & To Hold
Author: Ru-salki99
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: John/Rodney
Disclaimer: SGA belongs to MGM
Author's notes: I'd like to dedicate this to popkin16 who without, I would never have written it :D
Summary: The IOA decide that because Rodney has never been in a successful long term relationship while on Atlantis, that he lacks certain leadership skills. John however, can't bare the thought of Rodney leaving, so comes up with a cunning plan.
John woke with a start when Rodney unceremoniously smacked him on the shoulder.
“Get up. We’re needed in the control room.”
That was all Rodney had to say and John was jumping out of bed and running to the closet in search for his clothing. He still had his t-shirt on from the day before. He always wore a t-shirt to bed, as did Rodney. It was kind of like an unspoken rule with them.
They’d been gifted a very large, very comfortable bed from the Athosians from one of the guest huts, so since their marriage just over a week ago, they’d been sharing a bed. It wasn’t as bad as John had thought it would be. Sure, Rodney did snore a little and hog the covers, but he was quick to inform John that he not only talked in his sleep, but also kicked, so he really, couldn’t get pissy about something as natural as snoring.
“Radio,” Rodney said, handing him his radio as he grabbed a shirt for himself from the closet.
“Thanks,” John said, shoving it on his ear. “So what’s the emergency?”
“Something to do with the long range sensors or something,” Rodney told him through a yawn.
“Right,” John nodded, grabbing a shirt and pulling it on over his shoulders before slipping his feet into his boots. “Lead the way.”
Rodney began marching out of their bedroom and through the living area towards the door that would take them towards the transporter that got them to the control room and the infirmary. Their quarters were actually pretty impressive, more like an apartment than a room. He couldn’t quite understand why no one had claimed it for their own already. It was huge with its large living area that easily fit Rodney’s desk and bookshelves, with left over room for John’s couch, surfboard and guitar. Then there was the overly spacious bathroom that had two sinks, one for each of them, a massive shower - nothing like the tiny units in their old quarters - and massive tub that Rodney had quickly fallen in love with.
Teyla and Kanaan lived one floor down, the two scientists who’d gotten married the year before (who were now expecting their first child) living just round the corner from them, but other than that, they were on their own up there. It was as if there was some sort of secret rule that only couples and families were allowed bigger quarters.
John had a feeling though, that now that he and Rodney were ‘out’ and married and all, more couples would feel less pressured to keep any relationships they might have on ‘the down low’ as Rodney called it. They’d no doubt, have some more neighbours soon enough.
They got to the control room about the same time as Woolsey appeared at the opposite side, Lorne stepping away from Zelenka who was over at the long range sensor controls to approach John.
“What’s going on?” John asked.
“The sensor’s stopped working,” Lorne said, looking at John with a raised eyebrow before smiling slightly and continuing. “Chuck thought he might have seen something on it before it went off. Hence the rush to get it back online.”
Rodney started grumbling under his breath before he pushed passed Lorne and made his way over to Zelenka, shouting over his shoulder at John to get him some coffee.
John just nodded and turned back to Lorne who was still smiling at him, “What?”
“Nothing,” Lorne said, trying to school his features into something serious. John just narrowed his eyes at him. “It’s just, you changing teams on us?” he asked, pointing to John’s arm.
John looked down and rolled his eyes when he saw that instead of stars and stripes, he was wearing a maple leaf, and that his shirt instead of being black, was a dark grey.
Wondering why Rodney’s shirt had ended up on his side of the closet and kind of thankful that the entirety of Atlantis knew about their ‘relationship’ now or else he would probably be getting very strange looks from everyone and not just Lorne.
“It was dark and I was still half asleep when I got dressed,” he said as way of an explanation.
“Of course, Sir,” Lorne nodded, his smile still evident on his face.
“Shut up and go get me and Rodney some coffee,” John told him before he made his way over to the scientists who were now deep in discussion, ignoring everyone around them including Woolsey who was trying to get some answers out of them.
“Not now Richard. Busy,” Rodney snapped, not even looking at the man.
Woolsey sighed and turned to John for help. Rodney had been short with him ever since he ‘hadn’t stuck up for him’ with the IOA reps, but John knew that wasn’t true, however Rodney needed someone to blame. He would get over it soon enough.
John quickly repeated what Lorne had told him and it was decided that nothing could be done until the sensors were back online. Woolsey decided to leave them to it and retreated to his office, while John grabbed a seat and waited for Lorne to bring them coffee.
As he listened to Rodney and Radek argue in the same way they had been since day one, he let himself take a look around the control room. There were some who were giving him strange looks similar to that of the one Lorne had given them, but thankfully, none of the looks held any disdain, just humour.
They’d only encountered a few people, both scientists and soldiers who had apparent problems with them, all of whom were on the roster to be shipped back to Earth the next time the Daedalus came into orbit. Of course the military contingent couldn’t actually say that they didn’t want to serve under a ‘queer’ due to the upcoming change in regs, but he didn’t deny their transfer requests. Even though he wasn’t gay - maybe a little bi, but that didn’t matter anyway - he wasn’t comfortable commanding soldiers who had such a huge problem with what he did in private and was glad to be rid of them.
He turned back to look at Rodney who was snapping his fingers and it took John a second to pull his attention away from the way the action made his wedding ring sparkle to realise he was snapping them at him. Rodney only really snapped his fingers at him like that when he needed a tool he couldn’t reach so John took a quick glance under the console to see what Rodney was doing and noticing how he held onto a couple of wires, he pulled his knife out his pocket and placed it in Rodney’s waiting hand.
Rodney didn’t complain, so it must’ve been the right thing, which John gave himself a little pat on the back for.
Soon, Lorne was back with strong coffee for everyone and a huge plate of muffins.
“You’re a God send,” John told him.
“Thank you, Sir,” Lorne said with a grin as he lifted his own coffee to his lips.
“Rodney, coffee,” John said, tapping him on the shoulder.
Rodney extracted himself from under the console, sitting up on his knees to take the coffee from him. Only just as he was about to take his first sip, he halted and stared at John with a raised eyebrow.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?”
“Because it smells like you,” John said sarcastically. “Why do you think?”
“Yes well, just don’t make a habit of it. I only have so many shirts and it’s not like I can go around wearing yours is it? Not with your skinny ass.”
“Hey, you love my skinny ass,” John said, making Lorne choke on his coffee.
Rodney however, was immune and ignored John’s gay innuendo and turned towards Lorne instead. “Are you all right, Major?”
“Um, yeah Doc. Fine,” Lorne nodded, making John grin.
“If you’re having problems swallowing, you might want to go see Carson,” he said. “Isn’t that right John?” he asked, turning the tables back on John who had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing.
This was something they had taken to doing this past week, making extreme innuendo in front of the others. They figured it would help keep up the illusion that they were a couple without actually having to be all couple like, however, now it had become a bit of a competition.
“Shouldn’t you be working McKay?” John asked him.
“Shouldn’t you McKay?” Rodney asked right back before he took a deep gulp of coffee and scurrying back under the console.
John had decided, that since he didn’t exactly get on with his family and didn’t really have any real attachments to the name ‘Sheppard’ - where as Rodney, being a world renowned scientist did - to officially take the name McKay. However, he was still Called Sheppard by most of the expedition, as calling for a McKay on the radio would no doubt lead to confusion.
Knowing that there wasn’t much he could do until Rodney fixed the sensors, John grabbed a vanilla chocolate chip muffin from the pile and placed it next to Rodney’s mug before grabbing a blueberry for himself and leaving Lorne in charge while he went to speak with Woolsey. His team was due for an offworld mission in the morning, but he thought that it would probably be best postponing it for the moment until they’d got this all sorted.
~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got the sensors back online, there was nothing there. Chuck had been positive though that he’d seen something, which unsettled John. It could’ve been a scout or some kind of stealth ship. He didn’t like it at all and so sent a couple of puddle jumpers out to investigate.
He would’ve rather went himself, but over the past year he’d been trying to take a step back from doing everything himself. As Rodney had pointed out on more than one occasion, he wasn’t getting any younger and the more he denied the younger generation from going on such tasks, the more he was actually damaging their chances at promotion. He was pretty sure Lorne hadn’t been promoted yet because of such things, although he doubted they would promote Lorne again until he’d been promoted to Colonel, not just Lt. Colonel, which wasn’t going to happen any time soon if he didn’t start acting like a ‘proper’ commander. It was bad enough that he was still on a gate team, but he refused to step down from that as it was one of his favourite things about life on Atlantis - exploring. Or rather, exploring with Rodney as without him, it just wasn’t as fun.
While they waited for the jumpers to report back, he and Rodney decided to head back to their quarters to get showered and shaved before going for a proper breakfast. When they stepped into their bedroom, Rodney face-planted onto the bed.
“Get up,” John said, kicking his foot that was hanging off the edge, knowing that if Rodney fell back asleep, he’d be hard pushed to wake him up later.
“No,” Rodney replied into his pillow.
“Rodney, get your ass up and in the shower. There’s no time for napping,” John said as he walked to stand at the head of the bed.
Rodney opened one eye and looked up at him. “You could join me you know,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “I bet you’re tired too.”
John snorted in amusement. “You can’t flirt with me Rodney. I’m immune to you. Now get up and get showered. You smell.”
Rodney sighed and threw himself onto his back. “Only a week of marriage and already the romance has gone.”
Leaning against the door frame to the bathroom, John studied Rodney for a minute. “You know, it’s no wonder people aren’t surprised you’re gay.”
Rodney sat up and looked at him questioningly. “What does that mean?”
“Well it’s just, you’re so over dramatic and camp all the time. I’m surprised people hadn’t started asking questions about you earlier.”
“I’m camp?” Rodney asked with a pout. “I thought I was rather manly. I have larger muscles than the majority of scientists.”
“Only ‘cause me and Ronon make you work out,” John said, moving into the bathroom, glad when Rodney followed him.
“Well, if my supposed campness makes it easier for people to grasp the idea of my being gay, what’s your reason?”
John shrugged, “Could be ‘cause I haven’t dated anyone since being here?” he asked. “And I’m always hanging out with you, so it’s not such a stretch for people to believe that we might have been doing something other than playing chess all those times I came to your quarters.”
Rodney nodded, stripping off his clothes to dump in the hamper as he turned the shower on to heat up the water. “Of course, there’s always the fact that you never really liked Katie or Jennifer. You had the whole jealous lover thing down to a tee.”
“What? I liked them just fine,” John said, half his face covered with shaving foam.
“Please. You barely tolerated them,” Rodney said, finally stripping off the rest of his clothes, reminding John that it was probably just as well they’d been naked around each other so much or this whole sharing a bathroom would be weird.
“I just… I always thought you could do better,” John said. “Katie was too timid for you, never argued back. She’d have ended up hating you. And Keller… well, anyone who tries to actually change you when there’s nothing wrong with you doesn’t exactly win points in my book.”
Rodney gave him a strange look that John couldn’t quite decipher before he stepped into the shower, allowing John to turn his attention back to shaving.
He tended to shower a lot quicker than Rodney, so that was why Rodney always got the first shower. Otherwise, John would be sitting around waiting for him all the time. Also, Rodney seemed to be more efficient at shaving that John. He guessed that years of rushing through the unimportant tasks - such as personal hygiene - to get back to his lab had left Rodney able to de-hair his face in no more than ten strokes. Not to mention, his hair was a lot finer than John’s and so he could go a few days longer than John without picking up a razor.
In fact, most of the hair on Rodney’s body was very fine. Sometimes, you even had to get up close to see it. John of course, over the years had had a couple of up close encounters. He’d never thought much of it until Rodney had caught him waxing his shoulders a few days ago - yes, he waxed his shoulders, a habit left over from his first marriage where he was assured that no one liked a man with a hairy back. Rodney had of course laughed at first, but then promised not to breath a word of it as he’d been caught the day before trimming his nose and ear hairs and instead stepped forward to help John.
Of course, it had stung a little when the strips were pulled from his back - it always stung - but Rodney had smoothed the moisturiser over the red skin with gentle hands, sending shivers down John’s spine and making him lean into the touch. Rodney hadn’t noticed though, which John was extremely thankful for.
He and Rodney hadn’t really discussed the whole ‘actually being a little bit gay’ thing. They never had, it had always just been a sort of agreement that what happens offworld stays offworld. John wasn’t sure if he should bring it up with Rodney or not. If he did, would Rodney think he was coming on to him?
Rodney was attractive enough what with those broad shoulders, big hands and bright eyes, so he was pretty sure that doing… stuff, wouldn’t be a problem. But would it make things uncomfortable for them? They both knew that neither of them would actually be able to go out and have a relationship with anyone else - not for a long while anyway - but John wasn’t sure that they could ever be there to ‘help each other out’ without things getting complicated.
“Seriously?” Rodney said as he stepped out of the shower, drying himself off. “You’re still shaving?”
“I’ve been thinking,” John said, doing his best not to watch Rodney in the mirror, especially not with where his thoughts had just been.
“Well think quicker. I’m starving,” Rodney told him, wrapping the towel round his waist and stepping up to his sink where he grabbed his toothbrush.
“Yes, darling,” John said with a smile, making Rodney snort in amusement before finishing off shaving and jumping into the shower.
Once they were both dressed again, they took the door opposite the first one, next to the large balcony and made their way towards the transporter that would take them down to the mess hall.
“Nice to see you managed to put your own clothing on,” Rodney said as they got into the breakfast line.
“What happened to what’s mine is yours?” John asked him, leaning over to grab a couple of apples and putting one on each of their trays.
“I knew we should’ve gotten a prenup,” Rodney grumbled as they moved down the line.
John let himself laugh, knowing that Rodney wasn’t really worried that John would run away with all his hard earned money - even if he did earn more than John - while some of the others in the line and those in the kitchen, eyed them wearily, not sure if there was actually going to be a fight or not.
Once their trays were full with lots of breakfasty goodness, John placed his hand on Rodney’s lower back and guided him over to where Ronon and Teyla were sitting at their usual table.
“You sleep in?” Ronon said as way of a greeting as they sat down, as usually, they would meet earlier than this.
“Hardly,” Rodney said with a scoff. “We’ve been up all night.”
John knew Rodney hadn’t meant the innuendo that time, which was possibly why they both ended up blushing when Ronon grinned at them and Teyla raised an eyebrow.
“Not like that!” Rodney declared. “I mean, not that we don’t have lots of mind blowing sex. Because we do. Lots and lots.”
“Rodney,” John said in warning, noticing that some of those sitting around them were staring at them now.
“Right,” Rodney said, his blush getting worse.
“There was an issue with the long range sensors,” John said.
“Is everything alright?” Teyla asked.
“Hopefully,” John nodded. “Sent some puddle jumpers out just to check that nothing slipped past while the sensors were offline,” he explained. “In the meantime though, I’ve cancelled our mission for today. I don’t want to be offworld if there’s an emergency.”
“We understand,” Teyla said, with a nod while Ronon looked slightly disappointed.
“So,” Ronon said. “Lots and lots huh?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Rodney said, a grin now on his face in place of the flustered look of surprise.
“Yeah, because all of Atlantis really wants to know about our bedroom activities Rodney,” John said.
“You’d be surprised,” Ronon said.
“What does that mean?” Rodney asked.
“Means there’s a betting pool going round about who goes on top,” Ronon said with a shrug. “Not that I care. It’s no one’s business how you show your love for each other.”
John and Rodney turned to look at each other, both of them blushing a little again. John couldn’t help but wonder why people would want to know that before wondering himself, which one of them would top were they to ever go there… making himself blush again. Dammit!
“Perhaps we should start our own betting pool,” Rodney said, snapping John out of his weird thoughts.
“What kind of betting pool?”
“The kind where people bet against whether the person running this betting pool gets fired or not,” Rodney told him, loud enough for almost the entire mess hall to hear.
“I think that’s a great idea,” John said with a grin, leaning over to kiss Rodney, unable to stop himself - it was really becoming a bad habit - but when Rodney beamed at him like that when he pulled back, he knew that he’d be doing it again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The ‘thing’ that had appeared on the long range sensors turned out to be part of a meteor that the scientists who’d went along had determined had broken off of the original, larger meteor and in doing so, changed it’s trajectory, sending it across the edge of the area the sensors scanned.
It was nothing dangerous and so the teams had headed back to Atlantis without encountering much trouble. Upon their arrival back, John had debated about whether to have a quick nap to catch up on the sleep that he’d lost. But Rodney was quick to remind him that if he slept now then he would just be restless later on and not get the sleep he needed before going on their rescheduled mission in the morning. Not to mention, Rodney didn’t really need his fidgeting to keep him up all night either.
So that was why he’d found himself in his office, actually catching up on some paperwork instead of just playing solitaire on his computer.
On his desk, was a newly framed photograph sitting next to the one of the team taken at Torren’s first birthday, that he tried not to look at too often. It had appeared one day last week, courtesy of Carson. It was from the wedding. He and Rodney. They were smiling, with their arms wrapped round each other as they were showered with confetti by Jeannie, Madison and O’Neill. It looked like a proper wedding picture, like he and Rodney were actually really happy to be together and declare their love for each other in such a public way. Hell, it looked more convincing than the picture he’d taken to Iraq of him and Nancy on their wedding day.
It unnerved him.
Rodney had one on his desk too, next to the Miller’s and one of the team from a couple of years ago. Only in Rodney’s, it was a picture of them kissing. It too looked pretty real. With him in his dress blues, it looked like the kind of picture that would end up in the news or being used to show what a good thing it was that DADT was repealed. He just hoped that none of the military PR people got hold of it or it would indeed be splashed all over the news networks and internet back home. And while he knew it wasn’t real, there was just something too personal about it all for him to be comfortable sharing it with the entire world.
It was him and Rodney. Together. Happy. Kissing. It looked and felt real. And well, to an extent it was. He loved Rodney. He really did. And he knew that Rodney loved him back. They just weren’t in love and didn’t do any of the other things couples were expected to do. Their bed was strictly for sleeping in, nothing else.
Which of course, led back to the thoughts he’d been having earlier that day. He really had no idea why he was suddenly contemplating sex with Rodney, but he was. Maybe it was because he was tired, or hadn’t been able to masturbate for almost ten days now. Yeah, that had to be it. Their quarters didn’t really allow for privacy as Rodney tended to just barge in. God knows when he took some time to himself, unless he did it in the shower, while John was right there, on the other side, brushing his teeth or something.
John looked down at his lap and noticed that he was getting hard. He was thinking about Rodney, naked in the shower as he pleasured himself, and he was getting hard - yeah okay, definitely a little bit gay.
The door to his office was already closed, so, not thinking too much about it, he pulled himself out of his pants and slowly began to stroke himself to full hardness. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time, that someone could walk in at any moment since the door wasn’t locked, but he just didn’t want to rush this.
He didn’t deliberately think of Rodney, but for some reason, instead of thinking about soft breasts and strong legs wrapped around his waist, he imagined, hard lines with strong arms and shoulders with bright blue eyes looking down at him and he, he was the one wrapping his legs around someone’s waist.
As he realised what he was thinking of, that he was imagining Rodney doing… that, he couldn’t help but speed up his hand try to reach orgasm as quickly as possible. He was close, so close, he could feel his spine beginning to tingle as pleasure began to spread through his body. He quickly grabbed a tissue from the box on his desk and covered himself with it as he shook with orgasm.
“There you are.”
John froze as Rodney stormed into his office, the door swinging shut behind him.
“I need you down in the lab, but I thought we’d go get something to eat first… are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” John told him, aware that he probably looked a little flush.
“It’s just that you…” Rodney trailed off, his eyes travelling down John’s body to where his hands disappeared under his desk.
“Could you um, turn around for a minute.”
“Of course,” Rodney said, a bright blush travelling up his neck. John quickly wiped himself clean and tucked himself away, cringing at how loud his zipper sounded in the otherwise quiet room. “Do you um, do you do that a lot in here?”
“No,” John said. “I used to… in bed at night.”
“Oh. Me too,” Rodney admitted as he turned back round. And that, actually made John feel a little better. “I haven’t um, I kind of locked myself in the lab toilets yesterday.”
John nodded, thankful that Rodney was sharing this with him and not making him feel like a freak. However, he decided that a change in subject was probably best. “You um, you said something about food?”
“Um yes,” he nodded. “I have some stuff down in the lab I could use your gene and brain to help me with. But I haven’t eaten since this morning so…”
“Right okay. Let’s go get some food then head down to the labs then,” John said as he stood, noting the way Rodney’s eyes quickly flicked to his groin and back up again.
The mess hall was thankfully quite empty, allowing them to eat without worrying about saying something that might be interpreted as being kinda gay and instead allowed them to talk about the stuff down in the lab that Rodney needed John’s help with.
Turned out that there were a few artefacts that required being ‘switched on’ and while Rodney could do that himself, he always seemed to like John to do it. John had always thought it was Rodney’s way of making John spend more time with him, but they spent so much time with each other now that perhaps it was just him wanting to exercise John’s gene. As for using his brain, he needed him to go over some equations that one of the new scientists had done that Rodney apparently didn’t have time to check himself.
“If you love me, you’ll do it,” Rodney huffed when John pointed out it was part of his job to check it.
John smiled at him, wondering when Rodney was going to stop using that line. It had started off as a joke after their return last week, but Rodney had used it almost every day and didn’t seem to be getting tired of it, because at the end of the day, it worked. John always seemed to end up doing whatever it was Rodney was asking him to do for him.
So he took the laptop with the equations, sat down next to Rodney and held out his hand so that Rodney could place the items that needed to be turned on into it. It was a tried and tested way of working. He would do whatever it was he was required to do on the laptop and Rodney would get all his Ancient gizmos switched on.
They stayed there for almost four hours before John declared he was done with the equations, that his butt was numb and that he wanted to go to bed.
Rodney huffed - ignoring the sniggering from one of the scientists who John was sure said something along the lines of ‘whipped’ - and shut down his own laptop where he’d begun cataloguing the now working items.
“Wilson,” Rodney called as he stood. “Do not stay up all night please. Zelenka needs you for repairs in the morning,” he said, sounding like he was chastising a child.
“Yes, Sir,” Wilson nodded. “Sleep well,” he added with a smirk.
“Jealousy doesn’t become you Wilson,” Rodney added as he grabbed John’s hand and dragged him out of the lab.
“Not like you to make sure the scientists get enough sleep Rodney,” John said as he allowed himself to be led along the corridor.
“Yes well, unfortunately Wilson isn’t very alert at the best of times, never mind if he’s sleep deprived,” Rodney explained as he led the way into the transporter.
When they got to their quarters, Rodney went over to his desk to dump his laptop and it was only as he pulled his hand away that John realised that they’d been holding hands the entire way. It had just felt so natural, that he hadn’t even noticed. Huh.
As Rodney sat down at his desk, John made his way into the bedroom, stripping out of his uniform, but keeping on his shorts and t-shirt as usual. He went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and quickly washed the dried in cum from his cock - it had been itching for a couple of hours now and it was very much a relief to get it all off - before going back out to the bedroom. Rodney was still in the living room and John knew from experience that if left alone, he would stay there all night.
“Are you coming to bed?” John asked as he slouched against the door frame, arms crossed against his chest.
“Yes, yes,” Rodney said waving his hand in the air.
John sighed and pushed away from the door to walk over to him. When he reached Rodney’s side, he settled his hand on the back of Rodney’s neck, using his thumb to rub gentle circles as he leaned down, saved what Rodney was working on and then shut the laptop.
He didn’t say anything, not even when he stood back up and headed back into the bedroom, not waiting for Rodney to join him as he climbed into bed. He was just getting comfortable, settling down into the pillow with the covers pulled high up to this chin, his eyes just starting to close when Rodney walked into the room, the door automatically closing behind him.
John lay in the dark and watched him as he stripped out of his clothing, noting the way his t-shirt rode up as he bent to pull off his socks to show a band of pale, soft skin that John had the sudden urge to lick. Feeling himself getting hard again, he shut his eyes tight, listening instead as Rodney went into the bathroom to relieve himself and brush his teeth before finally joining him in bed.
While John could just lay down and go to sleep in a bed, Rodney would fidget for a while until he found the most comfortable position, which was always the same - on his side, facing John. He could feel Rodney’s breath on his own, could smell the mint mixed with something that was so uniquely Rodney that it automatically made John feel safe as if he was ‘home’. That should worry him, he knew it should, but instead of freaking out, he let his hand reach forward so that he and Rodney’s pinky fingers were touching and allowed slumber to take him over.
TBC
Author: Ru-salki99
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: John/Rodney
Disclaimer: SGA belongs to MGM
Author's notes: I'd like to dedicate this to popkin16 who without, I would never have written it :D
Summary: The IOA decide that because Rodney has never been in a successful long term relationship while on Atlantis, that he lacks certain leadership skills. John however, can't bare the thought of Rodney leaving, so comes up with a cunning plan.
John woke with a start when Rodney unceremoniously smacked him on the shoulder.
“Get up. We’re needed in the control room.”
That was all Rodney had to say and John was jumping out of bed and running to the closet in search for his clothing. He still had his t-shirt on from the day before. He always wore a t-shirt to bed, as did Rodney. It was kind of like an unspoken rule with them.
They’d been gifted a very large, very comfortable bed from the Athosians from one of the guest huts, so since their marriage just over a week ago, they’d been sharing a bed. It wasn’t as bad as John had thought it would be. Sure, Rodney did snore a little and hog the covers, but he was quick to inform John that he not only talked in his sleep, but also kicked, so he really, couldn’t get pissy about something as natural as snoring.
“Radio,” Rodney said, handing him his radio as he grabbed a shirt for himself from the closet.
“Thanks,” John said, shoving it on his ear. “So what’s the emergency?”
“Something to do with the long range sensors or something,” Rodney told him through a yawn.
“Right,” John nodded, grabbing a shirt and pulling it on over his shoulders before slipping his feet into his boots. “Lead the way.”
Rodney began marching out of their bedroom and through the living area towards the door that would take them towards the transporter that got them to the control room and the infirmary. Their quarters were actually pretty impressive, more like an apartment than a room. He couldn’t quite understand why no one had claimed it for their own already. It was huge with its large living area that easily fit Rodney’s desk and bookshelves, with left over room for John’s couch, surfboard and guitar. Then there was the overly spacious bathroom that had two sinks, one for each of them, a massive shower - nothing like the tiny units in their old quarters - and massive tub that Rodney had quickly fallen in love with.
Teyla and Kanaan lived one floor down, the two scientists who’d gotten married the year before (who were now expecting their first child) living just round the corner from them, but other than that, they were on their own up there. It was as if there was some sort of secret rule that only couples and families were allowed bigger quarters.
John had a feeling though, that now that he and Rodney were ‘out’ and married and all, more couples would feel less pressured to keep any relationships they might have on ‘the down low’ as Rodney called it. They’d no doubt, have some more neighbours soon enough.
They got to the control room about the same time as Woolsey appeared at the opposite side, Lorne stepping away from Zelenka who was over at the long range sensor controls to approach John.
“What’s going on?” John asked.
“The sensor’s stopped working,” Lorne said, looking at John with a raised eyebrow before smiling slightly and continuing. “Chuck thought he might have seen something on it before it went off. Hence the rush to get it back online.”
Rodney started grumbling under his breath before he pushed passed Lorne and made his way over to Zelenka, shouting over his shoulder at John to get him some coffee.
John just nodded and turned back to Lorne who was still smiling at him, “What?”
“Nothing,” Lorne said, trying to school his features into something serious. John just narrowed his eyes at him. “It’s just, you changing teams on us?” he asked, pointing to John’s arm.
John looked down and rolled his eyes when he saw that instead of stars and stripes, he was wearing a maple leaf, and that his shirt instead of being black, was a dark grey.
Wondering why Rodney’s shirt had ended up on his side of the closet and kind of thankful that the entirety of Atlantis knew about their ‘relationship’ now or else he would probably be getting very strange looks from everyone and not just Lorne.
“It was dark and I was still half asleep when I got dressed,” he said as way of an explanation.
“Of course, Sir,” Lorne nodded, his smile still evident on his face.
“Shut up and go get me and Rodney some coffee,” John told him before he made his way over to the scientists who were now deep in discussion, ignoring everyone around them including Woolsey who was trying to get some answers out of them.
“Not now Richard. Busy,” Rodney snapped, not even looking at the man.
Woolsey sighed and turned to John for help. Rodney had been short with him ever since he ‘hadn’t stuck up for him’ with the IOA reps, but John knew that wasn’t true, however Rodney needed someone to blame. He would get over it soon enough.
John quickly repeated what Lorne had told him and it was decided that nothing could be done until the sensors were back online. Woolsey decided to leave them to it and retreated to his office, while John grabbed a seat and waited for Lorne to bring them coffee.
As he listened to Rodney and Radek argue in the same way they had been since day one, he let himself take a look around the control room. There were some who were giving him strange looks similar to that of the one Lorne had given them, but thankfully, none of the looks held any disdain, just humour.
They’d only encountered a few people, both scientists and soldiers who had apparent problems with them, all of whom were on the roster to be shipped back to Earth the next time the Daedalus came into orbit. Of course the military contingent couldn’t actually say that they didn’t want to serve under a ‘queer’ due to the upcoming change in regs, but he didn’t deny their transfer requests. Even though he wasn’t gay - maybe a little bi, but that didn’t matter anyway - he wasn’t comfortable commanding soldiers who had such a huge problem with what he did in private and was glad to be rid of them.
He turned back to look at Rodney who was snapping his fingers and it took John a second to pull his attention away from the way the action made his wedding ring sparkle to realise he was snapping them at him. Rodney only really snapped his fingers at him like that when he needed a tool he couldn’t reach so John took a quick glance under the console to see what Rodney was doing and noticing how he held onto a couple of wires, he pulled his knife out his pocket and placed it in Rodney’s waiting hand.
Rodney didn’t complain, so it must’ve been the right thing, which John gave himself a little pat on the back for.
Soon, Lorne was back with strong coffee for everyone and a huge plate of muffins.
“You’re a God send,” John told him.
“Thank you, Sir,” Lorne said with a grin as he lifted his own coffee to his lips.
“Rodney, coffee,” John said, tapping him on the shoulder.
Rodney extracted himself from under the console, sitting up on his knees to take the coffee from him. Only just as he was about to take his first sip, he halted and stared at John with a raised eyebrow.
“Why are you wearing my shirt?”
“Because it smells like you,” John said sarcastically. “Why do you think?”
“Yes well, just don’t make a habit of it. I only have so many shirts and it’s not like I can go around wearing yours is it? Not with your skinny ass.”
“Hey, you love my skinny ass,” John said, making Lorne choke on his coffee.
Rodney however, was immune and ignored John’s gay innuendo and turned towards Lorne instead. “Are you all right, Major?”
“Um, yeah Doc. Fine,” Lorne nodded, making John grin.
“If you’re having problems swallowing, you might want to go see Carson,” he said. “Isn’t that right John?” he asked, turning the tables back on John who had to bite the inside of his cheek to stop from laughing.
This was something they had taken to doing this past week, making extreme innuendo in front of the others. They figured it would help keep up the illusion that they were a couple without actually having to be all couple like, however, now it had become a bit of a competition.
“Shouldn’t you be working McKay?” John asked him.
“Shouldn’t you McKay?” Rodney asked right back before he took a deep gulp of coffee and scurrying back under the console.
John had decided, that since he didn’t exactly get on with his family and didn’t really have any real attachments to the name ‘Sheppard’ - where as Rodney, being a world renowned scientist did - to officially take the name McKay. However, he was still Called Sheppard by most of the expedition, as calling for a McKay on the radio would no doubt lead to confusion.
Knowing that there wasn’t much he could do until Rodney fixed the sensors, John grabbed a vanilla chocolate chip muffin from the pile and placed it next to Rodney’s mug before grabbing a blueberry for himself and leaving Lorne in charge while he went to speak with Woolsey. His team was due for an offworld mission in the morning, but he thought that it would probably be best postponing it for the moment until they’d got this all sorted.
~*~*~*~*~*~
When they got the sensors back online, there was nothing there. Chuck had been positive though that he’d seen something, which unsettled John. It could’ve been a scout or some kind of stealth ship. He didn’t like it at all and so sent a couple of puddle jumpers out to investigate.
He would’ve rather went himself, but over the past year he’d been trying to take a step back from doing everything himself. As Rodney had pointed out on more than one occasion, he wasn’t getting any younger and the more he denied the younger generation from going on such tasks, the more he was actually damaging their chances at promotion. He was pretty sure Lorne hadn’t been promoted yet because of such things, although he doubted they would promote Lorne again until he’d been promoted to Colonel, not just Lt. Colonel, which wasn’t going to happen any time soon if he didn’t start acting like a ‘proper’ commander. It was bad enough that he was still on a gate team, but he refused to step down from that as it was one of his favourite things about life on Atlantis - exploring. Or rather, exploring with Rodney as without him, it just wasn’t as fun.
While they waited for the jumpers to report back, he and Rodney decided to head back to their quarters to get showered and shaved before going for a proper breakfast. When they stepped into their bedroom, Rodney face-planted onto the bed.
“Get up,” John said, kicking his foot that was hanging off the edge, knowing that if Rodney fell back asleep, he’d be hard pushed to wake him up later.
“No,” Rodney replied into his pillow.
“Rodney, get your ass up and in the shower. There’s no time for napping,” John said as he walked to stand at the head of the bed.
Rodney opened one eye and looked up at him. “You could join me you know,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “I bet you’re tired too.”
John snorted in amusement. “You can’t flirt with me Rodney. I’m immune to you. Now get up and get showered. You smell.”
Rodney sighed and threw himself onto his back. “Only a week of marriage and already the romance has gone.”
Leaning against the door frame to the bathroom, John studied Rodney for a minute. “You know, it’s no wonder people aren’t surprised you’re gay.”
Rodney sat up and looked at him questioningly. “What does that mean?”
“Well it’s just, you’re so over dramatic and camp all the time. I’m surprised people hadn’t started asking questions about you earlier.”
“I’m camp?” Rodney asked with a pout. “I thought I was rather manly. I have larger muscles than the majority of scientists.”
“Only ‘cause me and Ronon make you work out,” John said, moving into the bathroom, glad when Rodney followed him.
“Well, if my supposed campness makes it easier for people to grasp the idea of my being gay, what’s your reason?”
John shrugged, “Could be ‘cause I haven’t dated anyone since being here?” he asked. “And I’m always hanging out with you, so it’s not such a stretch for people to believe that we might have been doing something other than playing chess all those times I came to your quarters.”
Rodney nodded, stripping off his clothes to dump in the hamper as he turned the shower on to heat up the water. “Of course, there’s always the fact that you never really liked Katie or Jennifer. You had the whole jealous lover thing down to a tee.”
“What? I liked them just fine,” John said, half his face covered with shaving foam.
“Please. You barely tolerated them,” Rodney said, finally stripping off the rest of his clothes, reminding John that it was probably just as well they’d been naked around each other so much or this whole sharing a bathroom would be weird.
“I just… I always thought you could do better,” John said. “Katie was too timid for you, never argued back. She’d have ended up hating you. And Keller… well, anyone who tries to actually change you when there’s nothing wrong with you doesn’t exactly win points in my book.”
Rodney gave him a strange look that John couldn’t quite decipher before he stepped into the shower, allowing John to turn his attention back to shaving.
He tended to shower a lot quicker than Rodney, so that was why Rodney always got the first shower. Otherwise, John would be sitting around waiting for him all the time. Also, Rodney seemed to be more efficient at shaving that John. He guessed that years of rushing through the unimportant tasks - such as personal hygiene - to get back to his lab had left Rodney able to de-hair his face in no more than ten strokes. Not to mention, his hair was a lot finer than John’s and so he could go a few days longer than John without picking up a razor.
In fact, most of the hair on Rodney’s body was very fine. Sometimes, you even had to get up close to see it. John of course, over the years had had a couple of up close encounters. He’d never thought much of it until Rodney had caught him waxing his shoulders a few days ago - yes, he waxed his shoulders, a habit left over from his first marriage where he was assured that no one liked a man with a hairy back. Rodney had of course laughed at first, but then promised not to breath a word of it as he’d been caught the day before trimming his nose and ear hairs and instead stepped forward to help John.
Of course, it had stung a little when the strips were pulled from his back - it always stung - but Rodney had smoothed the moisturiser over the red skin with gentle hands, sending shivers down John’s spine and making him lean into the touch. Rodney hadn’t noticed though, which John was extremely thankful for.
He and Rodney hadn’t really discussed the whole ‘actually being a little bit gay’ thing. They never had, it had always just been a sort of agreement that what happens offworld stays offworld. John wasn’t sure if he should bring it up with Rodney or not. If he did, would Rodney think he was coming on to him?
Rodney was attractive enough what with those broad shoulders, big hands and bright eyes, so he was pretty sure that doing… stuff, wouldn’t be a problem. But would it make things uncomfortable for them? They both knew that neither of them would actually be able to go out and have a relationship with anyone else - not for a long while anyway - but John wasn’t sure that they could ever be there to ‘help each other out’ without things getting complicated.
“Seriously?” Rodney said as he stepped out of the shower, drying himself off. “You’re still shaving?”
“I’ve been thinking,” John said, doing his best not to watch Rodney in the mirror, especially not with where his thoughts had just been.
“Well think quicker. I’m starving,” Rodney told him, wrapping the towel round his waist and stepping up to his sink where he grabbed his toothbrush.
“Yes, darling,” John said with a smile, making Rodney snort in amusement before finishing off shaving and jumping into the shower.
Once they were both dressed again, they took the door opposite the first one, next to the large balcony and made their way towards the transporter that would take them down to the mess hall.
“Nice to see you managed to put your own clothing on,” Rodney said as they got into the breakfast line.
“What happened to what’s mine is yours?” John asked him, leaning over to grab a couple of apples and putting one on each of their trays.
“I knew we should’ve gotten a prenup,” Rodney grumbled as they moved down the line.
John let himself laugh, knowing that Rodney wasn’t really worried that John would run away with all his hard earned money - even if he did earn more than John - while some of the others in the line and those in the kitchen, eyed them wearily, not sure if there was actually going to be a fight or not.
Once their trays were full with lots of breakfasty goodness, John placed his hand on Rodney’s lower back and guided him over to where Ronon and Teyla were sitting at their usual table.
“You sleep in?” Ronon said as way of a greeting as they sat down, as usually, they would meet earlier than this.
“Hardly,” Rodney said with a scoff. “We’ve been up all night.”
John knew Rodney hadn’t meant the innuendo that time, which was possibly why they both ended up blushing when Ronon grinned at them and Teyla raised an eyebrow.
“Not like that!” Rodney declared. “I mean, not that we don’t have lots of mind blowing sex. Because we do. Lots and lots.”
“Rodney,” John said in warning, noticing that some of those sitting around them were staring at them now.
“Right,” Rodney said, his blush getting worse.
“There was an issue with the long range sensors,” John said.
“Is everything alright?” Teyla asked.
“Hopefully,” John nodded. “Sent some puddle jumpers out just to check that nothing slipped past while the sensors were offline,” he explained. “In the meantime though, I’ve cancelled our mission for today. I don’t want to be offworld if there’s an emergency.”
“We understand,” Teyla said, with a nod while Ronon looked slightly disappointed.
“So,” Ronon said. “Lots and lots huh?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe,” Rodney said, a grin now on his face in place of the flustered look of surprise.
“Yeah, because all of Atlantis really wants to know about our bedroom activities Rodney,” John said.
“You’d be surprised,” Ronon said.
“What does that mean?” Rodney asked.
“Means there’s a betting pool going round about who goes on top,” Ronon said with a shrug. “Not that I care. It’s no one’s business how you show your love for each other.”
John and Rodney turned to look at each other, both of them blushing a little again. John couldn’t help but wonder why people would want to know that before wondering himself, which one of them would top were they to ever go there… making himself blush again. Dammit!
“Perhaps we should start our own betting pool,” Rodney said, snapping John out of his weird thoughts.
“What kind of betting pool?”
“The kind where people bet against whether the person running this betting pool gets fired or not,” Rodney told him, loud enough for almost the entire mess hall to hear.
“I think that’s a great idea,” John said with a grin, leaning over to kiss Rodney, unable to stop himself - it was really becoming a bad habit - but when Rodney beamed at him like that when he pulled back, he knew that he’d be doing it again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
The ‘thing’ that had appeared on the long range sensors turned out to be part of a meteor that the scientists who’d went along had determined had broken off of the original, larger meteor and in doing so, changed it’s trajectory, sending it across the edge of the area the sensors scanned.
It was nothing dangerous and so the teams had headed back to Atlantis without encountering much trouble. Upon their arrival back, John had debated about whether to have a quick nap to catch up on the sleep that he’d lost. But Rodney was quick to remind him that if he slept now then he would just be restless later on and not get the sleep he needed before going on their rescheduled mission in the morning. Not to mention, Rodney didn’t really need his fidgeting to keep him up all night either.
So that was why he’d found himself in his office, actually catching up on some paperwork instead of just playing solitaire on his computer.
On his desk, was a newly framed photograph sitting next to the one of the team taken at Torren’s first birthday, that he tried not to look at too often. It had appeared one day last week, courtesy of Carson. It was from the wedding. He and Rodney. They were smiling, with their arms wrapped round each other as they were showered with confetti by Jeannie, Madison and O’Neill. It looked like a proper wedding picture, like he and Rodney were actually really happy to be together and declare their love for each other in such a public way. Hell, it looked more convincing than the picture he’d taken to Iraq of him and Nancy on their wedding day.
It unnerved him.
Rodney had one on his desk too, next to the Miller’s and one of the team from a couple of years ago. Only in Rodney’s, it was a picture of them kissing. It too looked pretty real. With him in his dress blues, it looked like the kind of picture that would end up in the news or being used to show what a good thing it was that DADT was repealed. He just hoped that none of the military PR people got hold of it or it would indeed be splashed all over the news networks and internet back home. And while he knew it wasn’t real, there was just something too personal about it all for him to be comfortable sharing it with the entire world.
It was him and Rodney. Together. Happy. Kissing. It looked and felt real. And well, to an extent it was. He loved Rodney. He really did. And he knew that Rodney loved him back. They just weren’t in love and didn’t do any of the other things couples were expected to do. Their bed was strictly for sleeping in, nothing else.
Which of course, led back to the thoughts he’d been having earlier that day. He really had no idea why he was suddenly contemplating sex with Rodney, but he was. Maybe it was because he was tired, or hadn’t been able to masturbate for almost ten days now. Yeah, that had to be it. Their quarters didn’t really allow for privacy as Rodney tended to just barge in. God knows when he took some time to himself, unless he did it in the shower, while John was right there, on the other side, brushing his teeth or something.
John looked down at his lap and noticed that he was getting hard. He was thinking about Rodney, naked in the shower as he pleasured himself, and he was getting hard - yeah okay, definitely a little bit gay.
The door to his office was already closed, so, not thinking too much about it, he pulled himself out of his pants and slowly began to stroke himself to full hardness. He knew he didn’t have a lot of time, that someone could walk in at any moment since the door wasn’t locked, but he just didn’t want to rush this.
He didn’t deliberately think of Rodney, but for some reason, instead of thinking about soft breasts and strong legs wrapped around his waist, he imagined, hard lines with strong arms and shoulders with bright blue eyes looking down at him and he, he was the one wrapping his legs around someone’s waist.
As he realised what he was thinking of, that he was imagining Rodney doing… that, he couldn’t help but speed up his hand try to reach orgasm as quickly as possible. He was close, so close, he could feel his spine beginning to tingle as pleasure began to spread through his body. He quickly grabbed a tissue from the box on his desk and covered himself with it as he shook with orgasm.
“There you are.”
John froze as Rodney stormed into his office, the door swinging shut behind him.
“I need you down in the lab, but I thought we’d go get something to eat first… are you alright?”
“I’m fine,” John told him, aware that he probably looked a little flush.
“It’s just that you…” Rodney trailed off, his eyes travelling down John’s body to where his hands disappeared under his desk.
“Could you um, turn around for a minute.”
“Of course,” Rodney said, a bright blush travelling up his neck. John quickly wiped himself clean and tucked himself away, cringing at how loud his zipper sounded in the otherwise quiet room. “Do you um, do you do that a lot in here?”
“No,” John said. “I used to… in bed at night.”
“Oh. Me too,” Rodney admitted as he turned back round. And that, actually made John feel a little better. “I haven’t um, I kind of locked myself in the lab toilets yesterday.”
John nodded, thankful that Rodney was sharing this with him and not making him feel like a freak. However, he decided that a change in subject was probably best. “You um, you said something about food?”
“Um yes,” he nodded. “I have some stuff down in the lab I could use your gene and brain to help me with. But I haven’t eaten since this morning so…”
“Right okay. Let’s go get some food then head down to the labs then,” John said as he stood, noting the way Rodney’s eyes quickly flicked to his groin and back up again.
The mess hall was thankfully quite empty, allowing them to eat without worrying about saying something that might be interpreted as being kinda gay and instead allowed them to talk about the stuff down in the lab that Rodney needed John’s help with.
Turned out that there were a few artefacts that required being ‘switched on’ and while Rodney could do that himself, he always seemed to like John to do it. John had always thought it was Rodney’s way of making John spend more time with him, but they spent so much time with each other now that perhaps it was just him wanting to exercise John’s gene. As for using his brain, he needed him to go over some equations that one of the new scientists had done that Rodney apparently didn’t have time to check himself.
“If you love me, you’ll do it,” Rodney huffed when John pointed out it was part of his job to check it.
John smiled at him, wondering when Rodney was going to stop using that line. It had started off as a joke after their return last week, but Rodney had used it almost every day and didn’t seem to be getting tired of it, because at the end of the day, it worked. John always seemed to end up doing whatever it was Rodney was asking him to do for him.
So he took the laptop with the equations, sat down next to Rodney and held out his hand so that Rodney could place the items that needed to be turned on into it. It was a tried and tested way of working. He would do whatever it was he was required to do on the laptop and Rodney would get all his Ancient gizmos switched on.
They stayed there for almost four hours before John declared he was done with the equations, that his butt was numb and that he wanted to go to bed.
Rodney huffed - ignoring the sniggering from one of the scientists who John was sure said something along the lines of ‘whipped’ - and shut down his own laptop where he’d begun cataloguing the now working items.
“Wilson,” Rodney called as he stood. “Do not stay up all night please. Zelenka needs you for repairs in the morning,” he said, sounding like he was chastising a child.
“Yes, Sir,” Wilson nodded. “Sleep well,” he added with a smirk.
“Jealousy doesn’t become you Wilson,” Rodney added as he grabbed John’s hand and dragged him out of the lab.
“Not like you to make sure the scientists get enough sleep Rodney,” John said as he allowed himself to be led along the corridor.
“Yes well, unfortunately Wilson isn’t very alert at the best of times, never mind if he’s sleep deprived,” Rodney explained as he led the way into the transporter.
When they got to their quarters, Rodney went over to his desk to dump his laptop and it was only as he pulled his hand away that John realised that they’d been holding hands the entire way. It had just felt so natural, that he hadn’t even noticed. Huh.
As Rodney sat down at his desk, John made his way into the bedroom, stripping out of his uniform, but keeping on his shorts and t-shirt as usual. He went into the bathroom, brushed his teeth and quickly washed the dried in cum from his cock - it had been itching for a couple of hours now and it was very much a relief to get it all off - before going back out to the bedroom. Rodney was still in the living room and John knew from experience that if left alone, he would stay there all night.
“Are you coming to bed?” John asked as he slouched against the door frame, arms crossed against his chest.
“Yes, yes,” Rodney said waving his hand in the air.
John sighed and pushed away from the door to walk over to him. When he reached Rodney’s side, he settled his hand on the back of Rodney’s neck, using his thumb to rub gentle circles as he leaned down, saved what Rodney was working on and then shut the laptop.
He didn’t say anything, not even when he stood back up and headed back into the bedroom, not waiting for Rodney to join him as he climbed into bed. He was just getting comfortable, settling down into the pillow with the covers pulled high up to this chin, his eyes just starting to close when Rodney walked into the room, the door automatically closing behind him.
John lay in the dark and watched him as he stripped out of his clothing, noting the way his t-shirt rode up as he bent to pull off his socks to show a band of pale, soft skin that John had the sudden urge to lick. Feeling himself getting hard again, he shut his eyes tight, listening instead as Rodney went into the bathroom to relieve himself and brush his teeth before finally joining him in bed.
While John could just lay down and go to sleep in a bed, Rodney would fidget for a while until he found the most comfortable position, which was always the same - on his side, facing John. He could feel Rodney’s breath on his own, could smell the mint mixed with something that was so uniquely Rodney that it automatically made John feel safe as if he was ‘home’. That should worry him, he knew it should, but instead of freaking out, he let his hand reach forward so that he and Rodney’s pinky fingers were touching and allowed slumber to take him over.
TBC