Date day!

[scientificsnark]

A week, Rodney McKay had decided, was not a sufficient amount of time in which to plan a truly spectacular date. In fact, the date he had planned was merely spectacular, in his own humble opinion. Granted, he hadn't exactly gotten the idea on his own - he'd seen a blonde woman tugging a man out of the Compound the other day carrying a picnic basket

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[jill_langston]

It had been two days since the far too truthful conversation with Lucifer and Jill was doing with it what she did best. She was blocking it out. If she didn't think about it, she could convince herself that it didn't happen and that things were fine. Everything was fine and normal and nothing at all in the world had to change.

Except for the fact that Rodney was currently at her door, prepared for a date. If said date went well, there was a possibility that things would have to change, but she was refusing to think about that right now. All she was going to do was enjoy her date and see where it went.

"Hi," she said with a smile, pushing open the door to see Rodney waiting there. With flowers. That was definitely a step up from what she was used to.

[scientificsnark]

Rodney stared at her, frozen midway in the process of distributing plates and cutlery.

"...you have three tattoos?"

[jill_langston]

Jill paused, unable to tell if that was a good sort of stare or a bad 'oh my God, I can't date a woman with three tattoos' sort of stare. Nodding, she turned over her arm, displaying the large red and black anchor that was tattooed on the inside of her wrist.

"You have to have seen this one, at least," she pointed out. It was hardly inconspicuous.

[scientificsnark]

"I don't know if you've noticed, Jill, but I'm not exactly the most observant guy when it comes to that sort of thing," Rodney replied, but he was smiling while he said it. "I don't think I'd notice any tattoos on you unless they were on your face. That's...really cool," he said as he gently took her hand, examining her wrist. "I mean, it's not usually my cup of tea - I can't stand pain, so I don't have any tattoos myself - but chicks with tattoos? Hot."

That was possibly not the most suavest thing he could have said, and he knew it. But that was Rodney McKay for you.

[jill_langston]

For a moment Jill wasn't sure which part of that to address and so she just smiled back at him, looking torn between feeling pleased and utterly incredulous. "Well, I'm glad you think so," she finally settled on saying, because she really was. It had certainly turned other men off of her in the past.

"So now you know all these things about me and they're actually not things I know about you," she added. "Where did you grow up?" She knew he was Canadian, but beyond that, she had no idea.

[scientificsnark]

Rodney let go of her hand reluctantly and set to serving the food, handing her a foil-covered plate and peeling it off his own.

The steak looked good. It was all Rodney could do not to drool, but then Jill asked him a question and he looked up.

"Huh? Oh. Toronto," he answered. "Yes, I've heard every possible Canadian joke ever to be made. My sister's back there," he continued, picking up his fork, figuring he should wait until Jill started eating first, even though he was starving by now. "She's married to this guy named Kaleb, and they've got a kid. Maddie. It's a girl," he explained, perhaps unnecessarily. "She's four. Um...five by now, maybe? I'm not sure." He wondered if he'd ever see her again. Jeannie, that is, not so much Madison. He wasn't sure why she liked him so much. Madison, that is, not Jeannie.

[jill_langston]

"Thanks," she said, lifting the foil off her own plate and taking a fork as well. "It looks really good." At least she didn't have to lie about that, because it actually did look delicious.

"And don't worry, no Canadian jokes from me, I promise. I lived in Toronto for about two years before I ended up here. I liked it a lot." It was probably her second favourite place she'd lived, right after Norway. The downtown area had always been so busy and so full of people. "Is your sister younger or older?"

[scientificsnark]

"Hm? Oh, she's my...my little sister." he said, a tad uncomfortable with the conversation, and it showed. He was grateful to have an excuse to stuff his face with a portion of steak, since she looked as if she was about to start eating anyway.

He thought of a way to change the subject while chewing. "What 'boutchu? You have any...brothers or sisters?" he asked, his voice a little muffled by the mouthful of steak. He swallowed it and looked at her expectantly.

[jill_langston]

Jill nodded, cutting a piece of steak before she answered. "Yeah, a younger sister, Diane. She'd be about twenty-eight now. Married, has a daughter. She still lives in St. Paul." And every so often, out of the blue, Jill missed her desperately. They'd never been close, the decade between them and Jill's interest in science keeping them apart, but they were still family.

"We never really got along," she admitted with a faint smile, then took a bite of her own steak.

[scientificsnark]

"It's the same with Jeannie," said Rodney. "Or it was. Four years ago, she decided to settle down and start a family. But she's a McKay, which naturally means she's brilliant. I thought it was a waste of her talents, and Jeannie...thought different. It took me a while, but eventually? I realized that she wasn't necessarily wrong for not wanting to end up like me."

He drowned his sour expression in his glass of fruit wine, followed by another mouthful of steak.

[jill_langston]

"There's nothing wrong with ending up like you, Rodney," she assured him gently, taking another bite of her meal, which was definitely better than she expected. Especially since Rodney had told her -- twice now, she remembered -- that he couldn't cook.

"Diane was never... she thought what I did was a waste of time," Jill admitted after a moment, then took another sip of her wine to try to cover how much that had bothered her at times. "It probably shouldn't have gotten to me like it did, but hindsight is twenty-twenty and all that."

[scientificsnark]

"Family are a pain in the ass," said Rodney matter-of-factly, once he was done chewing. "It's impossible to hate them. Except for parents, it's really easy to hate parents. Unless they're rich and really generous with their money. Mine weren't," he added, bitterly. "Guess I showed them!" He smirked.

"Saving the world actually does pay, y'know."

[jill_langston]

"And what could you do with all that money on Atlantis?" she asked with a small smile. Saving the world in Toronto had paid a fairly decent amount, too. And she'd received a company car for her efforts, too. Everything David had said she wouldn't get if she came to work for him, but they'd wanted her at NorBAC enough to give it to her anyway.

"I guess it was probably slightly more useful there than it is on the island," she added, answering her own question.

[scientificsnark]

Rodney shrugged. "Betting, mostly," he said. "I usually lost. I think I owe Sheppard...a quarter of a million by now? Don't tell him that, though, he's from before I bet him I could fit twenty Oreos in my mouth. I was bored," he continued defensively.

[jill_langston]

"How many did you fit in your mouth before you had to concede defeat?" Jill asked curiously, her glass of wine halfway to her mouth as she glanced at Rodney. That was a story she kind of wanted to hear, whether it embarrassed him or not.

Waiting for another, she took another sip of the wine he'd brought. After a glass and a half, it tasted just like any other fruit wine she would have had at home and although she was trying to pace herself, it was easy enough to forget.

[scientificsnark]

"Twelve," Rodney said proudly, then wondered if it was something he ought to be proud of or not. After another sip of his own wine, he decided he really didn't care. Things seemed to be going well - Jill hadn't run away screaming yet - and that was good enough for him.

"I might have cheated and chewed a little, though. How's your steak?" He sort of half-hoped she didn't like it and would give the rest to him, because his was almost gone and he really didn't think the salad was going to do much good. He got it out of the picnic basket anyway.