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SGA McKay/Sheppard - Table 9 (#01): Space
Author: ca_pierson
Title: Space
Table: Table 9
Prompt: 01. Space
For the 50episodes asylum.
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1.823
Warnings: First Kiss
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis does not belong to me, neither do any of the characters in this story. I do own the plot, however.
Beta: darkmoore
Author’s Notes: This is the first in a row of scenes that could probably go into the same story.

01. Space

John knew that he was grinning madly, but there was no reason to hide it. He loved flying a jumper through the endlessness of space. It just never got old. There were precious few missions where they had to make longer journeys, most of the time they still walked. This mission was not a run of the mill one, though. Actually John couldn’t remember anything similar. Ever. A ‘gate so far away from any planets was a rarity and something Rodney had insisted they investigate. In his opinion something had to be there. Even if I was nothing, for John this was the best thing ever. The darkness around him, broken by nothing but stars. Suns so far away that they couldn’t reach them with the jumper in their lifetime. Just him and Rodney. On their own.

Thankfully Ronon and Teyla had elected to stay in Atlantis, giving John this unique opportunity in the first place. Ronon would have been bored out of his mind after an hour at the most anyway and a bored Ronon wasn’t one John liked to have around. Teyla had wanted to attend a celebration her people were having. Something important. Which meant Rodney and John were all by themselves now. In a jumper. A tiny piece of heaven, just for John and Rodney. John couldn’t have planned it better if he had tried. Even with Rodney being as grumpy as he ever got it was still all good.

John didn’t know for sure when he had started seeing more in Rodney than just his best friend. Couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment in time when he had started looking at his team-mate with eyes that saw more than just a geeky scientist under his protection and a huge pain in the backside. In a way he guessed it all started when Rodney came to help him with the Super-Wraith. John had known that Rodney was terrified, had seen it on the other man’s face. And still he had stood there on the dune, emptying his gun into the Wraith.

That’s when it had all started and every time Rodney had been in danger of dying John had fought a little less against these feelings. It had nearly driven him insane when Rodney had been caught in the back of the Jumper at the bottom of the sea. And the relief he had felt that Rodney had survived had been unspeakable.

What stopped John from attempting to get closer to Rodney were mostly his own insecurities. What if Rodney didn’t like men that way? What if he laughed in his face? What if Rodney hit him? What if... it didn’t matter that John had the feeling Rodney liked him back just as much, he simply hadn’t dared to do anything. The looks, the quirky smiles and the long evenings of playing chess or watching a film didn’t really have to mean anything. Maybe all that really implied Rodney would like more. Or maybe John was the only one willing to spend time with Rodney in his free time. Point was, while he was pretty certain Rodney would return a kiss and not hit him, he couldn’t take that chance.

Rodney suddenly screamed loudly in the back and a string of colourful curses drifted to the front, breaking John’s train of thought.

“You okay, Rodney?”

“Yes, yes I’m fine. I only broke most of my toes on my left foot, why should I not be okay?”

The sarcasm was reassuring. At least it meant he wasn’t really hurt.

Maybe it was the lack of coffee, but Rodney’s mood had been black from the moment he set eyes on other beings. But maybe the explosion this morning in one of the secondary labs had something to do with it as well. It was most likely a combination of both; Rodney didn’t cope as well without coffee. Yet, even a less than stellar Rodney McKay couldn’t dampen John’s spirits, and he could feel himself grinning stupidly. There was no doubt in his mind that by the time they actually started searching the area, Rodney would cheer up.

“We should circle around the Stargate from here, Colonel,” Rodney called to him from the back and then came to the front to sit heavily in the co-pilot’s chair. “This is the most efficient distance for the sensors to cover. We should find anything that is out here. I doubt they would have put any facilities further away from easy access than this.” While he still sounded somewhat annoyed there was some enthusiasm in Rodney’s voice.

“Okay,” John said happily. There wasn’t much for him to do as the jumper reacted instantly to his thought. It was a joy to just fly. No evasive manoeuvres, no fighting, no Darts or other ships that were after them. All he really had to do was enjoy the beautiful reactions of the ship as it flew smoothly through space. Even though he had had the opportunity to take a jumper out of the atmosphere quite a few times, it really never got old for John. “This is great,” John said without thinking and grinned at Rodney. “Just us with the whole universe open to fly in. No natives, no wonky energy readings. The jumper and-”

Rodney didn’t let him finish, “Yes, yes. I get it; don’t get all prose-y on me. You like flying.” His eyes only left the scanner for a moment, but there was that little half-smile that belied Rodney’s impatient hand-fluttering as habit rather than actually trying to shush John.

The first time John had laid eyes on Rodney he had never thought he’d ever consider this man a friend, much less his best friend. But there was something to the scientist that made John think he fit to him so well: Their sense of humour, the way they baited and teased each other in every situation. John loved Rodney’s sharp tongue and intellect. And even though the man was obviously an arrogant ass at times, he was a genius and had the right to think highly of himself, which didn’t mean John couldn’t knock him down a notch or two when the opportunity presented itself.

“You know, you could have just said that you’re having fun yourself,” John just said, enjoying the close mouthed expression and the widening of eyes that retort earned him. “Maybe I’d let you steer for a while if you asked nicely.”

Rodney rolled his eyes and looked back towards the scanner, “I won’t fall for that a second time.”

With a small grin John allowed himself the freedom of letting his eyes roam over Rodney’s body – just this once. “Maybe this time I’m not teasing,” he offered in a small voice, knowing that Rodney was thinking about the one time in the 302 and their close encounter with a sun on the way back to Atlantis.

The glance Rodney gave him was weighing and John could see the moment he decided to take him up on it. With all that had happened to them Rodney still wore his heart on his sleeve and his thoughts on his face. “Okay,” he said brightly. John was sure he wasn’t imagining Rodney’s joy at learning how to fly the jumper. “Once we’re finished with looking around?”

“Sure,” John agreed easily and watched as Rodney hummed happily to himself and smiled openly. Not something he did often lately. Carson’s death had hit all of them very hard, but especially Rodney. Of course John had known that the two of them had been close, but it hadn’t been until after Carson was gone that John had realised just how close they really were. John was sad to lose the man in such an unnecessary way, too, but he had seen too much in various combat situations to let it penetrate the walls he had built around himself.

Suddenly the scanner beeped. “Woah,” Rodney breathed, his eyes round as he turned to John. “You won’t believe this. I think we found something.”

“We did?” Craning his neck, John looked around, “I don’t see anything.” Then it came in sight. Whatever ‘it’ was, it was huge. Larger than the Daedalus. “What the. . . Rodney, what is this?”

Slowly turning to John with a beatific smile, Rodney laughed out loud. “This? This seems to be a shipyard, John. I don’t want to guess, but I think this is one of he places the Ancients used to build their Aurora class ships.” He waved the scanner around, indicating the view in front of them. “From the energy readings I’m getting I think it has at least one ZPM, if not more.” With a mischievous grin Rodney leaned closer. “And from what I can see here, they were in the process of building a ship when they up and left.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” John breathed. A shipyard, and an unfinished ship, possibly a ZPM. After the disasters of the past few months there could have been no better news. He turned to his right to pat Rodney on the back, when he came nose to nose with him. “I-“ he began, trying to convey how happy he was. Instead he turned, threw all of his reservations over board and leaned in, kissing Rodney.

For a moment Rodney was still. Quiet and unmoving to a point that made John think he had taken the wrong course of action. Then Rodney’s hands came up around John, pulling him closer, deepening the kiss.

When they parted Rodney sighed, “Took you long enough to gather up your courage, Colonel.”

John couldn’t help but laugh at the smugness the comment was delivered with. “I’m in the Air Force, Rodney; I had to be absolutely sure you wouldn’t have me written up. And you could have done something as well, you know?”

“Yes, of course, I’m sure ‘Colonel, would you like to come to my quarters and fuck me’ would have gone over so well. I gave you plenty of signals; don’t blame me because you were too dense to interpret them correctly.” The way Rodney reverently brushed his thumb over John’s lips was enough to take the sting out of the words. Then he turned back to his instruments. “You know this doesn’t mean we’ll find a ZPM we can take with us. Or that the ship will be actually flying anytime soon or ever. It could be just a piece of junk, drifting through space till the end of the uni-”

That’s when John decided he had heard enough and that unless he did something Rodney would take their first kiss in stride and just go back to work. Rather annoyed that Rodney’s reaction had been so by the way he pulled the man in for another kiss. If he had known a kiss could shut up Rodney so effectively he would have tried it a long time ago.

The End.