Rodney was glad when Cait said she'd go with him. He'd clammed up enough times in his life over things that had happened to know that it did no good, and if it hadn't been for his husband and wife, he'd still be holding a lot of things inside. He'd most likely still be on Earth too, stressed out and unhappy. But they had forced him to open up, and he wasn't going to let his wife pull in on herself with this.
Not when he was pretty sure he understood how she felt.
We'll be fine, he promised Carson before they left the suite and headed out of the hotel and down to a small nearby playground. Rodney held his wife's hand tight all the way there, and once they had sat down on one of the benches, he wrapped his arms around her, holding her close.
"There's a lot to say," he told her softly. "Starting with what this is doing to you, for one."
Putting his finger under her chin, he lifted her face up to look at him.
"Do you know the reason I've never talked about my parents?" he asked her. "It's because they didn't want me either. Not for the same reasons, but still..." He sighed softly. "Anything that went wrong for my parents was my fault, according to them. They were having money troubles; it was because of me. People were talking about them in the neighborhood; it was because I was different. Jeannie did something they didn't like; it was because of my influence. When I turned eighteen, they pretty much made it clear that I was on my own."
He ran his hand over her temple and pushed her hair back. "So I know how much it hurts when your parents reject you. And I know how much it hurts to have to keep it inside. So whatever you need to do - whether it's talk or cry or scream...I'm here, okay?"