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Ask anyone, and they'd agree, Dr. Rodney McKay had an electric personality.
John snorted. Yeah, but they hadn't meant anything like this. "How are you doing there, buddy?"
"How do you think I'm doing?" Rodney held up his hand. Tiny frizzes of electric current snapped back and forth between his fingertips. "This should not be possible." He sounded both fascinated and horrified.
"So, feeling a little snappish?" The lab wasn't always this entertaining, but today made up for it.
Rodney glared. "Very funny, Sheppard. I think you fail to appreciate the severity of this. It's a miracle I'm not dead."
"And we're all very grateful for that."
"This is so not fair. You're the one always touching stuff you shouldn't. This should have happened to you, not me."
"Gee, thanks, Rodney. Your concern is touching."
He leaned against Rodney's desk and tried to take the situation seriously. It was a little hard to do with the way Rodney kept reaching for stuff and zapping it in the process. The pens and markers on his desk all suffered from being lightly scorched. Not to mention Rodney's magnetic personality. There was a paper clip stuck to his cheek, and John was just waiting for him to notice it.
"Hey, this isn't like the personal shield, is it?" John asked. "Maybe you can 'think' it off."
"I've tried!" Rodney laid his head in his hands. Not a great idea for a genius. He quickly pulled his hands away from his face, but not before the static feedback made all of the hair on his head stand up straight. "I hate this!"
"I know you do, buddy. What did Carson say?" John pulled his hand back, stopping short of patting Rodney on his shoulder. He shoved his hands into his pockets.
"None of the medical scanners work around me. That didn't stop him from drawing a gallon or two of blood. He said he'd get back to me when he knew something. I still think my best bet is figuring out what the device is supposed to do. But I can't use my laptop without shorting it out."
"Ah, McKay." Radek raised one finger for attention.
He was sitting in a corner on the far side of the room. He had one protective arm around his laptop and kept shooting wary looks in Rodney's direction. John couldn't blame him for that.
Rodney turned to glare at him. "What!?"
"I found something in the database."
Rodney moved to stand up, and Radek raised his hand. "Stop where you are, McKay, before you fry my laptop too."
John could honestly say he felt sorry for Rodney. Not being able to access any of the computers had to be torture for him. "What have you got, Dr. Z?"
"I may not have interpreted this correctly. Perhaps it would be best if we had Dr. Weir or Miko double-check my translation," Radek warily cautioned.
"Just tell us what you think it says," Rodney said wearily.
Radek nodded. "Very well. That device you touched, did you notice it resembled a heart? In the traditional Valentine's shape, not a human organ."
"Now that you mention it, it did have a sort of heart shape. Maybe McKay was affected by it because he doesn't have a heart. Ow!" John rubbed his shoulder where Rodney had shocked him. "There was no call for that. I was kidding."
"Oh? Well, in that case, my hand must have slipped," Rodney said with mock innocence.
John raised his eyebrows in response, along with a cocky smile. He wasn't actually annoyed with Rodney. Underneath all that bluster was a very scared astrophysicist. They hadn't been friends for the last three years without learning how Rodney ticked. The teasing was a distraction, and one John knew Rodney needed.
He hadn't seen Rodney eat or drink anything since he'd touched the damn Ancient device. John couldn't care less what the device looked like. He cared about finding a way to stop or reverse its effects. "McKay, have you been able to eat or drink anything since this happened?"
"I haven't tried." He held up his hand. Erratic parks flew back and forth between his fingers. "What if I try to drink a glass of water and accidentally electrocute myself?"
Okay, so maybe this was worse than John had pictured. "Radek, read us what you've got!"
Pushing his glasses up on his nose, Radek said, "There is mention of the device flickering through a rainbow of colors, with the color stabilizing when its function is complete. Does that describe what happened, Rodney?"
"No. Sort of. It was still cycling through the color spectrum when I let go. Excuse me for wanting to pull away before it ate my hand. I need my hands!"
"In other words, it never got to finish doing its thing." John had a bad feeling about this. The expression on Radek's face wasn't exactly encouraging.
Radek continued reading, adding, "My first guess was that it had something to do with ascension, but it does not. Not according to this. This is unlike anything we have come across in the database before."
"Well!?" Rodney snapped.
"It seems the Ancients believed in soulmates. There is a 98% chance that this device was designed to find a person's soulmate. You see, it is meant to be used by two people at the same time. If the color settled on any color that was not blue, the couple was not a match."
"It's a soulmate detector. Didn't see that coming," John drawled.
Meanwhile, Rodney's cheeks were turning a furious shade of pink. "Let me see that!" He reached for Radek's laptop. Sparks flew. The display turned black, and whiffs of smoke rose up from the hard drive.
Radek glared at Rodney. "It's lucky for you that I already uploaded all the information to the central server. We haven't lost it, no thanks to you."
"I'm sorry! It's just I thought it…."
John was beginning to suspect that Rodney hadn't accidentally touched the device. No, indeed. Something else was going on in that busy head of his." You thought what, Rodney?"
"I thought it would help me be more attractive to people. I know I'm not—I'm not you, Sheppard. I thought that I could use it to help me get a date."
Rodney looked miserable. John could have told him, 'I think you're plenty attractive'. Or, 'I like you just the way you are'. He even could have said, 'I like spending time with you', but none of that was going to solve Rodney's immediate problem.
Thankfully, Radek spoke up before John slipped up and said any of that.
He'd grabbed up a second laptop and had it connected to the server. "Just as I suspected. If you want your unfortunate condition to stop, you will need to try the device again. The cycle needs to be allowed to finish. This time with two people."
John felt his stomach drop. While he didn't believe in soulmates, that didn't negate the possibility. So, if the Ancient device worked the way Radek said it did, Rodney's soulmate was out there, somewhere. Stiffly, he said, "I just remembered, I've got to do a thing."
"You're leaving? Now? I thought we could do this together." Rodney said, looking dismayed.
John, certain Rodney didn't mean doing this together as in pairing up to use the device together—a surprisingly painful thought. Simply said, "I'll check back in with you later."
Yeah, he felt like a heel for walking away. But he knew those two would be putting together a list of names. Names of people with the potential to be Rodney's soulmate. And, right now, John didn't have the stomach for it.
Maybe after he got some distance. Or ran twenty miles, or let Teyla beat him with sticks. God, what was wrong with him? Rodney had every right to happiness. That's what finding your soulmate meant, didn't it?
Feeling even worse, if that were possible, John decided he'd make it up to Rodney by coming up with a list of his own and giving it to him. There was Katie Brown, Marie Nguyen from medical, and Dr. Sarah Simpson. There you go, he'd thought of three people right off the top of his head.
John decided that if he wanted to cover all his bases, he should include Dr. Hans Forsberg, a blond, blue-eyed, very male scientist who, so far, hadn't run afoul of Rodney's temper. He was an environmental scientist of some kind. He might be a viable possibility, or it might be a disaster in the making.
Okay, he had four names, and John already hated every one of them.
Not ready to trot down to the lab and hand over his list, John stopped by the mess for coffee and a slice of pie. Delaying? What delaying? Although it gave him new insight to General O'Neill.
He took his time, only to regret it later when he saw the line outside the door of McKay's lab. The same lab the device was in. There had to be twenty-five people waiting their turn to get inside.
Cautiously, John asked the first person he saw, "What's going on?"
"We're all here to see if we're Dr. McKay's soulmate."
"Oh, really!? All of you? Explain."
It took John a minute to place the scientist. Crandall, Dr. Henry Crandall, PhD in…something. Sociology! John sighed with relief. Fat chance of any sociologist ever being Rodney's soulmate.
"Dr. Zelenka researched the soulmate detector. We all knew about it because he'd loaded it on the central server. Oh, I see you already knew about that. Did you also know that he found out soulmates can't be fed on by the Wraith?"
Crandall lowered his voice and confessed, "I don't think anyone here actually wants to be Dr. McKay's soulmate. We just want a chance at the device. I know the odds are likely against it, but we're all hoping to find someone here who's our soulmate."
"Hold that thought, Crandall." John pushed his way through the line. Fine. Not so much pushed as people moved out of his way in a hurry as soon as they saw his face.
Now that he was here, John schooled his expression to something less grim and determined. "Rodney, what's going on?"
"You mean all these people?" Rodney looked exhausted. Bright sparks crackled from his fingertips and along the top of his head. That was new.
John's gut clenched. "What the hell happened?" He wanted to reach out and touch Rodney. Wanted to feel with his own hands that Rodney was still okay. He didn't.
Radek, who was still here, piped up, "It's from using the device too often and not waiting long enough in between uses. We think. Each time it's worse for him. Colonel Sheppard, can you do something to make those people leave?"
John didn't hesitate. He radioed security and made his command short and pointed. "They'll take care of it. Now, tell me exactly what happened."
"Everyone is looking to save their own skin. I know—I know, they don't actually want to find out they're my soulmate. It's a relief really. It's not like any of them are near my level of intelligence."
John sat down next to him. The device sat between them, humming softly. "How many times have you tried?"
"Four so far," Rodney glumly answered.
"I was first. We had to test it. It did not go as expected." Radek's hair looked like he'd stuck his finger in an electric socket. In a manner of speaking, John supposed he had.
Bleakly, Rodney added, "Three others after that. All received mild shocks. The device seeks out a connection, and when it doesn't find it— "
"For a smart man, he is an idiot," Radek blurted. "I warned him many times to stop. The device causes a jump of—bah—electricity is not the correct word, but similar. It jumps between the two subjects and continues to seek a connection. When there is none, it returns to Rodney, only amplified. I believe it is why his condition escalated."
"Jesus, McKay, you need to stop doing this right now!" John reached for the device, ready to throw it in the ocean, or in a volcano, or anywhere else that would keep Rodney from using it again.
The connection hit him like every cell in his body was being hit with adrenaline all at once. John shook. His vision was blurry with tears, but he could feel Rodney's hand gripping his wrist. Obviously, he'd tried to stop John from touching the device, but was too late.
"Sheppard!"
Blinking furiously, his vision cleared. Rodney was right there, looking as worried and unsettled as John felt. "I'm okay. I think. What the hell happened?"
Rodney was still holding onto him, but he wasn't sparking anymore. No little electric fireflies swarming around his head or his hands. If anything, his hand felt cool and soothing where it was still wrapped around John's wrist.
He was finding it hard to meet Rodney's eyes. What the hell just happened? John didn't—hadn't—believed in soulmates. He did now. He lifted his head to meet Rodney's worried eyes.
Wryly, Rodney said, "Of course, it would be you."
"What? What, of course?" Radek asked, edging closer.
"It worked, Radek," Rodney quietly said. "Sheppard and I are soulmates."
"Surely not. You and the Colonel? How do you know this for certain?"
"We know, Radek." John didn't hang around for any more questions. He pushed away from the table and high-tailed it out of there.
He avoided the labs and Rodney for the rest of the day. Yes, he felt like a jerk for bolting out of the room like that. John knew Rodney had been dealing with this craziness for a lot longer, which made it even worse.
He should have known Teyla would be the one to come to check on him. She'd caught him on the way to the gym.
"John, are you alright? I heard what happened."
She reached out her hand, and John flinched away. "Don’t touch me! Sorry. It's a…." The words caught in his throat. "It's a soulmate thing."
Fuck. He didn't know how he knew that, but he did. If anyone other than Rodney touched him, it would feel like porcupine quills scraping across his skin. Hopefully, that feeling would pass, but today wasn't the day to test it.
Teyla's face warred between concerned and happy for him. "Then it's true? Surely that is a great thing. Why are you finding it so difficult? Does Rodney know?"
"Yeah, he knows." Of course, Rodney knew, and John had acted like a jerk about it instead of trying to work this thing out together.
"I see." With a small sigh, she added. "You need to talk to him. This isn't meant for you to handle on your own."
She was right, and like it or not, his gut knew it. With a sharp nod, John headed for the Mess.
Rodney was there, just like John knew he'd be. John pulled out the chair across the table from him. The chair legs screeched loudly against the floor. Every head in the room turned to look, but Rodney just ignored it all.
He continued to eat, as if nothing had happened. As if John hadn’t run out on him. Literary run out of the room. "I'm sorry," John said softly.
"Don't bother apologizing. It makes it worse." Finally, Rodney raised his head to look at him, mouth dipped down in an unhappy line. "I drive away the one person I supposedly belong with, and you can't even…." He turned his face away. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised."
"No. It's not like that," John reached for Rodney's hand. His fingers curled around Rodney's wrist. There was that feeling again. Soothing, calm acceptance. This time, John had no intention of running away.
Before he could explain, Dr. Simpson came up to the table. Four other scientists stood behind her, anxiously peering over her shoulder. They were joined by another three civilians and two sheepish-looking members of the military.
Simpson nervously pushed a strand of her long, blond hair behind her ear and asked. "Excuse us, Dr. McKay, but are you sure the soulmate detector is broken?"
"I'm sure. Now go find something productive to do before I zap you!"
Liar. John knew he was lying because, for one, Rodney had just taken a big sip of coffee (something he wouldn't have risked trying earlier), and two, John could read him like a book.
"That’s your new threat to keep your staff in line? What are you going to do when they find out you've lost that ability?"
"Don't tell them! With luck, I can get another week out of this before they catch on."
John waited until everyone was out of hearing distance and asked, "It's really broken?"
"It's out of power, and we have no idea how to recharge it or if it even can be recharged." For the first time, since John had sat down, the corner of Rodney's mouth hitched up in a tiny grin. "Seems like you and I were too much for it to handle."
John smiled back in relief. Maybe, just maybe, he hadn't completely screwed things up. To his surprise, the one question he wasn't going to ask slipped out, "Is being touched by other people an issue?"
"Oh, god, yes. Radek bumped into me in the lab this morning. Almost made me drop the multi-meter. He made a grab for it and hit my hand. Felt like icy sandpaper scraping across my skin."
John nodded. "Same. It's weird and creepy."
He was trying to figure out how to ask if this was going to be a permanent condition when Rodney said, "I have an idea about that."
"Okay."
"We're experiencing a negative resonance because, at least initially, the soulbond expects we will…." Rodney's voice dropped to a whisper. "I think we're only supposed touch each other until the bond settles. After that, touch should return to normal."
"Oh." He wasn't quite sure what to do with that. Slowly, a warm bubble of happiness rose in his chest. John tried to clamp down on it. He and Rodney still had a lot to work out before they were anywhere near that step.
Rodney pushed his tray away. "Carson wants to see us. I've tried to put him off. But someone named Radek clued him in. Now he knows I can't fry the medical equipment just by walking in the room, he's getting pushy about it."
"I can imagine." He got it. Carson had to be chomping at the bit for a chance to study what had happened to Rodney. Even as he thought it, John knew that wasn't entirely fair. Carson genuinely cared about everyone. Of course, he'd want to make sure they were okay, and he'd probably stick each of them in the ass with a hefty vitamin shot for good measure.
Sharing a glance was enough to agree they might as well get this over with.
The exam took almost an hour for each of them. If Carson had a scanner he didn't use, John had no idea where he was hiding it. His arm was beginning to feel like a pincushion. John picked at the tape holding the gauze in place while he waited for Rodney's latest scan to finish. "Are we done?"
"Aye. There's nothing more to do. There's still a test result or three to come back, but as near as I can tell, you're both fine. Carson finished readying John's vitamin shot, kindly saying, "Drop 'em, lad. Let's get this over with."
John hoped that would be the end of it. Right up until Carson asked, "How is it both you and Rodney are so sure you're soulmates? There's not a whisper of physical evidence."
How did he explain that moment when suddenly he'd been able to see himself through Rodney's eyes? That he knew with dead certainty that Rodney was seeing himself through his?
The cross-tangle of emotion and thought had left him reeling. Acceptance, forgiveness, and a level of admiration John didn't think he deserved, but that's how Rodney saw it. And this was without adding in the wave of love coming through the bond.
So John had run. Given the number of times he'd screwed up in his life, how was he supposed to just accept all that? The soulbond wasn't telepathic, but Rodney must have known what was going through his mind anyway because he came to John's rescue.
Rodney pushed between John and Carson. "Give it a rest. John and I are still working this out. Give us forty-eight hours, then we'll come back, and you can redo all the tests you want."
Carson sighed. "I suppose that will give me time to go over your test results. Very well. Forty-eight hours, but you'd both better show up, or I'll have Ronon track you down."
John didn't even try to keep the relief from his voice. "We'll be here."
Rodney took his vitamin shot with as much stoic manliness as one would expect— none at all. He bitched, yelled a litany of voodoo accusations, and kept Carson so distracted that the Doc forgot to ask John any more awkward questions.
Huh? Just how long had Rodney been using that redirect technique? And why had John never realized it before? He'd always known there was more to Dr. Rodney McKay than people assumed, and he'd still missed this.
His gaze locked with Rodney's, and a happy shiver ran down his spine. Oh, yeah, there was a lot more to explore, and John was done wasting time. He held out his hand.
Rodney looked down at John's hand. Looked back up at his face. His eyes widened, and he tentatively reached out to take John's hand. "Are you sure?" he asked.
"Very." The moment their hands connected, soothing acceptance touched with joy pulsed between them. He had no idea what Carson saw, but John heard him gasp and bump into an instrument table, nearly knocking it over.
They had forty-eight hours. They had a lifetime.
"I like this plan."
"What…oh, this plan." Rodney worked his hand up under John's shirt. "The skin-to-skin plan."
"That's the one." John leaned into his touch.
Sadly, it got to be too much too soon. They separated, both breathing heavily. John's head was reeling with the desire for more.
Rodney looked wrecked. Shirt open and hanging off his shoulders, hair in wild tuffs where John had run his fingers through it, and with an obvious bulge in his pants. He held up his hand to ward John off. "Can't. Not yet. It's—"
"Too intense?" John couldn't help his inner smirk. He'd done this to Rodney. A sweet, delicious shiver ran over his skin at just the thought of touching this man—his soulmate—again. But Rodney was right. It was too much all at once. If they ever get to actually having sex, it might kill him.
Rodney, cheeks flushed and eyes bright, began buttoning his shirt. "It should get easier as we, ah, get accustomed to this countercurrent flow of input."
"Right. Good to know." Countercurrent flow of input. That was one way to put it. He'd have called it a kick-in-the-ass feedback loop. When he touched Rodney, he knew what Rodney felt as if they were sharing the same skin.
It got confusing as to whose hands were whose. For a moment there, he'd felt like he was touching himself—and getting off on it with double the intensity. So, yeah, it was going to take some getting used to.
Forty-eight hours later, Carson had given them a clean bill of health, more or less. He still couldn't find physical proof of a soulmate connection, and it had him baffled. That said, he'd allowed, somewhat reluctantly, that John could return to full duty, and Rodney could go back to work.
Back to work and back to routine. Except for the soulmate thing. John knew he needed to find out if or how it might affect his team in the field. He arranged a mission for the next day and felt good about getting back to normal.
Unfortunately, back to normal turned out to be a Wraith-sized slap in the face.
"Where did they all come from?!" Rodney screeched. He'd ducked down behind one of the temple's remaining standing pillars. He had his P-90 raised and ready to fire.
"We can figure it out later!" John yelled back. "Shoot!"
Ronon and Teyla had found decent positions behind large blocks of fallen rubble and were busy firing at the group of six Wraith that had dropped in from nowhere. John, as much as he wanted to work his way over to Rodney, worked his way to a better firing position instead. The more of these bastards he could take down, the better off they'd all be.
How the hell had this cake-walk of a mission gone belly-up so fast, and with no warning? Since no people lived anywhere near here, the Wraith had to be scouts. Scouting what, John didn't feel it necessary to ask.
He shot down one, Ronon got two, and Teyla had seriously injured one and was moving in for the kill. He moved to reposition for a better shot at number five when an icy sensation wrapped around John's spine.
He didn't need to look to know that Rodney was in trouble. God-damn it. Somehow, number six had gotten past them. The Wraith held Rodney up by the neck with one hand while his feeding hand was poised over Rodney's chest. John fired, but the Wraith didn't even flinch.
Six pushed his hand against Rodney's chest and began to feed. Then stopped. The Wraith stared down at his hand and yowled like a cat whose tail had been stomped on. With one last snarl, he keeled over dead.
John ran to Rodney. "Are you okay? Let me see!"
"I'm fine. He touched me but didn't feed, I don't think. I don't feel fed on."
Wanting to tear off Rodney's vest and shirt to see for himself, John almost forgot about the other Wraith. Ronon's yell of "Sheppard!" pulled his attention back to his teammates.
Ronon and Teyla stood over the last Wraith, looking puzzled.
"It's dead, but I didn't do it. Neither did Teyla," Ronon said. "Like the other one, it just stopped breathing and fell over."
"We don't know what happened, John, but it is most definitely dead." Teyla considered the body for a moment, then shot the Wraith in the head to ensure it would stay dead. She turned to Rodney and asked, "Are you all right?"
"Fine. Except for the twinge in my back. Not that I haven't had worse, but dangling from a Wraith's hand is probably the—well, there was the time I hung upside down—"
"He's fine," John interrupted, knowing Rodney could go on like that for fifteen minutes. Besides, he was fine. John could feel it through the bond. How weird was that? He looked at the two Wraith that had just keeled over dead for no apparent reason. Looked like this was going to be a day for weird.
Later, after he'd turned in his report, he headed out to find Rodney. John walked into the lounge to find the whole team getting ready to watch a movie.
Rodney was dumping popcorn into a bowl. "Hey, you're here already! I was just about to radio you and tell you to get your ass over here. Ronon's picking the movie tonight. I don't know which one he'll choose, but I'm betting it's not a repeat of Blades of Glory."
Rodney grinned and passed the bowl his way. John's soulmate. His destiny. A brilliant man with popcorn stuck between his teeth.
He ducked his head and grinned. Rodney was, without a doubt, the most authentic person John could ever hope to meet.
"What's so funny?" Rodney asked, baffled.
"It's nothing. Really. I just realized how well suited we are for each other."
Rodney's well—dah face could have won prizes. "Soulmates not a big enough clue?"
Arching his brows, John deliberately let his fingers brush Rodney's as he took the bowl. The mutual shiver of pleasure elicited a soft moan from both of them.
"Ronon has chosen Star Wars. Again," Teyla said, dragging their attention back to the room. "Is there any chance you could make a working model of the desert racers, Rodney? I can think of any number of uses. To have such a device to help deliver trade goods for one."
John suspected she'd butted in on purpose to keep him and Rodney from making idiots of themselves in front of them. He probably ought to thank her for that. "I'll have Rodney put it on his to-do list."
In response, Rodney threw up his hands. "Oh, of course. Because that's such a practical use of my time! I could be doing a dozen more important things, like working on recharging a ZedPM or strengthening jumper shields or—"
Bumping shoulders, John said, "She gets it, Rodney. It was a joke. It was a joke, wasn't it, Teyla?"
"Perhaps. And perhaps we need to talk about what happened in the field today."
"Yeah," Ronon pitched in. "The Wraith tried to feed on McKay and then keeled over dead. Sounds to me like the soulmate stories are true."
Rodney shook his head. "I don't know what happened. I thought I was a goner. I was too relieved that I wasn't dead to pay much attention."
"And we all are immensely glad of that, Rodney. Still, what happened needs to be explored. Those two Wraith were connected somehow. And no, John," Teyla said, with a lift of her eyebrow, "I do not mean a disturbance in the force."
She turned serious again. "We know the Wraith use telepathic communication. Could what happened to the Wraith that attacked Rodney transfer to the other in some way?"
"They were from the same hive. Maybe that was part of it," Ronon suggested. "Hey, Sheppard, did you put that in your report?"
"Not exactly. I said we were attacked. Between us, we made six kills, and we should be more careful about returning to that planet."
Ronon and Teyla exchanged a glance. Solemnly, she said, "I believe it was wise not to mention it, John. It's not an experiment anyone should repeat."
"Do you think really they'd try?" Rodney's shoulders sagged. "Never mind. Of course they would. Some people wouldn't hesitate to use me as Wraith bait."
Yeah, not that he'd admit it, but that cheerful little thought had been in the back of John's mind when he'd left any mention of the Wraith's weird death out of his report. With nothing left to discuss, they all settled in and watched the movie.
John spent most of it thinking about kissing Rodney.
Three days later, not that John was counting, the physical pull of the bond eased. The mental pull remained, but he was cool with that. Frankly, his ego got a boost every time he saw himself through Rodney's eyes. He still had doubts about deserving that kind of unwavering faith, but he'd take Rodney's full-on acceptance of his dreams and flaws any day of the week.
Rodney never said what it was like seeing himself through John's eyes. But every once in a while, he'd smile to himself, his whole face softening in that moment.
For now, with Rodney snuggled up against his side, John realized they'd need to find larger quarters and a bigger bed. Kitchen facilities would be nice too. Might as well ask for a great view while he was at it.
"You're thinking too hard." Rodney's hand drifted down toward John's naked groin.
"I thought you were sleeping." John shifted to give Rodney easier access. As a bonus, that put Rodney's bare ass in easy reach. He gave it a friendly, howdy-there squeeze.
"Time?" Rodney murmured against his ear, one hand busy fisting John's cock.
Damn, John loved a man who could multitask. He checked the time. "Twenty minutes, if we save time by showering together."
"Well then…." Rodney pushed John down and straddled him. "You're already hard, and I'm still loose from your fingers. What can we possibly find to do with all that time?"
Rodney rolled his hips, and John thumped his head down against the pillow with a groan. Twenty minutes? He'd be lucky if he lasted five.
Seven minutes later, and feeling damn proud of himself he'd made it that long, he pulled Rodney into a kiss. There needed to be a lot more kissing in their future, including mapping Rodney's entire body with his mouth.
But, for now, he had a lazy, spent Rodney on his hands and Rodney's spunk pooling on his chest.
"Shower time."
"Nghhh."
"Are you going to make me push you out of the bed?" John teased.
Rodney kissed him. He kissed John's mouth, his brow, his chin, the point of his nose, and even the tips of his ears. Rodney began working his way down, and he looked like he intended to keep going. John poked his shoulder. "Hey, that was my idea!"
"Just goes to show," Rodney hummed around a nipple, "pretty flyboys can have a bright idea every once in a while. Besides, I can reward brilliance when I see it."
At this rate, they were going to miss the meeting entirely. Manfully, John ignored temptation. He climbed out of bed and extended a hand to Rodney. "I couldn't get it up with a crane right now, and I know you couldn't either, but hold that thought for later."
"Fine, I'm up! Go get the shower started while I start the coffee. As soon as I can rub two brain cells together, we should figure out what to say at the meeting. And why the hell am I this awake this early? This is your fault, bleeding all your seven a.m. alertness through the bond."
"Because the hot sex had nothing to do with it?" John smirked. Grabbing up a couple of towels, he headed for the bathroom. "You've got two minutes to get your ass in here, or I'm coming out and dripping all over you!"
"Like I haven't heard that before," Rodney snarked. "Yes, yes. I'll be there in two minutes." He flapped a hand in John's direction, but he was already measuring out the coffee grounds.
Elizabeth opened the meeting with, "Gentlemen, we should find out what else this soulmate bond can do. I understand that the two of you have gained the ability to sense where your partner is at any time. Is that correct?"
John sat up straighter. "We haven't put it to the test, but yes."
"But you know enough to know this isn't any kind of compulsion?"
Rodney snorted, "If there were, I'd have Sheppard bringing me coffee three times a day. So, no, Elizabeth, we can't compel anything."
He got that right, John thought. Trying to force anything on each other would boomerang right back. Early on, Rodney had tried to use their link to convince John to bring him a fresh cup of coffee. Of course, he had. John's hell-no response had resulted in Rodney's spilling the dregs of his cold coffee all over himself.
He bit his lip. This wasn't the time to think about how Rodney had apologized for it. John felt the back of his neck warm at the memory. Damn it. Definitely not the time to think about it.
Elizabeth shuffled through some of the papers on her desk, pulling one close. "There's a rumor that the Wraith can't feed off a soulmate. I see that on your latest mission, Colonel, you were attacked by the Wraith and returned with no casualties. Would you care to elaborate?"
Teyla's cautious warning flashed through his head. "Nope. Taking out the Wraith was a team effort. Just like the report says."
Elizabeth leaned back in her chair. "I see. I called this meeting because SG-1 is very interested in this device."
Her gaze landed squarely on Rodney. "Both you and Dr. Zelenka have reported that the device is out of power. However, Col. Carter seems to think she can get it working again. So, if you have any further information to share…."
John's eyes widened. Rodney was the absolute worst at keeping secrets, and Elizabeth knew it.
Tapping the table, he said, "Let's see, there was that business of electricity cycling through my hands making it impossible to do anything useful. I couldn't touch electronics or people without shocking them. And no matter what Radek says about his hair, I'm fairly sure it was already like that."
"That's all in your report, Rodney. I'd like to know what isn't," Elizabeth pressed.
If John could have gotten away with burying his face in his hands, he would have. The last thing he needed was certain details put out there in front of his boss. Things like how it felt to have his cock buried deep in Rodney's ass while the feedback loop made it feel like his own ass was being stretched wide.
He sent a desperate, silent plea to Rodney. And no, Rodney couldn't read his mind. Instead, they'd become like those couples that had been married for fifty years, finishing each other's sentences. Thank God, it turned out to be enough.
"What's SG-1's interest in it?" Rodney asked, effectively derailing Elizabeth.
Rather than meet anyone's eyes, her gaze shifted to her paperwork. "They should be the ones to tell you that. The SGC wants us to have the device safely secured and all pertinent information ready to send through the gate in one hour. Dismissed."
Elizabeth was out the door before anyone else. As they left the conference room, John said, "That was weird. You think that's weird, right?"
"What I think," Rodney said, "Is that Sam will be able to fix it and wants to use the device to prove O'Neill is her soulmate. Elizabeth just got caught in the middle."
John started laughing.
"What? What's so funny?" Rodney demanded.
"Think Rodney. Think about everything you know about SG-1," John waited.
It took a minute, then Rodney's mouth dropped open. "Oh my God. Sam's not O'Neill's soulmate. Jackson is."
"Yep." He threw his arm over Rodney's shoulders. "And, just to be safe, I think it's a good idea if we don't plan on any vacations to Earth for a while."