Title: Jelly
by: ellymelly
rated: G
pairing: Katie Brown/Rodney mckay and implied Sam/Rodney
Spoilers: Season 4 quarantine
Summary: Mckay seeks a little advice.
BLUE JELLY
Colonel Samantha Carter carefully applied a gentle force to her spoon. The stainless steel cut smoothly through the bright blue gelatine, quivering slightly as she lifted it from the glass for examination. Sam dropped her head down to look through the mound of jelly which threatened to topple onto the not-so-clean tabletop. The world beyond was a fuzzy, underwater playground. People hummed by in schools muttering things to each other, several delicate machines flashed synchronously along the food hall wall, and past the lunch room mayhem was a perfect view of the Atlantian city.
The weather on this planet was pleasant, choosing to sit at a mild summer temperature since they had arrived. Dr. Zelenka assured her that this would change come the winter, but by then a change would be welcome. Sam could think of nothing better than snowflakes wafting over the ocean and ice cascading off the roofs of Ancient buildings.
Sam quickly sat up, lowering her spoon. A grading voice had entered the room behind her and was busy tearing strips off the poor souls that had entered with it.
*~*~*
“…no, no, no! Your job is to watch, not touch. Most certainly not touch. Touching is a thing best left to the experts. Would all the experts please raise their hands? Well that seems to – put your hand down Groiden! As I said, no one touches the Ancient device but me. Can I hear four ‘yes Dr. Mckay’s’ please?”
A disgruntled group of scientists nodded first, then managed a quiet, ‘yes Dr. Mckay’. Dr. Meredith Mckay, who preferred to go by ‘Rodney’ for various unknown and potentially embarrassing reasons, seemed to be satisfied. He released his entourage into the wild and looked about the room.
Sadly, it was devoid of his favourite carbon units. They were the ones that would let him sit opposite and listen in on Atlantian gossip. Oddly, they had all but disappeared after he won a sizable bet against them concerning Major Lorne. He was yet to collect on said bet and was anxious to purchase tickets to the base wide, ‘Milkyway vs Pegasus Sparring Championship’. It was all very hush-hush, and the tickets especially difficult to get a hold of.
Hungry and tired of standing, he scanned the seething mass of humans for members of his team but all the tables were full, and none of them occupied by people he knew well enough to interrupt. Frowning, he let out a quiet, ‘hmm’ and moved over to the sizable lunch line. He instantly recoiled at the overpowering smell of citrus.
After some time leaning against the wall as the line shuffled forward, Mckay reached the servery. Browsing over the lunch options he noted a disturbing trend.
“Listen,” said Mckay in a sour mood, “I’m mortally allergic to citrus. What is that?” Rodney pointed to a congealed stew.
“Orange beef,” replied the young sever.
Mckay withdrew his pointing finger to a safe distance. “Oh,” he said, craning his neck to see around a rather stocky marine in front of him. “I’ll just have whatever that is then,” he finished, pointing to the only other option. He knew he should have come to lunch earlier, all the good stuff was gone. “Does it have citrus in it?”
The line behind Mckay shifted in frustration.
“It’s lemon chicken.”
*~*~*
In the middle of a mouthful, Sam’s peaceful lunch was interrupted yet again by the scathing dialogue behind her. Daniel Jackson had been right about Atlantis. ‘Beautiful’ he had said to her before she left. ‘Great views, exotic food, spacious rooms, walls and walls of knowledge, and a very irritating Mckay in the background.’
Sam sneaked a look at the self proclaimed genius. He was currently berating the lunch servery and apparently unaware of the military men in line behind him mentally locating their weapons and weighing up the pros and cons of court martial. Despite herself, she smiled.
*~*~*
With a sadly bare tray, Mckay progressed to the dessert area. A few distasteful flour-based items clustered around the bottom levels of the glass cabinet, drowning under various layers of cream. It was the top shelf and its brightly coloured condiments that interested him.
Jelly – there was no better food for someone waltzing around the edge of a hyperglycaemic reaction.
Rodney Mckay hated green jelly – it reminded him of limes. Red was risky, he had never been a fan of that food dye, besides, hadn’t it been on the possibly harmful chemical list last year? He was sure he remembered something about red dye being linked to diminished manhood. Orange was a no-no and he couldn’t even speak about yellow.
The only jelly he would eat was –
“Oh no…” Mckay dipped his head and rocked it from side to side, trying to see behind the displeasing items in front. “That is just so unfair.”
*~*~*
Sam flipped over to the last page of her report and scribbled a few notes at the end of it. She had been here for several months and still she could not get comfortable with the electronic displays that she was supposed to use for this job. As a technical person, this was considered very odd behaviour but for Sam, the tactile sense of paper reminded her of Earth.
A pleasant breeze drifted in through the open window followed by distant laughter. There were children swimming off the East Pier, splashing about in the ocean. It was getting toward the late afternoon and very soon a large contingent of amateur fishermen would line the wall off the landing bay, dangling their feet over the edge with the waves lapping ten foot underneath. She wanted to join them but being in charge meant just that – no breaks.
*~*~*
Taking his pitiful tray of burnt toast, water and a suspicious nut-embedded slice, Mckay located the only empty chair. Oh well, he thought, I’ll just have to suffer them.
Almost throwing his tray at the table, Mckay made a noisy arrival. “Urm,” he grunted, without looking up. Mckay bent forward to sniff the toast. The blackened object was surrounded by a light peppering of ash and glistened with melted butter. The smell of charcoal was quite overpowering, so he waved his hand across it, fanning away the offending fragrance.
On the verge of his first, hesitant bite, a glowing beacon of blue slid into his vision. Sitting in front of him was a treasure he had dreamed of since four am – a full glass of blue jelly. Mckay quickly wiped the corner of his mouth where a small trickle started to form.
Without thinking, he discarded the toast and pulled the jelly towards him. Taking a spoon that appeared, he woofed down a few mouthfuls of cool joy. “Mmm…” he said, dipping his spoon in for another helping.
“Happy Birthday Mckay.”
Rodney paused, mid-gobble. Sitting across from him was his boss and current fantasy of choice when facing certain death with time to spare. “Sam?”
Samantha Carter shrugged, “Zelenka said you were working late, so I saved you some.”
The paranoid portion of Rodney’s brain was busy calculating the likelihood of this being a joke at his expense set up in retribution for his previous betting victory. “Uh…” he started, forgetting that his spoon was dangling in the air. “It’s my birthday?” It was the only rational thing he could come up with.
Sam nodded, “Zelenka told me that as well.”
His birthday? Since when?
“Relatively speaking of course,” continued Sam, tapping her spoon against the side of her own jelly container. “Adding up the amount of time you have spent travelling at sub-light speed, in close proximity to black holes, out of phase, locked in time bubbles and deducting the few hours of conscious absence during your frequent near death experiences, today is your actual birthday.”
Mckay blinked, lowering his spoon. “So you bought me jelly?”
“No,” she replied quickly, sliding two small rectangular pieces of paper from the pouch in her clipboard.
Mckay watched as she nudged the objects in his direction. They were tickets to the infamous Milkyway vs Pegasus showdown next Thursday night. She was not supposed to know about that.
“See you there,” she whispered, quickly rising from the table. In a sweep of the hand, Sam gathered her things and disappeared into the lunch crowd leaving Mckay stunned.
“Good, good,” he stuttered finally when his lungs remembered to breathe. Mckay had just enough time to stash the tickets in his jacket pocket before another individual reluctantly took up seating opposite him. Mckay’s confused look evolved into a scowl as the sordid smell of lemon chicken wafted in his direction.
GREEN JELLY
Ferns draped down from the ceiling in a great curtain of green. Amongst this sharp veil were thousands of tiny gaps where the artificial lighting of the lab managed to peak through. Rodney ducked under a particularly long limb which brushed across the top of his head, spiking him in the ear. Rubbing the sore spot, Rodney forgot to look in front of him and smacked straight into an ill placed Atlantian pillar.
“Oww…” he cursed, bringing his hands to his face. Rodney felt dizzy from the enormous oxygen content which was not surprising considering the sheer volume of plant life crammed into the eight by eight metre room. It was a light feeling, almost like floating across the ground with an earth shattering headache.
Determined, he pushed forward, parting the jungle flora with his hands. Unbeknownst to him, the occasional spider slid down its silvery web and landed on Rodney’s light cotton shirt. Once attached, the spider would set to work scouting out the human landscape for the best possible location to set up shop.
Feeling a tickle behind his neck, Rodney ran a hand over his moist skin. The humidity was awful, almost drowning. Yelping in horror, he removed the scruffy brown spider.
“Who would ever do this voluntarily!” Rodney muttered his way through the jungle-like lab.
Just ahead, a tuft of brown hair peaked out from behind a rather spiky plant protruding from the wall. Its root system ran deep with several other spiny appendages poking out further up the wall. “I would,” said a sweet voice, peeling a leaf off Rodney’s shoulder as he emerged.
“Katie – ah, hi.” Rodney raised his hands in embarrassment then banished them to his pockets. “You look – well.”
Katie nodded encouragingly, hoping that Rodney would have the strength to continue whatever it was he came to say.
It took the socially challenged scientist a while, but eventually he managed to ask the very excited Katie out to dinner on the Peer. A sort of ‘picnic’ affair and hopefully as romantic as it sounded. Excruciatingly pleased with himself, Dr. Rodney Mckay decided that he needed food – immediately.
Rolling his eyes at the lack of blue on his favourite servery, Mckay took his beef stew and narrowly avoided a collision with Major Lorne as he hurried off to meet the newest Athosian. It was sweet, in a way, and it was made more so by his bet winnings.
“Kay!” exclaimed a little piggy-tailed girl from the other side of the room. She was no more than three foot tall and 4.3 years old, but she had a voice on her that could piece through lead shielding. At the highest speed attainable, she extended her arms to their full wingspan, and collided with Mckay’s knees.
Mckay’s beef stew coated the food tray as he stumbled backwards with the impact. Looking down, he saw that a small child had latched onto his legs. “Hello there, small child,” he managed with moderately pleasant tone. The girl looked up at him with enormous eyes until Mckay clicked his fingers. “Present, right…” He fumbled through his pocket with his free hand until he found a half used pen. Presenting it, the child released him from her grip and snatched up the pen. Seconds later she had vanished back into the lunch room crowd. Rodney frowned at his lunch tray, submerged in a brownish stew.
“Cute…”
Rodney looked around the room for the voice until he realised it was in his ear. “Headset,” he muttered, before clicking it on. “Hello… who was that?”
“Your fantasy,” replied his headset much to Rodney’s horror. “At least,” it continued, “so I’ve been told.”
Mckay whirled around, scanning the room for anyone acting suspiciously. It wasn’t until he extended his search field to the balcony that he saw a figure wave back. Deciding that he could do without the stew, (as he was most likely about to become one), Rodney set his tray down on a random table and stepped onto the balcony.
Samantha Carter nodded, then turned back to look out toward the ocean. She was starting to make a habit of spending her free time staring into the restless waves, and Rodney was on the verge of noticing.
“Might have guessed,” he said, leaning beside her on the railing.
“I don’t encourage her as much as you think, Rodney. She’s latched onto more than your knees.”
Rodney half smiled, “But I’m terrible with kids. She should latch onto Zelenka.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know what we’re going to do with them. They can’t stay here,” said Sam sadly, watching a few stragglers explore the deserted Atlantian streets. “Since you’ve destroyed their planet they’ve got nowhere else to go.”
Rodney’s ear twitched. “Their parents destroyed the planet, I simply couldn’t prevent it from happening! Besides, why can’t we keep them?”
Sam turned to stare at him. “Was that compassion?”
“No!” he pouted. “Even with my intergalactic gateway, we couldn’t let them all come to Earth. They’re a security risk, and with the Wraith back on the hunt, Pegasus is hardly child friendly.”
“Our intergalactic gateway,” she corrected, with a sharp poke to his arm.
“Yes, yes. Details.”
“Vital ones…”
They went quiet for a moment, Rodney slowly settling his gaze back onto the city. It was different now, between them. Comfortable almost. It was strange, Rodney could not remember having many female friends. There was his sister, but Jeanie was obligated by genetics to speak to him and Teyla was part of his team. Even then, he could never quite settle around her. Other than that, there was Katie Brown – and it was well beyond him why she hung about.
“Do you still despise me?” asked Rodney so suddenly that Carter startled. “I mean, I know we started off really badly – mostly your fault, but do you said once that you hated me, and I just wanted to – check…”
“I think we’ll be just fine, Mckay.”
“Because sometimes,” continued Rodney, in a rare moment of truth, “you feel like the only person who ever really ‘got’ me.”
Sam shifted uncomfortably, not used to this side of Mckay. She felt vulnerable for him, and found it hard not to place a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
“This is really difficult,” he muttered, deciding that this was the opportune moment, “but I really need to ask you an important question.”
Before Samantha Carter had a chance to respond, Rodney presented a suspiciously small black box. “Rodney…” she stammered, not sure what to think or what she felt.
He opened it, and a diamond glittered back. “Do you,” he stumbled, his eyes glued to her, “do you think she’ll like it?”
‘think she’ll like it…’ Sam thought for a moment.
“John said that it was all about the rock, but I’ve never done this before and I don’t know any other girls to ask. I mean, women.” He was fidgeting with it to such an extent that Sam could hardly see the thing.
“Katie?” said Sam quietly, taking the ring from his shaking hands. He merely nodded and returned his hands to his pockets. She held it up to the sunlight and blinked as the diamond sent a shard of refracted light across her eyes. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Mckay.”
Rodney smiled then flicked his head up, “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing…” she replied, snapping the lid shut and handing back the ring. “I think she’s going to love it.”
“But what if she says, ‘no’?”
“Then she says, ‘no’.” Sam repositioned herself on the railing, moving into the shade of a floating beam. Rodney looked like he might snap in half from the permafrost of fear. “Stop fretting,” she instructed, pulling him off the railing. “Any idiot can see she’s smitten – now go get her.”
“But –” pleaded Rodney, looking for excuses that didn’t exist.
“No ‘buts’ Mckay. If you love her, then you better tell her.” Sam managed to nudge the frightened Mckay back into the lunch room and point him in roughly the right direction so that he wouldn’t have to think too much.
Once Rodney had disappeared back into the crowd, Sam went back to surveying the city below. Daniel had jokingly challenged her to visit every building – not surprisingly he was yet to make it out of the first and she had not fared much better. This place must be pretty special to have turned Mckay into something resembling a human being. She wondered what it would do to her.
TBC
