Futura Memoratia

Chapter 8 scitor (seek)

Rodney escorted Katie back to her quarters.  He’d hoped she might let him in tonight, but she cited fatigue and the late hour to put him off and he had to settle for a fairly platonic kiss goodnight before she shut the door in his face.  He sighed.  He wasn’t completely sure if it was still Cadman’s bizarre kiss hanging between them, or if she was just naturally reserved and cautious, but they’d been on several dates over the last couple of months and she hadn’t let him get any farther than second base.  It seemed that she was going to make him wait a really, really long time for any kind of real physical affection.  

He shrugged that off and mulled over the events of the day as he plodded back to his own quarters.  The mission had been such a simple one—to check out the rumors of a local superhero and establish some trade relations with a backwards village.  How quickly everything had gone sour when Kolya showed up.  At least the bastard was dead now, but it had been touch and go there for a few minutes.  First his own life had been in immediate peril and then Sheppard’s.  Thank God Sheppard was fast on the trigger.  It could have easily gone the other way.  He rubbed the scar on his right forearm where one of Kolya’s minions had sliced him when they tried to take the city.  He would have that scar for the rest of his life to remember that son of a bitch.  He was glad he was finally dead.

At least picking up another shield was a bonus.  He was surprised he’d been able to talk it out of Lucius, but it’d been pretty clear to Lucius immediately that the thing was depleted.  Emily would charge it up and maybe he could talk Elizabeth into letting him use one of them on some of the more dangerous missions.  Emily.  When had he stopped thinking of her as Dr. Freedman?

She seemed different tonight.  From the second he walked in the door and startled her, she seemed different.  Even nicer than before, warmer.  She didn’t seem to hold a grudge.  He frowned.  But it went beyond that.  Why would she give him her last soda?  Soda was more highly prized than just about any Earth-born luxury around here.  Maybe she didn’t know that yet.  Either way, it was still pretty generous, given that she wouldn’t be able to get more.

She’d read his mission reports; that was clear.  That in itself wasn’t unusual.  He himself had read many of the reports from the SGC, particularly those of SG-1.  She would have wanted to know what she might be getting into before coming to Pegasus.  But she had read his reports and expressed sympathy for what he’d been through over the last two-plus years.  She had expressed understanding.  These were things he didn’t get from anyone.  No, all he got from everyone else was annoyance, criticism, and high expectations.  She was different.  Having her around could be good for him.

He arrived at his quarters and took off his boots and socks, wiggling his toes gratefully.  It felt good to let his toes breathe after a long day in military boots.  He started to strip down to take a shower, intending on rinsing off the remains of the terrible day, when he stopped suddenly, thinking.  He wasn’t tired anymore.  Not really.  Once he tapped into a second wind like this, he’d probably just lay there awake for a couple of hours, thinking.  No, no—his brain wasn’t going to shut off any time soon.

He started to put his shirt back on, but caught a whiff of it.  He grunted, frowning, located a clean version of the same shirt, and pulled that on instead, ducking into the bath for a fresh layer of deodorant.  He left his jacket where it had fallen on the floor and grabbed a fresh one of those too as he headed for the door.  Once out in the corridor, he happened to look down and realized he wasn’t wearing shoes.  He cursed, turned back, rummaged around until he found a clean pair of socks, shoes, then tried again.

He often went back to the lab at times like this, to work for a few hours until he was tired again.  There wouldn’t be any harm in stopping by the archeology lab to see if Emily had uncovered anything interesting about the repository.  He was certain she’d still be there.  Sometimes she left the door to her lab open and he noted that she frequently was there working late into the night.