stargateficrec | Dog Days by argosy (PG)

Show: Stargate Atlantis
Rec Category: John Sheppard and Rodney McKay friendship
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Het/Slash/Gen: Gen
Warning/Spoilers: Spoilers through "Outcast"
Author on LJ:

argosy
Author's Website: unknown (archive links available at user's main journal page)
Link: Dog Days

Why this must be read:
Wordcount: 13,500
Summary: "It's a dog," Rodney said. "For all intents and purposes."

This is quintessential John & Rodney friendship. Rodney here is a case study in both aspects of inertia: It takes him a while to realize something is wrong with John, and then more time to understand what the problem is ... but once he does, he just rolls right over all obstacles, objections, limitations of known science, and common sense to fix that problem. John, in turn, sees the friendship in Rodney's gesture, despite the inevitable troubles; he defends Rodney against all critics (including Rodney himself), tries to lessen the blow of consequences, and then turns to make his own gesture. Being who they are, however, they don't say something's wrong or ask if it is; they find excuses to hang out more or turn to robotics.

argosy weaves in just the right amount of humor and sadness. The regular crew is in the background, including a wonderfully sympathetic Sam Carter, who must walk the uncomfortable line between understanding exactly what Rodney was thinking and the burden of command — and though they aren't in the foreground, they are all still vivid characters. I adore the little Lorne & Zelenka moment. Besides, who wouldn't want a Max? I'm a cat person and I want a Max!

Excerpt:
Sheppard didn't stay happy. He didn't laugh that horrible donkey laugh once in the next week, not that Rodney was keeping track.

Rodney was busy with his vacuum energy project and keeping the idiots in the labs in check. Veracruz had somehow managed to screw up the desalinization plant to the extent that it was actually making the water saltier; Johnson, who was supposedly a mathematician, seemed to have forgotten how to add in his latest batch of calculations, and Zelenka couldn't stop talking about his quantum entanglement proposal, no matter how many times Rodney said "Fine, yes, go work on it, but for the love of God don‘t make me hear about it any more."

And then there was Sheppard, haunting the labs like a lost puppy, or eating in the mess with a sad, distracted look on his face, barely noticing the savory-smelling treska bean soup he was spooning into his mouth, which, as Rodney knew firsthand, was excellent.

When Rodney found himself thinking about Sheppard late at night in the lab when he should have been devoting his brain to vacuum energy, he knew the time had come to act. He did not need to add worrying about a mopey colonel to his long list of problems.

Teyla. Teyla was the person to handle Sheppard. Clearly he needed to… talk or something, and she was good at that. She'd make him feel better.

So the next evening he may have mentioned to Sheppard that Teyla wanted to practice her N'tia meditations after dinner and needed a partner for the two-person katas. And he may have told Teyla that Sheppard was feeling sad lately and really wanted to talk to her, but had confessed to Rodney that he was too emotionally stunted to ask. Teyla raised an eyebrow at that, but it was all for the cause of Rodney being able to concentrate on his work and therefore the advancement of science and human achievement. He didn't feel bad.

But the next day Sheppard was still in Rodney’s lab, getting underfoot and looking as mopey as ever. Rodney gave him an artifact to play with that produced a cinnamon-like smell when you thought on at it and went in search of Teyla.