stargateficrec | In Your Head by Captain Peregrine (K+)

Rec Category: Rodney/Elizabeth

Pairing: Rodney/Elizabeth
Category: Episode-related, het, AU
Warning: het, this is a long piece at over 30,000 words, but it's worth it :)
Author on LJ: none
Author's Website: McWeir Archive User Page

Link: In Your Head

Why this must be read:

There was another long pause and Elizabeth wondered if Rodney would ever answer her. It was strange how a man so talkative could suddenly become so silent when trapped in an uncomfortable situation. The stranger thing was he had been in situations a hell of a lot more uncomfortable and had talked the ear off anyone who would listen.

An alternate take on Duet, where Rodney gets stuck in Elizabeth's body, whilst his body is still trapped in the dart. Rather than being the heavily comedic piece that Duet was, Captain Peregrine takes a deeper emotional approach to the situation, including giving Rodney the ability to read Elizabeth's thoughts, and Elizabeth the ability to sense Rodney's emotions.The situation allows the author to show two very different sides to Rodney, his usual abrasiveness becomes even worse when he is in control of Elizabeth, but with Elizabeth he becomes incredibly quiet, disappearing deep into his own subconscious when he believes his presence is becoming detrimental to her

You’re trying to tell us that… Rodney… is in your head?” Sheppard asked slowly. As Elizabeth, nodded Carson sighed and sat down heavily on the edge of the nearest hospital bed. Teyla looked surprised, Ronan—as usual—showed no outward signs of emotion, and Sheppard had the gall to look amused by the whole thing.

“I assure you, Colonel, that this is not that amusing.” Rodney snapped irritably in Elizabeth’s head. Elizabeth ignored him—she was used to having him always buzzing around her, spouting off a steady drone of dialogue at all hours of the day. She usually found it quite comforting, but right now, she was just happy she had gotten used to toning it out when she needed to.

“You tone me out?” Rodney asked quietly. Elizabeth, who had just been about to respond to Sheppard’s rather inane question—of course Rodney was in her head!—jumped in surprise when she suddenly realized what Rodney McKay was saying to her.

“Wait…” Elizabeth’s eyes widened, “Rodney, can you hear what I’m thinking?”

There was a long pause.

“Yes.” The man mumbled quickly, as if embarrassed to be admitting it.

Though no one had heard Rodney’s admission to the fact, the look on Elizabeth’s face was enough confirmation and now every face in the infirmary took on a look of slowly dawning shock. Even Sheppard’s amusement faded away when he realized what it meant.