Title: Life of My Own
Genre: Gen
Rating: PG
Summary: Home, sweet home, indeed. Rod goes back to his own world. Warnings: Spoilers for McKay and Mrs. Miller


One minute, he was rather cheerfully announcing, "There's no place like home," beaming widely in an attempt to hide how terrified out of his mind he was, because, seriously, he was about to be beamed out into what was possibly vacuum space - and the next second, he was staring John Sheppard - his John Sheppard, at least - in the face.

"Huh," Rod said, "And I didn't even have to wear the glittery red shoes. Or, actually, the silver ones, I guess, but I find that I enjoyed the movie better - more appealing to the eyes, I think maybe the visual representation and possibly the pretty colors, is probably the reason behind that-"

"Oh my God," Sheppard said, his eyes narrowing, "Shut up, would you?" He looked kind of pale.

Huh.

"Aw, Sheppard," Rod said, grinning, "I missed you too." The other man punched him solidly in the arm. Rod gave him a hurt look. "Hey! Watch it - I nearly died out there and everything - oh hey, is the -"

"It's fixed," Sheppard snapped, interrupting him, "Everything's peachy and fine except, apparently, your brain, but it's not like that's any change from the usual."

"Yeah, yeah," Rod said, waving him off, "Whatever." He perked up. "Hey, how's the MENSA club been going?"

Sheppard stared at him. "Fine," he said slowly, disbelievingly. Rod was a little hurt, but he supposed he couldn't expect any different; it wasn't like he'd really shown much interest in the club before. But, come on - MENSA club? Math geek.

"You know," Rod said thoughtfully, not particularly caring that it would be a complete nonsequiter to the other man, "You'd be really good at golf."

He received a weird look in response, and Sheppard stood up, and Rod was startled to realize that, hey, the other man had been kneeling next to his body, which was propped up against the wall of the jumper, which (Rod quickly confirmed this by glancing out the front window) was still hovering in space.

"John." At his name, the other man flinched, which was rather uncharacteristic of the man who usually pretended nothing could affect that stone cold exterior. "How long have you been waiting out here?" Rod tactfully left of the 'for me' at the end, but it hung in the air between them.

Sheppard mumbled something under his breath, and quickly moved to his seat in the front, leaving Rod in the back, pole axed with the words, "The whole time, you jackass," because, seriously, it was just hovering there the whole time? Despite significant progress in understanding how the puddlejumpers worked, they had no idea what that might do, it could've been dangerous, dammit, and he opened his mouth to ask, what were you thinking? - but "Are you coming up here, or what?" Sheppard demanded impatiently, glaring at him. His hands seemed a little tighter than usual on the controls.

Rod blinked, and then he grinned slowly, before picking himself up. "Hey," he said as he made his way to the front, "Do you think they'll have chicken pot pie? Man, did you have any of that last Thursday? It was awesome-"

He grinned as he was interrupted by Sheppard irritably snapping, "No, Rod, I'm a vegetarian, and you would remember that if you decided not to be a insufferable ass who couldn't remember what his own mother looked like if he didn't have a picture with some sort of label-" and, hey, maybe Sheppard wasn't like the other one, the one who was easy going and fun, the one who liked golf and, strangely, hid his knowledge and got along with people well, but still. It was the Sheppard that he knew and recognized, the one who behind the air of superiority and gravity-defying hair was a good man, and that was comforting.

It was good to be home.


-


"I am grateful to see that you are alright," Teyla told him sincerely.

Rod grinned at her. "I'm glad I'm alright too," he said honestly, and Sheppard whacked him over the head. "Hey!" he protested, "What was that for?"

"For being an idiot," Sheppard said coolly, and seriously, what the hell was wrong with him now?

"Jackass," Rod muttered. The other man ignored him.

Sheppard nodded cordially at Teyla and stepped around her gracefully. "I've got work to do," he said shortly, his newest, most efficient way of saying 'goodbye,' leaving Rod and Teyla to stare at each other.

"Er," Rod said, shifting his weight. Talking to the other world's Teyla had been easy - the other woman had been more open, and her curiosity about his world and the ways in which it deviated from theirs had provided a fairly decent amount of conversation. However, in this world, Rod was left floundering, unsure of what to say; at least in the other place, there'd been something that they could have had in common - himself. The other Rod. Rodney. Whatever.

"I have," Teyla hesitated, and then plowed on, looking embarrassed and nervous, "I have the training room for the next few hours." Rod blinked at her in noncomprehension. She flushed. "It has come to my attention that we are not as close as teammates who regularly save each other's lives should be," Teyla said carefully, "Or, at least, how I believe they should be. I wish to remedy that - and I remember that on our last mission, you were impressed by - what did you call it? My 'super-fly ninja moves'?" Rodney nodded, a little dumbly, and she smiled. "Perhaps I could teach them to you?" she suggested.

"Cool," Rod said, and she laughed.


-


"Ow," Rod said later, when he tried getting out of the seat he'd taken while giving Elizabeth his report. Seriously, ow - his body wasn't used to the intense work out he'd gotten today during his training session with Teyla - and, hey, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to train like that after what was presumably an extremely traumatic experience (not that he really even remembered or knew how it'd happened, Sheppard wouldn't tell him) and Carson was going to have an aneurysm at him later for not resting properly - but he couldn't find it in himself to regret it.

Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him, and he was suddenly struck by the resemblance. It was, maybe, a little irrational, since technically they were the same person, but everyone else had been different, if only by a little bit, that somehow that fact that Elizabeth was the exactly the same in two entirely different universes was somehow mind bogglingly hilarious.

He earned himself a bemused look. "What's so funny?" she asked.

Rod waved a hand at her. "Forget it," he wheezed, and ow, his poor, overworked abdomen muscles, ow, "Just nothing."

He kind of limp/wobbled out of her office, exiting with a cheerful, though slightly pained, "See ya!"


-


He passed Sheppard on the way to the labs; the other man sniggered at his new way of walking.

"I hope you die a horrible, painful death by graphing calculators," Rod said to him bitterly, and then nearly tripped over his own feet.


-


"Hi Kavanaugh!"

The man grunted at him. "McKay."

Rod beamed at him with the brilliance of a thousand suns. The physist eyed him warily, as if Rod was some sort of rabid animal about to pounce. "Guess what?" Rod asked, trying to hold in a smirk. He was possibly having way too much fun.

"What?" Kavanaugh asked reluctantly, giving in. Ha! Rod had finally broken him! It had to happen sometime. Everyone eventually fell to the power of his awesome ability of sheer annoying.

"I went to an alternate universe, and I was in charge of the science department," he chirped, "Yay!"

Kavanaugh gave him a flat look. "You're in charge here too, McKay, if you hadn't noticed."

"Well, yeah," Rod said earnestly, "but I'm just telling you that it means that when I got this job, there was a reason they stuck the 'immature, whimsical Canadian two-year-old in a thirty-year-old's body' in this position - because I'm the most qualified, in this universe, or the next." He leaned in closer. "Got that, doctor?"

Kavanaugh sniffed, and turned so quickly that Rod nearly got smacked in the face with the man's ponytail... thing.

Beside Rod, Zelenka blinked at him. "I have not seen you talk like that before," the Czech scientist said, sounding impressed, "Why did you not do that before?"

Rod shrugged. Before, he hadn't wanted to seem too tyrannical, afraid of what his subordinates might think of him - but now, he realized, he'd become a pushover instead.

Zelenka shook his head. "You should have put him in his place far earlier." Now he sounded almost chiding. "You seem to doubt yourself at times, but you shouldn't - you are correct, you are the most qualified for this job. You should not let others push you around." Zelenka frowned. "Indeed, we may have gotten quite a few things done more efficiently if you had not allowed that man to over rule your authority so many times before."

"Let's just say I've got a new perspective on myself, and how people viewed me," Rod said. He grinned. "Literally."


-


"Rod." Carson was frowning at him. That was bad.

"What?" he asked, dread pooling in his stomach. "What's happened?"

"Did you steal my chocolate stash?"

Rod made his eyes as wide and innocent as he could. Dewey, he thought at his eyes, Do not make him suspect! "Carson," he said solemnly, "I swear I did not eat your chocolate."

Carson eyed him suspiciously.

"On my life," he added, just as serious as before.

"I don't believe you," Carson muttered, but walked away anyway.

Rod grinned. The bag of chocolates were heavy in his pocket. Yet, he added mentally.

He'd pay Carson back eventually.


-


Dear Jeannie,

I went to an alternate universe where I was a pompous jackass and you only had Madison, no sons. It was surreal.

Say hi to the kids for me!

Rod


-


The chicken pot pie was awesome - oh, man, it was just as good as the last time he'd had it - mmmmm...

"You look like you're enjoying that," Ronon said blandly from across from him.

Rod blinked at him. "Yeah," he said, except he forgot he hadn't swallowed yet and it came out more like, "Ergaaaaah!" because then the food nearly spilled out of his mouth.

"Smooth," Ronon said after Rod flailed a little bit and somehow managed to get the food safely down his throat.

"Mmm," Rod said, shoveled the rest of the pie into his mouth.

They didn't say much more than that, but somehow, Rod left the mess hall feeling like he'd just... bonded with the larger man.

Or something.

Well, he was optimistic about it at least.


-


"Ha!" Rod announced triumphantly.

Sheppard stared at him. "Ha, what? Get out of my quarters!"

"I have chocolate," he wheedled, dangling the bag before the other man's face. Sheppard's eyes followed the bag like he was being hypnotized. A hand reached out for the bag, but Rod snatched it back before he could get it. "So, he said conversationally, "Teyla has this idea."

"Mm-hm," Sheppard said, still eying the bag.

"She thinks we should bond," Rod said, and abruptly Sheppard's eyes were on him again.

"What?" he demanded.

Blithely, Rod ignored him. "So I figured, movies! We should watch movies together. I invited Teyla. And Ronon. And I have the Lord of the Rings trilogy."

Sheppard gaped at him. "Lord of the Rings?!" he sputtered, and then regained his composure. "We don't have time for this, we need to do our work -"

"Chocolate," Rod reminded him.

Sheppard went quiet. "Fine," he said, finally, "but we're not painting our toenails." He stepped out of his quarters, and Rod followed, the door sliding shut behind him.

"Yeah, don't worry, I figured we could do that next time," Rod said blandly, and grinned when he heard Sheppard choke in surprise.

Really, it was too easy.


-


Mer,

Are you sure it wasn't just a bad dream or something? You know, sometimes, I wonder if you're completely insane.

Anyways, the kids were delighted to hear from you. Stop sending them presents, you'll spoil them!

Don't forget about our Thanksgiving plans - Kaleb even agreed to have some real turkey set aside for you this year. We're all looking forwards to seeing you again.

And, hey. I miss you too.

Jeannie


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