NOT EXPECTED

By Enola Jones



She hadn’t been quite sure what to expect, working so closely with Rodney McKay after all this time.

But this had taken her by surprise.

She’d gone into this command severely apprehensive about having to work with the hyper-loud, hyper-inflated ego of a hypochondriac who alienated everyone he worked with and just didn’t care about anyone or anything. The one who was hyper-vigilant about citrus and who ran away screaming like a girl when shots were fired.

But what she’d found was the scientific commander of an entire outpost. Still loud, still abrasive, but only enough to get the job done. She saw first-hand his ability to work with people, the huge heart hiding behind the pride. The abrasive loner had become a team player supreme.

She’d nearly choked on her coffee the first time she’d read a mission report that said McKay had laid down cover fire. McKay?!?!

But then, she’d seen him in action. The man who shrank from weapons and was ready to dismiss one life as nothing now handled a P-90 with such confidence that she saw him accurately load it with his mind clearly on other things. And when she saw him fire it – her jaw had dropped without her conscious awareness.

The biggest change, for her, was when he’d fought and fought to save one individual life. First of all, for Weir. The loss of Weir had sent him into isolation for a little bit, until she saw Sheppard and the two Pegasus natives that made up the team work him back into the fold.

Then she saw him fight for each of them in quick order.

After that, seeing him idly sipping orange juice as he worked was the least of the shocks. That one was explained to her as “He fixed himself when he had the Ancients’ powers.”

She’d had to ask someone else about it – Rodney wouldn’t brag on himself quite as loudly as he used to.

Looked like he’d fixed himself in a lot of ways since she’d known him before.

And it looked like Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon had more to do with it than even McKay would give credit for.

THE END




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