I do not own "Stargate Atlantis" or any of its characters.

Spoilers for "McKay and Mrs. Miller", I guess, with one tiny reference to "Critical Mass."

This is a little one shot Christmas ficlet about McKay and Cadman, and it assumes several things. One, that Jeannie lives in Canada, which is indicated by the fact that in "McKay and Mrs. Miller", Carter was flanked by two Mounties when she visited Jeannie. Two, that Cadman grew up in a place where snow was never seen. I have no proof of this and it may be totally wrong, but it fits with my story, so there ;) . Three, that McKay and Cadman are a couple and have been for a little while.

Unbetaed, so any mistakes are my sole responsibility. And please let me know what you thought of it. Did it make you throw up? Laugh? Giggle? Smile? Have a tingly Christmassy feeling all over? Anything?

I hope you all have a great holiday season and a wonderful New Year.

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"It's cold, Rodney," came a very irritated voice to his left. "I don't do cold. I grew up in a nice warm, sunny place where you might…might…see snow on the very tops of the highest mountains." There was a brief hesitation, and though he wasn't looking at her, Rodney knew that she had her hands on her hips as a further indication of her annoyance. When her voice came again it was exasperated and seriously peeved. "Are you even listening to me?"

"No," he answered automatically, and he automatically received a punch to his left bicep. He turned just enough to see the scowl that was unceremoniously thrown at him which made him reconsider reminding her, again, that he bruised easily. Deciding to forego that reminder, he instead tried very hard not to look at her nose, which had gone very, very, very red…like cherry red, or the type of red you would see on the panel of an EMP generator as it's about to overload. He knew that looking at her nose would only make him laugh and then he'd be obligated to make fun of her, which would be tantamount to suicide in her present state of mind.

She had been complaining about the cold steadily for thirty-seven minutes…and they had only been outside for forty. In the face of such negativity, a lesser man might have regretted asking Laura Cadman to spend Christmas with him and his sister and her family. A lesser man might have called the Daedalus and requested an immediate beam up for the miffed Marine, opting instead for a relatively quiet Christmas with family that he hadn't seen in far too many years, and in his niece's case, only once ever. A lesser man. Not him.

"Rodney," she said in an ominous tone, "when I agreed to come here with you, you didn't say anything about freezing our asses off outdoors putting up Christmas lights."

Rodney stopped trying to untangle the long string of Christmas lights that he'd been working on for the last twenty minutes and stared at the thorn in his side presently causing him the most grief, which wasn't the set of lights.

"Look, Cadman," he began, resorting to using her surname to emphasize just how annoyed he was getting with her complaining, "if you want to go inside and get warm, then go inside. I don't know what you're complaining about. Zero degrees Celsius is not even close to the 'freezing our asses off' range." He regarded Laura with a mock confused look. "I thought you Marines were supposed to be tough." He shrugged his shoulders and turned to glance at Jeannie, who was nearly doubled over with laughter at the antics of her older brother and Laura. "Anyway, Jeannie and I can finish this. It won't take us long and it will be another hour or two before we can turn them on." He waved his left hand dismissively at her and turned his attention back to the other thorn in his side, the lights, and added, "I'm sure Madison would love to hear about some of your more interesting tap dancing adventures." He snorted and quipped, "Just don't tell her how to blow anything up."

He was feeling pretty good about himself and the way he handled a cold, wet, tired, annoyed and pissed off, yet incredibly sexy, female Marine when something hit him.

Literally.

In the head.

"That's real mature, Cadman!" yelled Rodney as he brushed the remnants of the snowball she had hit him with out of his hair. He looked over to see Cadman walking towards the safety of the house, looking over her shoulder at him with that damned self-satisfied smirk of hers that she used so proficiently, and so often, that told him she knew just how much she got to him.

He watched Cadman walk up the couple of steps in front of Jeannie's house, mesmerized by the tight fitting jeans that she was wearing that hugged her curves so sensuously; her long strawberry blond hair, being kept in place only minimally by the gray headband/earmuff combo that she had borrowed from Jeannie, swaying gently from side to side.

He couldn't move his gaze from her as she turned to look at him, and from the widening of her smirk she damn well knew it. She wiped the snow from the fur lined mittens she was wearing, then pulled off the mitts and tucked them under her arm. Slowly, she pulled down the zipper on the light pink, down-filled coat she wore, which she also borrowed from Jeannie, although Rodney had vowed to find her a coat just like it for Christmas when he saw her in it. She looked really hot in that color. The fact that she was opening her coat on the doorstep after just bitterly complaining about the cold, in a blatant attempt to tantalize him, went totally unnoticed.

With a final teasing smile she opened the door and walked through, finally giving McKay a chance to blink. He was still blinking rapidly trying to focus on nothing in particular when he heard footsteps crunching in the snow off to the side, and then sensed the presence of his sibling beside him.

"You know," said Jeannie in a voice that told him she was extremely amused with his situation, "if you don't close your mouth your teeth may very well freeze."

That brought him back to reality and he slammed his mouth shut. "Well she started…I mean, I never…she just…" he trailed off holding out his hand as if trying to grab the words out of the air.

"She just…knows how to get under your skin," finished Jeannie knowingly.

"Literally," muttered Rodney, acutely aware of the déjà vu moment he was experiencing as he remembered a similar exchange between him and Sheppard months earlier.

He was still looking at the door when he felt a gentle shove from his little sister. "C'mon Mere…the sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get inside too."

He turned to regard his sister. "Jeannie…what would I have to do or say to keep you from calling me…"

"Your name?" asked Jeannie. The incredulity and amusement in her voice told him that there was absolutely nothing he could do or say, though she wasn't opposed to him trying…again.

Deciding that discretion was the better part of valor when it came to his sister and his name, he examined the set of lights that he had been fighting with and commented, "I thought you'd have this done by now, Jeannie. It's the twenty-third of December you know?"

"And you said that you'd be here on the fifteenth to help me," retorted Jeannie immediately, as though she had been waiting for him to bring it up.

Rodney grimaced then went on the defensive. "It's not my fault that another allegedly friendly trading partner turned out to be not so friendly after all and decided that a little pre-Christmas attack was the way to go."

"I know, Rodney," said Jeannie sympathetically. "I was just tormenting you."

"Hmph," grunted the elder McKay as the lights finally became untangled. "Aha! Finally." He looked to Jeannie and asked, "Where do you want these?"

"Over here on this tree," she threw over her shoulder as she started walking in the direction of the shrub. She reached the small tree and waited for her brother to catch up. He held one end of the set and Jeannie took the other. Smiling at the thought of two of them putting Christmas lights on a tree, a first to her recollection, Jeannie walked slowly around the tree, laying the lights on the tree in a downward spiral pattern. When she reached the bottom she straightened up and gave her brother a triumphant look, only to see Rodney looking forlornly towards the house.

Jeannie shook her head and connected the lights to the rest of their jury-rigged setup via an extension cord. Rodney had suggested building a mini solar powered energy pack to supply the lights with energy, but she said it would take too long, and despite his protestations that it wouldn't take him long to build it, she opted for the old fashioned way to power the lights.

She began walking towards the house and said, "Mere…we can go in now." Jeannie stopped when she didn't get a response and didn't hear any movement. She turned around to see her brother still watching her home.

"Mere?" Nothing. "Mere!" Still nothing. "Meredith!" Still getting no discernible reaction from her older brother, Jeannie smiled ever so evilly and reached down…

Rodney was still focused on the house, and never even noticed Jeannie walk towards the house or repeatedly call his name, let alone see her bend over. He was totally oblivious until something hit him.

Literally.

Yes…in the head.

"What is with you two!" shouted McKay as he, for the second time in thirty minutes, reached up and brushed snow off his head. He looked over as Jeannie laughed heartily, then stepped towards her and griped, "My head houses one of the most brilliant scientific minds of…well, ever." He walked past Jeannie and headed to the steps. "Imagine the travesty if this brilliance was limited or even extinguished due to your immature predilection for using my head as a target for your snowballs." He stopped on the top step and looked back to his sister, who had her right hand to her mouth obviously trying to quell a bout of laughter. "What's so funny?"

Jeannie lowered her hand and walked up to Rodney. "I was just thinking," she said, her voice laced with laughter, "of how big a snowball Laura can make, because if she heard you say that she'd belt you with a whopper."

Rodney adopted his best undignified face and stance. "What's that supposed to mean? That I'm whipped? That you think that I'm afraid of her? I most certainly am…"

Jeannie smiled as she looked past Rodney and said, "Hi Laura."

Rodney ducked out of reflex, and then whirled around to see what sort of hell Laura was about to wreak upon him, only to find no sign of her anywhere.

Jeannie could no longer hold it in and broke out in hysterical, belly busting guffaws. She walked to the door still laughing hard and went inside to leave Rodney alone with his thoughts.

"…not," he finished with hollow triumph…finally. Sighing heavily, he opened the door and followed his sister inside.

Jeannie was nowhere in sight, having quickly divested herself of her winter clothing. Instead he was met by Laura, and for some reason he felt like the proverbial deer caught in the headlights. He looked around and could see nothing to indicate any impending danger, but Cadman was sneaky, resourceful and…beautiful. She looked beautiful as she walked towards him until she was right in front of him.

Without saying a word, she put her hands on either side of his face and looked up to the ceiling. He glanced up and nearly grimaced at the very recent addition to the house's interior décor: mistletoe.

"Your idea?" he asked unnecessarily. It was so her, after all. When she nodded he simply smiled, glanced around to make sure they didn't have an audience, leaned down and placed a chaste kiss upon her lips.

He was about to step back when her hold on his face tightened and she muttered, "Not good enough," before pulling him down into a mind blowing kiss. When the kiss ended a moment later, she said, "Much better," and walked away from him.

Rodney was left there, wondering exactly when it was that he had forgotten how to take off his boots.

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"A domesticated Meredith Rodney McKay," came Cadman's voice from the kitchen doorway an hour and a half later, laced as it was with way too much glee. "I never would have thought it."

Rodney paused as he put the last of the dishes he had just cleaned into the cupboard and turned to face Cadman. "I resent that, Cadman." He was using her surname a lot lately, he realized. He also realized that a new strategy was necessary when it came to his name. The old tried and true method of yelling and screaming at people to stop calling him 'Meredith', 'Mere' and 'Merry' (damn Sheppard anyway), just wasn't cutting it. No, a new approach was needed, and Rodney decided that the best thing to do was just ignore them, and hopefully they'd all get it out of their systems. "I'll have you know that I'm a modern man…a man of the world who believes that men and women are…"

He stopped out of necessity when Laura crossed the room at an ungodly speed and all but crashed her lips against his.

Forgetting that he was in the middle of what he thought was going to be one of his classic tirades, he wrapped his arms around Cadman's waist and pulled her as tightly to him as he could. She in turn snaked her arms around his neck, plunging her right hand up into his short hair. For a minute their lips danced the ultimate duel, and when they ended that kiss, both were breathless.

"Women are what?" she asked, still trying to regain control of her breathing.

Dazed by the suddenness and earth shaking quality of the kiss, Rodney could only dumbly say, "What?"

She smiled and muttered, "Never mind." She cuddled her head into his chest. "They're ready to go out and turn on the lights."

That seemed to snap Rodney out of it a little. "Lights? Right! The lights! Come on!" He moved to the door, grabbing her left hand in his right, pulling her along for a second before realizing that she had something in her hand. He stopped and brought their combined hands up in between them to see what she was holding, and when he did he smiled.

Rodney's left hand moved up, removed the object from Laura's grasp and tossed it onto the table. He shook his head slowly as he said almost shyly, "You won't be needing that." With that he placed his hands softly on her shoulders, leaned forward and kissed her as passionately as he knew how, with the now discarded mistletoe as their only witness until a little voice weaved its way through the house and reached them.

"Uncle Rodneyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!"

Rodney couldn't help but groan at the interruption, but Laura took it all in stride and playfully whacked his arm. "Stop being such a grump. She loves you." She smiled as she added, "And so do I."

He took her hand in his again and whispered, not out of embarrassment or anything like that, but out of disbelief and awe that someone like her would say that to him, "I love you too."

"When you two have kids of your own, you're going to understand how hard it is to try to keep them settled down when they really want to do something."

Rodney's and Laura's cheeks turned a bright shade of pink as they looked over and saw Jeannie leaned up against the doorframe, dressed to go outside with a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

Rodney cleared his throat. "Right. Come on, Cadman…it's time to turn them on."

Moments later, Rodney, Laura, Jeannie and Madison were all outside in front of the house, waiting patiently for Kaleb to pull the switch inside the house.

Rodney moved to stand behind Cadman and slipped his arms around her waist, clasping them in front of her and resting them against her stomach.

Laura couldn't help but smile, and when he leaned forward and placed his chin upon her right shoulder she cuddled the side of her face against his and rested her hands upon his. Laura took a moment to relish the physical and unashamed contact, something that would have been rare weeks ago, but now was happening more and more frequently…and she loved every minute of it.

"Okay," she said a little testily, despite her happy mood, "I'm fine with the lights but why do we have to freeze our…oh my!"

The last two words were said just after Kaleb turned on the lights, illuminating the front yard and their faces with the combined glow of hundreds of multi-colored lights. Jeannie smiled, both for the aesthetically pleasing way the lighting arrangement had turned out, and at the fact that Madison was utterly enchanted by them.

Rodney smiled as well, partly because of Madison's reaction, and partly because of Laura's reaction. It took a lot to throw her off her train of thought, especially if that train was a pissed off bullet train, and the fact that their little light show had done so made it all worthwhile.

Kaleb joined the group and picked Madison up and put her on his shoulders. For several minutes they all stood there silently watching the lights twinkle and shine against the snow, oblivious to the slight gust of frosty wind that suddenly came upon them.

Madison yawned and the chill in the night air was getting colder.

"Time to go in," said Jeannie to Madison, and the Millers walked towards the house, with Madison pointing to this and that, making the type of enthusiastic comments that one would expect to hear from an excited little girl.

Rodney watched his sister and her family, his family, disappear through the door and released Laura. "Ready to go in?"

When he got no verbal response he walked around to stand in front of her so that he could see her face. Her mouth was slightly ajar, and her eyes were twinkling in a way that he realized had nothing to do with the reflection of the lights she was looking at. The twinkle, the glow in her eyes, was coming from the inside, and it made her even more beautiful than he thought she could ever be.

"Hey," he said sharply and her eyes focused on his. "Time to go in."

She looked to the brightly lit house, back to him, back to the lights and finally back to him again. "Can't we stay out for a few more minutes?" she asked softly.

Rodney smirked and replied, "Well, I wouldn't want you to freeze to death out here or anything. And I certainly wouldn't want your nose to shine so bright that you could guide Santa's sleigh tonight."

Ignoring the paltry attempt at humor, Laura smiled and said, "It's not that cold. They're just so beautiful."

Rodney resumed his previous position, cuddled into her back with his arms around her waist. "What," he said into her ear, "you didn't have lights in your nice warm and sunny Christmas paradise?"

Ignoring the absurdity of his question, she simply said, "The snow." Her eyes were still shining as she gazed at the myriad of lights running along the eave of the house, around the patio, around the trees…everywhere.

Rodney smiled. "It really adds to it, doesn't it? The reflection of the lights off the snow and the glow it creates makes a lot of difference."

"Thank you," she said quietly, so quietly that he almost never heard her, and he couldn't figure out what specifically she was thanking him for. He was about to issue the standard 'you're welcome' when she spoke again. "Everything," she said, answering his unspoken question. She really could read him like a book. "For asking me to come, for making me help you with this today, for being with me...for everything."

Rodney tightened his embrace and responded with, "Thank you for coming, for staying, for helping and for being with me." He placed a kiss against her cheek. "Merry Christmas, Laura."

Laura rubbed her cheek against his. "Merry Christmas, Rodney."