500 on the nose. No beta.

Dr. Jennifer McKay, formerly CMO of the legendary city of Atlantis in the Pegasus galaxy, looked out the kitchen window of the cabin she and her husband had owned for the last five years and desperately fought the urge to cry. Again.

Rodney was still out there sitting on the edge of the dock that jutted into the lake upon whose shore their cabin rested, his feet dangling over the edge and just skirting the calm water. She looked up at the flagpole that held the flags of their native countries to verify the lack of wind and found the Maple Leaf and Stars and Stripes completely still.

It seemed as though everything had quieted, or ground to a halt or otherwise stopped thirty minutes ago with the phone call that had come so unexpectedly. They had recognized the number as a SGC line, and at first Rodney had been very happy to hear Sam's voice on the other end of the line. That happiness was short lived though, for the reason for Sam's call had been anything but happy.

John Sheppard, Rodney's best friend and the brother he'd obtained not by birth but through the trials they'd survived in Pegasus, had passed away. Rodney had nearly dropped the phone at the news and had mumbled that he'd only seen Sheppard last week and he'd been fine.

To say Rodney had been floored would have been an understatement. He simply handed the phone to her and as she talked to Sam, Rodney went to the fridge and then headed for the door. Jennifer had stopped talking to Sam long enough to ask him where he was going.

His response was a solemn, "To drink a beer."

She'd watched him and kept an eye on him through her own tears as she'd talked to Sam. From what the General had told her, John had had a heart attack as he'd slept. While there was some solace in that his death had been peaceful and John hadn't suffered, there was also the fact that because of the circumstances there hadn't been a chance for anyone to help him.

The double edged sword.

Jennifer sniffed back her tears as she watched Rodney take a can of Sheppard's favorite beer, open it and carefully set it down onto the dock, exactly where John would have been sitting had he been there. It had been done many times before on this dock in a practice that had been started on Atlantis long ago. How many times had she and Amanda watched and listened through this window as those two sat on the pier, drank beer and playfully argued about whatever they could think of? Too many to remember.

Jennifer pulled a piece of paper towel from the nearby roll on the counter and dabbed at her moist eyes.

Rodney was devastated, but he would be fine. She would see to it.

She closed her eyes and pictured John Sheppard and thought to him, I promise.

A/N: "Drink a Beer" was written by Chris Stapleton and Jim Beavers. It was released as a single by Luke Bryan in November 2013 off his album Crash My Party.