Disclaimer etc. in first chapter.
Author's Note: Yay! The end! Now I have to work on my Pirate AU fic. I'm at 2000+ words, and still in chapter one. There should be around ten chapters. Is that bad?
Elizabeth leaned against the infirmary door, wishing she could cross her arms but having to settle for resting one hand under the sling on her left arm. She'd been in the cast for a week now, and with the help of Kate Heightmeyer had developed a morning routine that allowed her to show up in the office fully dressed each morning. This morning she'd only been there a few minutes when Carson called for her to come see her chief scientist.
Although she had stopped by the infirmary every day since her own release, this was the first time Rodney was not only awake but also fully alert. He was off the morphine drip and complaining loudly to all who came near. On top of that, he was begging to be allowed access to his computer. Carson had agreed, provided that he spent no more than 20 minutes on it at a time. "You were impaled by a plant, Rodney, and you've had major surgery. You need your rest."
"Yes, yes," Rodney answered. "Yes I was terribly, almost fatally wounded, and I'm in a great deal of pain, and you'll all have to remember that from now on. But I need to know how Zelenka's been screwing things up while I was out of it."
Elizabeth had been able to talk to him briefly, and had soothed away some of the guilt Rodney felt for inadvertently causing her injury. She pointed out that if the vine hadn't broken her arm, she wouldn't have dropped to the ground and would have been impaled with him or instead of him.
She had just been leaving when she noticed Katie Brown entering. Normally she wouldn't want to intrude, but she had such a hard time imagining Rodney as a romantic that she had to stay and watch for a moment. She couldn't hear what they were saying, but the expressions that crossed Rodney's face were priceless.
She chuckled slightly, and was surprised when a voice behind her asked, "What so funny?"
Turning Elizabeth found John leaning on the wall opposite her. She smiled at him. "Nothing. I was just thinking how ironic it was."
"What was?"
"Well, here Rodney has been focusing on geology because botany isn't a 'real' science. But he not only manages to get all of Palim's geology wrong, he's also laid low by botany" and here she glanced back at the couple by the bed, noting the eager, happy, nervous look on Rodney's face "in more ways than one!"
It wasn't really all that funny, but John laughed some anyway. His laughter set her off, and soon Elizabeth was near the point of tears she was laughing so hard. Part of her recognized that it was relief at knowing her team was, if not whole again, at least well on the road to healing.
John stared at her for a moment. "Dr. Weir," he teased, "are those painkillers Carson's giving you making you high?"
Raising an eyebrow, she smiled slyly. "Maybe they are."
He waggled his eyebrows comically, a ridiculous gesture that somehow managed to be endearing. "I like it!" he exclaimed, and they both started laughing again.
They were still laughing as he placed a guiding hand on her back and they turned to head back to the control room.