MGM owns all characters except my OCs.

A/N: This is the end of the story. Thanks to all my betas during this, especially scr1tno, dwparsnip, Betherdy Babe and Starclipper01, who supplied a lot of the military details. McKeller fluff warning.

Jennifer drifted in and out of consciousness over the next few days because of the heavy doses of morphine. People were in her room often when she woke up and they tended to blend together: Carson, Marie, Colonel Sheppard, Major Lorne and Master Gunny Richards. She did, however, remember the visits of a certain astrophysicist, who always stayed after the others had gone and squeezed her hand or gently brushed the hair from her face while he babbled about his day.

Richards had been leaving her room that afternoon when she awoke, so she called to him, "Gunny?" Struggling to sit up was more difficult than she cared to admit. Her left arm was in a sling and useless while her right arm hurt when she flexed her bicep.

"Yes, Doctor Keller," the Marine said as his eyebrows rose in a scolding fashion, which caused her to stop moving.

"I need to ask you…" she started.

"The answer to your question is yes," the Marine said with a faint smile on his lips.

"But I didn't…" she stopped. He knows everything, I guess. "How do you know Uncle Jack?"

"That's a long story. We served together many years before the SGC even existed," Richards said, walking back to her side.

"Did you talk to him?" she asked with trepidation in her voice.

"I filed a report," he answered.

"And?" she prompted, wishing she could reach up and grab his jacket to shake him. The man is a brick wall of emotions and I could kill him for it.

"He's not flying out with the Daedalus or the Apollo if that's your concern," Richards offered, standing nearly at attention next to her.

"Am I flying back on one of them?" Jennifer had to ask. Her body tensed for his answer. She knew how protective Jack had been while she was growing up and assumed he would be just as irrational in this instance.

"No," Gunny answered. The big Marine seemed to see that the physician was troubled, so he continued, "I told the General how you kept it together and thought on your feet. Even said you were a step ahead of McKay a couple times, which really impressed him."

"Really?" Jennifer was shocked. "I can stay?"

"You can stay, but he wants me to accompany you off world or have you go with Sheppard's team," Gunny said, giving in to the twitch at the corners of his mouth and smiling at the young woman. "I'd be honored to accompany you on any future missions Doctor Keller."

"Thanks," Jennifer replied, unable to keep the grin off her face.

"I would caution you from joining Sheppard's team however," Gunny said.

"Why?"

"You know why," the wise older man said, cocking his eyebrow and staring intently into her brown eyes.

It took Jennifer a second for her mind to catch up with Richards'. "I can assure you that… if I date a member of Sheppard's team, I won't advertise it to the base nor will I let it get in the way of my job."

Gunny smiled and laughed. "Since he's been camping out in the infirmary it'll be hard to keep it hidden."

Before Jennifer could reply Carson and Major Lorne walked by the open doorway and stopped when they saw that she was awake.

"Think you'll stay awake this time, love," Carson said, walking over to look at her vital signs.

"I hope so. It feels like I've been asleep for weeks," Jennifer said, smiling at her boss and the Major.

"Glad you're feeling better. You look rested and have a lot of color back in your face," Lorne said as he stepped next to Gunny at her side.

The Master Gunnery Sergeant glanced at his immediate CO and Jennifer saw a slight glare directed at the younger officer. Better shoot this one down fast. The last thing she wanted was to cause a rift in the military leadership. "Thank you Major. I can't wait to get out of here."

"I can grab you lunch if you'd like?" Evan offered.

On queue Rodney entered the room with a box in one hand and his tablet in the other. He had a perplexed look as he took in all the people in her room.

"There are way too many people in here," Carson scolded. "I need all of you out."

"You heard Carson," Rodney said to Lorne and Richards as he stepped behind the men to set his stuff down.

Rodney's blue eyes connected with hers and he fought to keep his smile suppressed. It was in his eyes, however, which made Jennifer's stomach flutter. How does he affect me like this? The young woman never remembered being weak-in-the-knees by one look from a man before.

"That means you too, Rodney," Carson added as Rodney made no move to leave.

"You heard Doctor Beckett, McKay. Everybody out," Lorne said as he set a small package down on the table near her bed and stared pointedly at Rodney.

"What's that?" Rodney said, sounding annoyed and ignoring the requests for him to leave.

"Just something for the beautiful doctor," the Air Force officer said, winking at Jennifer. As he passed McKay, Jennifer saw them continue their eye contact and she swore a challenge was issued.

"What is it?" Jennifer asked hesitantly. The young woman never had men fighting over her so she was not sure what to do.

"Some jelly beans," Lorne said. "Figured you could use something sweet."

"That's nice Major, but I don't really like jelly beans," Jennifer said, trying to sound casual about it. She couldn't help but notice that Richards was almost laughing, Carson looked mildly shocked and Rodney barely contained his glee that she shot down the handsome pilot.

"Oh… um… well, you can share them with someone then," Lorne said. His shoulders seemed to slump slightly as he nodded at Carson and Richards as he left. His eyes never connected with McKay's again.

Richards leaned close to Jennifer and whispered, "Nice. You saved the Major an ass kicking in the ring."

Jennifer opened her mouth to speak only to be cut off once again by the Sergeant.

"Take it easy and don't do anything too strenuous today," Richards said as he wiggled his eyebrows once, glanced at McKay, who was still grinning because she shot down the Major, and headed to the door.

"Wasn't planning on running a marathon," Jennifer called after him as she felt her face heat up.

"So, do you want to hear the latest from the data device?" Rodney asked as he took up Gunny's position next to Jennifer.

"I'd like to hear the earliest too," Jennifer said, looking expectantly at Rodney. Once again, when their eyes met, she felt a flutter in her stomach. I've gotta get a grip or Gunny's right about not going off world with Rodney's team.

"Well, you haven't missed too much," Rodney said as he pulled a chair over next to her and pushing the meal table over the bed with the box and his laptop on it.

Carson raised an eyebrow. "Making yourself comfortable aren't we?"

Jennifer wanted to laugh because Rodney was truly settling in like he belonged there, a thought that sent a warm feeling through Jennifer. Realizing they had a lot to talk about on a personal level, she suddenly wanted her boss to leave.

"Yes. I'm starving and I'm sure Jennifer wants some food too," Rodney snapped as he opened the box to reveal two burgers, fries and blue Jell-O.

Jennifer groaned and looked sadly at Rodney, which prompted him to say in a panicked voice, "What's wrong? Don't tell me you don't like burgers?"

"I can't eat them," she said, waving her right hand in the air not too far off the bed.

"Oh," Rodney said, looking crestfallen. "Well, I guess I…"

"If you offer to feed her, I'm going to be sick," Carson said, barely suppressing a laugh.

"I… No… Don't be…" Rodney stammered, turning red because it was obvious to the physicians that he was going to suggest it.

"Just put a few fries close to my reach and I'll survive," she said with a smile, cutting off his rambling. It was adorable to her, but she really wanted to hear about the results of his analysis and get rid of Carson.

"Okay," Rodney said. "I uncovered two different experiments going on with this voodoo doctor of a Wraith." He grabbed his tablet.

"Voodoo?" Jennifer questioned.

Carson shook his head in disgust. "Doctor McKay thinks anyone who is a medical researcher or doctor is a voodoo practitioners."

"Jennifer's not. I've seen her in the field. She's a genius," Rodney said, glancing at Jennifer.

"So I'm still a voodoo doctor?" Carson snapped. "Just remember that the next time you get shot in the arse by an arrow."

"Hey, what happened to doctor-patient confidentiality?" Rodney growled.

Jennifer started laughing and only stopped once her ribs hurt. They were like a couple of little boys bickering about who was mommy's favorite.

"See, you're upsetting her. You should leave, especially since your girlfriend was here looking for you earlier. Why don't you spend time with her?" Carson said, crossing his arms over his chest.

Girlfriend? The word sent a cold shaft through Jennifer and she felt her stomach clench. Rodney has a girlfriend? He… She could not even comprehend how a man with a girlfriend could have been so flirtatious with her. Furrowing her brow and staring at his expressive face, she waited to hear his response.

"What girlfriend?" Rodney asked.

Jennifer watched his face for the slightest sign that he was lying and his clear blue eyes looked mildly annoyed, as they had with Carson since the two started bickering, but he did not appear as if he were hiding anything.

"Really? I almost got blown to bloody pieces because you had to eat with her instead of fish with me a few weeks ago," Carson barked.

"Oh, that. I would rather do anything than fish," Rodney said, grabbing a burger and taking a bite. He looked at Jennifer, who was still trying to gage his honesty, and rolled his eyes while mumbling sorry between chews of his hamburger. It was obvious he felt guilty eating while she could not.

Jennifer looked back to Carson and thought he was going to hit Rodney. "You dragged me on that first date with her over a year ago; you used Katie to get out of fishing and now you say she's not your girlfriend?"

"Cadman was in control of me on that date and asked you to join us. Yes, I used Katie to get out of fishing with you and do feel bad that you almost died. I'm sure it would have torn me up." Rodney shook his head in mock sympathy. "Now, do you want to hear what I found or not?"

Jennifer felt that Rodney seemed sincere in his explanation that this Katie was not a true girlfriend. She was still mildly surprised the physicist was dating even if it was casually. The stories she heard about him would have scared almost anyone away from him, but obviously this other woman got through his shielding like she did. It left her feeling jealous, which was a new emotion for her.

"Let's leave Jennifer in peace and discuss this…" Carson began.

"I'd like to hear it," Jennifer said. "All of it." She muttered the last part under her breath and glanced at Rodney, who was shoveling in French fries.

"It appears this Wraith was trying to breed some type of super Wraith," Rodney said between spoonfuls of Jell-O.

Jennifer had to admit she was starving and almost asked Rodney to spoon-feed his dessert to her. The few fries she managed to lift to her mouth caused her arm to ache, so she didn't want to attempt dessert; a second blue Jell-O and a fruit cup were visible in the box for her. She had told Rodney to eat the second burger because there was no way she could eat it.

"Why do you say that?" Carson asked.

"Well, he fed the Taranians to the Iratus bugs, injected Wraith enzyme and this word for a material that I couldn't translate into the eggs to make them grow faster and stronger…" Rodney said.

"What word?" Jennifer chimed in.

"You can read Wraith?" Rodney asked, looking surprised.

"I can read Ancient and Wraith is a derivative. Maybe a fresh set of eyes would help," Jennifer offered. She was still jealous about Katie and wanted to get rid of Carson to grill Rodney some more. If I can help get through this information download, we can have some privacy.

"Knock yourself out," Rodney said, finishing his Jell-O with a smile and turning his laptop so she could see it more clearly.

Jennifer tried to ignore him, at least until they were alone together, but all the glances and eye contact was making it difficult. She realized early on in their adventure together that staring into his blue eyes made all her troubles feel a little less, even pesky thoughts about girlfriends wandering around Atlantis.

"What about the interference with your ability to use the Ancient interface?" Jennifer asked while she stared at the word and the context it was used in.

"Did you ever read about the device on M1B-129?" Rodney asked. "The one that gave the team hallucinations and got me shot by John?"

"Yes," Jennifer said softly. "I read the report." She glanced at Carson who looked sad momentarily because he had lost a soldier on that mission. Everything went to hell just like this mission. When Carson caught her eye, she offered him a knowing smile. Pushing the thoughts of how many people were lost that she could have helped from her mind, she turned back to the screen.

"Well, this Wraith perfected it to control the mutated people apparently and a side affect was to interfere with the thoughts of those of us with an active Ancient gene," Rodney explained. "Too bad they had to destroy the lab. Would have been interesting to study it."

Jennifer had to smile as she imagined working side-by-side with the physicist. "I have a theory on this word, but it doesn't make much sense."

"Really?" Rodney moved and stood next to her, leaning over the table and resting one arm across the back of the bed behind her head. "What do you think it is?"

"Looks like cursed or accursed or something like that. Accursed material is my best guess. You'd need a linguist to really figure it out," Jennifer said, glancing up at the physicist who was leaning pretty close to her. His proximity was causing her face to heat up and warmth to spread through her entire body.

Carson coughed suddenly and Jennifer looked at him to see his face turn pink and his eyes glance around the room. "Are you okay, Carson?"

"Fi-fine," he mumbled between coughs. "Why would a material be cursed?"

"It cursed the inhabitants of that colony." Jennifer stated; sadness was evident in her voice.

"This translation will do," Rodney said close to Jennifer's ear because he had not stopped hovering over her.

"So, he mutated the people and then tried to control their minds?" Jennifer summarized, looking between the two men.

"Why?" Carson finally asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Galactic domination," Rodney said as he finally sat back down.

"Seriously?" Jennifer had to smile.

"Yes," Rodney said, pulling the laptop back and finding a new screen. "It says he has other facilities with similar experiments being run. All to create a powerful being."

Jennifer felt a chill go up and down her spine. "There are more of those things out there? Any mention of the planets?"

"No. Only that his other facilities are having difficulties. The mind control device worked best on the planet we were on. Everything else is corrupted and indecipherable to me and the translation matrix," Rodney explained.

"Well, that's terrifying," Carson said.

The three of them looked from one to the other for a while, not saying anything more. Jennifer knew they needed to be on the look out for these facilities. Looks like I'll be working with Rodney one way or another.

"On this wonderful note, I will leave you two alone since it's what you've been wanting since Rodney got here. I want to echo what Sergeant Richards said about nothing strenuous Jennifer," Carson said with a straight face as the two geniuses turned red. A grin finally broke out as the Scotsman stopped in the doorway. "Think I'll give Doctor Brown a call about a dinner date."

Jennifer closed her eyes and groaned. When she opened them, Rodney was closing the door. "What are you doing?" she inquired.

"Giving us some privacy," he said with a cocky smirk on his face. He was practically swaggering as he walked back to her.

"These Iso labs have cameras," she started.

"But these aren't working," he said, grinning as he pointed toward the ceiling. "On my To Do List. Somewhere near the bottom though."

"Good because I don't want security running down here when I kill you," she said angrily. "You never said that you had a girlfriend!" Jennifer could not believe the wave of anger surging through her.

"No, no, no, no," Rodney suddenly lost his swagger as he waved his hands and closed his eyes before opening them wide in fright. "Katie Brown is not my girlfriend."

"Carson seems to think so," Jennifer said, scowling at him.

"Well Carson's wrong. I explained how I used her to get out of fishing," Rodney said, speaking quickly. He stood next to her waving his hands about. "He can see the chemistry between us and he's trying to cause trouble. That's all. I'm not dating anyone and don't have a girlfriend. You have to believe me."

"Chemistry?" Jennifer raised an eyebrow. The physicist was ranting and begging like the night when she awoke to find him groping her.

"Yes. You alluded to it when we were together on that planet," Rodney said, whining slightly. "You remember… we talked about a date or two when it was over. I'd never plan a date with you if I had a girlfriend."

Still not wanting to entirely let him off the hook, Jennifer continued, "But you have dated her?"

"Not really. Cadman screwed up our first date and I had to call it short halfway through. Never had another one until I had lunch with her to get out of the fishing trip," Rodney said, his blue eyes pleading with her. "Maybe I thought she could be my girlfriend once, but not anymore."

"Why not?" Jennifer asked.

Rodney had sat down on the chair next to the bed once again. His shoulders were slumped and she could tell he was truly worried she was not going to forgive him. The puppy-dog expression melted her heart.

"Because I have someone else in mind," Rodney said, meeting her gaze. "She's much more of my type than Katie ever could have been."

"Your type?" Jennifer felt a familiar fluttering in her stomach.

"Smart, funny, tenacious, shoots down handsome flyboys at the drop of a hat and drop dead gorgeous," he said with a grin reforming.

"Who could that be?" Jennifer asked quietly. She suddenly felt like she was in a dream. No one had ever spoken to her like that before and she was quickly losing her control of the situation.

"And here I thought you were a genius," Rodney responded, moving the table aside and sitting on the edge of the bed. His arms came down on either side of her body, caging her in. The arrogance returned and radiated off of the handsome genius as he leaned closer to her.

Trying to maintain steady breathing and keep her heart from beating out of her chest, she said, "I was thinking we'd have a date or two before... I mean... your girlfriend? That's a bit fast, isn't it?"

Rodney chuckled and raised his eyebrows. "I've been told I can move fast with the proper motivation."

"Motivation?" Jennifer held herself steady. Every molecule in her body was focusing her eyes to his lips; the desire to feel his arms around her and his lips against hers was overwriting her brain. A tiny voice was saying that her uncle would not approve of her getting involved with anyone on the base, let alone someone he was not fond of. That voice was being drown out as Rodney's eyes surveyed her face and his smile widened.

"Uh-huh," Rodney muttered as his eyes settled on her lips.

"Like a kick in the pants?" she offered.

"Was thinking of something more pleasant… for both of us," he said as he finally leaned the short distance between them to press his lips to hers.

His lips were soft and controlling as they moved over hers. A whimper came from her throat as one of his hands moved up to cup her cheek and slide into her hair. The whimper turned into a moan as his tongue flicked over her lips and teased its way between them.

The sense of belonging and security she felt as Rodney moved closer to her, pressing his chest lightly against her as he deepened the kiss made her feel like she was coming home. Her right hand moved to grip his side and her fingers clenched his black t-shirt as the kiss increased in intensity.

Rodney definitely knew how to kiss and Jennifer was thankful that he did everything with the same enthusiasm he employed when saving the day. Wanting desperately to hold him, but knowing she was incapable of moving, she settled for conveying her feelings through the kiss.

Rodney pulled back after several minutes passed, but it felt much too short for Jennifer. Their combined heavy breathing was the only sound besides the hum of the air supply system in the room. Taking a long, shaky breath, Jennifer opened her eyes and stared at the man before her. "Was that motivating enough?"

Rodney burst out laughing as he rested his forehead to hers. His hand wrapped around her neck and he pressed a quick kiss to her lips. "With that kind of motivation, I could take on a Hive ship."

Jennifer laughed and moved her hand around his waist to rub his back. "I'd prefer you don't bring me along for that."

"Deal," he said.

"So…" Jennifer started only to have her stomach growl.

Rodney laughed and drew away, which caused her to grumble. "Don't worry, just getting your dessert."

"Dessert?"

"Blue Jell-O, a fruit cup or…" he paused and dramatically reached into a pocket on his pants and pulled out a Butterfingers.

Jennifer broke down laughing and didn't stop until tears leaked out of her eyes. "I barely remember anything I said or did, but can't believe I mentioned that those are my favorite candy bars."

"Some day, I'll tell you all the embarrassing things you said and did, but not today," Rodney said, picking up the fruit cup and the Jell-O. "What'll it be?"

"I always loved the fruit cup," Jennifer said.

Rodney opened the container; wiggling his eyebrows he removed a spoon from the box and took a spoonful out. She smiled as he fed her and kissed her between bites, knowing that a relationship with the Great Rodney McKay would make her life very interesting. This has been some welcome the Pegasus galaxy threw at me. Wait until Uncle Jack hears about this.