Chapter 22 – Epilogue

It was several weeks before Carson allowed Rodney to resume his off world duties.

The scientist had become increasingly despondent at being left behind on Atlantis every time another team went off world.

Just before his first mission he met up with Sheppard out on one of the piers. The brilliant and warm Lantean sun shone on them as they sat next to each other and gazed across the ocean.

"So how're you holding up?" Sheppard asked.

"Well you know. Bored, fed up... annoyed."

Sheppard laughed, "Wouldn't have expected any less from you."

"Oh har har!" Rodney retorted as he curled up the corner of his mouth in a snarl.

Sheppard kept smiling and then his face dropped and became more serious.

"What about all that stuff that happened to you on the planet? None of the others said you've spoken about it to anyone."

Rodney frowned, "Oh you've been talking about me have you? It's all in the report."

"I've read it, but I need to know you've recovered enough to go on missions again."

Sheppard would never be able to say that it was out of worry that he had met up with McKay alone to have a talk. The man had become increasingly withdrawn over the last week or so as his physical injuries healed and his focus had shifted away from the pain he could actually feel.

McKay waved a hand in dismissal, "Sure, yes. I'm fine. Aside from the rather fetching scars and the whole 'nearly dying at the hands of a lust ridden psycho' thing."

Sheppard smiled again, the sarcasm was a true indicator that his friend was indeed getting better in every respect.

He gently patted McKay on the back, "Good enough for me."

Rodney gave him a lopsided and confused grin, "So what's our mission?"

Sheppard gazed off and tracked a slow moving wave as it passed across the sea, "Well you know, the usual trade mission that will probably end in lots of shooting and running for our lives."

McKay's smile broadened, "Sounds like more fun than data entry. I swear if I see another 'unidentified miniature Ancient artefact' one of the off world teams brings back with an enthusiastic glare of triumph as they dump it on my desk…" He trailed off and ground his teeth together.

He then turned to look at Sheppard and said quietly, "It really doesn't help that most of these 'mysterious and intriguing' objects are in actual fact bathroom components and souped up kitchen appliances… Although I have to admit the toilet flushing handle was good and the toaster has proven to be a later model than the one we found on Atlantis…"

He waved his hands about in mock enthusiasm as he spoke, "Toasts in ten seconds!"

Sheppard laughed again, "Let's go and get geared up McKay. Don't want to leave the locals waiting for us now do we?"

Rodney grinned back at him and stood up easily on his own.

Sheppard watched and felt inwardly happy that McKay had made such a speedy recovery. The physical wounds were nearly healed, but as with all things; the mental ones would just take time for Rodney to get used to dealing with.

From the conversation Sheppard had just had he felt content that McKay was recovering. He now had no reason not to authorise him to rejoin the team and had to admit it had not been the same going on missions without him. They desperately needed his genius expertise at figuring out Ancient systems as fast as he could.

He patted McKay on the back again as they walked across the pier towards the transporter and into the next big adventure.

The End

A/N – That was quite a ride! I'm going off to sleep for a week now :) Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did writing it. Thanks for reading!