Disclaimer: MGM all the way.

A/N: Thanks to two people for getting this out here. First, DaniWilder: the amazing beta nice enough to grace this Oneshot with her great beta-ing skills as well as the one to give me inspiration to finish. And of course there's someone mentioned in here that she also needs full credit for, I only borrowed the infamous Marine. The second thank you goes out to Koinekid for allowing me to use the watch mentioned in the fourth chapter of Aftermath. Thank you to both of you and everyone reading this little Oneshot, hope you enjoy it.

Glancing at the completely mashed up potatoes and the fork grinding them into the plate, she sighed. It was the second time in as many days she had found herself mutilating her food to the point of no return. SGA1, Master Gunnery Sergeant Richards and his new Marines were only on their fourth day out of a week-long trip to M6G-382 Rodney had been talking about resentfully for weeks. The first smile of the day graced her otherwise blank face as she recalled his concern.

"A whole week, Jennifer, that's…that's on two hands!" Rodney looked at seven of his fingers held up not far from her face. "A whole week these hands won't be able to hold you close," he continued miserably with his crestfallen eyes falling on her helplessly.

It was hard not to laugh at that childish behavior, but she finally answered with a smile, "Well you better make up for that both now and when you get back," with her hands placed squarely on the front of his shoulders, his hands dropped to his sides. The warm smile Jennifer gave him quickly turned to a warning stare, "…on time."

His hands moved to her waist. "Oh, I'll be back on time. Don't you worry about that. Just checking on several possible energy readings around a cluster of friendly villages, a walk in the park." He looked over to the side wall of his lab with a turn of his head, "Actually, I don't know why Radek can't check it out. The fresh air will do him good." Turning back to her, Jennifer saw his confidence was about to overtake him again, it was even going as far as to add a slight jut to his chin. "Need the best out there every day I guess." The jut left just as suddenly as it had come and he looked deep into her eyes. "This will be the shortest trip we have ever had to do. We'll be there and back, almost as if we'd never left. You'll barely notice we're gone."

The smile she gave him widened as she wrapped her arms loosely over his shoulders to pull him close enough for one of his oh-so-skilled kisses, rewarding herself for a job well done.

It had been so easy to convince him it really wasn't all too long of a mission. Is it? Is a week too long without him? Oh pull it together for God's sake, it's only a week, isn't that what you told Rodney? A week is quite sensible enough of a time period to go without seeing a person. Not just a person, the person, my person, she reasoned.

Her heart saddened, flowing out through her mouth in the form of another sigh. She continued to pick at her puréed potatoes - no longer deserving the term mashed - softly replaced her fork on the tray and got up. Her tray was neatly disposed of before she walked solemnly to her quarters for the night.

Once in the safety of her room, having passed several people on the way and giving them a quaint smile to satisfy their overly attentive observation of any change in her attitude, she turned toward the bed and gave it a dismissive glance before her eyes landed on her tablet. Jennifer knew to even try and fall asleep now was a useless endeavor. Deciding that reading through the database was her best bet for distraction, she changed out of her uniform and into one of Rodney's large T-shirts. She crawled to the middle of the bed, curled up next to the pillows with her knees holding up her laptop in front of her and feet just sticking under the covers for warmth, and powered up her handheld computer.

A good three hours later, a little past twenty-two hundred, she had made a sizable dent in the database. The current entry was the crystal entity that took on Sheppard's appearance and caused multiple people to live their worst fears in the form of nightmares, herself included. It didn't take more than a few seconds to skim over the description of that one, having already read it dozens of times when she was desperately looking for a way to cure all of the seemingly bad dreams. Once Rodney's life was added in, there wasn't a moment she didn't think about how it all connected together and how to effectively get rid of the entity.

Jennifer stopped skimming through the effects and danger warnings she herself had added when tears started to form in the back of her eyes causing her to blink rapidly and rub one eye tiredly with her knuckle to stop the tears before they began, knowing they wouldn't stop if they started. Although crying herself to sleep was a tempting option, Jennifer allowed exhaustion to take its course as she powered down the laptop and tossed it to the side of the large bed and crawled under the dark blue covers, tucking herself in all the way to her chin. The last small comfort she took in before allowing fatigue to set in was the smell of the pillows and the largely oversized blanket. They smelled just like him.

Never had he been gone from their bed for so long since they first settled in together. Each cherished the time they spent in the other's arms. Permitting her fatigue-induced sleep allowed her to dream, she drifted off with the thought of his arms around her in his favorite hold: one arm lying completely on top of hers as he spooned her from behind, clutching her hand on her stomach and his legs pulling her feet back between his for warmth and the comfort of skin on soft skin. Though he kept her feet and back warm with his body, her neck always stayed the warmest from his soft whispering breath washing over the sensitive spots of her neck, jaw, and ear. How each part of her body became finely tuned to his presence flowed across her mind as she slept.

Rodney was as happy as he could be as he waited for one of the new Marines to dial the Gate three nights earlier than expected. He didn't even mind that half of the Marines sent with them were wet-behind-the-ear newbies needing experience in the field. Nothing was fazing this man as the happy grin Jennifer left him with stayed pasted to his face as he worked twice as fast as he normally did. It was a fast pace even for him. Rodney kept repeating to himself under his breath, "half the time here checking the power readings, the other half back with Jennifer."The grin would always return after that and wouldn't leave his face as he worked for hours on end.

The kawoosh of the Gate made his grin even wider. It was late at night; a glance at his ever-present watch Jennifer got him the last time she was on Earth told him it was actually early in the morning. Walking confidently to the Gate, he slipped through its dry waves and flipped a wave of a salute up to the Control room. "Debriefing's at noon, boys," he called over his shoulder to the Marines filing in after him.

"You mean tomorrow at noon, Doctor McKay," Richards responded with a level voice from behind him. If it was anyone else, Rodney would have sworn they were mocking him, but he turned to look up into Gunny's face and was astounded. A small knowing smile, the one normally reserved for Jennifer only, was pointed directly at him.

After letting out a little taken-aback "Huh," Rodney returned a smile to the seasoned Marine and faced the corridor in front of him to continue undeterred on his way. The carefree scientist trusted Sheppard to take care of the questioning from the welcome committee of two up in the Control room for coming back this early. Rodney never slowed down as he left the Gateroom and headed straight for their quarters for the morning.

The air-pressured whoosh of their quarters' door sounded, allowing Rodney access to the room he'd been thinking about and the woman he'd been dreaming of for the past two years. For as long as he had known Doctor Jennifer Keller, Rodney had envisioned a life beyond working late into the night for his job. He envisioned a family, someone, or multiple someones if he was honest with himself, to live for. Stepping over to the bed he saw blonde wisps of the hair he had loved the moment he first saw it, touched it, smelled it, lying in lazy curls on the comforter. A hand reached out to stroke the few tresses of hair showing but quickly rerouted to his tac vest, realizing that he could caress her hair all he'd like while holding her to him.

In a little under three seconds both of his clumsy boots had been shed and in another mere ten seconds his socks, jacket, shirt, and black BDU pants buried his tac vest on the floor. He was a little more careful with his prized watch. The comm. and watch he had been wearing were placed carefully on the bedside table along with the dark-screened tablet next to his pillow. Though Jennifer was curled away from him on her right side, he opened up the comforter and slipped in behind her without invitation.

This time when he reached out a hand to touch her, it landed softly on her stomach, seeking its five-fingered partner. He pulled her back to his chest gently, having missed most the feeling of her pressed against him.

A shaky breath escaped from her but she didn't turn around or wake up. Rodney grinned openly as he started thumbing circles along the skin of her own thumb and she still didn't give him a rise. A true sleeping beauty. He gently moved aside the silken locks of hair on her shoulder and let a wave of breath cascade over her neck like he knew she couldn't resist, giving the shallow hollow of her neck and jaw a light and simple kiss.

Jennifer inhaled deeply and slowly as she turned onto her back with her eyes fluttering open at him. Once they lost their sleepy blinking, they stared at him until she seemed to realize he was really there. "Oh good God, you're here." In an instant her arms were around his neck pulling him down, her body pressing against his and her lips covering his in pure, raw need. She unnecessarily stated in a small, almost cracking whisper of a voice, "I missed you," when she finally pulled away. Her hands were running through the short hair at the back of his head to where it slowly gave way to soft, yielding skin just below it.

"I promise, I'm here. I'm here to stay. Nothing's going to stop me from being by your side always." Another simple kiss was placed on her skin, this time on her smooth forehead and then her lips. It was mutually decided in that kiss that four days apart from each other so soon after permanently moving in together and spending every night in each other's arms was too long no matter how easy it may have seemed. Rodney pulled back to look into her creamy brown eyes with his expressive blues and brought his hand up to touch her cheek with his fingertips, slowly remapping every inch of her skin in his memory.

"I couldn't face the door knowing you wouldn't be coming through it," she confessed softly as he trailed a finger across the side of her bottom lip.

Rodney stopped at that. Tracing her skin or reassuring her with comforting words wouldn't make up for the fact that she had missed him terribly. He leaned forward and placed his lips lightly on hers, trusting her desire to take what she needed.

When she finally parted her lips from his, her hands brushed along the sides of his neck forward to lay flat on the front of his broad shoulders. There, she cuddled into his chest and let his steady heartbeat lull her into a deep and peaceful sleep.

It was in this moment he wanted to stay forever. His hands resting on her back, holding her close and his head nestled softly in her hair as she slept. He'd go to bed in a minute and the moment would be lost forever but in his memories. Until then, he was content to live in the reality of his deepest dream.