Title: Birthday Boy
Author: Wendy Parkinson
Email: wendyparkinson@hotmail.com
Summary: Rodney’s in a bad mood and Elizabeth is determined to find out why.
Spoilers: none
Categories: Fluff, romance, a little humour.
Pairing: Weir/McKay
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be.
Archive: I’ll almost certainly say ‘yes’, but please ask first. Thanks.

Author’s Notes: Written for the lantisficathon for wisdomeagle. She asked for Weir/McKay, dessert, teasing and a celebration. I hope this fits the bill. :-)

Before anyone asks, I invented Rodney’s middle name and place of birth. The birth date is David Hewlett’s.

And a big thank you to Sue for the title… you don’t want to know what I was going to call it. ;-)


Birthday Boy

“I’m going. This meeting has been a complete and utter waste of my time and energy. If you are only going to discuss the maintenance schedule, why the hell do you need me here? If anyone wants me, I’ll be in my lab doing something useful.” Rodney grabbed his laptop and a sheaf of papers and stormed out of the briefing, leaving Elizabeth, John, Teyla and Carson staring at his retreating back. Weir was sure that if it was possible to slam the door, he would have done.

Sheppard raised an eyebrow. “Who rattled his cage?”

Beckett shrugged. “He can be a little… volatile… sometimes.”

“Not that much,” said Elizabeth. “I think there’s something bothering him.” She looked round the table. Everyone shook their heads. “Never mind, I’ll get to the bottom of it. We can’t have our chief scientist storming around the place like a bear with a sore head.”

“It’s nothing new,” muttered Sheppard, under his breath.

“I heard that,” snapped Weir. Sometimes the sniping between the Major and McKay just got on her nerves, particularly when the Major took cheap shots at the scientist.

John had the good grace to look contrite. “Sorry.” He smiled. “Have we done? I’ve got some weapons training scheduled with the biology department.” He winced. “Though on reflection, I think I might prefer to stay here and discuss something really, really safe…and boring.”

“No, we’re done. Have a nice day everyone.”

Elizabeth watched them leave and her mind wandered back to Rodney McKay. She’d known him longer than anyone else on Atlantis – they’d spent a lot of time together when they were stationed in Antarctica – and felt a special kind of connection with him. She wasn’t sure why; of course he could be difficult and arrogant… and sometimes downright annoying, but he had a brilliant mind and sometimes, just sometimes, when he let his guard down, he could be funny and entertaining.

So what could possibly have irritated him so much to provoke the outburst she’d just witnessed?

~~~~~

Elizabeth sat at her desk and chewed at her bottom lip. It was now nine in the evening and she was no nearer finding out what was wrong with Rodney. When she’d had a spare few minutes earlier, she’d been to the labs and had a quiet word with Zelenka… and Heightmeyer… and no-one was aware of anything out of the ordinary. Everyone said he’d been himself – within the parameters Rodney set himself for behaving normally – the day before, so it was something that had happened today. Perhaps it was the anniversary of something painful, perhaps the death of someone close to him? Were his parents still living? She remembered him mentioning a sister, but not his parents. Well, there was no way she was going to find out without asking the man himself, and that wasn’t an option.

With a deep sigh, she turned to the pile of paperwork on her desk. Her heart sank. Personnel evaluations. Oh joy. She pulled the first file up on her computer, then stopped. Of course! Perhaps there might be something in Rodney’s file to explain why he was in such a bad mood today. She quickly found his records and started to read.

Full name: Rodney David McKay
Place of birth: Vancouver, Canada
Birth Date: 04-18-1968

She stopped dead. April 18th? Today was April 18th! No wonder he was in a mood. It was his birthday and no-one knew. She glanced at her watch. Five past nine. It was much too late to try and organise a party, so what could she do? Well, she could rustle up a birthday cake at least. He was going to celebrate his birthday if it was the last thing she did.

~~~~~~

“What do you mean, you don’t have any cake?” Elizabeth stood with her hands on her hips, glaring at Jim, the cook.

“I’m sorry, Doctor Weir, but it’s late evening. I did make some cake today, but it had gone by lunchtime. No-one told me it was the Doctor’s birthday or I would have made one for him especially.”

She let out a long sigh. “Okay then. What do you have that’s sweet?”

Jim pursed his lips. “Power bars.”

“It’s Doctor McKay’s birthday, I can’t stick a candle in a power bar. Anyway, he eats them all the time… it’d hardly be a treat.” She looked at him dubiously. “You do have candles, don’t you?”

The cook nodded. “Yes, I can let you have a candle. But you’ll have to bring it back… and try not to burn it for too long. We don’t have many, you know.” He looked at her sympathetically. “Tell you what, let me go and see what we’ve got in the fridge,” he said, and made his way to the back of the kitchen.

Elizabeth watched him, hoping against hope that he would find something that might make Rodney’s birthday special.

Moments later, he came back holding a small dish. Her heart leapt; he’d got something! He smiled at Weir nervously. “This is the only dessert I have left. It’s probably not what you had in mind.”

Elizabeth peered into the bowl. “Jello? How on earth am I supposed to stick a candle in that?”

“Carefully?” Jim smirked. “Take it or leave it. It’s all I’ve got.”

“I’ll take it,” she said, grabbing the bowl. “And the candle as well, please.”

~~~~~~

Elizabeth stood outside Rodney’s quarters, clutching the bowl of jello in one hand and trying to light the candle with the other. The lighter she’d borrowed kept misfiring, and when it did light she was so surprised she missed the candle entirely and melted a small patch of jello. This is no good, she thought. I’ll never light it like this. Frowning, she decided the only thing to do was to put the bowl down on the floor so she could support the candle with her other hand while she lit it. She crouched down and had just lit the candle when the door whooshed open.

“Elizabeth! I thought I heard something! But you really don’t need to get down on your knees to talk to me. Just acknowledging my brilliance will do.”

Blushing to the roots of her hair, Elizabeth looked up and found herself staring straight into Rodney’s laughing blue eyes. “Happy Birthday!” she said, holding up the bowl. The candle wobbled precariously.

“Yellow jello?” He reached out and took the proffered bowl. The candle teetered one last time and slowly fell sideways, the flame extinguished with a hiss. Rodney raised an eyebrow. “Flambéed yellow jello. It’s certainly different.”

He held out a hand and helped Elizabeth to her feet. His grip was firm and surprisingly strong. She found herself not wanting to let go.

“Would you like to come in?” he asked, releasing her hand and waving vaguely over his shoulder. “I think I have spoons.”

“That would be great,” she said, following him through the doorway.

When the door slid shut, he turned to her and asked, his expression suddenly serious, “How did you know it was my birthday?”

Trying to sound nonchalant, she said, “I noticed it in your file.”

“Do you notice everyone’s birthday?” The question appeared innocent, but the tone in his voice made Elizabeth think otherwise.

Very aware of Rodney’s intense gaze, she shrugged. “I try. I don’t usually succeed. Hence it’s now 9.30pm and all I could find was jello.”

Rodney peered into the bowl. “Don’t forget the wax croutons.”

“Sorry.” And she suddenly realised she was. Very sorry. She really cared that he’d not been able to celebrate his birthday properly.

There was a pause, and when he spoke again he sounded uncharacteristically unsure of himself. “Elizabeth, despite what you just said, I know you don’t do this for everyone. Why me?”

Taking in the worried look on his face, she replied, “I was concerned about you. I knew you were upset about something. It took me all day to find out what it was.” Feeling awkward, she tried to pull herself together, sucked in a sharp breath and stared at her shoes. She heard Rodney put the dish down and walk towards her until his feet appeared in her line of view, just in front of hers. A gentle hand pushed her chin up so she was looking into his eyes. Suddenly the air was getting kind of hot and difficult to breathe.

“You bothered to get me a birthday… er… jello, even though I’ve been storming round all day like a two year old having a temper tantrum?” he said quietly, then smiled at her incredulous look. “Yes,” he continued, “I know I can be an obnoxious asshole. Sometimes I just can’t seem to help myself.”

Elizabeth nodded mutely. Her ability to speak seemed to have disappeared. He was so close she could smell his aftershave, hear his breathing. His hand was still resting gently on her face. With a start, she realised she desperately wanted him to kiss her. The thought was shocking and more than a little exciting. But since when had she thought of Rodney in romantic terms? Since about five minutes after you met him, said a little voice in her head, you’ve just been in denial.

“Thank you,” he said softly, as his gaze flicked down to her mouth, all trace of the arrogant scientist missing. His thumb caressed her jaw; a tingling feeling spread upwards to her ear and her eyes drifted shut. She was sure she was trembling. He stepped a little nearer, invading her personal space, the heat radiating from his body taunting her by its closeness.

Then there was the gentle touch of his lips on hers.

She gasped at the sensation and, apparently of their own volition, her hands reached up and gripped his broad shoulders like a drowning woman clutching a life raft. The kiss deepened; slowly, tantalisingly. It fleetingly crossed her mind that he put as much care and attention into kissing as he did into his work.

After what felt like an eternity the kiss ended and she found herself staring at him in surprise. This was the last thing she’d expected when she’d come to his room.

He smiled. “I’ve wanted to do that for so long…”

Feeling like an awkward teenager, she replied truthfully, “So have I.”

He grinned and glanced back over his shoulder at the bowl of jello on the nearby table. “What flavour is that stuff?”

“I don’t know… it’s yellow, so I guess it’s…” Her mouth dropped open when she realised what she’d done. She winced.“…oh. Oh hell, Rodney, I’m sorry.”

He laughed, then said, “I’ve worked it out,” as he pulled her into a hug, “you’re not really Elizabeth Weir, you’re an evil clone sent to kill me. Not content with trying to give me a heart attack by raising my pulse rate to unheard of levels by kissing me, you decide to make sure you’ve done the job by feeding me lemon jello.”

“I’m so sorry. I wanted to make your birthday special.”

As he found her lips again and captured them in a passionate kiss, he whispered, “Don’t worry, you have.”

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