Rodney and Cadman Get It On
By Pares

He hadn't really expected Sheppard to say anything about--the thing with Cadman to Elizabeth, but he'd worried that he might have something acid to say about Rodney's technique, maybe, or that he'd try for that frat boy-esque sort of high fiving that Rodney had noticed among other members of the military. And then he'd thought maybe Sheppard was pissed at him for compromising one of his officers, or pissed at her for being... really, really hot when she should have been a cool-eyed death dealing killing machine. But Sheppard had seemed perfectly normal both during and after the debriefing, and they'd done their little banter routine and everything felt... surprisingly fine.

Rodney had figured there'd be a certain embarrassment hangover, but he felt he could comfortably skip right ahead to the stage where he folded up said humiliating incident and pointedly forgot about it for the rest of his life. Except for the actual sex part, because that, well, that had been extraordinarily good, and he hadn't even gotten to come.

Zelenka had elbowed him out of the lab, saying it was on Elizabeth's orders, but making it clear he'd be allowed back in the morning if he could sweet talk Simpson into lending them her café press. The chances of that seemed slim, even to Rodney, but Zelenka and Heightmeyer had both suggested that it was good for him to fail at truly impossible tasks from time to time.

On his way back to his room, Rodney turned Daedalus schematics over in his head, and wondered if he could mount a smaller version of the Asgard beaming device on the jumper's ceiling to save space--when someone hooked a hand around his elbow and yanked him into a doorway.

It was Cadman.

Instantly, Rodney felt his heart pound as sweat broke out on his palms. Shit, shit, he should have expected this. This was the part where she berated him for taking advantage of her, for callously using her and then ignoring her, the part where she possibly yelled and maybe threw things and the part where he felt queasy and guilty and anxious and really, really hoped she wouldn't cry.

Rodney had never made a woman he was dating actually cry, which was surprising when you thought about it, especially since he seemed to have a special knack for making grad students sob like heartbroken teenagers, but he had a special dread of it, and was always certain that the next break up would bring with it a law suit, a broken jaw and tears.

Wondering if he was up for all three, he clenched his eyes shut waiting for option number two, hoping she'd possibly feel sorry about it and let option one and three spin away in the aftermath of Rodney going down like a sack of wet laundry.

"What are you doing?"

He peeped at her from under one cautiously raised eyelid.

"Waiting for you to hit me?"

Cadman had her little Commando Barbie beret on, and it made her look even tougher than she usually did, but she was smiling and shaking her head at him, so he opened both eyes and let his hands relax.

"Why would I hit you?"

"Why wouldn't you hit me?" he asked suspiciously.

"Rodney? I'm not going to hit you. In fact, here," and she leaned in and pecked his mouth. "See? The opposite of hitting."

"Oh." He stood there a moment, waiting to see what she'd do next.

"I just wanted to say that... I had a really nice time with you on MX6-7F4."

"Well. Good. Glad--Glad to hear it."

She dimpled at him ferally and he dry swallowed. Cadman was going to hit him after all, he could feel it.

"So I thought maybe we could continue. To have nice times. Together," She had tipped her head and her eyebrow had arched and Rodney felt irrationally annoyed. On the one hand, yes, she was proposing a sexual liaison, but she was talking to him like he'd a) never kissed a woman before and b) like he'd just gotten off the short bus.

"If you're proposing a purely sexual relationship conducted with suave discretion, then yes, yes, I'd like that very much. But I warn you, I'm very bad at--um, comforting people in moments of extreme crisis, so be prepared to be disappointed in that quarter."

She smirked at him.

"Kissed the girls and made them cry, huh, Rodney?"

"What? No!"

"If you say so."

For a long moment, he studied her face, trying to divine her true intentions. There was some possibility that this whole thing was a prank that would end with him waking up with pink hair or insults written in binary on his back in red Sharpie. One enterprising ex had papered his dorm hall with poster-sized photo-shopped prints that featured him doing unseemly things with a Dalek. But Cadman looked sincere enough, and the sex had been promising, and he already knew she was freakishly strong and basically fearless, so it boded well for all sorts of interesting acrobatics.

He darted in to kiss her, resting his palm on the swell of her breast. With a surprised little gust of breath, she wriggled against him and then shoved him away.

"Rodney!" For someone who'd been perfectly willing to give him a hand-job at a moment's notice, Cadman looked almost ridiculously affronted. Rodney resigned himself to being slapped. And possibly being called a 'masher.' "What the hell?"

"I thought--I thought we were just skipping the--the preliminaries, I mean we've already--" He waved a hand between them helplessly; for a moment, he'd been so sure that he'd been in for a good time, perhaps more than one.

"Right here in the hallway?"

"You didn't seem to mind a public venue when you were kissing Carson with my lips." He took a long step backward and crossed his arms.

"That was different," she spat.

"Oh ho, of course it was. When you want to make out, you're perfectly willing to do it in front of my respected peers, but here in a dark, deserted hallway you're suddenly a shy violet!"

Blinking at him, Cadman glanced around and then got another of her mean little smiles.

"Rodney," she said in a sing-song voice. "You're absolutely right."

"Of course I'm right--wait, what?"

"I apologize, Rodney. Sure, I thought we were gonna die and all, but that was no reason to embarrass you."

"Yes. Well. Apology. Apology accepted."

A little silence stretched between them and Cadman unzipped her jacket. She took off her beret and stuffed it in her jacket pocket. There was some little motion of her hands and her hair came tumbling onto her shoulders, and then she leaned against the dull gleam of the wall.

Taking a nearly unconscious half-step toward her, Rodney eyed her with some suspicion, and didn't drop his arms.

Reaching out, Cadman closed one hand on Rodney's wrist and tugged him another step closer.

"I'd hurry it up if I were you, Rodney. This hallway won't be dark and deserted forever, you know."

He found her hips with his hands and she bit at his ear, but gently, and when he pressed her up against the wall she kissed his throat in apparent approval. This time, he lowered his mouth to hers by degrees, and when she tucked her hands in his pockets he sighed against her lips and she licked right in to touch her tongue to his.

Kneading at her hip, he let his other hand drift down her thigh. Running two fingers along the inside of her knee, he traced his hand right up to the join of her legs, and groaned when he felt the surprising heat there, right through her clothes.

She gave a little hitching gasp, and then tugged at his collar with her teeth. Oh, this was good, this was very very good and he rubbed his thumb against the bunched fabric of her pants and she said, "Wait--oh--wait!"

Then someone behind them said, "Jesus, Rodney!" and he turned to stare into Colonel Sheppard's startled face.

END