"Be free for dinner tonight. You know, you’re not getting any younger. I’ll look for someone for you, too. That way we can double date! Take some of the pressure off."

   "What?" John said blankly.

Once the door closed behind him, Sheppard turned to face him with his arms still folded. Rodney sighed. "She thinks you’re already involved with someone."

Through a haze of pain, John could almost see Rodney frantically thinking "off" at the little blue cube. John thought it, too, and for once, the tech performed as expected.

   Lucy seemed puzzled, and not a little put out, but nodded in the end. "Very well, you have shown us that you are pure. You shall now Testify your friend so that he may be freed from his demons and once again be safe to walk the paths of Ligia."

The last time Rodney had been on Earth, he’d come through the stargate with Major Sheppard, then gone back to Atlantis by spaceship without him.

   No. They hadn’t made anyone but John stay behind.

"They all think I’m your boyfriend anyway," John said.

   "Yes, so? You are my boyfriend," Rodney said. "Why is this a problem?"

   "They thought I was before I even was!" John yelled.

"Everyone has something to hide, Colonel," Rodney says darkly. "And these people have the means to—to do whatever they like with what they find, yet for some reason everyone is all right with this?"

   "I am fine with it," Teyla says.

   "Just think of it as extreme customer service," John says.

"…it’s the Air Force, Rodney." He reached out and touched Rodney’s leg. "I wasn’t supposed to do this again."

   "This? This?" Rodney slapped his hand away. "So, what, having sex with me was like some stunt? I’m just the dumb, risky thing you did on spring break?"

"I do not even know your name," said the doctor, leaning forward. "Or anything of your life or how you came to be here."

   There were parts of that that even Jean could not answer. But he said, "I am Jean Berger, matelot breveté. I loved the sea."

Rodney took a sip of coffee, typing with one hand. It was already past eight. He’d downloaded the data he’d collected from Lo’r Mawra, and the weird thing was… The weird thing was that the erratic pattern seemed to have followed them back through the gate.

"They call it an oracle’s gift. It’s supposed to be good luck."

I don’t think anyone that has done a stint on Atlantis could live anywhere that wasn’t by the water, not unless they had hated their time there. And Rodney had loved Atlantis, loved her so much he had given her up so that she could have what he thought she needed most… me.