The Chair, (hard R)

John reluctantly leaned back in the control Chair and closed his eyes. The head's up displays in the jumpers were visible to anyone in the craft but there was something about the HUDs in the chair room that made it easier to 'see' them with his eyes closed.

He could hear Rodney puttering in the background, taking some readings and talking over the radio to Zelenka. They were physically alone in the room but John knew Zelenka and Keller were monitoring not only the city's responses but his physical responses from the lab. Any opportunity to gather information about the use of the Chair and how anyone responded to it was not to be passed up.

"Okay, Colonel," Rodney directed, "see if you can turn on the shield at half strength."

Rodney and Zelenka had thought that if they could control the shield levels then it might not be as much of a drain on the ZPM and that they could use that as a potential alternative defense mechanism. After a number of frustrating trials, they decided that the controls in the tower weren't fine grained enough to do this and that using the Chair was the only option.

Purely from a personal standpoint, John disliked using the Chair when he didn't have to. At first, he thought that his connection with the Ancient technology was pretty cool but longer exposure to Ancient technology in general, and the Chair in specific, had made him wary of the power connected to the Chair. The more time he spent in the Chair, he felt like the city was getting more into his head -- and wouldn't Keller and the shrinks have a field day with that one? So John kept that information to himself. As a result, when Rodney asked him for time in the Chair, he had no real option but to go along.

Also, sitting in the Chair for any length of time caused a personally-embarrassing physical reaction. He had stuttered at Carson one time about it, who reassured John that he had felt similar reactions and it was "just physical, nothing ta worry about." On the other hand, having that kind of physical reaction anywhere near Rodney only made him think more about it which in turn made the reaction even stronger. Only knowing that Keller was watching, even if all she could see were readings on her computer, kept John from becoming fully hard and embarrassing himself even more. For all he told himself that Keller was a doctor, she was a girl and, even worse, Rodney's girlfriend. So his reaction to Rodney was not something he wanted to share.

From the Rodney-noises that was coming from over his shoulder and the tone of the snark on the radio, John inferred that the test was going reasonably well. John listened subconsciously for any instructions that were directed at him and filtered out anything else.

"Colonel, see if you can shrink the radius of the shield to just around the control tower," Rodney commanded.

John mentally brought up the HUD for the range of the shield and asked, "Fast or slow?"

He could hear Rodney consider, "Not too fast, I guess."

John eased the shield tighter to the control tower and from the chatter he could hear, their experiment was working about as well as they could expect.

"Almost done," Rodney stated, to John's relief. "Give us a few more minutes of readings."

John concentrated breathing slowly and evenly, trying to hold on to his composure.

"Okay, done," Rodney announced. "Colonel, hold on a second," he put a warm hand on John's shoulder as John was about to get out of the chair.

Somehow, John knew Keller's monitoring was cut off and without warning there was a sudden sound byte in his head -- full audio and video -- that he just knew the city had been waiting to give to him. In that moment, he knew the city had more intelligence than they ever gave it credit for. Maybe it wasn't fully sentient but it fucking well knew what it was doing. There was a ghost of amusement that wasn't his in his head at that thought.

It wasn't long, but as it played, John couldn't move, couldn't breathe. The scene was obviously a hidden security camera from Rodney's room. Rodney, splayed on his back, fully naked and he had obviously been working at this for a while. For the scene showed only Rodney jerking himself off, coming and sighing "John" as he came down from the first rush of orgasm.

John was very aware that he was fully hard, something he couldn't hide very well as he lay back in the chair. His BDUs had stretched across his hips as he sat down and fitted his legs into the chair, so his erection had no where to go.

"Are we done?" John gritted out. He needed to move before Rodney saw....

"What... what was in that last energy burst from the city?" Rodney's warm breath was close, too close. He could feel the warmth radiating from Rodney's body.

The suddenness of it all made John tell the truth, "You.... in your room...." He stopped by main strength and willed his fingers to let loose their death-grip on the arms of the chair. Rodney's hand on his arm stopped him from moving further.

"John?" Rodney asked softly. "Look at me."

John opened his eyes and Rodney was right there, close enough to touch. He wanted to reach out and...

"You.... I....." John swallowed and had to close his eyes at the look of -- hope? want? -- in Rodney's eyes.

"John." This time it wasn't a question.

"Rodney...." John tried to make it a warning, to keep the longing and the frustration out of that one word but wasn't sure he had succeeded.

"You idiot," Rodney murmured before leaning in for a kiss.

John reached up, pulled hard and Rodney was in his lap.

"Ooff..." Rodney muttered but wriggled around -- John bit back a moan at how that felt -- and Rodney's weight was on top of him, kissing for all he was worth.

"Didn't think," Rodney mumbled between kisses, "that you..." more kissing, "wanted this." John wasn't given a chance to answer but since Rodney didn't move, he figured that was as good as anything.

John moved his hips to get more friction against his cock. Not that he wanted to come in his pants but he didn't want to give this up....

Rodney stopped and put a hand to the radio still in his ear. "What?" he demanded grumpily.

The moment's respite gave John a chance to find two working brain cells. By the time Rodney was done answering Zelenka's questions, John had better control of himself. As Rodney leaned back in, John gripped Rodney's shoulders to stop him.

"John?" Rodney questioned.

Deep breath. "We shouldn't..... Can't." John hated to see the look of confusion on Rodney's face and played his trump card in a flat voice, "Jennifer."

At that, Rodney stilled, then slumped. He put his head on John's shoulder and panted for a moment, obviously seeking control. After a moment, he awkwardly wriggled out of the Chair and stood in front of it.

Glad for an opportunity to get out of the Chair, John sat up, thought the Chair off and stood.

"I..... " John wanted to apologize but he didn't really know how.

Rodney's grimace was rueful. "Ummm.... me too, I guess," he admitted, looking down at the floor.

"Just gonna go...." John waved vaguely at the door.

"Okay," was Rodney's only answer. It was sad and accepting at the same time.

As John walked out the door, he couldn't look back. He could only hope that he could salvage a working relationship with Rodney but he knew he had just lost a friend.

Part 2