Small Consolation, (NC-17)

She shouldn't have been surprised but, somehow, she was.

Jennifer's consulting visit to the SGC had been good for her. It had gotten her away from Atlantis and the 'small town' effect that secrecy forced on them. The SGC was no less of a small town but one could get out of the mountain regularly and there was all of Earth to visit. While the inhabitants of Atlantis could now also visit Earth, that's what it was, a visit. They really didn't live here anymore and wanted desperately to go home.

While she was away, she realized how much she had missed Rodney. A curiously odd series of conversations with Sam Carter about Rodney had revealed how much Rodney had changed over the years and that, while he'd never be perfect, this was maybe as good as he would ever be. Jennifer would never have given a younger Rodney a second thought, not after Sam's tale about the time Teal'c was stuck in the Star Gate, but now…. a different set of eyes told her something of what she never realized.

For Rodney had really come into his own in Pegasus. He was still rude and not good with people but his honesty was refreshing, his confidence was more self-assured and he had become self-aware enough to actually want to try. After being away for almost two months, she could see how hard he had tried with her.

So she went back to Atlantis. She even had a pretty little speech in her head about how it really was me, I didn't understand and I'd like to try again that she had practiced on the flight from Cheyenne to California.

It was late in the day and she figured Rodney would be in his lab since he wasn't in his room. She had come into the lab area when she heard Colonel Sheppard's voice and stopped in the hall, not wanting an audience for her reunion.

"Rodney…." The Colonel's voice had something of a breathy whine to it.

Curiosity made Jennifer move closer.

"Want me to stop?" Rodney's voice teased. "I could….."

"Don't you dare," the Colonel grated.

She could hear a hum of satisfaction from Rodney. She peered around the door frame.

They were sideways to her so there was no mistaking what was happening. Colonel Sheppard was sitting in Rodney's office chair, the one he never let anyone sit in because you might change the adjustments on it and my back is delicate, head back with his eyes closed. His BDUs were down around his ankles and she could see wiry thighs.

Rodney was kneeling on the floor between those thighs, obviously – and from the sounds the Colonel was making, enthusiastically – giving a blow job. Rodney's head bobbed up and down, one of the Colonel's hands resting lightly on the side of Rodney's face.

She watched in fascination as Rodney applied all of the focus he used to give to her to the man sitting in the chair. That had been one of the things she had never appreciated, how Rodney would focus all of his energy on her when they had been in bed together. The sex had been wonderful, it had been outside of bed that she had her issues with Rodney.

The Colonel stiffened and it was the way he said, "Rodney…" as he came that she knew that this wasn't a one time occurrence, nor the first time. There was a note of tenderness in that one word that told her volumes. She watched as Rodney climbed up the Colonel's body to kiss his now-relaxed lover. The chair rocked under their combined weights but they didn't notice, they were focused on each other.

A hot streak of jealousy ran through her but she quashed it immediately. After all, she was the one who broke up with Rodney and ran away. She had left him a free agent and, thinking back, she knew that the relationship between Rodney and the Colonel always had something that didn't include her.

She quietly stepped back from the door, leaving them in peace. Maybe in the morning she could be happy that Rodney had found happiness. Maybe.