"Hey," John nudged Rodney. "Wake up."

"Huh?" Rodney batted vaguely in John's direction and rolled back over.

"C'mon Rodney...eclipse. It's total in about twenty minutes."

"Huh?"

John snickered; Rodney's hair was almost as unruly as his own and he was squinting in the dim light of John's lap top. "Don't you want to see the eclipse?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"Well you're an astro...."

"...physicist," Rodney finished. "Not an astronomer. What do I care about the moon? It's far too local."

"C'mon," John said again, knowing he was whining just a little and not really caring. "I wanna go see it."

"Well...."

Taking that as a yes, John hopped out of bed and pulled a pair of jeans on over his boxers. He found a pair of sweats on the floor and tossed them at Rodney, who sighed heavily and then climbed out of bed.

John grabbed a pair of binoculars out of the spare room Rodney used as an office and a couple of sweatshirts out of the hall closet, and as they headed out the back door he saw that Rodney had picked up one of their beach blankets.

"Have you ever noticed how these things never have the decency to come at a time when people are, oh I don't know...awake?"

"Less light pollution," John said as they made their way down the back steps and onto the beach.

"Light pollution? How do you even know what that means?"

"I took Astronomy as an elective my first year at the Academy," John said, sighing a little. Rodney still tended to forget that John had ever been anything but a beach bum.

"Oh right." Rodney paused and then looked around before spreading out the blanket. "I bet once you get out of Colorado Springs the visibility is pretty good."

"Yeah." John settled down, handing Rodney a sweat shirt. Rodney pulled it on but didn't zip it up and before John could put his on, Rodney settled in behind him, spreading his legs and then pulling John back to rest against his chest.

"Mmmm," John murmured. He leaned back and looked up at the moon, Rodney's arms around him. Not only was it strange to see the moon looking the way it did--the dull almost reddish color of most of the disc and the thinnest crescent of white at the lower edge--but there was none of the light on the sea he was used to seeing on a full moon night.

"It's not that I think you're stupid," Rodney said after a long moment. "Or even that you're ignorant."

"I know," John began, but Rodney kept talking.

"It's just that...it's hard for me to imagine you as a military man. Trust me, that's a compliment."

"I know that, too."

"I'm sorry, it's just that most of the guys I worked with...the paper pushers, you know? The desk jockeys...they were assholes."

Rodney went quiet and John figured that that was all he was going to get. He stared at the moon and thought about the general officers he'd know--the desk jockies and assholes. Just as he opened his mouth to tell Rodney that he got it, Rodney spoke again.

"They never understood that there's a...that sometimes the only result you get for months of work is something that...that's beautiful." Rodney tightened his grip on John. "It's not all about coming up with a bigger bang."

John'd never asked, but he'd certainly assumed that Rodney had been involved in weapons research. It was a scary thought: the idea of someone with Rodney's level of intelligence coming up with ways to make a bigger bang. "Must've sucked," he said quietly.

"Yeah well, that's why I...don't work for them any more."

"I'm glad you don't," John murmured. He thought about the pill bottles in the medicine cabinet and the frequent visits to the shrinks, and slid his hands along Rodney's arms until he reached Rodney's hands.

"Yeah, me too," Rodney said and John gripped his hands tightly. "And you...I'm glad you got out."

John leaned back; Rodney's chest was warm against and he could almost feel the steady thud of Rodney's heart. Above them, the last sliver of white disappeared from the edge of the moon.

-end-

Notes: This was obviously inspired by the 08/28/07 lunar eclipse. The title is from "Eclipse" off Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

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