Rodney's working when he feels a gentle touch on his shoulder and hears Elizabeth say, "Have you seen Dr. Zelenka?"

He almost shrugs her off and says, "Short guy? Glasses? Bad hair?" But he stops himself in time.

His fingers stop moving over the keyboard and his eyes close. He feels himself relax under her hand, and he has to catch a quick breath. She stands perfectly still, and the pressure of her hand never changes, but it feels heavier to him. He complains a lot about the weight on his shoulders, about how much he carries there, but it's mostly bluster. Since Arcturus, a certain weight has been missing.

It took Rodney a long time to figure out that friendship is a burden of choice, and even longer to miss it when it was withheld. Elizabeth's small hand can't weigh all that much, but somehow it balances the load. She squeezes his shoulder and he touches the back of her hand with two fingertips, then points toward Zelenka's hair where it sticks up from behind a monitor a few yards away.