sga fic: His Dinner with Jeannie

[xparrot]

gnine had the original idea around which this story is built. I've read several "Miller's Crossing" tags with a similar premise, but none of them were quite what we wanted. Our interpretation of Jeannie is slightly different from others I've seen; we're maybe a bit more sympathetic to her than some, and this story reflects that take.

SGA: His Dinner with Jeannie {5,823 words}
PG, gen angst; "Miller's Crossing" tag, set between "This Mortal Coil" and "Be All My Sins Remember'd"
A little while after "Miller's Crossing," John has a conversation with Jeannie about what transpired.

Read it on AO3

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

aww, lovely!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

[thedeadparrot.livejournal.com]

I love Jeannie like crazy, and this was such a wonderful exploration of her relationship to Rodney, made all the more interesting with John's outside-but-not-really POV.

And seriously, a My Little Pony stable. So for the win.

Thank you!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

No, thank you! ^_^

It's interesting, I was debating whether to do this John POV or Jeannie POV - I decided to go with John's, because from Jeannie's, the story would have been more about John's relationship with Rodney, and much as I enjoy that, I really wanted to examine Jeannie and her brother. 'cuz I do adore them muchly!

[witchofthedogs.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

Well done.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[spike21.livejournal.com]

awwww. yeah, I liked that a lot. John and Jeannie are very sympatico I think. *g*

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

As the two who probably know Rodney the best, Jeannie & John can understand each other pretty well in some things...

[ratcreature]

I really enjoyed this, it was a great look at Rodney and Jeannie's relationship through John's eyes.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[grammarwoman]

Lovely -- I like what you did with Jeannie here: she seems real and concerned, and the backstory of little sister idolization fits perfectly.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I really like Jeannie, so I'm glad she worked here. I get the impression that Jeannie & Rodney at one time were very close, and are working back towards that...

Review

[agdrgn.livejournal.com]

I really liked this; it is a believable vignette and both Jeannie and John are totally in character as well as believable. It also is very moving.

--Silverthreads

Re: Review

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad they felt in char!

[aelfgyfu_mead]

Very fitting. I love Jeanie too, and she would find out eventually, or go nuts trying to figure out what had happened. Of course she had clearance!

Nicely done.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes, that was gnine's original idea, that Jeannie would want to know what happened, and wouldn't be stopped until she found the truth (it's a McKay thing!) but she could easily misinterpret what she learned...

[rusty-armour.livejournal.com]

This story is awesome! The conversation between Sheppard and Jeannie in that restaurant is exactly what I've been longing to see since watching "Miller's Crossing"! :-) I loved the way Sheppard kept reading Jeannie based on what he knew of Rodney. I also loved Jeannie's childhood stories of her brother and her confusion over whether Rodney had changed since travelling to the Pegasus Galaxy or if she just never really knew him. It's a nice nod to canon that Sheppard is still trying to bridge the gap between both siblings.

I'm going to save this story on my hard drive right now and add it to my recs list next time I update it. :-)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I loved the way Sheppard was trying to bring the siblings together (never letting Rodney know, of course) in "M&MM", and was disappointed we didn't get any Jeannie-Sheppard interaction in Miller's Crossing, so this was to make up for that lack. And yeah, one of the things I love about Kate Hewlett playing Jeannie is that she has so many of the same mannerisms and expressions as her brother - so it makes sense Sheppard, so used to Rodney, would be able to read her as well.

And thanks in advance for the rec! ^_^

[naye]

I read and loved and got called away before commenting (sorry!) - and in the hours since I read this, I realized it had subconsciously become part of my personal canon. This is how it happened; this is how John is, and how Jeannie is. This is why Jeannie knows. I don't know what else I can say about it that will say anything more about how much I loved it. (Now I need to go play with a 2-year old! ♥)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you~, I'm so glad you liked it! And that it fits in your canon, eee! Since I doubt we'll ever hear about it in the show itself, it can fit there fine, I think... (& sorry I didn't e it to you first, I was editing it to send, and then decided I just wanted to post it and get on with other things, so... ^^;)

have fun with the little one!

[wraithfodder.livejournal.com]

I read this during my lunch break, but couldn't get comment unti now. Great character piece between Jeannie and Sheppard!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Hee, glad to provide a little lunchtime entertainment!

[sweeneybird.livejournal.com]

Your perspective on Jeannie was great, and I particularly liked your characterization of John - it felt really authentic to me. Nicely done!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm really glad to hear John works for you - Rodney's my favorite char, but I find Sheppard the easiest POV to write, for whatever reasons...

[sholio]

Oh, this is just so wonderful -- I think this satisfied me in a way that many "Miller's Crossing" tags haven't, because you dealt with the ethical issues with what they did and yet in a way that's very sympathetic to the characters; Jeannie's reaction is just right for her, and "McKay & Mrs. Miller" totally made me fall in love with John and Jeannie's interactions, so I was delighted to get more of that here. Basically, I love the Jeannie/Rodney relationship, and the John/Jeannie relationship, and of course the John/Rodney -- and we got ALL of them here! Nice character insights too. Very happymaking. ^_^

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've read a couple tags that had Jeannie being surprised/touched by her brother's attempted gesture, but never mentioned the other side, that someone died so that she could live...Rodney never handles that terribly well, and I can't see that Jeannie would, either; what we see of her is so compassionate (not to mention being crazy liberal pinko sort, for whom the death penalty would never be an ethical option...)

And I was disappointed not to get any John-Jeannie interaction in M'sC, so it was fun to get it in here!

[stitcher2ficcer.livejournal.com]

With holiday/New Year stuff finally out of the way (almost; decorations down but not all put away, and BLP inventory nearly done--books counted, but not added up yet), I'm finally managing a few minutes to catch up with your SGA ficlets before I launch into final editing of the revised new book manuscript.

I quite enjoyed this. I couldn't see Jeannie not wanting to know the details of what had happened, and having her go to John for the story rather than her brother gave you the opportunity to write some very nice John/Jeannie interaction and very sweet background development on Rodney/Jeannie (you DO love those sibling relationships, don't you? ^_~). I especially like how John was reading Jeannie via his understanding of their similar expressions and gestures. I used to say that anyone who knew your dad and met your Uncle David without knowing their relationship would know him for your dad's brother in a minute because their hands are not only almost identical, but they use them exactly the same way when they talk. Thus the Jeannine/Rodney similarities felt very natural to me.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes...it was J-chan's idea, that Jeannie find the report and seek to get it explained (so the story is a sibling collaborative effort, really, appropriate, no? ^^ And hee, you mistyped Jeannie's name in the last line above. I did that at least twice myself when writing the story...)

I love that in the show they cast David Hewlett's real-life sister to play Jeannie, because it shows - she has the same gestures and speech-patterns, as well as looking unmistakably related.

[deaka.livejournal.com]

Lovely - nice job handling the darker aspects without them overbalancing the story. Jeannie seemed perfect. I can absolutely believe that she idolised Rodney when she was younger - it explains so much about the amount of hurt he caused by more or less rejecting her because he didn't agree with her choices.

Wonderful fic, really enjoyed it.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

In my experience, most little sisters idolize their big brothers to a certain extent, so I have a hard time imagining Jeannie any other way. Especially because yes, it does explain how she was so hurt by Rodney, and why she's able to forgive him now that she's come to terms with his fallibility. (It's also an ironic bit of dysfunctionality, that I think Rodney felt just as betrayed and rejected when Jeannie turned away from their science to a new family of her own. But they're working it out now, awww... )

[wagacca.livejournal.com]

Love! Can never have too much Jeannie :)

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And no, you really can't XD

[parisntripfan.livejournal.com]

Very nice. Like other I love how John keeps thinking of Rodney as he is talking with her and noting the ways in which she is similar to her brother. Because I think the siblings do share a number of things in common and not just their mannerisms. (A lot of Jeannie's reactions and barbed comments reminded me of Rodney)

Some great peaks into the siblings past...I love the idea of young Rodney teaching Jeannie all about higher math...

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Jeannie really is Rodney's sister in every way. And aww, yes, I'm really fond of the idea of Rodney teaching Jeannie math. I think one of the reasons their split was so hard is because Jeannie is one of the few people who can actually talk to Rodney on his intellectual level...and while it's difficult for Rodney to accept his little sister really is that good, it's also a wonderful relationship for him to have.

[threnodyjones.livejournal.com]

Brilliant. Not forced at all, and given everything you covered in here that's really saying something. Just brilliant. Thanks for posting!

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm glad it played out convincingly!

[leesa_perrie]

Wow! This was very intense, but so, so good. Excellent back story. You handled the moral/ethical side well too, and Jeannie's fear about how much Mer may have changed. Everything just worked together and makes sense within what we have seen and heard in canon. Wonderful.

And the Little Pony stable?! LOL!! Yeah, can so see Rodney doing that. I hope Jeannie does still have it, though I pity him for what John might do with a photo of it...!!! Nice touch.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I really am fond of the idea of Jeannie (or anyone who knew Rodney before, really) coming to terms with the man he's become on Atlantis...

And hee to the stable - a photo? Meredith better hope that his little sis doesn't give John the actual toy! XD

[wildcat88.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed this - Jeannie searching for the truth and not afraid to ask John, the comparison between her childhood memories and what she sees now in Mer, John seeing the similarities between the two as well as the differences.

My favorite part was John explaining what happened to Wallace and Jeannie's reaction - wonderful tension in the scene and very in character for both. Well done.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you! I'm especially glad the scene concerning Wallace worked, as the whole fic was really centered around that (I wasn't expecting to take so many words to get there, but McKays do like to talk...)

[pisces227.livejournal.com]

Fabulous job! Lots of emotion.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Lovely -- a great depiction of how Jeannie might have found out what happened, afterwards. The stories of the McKay siblings growing up are wonderful, not only the My Little Pony stable (priceless!) but also the anecdote about Rodney feeling guilty about the accidental chocolate-ingestion even as he defended himself to his father; I definitely see the seeds of SGA McKay there, denying responsibility even as he beats himself up over the loss of people like Gall.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yes, I'm very interested in what the McKays sibs were like, growing up. And oh yes, definitely, that's one of the things that's always fascinated me about Rodney, that he's so insultingly quick to assign blame, but can be just as fast to take guilt onto himself, to the point that I think the blame games he plays are mostly a defenses mechanism to keep himself from being crushed under his own conscience.

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Wonderfully done. Thanks.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, glad you enjoyed it!

[thrace-adams.livejournal.com]

I liked this, I think it was the last line that clinched it for me...so powerful. REally well done, and I like this version of Jeannie

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you - I'm so glad the last line especially worked for you. This is how I see Jeannie, coming to terms with her brother's humanity after all the love and friction that was between them before...

His Dinner with Jeannie - story

[maxinemayer.livejournal.com]

What a wonderful story, and an excellent episode tag to "Miller's Crossing." John and Jeannie's voices are excellent, very true to the characters as seen in the series. And of course, this was so well-written and engrossing. Thanks so much for sharing your work. Love, max

Re: His Dinner with Jeannie - story

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Thank you, I'm so glad you enjoyed it, and found it true to the characters.