sgarecfinders | Rodney outside his bailiwick (Reply)

This is probably one of my more complicated requests; hope you'll bear with me.

I realized when I read sardonicsmiley's excellent Unconventional Heroism that I've gotten so used to Rodney being the one in distress - emotional, physical - that a story that didn't display such a paradigm - a story where, in fact, he was constantly and consistently coming to John's aid - was actually shocking. More shocking was that, in Unconventional Heroism, Rodney was more socially adept than John. And it was believable.

So now I'm looking for stories of Rodney facing any situation outside the 'geek' box in which fandom has placed him. In other words, he is faced with a task/situation that does not involve A) blowing something up, or B) preventing something from blowing up. Perhaps he is called on to talk to an emotionally distraught character; perhaps, somehow, the diplomatic aspect of a mission falls to him? Perhaps he has to negotiate with hostile aliens?

Whether he succeeds in his endeavor I'll leave up to you. Though I'm more in the mood for Rodney-triumphs!stories, I'd like to see stories too, where he moves outside his bailiwick and fails utterly at being anything but the two-dimensional geek he(we?) believes himself to be...

Beyond that, all's fair game... though I am particularly fond of well-realized AUs, McShep, and Team!fic.

-K