Impulsive people were unpredictable. Prone to rushing off without thinking. Likely to get themselves killed, or, worse, seriously wounded.

He didn't like pain.

Major Sheppard, on the other hand, didn't seem to care about getting hurt. Injuries that would have had Rodney distracted and self-conscious and stammering were apparently easy to ignore. Or maybe it was just that it could be so hard to tell what was going on inside Sheppard's head.

If pressed, Rodney might have admitted that he wasn't all that good at reading people. He would have been quicker to admit that for the most part he didn't bother to try. He was too busy thinking about other things, concrete things. Emotions were nothing more than hormonal reactions to external stimuli. And they weren't even predictable. People wasted too much time talking about them, as far as he was concerned.

Still, there were times -- mostly when he should have been sleeping but wasn't -- when Rodney couldn't not think about it. When he couldn't help but wonder what it was the Major was thinking when those green eyes turned in Rodney's direction and that thoughtful little frown creased his brow. 

But Rodney most definitely, never ever let himself hope. 

What he felt for John was just an emotion, he told himself. A chemical reaction. An impulse.

It didn't mean anything.