I can be easily turned off by stories that take the canonverse and then pull out a "... but really, it's like this!" plot twist, but I really enjoyed this! The banter is just fantastic -- I would quote favorite lines, but I'd end up quoting all of it. *g* And the turn from funny to angsty worked just right for me. The ending hurt -- and yet I thought it was in character for both boys, that Rodney is afraid of losing his friendship with John if he accepts the brother relationship, while John feels like Rodney's rejecting him just like his family did (maybe I'm reading too much into it, but that's how it looked to me?) -- but goes along with it because that's what Rodney wants and needs at the moment. It does make a big difference that you set it at the point in the series where you did -- before M&MM, before Outcast, when John and Rodney were at a more precarious point in both their personal lives and their friendship with each other.

I had a big long ramble composed about wanting more and speculating on how it might go in the future, but then I saw your comment below about working on a sequel and so ... *tosses ramble out window* All I can say is, I'm delighted by that; I yearn for closure and I would just love to see more with the newly-revealed brothers working through their issues! (And seeing Jeannie and maybe even Dave Sheppard's reactions to it would be delightful as well...)