Thank you! I've noticed that one of those tropes I do over and over without really planning it is to have someone freak out over something wildly inconsequential, where it actually turns out that the event in question is just a trigger-point for some weird, deep-seated issue. I don't know where that comes from, except that I think most of us really are like that -- our Big Things are just too big to think about, so we funnel all that energy into tangentially related Little Things. I don't know, or it's just a quick and easy storytelling device *g*

I *adore* Jeannie, so that's always a big pull for me to writing MENSAverse fiction -- I can legitimately bring her in for a bit, because she and Rod really *are* close! The biggest sign for me that Rod has his life together way more than Rodney does is that only a very screwed-up person wouldn't fully appreciate having a sister as cool as Jeannie. (*checks watch to count down for "Miller's Crossing" next week...*)