Thank you! John's absolutely in his own head, which is the problem that we start out with: he's in his head and the gears are spinning but the clutch is gone, and hi there car metaphor, how you doin'?

And you're right, Rodney does blur around him, and Rodney will always do that, because he's Rodney. The thing I liked about where this story went for me was that after a brief flail, Rodney got a damn grip of himself (not usually how I write Rodney, I'll admit) and went ahead and got what John needed: a grip, something to hold onto and release control and the necessity to always be there and be The Guy.

...okay, I could totally go on for hours about these two. I suspect I may well be hearing more from them.