Stargate Atlantis Fic

Nov 02, 2008 15:11


This story was originally in the zine, Jumper One, published by Agent With Style in May of 2007.  Brate and K Hanna Korossy organized the whole thing, and I have to say they both did a wonderful job introducing me to the world of zines!  Thanks a lot to both of you!  Emrys

Title:  Closing Two Eyes
Author:  Emrys
Spoiler Alerts:  Anything through Season Three is fair game, but this story specifically mentions events that took place in the episode "Trinity".
Category:  Gen/hurt/comfort/friendship
Pairing:  N/A
Summary:  Sheppard falls through a floor, and then the fun really starts!
Disclaimer:  Stargate Atlantis doesn't belong to me, and I'm not receiving any monetary benefits from this story.  The series belongs to MGM and Sci-Fi and a lot of other people much more interesting than me!






Closing Two Eyes

Emrys

‘To find a friend one must close one eye; to keep him, two.’ ~~Norman Douglas

When John comes back to himself, all he knows for a little too long is the pressure that lies along the entire surface of his chest. It’s close to pain but not quite, and, really, the worst part of the whole situation is that he can neither move nor catch his breath.

He opens his eyes, and the world is tilted and whirled, and he has to concentrate in order to bring it back into focus. When he does, he is confronted with an image that doesn’t quite make sense until he realizes he’s lying flat on his back. The multiple arches that are in his line of view are part of the ceiling, and the darkness up there bordered by broken tiles is actually the hole through which he fell.

He doesn’t quite remember the fall, just the initial, sudden loss of anything solid beneath his feet and then the vague sensation of air floating by his face. But between that hazy memory and the evidence that lies around him, the only conclusion he can come to is that he actually did fall through the floor of the upper level. And now he’s lying on his back as the occasional tile plummets and shatters on the floor around him. Dust motes float in the barely illuminated air, and he coughs when his restricted lungs finally decide to complain about the grime he’s breathing into them.

He tries to move again, and now the pain decides to reveal itself. It’s primarily screaming in his chest, and suddenly he really needs to stop coughing. But that’s not working because his lungs are still pretty pissed at him, and before he can figure out why he’s in so much pain, black spots are replacing the image of the ornately gilded yet broken ceiling, and suddenly he’s going away from himself again.

oOo

Rodney’s more than a little irritated when he turns around and realizes Sheppard has wandered away from him. In fact, he’s getting on to pretty goddamn furious when he starts calling and there’s no hide nor freaky, spiky hair of the colonel anywhere in the general vicinity. And he’s pretty justified in his fury since he’s been left all alone in the western wing of the creepy, albeit beautiful, palace. It’s creepy because it’s dark and empty, but it’s beautiful because someone put a lot of effort into making it so. Even Rodney is enough of an aesthete to recognize the splendor of the palace. In fact, before Sheppard had gotten himself missing, Rodney was wondering if the Taj Mahal-which he has never actually visited but still knows enough about to have an opinion-would cower in or rival the glory of this structure.

But right now, he’s finished appreciating the splendor of the arched architecture, mosaic floors, and calligraphy-inscribed walls. Right now he’s pissed, because Colonel Pain-in-the-Ass, who has been just that throughout this entire mission, has suddenly drifted off somewhere. And now Rodney’s left all by himself, and he’s not only going to have to protect himself from whatever is lurking in the numerous dark corners, but he’s also going to have to find the wayward colonel.

And, although he’s not willing to admit it to himself, there is a small part of him that’s really freaking out, because Sheppard has been acting weird since they exited the stargate. And as angry as Rodney is, the suspicions of that small part of him are being confirmed right now, because there is no fucking way a hale and healthy Sheppard would ever let Rodney out of his sight.

And yet here Rodney is, left to his own limited physical defenses, and so something sure as hell is really wrong.

Suddenly, his radio squawks, then the welcome sound of Teyla’s voice floats into his ear.

“Colonel Sheppard? Rodney? Can you hear me?”

“Of course I can hear you,” Rodney snaps into his radio. There’s a strange scratching noise emanating from somewhere in the room, and as his heart rate quickens, he squints into the gloom in an attempt to quickly discern what could be the cause of the sound.

“I am sorry, Rodney, but I have been trying to contact you for some time and have been unsuccessful in doing so until now. Are you all right?” There is more than a little concern in Teyla’s radio-transmitted voice, and it momentarily distracts Rodney from the creepy sound that had been made by something in the equally creepy room.

“Huh, maybe the signal that’s screwing up the Ancient technology is beginning to affect our instruments as well,” Rodney mutters into his headset.

He stumbles closer to where he thinks the eerie sound had come from and sees that a shutter is open on one of the highest windows in the room. While he watches it, the shutter slides across the wall and makes the same scritch-scratching sound he heard before. He wipes his hand across his sweat-lined forehead and revels in the palpable relief he feels.

“I’m fine, Teyla. It’s just, the colonel has wandered off. I was about to go look for him,” Rodney says, and is pleased when he keeps the quaver out of his voice.

“That is very unlike Colonel Sheppard. Is something wrong with him?” Teyla asks, and Rodney can almost hear her eyebrows knitting together.

“My thoughts exactly,” he replies and then turns on the life-signs detector. No time like the present to begin seeking out the colonel.

“Be careful, Rodney. Sections of the building are unsound,” Teyla warns, and there’s obvious exertion in her voice.

“Why? What’s wrong? What’s happened now?” he asks in a staccato burst, and risks a look at the life-signs detector. There’s a faint signal, but Rodney pauses before following it.

“As I said, some areas of the palace are unstable,” Teyla answers. “Ronon fell through a staircase and is injured. I think it wise to return him to Atlantis.”

“Injured?! Injured how?” Rodney asks, suddenly afraid to move.

“I believe he has broken his arm. He is also bleeding badly from a deep cut on his leg,” Teyla reports. As Rodney pictures her supporting an injured Ronon, the effort in her tone suddenly makes sense.

“Huh. Bet the big guy’s happy about that,” he comments absently. He is rewarded with Ronon’s irate growl in his ear that clearly conveys just how unhappy the Satedan is with the situation.

“Is the colonel far from where you are located now?” Teyla asks.

“Not far,” Rodney confirms. “Listen, there aren’t people or Wraith or any other weird forms of life here. Just a lot of dust and fancy architecture. You bring Ronon to the gate since you’re closer to it than you are to me. I’ll find the colonel and meet you there.” Rodney is trying to sound cavalier, but since he’s literally shaking in his boots, he’s not quite sure how well he’s pulling it off.

There’s a pause before Teyla answers with obvious displeasure. “Are you sure that this is a good idea, Rodney? Something is not right about this place, and the colonel was acting strangely before. I am worried.”

At this point, Rodney is far past worried, but they really don’t have too much of a choice. It’s either go in search of the colonel or leave him behind, and since the thought of leaving Sheppard behind makes McKay slightly nauseated, his only real option is to become a one-man search party.

“Of course I’m not sure! This place is seriously creeping me out, but when have we ever had the chance to follow the good ideas?” he asks with more than a little sarcasm lacing his tone. “Teyla, I don’t really have a choice. I can’t leave him behind, and we both know you won’t leave Ronon behind.”

“I’ll be fine! Leave me here!” Ronon grumbles into his radio, and it’s not difficult to hear the pain in the big warrior’s tone.

“That’s right, you giant hairball! Play the hero!” Rodney yells into his own radio, suddenly feeling even angrier with the situation than he was before. “Then we’ll all be separated. One missing team member is enough. Don’t listen to him, Teyla, I’ll be fine. I’ve got a strong life sign for Sheppard, and I’ll make sure to duck when I find him just in case he’s acting ‘strange’ enough to take a swing at me.”

Ronon begins to protest, but his voice is becoming increasingly weak. Rodney carefully walks forward, following the colonel’s life sign. There’s no sign of an unstable structure beneath his feet, so he continues on into a broad hallway that is lined on both sides by intricately carved marble walls.

“Just be careful, Rodney. We’ll meet you both at the gate.”

“Yes, yes, of course you will,” Rodney mutters, his thoughts already sidetracked by his need to find Sheppard. “See you later.”

After that, it’s quiet for some time until Rodney tries to contact John via radio. No answer is returned other than the echo of his own voice as it bounces from one tall marble wall to another.

“What the hell?” he asks out loud as he notices that the colonel’s signature is one floor beneath him.

One floor beneath him and completely not where it’s supposed to be. Rodney can’t seem to shake off another surge of anger   Although it’s true the colonel displayed uncharacteristic irritation toward his team members within minutes of exiting the stargate, putting so much distance between himself and Rodney is way too far past the point of acceptable, bordering on absolutely insane behavior.

Despite the intensity of his fury, Rodney cautiously continues onward to find the source of the life sign and of his anger.

The mission began as a standard recon job, and Sheppard showed typical eagerness to begin a new adventure. But not a quarter of an hour after leaving Atlantis, he started treating his teammates like pariahs and acting almost as if he were trying to escape their company. In fact, Sheppard was the one to suggest they split up to search the palace, despite the fact they knew very little about the place. And when even Teyla hinted such a course of action could prove dangerous, Sheppard immediately became disproportionately angry. He ordered the separation, and Rodney, none-to-happy with the turn of events, was forced to follow the colonel through the eastern wing of the palace.

McKay wasn’t entirely pleased to be left alone with the irate colonel and was prepared to tell him just that when he noticed his Ancient equipment beginning to falter. He became distracted by the simple technical glitch and consequently fixed it with minimum effort. But apparently taking his attention away from Sheppard was a mistake, because when he looked up from his repair work, he found the colonel gone.

And now, said colonel is a floor beneath him, and Rodney is royally pissed.

He assuages his anger by vowing not to miss the opportunity to tell Sheppard exactly what he thinks of him this time around.

oOo

When John wakes up again, he’s midway to coughing up another lungful of pain and dust. The light is different, darker and yet brighter at the same time. The ceiling is now just a shadowed impression of mosaic arches, and the broken spot isn’t really discernible from the rest of it. Yet a flash of blue-white light crosses over it in abrupt beams of clarity, and he thinks maybe something is going seriously wrong with his vision.

John closes his eyes again in an attempt to clear them and tries to draw a deep breath. A stab of pain along his sternum makes the effort useless, so instead he concentrates on taking shallow breaths and maybe moving an arm or a leg or, hell, maybe just a big toe.

As he’s feeling relief for being able to wriggle his right foot a little bit, a strange squawking noise begins, sounding as if it’s coming from very far away. His brow wrinkles in confusion, and he tries again to open his eyes and make sense of his surroundings.

The splash of brightness still staggers its way across the ceiling, and its source slowly becomes visible.

It’s a flashlight that is shaking wildly in the hands of Rodney McKay, and John’s suddenly so relieved, he verges on passing out again. He resolutely forces back the shadows that threaten to spill over him and concentrates on his breathing. It’s still painful to draw breath, but he does it anyway, and soon he’s able to focus a little better on the physicist.

Rodney is stumbling his way toward him, and he’s yelling into the radio at the same time. John can’t understand what the man is saying, but McKay is obviously pissed. Not just a little pissed, but mightily pissed. There’s fear in Rodney’s eyes and a grim set to his jaw; whatever has the physicist pissed off is actually important and not something minor. Because, although it’s true that practically anything can set McKay off, it’s only when he’s mentally calculating odds of survival that he gets such a panicked look in his eyes.

Rodney trips, and then, bringing with him an upwelling of disturbed dust, he’s at John’s side. John tries to smile but coughs instead. In response, Rodney starts yelling louder into his radio, but everything still sounds blurry and so far away to John.

But when Rodney begins pulling and straining at something that is somewhere in the vicinity of John’s torso, things clear right the hell up. John can’t immediately see what McKay is struggling with, but whatever it is causes more pain to burst in his chest. This latest torture is simultaneously crushing and suffocating him, and he wants to jerk up and away from it but can’t. Instead he yelps, and as adrenaline courses through his body along with the agonizing sensations, the world is suddenly crystal clear.

As the pain intensifies, he wishes for the return of the foggy feeling of before. When his breath begins to stutter, he thinks his wish is actually going to be granted. But then he hears Rodney swear loudly, and suddenly the pain diminishes and John can breathe again. He takes in a few shaky breaths and closes his eyes as a tight ball of nausea begins to build in his gut.

He’s almost unconscious when Rodney grabs his hand and jolts him back into his new, pain-filled reality.

“What the hell is the matter with you?!” Rodney is yelling very loudly into his face. “Why the hell would you leave me alone in that creepy room?! Even twelve-year-olds at camp know you never leave your goddamn buddy!”

Things continue on in that vein for some time, and John lets Rodney blow off a little steam. But after too long, he feels himself getting irritated and strikes back. “I didn’t…leave you alone,” he gasps out, and talking is harder than he expected. But the words need to be said because, although he actually really can’t remember what the hell happened, he would never leave Rodney on his own. Never. Ever. It just isn’t something he’s physically capable of doing.

“I hate to disagree, but that’s exactly what you did!” Rodney’s yell is scathing, but Sheppard recognizes the look of hurt behind the other man’s eyes. Whatever actually did happen, Rodney’s upset, and it’s no use arguing with him right now.

“I can’t move,” John says, because it’s the only thing he can think to say that’s more important than addressing the fact he may or may not have broken a cardinal rule and abandoned Rodney.

“Of course you can’t move! You fell through the floor and now you’ve got a significant portion of it sitting on your chest.”

“Well then…get me…out of here,” John insists after he’s had a moment to process Rodney’s words. He twists his neck painfully and for the first time is able to glance down at himself. Rodney’s right. There’s a lot of debris on and around him, but what’s really alarming is the size of the floor beam and masonry currently pressing down on his torso. There’s no way Rodney is going to be able to move it on his own. “Oh,” he says after a moment, and he moves his head to look grimly at his companion.

“Yeah. Oh,” Rodney replies wearily, then settles on the floor beside John. “I tried to move that beam but couldn’t lift it. And then some of the other junk began shifting and that seemed to hurt you. I didn’t want to make things worse,” he explains, pointing to the monstrous object that has John effectively pinned.

John suddenly understands where the crushing pain from before originated. McKay brushes some of the dust and grime away from John’s face, and John is suddenly so thankful for the human contact that he’s willing to concede the argument about who left whom.

“You and Ronon appear to share similar abilities when it comes to falling through floors,” Rodney comments grimly, then, spurred on by Sheppard’s alarmed expression, adds, “Don’t worry, he’s going to be fine. Teyla’s taking him back to the gate, and as soon as she can make contact with Atlantis, she’ll tell Elizabeth we need an engineering team here to get you out. But Teyla and Ronon weren’t close to the planet’s gate when I talked to her, so it’s going to be a little while. Feel up to some quality time?”

John snorts an abrupt laugh, and his breath catches in his chest as the pain flares again.

“What? What, what, what? What’s the matter with you?” Rodney’s in a sudden panic, and as much as Sheppard would like to reassure him, he’s incapable of doing so. The pain is just so bad, and it’s taken his breath away. The black spots come back into view and begin waltzing about, but he forces himself to calm down and somehow manages to keep hold of consciousness. After a while, he’s able to take a few cautious breaths, and he lies still and allows himself to benefit from the respite.

The squawking is back, and he blearily looks over to see Rodney furiously pacing and yelling into his radio headset again. After a moment, a wave of words flows over John. Rodney is talking to Teyla, and he’s freaking out. It takes John another moment to realize Rodney’s freaking out about him, and it’s more than a little while before he’s able to find the right words to end the drama that is Rodney McKay in full-out terror mode.

“Rodney…calm down. ‘M al…all right.”

It’s just the barest of whispers, but Rodney pauses in mid-rant and kneels by John’s side again.

“Something’s wrong with his breathing,” Rodney says slowly, and John is confused until he realizes McKay is reporting his condition to Teyla via the radio. “It may have something to do with the fact that half the ceiling is currently sitting on his chest, but I’m just hypothesizing here,” he adds sarcastically, obviously in response to something the Athosian asked and which he deems a stupid question.

“She…needs to understand…th-” Sheppard tries to defend Teyla, who, if he remembers correctly, has her own set of problems, but then he runs out of words when he runs out of breath again.

“I know, I know, I know. I’m sorry, Teyla,” Rodney says, and John doesn’t know if the apology is in response to something Teyla has said or to John’s mucked-up defense of her. “It’s just, well, he’s really bad. You need to hurry.”

John’s breath stutters, and Rodney’s attention switches back to him.

“They’re coming. You just need to hang on for a little while. Keep breathing, you know? Don’t die.”

John wants to laugh because Rodney’s being pretty damn funny right now, but instead he conserves the breath and draws it into his lungs. All the air he’s pulling in seems stale and too hard-won.

His eyes draw closed. John just wants to sleep, rest, recharge his nearly drained batteries, but Rodney absolutely refuses to let that happen.

“Hey! Oh, no, no, no, no. You need to stay awake, colonel. C’mon. Wakey, wakey,” Rodney says, and John feels a hand patting his face. Rodney is being as gentle as he possibly can given how god-awful graceless he is, but it feels like someone is sucker-punching him.

“Cut it out,” John rasps. He’d like to push Rodney’s hand away, but it seems as if his arm is pinned beneath the rubble that has the rest of his body trapped. Just to reassure himself, he tries to move his right foot again and is inordinately relieved when it still responds.

“Then open your eyes, Colonel,” Rodney says and pats John’s face again.

“Rodney!” John says in an annoyed tone, but he opens his eyes just like he’s been asked. As soon as he does, he wishes Rodney would let him close them again, because his head abruptly starts pounding.

“Do you have any pets, Sheppard?” Rodney asks.

John is disoriented enough that the non sequitur doesn’t really bother him all too much. “Dog. Had…a dog when I was…a kid,” he mutters and really wishes he could shift just a little bit so the damn floor beneath his ass could press uncomfortably on other parts of his body for a while.

“I have a cat. Well, I had a cat. I gave it to my neighbor the day before I left for Atlantis. I think my neighbor liked the cat more than me,” Rodney says wistfully. “I mean, it wouldn’t be a big deal except that I think my cat liked my neighbor more than me, too.”

He feels bad for Rodney all of a sudden, but at the same time can’t help wanting to laugh. Somehow it figures that Rodney cares more about how a cat feels about him than how another human being does.

“Got any family?” Rodney asks, then seems to consider his own question. “It’s funny, after all this time, I still don’t know the answer to that question.”

John remembers talking to Teyla on the Daedelus about family. Remembers how, almost as an afterthought, he added Rodney to his list of family members. He wasn’t sure why he almost excluded the physicist, but leaving McKay out would have been unfair. And if John was really truthful with himself, he’d have to say he’s really glad Rodney’s with him right now.

Glad, but also a little confused   Rodney doesn’t know the answer to the question he just asked because he never thought to ask it before. Not that John ever minded. He enjoys his privacy, and it’s one of the reasons why he and McKay actually get along. Rodney typically doesn’t give a damn about people’s personal lives, and that has always suited John fine. So why ask this now?

“Rodney? Is this your…way of keeping…me conscious?” he asks when he’s hit with sudden insight.

“Well, actually, yeah. How’s it working?” Rodney asks sheepishly.

“You want to…keep me alert…you…need to ask more…interestin’ questions,” John says, gasping on the words.

“Well, forgive me, Colonel. I’ve never really been good at the whole conversation thing,” Rodney says peevishly.

“Didn’t mean to…insult you…McKay,” John says and blinks way too slowly. He’s on the verge of falling asleep when Rodney pats his face yet again.

“God…damn it, Rodney!”

“Then stay awake,” McKay says tersely, then snaps his fingers nervously and adds, “Ask me something.”

“Wha’?” John asks, suddenly more confused than when he first woke up with half the ceiling on his chest.

“If you’re so keen on discussing interesting questions, then I think it’s up to you to ask me one,” Rodney explains with a look of triumph.

For some reason he can’t quite explain, John suddenly wants to smack the look off Rodney’s face. He doesn’t know where the anger has come from, but he supposes he’s lucky his arms are pinned down because he’s just angry enough to act on the impulse given half a chance.

But since he can’t raise either arm, he pushes back the disorienting anger as well as he can and does as Rodney suggests.

“Ever…been arrested?”

The jubilant expression leaves Rodney’s face, and he looks dumbstruck instead. John feels a thrill of pleasure at having caught the man off guard, but it lasts only for a second. Because then Rodney’s looking cynical.

“Why, yes, as a matter of fact, on one occasion I was arrested after carousing around in a stolen car. The whole time I was intoxicated on bootleg liquor that I bought from a one-legged prostitute. Canadian Mounties caught me. I never knew those damn horses could run so fast,” he says sarcastically, then changes his tune. “Of course I’ve never been arrested! I mean, not really. There was that one science project that brought the authorities out to my elementary school, but I was never arrested. I mean, what the hell do I do? Nothing, that’s what!”

John wants to assure Rodney that the physicist has done plenty of things most people would classify as being anything but “nothing”-the least of those being his school project-but the ache in his head becomes a stabbing pain before he’s able to tell McKay as much. And then John’s talking, but he isn’t exactly in charge of what he’s saying. It’s odd and confusing, and he doesn’t know what’s going on or why he’s saying the words he is.

“You blew up a solar system,” he says in a helpful tone that has him screaming on the inside because he doesn’t want to bring up that whole situation.   Talking about Rodney’s mishandling of the Ancient weapon is unconscionable now, when the man is one step away from outright hysteria and needs to know John trusts him.

So why in the hell is he mentioning it? And why can’t he control his own voice? And just how injured is he, anyway?

“Well, I should have expected you to bring that up again,” Rodney says, huffing. “Seriously, could you please give me some indication as to when you’re going to stop hanging that particular incident over my head, because the constant reminder of it is getting tedious.”

He hasn’t mentioned the incident with Rodney’s ego and the Ancient weapon since it happened all those months ago; Rodney is as touchy about this subject as John imagined he would be. But suddenly, John doesn’t think he can keep hold of his hard-earned prize of consciousness. Discomfort starts in the pit of his stomach where nausea begins to roil again, then it completely and effectively assaults him by highlighting the pain in his head. A moan slips out involuntarily from between his lips, but he doesn’t hear it. All he hears is Rodney’s continued litany of words, then a rushing sound that makes him dizzy. He falls and welcomes the insensate numbness.

On to Chapter Two:
http://emrys777.livejournal.com/5949.html#cutid1
 

stargate atlantis fic

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