Fic (!) Stand on Guard
Title: Stand on Guard
Author:
eternallycait
Ridiculous amounts of thanks to
ainsley, my beta. Seriously, you wouldn't have wanted to read this before she fixed it.
Rated PG13-ish. Rodney/John, Canada/Power.
"Lorne is a gimp, and someone tried to kill Elizabeth and Canada is all behind it! This is the worst future I could possibly imagine.”
“Hey, hey.” John lifted up Rodney’s hand from where it was resting on his stomach, and kissed the pads of his fingers, one by one. “I, um.”
Rodney kissed the nape of John’s neck, the top of his spine, that spot behind his ear. He even let John get away with moving in to steal more than his share of the pillow.
“Yeah.” Rodney murmured, knocking John’s knees lightly. “Me too.”
Rodney couldn’t see it, but it was like he could feel John’s slow smile as he fell asleep.
*
It took a whole half-hour for Rodney to figure out that there was absolutely nothing in the cave. There were energy readings spiking all over the place, but there was no signature Ancient blue glow, no secret panel and no fully charged ZPM lying on an altar anywhere. There had been a blue flash after he’d gone through the cave entrance and almost tripped over a rock, sure, but other than that flash of excitement, there had been a whole lot of nothing.
But it wasn’t too much of a disappointment. The team had come through the gate to do some minor good-will trading, and only when they stopped for lunch on the way home did Rodney notice that not ten feet away was a reading that shouldn’t be ignored by anyone with more brain cells than an orangutan.
So he’d made the appropriate excited noises and had Ronon check the entrance of the cave to see that there were no life forms inside. John sent him off with a ‘radio if you need anything,’ and a clap on the shoulder that turned into a caress when Teyla went back to her lunch.
Putting his laptop back into his pack and pulling out one of those apple things they had traded for with those scorpion people, Rodney wandered out of the cave and into the bright sunlight. He took a bite of his crisp, tart apple, and the amount of juice running down his chin made him hope that no one was watching.
And nobody was watching, because the rest of his team was gone. Rodney looked around with annoyance - Ronon had been talking about going off to kill a kunglak, but John had made a girlish moue when Ronon had described how every hunter had to participate in devouring the sacred brains - there were two, one in the head and one in the ass - and besides, Rodney didn’t think John would have left him alone offworld for the thrill of running after giant hairy things.
His radio wasn’t working either. Rodney tapped it twice and then took it out of his ear to check it - there was nothing wrong with the radio, once again, there must be some disruption of the signal. He pulled out his laptop again and leaned against a tree to check, apple balanced in his other hand.
“Whoa.” This must be a fast growing tree, because he could have sworn that when John had sat down for lunch he had made bitchy noises about how he wasn’t getting any shade. The tree wasn’t huge now, but it was a respectable size; twice as tall as Rodney, with broad waxy leaves.
His laptop booted up just then, and Rodney mentally filed the tree away to tell the botanists about later. There were no energy signals picked up by the laptop that could be causing radio disturbance - but two missions ago the radio signals had been disrupted by giant slugs, so that wasn’t an indication of much.
“Well that’s just great,” Rodney said to the mystery tree, “They’ve gone off through the gate and left me.”
He looked around. At least Teyla had picked up her goddamned garbage this time. He wondered, suddenly, why Ronon had bothered to cover their tracks - there was no trace of the crushed leaves where they’d been sitting or of the pile of grass that John had pulled out of the earth.
“Haha, very funny,” Rodney said to the empty air, refusing to think of the alternative. “Leave me here all alone.”
He headed back to the stargate, no matter the reason why his team had disappeared, without radio contact there was nothing he could do alone anyway.
Rodney walked all the way around the stargate twice, just to make sure that his team wasn’t hiding behind it.
He dialed the DHD angrily - or worriedly, although he refused to let his brain admit it - and although the blue shimmer sprang up the shield wouldn’t come down, even after he’d dialed in his IDC twice.
“Who is this?”
Rodney jumped pretty damn high. He wasn’t expecting his radio to suddenly start working again, just like that.
“It’s me,” Rodney said, letting his exasperation tinge his voice. “Where’s Col. Sheppard? Drop the iris, let me in.”
There was a pause.
“It doesn’t matter where Col. Sheppard is. Who is this?”
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Of course it matters where Sheppard is. Is he telling you to keep me on this god-forsaken rock? Because it is so not funny, and I was very worried in a manly, heterosexual friends kind of way.”
“Who is this?” Suddenly it’s Elizabeth’s familiar voice, and that tech was going to help the Athosians with the next sheep shearing if he had anything to do with it.
“Elizabeth! Is Sheppard back? Ronon and Teyla?”
“Who is this?” Elizabeth said again, slowly this time, as if she hadn’t heard his voice over the coms hundreds of thousands of times before.
“Rodney.” This joke had stopped being funny about five minutes ago. “It’s Rodney McKay.”
There was the sound of an indrawn breath over the radio. “Rodney?”
“Obviously.” Rodney rolled his eyes. “Let me in, this mission was useless and Sheppard is missing.”
The iris dropped, and Rodney hurried through before someone decided the joke was still remotely funny.
He stepped out into Atlantis, finger already pointing, ready to withhold sexual favours in revenge for John leaving him on that planet. John wasn’t draped loose limbed over Chuck’s console saying ‘what took you so long, Rodney’ with a smile and a glint in his eyes, but there were about two dozen Marines with guns pointed at him.
It wasn’t Chuck’s console either, there was some completely unknown person sitting at his chair, and although Rodney couldn’t see what - he was too far away - there was something very, very wrong with Elizabeth
But none of that was exactly pressing, because hello, Marines with guns were now taking his laptop away and taking off his tac vest with none of the care and consideration he deserved.
“What!” Rodney batted his hands at the person who was doing a very thorough search of his person. “What!”
It was weird that he didn’t recognize any of the Marines. Atlantis was pretty small, and even if he didn’t participate in team sports he’d thought that he knew everybody on base by now.
“Good lord,” someone said. Rodney craned his neck to look at the older guy, who looked vaguely familiar at least, even if he couldn’t place him. “He looks exactly like Dr. McKay.”
“Well of course I do.” Rodney snapped, because seriously, the only person who had ever gone this far up his ass before was John, and he didn’t even know the person who was searching him. “Moron. What else would I look like?”
“Safe.” His violator shouted as he withdrew his hands from Rodney’s person. “No concealed weapons.”
A woman came forward, dressed in scientist blues, and waved some sort of scanner over Rodney; Rodney squinted at her.
“Not a Replicator,” she said. “Definitely human this time.”
“Simpson,” Rodney said, because even if she looked old and tired, he would never forget the face of the idiot who had burnt a hole through Lab 3C’s floor. “Simpson?”
Simpson stopped scanning for a second, and locked eyes with him. Rodney stared back, what had happened in the two hours that he was gone - her cheeks were drawn and her hair was peppered with silver.
“McKay?” Her voice was full of confusion. “Is it really you?”
“What is going on here?” Rodney asked, because still nobody was talking about John.
“You’ve been gone for ten years.” She was searching his face. “You went missing ten years ago.”
“No,” Rodney said quietly, “I’ve only been gone since this morning.”
“Oh Rodney,” Simpson looked like she was about to cry. “You’ve been gone so long. We missed you.”
Rodney didn’t know what to say to that; Simpson always had been a little emotional so it wasn’t a surprise that her eyes were suspiciously moist. It was a surprise that he was having an emotional breakdown resulting in a massive hallucination.
“Take him down to the brig.”
Maybe this wasn’t a hallucination, because no one was naked and there were no llamas, and the guy who grabbed his arm was rough and not in a positive, sexy way.
Elizabeth had come closer, and was telling the guys holding him to post a 24-hour guard, but Rodney was barely even listening, because Elizabeth’s face was scarred and burned and twisted. And Rodney didn’t think he could ever hallucinate that, and where the fuck was John.
*
“What happened to Elizabeth?” The fight was out of Rodney, and he allowed himself to be manhandled along by the guards.
The younger guy, who had one hand on Rodney’s arm and one hand on his gun - which was a lot bigger than a P-90, and looked a lot more dangerous, looked at the other guard, who was a bit older, sideways.
“Terrorist groups,” said the older guard, whose uniform tag read ‘Charlebois.’ “Some American extremists, after Canada took over. They thought they could try to take back Atlantis if they got rid of Elizabeth.”
“Take back Atlantis?”
Charlebois looked at him. “You are Canadian, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Rodney started slowly. “But what does it matter?”
“Too much,” the younger guard said, with bitterness in his voice.
Charlebois’ fingers tightened on Rodney’s arm. He was silent.
“Je parle francais,” The younger guard said suddenly with a terrible accent, voice higher than it had been before. “Even if I’m American. But my sister married a Quebecois.”
Rodney wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but they’d gotten to the brig and shoved him through the opening in the energy barriers.
“Wait! Wait!” Rodney yelled, putting his hand as close to the barrier as he could. The energy fizzed under his hands, not hurting yet. “Why am I here!”
“We’ve had imposters before,” the younger guard turned back into the room. “Usually they’re not stupid enough to send someone who has been dead for ten years.”
“I’m not an imposter, let me talk to Elizabeth - call Jeannie, call my elementary school teachers - I’m a Canadian citizen!”
And Charlebois, who was halfway out the door, paused. “You should see where they keep the foreigners.” He touched his maple leaf patch reverently and left.
It didn’t happen often, but Rodney found himself absolutely speechless. He lurched forward a little, but knocked into the energy wall.
“What about John!” Rodney yelled, when he had recovered from the electric shock, to Charlebois’ retreating back. “Where have you put John Sheppard?”
There were two guards posted outside of his door, young, with a type of gun that Rodney didn’t recognize, one looking into the room and one watching a video feed of Rodney’s cell. If he squinted, Rodney could see himself on the monitor, flailing and shaking every time he accidentally got too close to the walls of his cell.
He was still yelling when they brought him dinner, his own ears ringing and his throat so tight he could barely breathe, let alone yell.
“Tabernac.”
Rodney looked up; he had been wolfing his food down, swallowing past the hurt in his throat, eating with one hand and giving the finger to the cameras with the other. The blue sparks of the cell walls made it hard for Rodney to see who was talking to him, but it sounded awfully like -“
“McKay.”
He knew that voice, had heard his name spoken with that exasperation just last week, but this time there was shock and wonder in it too.
“Lorne!” Rodney surged up to the walls of his cell, pushing his face close enough to the edge that his whole body was fizzing painfully.
“Is it actually you?” Lorne’s eyebrow was up, which was familiar, but his right sleeve was pinned up because his arm was missing, and his left leg looked suspiciously like a peg.
“Of course it’s me.” Rodney said, practically throwing his plate down. “Is there another me? - this feels like an alternate reality. Where is this world’s Sheppard? Where’s my Sheppard?”
“There are no other McKays,” Lorne said, hitching the shoulder without an arm. “You went missing ten years ago. We searched for ages, but never found anything.”
Rodney opened his mouth, waiting for an answer to come out. “How long?” That probably wasn’t what he would have said, had he thought about it.
“A long time.” Lorne’s voice was hard, and Rodney’s eyes were drawn inexorably to his leg, which was definitely a peg. “Sheppard looked for years.”
“What happened,” Rodney breathed to himself, trying to fight against the thoughts that this had actually happened. “What happened?”
“A lot has changed.” Lorne said, answering the question. “I can barely remember how it used to be.”
“I do.” Rodney said, feeling his face tightening. “Ten years are gone, and they didn’t even happen to me.”
“Where have you been, McKay?” Lorne’s face was kind, and Rodney wanted to cry.
“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “I only left a few hours ago.”
“It would have saved a hell of a lot of trouble if that was true.” Lorne laughed a little, turning to leave.
“Evan!” Rodney didn’t think he had ever used Lorne’s first name before. “What happened to you?”
Lorne stopped. “I don’t think there has ever been a case where countries can keep peace, order and good government over something as big as Atlantis.”
Rodney nodded, not really understanding, and because Lorne was touching his sleeve where it was turned up just under his shoulder with a look of resignation, and not looking at Rodney, he was able to ask “Is John all right?” even though his heart felt like it was about to break apart.
“He’s okay.” Lorne said, looking straight at Rodney. “Got all his fingers and toes.”
Rodney felt all of the air leave his lungs, and his legs felt shaky with relief. He closed his eyes, tight.
“Where is he? Can I see him?” Oh god, Rodney thought. What if John didn’t want to see me?
“He went back to earth after you - well I guess you didn’t die, did you?”
“What?” It was impossible that John go back to earth, Atlantis was home for all of them, John especially.
“He went back to earth,” Lorne repeated, searching his face. “You know, you two were never very sneaky. It wasn’t that big of a secret.”
“Ahaha,” said Rodney, knowing exactly what Lorne was talking about, but not knowing why they were talking about it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“McKay,” Lorne’s voice was fondly exasperated. “Why do you think I came down here?”
“To torture me to find out if I’m a Genii spy?” Because Rodney had been half expecting something like that.
“I don’t have that kind of authority,” Lorne said fondly. “I came to get you to bring Sheppard home.”
*
Rodney sat quietly in the middle of cell after Lorne left. It hit him suddenly, a few minutes later. He scrambled to his feet, preparing for another bout of yelling information to people who didn’t care what he had to say.
“It was a time dilation field!”
“Yes it was.”
Rodney jumped a little, he had expected at least an hour of yelling before someone would come down and listen to him.
“Sorry, Rodney. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Chuck looked abashed as he stood in front of his cell. At least, Rodney thought it was Chuck. The hair was the same and the voice, but this person was at least two hundred pounds heavier than the Chuck he had known.
“Chuck?” Lorne, he understood coming to visit him. He and John had always been close in a heterosexual (Ha!, Rodney’s subconscious provided) bonding male way. But he hadn’t learned Chuck’s name for three years after he’d arrived.
“I hoped you’d remember me!” Chuck looked inordinately pleased. “Sorry, I mean, I know you think you’ve only been gone a short while, but still.”
Simpson stepped out from behind Chuck’s massive bulk. Rodney hadn’t even seen her.
“We went back to that cave where you went missing,” she said. “And detected a time dilation field.”
“My team found new equipment to detect them about a year ago,” Chuck added. He tucked his chins into his chest. “We probably should have checked out your disappearance again.”
“Yes!” Rodney said, “Wait - your team? You’re on a gate team?”
“Twenty-twenty hindsight.” Chuck sighed. He turned to Simpson “Make a note of that, will you? We should probably go have a look at some other sites.”
“Yes, sir.” Simpson said absently as she punched something into the data pad she was holding.
“Sir!” Rodney squawked. “Sir!”
The zipper on Chuck’s uniform shirt strained as his chest puffed out.
“Chief of science.” Chuck said proudly. “Five years now.”
“You! You! But -“ Rodney sputtered a little, “You’re just glorified receptionist-“
Chuck’s eyebrows lowered, making him look like - well, like a pancake with lowered eyebrows.
“I earned this position.” Chuck’s voice was rising, even as his eyebrows were lowering. “I’m senior staff. I came through the gate at the same time as all of you.”
“Good god, seniority?” Rodney said. “Has the Atlantis expedition unionized?”
Simpson made a choked noise. “We don’t talk about that, McKay. It wasn’t good.”
“You’re Canadian,” Chuck said. “And everyone thought that you deserved chief of science. Why can’t they think the same thing about me?”
“I,” Rodney started, because no one, not even in a world gone mad, could ever question his brilliance and leadership. “I am the foremost on gate authority in two galaxies - including Sam Carter - whatever happened to her, by the way - and there is no question that under my leadership, there has been many advances…”
Rodney trailed off as men with guns ran in. Big men with big guns, guns that were trained on him. He hated the future. A lot.
“It’s okay,” Chuck looked totally nonplussed by the platoon behind him, and was waving his arm in Rodney’s direction; Simpson noticeably stopped breathing through her nose. “He doesn’t know.”
“You sure?” The soldier in the front with the biggest gun narrowed his eyes at Rodney. “C’est touts bien?”
“Oui,” Chuck said. “Good response time, men. Sorry about the confusion, he won’t say it again.”
The soldiers filed out. Rodney closed his mouth with an audible snap, and stared after them.
“I wouldn’t mention that, if I were you.” Chuck said benevolently. “I might not always be around to protect you.”
“Mention what?” Rodney asked. He dropped his voice, “my leadership skills?”
Chuck laughed, and Simpson lowered her eyes.
“Your leadership skills have never been questioned. A fine example to the rest of the world.”
“Yes,” Rodney pressed. He didn’t want to get shot.
“The thing is,” Chuck said, looking slightly smug. “I wouldn’t mention That Woman.”
Simpson looked sideways at Chuck, and when she noticed him looking back, she spat half-heartedly.
“Oh god,” Rodney said. “What, did she manage to destroy another ancient repository? Jackson must be having fits.”
“She’s a traitor and a rebel.” Chuck said matter-of-factly. “I wouldn’t mention her name around here.”
“What?” Rodney had always pictured her winding up with an equal amount of children and Nobel prizes, married to that general who was always smirking at him. Not running a rebellion, even if she would look hot in a gold bikini.
“She tried to assassinate the prime minister.” Chuck said, “Tried to lead an uprising that would have destabilized the entire world. She only got caught last year. Was hiding in some cave with that O’Neill.”
Simpson looked hard at Rodney, her eyes boring into her face. “You weren’t close, the two of you, right Rodney? No love lost, right?”
Her eyes flicked towards the security camera.
“Right,” Rodney choked out. Oh god, Sam.
“But we’re all safe now,” Chuck continued, apparently not noticing the expression on Rodney’s face. “She was caught last year. Watched it myself on the news, the four of them went down fighting…”
Rodney couldn’t hear anymore, the blood was rushing too loud in his ears. He stumbled forward, into the bars of electricity, but he could barely the feel the shocks of pain.
Simpson jumped forward, as if to assist him.
“She’s okay,” she muttered, voice fast and pitched low. “We’ve got someone on the inside, they’re all fine.”
Rodney could barely hear her over the crackle of the energy beams, but his heart descended from his throat and his heart started to beat again.
“What the fuck is wrong with this place,” Rodney burst out angrily, as soon as he could speak again. “How the hell did you get my job, Chuck? We had to put you on gatewatch so you would stop screwing up the power converters. What the hell are you doing to my science department?”
“I thought you gave me the job on the console because of my great reflexes.” Chuck looked down, frowning. “I thought we were friends - you, me, Beckett. The three musketeers.”
“I didn’t even know your name,” Rodney said loudly. “And what the hell is this locking up Sam Carter business. You should know she’s always right, sometimes even more than me. And I am right much more often than you.”
Simpson smiled, covertly, but Rodney was only looking at Chuck.
“And Lorne is a gimp, and someone tried to kill Elizabeth and Canada is all behind it! This is the worst future I could possibly imagine.” Rodney could feel the red in his cheeks, and his throat was starting to hurt again.
Chuck lifted one massive arm to point at Rodney. “You are a terrible, terrible Canadian. Canada isn’t behind anything, and, and - I am an excellent head of science!”
Rodney was silent. He had suddenly remembered that Chuck probably had the power to keep him locked up in this cage.
“We can’t keep him here, sir.” Simpson said quietly, looking intently down at her datapad. “He’s a Canadian citizen. We can’t keep him in a cage.”
“You’re right.” Chuck said with a look of disgust at Rodney. “I trust you remember the way back to the common area.” Chuck whirled around, chins following a second after, and stomped out of the room. Rodney swore that the energy beams of his cell rippled in time with his footsteps, but who cared, because he was getting out of this place.
Simpson tapped on her laptop again, and the energy beams dropped.
“You’re free to go,” she said. “You’re under surveillance, but you’ll spot them pretty quickly.”
Rodney stepped cautiously out of the perimeter of the cage. He started for the door.
“I’d wait a few minutes,” Simpson said wryly. “Unless you want to catch up with him. He doesn’t move too fast”
Rodney let out a breath slowly, drained of all the fight he had left. “Who else is - is gone?”
“Most of us went back to earth,” Simpson said softly. “Kavanagh tried to stop them when they took Elizabeth the first time, and he’s disappeared. Zelenka saved us all.”
“What?” Rodney looked up. “Radek?”
“The Wraith are gone. He almost single-handedly got rid of them, but we lost him to the poison.”
Oh. Rodney looked back down at his fingernails. He was sure that Zelenka had been brilliant. He always had been.
“Rodney?” Simpson touched his shoulder gently. “Why don’t we go up to the control room, Teyla should be coming through the gate soon.”
Rodney nodded mutely, and allowed himself to be led out of the room.
Link to Part Two
Author:
eternallycait
Ridiculous amounts of thanks to
ainsley, my beta. Seriously, you wouldn't have wanted to read this before she fixed it.
Rated PG13-ish. Rodney/John, Canada/Power.
"Lorne is a gimp, and someone tried to kill Elizabeth and Canada is all behind it! This is the worst future I could possibly imagine.”
“Hey, hey.” John lifted up Rodney’s hand from where it was resting on his stomach, and kissed the pads of his fingers, one by one. “I, um.”
Rodney kissed the nape of John’s neck, the top of his spine, that spot behind his ear. He even let John get away with moving in to steal more than his share of the pillow.
“Yeah.” Rodney murmured, knocking John’s knees lightly. “Me too.”
Rodney couldn’t see it, but it was like he could feel John’s slow smile as he fell asleep.
*
It took a whole half-hour for Rodney to figure out that there was absolutely nothing in the cave. There were energy readings spiking all over the place, but there was no signature Ancient blue glow, no secret panel and no fully charged ZPM lying on an altar anywhere. There had been a blue flash after he’d gone through the cave entrance and almost tripped over a rock, sure, but other than that flash of excitement, there had been a whole lot of nothing.
But it wasn’t too much of a disappointment. The team had come through the gate to do some minor good-will trading, and only when they stopped for lunch on the way home did Rodney notice that not ten feet away was a reading that shouldn’t be ignored by anyone with more brain cells than an orangutan.
So he’d made the appropriate excited noises and had Ronon check the entrance of the cave to see that there were no life forms inside. John sent him off with a ‘radio if you need anything,’ and a clap on the shoulder that turned into a caress when Teyla went back to her lunch.
Putting his laptop back into his pack and pulling out one of those apple things they had traded for with those scorpion people, Rodney wandered out of the cave and into the bright sunlight. He took a bite of his crisp, tart apple, and the amount of juice running down his chin made him hope that no one was watching.
And nobody was watching, because the rest of his team was gone. Rodney looked around with annoyance - Ronon had been talking about going off to kill a kunglak, but John had made a girlish moue when Ronon had described how every hunter had to participate in devouring the sacred brains - there were two, one in the head and one in the ass - and besides, Rodney didn’t think John would have left him alone offworld for the thrill of running after giant hairy things.
His radio wasn’t working either. Rodney tapped it twice and then took it out of his ear to check it - there was nothing wrong with the radio, once again, there must be some disruption of the signal. He pulled out his laptop again and leaned against a tree to check, apple balanced in his other hand.
“Whoa.” This must be a fast growing tree, because he could have sworn that when John had sat down for lunch he had made bitchy noises about how he wasn’t getting any shade. The tree wasn’t huge now, but it was a respectable size; twice as tall as Rodney, with broad waxy leaves.
His laptop booted up just then, and Rodney mentally filed the tree away to tell the botanists about later. There were no energy signals picked up by the laptop that could be causing radio disturbance - but two missions ago the radio signals had been disrupted by giant slugs, so that wasn’t an indication of much.
“Well that’s just great,” Rodney said to the mystery tree, “They’ve gone off through the gate and left me.”
He looked around. At least Teyla had picked up her goddamned garbage this time. He wondered, suddenly, why Ronon had bothered to cover their tracks - there was no trace of the crushed leaves where they’d been sitting or of the pile of grass that John had pulled out of the earth.
“Haha, very funny,” Rodney said to the empty air, refusing to think of the alternative. “Leave me here all alone.”
He headed back to the stargate, no matter the reason why his team had disappeared, without radio contact there was nothing he could do alone anyway.
Rodney walked all the way around the stargate twice, just to make sure that his team wasn’t hiding behind it.
He dialed the DHD angrily - or worriedly, although he refused to let his brain admit it - and although the blue shimmer sprang up the shield wouldn’t come down, even after he’d dialed in his IDC twice.
“Who is this?”
Rodney jumped pretty damn high. He wasn’t expecting his radio to suddenly start working again, just like that.
“It’s me,” Rodney said, letting his exasperation tinge his voice. “Where’s Col. Sheppard? Drop the iris, let me in.”
There was a pause.
“It doesn’t matter where Col. Sheppard is. Who is this?”
Rodney rolled his eyes. “Of course it matters where Sheppard is. Is he telling you to keep me on this god-forsaken rock? Because it is so not funny, and I was very worried in a manly, heterosexual friends kind of way.”
“Who is this?” Suddenly it’s Elizabeth’s familiar voice, and that tech was going to help the Athosians with the next sheep shearing if he had anything to do with it.
“Elizabeth! Is Sheppard back? Ronon and Teyla?”
“Who is this?” Elizabeth said again, slowly this time, as if she hadn’t heard his voice over the coms hundreds of thousands of times before.
“Rodney.” This joke had stopped being funny about five minutes ago. “It’s Rodney McKay.”
There was the sound of an indrawn breath over the radio. “Rodney?”
“Obviously.” Rodney rolled his eyes. “Let me in, this mission was useless and Sheppard is missing.”
The iris dropped, and Rodney hurried through before someone decided the joke was still remotely funny.
He stepped out into Atlantis, finger already pointing, ready to withhold sexual favours in revenge for John leaving him on that planet. John wasn’t draped loose limbed over Chuck’s console saying ‘what took you so long, Rodney’ with a smile and a glint in his eyes, but there were about two dozen Marines with guns pointed at him.
It wasn’t Chuck’s console either, there was some completely unknown person sitting at his chair, and although Rodney couldn’t see what - he was too far away - there was something very, very wrong with Elizabeth
But none of that was exactly pressing, because hello, Marines with guns were now taking his laptop away and taking off his tac vest with none of the care and consideration he deserved.
“What!” Rodney batted his hands at the person who was doing a very thorough search of his person. “What!”
It was weird that he didn’t recognize any of the Marines. Atlantis was pretty small, and even if he didn’t participate in team sports he’d thought that he knew everybody on base by now.
“Good lord,” someone said. Rodney craned his neck to look at the older guy, who looked vaguely familiar at least, even if he couldn’t place him. “He looks exactly like Dr. McKay.”
“Well of course I do.” Rodney snapped, because seriously, the only person who had ever gone this far up his ass before was John, and he didn’t even know the person who was searching him. “Moron. What else would I look like?”
“Safe.” His violator shouted as he withdrew his hands from Rodney’s person. “No concealed weapons.”
A woman came forward, dressed in scientist blues, and waved some sort of scanner over Rodney; Rodney squinted at her.
“Not a Replicator,” she said. “Definitely human this time.”
“Simpson,” Rodney said, because even if she looked old and tired, he would never forget the face of the idiot who had burnt a hole through Lab 3C’s floor. “Simpson?”
Simpson stopped scanning for a second, and locked eyes with him. Rodney stared back, what had happened in the two hours that he was gone - her cheeks were drawn and her hair was peppered with silver.
“McKay?” Her voice was full of confusion. “Is it really you?”
“What is going on here?” Rodney asked, because still nobody was talking about John.
“You’ve been gone for ten years.” She was searching his face. “You went missing ten years ago.”
“No,” Rodney said quietly, “I’ve only been gone since this morning.”
“Oh Rodney,” Simpson looked like she was about to cry. “You’ve been gone so long. We missed you.”
Rodney didn’t know what to say to that; Simpson always had been a little emotional so it wasn’t a surprise that her eyes were suspiciously moist. It was a surprise that he was having an emotional breakdown resulting in a massive hallucination.
“Take him down to the brig.”
Maybe this wasn’t a hallucination, because no one was naked and there were no llamas, and the guy who grabbed his arm was rough and not in a positive, sexy way.
Elizabeth had come closer, and was telling the guys holding him to post a 24-hour guard, but Rodney was barely even listening, because Elizabeth’s face was scarred and burned and twisted. And Rodney didn’t think he could ever hallucinate that, and where the fuck was John.
*
“What happened to Elizabeth?” The fight was out of Rodney, and he allowed himself to be manhandled along by the guards.
The younger guy, who had one hand on Rodney’s arm and one hand on his gun - which was a lot bigger than a P-90, and looked a lot more dangerous, looked at the other guard, who was a bit older, sideways.
“Terrorist groups,” said the older guard, whose uniform tag read ‘Charlebois.’ “Some American extremists, after Canada took over. They thought they could try to take back Atlantis if they got rid of Elizabeth.”
“Take back Atlantis?”
Charlebois looked at him. “You are Canadian, aren’t you?”
“Yes,” Rodney started slowly. “But what does it matter?”
“Too much,” the younger guard said, with bitterness in his voice.
Charlebois’ fingers tightened on Rodney’s arm. He was silent.
“Je parle francais,” The younger guard said suddenly with a terrible accent, voice higher than it had been before. “Even if I’m American. But my sister married a Quebecois.”
Rodney wanted to ask what the hell was going on, but they’d gotten to the brig and shoved him through the opening in the energy barriers.
“Wait! Wait!” Rodney yelled, putting his hand as close to the barrier as he could. The energy fizzed under his hands, not hurting yet. “Why am I here!”
“We’ve had imposters before,” the younger guard turned back into the room. “Usually they’re not stupid enough to send someone who has been dead for ten years.”
“I’m not an imposter, let me talk to Elizabeth - call Jeannie, call my elementary school teachers - I’m a Canadian citizen!”
And Charlebois, who was halfway out the door, paused. “You should see where they keep the foreigners.” He touched his maple leaf patch reverently and left.
It didn’t happen often, but Rodney found himself absolutely speechless. He lurched forward a little, but knocked into the energy wall.
“What about John!” Rodney yelled, when he had recovered from the electric shock, to Charlebois’ retreating back. “Where have you put John Sheppard?”
There were two guards posted outside of his door, young, with a type of gun that Rodney didn’t recognize, one looking into the room and one watching a video feed of Rodney’s cell. If he squinted, Rodney could see himself on the monitor, flailing and shaking every time he accidentally got too close to the walls of his cell.
He was still yelling when they brought him dinner, his own ears ringing and his throat so tight he could barely breathe, let alone yell.
“Tabernac.”
Rodney looked up; he had been wolfing his food down, swallowing past the hurt in his throat, eating with one hand and giving the finger to the cameras with the other. The blue sparks of the cell walls made it hard for Rodney to see who was talking to him, but it sounded awfully like -“
“McKay.”
He knew that voice, had heard his name spoken with that exasperation just last week, but this time there was shock and wonder in it too.
“Lorne!” Rodney surged up to the walls of his cell, pushing his face close enough to the edge that his whole body was fizzing painfully.
“Is it actually you?” Lorne’s eyebrow was up, which was familiar, but his right sleeve was pinned up because his arm was missing, and his left leg looked suspiciously like a peg.
“Of course it’s me.” Rodney said, practically throwing his plate down. “Is there another me? - this feels like an alternate reality. Where is this world’s Sheppard? Where’s my Sheppard?”
“There are no other McKays,” Lorne said, hitching the shoulder without an arm. “You went missing ten years ago. We searched for ages, but never found anything.”
Rodney opened his mouth, waiting for an answer to come out. “How long?” That probably wasn’t what he would have said, had he thought about it.
“A long time.” Lorne’s voice was hard, and Rodney’s eyes were drawn inexorably to his leg, which was definitely a peg. “Sheppard looked for years.”
“What happened,” Rodney breathed to himself, trying to fight against the thoughts that this had actually happened. “What happened?”
“A lot has changed.” Lorne said, answering the question. “I can barely remember how it used to be.”
“I do.” Rodney said, feeling his face tightening. “Ten years are gone, and they didn’t even happen to me.”
“Where have you been, McKay?” Lorne’s face was kind, and Rodney wanted to cry.
“I don’t know,” he said miserably. “I only left a few hours ago.”
“It would have saved a hell of a lot of trouble if that was true.” Lorne laughed a little, turning to leave.
“Evan!” Rodney didn’t think he had ever used Lorne’s first name before. “What happened to you?”
Lorne stopped. “I don’t think there has ever been a case where countries can keep peace, order and good government over something as big as Atlantis.”
Rodney nodded, not really understanding, and because Lorne was touching his sleeve where it was turned up just under his shoulder with a look of resignation, and not looking at Rodney, he was able to ask “Is John all right?” even though his heart felt like it was about to break apart.
“He’s okay.” Lorne said, looking straight at Rodney. “Got all his fingers and toes.”
Rodney felt all of the air leave his lungs, and his legs felt shaky with relief. He closed his eyes, tight.
“Where is he? Can I see him?” Oh god, Rodney thought. What if John didn’t want to see me?
“He went back to earth after you - well I guess you didn’t die, did you?”
“What?” It was impossible that John go back to earth, Atlantis was home for all of them, John especially.
“He went back to earth,” Lorne repeated, searching his face. “You know, you two were never very sneaky. It wasn’t that big of a secret.”
“Ahaha,” said Rodney, knowing exactly what Lorne was talking about, but not knowing why they were talking about it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“McKay,” Lorne’s voice was fondly exasperated. “Why do you think I came down here?”
“To torture me to find out if I’m a Genii spy?” Because Rodney had been half expecting something like that.
“I don’t have that kind of authority,” Lorne said fondly. “I came to get you to bring Sheppard home.”
*
Rodney sat quietly in the middle of cell after Lorne left. It hit him suddenly, a few minutes later. He scrambled to his feet, preparing for another bout of yelling information to people who didn’t care what he had to say.
“It was a time dilation field!”
“Yes it was.”
Rodney jumped a little, he had expected at least an hour of yelling before someone would come down and listen to him.
“Sorry, Rodney. I didn’t mean to startle you.” Chuck looked abashed as he stood in front of his cell. At least, Rodney thought it was Chuck. The hair was the same and the voice, but this person was at least two hundred pounds heavier than the Chuck he had known.
“Chuck?” Lorne, he understood coming to visit him. He and John had always been close in a heterosexual (Ha!, Rodney’s subconscious provided) bonding male way. But he hadn’t learned Chuck’s name for three years after he’d arrived.
“I hoped you’d remember me!” Chuck looked inordinately pleased. “Sorry, I mean, I know you think you’ve only been gone a short while, but still.”
Simpson stepped out from behind Chuck’s massive bulk. Rodney hadn’t even seen her.
“We went back to that cave where you went missing,” she said. “And detected a time dilation field.”
“My team found new equipment to detect them about a year ago,” Chuck added. He tucked his chins into his chest. “We probably should have checked out your disappearance again.”
“Yes!” Rodney said, “Wait - your team? You’re on a gate team?”
“Twenty-twenty hindsight.” Chuck sighed. He turned to Simpson “Make a note of that, will you? We should probably go have a look at some other sites.”
“Yes, sir.” Simpson said absently as she punched something into the data pad she was holding.
“Sir!” Rodney squawked. “Sir!”
The zipper on Chuck’s uniform shirt strained as his chest puffed out.
“Chief of science.” Chuck said proudly. “Five years now.”
“You! You! But -“ Rodney sputtered a little, “You’re just glorified receptionist-“
Chuck’s eyebrows lowered, making him look like - well, like a pancake with lowered eyebrows.
“I earned this position.” Chuck’s voice was rising, even as his eyebrows were lowering. “I’m senior staff. I came through the gate at the same time as all of you.”
“Good god, seniority?” Rodney said. “Has the Atlantis expedition unionized?”
Simpson made a choked noise. “We don’t talk about that, McKay. It wasn’t good.”
“You’re Canadian,” Chuck said. “And everyone thought that you deserved chief of science. Why can’t they think the same thing about me?”
“I,” Rodney started, because no one, not even in a world gone mad, could ever question his brilliance and leadership. “I am the foremost on gate authority in two galaxies - including Sam Carter - whatever happened to her, by the way - and there is no question that under my leadership, there has been many advances…”
Rodney trailed off as men with guns ran in. Big men with big guns, guns that were trained on him. He hated the future. A lot.
“It’s okay,” Chuck looked totally nonplussed by the platoon behind him, and was waving his arm in Rodney’s direction; Simpson noticeably stopped breathing through her nose. “He doesn’t know.”
“You sure?” The soldier in the front with the biggest gun narrowed his eyes at Rodney. “C’est touts bien?”
“Oui,” Chuck said. “Good response time, men. Sorry about the confusion, he won’t say it again.”
The soldiers filed out. Rodney closed his mouth with an audible snap, and stared after them.
“I wouldn’t mention that, if I were you.” Chuck said benevolently. “I might not always be around to protect you.”
“Mention what?” Rodney asked. He dropped his voice, “my leadership skills?”
Chuck laughed, and Simpson lowered her eyes.
“Your leadership skills have never been questioned. A fine example to the rest of the world.”
“Yes,” Rodney pressed. He didn’t want to get shot.
“The thing is,” Chuck said, looking slightly smug. “I wouldn’t mention That Woman.”
Simpson looked sideways at Chuck, and when she noticed him looking back, she spat half-heartedly.
“Oh god,” Rodney said. “What, did she manage to destroy another ancient repository? Jackson must be having fits.”
“She’s a traitor and a rebel.” Chuck said matter-of-factly. “I wouldn’t mention her name around here.”
“What?” Rodney had always pictured her winding up with an equal amount of children and Nobel prizes, married to that general who was always smirking at him. Not running a rebellion, even if she would look hot in a gold bikini.
“She tried to assassinate the prime minister.” Chuck said, “Tried to lead an uprising that would have destabilized the entire world. She only got caught last year. Was hiding in some cave with that O’Neill.”
Simpson looked hard at Rodney, her eyes boring into her face. “You weren’t close, the two of you, right Rodney? No love lost, right?”
Her eyes flicked towards the security camera.
“Right,” Rodney choked out. Oh god, Sam.
“But we’re all safe now,” Chuck continued, apparently not noticing the expression on Rodney’s face. “She was caught last year. Watched it myself on the news, the four of them went down fighting…”
Rodney couldn’t hear anymore, the blood was rushing too loud in his ears. He stumbled forward, into the bars of electricity, but he could barely the feel the shocks of pain.
Simpson jumped forward, as if to assist him.
“She’s okay,” she muttered, voice fast and pitched low. “We’ve got someone on the inside, they’re all fine.”
Rodney could barely hear her over the crackle of the energy beams, but his heart descended from his throat and his heart started to beat again.
“What the fuck is wrong with this place,” Rodney burst out angrily, as soon as he could speak again. “How the hell did you get my job, Chuck? We had to put you on gatewatch so you would stop screwing up the power converters. What the hell are you doing to my science department?”
“I thought you gave me the job on the console because of my great reflexes.” Chuck looked down, frowning. “I thought we were friends - you, me, Beckett. The three musketeers.”
“I didn’t even know your name,” Rodney said loudly. “And what the hell is this locking up Sam Carter business. You should know she’s always right, sometimes even more than me. And I am right much more often than you.”
Simpson smiled, covertly, but Rodney was only looking at Chuck.
“And Lorne is a gimp, and someone tried to kill Elizabeth and Canada is all behind it! This is the worst future I could possibly imagine.” Rodney could feel the red in his cheeks, and his throat was starting to hurt again.
Chuck lifted one massive arm to point at Rodney. “You are a terrible, terrible Canadian. Canada isn’t behind anything, and, and - I am an excellent head of science!”
Rodney was silent. He had suddenly remembered that Chuck probably had the power to keep him locked up in this cage.
“We can’t keep him here, sir.” Simpson said quietly, looking intently down at her datapad. “He’s a Canadian citizen. We can’t keep him in a cage.”
“You’re right.” Chuck said with a look of disgust at Rodney. “I trust you remember the way back to the common area.” Chuck whirled around, chins following a second after, and stomped out of the room. Rodney swore that the energy beams of his cell rippled in time with his footsteps, but who cared, because he was getting out of this place.
Simpson tapped on her laptop again, and the energy beams dropped.
“You’re free to go,” she said. “You’re under surveillance, but you’ll spot them pretty quickly.”
Rodney stepped cautiously out of the perimeter of the cage. He started for the door.
“I’d wait a few minutes,” Simpson said wryly. “Unless you want to catch up with him. He doesn’t move too fast”
Rodney let out a breath slowly, drained of all the fight he had left. “Who else is - is gone?”
“Most of us went back to earth,” Simpson said softly. “Kavanagh tried to stop them when they took Elizabeth the first time, and he’s disappeared. Zelenka saved us all.”
“What?” Rodney looked up. “Radek?”
“The Wraith are gone. He almost single-handedly got rid of them, but we lost him to the poison.”
Oh. Rodney looked back down at his fingernails. He was sure that Zelenka had been brilliant. He always had been.
“Rodney?” Simpson touched his shoulder gently. “Why don’t we go up to the control room, Teyla should be coming through the gate soon.”
Rodney nodded mutely, and allowed himself to be led out of the room.
Link to Part Two