FIC: Planet Of The Weevils 2/2
Headers and Part 1
+++
V
Sam climbs down the steps and goes to meet them halfway when they get back from the planet, taking in Jack’s disheveled look, already frowning at John’s expression. “What happened?”
“Jack died,” says Rodney loudly, and half the people at the controls up above wonders if Rodney’s gone crazy because, hey, Jack’s standing right behind him.
Sam winces. “Ooh no…”
Rodney crosses his arms at her. “Funny, you don’t sound too surprised.”
Sam does damage control before the damage can even erupt. “My office, everyone. Come on.”
They climb up to Sam’s office, everyone in the control room having heard what Rodney had said and looking at Jack curiously.
Jack starts speaking before Sam even closes the door behind the team. “I’m sorry I never told you,” he says to Rodney. “It’s a long story that I’m hoping will be solved one day, but for the moment - I can’t die. Shoot me, spear me, boil me.” He sits down on the armrest of one of the chairs there. “I can’t die.”
Rodney points at the gate down in the lower level. “You just -”
“Fine, I can, but I come back seconds after.”
John rests his hand on the P-90 hanging from his vest. “Yeah, how is that possible?”
“We’ve been living under the impression you were from Earth,” says Teyla, her tone of voice evidencing she’s not happy she was lied to.
“I’m not,” he says softly, almost apologetic. “I’m - from somewhere far, far away.”
Rodney throws his hands in the air. “Thank you, Obi-Wan!”
Jack takes one of Rodney hands and brings him closer to him, Rodney drops his hand at the first moment. The whole thing does not go unnoticed by John.
“It was my only chance to escape the weevils,” he says, and then turns to John. “Thank you, by the way.”
“Anytime,” John says cheerfully, even though every in the room can see through the façade.
“They generally don’t kill to eat,” says Jack at everyone. “I had to take my chances that once I was dead, they’d lose interest. I’m sorry, but there wasn’t any other way.”
“What, to die?!” says Rodney.
“The weevils would’ve torn me apart, and I don’t want to find out if I can survive that,” he says, making everyone frown at the disturbing idea. “Shooting is something these weevils have no idea of, though, so it made them lose all interest in me. Being shot in the chest is slightly painful, but easy to recover from,” he says, trying a lighter tone.
The lighter tone dies when Jack sees Rodney’s face. Rodney takes one step, bringing him even closer to Jack. “Never do that again. Hear me? Never.”
Everyone else in the room gets the sudden impulse of bolting from the room, though no one is too sure if because Rodney’s about to kill Jack or because Jack is about to kiss Rodney senseless.
“I will,” says Jack instead.
And usually, when Rodney talks like that and looks at you like that, sheer fear makes you want to obey if ever so he’ll never look at you like that again (John’s reaction to that look differs a bit from the one the average person in Atlantis has, but that’s not the point now.)
“Excuse me?” says Rodney in a dangerously low voice.
“It’s saved the lives of friends of mine, and the lives of others, including my own.” Jack’s seriousness at this rivals Rodney’s own. “I don’t like it, but I’ll keep doing it if necessary.”
There’s a part of John, a tiny, terrible, awful little part of John that’s filled with glee because Rodney and Jack are having a discussion - they’re not fighting, not really - but Rodney feels obviously betrayed, and John doesn’t like it when Rodney feels like that.
That tiny, terrible and awful little part of John is also wondering if he maybe could possibly comfort Rodney afterwards, but John kicks it silent, because he likes to think he’s better than that.
When nothing else is said for a few seconds, Jack takes the opportunity to look at Sam and grin at her. “Say it,” he says.
Sam grins in approval at the end of the hostilities. “I told you,” she says lightly.
Rodney looks at Jack and Sam. “What?”
“Sam was pissed at me,” says Jack. “She thought I should have told you beforehand.”
Ronon and John give Sam a grateful smile, who’s somehow managing to look slightly pissed when still grinning.
“What are we going to do about the planet?” asks Teyla, bless her soul for changing subjects.
Sam seems to be thinking along the same lines. “This planet is in the route of the Daedalus,” says Sam. “They should be arriving in a few hours but Caldwell can return to the planet and check it out.”
“Good point,” says Rodney. “In any case, we need the Daedalus for the plan, we need their beaming technology.
“There we go, problem solved,” says Sam in fake cheerfulness at everyone in the room. “Now go take a bath, rest for a while. We can have the debriefing in the afternoon.”
They nod at her as they file out of the room but before either Jack or John can get at Rodney, he’s gone.
+
John decides not to think. Not at all, not one bit. He makes the conscious decision: I’m just not going to think about it.
He makes this decision mostly because if he thinks, he’s going to spend the day seeing Jack die, seeing him with a red-haired wraith sucking his life out, sometimes seeing Sumner in Jack’s coat and begging John to shoot him.
The look on both men, however, will be the same, and that’s the reason John refuses to think.
He spends half the day thinking that Rodney’s mad at Jack (John’s mind doing cartwheels inside his head), that Rodney’s avoiding Jack, giving him the cold shoulder, or yelling his ears off; he discovers how wrong he is during the evening.
He discovers Rodney and Jack out on a balcony, by pure chance: he was on his way to the armory to supervise the training of some of the new marines that arrived with the last run of the Daedalus when he sees two people in an animated conversation, he backs up to look at who they are just in case a fight starts.
But there’s no fight, not really. Rodney is listening as Jack talks, and Jack’s face is serious, none of the flirty-tease he’s been giving to half the city the past few days.
Somehow, that makes John feel worse.
Jack is standing close to Rodney, way too close for Rodney to actually be mad at him. Jack talks, and Rodney says something scathing, and Jack grins and puts his hand on the side of Rodney’s neck, and John leaves.
He’s grateful, really. He’s grateful the Daedalus will arrive in only a few hours, he’s grateful he doesn’t have another week or two of Jack Harkness, because he suspects that at the end of that period, John would’ve probably lost it completely.
It doesn’t help, it doesn’t help at all. He’s been trying all day to not think of the way he shot Jack, identical to the way he had shot Sumner.
John doesn’t seem to be much victorious in masking how he’s feeling because Rodney picks it up right away later that night a little before dinner, when John’s out on a balcony, looking out at Atlantis as her lights gradually turn on.
John turns to see Rodney join him on the balcony. “Hey,” he greets.
“Hey,” he greets back, already frowning at him. “Are you alright?”
John shrugs easily. “Fine, why?”
“Because you look ecstatic with joy, that’s why,” says Rodney, leaning on the balcony besides John.
John stands up, leaning on the balcony sideways. “I didn’t like shooting Jack,” he says.
“I thought you didn’t like him,” says Rodney with levity.
John glares at him, and Rodney has the sense to look sorry. “I shot Sumner like that. Exactly the same. Sumner couldn’t talk by then, obviously, but - you know. That was one time too many. Now with the added bonus of being a friend of yours.”
“Your shot is what saved his life,” Rodney reviews that sentence. “I’ll agree it isn’t a conventional way of saving someone’s life,” he says, and they both have to chuckle at that. “But you saved him.”
John nods. He knows it’s true, he still didn’t like killing him. “Anyway, he’s back to life. No harm, no foul,” he says, the levity of the tone sentencing the conversation is over. “How are things with him?”
“Oh, better I think,” says Rodney as John leans back on the railing, almost touching shoulders with him. “Apparently Sam and Jack had a spat before we went on the mission because she thought you should know beforehand.”
“See, I told you I liked her,” he says.
Rodney chuckles at that. “Jack says the people who know only do because they saw him die and come back to life. That’s what happened with Sam. He treats his - immortality or whatever in a need-to-know basis.”
“Understandable. I don’t think it’s something you can go off sharing with everybody.”
“I guess so. The thing is, that’s the reason why I didn’t stay to work for him.”
John turns to him with a frown. “Work for him?”
“Jack runs an, um, operation in Cardiff,” says Rodney in a lower voice, and John would bet his favorite sidearm that it was classified information, the one you can only access if you’re a General, if you’re extremely smart, or if your life is fucked enough for them to open those kind of seals.
John nods. “I supposed as much, considering what he said about the rift.”
“Right. Back when the whole - thing…” says Rodney, trailing, not really knowing how to refer to the job Sam and he had to do for Jack.
John grins. “Worldwide catastrophe?” offers John.
Rodney looks grateful. “Right, when it was over, Jack offered me a job. He liked the way I worked,” shrugs Rodney.
John snorts.
“Stop that,” he says, punching his arm. “Seriously, he offered me to stay, but I didn’t because Jack… we worked well for a brief time, but in the long term we would’ve killed each other.” He frowns. “Which, actually applies also to our sex lives, now that I think about it.”
John groans. “McKay!”
Rodney stands up to look at him properly. “Seriously, what is it with you and sex? You cringe at the very mention.”
“I don’t have a problem with sex, Rodney, I have a problem with you sharing every detail of your sex life with Jack.”
Rodney crosses his arms. “Why? You dislike the guy that much?”
“No, I -”
And then, “John,” says Rodney touching his arm and looking at him with big blue eyes that John has often found difficult to resist to. “Why?”
To hell with it, John thinks. “Not here,” he says in a softer voice, so if anyone is eavesdropping on them they won’t hear him.
Rodney, though, hears loud and clear. He grins widely, wider than when he has a ZPM in his hands. John feels a little something break inside him at that sight.
Rodney nods. “Later, okay. Your room?”
John starts nodding but then does a double take. “Why mine?” he frowns.
Rodney rolls his eyes. “Because with our luck, in my quarters we’d probably step on a laptop or something and crack our heads on a desk. There’s more… space in yours,” he finishes in a low voice.
“Good point,” says John. “In the meantime - want dinner?”
Rodney’s eyes light a bit more. “I’m starving,” he says, and starts to leave the balcony.
John makes a mental note. They’re in a balcony, barely half a klick from the gateroom. It’s not a good place for - ah, screw it, John thinks.
Before Rodney can actually leave the balcony and get inside again, John grabs his arm to stop him and kisses him. It’s not a long kiss (they’re in a balcony) and it’s not that deep a kiss (they’re in a public balcony), but, oh nobody seems to care much.
Rodney grabs the back of John’s head, as if the man was about to escape right there and then, and John can’t resist the temptation of grabbing Rodney’s shoulders, those shoulders, and before Rodney, John never thought a pair of shoulders would turn him on so.
“Dinner,” says John when he lets Rodney go, and gets back into the city before he gives in to his impulse of doing something a little more than just a kiss.
Rodney answers a second later than he normally would have. John hears that second. He is proud of that second.
“Do we have to?” says Rodney.
John chooses not to answer because, seriously, he’s nearly convinced.
“You’d tell me if you were immortal or something, right?” says Rodney. “Although with the amount of suicidal mission you’ve survived, I wouldn’t be surpr - you’re not immortal, right? Oh my god, you are!”
John laughs. “No! Jesus, Rodney, I’m not.”
Rodney deflates visibly. “Oh. Pity.”
And John can’t help but smile fondly at him as he grabs his shoulders, walking to the mess hall.
VI
The Daedalus arrives late at night, a little after the dinner rush is over and everybody’s already thinking of going to bed for some shut eye.
John wants to bang his head against the wall.
They had just finished dinner, the whole team plus Jennifer, Sam and even Jack. Everyone was already on dessert, Rodney hogging the last blue jello that had been left. Both John and Rodney had already started looking at each other and feeling a bit like fourteen-year-olds when Sam gets radioed by Chuck - the Daedalus is in orbit.
John winces so obviously, Teyla asks him if he’s hurt. Rodney chokes on his jello in an effort not to laugh out loud, eliciting Jack to thump him on the back before Rodney hacks up a lung.
Everybody scatters off to their respective duties. Zelenka radioes Rodney for help - he’s near finishing the calculations but he’s going cross eyed. Rodney and Jack take over for him, spending all of the time the Daedalus needs to resupply at it.
Rodney is seriously thinking of halting the plan when John goes to the lab to tell them the Daedalus is reading to beam them up. John sees them both at the laptop, and takes pity on them. He looks at the screen, takes paper and pencil, and in ten minutes he has the calculations finished.
Rodney looks at him suspiciously, but takes the paper with John’s numbers and keys them in on the computer - which makes the software ding happily at finally getting correct numbers.
John looks vaguely proud, Rodney looks half surprised and half turned on; Jack looks like he would have no problems doing them both right there and then.
With the calculations finally done, the plan is ready to go, and ten hours of traveling await.
The Daedalus is almost deserted: Jack and Rodney’s plan involved overloading one of the Naquadah Generators and, if something goes wrong and the Daedalus is hit, they want as less casualties as possible.
Two hours after departure, still en route to the planet, Rodney detects the problem.
“We have a problem,” he says on his radio to John and Jack. “Meet me at Engineering.”
“We have a problem,” repeats Rodney as soon as John and Jack arrive. He hits a few keys on his laptop, then something on the control panel, and then turns to them. “After the explosion goes off, the Daedalus’ sensors will be clouded. We’ll have no way to know if it worked.”
John shrugs. “We can wait till the sensors are back on.”
Rodney walks to them as he talks, leaning on one side of the consoles. “From what Jack and Teyla saw of Weevil society, by the time our sensors are back on, I’d be ready to bet one of my laptops that what’s left of the area will be swarming with Weevils. If the explosion failed and we need to try again somehow, we won’t be able to without causing a massacre.”
John frowns at Rodney. “You have a solution,” he says, because he knows Rodney’s ‘we’re screwed if I can’t solve this’ face, and that’s not it.
“My vortex manipulator,” says Jack soberly.
Rodney nods. “Yes. Jack would, um, need to be on the planet.”
A few of the engineers in the room turn to Rodney’s words. The radiation leftover from the explosion would kill any human being.
“I don’t -” says John, and Rodney’s talking again.
“His wrist wrap,” he says as Jack lifts the sleeve of his coat. “It’s an incredibly advanced piece of technology he hasn’t even let me see it, let alone work it. It will be able to detect if the rift sealed or if it’s still open, but he’ll have to be on the planet surface.”
John turns to Jack. “Why can’t you do it from the Daedalus?”
“It needs to be closer to the rift,” says Jack, and then claps his hand as if in delight. “Okay, we don’t have a problem, then. We have a plan.”
Rodney leaves his tablet on top of a console. “No, we don’t. The radiation -”
“Won’t affect me at all,” says Jack. “Trust me, I’ve been there.”
“The weevils -”
“Will be too busy with the explosion to pay me attention. In any case, I can manage a few weevils.”
“Hey, they killed you once!”
And next, of all the things a person can do to answer Rodney’s exclamation, Jack moves forward and kisses Rodney.
John cringes and tenses his jaw and his hands and wants to bolt from the room because it’s not a peck, or a tiny kiss, no. It’s a kiss, where there’s tongue and arms grabbing body parts, and Jack framing Rodney’s face with his hands and there’s moaning, Jesus, Rodney is moaning.
“Technically, your colonel did,” says Jack once he lets Rodney go.
Rodney has to actually think to know what Jack’s talking about. “My- what? It’s a bad plan!”
Jack drops his hands from Rodney’s shoulders. “It’s all we’ve got.”
Rodney deflates visibly. Jack’s right. “Alright.”
And once the plan is agreed on, once they know what they are going to do, John leaves without looking back. Presumably, he is going to fill Caldwell in on the plan; even as he walks where he is, even as he tells him of Jack and Rodney’s plan, John knows that’s not the reason he left Engineering.
John sighs and goes to his quarters to sleep. They have eight hours till they arrive on the planet and John needs to not see anybody. A few days back he would’ve lied to himself so he could continue to cope, he would’ve fabricated a lie where Jack kissing Rodney didn’t bother him. Why would it?
John doesn’t fabricate lies now, it’s too late, really.
+
It’s morning in Atlantis, afternoon in Earth and Noon in the Weevil Planet when Rodney knocks on his door sometime later. John isn’t too sure how much later, though, his internal clock telling him it’s sometime after six am, Atlantis time.
He gets up from the bed, shirtless and barefoot, bleary eyed as he opens the door and the light from outside fills his little room. Rodney’s standing on the other side of the door, suddenly looking very sorry for having woken him up. “Hey,” he says with a little wave, a bit nervously.
“Hey. What?” he asks, still too asleep, not moving from the doorway.
“Could I - um, go inside?” he says, pointing at the space behind John. “The hallways have ears.”
John moves aside to let him in, letting him close the door as he turns the lights on. He sits down on the bed, heavily; whether he’s silent because he’s still half asleep or because he has nothing to say to Rodney, neither of them really know.
“Um, what happened back there… At Engineering, I mean,” he says, as if John had forgotten when or what had happened. “You know, he did it. I mean, I never -”
“You moaned, Rodney,” says John, who’s more awake than Rodney had given him credit for.
“I’m also human,” he says, though it’s clearly the wrong thing to say.
John stands up. “Look -”
“Colonel Sheppard to the bridge, Dr. McKay to Engineering. We’re arriving to the planet. ”
Rodney winces. “John,” he says.
John’s already toeing his shoes in. “Later, Rodney,” he says, motioning for Rodney to throw the shirt and jacket.
Rodney sighs, and decides he might as well wait till the whole Plan From Hell is over.
VII
Jack is at the bridge already when John gets there. His fiddling with his wrist wrap, which has some sort of flap open; he’s touching something inside and frowning.
And suddenly John notices he’s never seen Jack and Caldwell together. Good ol’ Steven suddenly climbs up a few notches in John’s opinion when he notices the way he’s looking at Jack, with a frown, as if he’s ready to kick him out of his bridge at any moment’s notice, possibly beamed out to space and see if he survives that.
Or maybe that’s just John, who’s not having a good day.
“Are we ready?” says Caldwell from his chair.
“I have no idea,” admits John as he touches his earpiece. “McKay, are we ready?” he asks, fully expecting Rodney to still not have made it to engineering to set the Naquadah Generator to overload.
“Yes,” Rodney says a little breathlessly. “Zelenka took the liberty of disobeying orders and getting the generator ready himself.”
John grins as he hears Radek talking in Czech in the background. John hears swearwords, it’s a good thing Caldwell hasn’t learnt Czech.
(Jack turns to John with a raised eyebrow, completely amused. Apparently, Jack knows Czech.)
“Feel free to tell me when to beam the Generator down,” says Caldwell. “We’ll beam Captain Harkness down as soon as the shock wave has passed the pre-accorded point.”
John walks to the window of the bridge which, given the distance, shows about only half of the planet below.
Jack turns to Caldwell. “Give me fifteen seconds on the ground and then beam me back up, that’ll be enough to determine if the rift is still there or not.”
“Will that be enough to - harm you?” John asks discreetly, because except for Caldwell, no one else at the bridge knew of Jack’s unique ability.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he says.
Caldwell nods, telling Major Marks to get the beaming ready.
Rodney’s voice comes through the intercom. “Beam the Generator… now!”
Major Marks beams down the Generator without needing to wait for Caldwell to say it. They can’t see a thing from the vantage point up on the Daedalus’ bridge, of course, but not fifteen seconds have gone by that, down below in the planet, a tiny speck of light emerges, getting bigger and bigger with every millisecond.
The rift area ignites, exploding in white, the radius of the blast expanding for about three klicks, the rest a relatively innocuous shock wave.
Marks studies the readings, and someone on his earpiece says it’s clear for Jack to beam down. “Beaming Captain Harkness,” he says.
Jack disappears from John’s side in a wave of white lights, nodding at John in a manner that’s uncharacteristically serious for him.
An engineer at the back of the bridge counts the seconds as she looks at her watch. “Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.”
“Beaming Captain Harkness back up,” says Marks, and not two seconds later Jack is back besides John.
A little unsteady on his feet, though. John moves to steady him, holding him from an arm. “It’s done,” says Jack. “The rift is closed.”
The personnel around cheer at the successful mission, but John and Caldwell’s attention are elsewhere.
“I’m on my way!” comes Rodney’s voice through John’s earpiece.
Caldwell gets up and looks at Jack. His breathing is fast, shallow, and he looks oddly pale; he leans in on John.
“Are you alright?” asks Caldwell.
“I’m fine,” says Jack.
“Buddy, you don’t look like it,” says John.
Caldwell turns to Marks. “Call the -”
“No,” interrupts Jack. “I’m fine. Just a little winded.”
John and Caldwell get the message loud and clear: the radiation is killing Jack, and he’s about to die. Caldwell nods and John helps Jack get out of there; none of the three men want the Daedalus personnel to get the shock of their lives.
John half carries Jack out of the bridge, going to the first set of quarters he has handy; he radioes Rodney to join them there.
John helps Jack lie down on the bed; Rodney arrives in time to see Jack die.
“Wha -” he says, seeing Jack’s head fall to a side.
John had been sitting down on the bed, he stands up when Rodney arrives. “He’ll be fine, Rodney.”
“He’s dead,” he says with scathing obviousness, as if John had missed that entirely.
“And according to him, he’ll be back in a few minutes,” he says, leaning on the bedside table.
Rodney sits down at the foot of the bed, looking at Jack for moments only. Minutes go by without even a twitch from him.
“He’s not coming back,” says Rodney.
John sighs and sits down besides him. “I’m guessing the recovery time is not the same if the injury varies. A gunshot to the chest is not the same as a massive wave of radiation. That huge a blast, it’s bound to take longer to recover from.”
It sounds right, of course. Rodney’s scientific mind, though having trouble with the idea of the laws of nature not applying to this one man, is adamant to waiting for the evidence. Jack is dead, but not gone yet.
And John can’t hate Jack anymore, not really, because he’s Rodney’s friend. He’s dead, and Rodney is suffering because of it. How can he hate a guy that’s died twice in one mission? Not even John himself holds that record. Probably not even Dr. Jackson.
Behind them, Jack takes a huge deep breath. He looks at them. “Have I ever told you I hate radiation?”
John smiles and thumps Rodney’s shoulder as the latter breathes in relief.
+
A video transmission is set up twenty four hours later between Atlantis and the Hub, over at Cardiff. It’s too soon to know if any more Weevils have come through since the time this whole thing started, but even as Sam asks Chuck dial the gate, he knows information isn’t the main reason for the transmission.
Sam gets silent confirmation when Jack smiles wider than he has in days when he sees his friends’ faces on the screen of the control room. There’s a pretty girl, a hot girl up there, standing next to a guy in a suit who looks hotter than he should in it. Gwen and Ianto’s faces look equal parts relieved and happy when they see Jack.
“So far no more Weevils have come through the rift, but it’s really too soon to tell,” says Ianto, and John is almost amused at how openly the guy is checking Jack out.
Gwen shrugs. “Nothing says the rift was depositing them here directly, anyway.”
“Time will tell, I guess,” nods Jack. “But at least it won’t be depositing any new ones.”
“The Hub without weevils,” says Ianto. “That’ll be a first.”
“Jack - how’s Atlantis like?” asks Gwen, looking very intently at the view behind Jack - the blue puddle of the event horizon.
Jack winks at her. “I’ll show you. I have pictures.”
That catches Sam’s attention. “You do?”
“I have a camera and I’m sneaky,” he says.
Sam winces. “Jack…”
“Photographs will be burnt the minute after they’ve seen them,” he says, raising a hand as if to do the Boy Scout salute.
“I do hope you have been behaving, sir,” says Ianto with fake seriousness.
Jack looks at the screen in mock offense. “When do I not?”
“Do we have to answer that?” says Gwen happily.
Rodney leans in on the frame so Gwen and Ianto will see him. “He’s been a pain. Do you want him back?”
“We would like that,” nods Gwen, amused.
“I’ll be there soon. Take care, please,” says Jack.
“Always,” grins Ianto.
The transmission is cut off, a scheduled dial in of the gate planned in twenty minutes. Jack hurries to his room to pack the few things he had brought along - he is the very definition of traveling light, but even Captain Jack Harkness has to bring in a few personals when he’s going to another galaxy.
John is troubled. He winces slightly, and follows Jack to his quarters. He knocks on a side of the threshold just as Jack is almost finished packing.
“Can I have a word?” says John.
“Sure,” Jack nods. He’s surprised to find him there, but not much.
“Look. I’ve been… brash,” says John, one hand in his pocket, the other at the back of his neck. Jack only chuckles. “I wanted to apologize for this past few days, you being Rodney’s friend, I could’ve treated you better.”
Jack nodded, his face betrayed how okay he was with John. “That’s okay. I tend to have that effect on people,” he teased.
John shrugged and took a few steps inside the room. “Might be solved if you stopped kissing people everywhere you go.”
Jack smiles at him, the kind of smile he’s given Rodney for nearly a week. “I’ve considered that option. It’s a boring one.”
John has to give the man that point. “Can’t argue with that logic,” he smiles.
“I just -” he closes his bag and turns to John fully. “I try to get the most out of the people I love, even the ones who don’t belong to me,” he says and seriously, John doesn’t need anyone else to know who Jack is talking about. “I didn’t use to, I - This is the thing about being immortal: I am going to outlive everyone I love,” he says, enunciating clearly into the silent room.
It hits John full force. He’s had the nightmares where everyone he knows and loves is killed by wraith, Oris, Goa’ulds or the villain of the moment. He’s had nightmares where everyone is killed right in front of him, he’s had nightmares where he’s the reason everyone dies. Hell, he’s had more than one suicidal mission where he says goodbye to everyone in his head and then he’s rescued at the last minute.
He’s never imagined watching everyone wither at a normal pace, live their lives, and then die without him.
“It’s happened before,” says Jack. “And it will happen again. No matter how many people I hate, love or fuck. One day, we’ll meet again, and Rodney and you will be in your eighties and I will look exactly the same.”
“Isn’t -” John clears his throat. “Isn’t there anything…”
“I’ve consulted with the, um, outmost expert,” he says, and puzzles John by grinning when he says this, “and he has no clue what to do about me. Still, how’s that saying, hope is the last thing to die?”
John recognizes a closed subject when he sees one. “Well, you certainly have time for find the answer,” he smirks, and Jack rewards him by smirking back and outwardly checking him out and okay, thinks John. So maybe he is attractive.
Rodney arrives a few seconds later, probably going into a mental panic at seeing the two of them together. “What’s going on here?”
Jack and John overlap each other. “He’s helping me pack -”
“I’m helping him pack.”
Rodney crosses his arms. “Your empty hands attest to it.”
John smiles at him, the smile he uses on offworld emperor and kings, the smile that says ‘I’m too cute for you to harm’. “That’s because I just finished,” he says, and starts walking towards the gateroom.
+
Jack’s twenty minutes are up. The three of them arrive to the gateroom mere seconds before the Kawoosh of the gate is heard all over.
Jack kicks his bag through the event horizon, leaving his hands free. John shudders at why he wants his hands free.
Jack goes to Sam first. “Interesting as your galaxy is, I’m off,” he says cheerfully.
“Keep in touch,” grins Sam.
Jack nods. “I will. Next time, I want to meet that team of yours back on Earth.”
Sam chuckles instantly. “Oh, Vala will adore you,” she sentences.
“Suddenly I want to meet her too,” he says, kissing her cheek - he knows better than to kiss anywhere else.
Jack salutes John as he passes by him, there’s little to say after what was said in the privacy of Jack’s quarters.
John backs up a few steps towards were Sam is, leaving Rodney center stage in the middle of the gateroom.
“Was there trouble after the last time I kissed you, back on the Daedalus?” asks Jack.
“Yes,” Rodney says harshly, but not overly serious, “and that time did not include a room full of people.”
Of course, Rodney’s not an idiot. He knows what will come next and is prepared for it because, damn it, this might be the last time in his life he might kiss Captain Jack Harkness. He’d be an idiot to let that chance go.
Even if the SGC finds out, what are they going to do? Fire his most brilliant scientist in Atlantis because he kissed someone?
So when Jack leans in to steal a kiss, Rodney surprises him by holding him from the lapels of his greatcoat, practically gluing himself to Jack, holding him close; there’s not need to be close by to know there’s tongue involved.
One of Rodney’s hands leave Jack’s greatcoat and goes for his neck, and one of Jack’s hands is on Rodney’s face and another one is holding his waist and John wants to go there and separate them with a shovel or maybe a spatula. Atlantis rose from the bottom of the sea in less time than it takes these two to kiss goodbye.
The entire gateroom is all but ogling now because, oh hello. Dr. Rodney McKay, two PhDs and several tons of sarcasm at the ready, arrogant and bad with people, just kissed this incredibly hot guy. And did it well.
“I don’t care,” smiles Jack as he lets Rodney go, though no one in the gateroom really cares to remember Jack’s previous question about trouble.
“Please, never stop being so considerate,” says Rodney slightly annoyed, slightly turned on, and completely recovered after a kiss that would’ve left John stupid for days.
Jack is already walking towards the gate. “I’ll keep in touch,” he says before he crosses the event horizon.
+
Late that night, John isn’t surprised to find Rodney still in his lab, working until an ungodly hour of the night, hunched over his laptop as he types god-knows-what.
Rodney asks for ten more minutes, just ten and he’ll go to sleep, he promises. John sits over a desk and makes the quick calculation: 600 seconds in ten minutes. “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi…”
He stops counting when Rodney throws a spoon at his head - with oddly good aim.
“What do you think happened to the Weevils on the planet?” asks John once he sees Rodney is starting to power things down.
Rodney frowns. “Oh, the lived happily ever after?” He shrugs. “Both Jack and Sam were adamant the blast not hurt them, so it didn’t. I mean, if there were weevils near the rift they’re toast now, but those who were in their city should be fine. The Daedalus will be checking in on the planet every once in a while.”
John sees Sam and Jack’s point. “Yes, well, those weevils haven’t done anything to us. No reason to blast them into a thousand parts.”
Rodney waits a second for the last laptop to power down and then slams its screen shut. “Alright, this is it,” he says.
“This is what?” asks John, who had gotten down from the desk thinking they were leaving.
Instead, Rodney palms the lab door closed and instructs John to get back on the desk. Confused, John does; he’s surprised when Rodney hauls himself up on the desk to sit besides him.
“I like Jack,” begins Rodney. “I do, more than I’d like to.”
John groans internally. He though he’d escaped that conversation; Rodney’s silent confusion was enough of an answer to him. “Rodney…”
“Let me finish!” he says in the tone he tells one of his minions he just screwed something up. “I like Jack. I mean, you have eyes, you’ve seen him! He’s good looking, he’s funny, a good guy, he’s not an idiot.”
“Not making me feel any better,” states John, gladly looking at the floor instead of Rodney.
“But Jack is just - he’s a shag. A fuck. I mean, to me. He’s temporary, something that can’t last, even if we both wanted it to.” He breathes. “You’re different.”
John gets down from the desk, he needs some distance from Rodney. “Rodney, you don’t have to -”
Rodney grabs one of his arms before John can take any more steps, making him look at him. “No, let me say this or I never will.” It’s the first time he looks directly at John since he started speaking. “You’re not temporary, you’re not just - you could never be just a quick something.” He gives a little laugh that’s void of amusement. “I’ve been trying to convince myself that to pursue something with you would be to jeopardize our careers, our fates, for a relationship that would be short and end awful, as it often does with me and relationships. I’ve been trying to convince myself but it hasn’t worked.”
John looks up at Rodney and says, “It hasn’t worked for me either.”
“Oh, thank god,” says Rodney in delight, leaning down to rest his head on one of John’s shoulders out of pure relief.
John smiles at him, widely, bringing his arms around Rodney, holding him close. He kisses his forehead, his cheek, his lips, and when Rodney starts kissing back, there’s no going back.
+
Alright, John admits it. He may have been conditioned when he first saw Jack Harkness. Maybe he even prejudged him.
Seriously, he’s not a bad guy. John could count on him in the field, he’s not an idiot. Not bad.
Rodney rolls his eyes and looks at him like he just understood what E=MC2 is all about, and mutters wondering if he didn’t make the wrong choice because, clearly, he whispers to Ronon in what is a very loud voice for a whisper, there’s just something not working right underneath all that ridiculous hair.
But then John comes to the lab late at night, and offers Rodney coffee. And it’s not just any coffee, it’s the special coffee, the one that Rodney regularly offers his Nobel Prize money for and yeah, Rodney made a good choice. John stays at the lab and watches him work and finish whatever he’s working on, patiently waiting and simply watching, leering every once in a while, which makes Rodney work faster and finish much earlier.
Seriously, ‘choice’ is the wrong word here. There was never any contest at all.
+++
Fin
+++
V
Sam climbs down the steps and goes to meet them halfway when they get back from the planet, taking in Jack’s disheveled look, already frowning at John’s expression. “What happened?”
“Jack died,” says Rodney loudly, and half the people at the controls up above wonders if Rodney’s gone crazy because, hey, Jack’s standing right behind him.
Sam winces. “Ooh no…”
Rodney crosses his arms at her. “Funny, you don’t sound too surprised.”
Sam does damage control before the damage can even erupt. “My office, everyone. Come on.”
They climb up to Sam’s office, everyone in the control room having heard what Rodney had said and looking at Jack curiously.
Jack starts speaking before Sam even closes the door behind the team. “I’m sorry I never told you,” he says to Rodney. “It’s a long story that I’m hoping will be solved one day, but for the moment - I can’t die. Shoot me, spear me, boil me.” He sits down on the armrest of one of the chairs there. “I can’t die.”
Rodney points at the gate down in the lower level. “You just -”
“Fine, I can, but I come back seconds after.”
John rests his hand on the P-90 hanging from his vest. “Yeah, how is that possible?”
“We’ve been living under the impression you were from Earth,” says Teyla, her tone of voice evidencing she’s not happy she was lied to.
“I’m not,” he says softly, almost apologetic. “I’m - from somewhere far, far away.”
Rodney throws his hands in the air. “Thank you, Obi-Wan!”
Jack takes one of Rodney hands and brings him closer to him, Rodney drops his hand at the first moment. The whole thing does not go unnoticed by John.
“It was my only chance to escape the weevils,” he says, and then turns to John. “Thank you, by the way.”
“Anytime,” John says cheerfully, even though every in the room can see through the façade.
“They generally don’t kill to eat,” says Jack at everyone. “I had to take my chances that once I was dead, they’d lose interest. I’m sorry, but there wasn’t any other way.”
“What, to die?!” says Rodney.
“The weevils would’ve torn me apart, and I don’t want to find out if I can survive that,” he says, making everyone frown at the disturbing idea. “Shooting is something these weevils have no idea of, though, so it made them lose all interest in me. Being shot in the chest is slightly painful, but easy to recover from,” he says, trying a lighter tone.
The lighter tone dies when Jack sees Rodney’s face. Rodney takes one step, bringing him even closer to Jack. “Never do that again. Hear me? Never.”
Everyone else in the room gets the sudden impulse of bolting from the room, though no one is too sure if because Rodney’s about to kill Jack or because Jack is about to kiss Rodney senseless.
“I will,” says Jack instead.
And usually, when Rodney talks like that and looks at you like that, sheer fear makes you want to obey if ever so he’ll never look at you like that again (John’s reaction to that look differs a bit from the one the average person in Atlantis has, but that’s not the point now.)
“Excuse me?” says Rodney in a dangerously low voice.
“It’s saved the lives of friends of mine, and the lives of others, including my own.” Jack’s seriousness at this rivals Rodney’s own. “I don’t like it, but I’ll keep doing it if necessary.”
There’s a part of John, a tiny, terrible, awful little part of John that’s filled with glee because Rodney and Jack are having a discussion - they’re not fighting, not really - but Rodney feels obviously betrayed, and John doesn’t like it when Rodney feels like that.
That tiny, terrible and awful little part of John is also wondering if he maybe could possibly comfort Rodney afterwards, but John kicks it silent, because he likes to think he’s better than that.
When nothing else is said for a few seconds, Jack takes the opportunity to look at Sam and grin at her. “Say it,” he says.
Sam grins in approval at the end of the hostilities. “I told you,” she says lightly.
Rodney looks at Jack and Sam. “What?”
“Sam was pissed at me,” says Jack. “She thought I should have told you beforehand.”
Ronon and John give Sam a grateful smile, who’s somehow managing to look slightly pissed when still grinning.
“What are we going to do about the planet?” asks Teyla, bless her soul for changing subjects.
Sam seems to be thinking along the same lines. “This planet is in the route of the Daedalus,” says Sam. “They should be arriving in a few hours but Caldwell can return to the planet and check it out.”
“Good point,” says Rodney. “In any case, we need the Daedalus for the plan, we need their beaming technology.
“There we go, problem solved,” says Sam in fake cheerfulness at everyone in the room. “Now go take a bath, rest for a while. We can have the debriefing in the afternoon.”
They nod at her as they file out of the room but before either Jack or John can get at Rodney, he’s gone.
+
John decides not to think. Not at all, not one bit. He makes the conscious decision: I’m just not going to think about it.
He makes this decision mostly because if he thinks, he’s going to spend the day seeing Jack die, seeing him with a red-haired wraith sucking his life out, sometimes seeing Sumner in Jack’s coat and begging John to shoot him.
The look on both men, however, will be the same, and that’s the reason John refuses to think.
He spends half the day thinking that Rodney’s mad at Jack (John’s mind doing cartwheels inside his head), that Rodney’s avoiding Jack, giving him the cold shoulder, or yelling his ears off; he discovers how wrong he is during the evening.
He discovers Rodney and Jack out on a balcony, by pure chance: he was on his way to the armory to supervise the training of some of the new marines that arrived with the last run of the Daedalus when he sees two people in an animated conversation, he backs up to look at who they are just in case a fight starts.
But there’s no fight, not really. Rodney is listening as Jack talks, and Jack’s face is serious, none of the flirty-tease he’s been giving to half the city the past few days.
Somehow, that makes John feel worse.
Jack is standing close to Rodney, way too close for Rodney to actually be mad at him. Jack talks, and Rodney says something scathing, and Jack grins and puts his hand on the side of Rodney’s neck, and John leaves.
He’s grateful, really. He’s grateful the Daedalus will arrive in only a few hours, he’s grateful he doesn’t have another week or two of Jack Harkness, because he suspects that at the end of that period, John would’ve probably lost it completely.
It doesn’t help, it doesn’t help at all. He’s been trying all day to not think of the way he shot Jack, identical to the way he had shot Sumner.
John doesn’t seem to be much victorious in masking how he’s feeling because Rodney picks it up right away later that night a little before dinner, when John’s out on a balcony, looking out at Atlantis as her lights gradually turn on.
John turns to see Rodney join him on the balcony. “Hey,” he greets.
“Hey,” he greets back, already frowning at him. “Are you alright?”
John shrugs easily. “Fine, why?”
“Because you look ecstatic with joy, that’s why,” says Rodney, leaning on the balcony besides John.
John stands up, leaning on the balcony sideways. “I didn’t like shooting Jack,” he says.
“I thought you didn’t like him,” says Rodney with levity.
John glares at him, and Rodney has the sense to look sorry. “I shot Sumner like that. Exactly the same. Sumner couldn’t talk by then, obviously, but - you know. That was one time too many. Now with the added bonus of being a friend of yours.”
“Your shot is what saved his life,” Rodney reviews that sentence. “I’ll agree it isn’t a conventional way of saving someone’s life,” he says, and they both have to chuckle at that. “But you saved him.”
John nods. He knows it’s true, he still didn’t like killing him. “Anyway, he’s back to life. No harm, no foul,” he says, the levity of the tone sentencing the conversation is over. “How are things with him?”
“Oh, better I think,” says Rodney as John leans back on the railing, almost touching shoulders with him. “Apparently Sam and Jack had a spat before we went on the mission because she thought you should know beforehand.”
“See, I told you I liked her,” he says.
Rodney chuckles at that. “Jack says the people who know only do because they saw him die and come back to life. That’s what happened with Sam. He treats his - immortality or whatever in a need-to-know basis.”
“Understandable. I don’t think it’s something you can go off sharing with everybody.”
“I guess so. The thing is, that’s the reason why I didn’t stay to work for him.”
John turns to him with a frown. “Work for him?”
“Jack runs an, um, operation in Cardiff,” says Rodney in a lower voice, and John would bet his favorite sidearm that it was classified information, the one you can only access if you’re a General, if you’re extremely smart, or if your life is fucked enough for them to open those kind of seals.
John nods. “I supposed as much, considering what he said about the rift.”
“Right. Back when the whole - thing…” says Rodney, trailing, not really knowing how to refer to the job Sam and he had to do for Jack.
John grins. “Worldwide catastrophe?” offers John.
Rodney looks grateful. “Right, when it was over, Jack offered me a job. He liked the way I worked,” shrugs Rodney.
John snorts.
“Stop that,” he says, punching his arm. “Seriously, he offered me to stay, but I didn’t because Jack… we worked well for a brief time, but in the long term we would’ve killed each other.” He frowns. “Which, actually applies also to our sex lives, now that I think about it.”
John groans. “McKay!”
Rodney stands up to look at him properly. “Seriously, what is it with you and sex? You cringe at the very mention.”
“I don’t have a problem with sex, Rodney, I have a problem with you sharing every detail of your sex life with Jack.”
Rodney crosses his arms. “Why? You dislike the guy that much?”
“No, I -”
And then, “John,” says Rodney touching his arm and looking at him with big blue eyes that John has often found difficult to resist to. “Why?”
To hell with it, John thinks. “Not here,” he says in a softer voice, so if anyone is eavesdropping on them they won’t hear him.
Rodney, though, hears loud and clear. He grins widely, wider than when he has a ZPM in his hands. John feels a little something break inside him at that sight.
Rodney nods. “Later, okay. Your room?”
John starts nodding but then does a double take. “Why mine?” he frowns.
Rodney rolls his eyes. “Because with our luck, in my quarters we’d probably step on a laptop or something and crack our heads on a desk. There’s more… space in yours,” he finishes in a low voice.
“Good point,” says John. “In the meantime - want dinner?”
Rodney’s eyes light a bit more. “I’m starving,” he says, and starts to leave the balcony.
John makes a mental note. They’re in a balcony, barely half a klick from the gateroom. It’s not a good place for - ah, screw it, John thinks.
Before Rodney can actually leave the balcony and get inside again, John grabs his arm to stop him and kisses him. It’s not a long kiss (they’re in a balcony) and it’s not that deep a kiss (they’re in a public balcony), but, oh nobody seems to care much.
Rodney grabs the back of John’s head, as if the man was about to escape right there and then, and John can’t resist the temptation of grabbing Rodney’s shoulders, those shoulders, and before Rodney, John never thought a pair of shoulders would turn him on so.
“Dinner,” says John when he lets Rodney go, and gets back into the city before he gives in to his impulse of doing something a little more than just a kiss.
Rodney answers a second later than he normally would have. John hears that second. He is proud of that second.
“Do we have to?” says Rodney.
John chooses not to answer because, seriously, he’s nearly convinced.
“You’d tell me if you were immortal or something, right?” says Rodney. “Although with the amount of suicidal mission you’ve survived, I wouldn’t be surpr - you’re not immortal, right? Oh my god, you are!”
John laughs. “No! Jesus, Rodney, I’m not.”
Rodney deflates visibly. “Oh. Pity.”
And John can’t help but smile fondly at him as he grabs his shoulders, walking to the mess hall.
VI
The Daedalus arrives late at night, a little after the dinner rush is over and everybody’s already thinking of going to bed for some shut eye.
John wants to bang his head against the wall.
They had just finished dinner, the whole team plus Jennifer, Sam and even Jack. Everyone was already on dessert, Rodney hogging the last blue jello that had been left. Both John and Rodney had already started looking at each other and feeling a bit like fourteen-year-olds when Sam gets radioed by Chuck - the Daedalus is in orbit.
John winces so obviously, Teyla asks him if he’s hurt. Rodney chokes on his jello in an effort not to laugh out loud, eliciting Jack to thump him on the back before Rodney hacks up a lung.
Everybody scatters off to their respective duties. Zelenka radioes Rodney for help - he’s near finishing the calculations but he’s going cross eyed. Rodney and Jack take over for him, spending all of the time the Daedalus needs to resupply at it.
Rodney is seriously thinking of halting the plan when John goes to the lab to tell them the Daedalus is reading to beam them up. John sees them both at the laptop, and takes pity on them. He looks at the screen, takes paper and pencil, and in ten minutes he has the calculations finished.
Rodney looks at him suspiciously, but takes the paper with John’s numbers and keys them in on the computer - which makes the software ding happily at finally getting correct numbers.
John looks vaguely proud, Rodney looks half surprised and half turned on; Jack looks like he would have no problems doing them both right there and then.
With the calculations finally done, the plan is ready to go, and ten hours of traveling await.
The Daedalus is almost deserted: Jack and Rodney’s plan involved overloading one of the Naquadah Generators and, if something goes wrong and the Daedalus is hit, they want as less casualties as possible.
Two hours after departure, still en route to the planet, Rodney detects the problem.
“We have a problem,” he says on his radio to John and Jack. “Meet me at Engineering.”
“We have a problem,” repeats Rodney as soon as John and Jack arrive. He hits a few keys on his laptop, then something on the control panel, and then turns to them. “After the explosion goes off, the Daedalus’ sensors will be clouded. We’ll have no way to know if it worked.”
John shrugs. “We can wait till the sensors are back on.”
Rodney walks to them as he talks, leaning on one side of the consoles. “From what Jack and Teyla saw of Weevil society, by the time our sensors are back on, I’d be ready to bet one of my laptops that what’s left of the area will be swarming with Weevils. If the explosion failed and we need to try again somehow, we won’t be able to without causing a massacre.”
John frowns at Rodney. “You have a solution,” he says, because he knows Rodney’s ‘we’re screwed if I can’t solve this’ face, and that’s not it.
“My vortex manipulator,” says Jack soberly.
Rodney nods. “Yes. Jack would, um, need to be on the planet.”
A few of the engineers in the room turn to Rodney’s words. The radiation leftover from the explosion would kill any human being.
“I don’t -” says John, and Rodney’s talking again.
“His wrist wrap,” he says as Jack lifts the sleeve of his coat. “It’s an incredibly advanced piece of technology he hasn’t even let me see it, let alone work it. It will be able to detect if the rift sealed or if it’s still open, but he’ll have to be on the planet surface.”
John turns to Jack. “Why can’t you do it from the Daedalus?”
“It needs to be closer to the rift,” says Jack, and then claps his hand as if in delight. “Okay, we don’t have a problem, then. We have a plan.”
Rodney leaves his tablet on top of a console. “No, we don’t. The radiation -”
“Won’t affect me at all,” says Jack. “Trust me, I’ve been there.”
“The weevils -”
“Will be too busy with the explosion to pay me attention. In any case, I can manage a few weevils.”
“Hey, they killed you once!”
And next, of all the things a person can do to answer Rodney’s exclamation, Jack moves forward and kisses Rodney.
John cringes and tenses his jaw and his hands and wants to bolt from the room because it’s not a peck, or a tiny kiss, no. It’s a kiss, where there’s tongue and arms grabbing body parts, and Jack framing Rodney’s face with his hands and there’s moaning, Jesus, Rodney is moaning.
“Technically, your colonel did,” says Jack once he lets Rodney go.
Rodney has to actually think to know what Jack’s talking about. “My- what? It’s a bad plan!”
Jack drops his hands from Rodney’s shoulders. “It’s all we’ve got.”
Rodney deflates visibly. Jack’s right. “Alright.”
And once the plan is agreed on, once they know what they are going to do, John leaves without looking back. Presumably, he is going to fill Caldwell in on the plan; even as he walks where he is, even as he tells him of Jack and Rodney’s plan, John knows that’s not the reason he left Engineering.
John sighs and goes to his quarters to sleep. They have eight hours till they arrive on the planet and John needs to not see anybody. A few days back he would’ve lied to himself so he could continue to cope, he would’ve fabricated a lie where Jack kissing Rodney didn’t bother him. Why would it?
John doesn’t fabricate lies now, it’s too late, really.
+
It’s morning in Atlantis, afternoon in Earth and Noon in the Weevil Planet when Rodney knocks on his door sometime later. John isn’t too sure how much later, though, his internal clock telling him it’s sometime after six am, Atlantis time.
He gets up from the bed, shirtless and barefoot, bleary eyed as he opens the door and the light from outside fills his little room. Rodney’s standing on the other side of the door, suddenly looking very sorry for having woken him up. “Hey,” he says with a little wave, a bit nervously.
“Hey. What?” he asks, still too asleep, not moving from the doorway.
“Could I - um, go inside?” he says, pointing at the space behind John. “The hallways have ears.”
John moves aside to let him in, letting him close the door as he turns the lights on. He sits down on the bed, heavily; whether he’s silent because he’s still half asleep or because he has nothing to say to Rodney, neither of them really know.
“Um, what happened back there… At Engineering, I mean,” he says, as if John had forgotten when or what had happened. “You know, he did it. I mean, I never -”
“You moaned, Rodney,” says John, who’s more awake than Rodney had given him credit for.
“I’m also human,” he says, though it’s clearly the wrong thing to say.
John stands up. “Look -”
“Colonel Sheppard to the bridge, Dr. McKay to Engineering. We’re arriving to the planet. ”
Rodney winces. “John,” he says.
John’s already toeing his shoes in. “Later, Rodney,” he says, motioning for Rodney to throw the shirt and jacket.
Rodney sighs, and decides he might as well wait till the whole Plan From Hell is over.
VII
Jack is at the bridge already when John gets there. His fiddling with his wrist wrap, which has some sort of flap open; he’s touching something inside and frowning.
And suddenly John notices he’s never seen Jack and Caldwell together. Good ol’ Steven suddenly climbs up a few notches in John’s opinion when he notices the way he’s looking at Jack, with a frown, as if he’s ready to kick him out of his bridge at any moment’s notice, possibly beamed out to space and see if he survives that.
Or maybe that’s just John, who’s not having a good day.
“Are we ready?” says Caldwell from his chair.
“I have no idea,” admits John as he touches his earpiece. “McKay, are we ready?” he asks, fully expecting Rodney to still not have made it to engineering to set the Naquadah Generator to overload.
“Yes,” Rodney says a little breathlessly. “Zelenka took the liberty of disobeying orders and getting the generator ready himself.”
John grins as he hears Radek talking in Czech in the background. John hears swearwords, it’s a good thing Caldwell hasn’t learnt Czech.
(Jack turns to John with a raised eyebrow, completely amused. Apparently, Jack knows Czech.)
“Feel free to tell me when to beam the Generator down,” says Caldwell. “We’ll beam Captain Harkness down as soon as the shock wave has passed the pre-accorded point.”
John walks to the window of the bridge which, given the distance, shows about only half of the planet below.
Jack turns to Caldwell. “Give me fifteen seconds on the ground and then beam me back up, that’ll be enough to determine if the rift is still there or not.”
“Will that be enough to - harm you?” John asks discreetly, because except for Caldwell, no one else at the bridge knew of Jack’s unique ability.
“I guess we’ll find out,” he says.
Caldwell nods, telling Major Marks to get the beaming ready.
Rodney’s voice comes through the intercom. “Beam the Generator… now!”
Major Marks beams down the Generator without needing to wait for Caldwell to say it. They can’t see a thing from the vantage point up on the Daedalus’ bridge, of course, but not fifteen seconds have gone by that, down below in the planet, a tiny speck of light emerges, getting bigger and bigger with every millisecond.
The rift area ignites, exploding in white, the radius of the blast expanding for about three klicks, the rest a relatively innocuous shock wave.
Marks studies the readings, and someone on his earpiece says it’s clear for Jack to beam down. “Beaming Captain Harkness,” he says.
Jack disappears from John’s side in a wave of white lights, nodding at John in a manner that’s uncharacteristically serious for him.
An engineer at the back of the bridge counts the seconds as she looks at her watch. “Twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen.”
“Beaming Captain Harkness back up,” says Marks, and not two seconds later Jack is back besides John.
A little unsteady on his feet, though. John moves to steady him, holding him from an arm. “It’s done,” says Jack. “The rift is closed.”
The personnel around cheer at the successful mission, but John and Caldwell’s attention are elsewhere.
“I’m on my way!” comes Rodney’s voice through John’s earpiece.
Caldwell gets up and looks at Jack. His breathing is fast, shallow, and he looks oddly pale; he leans in on John.
“Are you alright?” asks Caldwell.
“I’m fine,” says Jack.
“Buddy, you don’t look like it,” says John.
Caldwell turns to Marks. “Call the -”
“No,” interrupts Jack. “I’m fine. Just a little winded.”
John and Caldwell get the message loud and clear: the radiation is killing Jack, and he’s about to die. Caldwell nods and John helps Jack get out of there; none of the three men want the Daedalus personnel to get the shock of their lives.
John half carries Jack out of the bridge, going to the first set of quarters he has handy; he radioes Rodney to join them there.
John helps Jack lie down on the bed; Rodney arrives in time to see Jack die.
“Wha -” he says, seeing Jack’s head fall to a side.
John had been sitting down on the bed, he stands up when Rodney arrives. “He’ll be fine, Rodney.”
“He’s dead,” he says with scathing obviousness, as if John had missed that entirely.
“And according to him, he’ll be back in a few minutes,” he says, leaning on the bedside table.
Rodney sits down at the foot of the bed, looking at Jack for moments only. Minutes go by without even a twitch from him.
“He’s not coming back,” says Rodney.
John sighs and sits down besides him. “I’m guessing the recovery time is not the same if the injury varies. A gunshot to the chest is not the same as a massive wave of radiation. That huge a blast, it’s bound to take longer to recover from.”
It sounds right, of course. Rodney’s scientific mind, though having trouble with the idea of the laws of nature not applying to this one man, is adamant to waiting for the evidence. Jack is dead, but not gone yet.
And John can’t hate Jack anymore, not really, because he’s Rodney’s friend. He’s dead, and Rodney is suffering because of it. How can he hate a guy that’s died twice in one mission? Not even John himself holds that record. Probably not even Dr. Jackson.
Behind them, Jack takes a huge deep breath. He looks at them. “Have I ever told you I hate radiation?”
John smiles and thumps Rodney’s shoulder as the latter breathes in relief.
+
A video transmission is set up twenty four hours later between Atlantis and the Hub, over at Cardiff. It’s too soon to know if any more Weevils have come through since the time this whole thing started, but even as Sam asks Chuck dial the gate, he knows information isn’t the main reason for the transmission.
Sam gets silent confirmation when Jack smiles wider than he has in days when he sees his friends’ faces on the screen of the control room. There’s a pretty girl, a hot girl up there, standing next to a guy in a suit who looks hotter than he should in it. Gwen and Ianto’s faces look equal parts relieved and happy when they see Jack.
“So far no more Weevils have come through the rift, but it’s really too soon to tell,” says Ianto, and John is almost amused at how openly the guy is checking Jack out.
Gwen shrugs. “Nothing says the rift was depositing them here directly, anyway.”
“Time will tell, I guess,” nods Jack. “But at least it won’t be depositing any new ones.”
“The Hub without weevils,” says Ianto. “That’ll be a first.”
“Jack - how’s Atlantis like?” asks Gwen, looking very intently at the view behind Jack - the blue puddle of the event horizon.
Jack winks at her. “I’ll show you. I have pictures.”
That catches Sam’s attention. “You do?”
“I have a camera and I’m sneaky,” he says.
Sam winces. “Jack…”
“Photographs will be burnt the minute after they’ve seen them,” he says, raising a hand as if to do the Boy Scout salute.
“I do hope you have been behaving, sir,” says Ianto with fake seriousness.
Jack looks at the screen in mock offense. “When do I not?”
“Do we have to answer that?” says Gwen happily.
Rodney leans in on the frame so Gwen and Ianto will see him. “He’s been a pain. Do you want him back?”
“We would like that,” nods Gwen, amused.
“I’ll be there soon. Take care, please,” says Jack.
“Always,” grins Ianto.
The transmission is cut off, a scheduled dial in of the gate planned in twenty minutes. Jack hurries to his room to pack the few things he had brought along - he is the very definition of traveling light, but even Captain Jack Harkness has to bring in a few personals when he’s going to another galaxy.
John is troubled. He winces slightly, and follows Jack to his quarters. He knocks on a side of the threshold just as Jack is almost finished packing.
“Can I have a word?” says John.
“Sure,” Jack nods. He’s surprised to find him there, but not much.
“Look. I’ve been… brash,” says John, one hand in his pocket, the other at the back of his neck. Jack only chuckles. “I wanted to apologize for this past few days, you being Rodney’s friend, I could’ve treated you better.”
Jack nodded, his face betrayed how okay he was with John. “That’s okay. I tend to have that effect on people,” he teased.
John shrugged and took a few steps inside the room. “Might be solved if you stopped kissing people everywhere you go.”
Jack smiles at him, the kind of smile he’s given Rodney for nearly a week. “I’ve considered that option. It’s a boring one.”
John has to give the man that point. “Can’t argue with that logic,” he smiles.
“I just -” he closes his bag and turns to John fully. “I try to get the most out of the people I love, even the ones who don’t belong to me,” he says and seriously, John doesn’t need anyone else to know who Jack is talking about. “I didn’t use to, I - This is the thing about being immortal: I am going to outlive everyone I love,” he says, enunciating clearly into the silent room.
It hits John full force. He’s had the nightmares where everyone he knows and loves is killed by wraith, Oris, Goa’ulds or the villain of the moment. He’s had nightmares where everyone is killed right in front of him, he’s had nightmares where he’s the reason everyone dies. Hell, he’s had more than one suicidal mission where he says goodbye to everyone in his head and then he’s rescued at the last minute.
He’s never imagined watching everyone wither at a normal pace, live their lives, and then die without him.
“It’s happened before,” says Jack. “And it will happen again. No matter how many people I hate, love or fuck. One day, we’ll meet again, and Rodney and you will be in your eighties and I will look exactly the same.”
“Isn’t -” John clears his throat. “Isn’t there anything…”
“I’ve consulted with the, um, outmost expert,” he says, and puzzles John by grinning when he says this, “and he has no clue what to do about me. Still, how’s that saying, hope is the last thing to die?”
John recognizes a closed subject when he sees one. “Well, you certainly have time for find the answer,” he smirks, and Jack rewards him by smirking back and outwardly checking him out and okay, thinks John. So maybe he is attractive.
Rodney arrives a few seconds later, probably going into a mental panic at seeing the two of them together. “What’s going on here?”
Jack and John overlap each other. “He’s helping me pack -”
“I’m helping him pack.”
Rodney crosses his arms. “Your empty hands attest to it.”
John smiles at him, the smile he uses on offworld emperor and kings, the smile that says ‘I’m too cute for you to harm’. “That’s because I just finished,” he says, and starts walking towards the gateroom.
+
Jack’s twenty minutes are up. The three of them arrive to the gateroom mere seconds before the Kawoosh of the gate is heard all over.
Jack kicks his bag through the event horizon, leaving his hands free. John shudders at why he wants his hands free.
Jack goes to Sam first. “Interesting as your galaxy is, I’m off,” he says cheerfully.
“Keep in touch,” grins Sam.
Jack nods. “I will. Next time, I want to meet that team of yours back on Earth.”
Sam chuckles instantly. “Oh, Vala will adore you,” she sentences.
“Suddenly I want to meet her too,” he says, kissing her cheek - he knows better than to kiss anywhere else.
Jack salutes John as he passes by him, there’s little to say after what was said in the privacy of Jack’s quarters.
John backs up a few steps towards were Sam is, leaving Rodney center stage in the middle of the gateroom.
“Was there trouble after the last time I kissed you, back on the Daedalus?” asks Jack.
“Yes,” Rodney says harshly, but not overly serious, “and that time did not include a room full of people.”
Of course, Rodney’s not an idiot. He knows what will come next and is prepared for it because, damn it, this might be the last time in his life he might kiss Captain Jack Harkness. He’d be an idiot to let that chance go.
Even if the SGC finds out, what are they going to do? Fire his most brilliant scientist in Atlantis because he kissed someone?
So when Jack leans in to steal a kiss, Rodney surprises him by holding him from the lapels of his greatcoat, practically gluing himself to Jack, holding him close; there’s not need to be close by to know there’s tongue involved.
One of Rodney’s hands leave Jack’s greatcoat and goes for his neck, and one of Jack’s hands is on Rodney’s face and another one is holding his waist and John wants to go there and separate them with a shovel or maybe a spatula. Atlantis rose from the bottom of the sea in less time than it takes these two to kiss goodbye.
The entire gateroom is all but ogling now because, oh hello. Dr. Rodney McKay, two PhDs and several tons of sarcasm at the ready, arrogant and bad with people, just kissed this incredibly hot guy. And did it well.
“I don’t care,” smiles Jack as he lets Rodney go, though no one in the gateroom really cares to remember Jack’s previous question about trouble.
“Please, never stop being so considerate,” says Rodney slightly annoyed, slightly turned on, and completely recovered after a kiss that would’ve left John stupid for days.
Jack is already walking towards the gate. “I’ll keep in touch,” he says before he crosses the event horizon.
+
Late that night, John isn’t surprised to find Rodney still in his lab, working until an ungodly hour of the night, hunched over his laptop as he types god-knows-what.
Rodney asks for ten more minutes, just ten and he’ll go to sleep, he promises. John sits over a desk and makes the quick calculation: 600 seconds in ten minutes. “One Mississippi, Two Mississippi, Three Mississippi…”
He stops counting when Rodney throws a spoon at his head - with oddly good aim.
“What do you think happened to the Weevils on the planet?” asks John once he sees Rodney is starting to power things down.
Rodney frowns. “Oh, the lived happily ever after?” He shrugs. “Both Jack and Sam were adamant the blast not hurt them, so it didn’t. I mean, if there were weevils near the rift they’re toast now, but those who were in their city should be fine. The Daedalus will be checking in on the planet every once in a while.”
John sees Sam and Jack’s point. “Yes, well, those weevils haven’t done anything to us. No reason to blast them into a thousand parts.”
Rodney waits a second for the last laptop to power down and then slams its screen shut. “Alright, this is it,” he says.
“This is what?” asks John, who had gotten down from the desk thinking they were leaving.
Instead, Rodney palms the lab door closed and instructs John to get back on the desk. Confused, John does; he’s surprised when Rodney hauls himself up on the desk to sit besides him.
“I like Jack,” begins Rodney. “I do, more than I’d like to.”
John groans internally. He though he’d escaped that conversation; Rodney’s silent confusion was enough of an answer to him. “Rodney…”
“Let me finish!” he says in the tone he tells one of his minions he just screwed something up. “I like Jack. I mean, you have eyes, you’ve seen him! He’s good looking, he’s funny, a good guy, he’s not an idiot.”
“Not making me feel any better,” states John, gladly looking at the floor instead of Rodney.
“But Jack is just - he’s a shag. A fuck. I mean, to me. He’s temporary, something that can’t last, even if we both wanted it to.” He breathes. “You’re different.”
John gets down from the desk, he needs some distance from Rodney. “Rodney, you don’t have to -”
Rodney grabs one of his arms before John can take any more steps, making him look at him. “No, let me say this or I never will.” It’s the first time he looks directly at John since he started speaking. “You’re not temporary, you’re not just - you could never be just a quick something.” He gives a little laugh that’s void of amusement. “I’ve been trying to convince myself that to pursue something with you would be to jeopardize our careers, our fates, for a relationship that would be short and end awful, as it often does with me and relationships. I’ve been trying to convince myself but it hasn’t worked.”
John looks up at Rodney and says, “It hasn’t worked for me either.”
“Oh, thank god,” says Rodney in delight, leaning down to rest his head on one of John’s shoulders out of pure relief.
John smiles at him, widely, bringing his arms around Rodney, holding him close. He kisses his forehead, his cheek, his lips, and when Rodney starts kissing back, there’s no going back.
+
Alright, John admits it. He may have been conditioned when he first saw Jack Harkness. Maybe he even prejudged him.
Seriously, he’s not a bad guy. John could count on him in the field, he’s not an idiot. Not bad.
Rodney rolls his eyes and looks at him like he just understood what E=MC2 is all about, and mutters wondering if he didn’t make the wrong choice because, clearly, he whispers to Ronon in what is a very loud voice for a whisper, there’s just something not working right underneath all that ridiculous hair.
But then John comes to the lab late at night, and offers Rodney coffee. And it’s not just any coffee, it’s the special coffee, the one that Rodney regularly offers his Nobel Prize money for and yeah, Rodney made a good choice. John stays at the lab and watches him work and finish whatever he’s working on, patiently waiting and simply watching, leering every once in a while, which makes Rodney work faster and finish much earlier.
Seriously, ‘choice’ is the wrong word here. There was never any contest at all.
+++
Fin