Fic: Fault Lines 2/2, SGA, McShep
Title: Fault Lines
Author: Claire
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard, Lorne/Zelenka implied
Rating: R
Summary: When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him a Runner.
Author's Notes: Written for the Home Team during mcshep_match 2008, with the prompt Weakest Link With massive thanks to wesleysgirl and mmmchelle, who did a fabulous beta, and any mistakes remaining are mine. And huge ::glomps:: and pom-pom waving to the Home Team, who were the most excellent cheerleading, researching, question-answering and all-round joyous team to be a part of *\o/*
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
- William James
Link to part 1...
It was late in the day when the sound of running water reached them, the sunlight shining through the trees shot through with the red that seemed to herald the dusk on Carnava.
"Orvin mentioned a river running near the village, didn't he?"
John looked at Rodney, surprised that he'd taken in anything Orvin had said beyond the 'Why, yes of course you can have free and unlimited access to our previously unknown-about and apparently fully functional Ancient lab.'
"I do actually listen at times, you know," Rodney muttered, the unsubtle emanation of indignation coming from him causing John to bank down his thoughts and reply with a wry grin.
"Yes, he did," John answered. "But it's pretty unlikely this is going to be the same one." Even so, at least following it would make them feel less like they had just been wandering aimlessly, as well as giving them ongoing access to a water supply.
"Okay, that might be an issue."
John looked up as the treeline ended, understanding instantly what Rodney meant. No more forest? Check. River? Check? River apparently off the end of a cliff with no visible way down? Also check. John sighed.
"I don't think there's a way down." Rodney moved closer to the edge, peering over. "Not here, anyway."
John glanced one way and then the other. "If we carry on walking, there may be a way to get down further on."
"Which, knowing our luck, will be some sort of decrepit rope ladder covered in--" McKay stopped suddenly. "Do you hear that?" A soft rumbling underscored his words, getting louder with each heartbeat.
John's eyes locked with Rodney's, horrified realisation of why the treeline ended so closely to the cliff washing over him as the earth moved and trembled under their feet. "Don't move."
Rodney opened his mouth, snapping it shut as he glanced down, his already pale face flashing white as he picked up on what John was thinking. "John--"
And then the ground gave way beneath him and Rodney was gone.
"Rodney!" Diving forward, John reached out a hand, stretching and praying. Thanking whoever had been listening when his fingers grabbed Rodney's hand, John looked over the edge of the now collapsed ground.
"Don't you dare let me go," Rodney shouted, his spare hand frantically reaching up to John.
"I wasn't exactly planning on it," John snapped, looking down. He didn't know how far down it was to the river and rocks below, but it was obviously a damn sight more than the distance they could stay apart from each other. The earth was loose under him and his stomach clenched as he could feel it shifting against his weight. "McKay, there's a branch to your left, you're going to have to put your foot on it and boost yourself up." Because he wasn't strong enough to hold him for much longer, not with how unsteady the ground was.
Rodney looked at him, and John felt the panic in his mind.
"Rodney, trust me."
Rodney nodded, closing his eyes for a brief second, before his foot reached out for the branch. "Ready?"
John tightened his grip on Rodney's hand in response. "On three," he said, waiting for Rodney's nod before starting. "One, two, three-"
Rodney pushed himself up with the branch, the extra leverage giving John the ability to pull him back over the edge as the sound of the soil ripping further away and falling to impact on the rushing water below reached them.
They scrambled back as more loose earth tumbled from sight, not stopping until the trees surrounded them again and the ground felt secure beneath them And then they shuffled back some more for good measure.
His heart still racing, John looked at Rodney, pale and shaking and realising just how close he'd come to falling.
"You didn't let me go."
John wanted to snap something back, pithy and quick, but he could feel it, feel it coming from Rodney. A mixture of fear and relief and heat and it was pouring out of him every moment he looked at John.
"Rodney--"
And John didn't know which one of them moved first, didn't know which one of them reached out to the other. All he knew was that Rodney was under him, solid and there and alive.
His lips pressed against Rodney's as hands moved to their BDUs, fingers tangling in their hurry to free themselves.
Rodney got there first, hand reaching into John's BDUs, fingers wrapping around the hard cock and releasing it. The touch of Rodney's fingers on his dick made John falter, made him pause as he registered tight and hot and someone's grip on his cock that wasn't his own.
"John--" The whine and thrust of Rodney's hips into his hand brought John back, fingers finishing their task and finally, finally taking hold of Rodney's cock, thick and heavy and perfect in his hand. And even though they didn't do that, shouldn't do that, John wasn't about to stop.
They had danced around this for too long, edged around it since Rodney had first stepped forward and given John the key to opening the skies. Glances that lingered too long and touches that went beyond propriety were all masked by a botanist that had no chance and a reputation for chasing anything in a skirt. But this was what it was all leading to, Rodney beneath him with John's hand wrapped around both their cocks, jagged and sharp with the way eased only by pre-come.
"Come on, Rodney--" Because John wanted to feel it, that pulsing heat in the back of his mind that slid along his neurons every time Rodney moved, every time he gasped.
Rodney's fingers were tight on his arm, and John knew that there would be bruises there the next day, Rodney McKay's name written in colours across his skin.
John tightened his grip, hand moving faster as Rodney tensed beneath him, open and right and there.
And John's mind exploded, an ocean of colour and light and heat washing through him, carrying a single thought as he came.
Yes.
He didn't know whose thought it was.
~*~
When John Sheppard was seventeen, he fell in love. It was everything a first love should be - passionate, wild and completely unknown to either set of parents. They'd meet in secret and tell each other they'd love forever.
Like most teenagers, they believed they had the rest of their lives, that they could face whatever the world threw at them.
Five years later, John stood at the altar in his dress blues and listened to Nancy say her vows. She was a perfect bride - beautiful, caring, intelligent and she loved him.
She had tears in her eyes as he stood there and promised to love her, to cherish her, promised that she would be first beyond anything, and he had believed it as he'd said it.
Of course, he'd believed it when he'd told Michael the exact same thing years earlier.
It was strange how life worked out.
~*~
Trying to make their way back to the Stargate and wondering exactly when the Wraith were going to find them was a little too much like waiting for the other shoe to drop, so when they actually found the Wraith first, John discovered he was kind of relieved.
"What are they doing?" Rodney whispered, entirely unhappy that they were that close to a Wraith camp.
"I'm not sure," John admitted. He'd thought that they'd all be out looking for the two of them. After all, that was what Wraith did with Runners, track them. But, apart from the one John had christened Ringo back on the hiveship studying a scanning device, the Wraith didn't seem that concerned.
"We need to leave before they find us." The overhead whine of darts almost drowned out Rodney's words
Rodney was right. They had no weapons, no idea where on the planet they were, darts over their heads and six ground troops in front of them. Only-- John looked up, his eyes tracking the directions the darts were flying in before glancing back to the group of Wraith in the forest clearing.
"I have an idea."
Rodney followed his gaze back to the Wraith. "And I have a burning desire not to die today."
"Come on, Rodney, where's your sense of adventure?" They could do this, John knew they could.
"Back on Atlantis, right next to your sense of sanity," Rodney snapped.
John reached out and wrapped his fingers around Rodney's wrist, sparks dancing through him at the shudder of heat that ran through his mind. "We need to get back."
Rodney's eyes closed briefly before he opened them again, pinning John with his gaze. "Fine, but if I die I'm haunting your ass across every planet you set foot on."
John just grinned.
~*~
It turned out that the hardest part of the plan was actually making sure they stayed close enough together to stop their brains from splintering in agony while still making it look like Rodney was completely alone.
"And I have to be the bait why?"
John wasn't sure if the drone who reached them first wasn't supposed to check in when he found something or was just too eager to impress, but he didn't care either way. A large branch judiciously smacked into the back of the drone's head as he was advancing on Rodney worked to stagger it enough for Rodney to wrestle the stunner it was carrying out of its hands.
A stunner set to its highest level and one dead Wraith later and they were armed and ready. John hefted the stunner in his arms; it wasn't as good as a P-90, but it would do for what he wanted. And what he wanted was to cause some damage, because John Sheppard was fucking sick of being the hunted.
The thing about Wraith, John had found over the several times he'd been far too close to one, was that they were arrogant shits who thought themselves invulnerable. Which meant, when they were tracking two guys who were meant to be running for their lives, the last thing they expected was one of the said supposedly terrified guys to jump out from behind a tree, screaming and firing a stunner at them.
And since John wasn't one to let a winning strategy go, he and Rodney (sporting his own stunner by this point) did it again and again until only Ringo was left.
"I can't believe that worked," Rodney said, staring at his stunner in bemused surprise.
A slow clapping coming from behind them cut off John's reply and they turned to see Ringo watching them.
"This is how you humans show appreciation, yes?" Ringo stopped clapping and stared at them. "Strong and resourceful. Such a shame you were born meat." His eyes raked over Rodney.
John's fingers tightened on the stunner, meeting Rodney's incipient panic with calm. Because this, this was what John did. He didn't run and hide, he stood and fought, and there was something visceral about facing Ringo, the Wraith's fingers wrapped around the small blaster at his side.
This was what it came down to, who was quicker, who had the most to lose.
John felt Rodney's mind brush across his, quick and cutting and solid.
In the end there was no doubt. No doubt as they both fired. No doubt as one of them fell.
Ringo stared at John, eyes glazed as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, dark and viscous. "There will be darts coming." Voice rough and painful as he lay on the forest floor, blood seeping into the soil.
"I'm counting on it," John said, as he fired again.
~*~
They'd been surprisingly close to the edge of the forest, trees giving way to lush green shot through with colour as various plants grew wild and unchecked.
They found a place to sit and waited, John amusing himself by thinking about various images and watching Rodney flush as he picked up on them.
"I'm holding you to that one!" Rodney finally snapped after a particularly adventurous one involving the two of them and Elizabeth's desk.
John's agreement was cut off by the tension suddenly coming from Rodney, as he sat straighter, staring into the sky.
"John--"
But John could already the whine in the air above them that signalled the appearance of a dart coming closer.
Squinting into the sunlight, John pinpointed the small ship, slowing and angling down to land.
Bracing himself on his knees and ignoring the snort of amusement and brief mental image of him on his knees for an entirely different reason coming from Rodney, John lifted the stunner, balancing it on his shoulder and waiting until the dart got closer.
Relying on good aim, luck and several prayers to a god he hadn't really believed in since Afghanistan, John fired the stunner, grinning when it hit the dart dead on and the ship started to fall--
Right towards him.
He dropped the stunner and started running, feeling Rodney close behind him as they both dove to the ground, arms over their heads against the heat they could feel brushing over their backs.
Cursing the rotten sense of humour of a deity who must have heard him and decided to not let him off so easily, John breathed a sigh of relief when the dart shot by them before crashing into the ground. Rodney had accepted being turned into a Runner and stuck on an alien planet with a surprising lack of complaining, but John adding probable fiery death from the sky to the mix was probably pushing it a little too far.
"That wasn't the plan!" Rodney slapped John's arm, fingers gripping his jacket as John just grinned.
"Got it down, didn't it." Bending down to scoop up the stunner, John jogged over to the dart. The hatch was open and the pilot slumped over, half in and half out of his seat, having very obviously not survived the crash.
Rodney started to look over the dart as John removed the pilot. "You know, for having been shot out of the sky and crashed, it's not in too bad a condition," he remarked.
"Does that mean you can get it airborne?" John asked. Because if he couldn't then the whole plan had been for nothing.
Rodney just looked at him. "Hello, genius," Rodney pointed out, motioning to himself. "If anyone can, I can."
And the waves of certainty emanating from Rodney made John smile.
~*~
"You know, this part's a lot easier with tools and without the running commentary," Rodney griped, his ass hanging out of the dart as he worked.
"Come on, McKay, you're a genius, remember. You saying you can't do it?" John tore his eyes away from Rodney's ass and back towards the sky, scanning for any more darts.
"I didn't say I couldn't do it, I just said it was easier without the comments." There was muttered cursing for long moments and then, "Ha! Got it!"
John turned in time to see Rodney wiggling out of the dart and jumping back to the ground.
"Well, I wouldn't recommend taking her out of the atmosphere, but we have what should be a working dart."
"And the buffer?" John asked, because darts were only built for one which meant if both of them were going, and they were, then one of them was going in the Wraith equivalent of the trunk.
"Up and running," Rodney replied. "And empty." Which meant that either the dart hadn't been involved in the culling or, more likely, it had already long since dropped its victims off on the hiveship.
Boosting himself up and into the dart, John settled into the pilot's seat. "You ready?"
"I hate this bit," Rodney said, like there was someone out there who enjoyed having their molecules broken down and stored in a pattern buffer. Although, considering the other stuff they'd seen during their time in Pegasus, John supposed it wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.
Taking a deep breath, John placed his hands on the controls, failing to suppress a shudder when the canopy closed, sealing him inside. The ship quivered as it left the ground, steadying slightly as it responded to John's touch. The screen in front of him showed a solitary blinking red dot and his hand moved to activate the culling beam, only faltering momentarily before he pressed the button and the dot disappeared.
Triggering more of the systems to come online, a map of the planet appeared in perfect 3D resolution, pinpointing the location of the Stargate with a beautiful green dot.
John smiled.
Next stop: home.
~*~
Elizabeth watched as the seventh chevron locked into place, the soft, rippling shield over the Gate stopping anyone from using the unauthorised activation to enter Atlantis. "Chuck?"
Chuck's fingers skimmed the console before he finally nodded. "We're receiving an IDC. It matches the one we gave to Naorans."
"Lower the shield," she said, already moving towards the steps. Lieutenant Stevens and the rest of the Marines around the Gate had already taken up positions, ready in case whoever came through the Gate wasn't who they were expecting. They'd learned the hard way that the IDCs were too easily wrested out of the control of the people they'd originally given them to. But Elizabeth wasn't about to stop giving their allies a way of contacting them, no matter what had been suggested by the SGC, no matter what the reports said.
Whether they liked it or not, whether they'd planned it or not, Atlantis was now one of the main things standing between the Wraith and the rest of Pegasus. Elizabeth wasn't going to offer that partial protection only to withdraw it when it became uncomfortable.
She'd been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that it took her a moment to realise the people who stepped through the Gate weren't any of the Naora. Took her a moment to react, to call Ronon and Teyla to the Gate Room as she all but raced down the few remaining steps.
"Hi kids," Sheppard grinned. "Hope you don't mind, but we borrowed Timmy's cell to phone home."
The movement was automatic as she closed the distance between them, arms opening as she hugged Sheppard. "How--" she started, because the words died in her throat, because how they got there wasn't important, just that they were there at all. Pulling back from Sheppard, she wrapped her arms around Rodney, commotion and cry of surprised joy from behind her indicating the rest of the team had arrived.
"It's good to see you," she said, stepping back and making room for Teyla and Ronon.
"Believe me," Rodney replied. "It's good to be back. I've been dreaming about a shower for days."
"Smells like it," Ronon said, smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, tone taking away the sting of his words.
The four of them looked at each other for long moments, two of them dirty and scruffy and looking like nothing less than miracles.
And then Teyla moved.
Hands reaching out, she pulled John and Rodney towards her, forehead touching one and then the other before Ronon joined the circle, one hand on John's arm and fingers touching Rodney's cheek so quickly Elizabeth would have thought she'd imagined it if she hadn't been staring at them so intently.
And she knew word was spreading, could hear more people coming into the Gate Room. Lorne's voice was overlapping with Zelenka's, with both of them being outdone by Carson as question after question was fired at the prodigals.
"People!" Elizabeth held up a hand, waiting until the noise died down. "We all have questions, but I think it's best that they wait until Colonel Sheppard and Dr McKay have had a chance to clean up and get checked over."
Radek looked suitably chastised, reaching out to pat Rodney's arm. "Is good to have you back, Rodney," he said. "Maybe now the labs will not be so quiet. Also, there is much paperwork for you," he added with a sly smile.
"Whereas yours has all been cleared, sir," Lorne commented, prompting John to throw a smirk in Rodney's direction.
"Oh, that's just wonderful," Rodney complained. "We come back, heroically and miraculously, I might add, and all I'm greeted with is paperwork!"
Radek smiled, backing away from Rodney. "I shall go and spread the news of hero's return," he said. "There will be much celebrating."
Rodney glanced at the still smirking Sheppard. "You should spend more time with Lorne!" Rodney shouted at Radek's retreating form. "He might rub off on you!"
If Elizabeth hadn't been watching she would have missed the way Radek's steps faltered for a split second before he carried on walking, at the way Lorne's gaze slid away to the side for only a moment.
Well, that explained... quite a lot really.
She had the urge to reach out to Lorne, to tell him that he could trust her, that they could all trust her. But the moment was broken by Carson stepping forward, hands reaching out to touch Rodney's arm.
"Right, before anything else, I'll see you both in the infirmary," he said, his tone brooking no argument. "Whichever one's done first can brief Elizabeth."
Could tell her what happened, where'd they'd been. Because she hadn't realised how many questions she had until they'd been standing in front of her, safe and alive.
Sheppard glanced at McKay before he turned back to Carson. "Yeah, about that," he said, words careful. "There may be a slight issue with that."
~*~
"Aye, I can see where that could be a bit of a problem," Carson said, after they'd told him the whole story. Walking across the infirmary, he picked a scanner up off one of the shelves, switching it on as he headed back to them. "Stay still," he told them, running the scanner over John and then Rodney, looking down at it when it beeped.
"Well?" Elizabeth asked.
"There's definitely a low level signal coming from the implants that's different to the one we took out of Ronon," Carson answered.
"But can the Wraith track it back here?" Because even though she trusted both of these men with her life, trusted them not to endanger the city, she still needed to know.
Radek shook his head, fingers moving over the laptop balanced in his hands. "No, the shield is blocking the signal from getting out of the city." It was the first thing she'd asked Radek to check once John had mentioned the words Runner and tracker.
"But not from each other," Carson said. "There's still a connection between the two trackers." He showed Elizabeth the scanner. "They're working on exactly the same wavelength. It's quite fascinating, really."
"It would be more fascinating if it wasn't my brain we were talking about," Rodney snapped.
"How does it work?" Teyla asked. "What do you," she paused, thoughtfully, before finally settling on, "feel?"
"Sometimes it's words, sometimes it's thoughts or emotions," John answered. He glanced over at Rodney and smiled. "Sometimes, like now, it's just the knowledge that he'd kill for a really good cup of coffee."
"And you, Rodney? Is it the same for you?"
Rodney shook his head. "It seems to be less intense for me. Mainly emotions, some images."
"Which may mean it's linked to the gene in some way," Carson speculated. "Colonel Sheppard's stronger, natural gene may translate to a stronger connection on his side." He looked over at Ronon. "Have you ever heard of this happening to other Runners?"
"No," Ronon replied. "Course, not like I've met any," he added, shrugging.
Carson frowned at him. "Never?"
"Didn't look," Ronon explained. "Knew they were out there, but I had enough of my own troubles to deal with without borrowing others. Besides, it's not like we were carrying signs."
Although she'd wondered in passing, Elizabeth had never actually sat down and really thought about how lonely it must be to be a Runner, never stopping, never knowing if the people you were passing were in the same situation. She knew she would never have had the strength to Run, to fight, for seven years; wondered if John and Rodney would have coped.
"Right then," Carson's voice shook her out of her reverie, "let's get these little buggers out of you, shall we?"
~*~
The infirmary had all but emptied, Carson shooing out most of the people, telling them that he'd let Rodney and John out to play when he was finished with them.
Rodney had grumbled all the way into the gown, complaining that the local anaesthetic Carson used always made him feel like he'd knocked back an entire bottle of Jack Daniels, but without the pleasant bits first.
Carson had ignored him, leading Rodney into the operating room and telling John he'd be back out for him soon.
John just managed to stop himself from following them through the doors, ignoring the clenching in his stomach when Rodney disappeared from sight. He'd spent so long making sure that Rodney was there that it was harder than he'd thought finally watching him go.
Elizabeth's hand on his arm pulled him out of his thoughts and dragged his eyes away from the door he was still staring at. She'd pulled rank in order to stay in the infirmary, simply smiling at Carson when he'd sent everyone else out. "It's good to have you back, John."
John smiled at her. "It's good that you don't have to deal with Caldwell on a daily basis, you mean." Because Caldwell was a good commander, someone John would have protecting his back without hesitation, but Atlantis was nothing like commanding a ship, and John didn't think Caldwell understood that, at least not well enough to keep the city and the people in her, the people who relied on her, safe.
It had been obvious from the beginning, some people were Atlanteans and some people weren't. One wasn't better than the other, but John had become adept at telling at a glance which of the new recruits would head back after their time was up, eager to set foot back in the Milky Way, and which ones would request permanent transfers to Pegasus.
Elizabeth matched his smile. "Caldwell's not so bad, as long you know how to handle him."
The teasing reply about Elizabeth handling Caldwell died in his throat, consumed by the wave of pain that hit him.
There was pain and there was fire and there was someone screaming.
Hands pressed at his shoulders, and John thought he could hear his name, thought he could hear someone yelling for help, but it was all drowned out, all consumed by the one words screaming in his mind.
Rodney...
~*~
Carson's eyes were bloodshot when he finally came out of the infirmary, tiredness written in every line on his face.
"How are they?" Elizabeth asked, absently rubbing her arm where John had lashed out, where he'd tried to stop her from holding him down.
"Sedated," Carson replied. "And they'll be staying that way until morning, at least."
"Do we know what happened?" She looked at Radek.
"I've looked at the sensor data from the infirmary and there was a massive energy spike between the two trackers when Carson tried to remove Rodney's," Radek answered. "Problem is, we don't know if this is how the trackers were designed or if it is a side effect of the gene." He paused. "We have the tracker removed from Ronon for comparison, but we must remember that was implanted ten years ago."
"And the technology has, no doubt, moved on since then," Elizabeth sighed.
Radek nodded. "This may be function of the trackers, to stop them from being removed. So far we've found nothing to completely block the signal, but there is still much more of the Ancient database to search through."
Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly. If the Wraith tracker technology had moved on so much in just ten years, she wasn't sure if a 10,000 year old database would yield any answers.
"We will find something," Radek assured her. "It just may take a little time."
Elizabeth hoped he was right.
~*~
Elizabeth looked at them like she expected John to argue with her words, but he'd known this moment was coming since Carson's words back in the infirmary.
"I can't remove the implants."
It had been game over with those words. Even if the shield on Atlantis protected them, blocked any signal from leaving the city, they couldn't take the risk of going off-world, couldn't trust that the Wraith wouldn't be able to track them.
"Understood," he nodded. She'd had no choice, he would have done the same in her place. "I think I can deal with being in McKay's head for a little while longer. And at least it'll let me go over all of those reports Lorne finished when I was gone, make sure he hasn't put my name to anything that'll bite me in the ass." He smiled at her, glad to see some of the tension drain from her shoulders.
"And in between the reports you can help Simpson out with that box of unidentifiable Ancient tech," said Rodney. His eyes were bright and John had the flash of an image of him in lab three turning on everything Rodney put in front of him.
Elizabeth masked the smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, but not before John had seen it. "I've temporarily assigned you quarters next to each other in section 4D. Radek and Carson measured them earlier and, no matter where you are in them, you'll still be within the distance you need to be to each other. Carson would also like you to wear these." She held out two silver bracelets. "They'll monitor your vital signs, so he'll know instantly if anything does happen."
John took them off her, handing one to Rodney and snapping the other around his wrist. "Just what all the fashionable Lieutenant Colonels are wearing these days," he commented.
"It matches your eyes," Elizabeth quipped, before she met their gazes. "I'm sure it's only for a little while. It won't be for long. Carson'll figure out how to remove them."
John had little doubt about that. But until then, John had a totally valid excuse to stick to Rodney McKay like glue. And he was going to use it.
~*~
The first few days went by in a blur of infirmary visits and reports - even though Lorne had indeed cleared John's in-tray, there was still a never ending procession of paperwork associated with being the military commander of the SGC's only Pegasus base. John had taken over one of the desks in lab three, laptop in front of him, and felt constant gratitude towards the scientists, who had taken to refilling John's coffee every time they refilled Rodney's, which meant he'd yet to have an empty cup at any point during the day.
Rodney was taking full advantage of being in the labs and kept putting bits of Ancient technology under John's nose with the instruction to 'press this' and 'touch that' and 'turn this on.'
He'd become especially fond of that last request, and had started taking Rodney at his word, sending images and thoughts just to see how long it would be before Rodney cracked and ordered everyone else out of the lab so he could get his hands on John and do things that were still illegal in at least seven American states.
So far, the record was thirty-seven minutes.
Thirty-seven minutes of ignoring John's grin, flushing red and getting increasingly snippy at the other scientists until two of them had been in tears. This, considering one of them had been a 6'4 ex-rugby player called Hans, was something John wasn't likely to forget in a while.
It was Zelenka who had eventually snapped, telling everyone to take a break and hustling them out of the lab while simultaneously yelling at John and Rodney that he'd be back in thirty minutes and if the doors were still locked he was setting the lab's fire suppression system off.
"I can't believe you made Hans cry," John said, still watching the door long moments after it had closed.
"Oh, please, he'll be fine," Rodney replied. "All of these people were hand picked for this. As head of the Science Division I had ultimate say in which ones came and which ones didn't. You think I would have signed off on any of them if I thought all it took to break them was a few less than polite words from me?"
"Hand picked?"
"Every last one," confirmed Rodney
John paused. "So how do you explain Kavanagh?"
"I thought if we ever came across a planet where the natives practiced blood sacrifice he'd come in useful, and why are we talking about my scientists when we could be having sex?"
"I have no idea," John admitted, reaching out with his gene to lock the lab door, only to find that Zelenka had already obliged.
Rodney smirked as he stalked forward. "Now, I believe the last thing you sent me was an image of me right here," he said, stopping between John's legs
John couldn't remember. He'd sent a couple of various blow jobs around the lab, a few that involved either one of them spread across the benches, and he thought there was at least one that featured Ronon and Teyla as guest stars.
And then Rodney sank to his knees and John stopped thinking for quite some time.
~*~
When John Sheppard was eight years old he'd had an argument with his brother. This argument, as many such arguments between young brothers do, started with John declaring it would be relatively easy to climb on to the roof of the house without their father noticing and ended with the sudden realisation that the ground hurt.
John's abrupt meeting with concrete resulted in his leg being broken in two places, the nanny in tears after she got fired and his father banning him from leaving the house for three weeks. David, however, escaped with a stern telling off and the warning that the next time his idiot brother decided to do something so stupid he wasn't to damn well encourage him - although John was more than sure he wasn't meant to hear that part.
The eight-year old John had thought this was very unfair, seeing as the entire argument had been David's fault in the first place. This was also the time John discovered that being forced to stay in one place when he knew there was a big, wide world out there was torture. That a prison, no matter how large, was still a prison, and the one thing guaranteed to make John want to be out there was being told that he couldn't be.
~*~
It didn't really hit John until AR-2 missed a check in when they were on P2X-346. It was meant to be a quiet mission to a planet whose natives had traded with the Athosians in the past. But the check-in Lorne was meant to make came and went in a haze of silence.
When Elizabeth made the call to send another team after them, it was instinct for John to move, to call out to his team, words dying in his throat when Elizabeth placed a hand on his arm and shook her head.
"We can't risk it, John," she said, calling for Stackhouse's team to report to the Gateroom, for Teyla and Ronon to accompany them.
He stayed on the upper level, hand gripping the rail as he watched half of his team run through the pre-mission checks with Stackhouse instead of him. Stayed there after they'd gone through the Gate and the wormhole had winked out of existence. He stayed there and ignored the looks he could feel Elizabeth giving him, ignored the concern he felt coming from Rodney as the other man gave Zelenka more and more inconsequential things to do.
He stayed there right until the Stargate lit up and Chuck's voice rang through the Gate Room.
"It's AR-4's IDC."
"Drop the shield," Elizabeth ordered, coming to stand next to John. Her sigh of relief was palpable as ten people walked back through the Gate, Lorne's team looking tired and bedraggled and bitching about space pirates who'd thought it would be a good idea to raid a village for slaves, including the Atlantis team, right up until they'd had their asses kicked by six righteously indignant rescuers.
Lorne slapped Stackhouse on the back. "Good job back there."
"Well, sir, the Marines get to rescue you flyboys from trouble so many times that we're used to it by now," Stackhouse replied, the grin on his face taking any heat out of the words.
"Infirmary, Major," Elizabeth called. "We'll debrief later."
"Yes, ma'am." Lorne nodded to her as he waved away the stretcher two of the nurses had brought with them and limped off, aided by Stackhouse, in the direction of the infirmary, just as Rodney decided Zelenka had done enough for the day and should take a break.
John waited a little while longer, waited until both Teyla and Ronon looked up and signalled that they were okay, waited until the Gateroom had cleared before he moved, down the steps and into the corridor, not needing to check to know that Rodney was behind him.
The balcony was quiet when John reached it, door closing behind him and Rodney to shut out the sounds of the city, leaving them with just the ocean and the wind to contend with. His hands gripped the railing, knuckles turning white with the pressure, only easing up when Rodney's mind slid over his in a brush of warmthcomfort. Feeling something move over his fingers, he glanced down, shifting his hand slightly to let Rodney's little finger link with his on the rail.
"I never wanted to be down here," John explained. "Dad wanted me to follow him into the business. 'Sheppard and Sons' was something he'd always wanted, but me?" He glanced up, the bright blue almost taunting in its clarity. "I just wanted to be up there."
Rodney didn't say anything, but the touch against John's finger tightened.
"God, is this how Elizabeth feels every time we go through the Gate?" he wondered.
"Probably," Rodney replied. "But she stays here because that's what she does and we go through because that's what we do."
"Eloquent as ever, McKay," John commented.
Rodney glared at him. "You know what I mean."
And the thing was, John did. It still didn't make it any easier to watch half his team go through the Gate without him, to know that his people were in trouble on the other side and there was nothing he could do except see off the rescue party with a smile and a jaunty wave.
His hand massaged the back of his neck absently, fingertips almost feeling the tracker under his skin. Rodney had his people searching the Ancient database, but the information was 10,000 years out of date and the Wraith might have been hibernating, but the ones who had still been awake hadn't been stagnant.
"We'll get them out, John," Rodney promised, belief in his words pouring off him.
John didn't answer, just shifted closer to Rodney as the sun started to set.
~*~
In the end, the circle completed, as circles are wont to do, where it started: with the Wraith.
"Dr Weir, there's a hiveship entering the system," Chuck said.
"What?" Rodney swore as he jerked up from under the console he'd been fixing, the sound of flesh unexpectedly impacting on metal ringing through the air.
Elizabeth was unconcerned; she'd been half expecting this since she'd cast feelers into space the day after Carson admitted he had no idea how to remove the implants. "Are we being hailed?"
Chuck checked his console. "Yes, ma'am," he answered, surprise lacing his tone.
Elizabeth nodded. "Good. On screen."
"Elizabeth, what--" John trailed off as the screen resolved into a familiar face.
"Dr Weir," Todd grinned out of the screen, far too many teeth showing for Elizabeth's liking. "I understand you've been trying to find me."
~*~
The Marines had been ordered to wait outside the infirmary. It wasn't that John trusted Todd exactly, just that he trusted him enough to realise that making a move against them at this point would be really, really stupid.
After Elizabeth had told Todd what they needed, he'd cut the connection with a nod and landed in a dart on the north pier less than fifteen minutes later.
"Well?" Carson said, visibly uneasy at having a Wraith wandering around his infirmary. "Can you help?"
Todd put down the scalpel he'd been examining and turned to look at them. "Hmm? Oh, yes. They sound like basic duel trackers; relatively easy to deactivate if you have the right equipment. Tell me, though," he continued, "which of your stalwart warriors managed to get themselves captured? Not the Satedan, surely? Twice in one lifetime would just be careless."
John couldn't stop his eyes from sliding to Rodney, who was very carefully staring at the wall and running pi through his mind, before wrenching his gaze back. His hope that Todd had missed the by-play was dashed as the Wraith stared at him for long moments before laughing.
"I'd always hoped it would be me who ran you into the ground, Sheppard, but I'll take what amusement I can get."
"If you just came down to gloat, then I think it's best you leave," Elizabeth said sharply.
Todd held up a hand in capitulation, the human gesture looking wrong on him as the edges of his feeding slit rippled slightly. "I said I'd help, Dr Weir." He pulled a small black control out of his pocket. "Here," he said, throwing it to Beckett. "Run that over the trackers to deactivate them. You should be able to remove them without any problems after that."
"That's it?" Carson commented, looking down at the device he was holding.
"I can make it more complicated, if you so desire," Todd said
Carson shook his head. "No," he said quickly, before reverting back to the manners his mother had drilled into him as a child. "No, thank you. This is fine." He glanced at Elizabeth before looking back at Todd. "Will you be staying around while we do the removal?"
"Why would I?" Todd looked genuinely confused.
"To collect this." Carson waved the deactivation box in the air.
"Keep it," Todd said. "A gift for the," he paused, eyes sliding over John and Rodney, "amusement."
"That's very kind of you." Elizabeth said, words all but ground out and every line in her body screaming that she wanted Todd off Atlantis right now.
"It is entirely my pleasure, Dr Weir."
John wasn't sure if Todd was oblivious to Elizabeth's body language or just ignoring it, but he more than suspected it was the latter.
"Well," Todd continued, "not entirely my pleasure." He grinned lasciviously at Rodney and the movement was automatic as John stepped forward, all but blocking Rodney's body with his own. Todd stepped back, a faint smile playing on his lips. "It's been noted, when using the duel trackers, that the subjects seem to have one of two reactions to the forced closeness," he commented lightly. "I would have thought you'd have gone for killing him instead of fucking him, Sheppard, but since you're both still here I guess I'd have been wrong."
Rodney bristled for a second before his concern slid away from Todd and towards Elizabeth. John's gaze was already on her.
Elizabeth didn't take her eyes off Todd as she called the Marines in. "Sergeant Collins, please escort our guest back to the north pier and make sure he has no problems in leaving."
"Yes, ma'am," the Sergeant replied, only a look a faint disdain on his face as he and his men escorted Todd out of the infirmary.
The silence in the infirmary was broken by Carson coughing and shifting slightly. "Yes, well, I should go and check this." He motioned towards the Wraith device he was still holding before fleeing into his office.
"Elizabeth--" John started, but her hand raised, cutting him off.
"Relax, John, I'm well aware that only one set of those temp quarters is being used, even though you were assigned two."
"And you're okay with it?" Rodney asked, tone indicating he was ready to argue if she wasn't. Because this was the moment. This was the woman that had the power to decide if John stayed on Atlantis or moved in to a nice 6 by 6 in Leavenworth.
"Well, seeing as Colonel Sheppard still gets his paychecks signed by the USAF, I'd prefer it if you didn't hold hands in front of Caldwell, since I really don't have the time to break in a new military commander," she commented with a slight smile. "But it's not like you're the only same-sex couple in the city. You're not even the only ones who have to hide it." She paused, pinning Rodney with her gaze. "As well you know."
John let out the breath he'd been holding. In his head he knew that Elizabeth would support them. After all, everyone in the city was one of her people and he'd seen her defend them to hilt to the SGC, to the IOA, to anyone who had ever questioned them. But still, it was good to hear her actually say the words.
Rodney hmmph'ed. "Well, that's all right then."
Elizabeth shook her head fondly as she opened a radio channel. "Carson, you can come back in, now."
Carson appeared momentarily, gaze bouncing between all three of them. "Is it safe?" he asked.
Elizabeth smiled. "Perfectly."
"Right then," he clapped his hands together, mindful of the device he was holding. "I've checked this and it seems to do exactly what Todd said it would, so--" he turned to John and Rodney. "Are you ready to get those little buggers out of you?"
~*~
John sat on the infirmary bed, watching as Carson held the Wraith deactivation control over Rodney's neck.
"Are you ready?" he asked, waiting until Rodney nodded before he continued.
A small red light on the device flashed several times before finally blinking off.
"That's it," Carson said.
But John hadn't needed to hear the words, had known as soon as it happened that the link was gone. He looked at Rodney, unable to feel anything from him, no thoughts, no emotions, no touch in the back of his mind.
"Colonel?"
He opened eyes he hadn't even realised he'd closed to see Carson looking at him, concern etched on his face. "Are you all right, lad?"
"I'm fine," John answered, hoping the lie in his voice wasn't as apparent to everyone else. "Me next, right?"
"Aye, and then we can get those things popped right out of you." Carson replied, moving across to stand behind John. "Now, just relax; this won't hurt you a bit."
Problem was, it already had.
~*~
John was in his office going through some of the staff evaluations when it actually happened. The trackers had been out less than 24 hours and there was still some subtle itching at the back of his neck that Carson said would fade over the next day or so.
Lorne said something that brought Rodney to mind. And John had reached out. He hadn't thought about it and he'd reached out for Rodney. And found nothing--
He dropped the report onto his desk and stood up, ignoring Lorne's look of confusion. "We'll continue this tomorrow."
"Sir?" And Lorne was going to say something else. John could almost already hear it, the questions asking him if he was okay.
"Tomorrow, Major," he snapped, before closing his eyes and taking a breath. He looked back up. "Tomorrow, Lorne, okay?" His voice was softer, but the concern stayed on Lorne's face.
"Yes, sir." Lorne nodded once, and didn't say anything else as John left.
~*~
John's hand was on the jumper, smooth and soft under his touch. And it wouldn't be much to take her up, to take her skimming across the ocean. He glanced up at the bay doors, closed and blocking the light. All it would take to open them was a thought, to let the light rush in--
"John."
Rodney's voice was low, careful in a way it had never been with him before.
"Hey, Rodney."
"Lorne said you left in a hurry."
And he had obviously called Rodney as soon as John had left, although John wasn't sure if that said more about him or his XO.
I couldn't hear you, John wanted to say, but he couldn't get the words past the rock that seemed to have taken up residence in his throat.
"John?"
He heard the concern in Rodney's voice, but ignored it, keeping his hand on the jumper, keeping his eyes off Rodney.
There was a time when John would have thought the worst torture in the world would be to have Rodney McKay in his head, constant thought and movement and litany of ideas. He wasn't sure when that changed. Maybe it was the first time he looked out into a sky he couldn't go into and felt Rodney's mind slide over his in comfort. Maybe he'd just gotten used to the constant background hum of another person.
Although, he was pretty sure he'd been screwed from the first time he felt his thoughts caress Rodney's, chaotic and jumbled. Entropy in its purest form that felt like nothing less than home.
And he knew his career was fucked if the wrong people found out. He was involved with a male member of his team and it was making the body of the USAF roll over and shudder. If Caldwell ever wanted a reason to get John shipped back to Earth so quickly the entirety of Atlantis would spin, then all he had to do was take notice of the way John looked at Rodney. Because John felt himself doing it, even though he tried not to.
He felt his eyes slide over the soft curve of Rodney's ass every time he bent over, felt his gaze follow the careful swipe of Rodney's tongue when his lips were dry. And he felt the heat from the great big fucking neon sign that was parked in orbit above his head and screaming out in lurid green and explicit detail exactly what Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard wanted to do every time he was in the same room as Doctor Rodney McKay.
Maybe it was his own fault. He'd thought he could handle it. It wasn't anything but sex, a bit of fun. Hell, he'd half convinced himself it was only a side effect of whatever the Wraith did to them; that it meant nothing that he wanted to crawl inside Rodney's body and not come out.
So, yeah, not just sex. Not anymore. Maybe it never had been. And that was what terrified him.
After Michael, after Nancy, he'd resolved never to do that again. There was sex and there was fun, and that was it. Only, they were breaking so many rules already that one more didn't seem like much. Besides, he was John Sheppard and rules had never exactly been his thing.
Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Rodney, still standing there with concern, fear and annoyance written on his face.
"I think I'm in love with you."
The concern, fear and annoyance were hastily replaced by shock. And John thought that he'd really like it if Rodney replied now, but it was a voice coming from their earpieces that finally broke the silence.
"Weir to Sheppard and McKay. Lorne says you're still in the jumper bay. Is there any problem?" Elizabeth's voice came over the radio, and John could hear the unspoken words. 'You're still in the jumper bay. Has Sheppard gone batshit insane and need to be sedated by Beckett?'
There was a beat before Rodney answered. "No, no problem, Elizabeth. There's just an issue with one of the jumpers I need Colonel Sheppard's help with, I afraid we'll have to miss the briefing on the naked pygmies of MX4-278. McKay out."
Flicking off the radio, Rodney calmly closed the distance between the two of them, and smacked John on the arm.
"You idiot!" He started to pace, three steps one way before spinning and pacing back, arms waving in the air. "I had images of walking in here to find you having a mental breakdown and having to be strapped into a straightjacket by Carson while being fed pureed peas!"
"Okay, it's a little disturbing that this is the reaction you have to me telling you I love you," John replied, feeling more than a little put out.
Rodney stopped pacing and faced him. "You didn't know," he said eventually.
"Didn't know what?" John asked.
Rodney scrubbed a hand over his face briefly. "Sheppard, I know why you're afraid of clowns. And can I just say, totally justified with that one, by the way," he said, shuddering, before continuing. "I spent three nights dreaming of a helicopter going down in Afghanistan. I've never even been to Afghanistan." He paused. "John, you've been telling me you love me every time your mind touched mine."
He had? "Well. Um. Good," John said, suddenly understanding that Rodney had been saying exactly the same thing back without John even realising it. "Because I do, you know."
"Idiot," said Rodney again, leaning forward to capture John's lips with his, and this time John didn't have to be able to read his mind to know he meant I love you, too.
~*~
When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him a Runner. It didn't last for very long, certainly far less time than the Wraith had hoped, and it all ended happily.
Eventually.
The bad guys didn't get to kill the hero, no matter how much they'd wanted to. The hero didn't have a complete breakdown, although he admits it was a near thing. And, most importantly, the story of boy meets boy in a secret government facility that allowed people to travel to alien worlds played out to its logical conclusion.
Of course, to hear Rodney tell it, it's a slightly different story. One that was full of evading capture with nothing but his genius, finding an Ancient research lab that allowed him (and possibly Zelenka, but only when Rodney was feeling generous) to develop a means of building ZPMs, and generally making the kind of breakthroughs that would entitle him to a Nobel at least twice over. The boy meets boy part, though. That usually stayed the same no matter who's telling the story.
When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him and Rodney Runners because they wanted to track them back to Atlantis, they wanted to make them run for home. Somewhere along the line it went wrong. And yet somehow, it went perfectly the way it was meant to.
End.
Author: Claire
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard, Lorne/Zelenka implied
Rating: R
Summary: When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him a Runner.
Author's Notes: Written for the Home Team during mcshep_match 2008, with the prompt Weakest Link With massive thanks to wesleysgirl and mmmchelle, who did a fabulous beta, and any mistakes remaining are mine. And huge ::glomps:: and pom-pom waving to the Home Team, who were the most excellent cheerleading, researching, question-answering and all-round joyous team to be a part of *\o/*
A chain is no stronger than its weakest link, and life is after all a chain.
- William James
Link to part 1...
It was late in the day when the sound of running water reached them, the sunlight shining through the trees shot through with the red that seemed to herald the dusk on Carnava.
"Orvin mentioned a river running near the village, didn't he?"
John looked at Rodney, surprised that he'd taken in anything Orvin had said beyond the 'Why, yes of course you can have free and unlimited access to our previously unknown-about and apparently fully functional Ancient lab.'
"I do actually listen at times, you know," Rodney muttered, the unsubtle emanation of indignation coming from him causing John to bank down his thoughts and reply with a wry grin.
"Yes, he did," John answered. "But it's pretty unlikely this is going to be the same one." Even so, at least following it would make them feel less like they had just been wandering aimlessly, as well as giving them ongoing access to a water supply.
"Okay, that might be an issue."
John looked up as the treeline ended, understanding instantly what Rodney meant. No more forest? Check. River? Check? River apparently off the end of a cliff with no visible way down? Also check. John sighed.
"I don't think there's a way down." Rodney moved closer to the edge, peering over. "Not here, anyway."
John glanced one way and then the other. "If we carry on walking, there may be a way to get down further on."
"Which, knowing our luck, will be some sort of decrepit rope ladder covered in--" McKay stopped suddenly. "Do you hear that?" A soft rumbling underscored his words, getting louder with each heartbeat.
John's eyes locked with Rodney's, horrified realisation of why the treeline ended so closely to the cliff washing over him as the earth moved and trembled under their feet. "Don't move."
Rodney opened his mouth, snapping it shut as he glanced down, his already pale face flashing white as he picked up on what John was thinking. "John--"
And then the ground gave way beneath him and Rodney was gone.
"Rodney!" Diving forward, John reached out a hand, stretching and praying. Thanking whoever had been listening when his fingers grabbed Rodney's hand, John looked over the edge of the now collapsed ground.
"Don't you dare let me go," Rodney shouted, his spare hand frantically reaching up to John.
"I wasn't exactly planning on it," John snapped, looking down. He didn't know how far down it was to the river and rocks below, but it was obviously a damn sight more than the distance they could stay apart from each other. The earth was loose under him and his stomach clenched as he could feel it shifting against his weight. "McKay, there's a branch to your left, you're going to have to put your foot on it and boost yourself up." Because he wasn't strong enough to hold him for much longer, not with how unsteady the ground was.
Rodney looked at him, and John felt the panic in his mind.
"Rodney, trust me."
Rodney nodded, closing his eyes for a brief second, before his foot reached out for the branch. "Ready?"
John tightened his grip on Rodney's hand in response. "On three," he said, waiting for Rodney's nod before starting. "One, two, three-"
Rodney pushed himself up with the branch, the extra leverage giving John the ability to pull him back over the edge as the sound of the soil ripping further away and falling to impact on the rushing water below reached them.
They scrambled back as more loose earth tumbled from sight, not stopping until the trees surrounded them again and the ground felt secure beneath them And then they shuffled back some more for good measure.
His heart still racing, John looked at Rodney, pale and shaking and realising just how close he'd come to falling.
"You didn't let me go."
John wanted to snap something back, pithy and quick, but he could feel it, feel it coming from Rodney. A mixture of fear and relief and heat and it was pouring out of him every moment he looked at John.
"Rodney--"
And John didn't know which one of them moved first, didn't know which one of them reached out to the other. All he knew was that Rodney was under him, solid and there and alive.
His lips pressed against Rodney's as hands moved to their BDUs, fingers tangling in their hurry to free themselves.
Rodney got there first, hand reaching into John's BDUs, fingers wrapping around the hard cock and releasing it. The touch of Rodney's fingers on his dick made John falter, made him pause as he registered tight and hot and someone's grip on his cock that wasn't his own.
"John--" The whine and thrust of Rodney's hips into his hand brought John back, fingers finishing their task and finally, finally taking hold of Rodney's cock, thick and heavy and perfect in his hand. And even though they didn't do that, shouldn't do that, John wasn't about to stop.
They had danced around this for too long, edged around it since Rodney had first stepped forward and given John the key to opening the skies. Glances that lingered too long and touches that went beyond propriety were all masked by a botanist that had no chance and a reputation for chasing anything in a skirt. But this was what it was all leading to, Rodney beneath him with John's hand wrapped around both their cocks, jagged and sharp with the way eased only by pre-come.
"Come on, Rodney--" Because John wanted to feel it, that pulsing heat in the back of his mind that slid along his neurons every time Rodney moved, every time he gasped.
Rodney's fingers were tight on his arm, and John knew that there would be bruises there the next day, Rodney McKay's name written in colours across his skin.
John tightened his grip, hand moving faster as Rodney tensed beneath him, open and right and there.
And John's mind exploded, an ocean of colour and light and heat washing through him, carrying a single thought as he came.
Yes.
He didn't know whose thought it was.
~*~
When John Sheppard was seventeen, he fell in love. It was everything a first love should be - passionate, wild and completely unknown to either set of parents. They'd meet in secret and tell each other they'd love forever.
Like most teenagers, they believed they had the rest of their lives, that they could face whatever the world threw at them.
Five years later, John stood at the altar in his dress blues and listened to Nancy say her vows. She was a perfect bride - beautiful, caring, intelligent and she loved him.
She had tears in her eyes as he stood there and promised to love her, to cherish her, promised that she would be first beyond anything, and he had believed it as he'd said it.
Of course, he'd believed it when he'd told Michael the exact same thing years earlier.
It was strange how life worked out.
~*~
Trying to make their way back to the Stargate and wondering exactly when the Wraith were going to find them was a little too much like waiting for the other shoe to drop, so when they actually found the Wraith first, John discovered he was kind of relieved.
"What are they doing?" Rodney whispered, entirely unhappy that they were that close to a Wraith camp.
"I'm not sure," John admitted. He'd thought that they'd all be out looking for the two of them. After all, that was what Wraith did with Runners, track them. But, apart from the one John had christened Ringo back on the hiveship studying a scanning device, the Wraith didn't seem that concerned.
"We need to leave before they find us." The overhead whine of darts almost drowned out Rodney's words
Rodney was right. They had no weapons, no idea where on the planet they were, darts over their heads and six ground troops in front of them. Only-- John looked up, his eyes tracking the directions the darts were flying in before glancing back to the group of Wraith in the forest clearing.
"I have an idea."
Rodney followed his gaze back to the Wraith. "And I have a burning desire not to die today."
"Come on, Rodney, where's your sense of adventure?" They could do this, John knew they could.
"Back on Atlantis, right next to your sense of sanity," Rodney snapped.
John reached out and wrapped his fingers around Rodney's wrist, sparks dancing through him at the shudder of heat that ran through his mind. "We need to get back."
Rodney's eyes closed briefly before he opened them again, pinning John with his gaze. "Fine, but if I die I'm haunting your ass across every planet you set foot on."
John just grinned.
~*~
It turned out that the hardest part of the plan was actually making sure they stayed close enough together to stop their brains from splintering in agony while still making it look like Rodney was completely alone.
"And I have to be the bait why?"
John wasn't sure if the drone who reached them first wasn't supposed to check in when he found something or was just too eager to impress, but he didn't care either way. A large branch judiciously smacked into the back of the drone's head as he was advancing on Rodney worked to stagger it enough for Rodney to wrestle the stunner it was carrying out of its hands.
A stunner set to its highest level and one dead Wraith later and they were armed and ready. John hefted the stunner in his arms; it wasn't as good as a P-90, but it would do for what he wanted. And what he wanted was to cause some damage, because John Sheppard was fucking sick of being the hunted.
The thing about Wraith, John had found over the several times he'd been far too close to one, was that they were arrogant shits who thought themselves invulnerable. Which meant, when they were tracking two guys who were meant to be running for their lives, the last thing they expected was one of the said supposedly terrified guys to jump out from behind a tree, screaming and firing a stunner at them.
And since John wasn't one to let a winning strategy go, he and Rodney (sporting his own stunner by this point) did it again and again until only Ringo was left.
"I can't believe that worked," Rodney said, staring at his stunner in bemused surprise.
A slow clapping coming from behind them cut off John's reply and they turned to see Ringo watching them.
"This is how you humans show appreciation, yes?" Ringo stopped clapping and stared at them. "Strong and resourceful. Such a shame you were born meat." His eyes raked over Rodney.
John's fingers tightened on the stunner, meeting Rodney's incipient panic with calm. Because this, this was what John did. He didn't run and hide, he stood and fought, and there was something visceral about facing Ringo, the Wraith's fingers wrapped around the small blaster at his side.
This was what it came down to, who was quicker, who had the most to lose.
John felt Rodney's mind brush across his, quick and cutting and solid.
In the end there was no doubt. No doubt as they both fired. No doubt as one of them fell.
Ringo stared at John, eyes glazed as blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, dark and viscous. "There will be darts coming." Voice rough and painful as he lay on the forest floor, blood seeping into the soil.
"I'm counting on it," John said, as he fired again.
~*~
They'd been surprisingly close to the edge of the forest, trees giving way to lush green shot through with colour as various plants grew wild and unchecked.
They found a place to sit and waited, John amusing himself by thinking about various images and watching Rodney flush as he picked up on them.
"I'm holding you to that one!" Rodney finally snapped after a particularly adventurous one involving the two of them and Elizabeth's desk.
John's agreement was cut off by the tension suddenly coming from Rodney, as he sat straighter, staring into the sky.
"John--"
But John could already the whine in the air above them that signalled the appearance of a dart coming closer.
Squinting into the sunlight, John pinpointed the small ship, slowing and angling down to land.
Bracing himself on his knees and ignoring the snort of amusement and brief mental image of him on his knees for an entirely different reason coming from Rodney, John lifted the stunner, balancing it on his shoulder and waiting until the dart got closer.
Relying on good aim, luck and several prayers to a god he hadn't really believed in since Afghanistan, John fired the stunner, grinning when it hit the dart dead on and the ship started to fall--
Right towards him.
He dropped the stunner and started running, feeling Rodney close behind him as they both dove to the ground, arms over their heads against the heat they could feel brushing over their backs.
Cursing the rotten sense of humour of a deity who must have heard him and decided to not let him off so easily, John breathed a sigh of relief when the dart shot by them before crashing into the ground. Rodney had accepted being turned into a Runner and stuck on an alien planet with a surprising lack of complaining, but John adding probable fiery death from the sky to the mix was probably pushing it a little too far.
"That wasn't the plan!" Rodney slapped John's arm, fingers gripping his jacket as John just grinned.
"Got it down, didn't it." Bending down to scoop up the stunner, John jogged over to the dart. The hatch was open and the pilot slumped over, half in and half out of his seat, having very obviously not survived the crash.
Rodney started to look over the dart as John removed the pilot. "You know, for having been shot out of the sky and crashed, it's not in too bad a condition," he remarked.
"Does that mean you can get it airborne?" John asked. Because if he couldn't then the whole plan had been for nothing.
Rodney just looked at him. "Hello, genius," Rodney pointed out, motioning to himself. "If anyone can, I can."
And the waves of certainty emanating from Rodney made John smile.
~*~
"You know, this part's a lot easier with tools and without the running commentary," Rodney griped, his ass hanging out of the dart as he worked.
"Come on, McKay, you're a genius, remember. You saying you can't do it?" John tore his eyes away from Rodney's ass and back towards the sky, scanning for any more darts.
"I didn't say I couldn't do it, I just said it was easier without the comments." There was muttered cursing for long moments and then, "Ha! Got it!"
John turned in time to see Rodney wiggling out of the dart and jumping back to the ground.
"Well, I wouldn't recommend taking her out of the atmosphere, but we have what should be a working dart."
"And the buffer?" John asked, because darts were only built for one which meant if both of them were going, and they were, then one of them was going in the Wraith equivalent of the trunk.
"Up and running," Rodney replied. "And empty." Which meant that either the dart hadn't been involved in the culling or, more likely, it had already long since dropped its victims off on the hiveship.
Boosting himself up and into the dart, John settled into the pilot's seat. "You ready?"
"I hate this bit," Rodney said, like there was someone out there who enjoyed having their molecules broken down and stored in a pattern buffer. Although, considering the other stuff they'd seen during their time in Pegasus, John supposed it wasn't entirely outside the realm of possibility.
Taking a deep breath, John placed his hands on the controls, failing to suppress a shudder when the canopy closed, sealing him inside. The ship quivered as it left the ground, steadying slightly as it responded to John's touch. The screen in front of him showed a solitary blinking red dot and his hand moved to activate the culling beam, only faltering momentarily before he pressed the button and the dot disappeared.
Triggering more of the systems to come online, a map of the planet appeared in perfect 3D resolution, pinpointing the location of the Stargate with a beautiful green dot.
John smiled.
Next stop: home.
~*~
Elizabeth watched as the seventh chevron locked into place, the soft, rippling shield over the Gate stopping anyone from using the unauthorised activation to enter Atlantis. "Chuck?"
Chuck's fingers skimmed the console before he finally nodded. "We're receiving an IDC. It matches the one we gave to Naorans."
"Lower the shield," she said, already moving towards the steps. Lieutenant Stevens and the rest of the Marines around the Gate had already taken up positions, ready in case whoever came through the Gate wasn't who they were expecting. They'd learned the hard way that the IDCs were too easily wrested out of the control of the people they'd originally given them to. But Elizabeth wasn't about to stop giving their allies a way of contacting them, no matter what had been suggested by the SGC, no matter what the reports said.
Whether they liked it or not, whether they'd planned it or not, Atlantis was now one of the main things standing between the Wraith and the rest of Pegasus. Elizabeth wasn't going to offer that partial protection only to withdraw it when it became uncomfortable.
She'd been so wrapped up in her own thoughts that it took her a moment to realise the people who stepped through the Gate weren't any of the Naora. Took her a moment to react, to call Ronon and Teyla to the Gate Room as she all but raced down the few remaining steps.
"Hi kids," Sheppard grinned. "Hope you don't mind, but we borrowed Timmy's cell to phone home."
The movement was automatic as she closed the distance between them, arms opening as she hugged Sheppard. "How--" she started, because the words died in her throat, because how they got there wasn't important, just that they were there at all. Pulling back from Sheppard, she wrapped her arms around Rodney, commotion and cry of surprised joy from behind her indicating the rest of the team had arrived.
"It's good to see you," she said, stepping back and making room for Teyla and Ronon.
"Believe me," Rodney replied. "It's good to be back. I've been dreaming about a shower for days."
"Smells like it," Ronon said, smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, tone taking away the sting of his words.
The four of them looked at each other for long moments, two of them dirty and scruffy and looking like nothing less than miracles.
And then Teyla moved.
Hands reaching out, she pulled John and Rodney towards her, forehead touching one and then the other before Ronon joined the circle, one hand on John's arm and fingers touching Rodney's cheek so quickly Elizabeth would have thought she'd imagined it if she hadn't been staring at them so intently.
And she knew word was spreading, could hear more people coming into the Gate Room. Lorne's voice was overlapping with Zelenka's, with both of them being outdone by Carson as question after question was fired at the prodigals.
"People!" Elizabeth held up a hand, waiting until the noise died down. "We all have questions, but I think it's best that they wait until Colonel Sheppard and Dr McKay have had a chance to clean up and get checked over."
Radek looked suitably chastised, reaching out to pat Rodney's arm. "Is good to have you back, Rodney," he said. "Maybe now the labs will not be so quiet. Also, there is much paperwork for you," he added with a sly smile.
"Whereas yours has all been cleared, sir," Lorne commented, prompting John to throw a smirk in Rodney's direction.
"Oh, that's just wonderful," Rodney complained. "We come back, heroically and miraculously, I might add, and all I'm greeted with is paperwork!"
Radek smiled, backing away from Rodney. "I shall go and spread the news of hero's return," he said. "There will be much celebrating."
Rodney glanced at the still smirking Sheppard. "You should spend more time with Lorne!" Rodney shouted at Radek's retreating form. "He might rub off on you!"
If Elizabeth hadn't been watching she would have missed the way Radek's steps faltered for a split second before he carried on walking, at the way Lorne's gaze slid away to the side for only a moment.
Well, that explained... quite a lot really.
She had the urge to reach out to Lorne, to tell him that he could trust her, that they could all trust her. But the moment was broken by Carson stepping forward, hands reaching out to touch Rodney's arm.
"Right, before anything else, I'll see you both in the infirmary," he said, his tone brooking no argument. "Whichever one's done first can brief Elizabeth."
Could tell her what happened, where'd they'd been. Because she hadn't realised how many questions she had until they'd been standing in front of her, safe and alive.
Sheppard glanced at McKay before he turned back to Carson. "Yeah, about that," he said, words careful. "There may be a slight issue with that."
~*~
"Aye, I can see where that could be a bit of a problem," Carson said, after they'd told him the whole story. Walking across the infirmary, he picked a scanner up off one of the shelves, switching it on as he headed back to them. "Stay still," he told them, running the scanner over John and then Rodney, looking down at it when it beeped.
"Well?" Elizabeth asked.
"There's definitely a low level signal coming from the implants that's different to the one we took out of Ronon," Carson answered.
"But can the Wraith track it back here?" Because even though she trusted both of these men with her life, trusted them not to endanger the city, she still needed to know.
Radek shook his head, fingers moving over the laptop balanced in his hands. "No, the shield is blocking the signal from getting out of the city." It was the first thing she'd asked Radek to check once John had mentioned the words Runner and tracker.
"But not from each other," Carson said. "There's still a connection between the two trackers." He showed Elizabeth the scanner. "They're working on exactly the same wavelength. It's quite fascinating, really."
"It would be more fascinating if it wasn't my brain we were talking about," Rodney snapped.
"How does it work?" Teyla asked. "What do you," she paused, thoughtfully, before finally settling on, "feel?"
"Sometimes it's words, sometimes it's thoughts or emotions," John answered. He glanced over at Rodney and smiled. "Sometimes, like now, it's just the knowledge that he'd kill for a really good cup of coffee."
"And you, Rodney? Is it the same for you?"
Rodney shook his head. "It seems to be less intense for me. Mainly emotions, some images."
"Which may mean it's linked to the gene in some way," Carson speculated. "Colonel Sheppard's stronger, natural gene may translate to a stronger connection on his side." He looked over at Ronon. "Have you ever heard of this happening to other Runners?"
"No," Ronon replied. "Course, not like I've met any," he added, shrugging.
Carson frowned at him. "Never?"
"Didn't look," Ronon explained. "Knew they were out there, but I had enough of my own troubles to deal with without borrowing others. Besides, it's not like we were carrying signs."
Although she'd wondered in passing, Elizabeth had never actually sat down and really thought about how lonely it must be to be a Runner, never stopping, never knowing if the people you were passing were in the same situation. She knew she would never have had the strength to Run, to fight, for seven years; wondered if John and Rodney would have coped.
"Right then," Carson's voice shook her out of her reverie, "let's get these little buggers out of you, shall we?"
~*~
The infirmary had all but emptied, Carson shooing out most of the people, telling them that he'd let Rodney and John out to play when he was finished with them.
Rodney had grumbled all the way into the gown, complaining that the local anaesthetic Carson used always made him feel like he'd knocked back an entire bottle of Jack Daniels, but without the pleasant bits first.
Carson had ignored him, leading Rodney into the operating room and telling John he'd be back out for him soon.
John just managed to stop himself from following them through the doors, ignoring the clenching in his stomach when Rodney disappeared from sight. He'd spent so long making sure that Rodney was there that it was harder than he'd thought finally watching him go.
Elizabeth's hand on his arm pulled him out of his thoughts and dragged his eyes away from the door he was still staring at. She'd pulled rank in order to stay in the infirmary, simply smiling at Carson when he'd sent everyone else out. "It's good to have you back, John."
John smiled at her. "It's good that you don't have to deal with Caldwell on a daily basis, you mean." Because Caldwell was a good commander, someone John would have protecting his back without hesitation, but Atlantis was nothing like commanding a ship, and John didn't think Caldwell understood that, at least not well enough to keep the city and the people in her, the people who relied on her, safe.
It had been obvious from the beginning, some people were Atlanteans and some people weren't. One wasn't better than the other, but John had become adept at telling at a glance which of the new recruits would head back after their time was up, eager to set foot back in the Milky Way, and which ones would request permanent transfers to Pegasus.
Elizabeth matched his smile. "Caldwell's not so bad, as long you know how to handle him."
The teasing reply about Elizabeth handling Caldwell died in his throat, consumed by the wave of pain that hit him.
There was pain and there was fire and there was someone screaming.
Hands pressed at his shoulders, and John thought he could hear his name, thought he could hear someone yelling for help, but it was all drowned out, all consumed by the one words screaming in his mind.
Rodney...
~*~
Carson's eyes were bloodshot when he finally came out of the infirmary, tiredness written in every line on his face.
"How are they?" Elizabeth asked, absently rubbing her arm where John had lashed out, where he'd tried to stop her from holding him down.
"Sedated," Carson replied. "And they'll be staying that way until morning, at least."
"Do we know what happened?" She looked at Radek.
"I've looked at the sensor data from the infirmary and there was a massive energy spike between the two trackers when Carson tried to remove Rodney's," Radek answered. "Problem is, we don't know if this is how the trackers were designed or if it is a side effect of the gene." He paused. "We have the tracker removed from Ronon for comparison, but we must remember that was implanted ten years ago."
"And the technology has, no doubt, moved on since then," Elizabeth sighed.
Radek nodded. "This may be function of the trackers, to stop them from being removed. So far we've found nothing to completely block the signal, but there is still much more of the Ancient database to search through."
Elizabeth closed her eyes briefly. If the Wraith tracker technology had moved on so much in just ten years, she wasn't sure if a 10,000 year old database would yield any answers.
"We will find something," Radek assured her. "It just may take a little time."
Elizabeth hoped he was right.
~*~
Elizabeth looked at them like she expected John to argue with her words, but he'd known this moment was coming since Carson's words back in the infirmary.
"I can't remove the implants."
It had been game over with those words. Even if the shield on Atlantis protected them, blocked any signal from leaving the city, they couldn't take the risk of going off-world, couldn't trust that the Wraith wouldn't be able to track them.
"Understood," he nodded. She'd had no choice, he would have done the same in her place. "I think I can deal with being in McKay's head for a little while longer. And at least it'll let me go over all of those reports Lorne finished when I was gone, make sure he hasn't put my name to anything that'll bite me in the ass." He smiled at her, glad to see some of the tension drain from her shoulders.
"And in between the reports you can help Simpson out with that box of unidentifiable Ancient tech," said Rodney. His eyes were bright and John had the flash of an image of him in lab three turning on everything Rodney put in front of him.
Elizabeth masked the smirk tugging at the corner of her lips, but not before John had seen it. "I've temporarily assigned you quarters next to each other in section 4D. Radek and Carson measured them earlier and, no matter where you are in them, you'll still be within the distance you need to be to each other. Carson would also like you to wear these." She held out two silver bracelets. "They'll monitor your vital signs, so he'll know instantly if anything does happen."
John took them off her, handing one to Rodney and snapping the other around his wrist. "Just what all the fashionable Lieutenant Colonels are wearing these days," he commented.
"It matches your eyes," Elizabeth quipped, before she met their gazes. "I'm sure it's only for a little while. It won't be for long. Carson'll figure out how to remove them."
John had little doubt about that. But until then, John had a totally valid excuse to stick to Rodney McKay like glue. And he was going to use it.
~*~
The first few days went by in a blur of infirmary visits and reports - even though Lorne had indeed cleared John's in-tray, there was still a never ending procession of paperwork associated with being the military commander of the SGC's only Pegasus base. John had taken over one of the desks in lab three, laptop in front of him, and felt constant gratitude towards the scientists, who had taken to refilling John's coffee every time they refilled Rodney's, which meant he'd yet to have an empty cup at any point during the day.
Rodney was taking full advantage of being in the labs and kept putting bits of Ancient technology under John's nose with the instruction to 'press this' and 'touch that' and 'turn this on.'
He'd become especially fond of that last request, and had started taking Rodney at his word, sending images and thoughts just to see how long it would be before Rodney cracked and ordered everyone else out of the lab so he could get his hands on John and do things that were still illegal in at least seven American states.
So far, the record was thirty-seven minutes.
Thirty-seven minutes of ignoring John's grin, flushing red and getting increasingly snippy at the other scientists until two of them had been in tears. This, considering one of them had been a 6'4 ex-rugby player called Hans, was something John wasn't likely to forget in a while.
It was Zelenka who had eventually snapped, telling everyone to take a break and hustling them out of the lab while simultaneously yelling at John and Rodney that he'd be back in thirty minutes and if the doors were still locked he was setting the lab's fire suppression system off.
"I can't believe you made Hans cry," John said, still watching the door long moments after it had closed.
"Oh, please, he'll be fine," Rodney replied. "All of these people were hand picked for this. As head of the Science Division I had ultimate say in which ones came and which ones didn't. You think I would have signed off on any of them if I thought all it took to break them was a few less than polite words from me?"
"Hand picked?"
"Every last one," confirmed Rodney
John paused. "So how do you explain Kavanagh?"
"I thought if we ever came across a planet where the natives practiced blood sacrifice he'd come in useful, and why are we talking about my scientists when we could be having sex?"
"I have no idea," John admitted, reaching out with his gene to lock the lab door, only to find that Zelenka had already obliged.
Rodney smirked as he stalked forward. "Now, I believe the last thing you sent me was an image of me right here," he said, stopping between John's legs
John couldn't remember. He'd sent a couple of various blow jobs around the lab, a few that involved either one of them spread across the benches, and he thought there was at least one that featured Ronon and Teyla as guest stars.
And then Rodney sank to his knees and John stopped thinking for quite some time.
~*~
When John Sheppard was eight years old he'd had an argument with his brother. This argument, as many such arguments between young brothers do, started with John declaring it would be relatively easy to climb on to the roof of the house without their father noticing and ended with the sudden realisation that the ground hurt.
John's abrupt meeting with concrete resulted in his leg being broken in two places, the nanny in tears after she got fired and his father banning him from leaving the house for three weeks. David, however, escaped with a stern telling off and the warning that the next time his idiot brother decided to do something so stupid he wasn't to damn well encourage him - although John was more than sure he wasn't meant to hear that part.
The eight-year old John had thought this was very unfair, seeing as the entire argument had been David's fault in the first place. This was also the time John discovered that being forced to stay in one place when he knew there was a big, wide world out there was torture. That a prison, no matter how large, was still a prison, and the one thing guaranteed to make John want to be out there was being told that he couldn't be.
~*~
It didn't really hit John until AR-2 missed a check in when they were on P2X-346. It was meant to be a quiet mission to a planet whose natives had traded with the Athosians in the past. But the check-in Lorne was meant to make came and went in a haze of silence.
When Elizabeth made the call to send another team after them, it was instinct for John to move, to call out to his team, words dying in his throat when Elizabeth placed a hand on his arm and shook her head.
"We can't risk it, John," she said, calling for Stackhouse's team to report to the Gateroom, for Teyla and Ronon to accompany them.
He stayed on the upper level, hand gripping the rail as he watched half of his team run through the pre-mission checks with Stackhouse instead of him. Stayed there after they'd gone through the Gate and the wormhole had winked out of existence. He stayed there and ignored the looks he could feel Elizabeth giving him, ignored the concern he felt coming from Rodney as the other man gave Zelenka more and more inconsequential things to do.
He stayed there right until the Stargate lit up and Chuck's voice rang through the Gate Room.
"It's AR-4's IDC."
"Drop the shield," Elizabeth ordered, coming to stand next to John. Her sigh of relief was palpable as ten people walked back through the Gate, Lorne's team looking tired and bedraggled and bitching about space pirates who'd thought it would be a good idea to raid a village for slaves, including the Atlantis team, right up until they'd had their asses kicked by six righteously indignant rescuers.
Lorne slapped Stackhouse on the back. "Good job back there."
"Well, sir, the Marines get to rescue you flyboys from trouble so many times that we're used to it by now," Stackhouse replied, the grin on his face taking any heat out of the words.
"Infirmary, Major," Elizabeth called. "We'll debrief later."
"Yes, ma'am." Lorne nodded to her as he waved away the stretcher two of the nurses had brought with them and limped off, aided by Stackhouse, in the direction of the infirmary, just as Rodney decided Zelenka had done enough for the day and should take a break.
John waited a little while longer, waited until both Teyla and Ronon looked up and signalled that they were okay, waited until the Gateroom had cleared before he moved, down the steps and into the corridor, not needing to check to know that Rodney was behind him.
The balcony was quiet when John reached it, door closing behind him and Rodney to shut out the sounds of the city, leaving them with just the ocean and the wind to contend with. His hands gripped the railing, knuckles turning white with the pressure, only easing up when Rodney's mind slid over his in a brush of warmthcomfort. Feeling something move over his fingers, he glanced down, shifting his hand slightly to let Rodney's little finger link with his on the rail.
"I never wanted to be down here," John explained. "Dad wanted me to follow him into the business. 'Sheppard and Sons' was something he'd always wanted, but me?" He glanced up, the bright blue almost taunting in its clarity. "I just wanted to be up there."
Rodney didn't say anything, but the touch against John's finger tightened.
"God, is this how Elizabeth feels every time we go through the Gate?" he wondered.
"Probably," Rodney replied. "But she stays here because that's what she does and we go through because that's what we do."
"Eloquent as ever, McKay," John commented.
Rodney glared at him. "You know what I mean."
And the thing was, John did. It still didn't make it any easier to watch half his team go through the Gate without him, to know that his people were in trouble on the other side and there was nothing he could do except see off the rescue party with a smile and a jaunty wave.
His hand massaged the back of his neck absently, fingertips almost feeling the tracker under his skin. Rodney had his people searching the Ancient database, but the information was 10,000 years out of date and the Wraith might have been hibernating, but the ones who had still been awake hadn't been stagnant.
"We'll get them out, John," Rodney promised, belief in his words pouring off him.
John didn't answer, just shifted closer to Rodney as the sun started to set.
~*~
In the end, the circle completed, as circles are wont to do, where it started: with the Wraith.
"Dr Weir, there's a hiveship entering the system," Chuck said.
"What?" Rodney swore as he jerked up from under the console he'd been fixing, the sound of flesh unexpectedly impacting on metal ringing through the air.
Elizabeth was unconcerned; she'd been half expecting this since she'd cast feelers into space the day after Carson admitted he had no idea how to remove the implants. "Are we being hailed?"
Chuck checked his console. "Yes, ma'am," he answered, surprise lacing his tone.
Elizabeth nodded. "Good. On screen."
"Elizabeth, what--" John trailed off as the screen resolved into a familiar face.
"Dr Weir," Todd grinned out of the screen, far too many teeth showing for Elizabeth's liking. "I understand you've been trying to find me."
~*~
The Marines had been ordered to wait outside the infirmary. It wasn't that John trusted Todd exactly, just that he trusted him enough to realise that making a move against them at this point would be really, really stupid.
After Elizabeth had told Todd what they needed, he'd cut the connection with a nod and landed in a dart on the north pier less than fifteen minutes later.
"Well?" Carson said, visibly uneasy at having a Wraith wandering around his infirmary. "Can you help?"
Todd put down the scalpel he'd been examining and turned to look at them. "Hmm? Oh, yes. They sound like basic duel trackers; relatively easy to deactivate if you have the right equipment. Tell me, though," he continued, "which of your stalwart warriors managed to get themselves captured? Not the Satedan, surely? Twice in one lifetime would just be careless."
John couldn't stop his eyes from sliding to Rodney, who was very carefully staring at the wall and running pi through his mind, before wrenching his gaze back. His hope that Todd had missed the by-play was dashed as the Wraith stared at him for long moments before laughing.
"I'd always hoped it would be me who ran you into the ground, Sheppard, but I'll take what amusement I can get."
"If you just came down to gloat, then I think it's best you leave," Elizabeth said sharply.
Todd held up a hand in capitulation, the human gesture looking wrong on him as the edges of his feeding slit rippled slightly. "I said I'd help, Dr Weir." He pulled a small black control out of his pocket. "Here," he said, throwing it to Beckett. "Run that over the trackers to deactivate them. You should be able to remove them without any problems after that."
"That's it?" Carson commented, looking down at the device he was holding.
"I can make it more complicated, if you so desire," Todd said
Carson shook his head. "No," he said quickly, before reverting back to the manners his mother had drilled into him as a child. "No, thank you. This is fine." He glanced at Elizabeth before looking back at Todd. "Will you be staying around while we do the removal?"
"Why would I?" Todd looked genuinely confused.
"To collect this." Carson waved the deactivation box in the air.
"Keep it," Todd said. "A gift for the," he paused, eyes sliding over John and Rodney, "amusement."
"That's very kind of you." Elizabeth said, words all but ground out and every line in her body screaming that she wanted Todd off Atlantis right now.
"It is entirely my pleasure, Dr Weir."
John wasn't sure if Todd was oblivious to Elizabeth's body language or just ignoring it, but he more than suspected it was the latter.
"Well," Todd continued, "not entirely my pleasure." He grinned lasciviously at Rodney and the movement was automatic as John stepped forward, all but blocking Rodney's body with his own. Todd stepped back, a faint smile playing on his lips. "It's been noted, when using the duel trackers, that the subjects seem to have one of two reactions to the forced closeness," he commented lightly. "I would have thought you'd have gone for killing him instead of fucking him, Sheppard, but since you're both still here I guess I'd have been wrong."
Rodney bristled for a second before his concern slid away from Todd and towards Elizabeth. John's gaze was already on her.
Elizabeth didn't take her eyes off Todd as she called the Marines in. "Sergeant Collins, please escort our guest back to the north pier and make sure he has no problems in leaving."
"Yes, ma'am," the Sergeant replied, only a look a faint disdain on his face as he and his men escorted Todd out of the infirmary.
The silence in the infirmary was broken by Carson coughing and shifting slightly. "Yes, well, I should go and check this." He motioned towards the Wraith device he was still holding before fleeing into his office.
"Elizabeth--" John started, but her hand raised, cutting him off.
"Relax, John, I'm well aware that only one set of those temp quarters is being used, even though you were assigned two."
"And you're okay with it?" Rodney asked, tone indicating he was ready to argue if she wasn't. Because this was the moment. This was the woman that had the power to decide if John stayed on Atlantis or moved in to a nice 6 by 6 in Leavenworth.
"Well, seeing as Colonel Sheppard still gets his paychecks signed by the USAF, I'd prefer it if you didn't hold hands in front of Caldwell, since I really don't have the time to break in a new military commander," she commented with a slight smile. "But it's not like you're the only same-sex couple in the city. You're not even the only ones who have to hide it." She paused, pinning Rodney with her gaze. "As well you know."
John let out the breath he'd been holding. In his head he knew that Elizabeth would support them. After all, everyone in the city was one of her people and he'd seen her defend them to hilt to the SGC, to the IOA, to anyone who had ever questioned them. But still, it was good to hear her actually say the words.
Rodney hmmph'ed. "Well, that's all right then."
Elizabeth shook her head fondly as she opened a radio channel. "Carson, you can come back in, now."
Carson appeared momentarily, gaze bouncing between all three of them. "Is it safe?" he asked.
Elizabeth smiled. "Perfectly."
"Right then," he clapped his hands together, mindful of the device he was holding. "I've checked this and it seems to do exactly what Todd said it would, so--" he turned to John and Rodney. "Are you ready to get those little buggers out of you?"
~*~
John sat on the infirmary bed, watching as Carson held the Wraith deactivation control over Rodney's neck.
"Are you ready?" he asked, waiting until Rodney nodded before he continued.
A small red light on the device flashed several times before finally blinking off.
"That's it," Carson said.
But John hadn't needed to hear the words, had known as soon as it happened that the link was gone. He looked at Rodney, unable to feel anything from him, no thoughts, no emotions, no touch in the back of his mind.
"Colonel?"
He opened eyes he hadn't even realised he'd closed to see Carson looking at him, concern etched on his face. "Are you all right, lad?"
"I'm fine," John answered, hoping the lie in his voice wasn't as apparent to everyone else. "Me next, right?"
"Aye, and then we can get those things popped right out of you." Carson replied, moving across to stand behind John. "Now, just relax; this won't hurt you a bit."
Problem was, it already had.
~*~
John was in his office going through some of the staff evaluations when it actually happened. The trackers had been out less than 24 hours and there was still some subtle itching at the back of his neck that Carson said would fade over the next day or so.
Lorne said something that brought Rodney to mind. And John had reached out. He hadn't thought about it and he'd reached out for Rodney. And found nothing--
He dropped the report onto his desk and stood up, ignoring Lorne's look of confusion. "We'll continue this tomorrow."
"Sir?" And Lorne was going to say something else. John could almost already hear it, the questions asking him if he was okay.
"Tomorrow, Major," he snapped, before closing his eyes and taking a breath. He looked back up. "Tomorrow, Lorne, okay?" His voice was softer, but the concern stayed on Lorne's face.
"Yes, sir." Lorne nodded once, and didn't say anything else as John left.
~*~
John's hand was on the jumper, smooth and soft under his touch. And it wouldn't be much to take her up, to take her skimming across the ocean. He glanced up at the bay doors, closed and blocking the light. All it would take to open them was a thought, to let the light rush in--
"John."
Rodney's voice was low, careful in a way it had never been with him before.
"Hey, Rodney."
"Lorne said you left in a hurry."
And he had obviously called Rodney as soon as John had left, although John wasn't sure if that said more about him or his XO.
I couldn't hear you, John wanted to say, but he couldn't get the words past the rock that seemed to have taken up residence in his throat.
"John?"
He heard the concern in Rodney's voice, but ignored it, keeping his hand on the jumper, keeping his eyes off Rodney.
There was a time when John would have thought the worst torture in the world would be to have Rodney McKay in his head, constant thought and movement and litany of ideas. He wasn't sure when that changed. Maybe it was the first time he looked out into a sky he couldn't go into and felt Rodney's mind slide over his in comfort. Maybe he'd just gotten used to the constant background hum of another person.
Although, he was pretty sure he'd been screwed from the first time he felt his thoughts caress Rodney's, chaotic and jumbled. Entropy in its purest form that felt like nothing less than home.
And he knew his career was fucked if the wrong people found out. He was involved with a male member of his team and it was making the body of the USAF roll over and shudder. If Caldwell ever wanted a reason to get John shipped back to Earth so quickly the entirety of Atlantis would spin, then all he had to do was take notice of the way John looked at Rodney. Because John felt himself doing it, even though he tried not to.
He felt his eyes slide over the soft curve of Rodney's ass every time he bent over, felt his gaze follow the careful swipe of Rodney's tongue when his lips were dry. And he felt the heat from the great big fucking neon sign that was parked in orbit above his head and screaming out in lurid green and explicit detail exactly what Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard wanted to do every time he was in the same room as Doctor Rodney McKay.
Maybe it was his own fault. He'd thought he could handle it. It wasn't anything but sex, a bit of fun. Hell, he'd half convinced himself it was only a side effect of whatever the Wraith did to them; that it meant nothing that he wanted to crawl inside Rodney's body and not come out.
So, yeah, not just sex. Not anymore. Maybe it never had been. And that was what terrified him.
After Michael, after Nancy, he'd resolved never to do that again. There was sex and there was fun, and that was it. Only, they were breaking so many rules already that one more didn't seem like much. Besides, he was John Sheppard and rules had never exactly been his thing.
Taking a deep breath, he turned to face Rodney, still standing there with concern, fear and annoyance written on his face.
"I think I'm in love with you."
The concern, fear and annoyance were hastily replaced by shock. And John thought that he'd really like it if Rodney replied now, but it was a voice coming from their earpieces that finally broke the silence.
"Weir to Sheppard and McKay. Lorne says you're still in the jumper bay. Is there any problem?" Elizabeth's voice came over the radio, and John could hear the unspoken words. 'You're still in the jumper bay. Has Sheppard gone batshit insane and need to be sedated by Beckett?'
There was a beat before Rodney answered. "No, no problem, Elizabeth. There's just an issue with one of the jumpers I need Colonel Sheppard's help with, I afraid we'll have to miss the briefing on the naked pygmies of MX4-278. McKay out."
Flicking off the radio, Rodney calmly closed the distance between the two of them, and smacked John on the arm.
"You idiot!" He started to pace, three steps one way before spinning and pacing back, arms waving in the air. "I had images of walking in here to find you having a mental breakdown and having to be strapped into a straightjacket by Carson while being fed pureed peas!"
"Okay, it's a little disturbing that this is the reaction you have to me telling you I love you," John replied, feeling more than a little put out.
Rodney stopped pacing and faced him. "You didn't know," he said eventually.
"Didn't know what?" John asked.
Rodney scrubbed a hand over his face briefly. "Sheppard, I know why you're afraid of clowns. And can I just say, totally justified with that one, by the way," he said, shuddering, before continuing. "I spent three nights dreaming of a helicopter going down in Afghanistan. I've never even been to Afghanistan." He paused. "John, you've been telling me you love me every time your mind touched mine."
He had? "Well. Um. Good," John said, suddenly understanding that Rodney had been saying exactly the same thing back without John even realising it. "Because I do, you know."
"Idiot," said Rodney again, leaning forward to capture John's lips with his, and this time John didn't have to be able to read his mind to know he meant I love you, too.
~*~
When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him a Runner. It didn't last for very long, certainly far less time than the Wraith had hoped, and it all ended happily.
Eventually.
The bad guys didn't get to kill the hero, no matter how much they'd wanted to. The hero didn't have a complete breakdown, although he admits it was a near thing. And, most importantly, the story of boy meets boy in a secret government facility that allowed people to travel to alien worlds played out to its logical conclusion.
Of course, to hear Rodney tell it, it's a slightly different story. One that was full of evading capture with nothing but his genius, finding an Ancient research lab that allowed him (and possibly Zelenka, but only when Rodney was feeling generous) to develop a means of building ZPMs, and generally making the kind of breakthroughs that would entitle him to a Nobel at least twice over. The boy meets boy part, though. That usually stayed the same no matter who's telling the story.
When John Sheppard was thirty-nine, the Wraith made him and Rodney Runners because they wanted to track them back to Atlantis, they wanted to make them run for home. Somewhere along the line it went wrong. And yet somehow, it went perfectly the way it was meant to.
End.