Death Us Did Part
30 Days of Shipping Day 24: Couple you like but is overshadowed by another couple in fandom
Title: Death Us Did Part
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Here Comes Mister Jordan Fusion
Characters/Pairing: Lorne/Parrish, Mister Jordan, Messenger 7013
Rating: Gen
Orientation: Slash
Word Count: 2001
Warnings: Apparently!Dead character
Prompts: Dark Bingo Fill: “Nightmares”
Hurt Comfort Bingo Fill: “Caught in a Robbery”
Love Bingo Postage Stamp: Till Death do Us Part, Unbreak My Heart, Heavenly Love, Can You Feel the Love Tonight?
10 Tropes Fill: “The Multiverse”
♫ There's a calm surrender to the rush of day ♪
Evan checked his watch, he was already half an hour late, thanks to his car not starting in the lot at the base. And of course, he’d forgotten his cell phone, it was probably sitting in his locker at the SGC, ringing and vibrating like crazy as David tried to figure out where he was and why he was late. His husband was going to be pissed.
He had promised to bring the wine for their dinner with friends, so he stopped at the liquor store on the corner by their apartment. He wouldn’t even need to move his car when he was done, he was that close to home. Running in to the store, he went to the back and picked up a bottle of California Chardonnay and headed towards the front.
“Wallet,” the man standing in front of the register demanded then turned and pointed a revolver at Evan’s middle.
“You have got to be kiddiing me!” Evan exclaimed. This day was turning into a complete nightmare.
The robber didn’t argue. He didn’t even blink. He just pulled the trigger.
~*~
♪... the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn ♫
“There has been a terrible mistake, Evan Lorne,” a man in a white suit said as he came into the room where Evan had found himself sitting. He had a vague memory of something bad leading to his presence here but couldn’t put his finger on what it was.
Even stood and approached the man. “Where am I? How did I get here?” This had to be a bad dream, just another stress-induced nightmare.
“Well, you’re in Central Processing, in a holding room. You are here due to a clerical error,” the man said nervously.
“Clerical error? What do you mean?”
“You were not meant to be here for quite some time. Our representative pulled your soul out precipitously, you should have survived that robbery.”
“Survived? You mean I’m... dead?”
“Unfortunately.”
“Put me back. I need to be with my husband.”
The man shook his head. “I’m afraid we cannot do that. Your body is no longer available.”
“No longer available? So now what? You have to fix this!”
“We’ll find you another body to inhabit, so that you may live out the remainder of your allotted years.”
“Waitaminute. David loves THIS body. I can’t just show up at our door looking like a stranger. I can’t let him be married to a stranger!”
The man shuffled from foot to foot. “Oh, no. I’m afraid we cannot put you back into your reality. No, we’ll find you another place.”
Evan didn’t like this at all. He crossed his arms and shook his head stubbornly. “Oh no you don’t. Not without David. I love him and I’m not going back to a life without him.”
“Oh, dear me, this is a quandary. Wait here, Major Lorne.” The man hurried out of the room.
When he returned, there was another man with him. “I am Mister Jordan. First of all, Major Lorne, may I express our apologies for this dreadful mistake? Messenger 7013 informs me that there is an issue with your returning to the mortal world?”
“I’m not going unless I can be with David. I waited a long time to find him, a long time to find a love like we have.”
“We cannot deny that you have found a great love. A match made in heaven, one might go so far as to say. But we cannot give you your David or your life back. I can offer you the opportunity to make a new life in another reality with a David that has not met an Evan in his life. I’m afraid this is the best compromise we can offer,” Mister Jordan said.
His David was lost to him. Evan felt crushed, for the first time he understood what it meant to have a broken heart. He hurt, down to the center of his being. “And if I do not agree?”
“We’ll hold you here, until David’s time down there is over. Then you may rejoin him.”
“How long?”
Messenger 7013 looked at a clipboard. “According to our records, sixty seven years, three months and four days.”
“Does time pass differently here?”
Messenger 7013 and Mister Jordan both shook their heads.
“So, if I go, I can live out my lifespan? Which would be...?” They shook their heads at him again, refusing to tell him. “Would I be able to wait for him?”
“Yes, that could certainly be arranged,” Mister Jordan said.
~*~
♪ It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer that we got this far ♫
Mister Jordan dismissed Messenger 7013 and took control of the situation personally. One moment they were in the white room and the next, they were standing on a sidewalk in front of the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens.
“There is no SGC here, the Evan Lorne in this reality was killed in military action. Doctor Parrish is a civilian working on a research project here.”
“He won’t know me?”
“No. But you have a bond that should transcend the bonds of reality. I’m sure once you meet, the sparks will fly. The body that you’ll be taking is a businessman named Leo Farnsworth.”
Evan walked along beside his guide. “Do I have a choice, what if I don’t like this?”
“We’ll give you a trial period, if you don’t wish to stay, we’ll seek another situation,” Mister Jordan offered.
“So how does this happen?”
Mister Jordan waved his hand. “It already has, we expedited the process, your soul is now in Leo Farnsworth’s body.”
“David won’t know me.”
“He would not know you in any event, Major Lorne. Call if you decide being Leo won’t work out. Good Luck. You’ll find your address in your wallet. And do beware of Farnsworth’s girlfriend, she killed him and might not be too pleased to see you come home.” With that, Mister Jordan was gone.
Not knowing what else to do, Evan walked into the gardens. How to find David? He saw a map on display and went to look it over.
“The map is wrong.”
Evan turned to see David standing beside him. His hair was long, past his shoulders and tied back in a ponytail. It reminded Evan of Kavanaugh and how horrible they had thought his ponytail was.
“Excuse me?” Evan said.
“They changed the planting beds around, the map isn’t current,” David said.
“Oh, thanks. Hi. I’m... Leo.” Damn, this was going to suck, getting used to a new name on top of all the other suck about this situation.
David shook his extended hand. “David. Anything in particular you were looking for?”
“Nah, just wandering. I like orchids.”
“There’s an exhibit of some heirloom varieties, in this greenhouse.” David tapped a finger on the map and smiled happily as he looked past Evan’s shoulder.
Evan turned and saw a strange dark haired woman hurrying towards them. “Davey, I’m so sorry I’m late!” She threw her arms around him and kissed him. “The kids didn’t want to stay with your mother, they wanted to come to lunch with us.”
Kids? Evan looked and the woman and David were wearing matching bands. Crap. David was married here. Jordan and his cronies hadn’t done quite enough research. “Thanks for the info, David. Have a good lunch.” He waved and walked off. Finding some privacy, he hissed, “Mister Jordan! Mister Jordan, where are you?”
“Right here, Major Lorne. Calling so soon?”
“He’s married, happily, with kids. To a woman!”
“Oh dear. I really need to have a word with my staff about thoroughness. Very well, I have an alternative. Come along.” Mister Jordan snapped his fingers and they were back in the white room.
~*~
♫ It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you ♪
Mister Jordan stayed with him through three more realities. Three more times he met a David that was not his David. Each time, he grew more and more despondent, his heart was heavy as they returned to the white room once more.
He was ready to just take the next David he met, just to get on with things. At least it would be a David, even if it were not perfect. It would never be as perfect as what he had. He had not realized what he had until it was taken from him.
“Mister Jordan, there has been a development,” Messenger 7013 said, coming through the door. “Oh, it might just solve all of our problems!”
“How so, 7013?” Mister Jordan asked wearily.
“Well, it seems heaven isn’t alone in making clerical errors these days.”
~*~
♫ When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours ♪
Evan opened his eyes to find himself on a very cold metal table. Mister Jordan was standing beside him. He put a hand over Evan’s middle and he could felt the gunshot wound healing, he felt the bullets leave his body. “You should be able to explain this to David, he is used to strange things, thanks to your SGC. To everyone else, it is merely a clerical error.”
He sat up, feeling dizzy. “So what, I just walk out of the morgue?”
Mister Jordan smirked, shook his head and waved his hand. They were in the living room of Evan and David’s apartment, Evan was staring at the painting he had done of the sunset over the Lantean sea. “I don’t think you need me any longer. Again, our apologies, Major Lorne.” Then Mister Jordan disappeared again.
Sniffing at himself, Evan realized that he stank. He was covered in dried blood. He went to the bedroom and looked in. David was sleeping, sprawled across the bed, hugging a pillow that he had stuffed inside one of Evan’s t-shirts. His heart broke all over again at seeing that. Poor David. He noticed an overturned bottle on the floor by the nightstand and went over to pick it up. Sleeping pills. David let out a snort and rubbed his face on the pillow. He wouldn’t wake, and judging by the deep bruises under his eyes, it was probably best if he let his husband sleep.
Evan really needed a shower. He went to the bathroom and stood under the water, washing the dried blood off himself. He was lucky. He was supposed to have been cremated. Someone screwed up. That error had made it possible for them to put him back in his body. He’d lost four days here. But he had his life back.
Once he was clean, he went back to the bedroom and stretched out on the bed beside David, nuzzled his face against his neck, put his arm around him and went to sleep.
Hands on his face woke him. He smiled as he looked up at David. “Ev... how? I don’t understand. They told me you were dead. I saw you on a monitor at the morgue. You were dead.”
“It wasn’t my time yet. They sent me back.” It was the truth. Evan clasped a hand behind David’s head and pulled him in, kissing him. “I missed you so much.” David sobbed and clung and held onto Evan for a very long time. Evan didn’t mind, he felt the same way, holding David was healing the wound to his heart.
“You know how people say things like ‘There’s no one like you’ and ‘I can never love anyone the way I love you?’” Evan said, stroking David’s hair.
David sniffled. “Yes?”
“So true.” Evan kissed him again.
The EndOriginally posted at http://rinkafic.dreamwidth.org/