RODNEY'S TRIP/BIG ADVENTURE
Ok so i know i've had tons of requests for this fic and sadly its no longer on ff.net, for reasons unknown, however i have contacted the author and told her i will post it on my journal on behalf of her so i wont have to email it everyone everytime its requested!!!
SO HERE IT IS!
RODNEY'S TRIP/BIG ADVENTURE BY Comrade DeLevikna
Title: Rodney’s Big Adventure
Author: Comrade Trufflinskinovichevna DeLevikna
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Fluff. Slight language. Fighting. Slight OOC-ness.
Summary: Rodney always wanted to have an adventure by himself, to be the hero. Well, he got it. And what a change of heart he has. Friendship
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Stargate. Not the characters, not the plot - nothing.
Author Notes: Okay, so this starts off in April. Don’t ask why. And it’s Rodney centric, because I like fics where Rodney is the main character. I apologize if anyone feels Rodney (or any other character) is OOC. I know that he was, most likely, different than usual. I did try my best, but I am not that good with keeping people IC. They sort of go on walkies and meld themselves into other roles. If you have a problem with it, just pretend that it’s a slight AU. Ronon doesn’t feature much in this story, sorry to all Ronon fans. There is John/Rodney friendship, as well as Elizabeth/Rodney and Teyla/Rodney friendship. I am dead chuffed with this story, because it’s my first Stargate one and it isn’t too shabby in my opinions, haha. Of course I can think of a million and one ways to make it better but … I just hope you all enjoy it.
XxX
It was funny. Normally, he wouldn’t think anything or the sort that was happening to him was funny, but he had a feeling that sanity had left him long ago. And now, he was finding it extremely amusing that the one time he was without his team, he got sliced and diced. Figuratively. It was ironic, in a way, because he has begged and pleaded so damn much for this, and now he found out it had been a mistake. When he got back - if he got back - he was going to be killed, brought back to life and then killed again. Repeat as many times as wished.
Of course, he had to get out of this situation first for that to occur. If he had to chose between death by life-sucking wraith, and death by Colonel Sheppard …
… He’d go with the wraith hands down.
Breathing heavily, he couldn’t help but cringe as the sound seemed to be so loud in his area. For the first time in a while there was silence, and he was praying it would last. This was the first breather he had had for god knows how long - he had been running the rest of the time. His muscles were shouting out their disagreement at the long run, but he shoved it to the side. Desperation made a man do that. The shot of a gun whizzing past him and landing a few feet away had him jumping up from his hide-away, and he was on the move again.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been running. On the wraith ship, everything had been dark. All he'd known was that it was daytime when he'd started. Last time he’d checked his watch, it was nearing midnight. Twelve hours. Day when he had started. Night and he was still running. He wasn’t even meant to be here, he was meant to be back at their base, working on some long-term projects, working on making improvements to the base, working on making broken things that needed to be fixed. Working on the items they had rescued.
He shouldn’t have got excited when he’d heard about the technology on this planet. He wasn’t suited for field work. He shouldn’t have fought so hard for him and just a couple of scientists to come through. He should have brought his normal team with him, he knew they were competent. His foot sinking in to the ground and he let out a growl. It didn’t help that over half of the planet was covered by sand.
He just had to reach the forest. There he could hide, and rest, and wait for rescue. He wasn’t sure whether his pursuers were still following him or not, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He wasn’t an expert at that sort of items. He just had to keep running. Keep running.
Even though every breath he took was a gasping, spluttering gasp for air.
Even though his legs felt like lead and every step he took felt like it was his last.
Even though his head was pounding and he just wanted to collapse.
After what felt like a million and one steps he had taken, his foot finally touched upon solid ground. He could have wept with relief, both for the feeling of security it gave him and for the amount of shelter and safety the forest provided him with. All day he had been running in the open. He had tried to be discreet, but it was nigh impossible. He had just had to pray for the best. Maybe the pursuers had given up on him. Or maybe they were still following. If he could just stop and see, then he might be safe. He wasn’t good enough at that though. He had to keep going.
He managed a few more paces before he stumbled, and landed on the ground with a harsh thud. He lay there, dazed and weary and struggling to get air into his lungs and he knew, he knew that he had to go on. Being fuelled by only desperation, he pushed himself up off of the ground and started running again. However, the darkness around him made his visibility decrease dramatically, and really, it was typical that what happened next … actually happened.
He stumbled past a few more trees, tripping up every third step, before the ground underneath his foot gave way. He let out an anguished scream, but luckily for him, it only lasted a few seconds. Unluckily for him, it was because he had smacked down upon a rather large, fallen tree trunk. Hard. He couldn’t even whimper as he slid off of what he had just smacked into - gravity was a pain sometimes - and then continued to roll down the hill.
Now only half conscious, the man continued rolling for a couple more minutes, adding more injuries to his already battered and beaten body, before coming to a rest at the bottom. Landing with a little ‘splodge’, he guessed vaguely that he had landed in something soft. And slightly wet.
Mud.
But soon enough all rational thought left him as the pain was all he could feel. Pain. Pain if he moved, pain if he didn’t move. Pain in his head, his neck, his chest, his arms, his waist, his hips, his legs, his feet - from his head to his toe the pain started and never stopped. Just on and on and on and on.
As his vision slowly darkened, and the pain slowly, gradually dulled, he found himself staring up at the night sky. He’d always loved the sky when he was a child. It was so far away and yet it had held so many mysteries. He’d loved watching the stars, wishing that he could explore every one of them. He had thought it impossible, a child’s dream. They had been his only escape from the cruel factor of life, though. He’d never given up. And for that, he was grateful.
As he became aware of his surroundings, nearby, he could hear the faint trickling of a river flowing, and he mourned the loss that there was water nearby but he couldn’t reach it. The sky above was a clear sky, and he could see thousands of stars twinkling at him. He couldn’t see any constellations that he knew of, but then again, he didn’t make it a point to memorise the star constellations that weren’t in his galaxy.
As he just stared up at the sky, something suddenly blocked his view of it. It was the faint shape of a person, judging by the build, a man. No, not a man … something inhuman.
They had found him.
He was willing to give up, willing to surrender, willing to just die and leave from this agony of pain. He had done his best, he had tried. He was only sorry that he hadn’t been able to keep the promises he once made to his friends, and glad that they hadn’t been with him. It was better for him that they hadn’t come along; otherwise he would have felt the loss of such friends. No, not friends …
… family.
Against his wishes, memories of times flew by. Memories of his precious people surfaced. Elizabeth’s practical and friendly advice, Sheppard’s teasing grin, Teyla’s calm voice, Ronon’s reassurance, Carson’s warm presence, Radek’s wit. They would fight, he knew. They wouldn’t ever give up. They would die to protect him, and he would do so for them. If the wraith wanted to reach Atlantis and then Earth, they would not get there through him.
He would fight too, until his last dying breath.
As cold, clammy hands reached for him, he fought against the wave of pain that occurred as he moved and pushed himself up. He pushed feebly against the hands and scrambled for purchase behind him. Once he’d grabbed on to some leverage, he pulled himself backwards, closer to the river. They were getting him over his dead body. He would rather die than go with them.
Wasn’t that what he was doing now, though?
He continued to back up, and the figure in front of him continued to follow. As the moon shined down upon the figure, the look of glee upon the white, distorted face was easy to see and it only served as a reminder for him to get the hell out of there. He continued to back up until he reached where he wanted to and stopped. He had to have the last word.
“Come to me precious,” The creature said, its voice sounding almost … eager? “Give us fresh blood to feast upon,”
“Go to hell,” He gasped, his breath ragged. He was swiftly losing his strength, but that didn’t matter. He knew that with all his injuries he wouldn’t die, but any information he had on him was staying with him.
It was suicide, but so was letting the figure take him. With the last of his strength, the man pushed himself backwards and couldn’t stop a slight gasp as he fell into the river. It was cold. He surfaced quickly, gasping for air and blinking blearily over to the figure that was slowly decreasing as he got caught in the current. It let out an anguished scream as its prey escaped and chased after him. He was only thankful that the flow of the river was already carrying him away.
Slowly, the battle with consciousness was lost, and his eyes slowly slid to a close, his body going limp. Rodney McKay floated down the river’s path, not knowing where it would take him, but only hoping that wherever it was, it was better than where he had left.
He had done his best. That was all he could have asked for.
XxX
Rodney was floating.
He wasn’t sure where, and he wasn’t sure why, but it was the only thing he could do to describe where he was.
He was surrounded by grey. If he just craned his neck, he could see to his left bright light. White light. It looked warm and welcoming and almost beckoned him to come that way. If he craned his neck the other way, to his right, he could see nothing but darkness. It was foreboding and seemed to slither towards him and lure him in to its depths.
He tried to look down at his body and … couldn’t see anything. He could feel his body … but he couldn’t see it. He wondered why on earth he wasn’t panicking. He wondered why he didn’t feel … anything. Shouldn’t someone in a position like this at least feel something? Like terror? Or happiness? Or curiosity?
As he thought the word, slowly, the feeling of curiosity made its appearance. He wondered where each of the paths led to. He wouldn’t be surprised if this were some life changing decision - like whether he would live or die. It was only in books that something like this happened, but maybe those books had the right idea. He had never liked reading those types of books, because he had decided that faith was just something used to hide behind when people couldn’t accept the world.
In a world of faith and science, he was a science man through and through.
But maybe those freaks had a point with the religious stuff … no one knew what happened in death. Personally, Rodney was fond of the ‘utter darkness’ theory, where you were just in blackness and didn’t even realise you had once lived or that you were dead. If he were to go on that act, then he would head towards the light, which would lead him back to the living.
Of course he wanted to live. He wasn’t ready to lose his life just yet - he still had to win that noble prize after all. And plus, people would miss him. He was needed back at headquarters; there was no one suitable to do the job like he did. No one else needed such little sleep as he had got used to over the years. The only person who came even half way close was Radek, but Rodney wouldn’t admit that to the scientist’s face.
He had a reputation after all.
But if he went back to the ‘choosing life or death’ option, what if the life was the scary and foreboding one? That would make a lot of sense. The white light, he thought as he turned to look at it, was almost beckoning him. It was caressing him lovingly, giving him a feeling of safety, warmth, comfort. That wasn’t life. Life was full of twists and turns and ups and downs. If you were happy the entire way through your life then you would be bored.
So … that meant that to live, he had to go through the blackness. He was pretty certain on that fact once he studied the two areas in more detail. The darkness didn’t seem bad once you got used to it … it seemed to be just there. Not tempting, just accepting.
Rodney wanted to live.
Feeling no fear, he turned away from the comforting embrace of the light and slowly made his trek to the dark. Light and dark. So many things represented those two options. People were scared of the dark, but they didn’t realise that it was what was inside the dark was the scary thing, not the darkness itself. Darkness was a part of every life, a constant.
A few more steps, and he would be there.
A few more steps and he would be one his first step home.
A few more steps and -
XxX
“I think he’s waking up.”
“Its about time - he’s been lying there for over 7 moon cycles.”
“Be quieter, Leader. He may be disorientated and the last thing we need is for him to be panicked.”
An involuntary moan fell out of Rodney’s mouth as he slowly came back to consciousness. He could feel the slight scratch of a blanket on bare skin covering him, and he tried to move to push it away. He couldn’t handle scratchy blankets. However, his arm twitched and only made it a third of the way before it gave up and fell back down.
He wondered what the hell was going on, and decided it was time for him to open his eyes. Slowly, almost cautiously, he opened one and was immediately blinded by light. He let out another moan and turned away from the direction of it.
“Oh! The light! Healer Paddy, please dim the light in the room.”
“Of course, Leader.”
There were some footsteps and then the light behind his eyelids dimmed. Slowly, Rodney decided to risk another look open and was relieved when he did not immediately get blinded. He had to blink his eyes about ten times before he had settled in, but finally he could see properly.
He was in a rather small room - a cosy room. It was one of those normal rooms you saw in the hospitals back on earth. The walls were a slated grey, obviously not painted and just the colour of the rock, and slowly Rodney moved his gaze from in front of him to around him. His bed was in the middle of the room. To his left there was a cupboard with a couple of draws and to his right he saw three people and the door.
The three people staring at him immediately set him on edge. There were two male and one female - but Rodney could see that one of the males was a child, only 10 at the oldest. He tensed up and moved to push himself up so he was sitting. However, as he moved his chest he felt a sharp pain smash across it and he whimpered, sliding back down. He couldn’t even move him arms to rub it better - he could see now that one was wrapped up in bandages and the other was attached to many wires like Beckett would do back at the lab.
Immediately afterwards, the woman hurried forwards and reached for a bottle. Inside was a green liquid, the only exit being a straw at the top. She moved the bottle to Rodney’s mouth, pushing the straw inside. Rodney struggled - he had no clue what they were giving him! It could be poison! - But being in the position of not being able to move very much, he ended up swallowing the liquid.
“Shh, we’re not trying to hurt you,” The woman whispered as he swallowed involuntarily. Almost defying its look, the liquid has the faint taste of a fruit. A mixture of fruits.
Rodney dearly hoped that lemon wasn’t in there.
Surprisingly, the pain in his chest faded away, along with any other lingering pain in his other joints. Obviously, the drink thing had been a painkiller, although he hadn’t seen a fluid painkiller before. If he had, he couldn’t remember it. He slumped boneless on the bed, feeling ready to just stare back up at the ceiling. However, although his body was weary, his mind was as fresh as a new morning and he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back into sleep.
So he figured he might as well figure out why the hell he wasn’t dead.
“Where -” he started but ended up coughing. His voice was all scratchy and hoarse, probably from lack of fluids. The woman moved again and this time brought a drink of clear water to his mouth. Rodney couldn’t fight off the faint blush as she tilted the drink against his mouth and let him drink his fill. He should be able to do it, damn it. He should be able to hold a stupid cup of water.
When he’d had his fill, he tilted his head the other way and the woman got the message. She put the drink back down on the table beside his bed and then sat on the bed herself, down by his feet. Rodney got his first good look of her, his first having been sort of destroyed by her being in his face. She was a lithe brunette woman, with a twinkle in her eye and a heart-warming smile.
Despite everything he’d been through, and defying all common sense, he immediately started to trust her, although he hated himself for it. Turning his gaze away from her, he turned it to the others in the room. The young boy he saw first. He was sat on the edge of his seat, watching Rodney with an almost eager look. His cheeks took on a red colour as he saw Rodney looking at him, but he kept his head up high.
“You feelin’ okay?” He asked, sounding concerned. Rodney paused. Was he alright? Okay, so he couldn’t breathe without pain, and he couldn’t feel his left leg, and his head hurt something fierce, but other than that … he was fine.
“Yeah,” He said finally, with a nod. None of his normal ranting like he normally would. He figured it probably wasn’t best to piss off the people who had obviously helped him just yet.
Moving onwards, he turned to the last figure. Just at his first look he knew the man wasn’t someone to mess with. He held an air of confidence and grace around him, but no arrogance. It was something Rodney had tried to perfect but failed miserably at. There was a long scar on the man’s face, from his chin and leading down beneath the neck. If Rodney looked up, he could see something of a crown on top of the man’s head.
Obviously this guy was important.
“Where am I?” He asked again, this time managing to get out the full sentence. He glanced from one face to another, but it was the woman who spoke.
“You are in our sickbay,” She said. Her voice he recognised, although it was faint. He had vague memories of frantic voices and a name - Healer Pammy? Pally? Paddy? That was it! Paddy! “I am Healer Paddy, your doctor.” Well, that whole name thing had been a waste of time. Boo. Healer Paddy looked rather sad as she continued to speak. “One of our people saw you in their search and rescued you from the river. I was called in to help. You were half dead, what happened to you?” She asked, a small frown marring her perfect face.
Rodney blinked slowly.
“You rescued me?” He repeated with a raised eyebrow. “How am I to believe that? For all I know you rescued me just to take me to somewhere worse,” He scowled. There was laughter from beside him and Rodney turned to look at the person it had come from. The leader person stared back at him, clear amusement on his face.
“You’re very cautious,” He started. “That’s good to know. If you were one of those always trusting buffoons then I would almost regret helping you. However, we are not your enemy. From the sight of your injuries, a lot of them were from the life-suckers.” He paused. “I am Leader Arnon, captain of this sh -”
“Life suckers?” Rodney interrupted, gulping. They sounded worse than the wraith.
“I believe you would know them as the wraith,” The leader elaborated and Rodney tensed, scowling. Stupid wraith. Even went and got themselves another name by whoever these people were.
“Well, you know, wraith seem to follow me,” He said flippantly. It was true.
Wherever he and his team had gone, the wraith hadn’t been far behind. No planet was safe. It was like the wraith tracked them and figured out what planets they were on, heading there soon after. Rodney and his team must have taken down at least over twelve drones, and more than 3 hive ships. Before, Rodney had always blamed Sheppard. After all, Sheppard had been the ones to wake them up when they first came to the Pegasus Galaxy. But after them appearing and Sheppard not being there … Rodney hoped that it wasn’t him.
“They do?” Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say. Rodney saw the man’s eyes narrow. “Do I have to worry about the safety of my people?”
“Oh no, no, no,” Rodney hastily back peddled. “I didn’t mean they followed me - I just meant that more often than not, wherever my team and I went, they would appear too.” He cringed.
“Hmm. You better hope you are telling the truth. I shall accept this … for now. Once Healer Paddy has checked you over, I wish to speak with you about a couple of things.” The leader stood up.
“Sure, sure.” Rodney paused. “I have a few things to ask you too.” It took a lot of effort to just not bombard the man with questions now, but then again, he realised that slowly, he was losing what energy he had had.
“Excellent.” The man turned to Healer Paddy. “I want to be notified when he next wakes up.”
Next wakes up? He wasn’t falling asleep! Although … the bed was rather nice … and fluffy too. More than made up for the crappy blanket. He sank back into the bed, feeling the warm plushie-ness start to surround him. And his limbs were so heavy. In fact, his eyelids were starting to feel heavy as well. He would only shut them for a moment. Just a quick break.
“Mr.?” He heard faintly. “What is your calling?”
“My what?” His mouth responded, but the words were slurred, slow.
“What people call you?”
“Oh. You mean my name.” There was a pause and then Rodney continued. “Its - Doctor Rodney McKay, Chief Scientist of Atlantis,” before promptly losing himself to the pull of sleep.
He never heard the gasp of surprise throughout the room.
XxX
PART 2
SO HERE IT IS!
RODNEY'S TRIP/BIG ADVENTURE BY Comrade DeLevikna
Title: Rodney’s Big Adventure
Author: Comrade Trufflinskinovichevna DeLevikna
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Fluff. Slight language. Fighting. Slight OOC-ness.
Summary: Rodney always wanted to have an adventure by himself, to be the hero. Well, he got it. And what a change of heart he has. Friendship
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Stargate. Not the characters, not the plot - nothing.
Author Notes: Okay, so this starts off in April. Don’t ask why. And it’s Rodney centric, because I like fics where Rodney is the main character. I apologize if anyone feels Rodney (or any other character) is OOC. I know that he was, most likely, different than usual. I did try my best, but I am not that good with keeping people IC. They sort of go on walkies and meld themselves into other roles. If you have a problem with it, just pretend that it’s a slight AU. Ronon doesn’t feature much in this story, sorry to all Ronon fans. There is John/Rodney friendship, as well as Elizabeth/Rodney and Teyla/Rodney friendship. I am dead chuffed with this story, because it’s my first Stargate one and it isn’t too shabby in my opinions, haha. Of course I can think of a million and one ways to make it better but … I just hope you all enjoy it.
XxX
It was funny. Normally, he wouldn’t think anything or the sort that was happening to him was funny, but he had a feeling that sanity had left him long ago. And now, he was finding it extremely amusing that the one time he was without his team, he got sliced and diced. Figuratively. It was ironic, in a way, because he has begged and pleaded so damn much for this, and now he found out it had been a mistake. When he got back - if he got back - he was going to be killed, brought back to life and then killed again. Repeat as many times as wished.
Of course, he had to get out of this situation first for that to occur. If he had to chose between death by life-sucking wraith, and death by Colonel Sheppard …
… He’d go with the wraith hands down.
Breathing heavily, he couldn’t help but cringe as the sound seemed to be so loud in his area. For the first time in a while there was silence, and he was praying it would last. This was the first breather he had had for god knows how long - he had been running the rest of the time. His muscles were shouting out their disagreement at the long run, but he shoved it to the side. Desperation made a man do that. The shot of a gun whizzing past him and landing a few feet away had him jumping up from his hide-away, and he was on the move again.
He wasn’t sure how long he had been running. On the wraith ship, everything had been dark. All he'd known was that it was daytime when he'd started. Last time he’d checked his watch, it was nearing midnight. Twelve hours. Day when he had started. Night and he was still running. He wasn’t even meant to be here, he was meant to be back at their base, working on some long-term projects, working on making improvements to the base, working on making broken things that needed to be fixed. Working on the items they had rescued.
He shouldn’t have got excited when he’d heard about the technology on this planet. He wasn’t suited for field work. He shouldn’t have fought so hard for him and just a couple of scientists to come through. He should have brought his normal team with him, he knew they were competent. His foot sinking in to the ground and he let out a growl. It didn’t help that over half of the planet was covered by sand.
He just had to reach the forest. There he could hide, and rest, and wait for rescue. He wasn’t sure whether his pursuers were still following him or not, but he wasn’t going to take any chances. He wasn’t an expert at that sort of items. He just had to keep running. Keep running.
Even though every breath he took was a gasping, spluttering gasp for air.
Even though his legs felt like lead and every step he took felt like it was his last.
Even though his head was pounding and he just wanted to collapse.
After what felt like a million and one steps he had taken, his foot finally touched upon solid ground. He could have wept with relief, both for the feeling of security it gave him and for the amount of shelter and safety the forest provided him with. All day he had been running in the open. He had tried to be discreet, but it was nigh impossible. He had just had to pray for the best. Maybe the pursuers had given up on him. Or maybe they were still following. If he could just stop and see, then he might be safe. He wasn’t good enough at that though. He had to keep going.
He managed a few more paces before he stumbled, and landed on the ground with a harsh thud. He lay there, dazed and weary and struggling to get air into his lungs and he knew, he knew that he had to go on. Being fuelled by only desperation, he pushed himself up off of the ground and started running again. However, the darkness around him made his visibility decrease dramatically, and really, it was typical that what happened next … actually happened.
He stumbled past a few more trees, tripping up every third step, before the ground underneath his foot gave way. He let out an anguished scream, but luckily for him, it only lasted a few seconds. Unluckily for him, it was because he had smacked down upon a rather large, fallen tree trunk. Hard. He couldn’t even whimper as he slid off of what he had just smacked into - gravity was a pain sometimes - and then continued to roll down the hill.
Now only half conscious, the man continued rolling for a couple more minutes, adding more injuries to his already battered and beaten body, before coming to a rest at the bottom. Landing with a little ‘splodge’, he guessed vaguely that he had landed in something soft. And slightly wet.
Mud.
But soon enough all rational thought left him as the pain was all he could feel. Pain. Pain if he moved, pain if he didn’t move. Pain in his head, his neck, his chest, his arms, his waist, his hips, his legs, his feet - from his head to his toe the pain started and never stopped. Just on and on and on and on.
As his vision slowly darkened, and the pain slowly, gradually dulled, he found himself staring up at the night sky. He’d always loved the sky when he was a child. It was so far away and yet it had held so many mysteries. He’d loved watching the stars, wishing that he could explore every one of them. He had thought it impossible, a child’s dream. They had been his only escape from the cruel factor of life, though. He’d never given up. And for that, he was grateful.
As he became aware of his surroundings, nearby, he could hear the faint trickling of a river flowing, and he mourned the loss that there was water nearby but he couldn’t reach it. The sky above was a clear sky, and he could see thousands of stars twinkling at him. He couldn’t see any constellations that he knew of, but then again, he didn’t make it a point to memorise the star constellations that weren’t in his galaxy.
As he just stared up at the sky, something suddenly blocked his view of it. It was the faint shape of a person, judging by the build, a man. No, not a man … something inhuman.
They had found him.
He was willing to give up, willing to surrender, willing to just die and leave from this agony of pain. He had done his best, he had tried. He was only sorry that he hadn’t been able to keep the promises he once made to his friends, and glad that they hadn’t been with him. It was better for him that they hadn’t come along; otherwise he would have felt the loss of such friends. No, not friends …
… family.
Against his wishes, memories of times flew by. Memories of his precious people surfaced. Elizabeth’s practical and friendly advice, Sheppard’s teasing grin, Teyla’s calm voice, Ronon’s reassurance, Carson’s warm presence, Radek’s wit. They would fight, he knew. They wouldn’t ever give up. They would die to protect him, and he would do so for them. If the wraith wanted to reach Atlantis and then Earth, they would not get there through him.
He would fight too, until his last dying breath.
As cold, clammy hands reached for him, he fought against the wave of pain that occurred as he moved and pushed himself up. He pushed feebly against the hands and scrambled for purchase behind him. Once he’d grabbed on to some leverage, he pulled himself backwards, closer to the river. They were getting him over his dead body. He would rather die than go with them.
Wasn’t that what he was doing now, though?
He continued to back up, and the figure in front of him continued to follow. As the moon shined down upon the figure, the look of glee upon the white, distorted face was easy to see and it only served as a reminder for him to get the hell out of there. He continued to back up until he reached where he wanted to and stopped. He had to have the last word.
“Come to me precious,” The creature said, its voice sounding almost … eager? “Give us fresh blood to feast upon,”
“Go to hell,” He gasped, his breath ragged. He was swiftly losing his strength, but that didn’t matter. He knew that with all his injuries he wouldn’t die, but any information he had on him was staying with him.
It was suicide, but so was letting the figure take him. With the last of his strength, the man pushed himself backwards and couldn’t stop a slight gasp as he fell into the river. It was cold. He surfaced quickly, gasping for air and blinking blearily over to the figure that was slowly decreasing as he got caught in the current. It let out an anguished scream as its prey escaped and chased after him. He was only thankful that the flow of the river was already carrying him away.
Slowly, the battle with consciousness was lost, and his eyes slowly slid to a close, his body going limp. Rodney McKay floated down the river’s path, not knowing where it would take him, but only hoping that wherever it was, it was better than where he had left.
He had done his best. That was all he could have asked for.
XxX
Rodney was floating.
He wasn’t sure where, and he wasn’t sure why, but it was the only thing he could do to describe where he was.
He was surrounded by grey. If he just craned his neck, he could see to his left bright light. White light. It looked warm and welcoming and almost beckoned him to come that way. If he craned his neck the other way, to his right, he could see nothing but darkness. It was foreboding and seemed to slither towards him and lure him in to its depths.
He tried to look down at his body and … couldn’t see anything. He could feel his body … but he couldn’t see it. He wondered why on earth he wasn’t panicking. He wondered why he didn’t feel … anything. Shouldn’t someone in a position like this at least feel something? Like terror? Or happiness? Or curiosity?
As he thought the word, slowly, the feeling of curiosity made its appearance. He wondered where each of the paths led to. He wouldn’t be surprised if this were some life changing decision - like whether he would live or die. It was only in books that something like this happened, but maybe those books had the right idea. He had never liked reading those types of books, because he had decided that faith was just something used to hide behind when people couldn’t accept the world.
In a world of faith and science, he was a science man through and through.
But maybe those freaks had a point with the religious stuff … no one knew what happened in death. Personally, Rodney was fond of the ‘utter darkness’ theory, where you were just in blackness and didn’t even realise you had once lived or that you were dead. If he were to go on that act, then he would head towards the light, which would lead him back to the living.
Of course he wanted to live. He wasn’t ready to lose his life just yet - he still had to win that noble prize after all. And plus, people would miss him. He was needed back at headquarters; there was no one suitable to do the job like he did. No one else needed such little sleep as he had got used to over the years. The only person who came even half way close was Radek, but Rodney wouldn’t admit that to the scientist’s face.
He had a reputation after all.
But if he went back to the ‘choosing life or death’ option, what if the life was the scary and foreboding one? That would make a lot of sense. The white light, he thought as he turned to look at it, was almost beckoning him. It was caressing him lovingly, giving him a feeling of safety, warmth, comfort. That wasn’t life. Life was full of twists and turns and ups and downs. If you were happy the entire way through your life then you would be bored.
So … that meant that to live, he had to go through the blackness. He was pretty certain on that fact once he studied the two areas in more detail. The darkness didn’t seem bad once you got used to it … it seemed to be just there. Not tempting, just accepting.
Rodney wanted to live.
Feeling no fear, he turned away from the comforting embrace of the light and slowly made his trek to the dark. Light and dark. So many things represented those two options. People were scared of the dark, but they didn’t realise that it was what was inside the dark was the scary thing, not the darkness itself. Darkness was a part of every life, a constant.
A few more steps, and he would be there.
A few more steps and he would be one his first step home.
A few more steps and -
XxX
“I think he’s waking up.”
“Its about time - he’s been lying there for over 7 moon cycles.”
“Be quieter, Leader. He may be disorientated and the last thing we need is for him to be panicked.”
An involuntary moan fell out of Rodney’s mouth as he slowly came back to consciousness. He could feel the slight scratch of a blanket on bare skin covering him, and he tried to move to push it away. He couldn’t handle scratchy blankets. However, his arm twitched and only made it a third of the way before it gave up and fell back down.
He wondered what the hell was going on, and decided it was time for him to open his eyes. Slowly, almost cautiously, he opened one and was immediately blinded by light. He let out another moan and turned away from the direction of it.
“Oh! The light! Healer Paddy, please dim the light in the room.”
“Of course, Leader.”
There were some footsteps and then the light behind his eyelids dimmed. Slowly, Rodney decided to risk another look open and was relieved when he did not immediately get blinded. He had to blink his eyes about ten times before he had settled in, but finally he could see properly.
He was in a rather small room - a cosy room. It was one of those normal rooms you saw in the hospitals back on earth. The walls were a slated grey, obviously not painted and just the colour of the rock, and slowly Rodney moved his gaze from in front of him to around him. His bed was in the middle of the room. To his left there was a cupboard with a couple of draws and to his right he saw three people and the door.
The three people staring at him immediately set him on edge. There were two male and one female - but Rodney could see that one of the males was a child, only 10 at the oldest. He tensed up and moved to push himself up so he was sitting. However, as he moved his chest he felt a sharp pain smash across it and he whimpered, sliding back down. He couldn’t even move him arms to rub it better - he could see now that one was wrapped up in bandages and the other was attached to many wires like Beckett would do back at the lab.
Immediately afterwards, the woman hurried forwards and reached for a bottle. Inside was a green liquid, the only exit being a straw at the top. She moved the bottle to Rodney’s mouth, pushing the straw inside. Rodney struggled - he had no clue what they were giving him! It could be poison! - But being in the position of not being able to move very much, he ended up swallowing the liquid.
“Shh, we’re not trying to hurt you,” The woman whispered as he swallowed involuntarily. Almost defying its look, the liquid has the faint taste of a fruit. A mixture of fruits.
Rodney dearly hoped that lemon wasn’t in there.
Surprisingly, the pain in his chest faded away, along with any other lingering pain in his other joints. Obviously, the drink thing had been a painkiller, although he hadn’t seen a fluid painkiller before. If he had, he couldn’t remember it. He slumped boneless on the bed, feeling ready to just stare back up at the ceiling. However, although his body was weary, his mind was as fresh as a new morning and he knew he wouldn’t be able to go back into sleep.
So he figured he might as well figure out why the hell he wasn’t dead.
“Where -” he started but ended up coughing. His voice was all scratchy and hoarse, probably from lack of fluids. The woman moved again and this time brought a drink of clear water to his mouth. Rodney couldn’t fight off the faint blush as she tilted the drink against his mouth and let him drink his fill. He should be able to do it, damn it. He should be able to hold a stupid cup of water.
When he’d had his fill, he tilted his head the other way and the woman got the message. She put the drink back down on the table beside his bed and then sat on the bed herself, down by his feet. Rodney got his first good look of her, his first having been sort of destroyed by her being in his face. She was a lithe brunette woman, with a twinkle in her eye and a heart-warming smile.
Despite everything he’d been through, and defying all common sense, he immediately started to trust her, although he hated himself for it. Turning his gaze away from her, he turned it to the others in the room. The young boy he saw first. He was sat on the edge of his seat, watching Rodney with an almost eager look. His cheeks took on a red colour as he saw Rodney looking at him, but he kept his head up high.
“You feelin’ okay?” He asked, sounding concerned. Rodney paused. Was he alright? Okay, so he couldn’t breathe without pain, and he couldn’t feel his left leg, and his head hurt something fierce, but other than that … he was fine.
“Yeah,” He said finally, with a nod. None of his normal ranting like he normally would. He figured it probably wasn’t best to piss off the people who had obviously helped him just yet.
Moving onwards, he turned to the last figure. Just at his first look he knew the man wasn’t someone to mess with. He held an air of confidence and grace around him, but no arrogance. It was something Rodney had tried to perfect but failed miserably at. There was a long scar on the man’s face, from his chin and leading down beneath the neck. If Rodney looked up, he could see something of a crown on top of the man’s head.
Obviously this guy was important.
“Where am I?” He asked again, this time managing to get out the full sentence. He glanced from one face to another, but it was the woman who spoke.
“You are in our sickbay,” She said. Her voice he recognised, although it was faint. He had vague memories of frantic voices and a name - Healer Pammy? Pally? Paddy? That was it! Paddy! “I am Healer Paddy, your doctor.” Well, that whole name thing had been a waste of time. Boo. Healer Paddy looked rather sad as she continued to speak. “One of our people saw you in their search and rescued you from the river. I was called in to help. You were half dead, what happened to you?” She asked, a small frown marring her perfect face.
Rodney blinked slowly.
“You rescued me?” He repeated with a raised eyebrow. “How am I to believe that? For all I know you rescued me just to take me to somewhere worse,” He scowled. There was laughter from beside him and Rodney turned to look at the person it had come from. The leader person stared back at him, clear amusement on his face.
“You’re very cautious,” He started. “That’s good to know. If you were one of those always trusting buffoons then I would almost regret helping you. However, we are not your enemy. From the sight of your injuries, a lot of them were from the life-suckers.” He paused. “I am Leader Arnon, captain of this sh -”
“Life suckers?” Rodney interrupted, gulping. They sounded worse than the wraith.
“I believe you would know them as the wraith,” The leader elaborated and Rodney tensed, scowling. Stupid wraith. Even went and got themselves another name by whoever these people were.
“Well, you know, wraith seem to follow me,” He said flippantly. It was true.
Wherever he and his team had gone, the wraith hadn’t been far behind. No planet was safe. It was like the wraith tracked them and figured out what planets they were on, heading there soon after. Rodney and his team must have taken down at least over twelve drones, and more than 3 hive ships. Before, Rodney had always blamed Sheppard. After all, Sheppard had been the ones to wake them up when they first came to the Pegasus Galaxy. But after them appearing and Sheppard not being there … Rodney hoped that it wasn’t him.
“They do?” Apparently that had been the wrong thing to say. Rodney saw the man’s eyes narrow. “Do I have to worry about the safety of my people?”
“Oh no, no, no,” Rodney hastily back peddled. “I didn’t mean they followed me - I just meant that more often than not, wherever my team and I went, they would appear too.” He cringed.
“Hmm. You better hope you are telling the truth. I shall accept this … for now. Once Healer Paddy has checked you over, I wish to speak with you about a couple of things.” The leader stood up.
“Sure, sure.” Rodney paused. “I have a few things to ask you too.” It took a lot of effort to just not bombard the man with questions now, but then again, he realised that slowly, he was losing what energy he had had.
“Excellent.” The man turned to Healer Paddy. “I want to be notified when he next wakes up.”
Next wakes up? He wasn’t falling asleep! Although … the bed was rather nice … and fluffy too. More than made up for the crappy blanket. He sank back into the bed, feeling the warm plushie-ness start to surround him. And his limbs were so heavy. In fact, his eyelids were starting to feel heavy as well. He would only shut them for a moment. Just a quick break.
“Mr.?” He heard faintly. “What is your calling?”
“My what?” His mouth responded, but the words were slurred, slow.
“What people call you?”
“Oh. You mean my name.” There was a pause and then Rodney continued. “Its - Doctor Rodney McKay, Chief Scientist of Atlantis,” before promptly losing himself to the pull of sleep.
He never heard the gasp of surprise throughout the room.
XxX
PART 2