(no subject)
Ok so ive found the companion piece to Rodney's Trip / Big adventure by Comrade Trufflinskinovichevna DeLevikna. And have been given permission to host it on my lj.
So for those of you who are wanting it, here it is!
Minus One
Author: Comrade Trufflinskinovichevna DeLevikna
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Angst.
Summary: Companion to ‘Rodney’s Trip’. Atlantis and her people mourn the loss of a man.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Stargate. Not the characters, not the plot - nothing.
Author Notes: This is a companion story to my other story ‘Rodney’s Trip’. As I was reading through it, I was suddenly struck with the idea to have snippets into what the Atlantis base was like while Rodney was gone. I hope its about half as long as the other story. If enough people want one, I may do a sequel to ‘Rodney’s Trip’. But we’ll see.
I want to apologize now for how bad the accents for everyone are. I am simply terrible at writing accents, so that is why they are all crappy and stuff. I tried my best. And also, not all of the characters are here, for the simple reason that I was too lazy to write them. I just did a few of my favorite. Remember, they are only snippets. For now, I hope you enjoy this story (and use your imagination for the accents, haha).
XxX
John Sheppard was not a happy bunny, and that could be considered an understatement.
“Move this, move that, don’t put that there, watch out that’s fragile!” John mocked from his position. “I’ll show her fragile, stupid wench,” he grumbled, before reaching down to grab another bag of whatever it was he was lifting. He had given up long ago asking. Grunting, he moved another three bags of corn (as he had soon found out when one of the bags ripped, spilling corn everywhere and resulting in John getting a lecture that wasn’t even half as good as McKay’s) into the right spots before stepping backwards, finally finished with the chore that had been bugging him for most of the morning and afternoon.
He had figured that he would have to do some work - but he hadn’t expected to do that much work. He had stuck to the opinion that the Athosians didn’t have it in them. Of course, McKay had been certain that they were torturing sadists and refused to come when he could ‘be studying important things that someone of my intelligence can only understand’. As quoted from him. John was not going to say that he was right, because the man got enough of it every day.
Right now, however, he didn’t care. He was tired, sore, and just wanted to go back to Atlantis and relax under a warm shower. Forcing a smile onto his face, he turned around and nodded to the lady who he had been mocking previously. She smiled at him, obviously oblivious to how he felt.
“Thank you for your help, Colonel Sheppard,” she said, smiling to him as he left the stifling heat of the hall. Stepping out into the crisp, cool air of the world outside, John breathed a sigh of relief at the relief from the work. He rolled his shoulders to try and stop them from stiffening and glanced around him. It was almost like a town centre back on Earth, with people bustling around and greeting one another. The only different was that they weren’t humans. John blinked as he realized what time it was - early evening.
He had been in that stupid hall for over 5 hours?!
John scowled and stepped out further away from the building. He wouldn’t even be able to rest just yet, he had to go and find his lost team mates. The first one, a member of one of these people, had disappeared almost immediately after they had arrived. The second one had suffered the torture he suffered, but finished long before him (John wished that he was still that young) and left John to suffer. Right. That was a weeks pay off of him.
John was not going to forget it in a hurry.
“Escaped, did you?” The voice had him jumping and spinning around to face its owner. There stood the leader of the Athosian, Ennis. His eyes widened. “I am sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” he murmured. John calmed his racing heart and shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a shrug. Ennis smiled faintly at him.
“Then I shall not. Come, I wish to speak with you,” He said, walking by John. John waited until the man couldn’t see his face before grimacing. He always hated talks with the Athosians - they were so boring and always wished to talk about how their supplies were going or what was happening to their people. John would call them selfish, but that was just being rude. And John was only rude to one person. However, he soon realized that Ennis was waiting for him and he jogged to catch up, falling into step with him.
“My people and I wish to thank you for all that you have done today,” Ennis started. “We have watched you struggle against the heat. Teyla tells me that you only came out here to keep her company, and I am pleased that you are so loyal to a friend that you are willing to do something like that for her.” He paused and John shrugged.
“Would have done it for any member of my team,” he said, feeling slightly awkward. They had been watching him? Had they heard him too? Something must have shown in his face, because Ennis laughed.
“Do not worry, if someone was to have said something, it would not have reached the watching eyes,” Ennis said with a hint of a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. John grinned and nodded, amused at how … subtle? not so subtle? the leader of the Athosians was. “But I do admire you,” Ennis continued. John shifted uncomfortably. They were getting into rough grounds here, the places where John always managed to stumble and fall and look exactly the opposite to who he wished to portray that he was. They reached the centre of the village and Ennis stopped.
“If you’ll excuse me,” He said, and then bowed. “It was an honor to see you again. I believe that the friend that you are looking for is over there,” He said, nodding towards a house to the right. John thanked him and then headed over, already picturing exactly what he would do to Ronon for ditching him with the mad woman. Entering the hut-like home, he saw Ronon sitting on the bench, resting on the table and a plate of food in front of him. Well, it was more like an empty plate of food. John rolled his eyes at the eating machine and sat down beside him, just resting for a moment or two.
Yawning suddenly, John glanced at his watch. How many hours had they been here, suffering, while Teyla and the rest of her people gladly caught up and chatted amongst themselves? How many hours had he spent, helping out the Athosians with their supplies? Too many for him to count. He wasn’t quite sure why he had even volunteered to come along with Teyla, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. He had wanted to build team work between his team, and for that to work, it meant they had to support their friends in what they did.
Hence him and Ronon going with Teyla to her homeland. On their day off. Let it never be said that Sheppard never did anything on his day off, because he had willingly done this, and he was going to remind himself of it all the time. He wasn’t used to not doing anything. It was his day off, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do work if he wanted to. He didn’t want to do work, but he didn’t know how to do anything else. He had been so busy the past couple of … days? Weeks? Months? That he had forgotten just what it was like to relax. To sit around. Chill out. He had used to do it all the time back on Earth - he had been named the laziest kid of his year. Of course, that had been in academic studies, but it was still a title he wore proudly.
Of course, it was also a title that no one knew about.
He would have to remedy that.
“Did you know that in my graduating class, I got named the laziest kid of the year?” There was no time better than the present, after all. Next to him, his companion didn’t respond. John frowned and pulled down the sunglasses he had worn all day just enough to see what exactly the man was doing that was so important that he didn’t have time to talk or listen to his team mate talk.
“Oh for the love of …” John trailed off as he saw that Ronon Dex was sleeping. “Bloody runners. Can sleep just about anywhere.” He grumbled, wondering just what he was supposed to do now. He could wake Ronon, but the man looked like he was deep in slumber. And besides, John valued his life. He had heard the tale about what happened when you woke Ronon up from sleep from Rodney.
Well, more like he’d heard it from the battered and bruised McKay that was lying in Carson Becket’s infirmary and had to stay there for a week.
Yeeeeeah, John really thought that waking Ronon wasn’t a good idea. But then again, that thought process had sparked him off into thinking what McKay was doing right at that time. Was he working on some device with Doctor Zelenka? Or was he off yelling at his incompetent workers for the mistakes they kept making? He could even be in the mess hall for all John knew. The man had a healthy appetite, but unfortunately, he didn’t do that much exercise to work it off.
McKay wasn’t fat. But he couldn’t be called thin either - especially around the middle.
John scowled. He was sure that whatever McKay was doing, he was enjoying it. He would be sitting on a comfy chair, with his coffee and MRE bars, staring at a device that would mean nothing to John but everything to the scientist, and be enjoying it. He wouldn’t have any aching pains, or worry about being tortured by a mad woman. He would be sat there; most likely laughing about the thought of what might be happening to his team mates on the mainland and how much pain they were in. Had McKay known just how much of slave drivers the Athosians were? That was probably why he hadn’t come. Stupid McKay.
When he got back, he was going to torture the scientist for being a pain. Maybe he’d make him run with him every morning for a week. And then in the afternoons he would take him down to the training rooms and make him fight Ronon. The man wouldn’t be able to last 5 minutes, maybe 10. He was a scientist, he wasn’t meant to run further than the other side of the room he was working in. He had never seen a need for stamina or fighting. John’s lips curled up into a smirk. He would fix that. McKay would thank him for it in the long run, and then he would get to act the modest leader who said it was no trouble.
It would be useful anyway. John had to admit that the man was not suited to fighting situations, but he was damn well useful when he needed to save the world again and again. John sighed to himself, gazing up at the sky above himself and Ronon.
He had always hated a bright blue sky, the birds singing and the sun shining type of day. It seemed like the kind of day that to him was trying to make him happy, so that he could prepare for the bad news. But John couldn’t think of anything bad that was going to happen, although he could think of a lot of bad things that could happen. That had been the kind of day that today had been, and John was unable to stop the feeling of foreboding in his stomach that something had gone wrong. There were plenty of situations. However, right now, the bright blue sky had given way to a clear dusk, and John mused that he didn’t need his sunglasses anymore.
That didn’t mean he was going to take them off, of course.
But, if he went back to the bad feeling, none of the many situations he could think of were very likely, and besides: thinking about Rodney McKay wasn’t half as fun as insulting him, even when he couldn’t hear him. John knew him well enough to know what the responses would be - some random use of big long words put together in a sentence that made no sense to John, but left McKay feeling like he had won a battle over John. Mostly because John never retorted, trying to figure out what the man had meant.
That’s what happened when you knew a man who was a member of Mensa.
Bloody smartarses.
“Colonel Sheppard?” Teyla’s voice came from above. John squinted, seeing only the shape of Teyla bent over him.
“Teyla?” He asked and then felt the sunglasses plucked off of his face. He blinked, trying to adjust, before straightening up from the bench and holding out a hand for them. Smiling, obviously amused, Teyla handed them back, before stepping back a couple of paces and holding out a hand for John to take. He did so, allowing her to pull him up off of the bench.
He brushed off imaginary dust and then in unison turned to look at the sleeping figure leaning against the table. John really did not want to wake the man, but he didn’t have it in him to leave Teyla in here to do it alone. Maybe he could watch from the sidelines as she woke him up and step in, be the hero, as things got a bit tough. He had fun playing the hero. Except when it hurt him, because then he would regret playing the hero and be subjected to McKay lecturing him on of all the stupid and idiotic things he could have done.
Seriously, John knew the lecture off by heart. And he was certain that McKay wasn’t even going to bother anymore if it happened a few more times. Which it most definitely would do.
“I have finished with what I am doing,” Teyla said, in that usual, mystical, musical voice of hers. John would be jealous of it, if he wasn’t a guy. But he was a guy and so could only admire it. The Athosians were a weird bunch, but Teyla was half alright, otherwise she wouldn’t be on his team.
“That’s good. Does that mean that we will be going home soon?” John tried not to sound too hopeful, or to let it show. Teyla let out a soft laugh.
“Yes Colonel. I appreciate you coming with, but it was obvious to tell that you were - how do your people say it? - bored to tears, although I did not see you crying.” She frowned, slightly puzzled at the phrase that the people from Earth used. John shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” He said with a grin. “Being bored is nothing I’m not used to.” Okay, that was a lie. It had been true, at one point. Back before he joined the team on Atlantis he had known what boredom was, and had suffered it constantly, and had learnt how to amuse himself. Since he had come to Atlantis he hadn’t had time to think about being bored, and so now it was an unfamiliar feeling.
Oh god, he was starting to talk to the Athosians. He had better get home quickly.
Teyla smiled at him and patted his arm. John wanted to point out that he hadn’t been bored either, just slightly annoyed at being treated like a dog, but gave up before he started.
“If you are sure,” She said and then turned away. “I shall be off preparing the jumper, you can bring Ronon,” She shot over her shoulder, just before she fell out of hearing range. John took the time to blink a couple of seconds before he realized what the woman had done to him, and left him to do, and he cursed. Loudly. However, only a snort from Ronon responded to him and John sighed, turning to the sleeping man.
How was he going to do this, eh?
Stupid Teyla. Coward. She was a coward!
XxX
It had been three days since he had heard the news.
Three days.
72 hours.
4320 minutes.
I’m not superman.
John pushed himself up so he was sitting on the side of his bed and buried his face in his hands. He was a wreck. He hadn’t moved out of his quarters since he had got there. He hadn’t moved much further from his bed either, other than to go to the bathroom. He could feel three day old stubble on his chin, showing that he would need to shave sometime soon. And he was feeling pretty dirty as well, knowing that he should probably shower at some point.
He just couldn’t bring himself to move. Couldn’t bring himself to try and act like normal. Couldn’t bring himself to do anything, because each thing he did was another thing that Rodney was never going to do again. Every breath he took was another breath Rodney would never take. Every step he took was another step Rodney would never take. He hadn’t realized just how important the scientist had grown to him, hadn’t realized that he considered the man to be his best friend … until he was gone.
They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. John was inclined to agree with that sentence. He sighed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut, even as an image of Rodney in his chair, tapping silently at the computer, invaded his mind. That chair had been one that Rodney had hand chosen himself, claiming it to be the best of the chairs out there. No one had dared to contradict him.
Working on it!
He had had multiple people come to his door, knock on it and ask him if they could enter. He had told them rudely to go away. They could bang on his door all they liked, he wasn’t going to get out of here until he felt he could face not seeing Rodney every hallway, every staircase, every room. That would most likely be never, so he was never going to leave this room. He was grieving. They could all go screw themselves if they wouldn’t allow him this. He hadn’t cried, yet. He knew that he was only a few steps away from it though.
He had lost friends in his life. He hadn’t cried then, he’d just picked himself up and pushed onwards, never giving himself time to think about it, because it hurt. He hadn’t had the best family life. He hadn’t cried then either, he’d just picked himself up and pushed onwards, knowing that someday he would have his own family. A family he had chosen. But the two had never crossed before - friends had stayed friends, family had stayed family.
But that was before Atlantis.
That was before he had met the people here.
I got a problem here!
They were all there because they were the people that back on Earth no one would really miss. They were all there because they could make a difference here that they would never have been able to do on Earth. People who probably wouldn’t have even given someone a second glance on Earth were forced to work together, forming bridges that never would have occurred otherwise. People from everywhere, working together for one common goal.
Atlantis had given John more than he had even dreamed off. It had broken down his walls, had allowed people to squirm under him skin. He would die for them, and for this city, because of all that it had brought him. He had been certain that Atlantis was safe. He had been sure that they would survive. They had always survived. No matter what kind of situations they got themselves into, they always came back again.
They always came back, he always came back …
… except for this time.
With a scream of frustration, John pushed himself up off of the bed and kicked the stand next to it. It wasn’t fair. It had never been meant to happen. He should never have gone with Teyla, because then he could have gone with Rodney and helped save him. Or at least, if not save him, then die with him. It wasn’t fair - he was the hero, he was the one who put himself in danger deliberately. He was the one who should have died. Not Rodney. Rodney, who with all his phobias and all his allergies, never once failed John when he needed him the most. Rodney, who couldn’t hold a gun for longer than 5 seconds. Rodney, who had been scared of death every mission but kept going, because he trusted John to save him.
He trusted him, and John had let him down.
I figure it’ll be nice if we were all together as we burn up.
McKay.
I’m sorry, I mean as we get rescued. I always get those two confused.
“God damn it McKay!” He shouted, kicking the stand again, this time much harder. A sharp pain shot up his foot and he whimpered involuntarily. “Ow, ow, damn it,” He cursed, and hopped back to his bed. He sat down on it and brought his leg up onto the bed, before pulling off the shoe and then massaging the toes he had hurt. Suddenly he heard footsteps and he snapped his head, not surprised to see Elizabeth Weir in his rooms and heading towards him.
She honestly didn’t look very good, but then John was pretty certain that he didn’t look good too.
“Whatever you’re going to say, save it,” He grumbled as she came over to him. She put a hand on his shoulder, smiling sadly, and then tugged at him. Unwillingly, he came off the bed and stood on one leg. Belatedly, John remembered that Elizabeth and Rodney had been close friends before they all came to Atlantis. She must be feeling like how he was now, but unlike him, she wasn’t able to just shirk off her responsibilities.
“Come on John,” She said softly, picking up the boot and placing it down by his foot. “You can’t just wallow away in here.”
“Watch me,” John scowled.
“I have,” She replied. She placed her hands on his shoulders and stared him in the eye, trying to knock her point back home. “You miss him. You aren’t alone. We’re all a family here John and we just lost one of our number.” She paused, swallowing, and then continued. “We can’t lose another,” She whispered and John stood frozen, before jerking his head slowly. Elizabeth smiled again, albeit sadly, and stepped back. “Go clean up and then meet me in my office. We’ll be waiting.” With that, she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her.
John stared after her for a short time before swallowing himself and then stalking over to get some clean clothes. Using stronger movements than necessary, he opened the draw and pulled it out too far, it falling on the ground and throwing clothes everywhere. John scowled again and randomly picked up the clothes he needed, before heading to the bathroom. He missed McKay, and he was never going to get used to him not being there. But he had to remember that there were others counting on him and he couldn’t let them down. Not yet at least.
It was only when he was in the shower and the water was pounding down that the tears fell.
‘Kay I don’t - I don’t wanna use the term ‘lonely’ but, uh, there are - certain people who I miss …
His team was minus one now, and no one would ever be able to fix it.
XxX
Smack.
Smack.
Smack.
Teyla Emmagan blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and focused on the person in front of her. She wasn’t sure who it was, it was just someone she had randomly picked in the training rooms to come and fight her. Obviously he was a new recruit though, because he hadn’t protested too much. That meant that her reputation for beating everybody hadn’t reached him yet. He came at her again and she defended herself, the loud smack echoing through the room.
She had to admit, he was pretty good. Most people didn’t normally last this long against her on a good day, when she was going easy on them. However, this man was fighting her tooth for claw and holding his ground against her while she was on a bad day. She liked fighting a worthy opponent, it kept her mind from wandering, it kept her from thinking about things that she did not wish to think about. She stepped to the side, whirling around to smack the young man on the back, sending him to the ground swiftly. There was a loud groan and then he rolled over onto his back, panting heavily.
“I give up,” He said and Teyla nodded, not showing any emotion, even though she was disappointed that the spar was over.
“Let me help you,” she forced a smile onto her face that she didn’t feel and held out her hand for the man to take. He took it and was pulled up. Teyla let go and stepped back. The man looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Thank you.” He gave her a smirk and for a moment Teyla’s breathe caught in her throat as it reminded her forcefully of the one person she was trying so hard to forget. “I’m Jeremy Daniels,” He introduced himself, still with that arrogant smirk. Teyla shook herself, mostly to will away the stream of memories that threatened to knock her down.
“Teyla Emmagan, leader of the Athosians,” She responded, her voice cracking slightly. She couldn’t stay here anymore; she had to get away before she lost her composure. Turning swiftly, she left at a run from the room, the doors banging shut behind her. She continued to run until she was a long, long way away from the training rooms and slowly calmed herself down to a jog, and then to a walk. She wasn’t quite sure where she was, but right now, she felt that was a good thing. She didn’t want to be around people right now, because she felt that she was going to break down and she had to get away before anyone saw her do so.
It was only when she glanced out of the window that she knew where she was. The North Wing of Atlantis, a usually deserted area because there weren’t a lot of things there that made it very habitable. It was a good place to go, however, if one wanted to get away from things for a time. She knew where she was going, but her feet lead her there anyway. An abandoned ledge, a balcony, overlooking the entirety of the main part of Atlantis. It was especially pretty in the night time, when someone looked over the ledge and saw all the lights shining brightly.
It was as she stood there, gazing over the edge, did the lump in her throat start to form. She did not find this place herself - she had been shown it. By her team mate, her friend - Rodney McKay. He had told her once that it was his favorite spot, because no one went there other than him, that no one disturbed him. No one knew about this place, other than her and his other friends, and they had respected that when he was out here he was not to be disturbed.
Teyla tried to swallow, but couldn’t quite get it past the lump. She felt a burning behind her eyes and she hastily started to blink. She was not going to cry. She was a leader to her people, and crying was a weakness she couldn’t afford. It didn’t matter whether they could see it or not, she would know, and that in itself was enough. But it was so hard for her not to. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the picture, the image, the memories of Rodney out of her mind.
She had considered him a close friend, and had respected him for the man that he was.
He had always saved them when they needed it the most. When they were in a life or death crisis, he had always been there to get them out of it, make sure that they chose the life path. He was responsible for them being alive today, and for them having a home to come back to. Although Rodney McKay rubbed off on people the wrong way, she knew that the man cared deeply for Atlantis and her people. He wished to keep them safe. He wished to protect them.
Why else would he work so hard otherwise?
Teyla had not watched him, because she had other sources. Most people considered her to be a bank of calm that was never disturbed. They could rely on Teyla to always stay calm, to always be patient, to always be there. They knew that all was right with the world if Teyla was composed. She did not have the same type of respect that John had, or Elizabeth had. They were the leaders here, and although she was a leader herself, to the Atlanteans, she was just a colleague.
But because they relied on her, they came to her with their worries. It was like she was the person who everybody talked to. She knew which scientists were absolutely terrified of Rodney, and which ones respected him. She knew who liked him and who hated him. She knew who worried for him and who wouldn’t care. She had been told many times that they were worried about the amount of sleep that Rodney got.
Sniffling slightly, Teyla kept her eyes trained ahead of her and focused on the calming waves of the ocean. Water had always soothed her when she was a child, and that didn’t change as she grew up. But now it was a lifeline for her to hold on to, for her to use when all else failed. The sea would always be there. Water would always be there. It was reliable, just like her. She shut her eyes and gazed up at the darkening sky, showing that evening was soon coming and another day was falling to an end.
Once this day ended, it would have been almost a week since Rodney left and never came back.
She blamed herself, because if she hadn’t wanted to go to the mainland, then John and Ronon would not have come with her. If they had not come with her then they would have gone with Rodney, and perhaps, he would be with them now and they would not be experiencing the heartache that they now knew. A drop of water hit her cheek, startling her from her thoughts. Her eyes snapped open and she watched as the rain slowly started to fall.
Rodney had once told her that he loved the rain until it got him wet. He had told her that at night when he couldn’t sleep and it was raining, he would grab some clothes he didn’t mind getting wet and would walk to this balcony, just to watch the rain fall.
Another drop hit her on her nose this time and Teyla looked down from the sky, sending her gaze over the city of Atlantis. The rain was now starting to fall harder, but she still didn’t move, despite the fact that she was slowly getting wet. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t moving in to the shelter, but something kept her out here, something kept her in the rain. She wished with all her heart that Rodney were not dead. However, if there was a choice between him being dead through a blown-up planet or alive in the hands of the wraith, she would wish for him to be dead, if only so he didn’t suffer.
Rodney had given his life for this expedition, along with many others.
Rodney had fought tooth and claw to protect Atlantis from any enemies that they had, to protect those he held dear.
“I promise you Rodney,” She whispered, the words being swept away on the wind as soon as they fell out of her mouth. “I will protect them, like you once did.” And although she still felt grief for her friend, and would most likely do so for a long time, somehow, her heart felt lighter knowing that she was doing something Rodney would approve of.
The smile on her face did nothing to stop the lone tear from falling as she knew their team was minus one now, and that would stay that way for a very long time.
XxX
“No, no, that’s wrong,” Radek Zelenka mumbled as he watched the computer. He then moved his hand to the mouse and clicked to stop the simulation and edited a few things, before playing in through again. “A little more of that,” He murmured, stopping the sim and changing something else. Playing it through, Radek finally sat back, a feeling of achievement running through his chest. He had finally done it! Clicking off of the simulation, he pushed himself away from the computer, and rolled across the floor to a computer a couple of feet away from him.
Pulling himself to it with his legs, he started to type on the computer for a couple more minutes, before clicking a final button and watching with satisfaction as things went back to normal. Of course, that had taken him far too long to figure out, and he only allowed himself a minute to feel triumphant, before he was pushing away from the computer and over to another one. This time he checked his emails, and his head dropped as he saw the 23 emails, each telling him about the problems that were occurring.
Three different problems, one after another, had cropped up, and Radek had been running around the lab ever since the first email. Of course, he could get rid of 6 of them, because he had just fixed that problem with the hot water. Now he had to move on to the next - there was a problem with the lights in the South section of the city. Radek frowned as he thought of best how to get to that, before minimizing his inbox and pulling up the program to show all the different connections.
His eyes skimmed down the page twice before he saw where the problem was. Sector 4, South Wing. He didn’t have time to go fix it himself, but he could send someone else down. He reached up for his radio.
“Jen, Dinah,” he said. “There’s a problem in Sector 4, South Wing. I have my hands tied up here; can you go and fix it?” He waited for a couple of seconds, before both girls answered in the affirmative. “Thank you,” he said and then switched off his radio. That was another problem down, now onto the third.
It took him half an hour to fix the third problem, and by the time he was done he was already feeling knackered. Pushing away from the computer he was working on, he let the chair just roll slowly across the room, and he used the time that he didn’t to try and relax. He hadn’t realized how exhausting this job actually was - no wonder Rodney had got little to no sleep. Radek had not understood at the time, because he could only see the things that Rodney did when he was with the rest of the scientists.
It had been a long time mystery between him and the other scientists about why Rodney never slept.
It seemed he got his answer.
Problems Radek hadn’t even known existed popped up every day, and Radek would be the one to fix it. And then once he was done with that, he would then move on to the individual projects that he had done. He also had to make reports to Dr. Weir about what had happened and when and how he fixed it, and he received the reports of his own scientist’s projects. He had to mark them, make improvements and send them back. Radek was struggling to do just that and have time to eat and sleep and relax too. How Rodney had managed with being taken away on off world missions at the same time and be called in to save them in the life or death situations … Radek would never guess.
He had once wanted this job. The respect he would gain. An entire department he could control. He had wished for the job he had now, had resented Rodney for it. Now, he wanted Rodney to have it back. He wanted Rodney to come waltzing through that door and yell at him for managing to ruin everything while he was away and then kick Radek out of the seat, thank him for keeping it warm and then settle down to work. Radek would pick himself up off of the floor and he would make a fuss, but would be secretly glad that Rodney was back to take it over.
Rodney didn’t come waltzing through the door however. And Radek knew he never would again. The story of what had happened was too close to his heart for his liking. He had been one of the scientists on that planet - himself and seven others. They had been out there exploring and jumping for joy as they found Ancient technology and lots of it. It was the jackpot. They had been preparing to head back when the wraith had come. Radek was ashamed to admit that he had been one of the first to run for cover.
Rodney, he hadn’t moved. He hadn’t started panicking, or shouting, or screaming. He had dropped his items, pulled out a gun from a pocket that Radek didn’t know he had and started shooting at the wraith dart. While everyone took cover, Rodney had managed to bring it down, leaving them all safe. Radek had been in awe of the scientist, because he hadn’t seen Rodney act that way before. That was not what he had heard from his team mates.
Of course, with them around, Rodney didn’t have to worry.
Once the wraith had gone, people started to crowd around Rodney and congratulate him on it. Rodney had seemed shocked that he had managed to bring down one. But as people swarmed around him, it was like he’d snapped back. He’d ordered everyone to get out, immediately, because he did not know how badly he had hit the wraith ship and it could be back at any second. That had got people moving and they had managed to get almost everything through before the wraith come back.
Radek had been the last one to enter, other than Rodney. He had not wanted to leave Rodney behind. But Rodney had practically shoved him to the gate. The last thing Radek had seen was Rodney’s face before he was whisked away back to Atlantis. His face …
Radek opened his eyes, staring up at the grey ceiling. Rodney’s face had been a mixture of terror, determination, triumph … resignation. He had known what was most likely going to happen. He had accepted it. He was just happy that no one else would die because of it.
Radek had known then, as the Stargate closed behind him and he was bombarded with questions about where Rodney was, that he would never see the man again. He had realized then that Rodney McKay was not coming home. He had realized then that Rodney was one of his closest friends, and the shock and loss of him was devastating.
“Doctor Zelenka?” Radek blinked back the tears that had come to his eyes as he remembered the raw pain he had felt, and turned to look at who had said his name. Two woman stood in front of him - Jen Hall and Dinah Stone. “Jen, Dinah,” Radek greeted them with a tired smile.
“Sir. We have fixed the problem in Sector 4, South wing,” Jen said. They both looked rather sad, and Radek knew it was because they were not used to seeing Radek in the chair and not Rodney. Radek nodded.
“Thank you.” He told them. “Get back to what you were doing,” He dismissed them and they nodded, before leaving the room together, chatting quietly. Radek watched them go, reminded of when he had left this office doing the same thing, leaving Rodney inside of it. Knowing that Rodney would always be there if he needed help, with a lecture and an annoyed sigh.
Radek swallowed past the lump in his throat and wiped at his eyes swiftly, before turning on to the next thing on his agenda.
The science department had lost a valuable member. They were minus one of their number now, and the loss was felt by all.
XxX
Also on another note, Rodney's trip is being rewritten by the author, as she decided she wanted to change some bits of it. It is being sent to me to beta in stages, which i'll post up here when they're done. There is also talk of a sequal once the rewrite is finished, tho it does depend on whether people are interested. So please leave reviews!!!!
So for those of you who are wanting it, here it is!
Minus One
Author: Comrade Trufflinskinovichevna DeLevikna
Rating: PG-13
Warning: Angst.
Summary: Companion to ‘Rodney’s Trip’. Atlantis and her people mourn the loss of a man.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything to do with Stargate. Not the characters, not the plot - nothing.
Author Notes: This is a companion story to my other story ‘Rodney’s Trip’. As I was reading through it, I was suddenly struck with the idea to have snippets into what the Atlantis base was like while Rodney was gone. I hope its about half as long as the other story. If enough people want one, I may do a sequel to ‘Rodney’s Trip’. But we’ll see.
I want to apologize now for how bad the accents for everyone are. I am simply terrible at writing accents, so that is why they are all crappy and stuff. I tried my best. And also, not all of the characters are here, for the simple reason that I was too lazy to write them. I just did a few of my favorite. Remember, they are only snippets. For now, I hope you enjoy this story (and use your imagination for the accents, haha).
XxX
John Sheppard was not a happy bunny, and that could be considered an understatement.
“Move this, move that, don’t put that there, watch out that’s fragile!” John mocked from his position. “I’ll show her fragile, stupid wench,” he grumbled, before reaching down to grab another bag of whatever it was he was lifting. He had given up long ago asking. Grunting, he moved another three bags of corn (as he had soon found out when one of the bags ripped, spilling corn everywhere and resulting in John getting a lecture that wasn’t even half as good as McKay’s) into the right spots before stepping backwards, finally finished with the chore that had been bugging him for most of the morning and afternoon.
He had figured that he would have to do some work - but he hadn’t expected to do that much work. He had stuck to the opinion that the Athosians didn’t have it in them. Of course, McKay had been certain that they were torturing sadists and refused to come when he could ‘be studying important things that someone of my intelligence can only understand’. As quoted from him. John was not going to say that he was right, because the man got enough of it every day.
Right now, however, he didn’t care. He was tired, sore, and just wanted to go back to Atlantis and relax under a warm shower. Forcing a smile onto his face, he turned around and nodded to the lady who he had been mocking previously. She smiled at him, obviously oblivious to how he felt.
“Thank you for your help, Colonel Sheppard,” she said, smiling to him as he left the stifling heat of the hall. Stepping out into the crisp, cool air of the world outside, John breathed a sigh of relief at the relief from the work. He rolled his shoulders to try and stop them from stiffening and glanced around him. It was almost like a town centre back on Earth, with people bustling around and greeting one another. The only different was that they weren’t humans. John blinked as he realized what time it was - early evening.
He had been in that stupid hall for over 5 hours?!
John scowled and stepped out further away from the building. He wouldn’t even be able to rest just yet, he had to go and find his lost team mates. The first one, a member of one of these people, had disappeared almost immediately after they had arrived. The second one had suffered the torture he suffered, but finished long before him (John wished that he was still that young) and left John to suffer. Right. That was a weeks pay off of him.
John was not going to forget it in a hurry.
“Escaped, did you?” The voice had him jumping and spinning around to face its owner. There stood the leader of the Athosian, Ennis. His eyes widened. “I am sorry, I did not mean to startle you,” he murmured. John calmed his racing heart and shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” he said with a shrug. Ennis smiled faintly at him.
“Then I shall not. Come, I wish to speak with you,” He said, walking by John. John waited until the man couldn’t see his face before grimacing. He always hated talks with the Athosians - they were so boring and always wished to talk about how their supplies were going or what was happening to their people. John would call them selfish, but that was just being rude. And John was only rude to one person. However, he soon realized that Ennis was waiting for him and he jogged to catch up, falling into step with him.
“My people and I wish to thank you for all that you have done today,” Ennis started. “We have watched you struggle against the heat. Teyla tells me that you only came out here to keep her company, and I am pleased that you are so loyal to a friend that you are willing to do something like that for her.” He paused and John shrugged.
“Would have done it for any member of my team,” he said, feeling slightly awkward. They had been watching him? Had they heard him too? Something must have shown in his face, because Ennis laughed.
“Do not worry, if someone was to have said something, it would not have reached the watching eyes,” Ennis said with a hint of a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eye. John grinned and nodded, amused at how … subtle? not so subtle? the leader of the Athosians was. “But I do admire you,” Ennis continued. John shifted uncomfortably. They were getting into rough grounds here, the places where John always managed to stumble and fall and look exactly the opposite to who he wished to portray that he was. They reached the centre of the village and Ennis stopped.
“If you’ll excuse me,” He said, and then bowed. “It was an honor to see you again. I believe that the friend that you are looking for is over there,” He said, nodding towards a house to the right. John thanked him and then headed over, already picturing exactly what he would do to Ronon for ditching him with the mad woman. Entering the hut-like home, he saw Ronon sitting on the bench, resting on the table and a plate of food in front of him. Well, it was more like an empty plate of food. John rolled his eyes at the eating machine and sat down beside him, just resting for a moment or two.
Yawning suddenly, John glanced at his watch. How many hours had they been here, suffering, while Teyla and the rest of her people gladly caught up and chatted amongst themselves? How many hours had he spent, helping out the Athosians with their supplies? Too many for him to count. He wasn’t quite sure why he had even volunteered to come along with Teyla, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. He had wanted to build team work between his team, and for that to work, it meant they had to support their friends in what they did.
Hence him and Ronon going with Teyla to her homeland. On their day off. Let it never be said that Sheppard never did anything on his day off, because he had willingly done this, and he was going to remind himself of it all the time. He wasn’t used to not doing anything. It was his day off, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t do work if he wanted to. He didn’t want to do work, but he didn’t know how to do anything else. He had been so busy the past couple of … days? Weeks? Months? That he had forgotten just what it was like to relax. To sit around. Chill out. He had used to do it all the time back on Earth - he had been named the laziest kid of his year. Of course, that had been in academic studies, but it was still a title he wore proudly.
Of course, it was also a title that no one knew about.
He would have to remedy that.
“Did you know that in my graduating class, I got named the laziest kid of the year?” There was no time better than the present, after all. Next to him, his companion didn’t respond. John frowned and pulled down the sunglasses he had worn all day just enough to see what exactly the man was doing that was so important that he didn’t have time to talk or listen to his team mate talk.
“Oh for the love of …” John trailed off as he saw that Ronon Dex was sleeping. “Bloody runners. Can sleep just about anywhere.” He grumbled, wondering just what he was supposed to do now. He could wake Ronon, but the man looked like he was deep in slumber. And besides, John valued his life. He had heard the tale about what happened when you woke Ronon up from sleep from Rodney.
Well, more like he’d heard it from the battered and bruised McKay that was lying in Carson Becket’s infirmary and had to stay there for a week.
Yeeeeeah, John really thought that waking Ronon wasn’t a good idea. But then again, that thought process had sparked him off into thinking what McKay was doing right at that time. Was he working on some device with Doctor Zelenka? Or was he off yelling at his incompetent workers for the mistakes they kept making? He could even be in the mess hall for all John knew. The man had a healthy appetite, but unfortunately, he didn’t do that much exercise to work it off.
McKay wasn’t fat. But he couldn’t be called thin either - especially around the middle.
John scowled. He was sure that whatever McKay was doing, he was enjoying it. He would be sitting on a comfy chair, with his coffee and MRE bars, staring at a device that would mean nothing to John but everything to the scientist, and be enjoying it. He wouldn’t have any aching pains, or worry about being tortured by a mad woman. He would be sat there; most likely laughing about the thought of what might be happening to his team mates on the mainland and how much pain they were in. Had McKay known just how much of slave drivers the Athosians were? That was probably why he hadn’t come. Stupid McKay.
When he got back, he was going to torture the scientist for being a pain. Maybe he’d make him run with him every morning for a week. And then in the afternoons he would take him down to the training rooms and make him fight Ronon. The man wouldn’t be able to last 5 minutes, maybe 10. He was a scientist, he wasn’t meant to run further than the other side of the room he was working in. He had never seen a need for stamina or fighting. John’s lips curled up into a smirk. He would fix that. McKay would thank him for it in the long run, and then he would get to act the modest leader who said it was no trouble.
It would be useful anyway. John had to admit that the man was not suited to fighting situations, but he was damn well useful when he needed to save the world again and again. John sighed to himself, gazing up at the sky above himself and Ronon.
He had always hated a bright blue sky, the birds singing and the sun shining type of day. It seemed like the kind of day that to him was trying to make him happy, so that he could prepare for the bad news. But John couldn’t think of anything bad that was going to happen, although he could think of a lot of bad things that could happen. That had been the kind of day that today had been, and John was unable to stop the feeling of foreboding in his stomach that something had gone wrong. There were plenty of situations. However, right now, the bright blue sky had given way to a clear dusk, and John mused that he didn’t need his sunglasses anymore.
That didn’t mean he was going to take them off, of course.
But, if he went back to the bad feeling, none of the many situations he could think of were very likely, and besides: thinking about Rodney McKay wasn’t half as fun as insulting him, even when he couldn’t hear him. John knew him well enough to know what the responses would be - some random use of big long words put together in a sentence that made no sense to John, but left McKay feeling like he had won a battle over John. Mostly because John never retorted, trying to figure out what the man had meant.
That’s what happened when you knew a man who was a member of Mensa.
Bloody smartarses.
“Colonel Sheppard?” Teyla’s voice came from above. John squinted, seeing only the shape of Teyla bent over him.
“Teyla?” He asked and then felt the sunglasses plucked off of his face. He blinked, trying to adjust, before straightening up from the bench and holding out a hand for them. Smiling, obviously amused, Teyla handed them back, before stepping back a couple of paces and holding out a hand for John to take. He did so, allowing her to pull him up off of the bench.
He brushed off imaginary dust and then in unison turned to look at the sleeping figure leaning against the table. John really did not want to wake the man, but he didn’t have it in him to leave Teyla in here to do it alone. Maybe he could watch from the sidelines as she woke him up and step in, be the hero, as things got a bit tough. He had fun playing the hero. Except when it hurt him, because then he would regret playing the hero and be subjected to McKay lecturing him on of all the stupid and idiotic things he could have done.
Seriously, John knew the lecture off by heart. And he was certain that McKay wasn’t even going to bother anymore if it happened a few more times. Which it most definitely would do.
“I have finished with what I am doing,” Teyla said, in that usual, mystical, musical voice of hers. John would be jealous of it, if he wasn’t a guy. But he was a guy and so could only admire it. The Athosians were a weird bunch, but Teyla was half alright, otherwise she wouldn’t be on his team.
“That’s good. Does that mean that we will be going home soon?” John tried not to sound too hopeful, or to let it show. Teyla let out a soft laugh.
“Yes Colonel. I appreciate you coming with, but it was obvious to tell that you were - how do your people say it? - bored to tears, although I did not see you crying.” She frowned, slightly puzzled at the phrase that the people from Earth used. John shook his head.
“Don’t worry about it,” He said with a grin. “Being bored is nothing I’m not used to.” Okay, that was a lie. It had been true, at one point. Back before he joined the team on Atlantis he had known what boredom was, and had suffered it constantly, and had learnt how to amuse himself. Since he had come to Atlantis he hadn’t had time to think about being bored, and so now it was an unfamiliar feeling.
Oh god, he was starting to talk to the Athosians. He had better get home quickly.
Teyla smiled at him and patted his arm. John wanted to point out that he hadn’t been bored either, just slightly annoyed at being treated like a dog, but gave up before he started.
“If you are sure,” She said and then turned away. “I shall be off preparing the jumper, you can bring Ronon,” She shot over her shoulder, just before she fell out of hearing range. John took the time to blink a couple of seconds before he realized what the woman had done to him, and left him to do, and he cursed. Loudly. However, only a snort from Ronon responded to him and John sighed, turning to the sleeping man.
How was he going to do this, eh?
Stupid Teyla. Coward. She was a coward!
XxX
It had been three days since he had heard the news.
Three days.
72 hours.
4320 minutes.
I’m not superman.
John pushed himself up so he was sitting on the side of his bed and buried his face in his hands. He was a wreck. He hadn’t moved out of his quarters since he had got there. He hadn’t moved much further from his bed either, other than to go to the bathroom. He could feel three day old stubble on his chin, showing that he would need to shave sometime soon. And he was feeling pretty dirty as well, knowing that he should probably shower at some point.
He just couldn’t bring himself to move. Couldn’t bring himself to try and act like normal. Couldn’t bring himself to do anything, because each thing he did was another thing that Rodney was never going to do again. Every breath he took was another breath Rodney would never take. Every step he took was another step Rodney would never take. He hadn’t realized just how important the scientist had grown to him, hadn’t realized that he considered the man to be his best friend … until he was gone.
They say you don’t know what you have until it’s gone. John was inclined to agree with that sentence. He sighed heavily, squeezing his eyes shut, even as an image of Rodney in his chair, tapping silently at the computer, invaded his mind. That chair had been one that Rodney had hand chosen himself, claiming it to be the best of the chairs out there. No one had dared to contradict him.
Working on it!
He had had multiple people come to his door, knock on it and ask him if they could enter. He had told them rudely to go away. They could bang on his door all they liked, he wasn’t going to get out of here until he felt he could face not seeing Rodney every hallway, every staircase, every room. That would most likely be never, so he was never going to leave this room. He was grieving. They could all go screw themselves if they wouldn’t allow him this. He hadn’t cried, yet. He knew that he was only a few steps away from it though.
He had lost friends in his life. He hadn’t cried then, he’d just picked himself up and pushed onwards, never giving himself time to think about it, because it hurt. He hadn’t had the best family life. He hadn’t cried then either, he’d just picked himself up and pushed onwards, knowing that someday he would have his own family. A family he had chosen. But the two had never crossed before - friends had stayed friends, family had stayed family.
But that was before Atlantis.
That was before he had met the people here.
I got a problem here!
They were all there because they were the people that back on Earth no one would really miss. They were all there because they could make a difference here that they would never have been able to do on Earth. People who probably wouldn’t have even given someone a second glance on Earth were forced to work together, forming bridges that never would have occurred otherwise. People from everywhere, working together for one common goal.
Atlantis had given John more than he had even dreamed off. It had broken down his walls, had allowed people to squirm under him skin. He would die for them, and for this city, because of all that it had brought him. He had been certain that Atlantis was safe. He had been sure that they would survive. They had always survived. No matter what kind of situations they got themselves into, they always came back again.
They always came back, he always came back …
… except for this time.
With a scream of frustration, John pushed himself up off of the bed and kicked the stand next to it. It wasn’t fair. It had never been meant to happen. He should never have gone with Teyla, because then he could have gone with Rodney and helped save him. Or at least, if not save him, then die with him. It wasn’t fair - he was the hero, he was the one who put himself in danger deliberately. He was the one who should have died. Not Rodney. Rodney, who with all his phobias and all his allergies, never once failed John when he needed him the most. Rodney, who couldn’t hold a gun for longer than 5 seconds. Rodney, who had been scared of death every mission but kept going, because he trusted John to save him.
He trusted him, and John had let him down.
I figure it’ll be nice if we were all together as we burn up.
McKay.
I’m sorry, I mean as we get rescued. I always get those two confused.
“God damn it McKay!” He shouted, kicking the stand again, this time much harder. A sharp pain shot up his foot and he whimpered involuntarily. “Ow, ow, damn it,” He cursed, and hopped back to his bed. He sat down on it and brought his leg up onto the bed, before pulling off the shoe and then massaging the toes he had hurt. Suddenly he heard footsteps and he snapped his head, not surprised to see Elizabeth Weir in his rooms and heading towards him.
She honestly didn’t look very good, but then John was pretty certain that he didn’t look good too.
“Whatever you’re going to say, save it,” He grumbled as she came over to him. She put a hand on his shoulder, smiling sadly, and then tugged at him. Unwillingly, he came off the bed and stood on one leg. Belatedly, John remembered that Elizabeth and Rodney had been close friends before they all came to Atlantis. She must be feeling like how he was now, but unlike him, she wasn’t able to just shirk off her responsibilities.
“Come on John,” She said softly, picking up the boot and placing it down by his foot. “You can’t just wallow away in here.”
“Watch me,” John scowled.
“I have,” She replied. She placed her hands on his shoulders and stared him in the eye, trying to knock her point back home. “You miss him. You aren’t alone. We’re all a family here John and we just lost one of our number.” She paused, swallowing, and then continued. “We can’t lose another,” She whispered and John stood frozen, before jerking his head slowly. Elizabeth smiled again, albeit sadly, and stepped back. “Go clean up and then meet me in my office. We’ll be waiting.” With that, she turned and left the room, shutting the door behind her.
John stared after her for a short time before swallowing himself and then stalking over to get some clean clothes. Using stronger movements than necessary, he opened the draw and pulled it out too far, it falling on the ground and throwing clothes everywhere. John scowled again and randomly picked up the clothes he needed, before heading to the bathroom. He missed McKay, and he was never going to get used to him not being there. But he had to remember that there were others counting on him and he couldn’t let them down. Not yet at least.
It was only when he was in the shower and the water was pounding down that the tears fell.
‘Kay I don’t - I don’t wanna use the term ‘lonely’ but, uh, there are - certain people who I miss …
His team was minus one now, and no one would ever be able to fix it.
XxX
Smack.
Smack.
Smack.
Teyla Emmagan blew a strand of hair out of her eyes and focused on the person in front of her. She wasn’t sure who it was, it was just someone she had randomly picked in the training rooms to come and fight her. Obviously he was a new recruit though, because he hadn’t protested too much. That meant that her reputation for beating everybody hadn’t reached him yet. He came at her again and she defended herself, the loud smack echoing through the room.
She had to admit, he was pretty good. Most people didn’t normally last this long against her on a good day, when she was going easy on them. However, this man was fighting her tooth for claw and holding his ground against her while she was on a bad day. She liked fighting a worthy opponent, it kept her mind from wandering, it kept her from thinking about things that she did not wish to think about. She stepped to the side, whirling around to smack the young man on the back, sending him to the ground swiftly. There was a loud groan and then he rolled over onto his back, panting heavily.
“I give up,” He said and Teyla nodded, not showing any emotion, even though she was disappointed that the spar was over.
“Let me help you,” she forced a smile onto her face that she didn’t feel and held out her hand for the man to take. He took it and was pulled up. Teyla let go and stepped back. The man looked at her and raised an eyebrow.
“Thank you.” He gave her a smirk and for a moment Teyla’s breathe caught in her throat as it reminded her forcefully of the one person she was trying so hard to forget. “I’m Jeremy Daniels,” He introduced himself, still with that arrogant smirk. Teyla shook herself, mostly to will away the stream of memories that threatened to knock her down.
“Teyla Emmagan, leader of the Athosians,” She responded, her voice cracking slightly. She couldn’t stay here anymore; she had to get away before she lost her composure. Turning swiftly, she left at a run from the room, the doors banging shut behind her. She continued to run until she was a long, long way away from the training rooms and slowly calmed herself down to a jog, and then to a walk. She wasn’t quite sure where she was, but right now, she felt that was a good thing. She didn’t want to be around people right now, because she felt that she was going to break down and she had to get away before anyone saw her do so.
It was only when she glanced out of the window that she knew where she was. The North Wing of Atlantis, a usually deserted area because there weren’t a lot of things there that made it very habitable. It was a good place to go, however, if one wanted to get away from things for a time. She knew where she was going, but her feet lead her there anyway. An abandoned ledge, a balcony, overlooking the entirety of the main part of Atlantis. It was especially pretty in the night time, when someone looked over the ledge and saw all the lights shining brightly.
It was as she stood there, gazing over the edge, did the lump in her throat start to form. She did not find this place herself - she had been shown it. By her team mate, her friend - Rodney McKay. He had told her once that it was his favorite spot, because no one went there other than him, that no one disturbed him. No one knew about this place, other than her and his other friends, and they had respected that when he was out here he was not to be disturbed.
Teyla tried to swallow, but couldn’t quite get it past the lump. She felt a burning behind her eyes and she hastily started to blink. She was not going to cry. She was a leader to her people, and crying was a weakness she couldn’t afford. It didn’t matter whether they could see it or not, she would know, and that in itself was enough. But it was so hard for her not to. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get the picture, the image, the memories of Rodney out of her mind.
She had considered him a close friend, and had respected him for the man that he was.
He had always saved them when they needed it the most. When they were in a life or death crisis, he had always been there to get them out of it, make sure that they chose the life path. He was responsible for them being alive today, and for them having a home to come back to. Although Rodney McKay rubbed off on people the wrong way, she knew that the man cared deeply for Atlantis and her people. He wished to keep them safe. He wished to protect them.
Why else would he work so hard otherwise?
Teyla had not watched him, because she had other sources. Most people considered her to be a bank of calm that was never disturbed. They could rely on Teyla to always stay calm, to always be patient, to always be there. They knew that all was right with the world if Teyla was composed. She did not have the same type of respect that John had, or Elizabeth had. They were the leaders here, and although she was a leader herself, to the Atlanteans, she was just a colleague.
But because they relied on her, they came to her with their worries. It was like she was the person who everybody talked to. She knew which scientists were absolutely terrified of Rodney, and which ones respected him. She knew who liked him and who hated him. She knew who worried for him and who wouldn’t care. She had been told many times that they were worried about the amount of sleep that Rodney got.
Sniffling slightly, Teyla kept her eyes trained ahead of her and focused on the calming waves of the ocean. Water had always soothed her when she was a child, and that didn’t change as she grew up. But now it was a lifeline for her to hold on to, for her to use when all else failed. The sea would always be there. Water would always be there. It was reliable, just like her. She shut her eyes and gazed up at the darkening sky, showing that evening was soon coming and another day was falling to an end.
Once this day ended, it would have been almost a week since Rodney left and never came back.
She blamed herself, because if she hadn’t wanted to go to the mainland, then John and Ronon would not have come with her. If they had not come with her then they would have gone with Rodney, and perhaps, he would be with them now and they would not be experiencing the heartache that they now knew. A drop of water hit her cheek, startling her from her thoughts. Her eyes snapped open and she watched as the rain slowly started to fall.
Rodney had once told her that he loved the rain until it got him wet. He had told her that at night when he couldn’t sleep and it was raining, he would grab some clothes he didn’t mind getting wet and would walk to this balcony, just to watch the rain fall.
Another drop hit her on her nose this time and Teyla looked down from the sky, sending her gaze over the city of Atlantis. The rain was now starting to fall harder, but she still didn’t move, despite the fact that she was slowly getting wet. She wasn’t sure why she wasn’t moving in to the shelter, but something kept her out here, something kept her in the rain. She wished with all her heart that Rodney were not dead. However, if there was a choice between him being dead through a blown-up planet or alive in the hands of the wraith, she would wish for him to be dead, if only so he didn’t suffer.
Rodney had given his life for this expedition, along with many others.
Rodney had fought tooth and claw to protect Atlantis from any enemies that they had, to protect those he held dear.
“I promise you Rodney,” She whispered, the words being swept away on the wind as soon as they fell out of her mouth. “I will protect them, like you once did.” And although she still felt grief for her friend, and would most likely do so for a long time, somehow, her heart felt lighter knowing that she was doing something Rodney would approve of.
The smile on her face did nothing to stop the lone tear from falling as she knew their team was minus one now, and that would stay that way for a very long time.
XxX
“No, no, that’s wrong,” Radek Zelenka mumbled as he watched the computer. He then moved his hand to the mouse and clicked to stop the simulation and edited a few things, before playing in through again. “A little more of that,” He murmured, stopping the sim and changing something else. Playing it through, Radek finally sat back, a feeling of achievement running through his chest. He had finally done it! Clicking off of the simulation, he pushed himself away from the computer, and rolled across the floor to a computer a couple of feet away from him.
Pulling himself to it with his legs, he started to type on the computer for a couple more minutes, before clicking a final button and watching with satisfaction as things went back to normal. Of course, that had taken him far too long to figure out, and he only allowed himself a minute to feel triumphant, before he was pushing away from the computer and over to another one. This time he checked his emails, and his head dropped as he saw the 23 emails, each telling him about the problems that were occurring.
Three different problems, one after another, had cropped up, and Radek had been running around the lab ever since the first email. Of course, he could get rid of 6 of them, because he had just fixed that problem with the hot water. Now he had to move on to the next - there was a problem with the lights in the South section of the city. Radek frowned as he thought of best how to get to that, before minimizing his inbox and pulling up the program to show all the different connections.
His eyes skimmed down the page twice before he saw where the problem was. Sector 4, South Wing. He didn’t have time to go fix it himself, but he could send someone else down. He reached up for his radio.
“Jen, Dinah,” he said. “There’s a problem in Sector 4, South Wing. I have my hands tied up here; can you go and fix it?” He waited for a couple of seconds, before both girls answered in the affirmative. “Thank you,” he said and then switched off his radio. That was another problem down, now onto the third.
It took him half an hour to fix the third problem, and by the time he was done he was already feeling knackered. Pushing away from the computer he was working on, he let the chair just roll slowly across the room, and he used the time that he didn’t to try and relax. He hadn’t realized how exhausting this job actually was - no wonder Rodney had got little to no sleep. Radek had not understood at the time, because he could only see the things that Rodney did when he was with the rest of the scientists.
It had been a long time mystery between him and the other scientists about why Rodney never slept.
It seemed he got his answer.
Problems Radek hadn’t even known existed popped up every day, and Radek would be the one to fix it. And then once he was done with that, he would then move on to the individual projects that he had done. He also had to make reports to Dr. Weir about what had happened and when and how he fixed it, and he received the reports of his own scientist’s projects. He had to mark them, make improvements and send them back. Radek was struggling to do just that and have time to eat and sleep and relax too. How Rodney had managed with being taken away on off world missions at the same time and be called in to save them in the life or death situations … Radek would never guess.
He had once wanted this job. The respect he would gain. An entire department he could control. He had wished for the job he had now, had resented Rodney for it. Now, he wanted Rodney to have it back. He wanted Rodney to come waltzing through that door and yell at him for managing to ruin everything while he was away and then kick Radek out of the seat, thank him for keeping it warm and then settle down to work. Radek would pick himself up off of the floor and he would make a fuss, but would be secretly glad that Rodney was back to take it over.
Rodney didn’t come waltzing through the door however. And Radek knew he never would again. The story of what had happened was too close to his heart for his liking. He had been one of the scientists on that planet - himself and seven others. They had been out there exploring and jumping for joy as they found Ancient technology and lots of it. It was the jackpot. They had been preparing to head back when the wraith had come. Radek was ashamed to admit that he had been one of the first to run for cover.
Rodney, he hadn’t moved. He hadn’t started panicking, or shouting, or screaming. He had dropped his items, pulled out a gun from a pocket that Radek didn’t know he had and started shooting at the wraith dart. While everyone took cover, Rodney had managed to bring it down, leaving them all safe. Radek had been in awe of the scientist, because he hadn’t seen Rodney act that way before. That was not what he had heard from his team mates.
Of course, with them around, Rodney didn’t have to worry.
Once the wraith had gone, people started to crowd around Rodney and congratulate him on it. Rodney had seemed shocked that he had managed to bring down one. But as people swarmed around him, it was like he’d snapped back. He’d ordered everyone to get out, immediately, because he did not know how badly he had hit the wraith ship and it could be back at any second. That had got people moving and they had managed to get almost everything through before the wraith come back.
Radek had been the last one to enter, other than Rodney. He had not wanted to leave Rodney behind. But Rodney had practically shoved him to the gate. The last thing Radek had seen was Rodney’s face before he was whisked away back to Atlantis. His face …
Radek opened his eyes, staring up at the grey ceiling. Rodney’s face had been a mixture of terror, determination, triumph … resignation. He had known what was most likely going to happen. He had accepted it. He was just happy that no one else would die because of it.
Radek had known then, as the Stargate closed behind him and he was bombarded with questions about where Rodney was, that he would never see the man again. He had realized then that Rodney McKay was not coming home. He had realized then that Rodney was one of his closest friends, and the shock and loss of him was devastating.
“Doctor Zelenka?” Radek blinked back the tears that had come to his eyes as he remembered the raw pain he had felt, and turned to look at who had said his name. Two woman stood in front of him - Jen Hall and Dinah Stone. “Jen, Dinah,” Radek greeted them with a tired smile.
“Sir. We have fixed the problem in Sector 4, South wing,” Jen said. They both looked rather sad, and Radek knew it was because they were not used to seeing Radek in the chair and not Rodney. Radek nodded.
“Thank you.” He told them. “Get back to what you were doing,” He dismissed them and they nodded, before leaving the room together, chatting quietly. Radek watched them go, reminded of when he had left this office doing the same thing, leaving Rodney inside of it. Knowing that Rodney would always be there if he needed help, with a lecture and an annoyed sigh.
Radek swallowed past the lump in his throat and wiped at his eyes swiftly, before turning on to the next thing on his agenda.
The science department had lost a valuable member. They were minus one of their number now, and the loss was felt by all.
XxX
Also on another note, Rodney's trip is being rewritten by the author, as she decided she wanted to change some bits of it. It is being sent to me to beta in stages, which i'll post up here when they're done. There is also talk of a sequal once the rewrite is finished, tho it does depend on whether people are interested. So please leave reviews!!!!