How the Story Goes by Kat Reitz and tzigane (folklore challenge)

[tzi]

Title: How the Story Goes
Authors: tzi & zaganthi
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG-13ish. Ish =D
Summary: "Besides, yelling up like that other guy seemed stupid. Rodpunzel, Rodpunzel, let down your golden stair? C'mon. That's a serious cliché."
Spoilers: Up to Runner. Kind of. Sort of. ^_~ Also, you know. Rapunzel. =D But if you don't know about that, you're sad.
Length: 6,706 words.



You weren't born when first I knew you.

They were trying times, at best; the shielding around our nuclear devices had not been sufficient, had not held back the radiation, and the better number of our most brilliant minds were rendered sick with wasting disease at worst or sterile at best. Perhaps those should be reversed. At least those with the wasting sickness had the good sense to die instead of flapping their hands about and remaining useless.

I, Acastus Kolya, never have been less than a whole, and always a man of martial mind. I have never been partial to flights of fancy, to worship of the Ancestors, the way some others have done. No. I have always believed there to be a good and practical solution to any given problem, and been willing to carry it out regardless of consequences.

If all of the so-called accomplished scientists of the Genii could not solve our problems, could not bring the defeat of the Wraith to fruition, then I would by force of nature be required to do what was necessary.

Long since, the Genii have known of the Tower in the Vale. The Tower is far distant from all settlements, many weeks travel from the Ring of the Ancestors, from the tunnels in which we lived, and the rude houses at which we sacrificed those dead and dying to the Hunger of our world. The Tower was considered sacred to those of a religious bent, considered to be a possible advantage by those of military proficiency, considered to lead to scientific advancement by those scientists who so badly failed our people.

They were not like you.

It took doing, and searching. A great deal, through many of the Rings of this realm. You had to be the most ready-witted, prepared, the one who would be capable of saving us all, if the time came when once again we could afford to put our best and brightest on the line for such things. You had to be smarter than the ones who had gone before you.

I had never expected you to fall into my lap so very easily.

The last world to which I went, the final search I made, endured a long time. Months, compared to weeks, and I was getting tired. Sometimes, one has to rest from searching so that one may search again, and so I settled. The village was a poor one, little better than those of the Athosians with whom the Genii have long traded. Still, there were comforts to be had, and have them I did, touching down momentarily from the flight of my pursuit.

The house I chose had been empty for some time, lacking a roof, lacking many amenities. No one minded that I worked on it, or that I lived there for some time, planting a variety of seeds that I had brought with me in the interest of trade.

No one minded at all, save the woman next door.

Her husband was the local blacksmith, a man of creative bent. I came to know him well as time passed, as I needed this or that or the other to be crafted, to replace the things worn out in the shell of a house in which I lived. He was bright, too, brighter than many I had passed by in my search, yet he was unfortunately too old. The very young learn more quickly than those who have gained their years to full adulthood, and it was a shame that I had not known to search fifteen years before.

Still.

His wife was with child, and though she was a shrew, she, too, held a spark of brightness about her that caught my eye.

She caught my eye the way my garden caught her own.

I had tava beans, and sweet corn, bursts of angelica and rhodiola, saffron and lamb's lettuce.

It was the lamb's lettuce that won me you.

She could not pass by it without eyeing it with greed, and before long, she would stand beside the garden, almost salivating. She promised me anything, anything I could want, if only she could have the fruits of my labors.

I demanded the fruit of her own.

She did not seem to want to give you, not of her own will, but the lamb's lettuce and the juneberry-tinged vinegar I made for it brought her to my little home again and again and again, until finally she could not turn away the offer.

She lied.

Well, of course she lied. What woman would give up the seed growing in her womb for a simple salad, even if it was from greens she'd never before seen? None, but her lies grew quick and keen, and she took care of things in the house that needed fixing with a quick eye and a clever wit that told me you would grow to be at least equal to your parents, if not more so.

On the day she birthed you, I stole you away from beneath their noses, and burned their house to the ground behind me before bringing you to this, the Tower in the Vale. They would not have appreciated you, would not have shown you the wonders of the Tower. They would have kept you a lowly peasant, apprenticed to be a pig boy or worse, and I?

I have given you the stars, boy.

Never forget that.

Distance protected and harmed him.

On the one hand, the Distance, the loneliness, it allowed him to focus. Kolya told him that he was supposed to concentrate. And concentrate. And concentrate. There was always work to be done or books to be read or theories to be twisted. He had more time on his hands than he knew what to do with, but Kolya seemed to think that the time he spent staring up at the sky was good for him, gave his brain a rest.

It only made Rod burn with curiosity to discover what was beyond the tower.

He knew there must be something; Kolya came and went, day by day by day, and he was always gone the same amount of time before he returned. During that time, Rod worked on whatever Kolya brought him. Sometimes, he managed to figure it out. Sometimes, he didn't. On occasion, one of the items would glow brightly, and those were the ones he loved to delve into the most. Sometimes, they did nothing, and those were boring days of trying to make it do something.

Then, too, there was the story he always told, of how he had managed to steal Rod away from his parents, killing them in their beds. That was proof that there were others out there, other people, other... other anything besides the nothing that was Kolya, and Rod, and their rhymes and reasons.

Rod woke every morning at the same time to be given breakfast. Kolya brushed his hair, and helped him to dress, and climbed down the knotted rope ladder that they kept on the balcony. Rod would never climb down; he was terrified of the height, for one, but he knew that Kolya would catch him, and he feared that would be unpleasant.

They had not always gotten along well. His younger years had sometimes been rough, hard to navigate, because he transformed, and the way Kolya looked at him altered. Everything changed, from his hair to his face, to his body, and he'd never wanted so badly to leave the Tower as he had then. There had been spankings, a broad hand on his ass, hitting him too hard for Rod's tastes. Eventually, he'd calmed down. There had been a few moments that they never spoke of again where things had gotten... tense.

Day-by-day the routine was the same. Kolya came back at the end of it, with new things to look at, usually, or papers and books, and he told Rod tales of the world beyond, of horrifying creatures that roamed the ground and fed on people.

Good reason, he thought, never to climb down to the ground at all. How would he find his way? He'd end up eaten, or abandoned and starving, and Rod was far from stupid.

He never tried to get away.

Instead, they kept to their patterns -- Kolya went, and Kolya came. There were new devices, and dinner, and then Kolya would help him bathe, and brush his hair, even when it started coming loose and Kolya reluctantly cut the golden curls short. Then, Rod would be tucked in, and there would be stars from the ceiling above, and stories, and he would fall asleep before Kolya went to his own bed on the other side of the Tower.

It was a simple life, satisfying, Rod supposed as he leaned his elbows on the sill of the tall window that they used as a door. Just some days.... He wondered what was out there other than Kolya and his stories and creatures that ate people.

He really worried about those creatures that ate people.

"Hey! You up there!"

Okay. That? That was nothing at all like Kolya's demands to be let up.

Kolya had always told him that if someone came to the Tower, he was to be inside quickly, to shut all of the doors and hide down below the upper rooms. The trouble was that Rod's curiosity really did get the better of him most of the time.

"I saw your ladder!" the voice yelled. "Let it down so I can come up?"

He'd already been spotted. Except what if the man down there was one of those creatures that ate people? Rod leaned out the window a little, trying not to get dizzy from the view down. "Why should I? Who are you?"

"I'm Major John Sheppard, and I thought you looked kind of lonely!" The guy yelling up at him seemed to be kind of... well. Pretty, Rod guessed, all black hair and a nice smile. At least he thought it was nice.

It was a long way down.

"Besides, yelling up like that other guy seemed stupid. Rodpunzel, Rodpunzel, let down your golden stair? C'mon. That's a serious cliché."

"Rodpunzel is my name!" Rod snapped, peering down at the pretty-seeming man. "What've you been doing, watching?"

"Actually, that's a long story. I've kinda been stuck here a while. Are you gonna throw down that rope ladder, or should I, you know. Just go back out into the forest with the wild animals?"

That was unfair, because Rod had a knee-jerk hatred of wild animals. Kolya sometimes brought him small animals -- most of them didn't like the idea of being in a tower, and even they bit. "Hold on." He twisted, grabbing the ladder.

What was the worst that could happen?

Four months passed. Four glorious, wonderful months in which Rod had company every single day. In the morning when Kolya left, John came, and Rod threw down his ladder. Sometimes, they spent all day pulling apart the ancient devices Kolya brought him. Sometimes, they spent all morning in bed, skin slick on skin, John pushing into him, and kissing him, devouring him and burning him up from the inside out in all the best ways.

Every night before it was time for Kolya to return, John begged him to come down the ladder with him.

But to where? John slept in the woods at night, and John had nowhere to go, while Rod had running water, and heat when the air bit with cold, and all of the ancient devices that he wanted. He didn't have to hunt for his food; it was brought to him. Life was flawless, because he had everything except, perhaps, John staying with him. He would have been useful, if he'd stayed. They could have done just as much work, and had just as much sex, which really would have been entirely perfect to Rod's way of thinking.

He wasn't sure that Kolya would have liked it much, though.

Things had become strange and stretched between himself and his pseudo-parent, the man who had raised him in the tower. Kolya looked at him now, long and hard, and the bathing and hair brushing and tucking in parts weren't nearly as pleasant anymore. It seemed he was suspicious, and Rod wasn't stupid enough to think that being found out would be at all a good thing.

Kolya had a temper. It wasn't something Rod tested, but he knew it was there. Still, he couldn't stop letting John come up, because John was fast becoming the highlight of his days. And yes, he needed to make a decision, but if Rod had any choice at all, he'd put it off until he had to. If John was leaving, going somewhere. If Kolya... found out.

Rodpunzel was not going to think about what would happen Then. It was better to let Kolya down, and to let John up, and then to reverse the action every evening. Better, for quite some time. Nearly perfect, just not quite.

It was late during the fifth month that Kolya scowled at him during his nightly bath. "You're getting fat, Rodpunzel."

Fat wasn't the word for it, he decided as he shot Kolya a glare. "I'm just... I haven't exercised much." He'd exercised too much, if sex counted as exercise. It certainly made him sweat a lot, stretched out all of his muscles.

All of them. Very pleasantly, too, in his august opinion.

"No. No, I suspect that you have been exercising too much!" The sudden wrench of a hand in his hair made Rodpunzel yelp and give a whimper. Ow, ow, that hurt, that wasn't nice at all! Kolya had never been so angry with him before, ever. "The fertility device has been working quite well below-ground, and I see it's been working aboveground as well!"

"Let go of me!" He tried to twist away, and to stand up, get out of the tub -- whatever he could do, one hand on Kolya's wrist to pull him off.

"Whose get have you caught in your belly?" It had been pale and flat not so long ago, but now it curved outward, he curved outwards, and his curls were flattening, turning dark. "What man's whore have you become, when I tucked you away here to live a pleasant charmed life!?"

"He's, he has the same blood I do -- we've been working together!" Whore -- he was no whore, and he would have snapped that, except Kolya's eyes were burning like coals.

"I'll show you blood." It was said with a hiss, and then there was a knife, and Rodpunzel couldn't help crying out again, hurting and terrified. Kolya had done many things, smacked him, yelled at him, even slapped him once, but never anything so horrible. "And after I've had done with you and the brat in your belly, I'll spread his from one side of the Vale to another."

Oh, no, no, not John, no, not him, because how could he be fertile? How could it have gotten to that point at all?

But there was a flash of the knife in the light, and Rod couldn't stay awake for his own death.

It was easier to close his eyes, and to pass away cleanly before it happened.

John Sheppard was a brave man. He had more medals than most, had flown in more outright battles, and he had his own command despite being five years younger than his father had been for his first.

He was also stuck on Planet Mennonite, or something remarkably close. It was kind of like those really bad jokes. What do you get if you cross the Amish with the Nazis?

Apparently, the Genii.

Things had kind of sucked since getting to the Pegasus Galaxy. First there had been that whole thing with nearly drowning, and then he'd been forced to kill his commanding officer. The Chief Science Officer had pretty much died in the first three days from some weird allergy nobody had even considered, and that had left them hurting for command staff.

Dr. Weir had promoted John and Zelenka, and that had been all well and good, right up until they'd gone to visit the Mennonites.

Maybe he shouldn't have ever spoken the word 'C4' to them. Not that it was a word in the conventional sense, but the idea of something that exploded that strong clearly wasn't what the Amish needed. They needed sedatives, and they needed to put locks on their damn hidden underground hatches, because if they did that, John and Zelenka wouldn't have gotten into the mess they'd found themselves in.

At least he'd managed to let Zelenka get to the gate while he drew them away into the forest. He'd pretty much managed to lose them there, too, especially once he got to the Vale. That place was cultivated to within an inch of its life, all to support one guy at the top of a tower.

John had thought it was a joke at first. Who put a guy in a tower and named him Rodpunzel, anyway? There wasn't any long golden hair to climb up and down, just a well-tied rope ladder that got tossed over the parapet. It was some kind of Ancient tower, too, although Rod apparently didn't explore too far down the stairs. He pretty much just believed what that bastard Kolya told him and let it go at that.

Kolya had raised him, he'd said. Apparently Kolya wasn't that well loved by Rod, because Rod had hardly hesitated before he'd thrown the ladder down, just to say hi.

Rod had an amazing, annoying, fascinating personality.

He bitched and whined and moaned endlessly. He complained about everything, waved his hands while he talked, and sometimes, John wondered if he was even noticing that John was actually there until he asked for help with something -- a hand to hold a tool, or a hand just to hold his.

Those were the requests John liked best.

He couldn't deny it. Rod was the reason he'd stuck around for so long, anyway. Nobody had sent a puddlejumper through, but John probably could have gotten back through the gate. He had a whole city waiting for him, and only a Lieutenant in charge of it.

He just couldn't bring himself to leave. Couldn't leave him behind, but he couldn't get Rod to come with him. He was sure that Rod would have been an asset to the base, and to John. The sex was mind-blowing, and John couldn't quite wrap his mind around the fact that all the pieces of Rod added up to the same person, but they did.

He just needed to get Rod to come with him. Come with him, and they could go through the gate and maybe, maybe they wouldn't hit the iris and go splat. John was pretty sure he remembered the coordinates to the Alpha site, anyway, so they could try there first.

Today, he decided, was going to be the day. He was going to convince Rod to go through the gate with him, to leave the tower. He was going to have his way.

"Hey! Rod! Toss down the ladder!"

It was a little later than usual, but Rod hadn't been feeling so hot in the morning lately. He'd taken to rolling on the bed and whining and asking John to rub his belly with a cold cloth. He'd put on a little weight, too, which John found pretty damn pleasing. He kind of liked his men a little less bony than he was. Nothing was worse than hips banging together in all the wrong ways, but a little padding was great. It made Rod's sweet ass even sweeter, and he'd definitely looked healthier lately. Kind of glowing.

When he saw the city of the Ancients, he'd really glow.

John pulled at the ladder, made sure it was secure, and started to climb up. Rod was probably back in bed already. It was kind of nice to get to the top and find him there, warm and sleepy beneath the blankets. It was the best time John could think of to curl up behind him and cup between his legs, pull an orgasm out of him before he was even really awake.

The thought was distracting enough that he almost tripped climbing over the top parapet, and that? That would have been one hell of a long fall if he tripped. Not the best of times to get distracted by thoughts of what lay fifteen feet away instead of a hundred and fifteen.

When he finally got over the parapet and in through the window, what he found gave a true meaning to the word 'distraction'.

There was no Rod waiting for him lazily in bed. There wasn't much by way of ancient devices out to indicate that Rod had gone down one level in search of tools. There was instead one pissed off looking Genii soldier, with his arms crossed over his chest. "You. You're the one?!"

Great. He had one of those guns, too, the ones that kind of blew holes in important stuff like walls and human chests. Namely his chest. "Um. Yeah?" What else was he going to say at that point, after all? No?

"That, Major, is a terrible answer. If you had merely profaned the Valley, I like as not would have killed you. You, however, have done so much worse. You've desecrated the seed of my searching, and for that? I'd much rather see you suffering than dead." Okay. There was the scary gun, pointed rather worryingly at himself.

"The seed of your -- look, I don't know what you're talking about, and your people and mine haven't got the best relations, yeah, but I think we can work something out, so if you'd just lower your gun...." It was past time to start backing up to the window again.

The soldier came forward. "Oh, no, Major. I won't be lowering my gun. Let it not be said that Acastus Kolya allowed any deed against him to go unpunished." There was something in his other hand, and that didn't seem like it would be good. "I'm afraid I've already committed myself, you see. He was practically my child, and I've sent him to suffer the damnations of hell thanks to the filth of your seed taking root. What do you think I might do to you for that?"

His seed taking root? It made John nervous and confused, but he shifted to climb back down as best as he could, because he was going to get shot no matter what he did. "You could let me go?"

"You know, I really don't believe that's an option."

When the light struck his eyes, John let go. It was reflex, grabbing for them when they hurt so badly. It was also stupid, and his leg got tangled in the rope, hip practically giving a loud snap when the muscles protested the drop.

"I see you're having a bit of trouble. Let me help you with that."

He twisted, tried to hold onto the rope, but he could feel it moving, too, could feel his hip twisting up and fuck, fuck, that was not going according to any plan. That was him, dropping, grabbing, and then plummeting outright with only agony at the end of the drop.

Picked him up at a Ring outside a planet they called Meljan. Guy couldn't see. Figured he'd be a disadvantage more than anything else, but he moved pretty good. Kept himself in food by telling this crazy story about a guy in a tower. Well, a girl, but I stuck with him a while. Figured out it wasn't a girl after all.

Asked him once why he kept doing that, telling the story. Kept us in food, but I figured there had to be a better reason.

Sheppard said that was because it was how the story went. 's when I knew he was crazier than I thought. That was okay. I was still Running back then. Didn't want to stop. He made me. Long enough to eat, long enough to drink, long enough to tell the story.

Couldn't help me dig the transmitter out of my back, but he found a guy who managed it. Messed me up some. Something about the muscles and the nerves, but it was better than Running.

Been traveling with him for a couple years now. Sometimes, he talked about his people, and a city. It made me think he might've been Satedan. Not many cities in the Rings, but he said no.

So I went back to figuring out his story. And we worked.

Seemed to go on pretty easy for a while. He never asked about his face, or his eyes, even though he couldn't see. Figured that wasn't any of my business, like the guy in the tower probably wasn't. Girl. Whatever.

He just kept telling the story everywhere we went, same one. Talked about the guy, pretending it was a girl. People gave him money for the story. Kept us in food between odd jobs. Mostly, we just moved from Ring to Ring, looking for the guy. Sheppard was pretty determined he was alive. Said that was how the story went.

Kind of figured he was probably crazier than he looked, but harmless. Pretty useful, too. Knew all kinds of things. Every now and then, he'd hear about somebody coming through the Ring before us and we'd turn around, head back off-planet. Go someplace else. Figured that was his business, one way and another. Didn't know what it meant, exactly, but it was pretty obvious he was avoiding somebody. Whoever his people were.

I didn't ask, figured he'd tell me in his own time, figured I'd find out if it was ever important. Ring to Ring, we went. Sometimes, there was a quiet planet. No people, just plants and food. On one of those, it started to make more sense. Wasn't just a story after all.

Blacksmith on the place was smart. Scary smart, invented all kinds of things. He was scarred up, too, more than any blacksmith I'd ever seen. Missing an ear. Kids shied away from his side of the street, but he had a story to tell. Matched up with the beginnings of Sheppard's enough that I got to thinking.

So I asked.

"This girl. In the story." Didn't much matter whether it was really a guy. "You said the witch cast her out into hell."

"Yeah."

Yeah. So. There wasn't a lot I could do, but I knew a couple places so close to hell a man could feel the burn.

It took a while to get there. Two, three Rings later, but the heat was dry, and there were no birds in the sky on that planet. Sunlight was enough to drive a man mad there. Figured it was close enough to hell to pass for the way Sheppard told it. It was that or the one planet where it got crazy cold at night, and burned up during the day. Wasn't any kind of shade there. Nowhere to go. Kind of place where a man would die instead of suffering forever.

Sheppard didn't like it. Kept tripping over the vines and roots, saying that there wasn't anybody there. He had good senses, usually.

He didn't know about the caves.

Got hunted there once, before we found a guy who could dig out the transmitter. Killed three Wraith, got through the Ring before the next wave managed to get hold of me. There was always a kind of grace period. Not much fun chasing a guy who doesn't know how to Run, I guess. That was when I found the caves.

Figured if anybody was going to live through a world like that, they'd be stuck in one of them.

So, I took him with me for a look. Couldn't hurt.

Might help.

Two years. Two years of tramping from world to world to world with this taciturn guy he couldn't even see, and seriously. He was a great guy, aside from the whole nearly-getting-them-both-killed-by-Wraith thing, but this? This idea completely sucked.

It was hot, to start with. It was hot, and there wasn't the hint of a bar fight to rescue anyone from, or to start. There wasn't a single noise of civilization, and he was pretty used to it being thin in the air.

Ronon wanted to poke around in some caves he remembered. He should have found the guy a non-Hoffan doctor to cut his transmitter out, because clearly they'd damaged his brain along with making him limp. It wasn't a lot, but the whole thing was better than being chased by Wraith any day of the week.

"Seriously," John protested again, catching himself as he got whapped in the face with a branch -- again -- while he tried to tromp after Ronon. "There's nothing here. No way. Nothing. Let's just...." He stopped. "Let's go back to the Ring and head out."

"I heard something. Shhh." The fact that Ronon probably talked more because John was blind than he otherwise would have wasn't a good sign. But John shushed, and he listened, really listened to the air around them.

Leaves. Wind. Heat.

...steps? Steps. Crunching over leaves and sticks, rapid and light, like something small, dogs or some kind of bigger animal, or even... No way it could be humans, right? Except there were voices, then, faint and growing louder.

"It's mine!"

"Nuh-uh! Daddy says it's mine and that yours is the broken one!"

"Daddy is wrong!"

"Daddy's never wrong!"

"Daddy just thinks he's never wrong. Besides, if he catches us out here in full daylight, we're both in trouble, so give it back!"

Great. Kids.

"Nuh-uh!"

Ronon grabbed his sleeve, and pulled him forwards slightly, which was a signal to get going towards the noise. Great. Ronon was just going to scare the shit out of the kids, and their dad would come out of a cave to throw rocks at them.

Perfect. This was getting better and better. The part where he was blind was actually starting to look like a positive compared to what the rest of the day probably held in store.

"C'mon, Ronon, there's probably some cave guy who's gonna come out throwing rocks any minute now..."

"Iron! Copper!"

John felt his entire body twitch. It had been years. He hadn't heard those dulcet tones since...

"Rod?" he whispered, and stepped forward, practically falling over the tree he'd been hiding behind. "Rod!"

"What?!" He heard his voice go loud, startled, and then he could hear movement, steps and twigs snapping underneath of them. "John?"

"Daddy! Daddy, Copper took my toy!"

"Did not! Did not! It's mine, Daddy!"

"Rod!" John couldn't help yelling, and Ronon was helping him, but he still felt as if he was scrambling, fighting against the forest and Ronon, and years of distance, and Jesus, fuck, Rod had kids? He'd been blind and lost and Rod had been here breeding with some, some... cave bunny!?

He was going to beat the bitch up when Rod wasn't looking. Hell, he could get Ronon to do it.

John wasn't sure where he was standing when he finally felt arms wrap tight, desperately tight, around him. "John! John, I thought you were dead, he told me you were dead..."

"And you, what? Took up with some, some cave slut!?" Okay. Maybe that was a little overdone. It definitely wasn't anything John would have said a year ago, maybe not even three years ago. Okay. Yeah. He so would have. "Look. Um. I came up and you were gone and, uh. You're probably. You know. Happy now. And..." Yeah, okay, he wasn't doing this so well. "We were just. Passing by."

"He's been looking for you," Ronon rumbled. "Couple years before I found 'im. Couple years since. Cute kids. One looks like you, Sheppard. Got the ears."

Pointy ears, yeah. Couple of people in one town tried to imply he was part Wraith because his ears were a little pointed. What did they know?

Rod wouldn't let go of him, though. "What happened? I want to know what happened to you -- here, come in. None of us should be in the sun like this. Did you hear me, Copper? Iron! Get back inside!"

"Daddy!"

"Mine!"

"Go to your room!" John yelled, because his head was swimming. Their voices were sharp and pointy in his head, and he couldn't see them. Not to save his life.

"You look like the picture Daddy drew," one of them said, and then John felt it, felt arms around him and a face pressed to his.

"I've missed you. You have no idea..." There was a press of stubble against his cheek, and the quiet sound of Ronon laughing, behind him and mostly to the left. "John. Come in with me."

"Okay." Okay, even if he had to meet Rod's cave bunny wife slut thing. Okay. He could do that, and he fumbled, reaching for Rod's hand and taking it, clutching at it. "Okay. I'll come in with you."

Ronon snorted. "Before the sun fries what's left of your brains."

"It's toxic," Rod confirmed. If it was toxic, John wondered, why the hell was he still there? Then again, Rod had been the genius living at the top of a tower with a really creepy guy and he'd never climbed down. Maybe it just went to show. He kept a grip on John's hand when he started to walk away, and John guessed he could trust him to lead John back to the cave that the kids were running off towards.

"Rod, why didn't you leave?" he asked. He couldn't help himself, he had to know.

"I was afraid." And then fingers were crushing tight over top of his, desperately firm. He was scared. John could feel it, the way he felt the cool shadows gather over him as they moved in out of the sun.

"I've been looking for you." Might as well admit it for himself. Admit it to Rod. "I've been looking for you for so long. I thought I wouldn't." Find him. See him again. Yeah, he wouldn't see him again, but that was, it was okay. He had a picture of Rod in his head, one that would last him a damn long time, one that had lasted him through everything.

"I thought you were dead." It wasn't going to make John any less bitter about the cave bunny. "So, I stayed here. The Wraith don't come here, so it's safe for us."

"Us. You, Copper, Iron.... your wife?" John asked. His mom had always said it was better to go ahead and get the big pains out of the way. He really kind of believed that was the best thing to do. "What's she? Naquadah?"

Rod went still in the cooler shade of the cave they were standing in. "They're yours. I don't have a -- they're yours."

His? It wasn't like he'd been having hot monkey sex with anybody who could have....

Except there was something, buzzing in the back of his head. "That Genii guy. He said something about... me desecrating some kind of seed....?" Raping, plundering, pillaging. Something or other. "But you're... Is there something you really need to explain here?"

"Fertility device I came across. Apparently it took very little to turn on. I'm not sure if Acastus was planning on... I don't know. It doesn't matter. He left me here, and I've managed to survive." Rod's fingertips were just brushing his cheek when he heard.

"Daddy? Who're the strange men?"

"I'll, uh. Take care of the kids," Ronon said. It was funny to John. Kids liked him, liked to climb all over him. Didn't ever want to look at John.

"How did you...?" Okay. Yeah, stupid question. What went in had to come out and all that. He wasn't even going to think about how. "Never mind that. I... I wanted. I've...."

Fingers traced the scarring on his cheeks, and Rod was standing damn close again. "What did he do to you? Your eyes aren't tracking."

"I don't know." He didn't, because he hadn't seen it. "I was trying to get back down the ladder and he started cutting it. I fell." It was a long way. Maybe not ten stories, but enough to be bad. He'd broken all kinds of things, and John had managed to find a doctor to set the worst ones, but nobody like Carson. "When I woke up, I couldn't see."

Rod kept touching them, light and gentle, and John didn't understand how he could. They were ugly. He knew they had to be, because John knew what he'd looked like before, and he could pretty much guess.

"Idiot." Rod whispered that, leaning in closer. "Idiot. Why didn't you go back to your people?"

"I wanted...." He could feel wetness on his face, and something like grit, slipping down his cheeks. They weren't his own tears. "I wanted to find you. That's not how the story goes. I had to look...."

"John..." Rod pulled at him, walked him forwards, deeper into the caves. "I should have gone with you the first time you asked."

Yeah, well. He should have. There was no question about it. "It's okay. It's all right, Rod, that's... it's not how the story goes." That was important to remember. "Seriously, though. Kids?"

"Yeah. They're twins. It was..." Rod's fingers slipped, rested at the back of his neck as he guided him forwards now. "It was hell."

Yeah. John could only imagine. In fact, he was pretty sure he didn't want to imagine. "I wish..." He wished a lot of things, more than anyone could imagine. He wished he had been there. He wished he could have helped Rod. He wished he could see Rod. "I'm tired of looking. I'm glad we found you."

"Are you going to stay? I think... I might be able to fix you. This network, it was a base once. The ancestors left a great deal of equipment behind."

"Wherever you are." John paused, licked at his lips. "You and the kids, I guess. That's, um. That's where I want to be."

Rod stopped, moved and guided him with hands to sit him down on, on something. It was strange and John wasn't sure what to do, because Rod pulled back, and the chair reclined with him. He was alive. Alive, and there were kids, just like the story.

Sometimes, John really hated the Pegasus Galaxy.

This wasn't one of those days.

"John, I want you to think about where we are in the solar system."

There were lights.

Golden, soft and glowing, and he hadn't seen anything in so long. So long, but they were there, and expanding in that tranquil, soothing way that Ancient devices always seemed to have.

"Wow." John couldn't help the catch of his breath. "Did I do that?"

"It's all you." Rod's voice was soft beside his, and he could feel the other man's fingers on his shoulder, resting comfortably. "I've learned a lot while I've lived here."

"I can see that." See that, see the stars, see Rod. "I can see you. I can. We could...." Go home. Go back to Atlantis, if they wanted. Could do anything. They'd take him back, in the city. They would. It wasn't his fault, he'd been blinded and lost. To start with, he'd have to find an IDC. And explain...

"We can do anything." Rod's fingers stayed in place, and he leaned down, blocking John's view, cheek pressed against his own. "I'm sorry this happened to you..."

"It was worth it," John told him, and it was. He believed it. He had Rod, and they had kids and Ronon had helped him find them and he could see and...

And.

They lived happily ever after.