Descent of Man by Kat Reitz & tzigane (Animal challenge)

[tzi]

Title: Descent of Man
Authors: tzi & zaganthi
Pairing: John/Rodney. Ish.
Rating: PG-13 for humping
Series: Stargate Atlantis
Summary: Teyla kept trying to fill the silence.
Spoilers: Consider them possible up through the end of Season Three (especially Tao of Rodney) and through seven or eight of SG-1, but Sunday didn't actually happen in our corner of the world.
Length: 5,469 words



Teyla kept trying to fill the silence.

It wasn't as if they'd never walked quietly from a gate to a village before. They had. That was usually because Rodney was choosing not to talk, or he was mumbling to himself about readings or chewing something, or occasionally just taking in the route in a thoughtful manner.

Now, Teyla tried to talk for Rodney, and it was kind of stretching John's nerves. Ronon, at least, wasn't much of a talker. He was becoming one now that their team had one scientist who hated stepping through the gate instead of one scientist who dragged them headlong into danger looking for the source of a signal. At least Zelenka was kind of funny, in his own neurotic way.

John still wondered why Zelenka and Ronon kept going on those camping trips, when all they came back with was stories about how bad the hunting was when there was a lot of equipment that went beep, and how bad the monitoring was when someone was randomly crashing through the woods.

He missed having that kind of anger-management style of relationship with someone.

"The Elipians are renowned among traders for their metal work. They have mastered..."

It was sort of like having the Discovery channel right in his ear, walking beside him. The Elipians had mastered a delicate filigree style of crafting and yes, yes, he could hear a Rodney-voice in the back of his head bitching, 'And I care because?'.

"What do they use it for?" John prompted. He didn't get an answer, because seconds later he saw Ronon jerk and move to cover Zelenka. There was motion in the underbrush off to their left.

John knew there was no such thing as a quiet mission. He knew it, but he still hoped that one day he could take a walk in the woods and not be fired on by hostile Genii or monkeys or something. Wraith worshipers, two planets ago had been Wraith worshipers. But there was just a noise, and then the noise again, rustling motion, and Teyla placed a hand lightly on John's arm, as if to say 'don't be a trigger happy idiot' because he had fired at someone's little kid playing in the woods and that was a mission no one really wanted to relive.

There was a chortling, burbling noise, non-human in origin, and John relaxed as he saw a flash of feathery iridescent brown fur just before the damned thing launched itself out of the underbrush and at his thigh.

"What the--!"

Okay. It wasn't biting, and that was a pretty good thing considering its face was buried in his crotch. The fact that his teammates all had guns pointed at his groin wasn't such a good thing. The animal chittered at all of them chidingly and then rubbed its face against John's hip in adoration, peering up at him from big black-ringed blue eyes before its mouth opened to let out a ululating cry.

"It would seem, Colonel, that you are now attracting wildlife as well as, eh, how would... Yes, yes, glowy squid women, or so rumor would suggest," Zelenka laughed nervously, looking at the thing with great suspicion despite his vocal lack of concern.

"I have never seen an Kisget do such a thing, Colonel." Teyla kept her gun pointed, too, which made him wonder what the hell the Kisget were known for doing to people. She gestured with her eyes to Ronon, and he nodded at Teyla, taking a step towards John.

The critter seemed aware that there was some plan to extricate it, and started to climb higher, slowly but surely, hooking claws into John's tactical vest. "Hey! Hey! Someone get this thing off me before it sinks teeth into my neck!"

"Don't worry. I'll just stun it." Ronon paused. "Okay. Both of you," he added, and it was almost as if John could hear Rodney in the intervening silence.

The Kisget chittered again and wrapped a silky-furred arm around John's neck before perching heavily on his shoulder and ruffling at his hair, sniffing his ear. "Oh, great. I feel a lot better now."

"I... do not know what is wrong with this creature. The Kisget are usually shy creatures. They are prized for their fur, and the quality of their meat." Soft, feathery fur, yeah, John could see how someone would want to make a very eco-friendly coat out of them. The Kisget that was making friends with him against his will gave another undulating noise, and it was a lot less pleasant when it was right beside his ear.

Zelenka pointed a small object at it, tiny beeps sounding as he inspected something or other. "There does not appear to be any particular emanations coming from the... Kisget? Funny. You know, it looks remarkably like this creature we have back on Earth. Perhaps we should take it with us, see what it is likely to do, hm? The biologists would likely enjoy having such an animal to observe."

That was something Rodney would never have suggested, and Teyla and Ronon both gave Zelenka a quiet sort of questioning look. "Then we will have to turn back for the gate. I do not know how the villagers would react to Colonel Sheppard coming into the village with a Kisget on his head."

The creature shuffled closer to John, wrapping big paws against John's forehead. "Hey, hey. I think I get a say in this."

"Of course, Colonel. Perhaps if the Kisget would allow, we could check to be sure that there is nothing wrong with it, despite its unusual behavior." Teyla stepped closer, and the animal went wild, chittering at her and flinging itself against John in a way that made him cringe because, no, no. No. That was so totally not... No. It was not humping him.

Not. Not, not.

Ronon laughed a little.

It was. Or something close to it, and John finally felt his spine try to hide deeper into his body before he reached a hand up to try to get hold of the critter. "Okay, okay, hey, knock that off up there, huh? Aren't you supposed to be in a tree somewhere shitting out coffee cherries and not sitting on my head?" He got a hand between the back of his head and the soft belly, and tried to grab the Kisget by the waist. "Now, do you really wanna go home with us?"

The happy chittering that resulted from that question was more than answer enough, especially when the Kisget moved swiftly, coming around to wrap its long arms (legs, whatever) around John's neck and his waist, clinging to him and continuing to hump.

He was in hell. "Looks like a yes to me," Ronon finally said, smirking.

Hump, hump, hump. He hadn't seen its dick, and John really didn't want to, but at least it wasn't on his head. "Fine, you win. Let's turn back around, get this critter off me, and head back here tomorrow."

"This sounds to me to be an excellent idea." Zelenka was laughing under his breath, and John didn't doubt that the entire expedition would be snorting and snickering at him before it was over. Well. It was better than the way they'd been since Rodney had died-slash-Ascended-slash-whatevered.

The critter making love to his tac-vest was at least funny as hell. They'd all have a laugh at their military commander, and anything to help. "I am sure that the metal-crafting can wait." Teyla's mouth was twitching, too, and she stepped closer to John, reaching a hand towards the Kisget's muzzle. It seemed all right with that, trilling a greeting and nuzzling at her happily. It didn't leave John, though, not even when they turned around and headed back to Atlantis, tromping through trees and weeds all the way.

The Biologists were in love with the Kisget. It had a personality, and a clear decisiveness about what it did and didn't like by way of people and food. It was hysterically unhappy with the idea of a cage, and most impressive of all, had broken itself free of the cage and had hunted down John in his goddamned office by the end of day two in the City.

It liked power bars, and it stole coffee and hoarded the empty cups in the corner where John usually kept his sticks. Worse, John feared the moment he woke up and saw those black-ringed eyes peering at him from the dark and got even more humping. Elizabeth had nearly wet herself laughing.

There had been a very serious discussion about what to do with the Kisget. It had been tested forty ways to Sunday -- angry the whole time, and eventually sedated the whole time -- and had come back clean.

So, now John figured he had a pet. Sort of. It was harmless and curiously intelligent, and tidy except for the cup thing. It had figured out bathrooms pretty quickly, which was scary. It bathed itself, which was scarier.

The thing actually freaked Teyla out a little, because the behavior was completely unnatural in comparison to others of its kind. The only suggestion Zelenka could make was that some sort of Ancient device must have been triggered when they moved past it, and it must have created a sort of draw for the animal, an attraction to John since he was the only team member with the gene anymore.

So, he had a really smart cat-monkey pet that was probably a product of accidental Ancient tampering that had made it smarter. That idea had led Zelenka and Ronon to traveling back to the planet in search of the device, and John and Teyla traveling back to make negotiations for some pretty complicated metal work that they could definitely do up to John's standards. It wasn't just forks and things, but pieces of scientific equipment, and materials to make bullets, and a little technological boost for their molds, and voila.

It was pretty cool to make that kind of trading connection.

The Kisget was sitting in the corner of his office watching him again.

It watched him a lot, actually, giving him the love as Zelenka so politely put it. At least it didn't hump him much anymore. John really wasn't much up to the humping. It had been kind of funny when it had tried to bite Kavanagh's ankle, though.

Still. John sighed. He had a pet, so obviously pets needed a name. He just felt kind of weird about it. "Hey, buddy."

It chattered happily at him, and stopped petting its own tail, starting off the edge of the slightly clawed up chair it had claimed. What the hell was he supposed to name a genius cat-monkey, anyway? Bernard? Jim? Guadalupe?

"Rodney."

The word startled him almost as much as it startled the Kisget, and then he had both arms full of humping cat-monkey. Great. It clung to him, and wiggled, and okay, maybe it wasn't humping but it was pretty obscene, even if the Kisget was made up of soft feathery fur and muscles. It chittered and shirruped, and that funny vibrating yell it made when it was delighted. At least it hadn't rolled its wiener out down there to do anything really disgusting.

"Uh, Colonel." Lorne cleared his throat from the door. "I see you're busy being molested. I'll just, ah. Come back later?"

"No, it's okay. Uh, I named it, and it..." He gestured with one hand, and patted the critter's back gently. "What did you want to talk about?"

The Kisget -- Rodney, geeze -- snuggled and gave those thrilled little noises, trilling its happiness against John's throat. It smelled good, like shampoo, and the soft fuzziness of it was really irresistible. "We got the items from the Elipians. Some of the guys are working with the reloading station, getting everything set up for production. Just wanted to check and see if you wanted to take a look at it."

"Yeah, I want to take a look at it. C'mon, Rodney. You can interfere with me later." He wasn't sure what the Kisget did when he wasn't there, but he suspected it had a lot to do with puzzles or possibly the coffee cups.

The invitation was all it took, because Rodney let go of him and dropped to the floor, shifting to scratch idly behind on small pointed ear. Lorne shifted on the other side of his desk. "Um, sir? You've decided to name it after McKay?"

John leaned over for a moment to scritch its fur. "Yeah. It was a fluke, and he seems to like the name. One minute he was over in the corner and the next he was all over me."

"That sounds a lot like McKay, actually. Rodney, it is," Lorne agreed, and Rodney rushed over to bite at his boot. "Hey!"

"Hey, hey! You have to behave!" John snapped his fingers, and Rodney just wound his way around Lorne's leg, chittering unhappily. "You can't just randomly attack people!" He started to stand up, gesturing Rodney to get off of Lorne's leg. At least John was the only one Rodney seemed determined to hump, anyway.

"Ah, that's all right, sir. At least he bit the boot. He probably just got a pretty nasty mouth full of polish." Rodney was making faces, too, pink tongue flickering out as if to get the taste off of it.

He was damned determined to cling to Lorne as some kind of punishment, though, and it was one of those times that John had to crouch down to pull him off. Rodney went, even if his claws snagged a little. He probably needed to eat real food, which according to Teyla was a lot of anything at all. Small animals, fruit, fruit, birds, fish, and more fruit. Powerbars and lapping up coffee was nowhere on the list, and neither was his delightful interest in bran muffins.

"Yeah, well, he shouldn't do that. Don't make me lock you in here without a Rubik's cube or anything." That gained him frantic petting, whining, and a distinct ruffling of his hair. Lorne was laughing at him, and he just shot him a glare. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. You're just jealous that the intelligent wildlife likes me."

Rodney could be sat in a chair, and when John put him down, he just curled his puffy tail around himself. John closed his laptop, and popped open a desk drawer. The laptop was locked away for his sanity's sake, and he pulled a couple of puzzle-toys out that the scientists had donated. Zelenka seriously wanted to watch the Kisget's brainwaves, and he wasn't even a biologist. He definitely loved the puzzles, though, and he reached out for the cube with something so much like the glee Rodney always had for any little prize that John felt his stomach twinge.

"Yes, sir. I've always wanted my very own feathery furball."

"Damn right you have." John nodded, and he wasn't sure if he was nodding to himself, Lorne, or the newly named Kisget that.... if Rodney was a Kisget, could have been Rodney. "Why don't you show me how the manufacturing process is going down there, Major?"

"You're the boss, sir."

"That's right. I absolutely am."

And if the Kisget was laughing at him, well, that was between the three of them.

Elizabeth eyed the blue-eyed creature sitting in Rodney's chair across the conference table, and it eyeballed her right back. No one had figured out how it got in and out of rooms, or exactly what possessed it to do the things it did, but right at the moment, she was pretty sure she knew what possessed it.

Age, gender, species, it didn't seem to matter much when someone got their hands on a chair that twirled around and around. At least John's new pet hadn't puked. Elizabeth was a little worried it might have peed in some of the plants, though. John swore it was housebroken, swore that it used the bathroom in his quarters, along with the shower and the shampoo. It did smell good, but it was a little worrisome that it came and went where it pleased, and sat in the conference room to use the spinning chairs.

And that John had named it Rodney.

That was the most disturbing part, and Elizabeth had already decided to talk to Kate about it. John hadn't been the same since Rodney had Ascended. Rodney had planned to take human form again, but Ascension didn't work that way, and Elizabeth hadn't actually expected Rodney to be back. Not the way that John had.

The Kisget chittered at her, taking a pen from the table and pounding it on a pad of paper to get her attention.

If she were more anthropologically oriented, Elizabeth supposed as she closed her laptop and got up, intent on taking the pen from the Kisget, the creature would be more interesting to watch. As it was, she kept wondering at the lengths to which the Ancients would go to interfere with existence itself. There had to be a point to what they did, to creating something -- and they just hadn't found it, yet -- that could create that kind of intelligence in an animal.

The Kisget rapped imperiously on the pad to get her attention. She couldn't bring herself to call it Rodney, no matter what John seemed to think was okay. It did behave in a terribly familiar manner at times, she had to admit that much, but it also reminded her that Rodney had always been a man in tune with his Id, and what else could a sentient animal be but in tune with its own Id?

"Yes, yes. I'm sure whatever you've scribbled is fascinating. Why don't you let me find your cube?"

Radek and the other scientists had raided their personal items, and had come up with a few toys for it, puzzles with pieces that it would've been hard-pressed to eat. After all, Elizabeth wasn't sure if Carson would want to operate on a Kisget to remove a toy from its stomach. The trouble was that the cube was probably in John's office, and she needed to take the pen from it before it put one of its beady blue eyes out.

There was another smack smack smack on the pad, demanding, and she started to reach for the pen when she saw what the Kisget had written.

ZPM flux.

Dear God. Hand shaking, Elizabeth reached up and tapped on her comm. "Dr. Zelenka, please come to the main conference room."

There was a mumbly-sounding affirmative in Czech, and the Kisget was just staring up at her, glassy eyes serene as he put the pen down. ZPM flux. There was no reason for a creature to randomly write that, but maybe it was like the 'whales' and the solar flares, or, or...

Or something. Elizabeth wasn't sure, but there was no way Rodney had Descended as a Kisget. There just wasn't, even if it was a very smart toilet-trained Kisget who could write and solve puzzles and hump John. It wasn't.

Unless it was, and Elizabeth could only squint at it as the creature picked up the pen again, and started to write carefully, clawed 'fingers' crampingly tight around the pen's barrel. It underlined ZPM with a hard stroke, and added, 'now. Dangerous.' behind flux, the words slow but they were words.

"You called -- oh, is Colonel Sheppard's pet again."

"Radek." Elizabeth's voice shook. How could it not? "Radek, I want you to take a look at, at what..." No, no, except "...at what Rodney is writing. Please." They should call John. They should... There were a lot of things they should do; only Elizabeth wasn't even certain where to begin.

Radek leaned over her shoulder, stared at the Kisget, and then her. And Rodney tapped the pen, before slowly scraping a line under 'dangerous'. "ZPM flux now. Dangerous," Radek repeated, and repeated it again, and then he reached out to pick up the Kisget and moved to bolt out the door at the same time.

"Doctor Zelenka, what're you--"

"I will let you know when I get there!"

When he got there didn't seem soon enough, so Elizabeth headed after him, calling down to the gate station. "Chuck, get Colonel Sheppard to the ZPM chamber!"

"Yes, ma'am!"

She leaned a hand hard against the edge of the conference room table for a moment, and then turned to head out into the control tower. If 'Rodney' was right, then only Zelenka or the real Rodney could fix it.

They were in such trouble.

John hadn't intended on racing through Atlantis. He'd meant to spend the rest of the morning dealing with inventory and the newest metal shipments. The end of the world hadn't really been on his list. The end of his world by a ZPM with an unstable subspace pocket was something he considered less high on his list than anything. Ever.

He'd gotten to the ZPM chamber, though, and found Zelenka studiously consulting with Rodney the Kisget on a table near the ZPM, which was popped out its socket but still glowing pretty ominously.

The fact that his pet was being consulted about a ZPM disaster was creepy. It also implied a lot of things that made John more uncomfortable than he really wanted to be. There was no way an animal could be that smart, and if it couldn't be, if there was something different, then... Well.

It was mostly a quiet consultation. Zelenka was making worried noises to himself, and putting equations on his laptop before offering it to Rodney, and there was a serene sort of way that the Kisget moved, like Zelenka's panic wasn't touching it at all. It broadly scrawled something down, so John just edged closer to them both.

"So. How's it going?"

"It is not," Zelenka mumbled, inputting a few more frantic equations and setting the simulation to run. "However, I am beginning to think that perhaps this Kisget is not so much a Kisget as something else entirely. I did not realize Rodney intended to Descend in quite this manner."

"That's really Rodney?" Had he chosen to Descend like that? Jackson had come back like a human, hadn't he? Repeatedly, in fact. Usually naked, if rumor was true, and yeah. The Kisget was looking at him, and John felt a little stupid for not having noticed that expression before now. Right. "Yeah, okay, so we're going to have a talk about all the humping," he said finally, and Rodney went back to dabbling with Zelenka.

There wasn't any yelling, but Rodney the Kisget did start to rumble a little, making noises here and there before Zelenka moved to push the ZPM back into the slot, while he let Rodney do something to the laptop with clawed fingers. It was a lot freaky, and while John would have ordinarily paid a little more attention to what they were doing, watching Rodney the genius cat-monkey work was just... Yeah. He was feeling more than a little boggled, his whole brain seized up at the thought of Rodney the Kisget being Rodney McKay, and he wasn't getting over that any time soon.

"It worked!" Zelenka practically danced. "It worked, yes!"

There was a happy, undulating cry from Rodney, and he flopped back on the table into a position that John usually took as a demand for belly rubs. He could practically feel his hand twitching, he'd done it so often. "So. Congratulations on... you know. Saving the world again, McKay." The Kisget chortled, and stayed flopped out on top of the table. It was a godsend that his fluffy tail curled around and covered over his fluffy crotch.

"So this is... the new Doctor McKay. You know, when you named it Rodney, we all thought you'd gone..." Zelenka made a vague hand gesture up near his temple.

"Yeah, well." John shrugged uncomfortably. "It just kinda popped into my head. You know. I mean, it was doing Rodney things, like... like stealing coffee and hoarding the cups, eating power bars like they're going out of style and--"

"And masturbating in fourth level men's room in science division." Zelenka nodded knowingly even as John felt his left eye begin to twitch. "I know. Was very disturbing. Bad enough when it was Rodney as a human on the days when your shirts and pants were particularly..." He waved a hand. "Whatever."

And lying on the table between them, Rodney growled, and flopped onto his side, before scrambling at John to nose at his fingers. "You masturbate?" God, there were some things John never ever needed to think about, at least insofar as the fluffy-furry pet creature Rodney... thing. Yeah. No, just... no.

~"John, Radek... update. Chuck just came in to tell me it seems that most systems are returning to normal."~

Zelenka nodded, and tapped his own radio on. "Yes. Flux issue has been fixed. Rodney was a great help."

Rodney was nuzzling John's hand, patting his belly, back to seeming like just a pet again.

~"I don't doubt. Now, if you gentlemen don't mind, I think we ought to continue discussing what's going on in the main conference room. See you in ten."~

"Affirmative." He patted Rodney's head gently, and shifted to scoop him up. "Hey, are you in there, Rodney? Couldn't you have come back as... anything else?"

Rodney chittered and wrapped both arms and legs tightly around John, clinging to him and then humping against him happily as if he hadn't just solved a massive problem with the ZPM.

"Well." Zelenka seemed unconcerned about the humping. Then again, he wasn't the one getting the love. "Shall we, Colonel?"

John exhaled, and petted Rodney's back as he turned to lead the way back to the conference room. "Knock that off, huh? Just quit it, right now."

Despite the whining, it seemed to get through, because Rodney did stop, giving a soft coo of happiness and laying his fluffy head against John's shoulder. The fact that it was Rodney should have freaked him out a lot more than it did. Mostly it just made him happy to have a little bit of Rodney back again, even if he had a furry head now. Rodney the Kisget snuggled him when they got onto the transporter, and snuggled him while he walked back into the conference room, and all the while Zelenka just looked smug.

"I knew that McKay always had big gay love for you, Colonel Sheppard. Now is beasty love, but is still no less large or entertaining."

"Look, can you -- he's an animal now. Or part of him is. And that's how animals show their happiness. Rodney would've been running around showing me... things before. Or watching TV with me." The Kisget Rodney could cling and chortle and purr and snuggle.

Elizabeth and Carson were waiting for him in the conference room.

"Colonel," Carson greeted, and he looked sad and hopeful and just a little desperate. He'd had that look since Rodney had gone, and John would just be glad if he'd manage to get past it. Carson felt too guilty about everything, about anything, these days. One of the physicians, Keller, had managed to blow herself up operating on a guy named Watson with exploding tumors, and Carson felt guilty that he wasn't the one who'd been there.

"Hey." John tried to get Rodney off of him, but the Kisget whined and chortled and clung. "Sorry."

"Our Kisget friend has proven to be... more intelligent than he knew. I've called Teyla, and one of the biologists up, too. If this really is Rodney..."

Who suddenly whined and made that miserable ululation of his, and it made Carson startle forwards a little. "No, no, we don't want to dissect you, don't worry!"

It didn't appear to help any, because that noise intensified, Rodney clinging tight to John, squirming to try and hide behind his back. "Hey, c'mon, buddy. It's okay..." The rapid movements seemed to be an attempt to avoid something, and John could feel the hair on his arms starting to stand up in reaction.

It was weird, and John wasn't sure why the Kisget was freaking out like that. He clutched tight around John's neck, clinging to his back, making that cry, and John had to restrain a wince as everything suddenly went freakishly white and sharp in the room.

"Oh, this is just fabulous."

That-- it wasn't. It couldn't be...

But he still had the Kisget!

"Well, stop standing there and staring! For God's sake, someone give me a jacket or a towel or something!" Rodney crouched down, hands over his crotch, shaking his head hard. "You bastards! You uninvolved bastards! I just did what none of you had the balls to do! You made the fucking thing defective in the first place!"

The Kisget whimpered, and just kept clinging to John's back, but it felt like he could finally get a hand onto it and get it to relax, which was when Teyla came in.

"Oh!" Yeah, kind of an understatement, considering Rodney was holding his twig and berries with one hand and scrabbling for a pad on the table to help hide things. John managed to get the Rodney-Kisget (and wow, he'd need a new name now) loose enough that he could pull at his jacket. "Dr. McKay!"

"Yes, yes, could someone please give me something to cover up with here!" He threw his jacket to Rodney, and Rodney didn't waste time in wrapping it around his waist. "I've forgotten how much this body hurt, and it's cold out here! Judgmental bastards..." Rodney clung to the jacket, crushed it against his crotch.

"Rodney..." Elizabeth finally managed to break out of her stunned state, shaking her head. "Rodney, what exactly has gone on here? We thought..."

Carson blurted it out before any of the rest of them. "We were thinking you'd Descended as a Kisget, man!"

"You what? I Descended as what? I Descended just now as me!" He gestured viciously with one hand. "I was just making use of the Kisget to get away with a little rule-bending, and could someone get me pants?"

Zelenka was the one who started it; rough and rusty, and probably a little hysterical at the edges. There was no helping it, John figured, no way to keep from laughing, and it set the rest of them off, as well. Things had been hard without McKay, and yeah, maybe he'd been desperate, since he was calling the Kisget 'Rodney', and it really was kind of funny. Mostly, it was a relief, and they'd all be lucky if laughter didn't turn to tears.

And while Zelenka was laughing and John started to laugh, and Elizabeth, and Teyla and Carson, John could half-see Rodney standing there with a horrified look on his face, but John could only stumble forwards and half-hug his friend. "Haven't you people ever seen Being John Malkovich? I just saved your lives! The whole city!"

"You did." John was fighting back near-giggles, turning them into chortles, and the Kisget was patting Rodney while John held him. "You did, you really did, oh, God..." God, he was alive, and yeah, there went the laughter, all gone despite everything, and John had to bite down hard to keep back tears instead. That half-hug turned into something tighter, more desperate, and then Carson was there, too, and Elizabeth, and Rodney was naked, and it didn't matter.

Rodney was back. Rodney was alive, and he held onto John, and the Kisget was tangled up in there but he seemed all right with that. "Hey, hey, I'm okay, why're you..."

And then he kissed him.