All of them by kuna_yashmaa (Fight or flight challenge)
Title: All of them
Author: kuna_yashmaa
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What would you do about something you can do nothing about? Fight it? Or flee and hide from it, may be?
“Do you ever think about Hoff?”
Sheppard played with his spoonful of blue jello, then put it on his tray and shrugged.
“Or those two guys we lost while looking for your eggs?”
That bound to earn a smile. It didn’t.
“Or Elizabeth?”
McKay didn’t see him get up. Only the tray, corner caught on Sheppard’s clothes, tilted suddenly, sending the spoon and the cup on the tablecloth, then leveled itself with a quiet, final thud.
Rodney looked at the gello galaxy in front of him, then up. “What?”
“What do you want from me, McKay?” Sheppard said without expression, without any particular emphasis. “All of them are mine. You think I don’t know that?”
Rodney tried to find some corresponding emotion on Sheppard’s face - sadness, or guilt, or… something. There was none, then Sheppard turned and fled.
“Oh, hell. Wait!”
***
Sheppard didn’t wait for him. He didn’t run either - just walked very, very fast. Fast enough to reach the door of his quarters while McKay only cleared the corridor turn. Sheppard’s hand flew across the control panel in an alien salute, the door whooshed open, one more second and he would step in, cutting himself from McKay’s pursuit.
He didn’t. He stood in the open door, his back to Rodney, his shoulder resting against the doorframe.
McKay carefully came closer. “Listen…”
Sheppard was making little weird noises - quiet bubbling, or sobbing - and McKay’s stomach turned at the thought that Sheppard, his Sheppard, with whom he spent most of the last three years, and who never, ever… before he realized that Sheppard was laughing.
“Hey…”
Sheppard turned slowly, and slowly slid to the floor, and set there, his back to the wall. He was still giggling - wet eyelashes, wet lines on his cheeks, a teardrop on his poorly shaved chin.
“You know what I miss the most here?” he said and smiled up at Rodney. “The doors I can slam.”
Author: kuna_yashmaa
Rating: PG-13
Summary: What would you do about something you can do nothing about? Fight it? Or flee and hide from it, may be?
“Do you ever think about Hoff?”
Sheppard played with his spoonful of blue jello, then put it on his tray and shrugged.
“Or those two guys we lost while looking for your eggs?”
That bound to earn a smile. It didn’t.
“Or Elizabeth?”
McKay didn’t see him get up. Only the tray, corner caught on Sheppard’s clothes, tilted suddenly, sending the spoon and the cup on the tablecloth, then leveled itself with a quiet, final thud.
Rodney looked at the gello galaxy in front of him, then up. “What?”
“What do you want from me, McKay?” Sheppard said without expression, without any particular emphasis. “All of them are mine. You think I don’t know that?”
Rodney tried to find some corresponding emotion on Sheppard’s face - sadness, or guilt, or… something. There was none, then Sheppard turned and fled.
“Oh, hell. Wait!”
***
Sheppard didn’t wait for him. He didn’t run either - just walked very, very fast. Fast enough to reach the door of his quarters while McKay only cleared the corridor turn. Sheppard’s hand flew across the control panel in an alien salute, the door whooshed open, one more second and he would step in, cutting himself from McKay’s pursuit.
He didn’t. He stood in the open door, his back to Rodney, his shoulder resting against the doorframe.
McKay carefully came closer. “Listen…”
Sheppard was making little weird noises - quiet bubbling, or sobbing - and McKay’s stomach turned at the thought that Sheppard, his Sheppard, with whom he spent most of the last three years, and who never, ever… before he realized that Sheppard was laughing.
“Hey…”
Sheppard turned slowly, and slowly slid to the floor, and set there, his back to the wall. He was still giggling - wet eyelashes, wet lines on his cheeks, a teardrop on his poorly shaved chin.
“You know what I miss the most here?” he said and smiled up at Rodney. “The doors I can slam.”