I'll Take You Dreaming- Part 1 by likethervier (must be dreaming challenge)
Title: I'll Take You Dreaming
Category: Slash John/Rodney with team building thrown in
Word Count: 16,000
Rating: T
Characters: John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon
Spoilers: Set sometime after Doppelganger but before The Missing (and I'm just going to pretend that Quarantine didn't happen exactly like it did in canon)
A/N: Thanks as always to Koschka for the beta.
Summary: With Rodney and Teyla trapped in a dream, it's up to John and Ronon to find a way in before they can help their teammates find a way out.
I’ll Take You Dreaming
by liketheriver
Ronon had never spent a lot of time considering his dreams. He remembered the first time he’d been told to meet with Kate Heightmeyer, he had found it strange that the woman asked him to talk about his dreams. Who cared about dreams? They weren’t real, they didn’t change reality. He could kill a thousand Wraith in his dreams and wake to the same number that had existed before he went to sleep. He could dream of Melena soft and warm in his arms and it wouldn’t change the fact that when he woke she was still cold and dead and never to be seen again. Heightmeyer had tried to tell him that dreams were a way for our subconscious to work out issues he had that his conscious mind wasn’t willing to accept. He’d simply glazed over and considered slipping right into that dreamland and working out a few issues with his boredom. No, Ronon didn’t put a lot of thought into his dreams or a lot of merit in what the psychologist had told him. They were simply dreams, nothing more, nothing less.
So when the team returned from a two day stint on Darja, he didn’t think too much about the fact that the three nights since they had returned, the world had appeared in every one of dreams. The first night back on Atlantis, he dreamed the entire team was sitting around the fire pit of the central dwelling house. It was part pub, part community gathering spot, part playground, where children wove their way in play among the adults who laughed and told tales with their neighbors while drinking the sweet ale the locals brewed. Only, in his dream, no one was there except his team.
None of his teammates had mentioned the absence of the townspeople, but Ronon had been thinking about it, at least as much as anyone really thinks about the oddities taking place during a dream. It was like a shadow on his peripheral vision that never became clear until he woke and remembered the vision and thought it seemed strange that no one else was there. But during the dream, he and his team had sat and talked and laughed and drank the ale as if they were sitting around a table in the cafeteria instead of on an alien planet. In fact, at one point they were sitting around the cafeteria table, and then in an Athosian tent, and eventually back in the common house. Even when Rodney vanished, Ronon’s thought had melding around that fact as if it were to be expected. The only reason he even notice the scientist was gone was because Sheppard had mentioned his absence. But even that was quickly glossed as if McKay had never been there in the first place.
The second night, the dream was similar… same initial setting, same people, same absence of Darjanians, but then Teyla had made a passing comment about it being strange that no one was there except them. At her observation, the people were back, filling their cups, urging them to tell of those they had met during their other trading excursions. McKay had started to tell a story about one particular mission gone bad, and Sheppard kept stepping in to correct him, the two men alternating between bickering and laughing, leaning comfortably into one another as they did until John rested his chin on Rodney’s shoulder while the scientist spoke as if it was the most natural thing he’d ever done in his life. McKay’s animated recitation stopped at the act and he turned his head slowly in surprise. John had straightened slightly and gave the scientist a somewhat goofy yet contented smile that had Rodney leaning forward into a tentative kiss. As the kiss continued, slow and tender with more curiosity than passion, the townsfolk vanished one by one until it was just the four of teammates again.
Teyla and Ronon had sat watching the whole thing with their own expressions of surprise, and Ronon had finally cleared his throat. The two men had separated, both flushed, from the experience itself or being caught in the act, Ronon couldn’t be sure, but the scene shifted again before he could say anything to either man. They were in a field, under a sky gray with clouds, and Teyla was recalling a hunting trip on Athos when she was young. Ronon contributed with a similar story from his youth and midway through he realized they were sitting in Teyla’s room on Atlantis. When someone knocked at the door, the woman stood and moved to see who it was. She opened the door, stepped out and was gone, so were Sheppard and McKay. The voice of Ronon’s grandmother behind him had any thought of where his team had gone slipping away and he had dreamed of Sateda until he woke.
The third night, he and his team were back in the central house on Darja once again, only things were a little… odd. Not that they hadn’t been odd before, but this time Sheppard and McKay couldn’t seem to stay in one place. One minute they were sitting on opposite sides of the fire, the next they were so close their shoulders were touching, and then John was sitting between Ronon and Teyla and Rodney was alone on the other side of the fire only to be joined once more by Sheppard a minute later. At one point, Rodney was sitting on the floor in front of John and Sheppard started rubbing the scientist’s shoulders when McKay complained about being hunched over a device all day in the lab.
Teyla and Ronon had exchanged baffled glances when Rodney let out a groan as Sheppard worked his thumbs into the space behind McKay’s shoulder blade.
“Oh, God, that feels amazing.” He let his head drop to his chest and John moved his fingers to Rodney’s neck with a predatory grin.
“If you think that feels good, just wait.”
Rodney looked up then with a smile of his own, grabbed a fistful of Sheppard’s black t-shirt, and pulled his team leader down to meet him halfway for a deep kiss. John made a low reverberating sound deep in his throat, cupping McKay’s face to pull him closer, and then it turned into a kind of power struggle between the two as they each tried to tug the other closer. Eventually either McKay won or Sheppard realized being on the ground with him was a pretty good idea, because that’s exactly where they ended up. Fortunately, they were behind the fire pit and blocked from sight. Unfortunately, it didn’t muffle the “Oh, Gods,” and “Holy, shits,” and “Don’t stops” that were floating over the flames to where Teyla and Ronon sat with expressions hovering between humor and horror that this was happening in front of them.
And to be honest, Ronon wasn’t sure if Teyla being there with him made it better or worse. It would have been one thing if she had simply carried on the conversation as if nothing were going on a few feet away. That would have been typically and freakishly dreamlike, like the dream he’d had as a teenager about his mother having sex with his best friend while his father gave the boy pointers from the sidelines. That one he’d been able to explain away as a result of Basser having made a comment about how attractive Ronon’s mother was the day before, and Ronon had simply handled it the next day by punching Basser in the nose and telling him never to mention his mother again. But this… this had no explanation that Ronon could think of other than one he didn’t want to think of. That’s when he decided that maybe this was why Teyla was here, because if at least one woman was in the dream that meant he wasn’t into guys. Right?
“So, do you want to have sex?” he’d asked her, figuring that’s what they were supposed to do because there was no way he was joining in with the other two… if they’d even let him at this point. And besides, it wasn’t like he hadn’t had sex with Teyla in his dreams in the past.
That suggestion ended much the same way his conversation with Basser had all those years ago, only Ronon was the one being punched in the face. His exclamation of surprise had two disheveled heads appearing over the fire pit.
“They’re still here?” Rodney asked in confusion to see his two teammates on the opposite side of the fire.
Sheppard had paused before shrugging. “Actually, it’s kind of hot.”
“I had no idea you were a goddamn exhibitionist,” McKay all but panted excitedly, biting John’s lower lip.
Sheppard closed his eyes, sucking in a harsh gasp before exhaling a breathy, “Fuck, McKay,” and they disappeared back to the ground.
Ronon turned back to Teyla. “No, huh?” Not that he had to ask considering the fighting sticks that had appeared in her hands.
“No,” she insisted before squeezing her eyes shut with a grimace at the satisfied noises coming from Sheppard and McKay. Even though they now stood in the gate room with most of the control room staff around them, John and Rodney didn’t stop groping one another, nor did they even seem to care that they were now nude in front of everyone. Of course, none of the expedition members seemed to notice either.
“I had thought it was nice having you all here, but now…” Teyla tried to give Ronon a smile but gave up and admitted, “This is most… uncomfortable.”
“You’re telling me?” Ronon snorted as the room morphed into an Earth boat and he was happily hunting giant sharks with Sheriff Brody.
By the time Ronon met Sheppard for their morning run, the dream he’d had the night before had settled into that place in Ronon’s mind where all things weird and never to mentioned again resided. Even destroying giant killer fish for fun hadn’t completely erased the memory of what Sheppard and McKay had been doing, but it had been a dream and sometimes dreams were strange and that’s just the way it was.
But it still had John frowning as he stretched on the East dock. “What?”
“What do you mean, what?” Ronon had demanded, still having trouble looking at his teammate without picturing him doing… stuff to McKay.
“You keep looking at me funny.”
“I am not,” Ronon insisted gruffly before starting to run, calling back over his shoulder, “Are you coming or not?” Which he instantly regretted because somewhere in the recesses of him memory he seemed to recall Rodney demanding the exact same question of Sheppard.
John quickly joined him. “Somebody got up on the wrong side of bed today,” he noted with a cheerfully challenging grin before speeding off, leaving Ronon to play catch up for the rest of the run.
He met up with Sheppard again in the hall after they showered and dressed and the two made their way to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. Teyla and Rodney were already sitting at their usual table. The physicist was babbling on about some experiment in his lab, only this time instead of berating every scientist working under him, he was happily bragging about some formula he had managed to work out the night before.
“So, not only was I able to boost the efficiency the six percent I knew I could get, I managed to squeeze out another whopping two percent.”
Sheppard sat his tray down beside McKay’s. “A whole two percent. Sounds like someone is getting a gold star on their homework today.”
Ronon was prepared for Rodney to make some smartass comment back, as if John were insulting him instead of complimenting his work. But instead, McKay simply gave him a happily smug grin. “I’ll put it on my minifridge.”
Sheppard smiled back before clearing his throat and sitting, as if he’d just realized he’d been nice to Rodney, and he quickly changed the subject. “Speaking of minifridges, you owe me a six pack from our game last week.”
“No,” Rodney corrected, “you won it at computer golf but I won it back at chess the next day.”
“We weren’t playing for beer in that game,” Sheppard corrected.
“Then what were we playing for?”
“Nothing. It was just a friendly game of chess.”
McKay crossed his arms irritably. “Since when do we play friendly games of anything?”
“You didn’t specifically say we were playing for beer, therefore, we weren’t playing for beer.”
“I don’t recall you specifically saying we were playing for beer during the golf game, either.”
“Well, we always play for beer when we play computer games,” Sheppard pointed out, reaching for the salt.
Before McKay could argue the point, he was jumping to his feet when John knocked the man’s coffee off his tray and it started flowing into Rodney’s lap.
“Oh, shit!” Sheppard exclaimed, springing to his feet as well and starting to pat the wet spots on Rodney’s uniform.
McKay was wiping at the coffee stains, as well. “What the hell, Sheppard?”
“Sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…” John stopped abruptly when it dawned on him exactly where he was trying to dry McKay. Rodney seemed to have a similar revelation and they took a step away from each other.
“It’s okay,” McKay mumbled and Ronon thought the man was actually blushing.
Sheppard waved his hand still holding the napkin toward the scientist then pulled it back hastily, as if afraid he might accidently come in contact with McKay again. “I was just reaching for the salt…” he muttered back.
Rodney dabbed at his pants some more, more of an excuse not to look at John than anything else, and shook his head. “I said, it’s fine.”
And that’s when everything finally clicked into place for Ronon. He’d dreamed about Sheppard and McKay having sex because they were doing it in real life. He’d obviously picked up on the subtle signs they’d been showing and his subconscious had turned it into a dream. But now that he knew it, he wondered how he could have ever missed it in the first place. Just look at them. The two were working so hard not to touch each other, it was almost as blatantly obvious as the groping that was going on in the dream. And thank the Ancestors John and Rodney were the gay ones because it gave Ronon the perfect excuse to rationalize away any worries he might have had about himself based on the previous night’s dream.
Picking up his tray, McKay addressed the group. “Seeing as Colonel Sheppard has emptied my coffee cup for me, I’m evidently finished with breakfast. I’m going to change clothes and head to the lab.”
“Do you need some help?” John asked.
“I think I’m more than capable of changing my clothes on my own,” Rodney pointed out.
Given the way both men turned a pale shade of pink, they came to the same realization about their statements at the same time.
“I didn’t mean helping with the clothes… taking off…” John waved a hand to encompass all of McKay.
Rodney laughed nervously. “Of course you didn’t. I know you didn’t. Why in the world would you offer to help me undress…? I mean dress… I mean… No, I don’t need your help,” the scientist finally snapped.
Ronon chewed his toast with an amused smirk. Watching his two teammates flounder like this was some damn funny stuff.
“I meant the lab,” Sheppard explained pointedly. “Do you need my help in the lab?”
“Well, obviously you meant the lab. What else would you mean? Certainly not…” The twirling of Rodney’s hands continued even after words failed him. “You really want to help in the lab?”
Sheppard shrugged and took a bite of eggs. “You’re always trying to get me in there to try out some new gizmo you’ve found, and I don’t have anything urgent planned until the briefing this afternoon.”
“You have a stack of tediously mundane paperwork sitting on your desk, don’t you?” Rodney accused. “Some government form with an alphanumeric designator with the occasional stroke thrown in for a name.”
John’s grimace confirmed McKay’s conclusion. “I hate anything that involves strokes.”
The confession had Teyla choking on her fruit juice and Ronon biting his tongue to keep from saying, ‘you sure seemed to enjoy it last night’. Rodney’s ears just turned redder.
“What?” their team leader demanded, then shook his head when he understood. “You guys are a bunch of pervs.”
“You were the one who said it,” Ronon challenged.
Rodney decided then would be the best time to make his exit, pausing only long enough to tell Sheppard, “Stop by if you want. I’m sure we can find something for you to do.”
The afternoon briefing never took place. One of the men on Stackhouse’s team had radioed in a distress call saying they were under fire and half the team was cut off from the gate, before control lost contact. Sheppard had taken command of the rescue operations and Ronon had joined him. By the time they had rescued the men and kicked a little hostile native ass, it was nearly sunrise on Atlantis. He and Sheppard had trudged exhaustedly down the hall toward their quarters and met Zelenka outside McKay’s door.
“You’re up bright and early this morning, Radek,” Sheppard had yawned.
“Yes,” the scientist agreed with a shove at his glasses. “We have had a power failure in the south wing that I have been working on for a couple of hours.”
“So, what are you doing here?” John inquired. “McKay send you to get him a powerbar?”
“No, he has not been answering his radio,” the scientist explained. “I have called him for almost an hour and there has been no response. Now, he is not answering his door.”
Sheppard frowned at the news, ringing the bell then banging when there was no response. “McKay? You in there?” When he still didn’t answer, John hitched his head tensely toward the controls. “Override them.”
Zelenka quickly popped open the cover, swapping two crystals, and the door slid open.
“Rodney?” John called, even as he stepped into the dark room.
Ronon followed close on his heels, squinting to make out any shapes in the room until Sheppard thought the lights up. McKay was in his bed, lying on his stomach, mouth slack, apparently sound asleep. John closed the short distance to the bed, giving the sleeping man a poke. “McKay! Rise and shine! Your city needs you.”
Rodney didn’t so much as twitch. Sheppard and Ronon exchanged worried glances. McKay never seemed to sleep beyond a light doze unless he was anesthetized.
This time Sheppard gave a rough shake. “Rodney, wake up!” Still nothing. “Rodney?” John actually pinched him and the sleeping man didn’t move. “Crap.” This time John checked his pulse, just to be sure, even though they could see that he was breathing deeply in sleep. Keying his radio, Sheppard called, “Medical team to Dr. McKay’s quarters.”
Jennifer arrived with the team, still wearing her pajamas, and didn’t have any more luck waking McKay than Sheppard had. After a cursory exam in the scientist’s quarters while Ronon stood watching with Radek and Sheppard, the physician stepped away to let the team load Rodney onto a gurney.
“We’re going to move him to the infirmary now,” she told them with a small reassuring smile.
“What the hell is going on?” John demanded quietly, arms crossed in a stance that anyone could read as worried and frustrated.
“Honestly, I don’t know. His pulse rate is elevated, his blood pressure is down, but, in every other way, he seems to simply be asleep. And by the fluttering under his eyelids, he’s actually dreaming.”
The worry just increased in both men. “Dreaming? Like with the killer crystal?”
Ronon had had his own experience with the entity that had chosen Sheppard’s form to go on a murder spree in people’s heads. Being bashed in the head and nearly buried alive wasn’t something he really cared to remember, especially when it had seemingly been the person he trusted most on Atlantis doing it.
Zelenka spoke up then. “But we captured it and returned it to its home planet. And we followed proper infectious substance protocols…”
With a raised hand, Keller cut him off. “I know, I know. And we checked everyone from the team who went to the planet. Besides, I don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with. A person under the influence of the crystal entity could wake up; from everything I’ve seen so far, McKay can’t.”
John watched as the medics transferred Rodney to the gurney. “So, what do we do?”
“I’ll run some scans, some tests, see what I can find out.”
Sheppard gave a wordless nod of understanding, falling in step beside the gurney as it was wheeled out of the room.
Ronon grabbed John’s arm before they headed down the hall. “Hey, I’m going to let Teyla know what’s going on and we’ll meet you in the infirmary.”
“Yeah, good idea,” he agreed, eyes never leaving their teammate.
“He’s going to be okay,” Ronon encouraged. “Keller will figure this out.”
“Of course, she will.” John pulled away and jogged to catch up with the gurney.
Ronon believed what he had said. The medical teams here on Atlantis were the best he’d ever seen, and they always came up with a way to fix things… eventually. But when he went to Teyla’s room and received no answer, he started to get a little worried. And when they finally overrode her door locks and found her in the same state as McKay, he realized they were pretty much screwed.
* * * *
The dream had begun like most of the others had for Teyla. She was in the common house at Darja, drinking the ale that flowed so liberally amongst these people. Only tonight she was almost relieved to find herself all alone. The previous nights with her team had been started out enjoyable enough, but after the past two with John and Rodney’s behavior growing more and more… well, she supposed passionate was as good a word as any, although disturbing would also serve the purpose… she was happy to let them do as they saw fit somewhere else. And while the initial physical response between the two men had been rather surprising, she supposed it was just a natural progression of the growing bond that had developed between the two over the past four years.
John would die for any member of team; just as they all would for each other. But it seemed that he and Rodney tended to put their lives on the line for each other more than anyone else. So, a physical attraction was only natural. Although, it did not explain why she would be dreaming of it. Perhaps it was her recently consummated relationship with Kanaan that had heightened her awareness of such things. At the thought of her childhood friend turned recent lover, he appeared, wrapping an arm around her from behind and kissing her neck, and, yes, tonight was not going to be a night where she lamented the absence of her teammates in her dreams.
“I have missed you,” he whispered, nipping her earlobe lightly.
“It has not been that long,” she responded with a smile, eyes closed and running a hand back to rub down his leg. “And I was planning to return to New Athos in a few weeks for the festival.”
“Then it is good I have come here instead because I could not wait that long.” He turned her around to kiss her, long and slow, and she tugged him toward the bed in her quarters, the candlelight flickering dark shadows across their bodies. He settled on her warm and heavy, lips moving across her neck, her shoulders, down to her breasts and she let out a little gasp of pleasure that was replaced by confused call of his name when he froze and stared down on her in shock.
“Kanaan?” His only answer was a gurgling sound as blood spilled from his mouth and onto her. “Kanaan!” Looking past him, she could just make out the black shape of one of Michael’s mutated eratus bugs in the shadows as it pulled a claw free of the man who collapsed limply on top of her.
She tried to scream for help, but her voice wouldn’t form a sound no matter how hard she tried.
Scrambling out from under the dead body, she fought to stand, to run for the door to call for help but she still couldn’t speak above a hoarse whisper. She was in the hallway, banging on doors as she passed them, trying to get someone to hear her, but there was no one. As far as she could tell, she was the only person in all of Atlantis. If she could just find John or Ronon or even Rodney. If she could find her team they would be able to help her.
And that’s when she rounded a corner straight into Rodney’s chest. They went down in a heap, her legs and arms tangled with his, and she pushed up against his field vest, noticing for the first time that she was also wearing hers.
“Teyla, what the hell is going on?”
“Michael’s mutants,” she tried to tell him. Fighting to gain her feet and pull Rodney to his at the same time, because it was back there, right behind her, and they had to run, find the others. They had to run.
“What? Here?”
She nodded her head, gulping air from her flight away from the creature. She reached for her gun but it wasn’t there. Rodney’s fingers were scrabbling uselessly at his empty holster and he looked at her in wide-eyed terror.
“We have to find the others,” he told her. “Sheppard and Ronon and the marines…”
“They are not here,” she told him, looking anxiously behind her, knowing the monster was there even though she could not see it. With a shove, she got Rodney moving down the hall at a brisk jog. “No one is here but you and me.”
“Where are they?” he demanded frantically.
“I do not know.”
“Well, they didn’t just disappear and they wouldn’t have left us.”
Teyla shook her head, leaving unspoken what she feared had happened to them. “No, they would not do that.”
Rodney picked up on her thoughts. “Dead?” he asked in dismay. “You think they’re dead?”
“I do not know,” she repeated. “But we cannot stay here if we wish to live.”
“Okay,” he relented. “Then we need to get to the gate or to the Jumpers so we can leave Atlantis.”
“Very well, we shall attempt to reach the hangar and dial out with a Jumper.”
“We can dial the Midway station and get help from the SGC.” Rodney slowed running a hand along the wall.
“Rodney,” Teyla coaxed impatiently. “We do not have time for this. We must go.”
“The transporter… it should be here.” Rodney turned in a disoriented circle. “Christ, I don’t even know where we are in the city.”
Teyla’s heart started pounding harder as she realized she, too, was lost. Fighting to maintain her calm, she reasoned, “We will find a balcony. Try to determine our location from there.”
They sprinted toward the end of the hall where she could see a door, palmed it open, and felt herself freefalling until Rodney’s hand grabbed her arm.
“Teyla!” he cried in alarm, his fingers biting painfully into her bicep.
Her feet kicked free in a void salty air that spanned the vast distance between her and the rough, storm-driven waves below. “Rodney, do not let go!” she pleaded, swinging her free hand up to grip Rodney’s arms in return.
“That’s kind of the plan,” he grunted, pulling with everything he had to haul her back up into the hallway.
Once Rodney had pulled her up part way, Teyla was able to swing her leg up over the edge for enough leverage to climb back in. They both lay panting on the floor and Rodney expressed her sentiment fairly accurately.
“What the fuck?”
Unfortunately she did not have an answer for that particular question.
“We must find the Jumpers,” she responded, climbing to her feet and offering Rodney a hand. “It is not safe here.”
“Really? Ya’ think?” Rodney took the offered hand and stood with a grunt and hands to the small of his back. “I think I may have slipped a disk saving your life.”
With a roll of brown eyes, Teyla promised, “We will have it examined once we reach the SGC.”
Rodney grimaced again before sobering and looking longingly back the way they had come. “Do you really think they’re… you know.”
“Michael took the Taranans to use as part of his experimenting. Perhaps we will be fortunate and that is what he has done with the others and we can get them back.”
“Fortunate?” Rodney scoffed at her choice of words. “I’d hate to see your definition of unfortunate.”
“Killed by the mutants,” she told him simply.
“Yeah, okay, I see your point.” Rodney winced with his first step, twisting his back as he followed her down the hall. “The problem is, we don’t know where Michael is working now. Maybe we could…” Rodney’s discussion was cut short by the sound of him being slammed into the opposite side of the hallway.
Teyla turned in time to see the claw that would do the same to her. Stars exploded behind her eyes and she blinked frantically to try to clear her vision, succeeding enough to see the mutant responsible approaching her. Black body hunched and covered with patches of course hair, sickeningly human eyes watching her hungrily as the mandibles around the mouth twitched in eager anticipation. She tried to stand but her feet kept slipping out from under her, rubbery legs unable to push her up from where she slumped against the wall.
“Rodney…” she slurred, trying to tell him to run, to help, to… Oh, Ancestors, she could not get away from it.
The creature moved its face in close to hers, an unnerving hissing sound filling the air as it ran one segmented finger along her cheek, and she squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath to try to keep out the hot breath thick with the stench of rotting meat, knowing she would soon contribute to it herself.
When the air suddenly cleared before her and the mutant squealed in protest, Teyla opened her eyes to see Rodney gripping it around the neck from behind. The creature bucked, swinging this way and that to try to get the scientist to release his hold, finally succeeding in throwing him off. Rodney scrambled up to his knees in time to have the monster jab one clawed hand deep into his abdomen.
“Rodney!” Teyla screamed, finally able to stand and finding she gripped one of her fighting batons in her hand.
The mutant turned at the sound of her voice, pulling its hand free, dripping her teammate’s blood. Rodney staggered backward, eyes wide in surprise and horror before he looked down at the gaping hole in his stomach. His eyes met hers and he dropped to his knees and Teyla turned attention and anger on the mutant. She swung the stick, striking the mandibles with enough force that one went flying. The creature shrieked in pain, doing its best to cover the wound much like Rodney was his own and skittered away down the hall.
It would be back, she knew it would, but she had at least bought them a little time. Darting to Rodney’s side, she dropped to her knees beside the injured man. He was pale, sweat covering his face and blood covering most of the rest of his body.
“Rodney, I must see the wound to tend it.”
“It’s bad,” he practically whimpered. “Real bad.”
Placing her hand over his, Teyla could feel Rodney’s trembling, but she pulled them away. “Let me see.”
The wound was indeed horrific and there was part of her that was amazed Rodney was even still alive, but there was a much larger part of her that could not bear the thought of him dying and leaving her alone in this place. When she looked once more at the wound, it did not seem nearly as dire as it had before. “I am going to take care of you,” she promised. Pulling bandages from her vest, she pressed them into the wound. “This is what we do, is it not? Keep each other safe?”
Rodney choked back a scream, slamming his head back against the wall at the pain of the pressure against his abdomen. But once she had it secure, he managed to give a weak smile. “That was pretty brave, what I did. Wasn’t it? I mean it was pretty stupid, too, obviously, seeing as I have a giant hole in me now. But it was pretty damn brave.”
She tied of the wrapping and smiled back. “It was very brave. You saved my life, I have no doubt.”
“Too bad Sheppard wasn’t here to see it… or Ronon.” He looked back down the hallway again, as if wishing they would miraculously appear.
Teyla took his hand and gave it a consoling squeeze. “They would have been most impressed.”
“I was thinking that maybe… maybe they’re here, too, somewhere. Maybe they’re just lost like we are in the city and they’re looking for us.”
It was a comforting thought, one she had trouble believing but the desperate look in Rodney’s eyes had her nodding in reassurance. “Perhaps you are right. But for now we must find some place safe to hide.”
“Sheppard always told me if I ended up lost in the woods on some planet, to stay put and wait for you guys to find me. So, don’t you think we should wait here for them?” Rodney was now sitting in a damp, leafy, mulch, leaning back against a tree in a dense forest… a forest on Athos.
Although Teyla had not stepped foot on the planet in over four years, she knew exactly where they were and that safety was nearby. “Come, we must go.” She hooked Rodney’s arm around her shoulder, helping him to his feet.
Rodney groaned at the effort it took to gain his feet, holding his free hand tightly over his blood soaked bandages. “Where?”
“There are caves not far from here. My people have used them for generations to hide when the Wraith attack. We will be safe there.”
She led Rodney through the trees, fighting to support his greater weight even though he was doing remarkably well at staggering around the underbrush given his injury. Rodney lost his footing once when they crossed a stream, taking them both down to soak their pants to above the knees in the icy water. It was as she was attempting to have him stand once again that she felt the sensation she had experience since childhood. Wraith. There were Wraith in their vicinity.
“What? What is it?” Rodney demanded in dread when Teyla stood scanning the woods in the middle of the creek. The high-pitched buzz of the Dart had them both looking up into the darkening sky. “Oh, crap.”
The sentiment was one she understood and agreed with whole heartedly, but now was not the time to become bogged down in dismay. “Come,” she coaxed. “The caves are not far.”
The whining of the Darts only increased as they worked their way up the bank of the stream and back into the trees. But it took on a few minutes to locate the opening to the caves. Lighting a torch, Teyla led her injured teammate through the dark passageways with their ancient drawings on the walls of the Athos of old and deep into the caves.
She eased Rodney to the ground when she could no longer hear the Darts, then stood again and attempted to get her bearings on where the water source was located from their location. Rodney was slumped exhaustedly against the rock wall, eyes open just a sliver as he gulped air.
After the exertion of supporting him the entire way, Teyla was breathing heavily, as well. “The steam delves underground here in these caves and it supplies drinking water when the Athosians take refuge here. I will go and bring some back for our needs.”
“You’re going to leave me here?”
“I will return shortly,” she promised. “I will light another torch so you will not be here in the dark.”
Rodney clamped his lips tight and nodded but Teyla could still see the fear in his eyes. Squatting beside him once more, she took his hand. “I promise you, I will return. I will not abandon you to face the Wraith or the mutants alone. You must trust me on this, Rodney. We only leave this cave together. Do you understand?”
He nodded again, this time with more trust in her words, and with a final squeeze to his hand, she stood to go in search of the water.
Rodney stopped her before she got very far. “These are the caves where you brought Sheppard and he found your necklace, aren’t they?”
“Yes, in this exact spot, actually.”
“Good,” Rodney nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Then he’ll know where to find us when he gets here.”
Teyla wished that she had her teammate’s faith that the others were still alive and would be able to come to their aid, because she had no doubt that if Ronon and John were still alive, nothing would stop them from finding her and Rodney.
Nothing.
* * * *
After almost an hour of alternating pacing and sitting along with Sheppard, Ronon was worried Jennifer might kick them out of the infirmary. He and Sheppard standing around and demanding answers was obviously wearing on the physician and Colonel Carter was doing her best to intervene and keep the men out of the medical staff’s way. They had settled in chairs between the two beds, Teyla and Rodney both hooked up to various monitors and continuing to sleep while their teammates watched. Occasionally the heart monitors of one or both would spike and the three of them would look anxiously to the doctors responding to the change.
When Keller finally returned with her tablet in hand, Sheppard and Ronon were on their feet immediately.
“Okay,” she told them, “here’s what I’ve found. Their brain activity suggests they are both in REM sleep, but I’ve never seen anyone maintain REM for this long. What’s more, if you look at their EKG and EEG readings, they are almost identical… same spikes, same periods of calm, same everything.”
“So what does that mean?” Ronon asked in confusion. REM, EKG, EEG… it was all a bunch of BS as far as he was concerned.
Carter’s brow furrowed at the news. “Wait, are you saying they’re dreaming the same dream?”
With a shrug Jennifer admitted, “That’s the most logical explanation I can come up with to account for the similarities. When Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay were hooked up the machine that allowed them to enter one another’s dreams, we saw the same similarities in physical responses.”
“But how is that possible?” Carter asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea,” Jennifer sighed.
“Can I maybe go back in like I did with Rodney’s dream before?” Sheppard suggested. “Use the machine and maybe help them out.”
“We don’t know what’s holding them there,” Carter countered. “You could become trapped just like they are.”
“I’m willing to risk it,” John assured his commanding officer.
“I’m not sure I am,” she told him.
Sheppard shifted uncomfortably. “Look, this is half my team we’re talking about. I can’t just sit here and not try to help them if there’s a chance that I can.”
Something had been poking at one of Ronon’s memories, something Teyla had said in the dream the night before that hadn’t made sense but maybe it did now. “She was glad we were there,” he mumbled.
John turned to look at him with a confused, “What?”
“I had a dream last night with all of us, and Teyla made a comment about how she had been glad we were all there. It sounded odd, because it was my dream, not hers. But I figured since things don’t always make sense in dreams it was no big deal, so I didn’t think too much about it.”
“We were on Darja,” John supplied in a bit of awe.
Ronon nodded. “Yeah, and then in the gateroom. It was the third night in a row I’d dreamed about the entire team being together.”
“Me, too,” Sheppard admitted.
“But you didn’t dreams about it last night?” Jennifer asked.
“We weren’t here,” Ronon provided. “We were on the rescue mission. I haven’t slept in over twenty hours.”
Carter went into her investigation mode and started questioning them. “What can you tell us about the dreams? What were you doing? Were there others there? Did you have control of your surroundings or the events at hand?”
“It was usually the four of us,” John started. “Sometimes others came and went, but the team was almost always there. I really don’t know if we could control it or not. It just felt like a normal dream. I had no idea the others were really there.” Sheppard gave Ronon a desperate look, knowing what had happened and what he and Teyla had seen.
“And nothing unusual happened?”
Sheppard shrugged uncomfortably at Carter’s question. “Well, it was a dream… sort of.”
Stepping in to rescue his teammate, Ronon told her, “We usually just hung out, talked, stuff like that.”
“Yeah, stuff like that,” John concurred warily. “The settings changed. We were in a field, a tent on Athos, the gateroom, Teyla’s quarters… although, now that I think about it, they always seemed to start with us on Darja.”
“Were you doing anything in particular there?”
Ronon shook his head at Keller’s question. “Not really. Just sitting around the fire drinking ale like we did on the planet.”
“I think we need a sample of that ale,” Jennifer suggested.
Carter nodded in agreement. “I’ll send Lorne’s team to get one and ask if the Darjan have seen this before. In the meantime, we need to keep you two awake. If you fall asleep you may end up in being pulled into the same trap that has Teyla and McKay.”
“Let us go in,” Sheppard tried again. “Maybe we can help them find a way out.”
“I’m sorry, John. Not until we have some idea what’s causing it and we know we can get you back out.” The expedition leader looked meaningfully at Keller who nodded in understanding.
“We’ll start with some caffeine; move on to the stronger meds if we need to. Meanwhile, I’ll run some test on Colonel Sheppard and Ronon and see what I can find.”
The test involved being poked and prodded and run through a couple of scanners, all while Jennifer’s staff made sure the two men stayed awake. Between tests, John and Ronon were allowed to sit with Teyla and Rodney as the one set of teammates slept and the other drank coffee by the gallon. Teyla’s vitals stayed strong, occasionally her heartbeat would increase, but McKay’s seemed to be failing. John sat in the chair beside Rodney’s bed, hands steepled beneath his chin, as his eyes traveled between the man and the monitor.
At one point he had flat out asked Keller, “He’s hurt, isn’t he? In the dream, he’s been injured or something.”
She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m thinking that’s what’s going on with his vitals.” Keller squeezed John’s shoulder. “Major Lorne should be back soon.”
Sheppard’s expression mirrored Ronon’s thoughts of, ‘and then what?’ When the doctor left, Ronon pulled the other chair over by Sheppard, turned it around and straddled the backrest.
“Hey, you doing okay?”
Scrubbing his face, John lied, “Yeah, I’m good. It’s just… Teyla and Rodney both out…”
“Yeah, I know.” Ronon sat for a few seconds, trying to figure out the best way to broach the topic he’d been trying to bring up for a while. He finally decided to just ask. “So, are you and McKay sleeping together?”
“No!” John insisted instantly before lowering his voice. “It was a dream. Okay? Haven’t you had dreams where you’ve done things… people… you’d never do in real life?”
“Sure,” Ronon admitted before pointing out. “But those weren’t normal dreams we were having. We were really there.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know that at the time.”
“Either one of you could have stopped or said no at any time, but you didn’t,” Ronon continued. “Actually, you both really seemed to enjoy it.” Sheppard buried his face in his hands with a groan. “Really enjoy it.”
“I can’t. All right?” John snapped in a harsh whisper. “Even if I did want to do… stuff… with McKay in real life, and I’m not saying that I do, I can’t. There are rules about that sort of thing.”
Before Ronon could argue with how stupid those Earth rules were, the two heart monitors started beeping. Teyla flinched in her sleep, drawing in a harsh breath and Rodney mumbled something that sounded a lot like Teyla’s name. Sheppard stood at the sound, taking McKay’s hand in his and squeezing tightly. “Rodney, if you can hear me, you two hang on. Help is coming.”
The medical team arrived then, bustling the two out of the way to reach their patients and Sheppard tapped Ronon’s shoulder and hitched his head toward the exit. The Satedan followed John to the cabinet where Jennifer kept the various drugs… the cabinet she usually kept locked but had left open when she responded to the alarms on the monitors. Sheppard scanned the shelves until he found what he was looking for.
“What are you doing?”
“Sedatives,” Sheppard explained, handing Ronon one of the pills before dry swallowing his own. “We’re not waiting around any longer.”
Ronon eagerly swallowed his own tablet as he followed John out into the hall to find a safe place to fall asleep.
Part 2
Category: Slash John/Rodney with team building thrown in
Word Count: 16,000
Rating: T
Characters: John, Rodney, Teyla, and Ronon
Spoilers: Set sometime after Doppelganger but before The Missing (and I'm just going to pretend that Quarantine didn't happen exactly like it did in canon)
A/N: Thanks as always to Koschka for the beta.
Summary: With Rodney and Teyla trapped in a dream, it's up to John and Ronon to find a way in before they can help their teammates find a way out.
I’ll Take You Dreaming
by liketheriver
Ronon had never spent a lot of time considering his dreams. He remembered the first time he’d been told to meet with Kate Heightmeyer, he had found it strange that the woman asked him to talk about his dreams. Who cared about dreams? They weren’t real, they didn’t change reality. He could kill a thousand Wraith in his dreams and wake to the same number that had existed before he went to sleep. He could dream of Melena soft and warm in his arms and it wouldn’t change the fact that when he woke she was still cold and dead and never to be seen again. Heightmeyer had tried to tell him that dreams were a way for our subconscious to work out issues he had that his conscious mind wasn’t willing to accept. He’d simply glazed over and considered slipping right into that dreamland and working out a few issues with his boredom. No, Ronon didn’t put a lot of thought into his dreams or a lot of merit in what the psychologist had told him. They were simply dreams, nothing more, nothing less.
So when the team returned from a two day stint on Darja, he didn’t think too much about the fact that the three nights since they had returned, the world had appeared in every one of dreams. The first night back on Atlantis, he dreamed the entire team was sitting around the fire pit of the central dwelling house. It was part pub, part community gathering spot, part playground, where children wove their way in play among the adults who laughed and told tales with their neighbors while drinking the sweet ale the locals brewed. Only, in his dream, no one was there except his team.
None of his teammates had mentioned the absence of the townspeople, but Ronon had been thinking about it, at least as much as anyone really thinks about the oddities taking place during a dream. It was like a shadow on his peripheral vision that never became clear until he woke and remembered the vision and thought it seemed strange that no one else was there. But during the dream, he and his team had sat and talked and laughed and drank the ale as if they were sitting around a table in the cafeteria instead of on an alien planet. In fact, at one point they were sitting around the cafeteria table, and then in an Athosian tent, and eventually back in the common house. Even when Rodney vanished, Ronon’s thought had melding around that fact as if it were to be expected. The only reason he even notice the scientist was gone was because Sheppard had mentioned his absence. But even that was quickly glossed as if McKay had never been there in the first place.
The second night, the dream was similar… same initial setting, same people, same absence of Darjanians, but then Teyla had made a passing comment about it being strange that no one was there except them. At her observation, the people were back, filling their cups, urging them to tell of those they had met during their other trading excursions. McKay had started to tell a story about one particular mission gone bad, and Sheppard kept stepping in to correct him, the two men alternating between bickering and laughing, leaning comfortably into one another as they did until John rested his chin on Rodney’s shoulder while the scientist spoke as if it was the most natural thing he’d ever done in his life. McKay’s animated recitation stopped at the act and he turned his head slowly in surprise. John had straightened slightly and gave the scientist a somewhat goofy yet contented smile that had Rodney leaning forward into a tentative kiss. As the kiss continued, slow and tender with more curiosity than passion, the townsfolk vanished one by one until it was just the four of teammates again.
Teyla and Ronon had sat watching the whole thing with their own expressions of surprise, and Ronon had finally cleared his throat. The two men had separated, both flushed, from the experience itself or being caught in the act, Ronon couldn’t be sure, but the scene shifted again before he could say anything to either man. They were in a field, under a sky gray with clouds, and Teyla was recalling a hunting trip on Athos when she was young. Ronon contributed with a similar story from his youth and midway through he realized they were sitting in Teyla’s room on Atlantis. When someone knocked at the door, the woman stood and moved to see who it was. She opened the door, stepped out and was gone, so were Sheppard and McKay. The voice of Ronon’s grandmother behind him had any thought of where his team had gone slipping away and he had dreamed of Sateda until he woke.
The third night, he and his team were back in the central house on Darja once again, only things were a little… odd. Not that they hadn’t been odd before, but this time Sheppard and McKay couldn’t seem to stay in one place. One minute they were sitting on opposite sides of the fire, the next they were so close their shoulders were touching, and then John was sitting between Ronon and Teyla and Rodney was alone on the other side of the fire only to be joined once more by Sheppard a minute later. At one point, Rodney was sitting on the floor in front of John and Sheppard started rubbing the scientist’s shoulders when McKay complained about being hunched over a device all day in the lab.
Teyla and Ronon had exchanged baffled glances when Rodney let out a groan as Sheppard worked his thumbs into the space behind McKay’s shoulder blade.
“Oh, God, that feels amazing.” He let his head drop to his chest and John moved his fingers to Rodney’s neck with a predatory grin.
“If you think that feels good, just wait.”
Rodney looked up then with a smile of his own, grabbed a fistful of Sheppard’s black t-shirt, and pulled his team leader down to meet him halfway for a deep kiss. John made a low reverberating sound deep in his throat, cupping McKay’s face to pull him closer, and then it turned into a kind of power struggle between the two as they each tried to tug the other closer. Eventually either McKay won or Sheppard realized being on the ground with him was a pretty good idea, because that’s exactly where they ended up. Fortunately, they were behind the fire pit and blocked from sight. Unfortunately, it didn’t muffle the “Oh, Gods,” and “Holy, shits,” and “Don’t stops” that were floating over the flames to where Teyla and Ronon sat with expressions hovering between humor and horror that this was happening in front of them.
And to be honest, Ronon wasn’t sure if Teyla being there with him made it better or worse. It would have been one thing if she had simply carried on the conversation as if nothing were going on a few feet away. That would have been typically and freakishly dreamlike, like the dream he’d had as a teenager about his mother having sex with his best friend while his father gave the boy pointers from the sidelines. That one he’d been able to explain away as a result of Basser having made a comment about how attractive Ronon’s mother was the day before, and Ronon had simply handled it the next day by punching Basser in the nose and telling him never to mention his mother again. But this… this had no explanation that Ronon could think of other than one he didn’t want to think of. That’s when he decided that maybe this was why Teyla was here, because if at least one woman was in the dream that meant he wasn’t into guys. Right?
“So, do you want to have sex?” he’d asked her, figuring that’s what they were supposed to do because there was no way he was joining in with the other two… if they’d even let him at this point. And besides, it wasn’t like he hadn’t had sex with Teyla in his dreams in the past.
That suggestion ended much the same way his conversation with Basser had all those years ago, only Ronon was the one being punched in the face. His exclamation of surprise had two disheveled heads appearing over the fire pit.
“They’re still here?” Rodney asked in confusion to see his two teammates on the opposite side of the fire.
Sheppard had paused before shrugging. “Actually, it’s kind of hot.”
“I had no idea you were a goddamn exhibitionist,” McKay all but panted excitedly, biting John’s lower lip.
Sheppard closed his eyes, sucking in a harsh gasp before exhaling a breathy, “Fuck, McKay,” and they disappeared back to the ground.
Ronon turned back to Teyla. “No, huh?” Not that he had to ask considering the fighting sticks that had appeared in her hands.
“No,” she insisted before squeezing her eyes shut with a grimace at the satisfied noises coming from Sheppard and McKay. Even though they now stood in the gate room with most of the control room staff around them, John and Rodney didn’t stop groping one another, nor did they even seem to care that they were now nude in front of everyone. Of course, none of the expedition members seemed to notice either.
“I had thought it was nice having you all here, but now…” Teyla tried to give Ronon a smile but gave up and admitted, “This is most… uncomfortable.”
“You’re telling me?” Ronon snorted as the room morphed into an Earth boat and he was happily hunting giant sharks with Sheriff Brody.
By the time Ronon met Sheppard for their morning run, the dream he’d had the night before had settled into that place in Ronon’s mind where all things weird and never to mentioned again resided. Even destroying giant killer fish for fun hadn’t completely erased the memory of what Sheppard and McKay had been doing, but it had been a dream and sometimes dreams were strange and that’s just the way it was.
But it still had John frowning as he stretched on the East dock. “What?”
“What do you mean, what?” Ronon had demanded, still having trouble looking at his teammate without picturing him doing… stuff to McKay.
“You keep looking at me funny.”
“I am not,” Ronon insisted gruffly before starting to run, calling back over his shoulder, “Are you coming or not?” Which he instantly regretted because somewhere in the recesses of him memory he seemed to recall Rodney demanding the exact same question of Sheppard.
John quickly joined him. “Somebody got up on the wrong side of bed today,” he noted with a cheerfully challenging grin before speeding off, leaving Ronon to play catch up for the rest of the run.
He met up with Sheppard again in the hall after they showered and dressed and the two made their way to the cafeteria to grab some breakfast. Teyla and Rodney were already sitting at their usual table. The physicist was babbling on about some experiment in his lab, only this time instead of berating every scientist working under him, he was happily bragging about some formula he had managed to work out the night before.
“So, not only was I able to boost the efficiency the six percent I knew I could get, I managed to squeeze out another whopping two percent.”
Sheppard sat his tray down beside McKay’s. “A whole two percent. Sounds like someone is getting a gold star on their homework today.”
Ronon was prepared for Rodney to make some smartass comment back, as if John were insulting him instead of complimenting his work. But instead, McKay simply gave him a happily smug grin. “I’ll put it on my minifridge.”
Sheppard smiled back before clearing his throat and sitting, as if he’d just realized he’d been nice to Rodney, and he quickly changed the subject. “Speaking of minifridges, you owe me a six pack from our game last week.”
“No,” Rodney corrected, “you won it at computer golf but I won it back at chess the next day.”
“We weren’t playing for beer in that game,” Sheppard corrected.
“Then what were we playing for?”
“Nothing. It was just a friendly game of chess.”
McKay crossed his arms irritably. “Since when do we play friendly games of anything?”
“You didn’t specifically say we were playing for beer, therefore, we weren’t playing for beer.”
“I don’t recall you specifically saying we were playing for beer during the golf game, either.”
“Well, we always play for beer when we play computer games,” Sheppard pointed out, reaching for the salt.
Before McKay could argue the point, he was jumping to his feet when John knocked the man’s coffee off his tray and it started flowing into Rodney’s lap.
“Oh, shit!” Sheppard exclaimed, springing to his feet as well and starting to pat the wet spots on Rodney’s uniform.
McKay was wiping at the coffee stains, as well. “What the hell, Sheppard?”
“Sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to…” John stopped abruptly when it dawned on him exactly where he was trying to dry McKay. Rodney seemed to have a similar revelation and they took a step away from each other.
“It’s okay,” McKay mumbled and Ronon thought the man was actually blushing.
Sheppard waved his hand still holding the napkin toward the scientist then pulled it back hastily, as if afraid he might accidently come in contact with McKay again. “I was just reaching for the salt…” he muttered back.
Rodney dabbed at his pants some more, more of an excuse not to look at John than anything else, and shook his head. “I said, it’s fine.”
And that’s when everything finally clicked into place for Ronon. He’d dreamed about Sheppard and McKay having sex because they were doing it in real life. He’d obviously picked up on the subtle signs they’d been showing and his subconscious had turned it into a dream. But now that he knew it, he wondered how he could have ever missed it in the first place. Just look at them. The two were working so hard not to touch each other, it was almost as blatantly obvious as the groping that was going on in the dream. And thank the Ancestors John and Rodney were the gay ones because it gave Ronon the perfect excuse to rationalize away any worries he might have had about himself based on the previous night’s dream.
Picking up his tray, McKay addressed the group. “Seeing as Colonel Sheppard has emptied my coffee cup for me, I’m evidently finished with breakfast. I’m going to change clothes and head to the lab.”
“Do you need some help?” John asked.
“I think I’m more than capable of changing my clothes on my own,” Rodney pointed out.
Given the way both men turned a pale shade of pink, they came to the same realization about their statements at the same time.
“I didn’t mean helping with the clothes… taking off…” John waved a hand to encompass all of McKay.
Rodney laughed nervously. “Of course you didn’t. I know you didn’t. Why in the world would you offer to help me undress…? I mean dress… I mean… No, I don’t need your help,” the scientist finally snapped.
Ronon chewed his toast with an amused smirk. Watching his two teammates flounder like this was some damn funny stuff.
“I meant the lab,” Sheppard explained pointedly. “Do you need my help in the lab?”
“Well, obviously you meant the lab. What else would you mean? Certainly not…” The twirling of Rodney’s hands continued even after words failed him. “You really want to help in the lab?”
Sheppard shrugged and took a bite of eggs. “You’re always trying to get me in there to try out some new gizmo you’ve found, and I don’t have anything urgent planned until the briefing this afternoon.”
“You have a stack of tediously mundane paperwork sitting on your desk, don’t you?” Rodney accused. “Some government form with an alphanumeric designator with the occasional stroke thrown in for a name.”
John’s grimace confirmed McKay’s conclusion. “I hate anything that involves strokes.”
The confession had Teyla choking on her fruit juice and Ronon biting his tongue to keep from saying, ‘you sure seemed to enjoy it last night’. Rodney’s ears just turned redder.
“What?” their team leader demanded, then shook his head when he understood. “You guys are a bunch of pervs.”
“You were the one who said it,” Ronon challenged.
Rodney decided then would be the best time to make his exit, pausing only long enough to tell Sheppard, “Stop by if you want. I’m sure we can find something for you to do.”
The afternoon briefing never took place. One of the men on Stackhouse’s team had radioed in a distress call saying they were under fire and half the team was cut off from the gate, before control lost contact. Sheppard had taken command of the rescue operations and Ronon had joined him. By the time they had rescued the men and kicked a little hostile native ass, it was nearly sunrise on Atlantis. He and Sheppard had trudged exhaustedly down the hall toward their quarters and met Zelenka outside McKay’s door.
“You’re up bright and early this morning, Radek,” Sheppard had yawned.
“Yes,” the scientist agreed with a shove at his glasses. “We have had a power failure in the south wing that I have been working on for a couple of hours.”
“So, what are you doing here?” John inquired. “McKay send you to get him a powerbar?”
“No, he has not been answering his radio,” the scientist explained. “I have called him for almost an hour and there has been no response. Now, he is not answering his door.”
Sheppard frowned at the news, ringing the bell then banging when there was no response. “McKay? You in there?” When he still didn’t answer, John hitched his head tensely toward the controls. “Override them.”
Zelenka quickly popped open the cover, swapping two crystals, and the door slid open.
“Rodney?” John called, even as he stepped into the dark room.
Ronon followed close on his heels, squinting to make out any shapes in the room until Sheppard thought the lights up. McKay was in his bed, lying on his stomach, mouth slack, apparently sound asleep. John closed the short distance to the bed, giving the sleeping man a poke. “McKay! Rise and shine! Your city needs you.”
Rodney didn’t so much as twitch. Sheppard and Ronon exchanged worried glances. McKay never seemed to sleep beyond a light doze unless he was anesthetized.
This time Sheppard gave a rough shake. “Rodney, wake up!” Still nothing. “Rodney?” John actually pinched him and the sleeping man didn’t move. “Crap.” This time John checked his pulse, just to be sure, even though they could see that he was breathing deeply in sleep. Keying his radio, Sheppard called, “Medical team to Dr. McKay’s quarters.”
Jennifer arrived with the team, still wearing her pajamas, and didn’t have any more luck waking McKay than Sheppard had. After a cursory exam in the scientist’s quarters while Ronon stood watching with Radek and Sheppard, the physician stepped away to let the team load Rodney onto a gurney.
“We’re going to move him to the infirmary now,” she told them with a small reassuring smile.
“What the hell is going on?” John demanded quietly, arms crossed in a stance that anyone could read as worried and frustrated.
“Honestly, I don’t know. His pulse rate is elevated, his blood pressure is down, but, in every other way, he seems to simply be asleep. And by the fluttering under his eyelids, he’s actually dreaming.”
The worry just increased in both men. “Dreaming? Like with the killer crystal?”
Ronon had had his own experience with the entity that had chosen Sheppard’s form to go on a murder spree in people’s heads. Being bashed in the head and nearly buried alive wasn’t something he really cared to remember, especially when it had seemingly been the person he trusted most on Atlantis doing it.
Zelenka spoke up then. “But we captured it and returned it to its home planet. And we followed proper infectious substance protocols…”
With a raised hand, Keller cut him off. “I know, I know. And we checked everyone from the team who went to the planet. Besides, I don’t think that’s what we’re dealing with. A person under the influence of the crystal entity could wake up; from everything I’ve seen so far, McKay can’t.”
John watched as the medics transferred Rodney to the gurney. “So, what do we do?”
“I’ll run some scans, some tests, see what I can find out.”
Sheppard gave a wordless nod of understanding, falling in step beside the gurney as it was wheeled out of the room.
Ronon grabbed John’s arm before they headed down the hall. “Hey, I’m going to let Teyla know what’s going on and we’ll meet you in the infirmary.”
“Yeah, good idea,” he agreed, eyes never leaving their teammate.
“He’s going to be okay,” Ronon encouraged. “Keller will figure this out.”
“Of course, she will.” John pulled away and jogged to catch up with the gurney.
Ronon believed what he had said. The medical teams here on Atlantis were the best he’d ever seen, and they always came up with a way to fix things… eventually. But when he went to Teyla’s room and received no answer, he started to get a little worried. And when they finally overrode her door locks and found her in the same state as McKay, he realized they were pretty much screwed.
* * * *
The dream had begun like most of the others had for Teyla. She was in the common house at Darja, drinking the ale that flowed so liberally amongst these people. Only tonight she was almost relieved to find herself all alone. The previous nights with her team had been started out enjoyable enough, but after the past two with John and Rodney’s behavior growing more and more… well, she supposed passionate was as good a word as any, although disturbing would also serve the purpose… she was happy to let them do as they saw fit somewhere else. And while the initial physical response between the two men had been rather surprising, she supposed it was just a natural progression of the growing bond that had developed between the two over the past four years.
John would die for any member of team; just as they all would for each other. But it seemed that he and Rodney tended to put their lives on the line for each other more than anyone else. So, a physical attraction was only natural. Although, it did not explain why she would be dreaming of it. Perhaps it was her recently consummated relationship with Kanaan that had heightened her awareness of such things. At the thought of her childhood friend turned recent lover, he appeared, wrapping an arm around her from behind and kissing her neck, and, yes, tonight was not going to be a night where she lamented the absence of her teammates in her dreams.
“I have missed you,” he whispered, nipping her earlobe lightly.
“It has not been that long,” she responded with a smile, eyes closed and running a hand back to rub down his leg. “And I was planning to return to New Athos in a few weeks for the festival.”
“Then it is good I have come here instead because I could not wait that long.” He turned her around to kiss her, long and slow, and she tugged him toward the bed in her quarters, the candlelight flickering dark shadows across their bodies. He settled on her warm and heavy, lips moving across her neck, her shoulders, down to her breasts and she let out a little gasp of pleasure that was replaced by confused call of his name when he froze and stared down on her in shock.
“Kanaan?” His only answer was a gurgling sound as blood spilled from his mouth and onto her. “Kanaan!” Looking past him, she could just make out the black shape of one of Michael’s mutated eratus bugs in the shadows as it pulled a claw free of the man who collapsed limply on top of her.
She tried to scream for help, but her voice wouldn’t form a sound no matter how hard she tried.
Scrambling out from under the dead body, she fought to stand, to run for the door to call for help but she still couldn’t speak above a hoarse whisper. She was in the hallway, banging on doors as she passed them, trying to get someone to hear her, but there was no one. As far as she could tell, she was the only person in all of Atlantis. If she could just find John or Ronon or even Rodney. If she could find her team they would be able to help her.
And that’s when she rounded a corner straight into Rodney’s chest. They went down in a heap, her legs and arms tangled with his, and she pushed up against his field vest, noticing for the first time that she was also wearing hers.
“Teyla, what the hell is going on?”
“Michael’s mutants,” she tried to tell him. Fighting to gain her feet and pull Rodney to his at the same time, because it was back there, right behind her, and they had to run, find the others. They had to run.
“What? Here?”
She nodded her head, gulping air from her flight away from the creature. She reached for her gun but it wasn’t there. Rodney’s fingers were scrabbling uselessly at his empty holster and he looked at her in wide-eyed terror.
“We have to find the others,” he told her. “Sheppard and Ronon and the marines…”
“They are not here,” she told him, looking anxiously behind her, knowing the monster was there even though she could not see it. With a shove, she got Rodney moving down the hall at a brisk jog. “No one is here but you and me.”
“Where are they?” he demanded frantically.
“I do not know.”
“Well, they didn’t just disappear and they wouldn’t have left us.”
Teyla shook her head, leaving unspoken what she feared had happened to them. “No, they would not do that.”
Rodney picked up on her thoughts. “Dead?” he asked in dismay. “You think they’re dead?”
“I do not know,” she repeated. “But we cannot stay here if we wish to live.”
“Okay,” he relented. “Then we need to get to the gate or to the Jumpers so we can leave Atlantis.”
“Very well, we shall attempt to reach the hangar and dial out with a Jumper.”
“We can dial the Midway station and get help from the SGC.” Rodney slowed running a hand along the wall.
“Rodney,” Teyla coaxed impatiently. “We do not have time for this. We must go.”
“The transporter… it should be here.” Rodney turned in a disoriented circle. “Christ, I don’t even know where we are in the city.”
Teyla’s heart started pounding harder as she realized she, too, was lost. Fighting to maintain her calm, she reasoned, “We will find a balcony. Try to determine our location from there.”
They sprinted toward the end of the hall where she could see a door, palmed it open, and felt herself freefalling until Rodney’s hand grabbed her arm.
“Teyla!” he cried in alarm, his fingers biting painfully into her bicep.
Her feet kicked free in a void salty air that spanned the vast distance between her and the rough, storm-driven waves below. “Rodney, do not let go!” she pleaded, swinging her free hand up to grip Rodney’s arms in return.
“That’s kind of the plan,” he grunted, pulling with everything he had to haul her back up into the hallway.
Once Rodney had pulled her up part way, Teyla was able to swing her leg up over the edge for enough leverage to climb back in. They both lay panting on the floor and Rodney expressed her sentiment fairly accurately.
“What the fuck?”
Unfortunately she did not have an answer for that particular question.
“We must find the Jumpers,” she responded, climbing to her feet and offering Rodney a hand. “It is not safe here.”
“Really? Ya’ think?” Rodney took the offered hand and stood with a grunt and hands to the small of his back. “I think I may have slipped a disk saving your life.”
With a roll of brown eyes, Teyla promised, “We will have it examined once we reach the SGC.”
Rodney grimaced again before sobering and looking longingly back the way they had come. “Do you really think they’re… you know.”
“Michael took the Taranans to use as part of his experimenting. Perhaps we will be fortunate and that is what he has done with the others and we can get them back.”
“Fortunate?” Rodney scoffed at her choice of words. “I’d hate to see your definition of unfortunate.”
“Killed by the mutants,” she told him simply.
“Yeah, okay, I see your point.” Rodney winced with his first step, twisting his back as he followed her down the hall. “The problem is, we don’t know where Michael is working now. Maybe we could…” Rodney’s discussion was cut short by the sound of him being slammed into the opposite side of the hallway.
Teyla turned in time to see the claw that would do the same to her. Stars exploded behind her eyes and she blinked frantically to try to clear her vision, succeeding enough to see the mutant responsible approaching her. Black body hunched and covered with patches of course hair, sickeningly human eyes watching her hungrily as the mandibles around the mouth twitched in eager anticipation. She tried to stand but her feet kept slipping out from under her, rubbery legs unable to push her up from where she slumped against the wall.
“Rodney…” she slurred, trying to tell him to run, to help, to… Oh, Ancestors, she could not get away from it.
The creature moved its face in close to hers, an unnerving hissing sound filling the air as it ran one segmented finger along her cheek, and she squeezed her eyes shut and held her breath to try to keep out the hot breath thick with the stench of rotting meat, knowing she would soon contribute to it herself.
When the air suddenly cleared before her and the mutant squealed in protest, Teyla opened her eyes to see Rodney gripping it around the neck from behind. The creature bucked, swinging this way and that to try to get the scientist to release his hold, finally succeeding in throwing him off. Rodney scrambled up to his knees in time to have the monster jab one clawed hand deep into his abdomen.
“Rodney!” Teyla screamed, finally able to stand and finding she gripped one of her fighting batons in her hand.
The mutant turned at the sound of her voice, pulling its hand free, dripping her teammate’s blood. Rodney staggered backward, eyes wide in surprise and horror before he looked down at the gaping hole in his stomach. His eyes met hers and he dropped to his knees and Teyla turned attention and anger on the mutant. She swung the stick, striking the mandibles with enough force that one went flying. The creature shrieked in pain, doing its best to cover the wound much like Rodney was his own and skittered away down the hall.
It would be back, she knew it would, but she had at least bought them a little time. Darting to Rodney’s side, she dropped to her knees beside the injured man. He was pale, sweat covering his face and blood covering most of the rest of his body.
“Rodney, I must see the wound to tend it.”
“It’s bad,” he practically whimpered. “Real bad.”
Placing her hand over his, Teyla could feel Rodney’s trembling, but she pulled them away. “Let me see.”
The wound was indeed horrific and there was part of her that was amazed Rodney was even still alive, but there was a much larger part of her that could not bear the thought of him dying and leaving her alone in this place. When she looked once more at the wound, it did not seem nearly as dire as it had before. “I am going to take care of you,” she promised. Pulling bandages from her vest, she pressed them into the wound. “This is what we do, is it not? Keep each other safe?”
Rodney choked back a scream, slamming his head back against the wall at the pain of the pressure against his abdomen. But once she had it secure, he managed to give a weak smile. “That was pretty brave, what I did. Wasn’t it? I mean it was pretty stupid, too, obviously, seeing as I have a giant hole in me now. But it was pretty damn brave.”
She tied of the wrapping and smiled back. “It was very brave. You saved my life, I have no doubt.”
“Too bad Sheppard wasn’t here to see it… or Ronon.” He looked back down the hallway again, as if wishing they would miraculously appear.
Teyla took his hand and gave it a consoling squeeze. “They would have been most impressed.”
“I was thinking that maybe… maybe they’re here, too, somewhere. Maybe they’re just lost like we are in the city and they’re looking for us.”
It was a comforting thought, one she had trouble believing but the desperate look in Rodney’s eyes had her nodding in reassurance. “Perhaps you are right. But for now we must find some place safe to hide.”
“Sheppard always told me if I ended up lost in the woods on some planet, to stay put and wait for you guys to find me. So, don’t you think we should wait here for them?” Rodney was now sitting in a damp, leafy, mulch, leaning back against a tree in a dense forest… a forest on Athos.
Although Teyla had not stepped foot on the planet in over four years, she knew exactly where they were and that safety was nearby. “Come, we must go.” She hooked Rodney’s arm around her shoulder, helping him to his feet.
Rodney groaned at the effort it took to gain his feet, holding his free hand tightly over his blood soaked bandages. “Where?”
“There are caves not far from here. My people have used them for generations to hide when the Wraith attack. We will be safe there.”
She led Rodney through the trees, fighting to support his greater weight even though he was doing remarkably well at staggering around the underbrush given his injury. Rodney lost his footing once when they crossed a stream, taking them both down to soak their pants to above the knees in the icy water. It was as she was attempting to have him stand once again that she felt the sensation she had experience since childhood. Wraith. There were Wraith in their vicinity.
“What? What is it?” Rodney demanded in dread when Teyla stood scanning the woods in the middle of the creek. The high-pitched buzz of the Dart had them both looking up into the darkening sky. “Oh, crap.”
The sentiment was one she understood and agreed with whole heartedly, but now was not the time to become bogged down in dismay. “Come,” she coaxed. “The caves are not far.”
The whining of the Darts only increased as they worked their way up the bank of the stream and back into the trees. But it took on a few minutes to locate the opening to the caves. Lighting a torch, Teyla led her injured teammate through the dark passageways with their ancient drawings on the walls of the Athos of old and deep into the caves.
She eased Rodney to the ground when she could no longer hear the Darts, then stood again and attempted to get her bearings on where the water source was located from their location. Rodney was slumped exhaustedly against the rock wall, eyes open just a sliver as he gulped air.
After the exertion of supporting him the entire way, Teyla was breathing heavily, as well. “The steam delves underground here in these caves and it supplies drinking water when the Athosians take refuge here. I will go and bring some back for our needs.”
“You’re going to leave me here?”
“I will return shortly,” she promised. “I will light another torch so you will not be here in the dark.”
Rodney clamped his lips tight and nodded but Teyla could still see the fear in his eyes. Squatting beside him once more, she took his hand. “I promise you, I will return. I will not abandon you to face the Wraith or the mutants alone. You must trust me on this, Rodney. We only leave this cave together. Do you understand?”
He nodded again, this time with more trust in her words, and with a final squeeze to his hand, she stood to go in search of the water.
Rodney stopped her before she got very far. “These are the caves where you brought Sheppard and he found your necklace, aren’t they?”
“Yes, in this exact spot, actually.”
“Good,” Rodney nodded, leaning his head back and closing his eyes. “Then he’ll know where to find us when he gets here.”
Teyla wished that she had her teammate’s faith that the others were still alive and would be able to come to their aid, because she had no doubt that if Ronon and John were still alive, nothing would stop them from finding her and Rodney.
Nothing.
* * * *
After almost an hour of alternating pacing and sitting along with Sheppard, Ronon was worried Jennifer might kick them out of the infirmary. He and Sheppard standing around and demanding answers was obviously wearing on the physician and Colonel Carter was doing her best to intervene and keep the men out of the medical staff’s way. They had settled in chairs between the two beds, Teyla and Rodney both hooked up to various monitors and continuing to sleep while their teammates watched. Occasionally the heart monitors of one or both would spike and the three of them would look anxiously to the doctors responding to the change.
When Keller finally returned with her tablet in hand, Sheppard and Ronon were on their feet immediately.
“Okay,” she told them, “here’s what I’ve found. Their brain activity suggests they are both in REM sleep, but I’ve never seen anyone maintain REM for this long. What’s more, if you look at their EKG and EEG readings, they are almost identical… same spikes, same periods of calm, same everything.”
“So what does that mean?” Ronon asked in confusion. REM, EKG, EEG… it was all a bunch of BS as far as he was concerned.
Carter’s brow furrowed at the news. “Wait, are you saying they’re dreaming the same dream?”
With a shrug Jennifer admitted, “That’s the most logical explanation I can come up with to account for the similarities. When Colonel Sheppard and Dr. McKay were hooked up the machine that allowed them to enter one another’s dreams, we saw the same similarities in physical responses.”
“But how is that possible?” Carter asked in disbelief.
“I have no idea,” Jennifer sighed.
“Can I maybe go back in like I did with Rodney’s dream before?” Sheppard suggested. “Use the machine and maybe help them out.”
“We don’t know what’s holding them there,” Carter countered. “You could become trapped just like they are.”
“I’m willing to risk it,” John assured his commanding officer.
“I’m not sure I am,” she told him.
Sheppard shifted uncomfortably. “Look, this is half my team we’re talking about. I can’t just sit here and not try to help them if there’s a chance that I can.”
Something had been poking at one of Ronon’s memories, something Teyla had said in the dream the night before that hadn’t made sense but maybe it did now. “She was glad we were there,” he mumbled.
John turned to look at him with a confused, “What?”
“I had a dream last night with all of us, and Teyla made a comment about how she had been glad we were all there. It sounded odd, because it was my dream, not hers. But I figured since things don’t always make sense in dreams it was no big deal, so I didn’t think too much about it.”
“We were on Darja,” John supplied in a bit of awe.
Ronon nodded. “Yeah, and then in the gateroom. It was the third night in a row I’d dreamed about the entire team being together.”
“Me, too,” Sheppard admitted.
“But you didn’t dreams about it last night?” Jennifer asked.
“We weren’t here,” Ronon provided. “We were on the rescue mission. I haven’t slept in over twenty hours.”
Carter went into her investigation mode and started questioning them. “What can you tell us about the dreams? What were you doing? Were there others there? Did you have control of your surroundings or the events at hand?”
“It was usually the four of us,” John started. “Sometimes others came and went, but the team was almost always there. I really don’t know if we could control it or not. It just felt like a normal dream. I had no idea the others were really there.” Sheppard gave Ronon a desperate look, knowing what had happened and what he and Teyla had seen.
“And nothing unusual happened?”
Sheppard shrugged uncomfortably at Carter’s question. “Well, it was a dream… sort of.”
Stepping in to rescue his teammate, Ronon told her, “We usually just hung out, talked, stuff like that.”
“Yeah, stuff like that,” John concurred warily. “The settings changed. We were in a field, a tent on Athos, the gateroom, Teyla’s quarters… although, now that I think about it, they always seemed to start with us on Darja.”
“Were you doing anything in particular there?”
Ronon shook his head at Keller’s question. “Not really. Just sitting around the fire drinking ale like we did on the planet.”
“I think we need a sample of that ale,” Jennifer suggested.
Carter nodded in agreement. “I’ll send Lorne’s team to get one and ask if the Darjan have seen this before. In the meantime, we need to keep you two awake. If you fall asleep you may end up in being pulled into the same trap that has Teyla and McKay.”
“Let us go in,” Sheppard tried again. “Maybe we can help them find a way out.”
“I’m sorry, John. Not until we have some idea what’s causing it and we know we can get you back out.” The expedition leader looked meaningfully at Keller who nodded in understanding.
“We’ll start with some caffeine; move on to the stronger meds if we need to. Meanwhile, I’ll run some test on Colonel Sheppard and Ronon and see what I can find.”
The test involved being poked and prodded and run through a couple of scanners, all while Jennifer’s staff made sure the two men stayed awake. Between tests, John and Ronon were allowed to sit with Teyla and Rodney as the one set of teammates slept and the other drank coffee by the gallon. Teyla’s vitals stayed strong, occasionally her heartbeat would increase, but McKay’s seemed to be failing. John sat in the chair beside Rodney’s bed, hands steepled beneath his chin, as his eyes traveled between the man and the monitor.
At one point he had flat out asked Keller, “He’s hurt, isn’t he? In the dream, he’s been injured or something.”
She gave him a sympathetic smile. “I’m thinking that’s what’s going on with his vitals.” Keller squeezed John’s shoulder. “Major Lorne should be back soon.”
Sheppard’s expression mirrored Ronon’s thoughts of, ‘and then what?’ When the doctor left, Ronon pulled the other chair over by Sheppard, turned it around and straddled the backrest.
“Hey, you doing okay?”
Scrubbing his face, John lied, “Yeah, I’m good. It’s just… Teyla and Rodney both out…”
“Yeah, I know.” Ronon sat for a few seconds, trying to figure out the best way to broach the topic he’d been trying to bring up for a while. He finally decided to just ask. “So, are you and McKay sleeping together?”
“No!” John insisted instantly before lowering his voice. “It was a dream. Okay? Haven’t you had dreams where you’ve done things… people… you’d never do in real life?”
“Sure,” Ronon admitted before pointing out. “But those weren’t normal dreams we were having. We were really there.”
“Yes, but I didn’t know that at the time.”
“Either one of you could have stopped or said no at any time, but you didn’t,” Ronon continued. “Actually, you both really seemed to enjoy it.” Sheppard buried his face in his hands with a groan. “Really enjoy it.”
“I can’t. All right?” John snapped in a harsh whisper. “Even if I did want to do… stuff… with McKay in real life, and I’m not saying that I do, I can’t. There are rules about that sort of thing.”
Before Ronon could argue with how stupid those Earth rules were, the two heart monitors started beeping. Teyla flinched in her sleep, drawing in a harsh breath and Rodney mumbled something that sounded a lot like Teyla’s name. Sheppard stood at the sound, taking McKay’s hand in his and squeezing tightly. “Rodney, if you can hear me, you two hang on. Help is coming.”
The medical team arrived then, bustling the two out of the way to reach their patients and Sheppard tapped Ronon’s shoulder and hitched his head toward the exit. The Satedan followed John to the cabinet where Jennifer kept the various drugs… the cabinet she usually kept locked but had left open when she responded to the alarms on the monitors. Sheppard scanned the shelves until he found what he was looking for.
“What are you doing?”
“Sedatives,” Sheppard explained, handing Ronon one of the pills before dry swallowing his own. “We’re not waiting around any longer.”
Ronon eagerly swallowed his own tablet as he followed John out into the hall to find a safe place to fall asleep.
Part 2