Sequelae by The Spike (R)
Rec Category: John Sheppard & Rodney McKay friendship
Pairing: none
Category: Atlantis, gen, h/c, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Warning: future AU
Author on LJ: spike21
Author's Website: The Spike (Note: last updated 2002)
Link: Sequelae
Why This Must Be Read: This is a wrenching, beautiful look at the future that never was, in which "Adrift" went a very different way and the fight between John and Rodney over how to handle Elizabeth's nanites deepened from a rift into a chasm as the situation fell apart. With Atlantis lost and the gate permanently closed, Rodney has begun to rebuild a life for himself on Earth -- but it all comes crashing down when John Sheppard, the last person he ever wanted to see again, turns up on his doorstep in desperate need of his help.
This is a wonderful and touching look at the devastating effects of grief and pain and anger, and the ways that lives and friendships can be broken and rebuilt. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom in order to start going up again, and this story captures that feeling perfectly, along with the depth of the trust and love between John and Rodney. Each piece of the well-structured plot falls into place until you can't imagine things happening any other way than this.
Snippet of fic
After the hearings, Rodney took his slap on the wrist, his pay cut and his demotion and went to work for Radek Zelenka at Area 51.
He still hated the desert (too hot), the lab (too big), the staff (too impossibly young and stupid) but it was a dull kind of hate, listless and without heat. Mostly he just felt tired. Tired and heavy, as if Earth’s gravity had increased minutely while he’d been away. (It hadn’t; he’d checked.)
The only thing that evoked any feeling in him at all was the work. Their department had been given the bulk of the Atlantis materials to keep working on - the puddlejumpers, the four years of accumulated science reports, the tech that had previously been sent back to Earth for study, the few pieces of unidentified tech they’d rescued at the last minute and the small chunk of the Ancient database they’d managed to transfer to the Apollo before they’d left.
Radek ran the department with what seemed to Rodney to be a lot of polite but insistent herd-riding - prioritizing the projects already in progress (mostly to do with building or recharging ZPMs and all doomed to failure) and thankfully, leaving Rodney alone to pursue whatever he wished.
What he wished was to be back on Atlantis with a working ZPM and a time machine so he could get back the ten goddamned minutes he’d needed to save Elizabeth’s life.
But since none of those options were currently on the table, the only bearable alternative was revisiting the notes he’d made while inhumanly brilliant (even for him.)
The most accessible of these was the application of hyperdrive technology to the puddlejumpers and so that became his work.
His life, really. He couldn’t stomach the idea of living on base, so he leased a newish two-bedroom ranch-style house on two acres of cactus and scrub sage outside Alamo, Nevada and an enormous Volvo four-by-four and commuted the 40 miles to the base and back along Highway 93.
The house had come completely furnished - everything from dishes to furniture -- and the only personal touch Rodney added was a satellite dish that had 739 channels and a 72 inch plasma TV that loomed like some sleek, black insectile robot over the beige and pastel floral blandness of the living room.
Not that there was ever anything good on.
Rodney usually ended up turning the sound down low and dozing fitfully until his back and bladder insisted he get up, pee, and go to bed. At least when he was tired enough, he didn’t dream.
Pairing: none
Category: Atlantis, gen, h/c, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Warning: future AU
Author on LJ: spike21
Author's Website: The Spike (Note: last updated 2002)
Link: Sequelae
Why This Must Be Read: This is a wrenching, beautiful look at the future that never was, in which "Adrift" went a very different way and the fight between John and Rodney over how to handle Elizabeth's nanites deepened from a rift into a chasm as the situation fell apart. With Atlantis lost and the gate permanently closed, Rodney has begun to rebuild a life for himself on Earth -- but it all comes crashing down when John Sheppard, the last person he ever wanted to see again, turns up on his doorstep in desperate need of his help.
This is a wonderful and touching look at the devastating effects of grief and pain and anger, and the ways that lives and friendships can be broken and rebuilt. Sometimes you have to reach rock bottom in order to start going up again, and this story captures that feeling perfectly, along with the depth of the trust and love between John and Rodney. Each piece of the well-structured plot falls into place until you can't imagine things happening any other way than this.
Snippet of fic
After the hearings, Rodney took his slap on the wrist, his pay cut and his demotion and went to work for Radek Zelenka at Area 51.
He still hated the desert (too hot), the lab (too big), the staff (too impossibly young and stupid) but it was a dull kind of hate, listless and without heat. Mostly he just felt tired. Tired and heavy, as if Earth’s gravity had increased minutely while he’d been away. (It hadn’t; he’d checked.)
The only thing that evoked any feeling in him at all was the work. Their department had been given the bulk of the Atlantis materials to keep working on - the puddlejumpers, the four years of accumulated science reports, the tech that had previously been sent back to Earth for study, the few pieces of unidentified tech they’d rescued at the last minute and the small chunk of the Ancient database they’d managed to transfer to the Apollo before they’d left.
Radek ran the department with what seemed to Rodney to be a lot of polite but insistent herd-riding - prioritizing the projects already in progress (mostly to do with building or recharging ZPMs and all doomed to failure) and thankfully, leaving Rodney alone to pursue whatever he wished.
What he wished was to be back on Atlantis with a working ZPM and a time machine so he could get back the ten goddamned minutes he’d needed to save Elizabeth’s life.
But since none of those options were currently on the table, the only bearable alternative was revisiting the notes he’d made while inhumanly brilliant (even for him.)
The most accessible of these was the application of hyperdrive technology to the puddlejumpers and so that became his work.
His life, really. He couldn’t stomach the idea of living on base, so he leased a newish two-bedroom ranch-style house on two acres of cactus and scrub sage outside Alamo, Nevada and an enormous Volvo four-by-four and commuted the 40 miles to the base and back along Highway 93.
The house had come completely furnished - everything from dishes to furniture -- and the only personal touch Rodney added was a satellite dish that had 739 channels and a 72 inch plasma TV that loomed like some sleek, black insectile robot over the beige and pastel floral blandness of the living room.
Not that there was ever anything good on.
Rodney usually ended up turning the sound down low and dozing fitfully until his back and bladder insisted he get up, pee, and go to bed. At least when he was tired enough, he didn’t dream.