The Third Man by purna (NC-17)
Rec Category: Sheppard/McKay
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Category: Future, AU, Drama, Established Relationship
Warning: Slash, mention of past character deaths (not main pairing)
Author on LJ: purna
Author's Website: none
Link: The Third Man - also - podfic
Why This Must Be Read:
This story captures the gritty edge of the film noir classic it's based on. In a divided Atlantis, post-Wraith and bearing the damage of the protracted conflict, Pegasus natives and Milky Way immigrants strive to build a future together. John and Rodney bear both mental and physical scars, but the strength of their love and commitment shines through the dark mystery.
Excerpt:
I'll warn you now, you asked for this. You're here for a story; I'll give you a story. It's an ugly one, and I doubt it's what General Landry had in mind when he sent you here. Some Atlantis PR crap.
A thousand journalists, a thousand articles -- it won't make the public any happier when they finally hear about SGC and the Pegasus galaxy and how close Earth came to being culled by the Wraith.
What? Yeah, we defeated the Wraith. Happy ending, right?
Not so fast, because it wasn't easy. Well, you saw the damage yourself; half the city's still in ruins.
We were on the brink too many times to count. Atlantis would have fallen, except for the Genii.
There was a price to pay, of course. There always is. A "strategic alliance." Yeah, right. A piece of Atlantis was what they wanted, even bombed and half-flooded as it was then. It might not have been the Atlantis from before the Wraith war, but we were better off than a lot of other worlds.
So now the Genii have their zone, and we've got ours, and refugees from a dozen worlds bounce between us. We patch them up, get them healthy, find them a planet for resettlement.
The Wraith sickness is the biggest problem, although even that's curable if we catch it in time. Thank God the Wraith sucked at creating bio weapons. You got the shots back at SGC, I hope.
It's curable, but you wouldn't like the experience. No, those are just rumors; the treatment drugs work. The deaths, those kids last year -- that was bad, but it wasn't the drugs that failed. It was us not catching the adulterated drug supply in time to save them.
Yeah, that's the ugly story I'm talking about. I guess I should start at the beginning.
...
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Category: Future, AU, Drama, Established Relationship
Warning: Slash, mention of past character deaths (not main pairing)
Author on LJ: purna
Author's Website: none
Link: The Third Man - also - podfic
Why This Must Be Read:
This story captures the gritty edge of the film noir classic it's based on. In a divided Atlantis, post-Wraith and bearing the damage of the protracted conflict, Pegasus natives and Milky Way immigrants strive to build a future together. John and Rodney bear both mental and physical scars, but the strength of their love and commitment shines through the dark mystery.
Excerpt:
I'll warn you now, you asked for this. You're here for a story; I'll give you a story. It's an ugly one, and I doubt it's what General Landry had in mind when he sent you here. Some Atlantis PR crap.
A thousand journalists, a thousand articles -- it won't make the public any happier when they finally hear about SGC and the Pegasus galaxy and how close Earth came to being culled by the Wraith.
What? Yeah, we defeated the Wraith. Happy ending, right?
Not so fast, because it wasn't easy. Well, you saw the damage yourself; half the city's still in ruins.
We were on the brink too many times to count. Atlantis would have fallen, except for the Genii.
There was a price to pay, of course. There always is. A "strategic alliance." Yeah, right. A piece of Atlantis was what they wanted, even bombed and half-flooded as it was then. It might not have been the Atlantis from before the Wraith war, but we were better off than a lot of other worlds.
So now the Genii have their zone, and we've got ours, and refugees from a dozen worlds bounce between us. We patch them up, get them healthy, find them a planet for resettlement.
The Wraith sickness is the biggest problem, although even that's curable if we catch it in time. Thank God the Wraith sucked at creating bio weapons. You got the shots back at SGC, I hope.
It's curable, but you wouldn't like the experience. No, those are just rumors; the treatment drugs work. The deaths, those kids last year -- that was bad, but it wasn't the drugs that failed. It was us not catching the adulterated drug supply in time to save them.
Yeah, that's the ugly story I'm talking about. I guess I should start at the beginning.
...