Rec Category: Alternate Universe
Pairing: John/Rodney, John/Elizabeth
Category: Slash, Het
Warning: none
Author on LJ:
silversparAuthor's Website: unknown
Link:
http://silverspar.livejournal.com/633043.html Why This Must Be Read: This was an entry in the
reel_sga challenge, based on Brigadoon. But it has very little to do with the light-hearted musical. On an Earth dying from the fallout of weapons detonated during an apocalyptic war, Rodney tries to drink away the guilt of having been a bomb designer. A glimpse of life in an alternate universe gives both Rodney and John some perspective. A little. It's a wonderful study of living with crushing guilt, without any pat, easy answers.
Excerpt:
Temper flaring, John pounced from behind and snatched the flask out of Rodney’s hand, tossing it far into the stoic trees. Rodney glowered up at him, not quite managing furious. “I thought you were off hunting!”
John nodded, smug. “Hunting turkeys. Real cold ones.”
“Hilarious,” Rodney fumed, hunching in on himself unhappily. “If you had to live in my brain, you’d be drinking, too.”
Cautiously, not quite trusting the log, John sat down next to Rodney, pressing his back to the same bark. “You did what had to be done. So did I.”
Rodney studied the chilly ground. Was that a cockroach? It was amazing how insects survived and thrived. And how much they reminded him of himself.
“I can afford to lose a few brain cells,” Rodney said.
“Or a liver?”
“Or a liver,” Rodney confirmed in a whisper, meeting John’s eyes.
John was caught, pinned like a dead butterfly on a card. Those eyes were just as blue as the sky had once been and so John was flying again. He was soaring out of that shockwave as bright as a star and not giving a shit about the innocents on the ground. His heart had sung victory and vengeance then, and maybe it would be singing still if he did not stick to Rodney like glue, freeloading, letting the scientist crush down their mutual darkness into something more human shaped and sized.