all I can do is hold you tight - SGA ficlet - PG
Title: all I can do is hold you tight
Fandom: “Stargate: Atlantis”
Disclaimer: not my characters; title from Plumb.
Warnings: AU
Pairings: mentions of John/Rodney, Teyla/Kanaan
Rating: PG
Wordcount: 420
Point of view: third
Notes: part of the elemental!AU
Three years after Atlantis stopped talking, a message on the rain woke Rodney. It wasn’t clear, a jumble of images, but the excitement in the water’s tone refused to let him fall back asleep. He blinked up at the ceiling, a pillow clutched against his chest. It no longer smelled like John, but he still pretended.
What? he asked the ocean and the raindrops. What are you trying to say?
For the first time since John didn’t come home, he heard Atlantis’ voice, loud in jubilation.
Without bothering to dress in more than his nightclothes, Rodney ran to the control room.
Teyla could not say what woke her. She lay in bed with Kanaan, listening to his and Johnny’s breath.
Something rumbled beneath the sea; the mainland murmured, but over the water, the message became garbled. The tone made her heart race. She would not be able to sleep again, so she silently left the bed and pulled on her casual Athosian robes, leaving to wander the halls.
Her pulse pounded with the land’s message, but Teyla could not puzzle it out. Excitement thrummed in her skin and she went to the control room. She wanted to look at the Ancestor’s Ring, to listen to its ancient stories.
Ronon hardly slept anymore. If he wasn’t sparring or running, he stared out over the ocean or went deep into the bowels of the city and lit things on fire.
His body hummed with the need to burn, to raze his enemies to the ground, but no one knew who had taken Sheppard. Ronon would’ve tracked someone down and made them talk, but he’d once sworn to Sheppard that if anything ever happened, he’d take care of McKay.
Ronon was pacing around Atlantis when a breeze tugged on his hair. He jerked away and looked around, fingers on his gun.
No one dared use their SkySpeaking on him since Sheppard-
Go, his instincts screamed and Ronon sprinted for the control room.
When John stepped through the stargate into Atlantis, the city lit up and howled her welcome. His team rushed in from three directions and his relief at being home formed a small whirlwind.
“John, John, John,” Rodney babbled, latching on, crushing John to his chest.
Teyla plastered herself to his side, holding on, fingers fisted in his tattered shirt.
And Ronon scooped them all up and squeezed so tight John’s still-fragile ribs protested.
The techs and marines watched in silent shock, mouths open, as sirens blared and lights flashed, Atlantis welcoming him home.