[Stargate: Fiction] "Compatibility of Souls: Ch. 10: Wild Blue Yonder" [11/12] [John/Rodney, G]
Title: Chapter Ten: Wild Blue Yonder
Author: Ami Ven
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,500
Prompt: mcsheplets challenge #052 ‘destiny’
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Summary: John is a WASP pilot and Rodney is her mechanic.
Chapter Ten: Wild Blue Yonder
Warning! This chapter contains the deaths of these incarnations of the main characters.
Houston, Texas
1944 A.D.
Jane peered at her reflection in the tiny mirror above her footlocker and pressed her lips together, making sure her ‘freedom red’ lipstick was spread evenly.
“Sheppard, what could possibly be taking so long?” said Meredith, before she’d even completely opened the door to their room. “We’re making a relay flight, not going to a cotillion.”
“Have you ever actually been to a cotillion, McKay?” asked Jane, grinning.
Meredith crossed her arms, and scowled.
The two women had been called ‘the odd couple’ from the moment they’d joined the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots program and been assigned as roommates. Jane was tall, dark-haired and slender, with a ready smile and a flair for fashion. Meredith was short and curvy, with honey-colored curls, a bad attitude and a tendency to wear her coveralls even when she was off-duty.
Jane smirked. “I’m sure it’s been a while since our boys over there saw a pretty dame, and I want to look my best.”
“And you say I have an ego,” Meredith muttered. “It’s a twenty-hour fight, Sheppard, you won’t ‘look your best’ by the time we land.”
“It’s for me, then,” said Jane. “So I feel prettier.”
Meredith waved a dismissive hand. “You, of all people, don’t need to feel prettier, Sheppard. Half of the guys here already want to paint you as the pin-up on the nose of their planes.”
“And you, Mer?”
“Me?” The shorter woman flushed pink, but said, “Why would I want to paint you on a plane when I could have you in one?”
“I like the way you think, McKay,” said Jane, leaning in, but Meredith put out a hand to stop her.
“Don’t get that goop all over me,” the mechanic groused.
Jane could feel the heat of her palm, even through the fabric of her uniform blouse, and shivered. “I’d like to get something else all over you…”
Meredith’s blush deepened, and she scowled. “We have a flight, Sheppard,” she snapped. “On which you are the pilot. So, get moving.”
Smiling, Jane slid her fingers around Meredith’s wrist and pulled her into a hug. She took a deep breath of motor oil, aircraft fuel and the perfume she’d bought Meredith for her last birthday, then released her.
“Okay,” said Jane. “Let’s go.”
The plane they were taking had already seen active service, so badly damaged in its last run that it had needed to be shipped back to the States for repair. It was also the only one even remotely ready to go out again, a sure sign of Meredith’s genius if Jane had ever seen one, and the runway crew had already towed it out onto the tarmac.
“You’d better have a real mechanic look this over, Miss Sheppard,” said Kavanaugh, one of the (civilian, male) mechanics. “I’m sure McKay’s useful for fixing stoves or curling irons, but she should leave the difficult work to the professionals.”
Meredith opened her mouth, no doubt to deliver one of her usual scathing diatribes on Kavanaugh’s intelligence or lack thereof, but Jane squeezed her hand and smiled.
“If Leading Aircraftwoman McKay says that a bird is ready to fly, we really shouldn’t doubt her. After all, we’re only civilians.”
Kavanaugh scowled, and stalked away.
“Jerk,” Meredith muttered, as Jane hooked a hand under her elbow and guided her toward their plane.
“Yeah,” Jane agreed. “And you notice that he’s never gone up in a single plane he’s repaired.”
“Really? Because that is just-”
“All aboard, McKay,” Jane interrupted.
Grumbling under her breath, Meredith climbed into the fighter’s rear seat, but Jane paused on the boarding ladder. The plane had already been painted with the name of the man who would fly it into combat, Lt. Col. Marshall Sumner, but just for a moment, Jane let herself pretend that it was hers.
“Sheppard!” called Meredith, impatient. “Are we taking off sometime today?”
The mechanic was already strapped into her crash harness, so Jane leaned in to leave a lipstick-stained kiss on her cheek, ignoring Mer’s squawk of protest, before she dropped into the pilot’s seat. The engine roared to life, then settled into a steady purr, and Jane turned a triumphant grin over her shoulder.
“Well, of course it works!” Meredith called over the noise, losing the fight with her own smile. “I do excellent work!”
“Yes, you do,” Jane agreed, and hit the throttle.
Meredith kept up a steady stream of curses, complaints and likely scenarios for their inevitable demise, through their refueling stop and their second take-off, until they were flying over the clear Atlantic Ocean.
“What are you thinking about?” she demanded suddenly.
“You,” said Jane, before her brain had even fully registered the question.
“Me?” repeated Meredith, sounding surprised. “Not… not wind speeds, or lift variances, or…”
“You, Mer,” said Jane, smiling. She couldn’t see the mechanic, in the seat behind her, but listening to Meredith’s voice, Jane had let part of her mind wander to memories of the last time she’d had Meredith in her bed- and maybe the dozen or so times before that.
“Oh,” said Meredith, and there was something odd in her voice that had nothing to do with being muffled by their flight gear. “I’m… I’m glad. I am, really, that I… that we can, can have something like this, something good, even if it is only…”
Resignation, that was what was wrong with Meredith’s voice, and Jane’s head snapped up. “Only what?”
“Only… temporary,” Meredith said, reluctantly. “Face it, Sheppard, I’m not exactly a ‘catch’, am I? But you… when the war is over, you’ll find some heroically stupid GI who shares your insane love of flying and you’ll live happily ever after.”
“No, I won’t,” said Jane.
“Of course you will. You’re beautiful, you can-”
“No, I won’t,” Jane repeated, knuckles white on the controls. “I could never be happy if I didn’t have you, Mer.”
“What?” she said. “But I’m… I’m…”
“You’re beautiful, Mer,” said Jane, fiercely. “You’re smart, and amazing, and brave… How could I possibly want anyone else after I’ve had you?”
“Oh,” said Meredith again. “Jane, I- There’s never been anybody else. There’s, there’s just you. Only you.”
“Mer,” Jane began, “when we land, I’m gonna-”
She broke off abruptly as their radio spluttered into sudden silence.
“The radio’s down,” said Mer, surprised. “I’ve been picking up chatter this whole time--- Army, Navy, Air Corps, even a few civilian channels- then, suddenly nothing.”
“Are we in some kind of dead spot?” Jane asked.
“There’s no record of one here,” said Meredith. “We’re over open ocean. But- Sheppard, what’s that?”
It was a plane, a bomber maybe, or some kind of transport. It was flying lower than they were, at about a thirty degree angle to theirs, and as the two aircraft closed with each other, Jane could see the large swastika painted on its hull.
“So, not one of ours,” Jane drawled.
“The radio interference is getting worse,” said Meredith. “At a rate consistent with that plane’s speed toward us. But how? A radio jammer that powerful shouldn’t fit into a plane that small.”
“It’s not exactly small, Mer.”
“No, Sheppard, but it’s… Look, making a radio is easy. Transmitter, receiver, they’ve even got wireless ones that fit into a knapsack. But a jammer- jamming only enemy frequencies, because there would be no point if your planes were suddenly deaf, too- has to be… well, bigger than that.
“A machine like that,” Jane said, slowly, “could make a difference in the war, right?”
“A huge difference,” Meredith agreed.
“Then we’ll have to destroy it.”
“What? Sheppard, we’re all alone out here. And unarmed! What are we going to do?”
“That thing is on a straight trajectory for a whole bunch of our European bases, McKay,” said Jane. “And we’re the only ones who can stop it.”
She heard Meredith sigh. “I was really hoping we’d get to have sex one more time before one of us died.”
“Sorry,” said Jane. “I’m sorry that I dragged you into-”
“Don’t you dare be sorry, Jane Sheppard!” Meredith snapped. “Do you really think I’d rather hear it, hours or days later, that you’d been shot down, that you’d died alone, that I wouldn’t have ever known that you…”
“That I love you,” said Jane, without any hesitation. “I love you so damn much, Mer.”
The enemy plane grew larger as Jane opened up the throttle, hurling their craft toward it at full speed. She heard a click from behind her, then felt familiar hands on her shoulders.
“Mer!”
The other woman had unfastened her flight harness and wriggled into the space between Jane’s seat and the side of the cockpit. “We’re going to die anyway,” she said. “Kiss me.”
Jane fumbled with her own harness, watching the German ship get closer and closer. Finally loose, she twisted in her seat, then slid a hand into Meredith’s hair and pulled her in for a deep kiss, just as the two planes collided.
Who’s Who
John Sheppard as Jane Sheppard, a WASP pilot
Rodney McKay as Merideth McKay, her mechanic, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Kavanaugh as a civilian mechanic
Marshall Sumner, mentioned as the intended pilot of the repaired plane
(Also, in case you didn’t know, the real-life WASP ladies were amazing. Just looking stuff up on Wikipedia- here: WASPs- made me want to learn more about them, and I now have several new books on my To-Read pile.)
Epilogue
Current Mood:
blah
Author: Ami Ven
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,500
Prompt: mcsheplets challenge #052 ‘destiny’
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing(s): John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Summary: John is a WASP pilot and Rodney is her mechanic.
Chapter Ten: Wild Blue Yonder
Warning! This chapter contains the deaths of these incarnations of the main characters.
Houston, Texas
1944 A.D.
Jane peered at her reflection in the tiny mirror above her footlocker and pressed her lips together, making sure her ‘freedom red’ lipstick was spread evenly.
“Sheppard, what could possibly be taking so long?” said Meredith, before she’d even completely opened the door to their room. “We’re making a relay flight, not going to a cotillion.”
“Have you ever actually been to a cotillion, McKay?” asked Jane, grinning.
Meredith crossed her arms, and scowled.
The two women had been called ‘the odd couple’ from the moment they’d joined the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots program and been assigned as roommates. Jane was tall, dark-haired and slender, with a ready smile and a flair for fashion. Meredith was short and curvy, with honey-colored curls, a bad attitude and a tendency to wear her coveralls even when she was off-duty.
Jane smirked. “I’m sure it’s been a while since our boys over there saw a pretty dame, and I want to look my best.”
“And you say I have an ego,” Meredith muttered. “It’s a twenty-hour fight, Sheppard, you won’t ‘look your best’ by the time we land.”
“It’s for me, then,” said Jane. “So I feel prettier.”
Meredith waved a dismissive hand. “You, of all people, don’t need to feel prettier, Sheppard. Half of the guys here already want to paint you as the pin-up on the nose of their planes.”
“And you, Mer?”
“Me?” The shorter woman flushed pink, but said, “Why would I want to paint you on a plane when I could have you in one?”
“I like the way you think, McKay,” said Jane, leaning in, but Meredith put out a hand to stop her.
“Don’t get that goop all over me,” the mechanic groused.
Jane could feel the heat of her palm, even through the fabric of her uniform blouse, and shivered. “I’d like to get something else all over you…”
Meredith’s blush deepened, and she scowled. “We have a flight, Sheppard,” she snapped. “On which you are the pilot. So, get moving.”
Smiling, Jane slid her fingers around Meredith’s wrist and pulled her into a hug. She took a deep breath of motor oil, aircraft fuel and the perfume she’d bought Meredith for her last birthday, then released her.
“Okay,” said Jane. “Let’s go.”
The plane they were taking had already seen active service, so badly damaged in its last run that it had needed to be shipped back to the States for repair. It was also the only one even remotely ready to go out again, a sure sign of Meredith’s genius if Jane had ever seen one, and the runway crew had already towed it out onto the tarmac.
“You’d better have a real mechanic look this over, Miss Sheppard,” said Kavanaugh, one of the (civilian, male) mechanics. “I’m sure McKay’s useful for fixing stoves or curling irons, but she should leave the difficult work to the professionals.”
Meredith opened her mouth, no doubt to deliver one of her usual scathing diatribes on Kavanaugh’s intelligence or lack thereof, but Jane squeezed her hand and smiled.
“If Leading Aircraftwoman McKay says that a bird is ready to fly, we really shouldn’t doubt her. After all, we’re only civilians.”
Kavanaugh scowled, and stalked away.
“Jerk,” Meredith muttered, as Jane hooked a hand under her elbow and guided her toward their plane.
“Yeah,” Jane agreed. “And you notice that he’s never gone up in a single plane he’s repaired.”
“Really? Because that is just-”
“All aboard, McKay,” Jane interrupted.
Grumbling under her breath, Meredith climbed into the fighter’s rear seat, but Jane paused on the boarding ladder. The plane had already been painted with the name of the man who would fly it into combat, Lt. Col. Marshall Sumner, but just for a moment, Jane let herself pretend that it was hers.
“Sheppard!” called Meredith, impatient. “Are we taking off sometime today?”
The mechanic was already strapped into her crash harness, so Jane leaned in to leave a lipstick-stained kiss on her cheek, ignoring Mer’s squawk of protest, before she dropped into the pilot’s seat. The engine roared to life, then settled into a steady purr, and Jane turned a triumphant grin over her shoulder.
“Well, of course it works!” Meredith called over the noise, losing the fight with her own smile. “I do excellent work!”
“Yes, you do,” Jane agreed, and hit the throttle.
Meredith kept up a steady stream of curses, complaints and likely scenarios for their inevitable demise, through their refueling stop and their second take-off, until they were flying over the clear Atlantic Ocean.
“What are you thinking about?” she demanded suddenly.
“You,” said Jane, before her brain had even fully registered the question.
“Me?” repeated Meredith, sounding surprised. “Not… not wind speeds, or lift variances, or…”
“You, Mer,” said Jane, smiling. She couldn’t see the mechanic, in the seat behind her, but listening to Meredith’s voice, Jane had let part of her mind wander to memories of the last time she’d had Meredith in her bed- and maybe the dozen or so times before that.
“Oh,” said Meredith, and there was something odd in her voice that had nothing to do with being muffled by their flight gear. “I’m… I’m glad. I am, really, that I… that we can, can have something like this, something good, even if it is only…”
Resignation, that was what was wrong with Meredith’s voice, and Jane’s head snapped up. “Only what?”
“Only… temporary,” Meredith said, reluctantly. “Face it, Sheppard, I’m not exactly a ‘catch’, am I? But you… when the war is over, you’ll find some heroically stupid GI who shares your insane love of flying and you’ll live happily ever after.”
“No, I won’t,” said Jane.
“Of course you will. You’re beautiful, you can-”
“No, I won’t,” Jane repeated, knuckles white on the controls. “I could never be happy if I didn’t have you, Mer.”
“What?” she said. “But I’m… I’m…”
“You’re beautiful, Mer,” said Jane, fiercely. “You’re smart, and amazing, and brave… How could I possibly want anyone else after I’ve had you?”
“Oh,” said Meredith again. “Jane, I- There’s never been anybody else. There’s, there’s just you. Only you.”
“Mer,” Jane began, “when we land, I’m gonna-”
She broke off abruptly as their radio spluttered into sudden silence.
“The radio’s down,” said Mer, surprised. “I’ve been picking up chatter this whole time--- Army, Navy, Air Corps, even a few civilian channels- then, suddenly nothing.”
“Are we in some kind of dead spot?” Jane asked.
“There’s no record of one here,” said Meredith. “We’re over open ocean. But- Sheppard, what’s that?”
It was a plane, a bomber maybe, or some kind of transport. It was flying lower than they were, at about a thirty degree angle to theirs, and as the two aircraft closed with each other, Jane could see the large swastika painted on its hull.
“So, not one of ours,” Jane drawled.
“The radio interference is getting worse,” said Meredith. “At a rate consistent with that plane’s speed toward us. But how? A radio jammer that powerful shouldn’t fit into a plane that small.”
“It’s not exactly small, Mer.”
“No, Sheppard, but it’s… Look, making a radio is easy. Transmitter, receiver, they’ve even got wireless ones that fit into a knapsack. But a jammer- jamming only enemy frequencies, because there would be no point if your planes were suddenly deaf, too- has to be… well, bigger than that.
“A machine like that,” Jane said, slowly, “could make a difference in the war, right?”
“A huge difference,” Meredith agreed.
“Then we’ll have to destroy it.”
“What? Sheppard, we’re all alone out here. And unarmed! What are we going to do?”
“That thing is on a straight trajectory for a whole bunch of our European bases, McKay,” said Jane. “And we’re the only ones who can stop it.”
She heard Meredith sigh. “I was really hoping we’d get to have sex one more time before one of us died.”
“Sorry,” said Jane. “I’m sorry that I dragged you into-”
“Don’t you dare be sorry, Jane Sheppard!” Meredith snapped. “Do you really think I’d rather hear it, hours or days later, that you’d been shot down, that you’d died alone, that I wouldn’t have ever known that you…”
“That I love you,” said Jane, without any hesitation. “I love you so damn much, Mer.”
The enemy plane grew larger as Jane opened up the throttle, hurling their craft toward it at full speed. She heard a click from behind her, then felt familiar hands on her shoulders.
“Mer!”
The other woman had unfastened her flight harness and wriggled into the space between Jane’s seat and the side of the cockpit. “We’re going to die anyway,” she said. “Kiss me.”
Jane fumbled with her own harness, watching the German ship get closer and closer. Finally loose, she twisted in her seat, then slid a hand into Meredith’s hair and pulled her in for a deep kiss, just as the two planes collided.
Who’s Who
John Sheppard as Jane Sheppard, a WASP pilot
Rodney McKay as Merideth McKay, her mechanic, a member of the Royal Canadian Air Force Women’s Division
Kavanaugh as a civilian mechanic
Marshall Sumner, mentioned as the intended pilot of the repaired plane
(Also, in case you didn’t know, the real-life WASP ladies were amazing. Just looking stuff up on Wikipedia- here: WASPs- made me want to learn more about them, and I now have several new books on my To-Read pile.)
Epilogue
Current Mood:
blah