FIC: The Pack (Stargate: Atlantis AU) 6/10
The Pack: A Stargate: Atlantis AU - Chapter 6
by ashinae and jay_linden
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10
Colonel Carter wasn't an Alpha wolf. She been a good beta to General O'Neill when he took over the SGC, but she wasn't an Alpha. That wasn't her purpose here; she wasn't meant to usurp John's position. Or even Lorne's position.
Ronon didn't feel that way. No matter what Carter said, no matter what Lorne said, no matter what John said--Ronon wouldn't listen. He saw Carter as a threat--to his world, to his pack, to his Alpha. And above all else, she wasn't Elizabeth.
John was floored when Ronon told him he'd decided to leave with his fellow Satedans. It felt like a punch to the gut. He wondered if he'd made a mistake in making him. Ronon was his third. He needed him. He couldn't choose anyone else at this point. Ronon was his, and John felt an overwhelming sense of possessiveness.
It extended to not letting Rodney out of his sight.
Which, naturally, drove Rodney almost around the bend, which in turn made John even more possessive.
***
John didn't know how to console Ronon over the further loss of his friends. He felt lost again for the umpteenth time in months.
"Rodney?"
He didn't look up. "Mmm?"
John didn't say anything.
After a few more moments, Rodney sighed and looked up. "Yes, John?"
"Have I failed everyone?"
"What?" Rodney actually closed his laptop and put it away. "What are you talking about?"
John stared up at the ceiling, hands curled into fists over his own belly. "Have I failed them all?"
Rodney turned around so he could face John. "I can tell that you're struggling with this right now--I can see that. So I want you to know that I'm saying this in the nicest possible way," he said. "That's a really stupid thing to think." And so help him, his voice was gentle when he said it.
John's hands unclenched--but only for a moment. "We've lost so much lately."
"I know," Rodney said. "But John... we've lost people before. This is an incredibly dangerous mission we're on out here. And it never gets easy to lose people. Ever. But the people we've lost lately, they were family. They were closer than blood. The part where it feels like this... it doesn't mean that you've failed. It means that you finally let people get close. And when you let people get close, and you lose them, it's harder."
John squeezed his eyes shut. He hated it when Rodney made sense, but he did ask, after all. "Rodney..."
"Yeah, John?"
"I need you."
"You've got me, John," Rodney said. "What--do you think I'm going anywhere? Don't be stupid. I told you before--you're suck with me. You go anywhere, I'll find you."
John was quiet a while, then said, "Do you know how old I am?"
"You know, I don't," Rodney said. "And I know it's not in your personnel file."
"You looked?"
Rodney didn't even look embarrassed. "Jeannie wanted to know when your birthday was."
That managed to get John to crack a smile. "I'm a hundred and eight. Hundred and nine in a few weeks. Old enough, but... not that old. When I became a wolf, my father disinherited me. I had to sneak into my mother's funeral. I don't know when my brother died. I survived two world wars, Korea, Vietnam, marriage, the Gulf War, and Afghanistan. And I never once felt old. Right now? I feel every second of those hundred and eight-almost-nine years."
Rodney was surprised--absolutely. Not shocked, somehow, but definitely surprised. "You can't fix everything, John. I know you know that," he said. "So you know what you should do?"
John pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked at Rodney. "What?"
"Don't stop trying. Don't ever, ever stop trying."
"I like your little pep talks. They're better than mine."
"Well," Rodney said, tugging his computer back again. "I am the smartest person in Atlantis."
"Rodney. Stop playing with your computer."
"Why's that?"
"Because I want you to come here."
"Bossy," Rodney murmured, turning around and abandoning his computer, heading over to John.
John reached for him. "I'm always bossy," he pointed out.
"Which is why I always point it out."
***
The big bad wolf.
Once upon a time, wolves and witches were the enemy. Folklore was rife with stories about wolves eating people and witches wreaking havoc. So the werewolves and the witches remained in hiding--until war broke out between them.
No one knew who started it. Only that the wolves and the witches began to fight each other. Other species were caught in the crossfire. Some didn't make it.
Stories said that Jack O'Neill was a descendant of one of the wolves who brokered the first treaty between the werewolves and witches after the pixies were wiped out during the war. Whether or not that was true was debatable; O'Neill certainly let people think it was true just by not denying it.
Other stories said that Jack O'Neill was one of the wolves who brokered the first treaty.
Peace was tenuous at first but eventually they learned how to work together. The next step was the human world. The wolves began to infiltrate the military; witches began to work as healers, teachers, mediators.
When they made their presence known, more than a few humans became concerned that the wolves and witches were quietly ruling the world from positions of service. It was probably true. It was probably what they wanted. But by the twenty-first century, they were all so used to it that it wasn't even in question for most humans except for certain political and religious groups.
If nothing else, the wolves in particular certainly controlled most of the Stargate program.
But still, the big bad wolf remained. Just outside the edges; eating little girls in red cloaks.
It infiltrated dreams to appear as a part-Wraith creature and feed on one of its best friends. It frightened pretty young doctors. It buried its third alive in a grave. It appeared as a Replicator duplicate to its sleepwalking second. It prevented someone from keeping Dr Heightmeyer from plummeting to her death.
It tormented and taunted its own mate.
Ultimately, the big bad wolf was its own worst enemy.
***
"You were dead." John didn't push Rodney against the wall this time. He was too rattled for that. He pulled Rodney into his arms and held him tight, face pressed against his neck. Breathed him in.
"I'm not now," Rodney said, voice a little bit strangled. "See? Just fine."
John released him and started running his hands over Rodney's body. "I thought I lost you, Rodney."
"You're not getting off that easy," Rodney said. "I'm way too stubborn."
"And you promised." John started to crowd into Rodney's space a little bit more.
"Yeah," Rodney said, more breathless. "I promised."
John pulled Rodney in close again and kissed him, until they were both breathless. When he broke the kiss, he quickly started to pull away Rodney's clothes. "Need you. Now. Now, Rodney?"
Rodney nodded as fast as he could. "Yes--now--now would be good, please, yes," he gasped.
"Rodney... I..." John was Alpha. He shouldn't want it. He shouldn't ask for it. "Will you... Rodney, I want you to..."
He lifted his head and looked right at John, unsure for a moment if John meant what Rodney thought he meant. Once he figured it out, he surged up against John and kissed him harder. "Yes? You sure?" he rasped out.
"Yes. I want--want you to." John dragged his shirt off, tossed it aside, and nodded. He kissed Rodney again, long and hard. "Please, Rodney." They'd never done that before. Not once. And John had--
"Yes. God, yes, I'll ... yes."
John turned them around and started to walk backward to the bed. He should say it. He really should. Instead he busied his mouth with Rodney's again and opened his pants. Maybe he didn't need to actually say it out loud.
Which probably would have worked fine, if he'd been with anyone but Rodney. But John had chosen Rodney, needed and wanted him for who he was, so he really shouldn't have been surprised when Rodney asked the question. "How long has it been?"
John closed his eyes as he sat abruptly on the bed. He opened them again as he leaned over to untie his boots. "Never."
Rodney looked at him and blinked. "Since... never? Are you saying you're a--"
"I most certainly am not," John said, with a flash of anger to cover his embarrassment.
"Okay--okay," Rodney said quickly. He didn't want John to change his mind, after all. "Just... let me, okay?" he asked, stripping out of his pants and climbing up on the bed. "Let me touch you?"
John dropped the rest of his own clothing to the floor, then sprawled out on the bed. Long, lean lines, heavy-lidded eyes, wild hair--and there was something of the wolf in his grin. "Touch me," he said.
Rodney smiled back at him, matching John's grin and moving in between John's legs. He hadn't said that he was going to touch John using his hands. He was down just a moment later; he mouthed at John's stomach, licked over to his hips, then worked his way down.
John groaned, head tilted back. He rubbed his hand over Rodney's hair. Rodney's mouth was always utterly wicked. It was one of the things John loved about him. Not that he'd say it out loud. "Damn. Rodney. Love your mouth." Oh. Oops.
Rodney laughed, and kept going, nuzzling down John's thigh. "You know, it's really not fair that you're so much furrier than I am. Crazy wolf," he muttered, greedily pushing John's legs open wider.
"I... can't help... how is it not fair?" John gasped out, squirming a bit.
"I don't see you ending up with a mouthful of fuzz when you go down on me, do you?" Rodney said. Not that it seemed to be deterring him even a little bit.
"I'm a wolf, Rodney." John's free hand clawed at Rodney's shoulder. "Rodney." He pushed his hips up, wanting more of the sweet, wet heat of Rodney's mouth.
"Shhh... trust me," Rodney murmured, bypassing John's cock entirely, licking up between his thighs.
"I do." There was a bit of a whine in John's voice. Rodney was being a tease. That wasn't nice. One does not tease wolves.
Unless, of course, one's name was Meredith Rodney McKay. In that case, one mercilessly teased even Alpha wolves, and looked damn smug about it later.
John made a mental note to return the favour. Eventually. Later. In the middle of the night when Rodney least expected it. For now, he just squirmed again.
"Don't suppose there's any chance you'll hold still, is there?" Rodney managed to get out.
Right before he licked a stripe right over John's hole.
John let out a stream of rather remarkable profanity as he arched up off the bed. Both hands moved up, scrabbled at the pillows above him, and then he shuddered and relaxed. "Oh," he said.
If Rodney looked smug before, he was unbearably smug now. And he didn't stop. He pushed John's legs open enough to get all the access he needed, and settled in, lapping and licking, pushing his tongue places that it had very much never been before.
John tended to growl a lot when they had sex. Growled, groaned, cried out, sometimes did rather a bit of swearing. But right now, he babbled. He babbled a lot. None of the words he put together made sense together except inside his head.
And a brief moment later, they both heard it when a pillow tore under his hands.
Rodney actually lifted his head away at that moment. "John, that better not have been one of my good pillows--there aren't a lot of them here in Pegasus, you know, and they're not easy to come by."
"Why are you stopping!" John cried.
"I was checking in on the status of my linens!"
"Rodney!"
He huffed out a loud sigh and returned to what he was doing, adding in a couple of fingers this time too, licking and moaning obscenely around them as they slid inside John's body.
Rodney'd always seemed to like it when John did this to him. It made him wonder why he never really thought to ask Rodney--or, well, anyone--to do it for him. He'd been afraid he'd be too tense, anxious, afraid to let go.
There was absolutely no fear here. He trusted Rodney with his life and, of course, his body. John groaned. "More," he gasped.
Rodney's voice was muffled, since this time he didn't pull away. Still, he'd told John that he was bossy enough times with his mouth unoccupied, that he was fairly sure that John would get the message.
And as usual, even when he was complaining that John was bossy... he did what John was asking (telling) him to do.
For a moment, John was actually a little concerned that he'd be able to come, just from this. He didn't want to; not yet. Never mind that he wasn't some young pup, but there was more to do still, and if he was going to come, he wanted it to happen when Rodney was inside him. He whined, whimpered, and squirmed--either to get more, or to try to escape Rodney's stubborn relentlessness. At least John had that delightful werewolf stamina. He curled his fingers around his cock and came within just a few heartbeats--came with a howl, spending over his hand and belly, and then he fell still, boneless, gasping for breath. Damn.
Rodney's head peeked up from between John's legs, fingers still deep inside him. "We're not done," he warned him, breathless. "Just so you know--we're not done." And, because he was Rodney, he looked unbelievably smug.
"Okay," John mumbled. He sounded very, very happy.
Rodney watched John's face again, and his smug expression shifted into an utterly beaming smile. "I love you."
The corner of John's mouth shifted into a smile. His eyes had fallen closed. "I love you, too," he said.
And then his hips started to move again. Insistent. Needy, even.
"Greedy," Rodney told him, licking across the inside of his thigh. "Greedy and bossy, that's what you are." And even though they'd been holding still, he was breathless again. "Incidentally, your refractory period is completely unfair."
John pushed up on his elbows and grinned at Rodney. "I know," he said, smugly.
Rodney narrowed his eyes at John, and did something wicked with a twist of his fingers.
John fell back, flinging his arms out to the side, and he cried out. "Rodney!"
Rodney laughed, and did it again. The only one who was allowed to look smug? Was Rodney, apparently, not that John really complain all that loudly about this particular punishment.
A growl started low in John's chest. Good as it felt, he was beginning to grow impatient. He clutched at the blankets under them, and when Rodney twisted his fingers a third time, he jerked hard with his hands, yanking all the sheets from where they were tucked under the bed.
Which was as good a sign as any that John was probably prepped as well as Rodney was going to get him prepped, and if he didn't move things along, he was going to end up flipped on his back and fucked nine ways to Friday. Which was never a bad thing, but not exactly the goal this time around. "If you just tossed the lube across the room, you're going to be really sorry," he said, reaching up with his free hand and fumbling around, trying to find it.
"Ah," said John. "Well..."
Rodney gave him a Look. "For someone who's in such a hurry, you're really making things difficult," he complained. "Now I have to get up, and go all the way over there and find it, and I'm very comfortable right now."
John surged up. He moved so fast he knocked Rodney off the bed and had returned to crouch on the bed with the lube in his hand before Rodney even really realised where he was. There was something wild in John's eyes; untamed. Dangerous. He wanted. He stared down at Rodney with unmistakable hunger.
Wow. When John felt the urge, he could really, really move fast. Not that Rodney didn't know that, it just was rarely demonstrated under a circumstance like this. Rodney swallowed hard, and didn't even bitch about the bruise he was going to have on his ass from being dumped off the bed like that. "Please?" he murmured, holding out his hand for the lube. "Please, John," he repeated, not really aware of just how desperate he sounded. How badly he wanted this too.
John grabbed Rodney's wrist, yanked him close, and kissed him hard. Maybe a little too hard. He managed to press the lube into Rodney's hand, but he had a very difficult time letting go of him so that they could finish this.
It really wasn't easy, but Rodney was not the (self-titled) Master of Multitasking for nothing. He got the lid off the lube while he was kissing John back, somehow managing to get a truly appalling amount squeezed onto his hand (that was John's fault--he did something wicked with his tongue and Rodney's hand slipped) and rubbed all over his cock. "Please... please, please, John, I need this. You need this--we need this, please," he begged.
John bit Rodney's lip--harder than necessary; he'd be sorry and embarrassed about that later--then pulled away. He rolled over onto his belly, knees spread, and waited. "Rodney." He was shaking. It took him a moment to realise that he was actually shaking from anticipation. He needed this so badly. There was a pause; he could almost hear the gears in Rodney's head as he dealt with this new information. John--John Sheppard--Alpha of Atlantis--literally rolled over and went ass up for him. No one would believe it if they heard it, and anyway--this wasn't a bragging moment. It was theirs. Their moment.
Rodney made a soft, needy sound, low in his throat (someone might say it was because he spent too much time around the wolves), and he dragged his slick fingers over John's ass. John could hear how hard he was breathing right now. He whispered John's name and moved in closer, panting for breath by the time he pressed the head of his cock inside John's body.
John rested his head on his arms and closed his eyes. And waited. It seemed to take too long, and not long enough, for Rodney to push all the way into his body.
He belonged to Rodney as much as Rodney belonged to him, and somewhere, the not-half-feral part of his brain wondered if Rodney realised it. Or if this would help Rodney realise it. He groaned and arched his hips up, seeking more. More. John needed. He needed so damn much--but it wasn't about orgasm anymore. He'd had one and could certainly wait. What he needed was just for this to keep happening. This connection was incredible; they might even have to do this again one day.
The noises that bubbled up in his chest, over and over, sounded more like a cat's purr than a wolf's growl.
Rodney leaned down across John's back, as deep as he could get, and started to move. John sucked in a breath through his teeth, lifted his hips, then relaxed again. And kept on--well--purring. It was so good. It was trust. John trusted Rodney, let Rodney inside, and not in the terrible pun kind of way.
Finally, finally, John couldn't stay relaxed. There were no more little bursts of movement followed by stillness. He pushed his hips up and started to move with Rodney, all the while still making those noises that Rodney liked so damn much, if the way he thrust into John's body when John made them was any indication. John wasn't even close to being ready for it to be over, but he desperately wanted Rodney closer. Closer. He wanted everything Rodney had to give him.
John gasped when Rodney's nails dug in against his shoulders. More leverage. He fucked John harder once John started moving with him. John started to sound more like a wolf again. It was the sharp bite of Rodney's nails. He worked with Rodney, revelled in the pleasure of it, and was thankful--infinitely thankful--that he'd never trusted anyone to do this before. It was right that this was Rodney. Rodney inside him.
He didn't have John's refractory period, or John's longevity--he wasn't going to last a whole lot longer. He made a desperate sound, clawed at John's shoulders again (really, really spending too much time with the wolves, and later John would be smirky about that), and kept moving, body starting to tremble from the effort.
"Rodney," John gasped. "Rodney. Please. Let... let it..."
Rodney howled. Actually full-out, full-throated howled as he let go, gripping John's shoulders as tightly as he could as he moved through his release.
John fell still, and fell quiet. Listened. Felt. Damn, he could smell Rodney right now and absolutely nothing could turn him on as much as that did. And yet, for now? He was not going to move.
Rodney collapsed against John after the last jerk of his cock, hands sliding down John's arms as he finally released the grip he had on him.
John smiled.
His own arousal was burning slow inside him. It could wait. Give Rodney a few hours. Take him. Make him howl like that again. He could be patient.
Sometimes.
***
Larrin made John feel uncomfortable. Colonel Carter teased him about that bit of subtext in his mission report. She even went so far to insist that, no, that wasn't the subtext; it was the text.
***
"Okay, do I have to remind you about that one time you were trapped on the Lantean ocean floor and you fantasised Carter was there helping you?" John demanded.
"That--you--that is not even remotely comparable," Rodney sputtered. "Especially because she was there helping me. She was there because I needed her for the science." The fact that they were soaking wet and her shirt was clingy, well. That was his brain supplying the appropriate environmental details. Hardly his fault at all.
"Whereas I was abducted," John said, "and held captive. And I got tied up and smacked around."
"Uh huh," Rodney said. "By the hot chick. Again."
"Would you rather it was a hot guy?" John asked. "That's it! That's perfect. Next time I get abducted, I'll make sure it's by the Pegasus Galaxy equivalent of George Clooney."
Rodney's scowl got epic, and he turned away from John and thumped down on his side of the bed, utterly ignoring him.
"Rodney, what do you want from me? It's not as if I escaped my bonds to screw her against a bulkhead!"
Rodney ignored him. It was hard for Rodney to ignore people. It meant he didn't say anything, and that was difficult for him.
"And I told you, didn't I?" John demanded. "I could have kept it to myself. Would you prefer that?"
Rodney bit down hard on his lip. "You got kidnapped. Again. I was scared. Again." His voice was very, very quiet.
John wandered around to Rodney's side of the bed and crouched down in front of him. He had deflated. "I came home."
"What if you don't?" Rodney said, not daring to look at John yet. "This is happening way too often, and you're reckless, and the probability of you escaping... it just keeps going down further every single time, and I can't lose you. I'm not the Alpha, and I don't have all that wolf stuff going on, but I can't lose you."
"You came to rescue me. I got away, and I came home with you. I'll always come home with you. You won't lose me, Rodney."
"Can you please try to be less reckless? I know it makes for a good story with the pack, but it won't if part of the story involves you being shot in the head."
"I'm a little too valuable at this point for most people to want to shoot me in the head. Wolf, ATA gene, all... that..." John trailed off at the look on Rodney's face. He sighed and ducked his head. "Sorry, Rodney."
"Can you please try to be less reckless," Rodney repeated, slowly and carefully, as though John was very slow.
John nodded. "I'll try, Rodney. I promise I'll try." He dropped his head down onto Rodney's lap. Showed him his neck.
Rodney reached down and dragged his fingers across John's throat. "And stop getting kidnapped by hot alien women. It's really not fair."
John shivered. "I'll strive to only get kidnapped by ugly aliens."
"That's really all I'm asking right now."
The dark dark and off-colour joke about the Wraith always being happy to kidnap John hung in the air unsaid. John lifted his head and looked up at Rodney. "Still mad at me?" he asked--complete with puppy eyes.
"Yes," Rodney said. "I think you need to make it up to me. A lot. Possibly several times."
A predatory grin crossed John's face. "Oh," he said, "I think I can do that."
And then he pounced.
***
In hindsight, John should have known damn well there was no way they could continue to avoid major crises on a full moon. He'd just thanked everyone and everything--even ones that he didn't actually believe in--that might listen that they had managed it so far.
And then Kirsan Fever hit. Despite the fact that it tore quickly through the human population, Teyla remained as unaffected as the wolves. She'd had it as a child and was immune. There was one sole wolf on the medical team; the rest were military. But Dr Burke was young; he'd only been a wolf for about five years, and he became as unfocused as the humans as the day wore on and the moon started to call him along with the rest of the wolves. John, Carter, Lorne, and Ronon were able to hold out the longest--only because of their positions in pack structure.
John was the last to change. He always was.
Rodney managed to remain in control of his faculties the longest of any of the ordinary humans and remained in the room when the four wolves changed. There was a brief moment, as John gave in to the moon, where he wondered if that was another sign.
By then the Marines and human security team had started to round everyone up. Rodney had meet Teyla as she returned from the mainland with a small team of Marines. John couldn't help but think, as he sat and watched Rodney go, that maybe by the time they were ready to return, her team would be too far gone. That Rodney would be too far gone to remember how to get back to his lab.
John could hear his pack calling to him. They found each other--and the Marines found them. The wolves scattered. They had to stay away or some of the younger ones might hurt the humans unintentionally. John, Carter, Lorne, and Ronon were the only ones to maintain the best control, to hold on to most of their humanity in the transformation. Not a single one of the wolves turned into true monsters--that was a myth perpetuated by certain parties back on Earth--but they would not hesitate to defend themselves against scared humans who could not remember what these creatures were.
John would never be entirely sure which Marine shot Lorne. They'd chased the four wolves away, until they had no choice but to duck around a corner and into a room. The doors slid shut behind them, trapping them there. Lorne curled up in the corner and John and Carter went to him as Ronon barked and growled at the door, scratched at the bottom of it, trying to get it open.
The bullet hadn't gone through. Lorne wouldn't suffer permanent harm, he was too strong to bleed out, but the pain and blood loss would keep him down. And it would keep John concerned. Alpha's prerogative. He hovered until Lorne snapped at him and he hurried back to the door. Maybe this time Atlantis would behave and let him through. It was either that, or continue on with Carter and Ronon laughing at him, because they so were. They couldn't deny it.
Eventually the four of them realised that all they could do was sit tight and wait. They curled up protectively around Lorne--who was still more than a little snappish from the pain but put up with some nudges and a few licks and nuzzles--and waited.
Then the door opened. Rodney! It was Rodney! Oh, and Keller and Zelenka, but Rodney was there! John bounded to his feet, barked happily a few times, and raced across the room.
Rodney screamed and took several hasty steps back.
The door shut on John's nose, which was really quite inappropriate and more than a little rude. He yelped and threw himself against the door.
Carter and Ronon were laughing at him again.
He huffed, turned in three angry little circles, and settled down in front of the door with his tail over his injured nose--which wasn't actually injured nearly so badly as his pride.
***
"I wish I could have gotten here sooner." Lorne crouched on the floor in front of Teyla and reached for her hands. "I am so, so sorry to about New Athos."
She nodded, still feeling numb all over. "There was no sign of them, Evan," she said softly. "No trace. For all I know, the only two Athosians left in this galaxy are in this room."
He squeezed her hands in his. "We'll find them," he said. "I promise you, if they're anywhere, we'll find them and we'll bring them home safely. It's what we do." He shifted closer and took her in his arms. "When are we going to tell Colonel Sheppard?"
"Are you sure he doesn't already know?" she asked. Last time, she hadn't had to tell Sheppard--he'd known without her telling him that she and Lorne were together. This time, she wasn't so sure.
"I have a feeling that he doesn't. He really does miss things--I would suspect that he still only smells me." He ran his hand down her arm. "Besides, it's just... the right thing to do. He needs to know. Teyla, there's a very good chance this baby could be born a werewolf."
"I know," Teyla said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "I know. I suppose I can't make you tell him?"
"It's actually really not my place," Lorne said. He rested his cheek against her hair and closed his eyes, too. "And besides, he won't take you to the floor while he scolds you about the lack of preventative measures on our part."
"But if we did it that way, I could watch," Teyla said. At least now she was smiling.
He gave a little growl. "You'd think you wouldn't like watching your mate get taken down by his Alpha."
"Mmm... you would think that, wouldn't you?" Teyla murmured, tugging gently at his hair.
He growled again, a little louder, but tilted his head into her hand. "Okay, okay, we'll do it together. I mean, at least, I'll stand there." And look appropriately submissive before Sheppard took him down to the floor to scold him.
Teyla smiled. She won.
***
Lorne hit the floor with a thump.
Yeah, Sheppard really had no idea that Teyla was pregnant. There was yelling, growling, scolding--they should have been more careful, did they have any idea what it meant to bring a baby into their situation, what were they thinking? And then he looked at Teyla. He released Lorne, who stayed right the hell where he was, and went to Teyla.
"Congratulations," John said, a little awkwardly.
"Thank you," Teyla said, as though Lorne wasn't still lying on the ground, flat on his back. "Among my people, children are considered a blessing, despite the times we live in, because they are the times we have always lived in. Life must continue. I hope that you can understand that, in time."
John nodded shortly. "Yes. Yeah. Of course."
She nodded too. "Would it be all right if Lorne got up off the floor? He had a difficult last mission," she said mildly.
John looked at Lorne. Lorne didn't look up. Then John nodded again. "You can get up, Major."
Lorne got to his feet and kept his eyes down and head bowed.
"I can't allow you to continue on active duty, Teyla," John said.
Her posture straightened, and she looked extremely stubborn. "I am not sick or useless, John. I am pregnant."
"Yes, exactly. And you need to be safe."
She gave him a Look. "In the time since I have made it my home, how often has Atlantis been something you would consider 'safe'?"
What was it with all these people in John's pack being sensible? "Never."
The smug, slightly righteous look on Teyla's face was slightly similar to the one that Rodney so often wore.
***
Rodney complained about the frequency with which John got kidnapped. Of course he did. He had every right to.
But John tended to go thermonuclear when it happened to Rodney. Especially on Earth, where he should have been safe.
Lorne stayed behind, but insisted that John take Ronon with him to keep him in check.
John got to meet Kaleb the white witch and little Madison, who seemed to take to John instantly. Kaleb was little more uncertain; there was a wild look about the edges to John that Kaleb seemed to find off-putting. That wild look would go away if people would just learn that you do not, ever, kidnap an alpha wolf's mate. And his sister. Rodney and his family were all the family John had outside his pack. He needed to protect them.
***
"Stop hovering, Mer," Jeannie scolded, hip-checking him out of the way. "I can handle dishes."
"Excuse me--I am trying to do something nice and helpful, two things that you say I never am," Rodney protested. "I am not hovering.
He was totally hovering.
"I'm fine," she insisted. "They fixed me up good as new. Look at me walk around and everything." To demonstrate, she side-stepped him to grab a few more dishes. "When's Colonel Sheppard going marry you?"
He gaped at her for a moment or two before literally shaking his finger at her. "Don't you start," he threatened. "You won't distract me from fretting about you by being an interfering busybody."
"Fretting? Aw, Mer!" She patted his cheek with a soapy hand.
He yelped and wiped at his face. "Jeannie!"
She laughed. "You are such a child sometimes. So come on! When's it gonna happen? You told me that Major Lorne married Teyla last year when he stayed behind after you got kicked out of Atlantis. Why couldn't you and the Colonel get married?"
There was a shriek and then a lot of giggles from the living room, followed by a happy bark. Madison was playing with at least one of the wolves, and sounded utterly delighted by it.
Because he hasn't asked me. Oh, there was absolutely no way on Earth, or Atlantis, or any other planet he'd ever been on that Rodney was going to say that out loud. "If they tear up your carpet or furniture, or God forbid mark anything, I am not going to be responsible for damages," he said, pointing in the direction of the living room.
"Mommy, look!" Madison was riding on the great black wolf's back, with Ronon and Kaleb hot on their heels. Kaleb, of course, being the protective dad; Ronon had a camera in his hands.
John, for his part, looked good-naturedly resigned to being a particularly furry pony for his mate's niece.
"Look at you," Jeannie enthused. "Are you playing nice with Colonel Sheppard?"
"Yes, Mommy," Madison said, with a 'duh' sort of look on her face that was undoubtedly passed on from her mother and her uncle. And then she patted John's head. "Go! Go!" she exclaimed, and John dutifully carried her away.
"He's so sweet," Jeannie said. "Look how good he is with her--I never would have thought, but I'd never really met many werewolves before."
Rodney looked unbelievably proud. "They're not all like him, but they're not the soulless monsters that the far right of the Conservative Party is always trying to make them out to be," he said.
"Do you remember the fit that Auntie Ingrid had when she found out that Kaleb's a witch? If only she was alive right now, to find out that you're mated to a werewolf. So when's he gonna marry you?"
Damn it. She really was relentless. "Jeannie!"
***
"She insists," Kaleb said. He handed Madison into John's arms.
"Well, if she insists, who am I to say no?" John didn't have a lot of experience with kids, but Madison made it easy. "Got everything done? Teeth brushed, last glass of water, all that? Ready for bed?" he asked her.
"Yes," Madison said, nodding her head all big and deliberate to confirm it, wrapping around John and holding on tightly. "All done."
"Okay, then. Bedtime it is." He carried her up the stairs; Kaleb followed, but at a respectable distance. John could smell him.
Madison still smelled a bit like crayons. They'd had a busy time colouring before she got ready for bed. John was surprisingly good at it. Inside the lines and everything.
There were rules to bedtime. A pattern. Madison liked order. Certain stuffed animals had to be on the bed. Others had to return to their predetermined places on top of her toy chest. The blind on her window had to be down, the night light turned on, and her pillows arranged just so. She already had John trained how to do everything, and it was only their third night. Ronon was going to return to Atlantis in the morning; John and Rodney were taking personal leave--they hadn't done that in, oh, forever and a day. And already, between Ronon and Rodney, there was a lot of incriminating evidence of their Alpha being wrapped around the finger of a five-year-old girl.
He knew, of course, nobody would see it besides Lorne and Teyla. Rodney'd see to it. And sometime during the evening--while he coloured a blue-and-purple unicorn, he suspected--he ceased to care. He sat down on the edge of Madison's bed and pulled the covers up. "Need a story tonight?" he asked.
"Uh huh," Madison said, settling in and getting comfortable. "Tell me the story of when you and Uncle Rodney got married."
John blinked down at her. Got married? Uh oh. "We're not married," he said, gently.
She frowned at him. "But you love him," she pronounced. It wasn't a question.
He smiled. "Yes, I do," he agreed. "I love him very much."
"So why haven't you married him?" she asked. Well. Demanded. "You know, boys can marry boys, and girls can marry girls, Uncle John," she informed him. Perhaps he didn't know--he was from the America States after all. Sometimes they were kind of dumb, Mommy said.
"Well--well, yes, but--we've been very far away and where I'm from, I'm not allowed to marry your uncle," he said.
Madison frowned. "That's stupid," she said.
"I agree," he said.
"Well, then you should get married here. Daddy knows a witch who is a marriage commissioner," Madison said, and by the deliberate pronunciation, it was clear that she'd worked on that particular phrase. "He could marry you. I could be the flower girl."
Ah. Now they were getting down to what was really important.
John laughed softly and leaned in to kiss her forehead. "That's definitely something to think about, isn't it?" he said. "Of course, your uncle would want to have to marry me."
Madison gave John a bit of a look. "Sometimes you don't always notice things, do you, Uncle John?" she said.
He blinked at her. Damn, how did everybody always notice that about him?
She patted the back of his hand. "It's okay. You'll figure it out eventually," she said. "Read me the story about the Unicorn and the Dragon again, okay?" she asked, settling down in the bed and closing her eyes. "And make sure you do the voices."
***
Seeing Elizabeth again--even if she was a Replicator--was like a punch to the gut. For all of them, of course. John had never said it--never told her--but she'd been his closest friend. He'd loved her. He'd needed her.
He'd lost her all over again.
But they'd struck against the Replicators. Even if it had meant that uneasy alliance with the Wraith. And Larrin again (Rodney'd never let John live it down).
As it was, John hadn't exactly forgotten that conversation with Madison, but things were a little bit too insane once they returned to Atlantis from Earth. He had to push it to the back of his mind. And sometimes, he had a hard time believing that Rodney wanted to marry him. Sometimes he wondered if Rodney even wanted to stay with him. Every time Katie Brown turned up...
| Chapter 7 |