Fic: Diploma 13/25
Title Diploma
Part 13/25
Author Internetname
Rating NC-17 (eventually)
Pairing John/Rodney
Summary Sentinel X/O: Rodney McKay and John Sheppard have figured out how to live the lives they want, and things should probably stay that way.
Warnings Slash
Word Count for Story So Far 21,019
Disclaimer Er...if they were mine they'd still be on TV.
Part One is Here
McKay snorted, leaning back on his stool and crossing his arms over his chest.
"I'm fairly certain we already had this conversation. I'm off the market, Sheppard."
"It wouldn't kill you to call me John, you know." The colonel shot him a harmless look that McKay didn't buy for a minute.
"I'm not too sure about that," McKay muttered, scowling when Sheppard looked pleased. "Did you just decide to stop hearing when I said I wasn't interested in bonding?"
"All Guides want to bond."
"That's nonsense, and you know it. Besides, hello? Not a Guide here."
"You will be without that thing in your brain."
"I like that thing in my brain, and as Carson so ably demonstrated, it's working perfectly, and what are you doing?!"
Sheppard leaned back from his unmistakably luxurious sniff at McKay's skin. "Morning sunlight," he said with a grin. "The kind I bet your cats like to stretch out and sleep in."
McKay snapped his laptop shut. "All right, that's enough." He stood, hands at his hips, thrusting his chin out. "My whole life I've had to deal with Sentinels like you treating me like some sort of fringe benefit God gave them at birth. Well, screw that. I like not having to feel other people's pain and stupidity twenty-four hours a day. I like being able to speak my mind without feeling guilty. I like my life, and I'm not putting it at risk for the statistically infinitesimal chance I'm compatible with some flyboy sporting permanent bedhead."
Sheppard had slowly straightened to look directly into McKay's eyes.
"You're saying you're not even remotely interested?"
"Ah, seven was the magic number. But I can say it an eighth time if you like. Not. Remotely. Interested."
"Hmm." Sheppard deliberately raised his right hand until McKay looked at it, then reached over and rested the very tips of his fingers against the outline of a pertly pointed nipple.
"What are you..."
Very slowly, oh-so-delicately, Sheppard rubbed the pad of his thumb over the hardened nub, back and forth. McKay started to tremble on the third repetition.
"I want you to stop that."
"Then step away." Sheppard gazed at the motion of his hand, a small smile of pleasure on his full, delicious-looking lips.
"This...this proves nothing."
A dark eyebrow rose up. "No?"
"No. I haven't had sex in over ten years. A dog could...oh...could hump my leg, and I'd get excited."
Sheppard leered at him openly, refusing to be insulted. Then, just as with that woman - Kraken? - at the mixer, Sentinel eyes flinched in displeasure. Unlike her, though, Sheppard didn't pull away.
"I can feel it in your head," he growled. "Like something broken. It's wrong." He gave the nipple a gentle pinch, and McKay went cross-eyed. "I want you to take it out."
With a strength outside himself, McKay took a step back.
"I don't want this," he said while his erection hurt. "I don't have to want this."
Sheppard lowered his hand, saying nothing. Nothing verbal, in any event. His eyes were saying plenty.
Unsteady but determined, McKay picked up his laptop and walked to the door regardless of the stiffness tenting his uniform. He hoped nobody saw him before he reached the transporter.
"At least think about it, Rodney," Sheppard's quiet voice reached him.
Rodney turned, looking back. "I have thought about it, Colonel, all my life. I'm finally free, don't you see that? I'm finally someone I've always wanted to be."
"Is that what your first doctorate was all about? Being free?"
"I had no choice, so I embraced being a Guide. All it gave me in return was psychosis."
"Now you do have a choice," Sheppard said, his voice soft as silk and twice as slippery. "You could choose me."
"It doesn't work like that, and I'm not going to take the chance." McKay firmed his grip on his laptop and made his voice as hard as he could. "I'm not going through all that again."
Sheppard said nothing this time as he turned and left. Thankfully, there was no one else in the corridor.
***
"Ambassador Halling."
"Dr. Weir?" The tall, bearded man with his kind eyes and dark robes hesitated in the doorway to her office, displaying his usual blend of deference and strength. "A matter of some concern and urgency has arisen which we need to discuss."
She stood, gesturing to a chair. "Please, come in."
He sat, settling a brown leather satchel in his lap. "As you know, an Athosian trading party returned through the gate early this morning. Pela and Slocol came directly to me with, knowing you needed to learn what they had discovered."
She nodded. Teyla had given up her position as leader of her people to Guide Sheppard, and from what she could tell Halling was doing an admirable job in her place. She watched as he took several large black and white photos from his satchel and spread them across her desk.
The first picture was of Sheppard's team standing at a stargate, the wormhole still active behind them. The others were each a close-up of a team member's face. Sheppard seemed to be squinting, Ronon glowering, Teyla vaguely smiling, McKay looking ready to sneeze.
"What is this writing?" she asked, pointing to words that seemed to be written in several languages.
"They offer a reward for the capture of the people in the pictures."
"Are Pela and Slocol here on the city?"
"Yes, I brought them with me."
"Thank you." She tapped her radio. "Colonel Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan, Ronon Dex , and Dr. McKay, please meet me in the conference room immediately."
"What's going on, Dr. Weir?" Sheppard asked.
"Please, let me explain when we're all together."
"Can I send Zelenka?" McKay complained. "I'm right in the middle -"
"I need you, and this can't wait."
"Ronon and I are on our way, Elizabeth."
Weir saw the way Halling's eyes grew even more solemn at the sound of Teyla's voice. She knew he must miss his former leader. As she stood to escort him to the conference room, she worried again that John's choice of Guide might seem like the worst form of ransom to the Athosians - Teyla's service in return for the small number of her people they had saved from the Wraith. When she had inquired about it before, however, Halling had assured her that, while the Athosians knew little of the ways of Guides and Sentinels, their value was understood by his people.
Oddly, Sheppard was the last to arrive in the conference room, stepping through the door just as Slocol and Pela were settling at the table on either side of Halling. To Weir's further surprise, he took the chair right next to McKay, rather than the one by his Guide.
"It is good to see you, Teyla," Halling was saying.
"And to see you as well, Halling," she replied with great warmth.
"Charin sends her best wishes for your health," Halling continued. "As does Kanaan."
Teyla's smile faltered for just a moment then returned to its serene affection. "Please tell them both that my thoughts are often of them."
"Would that our business here could remain so pleasant," Halling said, turning his attention to Sheppard. Briefly, he explained what Pela and Slocol had found as Weir passed the photographs around.
"This is the Genii gate," the colonel said. "They must have security cameras on it."
"Why can I never take a good picture?" McKay said.
"So they saw you react and figured out you're a Sentinel," Ronon said.
"And instead of actually trying to talk with us about it, they've put out a hit," Rodney said.
"A hit?" Teyla asked.
"A death contract," Sheppard said, peering at the picture of the whole team. "Except they don't want us dead, right?" He turned to Slocol. "This says we need to be alive?"
"Yes," Slocol said, his voice angry. "Though it is clear they do not care if you are harmed by your capture."
His wife fingered one of her long brown braids, which jingled with tiny bells. "The entire marketplace was full of these pictures, and the sum of money offered is considerable."
"So much for leading them to a source of lead. Oh, my God!" McKay grabbed at one of the pictures, peering at the words as though will alone would make sense of them. "Is there some sort of expiration date on these things? Are we going to be chased by bounty hunters for the rest of our lives?"
Sheppard actually placed his hand on McKay's shoulder, calming the man. But then McKay shrugged it off and leaned slightly away.
"The instructions on many of the pictures say to deliver you to a specific gate address in three days' time," Pela said.
"Three days?" Ronon rumbled dangerously.
"I suppose they thought any longer would give you too much time to discover the photos yourselves," Weir said.
"The day after tomorrow we're scheduled to visit the Menarians," Sheppard said.
"There is Menarian writing on this photo," Pela said. "And on this one too."
"Great. One of the few allies I thought we actually had in this galaxy."
"If they were officially allied with the Genii, there would be no need for these pictures," Teyla said. "Perhaps they are simply hoping someone there can be corrupted." She looked at Sheppard pleadingly. "They must be quite desperate, John."
"Which makes them all the more dangerous."
"Look, our cover's blown," McKay said. "They know, and we know that they know. And soon they'll figure we know they know."
"Which means?" Sheppard asked.
"Which means there is no longer any point in pretending," Teyla said. "We can just give them the gate address to PXJ-328 directly."
"Oh, sure," McKay scoffed. "We'll just toss the address through the gate, and they won't be suspicious at all."
"I like that," Sheppard muttered.
"Like what, Colonel?" Weir asked.
"I like the idea of tossing help through the gate. But we can do better than a gate address." He shot McKay a look.
"Even for us, it's going to be a lot of work to mine enough lead for their needs," the scientist said, pulling his tablet close.
"Could we use the Daedalus? It's supposed to be here next week."
"What, beam the galena out directly?" McKay frowned, then typed quickly.
"Dr. Weir, I do not understand," Halling said. "These people betray you, yet you wish to help them?"
"We have discovered the Genii could be of specific use against the Wraith," she explained. "And I would ask you, all of you, to keep that information secret."
"The Genii are farmers," Slocol said.
"Yes, but there is something about their planet, something that we would like to utilize."
"If it could be used against the Wraith," Halling said, "they are wise to keep the knowledge from others."
"Yes," Teyla said, and just a touch of command entered her voice as she continued. "The safety of the Genii rests on their ability to go unnoticed, to seem ordinary. We must protect that at all costs."
"Understood." Slocol and Pela nodded.
McKay tapped his radio. "Zelenka, I've just emailed you an outline for a new use for the Asgard beam on Daedalus. Get on it with Graden and pull Hewston over too. I'll be down in a minute."
"Colonel, I want to suspend all gate travel for Atlantis personnel for the next three days," Dr. Weir said.
"Good idea."
"I would prefer if none of the Athosians went off-world as well," Halling said. "I will explain the danger."
"Thank you," Weir said, standing to dismiss the meeting. "Thank you for everything."
McKay picked up his tablet and headed out with Sheppard at his heels.
"I'm all yours, Rodney, if you need me to touch anything."
"You've touched quite enough, Colonel."
Weir caught a look of amusement on Teyla's face before the woman went to Halling to touch foreheads. Ronon just crossed his impressive arms and watched.
What the hell was going on?
***
Part Fourteen is Here