Fic: On the Right Note (SGA) Part 4 of 5
I've been listening to Parachute (specifically, this song) and it's made me think about Ronon's part of this story. I think I'm going to write his stuff for another of the challenges coming up because I want to figure out how to fit this song into the story! *grins* And then Aster asked about Rodney so I'll have to see what I can do for him. I think there does need to be more Rodney but he was having too much fun with all the new equipment to come out and play much.
Also, randomly, Spotify told me I might like Quietdrive and THEY WERE RIGHT! If you like SafetySuit, you might like them, too. Or, if you like Quietdrive, you might like SafetySuit. Maybe there's a whole group of bands that have smooshed together words that are just equally awesome!
Title: On the Right Note (4/5)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis AU
Characters: John, Ronon, Elizabeth (with a decided lack of Teyla)
Word Count: 2369
Prompt: marvelous for the stargateland Multimedia Bingo challenge
Disclaimer: I don't own. I only play around with it from time to time.
Author's Note: Much love to my beta, Aster, who is not responsible for anything in this story that doesn't work and only for the things that do.
Summary: John Sheppard's a small town boy wanting to make it big in the music industry. While he loses the family he was born into because of this decision, he gains a whole new one along the way.
Elizabeth is so excited, she can't sit still. For the last fifteen minutes, she's riffed on two topics. The first is about the invitations from talk shows that have been streaming in. The second is that both Aurora and Epiphany have gotten into the Top 100 within the first two weeks of both of them being released. She'd been unsure about releasing them both so quickly but John had been insistent. He'd discovered that he could have his demands met pretty quickly if he dangled the Or I could just pack up and go home card in front of Elizabeth. It felt wrong to throw a tantrum like a child but he needed those two songs to be on the radio at the same time. Maybe... maybe....
It's been nearly a year since Teyla had walked away without a word. He tried showing up at her house once, without any sort of notice, but the place had been locked up tight. The key wasn't in its normal place under the mat. In fact, the place look deserted. He'd gone to Brody's but Adam refused to talk about Teyla and no one else seemed to know who she was. A lot had happened since the last time he'd stopped by but the desperation in his eyes kept anyone from asking for an autograph.
The nightmares that she'd decided to start a new life so that he couldn't find her were bad. Rodney made a snide remark about her moving on to a whole new group of friends and John felt his whole world collapse around him because he wonders if he's pushed her that far. Maybe she'd met someone else. Another guy. Another guy who could spend time with her and hadn't been caught in a compromising position on a green room couch. Until that moment, John had never realized just how important Teyla was to him.
Now he knows and it's killing him. Slowly. A little part of his heart dies each day that he can't talk to her. Their schedule is keeping him from doing anything rash like returning to his hometown and stalking the place for any sign of Teyla but he knows that would only push her further away. The very last thing he needs is to have her decide that he's not worth the effort and take out a restraining order. He's going to have to be creative.
Ronon is sympathetic because Jeannie is going forward with this sudden notion of hers that she's going to marry Kaleb the day after she graduates and it's been rough on the big guy. He's taken a real shine to Rodney's little sister, something either Rodney doesn't know or doesn't mind because he hasn't said one word about the fact that his little sister keeps calling Ronon's phone and not his.
But then Rodney is oblivious to everything these days. Atlantis Records has approved of a new mixing board for road tours now that they're in a real bus and the equipment is better protected. He can't, or won't, talk about anything else. The truth of the matter is that the sound he gets from the machine is like magic. There's no one better than Rodney McKay and he knows it.
"I have some thoughts about this new tour," Elizabeth is saying and John hopes that Ronon is paying attention because he hasn't been listening since The powers that be really like this new stuff you've got playing but they think you should maybe try for a new sound. Something less maudlin. They want peppy, do they? Well, John Sheppard can't do peppy. Or happy. Or anything that might be played at a prom or a wedding or any place where people are happy.
"That sounds great." Ronon slaps John on the back hard enough to wake him up out of this current fugue state. "I think that's the perfect thing for John right now."
"Marvelous," Elizabeth says with that smug little smile she wears when she's happy about the outcome of their conference. "Let's see. This coming week you have an appearance at a few late night talk shows. They want to hear Before I Sleep as well as Epiphany-"
"No." John makes sure that he's looking Elizabeth straight on so that she sees just how much he means that word.
"What?"
"We're not doing Before I Sleep." He looks at Ronon to make sure they're on the same page before he turns back to Elizabeth. "And we're taking it out of our set list altogether. That one and Home. We're not doing either of those."
She looks confused which, for Elizabeth, is saying something. "I don't think I understand. After Epiphany and Aurora, those are your two top songs. You have to play those. It would be like throwing money away if you didn't."
"We're not doing those songs," Ronon restates as if Elizabeth hadn't understood John. His phone rings and he flips it open, unaware (or uncaring) of the social norms that said it was impolite to take a phone call in the middle of a meeting with a high ranking executive like Elizabeth Weir. "Hey, Jeannie. Yeah? Really? We'll be there in an hour. See you then."
He closes the phone, a thoughtful expression marring his usual frown. "We need to get to the airport."
"But we haven't... that is... we're not done." It's a sight to behold when Elizabeth gets flustered but there really is not arguing with Ronon. "Will you be at the photo shoot tomorrow?"
After pausing to consider the time table that only he seemed to understand, Ronon nodded. "We can make the photo shoot." He claps his hands on his jean-clad thighs as he stands up. "Nice talking to you, Elizabeth."
John lets himself be ushered from the room because he's just as baffled by this turn of events. On their previous schedule, he should have been daydreaming his way through at least another hour of this meeting. He didn't know if he should be thanking Ronon as they got into the old, beat up van that they still drove around town.
"What was all of that? Why'd you lie to get us out of there?"
"Didn't lie. We need to be at the airport."
"Rodney getting some more of that imported cheese that needs to be signed out of customs?"
Ronon looks at him from the corner of his eye, the barest hint of exasperation in the set of his mouth. It's the most emotion John's seen from him in weeks. "If you were supposed to know what was going on, you would have been the one getting the phone call."
Just to be sure he hadn't been the one they called first, John pulls his phone out of his hip pocket. Seeing as he didn't ever get many calls, it takes him five minutes just to turn the damn thing on. He hasn't missed any calls but there is a random text that he'd forgotten about getting. Shower today. Rodney gets more cryptic every day. Was it question? No, he would have put a question mark because if it's one thing that gets Rodney more riled up, it's the lack of proper punctuation and grammar in a text.
"Why do you think Rodney wanted to make sure I showered today?"
The explosive laughter from Ronon is not comforting. "Cause the man is a cretin and he's convinced everyone else is, too."
"Funny, he said the same thing about you last week."
There's silence in the van until Ronon reaches over to turn on the radio. The very last thing John wants to hear is music because he's been strangely void of any music in his head since he finished writing Aurora. It feels like a betrayal to absentmindedly hum along but he can't stop himself.
"Do you think we'll ever have a song that people get tired of listening to on the radio? Like the kind of song that gets stuck in your head because it's everywhere?" he asks as he hums along with a song he's coming to despise just because it's on every single commercials he sees on TV these days. It's catchy, though. He can't deny that.
"We don't play the sort of music that get featured on dishwasher ads."
There was that. "Should we? I mean, Elizabeth wants us to write something happier. Should we be writing happier music?" What he really wanted to ask was If I write happy songs, does that mean my heart won't feel so bruised any longer?
"Up to you. You're the one who writes the words. I just play the music."
"Do you ever want to write the words? I'd let you. This isn't just about me. You're just as much a part of the band as I am."
To his credit, Ronon thinks about this for a while. Really thinks about it. John can tell because his eyes narrow and he stops for a yellow light instead of racing through it. "It's your name that they say on the radio before the song plays. It should be you that writes the words."
"But maybe... maybe we change that." It's been something that's swirled around in his head long enough but hasn't wanted to bring it up. They have a good thing going and he hates the thought of losing it just because he tries to think he can change it up. "We don't have to keep being John Sheppard. Well, I do. The name sort of has to stay with me but it doesn't have to stay with you. With us."
Ronon's got that look that says he's thinking again. "What're you saying, exactly?"
"How 'bout we become a band and not a single person?"
"We are a band. Well, not really. We're just two people."
"So, let's make it a band. Let's... let's start all over."
Ronon's grin is fierce. "You trying to give Elizabeth a heart attack?"
But now that the words are out of his mouth, John likes the idea more and more. He's tired of being all about him. Ronon, even with his very noticeable looks, doesn't get near the amount of fan girls that he does. Everyone wants to feel his hair all the time or pry off the wrist band on his left wrist as if the secrets to the universe are hidden underneath.
Besides, maybe if it's not just him, they can play some happy music. That's really what John's trying to get at. He's not against happy music, it's just that he's not so sure he can produce it himself. Not in the state he's in.
"Something to think about," he mutters as he leans his head against the window and closes his eyes.
"There's that charity concert in a couple of weeks. Maybe we team up with someone then and see how it goes over. If it doesn't work out, no one's the wiser. If it catches on, we keep it."
John cracks an eye open, one side of his mouth quirking up in the start of the first real smile he's had on in weeks. "See, that's why I keep you around, Chewie. You're the real brains of this outfit."
Before he closes his eye again, he swears Ronon's ears flush a soft pink.
It takes another twenty minutes to get to the airport, all of which John uses to cat nap. Sleeping in hotel rooms has never been easy for him but there's nowhere else that he and Ronon really have to go. They've talked about renting a house but they've never been able to settle on the where and that's got to be figured out before they can move on to the what. Rodney isn't any help figuring it out but they figure they'll find something with a basement that he can hook up all his gadgets and he'll be happy with whatever they decide.
The problem is Teyla and Jeannie. Not that they have any knowledge that they're keeping the idea in stasis. John doesn't want to commit to anything on the off-chance that Teyla replies to his texts and unanswered phone messages. He's thought about getting an email account just to have another way of pestering her but Rodney doesn't ever let him play with his laptops. He figures he'll just keep writing music that tells her (and the rest of the radio listening world) just how much he's sorry. Aurora, especially, has more of his heart in it than he's altogether comfortable admitting but it doesn't appear he'll ever have to because she's never going to talk to him again.
Jeannie, on the other hand, talks to Ronon too much. He hasn't said anything out loud but John knows he doesn't want to settle down until Jeannie's wedding is over and she and Kaleb are safely ensconced in the house she keeps dreaming about. "She'll be an interior designer that no one understands enough to hire because, admit it, she's got some weird ideas. And he'll teach at some college somewhere and wear tweed and drink port. What is port?" The drunken, one-sided conversation had gone on for hours and only ended when Ronon declared that he didn't want to have 2.5 dogs and would never, ever walk a baby, no matter how much anyone begged him. He'd slumped down into unconsciousness then but John had gotten his meaning. They were who they were and no one was going to change them.
The van stopped and John came awake with a start. "We here?" he asked as he passed a hand over his gritty eyes.
"Yep."
"Okay, let's go get the cheese."
But Ronon was just staring at him with a funny sort of grin. "You might want to do something with your hair."
"It's not possible to do anything with this hair. No one cares, anyway. They just think it's cute." He did, however, put on a pair of aviator shades that he'd picked up last week. They went with the leather jacket he'd found at a second hand store, complete with military patches. He still looked like John Sheppard but now he looked a little more cool.
"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.
Also, randomly, Spotify told me I might like Quietdrive and THEY WERE RIGHT! If you like SafetySuit, you might like them, too. Or, if you like Quietdrive, you might like SafetySuit. Maybe there's a whole group of bands that have smooshed together words that are just equally awesome!
Title: On the Right Note (4/5)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis AU
Characters: John, Ronon, Elizabeth (with a decided lack of Teyla)
Word Count: 2369
Prompt: marvelous for the stargateland Multimedia Bingo challenge
Disclaimer: I don't own. I only play around with it from time to time.
Author's Note: Much love to my beta, Aster, who is not responsible for anything in this story that doesn't work and only for the things that do.
Summary: John Sheppard's a small town boy wanting to make it big in the music industry. While he loses the family he was born into because of this decision, he gains a whole new one along the way.
Elizabeth is so excited, she can't sit still. For the last fifteen minutes, she's riffed on two topics. The first is about the invitations from talk shows that have been streaming in. The second is that both Aurora and Epiphany have gotten into the Top 100 within the first two weeks of both of them being released. She'd been unsure about releasing them both so quickly but John had been insistent. He'd discovered that he could have his demands met pretty quickly if he dangled the Or I could just pack up and go home card in front of Elizabeth. It felt wrong to throw a tantrum like a child but he needed those two songs to be on the radio at the same time. Maybe... maybe....
It's been nearly a year since Teyla had walked away without a word. He tried showing up at her house once, without any sort of notice, but the place had been locked up tight. The key wasn't in its normal place under the mat. In fact, the place look deserted. He'd gone to Brody's but Adam refused to talk about Teyla and no one else seemed to know who she was. A lot had happened since the last time he'd stopped by but the desperation in his eyes kept anyone from asking for an autograph.
The nightmares that she'd decided to start a new life so that he couldn't find her were bad. Rodney made a snide remark about her moving on to a whole new group of friends and John felt his whole world collapse around him because he wonders if he's pushed her that far. Maybe she'd met someone else. Another guy. Another guy who could spend time with her and hadn't been caught in a compromising position on a green room couch. Until that moment, John had never realized just how important Teyla was to him.
Now he knows and it's killing him. Slowly. A little part of his heart dies each day that he can't talk to her. Their schedule is keeping him from doing anything rash like returning to his hometown and stalking the place for any sign of Teyla but he knows that would only push her further away. The very last thing he needs is to have her decide that he's not worth the effort and take out a restraining order. He's going to have to be creative.
Ronon is sympathetic because Jeannie is going forward with this sudden notion of hers that she's going to marry Kaleb the day after she graduates and it's been rough on the big guy. He's taken a real shine to Rodney's little sister, something either Rodney doesn't know or doesn't mind because he hasn't said one word about the fact that his little sister keeps calling Ronon's phone and not his.
But then Rodney is oblivious to everything these days. Atlantis Records has approved of a new mixing board for road tours now that they're in a real bus and the equipment is better protected. He can't, or won't, talk about anything else. The truth of the matter is that the sound he gets from the machine is like magic. There's no one better than Rodney McKay and he knows it.
"I have some thoughts about this new tour," Elizabeth is saying and John hopes that Ronon is paying attention because he hasn't been listening since The powers that be really like this new stuff you've got playing but they think you should maybe try for a new sound. Something less maudlin. They want peppy, do they? Well, John Sheppard can't do peppy. Or happy. Or anything that might be played at a prom or a wedding or any place where people are happy.
"That sounds great." Ronon slaps John on the back hard enough to wake him up out of this current fugue state. "I think that's the perfect thing for John right now."
"Marvelous," Elizabeth says with that smug little smile she wears when she's happy about the outcome of their conference. "Let's see. This coming week you have an appearance at a few late night talk shows. They want to hear Before I Sleep as well as Epiphany-"
"No." John makes sure that he's looking Elizabeth straight on so that she sees just how much he means that word.
"What?"
"We're not doing Before I Sleep." He looks at Ronon to make sure they're on the same page before he turns back to Elizabeth. "And we're taking it out of our set list altogether. That one and Home. We're not doing either of those."
She looks confused which, for Elizabeth, is saying something. "I don't think I understand. After Epiphany and Aurora, those are your two top songs. You have to play those. It would be like throwing money away if you didn't."
"We're not doing those songs," Ronon restates as if Elizabeth hadn't understood John. His phone rings and he flips it open, unaware (or uncaring) of the social norms that said it was impolite to take a phone call in the middle of a meeting with a high ranking executive like Elizabeth Weir. "Hey, Jeannie. Yeah? Really? We'll be there in an hour. See you then."
He closes the phone, a thoughtful expression marring his usual frown. "We need to get to the airport."
"But we haven't... that is... we're not done." It's a sight to behold when Elizabeth gets flustered but there really is not arguing with Ronon. "Will you be at the photo shoot tomorrow?"
After pausing to consider the time table that only he seemed to understand, Ronon nodded. "We can make the photo shoot." He claps his hands on his jean-clad thighs as he stands up. "Nice talking to you, Elizabeth."
John lets himself be ushered from the room because he's just as baffled by this turn of events. On their previous schedule, he should have been daydreaming his way through at least another hour of this meeting. He didn't know if he should be thanking Ronon as they got into the old, beat up van that they still drove around town.
"What was all of that? Why'd you lie to get us out of there?"
"Didn't lie. We need to be at the airport."
"Rodney getting some more of that imported cheese that needs to be signed out of customs?"
Ronon looks at him from the corner of his eye, the barest hint of exasperation in the set of his mouth. It's the most emotion John's seen from him in weeks. "If you were supposed to know what was going on, you would have been the one getting the phone call."
Just to be sure he hadn't been the one they called first, John pulls his phone out of his hip pocket. Seeing as he didn't ever get many calls, it takes him five minutes just to turn the damn thing on. He hasn't missed any calls but there is a random text that he'd forgotten about getting. Shower today. Rodney gets more cryptic every day. Was it question? No, he would have put a question mark because if it's one thing that gets Rodney more riled up, it's the lack of proper punctuation and grammar in a text.
"Why do you think Rodney wanted to make sure I showered today?"
The explosive laughter from Ronon is not comforting. "Cause the man is a cretin and he's convinced everyone else is, too."
"Funny, he said the same thing about you last week."
There's silence in the van until Ronon reaches over to turn on the radio. The very last thing John wants to hear is music because he's been strangely void of any music in his head since he finished writing Aurora. It feels like a betrayal to absentmindedly hum along but he can't stop himself.
"Do you think we'll ever have a song that people get tired of listening to on the radio? Like the kind of song that gets stuck in your head because it's everywhere?" he asks as he hums along with a song he's coming to despise just because it's on every single commercials he sees on TV these days. It's catchy, though. He can't deny that.
"We don't play the sort of music that get featured on dishwasher ads."
There was that. "Should we? I mean, Elizabeth wants us to write something happier. Should we be writing happier music?" What he really wanted to ask was If I write happy songs, does that mean my heart won't feel so bruised any longer?
"Up to you. You're the one who writes the words. I just play the music."
"Do you ever want to write the words? I'd let you. This isn't just about me. You're just as much a part of the band as I am."
To his credit, Ronon thinks about this for a while. Really thinks about it. John can tell because his eyes narrow and he stops for a yellow light instead of racing through it. "It's your name that they say on the radio before the song plays. It should be you that writes the words."
"But maybe... maybe we change that." It's been something that's swirled around in his head long enough but hasn't wanted to bring it up. They have a good thing going and he hates the thought of losing it just because he tries to think he can change it up. "We don't have to keep being John Sheppard. Well, I do. The name sort of has to stay with me but it doesn't have to stay with you. With us."
Ronon's got that look that says he's thinking again. "What're you saying, exactly?"
"How 'bout we become a band and not a single person?"
"We are a band. Well, not really. We're just two people."
"So, let's make it a band. Let's... let's start all over."
Ronon's grin is fierce. "You trying to give Elizabeth a heart attack?"
But now that the words are out of his mouth, John likes the idea more and more. He's tired of being all about him. Ronon, even with his very noticeable looks, doesn't get near the amount of fan girls that he does. Everyone wants to feel his hair all the time or pry off the wrist band on his left wrist as if the secrets to the universe are hidden underneath.
Besides, maybe if it's not just him, they can play some happy music. That's really what John's trying to get at. He's not against happy music, it's just that he's not so sure he can produce it himself. Not in the state he's in.
"Something to think about," he mutters as he leans his head against the window and closes his eyes.
"There's that charity concert in a couple of weeks. Maybe we team up with someone then and see how it goes over. If it doesn't work out, no one's the wiser. If it catches on, we keep it."
John cracks an eye open, one side of his mouth quirking up in the start of the first real smile he's had on in weeks. "See, that's why I keep you around, Chewie. You're the real brains of this outfit."
Before he closes his eye again, he swears Ronon's ears flush a soft pink.
It takes another twenty minutes to get to the airport, all of which John uses to cat nap. Sleeping in hotel rooms has never been easy for him but there's nowhere else that he and Ronon really have to go. They've talked about renting a house but they've never been able to settle on the where and that's got to be figured out before they can move on to the what. Rodney isn't any help figuring it out but they figure they'll find something with a basement that he can hook up all his gadgets and he'll be happy with whatever they decide.
The problem is Teyla and Jeannie. Not that they have any knowledge that they're keeping the idea in stasis. John doesn't want to commit to anything on the off-chance that Teyla replies to his texts and unanswered phone messages. He's thought about getting an email account just to have another way of pestering her but Rodney doesn't ever let him play with his laptops. He figures he'll just keep writing music that tells her (and the rest of the radio listening world) just how much he's sorry. Aurora, especially, has more of his heart in it than he's altogether comfortable admitting but it doesn't appear he'll ever have to because she's never going to talk to him again.
Jeannie, on the other hand, talks to Ronon too much. He hasn't said anything out loud but John knows he doesn't want to settle down until Jeannie's wedding is over and she and Kaleb are safely ensconced in the house she keeps dreaming about. "She'll be an interior designer that no one understands enough to hire because, admit it, she's got some weird ideas. And he'll teach at some college somewhere and wear tweed and drink port. What is port?" The drunken, one-sided conversation had gone on for hours and only ended when Ronon declared that he didn't want to have 2.5 dogs and would never, ever walk a baby, no matter how much anyone begged him. He'd slumped down into unconsciousness then but John had gotten his meaning. They were who they were and no one was going to change them.
The van stopped and John came awake with a start. "We here?" he asked as he passed a hand over his gritty eyes.
"Yep."
"Okay, let's go get the cheese."
But Ronon was just staring at him with a funny sort of grin. "You might want to do something with your hair."
"It's not possible to do anything with this hair. No one cares, anyway. They just think it's cute." He did, however, put on a pair of aviator shades that he'd picked up last week. They went with the leather jacket he'd found at a second hand store, complete with military patches. He still looked like John Sheppard but now he looked a little more cool.
"Fine. Don't say I didn't warn you."
This entry was cross posted at dreamwidth - where the cool kids hang out.