Fic: Changes and Consequences
Title: Changes and Consequences
Author: severusslave
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: R
Recipient: dirtyzucchini
Spoilers: 1.01 Rising Part 1
Summary: The next morning though as Rodney fished the discarded, knotted condom from under the bed, he discovered that, although perfect for him and John, the sex had been too rough for the little piece of latex.
Changes and Consequences
It wasn't supposed to have happened. But it had. And now all of them had to live with the consequences. What really got to bothered Rodney though, was that this time neither of the two of them would bear the consequences of their deeds, but the one thing that was truly innocent had to. They were to blame. It had to suffer. There were nights Rodney lay on his bed wide awake and wished that he had never been born.
For his child's sake.
+++
All of Atlantis knew by now what having the Ancient Technology Activation gene entailed. In the beginning almost everybody shied away from getting the gene manipulation therapy done after the consequences were made public.
36 percent chance that the adaptation of your body's DNA to the new gene would be absolute, that your body would begin to react and change you. 12 percent chance that the therapy didn't take. Everybody wanted to be in those remaining 52 percent - if they would choose to undergo the procedure at all.
It hadn't been popular in the beginning, not after they all saw or heard what the gene did with you.
There were three persons who had the gene naturally. In whom it was the strongest: Sheppard, Beckett and Kusanagi.
Very soon after they stepped through the 'gate to Atlantis it had become general knowledge that Dr. Beckett had concealed a very important detail in all his reports on the ATA gene. He had kept it hidden on General O'Neill's behalf, for it only concerned himself and the General at that moment of time.
Here in Pegasus galaxy that had changed. Beckett had known it would do so. Because of this, he stepped with all the others of the mission, through the gate.
+++
The gene changed you. The gene will change you when you used it, when you were surrounded by ancient technology and, of course, when the abandoned city of Atlantis switched itself back on as it sensed a gene carrier's presence.
The gene made you become similar to those beings that were today called the Ancients.
Beckett hadn't had a lot of fun informing Sheppard and Kusanagi of that fact.
+++
"...you Dr. Kusanagi, it won't concern directly. You've worked with Ancient technology for over three months now and nothing ...different could be detected as we examined all the members of this expedition."
The tiny, Japanese woman nodded once and looked relieved but still was tense.
Major Sheppard sat next to her. Although he seemed to lounge in his seat as if the hard chair was a hammock, Carson saw that he was nervous and edgy. He presumed this was because the team he was supposed to be on as Col. Sumner's third-in-command after Bates was on another alien planet looking for a possible alpha side.
The man had been edgy since Beckett had prevented him from being amongst the first team to look for an uninhabited planet to flee to, as Atlantis had threatened to flood after their arrival.
He had spoken to Dr. Weir and ordered Sheppard and Kusanagi grounded. Sheppard had not been amused.
Rodney McKay of all people had calmed him down with nothing more than a few words and a hand on Sheppard's arm.
Carson had seen the looks they'd given each other. He did not look forward to his talk with Sheppard. He really didn't.
"But it will affect any children of yours. I have prepared a compact information file for you and emailed it to you before you arrived here. Read it. For the moment keep the information to yourself. At the moment, Dr. Weir, Dr. McKay and the three of us are the only ones cleared for this. I would like to talk to Major Sheppard now, if you-"
Miko Kusanagi smiled and again nodded calmly in that typical polite Japanese way of hers. She quickly left the room that acted as a makeshift office for Carson.
Carson had dreaded that part of his day. Still, he managed to keep up the professional distance as he explained to Major Sheppard what exactly was going on with his body. The same thing that had happened to Carson's body almost two months ago.
He told him in clean, medical words that now that he had come in contact with Ancient technology, the gene that made it possible for him to activate it changed him.
It would alter his hormones, his intestines, his reproductive organs and his DNA.
Sheppard had asked questions in the beginning but had grown silent as Carson told him that, basically, he would grow a uterus, a vagina and functional ovaries in the course of the next three to four weeks. That his body would change him into hybrid between Ancient and human.
As Carson's monologue came closer to the end and he was advising Major Sheppard to only enjoy sex with condoms no matter the gender of his partner after the transformation of his body is completed, Sheppard interrupted him with a single statement.
"Shit. You really are not kidding," spoken in that peculiar drawl of voice that Carson had a hard time understanding.
"I really am not, Major Sheppard." He sighed and leant back in his chair. "Remember when I triggered that drone? I... I experienced my first period that day. Then Rodney forced me into that cursed chair and I was... well, confused, annoyed and scared. On top of that came an enormous hormonal imbalance. It's a wonder that I didn't blow up the whole South Pole."
"You!... Of course. You too. ...Damn!"
Carson smiled involuntarily, "yes, me too. Really, Major, I know of you and Dr. McKay and-"
Carson stopped his words as he saw Sheppard blanch and then try to regain his cool.
"Don't panic, Major. Don't panic. Rodney and I, we're friends. We've known each other since university and a very alcohol-heavy party organized by the student representatives of the Physics department. I've known each and every girl- and boyfriend of his since then and believe me you fit in there quite nicely. Anyway, I know how he looks like when he's getting some and at the moment he's definitely getting some. With you.
And, really, don't panic, I'm not going to tell anybody of this relationship."
Major Sheppard seemed to trust him and had calmed down a little and the conversation had turned to more specific topics of their situation, his status of being grounded and last but not least, Rodney's past romances, on which Carson was being grilled for close to two hours.
It seemed to Carson that Rodney and Major Sheppard's relationship might be something serious and he was glad for both of them.
+++
It had happened on the day, close to 3 months after their arrival, the team John was on stumbled across a culling of the Wraith for the first time.
The Atlantis expedition had heard of the race of unmerciful, blue-skinned killers that subjugated the entire Pegasus galaxy, that was called by all planets' natives 'The Wraith'. On every single world, they heard tales of their hunger, their culling of the population and their superior technology. The Wraith came every fifty to sixty years - depending on the planet's circumference - and fed.
It had been generally decided that while they had no ZPMs to power the city's defences the Atlantis expedition would stay away from any trouble with the race called The Wraith.
It had happened that night. John had gone to Rodney's quarters straight after being checked out by Doctor Beckett. They'd talked about their decision of staying far from the Wraith; about how horrible they were; about how John felt that he had to do something against them and about how John had to watch an entire civilization being wiped out of existence, except for the four children they'd saved by bringing them aboard the Gateship.
Four children who were too young to even properly speak their native language never mind remember their people's customs.
They had sex that night there in Rodney's bed with John still more disturbed by the day's experiences and with Rodney trying to comfort John.
It had been great, it had been tender. It had been rough, satisfying and exhausting.
It had been the first night that John did not leave afterwards. Things were good.
The next morning though as Rodney fished the discarded, knotted condom from under the bed, he discovered that, although perfect for him and John, the sex had been too rough for the little piece of latex.
+++
They had kept silent about even the slightest chance of a pregnancy. They hadn't even talked to each other about it. John did not want to be disappointed if there wasn't a baby. Rodney hoped that there wasn't one.
John had taken actions though, he did not volunteer for any off-world mission and rather practised flying the gateships and teaching the art to those of the Atlantis expedition that were brave enough to let themselves be treated with the gene therapy.
There were now nine more men who underwent the same changes as John and Dr. Beckett and over three dozen women and seven men who now only featured the ATA gene.
At that moment of time, John trained six soldiers and two scientists in the art of piloting.
Seven weeks after it happened though, John had to accompany Sumner's team to a mission. The mission in itself had been calm. Trading for grain and other necessities.
After the post-mission examination though Dr. Beckett came up to John and took him to his office to confirm John's hopes and Rodney's anxieties.
+++
The following week had been full of changes. Beckett had insisted that they tell Dr. Weir of the pregnancy and thus their relationship.
To say that she was flabbergasted would have been an understatement. After some minutes of shock and confusion, though, she had been all business.
It had come to be that at the end of the week, Atlantis' laws had been made more gay-friendly and more open in regard of relationships between all of the city's inhabitants.
Still Rodney and John chose not to move in together quite yet. Rodney wasn't comfortable being reminded of the child growing inside of John every time he saw him. John mostly wanted to be left alone anyway at that time.
+++
In the following weeks, Rodney asked himself countless times if it would be healthy. He doubted it.
John asked himself if the child would be a girl. He'd like to have a daughter with Rodney's eyes.
Rodney hoped that it would be nothing like him. He had his reasons.
+++
Since the day that Carson had affirmed that his lover had become pregnant with his child, Rodney thought often of his own family.
He didn't mind thinking of his sister, Jean. They really hadn't had anything in common. She had sent a letter saying that she had found love with a nice young man named Samuel. They had lived together for a year now. This was before Rodney had even thought of stepping through the 'gate to Pegasus. The letter had been three sheets of paper thick and had just contained this information plus a 'Hi Rodney-brother' and a 'Love, Jeannie' written in her big, child-like penmanship, using a dark blue crayon.
It was the first letter he had ever gotten from her, he hadn't even known that she could write until then.
Jean was two years older than him. She had her fortieth birthday that year.
He and his sister did not share the same father. That was what that made the difference between them, made the difference of how their mother's heavy drug abuse had influenced the embryo's development.
She had the misfortune to be born to grow up to be an adult with a toddler's intelligence. Her father, who raised both of them from the time when their mother died of an overdose, said that she was lucky to be so very pretty and that she would have no problem to find a partner one day among her peers.
Rodney had been lucky. His mother had taken to hallucinogens during her second pregnancy instead of alcohol and Valium and other legal drugs. He'd gotten his superior - freaky, abnormal, unique - intelligence out of it.
Now Carson had messed with his genes, too.
Rodney was truly worried about his child's health.
+++
He kept quiet through almost the whole of John's pregnancy, through the moods, through the panic attacks, through the morning sickness.
He didn't quite know what it was that he was waiting for. A stillbirth? Any frown of Carson's brows at the now biweekly medical appointments?
He stood up from their bed, kissed John's forehead and went over to his best friend's quarters one night when John was close to the completion of his seventh month of pregnancy. He confessed all his fears to Carson that night.
Carson promised him in the early hours of the next day that he would examine John and their baby, completely thoroughly and concentrate on any genetic malformations or abnormalities, no matter how small.
Rodney had slumped into his seat and had practically held himself up on the glass filled with a slosh of brandy in his hands.
Then Carson had said that he was going to be object of more examinations too. Rodney hadn't it in him to cry that night.
+++
Years later Rodney could remember the date of the day that Carson told him that his child was perfectly healthy much better than its actual birthday.
End
Author: severusslave
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Rating: R
Recipient: dirtyzucchini
Spoilers: 1.01 Rising Part 1
Summary: The next morning though as Rodney fished the discarded, knotted condom from under the bed, he discovered that, although perfect for him and John, the sex had been too rough for the little piece of latex.
Changes and Consequences
It wasn't supposed to have happened. But it had. And now all of them had to live with the consequences. What really got to bothered Rodney though, was that this time neither of the two of them would bear the consequences of their deeds, but the one thing that was truly innocent had to. They were to blame. It had to suffer. There were nights Rodney lay on his bed wide awake and wished that he had never been born.
For his child's sake.
+++
All of Atlantis knew by now what having the Ancient Technology Activation gene entailed. In the beginning almost everybody shied away from getting the gene manipulation therapy done after the consequences were made public.
36 percent chance that the adaptation of your body's DNA to the new gene would be absolute, that your body would begin to react and change you. 12 percent chance that the therapy didn't take. Everybody wanted to be in those remaining 52 percent - if they would choose to undergo the procedure at all.
It hadn't been popular in the beginning, not after they all saw or heard what the gene did with you.
There were three persons who had the gene naturally. In whom it was the strongest: Sheppard, Beckett and Kusanagi.
Very soon after they stepped through the 'gate to Atlantis it had become general knowledge that Dr. Beckett had concealed a very important detail in all his reports on the ATA gene. He had kept it hidden on General O'Neill's behalf, for it only concerned himself and the General at that moment of time.
Here in Pegasus galaxy that had changed. Beckett had known it would do so. Because of this, he stepped with all the others of the mission, through the gate.
+++
The gene changed you. The gene will change you when you used it, when you were surrounded by ancient technology and, of course, when the abandoned city of Atlantis switched itself back on as it sensed a gene carrier's presence.
The gene made you become similar to those beings that were today called the Ancients.
Beckett hadn't had a lot of fun informing Sheppard and Kusanagi of that fact.
+++
"...you Dr. Kusanagi, it won't concern directly. You've worked with Ancient technology for over three months now and nothing ...different could be detected as we examined all the members of this expedition."
The tiny, Japanese woman nodded once and looked relieved but still was tense.
Major Sheppard sat next to her. Although he seemed to lounge in his seat as if the hard chair was a hammock, Carson saw that he was nervous and edgy. He presumed this was because the team he was supposed to be on as Col. Sumner's third-in-command after Bates was on another alien planet looking for a possible alpha side.
The man had been edgy since Beckett had prevented him from being amongst the first team to look for an uninhabited planet to flee to, as Atlantis had threatened to flood after their arrival.
He had spoken to Dr. Weir and ordered Sheppard and Kusanagi grounded. Sheppard had not been amused.
Rodney McKay of all people had calmed him down with nothing more than a few words and a hand on Sheppard's arm.
Carson had seen the looks they'd given each other. He did not look forward to his talk with Sheppard. He really didn't.
"But it will affect any children of yours. I have prepared a compact information file for you and emailed it to you before you arrived here. Read it. For the moment keep the information to yourself. At the moment, Dr. Weir, Dr. McKay and the three of us are the only ones cleared for this. I would like to talk to Major Sheppard now, if you-"
Miko Kusanagi smiled and again nodded calmly in that typical polite Japanese way of hers. She quickly left the room that acted as a makeshift office for Carson.
Carson had dreaded that part of his day. Still, he managed to keep up the professional distance as he explained to Major Sheppard what exactly was going on with his body. The same thing that had happened to Carson's body almost two months ago.
He told him in clean, medical words that now that he had come in contact with Ancient technology, the gene that made it possible for him to activate it changed him.
It would alter his hormones, his intestines, his reproductive organs and his DNA.
Sheppard had asked questions in the beginning but had grown silent as Carson told him that, basically, he would grow a uterus, a vagina and functional ovaries in the course of the next three to four weeks. That his body would change him into hybrid between Ancient and human.
As Carson's monologue came closer to the end and he was advising Major Sheppard to only enjoy sex with condoms no matter the gender of his partner after the transformation of his body is completed, Sheppard interrupted him with a single statement.
"Shit. You really are not kidding," spoken in that peculiar drawl of voice that Carson had a hard time understanding.
"I really am not, Major Sheppard." He sighed and leant back in his chair. "Remember when I triggered that drone? I... I experienced my first period that day. Then Rodney forced me into that cursed chair and I was... well, confused, annoyed and scared. On top of that came an enormous hormonal imbalance. It's a wonder that I didn't blow up the whole South Pole."
"You!... Of course. You too. ...Damn!"
Carson smiled involuntarily, "yes, me too. Really, Major, I know of you and Dr. McKay and-"
Carson stopped his words as he saw Sheppard blanch and then try to regain his cool.
"Don't panic, Major. Don't panic. Rodney and I, we're friends. We've known each other since university and a very alcohol-heavy party organized by the student representatives of the Physics department. I've known each and every girl- and boyfriend of his since then and believe me you fit in there quite nicely. Anyway, I know how he looks like when he's getting some and at the moment he's definitely getting some. With you.
And, really, don't panic, I'm not going to tell anybody of this relationship."
Major Sheppard seemed to trust him and had calmed down a little and the conversation had turned to more specific topics of their situation, his status of being grounded and last but not least, Rodney's past romances, on which Carson was being grilled for close to two hours.
It seemed to Carson that Rodney and Major Sheppard's relationship might be something serious and he was glad for both of them.
+++
It had happened on the day, close to 3 months after their arrival, the team John was on stumbled across a culling of the Wraith for the first time.
The Atlantis expedition had heard of the race of unmerciful, blue-skinned killers that subjugated the entire Pegasus galaxy, that was called by all planets' natives 'The Wraith'. On every single world, they heard tales of their hunger, their culling of the population and their superior technology. The Wraith came every fifty to sixty years - depending on the planet's circumference - and fed.
It had been generally decided that while they had no ZPMs to power the city's defences the Atlantis expedition would stay away from any trouble with the race called The Wraith.
It had happened that night. John had gone to Rodney's quarters straight after being checked out by Doctor Beckett. They'd talked about their decision of staying far from the Wraith; about how horrible they were; about how John felt that he had to do something against them and about how John had to watch an entire civilization being wiped out of existence, except for the four children they'd saved by bringing them aboard the Gateship.
Four children who were too young to even properly speak their native language never mind remember their people's customs.
They had sex that night there in Rodney's bed with John still more disturbed by the day's experiences and with Rodney trying to comfort John.
It had been great, it had been tender. It had been rough, satisfying and exhausting.
It had been the first night that John did not leave afterwards. Things were good.
The next morning though as Rodney fished the discarded, knotted condom from under the bed, he discovered that, although perfect for him and John, the sex had been too rough for the little piece of latex.
+++
They had kept silent about even the slightest chance of a pregnancy. They hadn't even talked to each other about it. John did not want to be disappointed if there wasn't a baby. Rodney hoped that there wasn't one.
John had taken actions though, he did not volunteer for any off-world mission and rather practised flying the gateships and teaching the art to those of the Atlantis expedition that were brave enough to let themselves be treated with the gene therapy.
There were now nine more men who underwent the same changes as John and Dr. Beckett and over three dozen women and seven men who now only featured the ATA gene.
At that moment of time, John trained six soldiers and two scientists in the art of piloting.
Seven weeks after it happened though, John had to accompany Sumner's team to a mission. The mission in itself had been calm. Trading for grain and other necessities.
After the post-mission examination though Dr. Beckett came up to John and took him to his office to confirm John's hopes and Rodney's anxieties.
+++
The following week had been full of changes. Beckett had insisted that they tell Dr. Weir of the pregnancy and thus their relationship.
To say that she was flabbergasted would have been an understatement. After some minutes of shock and confusion, though, she had been all business.
It had come to be that at the end of the week, Atlantis' laws had been made more gay-friendly and more open in regard of relationships between all of the city's inhabitants.
Still Rodney and John chose not to move in together quite yet. Rodney wasn't comfortable being reminded of the child growing inside of John every time he saw him. John mostly wanted to be left alone anyway at that time.
+++
In the following weeks, Rodney asked himself countless times if it would be healthy. He doubted it.
John asked himself if the child would be a girl. He'd like to have a daughter with Rodney's eyes.
Rodney hoped that it would be nothing like him. He had his reasons.
+++
Since the day that Carson had affirmed that his lover had become pregnant with his child, Rodney thought often of his own family.
He didn't mind thinking of his sister, Jean. They really hadn't had anything in common. She had sent a letter saying that she had found love with a nice young man named Samuel. They had lived together for a year now. This was before Rodney had even thought of stepping through the 'gate to Pegasus. The letter had been three sheets of paper thick and had just contained this information plus a 'Hi Rodney-brother' and a 'Love, Jeannie' written in her big, child-like penmanship, using a dark blue crayon.
It was the first letter he had ever gotten from her, he hadn't even known that she could write until then.
Jean was two years older than him. She had her fortieth birthday that year.
He and his sister did not share the same father. That was what that made the difference between them, made the difference of how their mother's heavy drug abuse had influenced the embryo's development.
She had the misfortune to be born to grow up to be an adult with a toddler's intelligence. Her father, who raised both of them from the time when their mother died of an overdose, said that she was lucky to be so very pretty and that she would have no problem to find a partner one day among her peers.
Rodney had been lucky. His mother had taken to hallucinogens during her second pregnancy instead of alcohol and Valium and other legal drugs. He'd gotten his superior - freaky, abnormal, unique - intelligence out of it.
Now Carson had messed with his genes, too.
Rodney was truly worried about his child's health.
+++
He kept quiet through almost the whole of John's pregnancy, through the moods, through the panic attacks, through the morning sickness.
He didn't quite know what it was that he was waiting for. A stillbirth? Any frown of Carson's brows at the now biweekly medical appointments?
He stood up from their bed, kissed John's forehead and went over to his best friend's quarters one night when John was close to the completion of his seventh month of pregnancy. He confessed all his fears to Carson that night.
Carson promised him in the early hours of the next day that he would examine John and their baby, completely thoroughly and concentrate on any genetic malformations or abnormalities, no matter how small.
Rodney had slumped into his seat and had practically held himself up on the glass filled with a slosh of brandy in his hands.
Then Carson had said that he was going to be object of more examinations too. Rodney hadn't it in him to cry that night.
+++
Years later Rodney could remember the date of the day that Carson told him that his child was perfectly healthy much better than its actual birthday.
End