Fic: This Little Light of Mine
Title: This Little Light of Mine
Author: whetherwoman
Pairing: John/Rodney/Teyla
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Sateda
Recipient: alyse, who asked for McKay/Sheppard/Teyla and "something subtle and character driven, although I never say no to hot sex either." I hope this fits the bill.
Teyla ate her food slowly, carefully cutting her meat into small pieces. She didn't look up when John sat beside her and Rodney slid into a seat across the table. She was surprised when both men remained silent, and after a moment's thought decided she was pleased. Rodney's normal babble might be amusing under other circumstances, or at least distracting, but she was already far too aware of the empty seat at his side.
Surprisingly, John was the first one to break the uneasy silence. "Teyla, you know I-"
"Yes, John, I know," she said.
"It wasn't-I wouldn't-"
"It is done now." Teyla hesitated, but couldn't keep the hurtful words in her mouth. "Your words mean nothing. You say the team is your family, that you would not leave someone behind to be-to be-" She couldn't finish.
"But he chose to-he wanted us to leave him there." Rodney stabbed his food vehemently. "Just because of some insane idea that killing one queen would disable a whole planet full of Wraith-"
"No." John didn't move, but his body was so tense the word was like a thrown knife. "Teyla is right. Whatever Ronon chose, it was our choice to leave him there." Teyla watched him out of the corner of her eye as he looked at her, then away. "But Teyla-there wasn't anything we could have done. We've talked about this before. You know we can't take a risk like that if there's no reason-if there isn't-if there's not some way it could work."
"I know you believe that," Teyla said tightly.
"The planet was covered in Wraith, Teyla-there's no way-" Rodney sounded miserable. "Maybe he's even better off on his own. He's had experience with-with running, and fighting them on his-on his own."
Teyla looked up at him. Rodney wasn't looking at her. His food was untouched. "He should not be on his own," she said flatly.
"If there were any way," John said, "if there was anything we could do, any way-if we could even contact him-"
Rodney looked up suddenly. "Oh," he said.
"Oh? What oh?" John said. He put down his fork.
"It's not a planet, it's a moon," Rodney said.
John glared at him. "Right, and?"
"Well, it's-look," Rodney said, and grabbed Teyla's breakfast-fruit. "This is the planet, see? And this-" He grabbed John's bread, tore off a small piece and quickly squeezed it into a ball. "This the Wraith moon. It all makes sense, you see? We were wondering why there were so many Wraith on one small moon. They must be nocturnal-it has ideal conditions-"
"Rodney," Teyla said.
"Yes, yes, okay, look. I'm the sun, right? Here's the planet. Now when the moon is over here, what happens?"
"The moon is shadowed," John said slowly.
"Effectively making it night. The moon takes two rotations to orbit the planet completely, so what we end up with is a world that only gets light from the sun every other day."
"So it's dark three-fourths of the time, Rodney, what's your point?"
"You said these Wraith were nocturnal?" Teyla interrupted. Rodney's excitement was catching, and she could feel her body tensing in anticipation. "If they chose this moon because of its long nights, they will not be active during the day."
"Right!" Rodney said, pointing at her. "We shouldn't have a problem with a cloaked jumper-but that's not my point. My point-and this probably won't work, but if it does we can actually help Ronon-although if it doesn't we are completely screwed, and Ronon is probably worse off than before, but-"
"Rodney," Teyla said.
"Mirrors," Rodney said.
John sat up straight. "You're kidding. We can't. Can we?"
"Oh, we can," Rodney said smugly. " If NASA can do it with balloons, we can certainly do it with Ancient tech.
"Explain this to me," Teyla said tightly.
"If we set up a mirror in exactly the right place in orbit of the planet, sunlight will reflect off it and on to the moon," Rodney said, eyes bright. "At the very least, it will confuse the Wraith and give Ronon a better chance. And at most, well, it could blind them or, or even kill them."
"It'd need to be huge," John said, his food forgotten.
"Nanobots," Rodney said smugly. "Set them up on an asteroid or a small moon and they'll turn the whole thing into a mirror. Add a lens and we could focus the light almost anywhere."
Teyla laid her fork down, her appetite gone. "How long would it take to prepare these nanobots?"
"Hours, maybe-it's more like software than hardware, once I've programmed it they do all the-"
John caught Teyla's arm as she was about to rise. "Teyla." He looked at her seriously. "Don't."
"We have to John, you know that." She let all her frustration and fear and anger show in her face. "We have to."
They stared at each other until finally John dropped his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. Just... don't tell Elizabeth, all right? She doesn't need the SGC on her back about this."
"Wait, what?" Rodney looked back and forth between them. "No, no no no. This is a bad plan. This is a horrible plan. This is not going to work, the moon is covered in Wraith, we can't-"
"Rodney," John said softly. "Keep your voice down. Get your nanobots, write your program, whatever you need to do. We'll meet in the jumper bay at oh-two-hundred."
Rodney swallowed. "Right, yes, okay. We have to do this. It's not going to work. Oh god."
"We will make it work," Teyla told him firmly. "As a team."
"Right, as a team, yes. Okay. Oh god."
*
They sat silently in the cloaked jumper, hovering just outside the atmosphere of the moon. Teyla leaned forward to get a better view, putting her hand on Rodney's shoulder.
"This will be difficult," she said finally. Both men nodded.
The Wraith moon was deep in the shadow of the planet, and the Wraith were taking full advantage of the darkness. Darts were everywhere, and everything had a dim, phosphorescent glow. The largest cities were clearly outlined in blues and greens.
After several long minutes, John pulled the jumper away from the moon. "Let's get that mirror set up," he said quietly.
"Right, we can do that." Rodney shook himself out of his silence. "There should be a small asteroid with the right metal content around that side of the planet." The jumper obligingly popped up a display and Rodney stabbed a finger at it. "That one right there."
"Right," John said, and turned the jumper.
They flew in silence, Rodney frowning at his datapad and John frowning out at empty space. Teyla wished she had something to do, a jumper to fly or a nanobot to program. She closed her eyes and focused on her breath, but her fingers were so cold and her stomach felt tight.
"There," Rodney said suddenly.
Teyla opened her eyes. A grey rock filled the viewscreen, the jumper hovering only a few lengths away. "How long will it take to make the mirror?" she asked.
"The bots are starting... now," Rodney said, tapping his datapad once.
The three of them stared out the viewscreen.
Nothing happened.
"It'll take a little while," Rodney said defensively. "We're not even in position right now."
"That'll give us time to contact Ronon," John said. "If he still has his radio on, anyway."
"The Wraith world will be on the sun side of the planet starting in half an hour," Rodney added. "If we stay cloaked we should be able to avoid any minor patrols that are out in the daylight."
Teyla closed her eyes again, wanting the whole thing to be over. She hadn't meant to push John and Rodney into risking their lives. She sighed. She knew what she was asking when she asked for it, and now it was her responsibility to deal with it.
"Teyla?" John said, making her jump.
"Yes?" she said, opening her eyes and trying to relax.
"Does that sound good to you? Trying to find Ronon while we've got some daylight?"
She stared at John, unable to remember any other time he had asked her approval of a plan. "Yes, that sounds fine."
John and Rodney exchanged a look, and Rodney moved to take the controls as John stood up and moved to the seat next to Teyla.
"Listen, Teyla," he said. "I... We've had this conversation, right?"
Teyla didn't bother to hide her smile. "Yes, I believe we have."
"And... I don't need to-you know it's still true, right?"
Teyla felt her smile fade. "Yes, I... I know you consider me part of your family."
John looked at her gravely. "But you don't really believe that right now. I didn't want to go after Ronon and that changed how you think of me."
Teyla blinked. She hadn't thought John would notice. "I... suppose that is true, yes."
John looked away. "I don't know how to convince you of-You and Ronon both, Teyla, you're family, but you, you're..."
Teyla looked down. "I know." She sighed. "I was feeling... angry. And hurt. But I know that I am family to you." She looked up. She had to be sure John understood her. "You are the same to me, John. Family, and more than family."
John met her eyes with no sign of flinching and nodded. Teyla smiled a little, her stomach finally relaxing.
"Um," Rodney said unexpectedly. Teyla tensed, anticipating a Wraith dart or some other disaster.
"What?" John said, standing up.
"I just-me too." Rodney stared straight ahead, stiff in his seat. "You both mean a lot to me. I wanted to say that."
Teyla grinned, then laughed. Rodney glanced over his shoulder at her and hesitantly smiled back. Impulsively she stood up, walked over to Rodney, and kissed the top of his head. "You too, Rodney."
Rodney looked up at her, a little bewildered and a lot pleased. "Well. Thank you. I mean, good, yes-Colonel, you take the wheel now."
"Are we there yet?" John said, but took the controls without further protest.
*
Ronon heard them two hours into Teyla's fourth turn on the radio. "Don't land," he warned them, his voice oddly small through the headset. "I'm good right now, but I don't want any unnecessary movement around here."
"Got it," John said, and explained about the mirror.
"That won't do much unless you can target the queen," Ronon said.
"Or if a bunch of them are in one place," John said grimly. "Any ideas?"
"There's a city just north of here," Ronon said. "It's centered around a big open square with four starscrapers at the corners. One of the starscrapers is blue and another is orange. Think you can find it, McKay?"
"Yes, yes I can-we can target that, that'll be fine," Rodney said, poking his datapad.
"Leave the Wraith to me," Ronon said. "Twenty-five hours from now. Gotta go."
"Leave what-Ronon!" John said.
"He is gone," Teyla said. "We cannot distract him more than we must." She stared out the front of the jumper, avoiding looking at either man. "Let's get away from this world," she said abruptly. She couldn't stand it any more.
"Right," John said, and eased the jumper out into space. Rodney said nothing, but Teyla could see him glancing worriedly at her out of the corner of her eye. She kept her eyes firmly on the cold space outside.
*
"I never wanted children," Teyla said dreamily. The three of them were sprawled in the back of the jumper, watching the mirror piece itself together outside. Ten hours in and the mirror was barely a glint in the darkness of space, but Rodney assured them that the first stages took the longest and it would be ready in plenty of time. Time was certainly something of which they had plenty at the moment. They were lying on the floor in the back of the jumper, and at some point her head had found its way onto John's thigh, and Rodney's head was on her stomach. She felt comfortable, and a little hazy with lack of sleep. "When anyone asked I would tell them I did want children, but I could never... I have too many responsibilities, too many people I am already responsible for."
"Plus children smell," Rodney added. "They're loud, when they're really little they can't even talk. I never saw the point either."
Teyla could feel John laughing silently, and tilted her head up to grin at him.
"My niece, though-Madison-I like her. I didn't expect to." Rodney was frowning up at the ceiling, his voice soft and thoughtful. "She likes me. It's... I like that. I think if I... I'd want to have kids if I could find someone to have them with, and I wasn't risking my neck on missions like this one, and I wasn't in another galaxy-if all that, you know, I'd want kids."
Rodney ended on a surprisingly wistful note, and Teyla raised her head to look at him.
"I know what you mean," John said unexpectedly. "When I was little I always thought-I don't have any siblings, and I thought it'd be great to have a big family, a bunch of kids around all the time. Didn't turn out that way, but... it'd be nice, you know?"
"I had many friends when I was small," Teyla said quietly. "There were many my age, and many I was close with. And so many have died." Teyla swallowed around a lump in her throat. "So many who have been taken by the Wraith-I had to fight them and I did not know how. I tried to fight on my own, with the strength of my arms and sticks but they-nothing I did saved anyone except running. Until I came to Atlantis." She took a deep breath. "I cannot keep running. I cannot watch someone else be taken-I cannot know that I could go after them and help them and not-"
"Hey, hey," John said, sitting up and pulling Teyla against his chest. She turned her face into his shoulder and tried to take deep breaths. "We're here, Teyla. We're doing something. We're going to get Ronon back and kill those sons of bitches-we're going to win, Teyla, you're going to do it."
Teyla nodded but couldn't look up, her fingers winding into John's shirt. She felt warmth at her back, Rodney's arms coming around both of them, and heaved an involuntary sigh.
"I'm horrible at this kind of stuff," Rodney muttered from behind her. "I have no idea-I just want-Jeannie seemed to like the whole hugging thing, so I figured-"
"It's good, Rodney," John interrupted. "I think you're fine."
"What do you know," Rodney grumbled. "You're not any good at this either." But he subsided. Teyla leaned into his warmth and let herself still.
Finally she felt she could look up. She smiled at John and pulled his forehead to her own in thanks. She twisted and reached for Rodney as well, but Rodney leaned a bit too far forward and his lips pressed hers.
"Uh," Rodney said, jerking back and turning bright red. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I know we're not that kind of family-"
Teyla couldn't think of a single thing to say.
So she pulled Rodney to her again and slowly, deliberately, pressed her lips to his. He stilled in her arms. His lips were slightly chapped but warm, very warm, and Teyla felt that warmth running through her whole body.
She pulled back, looking at Rodney carefully. His face was still flushed, but his eyes were big in a kind of wonderment she had only seen before when he figured out a new piece of Ancient technology.
"You are more than family," she whispered. "Both of you. You're my-I don't even know-you've made so much possible-" She cut herself off, kissing Rodney hard, then twisting to face John. "You're-tell me you understand."
John's face was a confusing twist of surprise, hope, fear, want. "I do-I do understand, Teyla, but we can't do this, this isn't-"
"John," Rodney said behind her, quieter than she'd ever heard him. "Please."
And that, it seemed, was all it took. Suddenly John was kissing her, holding her arm with one hand and reaching behind her with the other to pull Rodney into a kiss as well.
The kiss quickly turned deep and wet, and Teyla gently bit John's neck as she listened to them.
Finally John pulled back. He took a deep breath and looked at Rodney steadily. "You all right there?"
"Yeah, I-I'll be-are we really doing this?"
Teyla couldn't help but smile at the wonder in Rodney's voice. She turned and kissed Rodney again, soft dry kisses all over his cheeks. "Yes," she said into his ear, delighted at his shiver. She pulled back to ease her top over her head and felt John take it the rest of the way off. Rodney's eyes flickered between her chest, face, and something over her shoulder she assumed was John taking off his clothes. She eased her hands under Rodney's shirt and leaned in again. "I want this, Rodney," she said. "This kind of family. You and John-be this for me. I want this."
And then Rodney was whispering against her mouth, "Yes, okay, I want this too, both of you" and all Teyla wanted was skin and clothes were coming off and when they were finally naked she had to lean back and look at them.
John smirked at her and leaned over to kiss Rodney. They were beautiful, the two of them. Neither held back. Rodney was making inquisitive, happy noises into the kiss, eyes closed. John's hands were running up and down Rodney's sides and back, stuttering occasionally at some bite or lick from Rodney.
Teyla's breath caught as she looked at them, and they broke the kiss to look back at her.
"C'mere," Rodney said, and John reached out his hand. Teyla grinned as she took it, then pushed John onto his back and swung her leg over him. She leaned down to kiss him, rubbing herself up and down his cock until he was moaning and helplessly thrusting up at her.
She sat up. Rodney was kneeling next to her, naked now, his cock in his hand and his eyes wide. Without breaking eye contact with Rodney, Teyla reached down and guided John into her center. Both men moaned, John's hands coming up to grasp her hips. She set a slow rhythm, eyes half closing at the pleasure of John inside her.
"Teyla," Rodney gasped, and she felt blindly for him and pulled his head to hers, licking into his mouth and letting him muffle her moans.
"Fuck, that's-here-" John said, flipping Teyla on to her side and breaking the kiss. "Rodney, you-in the med kit-"
And Rodney moaned and scrabbled for the med kit while John kissed Teyla, rolling inside her slow and sure, and then suddenly still and gasping.
"Shh, shh," Rodney said, behind John now, one hand on his hip.
Teyla caressed John's hair and cheek and stroked the concentration lines off his forehead while Rodney carefully and gently worked his way inside John.
"Oh god that's, John, fuck, you ready?" Rodney murmured.
"Yeah-yeah-do it," John gasped, eyes closed.
Rodney thrust carefully forward and Teyla moaned, feeling the movement reverberate throughout her.
"Oh god, that's-do you know how hot that is? Both of you?" Rodney gasped.
"Please, Rodney," Teyla said, breathing in great pants. She reached over John to run her hand down Rodney's side and hip. "More."
"More, I can do more," Rodney said, starting to move, "oh god, this is-you-John-Teyla-"
He was moving faster now, pushing John into Teyla with every stroke. John's leg was up over Teyla's waist and his arm was behind him around Rodney's neck, pulling them both closer. Teyla wrapped her top leg around Rodney's, sealing them all into one movement. She felt surrounded, absorbed into a single entity, all pleasure and love and sound bursting out from her lips into John's, on to his chest, into Rodney's hand as his fingers found their way into her mouth.
And then she was there, clenching around John, sucking hard on Rodney's fingers as pleasure shook through her. John tensed and cried out, pulling Rodney into a kiss as Rodney gripped Teyla's hip hard and groaned into John's mouth.
*
She felt a hand caress her cheek and sleepily turned into it.
"You awake?" Rodney whispered.
"Mmm?" she said, trying to remember where she was. She felt relaxed and sated and didn't want to open her eyes.
"It's almost ready, Teyla. The mirror's done. We'll be in position in just a few minutes."
Teyla opened her eyes to Rodney's face hovering above her. He gave her a small smile that quickly faded. She smiled back, but couldn't keep it any longer than Rodney had. She looked away to find her clothes, and slid them on under the blanket. She rolled to her feet smoothly and started to stretch, but stopped as she caught a glimpse outside the jumper.
The mirror was gigantic now, dwarfing the asteroid it used to be. The jumper was quite a distance away but the viewscreen was almost filled by the shining metal.
"Great, isn't it?" Rodney said smugly.
"It is... large," Teyla said, still staring. "This will light up the area Ronon mentioned?"
"Oh yes," Rodney said. "There's even a lens-I can control the aperture by remote here-we can direct it any way we want."
"Let's get a move on, then," John said from the control seat. He didn't look around at all as Teyla and Rodney strapped themselves in. Teyla wiped sweaty palms on her pants and told herself she was only nervous about the mission. They flew closer to the Wraith moon in silence.
The jumper approached the moon cautiously. The moon was completely shadowed and the Wraith were taking full advantage. Darts were everywhere, but John seemed to have a sixth sense of their patterns and carefully moved the cloaked jumper through them without being detected.
"There it is," Rodney said softly, pointing.
Teyla tried to peer down through the viewscreen, but the jumper obligingly popped up a display, brightening and zooming in until each figure in the square was clear. And there were many, many figures.
"What the... Well, he wasn't kidding when he said he'd get a lot of Wraith in one place," John murmured.
Teyla nodded, her hands clenched. "Where is he?" she asked tightly.
"I don't-" John started to say, but cut himself off as the gigantic crowd of Wraith began to part to either side of the square. Three figures began to move up the square and Teyla leaned forward, Rodney and John leaning in on either side of her. The jumper display zoomed in, and zoomed in again, and the middle figure lifted his head and shook dreadlocks out of his eyes.
"Ronon," Teyla breathed.
"The fuck-This was not what I thought he meant!" John yelled. "God damn it, Rodney, can we get that light down there yet?"
Rodney closed his mouth with a snap. "Just a-one more minute, I swear, it's so close-"
Another figure walked into the square to meet Ronon and his guards. "The Wraith queen," Teyla snarled. "We are out of time, Rodney."
"I'm-just as fast as I can, I swear-" Rodney was frantically typing on his datapad.
"Rodney," John growled, "I am going to de-cloak the jumper and I am going to fire a drone into that square. I am going to do it with or without light, but if the Wraith are nice and blinded that would make my job-"
"Done!" Rodney yelped. "It's done, look-"
Light crept across the ground below them, the fastest sunrise this world had ever seen. The Wraith in the square turned towards it, then covered their eyes and began to run or stumble or fall. Darts were milling randomly through the air as if searching for the new sun.
"Ronon!" John roared into his headset. "If you can hear me, I'm about to fire a drone so get the fuck down!"
John de-cloaked the jumper and fired the drone in one quick movement, and Teyla watched the jumper display as Ronon leaped up on to the Wraith queen, throwing her on to the ground just as the drone hit the far side of the square. The screen went white, and before it could resolve again John was weaving away, cloak securely in place.
"Oh fuck. Oh fuck." Rodney was leaning back in his seat, hands tight on the armrests. "Is he even okay? Did he get hit or, or did the Wraith, oh god-"
"I don't know but I'm going to get us out of here before we're in at least as much trouble," John said tightly.
"Yes, right, that makes sense, oh god, he can't even contact us-"
"Rodney." John was staring straight out, his knuckles white on the controls as he twisted and turned through the air. "When the moon is in natural daylight and it's calmed down a bit we'll go to where we found him before. If he's not there, we'll cover the whole planet. Right now, please shut up."
Rodney shut up, his mouth crooked and miserable. Teyla couldn't look at him. The moment they left the moon's atmosphere, climbing into the darkness, she left her seat and went to him. She hesitated at his side, but he looked up at her with something that was so close to fear she couldn't stop. She sat down in his lap, took his face in her hands and kissed him. His hands came up to her waist but his eyes didn't close, blinking up at her in the same kind of wonder she remembered from the previous night.
"Don't," John said, and Rodney jerked away from her.
"Don't?" Teyla said, but John stared out into the darkness and didn't say anything.
"He's right," Rodney said finally. "This can't-this isn't something we can do back home. In Atlantis. It's against all sorts of regulations, not to mention anyone who thinks sex is wrong-and even here we have a surprising number of those-" His hands still lay gently on Teyla's hips, but he wouldn't meet her eyes.
"It just won't work. That's all," John said, still staring out the jumper. "Even if-even if we are family, sex is just going to-someone will get jealous, or hurt, or-there's reasons things like this just never work out-" His voice rose bitterly until Teyla reached over and set her hand over his mouth.
"It will work," she told him. "We will make it work. As a team. Just as we always do." John closed his eyes, trying to turn away from her. "John," she said softly, and he opened his eyes. She let her hand move to his cheek, caressing the edge of his jaw. "I believed you earlier."
"I wish I could believe you now." John's voice was rough, but he didn't look away from her. "But Ronon is somewhere on that moon-we don't always win, we can't, Teyla, I don't want to lose this-"
Teyla glanced down at Rodney in frustration and was surprised to find him smiling back at her. "I believe you," he said to her, his eyes bright. "We're all so screwed up-if anyone can make this work, we can. And, you know," he tilted his head smugly, "genius here. We'll do it. Colonel Flyboy will come around." He stood up, gently dislodging her, and reached around her to pull John up as well. John was still frowning, but he let Rodney pull him into their embrace. They stood motionless until John sighed a little brokenly, and leaned over Teyla to kiss Rodney softly, almost tenderly, and then down to carefully kiss Teyla's forehead, cheek, mouth.
Teyla kissed him back, Rodney's arms secure around her waist. Ronon would be waiting for them, she knew. She had twenty hours to spend with her teammates, lovers, family. And then they would go home.
Author: whetherwoman
Pairing: John/Rodney/Teyla
Rating: NC-17
Spoilers: Sateda
Recipient: alyse, who asked for McKay/Sheppard/Teyla and "something subtle and character driven, although I never say no to hot sex either." I hope this fits the bill.
Teyla ate her food slowly, carefully cutting her meat into small pieces. She didn't look up when John sat beside her and Rodney slid into a seat across the table. She was surprised when both men remained silent, and after a moment's thought decided she was pleased. Rodney's normal babble might be amusing under other circumstances, or at least distracting, but she was already far too aware of the empty seat at his side.
Surprisingly, John was the first one to break the uneasy silence. "Teyla, you know I-"
"Yes, John, I know," she said.
"It wasn't-I wouldn't-"
"It is done now." Teyla hesitated, but couldn't keep the hurtful words in her mouth. "Your words mean nothing. You say the team is your family, that you would not leave someone behind to be-to be-" She couldn't finish.
"But he chose to-he wanted us to leave him there." Rodney stabbed his food vehemently. "Just because of some insane idea that killing one queen would disable a whole planet full of Wraith-"
"No." John didn't move, but his body was so tense the word was like a thrown knife. "Teyla is right. Whatever Ronon chose, it was our choice to leave him there." Teyla watched him out of the corner of her eye as he looked at her, then away. "But Teyla-there wasn't anything we could have done. We've talked about this before. You know we can't take a risk like that if there's no reason-if there isn't-if there's not some way it could work."
"I know you believe that," Teyla said tightly.
"The planet was covered in Wraith, Teyla-there's no way-" Rodney sounded miserable. "Maybe he's even better off on his own. He's had experience with-with running, and fighting them on his-on his own."
Teyla looked up at him. Rodney wasn't looking at her. His food was untouched. "He should not be on his own," she said flatly.
"If there were any way," John said, "if there was anything we could do, any way-if we could even contact him-"
Rodney looked up suddenly. "Oh," he said.
"Oh? What oh?" John said. He put down his fork.
"It's not a planet, it's a moon," Rodney said.
John glared at him. "Right, and?"
"Well, it's-look," Rodney said, and grabbed Teyla's breakfast-fruit. "This is the planet, see? And this-" He grabbed John's bread, tore off a small piece and quickly squeezed it into a ball. "This the Wraith moon. It all makes sense, you see? We were wondering why there were so many Wraith on one small moon. They must be nocturnal-it has ideal conditions-"
"Rodney," Teyla said.
"Yes, yes, okay, look. I'm the sun, right? Here's the planet. Now when the moon is over here, what happens?"
"The moon is shadowed," John said slowly.
"Effectively making it night. The moon takes two rotations to orbit the planet completely, so what we end up with is a world that only gets light from the sun every other day."
"So it's dark three-fourths of the time, Rodney, what's your point?"
"You said these Wraith were nocturnal?" Teyla interrupted. Rodney's excitement was catching, and she could feel her body tensing in anticipation. "If they chose this moon because of its long nights, they will not be active during the day."
"Right!" Rodney said, pointing at her. "We shouldn't have a problem with a cloaked jumper-but that's not my point. My point-and this probably won't work, but if it does we can actually help Ronon-although if it doesn't we are completely screwed, and Ronon is probably worse off than before, but-"
"Rodney," Teyla said.
"Mirrors," Rodney said.
John sat up straight. "You're kidding. We can't. Can we?"
"Oh, we can," Rodney said smugly. " If NASA can do it with balloons, we can certainly do it with Ancient tech.
"Explain this to me," Teyla said tightly.
"If we set up a mirror in exactly the right place in orbit of the planet, sunlight will reflect off it and on to the moon," Rodney said, eyes bright. "At the very least, it will confuse the Wraith and give Ronon a better chance. And at most, well, it could blind them or, or even kill them."
"It'd need to be huge," John said, his food forgotten.
"Nanobots," Rodney said smugly. "Set them up on an asteroid or a small moon and they'll turn the whole thing into a mirror. Add a lens and we could focus the light almost anywhere."
Teyla laid her fork down, her appetite gone. "How long would it take to prepare these nanobots?"
"Hours, maybe-it's more like software than hardware, once I've programmed it they do all the-"
John caught Teyla's arm as she was about to rise. "Teyla." He looked at her seriously. "Don't."
"We have to John, you know that." She let all her frustration and fear and anger show in her face. "We have to."
They stared at each other until finally John dropped his eyes. "Yeah. Yeah, I know. Just... don't tell Elizabeth, all right? She doesn't need the SGC on her back about this."
"Wait, what?" Rodney looked back and forth between them. "No, no no no. This is a bad plan. This is a horrible plan. This is not going to work, the moon is covered in Wraith, we can't-"
"Rodney," John said softly. "Keep your voice down. Get your nanobots, write your program, whatever you need to do. We'll meet in the jumper bay at oh-two-hundred."
Rodney swallowed. "Right, yes, okay. We have to do this. It's not going to work. Oh god."
"We will make it work," Teyla told him firmly. "As a team."
"Right, as a team, yes. Okay. Oh god."
*
They sat silently in the cloaked jumper, hovering just outside the atmosphere of the moon. Teyla leaned forward to get a better view, putting her hand on Rodney's shoulder.
"This will be difficult," she said finally. Both men nodded.
The Wraith moon was deep in the shadow of the planet, and the Wraith were taking full advantage of the darkness. Darts were everywhere, and everything had a dim, phosphorescent glow. The largest cities were clearly outlined in blues and greens.
After several long minutes, John pulled the jumper away from the moon. "Let's get that mirror set up," he said quietly.
"Right, we can do that." Rodney shook himself out of his silence. "There should be a small asteroid with the right metal content around that side of the planet." The jumper obligingly popped up a display and Rodney stabbed a finger at it. "That one right there."
"Right," John said, and turned the jumper.
They flew in silence, Rodney frowning at his datapad and John frowning out at empty space. Teyla wished she had something to do, a jumper to fly or a nanobot to program. She closed her eyes and focused on her breath, but her fingers were so cold and her stomach felt tight.
"There," Rodney said suddenly.
Teyla opened her eyes. A grey rock filled the viewscreen, the jumper hovering only a few lengths away. "How long will it take to make the mirror?" she asked.
"The bots are starting... now," Rodney said, tapping his datapad once.
The three of them stared out the viewscreen.
Nothing happened.
"It'll take a little while," Rodney said defensively. "We're not even in position right now."
"That'll give us time to contact Ronon," John said. "If he still has his radio on, anyway."
"The Wraith world will be on the sun side of the planet starting in half an hour," Rodney added. "If we stay cloaked we should be able to avoid any minor patrols that are out in the daylight."
Teyla closed her eyes again, wanting the whole thing to be over. She hadn't meant to push John and Rodney into risking their lives. She sighed. She knew what she was asking when she asked for it, and now it was her responsibility to deal with it.
"Teyla?" John said, making her jump.
"Yes?" she said, opening her eyes and trying to relax.
"Does that sound good to you? Trying to find Ronon while we've got some daylight?"
She stared at John, unable to remember any other time he had asked her approval of a plan. "Yes, that sounds fine."
John and Rodney exchanged a look, and Rodney moved to take the controls as John stood up and moved to the seat next to Teyla.
"Listen, Teyla," he said. "I... We've had this conversation, right?"
Teyla didn't bother to hide her smile. "Yes, I believe we have."
"And... I don't need to-you know it's still true, right?"
Teyla felt her smile fade. "Yes, I... I know you consider me part of your family."
John looked at her gravely. "But you don't really believe that right now. I didn't want to go after Ronon and that changed how you think of me."
Teyla blinked. She hadn't thought John would notice. "I... suppose that is true, yes."
John looked away. "I don't know how to convince you of-You and Ronon both, Teyla, you're family, but you, you're..."
Teyla looked down. "I know." She sighed. "I was feeling... angry. And hurt. But I know that I am family to you." She looked up. She had to be sure John understood her. "You are the same to me, John. Family, and more than family."
John met her eyes with no sign of flinching and nodded. Teyla smiled a little, her stomach finally relaxing.
"Um," Rodney said unexpectedly. Teyla tensed, anticipating a Wraith dart or some other disaster.
"What?" John said, standing up.
"I just-me too." Rodney stared straight ahead, stiff in his seat. "You both mean a lot to me. I wanted to say that."
Teyla grinned, then laughed. Rodney glanced over his shoulder at her and hesitantly smiled back. Impulsively she stood up, walked over to Rodney, and kissed the top of his head. "You too, Rodney."
Rodney looked up at her, a little bewildered and a lot pleased. "Well. Thank you. I mean, good, yes-Colonel, you take the wheel now."
"Are we there yet?" John said, but took the controls without further protest.
*
Ronon heard them two hours into Teyla's fourth turn on the radio. "Don't land," he warned them, his voice oddly small through the headset. "I'm good right now, but I don't want any unnecessary movement around here."
"Got it," John said, and explained about the mirror.
"That won't do much unless you can target the queen," Ronon said.
"Or if a bunch of them are in one place," John said grimly. "Any ideas?"
"There's a city just north of here," Ronon said. "It's centered around a big open square with four starscrapers at the corners. One of the starscrapers is blue and another is orange. Think you can find it, McKay?"
"Yes, yes I can-we can target that, that'll be fine," Rodney said, poking his datapad.
"Leave the Wraith to me," Ronon said. "Twenty-five hours from now. Gotta go."
"Leave what-Ronon!" John said.
"He is gone," Teyla said. "We cannot distract him more than we must." She stared out the front of the jumper, avoiding looking at either man. "Let's get away from this world," she said abruptly. She couldn't stand it any more.
"Right," John said, and eased the jumper out into space. Rodney said nothing, but Teyla could see him glancing worriedly at her out of the corner of her eye. She kept her eyes firmly on the cold space outside.
*
"I never wanted children," Teyla said dreamily. The three of them were sprawled in the back of the jumper, watching the mirror piece itself together outside. Ten hours in and the mirror was barely a glint in the darkness of space, but Rodney assured them that the first stages took the longest and it would be ready in plenty of time. Time was certainly something of which they had plenty at the moment. They were lying on the floor in the back of the jumper, and at some point her head had found its way onto John's thigh, and Rodney's head was on her stomach. She felt comfortable, and a little hazy with lack of sleep. "When anyone asked I would tell them I did want children, but I could never... I have too many responsibilities, too many people I am already responsible for."
"Plus children smell," Rodney added. "They're loud, when they're really little they can't even talk. I never saw the point either."
Teyla could feel John laughing silently, and tilted her head up to grin at him.
"My niece, though-Madison-I like her. I didn't expect to." Rodney was frowning up at the ceiling, his voice soft and thoughtful. "She likes me. It's... I like that. I think if I... I'd want to have kids if I could find someone to have them with, and I wasn't risking my neck on missions like this one, and I wasn't in another galaxy-if all that, you know, I'd want kids."
Rodney ended on a surprisingly wistful note, and Teyla raised her head to look at him.
"I know what you mean," John said unexpectedly. "When I was little I always thought-I don't have any siblings, and I thought it'd be great to have a big family, a bunch of kids around all the time. Didn't turn out that way, but... it'd be nice, you know?"
"I had many friends when I was small," Teyla said quietly. "There were many my age, and many I was close with. And so many have died." Teyla swallowed around a lump in her throat. "So many who have been taken by the Wraith-I had to fight them and I did not know how. I tried to fight on my own, with the strength of my arms and sticks but they-nothing I did saved anyone except running. Until I came to Atlantis." She took a deep breath. "I cannot keep running. I cannot watch someone else be taken-I cannot know that I could go after them and help them and not-"
"Hey, hey," John said, sitting up and pulling Teyla against his chest. She turned her face into his shoulder and tried to take deep breaths. "We're here, Teyla. We're doing something. We're going to get Ronon back and kill those sons of bitches-we're going to win, Teyla, you're going to do it."
Teyla nodded but couldn't look up, her fingers winding into John's shirt. She felt warmth at her back, Rodney's arms coming around both of them, and heaved an involuntary sigh.
"I'm horrible at this kind of stuff," Rodney muttered from behind her. "I have no idea-I just want-Jeannie seemed to like the whole hugging thing, so I figured-"
"It's good, Rodney," John interrupted. "I think you're fine."
"What do you know," Rodney grumbled. "You're not any good at this either." But he subsided. Teyla leaned into his warmth and let herself still.
Finally she felt she could look up. She smiled at John and pulled his forehead to her own in thanks. She twisted and reached for Rodney as well, but Rodney leaned a bit too far forward and his lips pressed hers.
"Uh," Rodney said, jerking back and turning bright red. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that. I know we're not that kind of family-"
Teyla couldn't think of a single thing to say.
So she pulled Rodney to her again and slowly, deliberately, pressed her lips to his. He stilled in her arms. His lips were slightly chapped but warm, very warm, and Teyla felt that warmth running through her whole body.
She pulled back, looking at Rodney carefully. His face was still flushed, but his eyes were big in a kind of wonderment she had only seen before when he figured out a new piece of Ancient technology.
"You are more than family," she whispered. "Both of you. You're my-I don't even know-you've made so much possible-" She cut herself off, kissing Rodney hard, then twisting to face John. "You're-tell me you understand."
John's face was a confusing twist of surprise, hope, fear, want. "I do-I do understand, Teyla, but we can't do this, this isn't-"
"John," Rodney said behind her, quieter than she'd ever heard him. "Please."
And that, it seemed, was all it took. Suddenly John was kissing her, holding her arm with one hand and reaching behind her with the other to pull Rodney into a kiss as well.
The kiss quickly turned deep and wet, and Teyla gently bit John's neck as she listened to them.
Finally John pulled back. He took a deep breath and looked at Rodney steadily. "You all right there?"
"Yeah, I-I'll be-are we really doing this?"
Teyla couldn't help but smile at the wonder in Rodney's voice. She turned and kissed Rodney again, soft dry kisses all over his cheeks. "Yes," she said into his ear, delighted at his shiver. She pulled back to ease her top over her head and felt John take it the rest of the way off. Rodney's eyes flickered between her chest, face, and something over her shoulder she assumed was John taking off his clothes. She eased her hands under Rodney's shirt and leaned in again. "I want this, Rodney," she said. "This kind of family. You and John-be this for me. I want this."
And then Rodney was whispering against her mouth, "Yes, okay, I want this too, both of you" and all Teyla wanted was skin and clothes were coming off and when they were finally naked she had to lean back and look at them.
John smirked at her and leaned over to kiss Rodney. They were beautiful, the two of them. Neither held back. Rodney was making inquisitive, happy noises into the kiss, eyes closed. John's hands were running up and down Rodney's sides and back, stuttering occasionally at some bite or lick from Rodney.
Teyla's breath caught as she looked at them, and they broke the kiss to look back at her.
"C'mere," Rodney said, and John reached out his hand. Teyla grinned as she took it, then pushed John onto his back and swung her leg over him. She leaned down to kiss him, rubbing herself up and down his cock until he was moaning and helplessly thrusting up at her.
She sat up. Rodney was kneeling next to her, naked now, his cock in his hand and his eyes wide. Without breaking eye contact with Rodney, Teyla reached down and guided John into her center. Both men moaned, John's hands coming up to grasp her hips. She set a slow rhythm, eyes half closing at the pleasure of John inside her.
"Teyla," Rodney gasped, and she felt blindly for him and pulled his head to hers, licking into his mouth and letting him muffle her moans.
"Fuck, that's-here-" John said, flipping Teyla on to her side and breaking the kiss. "Rodney, you-in the med kit-"
And Rodney moaned and scrabbled for the med kit while John kissed Teyla, rolling inside her slow and sure, and then suddenly still and gasping.
"Shh, shh," Rodney said, behind John now, one hand on his hip.
Teyla caressed John's hair and cheek and stroked the concentration lines off his forehead while Rodney carefully and gently worked his way inside John.
"Oh god that's, John, fuck, you ready?" Rodney murmured.
"Yeah-yeah-do it," John gasped, eyes closed.
Rodney thrust carefully forward and Teyla moaned, feeling the movement reverberate throughout her.
"Oh god, that's-do you know how hot that is? Both of you?" Rodney gasped.
"Please, Rodney," Teyla said, breathing in great pants. She reached over John to run her hand down Rodney's side and hip. "More."
"More, I can do more," Rodney said, starting to move, "oh god, this is-you-John-Teyla-"
He was moving faster now, pushing John into Teyla with every stroke. John's leg was up over Teyla's waist and his arm was behind him around Rodney's neck, pulling them both closer. Teyla wrapped her top leg around Rodney's, sealing them all into one movement. She felt surrounded, absorbed into a single entity, all pleasure and love and sound bursting out from her lips into John's, on to his chest, into Rodney's hand as his fingers found their way into her mouth.
And then she was there, clenching around John, sucking hard on Rodney's fingers as pleasure shook through her. John tensed and cried out, pulling Rodney into a kiss as Rodney gripped Teyla's hip hard and groaned into John's mouth.
*
She felt a hand caress her cheek and sleepily turned into it.
"You awake?" Rodney whispered.
"Mmm?" she said, trying to remember where she was. She felt relaxed and sated and didn't want to open her eyes.
"It's almost ready, Teyla. The mirror's done. We'll be in position in just a few minutes."
Teyla opened her eyes to Rodney's face hovering above her. He gave her a small smile that quickly faded. She smiled back, but couldn't keep it any longer than Rodney had. She looked away to find her clothes, and slid them on under the blanket. She rolled to her feet smoothly and started to stretch, but stopped as she caught a glimpse outside the jumper.
The mirror was gigantic now, dwarfing the asteroid it used to be. The jumper was quite a distance away but the viewscreen was almost filled by the shining metal.
"Great, isn't it?" Rodney said smugly.
"It is... large," Teyla said, still staring. "This will light up the area Ronon mentioned?"
"Oh yes," Rodney said. "There's even a lens-I can control the aperture by remote here-we can direct it any way we want."
"Let's get a move on, then," John said from the control seat. He didn't look around at all as Teyla and Rodney strapped themselves in. Teyla wiped sweaty palms on her pants and told herself she was only nervous about the mission. They flew closer to the Wraith moon in silence.
The jumper approached the moon cautiously. The moon was completely shadowed and the Wraith were taking full advantage. Darts were everywhere, but John seemed to have a sixth sense of their patterns and carefully moved the cloaked jumper through them without being detected.
"There it is," Rodney said softly, pointing.
Teyla tried to peer down through the viewscreen, but the jumper obligingly popped up a display, brightening and zooming in until each figure in the square was clear. And there were many, many figures.
"What the... Well, he wasn't kidding when he said he'd get a lot of Wraith in one place," John murmured.
Teyla nodded, her hands clenched. "Where is he?" she asked tightly.
"I don't-" John started to say, but cut himself off as the gigantic crowd of Wraith began to part to either side of the square. Three figures began to move up the square and Teyla leaned forward, Rodney and John leaning in on either side of her. The jumper display zoomed in, and zoomed in again, and the middle figure lifted his head and shook dreadlocks out of his eyes.
"Ronon," Teyla breathed.
"The fuck-This was not what I thought he meant!" John yelled. "God damn it, Rodney, can we get that light down there yet?"
Rodney closed his mouth with a snap. "Just a-one more minute, I swear, it's so close-"
Another figure walked into the square to meet Ronon and his guards. "The Wraith queen," Teyla snarled. "We are out of time, Rodney."
"I'm-just as fast as I can, I swear-" Rodney was frantically typing on his datapad.
"Rodney," John growled, "I am going to de-cloak the jumper and I am going to fire a drone into that square. I am going to do it with or without light, but if the Wraith are nice and blinded that would make my job-"
"Done!" Rodney yelped. "It's done, look-"
Light crept across the ground below them, the fastest sunrise this world had ever seen. The Wraith in the square turned towards it, then covered their eyes and began to run or stumble or fall. Darts were milling randomly through the air as if searching for the new sun.
"Ronon!" John roared into his headset. "If you can hear me, I'm about to fire a drone so get the fuck down!"
John de-cloaked the jumper and fired the drone in one quick movement, and Teyla watched the jumper display as Ronon leaped up on to the Wraith queen, throwing her on to the ground just as the drone hit the far side of the square. The screen went white, and before it could resolve again John was weaving away, cloak securely in place.
"Oh fuck. Oh fuck." Rodney was leaning back in his seat, hands tight on the armrests. "Is he even okay? Did he get hit or, or did the Wraith, oh god-"
"I don't know but I'm going to get us out of here before we're in at least as much trouble," John said tightly.
"Yes, right, that makes sense, oh god, he can't even contact us-"
"Rodney." John was staring straight out, his knuckles white on the controls as he twisted and turned through the air. "When the moon is in natural daylight and it's calmed down a bit we'll go to where we found him before. If he's not there, we'll cover the whole planet. Right now, please shut up."
Rodney shut up, his mouth crooked and miserable. Teyla couldn't look at him. The moment they left the moon's atmosphere, climbing into the darkness, she left her seat and went to him. She hesitated at his side, but he looked up at her with something that was so close to fear she couldn't stop. She sat down in his lap, took his face in her hands and kissed him. His hands came up to her waist but his eyes didn't close, blinking up at her in the same kind of wonder she remembered from the previous night.
"Don't," John said, and Rodney jerked away from her.
"Don't?" Teyla said, but John stared out into the darkness and didn't say anything.
"He's right," Rodney said finally. "This can't-this isn't something we can do back home. In Atlantis. It's against all sorts of regulations, not to mention anyone who thinks sex is wrong-and even here we have a surprising number of those-" His hands still lay gently on Teyla's hips, but he wouldn't meet her eyes.
"It just won't work. That's all," John said, still staring out the jumper. "Even if-even if we are family, sex is just going to-someone will get jealous, or hurt, or-there's reasons things like this just never work out-" His voice rose bitterly until Teyla reached over and set her hand over his mouth.
"It will work," she told him. "We will make it work. As a team. Just as we always do." John closed his eyes, trying to turn away from her. "John," she said softly, and he opened his eyes. She let her hand move to his cheek, caressing the edge of his jaw. "I believed you earlier."
"I wish I could believe you now." John's voice was rough, but he didn't look away from her. "But Ronon is somewhere on that moon-we don't always win, we can't, Teyla, I don't want to lose this-"
Teyla glanced down at Rodney in frustration and was surprised to find him smiling back at her. "I believe you," he said to her, his eyes bright. "We're all so screwed up-if anyone can make this work, we can. And, you know," he tilted his head smugly, "genius here. We'll do it. Colonel Flyboy will come around." He stood up, gently dislodging her, and reached around her to pull John up as well. John was still frowning, but he let Rodney pull him into their embrace. They stood motionless until John sighed a little brokenly, and leaned over Teyla to kiss Rodney softly, almost tenderly, and then down to carefully kiss Teyla's forehead, cheek, mouth.
Teyla kissed him back, Rodney's arms secure around her waist. Ronon would be waiting for them, she knew. She had twenty hours to spend with her teammates, lovers, family. And then they would go home.