Five Universes Rodney’s Glad Aren’t His (PG)
Title: Five Universes Rodney's Glad Aren't His
Author: cinaed
Rating: PG
Character: Rodney
Pairing: None
Beta: yolinare
Warnings/Spoilers: Implications of torture, character death, vague spoilers up to "Grace Under Pressure"
Summary: They stumble upon an advanced race that allows you to peer into different realities and see what could have happened in your life. Needless to say, Rodney begins to appreciate his own universe a bit more.
Five Universes Rodney’s Glad Aren’t His
I.
The one where he joins SG-1 instead of Carter. Apparently, he “mellows” over the years, somehow along the way earning the respect and friendship of everyone at the SGC, from General Hammond all the way down to the newest recruit, because even if his ego is a bit much from time to time, Rodney knows what he’s doing, and he’s saved the world more times than anyone can count. He gets Teal’c addicted to Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, insults people in Ancient just to make Daniel laugh, and goes fishing with Colonel O’Neill because no one else will. All in all, he’s a good guy, one who deserves his position on SG-1.
(When they stumble upon an advanced race that allows you to peer into different realities and see what could have happened in your life, the first thing Rodney thinks is that this first universe is bullshit, because “mellowing” is obviously a euphemism for “becoming a brownnoser.” After all, fishing? Plus, he’s not with Carter in that universe, she’s the leader of SG-2 and winds up with a technician named Simmons of all people, so what was the point of joining SG-1 anyway? And besides, SG-1 means no Atlantis, and Rodney can’t really imagine a universe where he’s not in the Pegasus Galaxy.)
II.
The one where Sheppard doesn’t come with them to Atlantis and they all drown. It’s a really crappy universe, because Rodney is known simply as one of the lost Atlantis expedition, and never gets a chance to prove he could be something better. But instead he dies, they all die, and he is remembered as nothing more than the arrogant asshole who kept sexually harassing Carter, and his name is given only a single brief mentioning in the history books once the Stargate program is revealed to the world.
(Rodney’s already almost drowned in his universe, thank you very much, and he doesn’t like contemplating all the universes where he drowned, the waters rising in the control room, or later, when Radek and Sheppard never found him, and the last thing he saw was Sam’s sad face watching him as the water rose over his head and-- Besides, who wants to be in a universe where you only get a single reference in the history books?)
III.
The one where Sheppard is the scientist and McKay is the military leader of Atlantis. At first, after Sumner’s death, it seems as though every last person in Atlantis hates him. He doesn’t really blame them, but he doesn’t really care either. He’s not here to make friends, he’s here to make sure they all survive. Everyone agrees that Major McKay is an out-and-out bastard, who does nothing about raising morale and instead everything to lower it. Still, he ends up earning the grudging respect of his people, since for all his insults, he’s nevertheless quick and clever, not to mention a cool head in dangerous situations, and by the time Earth sends reinforcements and tries to replace McKay with some American named Everett, the military personnel of Atlantis mutter darkly under their breaths and wait for Everett to fuck up so McKay can take control and things can go back to normal.
(For one thing, in case everyone’s somehow forgotten, he’s Canadian. How the hell had the Americans not thrown a hissy fit at a Canadian becoming the military leader? And a cool head? Yeah right. That McKay had obviously been brain-damaged as a child and lost his sense of self-preservation. The universe is so implausible that it makes his head hurt. And besides, it looked like Major McKay and Elizabeth were going to get together and that’s just-- weird.)
IV.
The one where, instead of the CIA grabbing him after he makes the model of an atomic bomb, it is instead some crazy terrorists who snatch him out of school and force him to build them an actual bomb. Several bombs, actually. Even at the age of twelve, Rodney has plans on becoming famous, though at this point he’s torn between winning a Nobel Prize in Physics and becoming as well-known as Mozart or Beethoven. However, he’s never wanted to be known as the twelve-year-old who blew up a chunk of America. There is a very big difference between fame and notoriety, after all.
(One of the worst parts of that universe was how, exactly, the terrorists had coerced him. For months after Rodney views the different universes, he wakes, shaking, from nightmares, remembering the small enclosed room and the knives, and isn’t all that surprised when the terrorists’ faces look a lot like Kolya’s. He really, really hates that universe.)
V.
The one where he doesn’t do anything at all. Well, he does, but it isn’t along the lines of becoming an intergalactic explorer. Instead he becomes a science teacher, marries April Bingham (his high school sweetheart, of all things), and they have three surprisingly normal -- and naturally gifted -- kids. They settle down in Vancouver, where he teaches Physics and all his students agree he’s “brilliant but a bastard.” His car is vandalized on a yearly basis by a bitter student who’s failed his class, and after a few years he just gives up on repairs. (April, of course, thinks this is all hilarious.) He lives to the ripe-old age of eighty-three, and dies in a hospital bed with April, his children, and their assorted spouses and offspring clustered around him.
(The universe creeps him out, but Rodney can’t quite explain why, and when he does attempt to, he suspects that he sounds ridiculous. Perhaps it creeps him out because he cannot really imagine that sort of humdrum life. The very idea of that monotony makes him sick to his stomach, the nausea intensifying at the fact that he could have never been through a wormhole, never almost died a dozen times defending Atlantis from the Wraith, and still have been content. He thinks he hates that universe most of all.)
Author: cinaed
Rating: PG
Character: Rodney
Pairing: None
Beta: yolinare
Warnings/Spoilers: Implications of torture, character death, vague spoilers up to "Grace Under Pressure"
Summary: They stumble upon an advanced race that allows you to peer into different realities and see what could have happened in your life. Needless to say, Rodney begins to appreciate his own universe a bit more.
Five Universes Rodney’s Glad Aren’t His
I.
The one where he joins SG-1 instead of Carter. Apparently, he “mellows” over the years, somehow along the way earning the respect and friendship of everyone at the SGC, from General Hammond all the way down to the newest recruit, because even if his ego is a bit much from time to time, Rodney knows what he’s doing, and he’s saved the world more times than anyone can count. He gets Teal’c addicted to Doctor Who and Battlestar Galactica, insults people in Ancient just to make Daniel laugh, and goes fishing with Colonel O’Neill because no one else will. All in all, he’s a good guy, one who deserves his position on SG-1.
(When they stumble upon an advanced race that allows you to peer into different realities and see what could have happened in your life, the first thing Rodney thinks is that this first universe is bullshit, because “mellowing” is obviously a euphemism for “becoming a brownnoser.” After all, fishing? Plus, he’s not with Carter in that universe, she’s the leader of SG-2 and winds up with a technician named Simmons of all people, so what was the point of joining SG-1 anyway? And besides, SG-1 means no Atlantis, and Rodney can’t really imagine a universe where he’s not in the Pegasus Galaxy.)
II.
The one where Sheppard doesn’t come with them to Atlantis and they all drown. It’s a really crappy universe, because Rodney is known simply as one of the lost Atlantis expedition, and never gets a chance to prove he could be something better. But instead he dies, they all die, and he is remembered as nothing more than the arrogant asshole who kept sexually harassing Carter, and his name is given only a single brief mentioning in the history books once the Stargate program is revealed to the world.
(Rodney’s already almost drowned in his universe, thank you very much, and he doesn’t like contemplating all the universes where he drowned, the waters rising in the control room, or later, when Radek and Sheppard never found him, and the last thing he saw was Sam’s sad face watching him as the water rose over his head and-- Besides, who wants to be in a universe where you only get a single reference in the history books?)
III.
The one where Sheppard is the scientist and McKay is the military leader of Atlantis. At first, after Sumner’s death, it seems as though every last person in Atlantis hates him. He doesn’t really blame them, but he doesn’t really care either. He’s not here to make friends, he’s here to make sure they all survive. Everyone agrees that Major McKay is an out-and-out bastard, who does nothing about raising morale and instead everything to lower it. Still, he ends up earning the grudging respect of his people, since for all his insults, he’s nevertheless quick and clever, not to mention a cool head in dangerous situations, and by the time Earth sends reinforcements and tries to replace McKay with some American named Everett, the military personnel of Atlantis mutter darkly under their breaths and wait for Everett to fuck up so McKay can take control and things can go back to normal.
(For one thing, in case everyone’s somehow forgotten, he’s Canadian. How the hell had the Americans not thrown a hissy fit at a Canadian becoming the military leader? And a cool head? Yeah right. That McKay had obviously been brain-damaged as a child and lost his sense of self-preservation. The universe is so implausible that it makes his head hurt. And besides, it looked like Major McKay and Elizabeth were going to get together and that’s just-- weird.)
IV.
The one where, instead of the CIA grabbing him after he makes the model of an atomic bomb, it is instead some crazy terrorists who snatch him out of school and force him to build them an actual bomb. Several bombs, actually. Even at the age of twelve, Rodney has plans on becoming famous, though at this point he’s torn between winning a Nobel Prize in Physics and becoming as well-known as Mozart or Beethoven. However, he’s never wanted to be known as the twelve-year-old who blew up a chunk of America. There is a very big difference between fame and notoriety, after all.
(One of the worst parts of that universe was how, exactly, the terrorists had coerced him. For months after Rodney views the different universes, he wakes, shaking, from nightmares, remembering the small enclosed room and the knives, and isn’t all that surprised when the terrorists’ faces look a lot like Kolya’s. He really, really hates that universe.)
V.
The one where he doesn’t do anything at all. Well, he does, but it isn’t along the lines of becoming an intergalactic explorer. Instead he becomes a science teacher, marries April Bingham (his high school sweetheart, of all things), and they have three surprisingly normal -- and naturally gifted -- kids. They settle down in Vancouver, where he teaches Physics and all his students agree he’s “brilliant but a bastard.” His car is vandalized on a yearly basis by a bitter student who’s failed his class, and after a few years he just gives up on repairs. (April, of course, thinks this is all hilarious.) He lives to the ripe-old age of eighty-three, and dies in a hospital bed with April, his children, and their assorted spouses and offspring clustered around him.
(The universe creeps him out, but Rodney can’t quite explain why, and when he does attempt to, he suspects that he sounds ridiculous. Perhaps it creeps him out because he cannot really imagine that sort of humdrum life. The very idea of that monotony makes him sick to his stomach, the nausea intensifying at the fact that he could have never been through a wormhole, never almost died a dozen times defending Atlantis from the Wraith, and still have been content. He thinks he hates that universe most of all.)