Word Count:
10,243
Rating:
PG13
Category:
AU. Crossover/Fusion. Angst. Friendship.
Story Status:
Complete
Summary:
A nice easy mission to ease the new sentinel and guide into things.
Yeah, right.
Author's Notes:
Sequel to Trust is Given.
Thanks:
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading and to alyjude for the wonderful cover art.
Trust Repaid
By Leesa Perrie
Artwork by alyjude. See more of her artwork here.
Chapter
One – A Nice Easy Mission…
Rodney was late for the mission briefing, and as this would be their
first mission since bonding, Sheppard found his lateness extremely
irritating.
‘McKay, where
are you?’ Sheppard sent
telepathically. ‘You’re
late for the briefing. Everyone’s here waiting for
you to
get your sorry butt into gear and join us.’
His headset pinged, and the annoyed voice of one errant astrophysicist
and pissed off sentinel came through loud and clear.
“Damn it, Colonel, a little warning before you start shouting
in
my mind, please! I hit my head on the console I was under,
checking vitally important connections when you startled me.”
‘If you
weren’t late, I wouldn’t have had to remind
you.’
“Right, fine, so the fact you’ve probably given me
concussion or even brain damage doesn’t matter? I
was busy,
doing important
work, forgive me if I lost track of time a
little.”
‘Just tell me
you’re on
your way, or do I have to come down there and drag you up here, kicking
and screaming?’
“Alright, alright, I’m on my way. And
what do you
mean kicking and screaming? Why would I be doing
that?
Really! And this mental nagging is just so unfair!”
‘I am not
nagging.
Believe me, this isn’t me nagging. This is me
getting ready
to kick your ass…’
“Fine, fine, no need to get nasty. I’m
nearly there.”
‘Good.
Elizabeth is looking impatient, and you really don’t want to
piss her off as well, do you?’
“I told you, I’m coming! Oh, look,
there’s the Control Room! See, almost
there.”
John smiled at Rodney’s exasperated response.
“Rodney will be here in a moment,” he told
Elizabeth, Teyla
and Ronon, who were waiting with him in Elizabeth’s office.
“Good,” Elizabeth said, looking at her
watch. “Better late than never, I guess.”
McKay burst into the room just then, sitting down with a huff, and
glaring at Sheppard.
“I’m here. So you can stop nagging at
me…”
“I told you, I wasn’t nagging.”
“You so were…”
“Gentlemen,” Elizabeth interrupted them.
“Shall we get down to business?”
“Sorry,” they both said simultaneously.
Elizabeth had
to smother a grin at the twin looks of contrition of their faces.
“M5L-328, or Casilano, has been trading with us for several
months now; food in return for medicine. As you know, it has
a
small population, spread over three villages that are cut into a
massive forest. The Casils don’t need to venture
more than
a few miles into the forest, and refuse to go into an area they call
‘the land of ghosts’.”
“Yes, yes, we know all this. Some handed down
folktale of
ghosts haunting the forest, probably with little, if any, basis in
fact,” McKay interrupted impatiently.
“Yes, Rodney,” Elizabeth said with forced patience,
before
continuing. “Dr Corrigan was talking to an elder in the main
village, recording folktales and songs, when the tale about the forest
ghosts was told. It talks of a star falling from the sky,
many
generations ago. The Casils know of Wraith ships, but
whatever
this was, it was like nothing they had seen before. The star
landed in the forest, causing a fire that would have wiped the villages
out if heavy rain hadn’t put it out in time. A
group of
hunters went to investigate where the star had fallen, and returned
with tales of ghostly sounds in the trees. No one has ever
returned to that area of the forest since.”
“And we’re going to see if there is anything in the
forest,” Rodney said, looking displeased.
“Even if it
isn’t just some stupid superstitious tale, and something did
crash on the planet, there’s probably nothing left after a
fire
like that. We haven’t picked up any power
signatures…it’s probably a huge waste of
time.”
“And it could be something vitally important, McKay, we just
don’t know. That’s why we’re
going,” John
stated firmly.
“Why can’t one of the other teams go? If
they find
something of interest, we can check it out later…”
“We’re going, Rodney, and that’s
final.”
“I still say it’ll be a waste of my valuable
time…”
“Rodney,” Elizabeth cut in on what could well be
the start
of a rant. “After everything that has happened recently, you
should be glad it’s going to be a fairly straight forward
mission. Look at it as a chance for the team to work together
and
find out how a sentinel and guide manage off world in a safe
environment.”
Rodney scowled, but nodded reluctantly.
“Fine,” he sounded far from fine about it, but was
obviously not going to complain any further in front of
Elizabeth. Though no doubt the team would receive more
complaints
before the mission was over.
“You have a go then,” Elizabeth said.
“You
leave in two hours. You’ll need to take a puddle
jumper as
the ‘land of the ghosts’ is several miles from the
gate. The locals say there is a forest glade nearby that you
can
set down in.”
John smiled broadly at the mention of a jumper; the mission had just
gotten better as far as he was concerned.
----------------
The jumper exited the wormhole and headed towards the ‘land
of ghosts’.
“See, no power readings,” McKay said, looking at
the
sensors, and muttering. “Probably nothing left but
wreckage, burnt beyond salvage at that, or just ???? the remains of a
meteor. A total waste of time.”
The team merely rolled their eyes, having heard variations on this
theme prior to leaving Atlantis. Sheppard had a feeling McKay
would complain about any mission they went on right now, to cover his
nervousness at being in the field with his newfound
abilities.
McKay wasn’t the only one nervous, not that John was going to
admit to it to anyone.
‘Relax, Rodney, we’ll be fine,’ he
sent telepathically.
“Oh, will you quit it with the telepathic nagging,”
Rodney snapped back.
“I was trying to be reassuring, actually.”
“Whatever.”
Teyla hid a smile at the familiar antics of her team-mates, whilst
Ronon shook his head and chose to ignore them.
As they headed over the mainly deciduous forest, the fall colours were
spectacular.
“That’s quite a sight,” John said after a
few moments.
“It is impressive,” Teyla agreed.
Rodney tore his eyes from the sensor displays, and had to admit to
himself that the forest was stunning with the yellow, red and gold
leaves spreading as far as the eye could see, but he was in no mood for
admitting to it.
“Seen better in Canada,” he muttered darkly,
returning to the sensors.
“Right,” Sheppard said, his tone indicating that he
didn’t believe McKay one bit. And, McKay thought
sourly, no
doubt with good reason. Damned empathy.
Several moments passed before they were over the general area and
started looking for the clearing the locals had told them
about.
It was not hard to locate, and they were soon settled on the grassy
ground of a small forest glade.
“Okay, any power readings?” Sheppard asked.
“Oh, right, like I wouldn’t have mentioned if I was
picking
anything up,” Rodney replied in exasperation.
“No, no
power readings.”
“Well, everyone grab your gear, and let’s take a
walk and see what’s out there.”
“There’s nothing out there but the local wildlife
and maybe
some burnt out, useless wreck, or a hunk of equally useless meteorite
rock…”
Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon tuned out McKay’s moaning, and
headed
outside with him following reluctantly behind them.
The
Colonel cloaked the jumper, and gave his usual
‘don’t
forget where we parked’ line, before getting his bearings.
“According to the story, the ‘star’, or
whatever it
was, landed downhill of this glade,” John pointed to where
the
land started to move downwards, the way steep enough to notice but not
so steep as to be difficult to walk down.
“Typical. That means it’s uphill all the
way
back,” Rodney muttered disgustedly. “I
don’t
like running uphill…”
“Why would we be running? You said there’s nothing
here,” Sheppard pointed out a grin.
“Knowing our luck, there’ll be something nasty out
there we
end up running from. I hate uphill,” McKay scowled.
“I’m sure Ronon would carry you if need
be,” Sheppard said.
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” Ronon replied,
casting
Sheppard an unhappy look, that was spoiled by the edges of his mouth
curling upwards slightly.
“Humph,” Rodney replied.
“I’ll remember
that, big guy, next time you need my help.” But the
tone
wasn’t serious, just somewhat peevish.
“I would offer to carry you, but I fear you would need to
lose some weight first,” Teyla offered with a wry grin.
“Oh, not you as well, Teyla? What is
this? ‘Let’s all pick on the
genius’ day?”
“No, it’s ‘try to shut up the moaning,
complaining,
pain in the ass, genius’ day,” Sheppard said,
slapping him
on the shoulder with exaggerated cheer, and heading down the slope.
“Right, fine, just don’t blame me when this turns
out to be a monumental waste of our time…”
“Yeah, yeah, we get the picture, McKay,” the
Colonel said,
rolling his eyes, and adding telepathically, ‘Give it a rest,
will ya? And try and relax, for all our sakes.’
McKay narrowed his eyes at this, especially the last bit, but otherwise
didn’t reply. Instead, he busied himself checking
for power
readings.
----------------
As they walked along, they spotted the occasional burnt and twisted
piece of metal or other material, all of it overgrown and in
fragments. Eventually, they found the impact site; a wide
crater
that was overgrown with vegetation, but no trees. Further
investigation showed that the area was coated with the burnt remains of
a ship, but none of it was intact.
“As I thought, there’s nothing here,”
McKay said,
somewhat smugly. “The force of the impact must have
torn
what was left of the ship apart.”
“What was left of the ship?” Ronon asked.
“I’m assuming it started burning up in the
atmosphere, so, yes, what was left of the ship when it
crashed.”
“If it was burning up, then that would explain the
‘star’ the villagers described,” John
nodded, eyeing
the wreckage. “But what caused the
‘ghostly
noises’?”
“Who knows? Probably the wreckage made strange
noises as it
cooled and settled. Or maybe the wind blew across it in such
a
way as to make a noise, like a whistle effect. But whatever
the
case, there’s nothing here worth salvaging,” McKay
said in
disgust, idly kicking at a piece of burnt wreckage at his feet.
“Okay, so a wash out, then. Well, at least it was a
nice, easy mission…”
No sooner had Sheppard uttered those words, than the ‘nice,
easy
mission’ went awry. From two different sides, men
suddenly
appeared over the rise of the crater, stunning Sheppard, Teyla and
Ronon before they had a chance to react. McKay cursed, having
been so intent on picking up energy readings, he had neglected to check
for life signs, and it hadn’t even occurred to him to use his
senses to listen out for trouble. He lifted his hands in
surrender; after all, he was outgunned.
“Who are you?” he demanded, trying but failing to
hide his
fear as he was grabbed by two of the men. A third man
approached,
searching and relieving him of weapons.
“I am Lanik,” the man replied, turning cold eyes to
him. McKay shivered at the look, recognising a cold hearted
killer when he saw one. “We are Genii.”
“Oh, right, well, I thought Ladon…”
“We were loyal to Cowen, not to that would be
leader,” the man spat out.
“Oh…okay, so…what do you want with
us?”
Lanik smiled, and McKay went cold. That smile reminded him of
Kolya, and he had a feeling this man was every bit as dangerous as that
psychopath, maybe more.
“We only want you, and your ship,” Lanik
said. “Bring him.”
McKay was manhandled out of the crater.
“Ow, ow, no need to be rough about this,” he
muttered. He was led a few feet from the crater’s
edge, and
then halted.
“You will lead us back to your ship,” Lanik ordered
him.
“Um, no. No, I think not.”
“You will,” Lanik smiled again, sending another
chill down
McKay’s spine. “Or my men will kill your
friends. In fact,” he turned to one of his
men.
“Bring the woman.”
“No, no, you don’t have to do that,”
McKay stuttered out.
“Take us to your ship, and fly it to our destination, and she
will not be harmed. We will even let her go, as soon as we
have
what we want.”
Two of Lanik’s men returned, one with Teyla slung over his
shoulder.
“Okay,” McKay agreed, defeated.
“This way.”
----------------
It had taken about forty minutes from the jumper to the crater, it took
nearer an hour on the return journey, partly due to it being uphill,
but mainly due to McKay not taking a direct route back. He
was
hoping that Ronon and Sheppard might recover from being stunned and
catch up with them. It wasn’t like this Lanik and
his men
were rushing, so surely if he took his time his team-mates might be
able to catch them up?
Teyla had recovered from the stun by now, and was walking between two
men, most likely looking for an opportunity to take them out, and
probably not too happy with him for taking Lanik to their
jumper.
It wasn’t like he’d been allowed to talk to her, or
vice
versa, as they were being kept apart.
He’d counted eight men including Lanik, and he
didn’t think
they stood much chance against them, even if Teyla could get
free. The Athosian was good, certainly able to take out more
than
her share of these goons, but as for himself; he’d never
really
gotten a handle on this hand to hand combat stuff. Add in the
fact that these people were armed, and they really needed Sheppard and
Ronon to get their asses in gear and catch up. The fact that
Sheppard hadn’t contacted him telepathically yet was
worrying,
very worrying. He hoped this Lanik hadn’t had them
killed
by more men he didn’t know about.
They were at the glade now, and he could tell from Lanik’s
angry
stare that the guy had figured out that Rodney had taken them on a less
than straight route.
“Your ship is here?” Lanik asked.
“Yes,” McKay replied, nervously licking his
lips. “It’s cloaked.”
“I know how far the crater is from this glade,”
Lanik
glared at him. “It should not have taken this
long,”
he turned to one of the men holding Teyla. “Pavan,
cut
her.”
“No!” McKay cried out. “Please,
don’t.”
But it was too late, and Pavan sliced into Teyla’s left
arm. Teyla hissed in pain, but did not cry out, glaring at
Lanik
with vengeance in her eyes.
“Oh crap,” Rodney closed his eyes briefly, before
turning
angrily to Lanik. “You didn’t need to do
that, damn
you!”
“On the contrary, you need to understand that stalling
tactics
will be punished,” Lanik turned his attention back to
Pavan. “Bind her wound, it would be a shame for her
to die
of blood loss.”
As Pavan followed his orders, Lanik returned his attention to McKay
again, assessing him coldly.
“Uncloak your ship.”
McKay reached for the remote slowly, not wanting to spook the madman
into thinking he was reaching for a weapon or something, and then
brought it out, uncloaking the puddle jumper. His eyes darted
to
Teyla briefly, and then back to Lanik, as the guy took the remote from
McKay’s hand.
“Open it,” he ordered.
McKay went to the rear hatch and opened it, and was then pushed into
the jumper by Lanik, and into the forward section. He was
aware
of Lanik’s men entering the jumper behind them.
McKay
slipped into the pilot’s chair, knowing that if Lanik took
them
through the gate, which was most likely, then no one on Atlantis would
be able to find them…unless Ladon was willing to help and
had
information on this Lanik person and his people.
He was desperately hoping for a last minute rescue from Sheppard and
Ronon, but that seemed unlikely now. If Teyla was in the
forward
section, he could close the bulkhead doors and lock them, leaving them
only two people to disarm…not good odds and if it
failed…Teyla would be dead. Still, the alternative
might
not be any better. He somehow doubted this guy was going to
let
either of them go once he had whatever it was he wanted, which Rodney
was pretty sure was more than just the jumper.
“I need Teyla up here, as co-pilot.”
“I think not,” Lanik replied.
“Look, I need a co-pilot, and I need someone who knows what
they
are doing,” Rodney used his anger to fuel his
bluff.
“I’m not Sheppard! I have only the basic
flying
ability…crap, I can’t even fly this thing in a
straight
line!” Which wasn’t so true these
days. He
could fly in a straight line, most of the time, when he
wasn’t
distracted by stray thoughts or theories popping into his head.
“It is true,” Teyla’s voice came from the
rear of the
jumper. “Dr McKay is not the best of
pilots.”
“See? Even my friend agrees. Listen,
Teyla can deal
with some of the lesser functions whilst I concentrate on the
flying.”
“She does not have the gene,” Lanik stated.
“Oh, you know about that, then? Well, the co-pilot
doesn’t need the gene, just the pilot.”
Lanik nodded to Pavan, who brought Teyla into the forward
section. As soon as they entered, McKay closed the bulkhead
doors, which distracted the two men briefly. Teyla, who had been
waiting for such an opportunity as this, attacked the man holding
her. McKay pushed against Lanik, hoping to and succeeding in
pushing him off balance. Teyla had Pavan unconscious and
disarmed
within seconds and the gun pointed at Lanik’s head before he
could regain his balance and retaliate.
“Do not move,” Teyla told him, anger clear in her
eyes.
McKay stood up to disarm Lanik, but as he took the man’s gun,
he
was grabbed and pulled up to be used as a shield, causing him to slip
and curse. Teyla, however, moved equally as
quickly,
shooting Lanik in the head before he was able to succeed with his
plan. He was dead before hitting the floor.
“Oh crap,” Rodney said, shaking slightly and
feeling decidedly sick.
“Are you okay?” Teyla asked him.
“Not really, but I guess I will be,” he turned
shocked eyes
to her. “What about you? The knife
wound…I’m sorry…”
“It is quite shallow,” she reassured him.
“You are not to blame.”
The pounding on the bulkhead doors was increasing.
“Perhaps we should rid ourselves of our unwanted
guests?”
“Yes, yes, that sounds like a good idea,” McKay
agreed,
climbing to his feet unsteadily, and stepping over Lanik’s
body
to get to the pilot seat. “Um, take them to the
other side
of the planet and, oh, I don’t know, turn the jumper on its
end? Gravity should then deal with our pest
problem.”
“Yes,” Teyla agreed. “I will
attempt to contact the Colonel and Ronon.”
Receiving no response from either of their missing team-mates, Teyla
and Rodney exchanged worried glances.
“Nothing we can do until I get rid of them,” McKay
nodded
towards the back section of the jumper. “It will
take about
ten or so minutes to ensure they are far enough away not to trouble
us…”
“Then the sooner we go, the sooner we can return.”
“Yes, of course.”
Silence fell as Rodney concentrated on flying. He soon found
a
spot far enough away that it would take the Genii a couple of days, at
least, to get back to the glade, let alone the stargate.
Tilting
the ship and disengaging artificial gravity whilst hovering a few feet
off the ground was not the easiest of manoeuvres he’d ever
had to
do, and the jumper wobbled dangerously more than once, but he was
successful. The Genii slipped down the ramp and to the forest
floor, a few feet below them.
Once the rear compartment was empty, he levelled the jumper and helped
Teyla to pull the still unconscious Pavan and the very dead Lanik into
the compartment, and then he repeated the manoeuvre. He was
sweating profusely by the time they had ditched all of the Genii.
As they returned to the glade, he confided in Teyla his concern that
Sheppard had not used his telepathy to let either of them know what his
situation was. A brief discussion as to whether to return to
the
gate and dial Atlantis for back up before returning to the glade ended
with the decision that Sheppard and Ronon might not have time for them
to do get more help, and so they continued on to the glade first.
----------------
McKay checked the life signs detector as he hovered the cloaked jumper
over the glade, picking up two dots approaching the tree
line.
Carefully, he set the jumper down so that the view screen was facing
the dots and he could use his enhanced eyesight to hopefully see who
was out there.
With Teyla’s hand on his arm grounding him, he extended his
sight
outwards. Although the trees hid much of the people
approaching,
as they walked towards the glade he was able to make out an Atlantis
uniform and Ronon’s leather coat and he relaxed.
“It’s okay,” he told Teyla.
“Looks like Sheppard and Ronon are heading this
way.”
They grinned at each other and went to meet them. It only
took a
few moments to be reunited as a team and to head back aboard the
jumper. Explanations took a little longer, though.
Sheppard
and Ronon had woken up without their radios, and were unable to locate
Rodney and Teyla. After checking around the crater, they had
headed back to the glade, hoping that the jumper would still be
there.
Teyla and Rodney explained about Lanik and his men, and how they had
dealt with them. Sheppard was impressed with the
flying
manoeuvres Rodney had used, but he wasn’t about to feed the
ego
by admitting that out loud; McKay picking it up from their bond would
be bad enough.
“Why didn’t you tell me Ronon and yourself were
okay?” Rodney asked, trying to hide his concern behind
accusation.
“I tried, but the telepathy doesn’t seem to be
working. Nor does the empathy, well, not properly.
The bond
is still there, I can feel that, and we’re still sharing some
feelings, but I can’t pick up on anyone else’s
feelings,” John explained, keeping the concern out of his
voice. “I’m going to assume
it’s a side effect
of the Wraith stunner and that it will return. If not, well,
I’m sure we’ll learn to cope without it.”
As he said, the bond was still there and despite his attempts to appear
nonchalant about the whole thing, he knew he wasn’t fooling
Rodney. He may not have had the empathy and telepathy for
very
long, but it felt like something had been torn from him, and it was
both disturbing and worrying.
“Well, the stunners do scramble the brain, so
there’s a
good chance it is just a temporary glitch,” Rodney
said.
“Of course, the way your brain is scrambled to start
with…”
“Thanks, McKay,” Sheppard cut in with a mock growl,
moving
past him to slip into the pilot’s chair.
“So, what
say we head for the gate and leave this miserable world
behind?
And not return, as it would seem the locals aren’t as
friendly as
they seemed.”
“Which shouldn’t be such a surprise these
days,”
McKay grumbled, sliding into his normal chair behind
Sheppard.
Teyla and Ronon also sat as Sheppard powered up the jumper and lifted
off, starting for the gate and placing the jumper in stealth mode.
----------------
Chapter
Two – It’s Never That Easy…
As they came closer to the clearing that the stargate occupied, they
spotted several life signs in close proximity to it. A quick
fly-over proved that there were five people guarding the gate, and four
suspiciously cannon-like weapons trained at the sky.
“Oh, that’s not good,” McKay said with a
groan.
“As soon as we uncloak to go through the gate,
they’ll
start firing at us. And as we all know from bitter
experience, it
only takes one lucky shot for us to be in trouble.”
“Shoot them,” Ronon said flatly.
“Oh, right, good idea,” McKay’s sarcasm
was set to
high. “They’re too close to the gate to
use drones.
We can’t risk damaging the gate.”
“Okay, let’s set the jumper down as close by as we
can,” Sheppard said.
“And then what?” McKay asked snidely.
“Ronon and I will take out the guards. Once the
guards are
taken care off, I’ll signal you and you can take the jumper
through, and then we’ll follow.”
“I will also accompany you,” Teyla stated.
“You sure you’re up to it? That knife
wound…” the Colonel started to ask.
“The knife wound is not deep and it has stopped
bleeding. I am fine,” Teyla asserted.
“Okay, the three of us will take out the guards.”
Sheppard manoeuvred the jumper into a clearing that was about ten
minutes walk from the gate.
“Maybe we should all go?” Rodney said
nervously. “We can come back to retrieve the jumper
later.”
“I’d rather not risk sending people through
unnecessarily. This way is better.”
“Sheppard…”
“Rodney,” Sheppard said warningly.
“Okay, fine. On one condition. You three
go through
the gate first, and once I know you’re out of the way,
I’ll
bring the jumper through.”
“McKay…”
“No,” McKay sat back, his arms crossed and a
determined
look on his face. “I’m not going through
first.
You’re more vulnerable to counterattack, being on
foot. I
don’t want to arrive in Atlantis expecting you to be right
behind
me and for you not to come through.”
“Fine, okay. We’ll go through
first,” Sheppard
agreed reluctantly, understanding Rodney’s fear. It
wouldn’t be the first time he’d thought his team or
a
team-mate was right behind him but for the gate to shut down instead.
“We’ll contact you when we’re ready to
take the
gate. Get the jumper up and be ready to follow us
through.
No delays.”
Rodney nodded.
“Okay, let’s head out,” Sheppard said to
Ronon and Teyla.
----------------
Taking the gate was hard, but doable. The rogue Genii put up
a
fight, though they were no match for the three of them. Once
the
guards were dealt with, Teyla dialled Atlantis and Rodney flew the
jumper into position in front of the gate. He warned them
that
another eleven people were approaching the edge of the clearing and
told them to go through, which they quickly did.
They arrived in the gateroom to find a worried Elizabeth looking down
at them.
“No time to explain,” Sheppard said to her, keying
his
radio. “McKay, we’re clear.
Come on
through.”
Back on the planet, Rodney acknowledged Sheppard’s order, and
uncloaked the jumper prior to entering the wormhole. And that
was
when it all went wrong.
Unbeknownst to them, there were two more cannons hidden in the trees at
the edge of the clearing, and these had been moved into position as
soon as Teyla, Ronon and Sheppard had left. When the jumper
uncloaked, they fired at it and one shot successfully hit the
jumper’s right engine pod, causing Rodney to lose control
when
the jumper lurched to one side.
The jumper lurched a second time and hit one of the surrounding trees,
falling to the ground heavily and screeching across the clearing to hit
another tree. Rodney clung onto the console in front of him
for
dear life, but as the jumper hit the second tree, a branch cracked the
view screen. He threw himself to the floor, clinging to the
bottom of the co-pilot’s chair with a strength borne of
desperation, as the jumper swerved into a third and a fourth
tree. Another branch hit the already weakened view screen,
this
time with enough force to break it, and entered the forward section,
skewering the pilot’s seat. The jumper came to a
sudden,
jolting halt.
Rodney lay on the floor, the final stop having propelled him forwards
and forcing him to lose his grip. He found himself half in
the
rear compartment, and half in the front. Breathing heavily,
it
took several moments to gather his scattered thoughts and respond to
the increasingly anxious shouts coming through his ear piece.
Taking stock of his injuries, he was amazed to find that nothing seemed
to be broken or sprained or even bleeding. Though he felt
thoroughly bruised and shaken.
He activated his comm unit.
“Hey,” he said shakily.
“McKay, what’s the hold up?”
John’s worried voice replied.
“Ah, cannons. They must have had some hidden away
from the
gate. Shot me down as soon as I uncloaked the
jumper,” he
reported, surprised at the steadiness of his voice.
“Crap. Sit tight. They can’t
get into the
jumper, so you just have to hang on whilst we organise a
rescue.
Are you hurt?”
“Amazingly, nothing serious. Lots of
bruises…and a
branch has taken out the view screen. Good job I hit the
floor
earlier or else…well…let’s just say
I’d be a
smear and leave it at that,” he felt the panic rising at the
thought of his close call.
“Can you get into the rear compartment?” John
asked.
“Um,” he shifted to his hands and knees with a few
muttered
‘ows’ and started to shuffle into the
back.
“Yeah. Doing that.”
He could hear Sheppard in the background ordering marines to the jumper
bay along with Major Lorne, as well as heading there himself by the
sounds of things. He suspected Teyla and Ronon
wouldn’t be
far behind him either.
Slowly, carefully, Rodney stood and hit the bulkhead door
control. It closed, partly, and then stopped, leaving about a
gap
between the doors.
“McKay.” He heard Sheppard
again. “How’re
you doing?”
“Um, closed the bulkhead doors, but they’re
damaged. Left about an inch gap open.”
“Okay,” Sheppard paused. “If you stay behind
the doors, they won’t be able to angle any of their weapons
at
you, so you’ll be safe. Can you tell how close they
are?”
Rodney pushed his sense of hearing out, using the pain from his bruises
to anchor himself.
“Virtually here,” he replied, positioning himself
behind the left hand bulkhead door.
“Okay, just sit tight, McKay. We’re
nearly ready this side.”
“Okay,” he answered, trying to rein in his growing
panic as
the Genii and Casils approached and he heard the sounds of at least one
person climbing into the front of the jumper.
“They’re here, by the way.”
He heard, and saw, as hands were pressed into the gap and tried to pry
the bulkhead doors open. No chance, he thought, only to feel
as
well as hear the doors creak and move ever so slightly. But
then
the movement stopped, and after a few more minutes, the hands were
removed, and he could breathe more easily again. Sheppard had
contacted him again during this, and McKay had informed him of the
attempt to pry open the doors, keeping his voice quiet.
Another couple of minutes passed, and this time some form of jack was
put into use by the Genii to try and prise to bulkhead doors
open. Sheppard told him to shoot through the gap in the
doors, to
discourage them. Carefully pushing himself back to his feet
he
shouted a warning and then sent a couple of shots through.
Not
hearing any cries of pain suggested they had taken his warning
seriously and cleared out.
He was wrong. The doors creaked open another half an inch,
and he
realised one of the Genii had remained behind the door, where McKay
couldn’t shoot at him, and was operating the jack-like
device. Not good, so very not good, as he reported to
Sheppard,
who told him they would be ready in just another couple of minutes and
to try and hold it together.
And then, as if that wasn’t bad enough, he heard a voice that
froze his heart briefly, before sending it into a hammering race.
“Dr McKay?”
“Oh shit.” He activated his comm again.
“Sheppard…it’s…” he
took a deep breath,
desperately trying to calm himself.
“Kolya’s
here.”
A stream of curses greeted him from Atlantis.
“Yeah, my thoughts exactly,” he breathed into his
comm.
“Okay, we’re ready…just hang
on…”
Then there was silence from Sheppard. But not so
from Kolya.
“Dr McKay, I know you are in there and can hear me.
I
thought you might be interested to know that the wormhole has been
disengaged and that we have now dialled out. If you were
hoping
for a rescue, you will be disappointed.”
Oh crap, oh crap, why hadn’t he thought of that?
Why
hadn’t someone on Atlantis? They should have shut
down the
gate and dialled in… Oh crap, the door was moving again,
slowly
widening the gap.
He stayed behind the bulkhead door, waiting for the gap to become big
enough for him to shoot at the man using the jack. He
didn’t want to kill anyone, but he had to stop them getting
in to
him.
At least Kolya had shut up, for now.
As soon as he thought he could angle the gun, he tried, but to his
utter dismay the door gave a sudden jerk and opened
completely.
He aimed his gun, but wasn’t quick enough as another man, who
must have been hiding behind the other bulkhead door, shoved a gun into
his face.
“Drop your weapon,” the armed man ordered, and
McKay
obeyed, holding his hands up in surrender, and stepping back a
pace. “Open the rear hatch, but move slowly and
keep your
hands in sight.”
Rodney swallowed nervously, and backed slowly to the rear hatch,
carefully bringing up a hand to open it.
Immediately it was open, three Genii soldiers moved in, two of them
grabbing him by the arms and pulling him outside, bringing him to a
stop in front of Kolya, who looked him over carefully, and then
smiled. McKay shivered. It was not a pleasant
smile.
Not pleasant at all; very clearly boding ill for himself.
“Dr McKay. So good to meet you again.”
“Actually I was hoping never to see your face
again,”
Rodney said snidely, pushing his growing panic down, or at least trying
to.
Kolya merely smiled again, more cold and deadly than before, and then
turned his attention to the crashed jumper.
“A pity about the damage, but I expect you will be able to
fix
it, with the right incentive,” Kolya said, turning back to
Rodney.
“You must be joking!” Rodney exclaimed, not able to
keep
the incredulity out of his voice.
“There’s no way I
can fix that! Have you seen the damage? Even with
spare
parts, which I don’t have, I doubt I’d be able to
repair
it. Are you crazy or just stupid?”
Kolya responded with a hard, sharp slap to his face.
“Ow,” Rodney muttered sourly, sure that he could
feel the
bruise already forming, thanks to his heightened sense of touch.
“Do not try to mislead me, Dr McKay.”
“I’m not,” he said, trying to sound more
reasonable,
but his annoyance bled through all the same. “Look,
I might
be able to fix a few things, but it’s never going to fly
again,
even if I had spare parts, which
I don’t,” he emphasised
the last few words. “The tree’s done too
much damage,
not to mention that the view screen is gone and I have no idea how to
replace that. All damage caused by your goons shooting me
down in
the first place, I might add…” Rodney
flinched back
as much as he could with two behemoths holding him in place, as Kolya
looked ready to hit him again. However, the ex-Genii
commander
pulled back at the last moment and the hit didn’t land.
“Then we will salvage what we can from it, and in the
meantime, I
have some questions to ask you. After which, you will come
with
us. I am sure your knowledge and experience will come in
useful.”
Kolya ordered the guards to take him back to the village and guard him,
before turning to the rest of his men; ordering some to salvage
whatever they could from the stricken jumper, and others to watch the
gate - making sure they knew to shut it down and dial back out a few
minutes before the gate would close on its own. He was hoping
that they would be able to pre-empt any attempts made by Atlantis to
dial in by doing so.
----------------
When the gate had shut down, silence fell briefly, before angry voices
muttered to themselves and others; they should have been prepared for
it.
John was particularly upset with himself for not expecting
Kolya’s next move; the two jumpers that were going to
McKay’s rescue had been ready to go; they had been so
close. Why hadn’t they thought to dial out before
now? Damn it.
“Elizabeth,” he said over his comm.
“Yes, John?”
“We need to start dialling and keep at it until we hopefully
make
a connection. I don’t know if Kolya will take
everyone
through to another planet straight away or try to salvage the jumper,
but if they do remain on Casilano you can be certain he’ll
order
the wormhole to be closed before the thirty-eight minutes is
up.
He’ll be hoping to wrong-foot us; that we’ll time
it and
wait for then before trying to dial the planet.”
“Okay, John. Chuck is going to start dialling now,
and someone will trade off with him every few minutes.”
“Fine. We’ll be ready as soon as a
connection is
made. I’m just hoping Kolya doesn’t move
Rodney off
world.”
“He has shown himself to be overconfident in the
past,”
Teyla said, having heard the conversation over her own comm.
“Perhaps he will believe his people can dial out before we
can
dial in and remain on Casilano. If not, we will find him, and
Rodney.”
“Yes, we will,” John said with certainty.
He just
hoped it would be before Kolya could inflict any damage on McKay, or
even worse, kill him.
It was nearly thirty-two minutes later that the gate finally
engaged. Within two minutes the jumper carrying John, Teyla,
Ronon, and three marines entered the wormhole, with a second jumper
carrying Lorne and five marines following shortly after. They
cloaked the jumpers as soon as each emerged over the Casilano
countryside, and started to look for Rodney’s subcutaneous
transmitter.
They soon located him inside a village building; there were four life
signs outside, surrounding the building, and two inside, right next to
him.
He contacted Lorne and a plan was quickly thrown together.
As he flew his jumper towards a clearing near to the village, Sheppard
felt something inside of him right itself and realised that the empathy
was fully back, and hopefully the telepathy as well. He
concentrated on contacting Rodney.
‘McKay, can you hear me? We’re here and
we’re going to get you out of this, okay?’
He didn’t expect a response, of course, but he was pretty
sure his message had gotten through.
----------------
Kolya had asked Rodney a lot of questions to do with the jumpers, and
tied up as he was, unable to protect himself, he was in the unenviable
position of being punched in the side whenever he refused to
answer. He could tell Kolya was getting impatient and when
the
knife appeared he couldn’t help flashing back to the
hurricane,
all that time ago.
Eyes wide with panic, he pushed the fear down. He’d
broken
then, but he was damned if he was going to break now. The
guilt
and disgust at himself that he’d felt back then was not
something
he wanted to ever have to deal with again, and he made an effort to
slow his breathing down. It helped that he could dial down
his
sense of touch and therefore mute the pain, though unfortunately not
get rid of it completely.
The first cut, on his right forearm, was almost exactly in the same
place as before, and drew a sharp cry from him even with the pain
dialled back.
“Tell me what I want to know, Dr McKay, and this will
stop.”
“Go…to…hell,” he managed to
get out between
his gasps of pain; damn it, he should be able to push the pain dial
down further, but it seemed to be stuck.
The knife went deeper and he sucked in a breath to stop himself from
yelling, though he was sure a whimper escaped all the same.
It was then that Kolya was distracted by a message over the Genii wrist
communicator he wore saying that the gate had closed down as ordered
but that someone had managed to dial in before them.
Atlantis, it
was confirmed later, as two jumpers left the wormhole one after
another, both cloaking before any of his men could get a shot off at
either of them.
Kolya was furious and ordered his henchman to withdraw the knife, which
the Neanderthal did quickly, not caring that he caused more pain in the
process. Rodney closed his eyes, concentrating on breathing,
as
the pain dial spun out of control.
“Stay here and guard him,” Kolya ordered, and then
looked
at him with a sick smile. “Continue to
‘persuade’ him to help us, with your
fists.”
Rodney shuddered, opening his eyes in time to witness Kolya’s
smile before the psychopath left to organise his men, and the two
guards started hitting him with much enthusiasm and enjoyment; it hurt.
He was startled when he heard John’s message and
instinctively
reached out with his mind, screaming for help. He
hadn’t
expected Sheppard to hear it, the telepathy was supposed to be one way;
guide to sentinel.
But Sheppard did.
----------------
John paled at the cry from McKay.
“Oh shit.”
“Are you okay?” Teyla asked, worried, as John
guided the jumper onto the ground just outside of the village.
“Yeah. Just…damn it, I don’t
know how or why,
but I just heard McKay, and he’s in trouble.
They’re
hurting him.”
“I did not think the telepathy worked both ways,”
Teyla said, confused.
“It’s not supposed to,” Sheppard
answered. “But for some reason it is.”
“He in pain?” This was from Ronon.
“Hell, yeah.” He reached out to Rodney
again.
‘What are they doing to you? That was one heck of a
shout.’
‘You…can…hear me?’
‘Yeah. Hang tight, we’re
coming.’
‘Make it quick…damn it…’
There was a pain
filled scream. John shook; he hadn’t realised he could hear a
telepathic scream before now. ‘Help
me…please…’
‘The pain dial…’ he
suggested.
‘Not working…oh shit…hurry,
please…’
‘We’re coming,’ John
reassured him before breaking
the link and looking at the concerned faces of his team. He
was
already standing at the jumper’s exit, obviously having moved
there during his conversation with McKay; not that he remembered moving.
“Let’s go.”
----------------
Major Lorne had landed his jumper briefly, allowing three of his
marines to join Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon and two of the marines from
their jumper as they headed out into the village, slowly working their
way towards the building that contained McKay.
Lorne then took his jumper back up into the air to keep an eye on
ground movements, and to be ready to provide cover in the form of
drones if required.
The team and the marines spread out in pairs, each targeting and taking
out one of the four people guarding the building. Lorne
informed
them that a group was heading their way, so Sheppard ordered him to
fire a drone to discourage them; which he did, targeting an empty
building close to the approaching troops.
Once the guards were taken care of, Sheppard and his team-mates entered
the room McKay was being held in and quickly took out the two guards
inside.
“McKay?” Sheppard approached. The
astrophysicist
looked like death warmed over, with each of his wrists tied to a chair
arm, and ankles tied to the chair legs, he was battered, bruised and
his right arm was bleeding. Shaking, he didn’t
respond to
Sheppard’s call.
Ronon reached him first, John having hesitated at the sight briefly,
and produced a knife to cut the bonds. McKay, obviously
spotting
the knife coming towards him, flinched back with a startled cry.
“No, please.”
“Shit,” Sheppard dropped to his knees next to
McKay,
trusting the marines and Teyla to watch their backs.
“Easy,
McKay. Take it easy, it’s us.”
Rodney raised his eyes and looked at Sheppard, blinking, but no longer
flinching as Ronon cut his bonds. Teyla passed John the
med-kit.
“Hey, it’s okay,” John said, carefully
taking Rodney’s cut arm and cleaning the wound.
“Didn’t…talk…” He
heard McKay whisper.
“I know, I know. You did good,” he
reassured, before
putting a pressure bandage on the knife wound. McKay hissed
in
pain.
“Didn’t tell…him…”
“McKay, it’s okay,” John said again,
turning
Rodney’s face towards him and wincing in sympathy at the
bruise
already forming there. “It’s
okay,” he said,
looking his friend in the eyes. Rodney looked back at him for
a
few moments, before giving a careful nod.
“You think you can stand?” Sheppard
asked.
Rodney blinked a few times at that, mulling the question over in his
mind.
“I think…” he started to say, before
leaning over
and puking with little warning. John only just managed to
move
out of the way in time.
“Sir,” Lorne came over the comm.
“I’ve
discouraged a couple of groups, but there are four life signs heading
in on you. I didn’t spot them until they were too
close. Sorry about that, sir.” Lorne sounded
disgusted at
his lapse.
“Okay, just keep discouraging the large groups,
we’ll handle these four. Sheppard out.”
With help from Ronon, he slowly started to pull McKay to his feet, but
the Canadian couldn’t seem to keep himself upright and
started to
sink to the ground. Ronon grabbed him and gently lifted him,
placing him across both his shoulders carefully, rather than over one
shoulder in the more normal fireman’s lift, in deference to
the
beating he’d taken and the possibility of internal injuries.
They headed back out, managing to skirt around the four life signs that
Lorne had warned them about, at least until they were at the edge of
the village. Unfortunately, the jumper was across a clearing
that
was beyond a low four foot high wall that marked the
village’s
boundary.
They had not gone far when the first bullet was fired from behind them,
hitting one of the marines, Corporal Johnson, in the arm. The
group ducked down behind the wall, glad that they hadn’t gone
too
far past it to do so. Ronon placed McKay down gently; the
physicist had passed out sometime during their escape, and joined the
others in returning fire, whilst Teyla bandaged the
Corporal’s
arm as best she could.
“Okay, Teyla, stay with McKay and Johnson,” John
ordered,
and then turned two of the marines. “Mendez and
Kirby, stay
here as well and provide fire; let them think we’re holed up
here. Ronon, take Ritter and circle around left,
I’ll take
Allard and circle to the right.”
Orders given, Sheppard and Sergeant Allard moved off, keeping
themselves hidden by the wall, as did Ronon and Sergeant Ritter in the
opposite direction.
----------------
It took no more than a couple of minutes for Ronon and Ritter to get
around one side of the four Genii, and using surprise as their
advantage Ronon was quickly able to dispatch one of the Genii
soldiers.
Unfortunately, a second Genii was able to get off a shot that hit
Ritter in the leg. Ronon took out said Genii in retaliation
and
pulled Ritter behind a building, swearing; the wound looked bad and he
put pressure on it to stop the bleeding. Using a spare hand,
he
activated his comm and informed Sheppard of their situation, and that
the Colonel and Sergeant were on their own now.
----------------
Sheppard and Allard had attacked at the same time as Ronon and Ritter,
quickly taking out one of the Genii. With the two that Ronon
took
out, that just left one, who took a pot shot at Sheppard.
Allard
pushed his commanding officer out of the way, and fell to the ground as
Sheppard righted himself and took his shot.
The final Genii fell to the floor, dead. It took a few
seconds for John to realise that it was Kolya.
Shaking his head, part of him not able to believe that he’d
dealt
with Kolya so easily, he felt a grim satisfaction nonetheless, and
turned to attend to Allard. The bullet had been stopped by
his
flak jacket, though the guy had been momentarily winded and would no
doubt have an impressive bruise from it.
Quickly checking to make sure that Kolya really was dead, he contacted
Lorne and was informed that the other groups of Genii and Casils had
been successfully pushed back to the opposite edge of the village, and
that they now had a free run to the jumper.
Taking the time to find Ronon and Ritter, he quickly applied a pressure
bandage to the injured marine’s leg, and then Ronon slung him
over his shoulder. Sheppard helped Allard up, but was waved
off
as the man got his breath back, and the four of them retreated to the
jumper, after John had given the order to Mendez, Kirby and Teyla to
get Johnson and Rodney to safety as well.
Before leaving Casilano, Sheppard fired several drones into the downed
jumper, destroying it effectively; leaving nothing but scrap metal for
the Genii and Casils. He was sure Rodney would read him the
riot
act later, but he wasn’t about to risk more men to try and
retrieve it, and he certainly wasn’t going to leave anything
for
the Genii to salvage. McKay would get over it; eventually.
----------------
Chapter Three – The
Obligatory Epilogue…
It was a few hours later, and John had given his report to Elizabeth
and checked on his injured men. Ritter would have to return
to
Earth for specialist therapy if he stood any chance of being able to
walk without a limp. Johnson would also need some therapy for
his
arm, but his prognosis was much more optimistic, with full mobility and
strength predicted within a few months at most.
He was now settled on a seat between a much battered McKay in one bed
and a sleeping Teyla in another.
Teyla’s knife wound had needed stitches, so much for her
‘it is fine’ comment earlier. Beckett had
not been
pleased that she had gone on the rescue with such an injury; Sheppard
was annoyed as well, but knew if he had been in her place he would have
done the same thing. She was lucky that the wound had not
become
infected, and Beckett said it should heal well enough. Of
course,
the good doctor had decided to keep her in the infirmary for the night
to ‘keep an eye on her’ if she was ‘going
to be
bloody stupid’ about her injuries ‘like certain
other
people he could mention’, aiming a glare at John.
Sheppard
had responded by putting on his ‘who me’ innocent
expression, not that anyone was fooled by it - they knew him too well
for that.
As for Rodney, his knife wound had also required stitching, with a lot
more stitches than Teyla’s had. He was badly
beaten; his
arms and torso taking the worst of the blows, and there had been some
internal bleeding, but slow. Beckett was hoping it would
right
itself without the need for surgery, and Rodney was being closely
monitored. He also had a spectacular bruise forming down one
side
of his face which might make talking painful for a while. Not
that Sheppard expected it would stop McKay from talking completely, but
it might slow the guy down for a while. He smiled at that
thought
briefly, before sighing again. They’d been lucky;
no
fatalities on their side and injuries that would heal.
At least Koyla was dead and wouldn’t be causing anyone any
more trouble.
But the price had been too high, for all that. Not just the
loss
of one of their jumpers, but for McKay and what he had suffered at
Kolya’s hand. It could have been a lot worse, but
that
wasn’t much consolation to him. Rodney should never
have
been in that position to start with. They should have left
the
jumper and returned for it later. Without the gene, it was
pretty
much useless to the Genii and Casils, but at the time he
hadn’t
known who was behind the attack, and he knew Ladon had been working on
an artificial gene therapy at some point - after all, it was why Lorne
and his team had been taken before the coup. He
couldn’t
take the risk that it had worked and that this was their so-called ally
at work. John still didn’t trust the Genii leader,
and was
unlikely ever to do so.
He was jolted from his thoughts by the arrival of Beckett, here to
check on his patients.
“You should get some rest,” Beckett commented as he
checked
Rodney’s vitals and apparently found them satisfactory.
“I’m fine. Besides, shouldn’t
you be resting too?”
“Touché, Colonel, touché,”
Carson replied
with a quick grin. “He’s going to be just
fine.”
“I’m sure he will be, I just…”
“Need to be with your sentinel right now.”
“Yes, something like that,” he agreed.
“Doc, I
told you that I could hear McKay, didn’t I? Any
ideas
why?”
“Aye, you did. According to records it’s
never worked
this way before. It’s always been guide to sentinel
telepathy, not sentinel to guide.”
“So why us? What makes us so different?”
John pressed.
“Well, I’ve been thinking about that and the only
thing I can come up with at present is the ATA gene.”
“But O’Neill has the gene…”
“Aye, but Dr Jackson doesn’t.
I’m thinking it
has something to do with the way the gene enables a person to use
Ancient technology mentally as well as physically. I think
it’s that which is behind Rodney’s ability to
communicate
with you, someone who also has the gene, with his mind. If it
was
just that the sentinel needed the gene, then as you pointed out,
General O’Neill should then be able to communicate with Dr
Jackson. As it is, they can’t, so it must require
both to
have the gene. That is, if I’m right about it being
to do
with the gene in the first place. It’s all pure
conjecture
at this point.”
“But you could test it, right? Give Jackson the
therapy and
if it takes, then they should be able to communicate two-way like
us.”
“Aye, I’ll be mentioning it to them, but
it’s up to them if they want to test it out or not.”
At that point, Ronon entered the infirmary and the conversation turned
to how Teyla and Rodney were doing, after which Ronon strongly
suggested that Sheppard get something to eat before the mess hall ran
out of hot food, offering to stay with McKay whilst he did so, and
agreeing to contact him if Rodney woke up. Beckett
left
them to it, returning to his office to catch up with some long overdo
paperwork.
After Sheppard had returned from the mess hall, he had been persuaded
by the combined forces of Beckett and Ronon to sleep, on a bed in the
infirmary, whilst Ronon ‘kept watch’ over McKay,
with
strict instructions to wake Sheppard if Rodney woke up, and to swap
with him in four hours time either way.
Ronon had ignored those orders and let Sheppard sleep longer, content
to keep watch until the morning, feeling a need to make sure that this
most annoying of friends would be okay, and to sit quietly with his
sleeping team.
----------------
He dreamt of knives, cutting him, and fists, pounding him, and pain and
fear, squeezing him…and Kolya’s face, smiling at
his pain,
laughing at his weakness, gloating at his fear…
He woke up, panting, and tried to sit up only to be held down by a
strong but gentle hand on his chest
“Just a dream, McKay.”
And just like that, the tension drained out of him, leaving him
tired. Ronon. Atlantis. Safe.
Home.
And ow and ouch, as his various aches and pains made themselves known.
“Ow,” he said out loud, trying to move into a
comfortable position, only to find none.
“Hurts.”
“Yeah. You got beaten up good,” Ronon
replied.
“Nothing good about this,” he muttered, and ouch,
his jaw hurt as well.
“Might not want to talk. Your jaw, and face, are
bruised. Not a pretty sight, you might want to avoid mirrors
as
well.”
“Thanks for the advice,” he said snidely, closing
his eyes
and trying to find the pain dial. Ah, there it was.
He
pushed it down a little. Right, so now it was working
fine.
Pity it hadn’t been so easy to control when…a
shudder ran
through his body, which, ow, damn it, had not been such a good idea.
“You want me to get Beckett?”
“If he’s got the good drugs, yes.”
McKay heard a sound of amusement, and opened his eyes to glare at his
team-mate. The glare lessoned as Ronon pressed the call
button.
“Others… okay?” he asked.
“Yeah. Teyla’s arm’s been
stitched.
She’ll be fine. Sheppard’s okay, just
asleep,”
Ronon replied, not mentioning the marines; he’d leave that to
Sheppard. He knew McKay would feel bad about them being hurt
whilst rescuing him. It was the way he was.
“Mmm. Good,” he replied sleepily.
“Go back to sleep, McKay.”
“Hmm.”
And Ronon experienced the rare pleasure of McKay doing as he was told,
without argument or complaint.
He grinned.
But then McKay started snoring.
----------------
A few days later, and Rodney had been released to light duties, which
Beckett had been at pains to tell him meant no more than four hours in
the labs each day, no working in his room, plenty of rest and, for
goodness sake, no late nights.
Rodney had decided that what Beckett didn’t know
wouldn’t hurt him, and pretty much returned to his normal
routine.
Which is why John found him working late in the labs that evening.
“Thought you were supposed to be taking it easy?”
he said.
“Hmm. Oh, I am.”
“Sure you are,” John said disbelievingly.
Rodney just shrugged.
“What do you want anyway?” he asked peevishly.
“Actually, I wanted to talk about…well, you said
that the
pain dial wasn’t working… you know,
when…”
“When they were working me over? Yes. It
worked, at
least to some extent anyway, at first. I mean, the pain was
muted. But then it seemed to stop working so well, until
eventually it stopped completely,” Rodney replied, hardly
believing what he was about to suggest. “I hate to
say it,
but maybe we need to find some way to…I don’t
know…
test it and maybe…erm…do some
exercises…”
“Not sure we could without hurting you, and I’m not
about
to sanction or take part in anything like that. Besides, I
think,
in a way, it’s a good thing.”
“What!” McKay looked surprised, and a little hurt
at
that. “You mean, you’d want me to be in
pain?”
“No, no, that’s not what I meant,” John
sighed.
“Look, if you dial down the pain too far then you
don’t
know how badly you’re being hurt, and I’d much
rather you
talked than be seriously injured. And,” he
continued
quickly, seeing that McKay was about to interrupt,
“If your
captors realise you’re not in as much pain as you should be
they’ll probably step up the torture in response and end up
hurting you more than they would have otherwise. Possibly
even
more than they wanted, if they were intending to keep you
alive.”
“Oh.”
“Yes, oh. So, I don’t think tests are
necessary. Under normal circumstances you can dial it down
enough
to still know it’s there, but for it not to be a major
problem,
and that’s good. The last thing we need is for you
to think
you’re okay when in fact you’re not, because you
weren’t feeling any
pain. And in more…extreme
circumstances, I think it’s better that it doesn’t
mute the
pain too much.”
“I…” Rodney looked annoyed, before
giving a deep
sigh. “You’re right. I just
don’t like
pain.”
“None of us do, McKay.”
And then John smiled in a way that made Rodney worried. No
good
could come from a smile like that, not from Sheppard anyway.
“So…how many candy bars are you going to give
me?”
“What? Why would I be giving you candy?”
“So that I don’t tell Beckett I found you in the
lab, still
working at,” he paused to look at his watch meaningfully.
“You wouldn’t!”
John’s smiled grew.
Oh crap, of course he would, the rat. Rodney gave a put upon
sigh; he knew when he was beat.
“How many do you want?”
The End
Author's Notes: There
are differing
opinions on whether the puddle jumpers have to be uncloaked before
going through the stargate or not. It’s not
something that
is obvious from the TV show, but I’m choosing to think they
need
to be uncloaked. I’m basing this on the fact that
in
‘Condemned’, the jumper that Elizabeth and Lorne is
on
isn’t cloaked until after they leave the wormhole.
In fact,
Elizabeth says to go to stealth mode as soon as they are
through.
If it could travel through the wormhole cloaked, surely they would have
done so? Of course, this is just my take on it, and I could
be
proved wrong in the future.
