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Title: Hegira - Part Five
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: Adult Themes
Word Count: 1,952
Spoilers: None
Category: AU
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, no offense, no money.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine
Summary: “I’m not an alien,” John snapped, rubbing a hand over his head and very desperately wanting to run from the room, possibly screaming.
They had a morning ritual of sorts, as much of a morning as one could have when you woke up at sundown.
Rodney would sit, cross-legged on whatever crappy motel bed they had spent the night on, eating the most sugar-laden cereal he had been able to get his hands on. John would be doing push-ups or sit-ups or chin-ups if there was a bar able to take his weight. Rodney would watch him, a small smile on his face.
John felt weird going it alone.
He’d done his twentieth push-up and then had stopped, nose resting against the carpet and arms down by his sides. Rodney had ducked out while John was asleep, leaving him a ‘be back soon’ note.
John pulled himself up onto his elbows and looked at their backpacks, leaning drunkenly together on a chair. He knew he should stand, cross the room and pick up his own. He knew he should walk to the door and then through it.
He knew he should leave.
John knew he was preternaturally strong, but he had a weakness.
He was scared and he didn’t want to do this on his own.
He wasn’t sure how it had really happened, but he had come to depend on Rodney’s solid presence. He knew if he could be just a little stronger, he would leave before Rodney got hurt.
John knew he should love Rodney enough to leave.
Maybe he wasn’t there yet or maybe he was just selfish. In any case, when Rodney bustled through the door, he found John sprawled on the motel room floor, on his back and with his hands out at a ninety degree angle from his body.
“What are you doing?” Rodney asked, setting down a brown paper bag and then coming to stand over John, head haloed by sick yellow light.
“Not leaving,” John said.
~~~
Rodney wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but the matronly looking woman that answered the door wasn’t it.
“Can I help you gentlemen?” she asked, wiping hands on an apron. She had a pleasant and open face and there was a smudge of flour on one cheek. Her voice was a rich Scottish accent that made you think of warm fires and heavy foods.
“Ah, I’m not sure. We were looking for Doctor Carson Beckett.” Rodney tried his most polite smile, but she was looking past him at John, lurking behind his shoulder and staring fixedly at his shoes.
“Is everything alright?” There were the beginnings of a worried frown on her face.
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry to be bothering you in the evening but I got his details from a colleague and it’s very important we speak with him.”
The woman, whose expression had migrated from worry to suspicion, tightened her hand on the door, looking like she was readying herself to slam it shut. “I don’t think-“
“Who is it mum?” A voice called from deeper in the house and the woman froze. A man in his early forties appeared behind her and looked out. “I’m sorry, was there something-?” his voice faded to a whisper as his eyes skated past Rodney and landed on John. “Oh my God!” he breathed in a horrified choke. His arm shot out and in front of his mother and he shoved her backwards, stepping around her to slam the door behind him.
“Carson? Should I ring the police?” she called, pressed to the door, her voice tremulous.
Carson Beckett was staring at John, who met his gaze levelly. “I should have moved, shouldn’t I?” he sighed, looking resigned. “Look, do whatever you like to me, but my mother knows nothing. I’ll come quietly.”
Rodney finally found his voice and said, “Oh no, we’re not here to hurt you. We need your help.”
Carson blinked at them for a second, still looking wary. “What’s going on?” he prompted, eyebrows climbing towards his hairline.
“We… I mean to say…well, I guess you could say that I stole him.”
Carson blinked. “Oh aye. Maybe it’s best you come inside.”
~~~
He had watched in fascination with the other business men as the tour guide had stood at the observation window, extolling the virtues of the man below like she would appraise a high-performance car.
“Faster learning and more cunning than our other subjects. He hasn’t shown any of the signs of side-affects that this project has been plagued with thus far. He’s responded well to cleansing-“ At this word, Rodney jerked his head, a dark suspicion that the woman was not talking about any kind of outward cleaning in his mind as she continued. “-and commands. Gentlemen, you are looking at a thing of beauty.”
Below, a lean and dark haired man was working on what looked like a normal punching bag, but there were wires attached to both him and the bag. As the assembled group watched, he snapped out a particularly vicious-looking kick and the punching bag broke from the chain it was suspended on and went skidding across the room.
“Aren’t y’all worried that he might come off the rails?” A ruddy-cheeked individual in a suit Rodney was pretty sure would equal in value to his annual pay check, prompted.
The woman smiled, all white glistening teeth and the expression was predatory. “We have built a fail-safe of course. Unfortunately, it is not perfected as yet and our lead Doctor left before we could finish. This is for control and ultimately, transportation.” The woman held out one red taloned fingernail and depressed an intercom button set into the wall next to her.
“Daytime,” she said simply.
The room below suddenly went dark and then was filled with a blue light. Rodney watched in horrified fascination, crowded closer to the observation deck’s glass by the group behind him, as the man below slumped to the floor.
~~~
“I just figured they’d been successful and had sent him out to, you know… clean up.”
Carson set his teacup down with trembling fingers. He hadn’t relaxed until he’d packed off his protesting mother to a neighbour’s house, and even then he was still practically vibrating with tension. He perched of the very edge of the couch opposite Rodney and John, wringing his hands whenever they weren’t occupied with his cup.
“I don’t know how successful they were, but we were hoping you would have enough on what was being done to him-“
“You were hoping,” John snapped and Rodney looked at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“We shouldn’t be here. Look at the guy, he’s terrified.”
“John, we agreed the best way-“
“What Rodney? What did we agree on because I don’t remember you consulting me on anything.” John had taken an empty teacup from the table and now his hand clenched and the cup cracked. He frowned at it and set it aside. “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t be here,” John said, standing.
Rodney stood also, reaching for John, but it was Carson’s voice that stalled his departure. “Wait just a minute lad. If you’re not here to kill me and what Doctor McKay is saying is true, then of course I’ll help you. I’m sorry as hell for the part I played in this whole thing.” The tremble had dropped out of Carson’s voice and he looked resolute.
Rodney touched John’s elbow, who with a sigh sank back onto the couch. “As I was saying, we’re currently being pursued and I figure if we have something on the NID, something that we can perhaps threaten them with then they might have to let us go.”
Carson looked between them for a beat, before grimacing. “I’m sorry, but if you think the NID can be blackmailed to just set you free, then you’re sorely mistaken. I don’t think you have any idea how far up their influence goes and just what they’re into.”
“What are they into?” Rodney demanded, leaning forward.
“You said you were employed by them, to backwards engineer technology.”
“Yes,” Rodney nodded.
“Didn’t you ever think that perhaps the technology was a little… beyond our capabilities?”
“I didn’t… I was excited by what I was working on and whoever was coming up with this stuff was brilliant, but industrial espionage isn’t what-“
“C’mon Doctor McKay. You’re brilliant from what I can tell. Don’t be dumb.”
Rodney huffed, but thinking back to those six months he spent in the lab, fascinated by the objects he would be brought with little to no explanation of what they did or who they came from, he knew he had practiced some selective curiosity. He’d been tagged as a genius, but an impossible one and he’d been out of work and without a grant for two years when the offer came from the NID.
“Okay, yes, some of the stuff was a little out there. Some of it just didn’t plain work but some of it…” Rodney trailed off, staring at his hands. “Some of it seemed…”
“Alien?” Carson prompted and both Rodney and John stared at him. Carson snorted at their expressions. “You’re sitting next to a man that goes into a coma in the daylight and could get up from being hit by a car with nary a scratch and you’re looking at me like this is all so far-fetched?” Carson grinned at Rodney.
“I’m not an alien,” John snapped, rubbing a hand over his head and very desperately wanting to run from the room, possibly screaming.
“I didn’t say you were lad, but I’m sorry to say that you’re kidding yourself if you think that you’re strictly human either.” Carson rose and bustled out of the room. When he came back a few moments later, he was holding a folder to his chest. He looked at them both for a beat, before holding the folder out to John.
“This is all I was able to take with me, and even this I’m sure was too much for me to be safe. All I can offer is this and my wishes for the best of luck. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to tell my dear old mother that the house she’s lived in for thirty years is no longer safe and we have to move, preferably to another country.”
John looked at the blue folder for a beat, before reaching out to take it.
“I’m sorry lad, I really am. You didn’t deserve what was done to you.”
“Can we leave now?” John asked in a hollow voice, handing the folder over to Rodney without looking at it further.
“Sure, of course.”
~~~
“Hello? Yes, this is she… yes I… I’m not sure that’s…alright but I’m…okay, yes. I’ll see you then.”
Sam put the phone down in the cradle and looked at Jack, leaning casually in a corner of her lounge room.
“Tomorrow,” she said, her eyes downcast.
Jack grinned. “That’s fine. I know they’re close so you’ve done your bit. It’s two hours till dawn so they’ll need to stop soon.”
“Jack…” Sam looked at the phone and then back to his face. “You don’t have to do this.”
Jack grimaced at her. “You don’t understand, you used up the only get out of jail free card I had. These boys are just plain out of luck.”
Sam stared at her front door, long after Jack had passed through it and out into the night. Finally, she shook herself and then went to her bedroom. She pulled a worn suitcase down from the top and flipped it open. With wide eyes, she stepped away from it, a hand going to her mouth to arrest the scream.
Taped to the inside of the suitcase was a note.
Don’t even think about it.
Part 6
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: Adult Themes
Word Count: 1,952
Spoilers: None
Category: AU
Disclaimer: Don't own, don't sue, no offense, no money.
Part One | Part Two | Part Three | Part Four | Part Five | Part Six | Part Seven | Part Eight | Part Nine
Summary: “I’m not an alien,” John snapped, rubbing a hand over his head and very desperately wanting to run from the room, possibly screaming.
They had a morning ritual of sorts, as much of a morning as one could have when you woke up at sundown.
Rodney would sit, cross-legged on whatever crappy motel bed they had spent the night on, eating the most sugar-laden cereal he had been able to get his hands on. John would be doing push-ups or sit-ups or chin-ups if there was a bar able to take his weight. Rodney would watch him, a small smile on his face.
John felt weird going it alone.
He’d done his twentieth push-up and then had stopped, nose resting against the carpet and arms down by his sides. Rodney had ducked out while John was asleep, leaving him a ‘be back soon’ note.
John pulled himself up onto his elbows and looked at their backpacks, leaning drunkenly together on a chair. He knew he should stand, cross the room and pick up his own. He knew he should walk to the door and then through it.
He knew he should leave.
John knew he was preternaturally strong, but he had a weakness.
He was scared and he didn’t want to do this on his own.
He wasn’t sure how it had really happened, but he had come to depend on Rodney’s solid presence. He knew if he could be just a little stronger, he would leave before Rodney got hurt.
John knew he should love Rodney enough to leave.
Maybe he wasn’t there yet or maybe he was just selfish. In any case, when Rodney bustled through the door, he found John sprawled on the motel room floor, on his back and with his hands out at a ninety degree angle from his body.
“What are you doing?” Rodney asked, setting down a brown paper bag and then coming to stand over John, head haloed by sick yellow light.
“Not leaving,” John said.
~~~
Rodney wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but the matronly looking woman that answered the door wasn’t it.
“Can I help you gentlemen?” she asked, wiping hands on an apron. She had a pleasant and open face and there was a smudge of flour on one cheek. Her voice was a rich Scottish accent that made you think of warm fires and heavy foods.
“Ah, I’m not sure. We were looking for Doctor Carson Beckett.” Rodney tried his most polite smile, but she was looking past him at John, lurking behind his shoulder and staring fixedly at his shoes.
“Is everything alright?” There were the beginnings of a worried frown on her face.
“Yes, of course. I’m sorry to be bothering you in the evening but I got his details from a colleague and it’s very important we speak with him.”
The woman, whose expression had migrated from worry to suspicion, tightened her hand on the door, looking like she was readying herself to slam it shut. “I don’t think-“
“Who is it mum?” A voice called from deeper in the house and the woman froze. A man in his early forties appeared behind her and looked out. “I’m sorry, was there something-?” his voice faded to a whisper as his eyes skated past Rodney and landed on John. “Oh my God!” he breathed in a horrified choke. His arm shot out and in front of his mother and he shoved her backwards, stepping around her to slam the door behind him.
“Carson? Should I ring the police?” she called, pressed to the door, her voice tremulous.
Carson Beckett was staring at John, who met his gaze levelly. “I should have moved, shouldn’t I?” he sighed, looking resigned. “Look, do whatever you like to me, but my mother knows nothing. I’ll come quietly.”
Rodney finally found his voice and said, “Oh no, we’re not here to hurt you. We need your help.”
Carson blinked at them for a second, still looking wary. “What’s going on?” he prompted, eyebrows climbing towards his hairline.
“We… I mean to say…well, I guess you could say that I stole him.”
Carson blinked. “Oh aye. Maybe it’s best you come inside.”
~~~
He had watched in fascination with the other business men as the tour guide had stood at the observation window, extolling the virtues of the man below like she would appraise a high-performance car.
“Faster learning and more cunning than our other subjects. He hasn’t shown any of the signs of side-affects that this project has been plagued with thus far. He’s responded well to cleansing-“ At this word, Rodney jerked his head, a dark suspicion that the woman was not talking about any kind of outward cleaning in his mind as she continued. “-and commands. Gentlemen, you are looking at a thing of beauty.”
Below, a lean and dark haired man was working on what looked like a normal punching bag, but there were wires attached to both him and the bag. As the assembled group watched, he snapped out a particularly vicious-looking kick and the punching bag broke from the chain it was suspended on and went skidding across the room.
“Aren’t y’all worried that he might come off the rails?” A ruddy-cheeked individual in a suit Rodney was pretty sure would equal in value to his annual pay check, prompted.
The woman smiled, all white glistening teeth and the expression was predatory. “We have built a fail-safe of course. Unfortunately, it is not perfected as yet and our lead Doctor left before we could finish. This is for control and ultimately, transportation.” The woman held out one red taloned fingernail and depressed an intercom button set into the wall next to her.
“Daytime,” she said simply.
The room below suddenly went dark and then was filled with a blue light. Rodney watched in horrified fascination, crowded closer to the observation deck’s glass by the group behind him, as the man below slumped to the floor.
~~~
“I just figured they’d been successful and had sent him out to, you know… clean up.”
Carson set his teacup down with trembling fingers. He hadn’t relaxed until he’d packed off his protesting mother to a neighbour’s house, and even then he was still practically vibrating with tension. He perched of the very edge of the couch opposite Rodney and John, wringing his hands whenever they weren’t occupied with his cup.
“I don’t know how successful they were, but we were hoping you would have enough on what was being done to him-“
“You were hoping,” John snapped and Rodney looked at him.
“What?” he demanded.
“We shouldn’t be here. Look at the guy, he’s terrified.”
“John, we agreed the best way-“
“What Rodney? What did we agree on because I don’t remember you consulting me on anything.” John had taken an empty teacup from the table and now his hand clenched and the cup cracked. He frowned at it and set it aside. “I’m sorry, we shouldn’t be here,” John said, standing.
Rodney stood also, reaching for John, but it was Carson’s voice that stalled his departure. “Wait just a minute lad. If you’re not here to kill me and what Doctor McKay is saying is true, then of course I’ll help you. I’m sorry as hell for the part I played in this whole thing.” The tremble had dropped out of Carson’s voice and he looked resolute.
Rodney touched John’s elbow, who with a sigh sank back onto the couch. “As I was saying, we’re currently being pursued and I figure if we have something on the NID, something that we can perhaps threaten them with then they might have to let us go.”
Carson looked between them for a beat, before grimacing. “I’m sorry, but if you think the NID can be blackmailed to just set you free, then you’re sorely mistaken. I don’t think you have any idea how far up their influence goes and just what they’re into.”
“What are they into?” Rodney demanded, leaning forward.
“You said you were employed by them, to backwards engineer technology.”
“Yes,” Rodney nodded.
“Didn’t you ever think that perhaps the technology was a little… beyond our capabilities?”
“I didn’t… I was excited by what I was working on and whoever was coming up with this stuff was brilliant, but industrial espionage isn’t what-“
“C’mon Doctor McKay. You’re brilliant from what I can tell. Don’t be dumb.”
Rodney huffed, but thinking back to those six months he spent in the lab, fascinated by the objects he would be brought with little to no explanation of what they did or who they came from, he knew he had practiced some selective curiosity. He’d been tagged as a genius, but an impossible one and he’d been out of work and without a grant for two years when the offer came from the NID.
“Okay, yes, some of the stuff was a little out there. Some of it just didn’t plain work but some of it…” Rodney trailed off, staring at his hands. “Some of it seemed…”
“Alien?” Carson prompted and both Rodney and John stared at him. Carson snorted at their expressions. “You’re sitting next to a man that goes into a coma in the daylight and could get up from being hit by a car with nary a scratch and you’re looking at me like this is all so far-fetched?” Carson grinned at Rodney.
“I’m not an alien,” John snapped, rubbing a hand over his head and very desperately wanting to run from the room, possibly screaming.
“I didn’t say you were lad, but I’m sorry to say that you’re kidding yourself if you think that you’re strictly human either.” Carson rose and bustled out of the room. When he came back a few moments later, he was holding a folder to his chest. He looked at them both for a beat, before holding the folder out to John.
“This is all I was able to take with me, and even this I’m sure was too much for me to be safe. All I can offer is this and my wishes for the best of luck. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to tell my dear old mother that the house she’s lived in for thirty years is no longer safe and we have to move, preferably to another country.”
John looked at the blue folder for a beat, before reaching out to take it.
“I’m sorry lad, I really am. You didn’t deserve what was done to you.”
“Can we leave now?” John asked in a hollow voice, handing the folder over to Rodney without looking at it further.
“Sure, of course.”
~~~
“Hello? Yes, this is she… yes I… I’m not sure that’s…alright but I’m…okay, yes. I’ll see you then.”
Sam put the phone down in the cradle and looked at Jack, leaning casually in a corner of her lounge room.
“Tomorrow,” she said, her eyes downcast.
Jack grinned. “That’s fine. I know they’re close so you’ve done your bit. It’s two hours till dawn so they’ll need to stop soon.”
“Jack…” Sam looked at the phone and then back to his face. “You don’t have to do this.”
Jack grimaced at her. “You don’t understand, you used up the only get out of jail free card I had. These boys are just plain out of luck.”
Sam stared at her front door, long after Jack had passed through it and out into the night. Finally, she shook herself and then went to her bedroom. She pulled a worn suitcase down from the top and flipped it open. With wide eyes, she stepped away from it, a hand going to her mouth to arrest the scream.
Taped to the inside of the suitcase was a note.
Don’t even think about it.
Part 6
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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This is an exciting and engaging story and I'm REALLY enjoying it. : D
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Is the John-experiment based on something in SG-1? Or are we crossing over with something I wot not of?
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Can't wait for more!
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The plot thickens, and I'm thoroughly enjoying this!
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Lovely addition to the series, Kell. Really, really really awesome.
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Oh wow
What's Sam's role in the "experiment"?
Seems like maybe in this universe the NID has control of the SGC... or should I say The Trust.
Hrm, wonder if they're snaked yet?
So eagerly awaiting the next chapter. Will we be presented with more questions than answers?
Going nuts here with the wondering, and it... is so sweet. :D
-----}-@
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Re: Oh wow
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