![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Title: Red Sky At Dawn - Part Eleven
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kellifer_fic
Fandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
pegasus_b
Rating: Mature
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Note: The end is nigh! I also realised I was being lazy and not linking the next chapters so have fixed that now.
Summary - “Is everyone in this city crazy?” Ronon asked and Rodney stifled his automatic denial and said instead, “Not exactly everyone.”
Part 1 can be found here
“Oh holy crap!”
Kate Heightmeyer had just stepped into her office with an arm full of papers to find Jack sitting on a chair just inside the door. In her surprise she flung up her arms and papers went flying every which way.
Jack grimaced and darted forward, helping her gather the papers together. “Sorry about that, Doc,” he said as they stood together.
“I thought we weren’t doing this,” Kate said, indicating the fact that Jack was standing in her office. He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face when he’d put the rescued papers on Kate’s desk.
“Yeah, about that. I told Rodney I was in therapy so thought I should, you know, be in therapy.”
Kate smiled. “Do you want to go and get some lunch?”
Jack sagged, obviously relieved. “Oh hell, yes.”
xxxxxx
When Daniel next woke up, his guardian had changed. John was now in the seat that Ronon had been occupying for the better part of that day. John was sitting hunched over, elbows on his knees and was turning the leather band at his wrist around and around with restless fingers.
“Hey, I was going to come and see you when I woke up,” Daniel said and pushed himself into a sitting position. He winced as the stitches had pulled that were keeping his insides where they should be and remembered wryly that Keelan had advised him with a very serious expression that if she had to patch him up again, he would wake up with her initials somewhere on his body because an artist should always sign their work and she was becoming a master at patching Daniel back together.
“You’re allowed up?” John asked.
“Yeah, the Doc says I can get up and move about if I take it easy. She says I was lucky and didn’t puncture anything important.”
“Daniel,” John said, and his tone made Daniel lean forward. John still hadn’t raised his eyes from his wrist and the ceaseless motion of the piece of leather. “I’m going to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me.”
“O-kay,” Daniel said slowly, growing concerned.
“I got Ronon’s minders called off because you asked me to, but I’ve still got a man on him. I want you to actually tell me that he didn’t hurt you or… force you in any way.”
“Jesus, John, of course not.” Daniel exclaimed. “I already told you that.”
“You told me it was an accident while we had two marines, a Doctor and another nurse in the room but I know you. I don’t want this to be you thinking that you can reach him or something if he’s violent in any way.”
“It was an accident,” Daniel said, his voice level. “If you must know, I freaked out when he kissed me but only because I had a pretty vivid…“ Daniel made a helpless gesture with his hand.
John sighed heavily and stood, finally bringing his gaze up to meet Daniel’s. “I’m sorry, I just had to ask. You’re not always the best judge of… character.”
Daniel’s face closed down, warmth seeping out of his features until nothing was left but a cold suspicion. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know, despite what you’ve been through you’re still completely willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt when no one else thinks it’s a good idea. Hell, sometimes I got the feeling that you thought you could talk Ba’al around for chrissakes.”
“I watched him kill you dozens of times. How could you even think that?” Daniel’s voice was low and dangerous but John held his hands out, palms up.
“I’m not… crap, this is not coming out how I wanted it to at all. Look, despite everything there’s still this essential… Danielness about you. I’m envious and it’s coming out all wrong.”
The careful freeze on Daniel’s features melted and he canted his head. “What are you talking about?”
John dropped back into the chair next to the bed, looking completely drained. “I died, over and over again. At the end of all things, I started to crave it which was probably worse than the death itself. I’m man enough to admit that I went a little crazy there for a while and I still hear voices in my head, have prophetic nightmares and a city that seems to talk to me. I healed Teyla with my bare hands. I’m scared Daniel. I’m not sure I’m John Sheppard at all anymore.”
Daniel leaned forward and grasped John’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “I know it’s-“
John stood abruptly, the chair he’d been sitting in ratcheting backwards and toppling over. “You don’t know! That’s the problem, no one knows. I feel like I’m losing my grip and there’s nothing to anchor me. I nearly lost Teyla and if that happened… if that…“ John looked stricken and then leant over, his head coming to rest on Daniel’s bed. Daniel threaded fingers through the back of his hair, massaging lightly, and feeling through his fingertips how John was racked with silent sobs.
“I was wondering when you’d join the rest of us and let it all get to you,” Daniel said gently and John finally raised his head to look at him, whey-faced but looking a little calmer. “If you’ll remember, it wasn’t too long ago that I was holed up in a tower room, writing on the walls. Colonel O’Neill tried to flatten himself on a chunk of moon. We’ve both gone spectacularly bonkers. You just needed to let some crazy out.”
John chuckled wryly. “Is that what I’m doing?”
“You’ve just got to remember, crazy things are happening to you, not because of you.”
“I wish they’d stop happening to me. I could do with a little normal.”
“John, you travelled to another galaxy and married an alien. Sorry to say it but you revoked your normal life privileges with that one.”
“Huh. Think it’s too late to annul?”
“I think you’d be taking your life in your hands if you tried.”
John chuckled but then clicked his fingers. “You said you were going to come and find me. Did you need something?”
Daniel sighed deeply and pulled the laptop off the side trundle table but then looked at John with concern. “We don’t have to do this now,” he said seriously.
“Now you got my curiosity piqued. No way are you getting out of telling me.”
“Okay. I’ve been reading through the research on Ascension-“
“Maybe I don’t want to know this,” John interrupted but then made a go-ahead gesture with his hands, rescuing the chair he’d thrown backwards and settling into it.
xxxxxx
Rodney had been gathering what he would need for the briefing he’d promised Elizabeth when he got the feeling he was being watched. He looked up slowly and saw the tall feral-looking man in the lab doorway, effectively blocking Rodney’s only avenue of escape.
Ronon was watching him with something akin to interest and Rodney had a moment where his panicked mind assured him that yes, this was the day he was going to die.
“Can I help you?” Rodney asked, clearing his throat loudly when his voice rose to a panicked squeak at the end of his question.
Ronon stepped away from the doorway and further into the room. His body stiffened and he bowed his head slightly and Rodney was amazed that he’d gone from slouching menace to polite cautiousness in a single step. Rodney relaxed a little, but only a little.
“I just wanted to announce my intentions,” he said, his tone formal.
Rodney’s fear returned with vengeance. “You know, if you’re going to murder me in my labs, I would appreciate if it was a surprise and you know, quick. I’d rather no warning and for it to be quick.” Rodney flinched backwards when Ronon raised a hand, but the taller man was simply scratching his temple.
“Is everyone in this city crazy?” Ronon asked and Rodney stifled his automatic denial and said instead, “Not exactly everyone.”
“Look, where I come from we announce intentions to a former Adamo. It’s courtesy.”
“I have a briefing. What are you talking about?” Rodney demanded, his tone high and imperious. Ronon just blinked at him impassively.
“I thought Daniel and Sheppard were… you know. But he told me Sheppard was with Teyla. I asked her and she confirmed it but also let me know that Daniel and you had been… together. I know you and O’Neill are together now and-“
“You’ve been in this city two minutes. How the hell do you know all this?” Rodney demanded, feeling colour flood his cheeks. He and Jack were sharing quarters and not trying to hide the fact that they were together but everyone had been, up to now, politely not mentioning it.
Ronon simply shrugged. “I have eyes and ears. Now, I’m bound by honor to announce my intention-“
“Would you stop saying that! Intention to what? Do you think you have to… I don’t know, get rid of me or something?”
Ronon snorted. “No, Doctor McKay,” he sighed patiently.
“You’re not here to kill me?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Oh, good. Ah, then what is it you wanted? What’s the intention thing?”
“I intend to pursue Daniel. As his former Adamo I’m letting you know.”
“Oh, ah, I see. That’s very… nice of you… I guess.”
Ronon smiled, a dangerous curl of lip. “If you say so.”
Rodney had never been more confused in his life, but he decided then and there that he was going to avoid Ronon Dex on principle.
xxxxxx
Rodney looked around the room at the gathered scientists and senior staff and thought that the number was getting pathetically small. He looked to Daniel who offered him a wan smile. He hadn’t even found out that Daniel was in the infirmary until he saw him shambling into the room, still in a robe and scrub bottoms. They had such a small population and still things shifted dramatically, like Daniel for example.
Rodney wondered when everyone had decided that Daniel wounded didn’t automatically mean that he should be told.
Rodney’s gaze shifted to Jack and he knew that he would be the first one to find out if Jack were hurt. Hell, he would probably just know. His eyes ticked to John next and took in how John’s fingers were circled around Teyla’s wrist but she didn’t even seem aware of it, talking to Teresa on her other side.
His gaze finally settled on Elizabeth and he wondered how amidst all the shifting in their little world, she remained a soul island, something they gravitated around but never really touched. Even now, she sat in the very centre of the room but there was a careful space around her, becoming more noticeable the more Rodney noticed.
Teresa leaned casually with one shoulder against Kasyanov while she talked to Teyla. John’s fingers were on Teyla the entire time and while Daniel and John were talking quietly, Daniel touching John’s shoulder every now and again. Even Jack was slouched in such a way that he would nudge Ensfield’s boot with his whenever he turned in his chair.
Elizabeth sat alone and untouched. Rodney wondered if she had cast herself adrift or they had done it for her. He also knew that he could do nothing for her because she would simply smile and say don’t be silly, I’m fine.
Marooned had been a word Elizabeth had used often and Rodney thought it apt. She had cut herself off and they had let her. Like her city, she was surrounded by an ocean.
xxxxxx
In a way she’d been expecting it, but expecting something and actually seeing it were always two different things.
As Park looked up and saw the first grainy blob appear on the long range scanners, she sighed heavily. It was official, the Wraith were coming.
She watched as another entered the screen, then a third.
Park had made Major Sheppard show her the three dimensional image which ran through the Wraith invasion of Atlantis. She remembered how wave after wave of Wraith ships had converged on the planet in a sickening tide, one after another and she’d regretted asking.
When there were six and a seventh edging into view, Park turned her chair around.
She didn’t want to see them anymore.
Part Twelve
Author:
kellifer_ficFandom: Stargate: Atlantis, that is,
pegasus_bRating: Mature
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. They come from the SciFi Original Series Stargate:Atlantis. Don't own, don't sue!
Note: The end is nigh! I also realised I was being lazy and not linking the next chapters so have fixed that now.
Summary - “Is everyone in this city crazy?” Ronon asked and Rodney stifled his automatic denial and said instead, “Not exactly everyone.”
Part 1 can be found here
“Oh holy crap!”
Kate Heightmeyer had just stepped into her office with an arm full of papers to find Jack sitting on a chair just inside the door. In her surprise she flung up her arms and papers went flying every which way.
Jack grimaced and darted forward, helping her gather the papers together. “Sorry about that, Doc,” he said as they stood together.
“I thought we weren’t doing this,” Kate said, indicating the fact that Jack was standing in her office. He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face when he’d put the rescued papers on Kate’s desk.
“Yeah, about that. I told Rodney I was in therapy so thought I should, you know, be in therapy.”
Kate smiled. “Do you want to go and get some lunch?”
Jack sagged, obviously relieved. “Oh hell, yes.”
xxxxxx
When Daniel next woke up, his guardian had changed. John was now in the seat that Ronon had been occupying for the better part of that day. John was sitting hunched over, elbows on his knees and was turning the leather band at his wrist around and around with restless fingers.
“Hey, I was going to come and see you when I woke up,” Daniel said and pushed himself into a sitting position. He winced as the stitches had pulled that were keeping his insides where they should be and remembered wryly that Keelan had advised him with a very serious expression that if she had to patch him up again, he would wake up with her initials somewhere on his body because an artist should always sign their work and she was becoming a master at patching Daniel back together.
“You’re allowed up?” John asked.
“Yeah, the Doc says I can get up and move about if I take it easy. She says I was lucky and didn’t puncture anything important.”
“Daniel,” John said, and his tone made Daniel lean forward. John still hadn’t raised his eyes from his wrist and the ceaseless motion of the piece of leather. “I’m going to ask you something and I want you to be honest with me.”
“O-kay,” Daniel said slowly, growing concerned.
“I got Ronon’s minders called off because you asked me to, but I’ve still got a man on him. I want you to actually tell me that he didn’t hurt you or… force you in any way.”
“Jesus, John, of course not.” Daniel exclaimed. “I already told you that.”
“You told me it was an accident while we had two marines, a Doctor and another nurse in the room but I know you. I don’t want this to be you thinking that you can reach him or something if he’s violent in any way.”
“It was an accident,” Daniel said, his voice level. “If you must know, I freaked out when he kissed me but only because I had a pretty vivid…“ Daniel made a helpless gesture with his hand.
John sighed heavily and stood, finally bringing his gaze up to meet Daniel’s. “I’m sorry, I just had to ask. You’re not always the best judge of… character.”
Daniel’s face closed down, warmth seeping out of his features until nothing was left but a cold suspicion. “What the hell do you mean by that?”
“I don’t know, despite what you’ve been through you’re still completely willing to give someone the benefit of the doubt when no one else thinks it’s a good idea. Hell, sometimes I got the feeling that you thought you could talk Ba’al around for chrissakes.”
“I watched him kill you dozens of times. How could you even think that?” Daniel’s voice was low and dangerous but John held his hands out, palms up.
“I’m not… crap, this is not coming out how I wanted it to at all. Look, despite everything there’s still this essential… Danielness about you. I’m envious and it’s coming out all wrong.”
The careful freeze on Daniel’s features melted and he canted his head. “What are you talking about?”
John dropped back into the chair next to the bed, looking completely drained. “I died, over and over again. At the end of all things, I started to crave it which was probably worse than the death itself. I’m man enough to admit that I went a little crazy there for a while and I still hear voices in my head, have prophetic nightmares and a city that seems to talk to me. I healed Teyla with my bare hands. I’m scared Daniel. I’m not sure I’m John Sheppard at all anymore.”
Daniel leaned forward and grasped John’s shoulder, squeezing gently. “I know it’s-“
John stood abruptly, the chair he’d been sitting in ratcheting backwards and toppling over. “You don’t know! That’s the problem, no one knows. I feel like I’m losing my grip and there’s nothing to anchor me. I nearly lost Teyla and if that happened… if that…“ John looked stricken and then leant over, his head coming to rest on Daniel’s bed. Daniel threaded fingers through the back of his hair, massaging lightly, and feeling through his fingertips how John was racked with silent sobs.
“I was wondering when you’d join the rest of us and let it all get to you,” Daniel said gently and John finally raised his head to look at him, whey-faced but looking a little calmer. “If you’ll remember, it wasn’t too long ago that I was holed up in a tower room, writing on the walls. Colonel O’Neill tried to flatten himself on a chunk of moon. We’ve both gone spectacularly bonkers. You just needed to let some crazy out.”
John chuckled wryly. “Is that what I’m doing?”
“You’ve just got to remember, crazy things are happening to you, not because of you.”
“I wish they’d stop happening to me. I could do with a little normal.”
“John, you travelled to another galaxy and married an alien. Sorry to say it but you revoked your normal life privileges with that one.”
“Huh. Think it’s too late to annul?”
“I think you’d be taking your life in your hands if you tried.”
John chuckled but then clicked his fingers. “You said you were going to come and find me. Did you need something?”
Daniel sighed deeply and pulled the laptop off the side trundle table but then looked at John with concern. “We don’t have to do this now,” he said seriously.
“Now you got my curiosity piqued. No way are you getting out of telling me.”
“Okay. I’ve been reading through the research on Ascension-“
“Maybe I don’t want to know this,” John interrupted but then made a go-ahead gesture with his hands, rescuing the chair he’d thrown backwards and settling into it.
xxxxxx
Rodney had been gathering what he would need for the briefing he’d promised Elizabeth when he got the feeling he was being watched. He looked up slowly and saw the tall feral-looking man in the lab doorway, effectively blocking Rodney’s only avenue of escape.
Ronon was watching him with something akin to interest and Rodney had a moment where his panicked mind assured him that yes, this was the day he was going to die.
“Can I help you?” Rodney asked, clearing his throat loudly when his voice rose to a panicked squeak at the end of his question.
Ronon stepped away from the doorway and further into the room. His body stiffened and he bowed his head slightly and Rodney was amazed that he’d gone from slouching menace to polite cautiousness in a single step. Rodney relaxed a little, but only a little.
“I just wanted to announce my intentions,” he said, his tone formal.
Rodney’s fear returned with vengeance. “You know, if you’re going to murder me in my labs, I would appreciate if it was a surprise and you know, quick. I’d rather no warning and for it to be quick.” Rodney flinched backwards when Ronon raised a hand, but the taller man was simply scratching his temple.
“Is everyone in this city crazy?” Ronon asked and Rodney stifled his automatic denial and said instead, “Not exactly everyone.”
“Look, where I come from we announce intentions to a former Adamo. It’s courtesy.”
“I have a briefing. What are you talking about?” Rodney demanded, his tone high and imperious. Ronon just blinked at him impassively.
“I thought Daniel and Sheppard were… you know. But he told me Sheppard was with Teyla. I asked her and she confirmed it but also let me know that Daniel and you had been… together. I know you and O’Neill are together now and-“
“You’ve been in this city two minutes. How the hell do you know all this?” Rodney demanded, feeling colour flood his cheeks. He and Jack were sharing quarters and not trying to hide the fact that they were together but everyone had been, up to now, politely not mentioning it.
Ronon simply shrugged. “I have eyes and ears. Now, I’m bound by honor to announce my intention-“
“Would you stop saying that! Intention to what? Do you think you have to… I don’t know, get rid of me or something?”
Ronon snorted. “No, Doctor McKay,” he sighed patiently.
“You’re not here to kill me?”
“Not if I can help it.”
“Oh, good. Ah, then what is it you wanted? What’s the intention thing?”
“I intend to pursue Daniel. As his former Adamo I’m letting you know.”
“Oh, ah, I see. That’s very… nice of you… I guess.”
Ronon smiled, a dangerous curl of lip. “If you say so.”
Rodney had never been more confused in his life, but he decided then and there that he was going to avoid Ronon Dex on principle.
xxxxxx
Rodney looked around the room at the gathered scientists and senior staff and thought that the number was getting pathetically small. He looked to Daniel who offered him a wan smile. He hadn’t even found out that Daniel was in the infirmary until he saw him shambling into the room, still in a robe and scrub bottoms. They had such a small population and still things shifted dramatically, like Daniel for example.
Rodney wondered when everyone had decided that Daniel wounded didn’t automatically mean that he should be told.
Rodney’s gaze shifted to Jack and he knew that he would be the first one to find out if Jack were hurt. Hell, he would probably just know. His eyes ticked to John next and took in how John’s fingers were circled around Teyla’s wrist but she didn’t even seem aware of it, talking to Teresa on her other side.
His gaze finally settled on Elizabeth and he wondered how amidst all the shifting in their little world, she remained a soul island, something they gravitated around but never really touched. Even now, she sat in the very centre of the room but there was a careful space around her, becoming more noticeable the more Rodney noticed.
Teresa leaned casually with one shoulder against Kasyanov while she talked to Teyla. John’s fingers were on Teyla the entire time and while Daniel and John were talking quietly, Daniel touching John’s shoulder every now and again. Even Jack was slouched in such a way that he would nudge Ensfield’s boot with his whenever he turned in his chair.
Elizabeth sat alone and untouched. Rodney wondered if she had cast herself adrift or they had done it for her. He also knew that he could do nothing for her because she would simply smile and say don’t be silly, I’m fine.
Marooned had been a word Elizabeth had used often and Rodney thought it apt. She had cut herself off and they had let her. Like her city, she was surrounded by an ocean.
xxxxxx
In a way she’d been expecting it, but expecting something and actually seeing it were always two different things.
As Park looked up and saw the first grainy blob appear on the long range scanners, she sighed heavily. It was official, the Wraith were coming.
She watched as another entered the screen, then a third.
Park had made Major Sheppard show her the three dimensional image which ran through the Wraith invasion of Atlantis. She remembered how wave after wave of Wraith ships had converged on the planet in a sickening tide, one after another and she’d regretted asking.
When there were six and a seventh edging into view, Park turned her chair around.
She didn’t want to see them anymore.
Part Twelve
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