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Title: Hegira - Part 9 of 9 (Final)
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: Adult Themes
Word Count: 3,427
Spoilers: None
Category: AU
Notes: Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter borrowed from SG-1.
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: “There're whole chunks of time I can’t account for. When I went after those guys that had your friend,” John tilted his chin at Jack. “I don’t… I don’t really remember much of it. It’s like something inside me takes over and I sit in a room out the back of my brain and play cards till its over.”
Rodney woke up when he started having trouble breathing.
There was something constricting his chest and he thought maybe the tumble off the bed John had instigated earlier in the evening could have potentially done more damage to his already abused body when he cracked his eyes open and saw it was just John.
John was sitting astride his chest, legs on either side of his torso.
“I appreciate the sentiment but you’re heavy and I’m hurt,” Rodney tried for a good-natured grumble that came off more grumpy when he felt fingers brush the skin of his throat. Rodney felt gooseflesh chase up and down his arms and then it hit home what was wrong.
John was staring straight forward at the wall and from what Rodney could make out in the half-light of the room, his pupils were blown wide, only the tiniest rim of green around the edge.
“John? John!” Rodney yelped when the fingers that had been hovering actually settled around his neck. John’s hands were trembling but everything else about him was gone.
Jack, Rodney thought, gotta get Jack, but when he opened his mouth to yell out, John leaned forward, thumbs digging into Rodney’s windpipe so that all that emerged from him was a strangled yip.
“John,” Rodney tried again but the sound was lost, nothing but a half-breathed moan. He tried wrenching John’s hands away and then he pawed at John’s face, hoping to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. Rodney’s fingers skated across John’s jaw and down his neck and then he dug his fingers into John’s collarbone but the pressure was relentless. Rodney’s vision started to grey at the edges.
There was a loud crack, like thunder in the too-small room and John fell away, issuing a hurt-puppy noise that Rodney had never wanted to hear but would always remember.
“You okay?” Rodney looked around blearily and finally focused on Jack, standing in the doorway with his gun levelled.
“You shot him,” Rodney cried, voice grating past the broken glass that was his throat.
“He was choking you,” Jack snapped, taking a couple of steps into the room, wary.
“No, you shot him. You said that would kill him!”
“Not if we get the bullet out,” Jack said grimly, pulling a switchblade from a sheath at his back and flicking it open as he made his way over to John where he had landed.
Rodney watched, horrified, as John rolled on the floor, spine snapping back and forward so hard Rodney was amazed he didn’t break his back.
“I’m going to need you to hold him,” Jack said as he knelt by John’s side. When Rodney hesitated, Jack looked at him, face stern. “Now!” he barked and Rodney rolled from the bed, ignoring the dizziness and the black misery that was his shoulder.
~~~
“How did you know to come in?”
Rodney was sitting on the tile next to the grotty bath in the motel bathroom, watching as Jack washed the blood from his arms, trying not to focus on the fact that Jack’s arms were covered up to the elbows.
“You were snoring like a buzz saw and then you just… stopped. I knew something was up.”
“But maybe I’d just rolled over, or John had woken me up for round two or-“
“Do you want to actually argue about this now?” Jack asked, turning and looking at Rodney mildly.
“Sorry, I get argumentative when I’m upset… or horrified beyond belief.”
“Ah, alright then. Look, I’ve always had kind of a knack for knowing when something’s… off. Made me a good soldier.”
“Probably makes you a good assassin too, huh?” Rodney said and then grimaced. “Sorry, I also say really inappropriate things when horrified.”
“That’s okay; you’re allowed a few free shots. I did try to kill you.”
“You know, I don’t really believe that,” Rodney said, narrowing his eyes at Jack.
“How do you mean?” Jack asked, turning back to the sink and looking at the foamy pink mess the tiny complimentary soap had become. He tossed it and opened another one.
“If you were really trying, I have no doubt in my mind that we would, in fact, be dead.” Jack stilled, shoulders tense. “I just don’t think your heart was in it.”
“Don’t start trying to make me out like some kind of good guy,” Jack growled, warning in his tone. “I ain’t that guy.”
“No, honestly-“
“McKay! I see how this happens, you’re fairly dependant on me so you want me to be a good person, but I can’t be a good person and get you out of this at the same time. If I’d been a good person I would have hesitated before shooting Sheppard because there would have been some tiny place in me that would’ve believed that he really wouldn’t have killed you.”
“I don’t think he-“
“Listen.” Jack let out a pent-up explosive breath before turning and going down on his haunches in front of Rodney, disregarding the loud crack of his knees. “Sheppard’s unbalanced, he’s misfiring, whatever you want to call it. I think there’s a good goddamn reason those people that had him built an off switch.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Rodney argued, struggling to his feet, Jack following him up.
“Oh yeah, that should make us all feel a whole lot better.”
“You don’t know him!”
“Neither do you,” Jack snapped, rubbing a hand over his face. “Where does he come from? Who were his parents? What about him made these people think he was a good candidate for whatever the hell it was they were doing?”
“None of that matters. John wouldn’t have killed me!” Rodney yelled, voice breaking on the last word.
“Yes, I would have,” John said quietly from the doorway.
~~~
"There’s whole chunks of time I can’t account for. When I went after those guys that had your friend,” John tilted his chin at Jack. “I don’t… I don’t really remember much of it. It’s like something inside me takes over and I sit in a room out the back of my brain and play cards till its over.”
John signed, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m pretty sure I’m getting worse.”
“Here,” Jack said, rummaging in his duffle and pulling something out. When he held it toward Rodney, the younger man blinked at him.
“You’re joking,” Rodney snapped.
“I’m really not,” Jack said, tone without emotion. He held out another of the snub-nosed guns, identical to his own.
“Just what exactly do you think I’m going to do with that?” Rodney demanded.
“Shoot me if you have to,” John supplied from his place on the bed. Jack tried shoving the gun at Rodney again, who crossed his arms over his chest.
“Great, you’re both taking the same crazy pills. Must be nice.”
“Better than the denial pills you seem to be taking,” Jack snapped, sounding frustrated.
At that moment, there was a furtive tapping on the door and Rodney crossed to answer it, glaring at Jack on his way. When he pulled the door open, he stumbled backwards with a curse. A woman was standing in the doorway, one he recognised.
“She’s one of theirs!” Rodney yelped, dancing backwards. Rodney halted in his retreat when another head appeared around the door frame.
“Sorry, bad idea huh?” Carson Beckett asked, grimacing. Jack was looking between the woman and Rodney, a wry smile on his face. She was staring at John, eyes wide. “This is Laura Cadman. She is… was a part of NID security. She’s now my wife.”
“Wow, I only saw you the once,” she breathed, eyes still fixed on John.
“She was assigned to my after hours detail,” Carson explained. “And well, we got along. She left when I did.”
“I mean, the stuff you could do. It was pretty awesome,” Laura continued as if no one else was present. Rodney rolled his eyes and then clapped his hands sharply in front of her face. She flushed and looked at Carson. “Sorry, just, you know the rumours alone…”
“Yes, yes, punching his way out of the facility,” Rodney grumbled and Laura gaped at him. “How did you find us?”
“I called him,” Jack said and Rodney looked back at him in confusion.
“He’s part of your plan to help us disappear?”
“No, not exactly. It’s just, he’s going to have to disappear too and I figured, one bird, two stones.”
“Isn’t that two birds-?” Rodney began but then looked at Jack’s grin and rolled his eyes. “Okay yes, point taken. You’d have two stones.”
“I’m sorry, did we willingly drive to our own execution?” Carson asked and Laura tensed beside him, her hands drifting to the small of her back.
“When I say disappear, I don’t mean disappear,” Jack sighed, holding a finger-gun up to his temple for emphasis. “Just, while I was looking into the other thing we needed, I found out that the NID is burying this project and when it comes to the people that worked on it, I’m not talking metaphorically.”
“Oh, right. Well… thanks,” Carson said, a definite quaver in his voice.
“Anyway, we’re just waiting for one more guest and then we can get this party started. By the way,” Jack said, turning to Rodney. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to beat the security systems at Area 51 would you?”
Rodney blinked. “Yes, why?”
Jack’s smirk fell of his face. “I was being sarcastic,” he said in a tone Rodney had never heard before. He sounded a little… awed.
Another person had arrived in the doorway, wearing dark glasses and with dark brown hair. “He designed most of it,” Sam said.
~~~
“I do not look like a soldier,” Rodney complained, plucking at his BDU pants dejectedly.
“That’s why you’re sitting in the back,” Laura grinned, looking completely at home in the uniform she’d been supplied. Rodney scowled, truly annoyed that even Samantha Carter looked at home in the camouflage gear. Carson was dressed as a civilian but he was playing the part of a Doctor, surprisingly enough.
Rodney was sure their plan was going to fail, spectacularly, right up until they were being waved through the checkpoint that led into the main warehouse complex. John reached forward and squeezed Rodney’s knee.
“I’m not entirely comfortable following someone else’s plan blindly,” Rodney grumbled. “I work better when I’m informed.”
“I think you work better under pressure and with the seconds ticking down to destruction,” John observed, a genuine smile on his face, the first Rodney had seen in a while.
“Well, I happen to be brilliant no matter the circumstance, but you may be right.”
“Your time to shine Doctor McKay,” Jack called, opening the tail gate of the army transport he had liberated.
Rodney jumped down from the back of the vehicle and looked over the large warehouse-like structure. His eyes ticked towards Sam and she grinned back at him. “Oh c’mon, you> know what’s going on?”
“Of course I do. It was my idea.”
“Care to elaborate?” Rodney demanded, accepting the laptop John handed him and starting to hook it into the control panel that a security code would usually be punched into.
“This…” Sam took a beat to breathe. “This is something you have to see.”
“Cryptic isn’t as cute as you think it is,” Rodney grumbled as he worked, a small smile lighting his face as the monitor next to the panel he was working on flashed green and there was the dying groan of power shutting down. “It’s okay now,” Rodney waved a hand at the large entryway and Jack and John heaved the warehouse door aside.
Inside was steel shelving taking up one wall full of boxes. Out in the middle of the floor were a couple of jeeps in various states of repair plus a larger transport like the one they had entered in. In the very centre was a huge shipping crate that nearly touched the ceiling.
“What the hell is that?” Carson asked the question on Rodney’s lips.
“What we came for,” Sam smiled back at them and then scaled the freestanding ladder on one side, Jack going up the other. There were padlocks on the crate catches that Sam picked and Jack merely broke open with a crowbar he’d retrieved from their truck and then there was a groan as the front and back facing of the crate wobbled and fell free.
Rodney stared up at the huge metal ring that took up most of the inside of the crate.
John touched his elbow. “Do you know-?”
“No idea,” Rodney breathed, shaking his head slowly.
~~~
“I said there was nowhere on this world you could hide,” Jack said, coming back down the ladder on his side.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Rodney demanded, still unable to tear his eyes away from the metal ring.
“It’s the Stargate. Discovered-“
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” Jack interrupted Sam, making a hurry-up gesture with his hand. “Can I remind everyone that we’re in the middle of a highly secret government installation and some gormless wonder is bound to discover us sooner or later?” Jack had set down his duffle bag and was pulling jumper cables free. “Are you sure this will work?” he asked, waggling one of the cables at Sam.
“Yes, it’s possible to dial the ‘gate manually as long as we can feed enough power into it. It’s all very shoddy but it’ll work.” Jack nodded as he jogged over to one of the jeeps, leaning inside to twist the ignition on. When the jeep roared to life he grinned. He tested the larger transport next and then another jeep, finding them all thankfully functioning.
“Dial? Are we calling someone?” Laura asked and Sam chuckled.
“Sorry, it’s just what we call it. Around the outside of the Stargate are those symbols, see?” When Laura nodded, Sam continued. “They plot points, kind of like references on a map. A series of seven symbols makes up an address to another place. Another world.”
Laura squeaked and Carson gripped her hand and squeezed. “You’re sending us to another world?” Rodney watched in fascination as Carson paled and Laura’s eyes glowed with excitement.
“Sooner or later the NID will track you down. It’s just convenient that we can maroon two happy couples,” Jack grinned. “Besides, I think Johnny-boy here is in need of a little rehabilitation and who better than one of the guys responsible for making him what he is today?” Jack’s tone was still flippant but his eyes had hardened.
“Now just a second-“ Laura stepped forward but Carson touched her shoulder, nodding.
“Aye. Maybe the nightmares will ease some if I can actually do something right.”
“Did you bring it?” Jack asked and Rodney and John looked from him to Carson and back again.
“I did, yes.” Carson nodded and disappeared outside, only to re-enter with a large black case.
“What’s that?” John asked, open curiosity on his face. Jack nodded and left them to it, helping Sam to hook up the gate. After a beat, Laura retreated as well.
“This, laddie, is why I left.” When John and Rodney merely frowned at him, Carson sighed and opened the case. Inside was what looked like hundreds of vials with a thick green liquid. “When they first started worrying about your progress, I made a sedative, a damn strong one at that. It would put you into a normal sleep state.”
John’s eyes widened and Rodney gripped his arm.
“The powers that be decided that it didn’t put John here down fast enough and one of the other Doctors came up with the UVA light sensitivity, but everything in John shuts down and he can’t get the natural sleep he needs.”
“I do sleep sometimes,” John said defensively and Carson shook his head sadly.
“Not nearly enough. Sleep is important for many reasons. You sort through your day, your brain files memory, your body repairs itself. You burn too hot and too bright and if you weren’t headed for physical breakdown you certainly would have been on the way to a mental one.”
John and Rodney looked at each other. “You mean, I don’t have to be like this? You mean I can get normal?”
Carson chuckled. “Laddie, you’ll never be normal, but we can certainly have you functioning like a person very soon.”
“How much of that stuff have you got? It’s not like we can nip back here,” Rodney asked, chewing his lower lip.
“Enough to allow your body to adjust to having a sleep cycle. You’ll never need the same amount of sleep everyone else does, but this will help. It’s the damn shutdowns that basically stripped your body of its ability to regulate properly.”
“We’re still going to have that problem,” John said, eyebrows furrowed.
“No, you won’t.” Sam had appeared behind them as the sound of Jack and Laura manhandling the inner metal ring on the Stargate started up. Jack had a piece of paper in hand and he kept looking from it to the ‘gate and every now and again he would call a halt to the proceedings and there would be a dull ca-chunk. The sound of the jeeps and truck running were behind that.
“Every now and again the NID unpacks this baby when their stores of stolen tech start getting low. They spend a couple of weeks raiding other worlds where they steal practically everything that isn’t nailed down. On one such outing there was a world discovered, known to its people as the Land of the Light.”
“That doesn’t sound very good for me,” John said.
Sam smiled at him. “This place didn’t have much to take in the way of technology but a virus was brought back through, something that one of our Doctors managed to figure out the cure to and these people had been living with for years. For once, Earth left another world better than it found it. The NID haven’t bothered to go back since because there was nothing of value, the people while comfortable lead simple lives.”
“Still not hearing the good here,” Rodney observed and Sam punched him lightly on the arm.
“It’s known at the Land of Light because its populace live on one side of the planet, cast in perpetual daylight.”
“Wait… does that mean…?” John breathed.
“Leaving the rest of the world shrouded in endless night.”
~~~
Sam pressed a piece of paper into Rodney’s hands as Jack was announcing that they were about to lock the last coordinate in.
“What’s this?”
“Just in case anything… in case the place isn’t or doesn’t work out, I’ve written down some other addresses that might do.”
“You’re telling me this now?”
“I’m trusting you with these. Some of these worlds are a little more advanced than us… so much so that,” Sam pulled a radio out from the pack she was holding. “You should try radioing through before you try going through the ‘gate. Plus, I put the coordinates for Earth on here. Eventually… probably give it a few years and you’ll be able to come back.”
Rodney heaved a breath and then looked at Sam seriously. “What are you going to do?”
Sam looked toward the ‘gate and there was something wistful on her face. “I’d love to… “ She sighed and shook her head. “There’re a lot of people who are on the NID’s hit list. I’m going to help Jack. Help those people disappear like I did.”
“They found you,” Rodney snorted and Sam grinned.
“Not at all. Jack made me break surface to flush you guys out.”
“Ah, sorry about that,” Rodney apologised and Sam patted his shoulder.
“Besides,” she said. “From the rumours there are a couple more of him around,” Sam tilted her head in John’s direction.
Rodney remembered the girl with the black eyes. With a jolt he realised that maybe if it weren’t for him, John would have been the same.
“They deserve a chance.”
Rodney nodded and then let out a surprised squeak when Sam leant forward to hug him.
“You guys ready?” Jack called and then he nodded at Laura. Rodney and John twined hands, both facing the ‘gate. Rodney turned his face to say something to Sam but she merely put fingers up to his cheek and pushed gently until he was facing front again.
“You don’t want to miss this,” she breathed.
Fandom: SGA
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: Adult Themes
Word Count: 3,427
Spoilers: None
Category: AU
Notes: Jack O'Neill and Samantha Carter borrowed from SG-1.
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: “There're whole chunks of time I can’t account for. When I went after those guys that had your friend,” John tilted his chin at Jack. “I don’t… I don’t really remember much of it. It’s like something inside me takes over and I sit in a room out the back of my brain and play cards till its over.”
Rodney woke up when he started having trouble breathing.
There was something constricting his chest and he thought maybe the tumble off the bed John had instigated earlier in the evening could have potentially done more damage to his already abused body when he cracked his eyes open and saw it was just John.
John was sitting astride his chest, legs on either side of his torso.
“I appreciate the sentiment but you’re heavy and I’m hurt,” Rodney tried for a good-natured grumble that came off more grumpy when he felt fingers brush the skin of his throat. Rodney felt gooseflesh chase up and down his arms and then it hit home what was wrong.
John was staring straight forward at the wall and from what Rodney could make out in the half-light of the room, his pupils were blown wide, only the tiniest rim of green around the edge.
“John? John!” Rodney yelped when the fingers that had been hovering actually settled around his neck. John’s hands were trembling but everything else about him was gone.
Jack, Rodney thought, gotta get Jack, but when he opened his mouth to yell out, John leaned forward, thumbs digging into Rodney’s windpipe so that all that emerged from him was a strangled yip.
“John,” Rodney tried again but the sound was lost, nothing but a half-breathed moan. He tried wrenching John’s hands away and then he pawed at John’s face, hoping to snap him out of whatever trance he was in. Rodney’s fingers skated across John’s jaw and down his neck and then he dug his fingers into John’s collarbone but the pressure was relentless. Rodney’s vision started to grey at the edges.
There was a loud crack, like thunder in the too-small room and John fell away, issuing a hurt-puppy noise that Rodney had never wanted to hear but would always remember.
“You okay?” Rodney looked around blearily and finally focused on Jack, standing in the doorway with his gun levelled.
“You shot him,” Rodney cried, voice grating past the broken glass that was his throat.
“He was choking you,” Jack snapped, taking a couple of steps into the room, wary.
“No, you shot him. You said that would kill him!”
“Not if we get the bullet out,” Jack said grimly, pulling a switchblade from a sheath at his back and flicking it open as he made his way over to John where he had landed.
Rodney watched, horrified, as John rolled on the floor, spine snapping back and forward so hard Rodney was amazed he didn’t break his back.
“I’m going to need you to hold him,” Jack said as he knelt by John’s side. When Rodney hesitated, Jack looked at him, face stern. “Now!” he barked and Rodney rolled from the bed, ignoring the dizziness and the black misery that was his shoulder.
“How did you know to come in?”
Rodney was sitting on the tile next to the grotty bath in the motel bathroom, watching as Jack washed the blood from his arms, trying not to focus on the fact that Jack’s arms were covered up to the elbows.
“You were snoring like a buzz saw and then you just… stopped. I knew something was up.”
“But maybe I’d just rolled over, or John had woken me up for round two or-“
“Do you want to actually argue about this now?” Jack asked, turning and looking at Rodney mildly.
“Sorry, I get argumentative when I’m upset… or horrified beyond belief.”
“Ah, alright then. Look, I’ve always had kind of a knack for knowing when something’s… off. Made me a good soldier.”
“Probably makes you a good assassin too, huh?” Rodney said and then grimaced. “Sorry, I also say really inappropriate things when horrified.”
“That’s okay; you’re allowed a few free shots. I did try to kill you.”
“You know, I don’t really believe that,” Rodney said, narrowing his eyes at Jack.
“How do you mean?” Jack asked, turning back to the sink and looking at the foamy pink mess the tiny complimentary soap had become. He tossed it and opened another one.
“If you were really trying, I have no doubt in my mind that we would, in fact, be dead.” Jack stilled, shoulders tense. “I just don’t think your heart was in it.”
“Don’t start trying to make me out like some kind of good guy,” Jack growled, warning in his tone. “I ain’t that guy.”
“No, honestly-“
“McKay! I see how this happens, you’re fairly dependant on me so you want me to be a good person, but I can’t be a good person and get you out of this at the same time. If I’d been a good person I would have hesitated before shooting Sheppard because there would have been some tiny place in me that would’ve believed that he really wouldn’t have killed you.”
“I don’t think he-“
“Listen.” Jack let out a pent-up explosive breath before turning and going down on his haunches in front of Rodney, disregarding the loud crack of his knees. “Sheppard’s unbalanced, he’s misfiring, whatever you want to call it. I think there’s a good goddamn reason those people that had him built an off switch.”
“He didn’t know what he was doing,” Rodney argued, struggling to his feet, Jack following him up.
“Oh yeah, that should make us all feel a whole lot better.”
“You don’t know him!”
“Neither do you,” Jack snapped, rubbing a hand over his face. “Where does he come from? Who were his parents? What about him made these people think he was a good candidate for whatever the hell it was they were doing?”
“None of that matters. John wouldn’t have killed me!” Rodney yelled, voice breaking on the last word.
“Yes, I would have,” John said quietly from the doorway.
"There’s whole chunks of time I can’t account for. When I went after those guys that had your friend,” John tilted his chin at Jack. “I don’t… I don’t really remember much of it. It’s like something inside me takes over and I sit in a room out the back of my brain and play cards till its over.”
John signed, dropping his head into his hands. “I’m pretty sure I’m getting worse.”
“Here,” Jack said, rummaging in his duffle and pulling something out. When he held it toward Rodney, the younger man blinked at him.
“You’re joking,” Rodney snapped.
“I’m really not,” Jack said, tone without emotion. He held out another of the snub-nosed guns, identical to his own.
“Just what exactly do you think I’m going to do with that?” Rodney demanded.
“Shoot me if you have to,” John supplied from his place on the bed. Jack tried shoving the gun at Rodney again, who crossed his arms over his chest.
“Great, you’re both taking the same crazy pills. Must be nice.”
“Better than the denial pills you seem to be taking,” Jack snapped, sounding frustrated.
At that moment, there was a furtive tapping on the door and Rodney crossed to answer it, glaring at Jack on his way. When he pulled the door open, he stumbled backwards with a curse. A woman was standing in the doorway, one he recognised.
“She’s one of theirs!” Rodney yelped, dancing backwards. Rodney halted in his retreat when another head appeared around the door frame.
“Sorry, bad idea huh?” Carson Beckett asked, grimacing. Jack was looking between the woman and Rodney, a wry smile on his face. She was staring at John, eyes wide. “This is Laura Cadman. She is… was a part of NID security. She’s now my wife.”
“Wow, I only saw you the once,” she breathed, eyes still fixed on John.
“She was assigned to my after hours detail,” Carson explained. “And well, we got along. She left when I did.”
“I mean, the stuff you could do. It was pretty awesome,” Laura continued as if no one else was present. Rodney rolled his eyes and then clapped his hands sharply in front of her face. She flushed and looked at Carson. “Sorry, just, you know the rumours alone…”
“Yes, yes, punching his way out of the facility,” Rodney grumbled and Laura gaped at him. “How did you find us?”
“I called him,” Jack said and Rodney looked back at him in confusion.
“He’s part of your plan to help us disappear?”
“No, not exactly. It’s just, he’s going to have to disappear too and I figured, one bird, two stones.”
“Isn’t that two birds-?” Rodney began but then looked at Jack’s grin and rolled his eyes. “Okay yes, point taken. You’d have two stones.”
“I’m sorry, did we willingly drive to our own execution?” Carson asked and Laura tensed beside him, her hands drifting to the small of her back.
“When I say disappear, I don’t mean disappear,” Jack sighed, holding a finger-gun up to his temple for emphasis. “Just, while I was looking into the other thing we needed, I found out that the NID is burying this project and when it comes to the people that worked on it, I’m not talking metaphorically.”
“Oh, right. Well… thanks,” Carson said, a definite quaver in his voice.
“Anyway, we’re just waiting for one more guest and then we can get this party started. By the way,” Jack said, turning to Rodney. “You wouldn’t happen to know how to beat the security systems at Area 51 would you?”
Rodney blinked. “Yes, why?”
Jack’s smirk fell of his face. “I was being sarcastic,” he said in a tone Rodney had never heard before. He sounded a little… awed.
Another person had arrived in the doorway, wearing dark glasses and with dark brown hair. “He designed most of it,” Sam said.
“I do not look like a soldier,” Rodney complained, plucking at his BDU pants dejectedly.
“That’s why you’re sitting in the back,” Laura grinned, looking completely at home in the uniform she’d been supplied. Rodney scowled, truly annoyed that even Samantha Carter looked at home in the camouflage gear. Carson was dressed as a civilian but he was playing the part of a Doctor, surprisingly enough.
Rodney was sure their plan was going to fail, spectacularly, right up until they were being waved through the checkpoint that led into the main warehouse complex. John reached forward and squeezed Rodney’s knee.
“I’m not entirely comfortable following someone else’s plan blindly,” Rodney grumbled. “I work better when I’m informed.”
“I think you work better under pressure and with the seconds ticking down to destruction,” John observed, a genuine smile on his face, the first Rodney had seen in a while.
“Well, I happen to be brilliant no matter the circumstance, but you may be right.”
“Your time to shine Doctor McKay,” Jack called, opening the tail gate of the army transport he had liberated.
Rodney jumped down from the back of the vehicle and looked over the large warehouse-like structure. His eyes ticked towards Sam and she grinned back at him. “Oh c’mon, you> know what’s going on?”
“Of course I do. It was my idea.”
“Care to elaborate?” Rodney demanded, accepting the laptop John handed him and starting to hook it into the control panel that a security code would usually be punched into.
“This…” Sam took a beat to breathe. “This is something you have to see.”
“Cryptic isn’t as cute as you think it is,” Rodney grumbled as he worked, a small smile lighting his face as the monitor next to the panel he was working on flashed green and there was the dying groan of power shutting down. “It’s okay now,” Rodney waved a hand at the large entryway and Jack and John heaved the warehouse door aside.
Inside was steel shelving taking up one wall full of boxes. Out in the middle of the floor were a couple of jeeps in various states of repair plus a larger transport like the one they had entered in. In the very centre was a huge shipping crate that nearly touched the ceiling.
“What the hell is that?” Carson asked the question on Rodney’s lips.
“What we came for,” Sam smiled back at them and then scaled the freestanding ladder on one side, Jack going up the other. There were padlocks on the crate catches that Sam picked and Jack merely broke open with a crowbar he’d retrieved from their truck and then there was a groan as the front and back facing of the crate wobbled and fell free.
Rodney stared up at the huge metal ring that took up most of the inside of the crate.
John touched his elbow. “Do you know-?”
“No idea,” Rodney breathed, shaking his head slowly.
“I said there was nowhere on this world you could hide,” Jack said, coming back down the ladder on his side.
“Wait, what’s going on?” Rodney demanded, still unable to tear his eyes away from the metal ring.
“It’s the Stargate. Discovered-“
“A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away,” Jack interrupted Sam, making a hurry-up gesture with his hand. “Can I remind everyone that we’re in the middle of a highly secret government installation and some gormless wonder is bound to discover us sooner or later?” Jack had set down his duffle bag and was pulling jumper cables free. “Are you sure this will work?” he asked, waggling one of the cables at Sam.
“Yes, it’s possible to dial the ‘gate manually as long as we can feed enough power into it. It’s all very shoddy but it’ll work.” Jack nodded as he jogged over to one of the jeeps, leaning inside to twist the ignition on. When the jeep roared to life he grinned. He tested the larger transport next and then another jeep, finding them all thankfully functioning.
“Dial? Are we calling someone?” Laura asked and Sam chuckled.
“Sorry, it’s just what we call it. Around the outside of the Stargate are those symbols, see?” When Laura nodded, Sam continued. “They plot points, kind of like references on a map. A series of seven symbols makes up an address to another place. Another world.”
Laura squeaked and Carson gripped her hand and squeezed. “You’re sending us to another world?” Rodney watched in fascination as Carson paled and Laura’s eyes glowed with excitement.
“Sooner or later the NID will track you down. It’s just convenient that we can maroon two happy couples,” Jack grinned. “Besides, I think Johnny-boy here is in need of a little rehabilitation and who better than one of the guys responsible for making him what he is today?” Jack’s tone was still flippant but his eyes had hardened.
“Now just a second-“ Laura stepped forward but Carson touched her shoulder, nodding.
“Aye. Maybe the nightmares will ease some if I can actually do something right.”
“Did you bring it?” Jack asked and Rodney and John looked from him to Carson and back again.
“I did, yes.” Carson nodded and disappeared outside, only to re-enter with a large black case.
“What’s that?” John asked, open curiosity on his face. Jack nodded and left them to it, helping Sam to hook up the gate. After a beat, Laura retreated as well.
“This, laddie, is why I left.” When John and Rodney merely frowned at him, Carson sighed and opened the case. Inside was what looked like hundreds of vials with a thick green liquid. “When they first started worrying about your progress, I made a sedative, a damn strong one at that. It would put you into a normal sleep state.”
John’s eyes widened and Rodney gripped his arm.
“The powers that be decided that it didn’t put John here down fast enough and one of the other Doctors came up with the UVA light sensitivity, but everything in John shuts down and he can’t get the natural sleep he needs.”
“I do sleep sometimes,” John said defensively and Carson shook his head sadly.
“Not nearly enough. Sleep is important for many reasons. You sort through your day, your brain files memory, your body repairs itself. You burn too hot and too bright and if you weren’t headed for physical breakdown you certainly would have been on the way to a mental one.”
John and Rodney looked at each other. “You mean, I don’t have to be like this? You mean I can get normal?”
Carson chuckled. “Laddie, you’ll never be normal, but we can certainly have you functioning like a person very soon.”
“How much of that stuff have you got? It’s not like we can nip back here,” Rodney asked, chewing his lower lip.
“Enough to allow your body to adjust to having a sleep cycle. You’ll never need the same amount of sleep everyone else does, but this will help. It’s the damn shutdowns that basically stripped your body of its ability to regulate properly.”
“We’re still going to have that problem,” John said, eyebrows furrowed.
“No, you won’t.” Sam had appeared behind them as the sound of Jack and Laura manhandling the inner metal ring on the Stargate started up. Jack had a piece of paper in hand and he kept looking from it to the ‘gate and every now and again he would call a halt to the proceedings and there would be a dull ca-chunk. The sound of the jeeps and truck running were behind that.
“Every now and again the NID unpacks this baby when their stores of stolen tech start getting low. They spend a couple of weeks raiding other worlds where they steal practically everything that isn’t nailed down. On one such outing there was a world discovered, known to its people as the Land of the Light.”
“That doesn’t sound very good for me,” John said.
Sam smiled at him. “This place didn’t have much to take in the way of technology but a virus was brought back through, something that one of our Doctors managed to figure out the cure to and these people had been living with for years. For once, Earth left another world better than it found it. The NID haven’t bothered to go back since because there was nothing of value, the people while comfortable lead simple lives.”
“Still not hearing the good here,” Rodney observed and Sam punched him lightly on the arm.
“It’s known at the Land of Light because its populace live on one side of the planet, cast in perpetual daylight.”
“Wait… does that mean…?” John breathed.
“Leaving the rest of the world shrouded in endless night.”
Sam pressed a piece of paper into Rodney’s hands as Jack was announcing that they were about to lock the last coordinate in.
“What’s this?”
“Just in case anything… in case the place isn’t or doesn’t work out, I’ve written down some other addresses that might do.”
“You’re telling me this now?”
“I’m trusting you with these. Some of these worlds are a little more advanced than us… so much so that,” Sam pulled a radio out from the pack she was holding. “You should try radioing through before you try going through the ‘gate. Plus, I put the coordinates for Earth on here. Eventually… probably give it a few years and you’ll be able to come back.”
Rodney heaved a breath and then looked at Sam seriously. “What are you going to do?”
Sam looked toward the ‘gate and there was something wistful on her face. “I’d love to… “ She sighed and shook her head. “There’re a lot of people who are on the NID’s hit list. I’m going to help Jack. Help those people disappear like I did.”
“They found you,” Rodney snorted and Sam grinned.
“Not at all. Jack made me break surface to flush you guys out.”
“Ah, sorry about that,” Rodney apologised and Sam patted his shoulder.
“Besides,” she said. “From the rumours there are a couple more of him around,” Sam tilted her head in John’s direction.
Rodney remembered the girl with the black eyes. With a jolt he realised that maybe if it weren’t for him, John would have been the same.
“They deserve a chance.”
Rodney nodded and then let out a surprised squeak when Sam leant forward to hug him.
“You guys ready?” Jack called and then he nodded at Laura. Rodney and John twined hands, both facing the ‘gate. Rodney turned his face to say something to Sam but she merely put fingers up to his cheek and pushed gently until he was facing front again.
“You don’t want to miss this,” she breathed.
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This was a great AU with a lot of action, suspense, and a great ending. : )
Also: one of the best closing lines ever. Whoot!
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