stargateland fic.
Here's the story I wrote for Stargateland. It's not how I would have normally ended it, but I kind of ran out of time with Chicago looming so I had to come up with something fast.
Rodney disappears. He vanishes into the darkness of late night on PX3-511. John is awoken by the unnatural silence, the absence of Rodney's soft breathing the first sign that something is wrong. John scrambles out of the tent, bootless, his eye scanning the treeline for intruders or any evidence of Rodney's whereabouts. He grabs his boots from the tent and does a quick sprint around the perimeter, looking for clues, but there's nothing. Nothing John can see that would tell him where Rodney is, or how Rodney was lost to the night.
John calls softly to Teyla and Ronon, fervently hoping they're still in the camp, that they weren't taken along with Rodney.
"Teyla? Ronon? You guys in there? Wake up, Rodney's gone."
Teyla pushes out of the tent, hair mussed and face creased with sleep.
"John? What's the matter? What do you mean Rodney is gone?"
"I woke up because it was too quiet and you know McKay, he's never quiet, even when he's asleep. I can't find him anywhere. I've already searched the camp, just to make sure he didn't wander off for a piss or something, but he's not here."
Teyla sighs.
"This is not good, John. I have heard stories and night-tales about incidents such as this, but I have never had cause to believe they were true. These were tales we all heard as children, warnings against straying into the deepest of the dark woods or never answering the call of your name unless it was someone whose voice you knew. I have never heard these stories in this part of Pegasus or I would have mentioned it during the mission briefing."
Ronon, dressed and ready to fight, unfurls into the space at Teyla's side.
"Never heard of it happening for real on Sateda. Thought they were just old mother's tales. Guess not."
John admires Ronon's succinctness, as much as he's annoyed by the unhelpfulness of Ronon's glib response.
"So you guys knew something like this might happen, but you didn't tell us?"
"John, these stories are centuries old and no one I know has ever experienced it personally. No one thinks the stories are true, even if it appears now that they may be."
"Yeah, but didn't the people of Pegasus also think the Wraith were a legend during periods of hibernation?"
Teyla looks away from John's piercing glare for a moment, then turns to him with a resolute expression on her face.
"Arguing about semantics will not help us find Rodney. Let us look for him, and I will share with you what little information I have about these disappearances."
John can't disagree with her, so he concentrates on breaking camp instead. Teyla helps him with Rodney's things, taking his laptop and backpack from John's clenched fingers.
"We will find him, John."
"Yes, we will. Let's go."
John almost runs to the jumper. He tosses everything he's holding into a large storage compartment and slams it closed. Teyla and Ronon stow their gear more carefully, then join John in the front of the jumper. Teyla takes the co-pilot's seat and John clenches his teeth because it's usually where Rodney sits.
"You guys ready?"
John doesn't wait for a response, he lifts the jumper from the ground and speeds into the sky. He circles the planet twice before the jumper picks up the smallest of signals from Rodney's tracking device.
As the jumper lands, John says, "Let's be careful, we have no idea who has him, or why they took him."
Ronon's grin is evil and Teyla says, "We will ALL be careful, will we not?"
John grimaces.
"Fine, yeah, look, can we get moving?"
Ronon activates the hatch, and they move out of the jumper. John thumbs the remote to lock the hatch and turns on the cloak.
Teyla uses the scanner to track Rodney while John and Ronon follow closely behind. She stops abruptly and signals for them to stop.
"He is within 100 yards of our location, ahead of us. We should leave Ronon here to keep watch while we call Atlantis and request reinforcements."
John wants to argue, demanding that they storm in on their own and save Rodney from whatever is happening to him at this very moment. But he doesn't because he knows she's right.
"All right, let's go. Sooner we do that, the sooner our back-up gets here."
-----
John looks like an avenging angel, fire-wings bright behind him as another wall begins to burn in the distance. He can feel the heat at his back but doesn't care.
A little C-4 will go a long way, he thinks and shouts, "Light it up again," to his waiting soldiers.
Lit only by the burning rubble around him, John's face in shadow is dark and dangerous as he searches each cell for signs of Rodney. Teyla just barely catches up to him when he finds Rodney in a cell at the end of the hallway. Rodney looks for all the world like he's sleeping, but as John approaches he can tell that Rodney is unconscious.
Rodney doesn't appear to otherwise injured, but John calls for the medical team anyway. The team performs basic triage and gets Rodney onto a stretcher.
John's not sure he remembers anything after that. He definitely doesn't remember flying the jumper home or debriefing Elizabeth. He must have flown the jumper, because here he is, here they are, home.
Teyla and Ronon sit beside him while they wait for word of Rodney's condition. They wait, and after an hour Carson comes out.
"Colonel, Rodney's fine. He's got a wee concussion from a blow to the head and I'll want to keep him overnight for observation, but he should be fine in the morning."
John sighs with relief. He lets Ronon and Teyla drag him away to eat and sleep.
-----
When Rodney wakes the next morning, he doesn't know anything about walking through the woods, or that he had even disappeared.
"I don't know how I got in the cell," he's telling Carson when John walks up next to Rodney's bed. "It's like I went to sleep in the tent and woke up here in the infirmary."
John looks at him sideways. None of them know what happened to Rodney, and hearing that Rodney doesn't know puts him on edge.
-----
Their next offworld mission is uneventful. So's the next, and the next after that. It's like it never happened, but John remembers. John remembers.
Rodney disappears. He vanishes into the darkness of late night on PX3-511. John is awoken by the unnatural silence, the absence of Rodney's soft breathing the first sign that something is wrong. John scrambles out of the tent, bootless, his eye scanning the treeline for intruders or any evidence of Rodney's whereabouts. He grabs his boots from the tent and does a quick sprint around the perimeter, looking for clues, but there's nothing. Nothing John can see that would tell him where Rodney is, or how Rodney was lost to the night.
John calls softly to Teyla and Ronon, fervently hoping they're still in the camp, that they weren't taken along with Rodney.
"Teyla? Ronon? You guys in there? Wake up, Rodney's gone."
Teyla pushes out of the tent, hair mussed and face creased with sleep.
"John? What's the matter? What do you mean Rodney is gone?"
"I woke up because it was too quiet and you know McKay, he's never quiet, even when he's asleep. I can't find him anywhere. I've already searched the camp, just to make sure he didn't wander off for a piss or something, but he's not here."
Teyla sighs.
"This is not good, John. I have heard stories and night-tales about incidents such as this, but I have never had cause to believe they were true. These were tales we all heard as children, warnings against straying into the deepest of the dark woods or never answering the call of your name unless it was someone whose voice you knew. I have never heard these stories in this part of Pegasus or I would have mentioned it during the mission briefing."
Ronon, dressed and ready to fight, unfurls into the space at Teyla's side.
"Never heard of it happening for real on Sateda. Thought they were just old mother's tales. Guess not."
John admires Ronon's succinctness, as much as he's annoyed by the unhelpfulness of Ronon's glib response.
"So you guys knew something like this might happen, but you didn't tell us?"
"John, these stories are centuries old and no one I know has ever experienced it personally. No one thinks the stories are true, even if it appears now that they may be."
"Yeah, but didn't the people of Pegasus also think the Wraith were a legend during periods of hibernation?"
Teyla looks away from John's piercing glare for a moment, then turns to him with a resolute expression on her face.
"Arguing about semantics will not help us find Rodney. Let us look for him, and I will share with you what little information I have about these disappearances."
John can't disagree with her, so he concentrates on breaking camp instead. Teyla helps him with Rodney's things, taking his laptop and backpack from John's clenched fingers.
"We will find him, John."
"Yes, we will. Let's go."
John almost runs to the jumper. He tosses everything he's holding into a large storage compartment and slams it closed. Teyla and Ronon stow their gear more carefully, then join John in the front of the jumper. Teyla takes the co-pilot's seat and John clenches his teeth because it's usually where Rodney sits.
"You guys ready?"
John doesn't wait for a response, he lifts the jumper from the ground and speeds into the sky. He circles the planet twice before the jumper picks up the smallest of signals from Rodney's tracking device.
As the jumper lands, John says, "Let's be careful, we have no idea who has him, or why they took him."
Ronon's grin is evil and Teyla says, "We will ALL be careful, will we not?"
John grimaces.
"Fine, yeah, look, can we get moving?"
Ronon activates the hatch, and they move out of the jumper. John thumbs the remote to lock the hatch and turns on the cloak.
Teyla uses the scanner to track Rodney while John and Ronon follow closely behind. She stops abruptly and signals for them to stop.
"He is within 100 yards of our location, ahead of us. We should leave Ronon here to keep watch while we call Atlantis and request reinforcements."
John wants to argue, demanding that they storm in on their own and save Rodney from whatever is happening to him at this very moment. But he doesn't because he knows she's right.
"All right, let's go. Sooner we do that, the sooner our back-up gets here."
-----
John looks like an avenging angel, fire-wings bright behind him as another wall begins to burn in the distance. He can feel the heat at his back but doesn't care.
A little C-4 will go a long way, he thinks and shouts, "Light it up again," to his waiting soldiers.
Lit only by the burning rubble around him, John's face in shadow is dark and dangerous as he searches each cell for signs of Rodney. Teyla just barely catches up to him when he finds Rodney in a cell at the end of the hallway. Rodney looks for all the world like he's sleeping, but as John approaches he can tell that Rodney is unconscious.
Rodney doesn't appear to otherwise injured, but John calls for the medical team anyway. The team performs basic triage and gets Rodney onto a stretcher.
John's not sure he remembers anything after that. He definitely doesn't remember flying the jumper home or debriefing Elizabeth. He must have flown the jumper, because here he is, here they are, home.
Teyla and Ronon sit beside him while they wait for word of Rodney's condition. They wait, and after an hour Carson comes out.
"Colonel, Rodney's fine. He's got a wee concussion from a blow to the head and I'll want to keep him overnight for observation, but he should be fine in the morning."
John sighs with relief. He lets Ronon and Teyla drag him away to eat and sleep.
-----
When Rodney wakes the next morning, he doesn't know anything about walking through the woods, or that he had even disappeared.
"I don't know how I got in the cell," he's telling Carson when John walks up next to Rodney's bed. "It's like I went to sleep in the tent and woke up here in the infirmary."
John looks at him sideways. None of them know what happened to Rodney, and hearing that Rodney doesn't know puts him on edge.
-----
Their next offworld mission is uneventful. So's the next, and the next after that. It's like it never happened, but John remembers. John remembers.