Fic: Transformation (McKay/Sheppard, PG-13)
Title: Transformation
Author: pollitt
Recipient: redsnake05
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rating: PG-13
Summary:John learns that some changes are inevitable.
Note: Happy Holidays, redsnake05, I hope you like your present. And thank you to my beta for her utter awesomeness.
*
John had been shot, stabbed, fed on by a Wraith, and had experienced more than his fair share of alien races and artificial intelligences probing into his brain, so he was something of a connoisseur of off-world unpleasantries. This had been a new one even for him.
The mission was, as the story so often went, supposed to be a simple one. M3X-234--Thrynos according to an entry in the Ancient database--was a thriving world with a population rich with scientific and technological minds, which made it stop number one on McKay's list of planets to visit. And as so often is the case, the brochure had been so much prettier than the actual place. Thrynos might have once been a great civilization, but when the team had stepped through the gate, what they found wasn't grand buildings and technology, but instead ruins and wildlife.
Rodney had been in the middle of a colorful, verbose rant about the lack of truth in advertising and the unreliability of taking Ancients for their word when the world had gone a hazy shade of gray and then black.
John had awoken to find himself seated and restrained in a wooden chair and surrounded by four people--two men and two women--clad in what looked like monk's frocks.
"What the hell?" He'd asked, looking at each of his captors. His head felt fuzzy, like he'd had one too many drinks. "What's going on? Who are you and where is my team?"
Through an elaborate, and wordy description that was almost completely lost on him, John learned that the Thrynosians had taken to their subterranean living when some drug (wasn't it always 'some drug') they'd been working on had an unexpected result.
"It became unsafe for the civilization to remain on the surface and face this new threat as well as that of the Wraith," the leader of the group, a gray-haired woman named Nara, explained. "For centuries, we've been working on a cure. But our population has dwindled and without the addition of new samples, the research had to be suspended. Travelers to our world are few and far between and we have been forced to take more extreme measures."
As Nara spoke John became increasingly aware of a throbbing in the crook of his elbow--like he'd been given a shot.
"Where's the rest of my team?" John asked, feeling his heart rate kick up another notch, adrenaline mixing with whatever it was he knew they had dosed him with. "What the have you done to them? What's going on here?"
In lieu of an answer, Nara nodded to a man at the door and John watched as Rodney had been brought into the room.
"Sheppard, are you okay?" Rodney asked, concern etched into every feature. He turned and glared and Nara and her silent partners. "What have you done to him? Where are our friends?"
"We're their guinea pigs. Aren't we?" He looked at the quartet and then back at Rodney. "They fucked up making some drug--"
"Oh for the love of... Why is it always that?"
"--And they need us because we're new blood." Anger had settled deep in John's stomach, and he pulled against the ropes that bound his wrists.
"Your two companions were incompatible with our experiments. They were returned to the surface and can return to your home world, as you will be able to. It is not our intention to keep you here," Nara nodded again and the others in the room began to exit. "You will be released when the test is complete."
With those final words, Nara left the room. The door had not yet clicked shut before Rodney was at John's side, untying him. "What are we, animals to be tagged? This is one messed up catch and release program."
John let Rodney's words wash over him. The drunken feeling had intensified, and with the Thrynosians gone, he could let his guard down. He looked at Rodney, who seemed as clear-headed as ever. "Are you okay?"
"Aside from a headache from whatever it was that they knocked us out with, yes," Rodney answered. He turned and looked at the room. "What is it with inhabitants of this galaxy and their love of secret underground bunkers?"
As John watched Rodney inspect the room, something hot settled low in John's stomach. His skin felt as though it was crackling with electricity and every sense felt heightened. He stood and in a few strides was standing behind Rodney. His fingers itched. He could see the small hairs at the back of Rodney's neck, could hear the intake of breath as Rodney turned around and found John in front of him, and then closer.
They'd been circling one another almost since day one, every so often daring to cross the unspoken boundary. A touch to the arm or shoulder. Saving one another lives, and being saved in return. Their game. Video golf. A kiss--kisses. Four kisses and one night, as Rodney clung to memories and clung to John, both of them too tired and too scared to not take that risk. They didn't talk about it then, hadn't spoken about it since. John doesn't know if Rodney remembers it at all, and so he remembers for the both of them.
"John?" Rodney's voice was low and raspy, his eyes were wide, their pupils blown.
John stepped closer still, almost pinning Rodney to the wall with his body. He could see tiny beats of sweat form on Rodney's top lip.
"Sheppard." Rodney's hands slid over John's chest, exerting a slight pressure as John leaned in and nuzzled the side of Rodney's neck.
Rodney said John's name again, so softly so it's almost a whisper. John knew he should answer, but the words wouldn't come.
The first cramp made him release Rodney's arms. The second doubled him over in pain.
"John?" Rodney sounded like he was under water. John felt Rodney's hands wrap around him as they descended slowly to the floor.
A string of profanities followed as Rodney called for the guards, for anyone, and John tried to smile. He shut his eyes and felt Rodney's fingers stroke his temple.
The last thing he remembered was the sound of doors opening and the familiar deep rumble of Ronon's voice, Rodney's shout of relief, and Nara's voice saying over and over 'it worked.'
0000000000
When John woke again, he was in the infirmary.
"Look who's back with us," Keller said, smiling from the side of the hospital bed. "Welcome back, Colonel."
"What happened?" John asked, looking around. Ronon and Teyla were waiting on the other side of the bed. "How long was I out?"
"You were unconscious for the better part of a day," Teyla answered, resting her hand on his.
"After we got stunned--me and Teyla woke up on Thyrnos right where we'd fallen, and you and McKay were missing. We searched the ruins but couldn't find you, so we headed back for a jumper and back-up," Ronon said. "Those people had a whole city underground. By the time we found where you were, McKay was yelling for help, you were passed out, and that crazy woman in the robes--"
"Nara," John added almost absently. He couldn't see Rodney anywhere.
"Nara, sure. Anyway, she just kept raising her hands to the sky and saying 'it worked, it worked.' When she pulled out a syringe, I thought McKay was going to shoot her."
"Where is Rodney?" John asked, a knot settling in his stomach.
"He's in his lab. As soon as Dr. Keller released him, he retreated there." Teyla leveled a gaze him as though she was weighing whether or not to ask him something. Thankfully, she didn't. John wasn't ready to be the one to answer questions quite yet.
"What happened after you found us? I'm assuming Thrynos is still standing."
"It was close, I almost had to stun McKay, especially when Nara tried to sneak some blood from you, but yeah, they didn't put up a fight and let us take you home." Ronon's grin said he had a newfound appreciation for Rodney.
"Rodney did manage to disable the planet's stargate on our return to Atlantis," Teyla added, her smile told John she approved as well.
"Sound like Rodney." John turned to look at Dr. Keller. "How are my tests, doc? I don't know what it was that Nara gave me, but I'd like to make sure it's completely gone."
"We did a full body scan and a complete panel of tests and you're free and clear," Keller said, looking at her chart. "There appear to be some antibodies that were created. Rodney mentioned the Thrynosians had injected you with a drug they had been working on. And I assume that's what they're from. I'd like to get some more details from you after you've gotten some rest."
John felt his face sour, talking about what had happened was one of the last things he wanted to do. "Sure. Maybe later this week."
Maybe not ever, if he could help it.
For the rest of the week, John used not a little of his military training (and one time the classic technique of ducking into an empty room) to avoid talking to Keller about what happened, to keep his distance from Rodney (every time he saw him, it felt as though his chest was being squeezed as he remembered what he could have done) much to the other man's obviously growing frustration, and he wanted to turn tail and run when he saw Rodney and Keller together. Which felt like it was all the time.
0000000000
"Sheppard." Rodney stood at one of the hallway, a life signs detector in hand.
"John." Rodney's voice echoed in the hallway as John turned tail and tried his best not to run. "John, wait."
Every inch of John's body was telling him to not listen, to take that next step and walk (not run) away, but some part of him kept his feet rooted in the spot.
"This is just getting ridiculous. Do I need to steal Ronon's gun and stun you into standing in one place long enough?" Rodney asked, frustration and not a little bit of anger in his voice.
When he reached John, Rodney reached out and John again fought the desire to flee.
"What is it, McKay? Keller need me back for some tests? Or maybe you just want to make mooning faces at one another some more while I watch."
"What? No. God you can be an asshole. And a hypocrite. You've been avoiding me all week. And you should know, you of all people should know that I can be persistent."
"That's an understatement."
"Again I say, asshole." Rodney pocketed the life signs detector and wrapped his hands around John's biceps.
John closed his eyes against the momentary flashes of memory--Rodney, losing his mind, losing his life, scared and coming to John for reassurance, for safety and later, with cold hands and cheeks from the wind outside and beer on their breath, for something else as they kissed; and then less than a week ago, Rodney's eyes, his pupils blown wide as John licked over the pulse point of Rodney's neck.
"Back in there, when I was... I didn't," John said, hedging his bets that Rodney would know what he was trying to say. Praying he would. "You shouldn't."
"Shouldn't what? Shouldn't try to talk to you? Shouldn't call you on it when you're being an asshole? Shouldn't want you? Shouldn't know what's right in front of my face?"
"Rodney."
Rodney growled--there was no other way to describe it--and pushed John up against the wall, pinning John's body with his own, and kissed him roughly. John pushed back, but Rodney was stronger than he appeared and when he turned his head to deepen the kiss, John relented, moving his hands up to hold Rodney's face.
"I thought you'd.. but... Keller..." John's ability to think, or speak, in complete and coherent sentences was significantly impeded by the way Rodney's hands were moving over his chest, tugging at the bottom hem and slipping underneath. John shuddered as Rodney's hands slid over the skin of his stomach.
"Did Ronon drop you on your head again while you were sparring?" Rodney asked, sliding his hands around John's waist to the small of his back.
"I thought, after, after Thrynos. Figured this would be the last thing--"
"Well you thought wrong. I know I can be dense about things, but this... In case there's any room for questioning what's going on, John, I have every intention of getting you as naked as possible. And not even watching you turn into the Pegasus version of the Wolf Man is going to deter me." Rodney bit at the skin of John's jaw. "Although I'm not going to say that I'm not glad you're back to you, you. You're hairy enough as is."
John wanted to laugh, but he couldn't. It didn't change what almost happened. "I could've hurt you." That was the thing, the thing, that had kept John away. The part that kept replaying in his thoughts--moreso than the feeling of having Rodney pressed against him. "I could've killed you."
"Yes, you could have. You wouldn't have, but you could have. What really matters is you didn't." Rodney slid his hands out from under John's shirt and twined their fingers together. "Teyla did some digging and found confirmation that what the Thrynosians injected you with was the drug that sent them underground. Those who received the shot would go all Lon Chaney, and sometimes--oftentimes--kill. And the change wasn't reversible."
"So why was I so lucky?"
It could've been worse, he knew, at least this time the transformation had been quick and relatively painless. Plus, a couple extra hairs beat scales hands down. Crawling up walls like Spiderman had been kinda cool, though.
"Jennifer thinks it's the ATA gene."
"So is that what you and she have been whispering about this week? You've been pretty chummy lately." John had been accused of being a contrary bastard before, and although Rodney didn't say it out loud, his look certainly did.
"Chummy? When? When we were at the sock hop?"
"You've been eating together, and in your labs."
"What? Did you hire Ronon to tail me? I thought I saw him hiding behind a potted plant the other day." Rodney seemed convinced that John wasn't going to run away, and so he let go of John's hands and took a step back out of John's personal space. John almost reached out to pull him back in. "Jennifer and I have been working on a possible fix for the Thrynosian drug using nanotechnology. Only in simulations, that is. If she can figure out what went wrong, maybe it can keep the next bunch of people from walking into the freakshow that we did."
"Lucky them." John looked around the hallway, which was blessedly still empty. "So, about what you said earlier. Before you called me the Wolf Man."
Rodney smiled. "Yes?"
"Is that still your intention?"
"Preferably not in the middle of the hallway, but yes. We're going to do this right this time. With both of us in our right minds."
John wondered if he looked as dumbstruck as he felt. Was Rodney saying what it sounded like he was? That he remembered those stolen kisses on the pier, the kiss goodbye. He wasn't ready to ask yet, but he figured one day soon he'd work up the courage. For now, he would just follow Rodney's lead--this time he was pretty sure there wouldn't be any underground bunkers involved. And he was good with that.
Author: pollitt
Recipient: redsnake05
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rating: PG-13
Summary:John learns that some changes are inevitable.
Note: Happy Holidays, redsnake05, I hope you like your present. And thank you to my beta for her utter awesomeness.
*
John had been shot, stabbed, fed on by a Wraith, and had experienced more than his fair share of alien races and artificial intelligences probing into his brain, so he was something of a connoisseur of off-world unpleasantries. This had been a new one even for him.
The mission was, as the story so often went, supposed to be a simple one. M3X-234--Thrynos according to an entry in the Ancient database--was a thriving world with a population rich with scientific and technological minds, which made it stop number one on McKay's list of planets to visit. And as so often is the case, the brochure had been so much prettier than the actual place. Thrynos might have once been a great civilization, but when the team had stepped through the gate, what they found wasn't grand buildings and technology, but instead ruins and wildlife.
Rodney had been in the middle of a colorful, verbose rant about the lack of truth in advertising and the unreliability of taking Ancients for their word when the world had gone a hazy shade of gray and then black.
John had awoken to find himself seated and restrained in a wooden chair and surrounded by four people--two men and two women--clad in what looked like monk's frocks.
"What the hell?" He'd asked, looking at each of his captors. His head felt fuzzy, like he'd had one too many drinks. "What's going on? Who are you and where is my team?"
Through an elaborate, and wordy description that was almost completely lost on him, John learned that the Thrynosians had taken to their subterranean living when some drug (wasn't it always 'some drug') they'd been working on had an unexpected result.
"It became unsafe for the civilization to remain on the surface and face this new threat as well as that of the Wraith," the leader of the group, a gray-haired woman named Nara, explained. "For centuries, we've been working on a cure. But our population has dwindled and without the addition of new samples, the research had to be suspended. Travelers to our world are few and far between and we have been forced to take more extreme measures."
As Nara spoke John became increasingly aware of a throbbing in the crook of his elbow--like he'd been given a shot.
"Where's the rest of my team?" John asked, feeling his heart rate kick up another notch, adrenaline mixing with whatever it was he knew they had dosed him with. "What the have you done to them? What's going on here?"
In lieu of an answer, Nara nodded to a man at the door and John watched as Rodney had been brought into the room.
"Sheppard, are you okay?" Rodney asked, concern etched into every feature. He turned and glared and Nara and her silent partners. "What have you done to him? Where are our friends?"
"We're their guinea pigs. Aren't we?" He looked at the quartet and then back at Rodney. "They fucked up making some drug--"
"Oh for the love of... Why is it always that?"
"--And they need us because we're new blood." Anger had settled deep in John's stomach, and he pulled against the ropes that bound his wrists.
"Your two companions were incompatible with our experiments. They were returned to the surface and can return to your home world, as you will be able to. It is not our intention to keep you here," Nara nodded again and the others in the room began to exit. "You will be released when the test is complete."
With those final words, Nara left the room. The door had not yet clicked shut before Rodney was at John's side, untying him. "What are we, animals to be tagged? This is one messed up catch and release program."
John let Rodney's words wash over him. The drunken feeling had intensified, and with the Thrynosians gone, he could let his guard down. He looked at Rodney, who seemed as clear-headed as ever. "Are you okay?"
"Aside from a headache from whatever it was that they knocked us out with, yes," Rodney answered. He turned and looked at the room. "What is it with inhabitants of this galaxy and their love of secret underground bunkers?"
As John watched Rodney inspect the room, something hot settled low in John's stomach. His skin felt as though it was crackling with electricity and every sense felt heightened. He stood and in a few strides was standing behind Rodney. His fingers itched. He could see the small hairs at the back of Rodney's neck, could hear the intake of breath as Rodney turned around and found John in front of him, and then closer.
They'd been circling one another almost since day one, every so often daring to cross the unspoken boundary. A touch to the arm or shoulder. Saving one another lives, and being saved in return. Their game. Video golf. A kiss--kisses. Four kisses and one night, as Rodney clung to memories and clung to John, both of them too tired and too scared to not take that risk. They didn't talk about it then, hadn't spoken about it since. John doesn't know if Rodney remembers it at all, and so he remembers for the both of them.
"John?" Rodney's voice was low and raspy, his eyes were wide, their pupils blown.
John stepped closer still, almost pinning Rodney to the wall with his body. He could see tiny beats of sweat form on Rodney's top lip.
"Sheppard." Rodney's hands slid over John's chest, exerting a slight pressure as John leaned in and nuzzled the side of Rodney's neck.
Rodney said John's name again, so softly so it's almost a whisper. John knew he should answer, but the words wouldn't come.
The first cramp made him release Rodney's arms. The second doubled him over in pain.
"John?" Rodney sounded like he was under water. John felt Rodney's hands wrap around him as they descended slowly to the floor.
A string of profanities followed as Rodney called for the guards, for anyone, and John tried to smile. He shut his eyes and felt Rodney's fingers stroke his temple.
The last thing he remembered was the sound of doors opening and the familiar deep rumble of Ronon's voice, Rodney's shout of relief, and Nara's voice saying over and over 'it worked.'
0000000000
When John woke again, he was in the infirmary.
"Look who's back with us," Keller said, smiling from the side of the hospital bed. "Welcome back, Colonel."
"What happened?" John asked, looking around. Ronon and Teyla were waiting on the other side of the bed. "How long was I out?"
"You were unconscious for the better part of a day," Teyla answered, resting her hand on his.
"After we got stunned--me and Teyla woke up on Thyrnos right where we'd fallen, and you and McKay were missing. We searched the ruins but couldn't find you, so we headed back for a jumper and back-up," Ronon said. "Those people had a whole city underground. By the time we found where you were, McKay was yelling for help, you were passed out, and that crazy woman in the robes--"
"Nara," John added almost absently. He couldn't see Rodney anywhere.
"Nara, sure. Anyway, she just kept raising her hands to the sky and saying 'it worked, it worked.' When she pulled out a syringe, I thought McKay was going to shoot her."
"Where is Rodney?" John asked, a knot settling in his stomach.
"He's in his lab. As soon as Dr. Keller released him, he retreated there." Teyla leveled a gaze him as though she was weighing whether or not to ask him something. Thankfully, she didn't. John wasn't ready to be the one to answer questions quite yet.
"What happened after you found us? I'm assuming Thrynos is still standing."
"It was close, I almost had to stun McKay, especially when Nara tried to sneak some blood from you, but yeah, they didn't put up a fight and let us take you home." Ronon's grin said he had a newfound appreciation for Rodney.
"Rodney did manage to disable the planet's stargate on our return to Atlantis," Teyla added, her smile told John she approved as well.
"Sound like Rodney." John turned to look at Dr. Keller. "How are my tests, doc? I don't know what it was that Nara gave me, but I'd like to make sure it's completely gone."
"We did a full body scan and a complete panel of tests and you're free and clear," Keller said, looking at her chart. "There appear to be some antibodies that were created. Rodney mentioned the Thrynosians had injected you with a drug they had been working on. And I assume that's what they're from. I'd like to get some more details from you after you've gotten some rest."
John felt his face sour, talking about what had happened was one of the last things he wanted to do. "Sure. Maybe later this week."
Maybe not ever, if he could help it.
For the rest of the week, John used not a little of his military training (and one time the classic technique of ducking into an empty room) to avoid talking to Keller about what happened, to keep his distance from Rodney (every time he saw him, it felt as though his chest was being squeezed as he remembered what he could have done) much to the other man's obviously growing frustration, and he wanted to turn tail and run when he saw Rodney and Keller together. Which felt like it was all the time.
0000000000
"Sheppard." Rodney stood at one of the hallway, a life signs detector in hand.
"John." Rodney's voice echoed in the hallway as John turned tail and tried his best not to run. "John, wait."
Every inch of John's body was telling him to not listen, to take that next step and walk (not run) away, but some part of him kept his feet rooted in the spot.
"This is just getting ridiculous. Do I need to steal Ronon's gun and stun you into standing in one place long enough?" Rodney asked, frustration and not a little bit of anger in his voice.
When he reached John, Rodney reached out and John again fought the desire to flee.
"What is it, McKay? Keller need me back for some tests? Or maybe you just want to make mooning faces at one another some more while I watch."
"What? No. God you can be an asshole. And a hypocrite. You've been avoiding me all week. And you should know, you of all people should know that I can be persistent."
"That's an understatement."
"Again I say, asshole." Rodney pocketed the life signs detector and wrapped his hands around John's biceps.
John closed his eyes against the momentary flashes of memory--Rodney, losing his mind, losing his life, scared and coming to John for reassurance, for safety and later, with cold hands and cheeks from the wind outside and beer on their breath, for something else as they kissed; and then less than a week ago, Rodney's eyes, his pupils blown wide as John licked over the pulse point of Rodney's neck.
"Back in there, when I was... I didn't," John said, hedging his bets that Rodney would know what he was trying to say. Praying he would. "You shouldn't."
"Shouldn't what? Shouldn't try to talk to you? Shouldn't call you on it when you're being an asshole? Shouldn't want you? Shouldn't know what's right in front of my face?"
"Rodney."
Rodney growled--there was no other way to describe it--and pushed John up against the wall, pinning John's body with his own, and kissed him roughly. John pushed back, but Rodney was stronger than he appeared and when he turned his head to deepen the kiss, John relented, moving his hands up to hold Rodney's face.
"I thought you'd.. but... Keller..." John's ability to think, or speak, in complete and coherent sentences was significantly impeded by the way Rodney's hands were moving over his chest, tugging at the bottom hem and slipping underneath. John shuddered as Rodney's hands slid over the skin of his stomach.
"Did Ronon drop you on your head again while you were sparring?" Rodney asked, sliding his hands around John's waist to the small of his back.
"I thought, after, after Thrynos. Figured this would be the last thing--"
"Well you thought wrong. I know I can be dense about things, but this... In case there's any room for questioning what's going on, John, I have every intention of getting you as naked as possible. And not even watching you turn into the Pegasus version of the Wolf Man is going to deter me." Rodney bit at the skin of John's jaw. "Although I'm not going to say that I'm not glad you're back to you, you. You're hairy enough as is."
John wanted to laugh, but he couldn't. It didn't change what almost happened. "I could've hurt you." That was the thing, the thing, that had kept John away. The part that kept replaying in his thoughts--moreso than the feeling of having Rodney pressed against him. "I could've killed you."
"Yes, you could have. You wouldn't have, but you could have. What really matters is you didn't." Rodney slid his hands out from under John's shirt and twined their fingers together. "Teyla did some digging and found confirmation that what the Thrynosians injected you with was the drug that sent them underground. Those who received the shot would go all Lon Chaney, and sometimes--oftentimes--kill. And the change wasn't reversible."
"So why was I so lucky?"
It could've been worse, he knew, at least this time the transformation had been quick and relatively painless. Plus, a couple extra hairs beat scales hands down. Crawling up walls like Spiderman had been kinda cool, though.
"Jennifer thinks it's the ATA gene."
"So is that what you and she have been whispering about this week? You've been pretty chummy lately." John had been accused of being a contrary bastard before, and although Rodney didn't say it out loud, his look certainly did.
"Chummy? When? When we were at the sock hop?"
"You've been eating together, and in your labs."
"What? Did you hire Ronon to tail me? I thought I saw him hiding behind a potted plant the other day." Rodney seemed convinced that John wasn't going to run away, and so he let go of John's hands and took a step back out of John's personal space. John almost reached out to pull him back in. "Jennifer and I have been working on a possible fix for the Thrynosian drug using nanotechnology. Only in simulations, that is. If she can figure out what went wrong, maybe it can keep the next bunch of people from walking into the freakshow that we did."
"Lucky them." John looked around the hallway, which was blessedly still empty. "So, about what you said earlier. Before you called me the Wolf Man."
Rodney smiled. "Yes?"
"Is that still your intention?"
"Preferably not in the middle of the hallway, but yes. We're going to do this right this time. With both of us in our right minds."
John wondered if he looked as dumbstruck as he felt. Was Rodney saying what it sounded like he was? That he remembered those stolen kisses on the pier, the kiss goodbye. He wasn't ready to ask yet, but he figured one day soon he'd work up the courage. For now, he would just follow Rodney's lead--this time he was pretty sure there wouldn't be any underground bunkers involved. And he was good with that.