sga_flashfic | Unravelling by Sethoz [search & seizure challenge]

Title: Unravelling
Author: Sethoz
Characters/Pairing: McKay/Sheppard.
Rating: PG-13?
Disclaimer: Not mine despite me giving money to that voodoo guy...
Author's Notes: Not completely sure where this came from...

seikaitsukimizu and

utopia_tears both had a look at this for me. So thanks guys!

Summary: You know in that instant what it really feels like to be a God.

Unravelling

“I didn't do it.”

Whispers in the dark, finding their way to your ears, even though you pretend you can't hear them. He repeats the words and you know he's looking at you, at where you sit, crouched over a laptop, the only light in the room being provided by the screen.

Still, you can imagine his reactions, the way his eyes go wide and pleading, the way they beg you to look over at him, to acknowledge him.

Shift of fabric, of military boots against the ground and you know he's moved from the bunk, pacing backwards and forwards in the tiny cell. It doesn't have the forcefield up, it is a waste of energy and besides, you know he could easily deactivate it if he tried.

“Rodney, look at me.” He's as close as he can be now and you can almost feel his breath on the back of your neck. He needs your answer or perhaps your absolution. He can't have either. If you were to turn your head slightly, you could stare into the darkness, to where he is standing and that wouldn't be so bad, you still wouldn't be able to see him.

But he would see you, reflected in the light of technology. And he would se-- he would see that you believe him, that you know he didn't do it. He would sigh and his knees would buckle and there would be that breathy noise as he would whisper his thanks.

You would come undone.

So you pretend. Because if he was to strip you bare you would have no chance of saving him. You have to save him, save him from this. Someone is watching the monitors, watching your interaction with him. You don't know who it is, not yet. The real saboteur hides behind computer programs, behind planted evidence, lurking somewhere in virtual reality.

You know that he – or she – is counting on you believing in John, on you putting your case to Elizabeth and getting John moved. They can't act until John is out of the cell, to make everyone think that it is all John. You know you surprised Elizabeth when you didn't ague or plead when she said John was going to be held in the cell.

He really is safer there. He just doesn't know it yet.

So you come here every night, searching for the link that proves he didn't do it. Every night you betray him and work towards saving him.

“Rodney...” His voice sounds more intimate in the dark, and if you were to close your eyes for a moment you could recreate the first time, the only time. You could trick yourself into feeling his hands trailing up your arm, to feel him on you, in you, to feel him become you.

A slither of cloth against metal and you can just see something out of the corner of you eye. It takes everything in you not to look, not to meet his eyes. You have to save him from the person who wants to destroy him. You have to prove you can be trusted to save the day again, even if it means completely destroying everything you have with him.

You wonder if he will shake the bars of the cell again, yelling at you, trying everything he can to make you react to him, to look at him. He begs you to ask Elizabeth to move him anywhere else and you know it is because the place still smells of Wraith. Nowhere else though is secure enough and you know that if he is placed anywhere else, the saboteur will frame him again. You can't let that happen.

The villain doesn't trust you, but this is the only time you can be confident that he is watching through an illegal loop into the security monitors to make sure you don't spoil his plan. So night by night you carefully chip away at his walls, worming your way into his security, searching, hunting, finding the thread. Once you find it, you just need to pull and it will unravel.

And then everyone will know John is innocent. They will let him out and apologise to him. When the replacement medicine arrives, it won't be him being shipped back, it will be the real person responsible. You will boast smugly and then hide for the next ten years. You will pretend not to see the hurt look in his eyes, at your apparent coldness to h--

Breathe.

Don't react, don't slip up. Not here, not with the thread almost dangling in front of you. You never had a good poker face but you need one now. Work slowly, carefully, press the right buttons, breath normally...

You hold the thread in your fingers and you know in that instant what it really feels like to be a God. Forget destroying life, planets, anyone can do that. What you are about to do is so much more powerful, much more rare.

You are about to give life back.

You turn your head towards John, letting yourself become naked in his eyes because after all this pain you put him through he deserves that. A quiet intake of breath is the only sign you need. He knows you believe him, and your chest tightens at that. That he ever thought differently, despite everything you did. It is time to see the truth you think.

You pull the thread and the lies unravel.

::fin::

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

micehell

Well, geez, I was already depressed, so I can't blame you, but that certainly didn't help. ;) Beautifully written, though, and I guess I can always pretend that everything works out afterwards. Nice touch putting him in the cell where Steve had been. A twisted sort of ouroboros.

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