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sga_flashficTitle: Sheppard of the Sea.
Author: bluejbird
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG
Word count: Just under 3000.
Summary: John Sheppard is one of the sea people who live in the waters surrounding Atlantis. He falls in love with a Lantean, but they cannot be together.
A/N: Inspired by the Maori legend ‘Pania of the Reef’. It was my favourite story growing up, and I would happily spend hours gazing up at her statue, much to my parents amusement (and relief). I recommend the story to everyone- a fairly good version can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania
Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate, Sheppard, McKay, Maori myths and legends, nor the story of Pania.
Every day, John Sheppard would swim in the sea around Atlantis with his friends. They would laugh and play, surfing the waves with arms outstretched. Life was free and easy and he loved to feel the power of the currents pushing and pulling him through the water.
Each night, his people would swim back to the mainland, to crawl up onto the beaches and sleep in the warm sands. But John felt drawn to the floating city, and would, when he could sneak away, climb up into the disused areas of Atlantis and let the city warm him with her soft blue lighting.
Atlantis seemed to welcome John. She would slide her doors open silently for him, lead him with welcoming lights to the dry areas that were empty but safe. He would come to city whenever he could, to listen to her indecipherable whispers at the edge of his hearing.
One warm summer night, when John was being lulled to sleep by the soft hum of the city in the back of his mind, he heard footsteps echoing through the empty corridors.
John was instantly awake, hurrying into a dark alcove to see who the unexpected visitor was. He waited, muscles tensed to flee, or to attack, when a man came into view. His shoulders were hunched and he looked tired. He appeared to be berating someone, only half a conversation audible to John, although there was no-one accompanying him.
"Yes, yes, thank you Radek," the man snapped. "I'm perfectly capable of repairing Kavanaugh’s stupidity on my own. No, I don't need a marine escort and if you run to Elizabeth and tell her I’m down here on my own, I will make your life unbearable. No. No. Yes. I'll be back in half an hour."
He tapped something attached to his ear and stepped into a large room. John hesitated, before following him, sticking to the shadows, asking Atlantis to keep the lights low. The man moved quickly to a central machine, and crawled underneath, shining a small light he held in his mouth.
John watched in fascination as the man began to pull small crystals from inside the machine, rearranging them and tapping on the device by his ear to talk to this Radek person in words muffled by the light still held between his teeth. Time passed, while John watched, and eventually the man climbed to his feet and brushed his hands off on his legs, smiling to himself. He pressed something on the machine, and lights flooded the room. Startled, John shrank back into the shadows, while the man took in his surroundings.
"Huh. Interesting," he said, then left, the lights dimming as he went, and leaving John with a sudden feeling of overwhelming loneliness.
The next night John returned to the room, finding the man working once again, this time on a different machine. For the next week, John would sneak into Atlantis every night and make his way to the room. Some nights the man would be there. Some he would not. But John would wait patiently.
One night, the man was not alone. A shorter man with messy hair and glasses trailed in his wake, both arguing as they made their way towards the machine. They worked together, a steady banter between them. John watched, jealousy bursting in painfully in his chest at their camaraderie.
“Rodney,” the other man called him repeated, and John whispered it to himself after they’d gone, leaving him on his own.
John had lost count of the times he had watched Rodney. Thoughts of the man, with his nimble fingers that worked on the machines, his slanted mouth that would break into a smile whenever things were going well, the frown that formed when things weren’t, would leak into his dreams. And during the days, although he still laughed and played in the waves with his people, seemed to drag, keeping him away from the fascinating man. And so every night he returned, to catch a glimpse, ignoring the suspicious looks from his people, swimming away from the Elder who would watch John with narrowed eyes.
John never intended to make his presence in Atlantis known. But then one night Rodney hurriedly slid out from under the machine, swearing, and slapped his palm onto a large button on the top.
“Come on!” Rodney exclaimed. “Switch off. Off! Oh my god I’m going to die!”
There was an ominous humming as the machine started to come to life, Rodney shouting frantically at it for it to stop. As the humming grew more and more insistent and a soft light began to build in the centre of the machine, John threw himself forward, thinking ‘off!’ at it, and pushing Rodney out of the way.
The humming stopped and the light died away. John turned to stare down at Rodney, who had landed sprawled on his back on the floor.
“Who the hell are you?” Rodney asked.
John remained silent, but offered the other man his hand. Rodney allowed himself to be pulled up, then huffed and brushed himself down.
”Well?” he repeated, sounding annoyed. “Not that I’m not grateful to you for the whole saving my life thing, but where the hell did you come from. You’re not a scientist, and I haven’t seen you with any of the marines. And I think I’d remember you if I had. And why aren’t you wearing proper clothes?”
John glanced down at the wetsuit he always wore, and shrugged. “My name is John Sheppard,” he said. “I…I’m new to the city. I’ve only been here a few months.”
Rodney narrowed his eyes and frowned, looking John up and down. “Yes, well, it’s not like I care anyway. Look, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell Elizabeth about this. She seems to think I’m reckless when it comes to Ancient tech. Me! Reckless! Ha! I value my own life far too much to be reckless. Uh, what you just saw was a one off. Honest. Anyway, I should get back to the labs. Maybe I’ll see you around?” and with that he left.
He came back the next night, and the night after that. He would talk to John as he worked on the machines, and he appeared to appreciate the company. On the second night he produced two ripe fruits and handed one to John.
”Where did you get these?” John asked, hesitating before gingerly taking one.
Rodney shrugged, juice already running down his chin. “I don’t know. They grow them on the mainland, I think. Teyla’s people pick them for us. They kind of remind me of a cross between a mango and a plum, don’t you think?”
John, not knowing what either of these fruit were like, just nodded and took a hesitant bite. Its juice was tangy and familiar and he grinned at Rodney, who gave him a wide smile in return.
They continued to meet, their friendship growing deeper and deeper. And then one day, without really thinking about it, John reached out and pulled Rodney’s lips to his own.
Rodney made a startled noise, then kissed him back just as hungrily as he ate the food he brought for them to share each night. John had been careful only to eat the fresh foods grown on the mainland, but devoured Rodney’s mouth with a desperation he’d been feeling since the first day he’d seen Rodney.
He ran his hands up and under Rodney’s shirt, pushing it over his head and away, then stripped him of his trousers, leaving the other man naked before him. Rodney’s fingers fumbled with the fastenings of his wetsuit, peeling it off slowly, revealing John’s skin inch by inch. Once they were both naked, they tumbled to the floor, limbs intertwined and made love to the soft sounds of Atlantis humming happily in their heads.
Afterwards, John lay with his head pillowed on Rodney’s chest.
“Where do you come from?” Rodney asked, running his hand up and down John’s back.
“I already told you,” John replied.
”No,” said Rodney. “You didn’t. And I looked you up in the crew manifest. There’s no John Sheppard listed in either the scientists or the marines. I even asked Colonel Sumner about you but he told me to shut up and go and do something useful. I’ve told my…friends, colleagues, whatever- about you, and they all think I’m insane, that I’m making you up. That you’re a figment of my imagination. Are you?”
John looked up to see the worried look on Rodney’s face, confusion plain in his eyes.
“No,” he replied, and the words tumbled from his lips. “I’m real. But…I belong to the sea people. We were on this planet before the Ancestors built the city, and we were here long after it sank. We were here when the great city rose again from its slumbering depths. We sleep on the mainland and play in the waves, and none of us has ever come to Atlantis before. But I felt the city call to me, and so I came, and I saw you here, I watched over you, watched you work. Then when dawn came I would return to the sea and think of you, remember each move you made, every word you spoke.”
Rodney was looking at John with a mixture of horror and adoration. “What do you-“
“I loved you from the moment I saw you,” John interrupted, and Rodney’s mouth snapped shut.
“Oh,” said Rodney after a long pause. “Well, uh, I may have, sort of, realised I’ve been feeling the same. Since I first met you. Um.” His face flushed and he looked away.
John lifted his head and kissed him. “It is almost dawn,” he said. “I must go back to the sea soon.”
Rodney’s arm tightened around him. “No! You…John, stay here. Stay on Atlantis with me. We could…I don’t know, we could get married or something and then you could stay, stay in the city. Always.”
John gave him a sad look. “I can’t, Rodney. I wish I could, but I’ll die if I don’t return. The sea…it calls to me, almost as much as Atlantis does. But I will come back, every night, and be with you. We can still be together, once darkness falls.”
Rodney didn’t look happy, but he let him go. And as John slipped back into his wetsuit and hurried through the empty corridors back towards the ocean, he felt a sharp pain in his heart at leaving Rodney behind.
They continued to meet every night for month upon month. Rodney grew more and more clingy as time passed, begging John not to return to the sea. And each morning John’s heart broke a little as he returned to his people, unable to laugh and splash about with them as he once had. The Elder approached him several times, questioning his lack of enthusiasm, but John just shrugged and swam further into the rolling waves.
One night he awoke in Rodney’s arms with a strange, sweet taste upon his tongue. He sat up, spitting the lump of food from his mouth into his palm, stared at it, then looked over at a guilty looking Rodney who was holding the wrapper of a power bar.
“What have you done?” John exclaimed, jumping to his feet in horror.
Rodney stood quickly, looking ashamed but defiant. “I’m sorry John. But I had to make you stay. I…I spoke with Halling. He told me stories of your people, that because you were a creature of the sea, of this planet, you couldn’t eat Earth food. He said that if you swallowed Earth food, your people would not let you return to the sea.”
John stared at him. “It’s true,” he said sadly. “Tell me- did I swallow any of that?” he asked, pointing at the wrapper still clutched in Rodney’s hand.
Rodney swallowed hard, and shook his head, looking away.
John nodded once, then walked away, hurting from the betrayal.
“John,” Rodney called after him, his voice breaking a little. “Please, come back. Stay. I need you. I love you. I-“
John broke into a run, running as fast as he could towards the ocean. He dived in, and swam and swam until he could no longer see the towering city. Then he let his tears mingle with the salt water surrounding him.
His people found him in the morning, swimming aimlessly through the waters. The Elder swam over to him, and despite himself, John told of what had happened. That night, when darkness fell, he was dragged towards the mainland, forbidden to returning to the dangerous city.
John thought of Rodney sitting alone, waiting for him to return. He wondered what he would do when John didn’t show up.
Every night for a week, John was taken to sleep on the mainland. And every night he lay awake, thinking of the man he loved, wondering if Rodney was thinking about him.
On the eighth night, John waited until everyone was asleep, and then swam towards the city. It was a long way, and his arms ached as he saw the pier approaching. He stopped, treading water, when he noticed a solitary figure sitting on the edge of the pier, head in hands.
“Rodney!” John called, and the other man looked up in surprise.
”John! What are you- why are you- have you come back?”
John swam closer. “I…I don’t think I can come back. They won’t let me. They stopped me from seeing you. But I wanted to say goodbye myself. To tell you I-“
There was a splash, and Rodney had disappeared from the pier. After a moment or two, he surfaced, spluttering beside John.
“I was thinking,” Rodney said, before his head dipped underwater, “that maybe I could come with you,” he finished as he bobbed back up again.
John stared at him for a long moment, then wrapped him in a huge hug and rolled him under the waves.
“I should add,” Rodney added, coughing up a vast amount of water a few moments later, “that I can’t, exactly, swim.”
John frowned at him in dismay. “There’s an awful lot of swimming involved in living with the sea people,” John pointed out.
“Duh,” Rodney said. “I’m a quick learner. Especially when it comes to not dying.” He punctuated this by letting go of John and promptly disappearing under the surface.
“Um,” John said, when he’d rescued Rodney. “This is going to be a problem.”
“Go back to the city!” a voice called from the darkness.
They turned, Rodney still clutching onto John, to see the Elder swimming towards them. “I noticed you were missing from the sleeping area,” he informed John, “so I decided to follow. And I am glad I did. Go back to the city.”
Rodney scowled at him. “I’m not leaving John here. You kept us apart! I only wanted us to be together. And if the only way we can be together is by me almost drowning on a regular basis, then so be it.”
The Elder gave John a fond look. “Both of you,” he said. “Both of you, go back to the city of the Ancestors. Be together, with our blessing.”
“But- I can’t leave the sea without withering and dying.”
The Elder shook his head. “It is not true. We tell you these things to keep you from straying into dangerous territory. But with you I see it is already too late, and if your heart lies with this one, then with him you must be. You may live in the city, eat the food of its people, and survive. Goodbye, John. Perhaps you will visit us occasionally?”
They watched him swim away, then they turned to each other.
“Uh, I guess we should take you to Elizabeth,” Rodney said, “plus this water is freezing! How is it that you all don’t catch pneumonia on a daily basis? I think I’m getting a bit of a sniffle already.”
They left wet footprints along Atlantis’ floors as they walked through parts of the city John had never seen. Inhabited parts, with people who stopped and stared at them.
The woman with dark hair had stared at him for a long moment while Rodney explained who he was. Then she put down the mechanical tablet she was holding and frowned.
“Rodney-“
”Did I mention that the city loves him?” Rodney broke in. “And I mean, loves him. He’s got the gene. In spades. Naturally. You realise what that means? It’s stronger than Carson’s.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said, then smiled. “Well, welcome to Atlantis, John Sheppard. I suppose we should assign you your own quarters.”
Rodney coughed. “Uh, actually, I thought we…”
Elizabeth looked between the two of them, then studied Rodney’s face.
“Right,” she said slowly. “Well in that case…perhaps you could take Mr Sheppard home? He looks tired, and I have a feeling it will be a long day for him tomorrow.”
“Yes, right, great, thanks,” Rodney said, and bustled John from the room. They made just one stop on the way to Rodney’s quarters.
“We think they might even be able to go underwater,” Rodney told him. “But we’ve not found someone with the gene brave enough to test it. We can barely get them to fly the damn things, to be honest. So maybe, if we could teach you to pilot them, you might give it a go.”
John looked around at the room full of Puddlejumpers and slipped his hand into Rodney’s.
“I think I might like this place,” he said, and took the half of a power bar Rodney offered him.
Author: bluejbird
Pairing: John/Rodney
Rating: PG
Word count: Just under 3000.
Summary: John Sheppard is one of the sea people who live in the waters surrounding Atlantis. He falls in love with a Lantean, but they cannot be together.
A/N: Inspired by the Maori legend ‘Pania of the Reef’. It was my favourite story growing up, and I would happily spend hours gazing up at her statue, much to my parents amusement (and relief). I recommend the story to everyone- a fairly good version can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pania
Disclaimer: I don’t own Stargate, Sheppard, McKay, Maori myths and legends, nor the story of Pania.
Every day, John Sheppard would swim in the sea around Atlantis with his friends. They would laugh and play, surfing the waves with arms outstretched. Life was free and easy and he loved to feel the power of the currents pushing and pulling him through the water.
Each night, his people would swim back to the mainland, to crawl up onto the beaches and sleep in the warm sands. But John felt drawn to the floating city, and would, when he could sneak away, climb up into the disused areas of Atlantis and let the city warm him with her soft blue lighting.
Atlantis seemed to welcome John. She would slide her doors open silently for him, lead him with welcoming lights to the dry areas that were empty but safe. He would come to city whenever he could, to listen to her indecipherable whispers at the edge of his hearing.
One warm summer night, when John was being lulled to sleep by the soft hum of the city in the back of his mind, he heard footsteps echoing through the empty corridors.
John was instantly awake, hurrying into a dark alcove to see who the unexpected visitor was. He waited, muscles tensed to flee, or to attack, when a man came into view. His shoulders were hunched and he looked tired. He appeared to be berating someone, only half a conversation audible to John, although there was no-one accompanying him.
"Yes, yes, thank you Radek," the man snapped. "I'm perfectly capable of repairing Kavanaugh’s stupidity on my own. No, I don't need a marine escort and if you run to Elizabeth and tell her I’m down here on my own, I will make your life unbearable. No. No. Yes. I'll be back in half an hour."
He tapped something attached to his ear and stepped into a large room. John hesitated, before following him, sticking to the shadows, asking Atlantis to keep the lights low. The man moved quickly to a central machine, and crawled underneath, shining a small light he held in his mouth.
John watched in fascination as the man began to pull small crystals from inside the machine, rearranging them and tapping on the device by his ear to talk to this Radek person in words muffled by the light still held between his teeth. Time passed, while John watched, and eventually the man climbed to his feet and brushed his hands off on his legs, smiling to himself. He pressed something on the machine, and lights flooded the room. Startled, John shrank back into the shadows, while the man took in his surroundings.
"Huh. Interesting," he said, then left, the lights dimming as he went, and leaving John with a sudden feeling of overwhelming loneliness.
The next night John returned to the room, finding the man working once again, this time on a different machine. For the next week, John would sneak into Atlantis every night and make his way to the room. Some nights the man would be there. Some he would not. But John would wait patiently.
One night, the man was not alone. A shorter man with messy hair and glasses trailed in his wake, both arguing as they made their way towards the machine. They worked together, a steady banter between them. John watched, jealousy bursting in painfully in his chest at their camaraderie.
“Rodney,” the other man called him repeated, and John whispered it to himself after they’d gone, leaving him on his own.
John had lost count of the times he had watched Rodney. Thoughts of the man, with his nimble fingers that worked on the machines, his slanted mouth that would break into a smile whenever things were going well, the frown that formed when things weren’t, would leak into his dreams. And during the days, although he still laughed and played in the waves with his people, seemed to drag, keeping him away from the fascinating man. And so every night he returned, to catch a glimpse, ignoring the suspicious looks from his people, swimming away from the Elder who would watch John with narrowed eyes.
John never intended to make his presence in Atlantis known. But then one night Rodney hurriedly slid out from under the machine, swearing, and slapped his palm onto a large button on the top.
“Come on!” Rodney exclaimed. “Switch off. Off! Oh my god I’m going to die!”
There was an ominous humming as the machine started to come to life, Rodney shouting frantically at it for it to stop. As the humming grew more and more insistent and a soft light began to build in the centre of the machine, John threw himself forward, thinking ‘off!’ at it, and pushing Rodney out of the way.
The humming stopped and the light died away. John turned to stare down at Rodney, who had landed sprawled on his back on the floor.
“Who the hell are you?” Rodney asked.
John remained silent, but offered the other man his hand. Rodney allowed himself to be pulled up, then huffed and brushed himself down.
”Well?” he repeated, sounding annoyed. “Not that I’m not grateful to you for the whole saving my life thing, but where the hell did you come from. You’re not a scientist, and I haven’t seen you with any of the marines. And I think I’d remember you if I had. And why aren’t you wearing proper clothes?”
John glanced down at the wetsuit he always wore, and shrugged. “My name is John Sheppard,” he said. “I…I’m new to the city. I’ve only been here a few months.”
Rodney narrowed his eyes and frowned, looking John up and down. “Yes, well, it’s not like I care anyway. Look, I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t tell Elizabeth about this. She seems to think I’m reckless when it comes to Ancient tech. Me! Reckless! Ha! I value my own life far too much to be reckless. Uh, what you just saw was a one off. Honest. Anyway, I should get back to the labs. Maybe I’ll see you around?” and with that he left.
He came back the next night, and the night after that. He would talk to John as he worked on the machines, and he appeared to appreciate the company. On the second night he produced two ripe fruits and handed one to John.
”Where did you get these?” John asked, hesitating before gingerly taking one.
Rodney shrugged, juice already running down his chin. “I don’t know. They grow them on the mainland, I think. Teyla’s people pick them for us. They kind of remind me of a cross between a mango and a plum, don’t you think?”
John, not knowing what either of these fruit were like, just nodded and took a hesitant bite. Its juice was tangy and familiar and he grinned at Rodney, who gave him a wide smile in return.
They continued to meet, their friendship growing deeper and deeper. And then one day, without really thinking about it, John reached out and pulled Rodney’s lips to his own.
Rodney made a startled noise, then kissed him back just as hungrily as he ate the food he brought for them to share each night. John had been careful only to eat the fresh foods grown on the mainland, but devoured Rodney’s mouth with a desperation he’d been feeling since the first day he’d seen Rodney.
He ran his hands up and under Rodney’s shirt, pushing it over his head and away, then stripped him of his trousers, leaving the other man naked before him. Rodney’s fingers fumbled with the fastenings of his wetsuit, peeling it off slowly, revealing John’s skin inch by inch. Once they were both naked, they tumbled to the floor, limbs intertwined and made love to the soft sounds of Atlantis humming happily in their heads.
Afterwards, John lay with his head pillowed on Rodney’s chest.
“Where do you come from?” Rodney asked, running his hand up and down John’s back.
“I already told you,” John replied.
”No,” said Rodney. “You didn’t. And I looked you up in the crew manifest. There’s no John Sheppard listed in either the scientists or the marines. I even asked Colonel Sumner about you but he told me to shut up and go and do something useful. I’ve told my…friends, colleagues, whatever- about you, and they all think I’m insane, that I’m making you up. That you’re a figment of my imagination. Are you?”
John looked up to see the worried look on Rodney’s face, confusion plain in his eyes.
“No,” he replied, and the words tumbled from his lips. “I’m real. But…I belong to the sea people. We were on this planet before the Ancestors built the city, and we were here long after it sank. We were here when the great city rose again from its slumbering depths. We sleep on the mainland and play in the waves, and none of us has ever come to Atlantis before. But I felt the city call to me, and so I came, and I saw you here, I watched over you, watched you work. Then when dawn came I would return to the sea and think of you, remember each move you made, every word you spoke.”
Rodney was looking at John with a mixture of horror and adoration. “What do you-“
“I loved you from the moment I saw you,” John interrupted, and Rodney’s mouth snapped shut.
“Oh,” said Rodney after a long pause. “Well, uh, I may have, sort of, realised I’ve been feeling the same. Since I first met you. Um.” His face flushed and he looked away.
John lifted his head and kissed him. “It is almost dawn,” he said. “I must go back to the sea soon.”
Rodney’s arm tightened around him. “No! You…John, stay here. Stay on Atlantis with me. We could…I don’t know, we could get married or something and then you could stay, stay in the city. Always.”
John gave him a sad look. “I can’t, Rodney. I wish I could, but I’ll die if I don’t return. The sea…it calls to me, almost as much as Atlantis does. But I will come back, every night, and be with you. We can still be together, once darkness falls.”
Rodney didn’t look happy, but he let him go. And as John slipped back into his wetsuit and hurried through the empty corridors back towards the ocean, he felt a sharp pain in his heart at leaving Rodney behind.
They continued to meet every night for month upon month. Rodney grew more and more clingy as time passed, begging John not to return to the sea. And each morning John’s heart broke a little as he returned to his people, unable to laugh and splash about with them as he once had. The Elder approached him several times, questioning his lack of enthusiasm, but John just shrugged and swam further into the rolling waves.
One night he awoke in Rodney’s arms with a strange, sweet taste upon his tongue. He sat up, spitting the lump of food from his mouth into his palm, stared at it, then looked over at a guilty looking Rodney who was holding the wrapper of a power bar.
“What have you done?” John exclaimed, jumping to his feet in horror.
Rodney stood quickly, looking ashamed but defiant. “I’m sorry John. But I had to make you stay. I…I spoke with Halling. He told me stories of your people, that because you were a creature of the sea, of this planet, you couldn’t eat Earth food. He said that if you swallowed Earth food, your people would not let you return to the sea.”
John stared at him. “It’s true,” he said sadly. “Tell me- did I swallow any of that?” he asked, pointing at the wrapper still clutched in Rodney’s hand.
Rodney swallowed hard, and shook his head, looking away.
John nodded once, then walked away, hurting from the betrayal.
“John,” Rodney called after him, his voice breaking a little. “Please, come back. Stay. I need you. I love you. I-“
John broke into a run, running as fast as he could towards the ocean. He dived in, and swam and swam until he could no longer see the towering city. Then he let his tears mingle with the salt water surrounding him.
His people found him in the morning, swimming aimlessly through the waters. The Elder swam over to him, and despite himself, John told of what had happened. That night, when darkness fell, he was dragged towards the mainland, forbidden to returning to the dangerous city.
John thought of Rodney sitting alone, waiting for him to return. He wondered what he would do when John didn’t show up.
Every night for a week, John was taken to sleep on the mainland. And every night he lay awake, thinking of the man he loved, wondering if Rodney was thinking about him.
On the eighth night, John waited until everyone was asleep, and then swam towards the city. It was a long way, and his arms ached as he saw the pier approaching. He stopped, treading water, when he noticed a solitary figure sitting on the edge of the pier, head in hands.
“Rodney!” John called, and the other man looked up in surprise.
”John! What are you- why are you- have you come back?”
John swam closer. “I…I don’t think I can come back. They won’t let me. They stopped me from seeing you. But I wanted to say goodbye myself. To tell you I-“
There was a splash, and Rodney had disappeared from the pier. After a moment or two, he surfaced, spluttering beside John.
“I was thinking,” Rodney said, before his head dipped underwater, “that maybe I could come with you,” he finished as he bobbed back up again.
John stared at him for a long moment, then wrapped him in a huge hug and rolled him under the waves.
“I should add,” Rodney added, coughing up a vast amount of water a few moments later, “that I can’t, exactly, swim.”
John frowned at him in dismay. “There’s an awful lot of swimming involved in living with the sea people,” John pointed out.
“Duh,” Rodney said. “I’m a quick learner. Especially when it comes to not dying.” He punctuated this by letting go of John and promptly disappearing under the surface.
“Um,” John said, when he’d rescued Rodney. “This is going to be a problem.”
“Go back to the city!” a voice called from the darkness.
They turned, Rodney still clutching onto John, to see the Elder swimming towards them. “I noticed you were missing from the sleeping area,” he informed John, “so I decided to follow. And I am glad I did. Go back to the city.”
Rodney scowled at him. “I’m not leaving John here. You kept us apart! I only wanted us to be together. And if the only way we can be together is by me almost drowning on a regular basis, then so be it.”
The Elder gave John a fond look. “Both of you,” he said. “Both of you, go back to the city of the Ancestors. Be together, with our blessing.”
“But- I can’t leave the sea without withering and dying.”
The Elder shook his head. “It is not true. We tell you these things to keep you from straying into dangerous territory. But with you I see it is already too late, and if your heart lies with this one, then with him you must be. You may live in the city, eat the food of its people, and survive. Goodbye, John. Perhaps you will visit us occasionally?”
They watched him swim away, then they turned to each other.
“Uh, I guess we should take you to Elizabeth,” Rodney said, “plus this water is freezing! How is it that you all don’t catch pneumonia on a daily basis? I think I’m getting a bit of a sniffle already.”
They left wet footprints along Atlantis’ floors as they walked through parts of the city John had never seen. Inhabited parts, with people who stopped and stared at them.
The woman with dark hair had stared at him for a long moment while Rodney explained who he was. Then she put down the mechanical tablet she was holding and frowned.
“Rodney-“
”Did I mention that the city loves him?” Rodney broke in. “And I mean, loves him. He’s got the gene. In spades. Naturally. You realise what that means? It’s stronger than Carson’s.”
“Oh,” Elizabeth said, then smiled. “Well, welcome to Atlantis, John Sheppard. I suppose we should assign you your own quarters.”
Rodney coughed. “Uh, actually, I thought we…”
Elizabeth looked between the two of them, then studied Rodney’s face.
“Right,” she said slowly. “Well in that case…perhaps you could take Mr Sheppard home? He looks tired, and I have a feeling it will be a long day for him tomorrow.”
“Yes, right, great, thanks,” Rodney said, and bustled John from the room. They made just one stop on the way to Rodney’s quarters.
“We think they might even be able to go underwater,” Rodney told him. “But we’ve not found someone with the gene brave enough to test it. We can barely get them to fly the damn things, to be honest. So maybe, if we could teach you to pilot them, you might give it a go.”
John looked around at the room full of Puddlejumpers and slipped his hand into Rodney’s.
“I think I might like this place,” he said, and took the half of a power bar Rodney offered him.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-01-30 05:25 am (UTC)