Second Chance by Sian 1359 (Second Verse Challenge) 3/3

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

*********

Rodney's relief at John Shepherd's unexpected arrival was heartfelt and entirely too short. He supposed he shouldn't blame the man, it wasn't as if he'd had any idea that he and Kolya weren't alone down here – and he was the one who'd actually seen the shadow move behind Shepherd even if he hadn't recognized it as anything important. That said, Shepherd's surprise was awfully broad, given he was supposed to be FBI and no doubt used to this sort of thing. Assuming you ever got used to the feel of a gun barrel against the back of the neck. He couldn't help but startle; of all the people Kolya might have recruited to his cause, John would never have suspected Aiden Ford, former FBI agent and John's first partner when he joined the Bureau.

Kolya's creepy laughter was more enthusiastic than warranted for getting the drop on someone, Rodney felt, but as he really looked at Shepherd and the young black man behind him, he noticed that the new guy actually looked more disturbed than Shepherd did, and had a thought that maybe this was someone Shepherd knew – and not in reference to being one of Kolya's minions.

"Check him for a back-up weapon," Kolya ordered as he finally got himself under control, too quick for Rodney to have been able to do anything, but it hadn't been as if Kolya had loosened his grip anyway. Or wasn't still holding a fucking KA-Bar or whatever that was drenched with Rodney's blood.

The kid was efficient in patting Shepherd down, kneeling and moving directly to the small gun Shepherd had in a ankle holster as if the kid had known it was there. No one was speaking as the rest of the frisk was finished, and the kid's expression had molded into something blank and neutral, while Shepherd's turned to something that might have been rueful as well as resigned.

"Poor Sheppard, always trusting and always getting betrayed," Kolya gloated as he gestured for them to approach. "It was drugs, by the way, since I know young Aiden is too embarrassed to disclose my hold on him and I know that you're just dying to know how I managed it." Kolya's grin was definitely one of someone who grew up enjoying torturing small animals and then got positively orgasmic once he graduated to torturing people.

"It was all too easy really, but then the trouble with you cashiering out your people as useless, is that when you so abandon them they become too proud to return for help. And it is so very easy to become addicted to pain killers and then other things."

The look the kid shot Kolya was a promise of something, but Rodney couldn't count on it being on his or Shepherd's behest. If the kid was now an addict and Kolya was his supplier, Rodney figured no matter how pissed he was, the kid wasn't going to jeopardize his fix. At least not until he set up a new source and Kolya had the look of someone who hooked people with something other than some run of the mill drug like coke or heroin. It would be something designer, no doubt, something that only Kolya had the recipe or the particulars for, and probably something that nothing else could fill the hole for.

The look Shepherd shot Kolya, conversely, was definitely a promise of retribution, only Rodney didn't see how a pissed off, unarmed hero was going to be able to match a smug evil overlord and his unhappy minion, both of whom were armed with multiple guns now. Kolya didn't look worried either and, in fact, moved to within touching distance of Shepherd when the kid pushed them forward. With the knife blade now at his throat, Shepherd didn't even shudder when Kolya's touch was more caress than violence, and somehow he even managed to look more bored than disgusted.

Somehow Rodney's own initial fantasies about Shepherd didn't seem quite as harmless anymore.

"Now, the good doctor is insisting he cannot climb without assistance, so it is fortunate that you're here," Kolya stepped back and gestured again with his knife this time toward Rodney. "You will help him up the stairs and into the vehicle that Prenum has waiting. He's waiting with a full strike force, by the way," Kolya gave Shepherd a shark's grin this time. "So don't think that you're going to be able to get yourself away – or that your own reinforcements are imminent. We've already eliminated three of your team, which just leaves two more, right?"

Shepherd's only reaction to Kolya's goading was a tightening of his jaw. Or maybe that tell was just because Rodney really was hurt, and he couldn't put any weight on his right ankle, which left it up to Shepherd to help him stand.

"Pity that your Agent Caldwell is also too prideful to ask for help," Kolya continued on like a demented Jiminy Cricket at their backs as they started upward. "Although I will have to admit to having a hand in turning him against your local agents. Or, rather, young Aiden did so," Kolya positively purred. "It seems that with a couple of carefully inserted documents, it takes nothing at all to cast an unfavorable light on both your Agent in Charge, and on Houston's Chief of Police. It is simply tragic at how easily you Americans believe in corruption in your own, but how you bend over backwards to defend the truly corrupt."

"Like you?" Rodney couldn't bite back as he was too busy biting back any moans of pain. Even with Shepherd practically carrying him, it was almost impossible to keep his foot elevated enough that he wasn't bumping it against every other step. It didn't help that their only source of illumination was the flashlight that probably the kid was now carrying, so Rodney couldn't really see the steps, which proved steeper every single time than he was expecting. While he had never suffered from vertigo previously, he was claustrophobic, and the stygian darkness was exacerbating both his difficulty in breathing and the new certainty that he was going to fall. The only saving grace of that was that if he did, he'd most certainly knock both the kid and Kolya off balance, as they were only a couple of steps back, and –

And …

Before he could talk himself out of it – or gird himself better, but only after the consequences would be even greater the higher they rose – Rodney bumped his foot hard enough that the sound was obvious, and hard enough that he couldn't keep back the shriek. From there it was all to easy to wobble and then over-balance, although Shepherd did almost too good a job in catching him. But Shepherd wasn't prepared for Rodney not wanting to get caught – and maybe he even had a flash that Rodney was falling deliberately – so the hand that had been a steady and calming presence slid away.

The kid was behind Rodney, which meant Kolya was behind Shepherd. Rodney had little doubt that neither of them really thought that Shepherd was going to stay passive all through the abduction, but neither were they expecting a move from Rodney, so his flailing backwards and into them worked. To a point.

Rodney hadn't been counting steps as the higher the number the more he grew nauseous, so perhaps he could be forgiven for not realizing he was more then twelve or fifteen from the bottom. Certainly he was far enough to pick up any number of new flares of agony as he sorta slid and rolled and clutched at another set of flailing limbs that was probably the kid since he wasn't also grappling with a knife. At some point during their fall, the kid had lost hold of the flashlight and it didn't hold up any better than Rodney's flesh and bones were to the pounding – the flashlight broke and any relief of the darkness disappeared with a suddenness that was startling even though Rodney had actually been hoping for that outcome.

A gunshot going off right next to his fucking ear destroyed any chance of Rodney being able to hear if Shepherd had taken advantage of Rodney's extraordinarily brave sacrifice to overpower Kolya. But someone stepped on his fingers and the body that had stayed underneath his as he finally slid to a heap at the bottom of the stairs was limp, so someone was still on their feet. Rodney felt around, finding first the broken flashlight, then a limb that was not supposed to bend that direction, but one with a pulse so it didn't look as if the kid had broken his neck in the fall. Finally he found the gun, only to realize that he couldn't actually use it. He couldn't see or hear to aim, and he doubted he'd be a very good shot anyway since his hand was shaking in reaction and no doubt impending hypoglycemia.

He kept his close anyway, clutching it between cramping fingers and he crawled away from the tiny alcove to return to the tunnel proper. He didn't think he could crawl all the way back to the Lancaster (even if he didn't brain himself against a wall when he invariably picked the wrong direction), and Kolya had already indicated the elevator had been sabotaged at the near end, which left him trying to find a hiding place that would offer some sort of cover if it turned out that Kolya had another light source. He might not be able to aim the gun, but shooting someone point blank when they reached to drag you back to your feet wasn't a matter of aim.

Being without his hearing was almost worse than not being able to see. More than once Rodney thought his hearing was coming back, only to figure he was simply sensing the pounding of his own blood pressure. He couldn't talk to himself or snap his fingers just in case Shepherd wasn't prevailing and thus give away his position. The waiting and hoping was terrifying, the not being able to extrapolate anything despite his genius, pretty much his worst nightmare (other than the whales). How long should he wait before trying to effect his own escape?

How long had he already waited?

If the kid had simply knocked himself unconscious when he hit his head, he could also be come back to awareness any moment now, and Rodney had already determined that even though it was obvious the kid hated Kolya, it was also obvious that he wasn't going to be adding a former ally or partner or whatever he and Shepherd had been to one another. (A lot, given how distraught Shepherd had looked, not so much at the betrayal, but when Kolya had said the kid was now an addict.)

The shocking sound of another gunshot, and then two more, proved that Rodney's hearing was coming back, although they still had sounded as if they'd been fired underwater. For that reason Rodney wasn't really sure which direction the shots had been fired from, and he had already lost his bearings on which direction he needed to go to get back to the main tunnel. But he thought he could maybe hear faint voices too, one of them being female, which should mean help. Unless it was Sora, although Kolya had certainly implied that if Sora was able to meet back up, it wouldn't have been with access through the tunnels.

Rodney still didn't think he should take the chance, after all, shouldn't a rescue party come equipment with flashlights or something better and –

"Over here, Teyla," Rodney suddenly heard a voice much closer although not all that much better. Rodney was pretty sure it had been Shepherd's voice and it had been close enough to place, except this time Rodney had no way of knowing whether Shepherd had been responsible for any of the gunshots and it would so be his luck that in trying to help out a fellow kidnappee, he'd end up being shot by said kidnapee.

Only now there was light – a whole lot more light than would be given off by another puny flashlight – light that was, in fact, blinding as it came around the corner, the people wielding it aiming it downward so as not to shine it in their eyes, but had, indeed, done exactly that since both he and Shepherd were sitting leaning against bare walls, not quite opposite of each other.

Rodney hissed and jerked trying to save what little he could from retinal damage, then hissed again when his sudden movements pulled against all sorts of aches and agonies that he'd mostly been ignoring in favor of making himself not there. In the little glimpse he'd gotten of Shepherd, he thought that Kolya might have gotten the upper hand despite the despot not being around to shoot either of them dead and, from the sounds of the cooing and comfort Shepherd was getting from maybe the most lovely woman Rodney had ever seen (outside of Sam), he might not be the only one thinking Shepherd hurt.

Unlikely as badly as Rodney was, however, with his broken ankle and sliced arm and flash blindness – not to mention the shattered eardrums and dammit, he was the victim here, was obviously the one these people had been sent to protect, not that they had proved very skilled at it –

"You're alive, aren't you, Doctor," Shepherd voice came from behind the vision, demonstrating that perhaps Rodney had been saying some of that out loud, before Shepherd then leaned beyond his nurse (a little too far given how quickly the vision and the hulk both moved to straighten Shepherd up). Still, it had been enough for Rodney to see a smirk that he chose to focus on instead of the bloody teeth, and before Rodney could do anything more than blink in response, the vision was duck-walking his direction with an astonishing fluid grace and absolutely no discomfort at all, and Rodney thought that maybe he was a little in love, although he still wasn't sure if it was with Shepherd or with Shepherd's angel – Tina, right, Shepherd had been sending him to Tina and obviously Sora wasn't going to be making any rendezvous.

"Where are you injured, Doctor McKay?" Tina asked with all solicitousness and gentle hands, and Shepherd was going to have to give phenomenally good blowjobs to be able to beat her –

A mixture of sputtering coughs and deep laughter indicated that Rodney was maybe still speaking instead of just thinking, but at least the localized merriment and discomfort wasn't the same sort of belligerence and embarrassment that would end up with him getting a broken jaw to add to his assorted other injuries, and Tina's eyes were still so very kind and understanding – any maybe just a little mirthful herself, so maybe Shepherd did give blowjobs.

Tina was trying to help Rodney remove his jacket since his arm was still bleeding. Rodney took the time she then spent in probing the cut and the wrapping it lightly with some gauze to look back around their tunnel junction. The alcove with the stairwell was maybe fifty feet from him and twenty feet from where Shepherd and his watchdog was kneeling. There was no sign of the kid there other than some blood, and that might have been Rodney's anyway. There was also no sign of Kolya, either there or at all within the larger than expected radius of light thrown out by two emergency lanterns.

"Did Kolya get away?" Rodney did his own leaning around Tina.

"Aiden too," came the reply with no trace of levity left. Tina's gasp and sudden look of sorrow pretty much confirmed that the kid had once been part of this team; the fact that the man mountain didn't reaction maybe said that he'd been the kid's replacement.

"Did he say why he was after you?" Shepherd then asked, changing the subject perhaps, but also a damn pertinent question to Rodney's way of thinking since it was obvious that he was still in danger.

"He says his people," and Rodney couldn't help the air quotes even though he could only use one hand, and even though Shepherd wasn't leaning out to see him this time, "had a weapons application for the Higgs boson particle work I've done, but that was probably just bullshit meant to stroke my ego while he still thought I was enough of a coward to cooperate. Uh, a Higgs boson particle is –"

"A hypothetical massive Standard Model particle whose proof of existence might explain the difference between electromagnetism and the weak force. This time Shepherd did peeked his head out again, and offered a smile that was both smug and shy. "I read up on your work, Doctor McKay, as a means to try and figure out what Kolya was after."

"Read, but undoubtedly didn't understand," Rodney muttered, because people that good looking never had to worry about grades or funding or fighting for anything since other people simply fell all over themselves trying to make them happy. Tina had probably lived the same kind of life, but she was female and so was still a part of the struggle and therefore worthy of his --

"Well, I still think 42 is a better answer to the Universe than a God particle, so maybe I am missing something, but then I haven't had a particle accelerator to play with since I interned at SLAC while getting my aeronautic engineering degree."

Oh, fuck. Normal people (non geeks) -- FBI people -- do not quote the Hitchhiker's Guide and quantum physics unless they're flirting. And guys didn't flirt with other guys unless they were truly interested.

Sorry, Tina. Douglas Adams and John Shepherd for the win.

-- finis --

Comments

[adafrog.livejournal.com]

Very cool.

(Um, you might want to link them all together so it's easier to find the parts.)

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

And yeah, I got to the links after dinner.

[goddess47]

Nicely done, putting everyone together in this AU.... 'Tina' is going to so beat Rodney's ass if he doesn't learn her name pretty soon..... but I suspect John will protect him..... LOL..... fun!

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It was fun to see how to make things fit. And I love figuring out how Rodney is going to mess up names.

[dossier.livejournal.com]

fantastic story. I lived in Houston for 25 years, and used the tunnel system quite extensively when I worked downtown so I know it well. The setting works for me! I will always love Sheppard as FBI, and I love the team that you set up for him. Lots of great canon details worked into the story, too.

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Ooh thanks for the validation. All I really remember of the tunnels is I was in junior high and attending the dog show with a friend, and we could get from there to the arena where the LA Sharks were practicing for an upcoming hockey game by going into the building's basement -- and that I really had a feeling we weren't supposed to be down there, except nothing was locked down. No other people around, so it was very cool and a little scary and even then, I thought it'd make a good place for a story, but I was thinking movies at that age. So most of the actual bits here were gaked from the net to flesh it out with what I'd hoped was reasonable accuracy.

Glad you liked the story too ;)

[teenygozer.livejournal.com]

EEEEEE! This had enough ratcheted-up tension in it to be part of the Bourne trilogy, especially part two. There was just enough description of the surroundings to inform, but not too much to bog it down, the story had great flow, and OMIGOD STRESS... yeah, this AU is really great spy-thriller material. Perfect characterizations that work well where you put them in the AU. I actually find myself with a deeper understanding of Bates now, you pegged him so well!

Couple of typos in one sentence:
But someone steps on his fingers and the body that had stayed underneath his as he finally slid to a heap at the bottom of the stairs was limb,

I think it should be "had stepped" and "limp".

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your great feedback. I'm glad you liked it.

And thanks so much for the typo catch. I knew I had to have some somewhere ;)

[emeraldteal.livejournal.com]

I loved this, felt like an action-adventure and spy thriller all in one. Lovely background characterizations for everyone too. :)

(but you might want to look it over again, because you spelled Sheppard as Shepherd interchangeably)

Normal people (non geeks) -- FBI people -- do not quote the Hitchhiker's Guide and quantum physics unless they're flirting. And guys didn't flirt with other guys unless they were truly interested.

LOL. I'm glad John and Rodney flirt the same way in any universe. *g*

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Actually, Rodney mispells Sheppard's name ;) In simply being introduced, how would he know?

I'd originally had something about this in the notes, then decided it was too wierd and I intended to go back and change it, but I guess I only removed the note and kept the affectation in my hurry to post before the challenge ended.

Glad it didn't stop your enjoyment of the story.

[emeraldteal.livejournal.com]

Gah! Now I'm all embarrassed. *facepalm*

I should've remembered cause he kept calling Teyla, Tina. :D (and Rodney using his inside voice out loud never stops being funny)

Thanks again. :)

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Don't be -- I really wasn't sure whether it was conceit on my part to try it or not. It's like writing accents, just something else that can throw someone out of the story, which should never be the author's intent.

Rodney just wouldn't be Rodney if he self-censored.

[bitter-crimson.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed this! Fun little AU. =D

[sian1359.livejournal.com]

Thanks.