Fic: Rescue (Jackson/McKay, R)
Dec. 18th, 2009 10:38 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
sgasesa-admin.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
sga_santaTitle: Rescue
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
theeverdream
Recipient:tarlanx
Pairing: Daniel Jackson / Rodney McKay
Episodes / Spoilers: post-The Lost Tribe (spoilers for First Contact and The Lost Tribe, and the SG-1 episode Meridian)
Words: 3.8k
Rating: Adult for sexual situations. Teen for language.
Warnings: angst, h/c
Author’s Note: This story is set at the end of the two-part First Contact / The Lost Tribe. Events prior to this story have happened as they did in the show. However, as the story starts, it diverges from events in the show, as the Daedalus is not able to locate Daniel or Rodney in the Asgard complex. Beginning dialogue taken from The Lost Tribe. Eternal thanks to my betapaperflowered! <3
“Okay,” says Rodney. “Here goes nothing.”
But before he can remove the crystal, Daniel’s suited form appears in the edge of Rodney’s vision: crumpled, falling. He calls out Daniel’s name and pulls out the crystal, wishing he’d just been able to pull it two seconds sooner.
The electricity and demonic blue glow vanish, replaced with panic and concern. Rodney kneels beside Daniel, both of them removing their helmets. Daniel’s face is clouded with pain.
“Okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Rodney babbles, because if he says it enough it will be true.
But Daniel tells him he’s wrong. No, Rodney thinks. No, no, no.
“Did you turn it off?” Daniel asks.
“I did, we did, you did, look – where does it hurt?” Babble, babble.
Daniel takes a moment before answering: “Everywhere.” No, please no.... “I don’t suppose there’s a hospital nearby?”
Rodney feels his heart sink, and it’s almost a physical sensation. “I’m,” he replies, “I’m pretty sure we’re on our own.”
“Good,” Daniel manages. It’s sarcastic but doesn’t sound exactly like sarcasm, and Rodney’s never seen anyone act quite this way when they’re supposed to be dying. In fact, he’s never really met anyone quite like Daniel, now that he thinks about it, and he resolves to do anything and everything for Daniel that he possibly can. Not that he wouldn’t do the same for anyone else – it’s just that Daniel’s pulling at Rodney’s heart in a way that he can’t define.
Doing what he can for Daniel includes more babbling, of course, because that’s really all Rodney’s got at the moment. “Look, I mean, on the bright side, I mean, we're both gonna be dead of dehydration in, like, five days, so you won't have to put up with me for much longer.”
Daniel actually smiles at that, and it’s just about the most beautiful thing Rodney’s ever seen, except for ZPMs of course, and possibly really good coffee, and probably seeing someone come to rescue them right now would look really awesome too.
But then he says “I'm ... I'm pretty busted up, Rodney. I don't ... I don't think I'm gonna make it that long,” and Rodney thinks no no NO NO, and notices that Daniel’s eyes have been tearing, a little. He looks like it’s been taking an incredible effort simply not to scream.
“Okay, um, I know it may not seem like it but,” Rodney says, “I want you to know, I – I really respect you, and I’m glad that I got to work with you, and I, oh, oh wow, I just really think you dying would be a bad idea right now, so please don’t, okay?”
Daniel smiles a little again, pained and grim. “I’ll try.”
*****
Once the ships from the planet are taken care of, John calls the Daedalus from the cute little bucket of a ship he’s on. But the Daedalus isn’t able to locate their people; there are no life signs in the complex.
John’s first thought is for Rodney, and his second thought is shit, if I get Dr. Jackson killed *again*...
*****
Rodney’s up and pacing with nervous energy, a quick “I have to think” muttered at the man on the floor.
“Rodney?”
“I think I can lock the door from the inside; maybe they’ll be able to get around it but it’ll buy us some time, and then if we – ”
“Rodney.” Daniel’s weak voice makes its way into Rodney’s brain.
“Hm? What?”
“I need you to help me out of this suit.”
Rodney thinks. “Uh, are you sure you should be moving? What’s wrong with you, anyway – what happened, I mean – ”
“Rodney,” Daniel insists. “Calm down.”
“Yes, okay, sorry,” Rodney says. “Um.”
“No, I really shouldn’t be moving,” Daniel continues, “but I have to get out of this suit. It’s uh.. it’s pressing on me and I... need to breathe.”
“How should I...?” The last thing Rodney wants to do is make anything worse.
“Roll my shoulder a little so... you can reach the button... on the back.. After... suit opens... you can lift it off me.”
Rodney does, and it goes surprisingly smoothly, all things considered, and Daniel only screams in pain one very short time. Rodney never wants to do anything like that again.
“That’s.. that’s better,” Daniel gasps, tears falling through squeezed-tight eyelids and down his cheeks now. “Easier to breathe.”
And geez. For all that this man is a soft scientist, and annoyingly right a lot of the time – and hey, wasn’t he the one who got Rodney into this mess in the first place? – Daniel’s in pain, and Rodney’s helpless, and Rodney reaches out a trembling hand to brush away the tears but then Daniel’s eyes open, and Rodney jerks his hand away.
He works on getting the door locked instead.
*****
John and Zelenka are beamed to the Daedalus armory where Ronon is waiting for them; Zelenka gets a tac vest and a sidearm and stuffs some equipment into a backpack. John prepares by rote, and Ronon’s just waiting, vibrating with contained eagerness to go do something useful.
Then they beam to the planet surface to look for clues. John desperately hopes they’ll find some, because right now, they’re at a dead end.
He doesn’t think about the possibility that Rodney and Daniel were on one of the ships they destroyed.
*****
The door’s locked, and now Rodney returns his thoughts to Daniel.
“Lemme put this under your head,” he says, taking off his jacket and rolling it into a small bundle. Daniel groans a little but settles into the jacket. There’s no head trauma; in fact, he can’t really see much of anything wrong so far, but there's a lot of skin he can't yet see.
“What, uh, what happened – do I need to set a bone or something?” His hands are waving a bit frantically and he feels like Daniel's a piece of Ancient tech that he has to stop from exploding in the next minute - but no, even then he would feel calmer, because he would knows what to do, what to try.
“Well I’m not sure there’s much you can do about my broken ribs.”
Rodney can only, at this point, try sounding reassuring. “You’re gonna be fine.”
Daniel quietly replies, “I think that might just be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Look,” Rodney snaps, “I’m trying, here, okay?”
“I’m sorry, Rodney. Sorry. It’s more than the ribs. I feel like a –” he lets out a little gust of air –“a coverstone fell on my torso. I have to be bleeding internally.”
Rodney feels his eyes go wide, and his flailing hands now hover around Daniel.
“It’s, uh....” Daniel smiles a little again. “Listen, I, um... I’m not afraid of dying.”
Rodney doesn’t know what to say.
“I don’t...” Daniel continues, “I don’t want to, but... but it’s okay.”
“How can it possibly be okay?” Rodney thinks he may have just whined a little.
“Even if it’s the last time I die, Rodney... I don’t think it’ll be the end.”
And now Rodney really doesn’t know what to say, because his thoughts are going in twenty different directions at once, and even he can tell that none of them would be helpful. He feels stupid, that the dying man is giving him comfort.
Daniel’s face is displaying agony in all its glory, and Rodney wishes he had been wearing a vest. He always takes morphine with him, in a little pocket on the front.
He always keeps an EpiPen on his person, though, and he’s pretty sure, if it came down to it, that he could use it to kill someone.
*****
John’s taking point as they walk through the complex and Zelenka’s close by, scanning for... anything. An erratic energy signature might tell them something.
Ronon, at their six, prowls around as if he’s expecting more of the aliens to be hiding around each corner, absence of life signs notwithstanding.
John keeps his eyes peeled for bodies.
*****
Rodney lifts up Daniel’s shirt.
“Wow, that was some lightning bolt, huh?” Rodney assesses the damage with brisk efficiency in his voice.
Rodney’d meant the question to be rhetorical but Daniel replied: “Not sure it was....”
“Hm?”
“Felt like the suit crushed me....”
“Oh wow, really? That shouldn’t have happened!”
“Malfunction’d be... my luck,” Daniel said with a wry smile.
“You don’t have any, uh, painkillers with you by any chance?”
Daniel blinks. “Nope.”
“Hm, me neither.” Rodney’s voice suddenly changes to dejected again. “I...” Rodney starts. “Daniel, I’m sorry. I wish I could help.”
“Just be here. That’s enough.”
Rodney tries to take him at his word.
Daniel’s hair feels soft under his stroking fingertips.
*****
Ronon had calmed down once they were off the Daedalus and doing something, but it’s been long enough with nothing, absolutely nothing, that he’s starting to get antsy again.
John doesn’t blame him.
*****
“Um,” Rodney says abruptly. “I’m going to go look around and see if there’s anything I can use to send a message through subspace.” He’s trying to sound confident and determined. “I can also try to, um... see if there’s any food and water,” he continues – less resolutely, because he’s not sure he knows what Asgard food even looks like.
Rodney’s not going to worry about it too much right now (because he’s pretty sure it won’t take long to get a communications device cobbled together just from the components he’s seen around already, and that should probably be his first priority – right? and wow, Rodney really feels better if he’s following orders like this instead of making them, genius notwithstanding) but it can’t hurt to ask Daniel if he knows anything about the food.
But Daniel’s really out of it now; Rodney’s question only produces a vague sort of blinking.
Rodney frowns. “Daniel?”
Daniel opens his eyes fully and settles his gaze on Rodney. Pain has creased his forehead and pulled down his lips, but his eyes say something to Rodney. He’s not quite sure what it is, because he hasn’t ever seen Daniel or anyone look like this before, but he thinks it might mean something like “please stay with me.”
He feels like he’s abandoning Daniel, but he leaves anyway.
*****
All the nooks and crannies in the complex means it’s taking a lot longer to search than John expected. He radios the Daedalus. Soon a team of marines joins the search.
“We don’t leave our people behind” echoes inside his head.
*****
A few minutes into his search for needed components, Rodney realizes that he'd had to leave the door unlocked. He clutches the stunner more tightly, ready to shoot any alien suit he might find. But he remains alone in the hallways, and doesn't have to go far to find what he's looking for. Plus, he's found some much-needed water in the room outside theirs in little lockers by the wall. It looks like it was to be used for cleaning, or for mixing into chemicals in the other bottles there, but it smells non-contaminated so Rodney's satisfied.
He comes back, locks the door again, and turns around with a “look what I found!” But Daniel is unconscious. Rodney sits with his back to the wall and in a couple of hours gets something together that broadcasts their position. He hopes. There is really no way to be sure. And if it does work, there's no way to be sure that the Wraith won't find them first.
But Rodney doesn't know what else to do.
After he finishes, Rodney wakes Daniel with gentle taps to his cheek and gives him some water. Daniel coughs and sputters, and looks so much worse now, awake and aware of his pain.
Daniel starts murmuring in a language Rodney doesn't understand, saying the same few sounds over and over, and Rodney listens until Daniel falls into a restless sleep.
*****
Zelenka’s scanner starts beeping.
“I am detecting some sort of signal, Colonel. It appears to be coming from several hundred meters this way.”
They walk for a bit until they reach a large, bulky-shaped door.
“Doesn’t this take us outside?” To someone who knows Ronon, the question hides meaning; it’s not what he’s looking for – nobody could survive out there.
“Ah, yes,” Zelenka said.
John gives the go-ahead. The door doesn’t open. He asks the Daedalus to beam them to the ship and back to the other side of the door, but the ship can’t penetrate through what is apparently some kind of shielding.
Zelenka thinks he can get the door open, and he gives John a confident little smile. But he mutters as he works, and John's picked up enough Czech over the years to know Zelenka's smile is a lie.
John barely keeps himself from punching the wall.
*****
Rodney watches the slow movements of Daniel’s chest as he breathes.
He watches his lips move in silent words, his hands clench in pain.
He watches water droplets fall from Daniel’s newly-moistened lips and tears fall from tired eyes.
He realizes that for someone with whom he hasn’t spent years with fighting the Wraith, he feels a surprising amount of attachment to him. Daniel treated him with respect. And he put up with Rodney’s attitude but didn’t act like a doormat either, a balance that Rodney kinda likes. And... well. It was kinda fun finding a super-secret lab full of new exciting things with Daniel. Maybe... the soft sciences just might be good for something, in Daniel's case at least.
Rodney sort of wishes he believed in a higher power. He’d pray that he wouldn’t have nightmares about the blood Daniel coughed up on Rodney’s face while he was bent, listening for sounds. He'd pray that he wouldn't die eaten alive by a Wraith.
But mostly he’d pray for Daniel.
*****
It takes an awfully long time, but Zelenka gets the door open.
And they find their people.
They find their people.
And it takes an awfully long time for John to believe the Daedalus surgeon when he says that Dr. Jackson will live.
*****
Rodney manages to stay awake through Daniel’s hours-long surgery, and then Daniel’s out and connected to machines and somewhere on the edge of Rodney’s awareness he hears “he’s going to live” and then he finds the nearest bed and collapses.
*****
After Daniel wakes in the Atlantis infirmary Rodney visits him every day. He’s got an exploded control room, a hole through a tower, a space gate that isn’t cooperating with their control room, and the ever-present incompetence of his minions to deal with, but for at least a few minutes every day Rodney’s there. John visits a few times, but mostly Rodney sits alone by Daniel’s bed and they talk about the Ancients and Atlantis and what it feels like to die.
*****
In the middle of the talking on their first day, Rodney’s fingers trail up the side of the mattress to Daniel’s arm. It’s natural, like breathing, and neither of them say anything about it. Rodney touches Daniel’s arm every day and, in a few days, he’s touching Daniel’s cheek. Rodney hadn’t planned the transition but it just feels right.
One day Rodney realizes how beautiful Daniel’s lips are when his fingers find their way there.
And when Daniel tastes Rodney with just the tip of his tongue, when he draws his fingers inside his warm, soft mouth and sucks gently, Rodney thinks he just might die quietly from an overdose of joy.
*****
Rodney walks Daniel back to his guest quarters when he’s released from the infirmary. When they get there Daniel enters first, and moves to the center of the room, arms outstretched like he’s enjoying the hominess of a room without blinking monitors and antiseptic smells. He turns back to Rodney, who is standing just inside the closed door.
Daniel smiles at Rodney, and once again it’s the most beautiful thing Rodney has ever seen.
The smile stops, although Daniel’s face remains warm. “I’m, ah..,” Daniel says. “I’m not looking for an intergalactic long-distance relationship.”
“Yeah,” Rodney murmurs. “I don’t think that would really work, would it.” It’s not a question, but an answer, and Daniel’s suddenly in Rodney’s space. Daniel’s lips are warm against his neck, his ear, his own lips.
“You ever bottom before, Rodney?”
He shakes his head no.
“I want to be inside you.”
Daniel’s words are soft, so gentle, but they drive a loud thrill through Rodney, because he suddenly realizes he’s finally found a man who he’d actually be willing to give some measure of control to. Daniel seems to be in control – of his life, of what he wants – but in a flexible, easy way, and that just works for Rodney, somehow.
“Okay,” Rodney says.
Daniel grins. “You’re in for a real treat...”
And all at once Rodney’s forgotten all about analyzing the man in front of him, because Daniel’s tongue is in his mouth and Daniel’s moaning like he’s the one who’s lucky.
*****
Daniel's running his hands over Rodney's sides, mouthing at Rodney's neck, and then Daniel's kneeling, hands tracing over Rodney's chest and stomach and hips.
The little stab of worry that Rodney feels re-starts his brain. "Should you be kneeling right now? I mean, you still look pretty banged up and I...."
"Kneeling's not exactly putting a lot of strain on my torso right now, Rodney, which is the main thing," Daniel says warmly.
"Oh, okay," Rodney says. "That's good. You can go back to doing whatever it - oh my gosh! You're giving me a blowjob!"
Daniel's eyebrow quirks. "Well, I could not...."
And Rodney knows he was a little bit freaked sounding, and might be flailing a little, because - gorgeous man on his knees in front of him? But that's really no reason for Daniel to stop!
"What? I knew it was too good to be true," Rodney says. "Oh! Maybe you're just now recovering from some hidden brain-trauma that made you think you wanted me and...." Rodney trails off at Daniel's gently amused expression.
"Calm down, Rodney, I'm joking."
Rodney's seen plenty of people freak out about his freakouts, even minor ones and especially when they happen in regards to sex, but what he's getting now is a fond, indulgent sort of look. And yes, a man who can handle his own immenant demise so calmly should be able to handle Rodney's own, really rather small oddities, but it still makes him feel all melty inside.
But he's also a little bit uncomfortable still; the bit of panic triggered memories of others, and images of a crushed body lying on an Asgard floor.
So Rodney bites his lip and asks, in a small voice, "Do you think we could come back to this in a little while? I, uh... I like sharing showers...."
*****
The water feels great on Rodney and looks amazing on Daniel, flowing down his smooth skin, highlighting long lines of muscle. Rodney starts to wash himself, thinking that by the time he's done he'll have a grip on his emotions again. Daniel watches Rodney for a bit and then picks up the shampoo. The soothing hot water and the few quiet moments put Rodney into a better frame of mind, and when Rodney finishes cleaning himself he sees that Daniel is only finished with his hair. So Rodney washes Daniel too, delighting in the smell of clean and in the feel of beautiful under his fingertips.
When he finishes, Daniel nuzzles his neck and whispers, "Think we should pick up where we left off out there?"
If he hadn’t been achingly hard upon first touching Daniel's wet skin, Rodney would be now. Then he looks down at himself and then to Daniel, who looks barely aroused, and then up to Daniel’s eyes. Rodney had made sure to take his time washing Daniel, to touch him with care for making it pleasurable for Daniel too, and he wonders if something's wrong with him, with the way he did things.
“Sorry, Rodney,” he says as he kneels. “It’s going to be a little slower for me – I’m, ah, still in a little pain. But you’re amazing....”
And then Daniel’s moaning with pleasure, deep in his throat as he sucks Rodney off, and if Rodney had been tempted to feel less desirable next to this Adonis, he certainly wouldn’t feel that way now. Because it's not just him taking something from Daniel; Daniel has the blissful look of a man who's getting something too.
*****
Someone from the infirmary had requisitioned Daniel a big back support pillow and after the shower he places it up against the headboard and leans against it on top of the sheets. Rodney is happy that the guest quarters have wider beds. That way he’s not worried about falling off when Daniel verbally arranges Rodney’s body where he wants it: lying on his stomach with his face near Daniel’s feet.
Daniel explains a bit more about his instructions from Carson to refrain from moving in weird ways or for too long at a time or whatever; Rodney doesn’t hear it because he’s too busy having a long, slender finger up his ass. Daniel’s gentle and slow and thorough as he adds fingers and finds Rodney’s prostate and murmurs praises to him.
And then he tells Rodney where to be and how to move, and to fuck himself on Daniel’s cock when he’s ready, his hands moving all over Rodney in loving caresses. And it’s such a perfect balance between being in control a bit himself and splitting apart that it makes Rodney glad to be alive.
*****
Rodney murmurs sleepily. "So, did Jonas ever tell you he knew me?"
"Um, no?"
"He told me about how you died, you know. And, I mean, I knew he was telling the truth about the radiation, but the way he described it... I thought he was exaggerating. But you'd really do it, wouldn't you?"
Daniel considers for a moment. "Do what?"
"Just... jump. Brave."
"You're brave too, Rodney."
Rodney makes a little snorting sound.
"No, really," Daniel insists. "Don't forget you went in there to turn off that Asgard device. Not to mention facing the Wraith? I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff in the Milky Way, but I think there's something supremely awful about an enemy that just wants to... eat you."
"Yeah, I guess," agrees Rodney. "But, you know what? It's not really a competition."
Daniel seems to recognize that Rodney's trying to make fun of himself. Rodney can't help but snicker at Daniel's amused grin, and pretty soon they're both laughing, and Rodney can't help but think that alien abductions, if they lead to this, might not be all that bad.
Author:
theeverdreamRecipient:
tarlanxPairing: Daniel Jackson / Rodney McKay
Episodes / Spoilers: post-The Lost Tribe (spoilers for First Contact and The Lost Tribe, and the SG-1 episode Meridian)
Words: 3.8k
Rating: Adult for sexual situations. Teen for language.
Warnings: angst, h/c
Author’s Note: This story is set at the end of the two-part First Contact / The Lost Tribe. Events prior to this story have happened as they did in the show. However, as the story starts, it diverges from events in the show, as the Daedalus is not able to locate Daniel or Rodney in the Asgard complex. Beginning dialogue taken from The Lost Tribe. Eternal thanks to my beta
paperflowered! <3“Okay,” says Rodney. “Here goes nothing.”
But before he can remove the crystal, Daniel’s suited form appears in the edge of Rodney’s vision: crumpled, falling. He calls out Daniel’s name and pulls out the crystal, wishing he’d just been able to pull it two seconds sooner.
The electricity and demonic blue glow vanish, replaced with panic and concern. Rodney kneels beside Daniel, both of them removing their helmets. Daniel’s face is clouded with pain.
“Okay, you’re okay, you’re okay,” Rodney babbles, because if he says it enough it will be true.
But Daniel tells him he’s wrong. No, Rodney thinks. No, no, no.
“Did you turn it off?” Daniel asks.
“I did, we did, you did, look – where does it hurt?” Babble, babble.
Daniel takes a moment before answering: “Everywhere.” No, please no.... “I don’t suppose there’s a hospital nearby?”
Rodney feels his heart sink, and it’s almost a physical sensation. “I’m,” he replies, “I’m pretty sure we’re on our own.”
“Good,” Daniel manages. It’s sarcastic but doesn’t sound exactly like sarcasm, and Rodney’s never seen anyone act quite this way when they’re supposed to be dying. In fact, he’s never really met anyone quite like Daniel, now that he thinks about it, and he resolves to do anything and everything for Daniel that he possibly can. Not that he wouldn’t do the same for anyone else – it’s just that Daniel’s pulling at Rodney’s heart in a way that he can’t define.
Doing what he can for Daniel includes more babbling, of course, because that’s really all Rodney’s got at the moment. “Look, I mean, on the bright side, I mean, we're both gonna be dead of dehydration in, like, five days, so you won't have to put up with me for much longer.”
Daniel actually smiles at that, and it’s just about the most beautiful thing Rodney’s ever seen, except for ZPMs of course, and possibly really good coffee, and probably seeing someone come to rescue them right now would look really awesome too.
But then he says “I'm ... I'm pretty busted up, Rodney. I don't ... I don't think I'm gonna make it that long,” and Rodney thinks no no NO NO, and notices that Daniel’s eyes have been tearing, a little. He looks like it’s been taking an incredible effort simply not to scream.
“Okay, um, I know it may not seem like it but,” Rodney says, “I want you to know, I – I really respect you, and I’m glad that I got to work with you, and I, oh, oh wow, I just really think you dying would be a bad idea right now, so please don’t, okay?”
Daniel smiles a little again, pained and grim. “I’ll try.”
*****
Once the ships from the planet are taken care of, John calls the Daedalus from the cute little bucket of a ship he’s on. But the Daedalus isn’t able to locate their people; there are no life signs in the complex.
John’s first thought is for Rodney, and his second thought is shit, if I get Dr. Jackson killed *again*...
*****
Rodney’s up and pacing with nervous energy, a quick “I have to think” muttered at the man on the floor.
“Rodney?”
“I think I can lock the door from the inside; maybe they’ll be able to get around it but it’ll buy us some time, and then if we – ”
“Rodney.” Daniel’s weak voice makes its way into Rodney’s brain.
“Hm? What?”
“I need you to help me out of this suit.”
Rodney thinks. “Uh, are you sure you should be moving? What’s wrong with you, anyway – what happened, I mean – ”
“Rodney,” Daniel insists. “Calm down.”
“Yes, okay, sorry,” Rodney says. “Um.”
“No, I really shouldn’t be moving,” Daniel continues, “but I have to get out of this suit. It’s uh.. it’s pressing on me and I... need to breathe.”
“How should I...?” The last thing Rodney wants to do is make anything worse.
“Roll my shoulder a little so... you can reach the button... on the back.. After... suit opens... you can lift it off me.”
Rodney does, and it goes surprisingly smoothly, all things considered, and Daniel only screams in pain one very short time. Rodney never wants to do anything like that again.
“That’s.. that’s better,” Daniel gasps, tears falling through squeezed-tight eyelids and down his cheeks now. “Easier to breathe.”
And geez. For all that this man is a soft scientist, and annoyingly right a lot of the time – and hey, wasn’t he the one who got Rodney into this mess in the first place? – Daniel’s in pain, and Rodney’s helpless, and Rodney reaches out a trembling hand to brush away the tears but then Daniel’s eyes open, and Rodney jerks his hand away.
He works on getting the door locked instead.
*****
John and Zelenka are beamed to the Daedalus armory where Ronon is waiting for them; Zelenka gets a tac vest and a sidearm and stuffs some equipment into a backpack. John prepares by rote, and Ronon’s just waiting, vibrating with contained eagerness to go do something useful.
Then they beam to the planet surface to look for clues. John desperately hopes they’ll find some, because right now, they’re at a dead end.
He doesn’t think about the possibility that Rodney and Daniel were on one of the ships they destroyed.
*****
The door’s locked, and now Rodney returns his thoughts to Daniel.
“Lemme put this under your head,” he says, taking off his jacket and rolling it into a small bundle. Daniel groans a little but settles into the jacket. There’s no head trauma; in fact, he can’t really see much of anything wrong so far, but there's a lot of skin he can't yet see.
“What, uh, what happened – do I need to set a bone or something?” His hands are waving a bit frantically and he feels like Daniel's a piece of Ancient tech that he has to stop from exploding in the next minute - but no, even then he would feel calmer, because he would knows what to do, what to try.
“Well I’m not sure there’s much you can do about my broken ribs.”
Rodney can only, at this point, try sounding reassuring. “You’re gonna be fine.”
Daniel quietly replies, “I think that might just be the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.”
“Look,” Rodney snaps, “I’m trying, here, okay?”
“I’m sorry, Rodney. Sorry. It’s more than the ribs. I feel like a –” he lets out a little gust of air –“a coverstone fell on my torso. I have to be bleeding internally.”
Rodney feels his eyes go wide, and his flailing hands now hover around Daniel.
“It’s, uh....” Daniel smiles a little again. “Listen, I, um... I’m not afraid of dying.”
Rodney doesn’t know what to say.
“I don’t...” Daniel continues, “I don’t want to, but... but it’s okay.”
“How can it possibly be okay?” Rodney thinks he may have just whined a little.
“Even if it’s the last time I die, Rodney... I don’t think it’ll be the end.”
And now Rodney really doesn’t know what to say, because his thoughts are going in twenty different directions at once, and even he can tell that none of them would be helpful. He feels stupid, that the dying man is giving him comfort.
Daniel’s face is displaying agony in all its glory, and Rodney wishes he had been wearing a vest. He always takes morphine with him, in a little pocket on the front.
He always keeps an EpiPen on his person, though, and he’s pretty sure, if it came down to it, that he could use it to kill someone.
*****
John’s taking point as they walk through the complex and Zelenka’s close by, scanning for... anything. An erratic energy signature might tell them something.
Ronon, at their six, prowls around as if he’s expecting more of the aliens to be hiding around each corner, absence of life signs notwithstanding.
John keeps his eyes peeled for bodies.
*****
Rodney lifts up Daniel’s shirt.
“Wow, that was some lightning bolt, huh?” Rodney assesses the damage with brisk efficiency in his voice.
Rodney’d meant the question to be rhetorical but Daniel replied: “Not sure it was....”
“Hm?”
“Felt like the suit crushed me....”
“Oh wow, really? That shouldn’t have happened!”
“Malfunction’d be... my luck,” Daniel said with a wry smile.
“You don’t have any, uh, painkillers with you by any chance?”
Daniel blinks. “Nope.”
“Hm, me neither.” Rodney’s voice suddenly changes to dejected again. “I...” Rodney starts. “Daniel, I’m sorry. I wish I could help.”
“Just be here. That’s enough.”
Rodney tries to take him at his word.
Daniel’s hair feels soft under his stroking fingertips.
*****
Ronon had calmed down once they were off the Daedalus and doing something, but it’s been long enough with nothing, absolutely nothing, that he’s starting to get antsy again.
John doesn’t blame him.
*****
“Um,” Rodney says abruptly. “I’m going to go look around and see if there’s anything I can use to send a message through subspace.” He’s trying to sound confident and determined. “I can also try to, um... see if there’s any food and water,” he continues – less resolutely, because he’s not sure he knows what Asgard food even looks like.
Rodney’s not going to worry about it too much right now (because he’s pretty sure it won’t take long to get a communications device cobbled together just from the components he’s seen around already, and that should probably be his first priority – right? and wow, Rodney really feels better if he’s following orders like this instead of making them, genius notwithstanding) but it can’t hurt to ask Daniel if he knows anything about the food.
But Daniel’s really out of it now; Rodney’s question only produces a vague sort of blinking.
Rodney frowns. “Daniel?”
Daniel opens his eyes fully and settles his gaze on Rodney. Pain has creased his forehead and pulled down his lips, but his eyes say something to Rodney. He’s not quite sure what it is, because he hasn’t ever seen Daniel or anyone look like this before, but he thinks it might mean something like “please stay with me.”
He feels like he’s abandoning Daniel, but he leaves anyway.
*****
All the nooks and crannies in the complex means it’s taking a lot longer to search than John expected. He radios the Daedalus. Soon a team of marines joins the search.
“We don’t leave our people behind” echoes inside his head.
*****
A few minutes into his search for needed components, Rodney realizes that he'd had to leave the door unlocked. He clutches the stunner more tightly, ready to shoot any alien suit he might find. But he remains alone in the hallways, and doesn't have to go far to find what he's looking for. Plus, he's found some much-needed water in the room outside theirs in little lockers by the wall. It looks like it was to be used for cleaning, or for mixing into chemicals in the other bottles there, but it smells non-contaminated so Rodney's satisfied.
He comes back, locks the door again, and turns around with a “look what I found!” But Daniel is unconscious. Rodney sits with his back to the wall and in a couple of hours gets something together that broadcasts their position. He hopes. There is really no way to be sure. And if it does work, there's no way to be sure that the Wraith won't find them first.
But Rodney doesn't know what else to do.
After he finishes, Rodney wakes Daniel with gentle taps to his cheek and gives him some water. Daniel coughs and sputters, and looks so much worse now, awake and aware of his pain.
Daniel starts murmuring in a language Rodney doesn't understand, saying the same few sounds over and over, and Rodney listens until Daniel falls into a restless sleep.
*****
Zelenka’s scanner starts beeping.
“I am detecting some sort of signal, Colonel. It appears to be coming from several hundred meters this way.”
They walk for a bit until they reach a large, bulky-shaped door.
“Doesn’t this take us outside?” To someone who knows Ronon, the question hides meaning; it’s not what he’s looking for – nobody could survive out there.
“Ah, yes,” Zelenka said.
John gives the go-ahead. The door doesn’t open. He asks the Daedalus to beam them to the ship and back to the other side of the door, but the ship can’t penetrate through what is apparently some kind of shielding.
Zelenka thinks he can get the door open, and he gives John a confident little smile. But he mutters as he works, and John's picked up enough Czech over the years to know Zelenka's smile is a lie.
John barely keeps himself from punching the wall.
*****
Rodney watches the slow movements of Daniel’s chest as he breathes.
He watches his lips move in silent words, his hands clench in pain.
He watches water droplets fall from Daniel’s newly-moistened lips and tears fall from tired eyes.
He realizes that for someone with whom he hasn’t spent years with fighting the Wraith, he feels a surprising amount of attachment to him. Daniel treated him with respect. And he put up with Rodney’s attitude but didn’t act like a doormat either, a balance that Rodney kinda likes. And... well. It was kinda fun finding a super-secret lab full of new exciting things with Daniel. Maybe... the soft sciences just might be good for something, in Daniel's case at least.
Rodney sort of wishes he believed in a higher power. He’d pray that he wouldn’t have nightmares about the blood Daniel coughed up on Rodney’s face while he was bent, listening for sounds. He'd pray that he wouldn't die eaten alive by a Wraith.
But mostly he’d pray for Daniel.
*****
It takes an awfully long time, but Zelenka gets the door open.
And they find their people.
They find their people.
And it takes an awfully long time for John to believe the Daedalus surgeon when he says that Dr. Jackson will live.
*****
Rodney manages to stay awake through Daniel’s hours-long surgery, and then Daniel’s out and connected to machines and somewhere on the edge of Rodney’s awareness he hears “he’s going to live” and then he finds the nearest bed and collapses.
*****
After Daniel wakes in the Atlantis infirmary Rodney visits him every day. He’s got an exploded control room, a hole through a tower, a space gate that isn’t cooperating with their control room, and the ever-present incompetence of his minions to deal with, but for at least a few minutes every day Rodney’s there. John visits a few times, but mostly Rodney sits alone by Daniel’s bed and they talk about the Ancients and Atlantis and what it feels like to die.
*****
In the middle of the talking on their first day, Rodney’s fingers trail up the side of the mattress to Daniel’s arm. It’s natural, like breathing, and neither of them say anything about it. Rodney touches Daniel’s arm every day and, in a few days, he’s touching Daniel’s cheek. Rodney hadn’t planned the transition but it just feels right.
One day Rodney realizes how beautiful Daniel’s lips are when his fingers find their way there.
And when Daniel tastes Rodney with just the tip of his tongue, when he draws his fingers inside his warm, soft mouth and sucks gently, Rodney thinks he just might die quietly from an overdose of joy.
*****
Rodney walks Daniel back to his guest quarters when he’s released from the infirmary. When they get there Daniel enters first, and moves to the center of the room, arms outstretched like he’s enjoying the hominess of a room without blinking monitors and antiseptic smells. He turns back to Rodney, who is standing just inside the closed door.
Daniel smiles at Rodney, and once again it’s the most beautiful thing Rodney has ever seen.
The smile stops, although Daniel’s face remains warm. “I’m, ah..,” Daniel says. “I’m not looking for an intergalactic long-distance relationship.”
“Yeah,” Rodney murmurs. “I don’t think that would really work, would it.” It’s not a question, but an answer, and Daniel’s suddenly in Rodney’s space. Daniel’s lips are warm against his neck, his ear, his own lips.
“You ever bottom before, Rodney?”
He shakes his head no.
“I want to be inside you.”
Daniel’s words are soft, so gentle, but they drive a loud thrill through Rodney, because he suddenly realizes he’s finally found a man who he’d actually be willing to give some measure of control to. Daniel seems to be in control – of his life, of what he wants – but in a flexible, easy way, and that just works for Rodney, somehow.
“Okay,” Rodney says.
Daniel grins. “You’re in for a real treat...”
And all at once Rodney’s forgotten all about analyzing the man in front of him, because Daniel’s tongue is in his mouth and Daniel’s moaning like he’s the one who’s lucky.
*****
Daniel's running his hands over Rodney's sides, mouthing at Rodney's neck, and then Daniel's kneeling, hands tracing over Rodney's chest and stomach and hips.
The little stab of worry that Rodney feels re-starts his brain. "Should you be kneeling right now? I mean, you still look pretty banged up and I...."
"Kneeling's not exactly putting a lot of strain on my torso right now, Rodney, which is the main thing," Daniel says warmly.
"Oh, okay," Rodney says. "That's good. You can go back to doing whatever it - oh my gosh! You're giving me a blowjob!"
Daniel's eyebrow quirks. "Well, I could not...."
And Rodney knows he was a little bit freaked sounding, and might be flailing a little, because - gorgeous man on his knees in front of him? But that's really no reason for Daniel to stop!
"What? I knew it was too good to be true," Rodney says. "Oh! Maybe you're just now recovering from some hidden brain-trauma that made you think you wanted me and...." Rodney trails off at Daniel's gently amused expression.
"Calm down, Rodney, I'm joking."
Rodney's seen plenty of people freak out about his freakouts, even minor ones and especially when they happen in regards to sex, but what he's getting now is a fond, indulgent sort of look. And yes, a man who can handle his own immenant demise so calmly should be able to handle Rodney's own, really rather small oddities, but it still makes him feel all melty inside.
But he's also a little bit uncomfortable still; the bit of panic triggered memories of others, and images of a crushed body lying on an Asgard floor.
So Rodney bites his lip and asks, in a small voice, "Do you think we could come back to this in a little while? I, uh... I like sharing showers...."
*****
The water feels great on Rodney and looks amazing on Daniel, flowing down his smooth skin, highlighting long lines of muscle. Rodney starts to wash himself, thinking that by the time he's done he'll have a grip on his emotions again. Daniel watches Rodney for a bit and then picks up the shampoo. The soothing hot water and the few quiet moments put Rodney into a better frame of mind, and when Rodney finishes cleaning himself he sees that Daniel is only finished with his hair. So Rodney washes Daniel too, delighting in the smell of clean and in the feel of beautiful under his fingertips.
When he finishes, Daniel nuzzles his neck and whispers, "Think we should pick up where we left off out there?"
If he hadn’t been achingly hard upon first touching Daniel's wet skin, Rodney would be now. Then he looks down at himself and then to Daniel, who looks barely aroused, and then up to Daniel’s eyes. Rodney had made sure to take his time washing Daniel, to touch him with care for making it pleasurable for Daniel too, and he wonders if something's wrong with him, with the way he did things.
“Sorry, Rodney,” he says as he kneels. “It’s going to be a little slower for me – I’m, ah, still in a little pain. But you’re amazing....”
And then Daniel’s moaning with pleasure, deep in his throat as he sucks Rodney off, and if Rodney had been tempted to feel less desirable next to this Adonis, he certainly wouldn’t feel that way now. Because it's not just him taking something from Daniel; Daniel has the blissful look of a man who's getting something too.
*****
Someone from the infirmary had requisitioned Daniel a big back support pillow and after the shower he places it up against the headboard and leans against it on top of the sheets. Rodney is happy that the guest quarters have wider beds. That way he’s not worried about falling off when Daniel verbally arranges Rodney’s body where he wants it: lying on his stomach with his face near Daniel’s feet.
Daniel explains a bit more about his instructions from Carson to refrain from moving in weird ways or for too long at a time or whatever; Rodney doesn’t hear it because he’s too busy having a long, slender finger up his ass. Daniel’s gentle and slow and thorough as he adds fingers and finds Rodney’s prostate and murmurs praises to him.
And then he tells Rodney where to be and how to move, and to fuck himself on Daniel’s cock when he’s ready, his hands moving all over Rodney in loving caresses. And it’s such a perfect balance between being in control a bit himself and splitting apart that it makes Rodney glad to be alive.
*****
Rodney murmurs sleepily. "So, did Jonas ever tell you he knew me?"
"Um, no?"
"He told me about how you died, you know. And, I mean, I knew he was telling the truth about the radiation, but the way he described it... I thought he was exaggerating. But you'd really do it, wouldn't you?"
Daniel considers for a moment. "Do what?"
"Just... jump. Brave."
"You're brave too, Rodney."
Rodney makes a little snorting sound.
"No, really," Daniel insists. "Don't forget you went in there to turn off that Asgard device. Not to mention facing the Wraith? I mean, there's a lot of bad stuff in the Milky Way, but I think there's something supremely awful about an enemy that just wants to... eat you."
"Yeah, I guess," agrees Rodney. "But, you know what? It's not really a competition."
Daniel seems to recognize that Rodney's trying to make fun of himself. Rodney can't help but snicker at Daniel's amused grin, and pretty soon they're both laughing, and Rodney can't help but think that alien abductions, if they lead to this, might not be all that bad.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}