Fic: Lorne's Reality (Lorne/Zelenka, PG)

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Title: Lorne's Reality
Author: sexycazzy
Recipient: gblvr
Pairing: Evan Lorne/Radek Zelenka
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The recognisable characters belongs to Stargate Atlantis and its creators, and not to me, sadly.
Summary: Evan and Radek has been dating, but Evan is fed up with Radek's classified job and wants to know what it is. When he finally finds out, will he regret it?
Author's Notes: This is an AU set in the Vegas!verse where Lorne is a detective and works with John Sheppard. Some dialogue has been borrowed from the episode 'Vegas'. Special thanks to my wonderful beta - fififolle

Special thanks to my wonderful beta who has done a super-fast beta~ing for me! All other mistakes are my own!

Lorne’s Reality

As the sun is going down over the desert in Nevada, Vegas, a red car arrives near the crime scene, which is cordoned off by the police, and is instantly surrounded by a police car and truck.

Detective Evan Lorne gets out of the passenger’s side and starts to walk over when he saw a reporter with a camera making her way over to them and rushes over to stop her from going to his partner, John Sheppard, but it’s too late. Sheppard is already out of the car, slamming the door closed and walks past the reporter, ignoring her completely, to the crime scene.

“What’s she doing here?” Sheppard raises an eyebrow at a uniformed officer, who shrugs as he lifts the yellow tape up to allow Sheppard into the area.

“C'mon, John. I'm breaking this with or without you,” the reporter calls out but Sheppard ignores her so Lorne goes over to her to try to divert her.

“Leave it,” Lorne says as he pulls the reporter away from the crime scene and from Sheppard.

“If we have a serial killer on our hands, people have a right to know,” the reporter tells Lorne.

“We don’t know yet,” Lorne replies. “Please come away from here. We will let you know as soon as we know.” Lorne gestures for another uniformed officer to come over and tells him to lead the reporter, who protests, out of here, then turns back and makes his way over to the crime scene, where Sheppard was talking with Laura Cadman, one of the crime scene investigators.

“Hey, Laura,” Lorne smiles. “So what do we have here?”

“‘Most likely’ a white victim,” Sheppard says.

Lorne raises an eyebrow and looks at Laura, puzzled.

Laura shrugs. “No clothes, no I.D. Wasn't killed here..”

“Anything else?” Sheppard asks and Laura nods, pointing to a small area just off one side of the crime scene. “Got tyre tracks leading off from here,”

Lorne nods and looks around. “We got any witnesses?”

“Yeah,” Laura says, wagging a finger towards the distance behind the detectives. “Over there, but it looks suspicious. He was found standing over the victim.”

Lorne turns around and searches for the witness and gasps, shocked, and his stomach flips over as he stares at the witness with the messed hair who was rubbing his glasses with a cloth.

Sheppard hears the shocked gasp and turns around and tilts his head to one side.

“Isn’t that Radek Zelenka?” he asks, looking over to Lorne. “The one you’re dating?”

Lorne groans and sighs heavily. “Yeah, it’s him.”

Sheppard gives a quiet chuckle and Lorne glares at him. “You got poor taste in men, Lorne.”

“Speak for yourself, Shep,” Lorne retorts back at him. Then he turns to the witness - Radek Zelenka - and sees that he is waving his hands around, looking flushed as he tries to answer questions.

“I better go over and see what he’s doing here.” Lorne starts to walk over, when Sheppard pulls him back by the arm.

“Are you sure you want to do this? What if he turns out to be a suspect?” Sheppard asks.

Lorne shakes his head. “I think it’s just a case of wrong timing and wrong place.”

Laura makes a small cough behind them, and Lorne looks over his shoulder.

“Actually, the witness refuses to say how he got here.”

Lorne narrows his eyes. “By car, I assume?”

“He didn’t come here by car,” Laura shakes her head.

“Now isn’t that suspicious?” Sheppard mutters and Lorne gives out a deep sigh.

“Look, let me go and find out. I’m sure Radek has a simple explanation for how he came to be here.”

Laura and Sheppard look at each other, then to Lorne.

“Well, just be careful.” Sheppard squeezes Lorne’s shoulder then nods as he makes his way over to where Radek was.

* * * *

“Hey, Radek,” Lorne calls out to him.

“Evan?” Radek looks around, surprised to see him here. “Wh…what are you doing here?”

“Sheppard and I were called out to this incident,” Lorne explains. “Although, I didn’t expect to find you here.”

Radek swallows nervously as he fidgets with his glasses, still in his hands. “Yes, I am sure it is a surprise to find me here.”

Lorne waits for Radek to expand on that, but when he doesn’t, Lorne takes a deep breath.

“Want to tell me what you’re doing here, then?”

“I-I can’t,” Radek says, regretfully. “It’s classified.”

‘Not again,’ Lorne thinks to himself. Every time they go out on a date, Lorne has been trying to find out what Radek’s job was but he often got, ‘It’s classified’ as his answer, which has annoyed Lorne at times. He tried to find Radek’s records on the police computers, but only got all the information up to five years ago, where suddenly it was like Radek disappeared from Earth.

“It’s classified?” Lorne stares at him, angrily. “We got a body here, and you tell me it’s classified?”

Radek puts his glasses back on and squeezes the bridge of his nose. “Believe me, I wish I could explain to you, Evan. I hate keeping this from you.”

Lorne is about to say something, when a black car, with dark tinted windows, pulls up and a bald man with a suit gets out of it and makes his way over to where Lorne and Radek are.

“Dr Zelenka, please come with me,” the man in the suit says to Radek, ignoring Lorne completely. Radek nods and starts to follow the man, when Lorne steps in front of him.

“Hang on, you can’t do that!” Lorne protests. “Mr Zelenka is needed to make a statement back at the station.”

The man in the suit turns to him and hands over a piece of paper. “This will explain everything. Doctor, come.”

Lorne takes the paper and reads it and his eyes widen as he sees it is an order from the President to let Dr Radek Zelenka go and that the police were not allowed to question him again. Lorne groans, knowing that Sheppard wouldn’t like this development.

He looks up to see Radek disappearing into the car and then it drives off.

“Where’s he going?” Sheppard shouts out as he runs over to Lorne, who stands there, stunned. He simply hands the paper over to Sheppard, who reads it and swears profoundly.

Lorne suddenly realizes something. He finally has learnt something new about Radek, that he was a doctor of something, and wonders if he will ever see Radek ever again.

* * * *

Lorne is sitting in Sheppard’s office, which is mostly bare apart from a poster of Johnny Cash stuck up on the wall behind Sheppard. They talk about the case.

“We got a bunch of bodies being dumped in the desert and it looks like the life's been sucked out of ‘em,” Sheppard says as he looks at a stack of documents on the table. “And we’ve got no answers.”

“Do you think it’s possible to suck life out of bodies?” Lorne asks.

Sheppard looks up and makes a small shrug. “I have no idea. You know what it’s like out here. We often find weird cases so why not have bodies which looks like the life has been sucked out of them?”

Lorne shakes his head and chuckles. “I suppose, but is it strange, that we got no answers? You are aware that it’s starting to look like it’s a serial killer?”

Sheppard just glares at him. Lorne nods and takes a paper from the stack of documents and starts to read it, when the door to the office opens and he looks up to see his Captain, Hendricks, leading someone into the office.

“Hey,” Lorne stands up. “You are the one who took Mr - Doctor - Zelenka away earlier today!”

Hendricks puts a hand up. “This is Agent Woolsey, FBI.”

Agent Woolsey hold out his hand, but both Lorne and Sheppard, who stand up at this point, ignore it and look at Hendricks.

“This case moved jurisdiction?” Sheppard asks, as Lorne glares at Woolsey, arms crossed his chest.

“Not yet,” Hendricks says. “Well, I will leave you guys to it.” He nods at Woolsey and then leaves the office.

“We would appreciate your cooperation,” Woolsey tells the detectives.

Sheppard looks down at the table, full of photographs and documents. “We got nothing.”

Woolsey nods. “I’m not surprised. This is a strange case.”

“Look, what are you doing here?” Lorne uncrosses his arms.

“If you don't mind, we'd like you to come for a little drive,” Woolsey tells the detectives, who look surprised.

“To where?” Lorne asks.

“You will see,” Woolsey, replies, mysteriously. “When we get there, it will all become clear.”

“Well, I’m not sure if we want to come with you.” Sheppard stares at Woolsey, who smiles and turns to Lorne.

“Dr Zelenka recommended that we give you both clearance, but if you don’t want to come with us, he will be awfully disappointed.”

Lorne’s eyes widen. “Radek wants us?”

“Yes, although Dr McKay is not happy about it.”

“Who is McKay?” Sheppard asks as he lifts a jacket from the chair and slips it on.

“You will meet him,” Woolsey answers Sheppard’s question.

“Come on, Lorne, let’s find out what they want,” Sheppard walks around the table and grabs Lorne by the elbow as they follow Woolsey out.

* * * *

Agent Woolsey is outside a closed door, in what appears to be an underground facility and looks through the window in the door at Detectives Lorne and Sheppard talking. He turns as he hears footsteps and sees Radek and a man, assuming to be Dr McKay approaching him.

“They won’t sign the disclosure forms,” Woolsey tells them.

“Let me talk to Evan,” Radek says. “I’m sure that I can get him to sign a form and if Sheppard sees him signing it, he might follow.”

Woolsey sighs and turns to McKay and asks if he agrees.

“Why not?” McKay shrugs. “I only agreed because Zelenka begged me to bring them into this.”

Radek groans. “McKay, I didn’t beg. I simply suggested that it might be a good idea to bring the detectives in because they are investigating these strange cases and they deserve to know everything and perhaps help us too.”

“Just – just get them to sign the forms,” McKay says. “Then we can get on with the tour.”

Radek rolls his eyes as Woolsey opens the door. “Good luck, Dr Zelenka.”

As Radek and McKay step in, both Sheppard and Lorne look up at the same time.

“Hey, Radek,” Lorne smiles at Radek.

“Who are you?” Sheppard looks at McKay.

“Detectives. I’m Rodney McKay,” McKay approaches the table with a computer tablet and sits down.

“Please sign the forms,” Radek tells the detectives. “After you sign them, everything will become clear and you will know what happened to the bodies.”

Lorne looks at Radek with a raised eyebrow. “Will this make you unclassified to me?”

Radek smiles as he slowly nods. “Yes, Evan, it will.”

“Well, then give it to me,” Lorne grins.

McKay opens his mouth and stares at Lorne. “Was that all it took to get you to sign the bloody form?”

Lorne turns to McKay and gives him a cold glare. McKay gulps and turn to Sheppard and ask him if he will sign a form too.

Sheppard shrugs. “If Lorne will sign, then I will.”

McKay gives out a deep sigh of relief as Radek hands a couple of forms over to the detectives.

* * * *

After Dr McKay and Radek explained to Lorne and Sheppard about Stargates and travelling to planets, they are walking down a corridor to a small room, where they will see what has been attacking and killing people.

Lorne walks with Radek as Sheppard and Dr McKay are arguing in front of them.

“Space aliens?” Lorne asks Radek, who gives out a nervous laugh.

“You will see,” Radek says. “I’m glad you came. I was scared that you might not come after what happened this morning.”

Lorne shakes his head. “And to miss out what you’ve been hiding from me all this time?”

Radek winces. “I am sorry. I couldn’t tell you, I was not allowed.”

Lorne puts a hand on Radek’s arm and stops in middle of the corridor. “No, it should be me who apologizes. I’ve been pressuring you, asking you questions that you couldn’t answer. I should’ve left it alone when you said that what you were doing was classified.”

Radek starts to shake his head, but Lorne interrupts him. “I…I was worried that you might have got into trouble that you couldn’t get out of.”

Radek stares at Lorne, surprised. “You were worried for me?”

Lorne smiles and nods. “I like you and want to get to know you more, but was worried that I might not see you anymore if you got into trouble or did something illegal, which was why I kept pressuring you, why I looked you up.”

“You looked me up?” Radek asks, sharply.

Lorne grimaces and nods slowly. “I’m sorry, I should’ve have done that, but I wanted to know more about you, and when I saw that you disappeared the last five years, I didn’t know what to do.”

Radek sees the worried look on Lorne’s face and sighs deeply. He puts a hand over Lorne’s. “I understand. I am glad that you have got the clearance and that everything will be clear to you in a few moments.”

Lorne smiles, and Radek smiles back, holding the look between them, before Radek breaks off. “Doctor McKay and Detective Sheppard will be waiting for us, come on.”

Radek leads Lorne out of the corridor and finds Doctor McKay and Sheppard waiting outside a door.

“Where have you been?” McKay grumbles as Radek just smiles and looks over to Lorne.

“We were just sorting something out.”

McKay snorts and takes a key out of his pocket and puts it in the door. He turns it slowly and then opens the door, gesturing for Sheppard and Lorne to go in.

* * * *

Outside, in the desert, Lorne takes in a deep breath and tries to pull himself together. ‘So aliens and Stargates were real,’ he thinks to himself.

Radek walks over and puts a hand on Lorne’s back. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, just trying to take it all in,” Lorne says.

“Yes, I understand. I remember the first time I came here. It was frightening to know that aliens were real. It is even more frightening that we have Wraiths on Earth. We must find them before it gets worse, and before more of them come,” Radek tells him.

Lorne swallows and looks at Radek. “How do you manage?”

Radek looks puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“How do you do this and pretend that there are no aliens, that it’s not all real?” Lorne asks, curious.

Radek smiles. “It is not easy, I admit. But since meeting you, it has got easier. Being with you, it is like that I can truly switch off. You are helping me, Evan.”

Lorne looks at Radek, open-mouthed. “Me?”

Radek nods and puts a hand on Lorne’s face. “Yes, you. I am glad that I can finally share this with you. As much as it was easier being with you, hiding this part of me from you was hard. In a small way, I am glad that you came out to the desert yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” Lorne frowns, and then it dawns on him. “Oh, the crime scene…it only has been that long? It feels like it's been weeks.”

“Yes, it has only been a day.”

Lorne laughs and takes Radek’s hand from his face and kisses it gently. “I would like to see you again.”

Radek is stunned. “After all you have found out, you still want to see me?”

“Yes, knowing about aliens and Stargates doesn’t stop me wanting to see you more, to get to know you more.” Lorne leans over to Radek and plants a kiss on his cheek.

“And I want to do more to you,” Lorne whispers in a huskily tone.

“Really, Evan, you shouldn't say things like that here,” Radek splutters and Lorne laughs.

“Well, we will have to see what we can do about it.”

“What do you mean?” Radek asks, puzzled.

“Can I see you tonight? Can we go to your place? I want to do all kinds of dirty things to you and more, will you let me?”

Radek goes red and nods slowly.

Lorne beams happily and then decides to throw caution to the wind, not caring that McKay and Sheppard are just a few feet away, that there are some soldiers around. He grabs Radek by the collar and kisses him furiously.

When Lorne has finished kissing Radek, he lets go and grins at him, who gawps back.

“That’s just a tease of what’s to come,” Lorne winks and then walks over to Sheppard, asking if he was ready to go, leaving Radek behind, gobsmacked, but looking forward to tonight.

~fin~