Repairs
by Setcheti
Disclaimer: Don’t own them, not actually trying to either.
Author’s Note: This is a tag for “Storm’s Passing”, #6 of The Carson Diaries, as well as the episodes “The Storm” and “The Eye”.
It took him longer than he wanted to find Rodney.
In fact, it took him almost two hours. Everyone Sheppard asked had ‘just seen him’. A few hours ago. Or yesterday. Or late last night. And all of the reported sightings were accompanied by the sighter pointing to something that was now working but hadn’t been before; Rodney was leaving a trail of repairs in his wake, and apparently had been for the last couple of days. Sheppard finally just started going wherever he knew there was something that hadn’t been fixed, and in the end that got him where he wanted to go.
Of course, it hadn’t hurt that Rodney had notified Dr. Grodin in the
Sheppard all but ran to get there, and then he had to take a few minutes to get his breath back before going outside. He needed to be casual about this, because if his teammate was half as skittish right now as Sheppard thought he was and someone came running up to him…well, he’d probably be fishing Rodney out of Atlantis’ not-so-warm ocean. So he composed himself, and then he just strolled out onto the platform like he was out for a walk.
Rodney still tensed up all over. Sheppard pretended not to notice. “Hey,” he said. “What’cha workin’ on?”
Blue eyes flicked up to him and then just as quickly dropped back down to the damaged console. “I’m trying to get this panel repaired. We might need it operational again someday.”
“Oh.” Sheppard had already settled on a plan of attack. He walked right up behind his target and bent to peer over his shoulder at the exposed circuitry, then moved to one side and squatted down for a closer look. “Need any help?”
Another sideways flicker of blue, and now that he was close Sheppard could see the uneasiness there – not that he couldn’t feel the tension radiating off the other man. “Um, no, not really. Did you need me for something else?”
“No, not really.” Sheppard smiled and stayed where he was, watching, and after a minute he said, “I just had a couple of questions I wanted to ask you, that was all.”
He’d only thought Rodney was tense before. “Oh…okay. Ask away.”
Careful, John, be careful, he warned himself, then took a breath and started in. “Well, it’s really just some information I needed to get,” he explained. “I realized there were some areas of your training that I was kind of fuzzy on, and since I’m your team leader I really need to know.” He shifted just slightly, keeping his eyes on the panel. “I don’t suppose you remember when it was that your training officer discussed how to handle hostage situations, do you?”
There was a moment of silence, then, “Major, I’m a civilian, remember?”
Sheppard rolled his eyes. “Oh that’s right, you wouldn’t have had a training officer, would you? Okay then, I know you went to college; how much do you remember from the class you took, you know the one where they teach you about being a prisoner of war and how to handle torture and all of that?”
Rodney turned to look at him in complete disbelief. “They don’t teach courses like that and you know it!”
“Yes, I do know it.” Sheppard held his eyes, letting the other man see that he was serious and not screwing around with him. “But I wanted to make sure you knew that I knew it.” He put one hand lightly on a tense shoulder. “You did good, Rodney.”
Even more disbelief. “I told them where you were!”
Sheppard didn’t so much as blink. “I think they made you do that, am I right?”
The other man’s eyes went back to the console, but he wasn’t seeing it. “It didn’t take a lot of…persuasion.”
“I don’t know, I think it took way the hell too much.” The major reached over and grabbed his teammate’s right arm. “How many stitches, Rodney?” When all he got in response was a flinch he shook the arm he was holding. “How many stitches?”
“Five.” The word came out like it hurt. “It took five stitches, all right?”
“No, it’s not all right.” Sheppard let his fingers tighten on the arm he was holding, albeit carefully. “After the knife, what else? Did they keep messing with it after they cut you?” A nod. “What about knocking you around, did they do that?” The next nod was more of a flinch. “The whole time?”
“Off and on.” Rodney shrugged, still not looking at him. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It matters to me,” Sheppard snapped at him, letting an edge of anger sharpen his voice and steeling himself against the way that made the other man jump. “One of my people gets captured, beat up and tortured, you damn well better believe it matters to me. And I’m about halfway pissed at you for not telling me what went on.”
He was a lot more pissed than that at Weir for not telling him about what went on, but he wasn’t planning to share that with Rodney right now. Someone else he was pissed at, though… “Of course, if I hadn’t had my head up my ass that day I would have noticed something was wrong – that bandage wrapped around over the arm of your jacket should have tipped me off for sure.”
Rodney’s chuckle sounded a little watery; Sheppard ignored
that too. “
“I can just imagine.” And he could – he could imagine that the doctor had been a hell of a lot more restrained with Rodney than he had been with him two hours ago Sheppard was pretty sure that if he looked behind himself he’d find part of his ass missing. But that was another thing he wasn’t going to go into with Rodney. “He’s really not too happy with Ford right now either, I guess I wasn’t the only one with my head up my ass that day.”
Another chuckle, this one more amused than forced. “He kept muttering about that when Teyla and I took him back to the infirmary. Lieutenant Ford might want to watch his back
for a while,
“Never even considered it.” Sheppard waited until the tool was actually in use before following up on that. “So that’s what you thought when I wouldn’t take you back to Menara with me to get help for Beckett? You thought I didn’t trust you to watch my back any more?”
“Something like that, yeah.” Rodney pried wires apart with his fingers and dug the tool deeper into the circuitry. “You do, though, right?”
He was trying so hard to sound like it didn’t matter, but the faint tremor in his voice told the major just how much it did – as did the next nervous glance sideways from those worried blue eyes. “Of course I do.” Sheppard rolled his eyes, injecting enough exasperation into his tone to let his teammate know he thought the whole idea was stupid. “But I needed you here to get things running again – and to be my backup in case something went wrong on Menara. It’s not like there was anyone else here who could have come after us, right?”
Just the barest hint of a smile. “I guess not, since I was the only one left who could fly a jumper. Could you hand me those pliers, the small ones?”
“Sure.” Sheppard handed over the tool, then shifted so he was sitting flat on the floor just like his teammate was. He started making small talk about the number of repairs that had been done, that still needed to be done, that were less than critical…and then just as soon as Rodney had relaxed again he dove back in. “So since I’m here, why don’t you go ahead and give me the report I never got from you about the takeover attempt?”
Rodney froze in mid-cut on a twist of crimped red wire, and it was all Sheppard could do not to grin at how blindsided he looked. “What report? I don’t…”
“I know you don’t, but you’re supposed to – I wasn’t there, you’re a member of my team, I need your report on the situation.” He patted the other man’s shoulder. “I know I haven’t made you debrief before; it’s okay, I’ll walk you through it. Just tell me what happened chronologically, the facts and anything you observed. If I have a question I’ll stop you, otherwise just keep going.” Sheppard smiled into Rodney’s wide blue eyes and waved his hand at the open console. “You can keep on working. Sometimes it helps if you have something else to focus on.”
More disbelief, but the scientist did as he was told and went back to work as he started outlining what had happened, starting with the Athosian code coming in from Menara that had prompted them to let down the shield. Sheppard made encouraging noises where appropriate, forced him to backtrack for more detail in a few places, but for the most part he just listened and filed it all away for later consideration. He really had needed the report, and if he’d been thinking straight two days ago he’d have realized that Rodney needed to debrief to get the whole situation into perspective. Sheppard wasn’t going to forget again that he was dealing with a civilian, even if it was an arrogant pain in the ass of a civilian…who also happened to be at least as loyal to him as any soldier in the city. He knew for a damned fact that Rodney wasn’t that loyal to Weir.
Of course, by the time the debriefing was half over Sheppard was starting to wish he could pitch Weir over the nearest rail into the ocean. She’d told him about what had happened, or so he’d thought, but what she hadn’t told him was what he’d really needed to know. Like the details of the torture that had made Rodney give away his position, or the fact that Rodney had saved her life twice by getting between she and Kolya, or the physical abuse Rodney had been put through at the mad commander’s hands. And the list went on.
In short, in Dr. Elizabeth Weir’s version of the story Rodney McKay had been a background figure, not very important and certainly not worth worrying about. Sheppard understood much better now why Beckett was so angry about the whole situation; he was angry himself, even furious. The scientist might be an arrogant pain in the ass, but he was Major Sheppard’s arrogant pain in the ass and he was damn well indispensable to this mission.
He was also John Sheppard’s friend, whether he knew it or not. And John protected his friends at least as well as he looked out for his men, usually better. Knowing that he’d let Rodney run all over Atlantis for the past two days, hurt and alone while he tried to fix the whole city at once…well, it just wasn’t acceptable. And it wasn’t going to happen again, either. Ever.
The debriefing finished, Sheppard asked a few clarifying questions about certain incidents, drawing out the details that might be important, and then he wrapped it up. “You did good,” he told the still-working scientist, patting his shoulder again. “I’ve got career military guys here who can’t give me a report that well when I ask for it, I’m impressed. Now sometimes rehashing everything can be tough, it kind of makes it all real again; are you okay?”
“Yeah.” No hesitation this time, good. Rodney made one final adjustment, then started screwing the cover panel back into place over the waterproof seal while Sheppard handed him screws. “You were right, focusing on something else helped.” The last screw went in, and he traded his screwdriver for his communicator. “Control room, you can turn the power back on. I think it’s fixed now.”
“You’ll know for sure in a minute,” Grodin’s amused voice came back. “All right, switching the circuits back over…now. And I’m not hearing anything explode.”
“No, you aren’t – nor are you hearing screams of pain or the sound of people jumping into the water in fear,” Rodney quipped back. “It’s fixed. Now I think someone said the lights weren’t all working in the…”
Sheppard snatched the communicator out of his hand before he could finish. “Wherever it is that the lights aren’t working, tell them to get some candles,” he told Grodin. “I think the Repair King here could use a break – as in, he’s off duty until tomorrow.”
He could almost hear the smile in Grodin’s voice. “Understood, Major. I’ll route any other repair requests elsewhere until tomorrow after breakfast.”
“Thanks, Sheppard out.” He clicked off the communicator, then hauled himself to his feet and held out a hand to help the wide-eyed, open-mouthed scientist to stand as well. “Come on, pick up your toys and let’s go put them away, then we’ll go find some dinner.” He frowned, though, when Rodney had a little trouble getting his balance on standing up. And didn’t the man look a little flushed? But he’d only been out here, outside, for a couple of hours…
Sheppard could have kicked himself. Today he had…but two days ago during the storm he’d been out here in the rain for a lot longer than that. And with most of the power off in the city, it hadn’t exactly been warm inside either. He had a hand out to touch Rodney’s forehead before the man could duck away from him, and what he felt made his frown deepen. “Hey, you’re hot. Are you sick?”
Rodney waved it aside. “It’s nothing, I’ve been taking cold medicine. I’m just due for another pill now, that’s all.”
“Oh, that’s all,” Sheppard echoed. “Okay, then on the way to dinner we’ll just swing by the infirmary and get your next dose from Beckett.” He had to grin when Rodney’s face fell. “You didn’t tell him, did you?”
“No, but I’m sure you will.” Rodney rolled his eyes, but Sheppard thought he looked somewhat relieved. “All right, I’ll go down there – but you’re sticking around while he tears me a new one, I’m not going to be the only one who suffers.”
Sheppard slung one arm around his shoulders and grinned. “You won’t be,” he assured the other man, steering him through the door that led back inside. It was an assurance he felt pretty safe in making, considering how pissed off the doctor already was – with good reason, as Sheppard now knew. “And I’ll stick around, I don’t want to eat alone and Ford is,” he essayed a mock-shudder, “bouncy. It’s bad for my digestion to eat with Ford. Maybe we can scoop up Teyla along the way, she doesn’t bounce either.” He glanced down and winked. “Not that I’d complain if she started to, of course.”
Rodney sniffed, but he was smiling. “I wouldn’t either, but I don’t think it’s very likely. And if she caught us staring she’d kick both our asses.” It was his turn to wink. “But what a way to go, eh?”
Sheppard laughed out loud; Rodney was going to be okay. There was a little glimmer of satisfaction in his brown eyes that the other man didn’t, couldn’t pick up on, though, and that didn’t have anything to do with Rodney directly at all. Sheppard had all the facts about the attack and subsequent hostage situation now, more facts that Beckett or anyone else was privy to, and he was going to get a lot of pleasure from making sure their protectively angry revenge-minded doctor was filled in on every last little ugly detail. They would pay closer attention to Weir’s interactions with Rodney from now on, and between the two of them they’d make sure this sort of thing never got past them again.