Author: MegTDJ
Category: Romance
Rating: PG
Pairing: McKay/Weir
Spoilers: None
Summary: Rodney and Elizabeth are stuck together in a tiny room during a lockdown.
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis, its universe and its characters are not mine. The story itself is, however, so please don't archive without my permission.
Author's notes: For the McWeir ficathon. Flubber (Sally Lloyd)'s request was for a "McKay/Weir story that takes place in a room during a lockdown." I hope this is what you were looking for! I know you said not to use any other characters, and technically I didn't, but there's mention of Zelenka so I hope that's okay.
Bonus points to anyone who can guess what song I got my inspiration from for this fic, heh.
(Additional note: This was written in 2006, uploaded to FFnet in 2008.)
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
Forget the World
"Oh, this is great. This is... this is just great."
Elizabeth sighed and leaned back against the wall as Rodney buzzed around her like a bee. "Calm down, Rodney."
"Calm down?" Rodney repeated in a panic-stricken tone. "How can you expect me to calm down? We're stuck in this tiny little room with no way of communicating with the rest of the city for however long this lockdown lasts, and considering the fact that I'm in here and the problem is out there, that will probably be a very long time!"
"Rodney!"
He withered under her glare and hung his head meekly. "Sorry," he said. "I just get... claustrophobic."
"So I've noticed."
"But you have to admit," Rodney said, slowing down the hand-wringing and pacing just a tad, "it was rather spooky timing. I mean, the second we walked in here everything just..."
"Sealed off," Elizabeth finished, looking around the small room for the tenth time for any kind of clue as to how they'd come to be in this situation. "You're sure it was nothing we did?"
"We hadn't had time to do anything except walk in," Rodney said impatiently. "Besides, I heard blast doors closing all over this section, not just this room. It had to be a city-wide lockdown. There's no other explanation."
"And you're sure there's no way you can hotwire the door to let us out?"
Rodney rolled his eyes and threw his hands up helplessly. "I can't even find a control panel in here," he said. "It's hopeless. We're stuck."
Elizabeth wrapped her arms tightly around her middle as her mind started sifting through all the possible reasons for a lockdown - invasion, epidemic, control malfunction... none of them were particularly pleasant, and all of them would require her input if not her physical presence in the control room. What it was about this room that blocked their radio signal she didn't know, and perhaps didn't even want to know. She just wished they could get out of there.
Still, there was no use fretting over what they couldn't change. All they could do was sit and wait for someone to figure out a way of either communicating with them or opening the doors in their section of the city.
She took a few deep breaths and sank slowly down onto the floor as she tried to relax. This wasn't so easy, however, as her roommate was still flitting around the small room searching every inch of the walls for a way to open the door. "Rodney," Elizabeth said, surprised at the resignation she heard in her own tone. "Just sit down. You're making me nervous."
Rodney turned to give her a look of disbelief. "I'm making you nervous?" he said. "Our current situation isn't to blame at all?"
Elizabeth shrugged and leaned her elbow on what seemed to be a cushion bulging up from under the floor near the wall. "I'm actually kind of comfortable," she said, smiling up at him as calmly as possible.
Rodney gaped at her for a moment, and then turned back to the wall he'd been studying. Elizabeth heard him muttering under his breath, and was somewhat grateful that she couldn't hear what he was saying. It probably wasn't flattering.
"Come on, there's gotta be a way out of here!" Rodney cried barely thirty seconds later. "Unless this is some kind of prison cell, which seems unlikely considering it's the only room of its kind in this section. Why the hell did the Ancients design a room that you can get into but not out of?"
"Maybe the doors only close during a lockdown," Elizabeth said.
Rodney gave her an odd look. "Why would they have made a room and given it a door if they only intended to use it during a lockdown? There are plenty of other doors they could close to keep people here."
Elizabeth sighed and shifted position slightly. "It was just a suggestion."
"Yeah. Well... it was a... bad one," Rodney said, his voice getting quieter and more hesitant with every word.
Elizabeth smiled as he turned his back to her again. She'd noticed that while Rodney was abrasive as sandpaper with everyone else, he seemed almost embarrassed and ashamed when he found himself acting that way with her. She couldn't help but find it extremely endearing.
"Testing, testing..."
Elizabeth sat up straight at the sound of a muffled voice coming from somewhere outside the room. "Did you hear that?" she asked Rodney.
The look of surprise and relief on his face was enough to answer her question. "It must be the intercom..."
"Ahem. This is Doctor Zelenka speaking. Uh... sorry for the inconvenience, everyone. We're experiencing some technical difficulties here, but we will have them sorted out in just a few minutes. McKay, if you can hear me... this was not my fault."
Rodney scoffed and shook his head. "Right, thank you, Radek!" he yelled at the ceiling. "You were supposed to be working on the long-range sensors, not screwing with the city's internal systems!"
Elizabeth laughed in relief and got comfortable again. "I don't think he can hear you, Rodney."
"Oh, he can hear me," Rodney grumbled. "He's just lucky I can't get at him right now."
"I'm sure it could have happened to anyone," Elizabeth said, patting the floor beside her. "Come on, sit down."
Rodney sighed and reluctantly plopped down next to her. "What are these things, anyway?" he said, poking one of the cushioned bumps in the floor.
"I don't know, but they sure are comfortable." Elizabeth ran her hand over hers and looked around the room to count how many were there. "There seem to be a pair of them at each wall," she said.
"Maybe you're supposed to sit on them," Rodney said. He squirmed around on top of his trying to get comfortable, and Elizabeth had to suppress a laugh when she saw the serious look on his face. "Or maybe you're... wait... what's that?"
Elizabeth sat up to look as Rodney turned around to kneel on the cushion and grope around at the lower wall. "What's what?"
"My hand brushed against the wall, and I swear I felt something," Rodney said. "Aha!"
Out went the lights.
"Rodney... what did you just do?"
"I found a switch."
"And you flipped it? Rodney..."
"How was I supposed to know it was the light switch? What the hell's a light switch doing down by the floor... anyway..."
Rodney's voice trailed off as the room slowly started to light up again, this time not with the ordinary white light they'd had moments before, but a soft, pleasant shade of blue.
"What the..." Elizabeth stared open-mouthed at Rodney as the blue light was joined by green, then yellow, orange, red, pink, purple... every colour of the rainbow and then some started dancing across the walls. Rodney and Elizabeth stared at each other in surprise for a moment, then simultaneously gazed up at the ceiling.
"Wow."
Elizabeth wasn't sure whether the word came from her or from Rodney, or perhaps from both of them at the same time, but it certainly summed up what they were seeing. The colours were coming from the ceiling, but they weren't just strobing randomly about like disco lights - they were morphing into and out of shapes and images in the most beautiful, kaleidoscopic dance Elizabeth had ever seen.
Flowers, forests, landscapes, ocean waves, stars and planets, galaxies and nebulas... somehow the lights created pictures of the most beautiful things in nature, morphing from one image to the next without missing a beat. A gorgeous sunrise came alive before her eyes, and then in an instant it was gone, the lights making beautiful patterns across the ceiling before coming together to create snow-topped mountains standing over a shimmering lake. Each image seemed to be more breathtaking than the last.
Within seconds, Elizabeth had figured out what the cushions were for. Without taking her eyes from the ceiling, she lay down on the floor with her head resting comfortably against her built-in pillow. She didn't have to look over at Rodney to know that he was doing the same thing.
"That's pretty, uh... pretty," Rodney said after they'd been watching the dazzling display for a minute or two.
Elizabeth glanced over at him and smiled. He looked absolutely mesmerized by what he was seeing, and she could tell that he was more relaxed than he'd been in a very long time. Knowing Rodney as well as she did, she knew this was quite an accomplishment.
She brushed her fingertips across his wrist until he looked over at her. "Still feeling desperate to get out of here?" she asked.
Rodney smiled and gently grasped her hand. "Not anymore."
Elizabeth grinned. "Maybe Zelenka will live after all," she teased.
"Yes, well... let's just not tell him about this room, okay?"
She laughed. "It can be our little secret."
They lay there for a few more seconds just gazing into each other's eyes, momentarily forgetting even the light show let alone the rest of the world. Somehow the isolation coupled with the romantic atmosphere of the little room was making her see Rodney in a whole new light. The feelings that had been bubbling under the surface for him over the past few months started to blossom and grow, until it seemed perfectly natural for their faces to be moving closer and closer together.
Kissing him felt so good that she didn't want it to stop. The lights seeping through her closed eyelids made it seem as though the proverbial fireworks were really exploding all around them as his fingers ran through her hair and the kiss deepened. It was the most intense experience she'd ever had.
Rodney finally pulled away from her to catch his breath a few minutes later, and although the spell was broken and her mind returned to reality, Elizabeth didn't feel as though any part of it had been influenced by an outside source. Enhanced, definitely... but the feelings were all her own.
"I think I know what this room was for," Rodney said when he could speak.
Elizabeth laughed. "And why there's no way of communicating with the outside world," she added.
"We really need to keep this our secret," he said as Elizabeth snuggled up beside him with her head on his chest. "We'd have to fight everyone else off just to get another turn."
"Mmm," Elizabeth said with a contented sigh. "It'll be our little getaway."
"You really want to come back here with me?"
Elizabeth lifted her head to look at his face, and melted at the insecurity she saw in his eyes. She smiled and leaned in to kiss him briefly on the lips. "Who else?"
THE END