Halves of a Whole
Eva McGregor
Archive: Wraithbait, FFNet, others with permission
Disclaimer: SGA is owned by MGM, WK owned by Project Weiss.
A/N: first cross with SGA and WK (unless you could that one crack fic no one but a select few will ever see) *cough* bear with me i have not actually seen much of SGA so i am going on what i can find on Wiki, so until i can get the seasons i will be AUing.
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"Now, I know what you're thinking." Aya said absently, waving his pruning shears at the marine. "'What good are fruits and vegetables? We have plenty of meat and potatoes, and I'm a meat and potato kind of guy.' But you know veggies and fruit are good for you. They provide all sorts of good things, and prevent all kinds of ailments. Such as syphilis, scurvy, impotence." He smiled and pointed the shears at the marine's chest. "Ask me why impotence?"
The marine stared at the smaller man uncertainly. "Why…"
"Because if you don't help me cover my plants and they die, I'm going to cut off your balls." Aya said sweetly, then patted his cheek. "That's a good boy."
"Yes sir." The marine said, swallowing hard, and looked at his fellow guard. They were only out here to make sure no one destroyed the plants, not to help tend the garden. Silently they took the end of the special tarp and held one end over the plants as Aya tied it carefully to the securing poles at the edge of the dirt.
When he was done, he smiled brightly at the soldiers and thanked them before heading back inside to his lab. Most of the plants were in the room made into a hot house, but there were a few that thrived better outside and where the ocean water could touch them. He had two outside gardens. One was just at the base of the main tower where there was already a large section of the city that was meant for dirt and growing things. The second was closer to the edge of the city where the breakwater sometimes spilled over, allowing salt water to collect in small pools that filtered themselves.
At the door, he took off the galoshes and pounded the soles against the ground to shake off the extra dirt, then scooped it up into a pot next to the door to conserve the dirt. He asked others to do the same if they had been trekking through dirt, but most didn't, and he didn't want anything from off world unless he had a chance to analyze it first.
People just didn't do as asked, and that annoyed him.
"Excuse you." Rodney McKay said as he bumped into Aya and started walking away as if he were too important to be there. "Moronic soft science farmer."
"Really?" Aya asked, smiling at the physicist. "That's as good as you got? No pretentious? Or troglodyte? At least a good wanker?"
Rodney paused, surprised someone was talking back to an insult and not in anger. "Pretentious troglodytic wanker?" he asked.
"Better." Aya said cheerfully and walked away.
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"Who is he?" Rodney asked John as they watched the gorgeous redhead follow a pair of marines towards the nearest transport to take them to the outer rim of the city. Aya was barefoot, carrying his boots in one hand.
"The botanist?" John asked curiously. He had to admit he didn't pay much attention, but now that he was looking, he noted that the young man, who couldn't be older than twenty-five, almost carried himself as military. He had heard the other soldiers talk; out of all the scientists, they respected the young botanist the most. That might have been because he heard rumors that the little spitfire frequently threatened them in an ever so polite manner. He didn't take lip and very willingly helped when needed.
"Yeah, he talked back to one of my insults and was amused." Rodney said, still sounding surprised. "No one ever does that unless they've known me for a while."
"Maybe he knows someone like you?" John suggested, shaking his head. "Has he done anything inappropriate?"
"No." Rodney said. "Just not used to it."
John nodded in sympathy. "Just tell me if something happens."
"I will." Rodney promised and went back to work.
88
Three months earlier….
"Running away isn't going to help." Jack O'Neill said, sitting across from the redhead outside the café. "And it won't change things."
"I am aware of that." Aya said, glancing around the busy street. "I just need a change. And somewhere where people don't know me."
"Just remember that the soldiers will notice the training." Jack said, smiling slightly. "And maybe the extra gear if they look hard enough."
Aya snorted. "You know as well as I do that things happen. You want me there just as much as I don't want to be here."
Jack nodded in agreement. "Ok. You have clearance for a new life, a clean record, and all we ask is that you keep your eyes peeled for possible sabotage."
Aya nodded. "And the others?"
"They think you're dead." Jack assured the redhead and stood. "See you in a week."
The former assassin sighed and sipped at his tea.
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Aya waded through the water, a machete in his hand, as he carefully started hacking away at the plants. Throwing the stalk over his shoulder, he went after the next plant, trimming it down until only a short bit rose above the water. Several feet away the same two marines that had been following him around outside since he arrived on Atlantis stood and watched. Every scientist was assigned a guard if they had work that took them outside or anywhere outside of the parameter of the main tower. Since a lot of Aya's work dealt with really not paying attention to his surroundings, he got two guards.
Moving to the next row his foot caught in the mud, sending him plunging into the knee-deep water. He submerged his hands and knees, sinking into the thick mud. Before he could even start to fight the hold, a strong hand grabbed his belt and shoulder, lifting him out of the water. Gasping for air Aya coughed up seawater and allowed himself to he carried out of the pond and set on the ground.
"You gonna be ok?" the marine asked, gently patting Aya on the back.
Aya nodded as he gasped for breath. "Can you get the machete? It's the only one I have."
The marine nodded and left him to wade back in the water. When he returned he cleaned and sheathed the blade before setting it aside in a little storage bin kept out here so Aya didn't have to lug everything back and forth all the time.
Aya had to walk in the cold soaking wet, as they didn't have a blanket. When they returned to the main tower he made a beeline for the infirmary before anything could be said. He was cold from the long walk and inhaling seawater was not good for the body, he learned that the first time. Plus there was a huge chance of resulting panic attacks or nightmares and he wanted to address them before someone could ask.
"Get out of that!" Carson said the moment he saw Aya and very sternly dragged him behind a privacy screen and started man handling the redhead out of his sweater and wet pants. Aya shivered as he was wrapped in a heavy blanket and sat on the bed. As head of medicine, Carson knew if any of the people under his care would have a problem with particular situations. He knew that Aya had been involved in an accident where he was in a building that crashed into the ocean and he almost drowned. While he had had a few years to get over the incident, Aya still had problems being underwater and no longer went near the ocean on Earth. The only reason why he did here was because he was guarded and the high walls meant he couldn't see the open water.
After a while, Carson had him change into a spare uniform and was checking him over for any ill effects. Finally he determined Aya had not been in the water long enough to get hurt. After a penicillin shot and a three-day supply of sedatives in a bottle, he sent Aya on his way to shower and change with orders to stay out of the cold and water for a few days.
"Are you sure you aren't military?" Rodney asked when he bumped into the redhead and saw the uniform. Not all the scientist wore one, and Aya was one of them.
"I was military." Aya said, technically he was in a way. "I'm not anymore."
"What does that mean?" Rodney said curiously, as he followed Aya toward his quarters.
"It means that I'm not in the military." Aya said, rolling his eyes. "Are you always this dim? I thought you were the smart one."
The man gaped. "I am the smart one!" he protested.
Aya chuckled. "But you fluster easy."
"I do not fluster." Rodney said, pointing a finger at Aya.
Aya reached out, grabbed the man's arm and steered him away from the door he was about to run into. "Says he who almost ran into a door because he doth protest too much."
Rodney stayed silent until they were at Aya's door. Then, much to Aya's amusement, the doctor followed the botanist into his room.
"Hey, how come you got stuff?" Rodney said, looking around the room. There were various objects that were not standard issue.
"General O'Neill really wanted me on this expedition." Aya answered, digging through his things for a change of clothes he didn't wear to work. "I'm never going back to Earth and this guy I know assured the people that needed to know that the expedition would be a success. So most of my things were shipped with us."
"That is so unfair." Rodney said remorsefully. "You're not going to die, are you?"
Aya gave him a look.
"Witness protection?" Rodney tried. "Intergalacticly?"
Aya snicker. "Unless you'd like you join me in the shower, I have to ask you to leave now." he said, holding up his towel. "But do feel free to join me."
Rodney goggled for a long moment, then blushed a deep scarlet. "Maybe next time." he said and did an about face. This time he did run into the door and stammered a little before leaving.
Aya laughed as he headed toward his shower.
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"I'm both mortified and turned on." Rodney told John over lunch, oblivious to the man setting down his fork. "I've never been more intrigued."
"Why are you telling me?"John asked, pushing his plate away.
"Because, isn't it wrong?" Rodney asked, clearly in a dilemma. "We're on a primarily American expedition. With military."
"You're not military." John pointed out, deciding he could eat after all.
"I'm not, am I?" Rodney said, setting his cup down. "And he isn't either."
"Weren't you suspicious of him the other day?" John asked.
"That was before he intrigued me." Rodney said dismissively and stood. "I'm not military."
John shook his head as Rodney ran out of the commissary.
8
Aya was just finishing drying his hair when there was a knock on the door. The type of urgent knock that suggested an emergency had found its way into the halls. Opening the door, he was surprised to find Rodney standing there, looking out of breath.
"You're not military." he stated, walking into Aya's quarters and shut the door, locking it with a wave of his hand.
"No." Aya agreed, wondering what had gotten into the man.
"I'm not military." Rodney went on, stating the obvious.
"Definetely not." Aya said, smirking when the man momentarily glared.
"The point is that we are not military." Rodney said, moving closer to Aya, giving him time to move away. "No don't ask, don't tell."
"'Don't ask, don't tell' what?" Aya asked, unfamiliar with the terminology.
"This." Rodney said, putting a hand behind Aya's head and drew him in, kissing the redhead for all he was worth.
Aya made a noise and stiffened in surprise. Then he relaxed and kissed back, wrapping his arms around the man. When they broke apart, they stared at each other.
"Ok." Aya said, uncertain of what to say. "What was that for?"
"You intrigue me." Rodney said, as if that explained it all.
Aya opened his mouth, then closed it. "That wasn't as much of a pick up line as it sounded."
"Not much in humans intrigues me." Rodney admitted. "Unless they're as smart as me."
"IQ?" Aya asked.
"One ninety seven." Rodney answered.
"Yet you run into doors." Aya said, smiling.
"You intrigue me." Rodney repeated. "And you don't seem insulted by my remarks."
Aya kissed him. "Good thing were not military then."
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Aya woke feeling panicked. He lay in the dark catching his breath, trying to figure out why he had woken up in panic. It took a while to remember falling in the water and though shallow, it had still reminded him of those minutes under a ton of rock before Nagi had cast everyone to the surface.
He almost jumped out of his skin when someone shifted behind him and an arm worked its way under him to hold him. Sighing he relaxed, taking the hand in his gently.
"Nightmare?" Rodney asked softly in the dark.
"Four years ago I almost drowned in the ocean." Aya said, surprised the man wasn't aware. "A building I was in collapsed. I got lucky, but today, when I fell in the water, it all came back. Just not as bad as it used to."
Rodney tightened his hold for a moment.
"Go back to sleep." Aya said, closing his eyes.
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Once a week Aya ran in the morning with the rest of the marines and a few of the more health conscious scientists. Mostly the scientists that went off world and were used to running for their lives every once in a while. After he took a shower and had a late breakfast before holing up in his hot house, caring for his plants.
Plants brought from off world were quarantined from the rest until determined to be harmless to the rest. Anything that was dangerous was sampled, then frozen and burned.
After a few hours, he went out with guard to look over the outside plants. He harvested the vegetables that were ready and looked at the growth of the few fruit vines. Those and the trees wouldn't be ready for a while. He almost hesitated when he got to the pond garden, but waded into the water to finish his work. Someone had brought in the cut stalks from the day before and put them in the cooler to stay fresh until Aya could tend to them. He also made a note to assess a site for a rice patty and an expansion on the outdoor garden.
"Don't you tire of working outside?" Rodney asked over dinner. This was their first 'date' although they had been sleeping together for a few days already.
"I got used to it." Aya said shrugging. "Keeps you strong."
Rodney shook his head. "Manual labor." he said in disgust.
Aya laughed. "It's good for you."
"Let's not talk about this; I'm already sweating thinking about it." Rodney said.
"We could talk about other things, but I don't know what."
Rodney opened his mouth, then closed it with a thoughtful expression. That was a dilemma, wasn't it? He had no idea if Aya would understand half the things he was interested in, or if he wanted to hear any of it. But he genuinely liked the guy, so they had to find some common ground other than topical interest.
They sat in silence for a long moment.
"If you're ex-military, what made you get into botany?" Rodney finally asked.
"When I was undercover for classified ops in my country we ran a flower shop. I was good with plants." Aya said, shrugging. "So when I got out, they paid for my education."
"So you have a doctorate?" Rodney asked. He had assumed that was why Aya was here, but giving his past, maybe not.
"Not yet." Aya answered. "There are a few more courses I have to take."
"Then why are you here?" Rodney blurted, then blushed at his rudeness.
Aya just smiled slightly. "My experience mostly." he admitted. "And that I was part of a favor. This man I know had information the government wanted and he wouldn't give it unless I was given this mission, while I wouldn't go unless my demands were met. The government really wanted the information, so they gave me what I wanted and here I am."
"What did you want?" Rodney asked.
"To be dead." Aya answered, staring at his plate. "To not be the result of my past."
Rodney nodded. "I think we all want that."
"We don't really have a lot in common, do we?" Aya asked evenly. "We're never going to be on the same level."
Rodney stared at him. "My parents were married for thirty-eight years." he said softly. "My mother never understood a thing my father talked about, and when I exceeded him, both never understood what I talked about. But they never cared. They loved one another and something as stupid as things in common never got in their way. When my mom died, my dad told me to find the person that intrigues me, because that's more interesting than anything else in the world."
Aya stared at the man, then slowly got up from the table and walked away.
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"What happened?" John asked at breakfast. For the last two weeks Rodney and Aya had been joined at the hip, 'bad brain, bad, bad' but today Rodney was sitting alone, staring miserably into his eggs.
"I don't know." Rodney said dejectedly. "I don't know what I said."
"You say a lot of things that piss people off." John pointed out, trying to put humor into the man.
The scientist shook his head. "I don't think I did." he admitted. "I just told him about my parents and he walked away. What does that mean?"
"Why don't you ask?" John suggested, not liking how Rodney was so down. He'd never seen the man get attached or dejected like this when dealing with another person, and he had heard stories of the man and Samantha Carter.
"He won't answer his door." Rodney said. "I don't want to override. I just don't know if I did something wrong or what."
John nodded and stood.
"Where are you going?" Rodney asked, alarmed.
"I'm going to talk to him." John said, already turning to go.
"Major!" Rodney called, but made no move to stop him.
When John reached Aya's quarters he didn't even bother to wait for a reply to his knock, he just opened the door and stepped inside. Aya looked up at him from where he sat on the bed holding something in his hands.
"Rodney is my friend." John started and held out his hand to silence anything Aya might say. "He's annoying and puts his foot in his mouth more often than not, but he is a good person. I don't know who you are or what right you have to hurt him. But I will not see my friend hurt."
"Are you done?" Aya asked dully, his eyes red and puffy.
"What is wrong with you?" John shouted, ignoring the warning signs. "You get off on toying with other people's emotions? Do you have any idea what Carters rejection did you him? Not half as much as what you did! But you know what the difference is? Huh? He can't go somewhere else to avoid you. If you didn't want to be with him, you should have never been with him!"
"Major." Rodney said from the open doorway.
John spun around. "Well, it's true."
Aya started crying again, holding a frame against his chest.
John stared in silence for a long moment. "I put my foot in my mouth, didn't I?" he asked.
Rodney pushed his friend out of the room and shut the door.
"Aya?" Rodney said, carefully sitting on the edge of the bed. "Was it something I said?" he gently took the frame out of Aya's hands and looked at the picture. It was a side-by-side, one of a younger Aya, obviously with his parents and younger sister, the other was of Aya with three other men in front of a flower shop. He stared at it, and realized this was the only personal item Aya was going to bring before he was allowed to bring everything.
"My parents kicked me out for being gay." Aya said softly. "My sister thought I had left for college, so she didn't know. They let me come back for her birthday. That was the night all of them were murdered. My parents never loved each other. My father was very controlling of the whole family and my choices didn't fit in with his plans for me. And it got him nothing." He wiped at his eyes. "You had something that set you apart from your family, and they still loved you. You weren't a commodity. And you still found the same with people you have nothing in common with as well. Last night, I just couldn't take it."
Rodney nodded and crawled on the bed to sit next to Aya. He wrapped one arm around the slender beauty and held him close.
"I'm jealous of you." Aya said softly.
"Everyone is." Rodney said, smiling when he got the desired half-hearted laugh.
"I'm sorry I made you think I was mad at you." Aya said.
"I'm sorry my friend yelled at you." Rodney countered. He looked down at the frame. "Was this your unit?"
Aya nodded. "We did classified work. We saved a lot of lives and that was ruined when someone tried to make everything we did into a terrorist act. I was the only one that survived intact. They were my family and one by one they were killed in one way or another."
"They aren't the same?" Rodney asked.
Aya pointed a blond man about his age. "Yohji got lucky, he was in an accident and has amnesia, and he's married now with two kids. We don't see him, but every once in a while I get an update." He pointed to the brunette: "Ken is serving a life sentence for murder. The last few years really did a number on his mind. Last I heard, he was being moved to a mental institution. Omi took over the branch I served with; he's following in his father's footsteps, but not in a good way. He is half the reason I needed to die. Crawford got me asylum and into the SGC so I could come here. Omi spend the last year trying to bring me back in for control. When he couldn't get to me, he tried to have me killed. I don't know why."
"I'm sorry." Rodney said sincerely.
"Crawford helped me because Nagi wanted it." Aya wiped his eyes again. "We were rival teams on opposite sides although we worked for the same corrupt organization. We weren't quite military, but yet we were. We were just lost kids that got roped into a war because it touched out lives. Nagi said he didn't save us just to have us become exactly the things we had tried not to become. He killed himself because he couldn't handle it. It almost killed Crawford, he thought of Nagi as a son. So he did what Nagi wanted. I was the last one saveable, so he saved me. I still don't know what he gave up in return."
"Probably a lot more than he wanted, but he felt it was worth it anyway." Rodney promised.
"Am I still intriguing, knowing I have such a fucked up life?" Aya asked as his tears finally stopped.
"More so than before." Rodney assured him, resting his head against Aya's. "I still don't know what we'll talk about, but I promise not to glaze over about plants, if you don't about naquadah."
"I make no promises about naquadria." Aya joked with a watery laugh.
"Everyone glazes over about that unless you're me or Carter." Rodney answered.
"Instead you cackled like a mad scientist with too much time on his hands?" Aya asked.
"I will deny ever cackling." Rodney said smiling. "Even when I cackle."
Slowly Aya uncurled from the embrace and stood. "I should get washed and start my day." He took his towel off the small rack by the bathroom, then he looked at his lover. "Wash my back?"
Rodney blushed, but this time did not stammer a reason to leave.
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A/N: just note that i will be updating semi regularish, with school i don't know if i can update as frequently as i've done in the past. also note that if i start getting into NC-17 that i will open an aff account. but i haven't decided how much sex will be featured and how graphic.