Summary: One Day the Wraith would be no more
"That's it." Rodney whispered, stepping back from the control panel and looking up.
"What's it, Rodney?" John asked, eyes meeting Rodney's, as he said his name in that exasperated way of his.
"I mean that's it, there's nothing I can do now. I can't save us, not this time." Rodney whispered even as he raced to another console, trying to find some way out, "Look, you need to evacuate everyone, as many people as you can."
"Rodney." John said.
"Now, Colonel, you don't have much time." Rodney said as he met John's eyes and snapped at Zelenka to move, "Go with Sheppard." He snapped at the scientist.
"McKay!" John shouted.
"Look, John, I can buy you time, not much and every second you waste arguing with me is that much time you don't have to get out of here." Rodney yelled.
"I'm not leaving you behind, McKay." John growled out.
Rodney paused, his eyes met John's again and he breathed out, "You don't have a choice, if I don't stay... no one will make it far enough."
"I'll do it." John volunteered.
"Would that you could, but it's not just one thing, John, it's a dozen and you just can't think as fast as I can." Rodney admitted.
"Then I'll stay." John said.
Rodney's eyes softened, "You picked a hell of a time to make a discision about your feelings for me, Colonel."
"Rodney." John said softly as he stepped into Rodney's space, his hand lifted up and Rodney let John cradle his face for a moment.
"John, if you don't fly them out, they won't make it. You have to go." Rodney said softly, "Go."
John growled wordlessly and pressed a desparate kiss to Rodney's lips and then ran out of the gateroom with the remainder of the personel following at his heels.
Rodney watched him leave and then continued to halt the progress of Atlantis' doom, as he always did. He kept an eye on the longrange scanners, marking Sheppard's progress away along with the rest of the personel that had been left behind after the first evacuations, a skeleton crew of twenty.
Now, Rodney was alone in Atlantis, the remainder of the Wraith Hive ships bearing down on him and he waited, there were no Earthships with Beaming technologies close enough to save him, he was going to die here, but he would not be alone in that, all he had to do was wait until the Hive ships were close enough and then detonate the self-destruct for the City.
He'd made adjustments and by-passed the need for two codes and once the countdown started he'd have ten minutes to live, not long enough for the Wraith to find him if they borded Atlantis and with the blast range he'd created it would be more than enough to take out the Hives.
And then..., no more Hive ships, yes there would still be Darts and Wraith, but without their Hives it would be much easier to take the straglers down. The Pegasus Galaxy would finally be free, it would be safe.
Rodney punched in his code and then heard the blaring siren that always sounded when the Self-destruct was initiated. For a moment he watched the countdown begin and then he stepped away.
He began walking, his feet beginning a slow decent to the Stargate.
He stood before it and then turned to look at the room, he remembered his first sight of the City, remembered the awe he'd felt to be here in Atlantis all those years ago, the awe had never lessened, never faded, instead it grew with each year, each day, each hour.
'Rodney?' His comm crackled to life.
"John?" Rodny tapped his comm, "You're far enough away, and none of the Hives noticed you leave."
'I know.' John said, 'You initiated the self-destruct?'
"Yes, there wasn't another way, John, you and I both know that."
'You need...'
"I by-passed the need for two." Rodney said, "It's fine, John, this is fine."
'It's not fine, McKay.' John growled at him, 'You're going to die. It's not fine.'
"No, I suppose not." Rodney said as he walked to sit on the bottom stair, faceing the Stargate, the warning siren was loud and Rodney glanced at his portable computer which was connected to both the longrange sensors and showed the countdown, seven minutes and the Wraith were nearly close enough to be in blast range, all five still heading for him and the City.
'Rodney?' John asked, 'I can come back for you, or you can gate out.'
"You can't Gate out once self-destruct is initialized, Zelenka and I added that subroutine after the last few times we almost had to destroy the City and enemies tried to Gate out without us." Rodney admitted.
'You never told me that.' John growled.
"No, we didn't tell anyone. Just in case." Rodney said sheepishly, "And there isn't time for you to get back. It's too late for that." Rodney sighed softly, "Too late for a lot of things."
'I should have said something sooner.' John whispered in his ear almost inaudiably.
"I could have said something as well, but I wanted you to be ready for it, ready for me." Rodney admitted.
John laughed in his ear and Rodney could almost see the tears that John was holding back, 'I don't think there is any way in the world that I would ever be ready for you, Rodney McKay.'
"Is that good or bad?" Rodney asked, two minutes, the Wraith were close enough that they were dropping into the outer reaches of the City, they would be making their way to the Central Tower, by the time they made it the Countdown would be nearing it's end.
'Both.' John admitted, 'Good because you're amazing and I love watching your mind work, jumping from one thing to another so fast I could never keep up and Bad because it means this... this is all I get now.'
Rodney found a smile that John couldn't see, "But you had so much more, all our adventures, maybe it wasn't a love story such as everyone hopes to have but... my grandma used to say that the best marriages begin as friendships and maybe we never got that far but..." Rodney stopped for a moment, thirty seconds, "John, you are my best friend and I love you so much."
Twenty seconds, Rodney stood and walked to stand in the center of Atlantis' Stargate as Wraith began to enter the room.
'Rodney, I love you too, so much, Rodney... I'm glad that coin landed on heads.' John said.
Rodney laughed, "Heads for Atlantis and tails for Earth?"
Ten seconds.
'It worked out in the end.' John said.
Nine seconds.
"Yeah, you don't regret it, do you?" Rodney asked as he watched the Wraith begin their decent towards him.
Eight seconds.
'There are a few moments I could have done without.' John admitted, 'But it was worth it, Rodney, to have Ronon, Teyla, so many others... and you. It was worth it to meet you.'
Six seconds.
"I agree, every moment was worth it, even the terrifying moments." Rodney said, "I wouldn't change a second of it."
Four seconds.
'Not even this one?' John asked.
"Pegasus will be free, John. No more Wraith." Rodney said.
Two seconds.
"John, I wouldn't change anything, not even this moment, I'm sorry, I love you, I love you."
One second.
"I lov-"
Static.
"Rodney!" John yelled as he watched the explosion that was happening on the planet, "Rodney!"
Nothing.
"I love you too." John whispered in the silence of the PuddleJumper, his passengers silent and still as they watched the Hives being obliterated along with Atlantis.
They stayed there for a while, drifting in space, perhaps hoping that Dr. Rodney McKay had somehow managed one more miracle until finally John Sheppard realized that they could not remain there and led the remainder of his crew to the small planet they had evacuated the rest of their personel to.
There was much left to be done, the remaining Wraith to take care of, finding a way to contact Stargate Command, an account of the living and the dead.
No time to mourn, not yet, but one day... one day perhaps John would be able to speak Rodney's name again without feeling like a piece of himself was missing, but for now he had people to organize and take care of.
One day he would be able to tell the story of a brilliant scientist who had given his life to wipe out the last of the Wraith Hive Ships, long into the future he'd whisper the story that the children had heard many times from their own parents and grandparents, the people who'd come from a Galaxy far far away to free them from the Wraith and then came to call this one thier own, willing to live and to die for it.
He told the story quietly to Torren John's children, to the grandchildren of Ronon Dex and so many others and yet he could still not speak his brilliant scientist's name, not aloud to these children, he held the name close to his heart and never uttered it until he was ready to finally leave this world and begin his next adventure.
"Rodney." John whispered on a sigh as he closed his eyes one final time and breathed no more.
There were no tears the day John Sheppard was sent to rest. Evan Lorne, old but still spry enough flew the PuddleJumper, flew John Sheppard and his Honourguard back to that small little planet where Atlantis had made her final stand and Ronon and Teyla carefully cast John's ashes over where Atlantis' ruins still stood bleakly admist the last of the Wraith Hive ships.
As they watched John's ashes fall many of them would swear that some ashes from the planet rose up to meet them, swirling around until they were mixed as one. They watched the ashes dance for a moment before they headed home again, leaving Atlantis' remains, and the remains of their Leader and his Scientist.
The Pegasus Galaxy was free, the Wraith no more.