TITLE: Little City Of Horror
AUTHOR: Me, dragontamerno3,
Steffy
RATING: PG
FANDOM: Stargate Atlantis
PAIRING: None,
really.. though the plant does get a bit friendly.
TIMELINE:
None
WORD COUNT: 1,590
DISCLAIMER: Not mine.
Slight summary: John found a plant. And it fell in love with him. Goddess hes such a whore.
John really hated going to the greenhouses, they were always so far. Even through transporter. And he was lazy. Every time he has to go to one, it was always because some scientist pissed off Atlantis, making her shut things down. And every time, Weir sent John down, or in this case up, to where ever the problem was to have him woo the large city into letting them continue their work.
Today, Greenhouse 12 was locked down. About four or five scientists where locked inside, the rest were locked out, all because someone called Atlantis an old piece of junk. John thinks they personally deserved it, because Atlantis was far from a piece of junk, she may be old but that didn't change anything.
He helped the large group of scientists in, then he received the order to stay with the large group of geeks. Grumbling he made his way to the back of the Greenhouse where he could be ignored, and were he could breathe without getting the weird scent of geek BO.
He found a door back there that read 'Dangerous', it peaked John Sheppard's curiosity, and he walked inside. There were a whole bunch of plants in there. No surprise there right? He found ones that vaguely looked familiar, Venus Fly Trap like planets, but the size of small cars, and a few other dangerous ones that he knew were Earth type plants but he didn't know nor did he care the name for. And then there was a tiny plant towards the back on the room. It was a red plant with black spots covering its long thin leaves. On the plant there was one flower, it looked like lily only without the innocence and with teeth.
Gaining curiosity, and a bit of courage, John made his way over and poked the plant with his sidearm. When the plant still remained dormant he smiled before leaning down to smell the oddly beautiful flower. Touching the petals lightly with his fingertips, he took in the wonderful scent, closing his eyes to enjoy it further. He would have continued to enjoy its intoxicating fragrance if it weren't for the sudden pain he received.
Lifting his fingers from the petals he saw tiny droplet of blood that was not there a minute ago. Realizing that the flower had a taste for blood, his blood, he backed out of the greenhouse and up to the first geek he could find. "One of your plants bit me." He whined.
"Which one? We'll move it to the back." What was his name again? Wallus? Walrus? Willus? Who ever he was, said.
"It was already in the back." John sighed. Here it comes, the 'well, you were warned, you moron' speech.
"What! Which one? Oh god!" Wallus ran towards the back, making John blink at the sudden movement. Not more than thirty seconds later the thin, pale man was back holding the plant that had indeed bit him. "Was this it?"
"Yup." John nodded.
"Oh, God. Oh God! This isn't good." Walrus chanted.
"Why not?"
"The last time we had one of these, we didn't know what it was. It 'bit' one of our scientists, and within a months time it became hostile." Willus panicked.
"Oh come on. How can this little thing become hostile?" John sighed. "I'll take it. I promise I'll water it and give it plenty of sunlight. Does that make you feel any better?"
"No!" The scientist snapped.
"Good. I've got to go to the infirmary now. Got to have Beckett run all the needed tests, don't want Ancient rabies now do I?" John smirked, taking the tiny plant with him.
Within days, John realized that the plant was growing. Originally the tiny plant was rather tiny. It maybe took up as much room as a tiny kitten would. Now, only a few days later it was about the size of an eight year old child. John however shrugged, because it wasn't hostile, and it wasn't kicking him out of bed, so who cares?
A little over a week after his bite, the plant gained a personality. John thought the first time it waved, he was seeing things. Then it began to move on its own, pulling itself along with its now vine like branches. And after the moving came the tantrums whenever he went off world. Elizabeth had to order his team, or at least him, to take a vacation.
The second week was weird. Well, not so much weird at first because it was light touches. John just thought it was the plant stretching. But one night he had a rather disturbing wake up call. During his rather vivid sex laced dream, he felt the hands on his chest, the light caresses against his neck, his thigh, his… well you get the idea. The touches were enough to send him over the edge. He woke up, groaning at the new wet spot when he realized that the touches were real, though they didn't come from his dream lover. His new plant had become far too friendly.
Two weeks went by after that night before anything new changed. Oh how John longed to gain those weeks back. The first sign of a change was when Elizabeth touched John lightly on the shoulder as he begged, for the millionth time, to be allowed to return to work. The plant, which was sitting outside of Elizabeth's office doors, began to attack the doors that stood in between them. Elizabeth backed off, momentarily frightened, allowing the plant to calm down.
The second time however was when John and Rodney got into another one of their banters. Rodney had grabbed the front of Johns shirt and the plant attacked. It swung a vine hard, throwing Rodney against the wall.
"What the hell is that?" Rodney shrieked from his place in the infirmary.
"It's a plant, Rodney." John sighed.
"That plant nearly killed me!" The genius hissed.
"She didn't mean to." John whined.
"She?!" Rodney nearly screamed. "Oh, geez. Don't tell me you named it Audrey. If you named it Audrey I will find a way to blast you into space without the help of the nice puddle jumpers."
"No. I didn't name her Audrey. Her name is George."
Rodney just stared at the man before turning to Carson and waving him over for another shot of that nice pain medication. John sighed before leaving the infirmary. As he passed through the doors, the plant followed him down the corridor and towards Weirs office.
Before John could even make a sound, Elizabeth cut him off. "We have to get rid of it. Now. I can't risk any more of my people because you can't read."
"But!" John began to protest.
"No. This has to stop. Now we have two choices. We can burn it, like the last one our scientists found, or you can take it to some place that we have taken off our 'friendly' list and leave it there. Either way, it's gone in the next three hours."
John couldn't kill her. He knew he couldn't. So he left immediately to suit up, just in case he ran into the unfriendly folks that lived on whatever planet they were going to leave his George on.
The three hours came and went. And it wasn't because John wasn't trying. It was because George wasn't leaving. In fact, John had left Atlantis about five times in those three hours, coming back as soon as the Stargate shut down to try again. He cooed into the radio, feeling like an idiot, hoping his voice would convince the plant to follow him. No luck.
The last time that John set foot back on Atlantis, Elizabeth ordered the gate shut down, and she ordered them not to start it up again. No matter how much John begged for one more chance.
"We burn it."
It was easy to get George down to the makeshift furnace. And it was even easier to get the large plant into the room. John held out a hand, lightly caressing the plants leaves, before sighing and stepping out of the room and closing the door behind him. Seconds after the door is closed the scientist that Weir sent with him flipped the switch, scorching the plant. He might have been slightly delusional but John could have sworn that he heard screams of pain coming from inside the room.
The colonel made his way back to his room, ignoring the looks of concern from his fellow teammates. Atlantis opened his door for him. He didn't even have to think it open. Walking over to his bed, not even undressing, he fell into it and sighed feeling like he betrayed his best friend.
After what felt like an eternity, John sat up and began to change. Unlacing his first boot, sliding it off and tossing it in the corner, John noticed something odd in the corner that corner. Slowly taking off the other boot, he stood and stepped gently forward, trying not to make any sudden movements.
John leaned over the corner of his desk to peak behind it, hoping to find nothing. What he found was far from nothing. In fact it was three things that were far from nothing. Behind the desk sat three small bushes, each one had red leaves, black spots and one large lily like flower.
"Oh great." John sighed before grabbing his boots to put them back on. His work is never done.