Name: Crossing The Line
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Hard R.
Summary: Lorne was royally screwed. Not because he just found out that his commander has a thing for him and he didn't return his feelings, it was because he did. The only thing that stood in the way was Lorne's integrity, and he wasn't sure he was such an honorable man.
Pairing: Sheppard/Lorne
Timeline: Takes place right after "Harmony" and ends before "The Kindred, Part 1".
Spoilers: "The First Ones", "Fail Safe", "Enemy Mine", "Rising 1", "38 Minutes", "The Intruder", "Critical Mass", "Coup D'etat", "Michael", "Common Ground", "McKay and Mrs. Miller", "The Return (1&2)", "Sunday", "First Strike", "Adrift", "This Mortal Coils", "Be All My Sins Remember'd", "Spoils of War", "Harmony", "Outcast", "Trio", "Midway".
Warnings: Language, Attempted Rape, Rape of minor characters, Adult Themes, Questionable Religious Contents.
Disclaimer: Stargate and Stargate Atlantis belong to a lot of people but unfortunately none of them are me.
A/N: I would like to thank the best beta in the world, Shari Maxwell, who without even understanding science-babble did a wonderful job with this fic.
Chapter 1
"It's not that difficult, Major Lorne. All you have to do is get down on your knees and open that impudent mouth of yours."
####
Running for his life, a mixture of the pounding of blood and his pursuers' footsteps resonated in Dr. Parrish's ears. Upon reaching the gate he was about to dial the Atlantis address before changing his mind. It would take too long to fumble with the GDO, dial, type in his code, and count to five. Instead, he dialed the only other address that popped into his mind and flung himself through the wormhole.
The movies made this sort of thing look much easier than it really was, he decided in the split second he allowed himself to wallow in his own misery. The landing was hard and he bumped his nose painfully on the dry ground of P3M-736, but at least the wormhole disengaged behind him and no one was following him through.
With a groan he got up and tentatively wiped away the blood streaming from his now tender nose. That was it, the time for pity was over. There were people who needed him and the planet's radiation was about to fry his skin, if McKay's panic was any indication. He dialed Atlantis as fast as he could and transmitted his IDC. After an agonizing count to five he limped through, the stitch in his collarbone and his side causing his body to collapse as soon as he was on Atlantis' floor.
Two marines hurried towards him but he pushed them away and looked up at the control room. Colonel Carter was rushing down the stairs, closely followed by Colonel Sheppard, in full mission gear. "Dr. Parrish, what happened? Where are Lorne and his team?" Carter asked as she knelt beside him on the floor, somewhere above the static noise of blood in his ears. He tried to speak, tried to gulp some air to do so and to pacify his burning lungs, but ended up nearly choking.
"Easy there, take deep breaths," someone in a yellow uniform top was rubbing his back, but Parrish pushed them away too.
"Major… Lorne… was… attacked…" he wheezed and gulped down the entire bottle of water that was pushed into his hand, though it helped little in calming his throbbing throat. "The natives… took them all… prisoners," he continued and then slumped against the person who was checking him. Someone above him cursed, and Carter's voice said something incomprehensible. Parrish allowed himself a moment to regain his breath and then, with a pained moan, pushed himself up. Carter and Sheppard were already running up the stairs, barking commands into their earpieces.
"Colonel!" Parrish called, and both Carter and Sheppard turned. He limped to them and looked up through stinging eyes. His sweat was leaking into his eyes and the salt was making his vision fuzzy. "The situation is very bad. I'll take you to there but we need to go now!" he stressed, and saw the look Carter and Sheppard exchanged. "Look, there's a gate on the planet but there's also one orbiting it, the one we came from. The settlement is very far so either way you'll have to take a Jumper. My cramped muscles will relax in a few minutes and I'll be as good as new, but I don't have time to explain the complexity of this situation right now and every second we waste could mean someone's life!" he added and Carter, after taking one look at him, nodded.
"Wait here. They'll pick you up in a minute," she said, and handed him another bottle of water. Sheppard was already running away, and maybe he was too exhausted to care, maybe Sheppard really was that fast, but it felt like in was only a second later that the Puddle Jumper was at the embarkation area and lowering its rear hatch.
He didn't even wait for it to fully open before squeezing himself inside. "He's here!" McKay yelled and the hatch was closed once more. Ronon got up from his seat to allow him to sit beside Sheppard.
"You wanna fill me in?" Sheppard asked as the Jumper exited the event horizon and headed for the settlement. It was ten minutes of easy flight, but the way Sheppard was pushing the Jumper, it would be five.
"I was doing observations over at the forest when I noticed that Major Lorne was half an hour overdue to check on me. We departed from the village pretty abruptly and they didn't seem very happy with that so I was worried. I tried to radio them, but got no response. I don't really know what happened there to merit captivity, but what I managed to observe before they spotted me was the Major's team with manacles around their hands and feet, being led into a tall building, and the Major himself being carried someplace else," he stopped because he still hadn't quite caught his breath, and in that time Sheppard glanced sideways at him.
"There weren't any Wraith involved?" he asked, and Parrish shook his head from side to side wildly.
"Oh," McKay said, "Nothing out of the ordinary then. So we really could have waited for Stackhouse to gather a bunch of marines instead of going ourselves right after coming back from a two-day mission," he said with annoyance and turned to fiddle with something on his computer tablet.
Parrish shook his head once again, wildly shaking his finger at him. "Not all threats come in this form, McKay. There's something you have to understand about this society. Every criminal is made to be a slave in this world, a slave that will be left outside of the village's sanctuary if the Wraith show up, to be taken instead of their masters. In the meantime, they are being used as sex slaves. That was why we decided to leave," he shivered violently. "They are very easy to point out, these slaves, because they all wear this shot red chiton. And when I saw the Major being carried away he was dressed like that as well."
Sheppard turned to look at him so sharply that it must've hurt his neck. "Are you telling me that one of my men might be raped even as we speak?" he asked, his voice so stern and angry that Parrish pushed himself further back on the chair before he was even aware that he was doing it. Slowly, he nodded. "Damn it, why didn't you said something sooner!" Sheppard growled while his hand did something that made the Jumper shake and then tear across the sky.
"And what would you have him do, Colonel? Step out of the wormhole and yell 'Lorne is being raped as we speak'? Like that would have saved time," McKay told Sheppard, but it was the same kind of sarcasm that he used when the fate of the world was hanging in the balance, and his voice was just as sharp as Sheppard's was.
At Sheppard's inquiry, Parrish pointed out the location of Lorne's Jumper which now parked on a patch of fresh grass, cloaked. "But there's a field just outside the village that would be nearer," he added, and Sheppard was there a minute later.
They parked the jumper in the middle of a golden field and near a ridge of medium sized trees, and Sheppard said, "McKay, you stay here and monitor the radio. This society looks agrarian-" he looked at Parrish, who nodded in confirmation, "-but I may need your backup. Also be aware of your surroundings. This isn't exactly a permitted parking zone." McKay nodded and took the pilot's seat. "Teyla, keep him out of trouble," Sheppard added to the pregnant woman, who nodded graciously.
"Good luck!" McKay called at them while Sheppard grabbed a handful of Parrish's vest and pulled him out.
"Where's the building?" Ronon asked, falling into position and checking behind the tree-line for any threats. Parrish waited for his nod before moving forward, praying that he wasn't too late.
Parrish led them towards the village, which seemed to be bustling with activity. It was a small village with low, square buildings painted white. The sun of this world was a bright yellow and the untamed area just outside the settlement was green and dotted with beautiful flowers. Through the spaces between the buildings they could see a typical marketplace, with the exception of the unusual amount of red-clad men and women.
The building the Major's team was held in, probably a prison, was at the outskirts of the village and Parrish led them straight to it. "This is the place. It shouldn't be too heavily guarded. I think." Damn, but he wasn't good at this military stuff. That was what Major Lorne was for. Ask him about the importance of an enlarged pistil in a plant's evolution and he could write a twelve foot essay in a heartbeat, but when it came to strategic thinking even one guard was one too many for him.
"Okay, there's a door here. Parrish, stay close to Ronon. I'll take point," Sheppard said and took his position before signaling for Ronon to open the door. Parrish was sticking close to Ronon, who had a dark gleam in his eyes, while Sheppard moved into the empty corridor beyond the door. Parrish had just enough time to take a bracing breath before Ronon hauled him in as well. Reed, a marine who joined them, brought the rear.
As it turned out, the dimly lit, tan-colored corridor and the rooms beyond it were unguarded. It was, as Parrish suspected, a prison, and it was empty with the exception of one cell.
"Sir! Doc, well done! You called for help!" Lieutenant Miller said as he spotted them coming. He had his face pressed against the heavy metal bars that made the walls of his cell, and his hand was in the vicinity of the lock, no doubt trying to pry it open with what Parrish though was a piece from his zipper. At the far corner Dr. Archimedes, the Greek scientist who came with them to check on the internal workings of a planet with both a Stargate and a space gate, was sitting hunched over himself and white with shock. He seemed immensely cheered by the rescue, however.
"Yeah, he did. Are you all right, Lieutenant?" Sheppard asked while Ronon pulled a thin knife from his belt and knelt beside the lock himself. The lock was undone with a soft click and Ronon got up, shrugging.
"Simplest mechanism I've ever seen," he said in response to Sheppard's wondering gaze. "How did they manage to overpower you?" Ronon asked Miller.
"They're not the simple people they appear to be, sir. They have Wraith stunners," Miller replied bitterly.
"Are you telling me that they're in league with the Wraith, Lieutenant?" Sheppard asked incredulously.
"Yes, sir. And if they're anything like Olesia then I'd say there's no telling when the Wraith are gonna show up," Miller confirmed gravely.
Sheppard swore. "Anything else we should be worried about?" he asked while Miller and his men took the M9 sidearms they were offered. But Parrish knew that there was. Major Lorne wasn't with them. Sheppard noticed it too, apparently, because his voice was sharp when he asked, "Where's Lorne?"
"Nothing to worry about except for the stunners. As for the Major, he was taken not long ago, to see someone called the Bender. sir-" Miller looked at him with earnest eyes filled with concern, but Sheppard raised his hand.
"I know. Parrish, you have any idea where-" Sheppard said but Parrish interrupted him.
"I know where it is. Come with me," he beckoned them with his hand towards the back door from which they entered. He heard that place mentioned when they first entered the village, though their guide said nothing about it so he though it wasn't important.
The light of the sun blinded Parrish for a second as he stepped out of the dim building after Ronon, but he blinked the after images away and pointed towards a house uphill. He heard from behind him Sheppard ordering Reed back to the Jumper with Dr. Archimedes, but when he began talking to McKay over the radio Parrish was already too far away from him to make out what was said.
He was, however, the first to see the horrific scene that took place on a wooden porch attached to the large house up the hill.
The house was painted white and was surrounded with blooming trees. On the sunbathed porch were colorful carpets and several tables and chairs. On a particularly elegant one sat a thin, bald man with a black goatee and expensive looking clothes. Beside him a young man stood naked, aroused, and white with tension. In front of him, wearing that mid-thigh red chiton and flanked by two burly guards, stood Major Lorne.
"It's not that difficult, Major Lorne. All you have to do is get down on your knees and open that impudent mouth of yours," the Bender said, his silky voice calm and amused. Parrish couldn't see Lorne's face, but he could hear Lorne's negative reply.
"Come now, Major. I'm sure that expressive mouth of yours will feel wonderful for this young boy," the Bender sounded like he would start purring with pleasure soon. Parrish shivered. The Bender, it would seem, wanted Lorne to go down on that naked young man.
"How about you take your pants off and I'll show you how good it feels?" Lorne asked with nerve that Parrish could not picture himself ever possessing. The Bender simply laughed.
"The time has not come yet. You are too wild. It is, however, time for me to start being persuasive." With that he signaled the two goons standing near Lorne, and one of them gave a kick to Lorne's knees while the other moved forward to pinch his nose. "You will do as I say, Major," The Bender said amiably.
He was not so amused when a P90 shot his men down. Neither was Parrish, who dove for the cover of the ground and shielded his head with his hands. What the hell happened to warning the bad guys before you start shooting!
"Let. Him. Go." Sheppard's voice promised misery if he wasn't immediately obeyed, and when Parrish craned his neck to look up at him he could see the fury that distorted his features. His eyes were dark and cold and his hands twitched on his gun. "Now." He said, slowly and deliberately.
Parrish expected Lorne to turn around, to say 'thank you', to run away from his captures under the cover fire, but he remained unnaturally still, staring up at the Bender from his crouching position. Why wasn't he taking this opportunity?
As Parrish watched Lorne rose slowly and turned to face them, face white, tense and bloody from a deep wound arching over his left temple. The Bender approached him from behind.
"Don't move!" Sheppard warned, and the Bender smiled.
"I have no intentions of moving any further," he said pleasantly and raised an M9 to point at Lorne's temple. "Now, lower your weapons and come forth," he said calmly. Lorne's expression darkened, body becoming rigid with tension, and Parrish's heart sank. He could see Lorne's eyes looking around him and assessing the situation, but maybe it was because Parrish was bad at this sort of things and maybe because it was true, but Parrish saw no way for Lorne to run. Beside him Ronon was dancing with anticipation, gun pointed and finger ready on the trigger. Miller and the others looked like they would be happy to charge forward even if all they had to fight with was their teeth.
"Rodney, de-cloak." Sheppard barked into his radio and the cloaked Jumper appeared in the air, hovering mere inches from Lorne and the Bender. Parrish wanted to laugh out loud.
"Now. You lower your weapon. Or this entire village will be incinerated," Sheppard's low growl sent shivers down Parrish's spine. He did not want to make an enemy of this man.
The Bender, apparently, thought the same. He lowered his gun and didn't even managed to take a step backwards before Lorne's elbow connected with his nose with a sickening crack of bones breaking, and Lorne's other hand secured the gun. He turned around and kicked the Bender in the gut and groin, and the thin man fell unconscious to the ground.
Lorne looked at them while McKay got the Jumper hovering near the ground and opened the rear hatch. "Thanks," he said, nodding his head at them, face grim.
"You okay?" Sheppard asked, approaching Lorne and putting a hand on his shoulders.
"I am now," Lorne replied, glancing down at the unconscious man at his feet. A trickle of blood was flowing from underneath him but nobody cared.
Sheppard gave the Bender a contemptuous glare. "Should've killed him when I had the chance," Sheppard muttered as Parrish got closer to Lorne and him. Sheppard stepped back to check the perimeter that Hansen and Williams secured because the remaining guards that scattered in the initial contact were bound to return with friends, and Lorne spotted him.
"Thank you, Doc. You might have just saved my life," Lorne said earnestly, clapping his hand on Parrish's shoulder and ushering him towards the hovering Jumper. Parrish smiled affectionately.
"Please, it was nothing. Not compared to the number of times you saved me," he said, proud to have won praise from a dear and respected friend. Teyla helped him up and he in turn helped her pull an injured Williams in. The Jumper's hatch closed and Sheppard took them up in the nick of time. Two blasts of Wraith stunners hit the front window.
####
Lorne sat down on the bench at the rear compartment and breathed in. That was a very close call, too close for his liking. He closed his eyes and felt the tension leave his body. All he wanted to do was get out of this ridiculous outfit and into a hot shower, followed by a nap and maybe a few sparring sessions with Ronon to ease his aggressions.
When he opened his eyes Ronon was handing him his yellow coat and Teyla was holding the medical kit in her hands. "Thanks, Ronon. I don't think that Colonel Carter would approve my new uniform," he said and put on the coat, still warm from Ronon's body. Teyla made quick job with cleaning the cut on his temple.
"These people," Ronon began, "what they did to you? In Seteda we castrate them," he said while Lorne sat patiently under Teyla's steady hand, and Miller snickered. Lorne smiled as well and allowed Ronon to thump him on the back as he got up, intending on catching a word with Sheppard, but not before checking on his men.
Miller was fine, as was Hansen, but Dr. Archimedes looked like he might never move out of the safety of the Jumper again, and Williams was injured. He looked at Williams and nodded his head at his arm.
"How's that wound?" he asked. Williams had a nasty gash across his arm, though he insisted to Teyla that it was nothing compared to Lorne's well being. Williams smiled brilliantly at him.
"Never better, sir," he said happily.
"I am not so sure, Major Lorne," Teyla corrected as she sat down to clean Williams' would. "It appears to be very deep," she added, but Williams just shrugged and smiled goofily at her.
"I've had worse," he assured them, and Lorne shook his head. Nothing could dampen the man's spirit.
"Just try not to lose too much blood," Lorne teased as he made his way towards the pilot's seat where McKay smiled nervously at him.
"Glad to see you back in one piece, Major," he said, wringing his hands. Lorne smiled.
"Thanks, Doc," he replied. "Thank you all. I think I just encountered a fate worse than dying," he added. Sheppard winced.
"Yeah, well, let's not mention this again. What happened to your head?" he asked, looking at Lorne's temple with an estimating look.
"Oh, I just tried to give them a piece of my mind and they didn't like it very much. I'll be fine," Lorne assured him, gingerly fingering the area around the swollen flesh.
"Good," Sheppard said. "Want to fill us in on what happened or you want to save that for the briefing?" he asked as Teyla returned to the front of the Jumper and stood beside him.
"Sure. We left Dr. Archimedes with Hansen by the Stargate on the planet to do his thing and were wandering around the marketplace of MT7-233 with Doc Parrish when we noticed a lot of people dressed in red. When we asked the natives, they said that those people were sex slaves. They said that they were criminals who were tamed by the Bender and who were now atoning for their sins. They also said that when there's a Wraith culling those slaves are left in the open instead of the villagers," Lorne exhaled and felt the same burning anger he felt before when he heard that.
"Okay, just who is that Bender person? Parrish mentioned him as well. Was he the guy who stood with the naked guy when they captured you?" McKay asked curiously, and then his brow wrinkled. "Come to think about it, why was a naked guy standing in front of you? And he was even… um…" McKay trailed off and flushed lightly, looking at his computer before looking back at Lorne. Lorne felt his lip curl with disgust.
"The Bender is responsible for breaking the men and women that supposedly committed crimes and were sentenced to become slaves. He do it by training them to be good sex slaves, and that he do by raping and beating them up," Lorne said angrily, and both Teyla and Sheppard turned to look at him with alarm.
"Major Lorne, he did not forced anything on you, did he?" Teyla asked, urgent and worried.
"Because if he did, I'm turning us back to that damn village and shoot it down," Sheppard added menacingly.
Ironically, the tense atmosphere made Lorne relax. He was safe, and was amongst his teammates and friends. "He didn't. You kind of interrupted in the middle of my first lesson," he assured them, and somewhere in the back Hansen was screaming, "Hurrah!"
"That is good to hear," Teyla said, placing a hand on his arm. "I believe that we interrupted your retail?" she prompted gently.
"Right. So we were thinking that we'd head back to the Jumper and get the hell out of there, but then Doc Parrish discovered a…" Lorne searched his memory for the words Parrish had used, but if was fruitless. For him most of what came out of Parrish's mouth was 'biblio' or 'bablus'.
"It had an uncanny imagination to the Boenninghausenia Albiflora!" Parrish yelled from the back, and Lorne smiled.
"Doc Parrish found a plant that he wanted to investigate, so I gave him an hour and the three of us set the perimeter around him. Then we saw this idiot trying to rape a young girl wearing red. We reacted, and the next thing I know I was dressed like this and was being led into a prison cell with the guys, and later to meet the Bender," Lorne finished, relieved that they were far away from the settlement and heading for the gate.
"Well, you can relax now, Major. We'll be back home in no time and you can have the rest of the day off. Take a shower, beat the stuffing out of the boxing bag, put on something more comfortable," Sheppard's sly grin made Lorne's heart warmer. It was just another touch of home after a long and awful day.
"Yes, when will we be back home, Colonel? The trip to the village was a lot shorter," McKay complained from beside him.
"That's because when we traveled to the village people's lives were at stake, and I pushed the engines. Now I'm flying at average speed," Sheppard replied pointedly, and McKay nodded.
"Right. Of course," McKay groused. "It's just that, while being princess Harmony's personal guard was satisfying, and my heroism finally acknowledged properly, it's been a rough two days and I'm beat," he added, and then turned to Lorne. "They made a painting to perpetuate my heroic acts in the defense of a helpless princess," he said proudly.
"I hope you didn't bring that home," Ronon muttered, and Lorne grinned, waiting for Sheppard's reply. Listening to idle chatter was distracting him from what almost happened and he was grateful.
Sheppard bristled. "Come on, McKay, most of the time the person doing all the dodging from Genii soldiers was me, not to mention that the princess was a thirteen years old girl who proposed to me, so it wasn't like it was all that hard to make a good impression. Now dial us home already," Sheppard said, annoyed. Probably something that happened at the planet, Lorne guessed.
"Fine, fine," McKay dialed the Atlantis address and pressed the engage button, but nothing happened. The gate they were approaching remained inactive. "Oh, no."
"Rodney," Sheppard warned, looking at the scientist with raised eyebrows. McKay tried a second and third time, the Jumper almost at the point that the wormhole's vortex reach should it connect, but without success.
"The gate is still inactive," Sheppard said, but McKay was already fumbling with the hooks of his computer and getting up from his chair.
"Oh, you're talent of stating the blatantly obvious continue to amaze me, Colonel. Is that a mandatory skill for reaching this far up the chain of command? Move aside, move away," McKay snapped, already opening the overhead panel and hooking his computer to it.
It took McKay a minute of pressing buttons and running macros before he unhooked the computer and cursed. "What is it?" Sheppard asked, sounding concerned.
"Zelenka speculated that this could happen. I bet him that he was painfully wrong, but he kept insisting on it," McKay said, annoyed.
"Rodney, that's not important right now!" Sheppard said sharply.
"Maybe not to you, but I just lost fifty bucks!"
"McKay!"
"Okay, okay, fine. Listen, the universe is infinite-" McKay started, and Lorne groaned. Sheppard got up from his chair and walked towards McKay.
"Rodney, I swear it to god, I'll shoot you. I don't need the history of the universe, just fix the damn problem!" Sheppard commanded, voice harsh.
"I can't!" McKay shouted right back. "And this 'history of the universe' as you called it is very important to understand what the problem is, unless any of you knows what correlative updates are? Huh?" he looked around, and Dr. Archimedes raised a shaky hand.
"Yes, well, other than the bathing genius!" McKay snapped impatiently, but Lorne knew that none of them did. "No? Thought so. As I was saying, the universe is infinite. The stars are moving in it constantly, and in the simplest of terms: they change their position. Now, each planet is placed somewhere in this massive space of the universe and was assigned an address according to its relative position in the galaxy. It's basically a set of coordinates that are represented by six symbols-"
"Rodney-"
"I'm getting there! Look, because the stars are in constant motion they change their location, so the Stargate's network initiates correlative update dialing-outs, to compensate for this stellar drift. To know when an update is required the space was divided according to a certain grid, and traveling from one area on the grid to another will initiate the update protocols.
"Zelekna theorized that because in the Pegasus galaxy some of the gates are actually space gates, when a planet moves to a different area on the grid the gate won't initiate an update until it too will pass into the same area." McKay looked at them all, eyes wide. "Basically it's like dialing a cellular number and getting a response that the mobile is currently outside of cover area," he said, tiredly.
"I don't get it, what did you just tried to explain? What are you saying?" Ronon asked, brow crinkling.
"What I just explained was the inner working of the Stargate network. What I'm saying is that we're completely cut off from said Stargate network," McKay clarified, with a touch of hysterics.
"Okay, well, there's a second gate on the planet. We'll just have to use that one and hope no one will try to shoot us down," Sheppard said, and was already reaching for the controls when Dr. Archimedes interrupted him with an accented, hesitant voice.
"No, Colonel, you can't. You see, the space gate was put in place by the Wraith to make an easier access to the planet, and they programmed it to take priority-" he began nervously, clutching the seat of the Jumper as if it might fly away without him and nearly jumped out of his skin when McKay cut him off.
"What he's saying is that as long as the space gate hasn't initiated the update, the Stargate on the planet is equally useless!" McKay shot an angry look at the stuttering Greek, but it didn't cover for his anxiousness.
"And you're mentioning this now!" Sheppard asked, incredulously.
"Have you been listening? I thought this was complete nonsense! I even had a bet on this with Zelenka and guess what? I lost!" McKay snapped back.
"So what do we do?"
"We wait. Until the gate will pass into the new address area," McKay said, settling down on a bench and looking up at them all. "It won't take much time!" he added, as if that was supposed to be obvious.
"How much time?" Sheppard asked.
"Oh, I don't know. This planet's larger than Atlantis, but the gate is still trapped in geosynchronous orbit around it so it'll probably take the gate with it as it spins around its axis… hmm… eight hours? Tops?" McKay said.
"And then we can dial home?" Lorne asked.
"I'm sorry, I guess I wasn't clear enough. Eight hours, tops, and then we can dial home," McKay said snidely.
"Rodney!" Sheppard reprimanded him, and McKay mumbled something that sounded like an apology. "Good. That's better. Now the good news is that if we can't dial out then the Wraith can't dial in. The bad news is-"
"That the Wraith are a race of life sucking monsters capable of intergalactic travel?" Parrish asked, on edge. Sheppard looked at Lorne with raised eyebrows. Lorne simply shrugged. That was Doc Parrish for you.
"Um… I was thinking more along the lines of Williams and Lorne are injured and the folks back home will be worried for us, but that works too, I guess…" he grimaced. "How are Dr. Archimedes and Williams?" he asked Teyla.
"Dr. Archimedes is slowly recovering. My presence… seems to help," it was a well known secret that Dr. Archimedes had a crush on Teyla. "As for Sergeant Williams, I've managed to stop the bleeding. He will be fine," she answered, and Sheppard nodded. Lorne nodded as well when Sheppard looked inquiringly at him.
"Okay. We're going to move away from the gate and cloak the Jumper somewhere safe. Then I don't really know what the rest of you are going to do, but I'm exhausted after being awake for two days straight, so I'm gonna hole up in the forward section and sleep. I suggest you do the same," As soon as Sheppard said it, Lorne felt a crushing fatigue settling into his bones and turning them to lead. He wasn't awake for two days straight but the experience at the village left him drained.
"Sounds like a good idea to me, sir," he said, "got any room for one more in there?"
"Sure. Come on in," Sheppard smiled at him. He reached into one of the crates nestled in the net lining the Jumper's walls and retrieved the extra pair of uniforms that all Jumpers had been stocked with. He pressed it to Lorne's chest and motioned with his head towards the forward section.
"Oh, good. I'm practically falling off my feet with exhaustion," McKay chirped in, but Sheppard put a hand to stop him on his way to the forward section.
"Sorry, you missed your chance. The spot's been taken," he said with a pleasant smile, and McKay crossed his arms over his chest indignantly.
"And what am I supposed to do, huh?" he complained. Sheppard winked at Lorne before turning to regard McKay.
"You're the one whose portrait of heroism is hanging in some flashy castle. Heroes are supposed to be resilient and resourceful, aren't they?" Sheppard teased.
"What! What's that supposed to mean?" McKay asked, annoyed.
"Think of what Batman would've done in your position," Sheppard was clearly enjoying himself.
"Uh… hang himself upside down from the ceiling?" Doc Parrish asked. Sheppard turned to look back at Lorne, who was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Miller suddenly developed a nasty cough.
"There you are, Rodney. You already have one suggestion," Sheppard agreed amiably, and then closed the bulkhead door, effectively cutting away McKay's complaints and Ronon's sniggers.
"On a private note, I'm starting to see two of everything due to exhaustion and I figured you of all people would appreciate a quite place to fall asleep," Sheppard said to Lorne, his voice genuinely tired and worried.
"Thanks," Lorne said, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. Sheppard merely nodded absently.
####
Footsteps. No matter how hard he pushed his aching legs, he could not get away. He was painfully aware that that ridiculous chiton was riding up his thighs, but if it meant getting away from his pursuers then he was willing to run naked.
Puddle Jumper. He needed to get to the Puddle Jumper. It had weapons and shields and it responded to his command only. He parked it here, somewhere. It was cloaked, but the rear hatch was open. If only he could find…
His foot got caught in a tree root that stuck out from the ground. His mind was so keen on the Jumper that he forgot to watch his step. He crashed into the ground face first, the chiton's simple rope coming undone and the fabric sliding away from his sweating skin. He tried to get up and pull the chiton around him, but it was too late.
Strong hands kept him down, pressing his cheek and his chest to the ground mercilessly. He was caught.
"Did you really believe you can run, Major?" That silky, amused voice sounded from behind him, not even slightly short of breath. "What a mistake. You cannot run and you cannot hide. I will find you wherever you are. And I will take you and break you," the voice sounded so very close now, and hot air was rising against his ear.
A knee came down to rest between his shoulder-blades and a hand cupped a fistful of his hair roughly. "I will break you and you will like it, Major Lorne. You will learn to like it and you will learn to ask for more. You will be trained to come to me and beg me to break you." The voice paused and a hand cupped Lorne's ass cheek.
"Maybe you like it already? After all, you had yourself in such a tempting position for me," the voice purred, and Lorne's vision started to turn black. His chest was tight with frustration and panic, his breath ragged. He struggled, tried to move, but not a single muscle in his body obeyed his frantic commands. The ground tasted foul in his mouth as he tried to open it to scream, yet no voice came out. Hands were starting to touch him, hit him and caress him. He was going to be penetrated completely dry and he couldn't even make a sound…
Lorne's eyes opened abruptly and he set up with a gasp, taking stock of his surroundings. The familiar, soothing hum of the Jumper's engine pods penetrated first through the haze of the dream and he remembered that he was rescued, saved from that horrible fate. He was wearing the Atlantis uniform, one size too big, and was hovering in space, according to the dim dots lining the windshield above him. It was dark and silent.
Right. They were all asleep, waiting for the gates to come back online. But that knowledge didn't stop his heart from pounding in his chest, or banished the slight taste of bile and desperation from his mouth.
"Wassup?" asked a slurring voice from behind him. Right. Sheppard was with him in the forward section, fainting with fatigue after nearly sixty hours up and running. His wiry body was lying comfortingly right beside Lorne.
"Nightmare," Lorne answered quietly, not wanting to disturb anyone else. Nightmares weren't uncommon in Atlantis. "Being raped," he added almost silently to himself. According to his breathing, Sheppard was already asleep. Which was why Lorne was so shocked when Sheppard's hand circled his waist.
"Don' worry. M'here. Won' let an'thin' bad happen t'you," Sheppard slurred, obviously not really awake. It was a testimony of his exhaustion that he didn't fully wake up when Lorne did, because usually Sheppard was able to wake up lucid. Maybe he thought that Lorne was some woman from his past? It actually suited him to want to keep his loved ones safe and protected. And Lorne had slept beside enough lonely people off-world to be forgiving towards some accidental cuddling.
"M'here, Ev'n. Won' let anythin' bad happen t'you." And then again… maybe not so accidental.
Lorne took a deep breath, one that stopped in his lunged and refused to come out as Sheppard pressed an open-mouth kiss to a spot right behind Lorne's ear, one that made Lorne shudder. Sheppard sighed sleepily against his ear, sending a gust of hot air across his sensitive shell, and tugged him down.
Unsure of what to do and practically trembling from the effort of restraining himself and not do something stupid like jolting Sheppard awake, Lorne did as he was urged to.
"Y'r safe in m'arms, Ev'n," Sheppard mumbled in his ear as he settles with his chest against Lorne's back, one strong arm wrapped around Lorne's waist still and a knee worming its way between Lorne's thighs. A soft snore that puffed against the back of his neck told Lorne that Sheppard really did fell asleep this time, but Lorne couldn't be furthest from it himself.
Nightmare forgotten, his single thought was: he was totally, royally screwed.
And not because he just found out that his commander has a thing for him and he didn't return his feelings, it was because he did.
Lorne was gay. Gay for real, not bisexual or 'curious'. He was a full fledged gay in the closet. And falling in love with Sheppard was the easiest thing in the world.
Sheppard's as sexy as it can get. He's fierce and loyal. He's caring and compassionate, as far as the situation allows. He's unafraid of making the hard or the scary choices as long as they were the right ones. His mind was always sharp and his unique sense of humor, once Lorne got the hang of it, never failed to amuse. His laid-back style of dealing with situations inspired calm.
Lorne was with Sheppard off-world while their lives were hanging in the balance and in Atlantis while the most urgent thing to do was quarrel good-naturedly about who gets to put the first song into the office's playlist. He found the everyday man just as beautiful as he found the harsh commander.
He knew that Sheppard had his faults, and many of them at that. His first clue was Sheppard's broken marriage. Lorne knew that marriages don't simply break up. He was one of a handful of people who didn't have access to Sheppard's file who knew he was even married. Sheppard told him about it himself when they were traveling on the Deadalus, after Lorne was first assigned to be Sheppard's 2IC in Atlantis.
He also knew that Sheppard is, among other things, awkward about expressing his emotions, is a helpless flirt and couldn't stop being a tease and a cheeky bastard even when a Wraith was about to feed on him. He's brash, sometimes, and doesn't think things through before he acted. He's a daredevil and has the most annoying tendency to go on suicide missions. And like Lorne, Sheppard has a lot more scars and faults hidden from plain view, but unlike Lorne Sheppard has a deeper darkness that lurks beneath the surface of his bright eyes.
But Lorne found that he can live with those faults. Sheppard wasn't perfect, not by any stretch of the definition, but then Lorne never looked for perfect. Lorne was a soldier and a man, which was why it was so easy to fall in love with Sheppard.
Which was also why he was happy to have set the self-imposed rule of no falling for straight guys. These particular games were usually played quick and clean, with no strings attached. He chose that life for himself. As long as Sheppard was straight, and his record in Atlantis alone regardless of his broken marriage more than confirmed it, Lorne was content with being his 2IC and his friend.
And now… now he wasn't so straight. He was definitely aware that the person he was holding in his arms was Lorne. He'd said so twice.
So Sheppard was, apparently, bi. A bi with a crush on Lorne, one which Lorne would've been happy to return if Sheppard wasn't a Colonel and in command of Atlantis. And that was the part that Lorne was having a silent panic attack about.
Lorne never believed in all that nonsense about gays and the military. Being one, he still received nothing but praises and compliments during his entire time in the service. If Sheppard was anyone else, he would have gladly tried to approach him.
But Sheppard was not only allegedly straight. He was Lorne's commanding officer. And Lorne believed very firmly in that particular regulation, the one against fraternization, because it was there for a very good reason. When Sheppard was straight he was off limits because Lorne really hadn't the time or the patience to deal with converting a straight man. Off limits meant that Lorne never even considered it, his brain automatically classifying Sheppard as nothing but a fellow officer, a commander and a friend.
Sheppard's words were the spark that set fire to that particular bomb. All the pent-up emotions, all the things he noticed in passing but never allowed himself to dwell on, they all flooded his head and made the desire to roll over in the loose embrace and kiss Sheppard nearly overwhelming.
It was a desire he mustn't act upon, Lorne knew. The implications this could have on both their careers, not to mention the safety of Atlantis and Sheppard's command, were huge. Huge as in Lorne being shipped off Atlantis if things got complicated, or Sheppard losing his command and landing in Leavenworth, and Sheppard really didn't deserve that. Not for a quick tumble in Lorne's sheets, because that was all it could ever be given their ranks and positions.
No. Not even that. Some lines were not meant to be crossed. Some others, Lorne actively refused to. Being involved with your commanding officer, especially when said commanding officer was Atlantis' head of military, would put the entire city in danger. Lorne and Sheppard both couldn't afford that.
So Lorne made a decision. It was one he reached fairly quickly, and one that was easy to make rationally, but made his heart sink with a sense of a missed opportunity. If Sheppard could've hidden his crush that well and probably for the same reasons, then Lorne would contribute his part too.
But still, as he tried to get comfortable in Sheppard's embrace (trying to wriggle free would probably wake him and that wasn't something Lorne could handle at the moment, not to mention that it did feel safer and warmer), he wondered just how long had Sheppard had this crush on him.
He knew that things would not be the same between the two of them again, and he regretted it. He regretted it. He regretted ever having that damn nightmare. He regretted ever coming to that damn planet. He regretted that Sheppard was everything Lorne wanted in a man, or as close to it as it ever came.
####
Lorne opened his eyes with a gasp, sitting ramrod straight and looking wildly around him. Greenish metal, four chairs, the view of a million bright dots through the windshield… the Jumper. He felt relieved to be there, even if he didn't remember the details of his nightmare.
Taking a deep, calming breath, Lorne looked around to find Sheppard sitting in the pilot's seat and looking at him with concern. And Sheppard… wasn't straight.
Lorne groaned and pushed that thought out of his head. Really, he had already decided that nothing could be done regarding that. It shouldn't matter.
Lorne tried to stand, feeling Sheppard's concerned gaze on him all the while. He managed to get to his feet and even raise his head and smile at Sheppard before the dizziness hit him, and he nearly stumbled. If it wasn't for Sheppard's quick instincts he would've hit the Jumper's floor.
Sheppard eased him into a chair. "I thought you said you were fine," Sheppard said, still close to Lorne and looking into his eyes. He really was concerned, and if he woke up curled around Lorne and was embarrassed about it – he showed nothing on the outside.
"I was fine when you asked me, sir. I think the sleep made it worse," he said. There, it wasn't so hard. Just like any of their other interactions… except that Sheppard was still standing closer than usual.
Sheppard reached under the pilot's seat and pulled out a canteen. "Drink at least half right now," he ordered Lorne. When Lorne was done, the cool water a blessing for both his killer headache and his parched throat, Sheppard pealed back the bandage from his head wound.
"How long were we asleep?" Lorne asked, wondering in which position Sheppard found himself when he woke, and how long ago that was.
"Six and a half hours. I woke up a few minutes before you did and thought I'd try dialing home once more," Sheppard replied, cleaning new blood from Lorne's wound with a wet gauze strip.
"Any luck?" Lorne asked, wincing. The wound was stinging and swollen, and on a different note he was saved from a very awkward situation with Sheppard by the skin of his teeth.
"Don't know. You sort of woke up when I was about to start," Sheppard dressed the wound once more and finally stepped back.
Lorne breathed deeper now that he wasn't breathing Sheppard's scent in. If he wasn't hurting at the moment, he was sure that his reactions would've been unfortunate. The mere knowledge that this man, who was sexy and bright, wouldn't push Lorne away if Lorne tried to kiss him or touch him was enough to make his blood rush south.
Crap.
"You okay? You woke up pretty suddenly," Sheppard commented as he brought the Jumper towards the gate. Lorne winced. He hoped that Sheppard won't remember anything if he mentioned nightmares, but decided to play it safe.
"Nightmares. I don't remember what about, but I think I had them all night. Everything's kind of fuzzy from the wound," he said, busying himself with drinking instead of watching Sheppard's response.
"More than understandable, Major," Sheppard said, sounding no different than usual. Maybe he didn't remember anything as well. "But I want you to have a chat with Dr. Bole before you resume active duty," he added. Lorne couldn't say he was surprised. He would've sent any of his men to talk to Heightmeyer's replacement if they would've been in his situation.
"Yes, sir," Lorne said.
"Still, I'm happy that we got you all out in time," Sheppard said, and his voice was so ordinary, so day to day, that Lorne had to look at him.
Sheppard's expression told a different story. It wasn't something you could point out without knowing him, but Lorne did. His eyes were warmer than usual, less hard, like something inside of him gave way. His face was more relaxed than usual and his eyebrows weren't pulled together. It was a subtle change, certainly not something grand, but Lorne was around Sheppard enough to know that this kind of expression wasn't often seen there. Not even for his teammates.
This man had feelings for him, Lorne thought once more, hot and self-conscious all of a sudden. The atmosphere between them began to shift into something dangerous, something tense and loaded.
"I'm happy as well," Lorne said quietly, finally, and reached his hand for the dialing console to distract himself.
To his relief, the wormhole formed when he pressed the engage button, and Sheppard clapped his hands. "That's more like it!" he said happily and transmitted his IDC. They were on the other side of the event horizon and heading towards the Jumper bay before Lorne could even blink.
And then people began to wake up, McKay was already arguing with Zelenka, Dr. Archimedes was bolting out and running away, Carter was interrogating him and Keller was loading him onto a gurney and rushing both him and Williams to the infirmary.
He never got to see Sheppard again that day.