Happy Anniversary Baby
Author: ShaViva
Rating: T+
Content Warning: Adult themes, some violence
Season: Set beginning of Season 5, before The Seed.
Summary: John Sheppard has saved Atlantis many times in the past ... when the tables are turned will the special connection he shares with the city be enough to save him? New story set in my Sheplantis AU world.
Classifications: Adventure, team fic
Pairings: none
Spoilers for: minor spoilers for events up to and including Search and Rescue.
Acknowledgements: any research sources used will be highlighted at the point that they're used.
Disclaimer: The Stargate characters, storylines, etc aren't mine. I am unfortunately not associated in any way with the creators, owners, or producers of Stargate or any of its media franchises – if I was we'd be seeing them on TV for some time to come *sighs dejectedly*. All publicly recognizable characters, settings, equipment, etc are the property of whoever owns them. The original characters and plot and anything else I made up are the property of me, the author. No copyright infringement is intended.
Copyright (c) 2009 ShaViva
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Authors Note:
On this day just one year ago I posted my first ever chapter of fan fiction on this site. Fortunate Journey Season 1 ... the first thing I'd written that I ever let anyone else read.
Now here we are one year, eighteen stories, and almost 750,000 words later and I'm still posting! Who would have thought it?!
Thank you to everyone who has read even just one of my stories this past year. Special thanks to those who loyally read and review everything I write ... I hope you know how much I appreciate the support and encouragement that gives me.
To celebrate my one year anniversary I decided to write a new story ... once I'd thought about it for a bit there was really only one choice. So ... settle back as we revisit my Sheplantis AU world with a new adventure for John, Rodney and the wonderful embodiment of Atlantis. Hope you enjoy it!
oOo
Chapter 1: Just give me a second here
"Huh!" Rodney's exclamation of surprise had John looking up from his breakfast questioningly.
Rodney was reading something on his ever present data pad ... when he said nothing further Sheppard sighed before taking the bait.
"What?" he asked expectantly.
"Sorry?" Rodney looked at John in confusion.
"You just did a McKay surprised 'huh'," John retorted.
"Oh!" Rodney grinned across at John before explaining. "Did you know that on this very day last year you were using the city to kiss this particular ocean for the first time?"
"We've been here a year already?" he didn't know why but somehow that was more of a surprise than it should have been. Sheppard filled in reports, did performance appraisals ... he knew what month it was. But he hadn't kept track ... hadn't counted how many months had passed since they'd almost lost the city.
"Yep," Rodney said happily. "Maybe we should have a party or something."
"McKay," John's tone was serious as he waited for Rodney to get the silent message he was sending. Atlantis - not just the city but her special awareness that only John could communicate with – had almost been lost when they'd been attacked by the Replicators and forced to fleet Lantia. They'd lost Elizabeth then too, plus others ... on top of Carson just a few weeks before.
Celebrating wasn't appropriate.
"What?" Rodney demanded, reacting to the disapproving tone. When John said nothing Rodney frowned before his face cleared and he looked faintly embarrassed. "Elizabeth would like the idea of a party," he muttered stubbornly.
"Some anniversaries you just don't celebrate Rodney," John said more kindly ... not that it would change his mind but Sheppard thought maybe Rodney's muttered comment wasn't that far off the mark.
"Fine," Rodney replied, letting the matter drop abruptly.
Both men went back to their breakfasts, neither feeling the need to fill up the companionable silence. Finally finished, Rodney rose to his feet and stood beside the table, tray in hand. "I'll see you at the Gate in ten minutes ... gotta collect some stuff from the lab first."
"Couldn't you have done that before you came down here?" Sheppard asked in exasperation. Rodney just ignored him, waving his hand dismissively as he hurried from the toom "Nice to know some things never change," John thought to himself.
"Why do you persist in disclaiming all feeling towards Doctor McKay?" the chorus of Atlantis rolled through his mind with familiarity.
"I don't do that," John denied, thinking it firmly as he got up and walked from the Mess Hall. "You heard McKay – he wants to celebrate what was probably the most traumatic thing most of the people here will ever go through!"
John struggled for a moment to contain the memories – the city under attack from the Replicators, stranded in space with only hours of power remaining. Elizabeth urging McKay - no insisting that he reactivate her nanites so they could get into the Replicator city to retrieve a ZPM. Being forced to leave her behind when they were overrun and in danger of failing their mission. Going back to the Replicator home world in a cloaked Jumper but finding no trace of Elizabeth.
Tamping down on his emotions, John refocused his attention, realising as he did so that Atlantis knew exactly what he'd been thinking.
"But is it not the way of humanity to make light in the midst of difficult situations," Atlantis questioned gently. "To laugh in the face of danger? Indulge in what do you call it? Gallows humour? How was Doctor McKay's suggestion any different?"
"We nearly lost you as well," John reminded the chorus grimly. "Is that something you want to be reminded of every year?"
"And yet we were not destroyed and the damage to our systems, our structures, was mended such that no further evidence remains," the notes shifted from puzzled to determined. "We would like to rejoice in our existence ... in what we owe to you and others who risked much to save us, who sacrificed themselves to that end."
"I know we're back to normal," John tried to explain his own viewpoint, "but it took a long time ... a long painful time before you could hear me again. I'm just," he broke off, hesitated, and then made himself finish, "I'm just not ready to make light of that."
"Very well," the chorus intoned, sounding no different that the first day John had heard it, despite the struggles he'd described. "We ask that you be careful off world this day."
"I'm always careful," John grinned, not minding the curious looks he got as he walked towards the Gateroom.
"And yet you still manage to find trouble," Atlantis returned, her notes pointed.
"Not today," Sheppard promised. "We're just checking in with the kids – should be back well before bed time."
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Pacing the Gateroom floor a few minutes later, John looked at his watch repeatedly, wondering where Rodney and the rest of his team had gotten to.
"Sheppard," Ronon strode in without ceremony, Teyla at his side.
"About time," John returned. "Now we just need McKay."
"His lab perhaps?" Teyla suggested, well used to Rodney's tendency to get distracted and forget engagements.
"Rodney," Sheppard tapped his radio to make contact. "Are you planning on joining us sometime today?"
"Just give me a second here," Rodney replied, his voice distracted and somewhat abrupt – as usual.
"Is that a Sheppard second or a McKay second?" John retorted sarcastically, knowing full well Rodney was likely to be delayed for longer than that, especially if he'd been called in to look at some kind of problem within the city.
"I just need ...," Rodney's voice trailed off again.
"Dial it up," Sheppard called up to Chuck in the control room. Turning to Ronon and Teyla, he shrugged. "Rodney will catch up."
"Yes Sir," Chuck punched in the coordinates for M7G-677 briskly, announcing moments later that a stable wormhole had been established.
John took the lead, striding forward briskly and stepping through the gate.
"Wait!" Rodney's frantic voice yelling across the Gateroom halted Ronon and Teyla's forward momentum. Running into the room panting harshly, Rodney looked on with horrified dismay as the back of Sheppard's vest disappeared from sight.
The event horizon flashed brightly, momentarily blinding anyone who'd been looking at it directly, including Rodney. The black haze disappeared from his eyes to reveal the empty Stargate – the wormhole had shut down.
"Oh no," Rodney muttered sickly, turning to his teammates with his 'we are so screwed' expression firmly in place.
"Is there a problem Rodney?" Teyla asked in concern.
"I don't know!" Rodney retorted, folding his arms across his chest defensively. "Maybe ... probably. We ah ... we need to redial M7G-677." Looking up to the Control Room, he added impatiently "right now would be good. Yes – that big white flash – probably not a good thing!"
"Rodney," Teyla drew his worried glance her way. "What happened?"
"I detected an energy spike somewhere in the city," Rodney explained as the gate was redialled. "When I traced the source it was here, in the gate room. A subroutine I've never seen before kicked in at the start of the first dialling sequence ... I'm guessing it reached critical levels just after Sheppard entered the wormhole – sparking that flash."
"Sheppard?" Ronon put a world of worry into that one word.
"Depends," Rodney admitted. "Excessive power output at the event horizon of a stable wormhole isn't a good thing ... he might have been redirected elsewhere or just ...," Rodney trailed off, unwilling to verbalise the worse case scenario.
"Wormhole established," Chuck announced.
"Sheppard, this is McKay, do you read?" Rodney's voice was impatient as he tried to make contact via radio.
"Sheppard, what is your situation?" Rodney tried again after a few moments pause with no response.
"Perhaps he has moved outside radio range?" Teyla suggested hopefully.
"After less than 5 minutes?" Rodney returned incredulously. "Unless he's found himself a supersonic jet on the other side of that wormhole travelling out of radio range that quickly is pretty much impossible."
"Instead of standing around speculating perhaps you should go and check on the Colonel's whereabouts," Richard Woolsey, the city's new leader, suggested pointedly as he walked briskly down the steps from the Control Room.
Ronon took that as invitation enough, stalking through the Stargate before Rodney could even blink.
"Rodney," Teyla urged him forward, both stepping through the gate together.
oOo
There was no sign of Sheppard on M7G-677 ... they searched the area surrounding the gate, spoke to Keras, the leader of the closest village, to no avail. Two hours after arriving they were forced to return to Atlantis empty handed.
"Well?" Woolsey looked at Rodney expectantly, the continuing absence of Sheppard telling its own story.
"He never arrived," Rodney announced glumly. "We have no way of knowing what happened to him."
oOo
The chorus that was the summation of the entire city could not hear the conversations of her inhabitants ... experiencing the thoughts of John Sheppard as he participated was as close as she could get. The trade off for that lack was her instant connection with every aspect of every system.
Atlantis knew of the power being collected at the Stargate as soon as it began although she could not predict it's purpose.
Through her link with John she sensed the wormhole being redirected ... the discharge of energy blinding her momentarily as it had everyone else. When it passed she discovered that she could not follow him ... could not determine the end point of the wormhole through subspace.
The chorus moaned in despair as the consequences became clear.
John Sheppard was lost to her ... perhaps forever.
TBC