A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update, my Beta for this story has been busy so she's only been able to give me a little bit at time. It's just taking me a lot longer to get it from her than I first expected, but no matter, this story is still going. And I hope you enjoy this next chapter, reviews are loved.
Stars slowly glistened into life above Atlantis as Rodney McKay sat on the very edge of the Eastern Pier, legs dangling over the edge while he looked out into the distance. It was so quite down here, almost peaceful. The soothing laps of the water crashing against the pier spraying water up into the air giving the night an almost cool touch.
After all the worlds he'd saved from the Wraith and Replicators and who knows what else, he couldn't save someone close to him.
He'd never felt so alone before in his life.
After all these years at in Atlantis, no one had seen Rodney cry, and he preferred it that way. For all his bluster and melodramatics, he was actually a very private person when it came to his feelings. It was one of the reasons he preferred not to get too close to people and why he chose to visit one of the most remote locales in the city when he needed to think...or to grieve. The pier around him was the same place he said goodbye to Carson the first time. Memories of that day flooded his mind remembering the moment the tumour exploded killing Carson in the process.
Carson had meant the world to Rodney. He was probably one of the first decent friends he'd ever had, and now he was gone again.
Out of the corner of his eye, Rodney watched as someone approached his position then quietly sat down beside him; long legs and heavy combat boots hanging over the edge of the pier next to his own.
"Go away," Rodney managed to say through a few tears.
John didn't move. He just sat there, looking out into the distance, not saying a word or even glancing in Rodney's direction (Rodney could only guess John was giving him time to pull himself together).
"It's beautiful isn't it?" John commented. It was more of a statement than a question.
Rodney cracked open his left eye – the one closest to John – to look at him; the one thing that meant more to him than anything ever had before.
The light from the two moons shone down on them brightly, making John's eyes sparkle; messy hair dancing in the wind as it rose up from the ocean. Even now Rodney still wasn't sure what attracted him to John, perhaps it was the way he was willing to risk anything to protect the ones around him.
Rodney would've have admitted his feeling a long time ago, but each time he tried, fear swept over him about the possibility of being rejected by his friend.
Wiping his face with the sleeve of his jumper, Rodney turned to John. "What do you want?" he snapped just wanting John to leave him alone.
John's attention shifted from the ocean to Rodney. "What do you think I want? "he asked looking into Rodney's eyes. "I care about you Rodney, I've never seen you so upset before and I came to see if you were alright."
"I'm fine," Rodney lied.
"Bullshit Rodney," John grated out, gaining Rodney's full attention, "I know you, and I can tell when you're lying. So don't you give me that crap; saying you're fine when you damn well know you're not!"
Rodney opened his mouth to state he was perfectly fine, even though he wasn't, but John wasn't finished yet,
"I'm your friend Rodney," he continued, "and friends don't lie to each other. Why couldn't you just come talk to me instead of running off - after hitting me I might I add - to the one of the furthest parts of the city, where no one was likely to find you?"
Gathering himself together, Rodney spoke, his voice nervous trying to think of a logical argument. "You're wasting your time, John. Don't bother me with the 'everything will be alright speech' because it's not going to work on me."
"You know Rodney," John's tone was almost harsh, "You can be such an asshole sometimes. I didn't come out here to give you a pep talk. I came here as a friend to talk, that's it. And no matter how pissy you get, I will not walk away until I know you're okay!"
That's the John he knew. Never backing down no matter what, it was another thing that attracted John to Rodney, his sheer will power to do anything for his friends.
Rodney didn't say anything for a while, instead he found himself staring at John as the moonlight shined down on his face.
"As smart as I hate to admit I am, if I can't save my friends what good am I?" Rodney asked softly then watched as John's face turn from serious concern to outright anger.
John grabbed hold of Rodney's shirt and forcefully pulled him closer, so that only a spare few inches separated them, "Don't you ever say that again," he said.......,
Say what? What was going on? Why was he so angry? Rodney wondered, a little shocked by the force of John's reaction.
John closed his eyes and calmed himself down, then opened them again and spoke in a gentle tone that Rodney had never heard before. "Don't you ever say you're not worth it, Rodney, because you are. Even if you don't believe anyone else thinks that, I am still ... you know ... you are worth it to me. And as far as I care, that's all that matters."
Rodney went to wipe away the tears that had found their way down his cheek, but before he knew it, John was using his hands to wipe them away for him.
His skin was just as Rodney had imagined it. Rough at first, but became softer as it moved down his face eventually halting at his chin. Those hands were capable of almost anything, and there was an odd beauty in them that made him wonder just what else they would be good at. Rodney indulged briefly in wondering what they would feel like on his body, running over skin.
Rodney held back everything, trying to cover up his weak state, was this actually happening? Never in his entire time knowing John had he spoke to Rodney like that. Slowly, he let his head fall onto John's shoulder. John delicately ran one hand through Rodney's hair while putting the other one around back to comfort him. John placed his other arm around Rodney keeping him close in a hug, the warmth from his body seeping into Rodney's. It felt as if John would never let him go.
"It's okay," he whispered quietly into his ear.
Rodney pulled out of John's grasp. "Okay?" he snapped. "It's not okay, John. It'll never be okay! That stupid machine was just another ancient failure, and I should have noticed before it was too late. But It is too late now, isn't it?
John might say this. Actually, it's very likely he would but Rodney isn't going to take the easy way out. He'll fight John on this one – with lots of details as to why it is his fault, etc.
Once Rodney had finished crying, he raised his head up and looked back to John. "Thanks,"
The corners of John's mouth rose slightly giving off a shallow smile. "No problem."
Suddenly, Without warning the city started to shake violently, causing Rodney to lose his balance and tilt forward almost falling over the edge of the pier except that John caught hold of him at the last minute, yanking Rodney back, flat against the deck covering Rodney with his body.
They both watched in horror as the top of the central tower collapsed in a flash of fire. Large chunks of the tower tumbled down smashing into the lower parts of the city. Rodney couldn't believe his eyes, how was that possible? In a matter of seconds the top half of the central tower had been obliterated.
Move this sentence to a new paragraph and give me details! Very few writers are brave enough to completely blow up the central tower (don't ask me why). This is a big moment. Make me want to cry in horror/grief.
Seconds later Sheppard turned on his intercom in a state of panic. Rodney watched his fingers fumble to turn it on.
"What the hell just happened?" John asked.
Rodney stood up, keeping as much distance between himself and the edge of pier as possible. After nearly becoming a victim to it, he certainly didn't want to be close to it again in case there was another shockwave.
Rodney heard Sheppard's intercom come alive filled with the sound of gunfire in the background.
"Colonel, we're under attack," it was Major Lorne's voice on the other end.
"What's going on? What's happening?" Rodney panicked; this was not good, not good at all.
"Be quite McKay," Sheppard snapped causing Rodney to shut up. He was directly next to John so he could hear the entire conversation.
"Dr. Keller was putting away Carson's body when," he got cut off by more gunfire but quickly continued. "It transformed."
Rodney turned on his intercom to listen to what was going on.
"Are you telling me, Carson's dead body turned into some sort of creature and attacked Dr. Keller?" Sheppard said in disbelief.
"Not just attacked her Colonel, but he took a huge chunk of her skin out with its, his teeth." More gunfire, but this time Rodney could hear screaming in the background.
"What's going on Major? Who's shooting?" this time it was Rodney that spoke to him.
"When Dr. Keller was bitten, the guards and infirmary staff tried to stop the creature, but bullets didn't too do anything, it seemed to just absorb them. Before we knew it, everyone in the room had been bitten. Next thing we know, everyone started transforming into these things!" A sudden outburst of gunfire caused John to jump back into Rodney. There was screaming in the background before Lorne spoke again panting. "One of the creatures escaped and got past to the central tower, the main control room is gone, Sir. The creatures seem to only need to bite someone once before they turn into one of them. It all happened to quick sir, we didn't even know what was happening until it was too late."
Sheppard turned to Rodney his eyes filled with fear. "Why hasn't the city locked down? I thought you set up protocols that prevented this!"
It was true, ever since the quarantine incident that almost caused the city to blow up, he had re-written the protocols so that the city would automatically lock down in the case of an outbreak.
"I did, but... I don't understand. The city should've automatically locked down at the first sign of an outbreak, but maybe the sensors couldn't tell that there was an infection." Rodney said.
"What do you mean?" Sheppard was rushing him along now.
"What I mean is," Rodney snapped annoyed that Sheppard couldn't understand something so simple, "the sensors are meant to pick up life signs from around the city, checking to make sure everyone is healthy. If they pick up any trace of an outbreak the city locks down the areas of the infection until we can clear it up."
"I get that, so why hasn't the city locked down then?" Sheppard was almost yelling.
"Because," Rodney took a few deep breaths before continuing. "The city can't pick the infection up, because there isn't an infection."
Sheppard gave Rodney a blank stare. "Clearly there is Rodney! My men are dying in there so don't you go telling me there isn't an infection!"
"That's not what I mean," how was he going to explain this quickly? "The city picks up the life signs of the living and reroutes any information to the main control room. If what Major Lorne's saying is true, then these creatures are transforming dead bodies into whatever they need to survive. And the reason the city isn't locking itself down is because anyone with the infection is dead and the city doesn't register the dead on the life signs detector."
"Fine, I'll go with that. But that still doesn't explain how the hell this happened." Sheppard stared back at Rodney with a twisted look on his face. "Wait? You're saying that everyone is turning into zombies?"
"Well, maybe there was something in that drug we injected into Carson, some sort of parasite that's capable of controlling and manipulating its host. Zombies aren't real,it's been proven scientifically impossible. The only two people capable of figuring out how to fix this are Carson and Keller, but I'd like to point out how screwed we are seeing that they're both dead! So I'm sorry if I can't be of any more help."
Rodney recognised that look on John's face, it was the one he saved for those occasions when everything seemed lost, but he wasn't going to give up.
Sheppard pressed his intercom again connecting him to Major Lorne. "Major, you and your men fall back to the East Pier now!"
"There's too many Colonel, there everywhere. I can't..." Lorne's voice went silent, drowned out by the sound of silence, followed by loud gunfire... then the screaming came. They'd gotten to Major Lorne.
"This is all my fault," Rodney ran his hands over his face removing all the sweat.
John looked back at Rodney shaking him violently with his hands. "This is not your fault. You did what any other person would do; you tried to save your friend. There was no way to know this would happen."
"Yes there was," Rodney snapped in John's face trying to get out of his clutch. "I was the one who set up the machine, I should have known if something like this was going to happen."
Letting go, John looked at deep into Rodney's eyes. "I know you're scared, I am too. But we need to get in there and help out people. Can you do that?"
Rodney nodded his head nervously.
"Good," John continued solemnly, "We need to get to the closest armoury; I don't think that my one 9mm will be enough."
As they left the pier, hurrying towards the armoury at John's usual, impossible pace, Rodney put his astoundingly genius mind to work finding them a way out of this mess. Whether or not he could find a way to fix it, he had no idea but he had to try.
This was way out of his control.
To be continued...