Reconstructing Rome

By Indygodusk


Chapter 17


"Rome is a city that doesn't always follow the rules or live by definition…."

ERICA FIRPO


Lips peeling back from her teeth, Rome leapt up and slammed her elbow into Phukuntsi's face.

John's jaw dropped.

It wasn't a move he'd ever taught her, but someone must've drilled it into her repeatedly because she executed it perfectly.

The hit would've felled Phukuntsi like a tree if he hadn't turned his head at the last second. Instead of knocking him out, the bone of her elbow sliced across his skin like a knife, splitting open his cheek and the ridge of his nose. Phukuntsi bled like a stuck pig, drops of scarlet blood splattering across the pale curtains and floor. He jerked back with a cry and slipped loose from Carson's grip on his arm.

Shrieking, Rome followed up with a flurry of berzerker punches and kicks. The initial hit had caught Phukuntsi by surprise, but Rome was a barely-trained civilian attacking a combat-tested Marine twice her size. He quickly turned angry and mean. She didn't stand a chance.

Before John could intervene, Phukuntsi lashed out with a massive fist, backhanding Rome in the chest. Her screams cut off like the flip of a switch. The hit lifted her up into the air and sent her flying as if she weighed no more than a rag doll.

Already racing forward, John lunged, catching Rome's arm just before her head slammed into the tiled floor. He spun her up and around to bleed off momentum. Slinging an arm around her waist, he yanked her to his body and dragged her away.

Expecting her to be limp in his arms, terrified she'd broken a rib and punctured a lung, John was caught off guard when Rome twisted in his grip, slamming her boots against his shins as she tried to get loose. Her eyes rolled wildly as she struggled to catch her breath, yet she still strained to throw herself back at Phukuntsi in attack. Her nails clawed John's arms, stinging even through the cloth.

"Rome! Mckay!" John shook her roughly, trying to snap her out of it and keep a wary eye on the angry Marine at the same time. "Stop it!" Rearing back, she slammed her head into his chin, making John bite the edge of his tongue. "Ow! Dammit, Rome!" Tart, coppery blood flooded his mouth. John tossed Rome onto the nearest bed. Before she could scramble over the side and throw herself back into danger he pinned her. "Snap out of it, Mckay! Meredith!"

Eyes focused on where Phukuntsi struggled beneath Beckett and a nurse drawn by the noise, Rome swung a clumsy fist at John's face, clipping his ear. Grunting, John dropped his head to her neck. She arched her body trying to get him off, her knee missing his balls by mere inches.

Snarling, John flattened Rome's legs with his thigh and caught her wrists in a tight grip, transferring them to one hand and completely immobilizing her. When he'd pictured the two of them lying sweaty and intertwined in a bed together on his return to Atlantis, this was not what he'd expected. Using his free hand, he felt around the frame of the bed until he found the medical restraints meant for difficult and delusional patients and grimly lashed her wrists to the bed so she couldn't escape. Every time he shifted she tried to squirm away.

"Stop it!" Pressing her flat with his body, John grabbed her chin and got into her face. "Dr. Rodney Meredith Mckay, stop it right now! You're being stupid. Rome, wake up and think!"

She froze beneath him, eyes dazed. Her pale hair had come undone, spreading across the sheets like a tangled corona, and her labored breathing fluttered across his cheeks. She tugged at her bound wrists and tried to look over at them unsuccessfully, stopped by his hand on her chin holding her head in place.

Subsiding, she focused her eyes on John and blinked. Recognition finally sparked. She sighed, a long hot puff of air. Her muscles went liquid as she surrendered beneath the dominant press of his body. Confusion lingering, she nevertheless blinked up at him trustingly, submitting to his will.

Something twisted in John's chest. Fire raced through his veins. He noticed the small triangle of lavender in her left eye, the musky scent of the sweat pooling in the hollow of her throat, and the scorching alignment of their hips. Pale pink lips soundlessly shaped his name as her eyes became heavy-lidded. Panting, her gaze drifted down to his mouth.

Although sorely tempted to drop his head that final inch, John couldn't forget where they were or what he was doing. Besides, Rome wasn't firing on all cylinders yet and couldn't really consent to anything. John allowed himself to glide his thumb across the sweat-slick skin of her throat just once. Then he firmed his expression, tightened his fingers on her jaw, and forced her to meet his eyes. "Stay!"

Not waiting for a response, John rolled off the bed. The front of his body felt painfully cold. He ignored the sensation.

Beckett and the nurse were struggling to restrain Sgt. Phukuntsi. Despite the blood dripping down his face and a person on each arm, Phukuntsi still managed to inch forward towards the bed holding Rome. Roaring, Phukuntsi abruptly flung off the nurse and almost dislodged Beckett. The Marine stumbled sideways into a rolling cart, kicking it out of his way as he steamrolled forward. Beckett hung onto his upper arm doggedly, but no longer seemed to be slowing him down.

"You're gonna pay for that, you bitch!" Phukuntsi yelled, angry eyes focused on the woman strapped to the bed.

"Stand down, Sergeant!" John barked, getting in his face. When Phukuntsi refused to listen, still trying to shake off Beckett and get around John to attack Rome, John gut-punched him. Hard.

Breath and saliva exploded from Phukuntsi mouth as he folded over John's fist. John grabbed Phukuntsi's arm and twisted it back, riding him down to slam his body into the floor. Cheek flattened against the ground, Phukuntsi whined. He tried to roll free but John knelt on the man's back to keep him down. "Submit!" John snarled. Phukuntis bucked. John ground his kneecap into the man's kidneys, making Phukuntsi cry out in pain.

Security finally caught a clue that something was amiss and came running over from where they'd been distracted on the other side of the room. They secured Phukuntsi's arms with cable ties. The sound of the plastic clicking into place finally cut through the Marine's mental haze. He slumped and gave a pained groan. "I submit," he gurgled against the floor, pausing to spit out a glob of pink saliva from split lips. John eased his knee off Phukuntsi's back and shoved him at security.

A quick glance to the side showed that Rome was still locked safely on the bed, face wan and body now listless. John had no idea what had made her snap like that. She was violent with words and occasionally threw pens, but the closest she ever got to assault was a hard poke. She didn't attack people.

Dr. Kushumba cried loudly in the corner.

In worrisome contrast, Rome stayed uncharacteristically silent and avoided looking at anyone. John hadn't noticed any ribs obviously broken or cracked, so hopefully she was only bruised from the fight. She'd never been one to suffer physical discomfort in silence, so she was probably fine. The thought of her not being fine made John want to turn and slam his foot into Phukuntsi. The memory of her getting punched and flying across the room leeched any slight remorse John might've had for slamming the already injured man face-first onto the floor.

"I was trying to help them," Phukuntsi muttered nasally as he sat up, pausing to spit out another mouthful of blood and saliva. "I was protecting and looking out for those girls." Security pulled him to his feet. "A good man is supposed to protect the weaker sex," he argued stubbornly.

"You aren't a good man, don't kid yourself. You're disrespectful, manipulative, and arrogant beyond belief. I have nothing but contempt for you and the way you abused the trust of the women on this base and the honor of the uniform you wear." John stepped back before he did something against regs and gritted through his teeth, "You disgust me." Turning to security, he ordered the man treated and then escorted to the brig.

While he'd been distracted, a pair of nurses had gone over to Rome. Although clearly unhappy, she was cooperating with their examination. They warily unstrapped her hands and sat her up. One of them had his stethoscope pressed to her back while he checked her ribs with a gloved hand.

As the privacy curtain started to close Rome's eyes looked up at John. He instinctively took a step forward. Flattening her lips, she looked away just before the curtain shut and hid her from view. The message was clear. Exhaling slowly, John forced himself to respect her wishes and leave her alone. For now.


After updating Elizabeth, John spent the next few hours overseeing an investigation into Phukuntsi's actions. Carson followed a hunch and examined the stock of prophylactics on base. The number of sabotaged condom packages he found was shocking. It turned out that Phukuntsi had been on the team assigned to help rearrange boxes in the infirmary. He'd also volunteered to help stock the medical closets and prophylactic supplies in all the bathrooms and lounges, using the opportunity to sabotage birth control for not just his own partners but for everyone.

They'd found the cause of the STD outbreak in the men and women on base, a side effect Phukuntsi hadn't seemed to care about in his quest to impregnate women and get them sent home. A bad STD could lead to organ infection or permanent infertility. Even a mild case could be distracting during a fight where the cost of losing focus was injury or death. A distracted soldier could easily become lunch for a Wraith, that or to be captured for interrogation by the Genii, other hostile societies, or the Wraith themselves, which could lead to the invasion of Atlantis or the Milky Way Galaxy and an untold number of deaths. It was a betrayal of Phukuntis's military oaths, of his comrades, mission, country, and planet.

In Phukuntsi's quarters, they found more sabotaged condoms full of pinpricks and a stash of fake birth control pills packaged to look like the real thing, showing that he'd prepared for this scheme while still on Earth and may have done the same thing to women in other combat postings. Two packages of seemingly legitimate birth control pills were found in his trash, probably stolen from some poor woman and switched for fakes.

Lorne's report on Sgt. Phukuntsi's background revealed that the man had lost his mother young and grown up in an extremely conservative household as the oldest of three siblings. In the course of his last deployment before joining the SGC, Phukuntsi had witnessed two women he'd worked with closely die from combat-related injuries, including a girlfriend. A third woman had transferred back stateside due to an accidental pregnancy the week before most of her squad died in a roadside bombing. During Phukuntsi's first month in the Mountain, a female civilian he was guarding almost lost a leg in an accident off-world. Dr. Heightmeyer, Atlantis's head psychologist, suggested that those experiences had probably seeded the idea for his future actions in trying to keep women safe by forcing them out of combat areas.

It might explain it, but it certainly didn't excuse it.

Everyone on the command staff was livid. Elizabeth's face looked carved from marble. Colonel Caldwell had canceled leave on Atlantis and recalled his people to the Daedalus. Carson was having emergency meetings with his staff to institute base-wide blood testing for STDs and ordering new supplies from Earth ASAP.

As part of the command staff, Rome attended the meeting. However, on the subject of Phukuntsi, she stayed quiet. Too quiet. When she moved it was gingerly, so she had to be bruised from the fight with the Marine. Attacking him had been extremely stupid. She was lucky he hadn't put her in traction or worse. John still didn't know what had possessed her to jump the man. She was lucky Phukuntsi hadn't thought to press charges.

When Elizabeth asked Rome why, she just shrugged and said in a flat voice, "What he did made me really mad." As if she didn't get mad at people on a daily basis without ever resorting to physical violence. John didn't know why this incident in particular had gotten to her so badly, but he feared she was going to do something unwise. More unwise. John doubled the security on Phukuntsi just in case anyone, Rome included, decided to arrange an "accident."

John tried to corner her in the hall after the meeting. "Rome—"

"No." Eyes snapping, she smothered his words with her hand over his mouth. "You call me Mckay. We're strangers now, remember?" Removing her hand and wiping it down her shirt, she stepped sideways and backward into the newly repaired transporter and shut the door in his face, whisking herself away.

"For crying out loud," he muttered, unconsciously echoing General O'Neill as he rubbed at the stubble on his face. That woman drove him crazy. She couldn't just go around assaulting everyone that pissed her off. That was more than half the base. However, he'd have to try talking to Mckay again later. He was too busy right now to chase her down.

Shoving a hand into his pocket, he bumped into the green pen he'd picked up from the floor of the infirmary earlier. He'd meant to give it back but she hadn't given him the chance. Just like she hadn't given him a chance to talk to her. John scowled. Fine. Mckay was a grown woman who could make her own bad choices.

John stalked back to his office, glanced out the window, and deflated at seeing the Ferris wheel. Strangers didn't build you Ferris wheels. Rome might not want to talk to him right now, but she needed to talk to somebody. Sitting down at his desk, John dashed off an email to both Major McLean and Dr. Kusanagi asking them to privately check-in on Mckay.

That done, he activated his radio and told Sgt. Bates to come over for their scheduled meeting. John wanted everything Phukuntsi had touched on Atlantis checked for signs of sabotage. He was grateful the man hadn't been rated to fly the jumpers.


Later that evening when John and Elizabeth gathered the entire expedition, instead of a rousing speech on the joys of being back, they got to inform the base that everyone needed to stop having sex for the next forty-eight hours and make an appointment with the infirmary for mandatory testing. Everyone was ordered to turn in their birth control and get new supplies, just in case they were compromised. It was horribly awkward and invasive.

Despite John's best efforts at questioning him, Phukuntsi had become tight-lipped except for his name, rank and serial number, as if he was captured by enemy combatants instead of his own military. He refused to share what other actions he'd taken to get women sent home or the names of his sexual partners so they could be taken aside privately and tested. Colonel Caldwell insisted on interrogating him as well (as if he could do a better job than John) but also got nowhere (surprise surprise). Torture was illegal according to the expedition charter or else they would've had a line of volunteers stretching around all six piers.

The man wouldn't be John's problem much longer. He was going back to Earth on the Daedalus for trial. John wasn't sure what exactly they would charge him with, but he'd been assured that they'd find something and that what Phukuntsi had done wouldn't just be swept under the rug. At the least, the man was effectively barred from further Marine corp service and would be dishonorably discharged.

Because of all of the unrest, John and Lorne spent the next few hours walking around base and making themselves available to anyone who wanted to ask questions, talk, or just gripe. There were a lot of crass sex jokes going around and speculation about who may or may not be infected. John did his best to give his people room to let off steam safely.

When John finally found time to sneak away to check on Rome, he found that another man had already beaten him to the punch. It was probably his own fault but that didn't help the jealousy twisting his gut when he stumbled across the sight unexpectedly. There was a reason John had emailed Major McLean and not Sgt. Kindall, even if it had been unconscious.

When John had first joined the SGC, he'd often noticed Kindall and Rome sneaking off together for private talks. It was later revealed that they were both just too proud to let everyone know that they were obsessively planning gifts and strategies to win over the hearts of their young nieces, who were both named Madison. Their scheming had come to light with a set of designer dolls.

John was mostly sure they were only friends. Mostly. John had left Rome behind and Kindall had stayed. A lot could change in a year. He'd suspected that Kindall was the man most likely to replace John in her affections if he ever really blew it.

Today, he felt like he'd really blown it.

Rome and Kindall stood in a small room down the hall from Rome's office. The Marine's broad back sheltered Rome almost completely from view. They were engaged in an intense discussion and hadn't noticed his approach.

Since coming to Atlantis, John had spent more time than he'd ever expected sneaking up and spying on people. He'd noticed that something about Atlantis made people much less likely to see him when he was trying to be stealthy. Lights dimmed around him while the nearby ambient noises of the city increased, though it seemed less distracting for people with strong natural expressions of the ATA gene, as if they sensed the change and got suspicious. John rarely used it on purpose, but he did take advantage of it.

Standing in a dimly lit section of corridor, John leaned against the wall and watched as Kindall tucked a strand of hair behind Rome's ear. Her eyes went big, glistening wetly in the overhead light. A second later she looked down and cleared her throat, giving an obviously forced frown. "I said I'm fine. You can leave."

Kindall tilted his head to the side and sighed. "Mckay, you're not fine. You haven't been fine for a while and coming to Atlantis has somehow made it worse instead of better. I barely even see you eat, probably because you're avoiding running into people by not going to the dining hall. What gives?" He tried to put his arm around her and she stepped back to avoid it.

"Nothing, so you don't have to worry. You checked on me. Your duty is done." Waving him off, Rome turned away and walked deeper into the room. She stopped before a bubbling column, hands clasped behind her back.

Kindall huffed and pivoted to watch her. "You're not a duty, you're one of my best friends and I'm not leaving you alone until I know you're fine." Sucking in a breath, she dropped her head and rounded her shoulders.

Brow creasing, Kindall closed the distance between them. "Look, we all know that thing with Cohen was an accident even though you moved onto the Daedalus afterward and didn't come back until the ship was fixed up enough to leave. You don't need to keep pushing us away or punishing yourself. That stuff with Phukuntsi is messed up but none of it's your fault. You're acting like you did just before we visited Manudia, not that you ever explained that either." His voice had dropped so low by the end that John could barely make it out. "Mckay, I just want to help. Talk to me."

What was Manudia? It sounded vaguely familiar to John, maybe from a mission report he'd read? No, wait, Troy had mentioned it in his video farewell, something about Rome being kidnapped. With everything that had happened, John had forgotten about it. He'd have to fix that ASAP.

Rome glanced over her shoulder and away again, rubbing her forehead and hiding the brittleness of her expression. "I won't talk about Manudia. Not ever."

Exhaling slowly, Kindall rolled his shoulders. "Okay." Stepping up to her side, Kindall pretended to watch the bubbles. "So let's talk about something else. I know 80s power ballads are out. You're avoiding the DFAC so we can't talk about local food. What about mutual friends? Major McLean's in a bad mood. I think it's because that last mission went badly but King says he has a hopeless crush on somebody civilian. She thinks his chances were already bad and then today happened and scared the woman off men completely."

Giving him a side-eye, Rome snorted skeptically.

A dimple appeared in Kindall's cheek. "Unless you're jealous he's not mooning after you instead, spending his nights staring mournfully up at an alien sky and composing bad poetry rhyming McLean the Marine with McKay the Smart-ay."

Snorting again, this time with amusement, she stuck her tongue out and wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, no! Change of subject. How's Atlantis treating you? Or have you seen Rigo yet? I know he only arrived this morning, but I bet he already has an STD."

Chuckling, Kindall wrapped one arm around her shoulders and squeezed. "With Rigo I wouldn't even be surprised."

This time Rome leaned into Kindall's hug. She slowly and carefully rested her temple against his shoulder, as if she were a bubble that might pop at any moment. The corner of her mouth drooped down. She looked so sad. Her breath hiccupped once before she winced, rubbing a hand in careful circles over her bruised chest. Her eyes slid shut, as if the weight of the world was more than she could bear.

John felt petty for his earlier jealousy. The expression on Rome's face made him hurt. At least she let Kindall hug her, even if she wouldn't take a hug from John. He was glad she had a friend like Kindall. She deserved good friends who cared. Deciding to leave them alone, John slid backward.

Arm over her shoulder, Kindall steered Rome into the hall and turned in the opposite direction from John, helping him stay hidden. "As for Atlantis, it's certainly never boring, I'll give you that," Kindall said. "Though the high-tech toilets take a little getting used to. I've certainly never felt fresher in my pants, if you know what I mean, not even using those bidets in fancy Japanese hotels."

Looking up at him, the corner of Rome's mouth curled for a moment before drooping back down. "Yeah?"

"And you can't beat the scenery. Most bases I've been stationed at are ugly, like WWI and Vietnam married, chugged a cement truck at a kegger, and vomited them into being. Atlantis is like some fancy cathedral, with all of the stained glass and mosaic floor tiles everywhere." The two disappeared down the hall, voices fading a few seconds later.

Straightening his shoulders, John ignored the itch of feet wanting to break into a punishing run. He didn't have time to indulge himself. Seconding that thought, his radio beeped a reminder that break time was over. He needed to be seen around base, to visit with his people and soothe tempers. He'd trust Kindall to watch over Rome for now. He had no other choice.


By midnight, John bravely convinced himself to return to his quarters for sleep instead of stealing a jumper and fleeing to the mainland.

As the sun had set, tempers rose. Small fights broke out in public areas across Atlantis and at least two relationships dissolved when supposedly monogamous couples discovered their partner infected with an STD from an outside source. This was not the day he'd imagined having when he'd been queuing up on the Daedalus to return from Earth.

Back in his quarters, John took a hot shower. He was about to go to bed when he remembered that he still needed to look up what had happened to Rome on Manudia. Snagging his tablet, he lay down stomach-first on his bed and did a search through the mission files. Two reports popped up, but neither were very enlightening. A lot of things were redacted or seemed outright missing, even with his level of clearance. There was no first-contact mission summary, for one.

Manudia was a city-state in the Milky Way Galaxy with technology comparable to Earth's in the early 20th century, though there were a few anomalies such as rudimentary computers. It regularly warred with another city on the same continent but was currently at peace. Lower down he found mention that the Ancients had once conducted ascension experiments on the planet, but what details weren't redacted only stated that the technology was currently inactive and of no use to the SGC. There was also a mention that naquadah had once been mined there but that existing veins seemed to be mostly tapped out.

Despite Troy's comment, John couldn't find any mention of Mckay or anyone else getting kidnapped to Manudia. However, Manudia had asked the SGC to install a defense screen to protect the population from space attacks. After the expedition left for Atlantis, Dr. R.M. Mckay had gone to Manudia and done the work. She'd been guarded by Major McLean's team. The installation had reportedly gone without a hitch. John couldn't find Mckay's name anywhere else. When he cross-referenced Mckay's other off-world missions, he found that she rarely went off-world—most of her missions dated within the last year—and only visited Earth's biggest allies when she did.

Why had Mckay installed a state of the art defense screen on a backwater like Manudia? The file stated that any requests by Manudia were to be immediately forwarded to General O'Neill, bypassing the middlemen at the office of Homeworld Security and even General Hammond and his people at Cheyenne Mountain. It made John wonder if Manudia was more personally important to Jack O'Neill than strategically important to the SGC. But once again, why?

Manudia was an anomaly. It seemed to be getting expensive help for somewhere of mid to low importance. The one complaint from a low-level staffer doing an audit had been ignored. There were secrets on Manudia, but not ones John would find in these reports. The real secrets looked to never have been written down.

John's eyes burned from exhaustion. Tossing away his tablet, he moved under the bed covers, saying, "Lights off," and plunging the room into darkness. Programs rubbed affectionately against the edges of his mind. It had been a rotten day, but at least he was in Atlantis again and posted in the same place as Rome for the foreseeable future. He had time to work things out. That thought, along with the purr and hum of Atlantis, soothed him enough to fall into a fast and dreamless sleep.


AN: Thanks for the great comments! For those other parents trying to use google classroom or homeschool for the first time, I salute you in solidarity and exhaustion. I shed literal tears of frustration today. I found cake in the back of my freezer though and plan to reward myself as soon as it is thawed. Thank you past me for your forethought. On another note, I've been really looking forward to the release of the live-action Mulan. I wonder what's going to happen with that now? Big hugs to all of you!