Part 20 – Hand-fasting

Atlantis - the present day

The Infirmary

It was late by the time McKay returned to the small room at the end of the Infirmary. He'd spent three hours with Heightmeyer and had then been side tracked by Sheppard and dragged off to the mess hall for an impromptu welcome back dinner. His head was reeling with the impact of his return to Atlantis and the reunions with his colleagues and friends.

Radek could not hide his delight at seeing McKay again and had attempted to update him on six months of research in a single evening;

i "This you must see, Rodney. We have finally managed to establish stable feedback loop between jumper cloaking unit and boosting station on mainland. It means we have portable cloak generator now and can cloak the settlement. But before then you must have look at device found on PZ 783. We think it is device for re-charging ZPM but cannot get it working and…."

"So, you just couldn't do it without me, huh? See, I am the smartest man in two galaxies!"

"You are also most arrogant and irritating man."

"That I do not deny and you have just conceded that I am smarter than you!" /i

Ronan had thumped him so hard on the shoulder that he nearly was knocked off his feet;

i "Ow, ow, ow! What you trying to do? Pummel me into a pulp? Go and pick on someone your own size, Conan."

"Missed you too, McKay." /i

Teyla had smiled in a maddeningly serene way and welcomed him back with the traditional Athosian greeting touching her forehead against his;

i "We have truly missed you, Dr McKay. I, for one, am very glad that you are back with us. I look forward to you re-joining our missions. How is Sora? Is she recovering well from her wound?" /i

Cadman had teased him non stop with Carson filling in whenever she had paused to breathe and then there was Katie Brown. He smiled at her and hugged her back but any attraction he felt to her was gone. She had sat there and stared at him until she quietly stood up and walked away.

He had been hugged, slapped on the back and kissed (kissed!) by more people today than he ever had been in his life.

He'd evaded answering as many questions as he could and, with Sheppard backing up his decision to remain silent on certain topics, no-one had persisted. Eventually he'd managed to make his excuses and had escaped to come back to be with Sora who was deeply asleep by the time he got to her bed side.

He didn't wake her. Instead he sat and watched her as she slept.

Why had he dropped that bombshell as he left the conference room earlier today? Why hadn't he just told them it was all a ruse, a plan, a way to escape, a means to an end? Why hadn't he told them that they'd agreed that this was their best chance to get away? They would have understood that but no, he'd deliberately set the cat amongst the pigeons and given them the impression it was more. Was it because it he wanted it to be more?

He sat there until the early hours of the morning mulling it over in his mind.

hr

Atlantis - the present day

Dr Heightmeyer's office

"He didn't say anything to us. He just turned before he left the room and dropped the bombshell that they were 'hand-fasted'. I thought John was going to fall off his chair and Caldwell, well he's having kittens over it," said Elizabeth. "I spent some time with Sora, but she nearly passed out from fatigue before I managed to speak to her about it, and now I'd like to know what Rodney said to you before I speak with him again or make any kind of decision. So, come on – report."

"Simply put, it was a ruse, a way to get to the surface so they could get away," stated Kate.

"Why didn't he say that?" asked Elizabeth. "Doesn't he realise the impression he gave was that it was for real?"

"Rodney's an intelligent man. Of course he does."

"Then why did he do it?"

"Think about it."

Elizabeth sat in silence for a few minutes and then understanding dawned on her face. "Oh, he wants it to be real?" she asked.

Kate nodded slowly and then leant back in her chair and began to fill Elizabeth in on the details of the hand-fasting.

hr

The Genii home-world, Rodney and Sora's hand-fasting

McKay was sitting on a chair at the front of the assembly hall in the village. He was once again dressed in the simple clothes that the Genii wore when above the surface. He was close to panicking and was waiting to be married.

How had he got himself into this? He ranted to himself. It was all her fault. She'd talked him into it. Don't panic, McKay, don't panic, he chanted to himself. It was just a plan, just something they had to do in order to get away. Nothing more…. They'd discussed this and agreed it. It was an act, a means to an end. It was the only way for them to be on the surface overnight so that they could get to the Stargate. He turned and looked at Sora sitting quietly besides him and then shifted his attention back to Cowen. Oh God, he hoped he could carry this off.

Cowen was standing at the front of the room facing the group of around 40 people gathered for the occasion. He clapped his hands and the room fell silent. With a broad smile on his face, dressed in the clothes of the surface dwellers, Cowen looked like a jovial village head man about to lead his people in a simple ceremony of thanksgiving. He began to speak.

"It has been six months since we rescued Dr McKay after he was abandoned and left for dead by the Lanteans. We rescued him, tended to his injuries, took him in and offered him a permanent home with us. An offer that he gladly accepted." Sora's hand tightened in warning on McKay's arm as she felt his breath quickening, a sign she recognised as prelude to a tirade. He struggled to hide his anger. He'd known this would be part of it but to hear the blatant lies and seeing the double think so clearly accepted was so hard.

Oblivious to the effect his words were having on McKay, Cowen continued, "Since that time he has proven to us his worth many times over and our kindness has been repaid. I am delighted at the attachment that has developed between Dr McKay and Sora as it gives us, according to the traditions of our people, the opportunity to offer Dr McKay the chance to join the Genii as a full clan member by way of hand fasting and I am proud to be officiating at this ceremony. Dr McKay and Sora please stand before me."

Stifling his anger McKay stood and approached Cowen. He could see Sora at his side her face calm and serene. She could at least show some signs of nerves too! But wasn't that the way of weddings, the men were nervous wrecks and the women serenely triumphant? At least it was in his experience, one of the many reasons why he swore he'd never go through it himself. He chose not to think of the reasons i.e. that he didn't think he'd ever find anyone who he'd want to marry in the first place or who would want to marry him. Wait, get a grip - this is just an act, he reminded himself.

"Declare your full name and clan allegiance," commanded Cowen.

"I am Sora Dormond of the Genii. My clan allegiance is Kolya." Sora's voice was clear and steady.

"I am Rodney McKay of the Genii. I have no clan. My allegiance is to the Genii." McKay's voice was clear although it betrayed some of his inner tension but he judged that a man was allowed to be nervous at his own wedding. And why did she have to be clan Kolya? This was bad enough as it was.

"Give me your hands," ordered Cowen.

McKay held out his right hand and Sora her left. Cowen took hold of their shoulders and firmly turned them to face one another and then took their hands in his. He held them together, palms touching, at shoulder height, McKay's right hand and Sora's left. Then he reached out and an official stepped forward and placed a strap of well worn, highly decorated leather in Cowen's hand.

Cowen took it and ceremoniously bound Sora's and McKay's wrists together as their fingers entwined. Standing facing each other they had no choice but to stare into each other's eyes.

"Dr McKay, repeat after me the following words," he commanded.

" I declare my health and I declare that there is no impediment to this hand-fasting."

McKay's mouth was slightly twisted as he spoke thinking back to how the Genii had broken his health to bend him to their will. How could they believe that this was genuine? With a shock he realised that it could have been. He'd been on the verge of accepting his fate when Sora had told him that he hadn't been abandoned. It was only her words that had reignited his waning hopes of escape.

Cowen shifted his attention to Sora and she repeated the same phrases that McKay had. She calmly held McKay's eyes without faltering as she spoke almost as if she could see the turmoil that was behind them and was attempting to soothe him.

"And now both of you repeat after me," Cowen's grip on their hands became stronger.

"We declare our intention to live together as spouses."

Sora gave McKay a quick smile before she repeated the words. They had been living 'as spouses' for the past four weeks, planning their escape in whispers in the only place she knew would not be monitored – her bed. She had been overwhelmed by the passion of their first night together but she should have known that McKay would apply the same single-mindedness he did to everything else to the bedroom. She almost giggled as she remembered the shocked faces of McKay's team of scientists when they'd realised he was keeping company with a member of the elite guard……

"We declare our intention to raise our children in the ways of the Genii."

A slight flush crept over Sora's face as she repeated the words and McKay's eyes widened in panic and an urgent, unspoken question. She shook her head minutely and was obscurely disappointed by the relief that flooded McKay's open face.

"We declare allegiance to the clan Kolya."

Sora noted the slight wince as McKay repeated the words.

"Now, turn to face me and state your names and clan allegiances." Obediently they turned and let their bound hands fall to their sides, fingers still entwined.

"I am Sora Dormond of the Genii. My clan allegiance is Kolya."

"I am Rodney McKay of the Genii. My clan allegiance is Kolya."

"And now repeat after me, as our hands have been made fast, so have our lives."

As he spoke the words Rodney tightened his grip on Sora's hand and was reassured as the pressure was returned. He could do this, he told himself. He could. He'd got over the hardest part, now it was just a party and the escape. In comparison it would be a piece of cake.

Kolya stood slightly to one side and studied Sora's face intently throughout the ceremony. He had been against using her for McKay's integration from the beginning. The Genii had people trained for this – she wasn't. She was a soldier, used to orders, to dealing with black and white situations, not the shades of grey and dual thinking or the cold breaking of men that the integration process required. He had argued that she since she had spent several months with the Lanteans she would be too close to him, that she was too volatile and that she let her heart rule her actions. His arguments had been over-ridden.

He knew that he had started the process of breaking McKay in order that he could be moulded into a form useful to the Genii but the process wasn't complete. He didn't share Cowen's optimistic belief that McKay was fully integrated. He knew that McKay had come back to them in order to save the life of a member of his team and if he could act that way towards someone who he had known for only a matter of months how could he have already severed his ties to the team he had been part of for two years? The team with whom he had fought, whom he had protected and who had given up on finding McKay alive only after they found some of his personal effects frozen into the ice.

He knew from his own experience that it took time to forget what had been even when you knew that what you had was gone, when you had seen the destruction and the deaths with your own eyes. McKay's people weren't gone and McKay knew that they were still out there. He could not accept that McKay had given up all hope of getting back to them. He had no doubt that it would happen but was sure it would take more than six months.

Kolya's thoughts turned back to Sora. McKay had also come back to protect her and he had no doubt that the man cared for her. However, could Sora remain objective? He doubted it. Seeing the look of joy and happiness on her face as she spoke her vows reinforced his belief that Sora's resolve was now compromised by her emotions. McKay could use her. She was vulnerable.

He would keep a close watch.