So, we come to the end of these adventures. Hope you have enjoyed the ride. My thanks, again, to betas Kam, Tazmy and Prankster. I can't thank you enough for your support and your selfless efforts to see this story through.
Many thanks also to the kind people who provided feedback. I appreciate your taking the time to do this. It means a great deal to me, a relatively new writer in this fandom, to hear that others like what I've written.
And now, on with the show!
Chapter Nine
In his last moment as a living human being, McKay expected to feel the explosive impact of Centris's weapon shattering his skull. A gunshot rang out instead. The hand that lofted the bar faltered; the heavy length glanced off McKay's shoulder—a painful blow, but definitely not fatal—followed by the sound of a body landing nearby.
McKay took a while to put the gunshot together with everything else. He looked up to see the unbelievably welcome sight of Colonel John Sheppard holding a P90 close and ready, taking dead aim at the remaining sentries, who dropped their bars quickly and stood away from McKay and Teyla as if they were contaminated. A few feet beyond lay Centris with a bullet hole between his eyes.
The Colonel said, "Anyone else here feel like beating on defenseless people? Because I can help you get over those urges."
No one spoke, not even the sentries, when the landed jumper uncloaked and Ronon Dex filed out, Carson Beckett and a half-dozen Marines close behind them.
OoOoO
On the eighth day of her fever, Teyla was visited by everyone who knew her well. She had fallen into a coma. This was the day that they thought that she was going to die, the day that their wonderful friend would be taken from them, for she had been burning to death inside her own skin.
Ronon came to sit at her bedside for a long while. Sheppard stood by, as well. They implored Teyla to fight this thing and win. Dr. Weir read from the Bible and Halling performed the Athosian rite.
The entire city was reverently quiet, as if a loud sound would scare her soul away.
Carson Beckett was beside himself. He came and spoke to her and said that he was so sorry, so very sorry, dear lass.
Rodney didn't feel like being there when others were present. Several times he'd put his head in the door, but left when he saw a crowd around Teyla's bed. Well past midnight, he entered the infirmary to say goodbye to his dear friend who knew him so well.
He seated himself where he'd sat for so much of the past eight days. He took Teyla's hand, as was his habit. Carson was nearby but he didn't hover.
"This is Rodney McKay, again. In case you don't recognize my voice…"
He didn't know what to say, so he was surprised when he started telling her the truth.
"Listen…uh…Teyla," he leaned in close so she wouldn't have to work to hear him. "You've been a very good friend to me. It's really amazing how strong you are and how you look like a little Ronon when you fight. Or how he looks like a big you when he fights. But that's not the point…"
A little monitor at bedside started beeping, interrupting him. He let go of Teyla's hand and laid it gently at her side. Carson came by and switched out an empty bag of lactated ringer's solution for a full one. Then he nodded to Rodney and left.
McKay was not a demonstrative person when it came to showing affection, but he stroked Teyla's forehead and felt the heat rising off of her.
"I need to tell you, Teyla, that you've pulled my ass out of the fire so many times I've lost count, so I'm giving you one big thank you for that. You know if I could have I would have done the same for you in a heartbeat."
And now he leaned in very, very close so that no one else could hear, so close that he saw her pulse beating frantically in her neck.
"We need you here and don't want you to go. Everyone needs you very much. And…and I need you because if you're not here I don't know how strong I can be."
That was all he had to say to her then, and thought that if he tried to say more he'd just make a mess of himself.
He sat there for a while longer, not speaking, just there, in case.
OoOoO
"You okay, Rodney?"
He was still in the dirt, holding Teyla. His head was bleeding freely, so he tried to keep it from dripping everywhere and was glad when Beckett put a trauma dressing on and bandaged it with kling and some tape.
Teyla was taken from him and laid on a stretcher, which Ronon and another person carried to the jumper.
"What have ya done this time, Rodney?" Carson tutted, as he flicked a penlite into his eyes. McKay would have snapped back an answer, but he was too busy trying not to throw up the first substantial meal he'd eaten in days.
"Can ye walk, then?"
Answering that question would have required him to either move his head or speak, thus causing him to throw up, as well. Getting up and walking would have yielded the same result and so, ultimately, he just gave in and passed out, which solved that problem quite tidily.
OoOoO
As the sun shone gravid with the new day on the vast ocean surrounding the Ancient's city, Teyla's fever broke and she sweated and tossed her head about, coming out of her deep sleep.
McKay missed this part. He'd left the infirmary after he'd had his say and kissed his friend goodbye, thinking that he couldn't bear to be there when she breathed her last because, really, he wasn't very strong at all.
In the late morning he finally rose from his bed and walked back to the infirmary. On his way, he met Carson coming from the mess with a cup of tea and a sandwich.
"You've heard about Teyla, then?" Beckett asked, looking shot to hell and back with exhaustion.
Rodney stopped walking. He felt a little dizzy, which made him blink and put his hand on the wall, casually, so Beckett wouldn't know.
"She's…she's…"
"Ack, no, Rodney!" he said, breaking into a smile. "She's much better."
"B-better? Really? Oh, thank God."
"I'd say so. You look like you're going to fall over."
"I'm fine. Just…happy."
And he was happy, in a way that he had never experienced before. It felt wonderful and terribly frightening at the same time, like Atlantis itself.
OoOoO
McKay's brief exploration of the royal palace—which ended when Centris had caught and collared him—had taken him into several extraordinarily appointed rooms, including some of the upstairs sleeping chambers. Although he'd had no lantern with him, enough ambient light from elsewhere revealed the astonishing beauty and craftsmanship of every inch of these magnificent spaces.
Home again, now, on a plain metal hospital bed wearing plain white scrubs, Teyla looked as out of place as she did angry. Her wrists and legs were held in soft restraints because from time to time she still thought herself to be king. McKay rubbed at his own wrists, remembering the scrape of the iron cuffs and leg irons, and most of all, the choking collar and the chain leash used to subjugate him. He felt sorry for Teyla—not the one who was king, but the real one—who would never have allowed any of this to happen to any of them.
He fingered the thick bandage on his head, pleased that the worst of the pain and misery of receiving stitches was behind him.
Groggy with drugs, believing herself at that moment to be Seyan royalty, Teyla looked at him with a hateful, heavy-lidded stare, and squirmed as the restraints held her fast.
"How dare you bring me here!" she snarled. "This is how you thank me for sparing your miserable life?"
In a little while, her mind would clear and she would be Teyla again. As he came closer, she tensed.
"Whatever you do," he said to her gently, as she turned her head to spurn him, "Don't even think about apologizing."
…..
In time Sheppard and Ronon explained a few things, in the vague manner that suited them.
The Colonel said, "Some guy and all these other guys jumped the bad guys guarding us."
"Guys?" McKay asked, looking at the calluses gradually peeling off his palms.
"Yeah. The one guy said that he knew you and that he thought that you were going to find Teyla, and that he and his cousins…"
"And cousins of cousins of cousins…" Ronon interjected.
"…were going to set us free and come back here with us. So they got medieval on the sentries and then we all ran for the gate before we got caught and came back here. With the guy and his cousins…
"…and cousins of cousins…"
"Yes, lots of cousins. Anyway, they're all getting settled on the Mainland, now. So, okay, then we launched a rescue for you and Teyla."
"No one from Atlantis came looking for us when we didn't report back in time."
"Elizabeth tried, but the Seyans had shipped us off to another planet entirely, a protectorate run by the same crazy people. Listen, it's a long story, but you're back, now. Teyla's gonna be fine. We'll debrief tomorrow."
…..
Teyla came round eventually. She was allowed out of the restraints and, after a longer while, was released from Beckett's care all together. She spent a considerable amount of time working off her kingly fat or else walking alone in deserted parts of the city. Several times a day, someone would buzz her headset inquiring where she was, and she always answered and told them the truth, even if she was someplace very far away.
…..
She let him in when he called one night. McKay had never been in Teyla's quarters before and seemed surprised at how well turned out the place was, with colorful fabrics adorning the walls and some candles around. Teyla herself thought it ironic that her room was rather like a tinier, more rustic version of one of the palace bedrooms.
"Here," he said, handing her a small box. "I've brought you something."
Opening the box, Teyla removed a round object, the orb that McKay had been fiddling with when she'd come to visit him in his lab the night before they began their terrible mission to Dorav, where they were tortured and where McKay would have died but for Teyla's help.
"What is it?" she asked, turning the shining silvery thing in her hands.
"It was an explosive. A bomb."
She quickly handed it back to him. He held it gently and rolled it between his palms.
"Oh, c'mon! Do you honestly think I'd willingly give you anything even remotely dangerous?"
She took it back and looked at its smooth surface. "I suppose not."
"As I said, this was an explosive, but I've removed the detonator and the volatile chemicals and wires and whatnot, so all that's left is the outer shell, which is actually rather pretty, don't you think?"
He seemed immensely pleased with himself for having seen the decorative potential of the casing.
Teyla looked at him suspiciously, still moving the orb in her hands as if it were a fortune teller's crystal ball.
"Now, if you push here…" and he showed her a small indentation, the only different part in its uniform surface, "…it opens up." And there it did, exposing an equally smooth, shiny interior.
Inside lay a small object, a brooch made of golden metal that bore a familiar insignia enameled to the front of it: the prickly thistle with two black iron bars crossed in front of it.
"I found it in a bedroom in the castle when I was walking through. Kind of stupid, really but for some reason I pocketed it."
He pointed to the Seyan royal crest. Teyla had told Sheppard that she remembered well her time as king and all of the things that had happened, especially sending him off with Ronon to slave in the black-mud fields, and, most especially, condemning McKay and watching the cart carrying him dip over the hill on its way to the burial pits.
"See," McKay went on. "The bars are your Athosian fighting sticks. Remember when you were beating up all of those guys?''
She nodded, her eyes watching it play out once again. Then she asked, "And what does this sharp plant represent?"
"The thistle? It looks like thistle, anyway. Gets caught up on your clothes when you walk by. On Earth there are these bright-yellow birds called goldfinches. They eat the seeds. They like thistle even though the plant is prickly."
"So that means?"
He put the brooch back into the lovely silver-colored orb that had come from an explosive device, shut the opening and handed it to Teyla with a lopsided grin.
"Just keep it," he said, flicking his eyes toward the door, looking uncomfortable all of a sudden being there, just them.
Teyla sensed this unease and so she thanked him and let him go.
Once he had gone, Teyla took the brooch out of its shining cradle and looked at it for a long time, turning it over and feeling its smooth surfaces. In her mind she heard the sound of McKay's voice and he was saying, "I don't know how strong I can be."
He probably didn't know the answer yet, although it was plainly obvious to Teyla Emmagen.
THE END