Chapter 2 When the sky falls.
Two hours after chapter 1. Rodney McKay Pov.
A headache.
A terrible, horrible, splitting headache.
This is the first thing I recognize, the next being the dryness of my mouth and throat. After that I noticed that my lips were dry and cracked, causing me to unconsciously licked my lips.
The rest of my awareness kicked in after that. The sharp pain in both of my arms, the burning feeling in my right hand, the warm feeling of my left hand and the pressure I felt in my ribs, that was making it hard to draw in the roughest of breath's.
My eyes slant open quickly, in a slightly panicked way, and close just as suddenly when the Atlantis lights seem way too bright. When I am more oriented, I pull myself to my feet and wipe my mouth, unconsciously. When I find it covered in salty spit and warm blood I start in surprise. I know that the reason for my collapse also had to deal with me being Hypoglycemic.
I huff in annoyance as I pushed away from the wall and began walking towards my quarters, to clean up a little before meeting Elizabeth.
When I am finally in front of my mirror I am shocked by my appearance. I couldn't recognize the strong and brave Doctor Rodney McKay, but the Scared Little Robin McKay. I looked like I had in the past.
My hair was slick with sweat and my face paler than usual, highlighting the huge dark circles that clung off my narrowed-in-pain-and-full-of-tears-dull-blue-eyes. My bloody and rumpled Atlantis uniform seemed looser, to hang off my frame. I was rocking back and forth slightly and stumbled trying to regain my usual stance. I let out a broken sigh and then lashed out in anger. The glass shattered and I ignored the slice of glass into flesh.
I then reached for a power bar with my Covered-in-blood-hands-with-some-kind-of-clear liquid-coming-from-them.
I took a couple of bites, and almost spit it out. It tasted awful, usually they taste good but not this one. I threw the half eaten bar in the trashcan in disgust. I glanced at the clock, Surprised when it said that it was only 4pm.
Then I changed my bloody and dirty clothes for a pair of black pants and a cotton white shirt, Then I collapsed on the bed. Fully convinced that I could face tomorrow accordingly, That I could face Elizabeth's wrath tomorrow.
I should have known better.
As soon as I collapsed a voice boomed in my ear, where I had forgotten to take off my radio, "Doctor McKay there is an emergency in the control room, the gate turned on and we can't get it to shut off."
I let out an annoyed huff of breath and muttered, "I'll be there in a moment"
Then I turned off my radio and changed into my beige Atlantis uniform, rubbed a cool cloth over my forehead to wipe away the beads of sweat that infection had caused to appear on my forehead, and rubbed complexion on my wrist.
When I had arrived Zelinka was rapidly typing on a computer while Elizabeth and Sheppard stared at the open Stargate. "McKay" she stated at my appearance. I ignored her and went to my computer to fix the strange problem.
It didn't take long. The gate shut off and Zelinka looked surprised at how quickly it took me to fix it. "I reset it" I stated simply. He nodded and looked pointedly at Weir, knowing by her now-furious expression that I hadn't been to her for the meeting.
The day just got worse from that point on.
The meeting turned out to be a mission debriefing, for a hot desert planet…
My headache was no longer a headache, more of a very painful migraine…
My hands were no longer leaking clear liquid, but pouring yellow pus…
The world was still blurry, only now it was also spinning wildly…
So here I was walking in the desert in heaps of sunscreen that only succeeded in making the blowing sand stick to my skin. John was talking to the others, while I trail behind. I pull out a detector and find that it is set on the life signs setting. Only four dots are there. For a moment all I hear is my ragged breathes before hearing the annoying beeping sound.
It has only been on for a few moments when a voice booms from in front of me. I jump almost a foot in the air at the "Turn that damn thing off"
John's hand has come up, most likely to take the device from my hands. Still, I flinch violently from the angry voice and dangerous fist. Honestly I think it was more instinct than actual fear.
Of course I manage to trip over a rock in my haste to get away, Falling onto my back in seemingly slow motion. As my back hits the sand it blows into my shirt and I think, With my luck this planet has Sand Fleas…
It's then I realize that I had shoved my hands against the sand to soften my fall. Too make my fall less painful.
Needless to say it does nothing of the sort.
Instead it makes pain shoot through my fingertips up to my shoulders. My wounds must have reopened because blood splattered onto the pale sand, it isn't much at all, not enough to make a difference if I was healthy.
The spinning of the world told me that I wasn't.
I hoped that a hand would come down, a tan hand with a small scar across the palm. The one that always came down when I had fallen.
My hopes were crushed when I heard footsteps made by familiar combat boots, Sheppard was just walking away from me.
That was fine, my hopes were always crushed, I was used to it.
Then Pain.
White hot blinding pain.
I let out a soft cry and coughs rank my body. My ragged breaths grew more like sharp gasps as I grip the sand in a white-knuckled grip. I spit out a bittersweet metallic taste as my throat began to close up, with an all-too-familiar tingling sensation and the sharp tang of citrus.
I hear weight shift beside me. Sharp blue eyes meet mine. Her long glossy black hair is streaked in blood and the bruises that cover her pale face make her seem so real. Her black jeans are a few sizes too small and are ripped at one knee and halfway ripped at the other. Her dark blue shirt is a couple sizes too small and is covered in rips, sweat, and blood. The similarity is uncanny.
She is speaking to me now her soft voice just the same as I could always remember it. "Robin, deep breaths, breath with me" her breaths became slower and deeper.
I don't respond. I am too busy staring blankly at her. Because after all, she is dead.
"Wha..." I manage.
Her hands are cold as she brushes my chocolate brown hair away from my forehead, when her hand comes back bloody she shakes her head and says "Arn't you gettin' tired of this, Robin?"
"Of?"
She waves her hands around dramatically as she replies "This"
At my confused expression she explains with a sigh.
"The hunger, the thirst, the pain" she says, wiping the blood that coats her fingers onto her shirt absentmindedly.
"It gets so tiring" she says, "I can't wait until I can escape from here, and actually live my life"
I had heard that same statement before. The memory was burned in my skull. The words I whispered still burned in my skull.
"There isn't no escape, There is no other life to live. You are where ya are. Hope does nothin' but bring you down in the end."
I blinked and just like that she was gone. I pull myself to my feet, and see that the others are almost out of sight now, and I run to catch up.
It's then that I hear my smaller tablet vibrate against my chest. When I pull it out off my pocket and look at the screen a feeling of dread and horror fills me. I quickly shove it back into my pocket and glance ahead to make sure that no one else saw what that screen had said and shown.
I allow a sharp gasp of relief escape my lips at this point before continuing to walk forward, staying at a steady pace behind Sheppard.
Meanwhile. John Sheppard Pov
His hands were shaking.
His hands never shook. Even when there was a hostage situation his hands never shook, they were always steady. They had to be, to be able to type as lightning fast as he could. They had to, to be able to write down formulas in a second.
I am so lost in thought that I almost don't notice that he was breathing heavy, unnaturally heavy. Like he had just ran a marathon in a desert. When I turn I notice that he looks…
"You look like shit, McKay"
He simply nods and shoves his shaking hands behind his back. I begin to tilt my head in confusion, before remembering that Majors don't do that.
But Majors don't really worry about murders either.
Still I am worried, after all a week ago he was my best friend. He is still a member of my team and I told him that he could have a chance to regain my trust. My bitter feelings still stay though. It would take a lot for him to earn my trust back.
A sharp gasp from behind me jerks me out of my memories and I turn to look at McKay.
That's when I see it.
Scarlet liquid smeared on his shoulder, "Are you bleeding?"
He doesn't reply, the deer-in-the-head-lights look all over his face. Ronan turned at my words and saw the blood on his shirt. "McKay?"
"I" he said looking at his hands, turning them upside down to show both palms scarlet with blood. Then he shrugged it off and said, "I'm fine, they don't hurt"
Teyla shoots me a glare that made me flinch. It's not like it was my fault that he accidently slashed his hand and didn't tell us. I didn't have any say in it.
Teyla approached him and the guilt struck me when he looks surprised when her slender fingers took his hands and examined them. "They are infected" she stated simply, giving Rodney a half-glare half-grimace. "That could be why you don't feel them"
"I can feel them, they just aren't that painful." He replies quickly while pulling his hands away from her.
It's then I notice his eyes.
I mean it's not like I didn't know that they were there, but the determination and intelligence I usually see there is gone, Replaced by dull blue eyes that darted around as if scared of something.
That's when it hit me.
Honestly it made me feel guilty that I hadn't noticed before. That I had been to focused on my own problems to realize someone else was drowning in guilt and half-buried memories.
There was something else too.
The lingering shocked and devastated look in his eyes to me so. The slight way his eyebrows drew together in worry told me so. The way he held his injured hands right beside his neck in a defensive position told me so. The sudden crack that announced the now broken scanner told me so.
I muttered a single word. The word that made my jaw clench in the sudden anger that exploded through every fiber in my body. I still wasn't prepared for the pure fury that escaped from my throat as I barked "Who?"
Rodney's eyes opened wider in panic and I saw that look. That look that determines your defensive mechanism. I could almost see the words written in his eyes. The calculations running through his mind as if math could solve his problem. The invisible question lurked in his gaze, which had locked with mine.
Fight or Flight?
I didn't give him time to reach a decision. Instead I lunged and pounced, Bringing us down in a tangle of limbs. Something warm and sticky splatters against my cheek in the brief struggle. I know it's blood but also that it's to late to back away.
After a time I have him on his back while I am kneeling beside him, leaning over him with my arms flailing to keep his struggling to a minimum.
He finally stops moving and I find myself saying, "You can trust me McKay. Tell me."
He just points to his tablet and I look at it questioning. When I pick it up and unlock it with his password. I almost drop it in surprise.
The screen is a document. It has a few paragraphs written on it that appear to have been written quickly, despite the lack of misspelled words.
"Robin, I hate to send you this. I really need your help. She has been released from prison. She knows where I am and I think that's she coming to punish us. Oh god her car's outside, Robin can you save me? It's her. She's coming. OMG she's coming in the house. HELP ME. –Jay"
I glance at Rodney in surprise and confusion. He is staring blankly at it before saying "That's not all" I look downwards and read the rest.
"You didn't think you could fly away little Robin, Did you? I have Jay and I know that birds fly in packs. I suggest you hurry, blue can turn scarlet. I look forward to seeing you -Hawk"
His eyes are guarded and emotionless. His movements have stilled completely. The sharpness of his cheekbones sharpen when he clenches his jaw. I can see his fingers curl inward, the nails fitting perfectly into bloody indentions.
"Who's Hawk?"
This is my first question. I watch his eyes narrow slightly in the anger the name so obviously gave him, but his answer is short and sarcastic. Like biting remarks and sarcasm is how he builds his walls. It takes the situation to a whole new level. Rodney seems to be thinking of the 'new level' thing as well, Though for a completely different reason.
"She takes the evil stepmother complex to a whole new level"
For a second I blink at him, Before turning to the curious and worried gazes of Teyla and Ronan. Teyla gets the silent message and walks away grabbing Ronan's arm and telling him to follow her. He shoots us one more confused glance, before leaving.
"Who's Jay?"
He winces at her name. His eyes turn towards his left arm and he almost whispers his response.
"My half-sister"
He says this with a detached tone. His hands are twitching nervously his short dark eyelashes fluttering together, when his eyelids slid shut.
"We went through hell and back. It made us closer."
His words are quiet and hesitant, as if he was afraid of my reaction. His eyes have opened and he seems to be calculating my features to reach a conclusion of my emotions.
I have seen this look on Rodney once in my life, when he had jumped in front of Elizabeth to save Kolya. Then I had thought that I had imagined the look he held, with all the pouring rain that blurred my vision and the tiredness that made my muscles screech in pain.
For only those who had to learn to gauge people's emotions, so that would know how to react fast enough to lessen damage, had that look. That defensive narrowed eyes and clenched jaw.
He had been selfless. He had risked his life for Elizabeth. Now that I thought about it he had saved all of our lives many times.
Then he had made a mistake and we all hated him.
His mistake had caused Collin's death. His mistake had destroyed half a solar system. His mistake had caused our mutual trust to bend to the point of shattering.
Shattering.
I could see it in his eyes. He was shattered, into a million little sharp pieces. He felt guilty about the death of Collins. He felt guilty about ruining our trust. He felt guilty about this whole situation.
It was selfish of me to demand answers to such a broken soul, but I still did.
"Tell me everything."
Hello. Sorry that it took so long to update but every time I would get an idea and write it I would get a better one and then I had a perfect chapter and then accidently deleted it. Then I realized that I hadn't updated in so long so I wrote this chapter in a few hours, so don't be mad if it isn't the best chapter ever. More importantly though, Will Rodney tell John what had happened? Will Rodney get there in time to save Jay? Will you ever meet this Jay person? You will have to wait and see. *Realizes how much of a cliffhanger I left you and runs away in guilt* -Leopardfang