John lets his eyes rest as the plane finally starts moving off the run way. He's splurged enough to book first class, and tilting his seat toward the window gives him near perfect seclusion. Unless the person in the front of him spun their chair around, he was relatively safe for the rest of the flight into LAX. So it was with some confussion that he was woken from his light slumber by the hand resting on his knee. He expects the stewardess asking him if he needed a blanket, not the bright blue eyes, looking at him, knowing him. He's fiddling with the poker chip in his pocket before he can even stop himself. McKay's eyes narrow then, sharp, and that was more the way it was supposed to be. "I wasn't sure, not at first, you know. But I mean, stranger things have happened to me." McKay leans back in his seat, and John doesn't need his totem to know this was all devastatingly real.
"Will you come work for me -now-?" McKay asks and there is no attempt to hide it now, what it meant, exacttly how deeply he was wanted. "Not the Air Force, come work for me John. I... we'll probably never make it back there, I can't promise, but we can try." Rodney, and it will always be Rodney now. "Is it really like that?" John knows he's going to accept, even before Rodney answers, he has no other choice. "It's better, I wish I could show you." Rodney's voice hides so much, but John can read the promises, the hopes and veiled dreams under it all. They are both broken, so very broken, hateful and spite, but John can see what lays beneath the surface, and he wants it, wants every bit.
"You don't care, about what we took? You're not going to seek retribution or something?" John asks, and feels Rodney pat his leg. "I'll just buy out the company you were working for, it doesn't really matter to me. You're the one who saw everything important. The codes are just... codes. I can do damage control on that. You're the one... you were the one who saw what mattered, and by all intents, I think that went both ways." Rodney breaks gaze, John can read the shyness though, the self-doubt, the need that was masked in indifferance, in egotism. "It was all me Rodney, months of it." John's words gift him with something he was afraid he'd never see again, happiness in soft blue eyes. Of course there was still distrust, so much anger, so much pain, but neither of them were perfect. They'd have to work on that, but they would do it together at least, John was through with running.
Three years later and they are standing in a ruined city, so much dammage, so much water, but it was their city, and they would repair it, make it live again. Privatized, the military couldn't touch their city, as McKay Industries had bought up the rights to work with Atlantis. No one had wanted it anyway, as the Pegasus Galaxy was thought a dead-zone, and Atlantis was a write-off. It took them so long, and it will take them even longer, but one day, eventually, the halls of their city will have life again pooling through them.
John wont give up till Rodney had the life he always should have, had the city John should have helped him rebuild, and yeah, he'd been right all along, he wasn't -that- John, but this was -his- Rodney, so really in the end, what did it even matter? His Rodney, and his city, and his sky, freedom in all three, and John finally knew what it was like to maybe not be so broken.
Arthur stands under the tree, stairing morosely up at the small yellow tabby cat that seemed very disinclined to come down to him. He'd spent a few months in South America with Eames, helping him recover because the Brit couldn't actually go back into America yet after the job he'd pulled right before the McKay job. Which meant now his cat didn't even know him, and Cobb was laughing at him from the house. He's tempted to climb up into the tree, but is relativley certain that doing so would either result in a broken leg, or a face full of angry cat. He wraps his arms around himself and morosely walks back up to the house. Dom is sitting, legs up on the balcony railing, and Arthur moves to sit down beside him. "You're staying for dinner aren't you Arthur? The kids would like to see their Uncle you know, you've been gone for so long." Dom loooks so happy, so content, and it puts Arthur at ease. There is still a pain there, but he didn't think it would ever go away, but Dom looked -happy- at least, and it was still sort of new to Arthur, he'd not seen it regularly for so very long.
"Of course, I brought presents." Arthur picks at a few blades of grass that had clung to his pants after he'd chased his cat through the bushes. "Eames picked out a beatiful festival doll for Phillipa." Arthur looks up at the setting sun and smiles a bit, memories of the festival itself filtering through, Dom wasn't the only one who had learned how to smile again. "Where is Eames anyway? I thought you were bringing him along?" Dom asks, Arthur is relativley sure that Dom can tell they are together now, Dom always could read him a little too well. "He's securing a hotel room, he bargains better than I do." Arthur stays completely still, he can feel the soft furred body weaving against his pant legs. A few minutes later and Freud has jumped up into his lap and settled down. Arthur had always liked cats, he just couldn't understand them very well.
They sit in companionable silence till Eames arrives, all loud bluster and stories, regailing Cobb with the excitement of life so far, and yes, Arthur thinks with a smile, it was worth the pain, just to have Eames in his life. Worth a whispered sentiment to hear one in return, and he wouldn't give this up for the world.
Arthur's Untilited-Titled Soundtrack:
Metronomy- She Wants
Final Fantasy- Many Lives- 49MP
Beirut- Nantes
-Eames' Hidden track-
Lady Gaga- Paparazzi