498 words. Don't own SGA. MGM does. I'm catching up Ice.
The bullet, or whatever the Tohadans used as projectiles, did a tremendous amount of damage to Rodney. It had done so much damage that the surgery had gone down in the Atlantis record books as one of the longest and most complicated ever.
Jennifer looked through the glass that separated her from the man she loved and quietly wept. He was in there fighting for his life and she couldn't be near him, not with the virus she was currently fighting off. It had been bad enough not being able to perform the surgery, but having to keep her distance was killing her.
So to was the fact that many had believed that he had deserved what he'd gotten.
The wife of the Tohadan leader, Aranka, had asked Rodney to visit her in their quarters to ask him some technical questions about their planetary communications systems. No one had batted an eyelash at the request, as Aranka was one of the planet's foremost experts on the subject. What had happened next was a blur. Her husband, Stepkan, claimed to have entered their quarters to find his wife naked and in the arms of Rodney. Blinded by rage Stepkan took a weapon from a nearby guard and shot Rodney.
John and Ronon had arrived before anything more could be done to Rodney, but the damage had been done. They'd brought him back and Amanda had performed a miracle in keeping him alive. That had been three days ago. During the first day there had been whispers among the populace that Rodney had been seducing Aranka and deserved what he'd been given. Some of them had even reached her along with some sympathetic looks that she knew were more pity than sympathy. People believed that Rodney was capable of such an act, though she knew better. She knew without a doubt that Rodney simply wouldn't do such a thing.
By day two the looks of pity had changed to ones of true sympathy, and it hadn't been until John told her that Aranka had confessed to luring Rodney to her quarters and trying to seduce him that she understood.
She could feel no smugness at being right. She could feel no vindication in her faith in him. She was too worried and too heartbroken at the sight of her love laying on a bed feet away from her hovering somewhere between life and death.
Jennifer sensed a presence beside her and she took in a shallow breath that exited her lips in a shaky exhale. "He's going to be fine," she said, her voice full of forced confidence. "I know in my heart he's going to be okay."
John slipped his left arm around Jennifer's shoulders and hugged her into his side. "I know he is," he replied, his voice sure and steady.
Jennifer cuddled her face against John's shoulder and watched the steady rise and fall of Rodney's chest.
It wouldn't end like this.
She just knew it wouldn't.
A/N: "In My Heart" was written and performed by the group Three Dog Night. The sound was used in the 1986 move 'Robotech: The Movie' and released on 1996 album Robotech: Perfect Soundtrack Album.