Chapter 3: Time to Go
DAY 70:
The 70th day couldn't come fast enough. Sheppard had spent months doing absolutely nothing to rescue McKay. He was a man of action – the one who leapt into the Frey. He was the one who saved the day – not the one who just sat round wasting days.
He remembered now lonely he had felt when he'd been trapped in that time dilation field, thinking that no one was trying to help him. Only later was found out how hard Rodney tried to free him. How he worked non-stop, as quickly as he could, goading others to do the same until they found a way.
He wanted to be there — with Rodney– not marooned here at Atlantis doing nothing.
Finally, it was time to go.
John, Ronon and Teyla were ready and waiting when the Daedalus arrived. In normal circumstances, the command crew would have met with Dr. Carter before starting their newest mission, but there would be no more waiting. They were underway almost as soon as they arrived.
It took a matter of moments for the long-awaited ship to cover the distance between Atlantis and Gessa, and suddenly they were in orbit around the nuclear blasted place – so fast after waiting so long, it made Sheppard's head spin.
With approval from Carter, Sheppard's team was allowed to go down on their own. It was finally time to be reunited with their missing team member. And once again, they were in a jumper, flying over that empty street.
Sheppard's eyes followed that street, hoping he didn't see something.
"Rodney, Rodney, come in," he tried, in case Rodney was still wearing his radio. "Rodney, clean out your ears, we're here." But there was no response. Not a surprise after all this time, but it made them all uneasy.
Sheppard brought the jumper to the taco shack easing it into place. The airlock engaged easily. It fit like a glove.
Sheppard moved immediately. "Let's go get him." Ronon and Teyla were right behind him.
The inner door opened, and John held his breath, hoping to see Rodney grinning back at him from that little room - no, Rodney wasn't waiting for them. His heart sank.
The visitor center looked different from when they'd seen it earlier. The boxes of food were missing, replaced with the weapons that had folded out of the walls. The blood was gone. The lights remained dim. The air was cool, as it had been before.
"Rodney!" Sheppard called, holding out the life sign detector. He counted their three dots. Finally, a fourth dot appeared. It looked as if it was near them, but obviously he was beneath them on a lower floor. "Rodney!" Sheppard called down the stairs. Why didn't he answer?
"We must retrieve him," Teyla said, ready to go.
"Let's get him," Ronon added. "I'm tired of waiting."
The security system was dismantled, so there should be nothing to fear. They hurried down the stairs. When they reached the first level, they called again, but heard nothing in return. Why not? Certainly, their voices would be heard.
Sheppard sent Teyla to investigate that floor. At the second level down, he sent Ronon – and continued downward. They were the only ones here, so hopefully, splitting up was not a bad idea. He just wanted to find Rodney as soon as possible.
"Rodney!" he called again when he reached the lowest level, after a long stairway. "Rodney! We're here." He moved through the hallway, knowing that Rodney wasn't far, the life sign detector told him he was just ahead – hopefully on this floor. He could hear Ronon and Teyla calling out on the other floors. Certainly Rodney must have heard them since they entered the place.
Sheppard paused and stared at the hallway. Typical Ancient decoration ran along the top and the bottom of the wall. Other than that, a long line of numbers – written with some sort of black pencil – ran down the hallway. It started near the stairs – obviously Pi – written out and winding down the hallway, wrapping around and coming back again until it ended in an angry scribble. The periodic table was carefully drawn on the other wall.
"Rodney!" Sheppard called again and moved into a big room. He blinked at the brightness, taking a moment to look at the space. It was cool inside, and mostly empty, with a few bare consoles spread around – their purpose unknown. Decorated pillars reached to the ceiling. He scanned the room, searching. It was only when he looked up that he realized that the tall room had a mezzanine, a balcony that ran along the far wall. And on that mezzanine was Rodney.
McKay was sitting behind a counter, his hands raised as if he had been typing. He looked back at John with wide, surprised eyes.
"Rodney!" Sheppard cried, his voice breaking as Rodney continued to look back with a shocked expression. He sported a scrappy beard and his hair had grown long – but it was undoubtedly McKay. Thank God!
John clicked the radio. "Found him! Lowest level - on a balcony. He's here."
Teyla and Ronon were buzzing in his ears, but Sheppard was running, crossing the open space to the metal stairway that went up to the mezzanine. The stairs clattered as he ran. "Rodney, we made it. God, it's good to see you. We've been…"
As he cleared the stairway and reached the balcony, he looked for Rodney - he was no longer sitting behind that counter. "Rodney?"
John heard him, his voice moving further away toward the far end of the mezzanine. What the hell?
"It's not real. It's not real. You're just dreaming again," Rodney muttered as he walked away. "You're doing this to yourself again. Just ignore it. Not real."
John quickly covered the distance between them. "Rodney?" he asked, his voice soft as he reached him. "Rodney, you okay, buddy?"
Rodney shook his head, not looking directly at him. "I fell asleep again. Just a dream. Ignore it. I'll wake up and everything will be back to normal."
"Rodney," Sheppard said again, his hand pressed carefully to Rodney's shoulder.
McKay turned sharply, looking at the hand. He made a miserable expression and whispered. "Oh, God. It'll stop when I wake up. It's not real." He wouldn't look directly at John, rather he kept his gaze downward, looking at the emblem on John's jacket. "I'm just making things up again."
Perhaps he needed to slap McKay to snap him out of it. Instead, Sheppard moved closer and wrapped his arms around Rodney's shoulders, pulling him into an embrace. "We here," he insisted. "We're really here," and hugged him tighter. "I'm so sorry it took so long." Rodney was stiff, as if he didn't know what to do. John almost felt uneasy that the hug wasn't returned, but Rodney was looking beyond him, at Ronon and Teyla.
There was clamoring at the stairs, as Teyla and Ronon ran up, and suddenly they were there, too. Ronon pounded McKay's back, while Teyla softly touched his face.
"It is so good to see you," Teyla said, her eyes tearing. "We have missed you so much."
"Hey, McKay," Ronon said, peeling Rodney out of John's clutches to hug Rodney himself – squashing him like a grape. "There you are!" He let go, and Rodney stumbled a little at the release.
John stepped back a moment, watching.
Rodney still looked lost. "You're alive," he said in wonder.
"Yeah," Ronon said, thumping Rodney's chest. "Can't stop us from coming to get you."
"Well, yes, I knew you were coming. It was only a matter of time," Rodney went on. "I mean you wouldn't all be dead."
"Something went wrong with the DHD. Daedalus was delayed. Volcano," Ronon stated.
"They were evacuating many people," Teyla explained. "They came as soon as they could."
"Yes, of course it was something like that. I figured as much," Rodney said, nodding, but still not really looking at them. "I just lost track for a while, but, I knew you would be here." He tried to look smug. He put one hand on Teyla's arm and another on Ronon, finally meeting their eyes. "You're okay? You're both okay? Last time I saw you… I was… worried."
Sheppard closed his eyes a moment. Rodney hadn't known. He didn't know that Ronon and Teyla had survived the attack.
Teyla nodded, "Yes, Rodney. We are okay. We have scars and are healing still, but we are fine." She touched his face again. "You have a beard," she said.
"Yeah, yeah, you like it?"
She laughed lightly. "No, I like you better without it."
"Oh," he said looking a little disappointed. "I suppose I look like a villain doppelgänger in a sci-fi movie." He ran the back of his hand against the long stubble. Then he shook his head sharply and turned to John. He stammered a moment, "I knew… I knew that it was you just now. I wasn't hallucinating. I'm not that far gone. I just, I just keep having these dreams – these very vivid dreams and. I was just afraid it was dream again and I would wake up…"
Sheppard nodded. "You're not dreaming. We're here."
"It's not like I'm crazy or anything. I just … you know… the disappointment…so many times. I can't…" Rodney rubbed at his eyes and said, "I knew you'd come. I mean unless something else came up."
"The DHD wouldn't engage." Sheppard told him.
"Figured that must have been the case. Maybe the radiation was too much and it had breached the jumper, so it made no sense to use it again. Or you'd crashed on the way back, maybe took out the DHD with you." His expression looked bleak. His words came quickly, tumbling out of him. "You might have all died. If you all died and the DHD was damaged, nobody would know what happened. Maybe the Daedalus would come and they'd find the crashed jumper and they wouldn't know who was in it – if it was all burned up. The radiation would be too extreme for a worthless examination of the wreck. Then they'd just go home. You might have all been dead, just a half mile from me. Or maybe you had other reasons for not coming back. If Ronon and Teyla had died and…" He stopped talking with a shake of his head.
John paused. What scenarios had been running through his head all this time?
Rodney went on, at the same quick clip, "The Daedalus, well, it should have taken them ten days if they were midway. But something might have come up, and they were called away. They're not able to drop everything just to come around and let me out. That would be ridiculous."
"They were on a mission of mercy," Teyla told him. "They saved thousands of people."
"Oh, oh that's good then. Good choice. I have a clock on my computer, so I'm not totally lost with time. It just doesn't always make sense." He was bouncing on his heels when he asked quickly, "You want to look around? There's plenty to see."
"Ah, sure," Sheppard responded, a little dumbfounded by the quick change.
"Well, this is the command station," he said, turning to the room beneath the balcony. "It's mostly stripped, but you can monitor the oxygen scrubbers from up here. Not a lot to see. The scrubbers are just barely working after all these years. Really, it turned out to be a bad idea. It took nearly 2,000 years to clear the air. It's an entire planet, after all. They have other scrubbers all over. You can monitor all of them from here. A huge waste of time and materials." He pointed to his laptop. "I've done a lot of work while I was here, no worries there. You will be amazed. I've been able to figure out so many things. So many projects completed. So many puzzles solved!"
He started unhooking the laptop. "I've downloaded as much information as possible from the database. Really some fascinating information." He pulled out his pack from under the table and pushed the laptop into it, then picked up a few stray things that were sitting on the counter and added them.
"Well, that's good," Sheppard said because he felt as if he had to say something.
"I know, right? Come on," and McKay gestured to them. "It's an amazing place, or at least it was at one point. Like I said, mostly stripped, but still interesting. It's really great to see you guys. The mess hall is just ahead. I'll show you." He looked over his shoulder as he walked to the stairs from the mezzanine, as if making sure they were following.
Once down the stairs, it only took a few steps and they moved into a new room. "The mess hall!" he said, pointing. "This is where I made my meals. Well, I heated up rations. See, that's kind of a stove there. Oh, remember all those boxes of food we found way when we first arrived? There're over there. Six different meals. Of course, two had some sort of fruit in it. Not worth the risk. Those are over there. I only have two epi-pens so when the time came, I could try them one at a time to see if I could survive them. There was another one that really did not taste good, so those are over there. It was like spaghetti with all the noodles gummed together and a sauce that was too sweet with weird bits of gristle in it. I just rotated through the other three," he said, making a spinning sign with one finger. "Each package was pretty big, could probably feed several people, so I was stuck with the same one for days. There's a fridge over there. I was able to get it working again."
"Rodney," Teyla said, as she tugged her jacket closer. "It's rather cool in here. Were you unable to adjust the temperature controls."
With a grimace, McKay said, "No, sorry. I tried, but the temperature remains right around sweatshirt-weather. The Ancients seemed determined to keep this place green. I think it's determined by the amount of people here. One person wasn't enough to turn up the temp a degree or two.."
He gestured to the big table at the other end of the room. "And that's the … ah… dining room. Just…" and he paused as the others took in the scene.
"Looks… homey," Sheppard said.
The head of the table was meant for Rodney. He had found something to act as a placemat – and the utensils that he usually traveled with were carefully lined up on the mat along with a plastic cup. Three figures were set on the table, in front of where'd he'd sit – just the head and shoulders – constructed of bits and pieces of equipment that he must have found around the place. They had faces drawn on with that black pencil. The bigger one seemed to have dreadlocks and the medium had a shock of black material at the top that was frayed into a bad haircut. The third had brown cords that formed long hair.
"That… yeah," Rodney looked away, embarrassed. "You know on Castaway, how he had Wilson? That's just Wilson. They're something to talk to while I had dinner. Nothing important. It's not crazy, right. I haven't been here that long. I mean, it was only a couple months, so that's not long enough to lose my mind, right? They're just there so I could talk. They're not always right here. I move them around so they don't get bored."
"It's not crazy, Rodney," John repeated, trying to reassure.
"Okay, well, just ignore that." He picked up his utensils and added them to the pack. He took a long look at the three figures, but reluctantly turned from them. He added the cup to his pack. "Don't think about them."
"Just three different choices?" Sheppard asked him.
"Well, yes, one of them was a little like pot roast with some weird squishy vegetables that were okay once you got used to them, but they were hard to swallow. Another had something like pasta or maybe gnocchi with a green sauce that tasted like mustard and sometimes like mud. It had this okra-slimy vegetable that I could push to the side. The third one was like oatmeal with peanuts and little black seeds that didn't look like insects. Not bad. It had a cracker on the side. Do you want to bring any with us? The oatmeal one is almost like breakfast and that cracker would have been really good with some cheese."
"Ah, no," Sheppard said, eyeing the diminishing pile of the 'good' meals.
"A lot of times, I just wasn't hungry enough to eat. I've missed coffee," Rodney added quietly, soberly. "All I have his water. I had tremendous headaches for a while. I don't know how I've existed without caffeine. I still get headaches – almost every day. Sometimes they last a long time. I don't think it's just caffeine withdrawal. Garbage is over there," Rodney said. "The building recycles it - similar to Atlantis but different. I did some research on that and downloaded it to my computer. Nothing else here really. Come on, we need to go up to the top level."
Rodney was smiling at them as he led them back to the stairs. "The top two levels are basically the same. Okay, on we go!"
A claxon suddenly went off, making three of them jump. Rodney just moved down the hall, rushing to a little console on the wall. "It's okay," he said. "It's just a warning that the oxygen levels are too low outside. It goes off every two to four hours. I've tried to shut it down for good, but it seems intrinsic to this building. At least I've fixed it so that I only need to enter a few keystrokes from one of these – instead of going all the way to the command center. It will stop after about four minutes."
The alarm ended and Sheppard frowned, uncovering his ears. "Can't you take down the speakers?"
"They're in the ceiling," McKay said, pointing upward. "There's no movable furniture, so I can't reach them." He smiled a little but looked miserable. "You get used to it after a while."
He continued forward, "We're walking… we're walking…" and he looked back and grinned at Sheppard. And then said, "Oh, that's Pi," he said as he pointed to the numbers written on the wall. "I screwed it up after a while. The periodic table is correct though. I wouldn't mess that up."
"There's long straight lines on the hallway on the next floor," Ronon stated. "There's dots on the lines." Then he added, "One of the rooms had a lot of words written on the wall. I noticed a lot of names, but didn't have time to…"
"That's nothing," McKay cut him off. "We're heading to the upper living space in any case. No need to visit the second floor. Nothing there except my bowling alley and the workout room. It was hard to come up with a bowling ball. I really couldn't find a perfect sphere, so it wobbles. The pins are all different, so it doesn't work that well. But the ball return worked like a charm! I still needed to set the pins though. I made weights for lifting - kept in shape. The rooms are otherwise empty. You can ignore what's on the walls. I think it was supposed to be a dormitory. They'd meant to start a whole colony here but gave up on it when they realized how long it would take to whip the air into shape. Hah, whip the air… into shape."
He moved quickly up the stairs. "I had a movie night for a while, but I only had two movies stored on my laptop. 'Shawshank Redemption' was a really bad choice, except for the end. I watched that part a lot. I can't watch 'Titanic' again. Why do I even have that one? Still, it's funny when that guy hits the propeller. Is that wrong? Yes, It's wrong, but still. And I'm sure they both could have fit on that door if someone moved over half an inch."
"I got Rockford Files," Sheppard cut in.
"Really?" Rodney responded, not slowing as he continued up the stairs. "I loved that show. James Garner is the best! Remember his Firebird?"
"And his signature J-turn," Sheppard added. "I just got the DVDs."
"You have the pilot? A different actor played Rocky in the pilot. He was replaced with Noah Beery Jr after the show was picked-up," Rodney explained. "Can't imagine it without that Rocky. We used to watch the repeats after school. It was on the independent channel after the cartoons. Remember the cartoon shows that used to be on after school? Those were the best, but I'd really like to see Rockford again."
John chuckled. "We can watch when we get back."
"Really?" Rodney said. He stopped climbing the stairs and turned toward John, his expression delighted. "That'd be great. Loved that show. I had to delete my movies so that I had more room to store data," Rodney went on. "Did I tell you that I downloaded a lot of information."
When they reached the upper level, he kept moving. "The bigger living quarters are up here. I snagged the best one. Come on."
The walls on this floor were also covered with words and drawings of planets, diagrams of solar system that held Earth and another with the Atlantis system. Further down, what might have been Duranda.
He gestured them toward the room at the end. "Biggest room. Best room to get at a hotel. It's almost like a corner room. No view though."
"A view is always nice," Sheppard managed to say.
Rodney laughed, "We're underground though. Can never tell if it's day or night. It's kind of nice. I work until I fall asleep and then sleep until that alarm goes off, and I'm ready to work again. Who cares about circadian rhythm. It's nonsense. Lack of caffeine didn't help. I probably need some vitamin D supplements by now. I used to have to take it every day when I lived in Vancouver. Not enough daylight." He paused and added, "I lose track of time."
He walked into the room. It was a smallish room, with a platform bed against one wall with a little built-in table. "Not really a mattress," he said. There didn't seem to be any sheets or blankets. The pillow was a piece of cloth, rolled into ball. "I got used to it," he said. "But it gets cold sometimes. I like a good mattress. My back hasn't been great since I got here."
"The bathroom is over there. It has a tub!" Rodney sounded pleased. "Too bad I can't get the temperature up. Mostly, it's just tepid. I like a hot bath. You're lucky. It's not a laundry day. I've been washing my clothes when I can, usually wash one piece at a time because I only have this," and he gestured to his tattered, faded clothing. They could still see the remnants of Ronon's blood on the sleeves of his jacket. His clothing hung on him. He had obviously lost weight.
"I can wash the underwear every third day because there's the inside-out option. Then it's commando day." He laughed a little. "Sometimes I walk around without pants, but never on commando day. It gets cold here sometimes. I only tried washing the jacket once," he said, picking at the stained sleeves. "It takes too long to dry. There's no soap, so I just soak and scrub."
Rodney moved quickly through the room, picking up more little devices and jamming them into the pack. He looked around the room and peeked into the bathroom, coming back with a few more things to pack. "I think that's it. I could have dissembled some of the consoles here, but there seemed little use for them."
Rodney slung the pack onto his shoulder. "So, do you want to see anything else? Some of these rooms have really strange shapes. Not square at all. I've measured all of them and you'd think most of the would have the same square footage but they don't. The hallway here is a good place to take a run. I try jogging down it every day or so – well more of a speed walking or… a walk." He was talking faster, looking aimlessly around the room.
"Rodney," John said softly.
"Or the stairs. I go up and down the stairs a lot. But most of the time I am working." He patted the laptop inside of his pack. "Lots of good information in here. Atlantis will certainly benefit from all that I have discovered with my extra time." He tapped the side of his head. "Plenty of good ideas were in there and I've finally had the time to explore them and record them. Good use of time. I'm glad Atlantis will benefit, because there should be some benefit, right? There's a comfy chair up on the mezzanine. Sometimes I just sleep there. It made things easier and…" His voice was picking up speed as he talked nonstop.
"Rodney," John tried again.
"I really wish I'd had a pet, though. You were right about that. I used to have a cat. It was great having something soft to hold- something that would sit in my lap and listen and seemed to like me. I don't know though. He seemed to be happy on his own, too. I don't know if a cow would like it here. I don't know why you put that in my head. Seriously, that was strange, but I thought about it a lot. I don't think she would like the stairs."
"Rodney,"
He was wandering back and forth across the room as if he didn't know what to do anymore. "Maybe she'd let me pet her. That would be nice, wouldn't it? Do cows like it when you pet them? I thought about the milk a lot. Drinking warm milk, fresh from the teat would be weird. Not that I'd … suck … on anything." He held up his hands to ward of any questions. "I'd definitely milk her into a bowl or something. I could figure that out. Still, think about all the manure! I don't know if the toilet system could handle it. Well, I guess it would because this place was designed to house a lot of people. I could have fed her those dinners with the fruit. A cow would like fruit, wouldn't it? I don't think she'd like the spaghetti one. I was saving those for the bitter end. I'd have to give up the oatmeal ones if that's all that was all she'd eat."
"Rodney," Sheppard said sharply, trying to force his way through the wall of desperate words. He moved into Rodney's eyeline because he kept turning one way and then another. "Are you ready to go home? Do you want to go…now?"
Rodney stopped talking and just breathed for a moment, his eyes darted, his mind was still going a thousand miles a minute. He blinked hard twice, as if trying to wake up. Finally, his eyes focused on Sheppard, and his expression changed to something so hopeful, it was heartbreaking. "Oh, yes," he said. "That would be good. I would like that."
John smiled and slapped his friend on the shoulder. "Let's go," he said.
Rodney smiled widely, and turned to the stairs. He hurried up to reach the top level. Thankfully, he'd finally stopped talking and only hummed happily as he Sheppard unlocked the jumper.
Sheppard made a report to the Daedalus, letting them know they were on their way in a few minutes.
McKay paused when Teyla groaned to sit down. He winced saying, "I should have been able to shut down that weapons system faster. I should have known what to do."
"Rodney," she said, "It wasn't your fault. The Genii set up the security system. You didn't turn it on and you were able to quickly stop it."
"And the Geniii broke the airlock," Ronon told him.
"Well, I knew that," Rodney said. "Obviously, it was the Genii. I mean, I went through all these systems, so I know. They have about as much finesse as a bag of weasels." He shrugged, looking downward. "I was just too slow. I should've figured out the airlock right away. It was just a big…"
"It was a cluster fuck, Rodney," Sheppard said. "And none of it was your fault."
McKay turned as if he didn't know where to go, but Sheppard was in his way.
"I'm sorry," John said, putting a hand on each of Rodney's shoulders.
"Wasn't your fault," Rodney said. "I know you would've been right back if you could. I mean, you wouldn't just leave me, no matter what happened, right? Who could have expected the DHD to act up? Well, that was always an option, with the radiation and all. It was bound to go bad eventually. I always knew you were coming. It was just a matter of time."
Sheppard's voice was low and serious, "I'm sorry about what I said when I left… that you had to stew on this all that time. I'm just glad to have you back." And John hugged him again, just because it felt right. This time Rodney relaxed and returned it.
Rodney stepped back after a moment, rubbing at his eyes. "I can't even remember what you said, so it's all good."
Sheppard patted Rodney's shoulder said with a smile, "You got to shave that beard."
McKay scratched at it self-consciously. "I thought it might make me look distinguished."
Ronon and Teyla mumbled a 'no'.
Sheppard went on, "You look like a caveman."
Rodney harumphed
Ronon added, "A haircut would be good."
"You're one to talk," Rodney shot back.
"On me, it works." He moved forward to give Rodney slap on the shoulder and then ruffle his hair.
McKay tried to look offended, but instead, he just looked happy as a clam at hightide.
"It's time to go, Rodney," Sheppard declared.
Rodney looked back as they sealed the inner airlock door, getting one last look. Then they closed the hatch and were able to disconnect without incident.
"Now," Sheppard said, "Back to the Daedalus and then one hop home."
"We really should check the DHD," Rodney told him. "It would be good to get it operational again, if we can. I mean, we may need to come back someday if I've forgotten something."
So, Sheppard guided the jumper back toward the gate. They could finally see what happened. A radio tower, weakened by the years of radiation and probably wobbled by the woosh, had fallen over the DHD, partially engaging it. Two chevrons were illuminated.
"Huh," Rodney stated. "Well, that would do it." He leaned over the jumper's DHD, tapping a series of keys until the lights on the Gate dimmed and it went back to a ready status. "You should be able to dial it now," he said.
Damn, it was that easy? Just a couple of key-strokes and it was working again.
"What say we take the direct route back to Atlantis?" Sheppard asked.
"Sooner would be great," Rodney stated, leaning forward on the console. "It would be really great."
Sheppard smiled and took a moment to radio the ship to thank them for the ride, and then dialed Atlantis. When he told them the news, there was a happy shout in the background which made Rodney smile.
They'd be back in seconds, and then it would be just a matter of time before they were settled in again. John would fire up his DVD player and they could just watch The Rockford Files, eat whatever Rodney wanted, just hang out and talk or do nothing… or better yet, they could do 'something'.
They'd be home.
THE END