So...a couple of naughty words, and I think that's it for warnings! No spoilers, I believe...and that's it, right? Enjoy!

EDIT: someone has rightly pointed out that there is a bit of Rodney-child abuse. (Rodney being abused as a child, that is, not Rodney abusing children or being abused by them...) I don't think it dominates the story, though, if you're worried about that--certainly it's not ABOUT that. So, uh, be warned. :)

HEAT by EmmyH (AKA Emilie)

"Colonel," he says, and he's panting, they're running, and there's no time—

"Colonel," he says, and they're dodging, weaving, avoiding their attackers—

"Sheppard," he says, and they can see the jumper, and there's a stitch in his side and he can hear the bad guys—

"John, I—" and they're so close, only ten feet behind and gaining—

"I don't—" he's saying, and they're in the jumper now, and a thought brings the ramp up and Sheppard runs to the controls—

"I don't feel—" and they're taking off. They're safe.

"I don't feel so good," Rodney mutters, and falls.

When he wakes up, his head is in someone's lap and it feels good even though he's awfully hot and he sure hopes it's not Ronon's lap he's lying in.

He opens his eyes. It's Teyla's lap, he sees, and she's stroking his forehead though her eyes are focused elsewhere, towards the forward cabin.

"He is quite warm," she calls, and Rodney hears John's voice calling grimly, "Hold on, we'll be at the gate in just a couple minutes. He doing any better?"

Teyla's eyes meet his and she smiles and now he's feeling cold so he shivers. "He is awake," she calls, and says to him, "How are you feeling?"

He's thinking of a thousand things, about how much his head is aching and how badly he wanted this mission to work out and how disappointed he is that it didn't, and how he's wondering if Jeannie will visit for his birthday and how hot he's feeling! and he sure hopes that whatever he has won't kill him. All he can say, though, is "Tired." His voice is breathy and he feels so cold and John's talking and so is Teyla and now Ronon's saying something, laughing slightly, and they're safe now so he doesn't have to worry.

After a while he hears Elizabeth's voice, and his heat turns to cold again as they enter the Stargate and soon his head isn't in anyone's lap anymore, not even Ronon's, and Carson is looking down at him.

"Bit of a fever you've got here, Rodney," he says in a soft voice.

"Yes," Rodney agrees.

"Let's lift him up on the gurney," Carson says, and he's not talking to Rodney anymore. They lift him, and everything slowly fades away.

This is where things get strange.

His aunt Ida comes to visit him, first. She died twelve years ago, of breast cancer. She was a weird lady. When he was little, she—a staunch atheist—forced him to go to church on Sundays, and whacked him on the head if he protested. "It's good for you to sit still sometimes," she'd tell him. "Little bastard." His father called him that too, but usually his father was drunk. Aunt Ida never drank. She said that if she wanted to drink stuff that tasted like urine, she wasn't going to pay for it—there were easier ways to get that taste in your mouth. On the other hand, it was Aunt Ida who'd provided him with pot, that one time he'd decided to try it. "Overrated, if you ask me," she said. "If you want some fun, you should get laid." Aunt Ida was pretty weird.

Now, she stands next to his bed, watching him sweat. "Sissy," she says. "Suck it up! You're not dying. Get off your ass and fix your damn city."

"How d'you know'm not dying?" His voice is all mumbly. Makes sense: his vision is blurred, too, and he's not sure he can move. Aunt Ida's voice is clear and sharp, though. It cuts through the sick feeling in his chest. It hurts. He's in his old bedroom at home, he realizes, from when he was a kid, complete with Star Wars wall hangings and the ratty old blanket, too short for his bed, that his mother bought at a garage sale.

"I just know," she says stubbornly. "Intuition."

"Y'always had intuition," Rodney mumbles. "Y'r intuition told you you didn't have cancer, but you did, you died."

"Who're ye talking to, Rodney?" This voice is soft and comforting, and Rodney blinks and Carson's by his bed, in the infirmary in Atlantis, giving him a concerned-doctor look.

"My aunt," Rodney says, blinking confusedly. "She's…" he looks around. "She's gone."

Carson sighs, but doesn't comment. "How are you feeling, lad?"

"Hot," he says, and realizes that he's almost whimpering. "Am I dying?"

"What?" Carson looks surprised. "No, Rodney, of course not. We'll figure this out, I promise ye."

"Told you you weren't dying," his aunt sneers.

Rodney can't see her, but it doesn't matter anyway. "Shut up, Aunt Ida," he whispers, and his eyes close.

When he wakes up next, both Sheppard and Jeannie are there. Sheppard is sitting in the chair by the bed, reading War and Peace aloud, and little Jeannie is jumping on his bed. "Tell me a story, Mer? Please?"

"Sheppard's already telling you a story," he says, and she moves around some more.

"Rodney?" Sheppard says. "You awake?"

"Please tell me a story? Mer, you promised!"

"No!" Rodney says—yells, really.

"Sheesh, okay," Sheppard tells him. "You don't have to wake up if you don't want. Go back to sleep. I'll keep reading."

"No," Rodney says, his voice cracking with fatigue. "Jeannie, I'm too tired."

"Jeannie's back on Earth, Rodney," says Sheppard, and that makes sense to Rodney and he wonders what's on his legs that's jumping around.

"What's on my legs?" he asks, looking down, and sees a brilliant ginger ball of fuzz, like fire.

"Oh—that's Oscar," Sheppard says. "Kinda like a cat. Lorne's team found him and brought him back—Elizabeth says you like cats, and Carson said it wouldn't hurt you, so…"

Rodney reaches down and scratches it in a likely place, and feels it start to rumble. He looks around. "Where's Jeannie?" he says, confused. She was just here, wasn't she? Jumping on his bed or something. Little sisters—she was always doing that. And all he wanted was a little sleep.

"She's back on Earth," Sheppard says patiently. "Rodney, go to sleep. When you wake up, you'll feel better."

Rodney goes to sleep.

He doesn't feel better when he wakes up. He was sitting in a math test before, but he thinks that was a dream, although he aced the test, he's pretty sure. It must have been a final exam, though, because it was hot, which means summer. His high school doesn't have any fans or air conditioning, so they all sit in their tiny desks, sweating and trying not to get sweat on their exam booklets. He just hopes Sheppard doesn't do quite as well as he does—he has a reputation to maintain, after all.

And then Ronon and Teyla come in, and they're kissing. Ew! Rodney thinks, and turns his head away, but it's like a porno, or like a really big car crash—he finds himself turning back to look at them. It's kinda hot, actually, he thinks, they are two very sexy people, and he's feeling pretty hot himself, but not the good kind.

He's working on his father's garden, hoeing and raking, though he told his dad he wanted to go to summer school, so he could skip another grade. It's hot, so hot, and sweat is dripping down his face and getting into his eyes, burning, crawling through his hair and making him think there are bugs in it.

Noises, alarming—

He's a wimp, according to his father, and he's panting, and it's so hot, and he's dizzy. Maybe he'll faint, and then his father won't make him work any more for an hour or two.

"Doctor McKay," someone says, "can you tell me how you're feeling? What's wrong?"

"Hot," he says. And his head aches, so much, and so do his muscles, all over. He doesn't want to move, but he has to, and the world is spinning, there's no water. His mouth is dry, and his throat hurts, and there's that feeling in his chest, the one that makes him want to lie down, but he can't—

—he's already lying down—

—he can't lie down, he's working for his father, and he's so hot but he can't stop shaking.

His fingers hurt. "Too much piano," his mother tuts, but his mother's not here, he's in the yard—

—in Atlantis. "Rodney, what's wrong?" It's the soft voice—

—in his father's yard, and suddenly his father comes out screaming. He's angry, yelling. Now his ears hurt too, and he pants. "Dad," he cries, "stop—"

But his father doesn't stop. He unbuckles his belt, takes hold of the buckle end, and starts whipping Rodney. "Teach you—" he tells Rodney, "—to slack off—in my—yard!" The impacts are waves of heat. Rodney recoils.

"Dad, please," he cries, and realizes he's sobbing. "stop—don't—I'll work, I promise!"

Something in his ear—a gnat? And his father keeps beating him with heat. "Nearly a hundred and six," the soft voice says hurriedly. "Cooling blankets, please!" The voice gets louder, but no less soothing.

Something falls on him, and it's cold. For a split second it feels good, and then it's too cold, and he's shivering.

The voice says something, and then someone's tugging at his hand, and something cold goes through him and he's falling asleep.

He wakes up and Teyla's there, along with that cat thing. "You are awake," she says, and scratches the cat, who leans happily into her hand. "Do you feel any better, Rodney?"

"Yeah," he says, but it comes out as a squeak. He clears his throat. "Yeah," he says again, audible this time. "I think so." He reaches down and pets the cat, who purrs with pleasure. "What happened?"

"Doctor Beckett said you had a virus," Teyla says.

Rodney frowns. "How'd I get it?" Nothing's been going around the base. It'd be just his luck, to be the only one to get sick.

"I…do not know," Teyla says. "Doctor Beckett said that you caught it off-world."

"The…planet with the…chasing…and the thing?" That memory is a little vague right now. Rodney rubs his eyes. He may be better, but his head is still throbbing. He stretches his neck from side to side, making two satisfying pop! noises.

"No," Teyla says, correctly interpreting his question. "It was not the last planet we were on. The one before that, I believe."

"You've a scratch on your arm," a voice says, and Rodney looks up at it: Carson. He's leaning tiredly against the doorframe of his office. "We think the infection got in there; that's why nobody else got sick."

"Oh," Rodney says.

"Your fever spiked last night," Carson continues, "but it's under control now. Been going down, and I think you're on the mend. Though you're not better quite yet."

Rodney nods, and his head protests. "The cat…came from Lorne?"

"His team, aye," Carson says, surprised. "I didn't think you'd remember that. We've called him 'Oscar,' for now. The Colonel named him."

"That's not the right name for you," Rodney whispers to the cat, who picks itself up gracefully and curls up between his body and his arm. "Yes, you are a beautiful girl." His eyes droop.

"Girl?" Carson says, surprised, but Rodney's already asleep.

"I can't believe you named that thing Jewel," Sheppard complains, watching the cat-thing explore her new quarters.

Rodney holds his head high, stroking his new pet. "It's a great name," he said. "You're just jealous."

"It's girly," Sheppard says. "Did you name your last cat Ruby?" He smiles, teasing.

"No, he was Leo," Rodney says indignantly. "Galileo, really. And it's not Jewel, like a stone. Joule! Like, energy, heat. You know."

"I think it is a lovely name," Teyla says diplomatically.

"You should have named it Gorga," Ronon says, trying to pet the cat and failing, as Joule swipes at him, making its equivalent of a hiss.

"What does that mean?" Rodney asks warily.

"He was a fierce warrior of my people," Ronon says.

Rodney smiles brightly. "Oh! That's not so bad."

"Yeah," Ronon says. "He did a lot of murdering." The Satedan sucks on the side of his thumb, which is sporting a new scratch.

"Oh," Rodney says again, dubiously.

Teyla changes the subject. "So, Rodney, are you glad to be back in your own room?"

"Yup!" Rodney says, looking around. "And back to the lab tomorrow."

"And soon we'll be back on missions," Sheppard says.

Rodney sighs, remembering the device on the last planet. "I wish we could have gotten that thing," he says. "It could have been useful."

"Next time," Sheppard says. Rodney nods, and yawns.

Teyla sees the yawn. "Perhaps we should go and let you rest," she says, and they all nod and stand.

"Good night, Rodney," they chorus, leaving and then Ronon adds, "Night, Gorga," and the door closes behind him.

The cat jumps onto the bed. "Hi, Joule," Rodney says, scratching her under the chin. She settles next to him, warming his bed, and he lies down to go to sleep, contented.

Hi! So, I really enjoyed writing this and if you enjoyed reading it, do you know what will help me write (or, you know, post) more stories? That's right--reviews! Wow, you're smart. You practically read my mind on that one. :) Please review!