Stargate: Atlantis

Aftermath: The Seed

by koinekid

Disclaimer: MGM owns SGA; I do not.

Rating: T (for language, violence, and sexual situations)

Genre: Action / Romance

Time Frame: During and after "The Seed" (Season 5, Episode 2)

Canonicity: AU diverging after "The Return" (Season 3, Episodes 10 and 11); sequel to author's previous story "Aftermath"

Major Spoilers: 4x01 Adrift, 4x02 Lifeline, 5x02 The Seed

Minor Spoilers: 4x07 Missing, 4x19 The Kindred Part 2

Characters: Rodney McKay, Jennifer Keller, John Sheppard, Carson Beckett, Teyla Emmagan, Richard Woolsey

Pairings: McKeller

"Hurry it up!"

"Do you want it done fast, Rodney, or do you want it done right?"

"I don't want it done at all."

"We've been over this."

"Six hours, John."

"What?"

"Six hours ago I kissed my fiancée. Now we're not allowed to breathe the same air?"

"Would Keller want to expose you to this pathogen or whatever it is?"

"In her right mind? No. But she's not in her right mind. She's scared and alone, and I'm supposed to go in there dressed like she's a plague victim?"

"It's that, or you don't go in at all. Woolsey's orders."

"God, I miss Carter. No, not like that. She would have handled this better. To her, people are people; to him, they're assets."

"Stop worrying about Woolsey. Get your asset in there and comfort Keller."

Thick gloves made running his fingers through her hair awkward, and he pulled at several of the delicate, golden strands without meaning to. Jennifer made a face, and Rodney moved to kiss away her pain before realizing the biohazard suit's helmet would not let him. He settled for caressing her cheek instead. She leaned hard into his rubber-coated touch, seeking from it more than it could provide.

"I can't feel you, Rodney. I can't feel anything."

Her plaintive tone tore at his soul.

Wall-mounted cameras loomed over them like digital chaperons with ultra-sensitive microphones for ears. He leaned as close to her as he dared, Sheppard's warnings to the contrary aside, though he knew nothing would prevent weaselly Richard Woolsey and his voyeuristic cohorts from hearing his every word.

"Don't do it, Rodney." The reproachful voice of Carson Beckett sounded over the loudspeaker.

Rodney cautioned an upward glance into a camera, looking, he imagined, like a boy caught with his hand in the cookie jar.

"What does he mean?"

Great, now Jennifer sounded reproachful.

"Rodney is thinking of breaking the seal on his suit and trapping himself in the isolation suite with you, love. Think you can talk the stubborn git down?"

"I wasn't," Rodney lied. "At least not yet. There's probably still some good I can do for you on the outside."

"Don't!"

"I said I wasn't, Jennifer."

"Don't go, please not yet."

"I won't, I promise. Not until you say it's okay."

She calmed then, and Rodney glared at the cameras. He knew they were necessary so the medical team searching for a cure could monitor her condition; still, they made him self-conscious, and he found it difficult to be the Rodney McKay she needed him to be. Her Rodney appeared only in the privacy of their quarters or offices or in the company of a few trusted friends. He was not for public display.

Well, not usually.

Once, after returning from an encounter with a cult that practiced human sacrifice, Rodney had seized Jennifer in a crushing embrace in the middle of a very active gate room. She hadn't objected, but since then Rodney had zealously guarded her reputation. For months after, he refused her so much as a peck on the cheek in public. That policy had been amended only by her threat to return his ring.

A tear rolled down her cheek.

"Do you remember our first kiss?" To hell with embarrassment. "You tasted like mint, and I could never figure out if it was your lip gloss or that tea you drink."

"You mean mint tea?" A weak smile turned the corners of her mouth.

"Very droll, sweetheart." He matched the smile despite his fear. "It was the day we lost Elizabeth. I was moping out on the balcony, and you alone of everyone on Atlantis came to find me."

The hard floor absorbed the impacts of her sneakers, the ocean waves held his attention, so the feel of her pressed against his back startled him. Only when he heard her voice, could he relax into the embrace.

"Hey, you."

Though hopelessly sappy and the source of endless teasing, it had become their standard off-duty greeting by then. He returned it unabashed. "Hey, you."

Comforting fingers stroked his chest. "How you doing?"

A sigh. "Everything looks different now."

"Different planet, Rodney, different ocean."

"Not what I meant." He felt her nod against his back and shivered.

She broke the embrace long enough to reposition herself at his side and pull his arm around her shoulders. "I'm sorry about Doctor Weir. If I'd kept my trap shut—"

"Don't you dare."

"Rodney?"

"You're going to try and blame yourself so I feel less guilty when we both know whose fault this is." Passing blame was SOP for Rodney. He wasn't proud of it, but if the offer had come from anyone other than Jennifer, he would have accepted. She was persistent though. He had to give her that.

"Reactivating the nanites was my idea."

"It worked. You saved her, Jennifer, and she'd still be alive if I'd treated her as a friend instead of a passkey."

"First of all, we saved her. I had an idea, you turned it into a plan. Second, Elizabeth volunteered to take the risk. She gave her life for Atlantis."

"She shouldn't have had to. If I had more time, I could have found a way to utilize her abilities safely from a distance. What's more—"

The taste of her and the smell of her flooded his senses. The slight part of her lips would not have allowed his tongue to pass had he regained his wits soon enough to try. But the contact lasted barely two seconds and momentarily swept away all thought and grief.

"You looked like you needed it," Jennifer explained. "God knows I did."

"What if I need another?"

His boldness shocked him, her more so, but she recovered quickly. "Just keep looking at me like that."

Their second kiss was open-mouthed, and it was she that implored entry into his. Later, he teased her about the dramatic escalation from one buss to the next. Her reply: "Tongue on the first kiss? No, I'm a lady, Mister."

"I said that?"

Rodney nodded. It struck him as one of the sexiest things he ever heard.

"You know, comforting you wasn't the only reason I kissed you."

"Motivated by my rakish good looks, were you?"

"Absolutely, but that isn't what I meant." Light dancing in her eyes, Jennifer beckoned him closer and whispered, "I was marking my territory. With Colonel Carter on Atlantis, I figured I'd better make a move or risk losing you forever."

Rodney was shaking his head before she finished speaking. "Never happen. I'm glad you kissed me though."

"Me too."

"Wish I could kiss you now."

An alarm interrupted the moment to signal that his suit's oxygen pack was nearly depleted.

Jennifer sighed. "I guess that's your cue."

"I'll stay if you want."

"You go on. I'll be...well, not okay, but..." She tried to shrug, but the cocoon restricted her movement.

At the door Rodney blew her a kiss. "Love you, Annabelle." *

"Love you, Meredith."

The strength drained from his limbs as soon as the door sealed, and he would have fallen had Sheppard not been there to catch him. Tears welled in Rodney's eyes, and he blinked them away. Letting them fall would be admitting he might lose her. "Get me out of this thing."

"Rodney, listen."

"Save it, we're going to find a way to fix this."

"No, we're not." Sheppard unzipped the helmet. "Beckett confirmed that we're all infected. Woolsey is confining us to our quarters."

"Son of a bitch."

"Agreed."

Rodney watched their escorts arrive, his eyes searching out and finding a familiar face. Perfect.

"Sorry about this, Doc." The west Texas accent was music to Rodney's ears.

"It's okay, Corporal Watkins. You're just doing your job." Time for me to do mine. Plans swirled in Rodney's head, and he figured someone was watching out for him when it was Watkins who was assigned to guard his quarters. That someone might or might not be a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force.

The protocols were already in place on his notebook, so it took less than ninety seconds to bypass the infirmary firewall and access the video feeds. He chose the feed centered on her face and positioned it in the corner of his screen to motivate him while he worked.

Her beauty wasn't something Jennifer flaunted, but Rodney knew it pleased her to turn men's heads. What this would do to her identity if it left her scarred, he could not fathom. What would it do to him? He had explored every inch of Jennifer's body these last months, and she protested whenever he pronounced her flawless. It was a game of theirs. She'd complain about some minor imperfection, and whatever the body part, Rodney would lavish on it minutes of attention with his fingers, tongue, or lips.

He pictured ugly, red splotches spread across her body, thought of her with a drooping face, unable to smile due to permanent nerve damage. Would she accept his praising her body then or think it mockery?

His cheeks were wet.

Minimizing the feed, he opened his media player and instructed it to play the first MP4 in his recent file list. Jennifer appeared before him on the months-old video. If he squinted hard, Rodney could see the faintest trace of the split lip from her ordeal on New Athos, an injury that had long since healed. They'd shot the video in her quarters, positioning the camera so that the viewer could see no trace of Ancient technology or architecture.

"Hi, Dad," she began, her smile radiant. "Remember that guy I was telling you about during my last trip home? Well, the boss lady gave me permission to introduce him." She motioned to someone off camera, and Rodney wished he could enter the video and relive the moment. His past self sat down beside her on the couch wearing a smile wider than his face.

Video Jennifer draped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close. "This is Doctor Rodney McKay. He has doctorates in astrophysics and mechanical engineering, is quite possibly the smartest man on Earth, and..." She kissed his cheek. "I love him."

Video Rodney beamed. "I love Jennifer too, Mister Keller. As I'm sure you already know, she's a brilliant physician and scientist, a genius. Everyone on base loves her. Not the way I love her, of course, though quite a few of the other men have crushes. A few of the women too, I think."

"Rodney!"

"Sorry." Video Rodney took her hand. "Sometimes I have trouble thinking straight around her, sir. Straight as in linear not as in heterosexual. Believe me, I have no trouble... Okay, shall we try another take?"

It took three more takes until Jennifer had a video she judged worthy of sending to her dad. Rodney thought the end result would look over-rehearsed, perhaps even scripted. It hadn't. His feelings, even restrained for the camera, shined through every frame.

He paused the video at a shot of the two of them laughing together and restored the live feed. Positioned side-by-side with the carefree Jennifer of the past, she of the here and now should have looked haggard, disheveled. She didn't, not for a moment.

Rodney wasn't sure what he expected to feel – revulsion maybe, or pity, guilt that he was as shallow as he always knew he was. He felt none of these things; rather, a love for her, deeper and purer than any he'd ever felt for another person, suffused every molecule of his being from heart to marrow. In his mind he saw her blotched and imperfect, deep lines worn into her face from a permanent frown.

She'd never been more beautiful.

He closed Media Player and ran his fingers across her image on the live feed. He jumped when Jennifer suddenly opened her eyes. She was panicking. Rodney had muted the audio so it wouldn't interfere with his video. By the time he restored it, it was too late. The screen was black; the feed was dead.

To be continued

Thanks for reading. Reviews are appreciated.

This story is a sequel to the author's earlier work "Aftermath."

(*) Want to know why Rodney calls Jennifer Annabelle? Find out why in "Aftermath" Part 4.