Cloak of Comfort

[jackwabbit]

Cloak of Comfort
Author: jackwabbit                                     Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rated: PG-13 (violence, injury)                    Category: Gen, Carson/Rodney Friendship, A/A, Whump
Season: Post Three    Spoilers: Sunday        Summary: It’s Not Rodney’s Time
A/N: With Gratitude to Paul McGillion

 

CHAPTER ONE

The bullet sliced through bone and flesh as easily as a hot knife slips through butter.

Rodney McKay fell.

The wormhole vanished, taking with it the last of Rodney's team.

He was alone.

The aim had been true.

Rodney’s lifeblood oozed out onto the ground around him, and he slipped into oblivion.

XXX

He never expected to wake.

When he realized that was exactly what was happening, as his world slowly went from black to grey, Rodney thought that he was in another world for a split second.

Then the pain exploded in the right side of his chest and he knew he was still among the living, at least for now. There was no way it hurt this much to be dead.

The pain made the scientist gasp, and he immediately regretted it. A pair of obsidian eyes riveted onto him from an olive face. Rodney looked into the dark orbs, and he knew he was seeing his shooter and captor.

The eyes shone brightly in the firelight as they regarded their victim. They checked the knots in the ropes binding Rodney's legs together and pulling his hands behind his back. Satisfied that all was secure, the man belonging to the eyes relaxed, sitting back on his haunches.

Rodney looked around weakly then, trying to figure out where he was and what was going on.

He was in a small tent like structure, with Dark Eyes as his only companion. The floor was dirt. A small flap allowed entry to the structure, and it was open now to allow smoke from the fire to escape.

If Rodney McKay hadn't known any better, he would have thought he'd been transported into a bad western movie, complete with a cliché Indian village and a silent captor straight from central casting. Dark Eyes was even clad in leather stockings and a jacket that matched, which almost made Rodney laugh with a sense of irony.

But McKay did know better. He knew he was a galaxy away from Earth, on a planet far from his home base of Atlantis. He also knew that the savage looking man in front of him was no simple hunter. This man knew how to use modern weaponry, and the stolen firearm across his lap bore silent testament to that fact, as did the gaping hole in Rodney's chest.

Rodney also knew he was alone.

There was no one here to save him, and if his guess was right, a rescue team would not be coming for him, as the risk for loss of life was too great. Elizabeth wouldn't risk losing more people to save just one man, and any probes sent through to evaluate the situation on this side of the gate would be fired upon by Dark Eyes and his buddies, thus deeming the situation hostile and sealing Rodney's fate.

So, in spite of the searing pain pulsating through his body with each breath, Rodney McKay attempted to speak. He licked his lips twice experimentally, tasting metal with each movement, before finally managing to find his voice.

"Hey. These ropes aren't necessary, you know. I can't exactly run off..." Rodney proved his point by falling into a coughing fit as his voice trailed off. Blood splattered the dirt floor in front of him as if flung by a careless painter.

Dark Eyes sneered as his only response, and Rodney knew he wasn't going to get any sympathy from his guard. He would’ve given anything to be free of the ropes binding him, but he suspected that wasn’t going to be easy to accomplish.

As if the agonizing pain of a bullet wound through his right chest and lung wasn’t enough, Rodney was trussed up like some sort of strange Christmas present.

His legs were bound together at the ankles and knees, and his arms were pulled viciously backwards by a short length of rope that bound his elbows together.

It made breathing just a bit on the difficult side.

As his fit sputtered to a halt, Rodney tried to get air into his lungs, but he failed miserably.

As he lay in the dirt wheezing and gagging, hoping against hope for just one breath of oxygen, his captor looked again at him, this time with a look of concern.

The man stood and drew a long knife from somewhere in his clothing.

Rodney drew back away from Dark Eyes, thinking that the man meant to kill him, but the onyx-eyed devil only reached down and cleanly slit the ropes binding Rodney’s arms in one swift stroke.

As his arms were released, Rodney immediately felt a rush of relief as he managed to suck a few lungfuls of air into his oxygen-starved body. When he had recovered enough to speak, Rodney tried to be polite.

He knew his odds of getting home were minimal, but it seemed his only chance was to befriend his enemy. His voice was a whisper as he spoke.

“Thank you.”

The man nodded and grunted noncomittaly in response. He then turned back to the fire, where he was obviously preparing some sort of food.

After a few minutes, Dark Eyes began to eat his meal and when he was nearly done, he tossed a piece of greasy meat toward Rodney.

“Eat.”

Rodney was flummoxed. “Why would you feed me when you tried to kill me? You shot me!”

“I didn’t shoot you.”

“Well, then, who did?”

“I don’t know. Probably the Ruds. I found you, left for dead, on the steps of the stone ring. You weren’t dead, so I brought you here. This is my camp.”

“And you are?” Rodney was still struggling to speak, but the words were coming easier now.

“Name’s Naktubuti. You can call me Nak.”

“So, Nak…why tie me up if you didn’t shoot me?”

“Well, I don’t know you. Maybe the Ruds had a good reason to shoot you, huh?”

“Who are the Ruds?”

“Neighbors up North. Enemy of my people. Not real keen on strangers.”

“So I’ve gathered. Look, I’m no threat to you.”

“You know what? I believe you. Besides, that wound is pretty nasty. Don’t think you could do much if you tried anything.”

Rodney coughed again, and nodded in agreement.

When he recovered enough to speak, Rodney looked imploringly at his captor. He gestured with his head to his bound legs. “Then, please?”

Nak seemed to think things over a bit, then he slowly nodded. He stepped across the shelter and drew his knife again. This time Rodney didn’t flinch as Nak cut the ropes on his legs, freeing him to try to find a more comfortable position on the dirt floor.

There wasn’t one. Rodney’s chest and side felt like they were on fire, and he was gripped by alternating waves of nausea and pain. His vision swam and the world became black for a second when he tried to sit up from his prone position.

Nak laid a hand on Rodney’s shoulder then.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, there, buddy. Take it easy. You have a nasty hole in your side. Lay back down.”

Rodney complied out of necessity. He couldn’t have stayed sitting if he’d tried. Blood began to bubble out his mouth as he carefully forced out his next words.

“Look. If you could just take me to the stone ring, I can leave here. I won’t be back. I can get help.”

Nak looked fearful at Rodney’s words.

“No one can activate the stone ring without approval from the council of the elders.”

Rodney weakly waved one hand dismissively. “Fine, fine. Can I see them?”

“I will take you to them at first light.”

Rodney was too weak to respond this time, so he merely nodded before dropping into the deep sleep of the very painful and the nearly dead. His adrenaline had run out, and he had nothing left to give.

CHAPTER TWO

Rodney was never aware of first light.

Sometime in the night, he began to sweat and tremble. His skin felt warm while he shivered from cold, even as the deep crimson staining his jacket finally began to slow in its spread.

When Nak tried to wake him the next morning, the scientist never even stirred.

Nak was torn. He was a nomad. He couldn’t lug this guy around forever. Then again, his conscience wouldn’t let him just leave the stranger to die.

He decided to try to help. The elders would know what to do.

It was ten hours later when Nak drug a still unconscious McKay into his home village.

The trip usually took him six hours.

Nak collapsed with exhaustion as soon as he reached his home, only barely managing to tell the few that had come out to meet him of his adventure.

XXX

Nak awoke sometime later to the sound of arguing voices. As he looked around, he discovered he was laying on the floor of the council of the elders. The old men were arguing, but it took Nak a minute to figure out what their debate was about.

When he did, he laid his head back down on the floor and sighed.

McKay.

‘So typical,’ thought Nak.

He’d tried to do something nice, and he was already causing problems.

Nak laughed a little at the thought. He'd have no luck at all if not for bad luck.

The elder closest to him heard Nak's snort and turned to face him.

"And you! What were you thinking bringing a stranger here?"

"He needed help."

"True, and I applaud your spirit, but we have enough problems with the Rud already. There is no reason to bring more upon us by harboring a man who is obviously their enemy."

Nak stood as he entered the conversation, and as he did, he saw the object of this argument.

Rodney was stretched out on a cot across the room. He was still apparently unconscious, but he was moving around slightly in his sleep and mumbling things that were unintelligible to the men present. His skin was as white as the snow Nak often saw in the mountains, and sweat stood out on his brow.

Nak was no doctor, but he knew a dying man when he saw one. His long journey looked like it would be for nothing. The arduous miles spent dragging McKay behind him on a makeshift stretcher were going to be negated by nature.

Rodney McKay was going to die.

Of that Nak was certain.

"Perhaps if we can get him back to the stone ring...he said he could go through it...get help...and that he wouldn't be back if we let him go..."

Nak had only mumbled the words to himself, but the council had heard him anyway. They immediately erupted into a frenzy of frazzled debate.

"It is too far!"

"He will die before he reaches it, anyway."

"The stone ring must not be activated at this time...it will draw the wrath of the Rud upon us! You know they control that area!”

Nak sighed and prepared himself to counter their arguments, but he never got the chance.

Sudden gunfire erupted outside the meeting place.

One of the elders cried out an alarm.

"The Rud! We're under attack!"

Nak grabbed his weapons while yelling a command at the others around him.

"Quickly! Hide the stranger! The Rud must not find him here!"

Rodney was quickly carried by the youngest of the men to a far corner of the shelter. The older men hastily threw whatever they could find on top of him, in an attempt to hide him from sight. Blankets, trash, leaves, and brush were piled on the wounded man.

To an observer, the corner now looked like a mere brush pile. A mess that needed cleaning.

Once their 'guest' was concealed, the men rushed out of the shelter to join in the fight any way they could. Most of the men that had been deciding the fate of the stranger were old, but not so old that they couldn't be of use in a battle.

The men assumed positions around the village, taking weapons of all sorts with them, and before long a full-fledged firefight was going on around the now forgotten feverish stranger.

Gunshots combined with spears, arrows, and all other manner of weapons fire. Shouts rang out in two languages from all directions.

The noise of the battle in the compound was deafening.

But it was short-lived.

As abruptly as it started, the battle was over.

It ended because the warriors from both sides looked fearfully to the sky and ran for cover as if they were possessed or had completely lost their faculties. Even Nak ran.

Everyone ran.

CHAPTER THREE

The giant bug that had suddenly appeared in the center of the village was unlike anything the fighters had ever seen before, but it reminded them of a time long ago, when visitors used to come through the stone ring regularly to make their people vanish in flashes of blue light.

Those visitors were why the people of this world rarely used the stone ring. They knew how, but they were afraid that opening the water door in the ring would cause the deadly visitors to return, so they dared not tempt fate in such a way. Instead, they chose to live simple lives and the ring was only activated on great occasions and holy days, and even then only with caution. This was especially true for Nak’s people, who had to enter Rud territory to access the ring.

So as the puddlejumper landed gently in the village square, there was not a soul to be seen.

Two men and a woman descended the ramp that was quickly lowered from the back of the strange ship while only a handful of curious eyes, belonging to the bravest warriors from both sides of the battle, watched from the cover of the surrounding woods.

Nak's eyes were two of those eyes, and he leaned forward to see the new visitors better.

These were not the same folk as the ones the legends spoke of.

They looked like 'his' stranger, but Nak knew that looks could be deceiving.

He stayed put and watched.

The trio that appeared first from the ship was soon followed by another woman, and then four more men took up the rear.

The group fanned out over the entire village within seconds. They were obviously looking for something. Or someone.

Someone, Nak decided.

Rodney.

The members of the group began to call out the stranger's name.

There was no answer.

Nak considered coming out of hiding to lead the strangers to the wounded man, but his sense of self-preservation was too high to allow such a reckless action. He didn't know what this group wanted with McKay, and for all he knew, they were the ones who had wounded him. Nak figured he might be next.

And so he stayed put. He was still and quiet. And he watched.

XXX

As he lay half buried in debris and brush, Rodney barely registered the sound of gunfire outside, and he never noticed when it stopped. He was only half aware of familiar voices calling his name. He considered answering them, but the effort was too great.

He drifted back to sleep, where it didn't hurt anymore.

As the sounds outside faded from his perception, blackness claimed Rodney.

He gave up.

It was easier that way.

Somewhere, not so far away, an angry soul acted out, and a strong voice with a distinct Scottish accent whispered desperately into the ear of the unconscious man.

"Get up, Rodney."

'I can't,' thought Rodney, not sure if he was hallucinating the familiar voice in his head.

"Aye, you can. And you will. Get up, Rodney."

'No, I really can't...Carson...please...I can't...'

"Rodney...listen to me...it's not your time."

'Carson...it hurts…I’m sick…I can't.'

"Dammit, Rodney, it's not your time. Now GET UP."

The last words were loud and infused with emotion. They left no room for argument on any plane of reality. McKay jolted awake suddenly, thrashing his limbs a few times and yelling out as he did so.

"CARSON!"

Outside, across the compound, Colonel John Sheppard's head whipped around toward a sound he hadn't been expecting. He’d heard a voice. One he knew well. One that often annoyed him but that was sweet music to his ears now. Rodney’s voice. It had rung out suddenly and loudly. The scream had sounded like it’d been torn from the soul of his friend.

The word he’d heard didn't make much sense, but John didn't care.

He took off across the village at a dead run.

He found Rodney two minutes later, a tangle of exposed limbs sticking out from a pile of trash, looking for all the world like a dead man.

John’s heart stopped for a fraction of a second before his training kicked in and he reacted without thought.

Rodney had lost consciousness again, but as John frantically cleared the dirt and leaves off his friend, he checked for a pulse and miraculously found a thready beat that caused a spark of hope to ignite in his chest.

John yelled for Ronon to help him.

The rescue team, plus one Rodney McKay, was back in the puddlejumper and through the gate inside of ten minutes.

Slowly, Nak and the others came out of hiding, their differences forgotten for the moment. As he looked to the sky, Nak smiled, knowing by the way the visitors had carried Rodney that his stranger was back where he belonged after all.

CHAPTER FOUR

Two days later, Rodney woke slowly and painfully to the familiar sounds of the infirmary.

As he slowly slid his eyes open, a roguish voice greeted him.

"Hey, there, Sleeping Beauty."

Rodney closed his eyes again and groaned. He was most definitely not in the mood to deal with John Sheppard and his sarcasm right now, but since it looked like he had no choice, McKay asked the only question on his mind.

"How?" No actual sound came from Rodney's dry lips, but John understood the question easily.

A smile spread across Sheppard's face as he responded.

"Don't worry about that right now. Suffice to say we went through the gate in a cloaked puddlejumper to do an aerial survey for your emergency transponder signal. Didn't find it, but when a firefight broke out within our sensor range, we took a chance that you were somehow involved and searched that area."

At Rodney's indignant look, Sheppard looked a little chagrined and then changed the subject abruptly to cover his discomfort at somewhat insulting a wounded man.

"Look, nothing personal, McKay, but trouble does seem to follow you around like a loyal puppy...I mean, you took a pretty good hit to start off this little adventure of yours...talk about bad luck...nice of you to finally join us, by the way."

Rodney swallowed once and responded in a croaking voice. "How long?"

John made a show of looking at his watch. "Forty seven hours, give or take a bit."

Rodney's eyes became large as he digested this bit of information, but he was spared from any further conversation by an interruption from Atlantis’ medical director, Dr. Keller.

She leaned her head into his partitioned area and smiled.

"I see my patient's awake. Good. Colonel, I need to do a check up here. Would you mind giving us some privacy?"

"No problem."

Sheppard stood and left, and the physician quickly completed her task on an oddly quiet and compliant McKay.

"Well, you're looking as good as can be expected, Rodney. How are you feeling?”

Rodney didn't respond, so after an uncomfortable second, the doctor excused herself.

"Well, you just get some more rest. You'll be out of here in no time.” Keller gave McKay a reassuring pat on the leg and her patient seemed to notice her for the first time since she’d come onto the scene.

The wounded man muttered a quiet response. "Yeah. Ok."

As the woman turned and left, Rodney suddenly smiled a quirky little grin.

It had nothing to do with Dr. Keller’s words.

At the foot of his bed, Rodney could see Carson, bright blue eyes gleaming, sitting there looking as natural as the ocean around Atlantis. When the physician spoke, McKay’s grin grew, and his own eyes twinkled in delight.

"I told you it wasn't your time."

"Yes. Yes, you did."

"She's right you know...you're going to be fine."

"Thanks to you."

Carson smiled a wry grin and gave the slightest humble shrug.

"Aye, anytime. Get some sleep, Rodney. You need it."

Rodney's face screwed up with emotion then and tears filled his eyes. He shook his head briefly from side to side in the tiniest negative.

"You'll be gone again."

Carson's smile became wider.

"It's ok, Rodney. I won't be gone. I'm never far. Never far at all. Go on. Rest. It's ok."

The combination of his friend's comforting words, the drugs in his system, and his extreme fatigue overcame Rodney's desire to stay awake, but despite his reluctance to end the moment, a smile graced his face as he returned to slumber.

Carson had said he was never far.

Never far at all.

It was a comforting thought, and Rodney wrapped it around himself like a warm cloak.

A cloak he would never remove, for as long as he lived.