Evidence of Things Not Seen (John/Carson, Radek/Rodney)

[waldos_writings]

Title: Evidence of Things Not Seen
Words: 2534
Rating: R
Pairing: John/Carson, Radek/Rodney (and if you really want to see it that way, Teyla/Ronon)
Spoilers: none
Summary: Rodney has an epiphany... actually several in rapid succession.
Author's Notes: Pure unadulterated fluff. Oh, and here are words you never thought you'd hear Waldo utter voluntarily, Rodney POV. I have no idea what possessed me to do that. :) kyrdwyn was my awesome beta. Thanks! Title courtesy of the West Wing Episode title challenge at beckettsheppard.



It had been a horrendously long week on MX1-230. They were there on a humanitarian call, rebuilding houses and issuing medical care and helping to redesign the infrastructure that had been destroyed in a hurricane. It had rained the first three days, and everything had been muddy and wet and damp and cold for the rest of the week. When it was over, twenty-four members of the Atlantis expedition had trooped gratefully through the gate and straight into their own (well, mostly their own) hot showers before they even let Elizabeth utter a word about briefings or mission reports.

They reconvened two hours later giving Elizabeth the good news about the rebuilding of the public hall, the inn, several houses and barns and the water and sanitation systems. Carson reported only three deaths not directly attributable to the storm assault on the town. One was crushed under a falling house and had basically taken two days to bleed out. The other two had badly infected wounds that even field amputations couldn’t reverse. However there had been dozens of injuries and illnesses from people inhaling polluted water and getting hit with flying debris.

They all knew it could have been a lot worse and that they’d likely have trading partners in the Ewolans (John still wanted to call them Ewoks) for as long as they wanted.

When Elizabeth dismissed them the group drifted out in clusters. John was walking with his team when Carson passed and John grabbed his arm. “I have beer and… stuff… movies…” He glanced around making sure everyone in his immediate vicinity knew they were invited.

“I uh… Zelenka… We have to check on… we were gone for a while, so…”

John laughed at Rodney’s attempt to be subtle. “Whatever McKay. When you’re done, bring him too.”

After a week in the brush, living in a rather large communal tent, there were very few secrets of that sort amongst them.

Rodney’s eyes widened as he realized what he was being told. “Oh. Um… okay. We uh… this shouldn’t take too long.”

***~~~***~~~***

It took Rodney about fifteen minutes to track down Zelenka and tell him that they’d been invited to have beer ‘and stuff’ over at Sheppard’s. It took them another ten minutes to decide whether or not they wanted to go over there where they’d have to sit a respectable distance apart and remember not to touch each other or if they should make up some kind of excuse for why they couldn’t make it and then just hole up in Radek’s rooms.

When Radek and Rodney showed up, John just thought the door open. Rodney couldn’t help but notice that everyone looked completely wiped out. John and Carson were stretched out side by side on the small bed. There wasn’t anything obvious, but what he hadn’t seen in two weeks in a community tent, was suddenly very clear in his foggy mind. No wonder Sheppard hadn’t seemed to give a damn that he’d wanted to go get Radek before beginning to decompress.

Carson had a glass of something amber and ice, mostly empty, and John had a beer bottle tucked between his legs. Ronon was sitting against the wall and Teyla had commandeered a pillow and had her head on Ronon’s legs. They both had beer as well.

There was a small sofa on a ninety-degree angle to the bed, so he collapsed on one end of it without waiting for an invitation. John waved Radek to the other end with his beer bottle. Everyone seemed too tired to actually talk, but for some reason they still seemed to crave company. Either that or getting up and staggering to their own beds was just way too much work.

“I could put on a DVD,” John said after a while. “I need to get another beer anyway.”

“Sure,” Rodney answered, his head back against the wall. “Get me one too. And him,” he said gesturing vaguely to Zelenka who was slouched against the arm of the sofa.

John knew that at any other time he’d have had eight flip comments about Rodney giving him orders, but he was too tired. He set the laptop up on the desk where they could all see it and handed out beers. “What do we want to watch?”

There was a long, pregnant pause. “Guys?” John pressed.

“It does not matter,” Teyla said from where she lay on Ronon’s lap. Ronon grunted something that may have been an agreement with Teyla’s assessment.

After a long pause where still no one made any suggestions, Rodney sighed. “If you go into the main video directory, there’s a program that randomizes the files. It’ll play each one for three minutes before flipping into something else. Hit the space bar when you want it to stay on whatever’s playing.”

John scrolled down until he found the application and clicked on it and fell back against the bed, jostling Carson. “Yell when something looks interesting.”

An episode of Star Trek came on first. Rodney looked up, realized it was “Mark of Gideon” – not his favorite – and focused instead on his beer. He watched bubbles coming up through the brown glass, extremely aware of Radek’s leg pressed against his. Radek could have scooted away more if he’d wanted to. Rodney found it comforting that he didn’t want to.

He looked away from the bubbles when he saw Sheppard stretching across Carson to take his glass from him. Carson’s eyes fluttered opened and he frowned. “What’s wrong?” he slurred.

“You’re about to spill this on the blankets. And I’m not sleeping in the wet spot tonight.” John gave him a lecherous grin and winked.

Rodney wondered how the hell he hadn’t noticed anything between them before.

“I’m awake,” Carson muttered turning from his side to his back and trying to get his glass back.

“No, you really aren’t,” Sheppard said setting the glass on the table near his side of the bed. “Don’t worry about it. You got less sleep than any of us out there.” As he spoke, he sat up and began unlacing Carson’s boots.

Rodney was struck by how freaking domestic they were. Even though he’d been sleeping with Radek on and off for the past three months, he couldn’t imagine taking off Radek’s shoes for him just because he was half-asleep and hadn’t managed to do it for himself. And he really couldn’t imagine Radek doing it for him either. Hell, they were barely at the point of being willing to spend the night in each other’s rooms instead of fumbling around in the dark to find their shorts and stagger home.

It made him wonder how long these two had been together.

Carson gave up the search for his glass and let his eyes drift shut. Sheppard turned on his side, stroking Carson’s hair back a couple of times, whispering something Rodney couldn’t hear. He found himself studying the video screen intently without really seeing what was on it. Whatever they were doing was personal – intimate – and he didn’t think he was supposed to be watching.

Of course when Sheppard looked up at him, he noticed what was on the screen. “Porn, McKay?”

“Huh?” Rodney focused on the video in time to see a very naked woman sliding down a man’s chest in order to suck his cock down her throat. “Oh! Uh… wow… who put those there?” He jumped up and hit the ‘N’ key to make it skip to the next file.

“Who’s got porn?” Carson asked drowsily, without opening his eyes or moving.

“Yeah, that gets your attention,” Rodney muttered as he skipped through a few files that were too boring to mention… hoping his blush would recede before he had to turn around to sit back down.

“You said you downloaded it,” Ronon put in from the floor.

“Me?” Rodney tried to exclaim indignantly, but his voice cracked making his reply more comical than he’d intended.

“Yeah when we were on that Wraith ship, you said you downloaded porn and music – “

“Music!” Rodney corrected indignantly. “I said I downloaded music and there was a virus.”

Carson laughed at Rodney’s attempt to deny that the files in the master database were his. “Rodney, a good sex life is healthy. Even if it is only by yourself… with a film…”

Rodney risked a glance over at Radek who was watching him with an expression of great amusement on his face. Rodney glared, not sure if admitting that he wasn’t alone with his right hand would be playing into Carson’s hand. For all he knew that was exactly what Carson wanted him to do.

“Yeah, McKay,” Sheppard chipped in, even though Rodney knew damn well that Sheppard had done the math. “A little alone time is good for a person.”

Rodney leveled Sheppard with a glare, it wasn’t worth glaring at Beckett, he hadn’t opened his eyes since Rodney walked in. “I’ll have you know that it’s been some time since I’ve need to be alone to … uh…” He suddenly found himself unable to just blurt out that he was having sex. “You know…”

“No, I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” Sheppard teased. “You haven’t been alone to do what?”

Radek was now turning blue trying to contain his laughter.

“Oh, you find this funny. This is as much about you as it is me,” Rodney accused.

“Yes, but so far, you are the only one they seem to find worth teasing. I would prefer it to stay that way.” Radek gave Rodney his most winning smile.

“Keep it up,” Rodney growled, “And you can go home alone tonight and have a little ‘alone time’ with my films!”

Radek just laughed again. “I think this will be even more punishment for you than for me.”

Rodney flopped back against the couch realizing that Radek was right. “Fine. Mock the tired man.” He crossed his arms and pouted.

“Ooh, hey, someone hit the thing,” John said without clarification. The computer was showing Jurassic Park. It was one of the movies he’d always said he’d watch with Carson so he could pretend to know a few things about genetics… he figured it would be the kind of thing Carson would like. Not that Carson was awake enough to have any kind of on-going conversation. And besides, the dinosaurs were already smashing cars and stuff, which meant the genetics part was over.

From his seat on the sofa Radek could reach the desk and hit the space bar. “You have encountered such creatures here in the Pegasus Galaxy, yes?” Radek asked, deliberately starting a conversation to let Rodney off the hook.

“Yeah, Ford and I ran into something like a T-Rex – “ he waited a second for one to appear on the screen – “Like that one – when we were scouting for alpha sites. Scary mother fuckers, let me tell you.”

“And you all wonder why I don’t volunteer to go off world any more than absolutely necessary.” Radek shook his head in bemusment.

“Chicken,” Rodney said, bumping Radek’s leg with his knee. He finished off his beer and set the bottle on the floor.

“An apt analogy, for a large dinosaur like this, I would be a meal, no? Perhaps just a snack? No thank you. I will stay here in Atlantis and work on Ancient technology.”

Rodney patted Radek’s head. “At least here you only have to worry about me eating you.”

Whatever movement there had been in the room came to an abrupt stop. Teyla craned her head up from where she rested against Ronon and looked at him quizzically. Apparently she’d learned what that meant in Earth parlance.

“I did not just say that out loud,” Rodney groaned and covered his face in his hands. “God, some one shut me up.”

“You heard the man, Radek… shut him up,” John prodded from where he’d shifted Carson – who was now completely dead to the world – against his chest.

Radek debated landing a serious kiss on Rodney right there in front of their friends. He’d never been one for public sex or even what most of the soldiers around the city called PDAs, but it certainly would shut Rodney up. Probably for a few days. He grabbed the front of Rodney’s shirt and pulled him in. He gave Rodney a chance to pull back or object, but when no objection seemed forthcoming, he put his free hand to the back of Rodney’s head and gave him a good long kiss. “Like that?” he asked quietly, eyebrow raised at Rodney.

“That… uh… that works, yeah…” Rodney stammered. He suddenly found himself aware of all the eyes on him. “Oh like you all aren’t doing each other, so he kissed me. Big deal.”

Ronon laughed. “Well, it worked for a few seconds anyway.”

“There’s a movie on, shut up,” Rodney groused, but even as the others laughed, he felt Radek shifting to lean fully against his shoulder. Rodney put his arm around him and squeezed his arm. It was nice not to hide. It was nice to know that when he wanted to talk about what was going on with him and Radek that there were a number of people he could now confide in. And there was the added benefit, that Carson wouldn’t be asking any awkward questions he wouldn’t want to answer during Rodney’s regular full physical next month.

Rodney glanced over to Carson, fully wrapped around Sheppard now, Sheppard’s hand trailing up and down Carson’s spine as he watched the movie. He wondered again how long they’d been together to achieve that level of comfort with each other. He and Radek still acted like they were afraid the other would actually start to feel some sort of attachment or something. But then again, that was much more their personalities than his and Radek’s. Well, at least his. But at the same time, with Radek pressed against his side, the temple of Radek’s glasses pressing into his shoulder somewhat uncomfortably, he realized that a lot of the distance between them was made of his own doing. He’d assumed that Radek wasn’t in this for the emotional end of having a relationship any more than he was. But now he was forced to consider that he was in it for the emotional fulfillment far more than he’d realized.

He lay back so that he was slouched against the couch arm and pulled Radek down against him. They’d probably fall asleep like that and both be sore and cranky when the movie was over and Sheppard woke them all up and herded everyone back to their own quarters. Or, at least not his quarters. But it was worth it. He was comfortable (now that Radek’s glasses weren’t leaving a dent in him) and he was relaxed.

He knew he had a lot of thinking to do about everything he’d learned that night. But for now, he was too mellow to get too deep. He wrapped both arms around Radek’s chest, in full view of a room full of people and finding more pleasure in the act than he would have thought possible an hour ago.