Fic: Six Go Primal In Atlantis - 2/4

[oddegg]

 
* * *


Though spaceships weren’t always as impressive as imagination made them out to be, sadly.

Oh, Connor was sure that the ships – ‘puddlejumpers’ Sheppard called them – did some amazing things; he could practically hear the drool in Ryan and Stephen’s voices as they talked to Sheppard and Lorne about ‘inertial dampeners’ and ‘near frictionless acceleration’ and ‘torque’ and other such mysteries, and the cloaking device that Sheppard showed them was very cool. But in Connor’s book a spaceship should look like a spaceship; like the Millennium Falcon or like one of the shuttles out of Firefly. It shouldn’t look like the ugly offspring of a subway train and a squashed tin can.

Sheppard appeared to take his badly hidden lack of interest as a personal affront and that attractive mouth was pouting somewhat as they trailed out of the hanger after him. He stopped them by a door and said in a slightly sulky tone “We’ll take the transporter over to the lab complex. You might find them more interesting”

Ryan looked through the open door into what looked like a lift, raised an eyebrow and said in a wry voice “Transporter? You lot are just a big bunch of Trekkies, aren’t you?”

Connor couldn’t help himself. Before anyone else could answer he butted in “Actually, the preferred term is Trekkers”

Both Sheppard and Lorne openly smirked and the two marines accompanying them hid smiles as well. Stephen just sighed and shook his head.

Connor cringed internally as he snuck a glance over at Ryan, but the soldier’s eyes seemed amused and his voice was light as he said gently “Connor, you’re meant to be on my side, mate”

Yes, despite the sniggers from the others it was definitely fond amusement in those eyes; growing as Ryan’s mouth quirked up at one side – and Connor realised with a jolt that he’d quite happily be on any side the Captain wanted so long as he carried on looking at him like that… and he’d promised himself to stop thinking things like that, hadn’t he?. He flushed and turned quickly to Sheppard. “So. Science labs?”

They all traipsed into the transporter and Sheppard pressed an area on the lit up map embedded into the wall as the door slid shut. He turned and started to say “Smoothest…” when the lights flickered rapidly and the whole thing gave a shuddering jerk that made them all stumble and would have knocked Connor off his feet if Ryan hadn’t grabbed his arm. The door efficiently slid open as though nothing at all had happened.

“Oookay.” Sheppard herded them out into a door lined corridor and scowled back into the transporter “I was gonna say ‘smoothest elevator ride ever’ before the damn thing decided to embarrass me. I’ll have to get Rodney to send someone to have a look at it”

He shrugged and looked thoughtfully down the corridor “I think… I think we’ll give Rodney’s labs a miss right now because you really need him there to explain what they do there”

Lorne muttered something under his breath that sounded like ‘and you’ll be sleeping on the couch if you mess around with his stuff’ and then responded to Sheppard’s glare with a limpid gaze of soulful innocence. Which Sheppard didn’t believe for a moment if the narrowed eyes were anything to go by and Connor didn’t blame him – after all, he’d known the major just a few short hours and even he could tell that Lorne was a born wind-up merchant. He reminded Connor of Stephen in that respect actually.

But it seemed Sheppard was going to ignore it with another shrug. He said calmly
“I think we should try the botany labs, don’t you Lorne? I’m sure Parrish will be happy to show these guys a thing or two”

Though by the way Lorne’s face fell at that maybe Sheppard wasn’t ignoring as much as it looked like.

When they got to the botany lab – or botany greenhouse; huge and, as they could see through the glass walls, one of many – it took even Connor, who would freely admit to not being great at picking up social signals, very little time to figure out what Lorne didn’t like about the situation.

Exactly the time it took for the tall, gangly looking man working at one of the lab tables to look up with a friendly smile, for his gaze to trail over their group and stop when it got to Stephen, and for his smile to get an extra edge of happiness as he looked the tracker up and down. Connor thought the happiness must have been going spare because, looking at Lorne’s scowling face; it obviously wasn’t being used elsewhere. (Though judging by the smirk Colonel Sheppard appeared amused.)

The man who was presumably Parrish said “Hi there! Can I help you all with anything?”

His voice was soft and friendly and there was more than a hint in the eyes still locked on Stephen that the ‘anything’ he was willing to help with was fairly inclusive.

Sheppard said cheerfully “Dr Parrish! We were just showing our visitors around and I thought you might give us some quick highlights of what goes down here in botany”

One of the marines was standing quite close behind Connor and he could have sworn the man muttered ‘apart from Parrish himself?’ but he decided that he was going to act as oblivious as he could to all the innuendo flying around.

A reputation for being clueless could be useful sometimes.

It was certainly useful now. Although ignoring the increasingly uncomfortable atmosphere was taxing even him, because there was being clueless and unaware and then there was being just plain dense and, watching Parrish and Stephen flirt shamelessly with each other as the group moved through the lab with Lorne’s face growing ever more thunderous, Connor thought that even someone who was blind and deaf would be able to sense the tension. It was making the hair on the back of his neck stand up.

It was making the space between his shoulders ache with the strain of not hunching them too, and he was attempting to pay attention to the explanation Dr Parrish was giving about the sentient looking plant he was showing them (which was actually moving to face the person speaking and looked disturbingly like a Triffid), so he felt he had an excuse for not noticing Ryan silently coming up behind him until the soldier asked in a low voice “You ok Connor?”

His excuse for throwing his hands up and shrieking like a little girl was perhaps less valid though. He whirled round on the captain.

“Don’t do that!! Christ! I’ve had enough near heart attacks without you practicing your silent stalk on me!”

Judging from the surprised looks from everyone else, maybe that had been a bit loud. And maybe shouting at someone in the Special Forces wasn’t that great an idea. Ryan raised an eyebrow and dropped his gaze. Connor followed it down to his own trembling finger, which was still busy poking Ryan in the chest. Ah. No – that probably wasn’t a good thing to do either.

Ryan captured Connor’s finger in his hand and his lips twitched as he queried “’Silent stalk’?”

Perhaps it was the warmth of the other man’s hand that was making him feel a bit hot, and maybe it was the faint scrape of gun calluses that made him feel shivery. Connor could faintly hear Sheppard’s radio crackle and the colonel’s reply interwove through his own as Connor began to babble an answer at Ryan “Y-yes, you know – that Rambo, Predator…”

“Carson, say again? Radio’s acting up. Results of what test?”

“…creep through the jungle thing that all you guys do…

“ATA? What? You’re breaking up – who did you say…?”

“…though I swear your main reason for doing it’s to give me the willies!”

But the indignant end to his speech didn’t make much of an impression, as Ryan’s attention had switched over to Sheppard, who himself was fiddling with his ear set and frowning at Connor.

The colonel tapped his foot a couple of times and then seemed to come to a decision about something. He opened his mouth but before he could speak he was interrupted by a cacophony of alarms going off – then, before anyone could react to those, the shrill, panicky voice of Dr McKay came over some out-of-sight PA system.

“Sheppard! Where the hell are you and why isn’t your radio working? Get back here! Something that Cutter tells me is one of their anomalies has just appeared in the Gate room and huge dragonflies are now flying around – and knowing my luck they bite and I’ll be allergic and DIE so come and deal with them!!”

There was a moment when even the screeching alarms seemed to be holding their breath and then Dr Parrish asked, with astonishingly mild curiosity “What’s that thing down there?” and the before anyone could turn he added rather more urgently “And what’s that thing coming out of it?”

Connor turned with a horribly familiar sense of dread and – yes – there was one of the glittering, refracted patches of air that they’d come to know so well, shimmering down the other end of the lab. And as the creature that had just hopped out of it twisted round to face them and he saw the wide mouth full of sharp teeth and the front facing eyes of a predator he noted one more very important fact about this particular anomaly.

It (and so, of course, anything that came out of it) was between them and the door.

He hadn’t known quite how good his reaction time had become since he started working with the anomaly team, but Connor was moving before he heard Ryan’s muted bellow of “Everyone MOVE!!”

He scrambled behind the Atlantis military guys, noting that Stephen had grabbed Dr Parrish and was hauling him back as well. Sheppard and the others had all drawn guns and were watching the creature very warily. With good reason, as it hunched down and then suddenly leapt up onto a lab table, scattering equipment and smashing glass and plant specimens. It shoved its blunt head forward and – instead of the hiss or roar that Connor expected – howled at them.

“Jesus H Christ!”

The marine who’d cried out put his gun up and fired, but the creature had already moved, jumping to the next bench and keeping in motion with an odd hopping, backward-and-forward, baiting action that made hitting it difficult. It ducked its head, shot out a ruff of what looked like spines and howled at them again.

“There! There – come on, that room there. Shift it!!”

Ryan spun Connor round and shoved him toward the door he was pointing at. Stephen was already hustling Dr Parrish through it and Connor followed at a flat run. This time the howl was a furious shriek and the rest of the group barely had time to dive through the door and close it behind them before it shuddered with the impact of the creature hitting the other side. Its outraged scream was barely muffled by the material and the door shook again as the creature started ramming it. Lorne braced his back to it until the two marines dragged a heavy bench across to block it and then they all stepped back cautiously. Sheppard watched with raised eyebrows as the handle rattled a couple of times and said in a deceptively light tone “You know, this is all starting to feel uncomfortably like Jurassic Park”

“Welcome to my life”

Ryan’s tone, on the other hand, could probably be classed as a snarl and he looked as edgy as he ever got. He met Sheppard’s eyes and asked “Look. Do you have a spare sidearm I can use? You confiscated all my weapons and I’m feeling a bit fucking useless here”

Sheppard nodded slowly and glanced over at one of the marines. In response to his commander’s look the man unsnapped a heavy looking handgun from a side holster and passed it over to Ryan along with two spare clips, then swung the big gun that Ryan had called a P-90 back into a ‘ready’ position.

Ryan automatically checked the mechanism, checked the clip and then pocketed the spares with a pleased smile. It probably didn’t say comforting things about the man that he looked so much more relaxed and happy once he had a gun in his hand, but personally speaking Connor had always felt safer with a happy, armed-to-the-hilt, Special Forces member between him and anything with as much teeth as the creature outside had.

While Ryan had been making his checks Sheppard had been looking around and now he fixed Dr Parrish with a look “What the hell is this place? It looks like Home Depot exploded in here. And what’s with the door – that’s not Atlantis standard!”

The door did look rather out of place. In the whole city of sleek, sliding automation this was a battered, wooden embarrassment. And now that he checked around Connor could see that some of the walls also looked a little wood and plaster-boardish. And as for the room’s contents… benches cluttered with bottles and tins and bits of this and that; shelves filled with bags of fertilizer and compost and coils of rope and metal containers; the floor had empty pots and wire cages stacked up in places.

Parrish scratched his ear and looked round with surprise as though he’d only just noticed what a tip the place was “Well, Gordon put it together and we’ve kinda been sharing it with zoology. I’m not sure where he got the stuff for it. He said he missed his shed”

“Gordon?”

“Dr Thorburn. He works with the Athosians on their crops?”

Comprehension dawned on Sheppard’s face “You mean that weird British guy? The one who’s bizarrely enthusiastic about potatoes?” he threw a dubious look around the room and added in a mutter “Figures”

The door thudded again and there was a clawing noise as well. Sheppard pursed his lips and asked the room at large “So. Given that this ‘shed’ doesn’t have a back door… Any advice on getting past our noisy friend out there? I know he’s eager to play but I really should get back to the Gate room”

Ryan had been quietly poking around in debris he’d rummaged up from under one of the benches. Still doing something unseen with part of it he said dryly over his shoulder “I’ve always found that shooting them a lot works quite well”

Then he turned round holding up a small jar, seemingly empty apart from a few oily-rainbow smears on the glass. He carefully added a few drops of liquid from another container, capped the jar and gestured to it with a flourish and a smirk
“But there are more exciting options. Care to get the door for me?”

Sheppard looked at the jar, glanced at the vial of purple liquid that Ryan had put back on the bench and then back at Ryan with a matching smirk “Cool! Few shots to drive him back, then you throw?”

They were grinning at each other like demons now and Connor found himself backing away. He bumped into Dr Parrish, who had obviously had the same reaction. They both watched warily as Sheppard signalled the marines to pull the bench away from the door while Lorne braced against it again. Then, on a silent, mimed count of three, in quick succession Lorne jerked the door open about a foot, Sheppard fired off several rounds through the gap and then jumped back, and Ryan reached through the opening, lobbed the glass jar and slammed the door shut again.

There was a very loud, cracking, ‘BOOM!’ noise and then something hit the door with a rather wet sounding ‘slap!’

After a long moment Ryan cracked the door open an inch and checked through it. Then he laughed and turned to Sheppard “I think the stupid bastard tried to play fetch! Its head’s just gone!”

The military contingent piled out the door and the rest of the group cautiously followed to find them standing around the dead creature, occasionally prodding it with their boots. Connor peered past Ryan and gulped queasily. The creature’s skull was now mostly gone, with just a small part of the top still there with one lone eye cloudily staring up at them. And it was definitely very, very dead.

He asked Ryan quietly “What was that you threw?”

Ryan smiled happily at him “Little bit of petrol, few drops of potassium permanganate – they use it for cleaning fish ponds sometimes. Act like a stick of dynamite if you put ‘em together in a jar”

Connor smiled weakly back. Oh my god; the man was insane.

Sheppard was beaming like he’d just had the time of his life and one of the marines said in a voice of deep reverence “That was sooo cool!”

They were ALL insane.

The other marine had taken a few steps closer to the anomaly, which was still there, but Ryan called him back “Hang on, mate. You don’t want to get to close with anything metal” then in response to the man’s questioning look he continued “It’s like a really strong magnet. Look, I’ll show you”

Ryan carefully snapped the sidearm he’d borrowed into his own empty thigh holster and picked up a small trowel from a nearby workbench. As he walked forward and the trowel started vibrating from the magnetic pull Connor suddenly had a very, very bad feeling and opened his mouth to say so but before he could –

“Christ!!”

Oh god. Oh Jesus god! The front half of another one of the creatures lunged out of the anomaly and one swiping claw caught on the sleeve of Ryan’s outstretched arm… It was pulling him in! And no-one could get a clear shot for fear of hitting Ryan and he was going to, he was going to be…

Connor felt something twist inside him and he threw out his hands, screaming –

“NO!!!”

The anomaly disappeared. No warning or fanfare – between one moment and the next, quicker than a blink, it was gone.

But it left a souvenir. The parts of the second creature that was been through the anomaly when it closed were still there, dropping to the ground with a soggy thud and releasing Ryan so suddenly he stumbled backwards.

For a long moment the only thing that interrupted the silence was the scratch and skitter of the creature’s claws on the tiles as it gave a final few twitches of a dying nervous system – and then the PA sounded out again.

“Sheppard, the situation has gone back to as near normal as it ever is round here, but you still need to come back. And bring our geeky guest with you”

As one man, everyone in the room turned to look at Connor.

“…What?”


* * *


“So”

They were all once again in the meeting room overlooking the Gate room, with the addition of Dr Beckett and Radek; who they learned was more formally called Dr Zelenka and was McKay’s second in command (or ‘least useless underling’ as McKay put it).

There had been reports on the results of tests done on blood Dr Beckett had drawn from them while they were unconscious. There had been explanations as to what those results would have meant if they hadn’t been, in this instance, ‘so bloody weird’. There had been speculation and deduction regarding what this odd change in them meant and how exactly it was related to the appearance of the anomalies in the city.

There had been a lot of shouting.

Connor quickly learnt that being on the receiving end of a lecture by Dr McKay was a bit like having your brain taken down a dark alley and beaten up by a bigger one and once he did grasp what the man was saying the idea was so utterly insane that he really felt rather dazed.

He repeated again “So… You’re telling me I’m some sort of physics Typhoid Mary?”

McKay snapped “That’s both a bad analogy and a gross simplification!”

“But you are saying you think Connor’s somehow causing the anomalies”

Ryan’s voice was flat and Connor shrank a little into his chair. If this was right, if McKay’s crazy theory was even near the truth…

The Special Forces team they worked with never had an easy time with the anomalies. People got hurt. There had been some very, very close calls. And if Connor was responsible for that happening to Ryan and his men then he didn’t imagine he’d be in the Captain’s good books.

But when he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced up it was to see Ryan subtly changing his stance so that he was a little in front of Connor. And Lyle was mirroring him on Connor’s other side; both of them now slightly between Connor and the others like… like they were shielding him.

“Mr Temple’s enthusiasm may be wearing at times but the boy does not have a malicious bone in his scruffily clad body. Do you have any reason for this rather fantastical theory, Dr McKay?”

And that was Lester’s haughty drawl right behind him so – unbelievable though it was - that must be Lester’s hand that came down to rest reassuringly on Connor’s shoulder. He was torn between feeling bewilderingly moved at the loyalty these men were showing him and blindly panicking at visions of himself being painfully punished for breaking the space time continuum.

McKay threw up his arms and huffed in exasperation. “Did you hear me say he was doing it on purpose? No, of course you didn’t, because I said no such thing! So you can all stop the protective, macho posturing! No. He’s not causing them in the active meaning of the word: it’s more like he’s attracting them. Fascinating really…”

The visions of punishment faded but those piercing blue eyes bored into Connor and brought images of McKay murmuring “Fascinating...” over his experimented on and dissected body, so he wasn’t feeling any more secure.

Stephen was pinching the bridge of his nose like he had a headache and he sounded stressed as he asked “So he’s not causing them – they’re just happening wherever he is and it’s something to do with his genes? I still don’t understand this!”

“Ok. To explain yet again” McKay’s manner was one of edgy patience “One of the things that enables us to survive in this city – apart from the fact that we have me and my genius on board – is the fact that some of us have the ATA or Ancient Technology Activation gene. With it we can actually use the things that the Ancients left behind. Now, for some of us the acquisition of this gene had to involve Carson and painful, very large needles but some people are born with it naturally; like the Colonel or the Major here. Your friend seems to be a natural carrier as well, except that the form of the gene that Carson found in his blood is subtly different. And given that my equipment registered an energy wavelength from, whatshisname – Template here’s blood sample and that exactly the same sort of reading registered in a much larger form when the time anomalies appeared I think we can hypothesis that he’s got something to do with it, mmm? Do you notice anything when they happen?”

The quick rush of words had distracted Connor so much that it took him a moment – and an impatient finger-snapping in his direction – to get that McKay had addressed that last bit to him. He tried to think.

“The one that we came here through felt… blocked or something at first. We kind of had to push to get through? And they always feel a bit tingly to be around while they’re open and before they open it can feel a bit like when there’s a storm coming – you know, kind of static-y? But everyone gets that, it’s nothing special”

Only, the strange looks and the negative headshakes his team mates were sending him told Connor that those feelings weren’t usual. That he was the only one who felt like that; who would feel the hair on his neck stand up and know which way to turn to see that glittering shatter of space in the air; who would look at the screen of the Anomaly Detection Device a second before the alarms signalled a new example. It had always felt so natural it never occurred to him that it wasn’t normal.

“How do I stop it?”

Connor didn’t really register how upset he was until he heard his own voice sounding so small and choked. He swallowed and met McKay’s eyes “This… It’s…” he took a deep breath “The worlds and times the anomalies show us are amazing – wonderful! But they’re dangerous a lot of the time as well – Ryan could have been killed earlier and I’d rather not have the wonders at all if it means that people I…”

He broke off. God! Better think of a way to finish that sentence that wouldn’t get him beaten up by any members of a, generally speaking, institutionally homophobic organization. He said very carefully “I, I don’t want anyone getting hurt if I can help it”

McKay’s eyes flickered quickly from Connor to Ryan “Well, I’d prefer if possibly deadly creatures weren’t released in my city again so we’re in agreement there. But the problem is that as I don’t know how you’re actually doing it – yet – there isn’t much we can do to stop it”

He frowned and his wide mouth slanted even further down like he’d tasted something bitter before he added “And there’s also not much I can do about sending you back”

Oh shit.

The distress Connor was feeling rose up to swamp him. He was going to be responsible for them all being stranded here! He wouldn’t be able to control the anomalies and they’d keep on appearing and even more predators would start coming through and they would all be overwhelmed and he would end up being responsible for the entire city being eaten alive!!

Through the rushing in his ears he could faintly hear an alarm sound and someone shout “Gods sake! Not again!” but that whooping, gasping noise was much closer and when exactly had it started to get so dark in here? When a hand grabbed his shoulder and shook him he looked up with blurry vision to see Ryan mouthing something at him and behind Ryan, through the glass – out in the open space beyond…

Connor looked at the new anomaly, pouring water out on the Gate room floor along with fish and ammonites. He watched as soldiers struggled to keep their feet in the flood and as one of them was whacked over the head and laid out by a particularly large catfishy looking thing.

And then he fuzzily decided that passing out would probably be the better part of valour.


* * *


“You’re a bloody little idiot, aren’t you Temple?”

Mmm. Not generally a set of words that Connor liked waking up to. Though he supposed there could be worse ones. ‘Did somebody get the car’s number?’ or ‘You strap him down and I’ll mark out where the kidneys are’ sprang to mind.

Besides, if you disregarded the words the actual tone was one of warm concern. And the voice was a nice one; husky and low. Connor had always liked Ryan’s voi…

His eyes snapped open. He looked left. Yes, that was Captain Tom Ryan sitting in the chair by the bed Connor was lying in, looking at him with an air of exasperated fondness.

And apparently at some point during the time he’d known the man Connor’s brain had decided to deduce the meaning of Ryan’s every expression and nuance of voice and to catalogue them all for instant reference.

And now that he mentioned it, his brain also had some observations about Ryan’s eyes and how very blue they were and on how nice his lips were and how they often looked like they were just about to break into a smile. Oh, and had Connor noticed the guys shoulders? Or his arse?

Yes, it appeared Connor had.

He thought that the small noise he’d just made at that realization would best be described as, ‘meep!’

“Hey, are you alright Connor? You in pain? You clipped your head a good one when you fainted”

Ryan’s brow was furrowing in a worried way and he started to reach out towards Connor.

“Yes, yep – I’m fine, absolutely fine! Nothing to worry about! Fine!”

And ok, his voice may have gone up into a yelp at the end there but he really was fine.

Honest.

Nothing to see here but a sudden, blinding insight into his sexual identity.

He could feel his breathing start to quicken but before he could start hyperventilating in earnest McKay burst into the room along with Dr Beckett, with Lester and Lyle sauntering behind them. The scientist pointed at Connor and snapped “Oh no you don’t! No more panic attacks for you, Anomaly Boy! Start that Victorian fit-of-the-vapours shit again and I’ll take great pleasure in slapping the sense back into you”

There was a low growl from Ryan at that but McKay just flapped a hand dismissively at him. “Fine, fine, Captain Protective. You Tarzan, him your skinny little Jane and all that jazz. Carson doesn’t let people beat up his patients anyway”

“Aye, very unfair of me, isn’t it Rodney?”

“Yes – you never let me have any fun, you sheep-obsessed bloodsucker”

Carson rolled his eyes at the insult and McKay put his hands on his hips and fixed Connor with a beady eye as he continued “But apart from offending Carson’s veterinary Hippocratic Oath I think getting you upset would be counterproductive until I know more about how the anomalies are occurring. Because they seem to be turning up when you are upset. Or panicked. And while I would be very interested in studying these phenomena in controlled conditions I don’t want any more T-Rex’s or the equivalent turning up in the same room as me, so your only job from now until my genius solves the problem is to keep yourself very, very calm. Bored even. Pretend you’re watching college football”

Carson was taking Connor’s pulse with a gentle hand and said calmly “Ye wouldn’t be saying that if Colonel Sheppard were here”

McKay shrugged “Yes, well he’s clearing fish off the floor of the Gate room right now. And you” he pointed at Connor again “You are going to go to your room and stay there until morning. And be very bored”

Connor wet his lips “Erm. I don’t actually have a room here”

Lester was the one who answered, and there was secret amusement hiding in his drawl
“In point of fact, the good people of Atlantis have been kind enough to sort out some accommodation for us”

His smile was pure, gracious evil. “You’re sharing with Captain Ryan”

Connor stared at him open mouthed. Oh, great. They were condemned to disaster.

Because sharing a room with Ryan wasn’t going to excite him at all, was it?


* * *


Oh… This was a really bad idea.

Connor surveyed the room that had been ‘sorted out’ for him and Ryan and tried very manfully to suppress a groan. He had been dragged, hustled and prodded here by Ryan; taking the stairs, because McKay had said ‘I think you affected the transporter earlier as well, Sheppard told me it acted funny, and so you’re to leave them alone too’

(Lester and Lyle had followed them part way and then peeled off at a different corridor. Lyle had given him what Connor thought had been a particularly sarcastic wave – and he could have sworn Lester had winked).

He’d been trying to persuade Ryan against this all the way, or at least to register his protest against it, but he’d never really been allowed to get further than “Look…” or “But…” before Ryan had poked him in the back and pushed him further along the way.

Along the way to his doom it seemed. He looked at the one, not very wide bed that was all the room apparently had to offer by way of sleeping facilities and that he’d presumably be sharing with Ryan. Yup. Doomed.

Bad, bad, bad idea.

“Why’s that?”

Connor whirled round and stared at Ryan like a rabbit in headlights. He stuttered “W-what?”

“What’s a bad idea? And why?”

Oh shit. Connor didn’t realize he’d said that out loud. Quick! Cover!

“I… er… um.” Think, damn it! Think! “The bed!”

Ryan looked over at the bed, which for such an undersized thing suddenly seemed to fill the room, then looked back at Connor and raised an eyebrow “U-huh. That’s a bed”

“It’s very small”

He really didn’t mean for his voice to crack like that.

“Yes. It is”

Had Ryan’s eyes always been that dark?

“There’s only one. We… we’d have to share”

“Yes. We will”

No, his eyes were still the same pale blue. They just looked darker because the pupils were dilated. It was easier to see now that Ryan had moved so much closer.

Connor couldn’t tear his eyes away from Ryan’s mouth, which was smiling very slightly. Ryan said softly “And it’s bedtime now, Connor”

Danger! Danger, Connor Temple! Set mouth to emergency babble mode!

“I’m not sleepy, honest! I had a long nap, what with the passing out and being unconscious and all. And I snore! I’d be likely to interfere with you in your sleep – with your sleep! – I meant interfere with your sleep! Anyway, I – I – I… I can sleep on the couch!”

“There’s no couch, Connor”

Ryan’s eyes were so warm. And his lips looked so soft. Connor said weakly “The floor then! Or, or the balcony…”

“Connor?”

“…yes?”

“Shut up”

Oh.

Ohhh.

Ryan’s lips were as soft as they looked. Connor knew that because Ryan was now kissing him. Kissing him carefully and delicately, close mouthed, with one hand warm and gentle against his jaw.

Then Ryan’s tongue made a tentative swipe across Connor’s lips and Connor made a small whimper as he opened them to let Ryan in – and abruptly the kiss wasn’t careful or gentle anymore. It was dirty and frenetic and Connor’s arms were round Ryan’s neck and Ryan’s hand moved from Connor’s jaw to fist in the hair at the back of his head and his other arm snaked round Connor’s waist to pull them together hard.

And oh god, it was hard. They were both hard and hot and Connor was aching with it, so much that he had to move, shift his leg, lift it up and wrap it round Ryan’s hip, get them together close, closer, closest.

Ryan made a rumbling noise deep in his throat that sounded like a growl and then Connor found himself being lifted up; Ryan holding onto his thigh, his bum – fingers grasping so hard they were going to leave bruises. He reared back in automatic reaction, pulling himself away from his new obsession with Ryan’s mouth, but Ryan didn’t get pulled off balance at all and Connor had a flash of proper understanding of just how strong the other man was physically that he could handle Connor’s not particularly light weight as though it were nothing. The idea of what that strength could do made him feel dizzy and hot and Connor couldn’t help the thin whine that escaped him.

A couple of long strides and Ryan had carried him over to the bed and dropped him down to lean over him, one knee between his legs. Connor was panting for breath and when Ryan smiled darkly and slowly leaned forward to bite his neck he lost it a bit, writhing and scrabbling at the other man’s back, trying to pull him down. His neck had always been a hot spot for him and under Ryan’s teasing teeth and tongue he became so unfocused that he barely understood when Ryan started speaking, the soldier’s words rolling past him in a deep, husky stream “God, Connor… you have no idea… wanted to do this to you for ages...”

“…wanted to, to do what?”

Ryan pressed himself up off Connor and all he was feeling was there to see, emotions stripped down and bare on his face. His voice was rough when he spoke, suiting action to his words as he did “Wanted to undress you. Wanted to see you naked. See what’s under those nerdy clothes; what your chest’s like under those stupid, damn waistcoats…”

Connor flopped back onto the bed after Ryan had dragged his shirt off and protested weakly “My clothes aren’t nerdy!”

Ryan ran blunt nails down Connor’s chest and he arched up with a gasp. Ryan repeated reproachfully “Stupid. Damn. Waistcoats.”

He added as he worked his way down the bed, getting rid of the last of Connor’s clothing “And cords – you wear actual cords. Baggy ones that hide your arse”

The soldier stood up for all of the five seconds it took him to strip his own clothes off, and then draped back over Connor “And you’ve got a nice arse, Connor – I’ve been looking at it while I’ve been looking after it, so I know”

Connor was sure that he could have come up with an argument in defence of his cords but his mind was struggling to stay coherent when Ryan was looking down at him with pure, naked lust and starting to move their bodies together, nudging Connor’s legs apart to bring them into more direct contact.

He tried to dredge up something, but then Ryan rolled them to their sides and any concentration or thought he had shot straight down to his groin as the other man gave one of his hands a long, wet lick, then shoved it down between them, wrapped it around both of their cocks and started to pull and to thrust.

Any brain cells he had left travelled downward too, as well as the ability to move anything apart from his hands clutching at Ryan’s shoulders and whatever muscle it was that controlled moaning, since he really was doing a lot of that. But that was alright because Ryan was as well, both of them with their faces close together, panting into each others mouths and shuddering and twisting together as the movement of Ryan’s hand got rougher and jerkier, trembling and shaking, shaking…
– shaking each other apart.

For a brief moment Connor thought he was actually going to white out and then for several long moments all he could do was lie there, the occasionally residual shiver running through him in reaction and wondering if he’d ever feel his toes again.

Then Ryan gave a long, contented sigh and pecked Connor on the lips before rolling off the bed onto his feet. Connor watched as he padded over to the bathroom that could be seen through the door in the wall opposite. He heard water running and then the soldier came back carrying a washcloth. Connor was still appreciating the sight of the very naked Ryan, finding all that tanned skin over hard-muscles a fairly distracting view, and so was a bit slow in reaching out for the flannel – but that didn’t matter anyway. He watched, rather bemused, as Ryan carefully wiped him down with the cloth; making sure to get every bit of the sticky fluid that they’d both spilled onto each others bodies. Once he was done Ryan planted a little sucking kiss on Connor’s belly and grinned up at him.

“There. Nice and clean”

“…all ready to get dirty again?”

He’d meant to sound confident; maybe a bit cheeky, but Connor winced internally at how tentative and timid he sounded instead. He still wanted an answer though. He wasn’t completely inexperienced but – well, it sounded horribly Edwardian but it would be nice to know what Ryan’s intentions were.

In other words, to get some indication of what his chances were of getting another shag.

Ryan just shook his head with a laugh and prodded Connor till he shifted over on the bed a bit, then climbed in as well and pulled the blankets up over them. He slung an arm over Connor and said through a yawn “Give me a bit of a breather, you greedy bugger. My recovery time’s not that good! In the morning…”

Well. Connor stared up through the dark and listened as Ryan’s breathing deepened.

That sounded quite promising.


* * *


The next morning was – odd. In a vaguely awkward way.

Not because of what had happened the night before – now that he’d given in and admitted to himself that there might be a slight possibly he was a little bit gay his mind was surprisingly not panicking – and waking up with Ryan spooned up behind him, his strong arm tight around him had been… nice. Very, very nice.

Especially once Ryan woke up fully and subtly cleared up any niggling doubts Connor had about what the soldier’s plans might be by rolling him over and giving him an extremely expert blowjob.

Connor’s reciprocation attempt may not have been as proficient in its deep-throating aspect but Ryan certainly sounded like he enjoyed it.

But once they’d dressed and they went out to meet up with the others for breakfast things became… slightly disconcerting.

For one thing he and Ryan had met Lester and Lyle before they even got to the dining hall. Almost bumped into them in fact, coming out into the corridor from a room; and it was very evident that not only had the two apparently shared a room for the night but that they had ‘shared a room’ in the same way Connor and Ryan had. Lyle had the smuggest, most satisfied grin that Connor had ever seen on him. And Lester had a vivid lovebite just above his shirt collar.

It wasn’t Lyle’s ‘Lieutenant Who Got The Cream’ look that shocked Connor (though he really wished his mind hadn’t put it quite in those terms), but the fact that it was Lester who’d inspired it. Connor had realised since they’d been in Atlantis that there was more to Sir James Lester than a title and a sneer, but he’d always thought of bureaucrats as vaguely sexless – like smooth, genitalia free GI Joe’s with clipboards instead of guns – and to be faced with unmistakable signs of the man’s love life was discomforting.

Ryan didn’t seem to find it surprising at all. In fact he looked pleased about it.

Then, when they got to the mess and had sat down at the table Nick had already staked out, Stephen had come into the hall in full slink mode and when he got to the table Nick’s first words to him were “Where did you spend the night then? Because I called for you this morning and your bed hadn’t been slept in”

Stephen smirked and muttered something about Major Lorne and Dr Parrish showing him a thing or two around the city; then he sent a heavy-lidded glance over at where Lorne was sitting at a table across the room and Lorne met his eyes and grinned and licked his lips. And the way he licked his lips was the essence of Too Much Information for Connor.

He started to wonder whether they were putting something in the water here.

At least Nick was being his usual self!

Then Dr Weir stopped by the table and asked “Ready then?” with a pert smile and Nick smiled back, gave a rushed explanation to the rest of them about ‘fascinating anthropological research’ that sounded to Connor’s ears very much like ‘don’t wait up’ and went off with a spring in his stride.

Definitely something in the water.


(link to part three)