#twotalesff

He managed to keep it together as he ruined Carson's goodbye. The thought of them both leaving too much to handle. He'd make it up to Carson later. Maybe.

The second Carson walked away he snatched Radek’s wrist and pulled him stumbling into an empty corridor.

"Rodney!" The man wrenched his arm away. Face twisted up in confusion.

“Why the hell are you going off to some university?”

Radek rolled his eyes and held one hand up. “I wish to focus on research.”

“Research?” Rodney balked, “what sort of research can you really do there?” He leaned toward Radek. “Come to area fifty-one with me.” He flashed what he hoped was his best smile, "it's infinitely more entertaining than anything at Mazawhatever University."

"Masaryk," Radek corrected. He shook his head. “Rodney,” he intoned, “area fifty-one is,” he spread his hands, “the most likely place to keep putting out fires similar to Atlantis.” He shook his head, glasses slipping down his nose, “I do not wish to deal with this.”

Rodney’s chest constricted.

Radek couldn’t leave.

His hand slammed on the wall next to Radek’s head. The man jumped, blue eyes startled behind his glasses.

"No." Rodney blinked rapidly at his own reaction.

Radek frowned. “No?”

"Um," he tried to ignore the dark look on Radek’s face as sweat trickled down his neck. He swallowed thickly as Radek crossed his arms and glared harder. Rodney coughed into his hand and straightened up. “I’m sure they would offer you a job."

“You aren’t listening, as usual.” Radek sighed deeply, “I don’t want it Rodney.”

Rodney’s fists tightened at his sides. “What are you just going to play it safe knowing what's out there!?” He threw a hand into the air. “Forget it ever happened,” his ears burned, "forget about the bigger things going on in the universe."

Forget about me.

Radek got up in his face. "Maybe that is why I want to go do research at university. Hm?" Hot breath fanned over Rodney’s face. “This is ridiculous,” he flung his hands up, “You and your ego.” He shoved his finger into Rodney’s chest. "You cannot tell me what to do."

"Radek.” He tightened his eyes closed, “Just," Rodney fought the urge to smack him, the words physically painful to say. He opened his eyes, "stay with me."

Radek pursed his lips, and shook his head. "You'll be fine Rodney," he started to turn, “I must pack now.”

No-no-no-no. This was not over. Rodney’s hand snapped out and grabbed Radek’s arm once again.

"Listen.” Radek shook his hand off and turned toward him, brows raised. “I know I'm hard to work with,” Rodney grimaced, “a-and that I can be overbearing and petty.” Radek made his ‘get to the point’ face. Rodney breathed deep. "But you have done your best work with me-"

Radek's lip curled in annoyance. "I'll have you kno-."

“And,” Rodney cut him off, "-I have done some of my best work with you."

The angry look wiped off Radek’s face.

"Are you-” Rodney’s chest constricted, ”are you really going to go off without me?"

Radek rubbed a hand over his mouth. "Do you really need me?"

“Maybe not.” He winced at the lie. ”But, I want you to stay.”

Radek’s head tilted, eyes wary. "Why?"

Rodney groaned. Radek wasn’t getting it. Why wasn’t he getting it? Rodney grabbed Radek by the shoulders. "Are you a moron?” He barely managed to keep himself from shaking the other man. Radek’s hands gripped his wrists tight, that darkened look back on his face. Rodney didn’t care. Did Radek really not understand? Did he really not know?

He was supposed to know.

“You're practically the only person who understands what I'm talking about." He hissed, "and add to it," he flung his right hand up, breaking Radek’s grip, "how am I supposed to go back to a life full of idiots who ask too many stupid questions?" Spit flew as his cheeks burned, “How Radek? Huh? How could I!?" He pressed his fingers against the side of his head, "When you can read my fucking mind!”

Radek looked at him strangely. But remained silent. Rodney released him and backed up, reigning in his emotions as best he could. "I've never had-" his voice broke as he gestured between them. It was hard to explain outloud, the bond they shared, the mind link, but that was what Radek was good at, understanding him when no one else could.

Radek studied him, his forehead wrinkling as he blinked slowly. “You’re serious.”

“As a heart attack.”

Radek sighed and removed his glasses, he looked down as he cleaned them.

Rodney watched and forced himself not to speak. He was one hundred percent certain he'd ruin it if he did. His heart drummed wildly as he studied Radek's impassive face. He would agree. Radek had to agree. He would be an idiot not to agree.

No.

He blinked rapidly. Radek had every right to leave. Working with him wasn't easy and Radek got the worst of it. He’d once apologized to the man for his behavior. He sighed. That moment of honesty made up for little as he went right back into his bubble of hostility. Just as vindictive, just as petty. But Radek knew his true feelings and a part of him thought that would be enough.

Maybe he was wrong.

It wouldn’t be the first time. He was never good with people. Social interactions were always difficult to navigate and understand. But, he had hoped, out of anyone, that he at least understood Radek.

Radek placed his glasses back on his nose. “Okay, Rodney,” he nodded. “I’ll come with you,” he leaned forward, “with some stipulations of course.”

Oh, thank god.

Rodney’s body sagged with relief. “Of course, yes, stipulations.” He waved the words away and flashed a lopsided grin at Radek, the other man smiled back.

The two of them stared at eachother. Their smiles slipped as the moment drifted on. Awkwardness seeping in. He wasn’t sure why he stepped closer, but something was missing.

Radek watched Rodney as he walked toward him, his eyes widening behind his glasses as understanding bloomed over his face. Rodney’s heart froze at the look as Radek nodded and moved his arms up in such a familiar yet terrifying gesture.

He wanted to be mean. Wanted to push him away, add a scathing remark for good measure. Instead, he held still as Radek wrapped his arms around him.

Radek didn't just hug him. No, he enveloped him like a warm blanket straight out of the dryer. It was exactly what he wanted, needed, if he were being completely honest.

Rodney choked back a sob as he realized Radek knew. He curled his arms around Radek and squeezed him back just as tight.

Location: Atlantis Gate Room

Oh. Of course. Rodney grinned inwardly as he snapped his fingers and turned toward John and Radek. “Experimental jumper." He looked between them. "Remember when I was zapped by that machine a few months ago, and I got, uh-” he flashed a smirk, “well, even smarter than I normally am?”

The corner of John’s mouth twitched up, “The one that almost killed you?” he shifted, “Yeah.”

Rodney waved his hand. “Well, before I was reset, I was very close to giving one of our puddle jumpers a hyperdrive.”

“Can you finish it?”

“Yeah!” He gulped and looked off to the side. “Yes, I probably can.”

John nodded. “All right, great. We-we'll make a jump to the Apollo. Tell them where we are.”

Rodney wagged a finger, “No.”

John’s face morphed in confusion. “Why no?”

“The jumper's hyperdrive would be limited,” Radek said. He shook his head and looked apologetic. “We wouldn't be able to jump that far.”

“How far then?” John said.

Rodney glanced at Radek a million thoughts flashing between them.

“What do you think,” Radek squinted, “like, two?”

Rodney rubbed his fingers together, “Yeah,” he leaned his head side to side, “two and change, maybe?”

Radek started typing on his computer, “Conservatively, maybe two thousand light years.” He sighed and pressed a few buttons, “This is a list of addresses that are within range.” Radek stood as the screen zoomed in on a map of planets with Stargates.

John nodded, “All right, we'll make a bunch of trips and ferry the crew to one of the planets.”

Rodney pointed a finger at him. “Again, no.”

“Why not?”

Rodney shifted around, “Well, the drive's never been tested.”

Radek nodded sadly. “Yeah, we'd be lucky if we get two jumps.” His lips compressed into a line.

“Well, we'll make a return trip somewhere,” John said.

Rodney stared at the map as an insane idea formed. “Yeah, ideally, somewhere with a few ZPMs to spare.” He waved his hand, “We come back, we get Atlantis fully powered.”

“Yeah," John made a face, "that'd be great.”

Rodney stared at Radek. Knowing the second the man picked up on his plan.

“M7R-227.” Radek said lowly.

John glanced between them, “What's that?”

Radek looked uncomfortable. “Well-”

John’s eyes locked onto Rodney. “There's a planet out there with ZPMs?”

The excitement drowned out his fear. “Yeah…yeah, we know they have a few ZPMs.”

John looked skeptical. “And who would that be?”

Rodney swallowed thickly. They were dead in the water here. But this plan- Maybe it was too drastic. Too crazy.

No.

He steeled his resolve. This was their only viable option. "That-” Rodney pointed at the screen, “that would be the Replicator homeworld.”

Rodney turned toward them as hope bloomed over his face.

“You feel up to a heist?”

-

Location: M74-277 | Jumper | ZPM

“Aren't they going to notice when we pull the plug on this thing?” John said over the radio.

Rodney gulped. “Probably, but they've got dozens of ZPMs. Let's just hope that they don't-” his heart seized as he waved his hand, “notice until we're long gone.”

“That's wishful thinking,” John said. Rodney grimaced at the words. “We still in the clear?” He added.

Elizabeth leaned forward. “There's a small group of Replicators two corridors over, heading your way, so you need to move quickly,”

Rodney looked over the data on the screen. His eyes widened. Oh wow, that would be-

“We're on our way."

“ Wait,” Rodney said, "Just wait.”

“What?”

“There is a side panel on your right. Open it.”

“Rodney, we don’t really have the time for-”

“Just trust me on this one.” Rodney snapped. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, the look enough to chastise him.

“Woah,” John said.

Rodney perked up. "What?”

“I think you’re going to like this.”

What was probably minutes felt like eons as they waited for John and Ronon to come back. Relief rushed through him as they stepped into sight. Confusion flashed as John dropped three cases in front of him and Elizabeth. “Hook up the ZPM. We're leaving.”

Rodney opened one and inhaled sharply. His mouth fluttered. They had ripped out the foam, nothing to protect them in the case, and normally he would be losing his damn mind about it if it weren't for the treasure filling it.

He looked up at John. “Really?” He breathed.

John flashed a cocky grin. “Happy Birthday Rodney.”

-

Location: M74-277 | Jumper | Escape

John tilted his head back at Rodney from the pilot seat. "How's hyperspace looking?"

Rodney stood back up, knees creaking. "Not good. Look, harnessing power from the ZPM is tricky." He waved his hand in the air, " If I'm off even just the slightest amount, then we could all—"

"Two ships headed our way," John cut in as two Aurora battle cruisers appeared.

Rodney grabbed the cables above as the jumper rocked from a blast. Fuck. There was no way he could finish in time.

“Rodney?!" John called.

"Look, I need more time!" Rodney held tight to the ZPM as more explosions rocked the jumper.

"We just lost weapons!" John shot back.

Rodney wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Dammit,” he typed furiously on his datapad.

“Come on, McKay!” Ronon barked.

Rodney’s eyes snapped up. “This is not simple, you know!" His hand cut in the air, "If I don't properly calibrate the power output, we could incinerate the moment the hyperspace window opens!” Rodney clenched his teeth in irritation.

“I'm picking up something dead ahead,” John said squinting his eyes.

Rodney froze at the sight of a jumper uncloaking directly in front of them.

“Oh, crap," John said and looked back at Rodney. "They're powering up weapons!”

John started adjusting the settings on the console as Rodney typed faster. His eyes flashed around before he jammed a crystal into the ship. He inhaled sharply as he watched the results running over his datapad. “I did it, it’s done.” Rodney stood up his hands in the air, “go go go.”

John immediately opened a hyperspace window and rushed them through.

-

Location: Atlantis Jumper Bay

Rodney grabbed one of the cases and hurried out of the Jumper the second they landed.

Radek hobbled up to him, waving his datapad. “There is an anomaly near the west pier, power was being sent directly there, and we couldn't stop it.

“What!?” Rodney grabbed Radek’s datapad.

Radek pointed at the dot, “We won’t have enough power.”

"Power?" Rodney flashed a lopsided grin, pushed the datapad back to Radek, and opened up the case. “Oh, we'll have enough power and then some after we install these babies.” A collective gasp spread as Rodney pulled multiple ZPMs out of it.

"I know, I know," Rodney twirled his unoccupied hand. "Amazing, wonderful, thank fucking god, yes." He thrust one into Chuck's hands and snapped his fingers, "Now, come on people, we have two aurora class ships headed our way, no time for a celebration, let's go!”

Everyone scrambled as Rodney passed them out, rushing to install them. He handed one to Radek, understanding the excitement plastered to his face despite the situation. They had spent years searching for these, fought for them, lost good people for them, and now they were stocked full.

Hope spread through him. They would have all the power they needed soon. He sighed. Now, they just had to finish before the replicators came.

Great.

-

Location: Atlantis

Radek groaned as the output remained the same. He threw a wrench and stood, moving his leg slowly.

The anomaly.

He pulled out his datapad and studied the blueprints of Atlantis as he headed back to the gate room. He had hoped he was wrong. That the anomaly had not affected this area. He had already come up with a contingency, but the idea was risky. He tilted his head. Although, he supposed it was less risky than stealing from the replicators.

Rodney was already barking orders and kicking a tech off his computer as he arrived in the gate room. “The conduits are all fried.”

Radek sat down near the man, hissing as pain shot through his leg.

Teyla arched a brow, “But we do have power.”

Rodney sighed heavily, “It doesn’t matter if the power can’t get to the engine.”

“The anomaly in section E12,” Radek reminded, “it was draining Atlantis and disrupting key areas.” He held his palm up, “It's why the power isn’t getting to the hyperdrive.”

“Dammit,” Rodney tightened his fists, “compatible parts are scarce.”

Radek looked back down at the blueprints. “Rodney,” he held up his datapad and pointed, “what do you think of this?”

Rodney’s eyes widened. He nodded as his gaze locked onto Radek's. “We would have to-”

Radek nodded back, “I already have a team of techs ready to dismantle-

“Good, then we need to work-”

“On the algorithms for power convergence, yes, yes”.

Rodney tilted his head. “Then we’ll need to divert the hyperspace power conduits to that section of the ship.” He pointed at a few techs. and scientists. “Cannabalize the crystals in non-essential areas.” He frowned, “we may need to use parts from the sublight engines." He snapped his fingers, "Get a group set up and ready to go just in case." Those techs nodded and rushed away.

“And the anomaly?” Radek asked.

“The anomaly is at-” Rodney looked at the screen, “point two percent as opposed to the sixty-two it extruded an hour ago. It's minimal compared to the replicators on our tail. Let's deal with it later.”

Rodney looked at Chuck, "Watch the anomaly and keep me updated."

Two weeks later he added, “turns research in early.”

Three months in and it was clear the man was not just an Engineer but a gifted engineer, and Rodney added “Eighty percent likely to get the machine to work." (Well, eighty-five if he was being completely honest.)

A few days before General O'Neill was scheduled to arrive Rodney found his blueprints while searching for a pen. He held one page up with a reverence he didn’t typically show to most things. Eyes running over the color-coded inner workings, the easy-to-follow pathways, and, oh god, perfectly legible labels. It was just so beautiful, so logical. It wouldn’t do to compliment the man on something he had found on accident, (not that he would anyway.) So he added, “logical,” to his list, put them back where he found them, and moved on.

But when they were lodged halfway inside an active stargate his list sprang to mind and he ran through it at lightspeed, combining them together and for once he wished he knew a scientist's name because a logical engineer who does things quickly and gets the machines to work eighty-nine percent of the time sounded like the perfect fit.

“Alright. Let me put Kavanagh, Grodin, and Simpson in a room; see what they come up with.”

“That's good. And the Czech, the Czech, um,” he snapped, “the Czech whose name I can never remember.”

“Doctor Zelenka?” She said and what kind of stupid name was that anyways? Of course, he never remembered something that ridiculous.

“That's him. We'll work it at our end.”

It turned out that Zlemka WAS the right person for the job (of course he was, it was Rodney’s idea after all) and he wasn’t surprised in the least to find the Czech on his back, elbow-deep in a puddle jumper once the ordeal was over and it looked like Major Sheppard would be fine.

“How long have you been at this?” Rodney held back a laugh as the man startled.

He glanced at Rodney warily before looking back at his work. “How long has it been since you were trapped in the Jumper?” His glasses slipped down his nose, “that is how long.”

Rodney tried not to smile because dammit that was the best answer he could have given. It made the most sense and is exactly what he would do. He watched the man tap another conduit then pick up a small journal and jot down a few notes. Rodney moved closer to him, peeking over to try and get a look.

“Is there anything you need from me, Dr. McKay?”

It was Rodney’s turn to startle as ice-blue eyes watched his reaction to his notebook, confusion marring his features.

“I need you to move over.”

The man's look of confusion increased. However, he complied, his face flashing in surprise as Rodney kneeled down, rolled up his sleeves, moved to his back, and slid in next to him.

He clapped his hands together, “Alright Zlinka, show me everything.”

His tone of voice as he said, “Zelenka,” bordered on insubordination but he sighed and held the journal out to him before pointing at the current pathway he was mapping. “I have discovered much.” He pushed his glasses up his nose as his voice bled into excitement, “everything in here can be controlled from back of the jumper.” A smile spread and Rodney added “dimple,” to his list. “I am creating a manual to prevent these things from happening.” He raised his brows, “It is a good idea, yes.”

Rodney flipped through his journal running his fingers over the diagrams, and god if he were a lesser man it would have stolen his breath away because the drawings, albeit currently crude, made such beautiful, logical sense, and although he knew Zelemka wasn’t actually asking a question, because duh, of course, it was a good idea, it’s exactly why he came up here, he still found himself smiling and saying.