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This story is completed
The problem wasn't even that Rodney was temporarily preoccupied with the workings of the city. Not at all. The problem was that Rodney wasn't even around for John to rub the whole Czech thing in his face. Every spare moment was spent with Ary'l – tours of the desalinization plants, long walks on the east pier, trips to the mainland to play games with the Athosians. And they were probably fucking too. And it would be hard to get a statutory rape trial in a galaxy where you were lucky to survive past fifty.
But then Rodney was strolling over to John's table, little redheaded brat in tow.
"Hey, Sheppard," Rodney wrung his hands. "You wouldn't mind doing me a favor, right?"
"Well, at least this time you're actually asking, McKay." He sighed. "What is it?"
"Um . . . you see, I've got . . ." he gestured vaguely towards Ary'l. "And today I have to do ZedPM maintenance. Very, very delicate work. We're actually going to use a clean room. I can't exactly have her around, you understand."
The girl pouted. Tough.
"Well, she'll just have to go a day without your divine presence, I guess," John remarked with a shrug.
"Yes, but, I . . . I was hoping that you might take her. I don't want her to be lonely, you know? And I think . . . well, you'd take good care of her, wouldn't you?"
Rodney's eyes sparkled when he asked. He trusted John. And that meant something. Didn't it?
"Okay. But you owe me."
"Owe you what?"
John shrugged. "Something. To be specified later."
Rodney frowned, considering. "As long as it's within reason . . . and not highly embarrassing . . . and doesn't involve citrus . . . and won't make Elizabeth ration my coffee again and . . ."
"I won't be too cruel. Trust me."
Rodney smiled weakly. "All right then. But she'd better come back unharmed."
"Of course she will."
"And I don't mean John Sheppard ‘It's only a missing lung' unharmed, either."
"I'll keep her safe, okay?" It wasn't as though John would purposely put the girl in danger. He took good care of his people - even if they were screechy little leeches that were all wrong for his best friend.
"Fine. Good. Um . . . thanks."
"Don't mention it." He nodded to the girl. "Come on."
She looked longingly at Rodney then nodded and followed.
"Now, we're going to head out to the Jumper Bay, okay? I'm sure Rodney has taken you there before. I have to go on a little mission, but um . . . I guess you can come along. Nothing dangerous, just stay quiet and out of the way."
The girl nodded.
"Good."
They walked in silence for the next five seconds before John realized that he really wasn't so good at the whole awkward silences thing. Even with Ronon he liked to keep up the conversation. He didn't think the big guy minded too much.
"So . . . uh . . . do you like Atlantis?"
She nodded.
"Me too. So you like hanging out with Rodney, huh?"
Another nod.
John too. "He doesn't get annoying sometimes though – you know when he insults your intelligence, won't shut up when the natives start looking insulted, complains and complains and pretty much is an overall angry egotistical know-it-all?"
Ary'l just shook her head disapprovingly.
"He doesn't annoy you even the tiniest bit?"
She scowled. Liar. John wasn't the most patient person, that he knew, but come on. Rodney annoyed everyone at some point. Elizabeth was a diplomat trained not to flinch no matter what the negotiation, Teyla pretty much the most patient person in the history of mankind, but they still told him to shove it. Even Rodney's devoted little Japanese fangirl got testy with him every once in a while. It was physically impossible not to be annoyed by the man at some point in time.
John glared. "That's nice. So, what do you like to do when you're not following Rodney around?"
She put her palms together and pretended like she was going to sleep. Great, so Rodney couldn't even get that this girl was some sort of deranged stalker.
"And why him anyhow?"
Here came the frantic hand motions yet again.
"I'm sorry. I don't understand."
The girl sighed. Resigned.
It actually made John feel vaguely sorry for her. He pulled her into a one-armed embrace. "Hey, don't worry about it. We'll figure something out. Maybe if you were willing to spend a couple of Rodney-free hours a day you could head over to the writing classes on the mainland."
The girl frowned.
Did she not know what writing was? "You know, the pictures with the messages?"
She brightened, nodding.
"Hey, look, I've got to take my buddy Erickson for a little adventure, but we can drop you on the mainland afterwards. Would you like that?"
She smiled at him. Good. He and Rodney might actually get a few hours brat-free time to spend alone.
John probably could've anticipated the slap on the ass and the bouncing excited energy that was Erickson preparing for an underwater mission, but really, wasn't it better as a surprise?
"You don't understand, Mate. I've been working on this whale project for months. And Dr. McKay says they're intelligent. I mean, crickey, have you seen those things? 200 tons, easy. There's so much we don't know about this ocean, Johno. I can't believe . . . Hey, who's this, eh? Aren't ya gonna introduce me, Mate?"
"Sorry. Um, Erickson, this is Ary'l. Ary'l, this is Erickson."
"Pleased to meet you, Miss. You can call me Rick, all right?"
"Actually, she can't call you anything. She's mute."
Ary'l shrugged apologetically.
"Well, that's too bad. I'm sure such a pretty girl such as yourself would have a lot of stories to tell."
Not even a blush. The kid must've been truly infatuated with Rodney.
"Are you ready for an amazing adventure, Ary'l?" Erikson continued. "You're in for quite a treat. You know, Dad-o used to always say that you can never imagine what treasures you'll find down in the depths. Do you think we'll find a treasure today?"
Ary'l shook her head.
"Hey, do you want to go get some water and supplies for us from the cargo area while Rick and I start loading the equipment?"
The second she was out of sight, John turned to Erickson. "She's at least in her late teens, not six."
Erickson shrugged. "I had all brothers. And never paid much attention to girls."
"Yeah, well, she's Rodney's girlfriend, so don't . . ."
"I thought you said she was fifteen."
"Beckett said that she's probably older than that."
"Yes, but what kind of desperate do you have to be to date an approximately-fifteen-year-old who can't talk?"
John shrugged. "Rodney desperate."
"Oh . . . oh, Johno, I didn't mean that. Hey, I know it's no consolation, but if you ever feel like a consolation fuck, you know who to call, right?" Erickson rounded it out with a wholly unsubtle ass-grab and a wink.
"Thanks, but . . ." John felt a small hand pulling at his arm. "What?"
Ary'l was standing there holding a turkey sandwich MRE.
"Hey, how'd you know I liked these?"
‘
Ary'l moved her hands like talking lips.
"Rodney told you?"
She nodded. Maybe she wasn't that bad after all.
"Left, Johno, left. See that there?"
"Yes, Erickson, I see the sixty foot whale, thanks."
"Sorry, mate, I can't help but be a little excited. Hey, look, it's heading over here!"
"Well, they did seem pretty friendly when we were looking for Rodney. Maybe she wants to play."
The whale moved closer, a big blue shape floating through the water. "Damn, that's big."
"Tell me about it, Johno. Hey, do you get measurements on this thing?"
The HUD flashed up, but John was distracted by ‘Sea Lassie', as he'd come to think of the whales that came to Rodney's rescue. "Not to be a party pooper or anything, but isn't this a little too close?"
"Relax, mate. There's not a single known species of whale that are violent. Something that size doesn't need to fight you. And if you're thinking of them, killer whales are technically Orcas, don't sweat it . . ."
John couldn't help moving the controls a bit away from ‘Lassie.' "Yes, but before coming to Pegasus there were no known species of life-sucking immortal insects either."
"Point. But look, she's a friendly one. Tell him, kiddo . . ." Erickson turned around at that. "Hey, Johno, where'd she go?"
John was a little preoccupied with the sea beast closing in on them, thank you very much. "Uh . . . maybe she's scared. Go get her."
A soft sort of keen came from the back of the Jumper.
"Hey, kid, nothing to be afraid of. It's just a big ‘ole whale. Not gonna hurt us. See?"
That was looking less and less likely the closer the whale creature got. John's instincts were screaming at him to evade, but the Jumper wasn't half as maneuverable under water as it was even in atmosphere, not to mention space. He dove left, but so did ‘Lassie.' There was no way he was going to make this. "Grab onto something! She's gonna ram us."
The keening escalated to a piercing scream. John risked a look over his shoulder to find Erickson crouched over Ary'l, holding fast to the back bench. And then he was flying forward into the dash, getting his hands up just fast enough for what would be a truly nasty bruise tomorrow, if they made it to tomorrow. God, Rodney was going to kill him. Maybe he'd except forgiveness as the unspecified favor.
Speaking of which . . .
"Your boy said they were friendly!" Erickson shouted.
"You said they were friendly!" John shouted back, gripping the controls and sending them spinning downwards towards the ocean floor. They were in the shallows now. He was picking up some large rock formations down there. Erickson probably knew how they got there.
"Well, maybe he misinterpreted them preparing to eat him as them calling attention to his ship."
"Maybe." God, John wished Rodney's stupid jailbait would just shut the fuck up.
John snuck a peek at the HUD. He was pushing the engines to their limits, but ‘Lassie' was still closing. He wondered if drones would fire underwater.
Before he knew it, a blast of golden light was firing out into the darkness, speeding towards the leviathan.
"Nooooooo!" The screaming broke John's concentration and the drone veered off, swirling off into the distance.
John spun around. She could speak? Now she was struggling past Erickson and launching herself at John. What the hell?
"You can't kill them, Johno. Who knows what kind of ecological function . . ."
Erickson trailed off as Ary'l dove for the radio activation link on the copilot's seat.
"Hey, stop that!"
But she ignored him, emitting a series of screeches so high that John was tempted to let go of the controls to cover his ears.
"What does she bloody think she's doing?"
"I don't know!" ‘Lassie' was closing fast. There was no way they were going to make this.
John braced himself as hard as he could against the flight controls. This was not how he wanted to die. It wasn't how he was going to die – not breaking a promise to Rodney.
The monster closed in, mouth open and . . .
They weren't dead. Why weren't they dead?
"Why aren't we dead?" Erickson asked. Thanks for the obvious, buddy.
"'I don't . . ." but then, looking over at Ary'l, screeching madly into the speakers, his eyes widened. "She's communicating with them."
Erickson turned in surprise. "No way she is, mate. We've been working on a database, but that was the primary reason for this expedition – to gather more samples. The only way she'd know it was if she . . ."
Oh my God. "How do we know she's not?"
"We don't, I guess. You said that Beckett couldn't explain why she can't speak. Do you think it might be because she's actually . . ."
"One of them, yeah. We did find her on the beach."
They shared a look as the whale sped off into the blue, giving them just a little nudge with its flipper on the way out.
Rodney was dating a whale. It would have been funny if it weren't so sad.
John looked over at the girl. She was sitting slumped in the co-pilot's chair playing idly with a necklace that Teyla had apparently given her.
"Buck up, kiddo," Erickson said, grabbing her shoulder comfortingly. "Give me and the linguists some more audio samples and we might be able to get you up and talking. Then you'll be able to tell the Doc how much you love him."
She perked up at that, standing and giving Erickson a hug before turning to John. Her eyes were luminescent, her thin frame soft up against him with an embrace. She was beautiful. Rodney'd probably fall in love with her the first word that came out of her perfect little mouth.