Blue 10 (THE END!!!!)

ficlet | Blue One | Blue Two | Blue Three | Blue Four | Blue Five | Blue Six | Blue Seven | Blue Eight | Blue Nine




After a while, what passed for normality settled on the citizens of Atlantis. Their days were measured by concerns of the Wraith and the Genii, of energy consumption and dwindling supplies. The report on their mysterious visitors languished, unfinished, until finally Elizabeth accepted that no more information would be forthcoming and closed the file.

They had all come to the same conclusion. Ignoring it was easier than asking McKay for answers. There were theories aplenty, of course, but to ask him directly was to risk being verbally torn to shreds, and each inquiry left Rodney jittery and out of sorts for days afterwards. They had enough to worry them as it was, they didn’t need to go looking for trouble. Soon, the visitors were only a vague memory to most of the expedition as they all got on with the tasks at hand.

But sometimes, as they handed over the watch on some new planet, or late in the City night when the stars were clear in the sky, Sheppard found himself watching McKay watch the stars. He had noticed a change come over the other man. A kind of melancholy surrounded him now – almost undetectable during the chaos of the days. But at night, alone, John couldn’t shake the feeling that had first occurred to him all those weeks ago as he held Rodney’s key in his hand. It was a mystery.

John had never liked unresolved mysteries.

He found him on one of the high balconies overlooking the City sometime after local midnight. He settled down on the steps beside the other man offered him the bottle he had bartered off Halling.

Rodney took a swig and spluttered. “What is this? Jumper coolant?”

John shrugged easily and took the bottle back. “I was hoping for rocket fuel, but this is the best I could get.” He let the bottle dangle loosely between his fingers. “Oh well, if you don’t want any…”

Rodney glared at him and snatched it off him. Back and forth in easy camaraderie, they watched the third moon rise.

“Did you feel like she was watching you when you were aboard?” He saw Rodney’s look of vague confusion over the rim of the bottle. “The TARDIS. She was a she, right?”

Rodney was quiet for so long, John thought he had misjudged. “Old girl – yeah, as far as any label applies, she’s a she. Watching you, huh? Thought you’d be used to it, after this…” His vague gesture encompassed the entire city of the Ancients that was laid out before them.

John shook his head and took the bottle back. “No. Atlantis…she’s…” he wracked his mind for the right words. “Sleepy. She watches, but it’s with half an eye. With the TARDIS, it was like she was boring holes in the back of my head.”

“Probably fascinated with the hair.”

John bumped his shoulder with the bottle. “What is it about my hair? You never miss a chance to comment on it.”

Rodney studied him critically. “It’s…like it has a life of it’s own. You know the guys in bio sciences have a bounty out for a sample.” John was too surprised to react when Rodney reached out and ran his fingers through it, palms grazing lightly over his scalp. “Though I think they’d need Steve Irwin for that job…”

John’s hand closed around Rodney’s wrist, silencing the ramble before it really began. Their arms lowered until their combined hands hovered uncertainly at chest height between them. “Rodney, if you don’t want to talk about him, that’s fine. We all have our secrets. But…if you change your mind….”

Rodney’s fingers snaked down until they were joined equally, hand to wrist, interlocked in a firm grip. “I …I know. Thanks.” John knew he would have to be patient, wait for the pieces to come together. That was all right. He had nowhere else to be.

They sat together and watched the sun rise.


Meanwhile, on the TARDIS

“Where are we, Doctor?” Rose asked as she rubbed her bruised elbow.

The Doctor walked around the central console. “Well, since you keep asking about Rodney and Atlantis and so on…” He paused, but Rose only lifted her chin, looking completely unrepentant. “I thought you might want to see how it all turned out.”

Rose’s smile lit up the room. “You’re checking up on him!” she crowed before turning and heading for the door. She paused just shy of the threshold. “Do I need to get changed?”

The Doctor just waved her on, smiling in response to her excitement. His smile faded somewhat as he followed her more sedately out into Atlantis.

The crisp salt air blew across their balcony, bringing with it the sounds of people. He joined her at the railing as she looked down over the main concourse.

Hundreds of people, not all of them human, were crowded into the space. Their brightly coloured clothing created a sense of vibrancy as the smells of the market drifted up towards them. He saw Rose looking up at him out of the corner of his eye. “Welcome to the Independent City-State of Atlantis. It's been one hundred years since the city rose above the waves, and people have come from far and wide to celebrate the centenary.” He looked down at her and smiled as he took her hand. “Come on.”

It was quieter away from the public market area. The room he was seeking was where the maps the TARDIS had provided said it would be. As Rose walked into the center of the dimly lit room, he waved the sonic screwdriver over the console.

The light grew as the hologram coalesced above them. The Doctor studied her face as Rose watched the changing figures explain the departure of the Ancients, the arrival of the human colonists, the rise of the Atlanteans and the fall of the Wraith.

He took her hand as the display faded out nearly an hour later. Rose turned to face him. “Rodney…Major Sheppard…Aiden? They helped build all this.”

The Doctor nodded and pointed out to her the engravings on the far wall. “And in doing so helped lay the foundations for humanity to become one of the most important civilizations to ever go out into space.” They walked along the row, pausing to look at pictures of people they had spoken to only weeks before. He gently stroked her cheek and smiled. “I said once that I only take the best. And I meant it Rose. I asked Rodney to come with me because I could see he was destined for greater things than what his life then could provide. Just like you. And he proved me right, even if he had to leave me to do it.” With his eyes, he directed her attention towards a picture of the original command team of the Atlantis Expedition.

Rose smiled as she read the epitaph below it. “They rose up and touched every star.” She stepped back and leaned into the Doctor, feeling the weight of time crash into her as she studied the picture again.

Rodney had found his place after all. And so had she. She tugged at his hand. “Come on.”

As the TARDIS faded from Atlantis for the last time, the human echo within the Atlantis' systems finally understood the one hundred year old puzzle. The City sighed as he settled back into his patient eternal watch.



The End! *does the dance of joy*

*realizes this needs to be betaed if its to go anywhere else*

*pouts*