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"Thresholds" Chapter 8
Title: On Thresholds, and Passing Through Them, Ch. 8

Author: Taylor Dancinghands -taylor@willendorphians.com

Category: slash, h/c, foursome, fake character death

Pairings/Characters: McKay/Beckett, Sheppard/Zelenka, and then, Beckett/Sheppard/Zelenka, and then McKay/Beckett/Sheppard/Zelenka, eventually, also passing implications of Teyla/Ronon, and Weir and Lorne appear as well

Rating: NC 17

Archive: Generally yes, but please let me know where

Summary: Rodney McKay's apparent death tears an enormous hole in the lives of many on Atlantis, especially his lover, Carson Beckett. It seems only natural when Carson turns to Radek and John for comfort, even when the three of them grow closer than expected. Then, their new, fragile equilibrium becomes threataned, by what ought to be the best possible news, for Rodney McKay is not dead at all...

Spoilers/Season: Possible minor references to episodes through season 3.


Disclaimer: Don't own 'em, never will, not claiming to. Just wanna play with 'em a little. Can't I, can't I, huh?




On Thresholds and Passing Through Them

by Taylor Dancinghands

Chapter 8


"Bože... Můy Bože..." Radek stood in the ankle deep water before the stasis chamber for a long moment, stunned by the fact of it, by what it might possibly mean. After a spell, however, he tore his eyes away from the partially occluded face of the dear friend suspended within it, and shifted his focus to the control panel. It came as no surprise to him to find a jury rigged mess there, and do predel, if the man hadn't used the energy source from his hand scanner to power the thing.

"Talk to me, doc," Ronon's voice came from the room beyond and Radek heard the man give another grunt as the door gave way under his efforts yet further.

"Am fine..." Radek said distractedly as he examined the controls with the utmost care, wanting to be very sure he was going to power the thing down correctly. "But I will need you here very shortly."

There was another grunt and a rusty, grating noise, and the light of Ronon's flashlight revealed that the opening into the upper room stood at almost a meter now. It would do. The splashing sound of Ronon's footsteps approaching sounded a moment later, and then they stopped as he too, stood in astonished silence before the active stasis chamber appearing to contain Rodney McKay.

"The hell...?" Ronon commented.

"Is too soon to say anything," Radek muttered, his focus not shifting from the control panel in the least. "Please, no talking for moment."

Rodney's patch job had been desperate, but fairly straight forward. Even so, it was nothing short of a miracle that the thing had worked for so long. Radek felt fairly sure now that he knew what should be done to power the chamber down properly, and every reading he'd been able to get showed that the device had functioned altogether properly for the last six weeks. According to all this, then, Rodney McKay would be alive when Radek released him from the stasis chamber... but surely that was too much... much too much to hope for...?

"Be ready..." Radek said at last, mouth dry with impossible anticipation. "Be ready to catch him."

Ronon stepped forward, throwing an incredulous glance Radek's direction, and Radek met that incredulity and surpassed it. He spared a moment to reflect on the chance that had brought possibly the two most skeptical people on Atlantis (with the exception of Rodney McKay) to witness what might be one of Atlantis' most astonishing miracles... and then powered down the stasis chamber.

As he had seen happen on the other stasis chambers he'd observed, the obscuring veil of light descended slowly, releasing a large quantity of water that had been trapped with Rodney as it fell. It hadn't covered his face, had it? Radek wondered desperately. The water fell out with a splash, drenching Ronon to the knee, and then Rodney collapsed in it's wake. Ronon caught him with ease, reaching fingers around to lay on the pulse point of his neck even as he cradled the man in his arms.

"He's alive..." Ronon said, his voice somehow both matter-of-fact and astonished.

"But he is not breathing," Radek said a moment later, having come to lay a hand on Rodney's chest to feel the heart beat, but not feeling the chest rise under his hand. "Go, quickly," he said, nodding towards the doorway. "I will tell the others to be ready for him."

"Any trouble, doc?" John's voice was tight and anxious as he answered Radek's radio call, though he was clearly trying to sound casual.

"Not... precisely," Radek answered, not wanting to raise hopes but not knowing how to relay the needed information without doing so. "We did reach the location," he began, "but we did not find exactly find... what we expected to find. Ronon is coming up now, and you... you should probably have some oxygen at hand... and perhaps defibrillator."

There was an understandable pause. "Radek...?" John said finally, "you're not suggesting...?"

"Nothing is certain," Radek said curtly. "But it would probably be a good idea to have those things. I am following after Ronon, but he moves more quickly and I am gathering tools."

"Don't..." John's voice seemed a little dazed. "Don't be too long."

Radek promised that he wouldn't be.



Rodney was laid out on the deck with John doing rescue breathing on him when Radek reached the outside again. Carson was on his knees beside them, his mouth agape with astonishment and his eyes wide with shock and Radek dropped down to sit at his side, laying a hand on the doctor's shoulder.

"How...?" Carson turned to glance at Radek ever so briefly before returning his gaze to where John was forcing his breath into Rodney's lungs with long practiced skill. Carson Beckett might have been a brilliant medical doctor, but it was a good bet that John Sheppard had somewhat more experience with doing CPR in field conditions such as this. Radek could see how the actions were ingrained in him, almost automatic, so that he could do what needed to be done without thinking, which no one was quite capable of doing just now. Even Teyla, who stood clutching Ronon's hand, seemed stricken with amazement. "How is it possible...?" Carson finished his question with his eyes locked on Rodney.

"Was a stasis chamber," Radek answered, all his focus on the very same tableau. "Brilliant bastard managed to find way to activate it, even as room was nearly filled with water..."

"You brilliant, bloody bastard..." Carson echoed Radek's words with a broken voice as he reached over to take one of Rodney's hands where it lay on the deck. "Ye've nearly made it back to us, love, ye can't give up now..."

And as if the man had heard him, or perhaps felt his cold hand crushed in Carson's warm ones, Rodney chose that moment to cough, feebly at first, and much too wetly, but then again, and again, with growing strength. John quickly rolled him onto his side, steadying his shoulders as Carson rubbed his back and Rodney choked and gasped and coughed up nearly two lung-fulls of water.

"That's it love, that's it," Carson murmured, tears coursing freely down his cheeks now. "We've got you, we've got you; you're safe now, you're safe and breathin' and Oh Lord I can't believe you're alive, oh love, you're alive..."

Lorne came trotting down the deck just then with an O2 tank and a mask, and Carson laid the mask over Rodney's face even as he gathered the man into his arms to hold him, rocking him as he wept. Radek could see Rodney's arms move feebly to wrap around Carson, and his eyes widened as he looked around at party gathered on the deck all around him. He blinked up at John for a long moment, then refocused on Radek's face, just in time to see Radek slip his glasses off for a second to wipe at his own eyes.

The recognition and intelligence Radek was looking for in his friend was all there, and the nearly disabling wave of relief that coursed through Radek made him glad that he was already sitting. He replaced his glasses, reaching up then to lay a hand on Rodney's shoulder, to feel the warm, living truth of him, and he saw Rodney's lips move under the oxygen mask.

"It worked?"

Radek didn't know how he knew that Rodney had meant it as a question, because the words had been nearly soundless. Perhaps it was something in his eyes, as wide and astonished as all of theirs.

"Of course it worked," Radek said, fresh tears escaping as he struggled with the powerful urge to lean over and kiss the man. He reached up to lay his hand on Rodney's face instead, feeling the warm, live skin there with profound gratitude. "Of course it fucking worked, you brilliant, crazy bastard."



Rodney's brilliance aside, Radek could not shake the feeling it was all much too good to be true, and that something was bound to go wrong before they could make it home. The up-till-now amicable natives would turn on them suddenly for the audacity of bringing a living man back from the ancient city; the gate would mysteriously malfunction and Rodney would die anyway without treatment from Atlantis' infirmary; the jumper would crash and they would all die. Radek tended to credit these thoughts to his natural Slavic pessimism, but the flat, anxious line of John's mouth as he walked along side the gurney upon which Rodney was riding suggested to Radek that he was not the only one still looking for worst case scenarios.

The natives, however, only looked on with frank admiration as they all loaded into the jumper, and when Radek dialed the gate with trembling hands, it whooshed into place just as it should. Radek looked over his shoulder into the back of the jumper as they entered the event horizon, seeing Carson sitting at Rodney's side, his two hands clasped around Rodney's one. John had radioed ahead for a medical team to meet them in the jumper bay, and they were there, waiting when they arrived, along with Dr Weir.

Radek and John remained in the front of the jumper and out of the way as Rodney was wheeled out and delivered into the care of Dr Chavous and her team. They smiled to hear Elizabeth's incredulous and overjoyed response at seeing Rodney alive and well, and Carson's tearful explanation of how they had found him. Then they were all gone on their various ways and John and Radek were alone in the jumper, in the suddenly quiet jumper bay.

"Radek..." John finally asked into the silence. "Did that all really just happen?"

"Do you mean is Rodney really alive?" Radek replied, "Or are you just dreaming?"

"Yeah..." John shook his head slowly.

"Only if I am also having same dream," Radek said, "which I find highly unlikely."

There was another long moment of silence and then John said, in a hushed, almost whispered voice, "My god... he's really alive."

"Ano, he is," Radek said, still grappling with the fact himself.

"My god, Radek..." John said again, and then, with the speed of thought, Radek saw that the jumper's front screen had gone opaque and John's arms were around him, holding him tight, though he shook with feeling.

Radek returned the embrace with equal fervor, feeling almost shocky to have such a great burden of sorrow lifted so suddenly. He clung to John in the private confines of the jumper and felt his lover do likewise, letting him know that he was not alone -in fact, he was anything but.

~****~

Though the present moment is a happy one for our heroes, complications, as you can imagine, are bound to ensue.

And in a lovely instance of life imitating art, today I will be enjoying my own happy reunion, as my own Mr Dancinghands will be returning to me after a six month separation necessitated by tenant problems and other complications. While it is true that I never feared him dead, or in any sort of danger, we did think that this separation was only going to last three months, so I am identifying quite a lot with my characters today.