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onigaminanashi
Title: Sometimes You Find Out the Hard Way
Pairing: Lorne/Zelenka
Rating: R
Summary: What the heck did the Ancients activate out on the west pier while they were in control of the city? How the heck is Radek supposed to have a relationship when he has to deal with power fluctuations, terrible coffee, Rodney nearly ascending, and trying to fix the City's systems just to keep them all in one piece? Set after The Return.
Word Count: 6,000
Warnings: A little Lorne whump, some angst
Disclaimer: Not mine; no infringement on any rights is intended. This is not for profit & is intended for enjoyment only.
Radek sighed and pushed his glasses up to his forehead, pinched the bridge of his nose and blinked until the text on the screen was only slightly blurry instead of very. He let his glasses drop into place and the Ancient text slid mostly into focus, though hardly more readable than it was five minutes ago. A sip of cold coffee did nothing but make him wonder how long it'd been since he'd brushed his teeth. Personally, he agreed with Rodney--why give up two of their three Zero Point Modules when the City was running at full power for the first time in ten thousand years? Who knew what they might discover, even if they only kept them for a year, or six months. But no, the SGC and IOA insisted that the others were needed elsewhere, which left them scrambling to turn off any extraneous systems the Ancients had activated while they had been in control.
The problem was finding all of them. At this rate, they would have to rely on the naquadah generators again just to keep their single ZPM from being depleted. "Did you find whatever's sucking up the power out by the west pier yet?" Rodney sounded as tired and frustrated as he was, even though the other man had left to take a break some time ago.
"No, Rodney," Radek answered. "There's an entry in the Ancient Database related to that area, but it hasn't been translated yet."
"All right. Look, there's only so much good coffee can do for us at this point." Rodney pinched the bridge of his nose in a mirror of Radek's earlier gesture. "We've turned off, what--sixty percent of the unnecessary systems? I'll ask Elizabeth to translate a few sections of database for us. She's much faster with Ancient, anyway. Let's get some sleep and come back to it tomorrow." He looked down at his watch and grimaced. "Or later today. Whatever."
Radek nodded gratefully and closed his laptop, then took his coffee cup to the sink and rinsed it before double-checking that the lab was in order. Rodney disappeared through the door, and the lights dimmed to a pale glow. He wished for the hundredth time that he had the Gene and could take Atlantis for granted the way Rodney and Sheppard did, but he'd learned to make up for it by tweaking and perfecting the interfaces he used on a day-to-day basis. Still, it didn't quite make up for being able to turn the lights on and off with his mind. Everything in the lab seemed to be as it should, so Radek stepped into the hall, pondering whether food or sleep was more important.
He decided on food after checking the time. It was late enough that the mess should be serving breakfast for the early risers, and the thought of pancakes made his stomach rumble. The few occupied chairs were taken up with marines and airmen who look like they'd been out for their morning runs, so Radek filled his tray and found an out-of-the-way table on the balcony. The morning air was refreshing, and he was glad he'd skipped another cup of coffee right before trying to sleep. And no one could mess up pancakes, not even the military.
The west pier was in view if he leaned a little to the left, and he wondered again what it was that the Ancients had activated out there. As far as they knew, that area was used for storage and Jumper repair. Perhaps they had planned on fixing the damage some of the Jumpers had taken on various missions, but most of that was superficial. He was so preoccupied with his line of thought that the sharp clack of a tray hitting the table across from him took him by surprise. He looked up, startled, to see a man in his early thirties, maybe, blond haired and military by the look of his physique, standing behind the other chair. "Doctor Zelenka, isn't it?" The man sat and Radek nodded warily. He, too, looked like he'd just been out for a morning jog; the sweats and t-shirt gave no indication if he was Air Force or Marine.
"Did you need something...?" Radek let the sentence hang, hoping the man would fill in his name. Radek didn't recognize him, which meant he was probably one of the new personnel who had come to Atlantis when the expedition moved back to the City. Which meant he was probably about to complain about his quarters, or his team assignment, or something else Radek had no control over.
"Yeah, I do need something." The man leaned forward, ignoring the food on his tray. "I noticed it's kinda hard to make friends around here, if you know what I mean. I asked around a little, and I was thinking maybe we--"
Oh. That. Radek was really too tired to deal with it politely. "You were thinking that because I am openly homosexual that I would be a safe person to approach for a fling?" The man, who still hadn't even told him his name, winced at Radek's blunt appraisal of the situation. "I sympathize that your military makes it difficult for you, especially in a new place." Radek stood and picked up his tray. "But I am not that type of person." The man nodded but didn't offer an apology, so Radek left him sitting there and dropped off his empty tray before heading to his quarters.
He hoped he didn't have to deal with it all over again. The same thing had happened when new personnel had arrived after the siege. He'd been a little flattered, at first, to turn down offers he'd assumed were directed at him, personally, despite the bags under his eyes and the way he dragged his feet for days after the city was safe. But no--they were in a strange City with new people, and Major Lorne and Colonel Sheppard were unknown and potentially hostile, and they'd experienced the terror of the Wraith first-hand, and they just wanted the comfort of a warm body. And Radek was safe, because if they asked discreetly enough, people would say his name, and what middle-aged scientist stuck in the City with the same two hundred people for a year would turn away such an offer? After a while the advances had ceased altogether, and the same would happen this time.
It was almost too much of an effort to brush his teeth and shower, but Radek knew if he didn't do it now he'd regret it later. He fell asleep clutching his radio earpiece and glasses, wondering when he would have time for any sort of relationship anyway, serious or otherwise.
**
They never did figure out what the Ancients had activated on the west pier. Though Elizabeth had translated the relevant text, it only explained how the Jumper repair stations worked. Which might come in handy in the future, but couldn't be responsible for power uptake with the station not in use. Which meant something else was active, but the grid showed nothing other than power going to that section of the City. "Leave it for now," Rodney said, tapping on his keyboard. "The power it's using is negligible compared to some of the other things we have yet to figure out. We'll have to send a team down there when we have time."
As if they ever had time! Radek would have laughed out loud if he wasn't sure that Rodney wouldn't see the humor nor the conflict in that statement. As it was, it took almost a week to get Atlantis running more or less in a way they were comfortable with, and even then, they only stopped logging power usage and checking systems because Colonel Sheppard was getting restless and wanted to start going offworld again.
With Rodney back with his team, Radek resumed his usual duties. It meant that his schedule went back to normal, though he certainly wasn't up as early as most of the military personnel. When he reached the mess at his usual breakfast time, it was filled mostly with scientists and off-duty military personnel.
It was an overcast day, heavy and humid, so Radek avoided the balcony. He nearly chose a table by himself again, then spotted Elizabeth's maroon shirt nearly hidden behind the leaves of one of the potted plants along the wall. He headed over, hoping to get her opinion on the translations the linguists had given him yesterday. "Doctor Weir, excuse me, but I wondered if--" Radek broke off when he saw that she wasn't alone. Major Lorne lounged in the chair across from her, his back to the wall and a clipboard on his raised knees. "Oh, I'm sorry, I did not mean to interrupt."
"It's fine, Radek. We were just going over some recommendations for new team formations. If you'd like to join us, we'll be done in a few minutes." Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Major Lorne, who nodded and hastily took a bite of his sandwich before flipping a page and continuing.
"Lieutenant Cadman should have one of the training teams," Lorne said. "She won't take any flack from the recruits and she's not trigger happy. Plus," Lorne looked up with a smile, "she's already had the weird stuff happen to her so she's not likely to freak out if something goes down." Elizabeth nodded her approval and Radek started in on his own lunch as they continued their discussion. He only looked up when Lorne spoke his name. "Whaddya think?" Lorne looked over at him expectantly. "Since we're rearranging things, now's your chance. Colonel Sheppard and I both thought it'd be great to have you on a team."
"Me?" Radek asked in surprise. Major Lorne appeared to be completely serious. "You saw me offworld when we retrieved that dart, and what those--" he added a nice, rude phrase in Czech and then continued, "--children did to me. I'm not certain it would be a good idea."
Major Lorne leaned back against the wall and regarded him with a smile. "It'd be nice to have more science personnel out there."
"It's up to you, Radek." Elizabeth gave him one of her diplomatic looks; he hoped she meant what she said, because he was quite happy working in the labs, keeping the City running. Rodney caused more than enough trouble going offworld with Colonel Sheppard, didn't he?
With a polite nod to both of them, Major Lorne stood with his papers and empty tray. "Ma'am, Doc. I'll see you both later." Radek watched him leave, trying to recall if the Major got into difficulty as often as Colonel Sheppard. He was fairly certain that he did.
"Now, Radek," Elizabeth steepled her fingers and leaned forward, "what did you need to speak to me about?"
***
The issue of joining an offworld team didn't come up again, partly because everyone was busy dealing with Rodney's altered DNA after they attempted to deactivate the last few systems that were pulling power from their precious ZPM. It meant that Radek was back to getting little or no sleep, but at least everyone had the sense not to bother him with trivial things.
After four days with only as many hours of sleep scattered between them, oh, and dying, he'd not forget that soon--his fingers still tingled, though it might be the lack of sleep--Radek was ready to collapse. He couldn't though, not yet. Rodney had reconfigured so many systems that their computers were having a hard time keeping up, regardless that it was supposedly more efficient. Every new line of code was raising alarm bells, and since Rodney had written them into Atlantis' systems--in Ancient, of course--it was a race to keep the computers from shutting them down for thinking it was another virus like the one that had nearly destroyed the City the year before.
"Doc?" A voice called into the lab, and Radek lifted his head and blinked, eyes straining to adjust to the dimness beyond his lit computer screen. Major Lorne came into view, apparently thinking that the lab needed to be brighter. The room's lights intensified, making Radek blink more. "Oh, you are here. Isn't it about time you took a break?" Lorne set a cup of coffee down on the table next to Radek's laptop. "I brought you a fresh cup--thought you might need it."
"Thank you, Major." Radek sighed. "I think it's going to be a while before I'm done." He took a sip of the coffee, and even though he'd been drinking nothing but for the last ten hours, he could tell it was better than what they were serving in the mess.
"You sure you're okay?" Lorne squinted at him and tapped his fingers on the table. "You must have had quite a scare."
Radek waved him off. "Truthfully, whatever Rodney did made me feel better than I did before." Lorne regarded him skeptically, so Radek took another sip of coffee and said, "This is good."
"Oh, yeah, McKay gave it to me when he was...what did he call it? 'Releasing his burden.'" Lorne laughed. "Truthfully I think he didn't know what to say to me and no one else on his team really likes coffee."
"You could give it back now," Radek told him, quickly typing a command as his computer started to beep again.
"I could," Lorne agreed. "But I'm not going to." He leaned his elbows on the table and glanced at the laptop screen. "There's more where that came from, you know."
Radek's fingers stilled over the keyboard. He turned his head just enough to glance at the Major out of the corner of his eyes. Lorne was smiling--smirking?--at him, completely relaxed, as if the power grid was going to wait for him to finish his overture before overloading and taking out half the City. "Excuse me?"
"I just thought," Lorne said, licking his lips, "you might want to come over some time..." He drifted into silence as Radek turned and regarded him skeptically.
"Of all the people here, Major," Radek said, shaking his head, "I would never have expected you to come in here and proposition me."
"I wasn't--" Lorne took a step back from the table, arms raised.
"No?" Radek swiveled his stool so that he faced Lorne directly. "Well, at least you offered coffee, which is more than I can say for anyone else." He waved his hand as the unfinished code on the laptop beeped again for his attention. "I don't have time for this."
Lorne's face was a stony mask. Without another word he turned and strode from the lab.
It wasn't until much later, when Radek had gotten the power grid under control and had slept properly for several hours that he realized he might have made a mistake.
***
The west pier was still giving them problems a week later. Rodney absolutely refused to be part of the team that was finally assembled to head down there with flashlights and tools and extra power crystals and figure out what was going on. "For God's sake, don't activate anything!"
"Yes, Rodney, I know." Radek sighed and checked his gear one last time. "I have no desire for an Ancient device to kill us."
"Well." Rodney crossed his arms and huffed. "I'm just saying. Sometimes you think you know what something does and it turns out that you don't."
Hiding a smile, Radek turned and picked up his datapad. The schematics for the area they were traveling to were displayed on the flat screen. "Colonel Sheppard and I will be very careful."
"What? I'm not wasting Sheppard on something like this." Rodney turned to his own laptop, and Radek swore that he opened something that looked suspiciously like a video game. "You get Major Lorne."
Radek's heart sank. He'd avoided the Major entirely since their last encounter, and now it appeared it would be just the two of them exploring the depths of the City for the afternoon. He was about to suggest that perhaps Sergeant Coughlin or one of the other gene-positive military personnel accompany him when Lorne walked in wearing his tac vest and thigh holster, hands resting on the P-90 clipped at his chest. "Ready to go, Doctor Zelenka?" Not "Doc" anymore, apparently.
"Yes, yes, just let me--" Radek looked around for anything else he might need, but his gear was packed and ready. Rodney gave them a cheerful wave as they left and headed to the nearest transporter.
Major Lorne kept the conversation completely professional. He asked about any possible dangers they might encounter, what they were expected to accomplish, and how long it might take. Radek answered as best he could, but he wouldn't know much of that himself until they discovered what was happening on the west pier. It was slightly awkward, but at least they had something with which to occupy themselves. They weren't traveling to the mainland in a Jumper or stuck offworld where they'd have to make small talk.
The west pier was in little better shape than the corridors where Rodney had nearly killed himself. The lights worked, though that was part of the problem; the area was still siphoning power and it had to be going somewhere.
"All right, Major. We're looking for a room, or perhaps more than one, that seems to be active. Only the hallway lights should be on. If you see a lit room, or any panels that appear to be working, please do not enter." Radek tapped on his datapad and enlarged the section of the map they were currently in.
"Right. Don't go into any suspicious rooms draining our power supply for no apparent reason. Gotcha," Lorne answered dryly. He started down the left-hand side, waving his hand over the closest door-panel. Radek mirrored him on the right-hand side. It would be so much easier if they could pinpoint the power usage. But then, they wouldn't be down here searching, and they'd have turned off whatever it was weeks ago.
The first three corridors turned up nothing but storage rooms. Radek entered them into his datapad regardless; earlier searches of the City were patchy at best and additional information was always welcome. Major Lorne sighed as they met at the far corner. "Well, they always say it's in the last place you look."
Radek furrowed his brows and swiped his hair out of his eyes. "Of course," he said. "Because you stop looking after that." Lorne raised an eyebrow at him and Radek blushed. "Oh, a joke. Do you always see the humor in things, Major?"
"Most of the time," Lorne replied evenly, turning the corner and swiping his hand over another door-panel. Radek couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he continued his own exploration of the hall. By the time they'd finished a decent section of the grid and radioed Rodney to update him on their lack of progress, Radek was ready to try looking into rooms at random and hoping to get lucky. They worked their way toward the Jumper repair station, which was at the far end of the cluster of buildings.
"That is it, that is everything," Radek said when they reached the station. "The station itself cannot be active if there are no Jumpers here; it's a safety feature built into the system."
Lorne looked up at the angled roof of the blue-gray outpost and back toward the City proper. "Well, we're here. We might as well check it out."
Radek nodded and they headed inside. He'd never been here before, and as far as he knew, none of the expedition had. Possibly someone had stuck his head inside and made a quick note, but that was all. The entire building was one large room. It looked very much like the Jumper Bay, but the floor was sunk into the pier itself, creating a circular workspace like a large well. Steps led down from a walkway that lined the walls and disappeared into dimness. "Major, could you turn on the lights, please? Carefully?"
When the lights came on--and thankfully nothing else--Radek could see that the walls were partitioned into cubicles for working on Jumpers, or so he assumed. He glanced upward and confirmed that the ceiling had the kind of roof that retracted like an iris, making it a simple manner to pilot Jumpers into the bays. The open circle in the center where the pieces didn't quite meet revealed blue sky beyond. The central area of the room made less sense. It seemed to reach well into the depths of the ocean, and served no obvious purpose. Perhaps, like Rodney's Jumper that had fallen into the sea, it was meant as an entrance for any of the little vehicles that crashed into the water.
He set to work pulling apart the most obvious panels, though most of the crystals didn't look like they'd carried power in quite some time. Several were cracked and a few were broken entirely. With no other options but to hope that the system might regulate itself if it were working properly, Radek set about replacing every damaged crystal as he found it. After he'd slotted a couple dozen into place, he moved on to the next section of wall between the open bays. As he pried off another panel, several things happened simultaneously: the building started to crackle and hum, the hairs on his arms lifted with some kind of static electricity, and Rodney's voice came over his earpiece, demanding, "Radek! What did you do? Power consumption in the west pier just spiked!"
Radek could see Major Lorne placing a palm flat against the wall as he answered, "I replaced the broken power crystals in the Jumper repair station, Rodney. If there is a power issue here after all, it's possible that the damaged crystals were keeping the system from reading our commands properly. I was hoping that you could tell it to stop doing," he looked around for a moment, "whatever it's doing."
"Well, I don't know what it's doing!" Rodney answered. "Wait, wait, wait. Give me a minute." Radek debated replacing the crystals in the panel. It couldn't get any worse, could it? Then the building shook; or rather, felt like it shifted.
"Rodney!" Radek grabbed the wall and held on. "I do not think we have a minute!"
"Doc?" Lorne hovered over Radek, staring at the ceiling. "Does that look like a shield to you?"
Radek followed his glance toward the hole in the center of the iris and everything clicked into place just as Rodney said, "Oh, okay, this could be very bad."
"Yes, Rodney. Very bad." He ran the calculations, and then again just to be sure. "Can you--?"
"Maybe," Rodney answered. "But I'd have to send Sheppard to the relay station and you'd have to--"
"Yes, yes, I am working on it," Radek said, moving back to the panels he'd been working on. He had no idea which replaced crystal had been the one to restore power to the building's shield. He could try taking them out randomly, or reconfiguring them, hoping he'd get lucky and it would just turn off...
"Mind filling me in?" Lorne asked, leaning against the wall where Radek worked.
Radek condensed the explanation in his head and said, "The shield must have been what was activated when the Ancients were in control of the city." He nodded toward the center of the room. "But only around the lower section, you see? No water." Lorne stepped over to the edge of the walkway and looked down into the sunken work area, which was completely dry even though it was below sea level and, as far as Radek could tell, otherwise open to the ocean from below. "Unfortunately, replacing the damaged crystals allowed the shield to activate around the entire building."
"Okay," Lorne said slowly. "I don't see why that's a problem. Can't you just turn it off again?"
"We've been trying to turn if off for nearly a month," Radek answered, his speech muffled by the data crystal he held in his mouth.
"So...we're stuck here?" Lorne walked back over and peered over Radek's shoulder.
"Stuck is not the problem," Radek answered. "The problem is that we rerouted all power to this area to a naquadah generator so that it would stop draining the ZPM. But a naquadah generator doesn't have enough power to--"
The building shook. Major Lorne must have finished Radek's sentence in his head, because he grabbed Radek and hauled him to the closest set of stairs that led into the well in the center of the room. Shoving Radek flat against the wall, Lorne pressed up against him and lifted his arms above both their heads.
Large pieces of debris hit the edges of the walkway above them as the roof of the building crumbled from the outer edges. Some of the smaller pieces bounced and rained down around them, followed by a shower of dust. Lorne took half a step back and looked up at the ceiling. "Let me guess. The naquadah generator doesn't have enough power to keep the shield running?"
Radek nodded, eyes wide and heart pounding. "I must--" He pushed past Lorne, ignoring the Major's warning to be careful, and picked his way over the debris to climb partway up the staircase. Most of the ceiling had collapsed, and the pieces that made up the retracting iris had fallen open like the petals of a flower to land against the walls. That and the rubble from the rest of the building would make reaching the panels impossible. He clicked on his radio. "Rodney. The shield is already shrinking, and I can no longer access the systems. You must either reconnect us to the ZPM's power or figure out how to turn off the shield from where you are."
"I sent Sheppard to the relay station already," Rodney answered, "and I'm still trying to turn the damn shield off." Radek could hear Rodney's fingers tapping furiously on his keyboard. All they could do now was wait.
"I'd feel a lot better with you out of the way," Lorne called from the bottom of the staircase. Radek nodded and joined him, where they huddled at the junction where the stairs met the rounded wall. "So, is this gonna keep happening?" Lorne asked.
"Possibly," Radek answered. "It has been using power from the naquadah generator for quite some time now. It depends on how quickly Colonel Sheppard switches the power over to the ZPM. After that, the shield will stabilize, but we will have to wait for Rodney to turn it off."
Lorne made a thoughtful humming noise. "Why shield the place at all?"
Radek adjusted his glasses and attempted to dislodge some of the dust from his hair. "I do not know. Perhaps the whole unit is detachable, or submersible."
They both peered into the lower section of bays, which were blocked in on the outside by that glass-that-was-stronger-than-glass and open to the seawater below. The blurred shimmer of the shield was visible along the outer edges. "Will we have to worry about water getting in?" Lorne asked after a moment.
"I'm not sure." Radek thought the shield seemed to be shrinking from the top down. He braced himself as the building suddenly shook again. Lorne rolled in his direction and knelt over him with his arms against the wall at Radek's back. When the noise stopped, there was a great deal more rubble around them. Lorne grunted and sat back on his heels. "Major?" Are you all right?"
"Tac vest took most of it," Lorne said, shaking his head and peering through the dust. The top of the building was now open to the sky--or would have been if not for the translucent shimmer of the shield. The walkway around the edges of the walls was buried in debris; the building was being crushed like a fist slowly closing around it from the outside.
"Radek." Rodney's voice in his ear made Radek jump. "Sheppard is unplugging the generator so that the system will re-route back into the ZPM. I'm still working on getting the shield to shut down." Radek sighed and let his head fall against his knees. At least now they were back to being stuck as the main problem.
They heard the shield hum and move, and as it did so, the last of the loose masonry fell from the crumbled edge of the roof. chunks of stone and metal hit the piles already precariously balanced on the walkway above them and everything started to shift. "Doc!" Lorne dove against Radek. It was several moments before everything settled.
Radek coughed and tried to take stock of the situation. At least they weren't buried, though Lorne was a dead weight on his chest. "Major? Major!" Lorne shifted and mumbled, then hissed sharply through his teeth. Radek was afraid to try to move him, afraid that he might dislodge more of the rubble above them. He couldn't see much, only that the pile had cascaded down upon them and was now resting largely over the lower half of Major Lorne. He had been spared the worst of it, though he'd surely find himself covered in bruises tomorrow from where bits of the building were digging into his shoulders and back.
Lorne tried to push himself upright and a few blocky pieces skittered past at the movement. "I can't shift it," he said, "but nothing's broken." He settled back against Radek and winced. "Sorry. Gimme a minute. I might be able to push myself up enough for you to get out."
"And go where?" Radek squirmed a little, realizing that the sharp corner digging into his ribs was probably Lorne's P-90. His left arm was pinned under Lorne, but he dug them out of loosest of the rubble as carefully as he could without causing a landslide. One of the pieces of the iris seemed to be resting on the top of the pile; it was unclear how much rubble it hid underneath. Radek sighed and tapped his earpiece. "Rodney, now would be a good time for turning off the shield. A large pile of debris has fallen on Major Lorne."
"What? Is he hurt?"
Radek muttered a few unkind words in Czech and then answered, "I think he is probably hurt, yes."
Lorne turned his head and tried to smile. At least Radek thought it was a smile; it could have been a grimace. "Is McKay getting us out of here yet?"
"Rodney?" Radek wished he could clean his glasses properly. The dust had left them grimy and smeared.
"Okay. Sheppard sent Cadman and a team of marines down there. Uh, I think I'm close to figuring this out, so they should be able to get in there and help you, um, soon?" There was a pause, and then Rodney added, "Carson is sending a medical team, too."
"Did you hear that, Major?" Radek asked. "Rodney will have the shield off soon." Lorne exhaled loudly, raising a cloud of dust on Radek's jacket. "Should we try to dig ourselves out?" Radek asked.
"Depends on whether McKay really means soon," Lorne answered. "Give him some time, I guess."
They fell into silence. As the adrenaline wore off, Radek realized he was banged up in more places than he'd realized. Careful exploration with his fingers revealed a shallow gash on his cheek, another on his shoulder above Major Lorne's head. He could only imagine how much worse off he'd be if the Major hadn't shielded him from the worst of it. The silence stretched into minutes. Radek thought perhaps he should keep Major Lorne talking. That's what one should do with someone who may have taken a blow to the head, wasn't it? These kinds of situations were exactly the reason he didn't want to be on an offworld team. "Major? How are you feeling?"
"Well," Lorne mumbled, "I'm not really feeling my toes anymore." He hissed and added, "Scratch that. My toes hurt. In fact, everything hurts, but I guess it's better than the alternative."
Radek reached his hand up and very nearly brushed at the dust in Major Lorne's hair, but stopped himself. He doubted the man would appreciate it. "Thank you," he said instead. "You know, for..."
"Doing my job?" Lorne supplied.
"That, and protecting me even while you have every right to be angry with me, I imagine." Radek tried to shift again, to wriggle his trapped fingers. They didn't hurt, but they were starting to tingle.
"Why would I be angry with you?" Lorne asked evenly.
"Because." Radek sighed. "Sometimes I am an idiot." He let his fingers rest on Lorne's head then, and Lorne drew in a breath at the contact. "I thought you were interested in me as no more than a--a momentary distraction. Certainly nothing serious. I--" Radek blushed. He was too embarrassed to tell Major Lorne about everything that had happened with the other men that had approached him, though it would certainly help him understand why he'd said what he did. He finally settled on a very brief and edited version.
"I'm sorry," Lorne told him. "I didn't know. I'm not very good at the whole romantic thing, obviously." He gave a short laugh that turned into another wince. "In fact, I think I'm kind of terrible at it."
"Maybe we could try once again after we are rescued?" Radek ran his hand through Lorne's hair, but the man never had a chance to respond. Instead Rodney's voice came through his earpiece, interrupting the conversation.
"Radek! I finally got the shield disabled. Let me tell you, it was not easy. I had to reroute the control systems through the secondary crystal array in the Jumper repair lab, and--well, anyway, it's done. You can thank me later."
Lorne laughed weakly against Radek's chest. "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna thank Rodney later for this whole mess." Radek couldn't agree more.
***
The infirmary was always brightly lit, though something about the color of the lights was far more soothing than in the labs. Radek walked to the back, where Major Lorne's bed was partially screened from the rest of the room. He'd been kept overnight for observation, but they'd both escaped with no serious injuries. "Major? How are you feeling?"
Lorne looked up from his datapad and smiled. "Hey, Doc. Feeling a lot better today. Carson tells me I can leave after lunch assuming that my last set of scans turn out okay."
"I'm glad to hear it, Major. Does that mean you will be free for dinner?" Radek stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets to keep from fiddling nervously.
The smile turned into a grin and Lorne's eyebrows lifted. "Doc...are you asking me out on a date?"
Radek laughed. "Just to be clear--yes, yes I am. Something romantic, perhaps? A balcony table, meatloaf or possibly goulash, which will be made bearable by a wonderful view and a lovely sunset?"
"And great company." Lorne set his datapad on the bedside table and took a covert glance around the infirmary. He quickly flipped the covers back and swung his feet over the side of the bed. Radek stepped closer, and Lorne placed his hands on Radek's wrists, running his fingers over the exposed skin where his sleeves ended. "Yeah. A date sounds like a wonderful idea."
Feeling suddenly bold, Radek leaned down and brushed his lips lightly against Lorne's. It felt...well, wonderful. And now that everything in the City was working the way that it should be, perhaps he could find the time for a relationship after all.
onigaminanashiTitle: Sometimes You Find Out the Hard Way
Pairing: Lorne/Zelenka
Rating: R
Summary: What the heck did the Ancients activate out on the west pier while they were in control of the city? How the heck is Radek supposed to have a relationship when he has to deal with power fluctuations, terrible coffee, Rodney nearly ascending, and trying to fix the City's systems just to keep them all in one piece? Set after The Return.
Word Count: 6,000
Warnings: A little Lorne whump, some angst
Disclaimer: Not mine; no infringement on any rights is intended. This is not for profit & is intended for enjoyment only.
Radek sighed and pushed his glasses up to his forehead, pinched the bridge of his nose and blinked until the text on the screen was only slightly blurry instead of very. He let his glasses drop into place and the Ancient text slid mostly into focus, though hardly more readable than it was five minutes ago. A sip of cold coffee did nothing but make him wonder how long it'd been since he'd brushed his teeth. Personally, he agreed with Rodney--why give up two of their three Zero Point Modules when the City was running at full power for the first time in ten thousand years? Who knew what they might discover, even if they only kept them for a year, or six months. But no, the SGC and IOA insisted that the others were needed elsewhere, which left them scrambling to turn off any extraneous systems the Ancients had activated while they had been in control.
The problem was finding all of them. At this rate, they would have to rely on the naquadah generators again just to keep their single ZPM from being depleted. "Did you find whatever's sucking up the power out by the west pier yet?" Rodney sounded as tired and frustrated as he was, even though the other man had left to take a break some time ago.
"No, Rodney," Radek answered. "There's an entry in the Ancient Database related to that area, but it hasn't been translated yet."
"All right. Look, there's only so much good coffee can do for us at this point." Rodney pinched the bridge of his nose in a mirror of Radek's earlier gesture. "We've turned off, what--sixty percent of the unnecessary systems? I'll ask Elizabeth to translate a few sections of database for us. She's much faster with Ancient, anyway. Let's get some sleep and come back to it tomorrow." He looked down at his watch and grimaced. "Or later today. Whatever."
Radek nodded gratefully and closed his laptop, then took his coffee cup to the sink and rinsed it before double-checking that the lab was in order. Rodney disappeared through the door, and the lights dimmed to a pale glow. He wished for the hundredth time that he had the Gene and could take Atlantis for granted the way Rodney and Sheppard did, but he'd learned to make up for it by tweaking and perfecting the interfaces he used on a day-to-day basis. Still, it didn't quite make up for being able to turn the lights on and off with his mind. Everything in the lab seemed to be as it should, so Radek stepped into the hall, pondering whether food or sleep was more important.
He decided on food after checking the time. It was late enough that the mess should be serving breakfast for the early risers, and the thought of pancakes made his stomach rumble. The few occupied chairs were taken up with marines and airmen who look like they'd been out for their morning runs, so Radek filled his tray and found an out-of-the-way table on the balcony. The morning air was refreshing, and he was glad he'd skipped another cup of coffee right before trying to sleep. And no one could mess up pancakes, not even the military.
The west pier was in view if he leaned a little to the left, and he wondered again what it was that the Ancients had activated out there. As far as they knew, that area was used for storage and Jumper repair. Perhaps they had planned on fixing the damage some of the Jumpers had taken on various missions, but most of that was superficial. He was so preoccupied with his line of thought that the sharp clack of a tray hitting the table across from him took him by surprise. He looked up, startled, to see a man in his early thirties, maybe, blond haired and military by the look of his physique, standing behind the other chair. "Doctor Zelenka, isn't it?" The man sat and Radek nodded warily. He, too, looked like he'd just been out for a morning jog; the sweats and t-shirt gave no indication if he was Air Force or Marine.
"Did you need something...?" Radek let the sentence hang, hoping the man would fill in his name. Radek didn't recognize him, which meant he was probably one of the new personnel who had come to Atlantis when the expedition moved back to the City. Which meant he was probably about to complain about his quarters, or his team assignment, or something else Radek had no control over.
"Yeah, I do need something." The man leaned forward, ignoring the food on his tray. "I noticed it's kinda hard to make friends around here, if you know what I mean. I asked around a little, and I was thinking maybe we--"
Oh. That. Radek was really too tired to deal with it politely. "You were thinking that because I am openly homosexual that I would be a safe person to approach for a fling?" The man, who still hadn't even told him his name, winced at Radek's blunt appraisal of the situation. "I sympathize that your military makes it difficult for you, especially in a new place." Radek stood and picked up his tray. "But I am not that type of person." The man nodded but didn't offer an apology, so Radek left him sitting there and dropped off his empty tray before heading to his quarters.
He hoped he didn't have to deal with it all over again. The same thing had happened when new personnel had arrived after the siege. He'd been a little flattered, at first, to turn down offers he'd assumed were directed at him, personally, despite the bags under his eyes and the way he dragged his feet for days after the city was safe. But no--they were in a strange City with new people, and Major Lorne and Colonel Sheppard were unknown and potentially hostile, and they'd experienced the terror of the Wraith first-hand, and they just wanted the comfort of a warm body. And Radek was safe, because if they asked discreetly enough, people would say his name, and what middle-aged scientist stuck in the City with the same two hundred people for a year would turn away such an offer? After a while the advances had ceased altogether, and the same would happen this time.
It was almost too much of an effort to brush his teeth and shower, but Radek knew if he didn't do it now he'd regret it later. He fell asleep clutching his radio earpiece and glasses, wondering when he would have time for any sort of relationship anyway, serious or otherwise.
**
They never did figure out what the Ancients had activated on the west pier. Though Elizabeth had translated the relevant text, it only explained how the Jumper repair stations worked. Which might come in handy in the future, but couldn't be responsible for power uptake with the station not in use. Which meant something else was active, but the grid showed nothing other than power going to that section of the City. "Leave it for now," Rodney said, tapping on his keyboard. "The power it's using is negligible compared to some of the other things we have yet to figure out. We'll have to send a team down there when we have time."
As if they ever had time! Radek would have laughed out loud if he wasn't sure that Rodney wouldn't see the humor nor the conflict in that statement. As it was, it took almost a week to get Atlantis running more or less in a way they were comfortable with, and even then, they only stopped logging power usage and checking systems because Colonel Sheppard was getting restless and wanted to start going offworld again.
With Rodney back with his team, Radek resumed his usual duties. It meant that his schedule went back to normal, though he certainly wasn't up as early as most of the military personnel. When he reached the mess at his usual breakfast time, it was filled mostly with scientists and off-duty military personnel.
It was an overcast day, heavy and humid, so Radek avoided the balcony. He nearly chose a table by himself again, then spotted Elizabeth's maroon shirt nearly hidden behind the leaves of one of the potted plants along the wall. He headed over, hoping to get her opinion on the translations the linguists had given him yesterday. "Doctor Weir, excuse me, but I wondered if--" Radek broke off when he saw that she wasn't alone. Major Lorne lounged in the chair across from her, his back to the wall and a clipboard on his raised knees. "Oh, I'm sorry, I did not mean to interrupt."
"It's fine, Radek. We were just going over some recommendations for new team formations. If you'd like to join us, we'll be done in a few minutes." Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Major Lorne, who nodded and hastily took a bite of his sandwich before flipping a page and continuing.
"Lieutenant Cadman should have one of the training teams," Lorne said. "She won't take any flack from the recruits and she's not trigger happy. Plus," Lorne looked up with a smile, "she's already had the weird stuff happen to her so she's not likely to freak out if something goes down." Elizabeth nodded her approval and Radek started in on his own lunch as they continued their discussion. He only looked up when Lorne spoke his name. "Whaddya think?" Lorne looked over at him expectantly. "Since we're rearranging things, now's your chance. Colonel Sheppard and I both thought it'd be great to have you on a team."
"Me?" Radek asked in surprise. Major Lorne appeared to be completely serious. "You saw me offworld when we retrieved that dart, and what those--" he added a nice, rude phrase in Czech and then continued, "--children did to me. I'm not certain it would be a good idea."
Major Lorne leaned back against the wall and regarded him with a smile. "It'd be nice to have more science personnel out there."
"It's up to you, Radek." Elizabeth gave him one of her diplomatic looks; he hoped she meant what she said, because he was quite happy working in the labs, keeping the City running. Rodney caused more than enough trouble going offworld with Colonel Sheppard, didn't he?
With a polite nod to both of them, Major Lorne stood with his papers and empty tray. "Ma'am, Doc. I'll see you both later." Radek watched him leave, trying to recall if the Major got into difficulty as often as Colonel Sheppard. He was fairly certain that he did.
"Now, Radek," Elizabeth steepled her fingers and leaned forward, "what did you need to speak to me about?"
***
The issue of joining an offworld team didn't come up again, partly because everyone was busy dealing with Rodney's altered DNA after they attempted to deactivate the last few systems that were pulling power from their precious ZPM. It meant that Radek was back to getting little or no sleep, but at least everyone had the sense not to bother him with trivial things.
After four days with only as many hours of sleep scattered between them, oh, and dying, he'd not forget that soon--his fingers still tingled, though it might be the lack of sleep--Radek was ready to collapse. He couldn't though, not yet. Rodney had reconfigured so many systems that their computers were having a hard time keeping up, regardless that it was supposedly more efficient. Every new line of code was raising alarm bells, and since Rodney had written them into Atlantis' systems--in Ancient, of course--it was a race to keep the computers from shutting them down for thinking it was another virus like the one that had nearly destroyed the City the year before.
"Doc?" A voice called into the lab, and Radek lifted his head and blinked, eyes straining to adjust to the dimness beyond his lit computer screen. Major Lorne came into view, apparently thinking that the lab needed to be brighter. The room's lights intensified, making Radek blink more. "Oh, you are here. Isn't it about time you took a break?" Lorne set a cup of coffee down on the table next to Radek's laptop. "I brought you a fresh cup--thought you might need it."
"Thank you, Major." Radek sighed. "I think it's going to be a while before I'm done." He took a sip of the coffee, and even though he'd been drinking nothing but for the last ten hours, he could tell it was better than what they were serving in the mess.
"You sure you're okay?" Lorne squinted at him and tapped his fingers on the table. "You must have had quite a scare."
Radek waved him off. "Truthfully, whatever Rodney did made me feel better than I did before." Lorne regarded him skeptically, so Radek took another sip of coffee and said, "This is good."
"Oh, yeah, McKay gave it to me when he was...what did he call it? 'Releasing his burden.'" Lorne laughed. "Truthfully I think he didn't know what to say to me and no one else on his team really likes coffee."
"You could give it back now," Radek told him, quickly typing a command as his computer started to beep again.
"I could," Lorne agreed. "But I'm not going to." He leaned his elbows on the table and glanced at the laptop screen. "There's more where that came from, you know."
Radek's fingers stilled over the keyboard. He turned his head just enough to glance at the Major out of the corner of his eyes. Lorne was smiling--smirking?--at him, completely relaxed, as if the power grid was going to wait for him to finish his overture before overloading and taking out half the City. "Excuse me?"
"I just thought," Lorne said, licking his lips, "you might want to come over some time..." He drifted into silence as Radek turned and regarded him skeptically.
"Of all the people here, Major," Radek said, shaking his head, "I would never have expected you to come in here and proposition me."
"I wasn't--" Lorne took a step back from the table, arms raised.
"No?" Radek swiveled his stool so that he faced Lorne directly. "Well, at least you offered coffee, which is more than I can say for anyone else." He waved his hand as the unfinished code on the laptop beeped again for his attention. "I don't have time for this."
Lorne's face was a stony mask. Without another word he turned and strode from the lab.
It wasn't until much later, when Radek had gotten the power grid under control and had slept properly for several hours that he realized he might have made a mistake.
***
The west pier was still giving them problems a week later. Rodney absolutely refused to be part of the team that was finally assembled to head down there with flashlights and tools and extra power crystals and figure out what was going on. "For God's sake, don't activate anything!"
"Yes, Rodney, I know." Radek sighed and checked his gear one last time. "I have no desire for an Ancient device to kill us."
"Well." Rodney crossed his arms and huffed. "I'm just saying. Sometimes you think you know what something does and it turns out that you don't."
Hiding a smile, Radek turned and picked up his datapad. The schematics for the area they were traveling to were displayed on the flat screen. "Colonel Sheppard and I will be very careful."
"What? I'm not wasting Sheppard on something like this." Rodney turned to his own laptop, and Radek swore that he opened something that looked suspiciously like a video game. "You get Major Lorne."
Radek's heart sank. He'd avoided the Major entirely since their last encounter, and now it appeared it would be just the two of them exploring the depths of the City for the afternoon. He was about to suggest that perhaps Sergeant Coughlin or one of the other gene-positive military personnel accompany him when Lorne walked in wearing his tac vest and thigh holster, hands resting on the P-90 clipped at his chest. "Ready to go, Doctor Zelenka?" Not "Doc" anymore, apparently.
"Yes, yes, just let me--" Radek looked around for anything else he might need, but his gear was packed and ready. Rodney gave them a cheerful wave as they left and headed to the nearest transporter.
Major Lorne kept the conversation completely professional. He asked about any possible dangers they might encounter, what they were expected to accomplish, and how long it might take. Radek answered as best he could, but he wouldn't know much of that himself until they discovered what was happening on the west pier. It was slightly awkward, but at least they had something with which to occupy themselves. They weren't traveling to the mainland in a Jumper or stuck offworld where they'd have to make small talk.
The west pier was in little better shape than the corridors where Rodney had nearly killed himself. The lights worked, though that was part of the problem; the area was still siphoning power and it had to be going somewhere.
"All right, Major. We're looking for a room, or perhaps more than one, that seems to be active. Only the hallway lights should be on. If you see a lit room, or any panels that appear to be working, please do not enter." Radek tapped on his datapad and enlarged the section of the map they were currently in.
"Right. Don't go into any suspicious rooms draining our power supply for no apparent reason. Gotcha," Lorne answered dryly. He started down the left-hand side, waving his hand over the closest door-panel. Radek mirrored him on the right-hand side. It would be so much easier if they could pinpoint the power usage. But then, they wouldn't be down here searching, and they'd have turned off whatever it was weeks ago.
The first three corridors turned up nothing but storage rooms. Radek entered them into his datapad regardless; earlier searches of the City were patchy at best and additional information was always welcome. Major Lorne sighed as they met at the far corner. "Well, they always say it's in the last place you look."
Radek furrowed his brows and swiped his hair out of his eyes. "Of course," he said. "Because you stop looking after that." Lorne raised an eyebrow at him and Radek blushed. "Oh, a joke. Do you always see the humor in things, Major?"
"Most of the time," Lorne replied evenly, turning the corner and swiping his hand over another door-panel. Radek couldn't think of anything to say to that, so he continued his own exploration of the hall. By the time they'd finished a decent section of the grid and radioed Rodney to update him on their lack of progress, Radek was ready to try looking into rooms at random and hoping to get lucky. They worked their way toward the Jumper repair station, which was at the far end of the cluster of buildings.
"That is it, that is everything," Radek said when they reached the station. "The station itself cannot be active if there are no Jumpers here; it's a safety feature built into the system."
Lorne looked up at the angled roof of the blue-gray outpost and back toward the City proper. "Well, we're here. We might as well check it out."
Radek nodded and they headed inside. He'd never been here before, and as far as he knew, none of the expedition had. Possibly someone had stuck his head inside and made a quick note, but that was all. The entire building was one large room. It looked very much like the Jumper Bay, but the floor was sunk into the pier itself, creating a circular workspace like a large well. Steps led down from a walkway that lined the walls and disappeared into dimness. "Major, could you turn on the lights, please? Carefully?"
When the lights came on--and thankfully nothing else--Radek could see that the walls were partitioned into cubicles for working on Jumpers, or so he assumed. He glanced upward and confirmed that the ceiling had the kind of roof that retracted like an iris, making it a simple manner to pilot Jumpers into the bays. The open circle in the center where the pieces didn't quite meet revealed blue sky beyond. The central area of the room made less sense. It seemed to reach well into the depths of the ocean, and served no obvious purpose. Perhaps, like Rodney's Jumper that had fallen into the sea, it was meant as an entrance for any of the little vehicles that crashed into the water.
He set to work pulling apart the most obvious panels, though most of the crystals didn't look like they'd carried power in quite some time. Several were cracked and a few were broken entirely. With no other options but to hope that the system might regulate itself if it were working properly, Radek set about replacing every damaged crystal as he found it. After he'd slotted a couple dozen into place, he moved on to the next section of wall between the open bays. As he pried off another panel, several things happened simultaneously: the building started to crackle and hum, the hairs on his arms lifted with some kind of static electricity, and Rodney's voice came over his earpiece, demanding, "Radek! What did you do? Power consumption in the west pier just spiked!"
Radek could see Major Lorne placing a palm flat against the wall as he answered, "I replaced the broken power crystals in the Jumper repair station, Rodney. If there is a power issue here after all, it's possible that the damaged crystals were keeping the system from reading our commands properly. I was hoping that you could tell it to stop doing," he looked around for a moment, "whatever it's doing."
"Well, I don't know what it's doing!" Rodney answered. "Wait, wait, wait. Give me a minute." Radek debated replacing the crystals in the panel. It couldn't get any worse, could it? Then the building shook; or rather, felt like it shifted.
"Rodney!" Radek grabbed the wall and held on. "I do not think we have a minute!"
"Doc?" Lorne hovered over Radek, staring at the ceiling. "Does that look like a shield to you?"
Radek followed his glance toward the hole in the center of the iris and everything clicked into place just as Rodney said, "Oh, okay, this could be very bad."
"Yes, Rodney. Very bad." He ran the calculations, and then again just to be sure. "Can you--?"
"Maybe," Rodney answered. "But I'd have to send Sheppard to the relay station and you'd have to--"
"Yes, yes, I am working on it," Radek said, moving back to the panels he'd been working on. He had no idea which replaced crystal had been the one to restore power to the building's shield. He could try taking them out randomly, or reconfiguring them, hoping he'd get lucky and it would just turn off...
"Mind filling me in?" Lorne asked, leaning against the wall where Radek worked.
Radek condensed the explanation in his head and said, "The shield must have been what was activated when the Ancients were in control of the city." He nodded toward the center of the room. "But only around the lower section, you see? No water." Lorne stepped over to the edge of the walkway and looked down into the sunken work area, which was completely dry even though it was below sea level and, as far as Radek could tell, otherwise open to the ocean from below. "Unfortunately, replacing the damaged crystals allowed the shield to activate around the entire building."
"Okay," Lorne said slowly. "I don't see why that's a problem. Can't you just turn it off again?"
"We've been trying to turn if off for nearly a month," Radek answered, his speech muffled by the data crystal he held in his mouth.
"So...we're stuck here?" Lorne walked back over and peered over Radek's shoulder.
"Stuck is not the problem," Radek answered. "The problem is that we rerouted all power to this area to a naquadah generator so that it would stop draining the ZPM. But a naquadah generator doesn't have enough power to--"
The building shook. Major Lorne must have finished Radek's sentence in his head, because he grabbed Radek and hauled him to the closest set of stairs that led into the well in the center of the room. Shoving Radek flat against the wall, Lorne pressed up against him and lifted his arms above both their heads.
Large pieces of debris hit the edges of the walkway above them as the roof of the building crumbled from the outer edges. Some of the smaller pieces bounced and rained down around them, followed by a shower of dust. Lorne took half a step back and looked up at the ceiling. "Let me guess. The naquadah generator doesn't have enough power to keep the shield running?"
Radek nodded, eyes wide and heart pounding. "I must--" He pushed past Lorne, ignoring the Major's warning to be careful, and picked his way over the debris to climb partway up the staircase. Most of the ceiling had collapsed, and the pieces that made up the retracting iris had fallen open like the petals of a flower to land against the walls. That and the rubble from the rest of the building would make reaching the panels impossible. He clicked on his radio. "Rodney. The shield is already shrinking, and I can no longer access the systems. You must either reconnect us to the ZPM's power or figure out how to turn off the shield from where you are."
"I sent Sheppard to the relay station already," Rodney answered, "and I'm still trying to turn the damn shield off." Radek could hear Rodney's fingers tapping furiously on his keyboard. All they could do now was wait.
"I'd feel a lot better with you out of the way," Lorne called from the bottom of the staircase. Radek nodded and joined him, where they huddled at the junction where the stairs met the rounded wall. "So, is this gonna keep happening?" Lorne asked.
"Possibly," Radek answered. "It has been using power from the naquadah generator for quite some time now. It depends on how quickly Colonel Sheppard switches the power over to the ZPM. After that, the shield will stabilize, but we will have to wait for Rodney to turn it off."
Lorne made a thoughtful humming noise. "Why shield the place at all?"
Radek adjusted his glasses and attempted to dislodge some of the dust from his hair. "I do not know. Perhaps the whole unit is detachable, or submersible."
They both peered into the lower section of bays, which were blocked in on the outside by that glass-that-was-stronger-than-glass and open to the seawater below. The blurred shimmer of the shield was visible along the outer edges. "Will we have to worry about water getting in?" Lorne asked after a moment.
"I'm not sure." Radek thought the shield seemed to be shrinking from the top down. He braced himself as the building suddenly shook again. Lorne rolled in his direction and knelt over him with his arms against the wall at Radek's back. When the noise stopped, there was a great deal more rubble around them. Lorne grunted and sat back on his heels. "Major?" Are you all right?"
"Tac vest took most of it," Lorne said, shaking his head and peering through the dust. The top of the building was now open to the sky--or would have been if not for the translucent shimmer of the shield. The walkway around the edges of the walls was buried in debris; the building was being crushed like a fist slowly closing around it from the outside.
"Radek." Rodney's voice in his ear made Radek jump. "Sheppard is unplugging the generator so that the system will re-route back into the ZPM. I'm still working on getting the shield to shut down." Radek sighed and let his head fall against his knees. At least now they were back to being stuck as the main problem.
They heard the shield hum and move, and as it did so, the last of the loose masonry fell from the crumbled edge of the roof. chunks of stone and metal hit the piles already precariously balanced on the walkway above them and everything started to shift. "Doc!" Lorne dove against Radek. It was several moments before everything settled.
Radek coughed and tried to take stock of the situation. At least they weren't buried, though Lorne was a dead weight on his chest. "Major? Major!" Lorne shifted and mumbled, then hissed sharply through his teeth. Radek was afraid to try to move him, afraid that he might dislodge more of the rubble above them. He couldn't see much, only that the pile had cascaded down upon them and was now resting largely over the lower half of Major Lorne. He had been spared the worst of it, though he'd surely find himself covered in bruises tomorrow from where bits of the building were digging into his shoulders and back.
Lorne tried to push himself upright and a few blocky pieces skittered past at the movement. "I can't shift it," he said, "but nothing's broken." He settled back against Radek and winced. "Sorry. Gimme a minute. I might be able to push myself up enough for you to get out."
"And go where?" Radek squirmed a little, realizing that the sharp corner digging into his ribs was probably Lorne's P-90. His left arm was pinned under Lorne, but he dug them out of loosest of the rubble as carefully as he could without causing a landslide. One of the pieces of the iris seemed to be resting on the top of the pile; it was unclear how much rubble it hid underneath. Radek sighed and tapped his earpiece. "Rodney, now would be a good time for turning off the shield. A large pile of debris has fallen on Major Lorne."
"What? Is he hurt?"
Radek muttered a few unkind words in Czech and then answered, "I think he is probably hurt, yes."
Lorne turned his head and tried to smile. At least Radek thought it was a smile; it could have been a grimace. "Is McKay getting us out of here yet?"
"Rodney?" Radek wished he could clean his glasses properly. The dust had left them grimy and smeared.
"Okay. Sheppard sent Cadman and a team of marines down there. Uh, I think I'm close to figuring this out, so they should be able to get in there and help you, um, soon?" There was a pause, and then Rodney added, "Carson is sending a medical team, too."
"Did you hear that, Major?" Radek asked. "Rodney will have the shield off soon." Lorne exhaled loudly, raising a cloud of dust on Radek's jacket. "Should we try to dig ourselves out?" Radek asked.
"Depends on whether McKay really means soon," Lorne answered. "Give him some time, I guess."
They fell into silence. As the adrenaline wore off, Radek realized he was banged up in more places than he'd realized. Careful exploration with his fingers revealed a shallow gash on his cheek, another on his shoulder above Major Lorne's head. He could only imagine how much worse off he'd be if the Major hadn't shielded him from the worst of it. The silence stretched into minutes. Radek thought perhaps he should keep Major Lorne talking. That's what one should do with someone who may have taken a blow to the head, wasn't it? These kinds of situations were exactly the reason he didn't want to be on an offworld team. "Major? How are you feeling?"
"Well," Lorne mumbled, "I'm not really feeling my toes anymore." He hissed and added, "Scratch that. My toes hurt. In fact, everything hurts, but I guess it's better than the alternative."
Radek reached his hand up and very nearly brushed at the dust in Major Lorne's hair, but stopped himself. He doubted the man would appreciate it. "Thank you," he said instead. "You know, for..."
"Doing my job?" Lorne supplied.
"That, and protecting me even while you have every right to be angry with me, I imagine." Radek tried to shift again, to wriggle his trapped fingers. They didn't hurt, but they were starting to tingle.
"Why would I be angry with you?" Lorne asked evenly.
"Because." Radek sighed. "Sometimes I am an idiot." He let his fingers rest on Lorne's head then, and Lorne drew in a breath at the contact. "I thought you were interested in me as no more than a--a momentary distraction. Certainly nothing serious. I--" Radek blushed. He was too embarrassed to tell Major Lorne about everything that had happened with the other men that had approached him, though it would certainly help him understand why he'd said what he did. He finally settled on a very brief and edited version.
"I'm sorry," Lorne told him. "I didn't know. I'm not very good at the whole romantic thing, obviously." He gave a short laugh that turned into another wince. "In fact, I think I'm kind of terrible at it."
"Maybe we could try once again after we are rescued?" Radek ran his hand through Lorne's hair, but the man never had a chance to respond. Instead Rodney's voice came through his earpiece, interrupting the conversation.
"Radek! I finally got the shield disabled. Let me tell you, it was not easy. I had to reroute the control systems through the secondary crystal array in the Jumper repair lab, and--well, anyway, it's done. You can thank me later."
Lorne laughed weakly against Radek's chest. "Oh, yeah, I'm gonna thank Rodney later for this whole mess." Radek couldn't agree more.
***
The infirmary was always brightly lit, though something about the color of the lights was far more soothing than in the labs. Radek walked to the back, where Major Lorne's bed was partially screened from the rest of the room. He'd been kept overnight for observation, but they'd both escaped with no serious injuries. "Major? How are you feeling?"
Lorne looked up from his datapad and smiled. "Hey, Doc. Feeling a lot better today. Carson tells me I can leave after lunch assuming that my last set of scans turn out okay."
"I'm glad to hear it, Major. Does that mean you will be free for dinner?" Radek stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets to keep from fiddling nervously.
The smile turned into a grin and Lorne's eyebrows lifted. "Doc...are you asking me out on a date?"
Radek laughed. "Just to be clear--yes, yes I am. Something romantic, perhaps? A balcony table, meatloaf or possibly goulash, which will be made bearable by a wonderful view and a lovely sunset?"
"And great company." Lorne set his datapad on the bedside table and took a covert glance around the infirmary. He quickly flipped the covers back and swung his feet over the side of the bed. Radek stepped closer, and Lorne placed his hands on Radek's wrists, running his fingers over the exposed skin where his sleeves ended. "Yeah. A date sounds like a wonderful idea."
Feeling suddenly bold, Radek leaned down and brushed his lips lightly against Lorne's. It felt...well, wonderful. And now that everything in the City was working the way that it should be, perhaps he could find the time for a relationship after all.
