Title: Taste of Blood
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Sheppard/McKay
Rating: NP (that's no porn)
Date: March 4, 2005
Disclaimer: Not mine, no profit, etc, etc.
Note: Written for Nemo using the three words blood, mouth, and lick.
Not precisely beta'd but Sin read it over and didn't yell at me. *g*
Feedback welcome at coreopsis@gmail.com
Rodney gripped his sidearm tightly and strained his ears for any sign of the others. His back pressed against a tree, he worried that the forest had gotten so quiet. Before there had been running and yelling and confusion, but now...nothing. He was alone with only John's admonition to stay put if they got separated, which happened almost immediately precisely because of the running and yelling and confusion. Rodney still wasn't quite sure who or what they'd been running from except that it wasn't Wraith but it was big. And possibly very, very angry.
Rodney was rather pissed off himself, mostly because it kept the stomach-wrenching fear at bay to focus on how possessive and bossy John had spoken to him. As if sleeping with John a couple of times had made Rodney's brain fall out of his head. Yeah, nice thinking, Major Overconfident. Perhaps if John hadn't been so confident that he could handle the whatever, he might not have gotten so easily separated from Rodney because he'd have realized he might need Rodney's help. But no, of course he couldn't admit that he needed Rodney for anything. He'd rather--
A noise in the nearby underbrush brought Rodney's train of thought to a screeching halt just as he was working up a good head of steam. He froze for a second, then slowly raised his gun so that he could shoot if he needed to. He relaxed as John crawled over a downed tree and said "Rodney" in the most relieved voice Rodney had ever heard.
As he took in John's ragged appearance, Rodney's eyes widened and he shoved his gun back in his holster, putting the safety on as if it was second nature. He rushed across the small clearing and took John's arm, maneuvering him to sit on the tree trunk he'd just crawled over. He fell to his knees between John's feet and took his pack off his back to look for medical supplies. "What happened? Are you hurt? Where are the others? Are they okay? Have you seen them? What the hell was that--"
Rodney stopped abruptly when John raised a hand to wipe the blood off his face. His hand was shaking. John's hands never shook. Rodney's hands shook when he was nervous or scared. Even Ford's hand's shook once in a while, though he tried to hide it, but not John's hands. Rodney swallowed hard and reached up to touch John's cheek. A scratch near his hairline had left a trail of blood all down the side of his face, and though Rodney could see John's lips shaping the words "I'm fine", he didn't believe it. He gently cradled John's face in both hands, careful not to put any pressure on any bruises that he couldn't see yet. Sweeping his thumbs over John's cheekbones, smearing blood around on his skin, Rodney completely forgot about Ford and Teyla and where they were. His heart was beating like a crazy thing in his chest and all he could do was lean forward and lick at the bright trickle of fresh blood welling up from a shallow cut at the corner of John's mouth.
The taste of blood and sweat and dirt should have turned his stomach, but it didn't because this was John, and he was here and he was okay--mostly, as far as Rodney could tell--and he was here. Rodney touched his lips to John's in a brief caress that could barely be called a kiss and started to pull back to make sure John wasn't badly hurt. But John raised a hand and wrapped it around the back of Rodney's neck and pressed their mouths together, opening his lips and stroking Rodney's teeth with his tongue. Rodney kissed back with all the passion and fervor he hadn't allowed himself before, until John gasped and pulled back.
"Ow," John said almost wryly, as if the pain wasn't really that big a deal.
But Rodney could still taste John's blood. The fear and uncertainty and anger that had kept Rodney going came back and it was a big deal. He clambered to his feet and pulled his gun out again and demanded, "Okay, where is it?"
"It's dead, Rodney." John put one hand on Rodney's wrist and smirked up at him. "Unless you were planning to shoot the tree that I ran into when I got distracted by the thing."
"Are you sure it's dead?" Rodney asked, slipping his gun back into his holster. "I mean, the Wraith, that bug... things don't always die out here like they're supposed to."
"It's dead. Ford and Teyla are waiting by the Gate for us." John keyed his radio. "Sheppard to Ford."
Rodney heard Ford's answer over his own radio and then John smiled up at Rodney. "I found him. We're heading back now. Sheppard out."
Rodney ignored whatever Ford said in return and shouldered his pack. He wondered how bad Ford and Teyla looked if John was the one deemed most fit to come and find Rodney. As he and John set off toward the Gate, Rodney said as much and John suddenly found everything more interesting to look at than Rodney. "John." Rodney sighed and held onto his patience with the most slippery grip imaginable. He spoke slowly as if to a particularly dim-witted child. "How are Ford and Teyla?"
John sighed too and glanced at Rodney quickly before focusing again on the way in front of them. "They're fine."
"Really? Then why didn't one of them--"
"Because I needed to do it, okay?" John picked up his pace even though he was limping just a little. "Can we drop it now?"
"Sure. This is me dropping it." Rodney waited for John to relax slightly and then added, "It'll be much more comfortable to talk about this while you're resting in the infirmary."
John looked at him and shook his head. "You just never give up, do you?"
"Nope," Rodney said cheerfully, but the fear and tension hadn't completely left him yet. Maybe it never would. John smirked at him, and Rodney realized that maybe it wouldn't matter. Some things were worth being scared over.
The end.
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