Fic: Dancing In the Rain
Nov. 1st, 2011 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
emeraldsnakesTitle: Dancing In the Rain
Series: Sequel to Cosmic Love
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Sanctuary
Pairing: Lorne/Tesla
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2,245
Summary: Lorne sneaks Tesla into Atlantis
Notes: Written for Rinkafic who won me in Help the South, and I've finally, finally finished this.took me long enough Not beta'd. All grammar/spelling/tense issues are mine I have issues
“You shouldn’t be here,” Evan hissed, eyes darting around the empty corridors of Atlantis nervously.
“And yet, you let me in,” Nikola replied with a grin.
“Biggest mistake ever,” Evan mumbled.
If they got caught Evan would be stripped of his rank and thrown into a prison where no one would find him and Nikola would just be plain screwed. Interrogation and more than likely the discovery of his vampiric nature would be the least of his problems. He should have known the genius would connect his sudden return to the States with the disruption in the San Francisco Bay that Atlantis’ landing had caused. He should have resisted Nikola’s creative persuasion to allow him to tag along back to the city. He wasn’t even going to ask how he’d obtained Parrish’s ID, though he had made sure Parrish wasn’t dead. Evan liked his quirky Botanist.
“Come on, you know this is my kind of place,” Nikola argued on behalf of himself again. “Look, she already loves me.”
Nikola touched the paneled walls and generated a small magnetic charge. The lights around his hand flared in a way Evan had only ever seen Atlantis respond to Sheppard.
“And you’re already thinking of how you can use her only to move on when something new pops up,” Evan teased.
Nikola’s lips quirked and there was a flash of black in his eyes, “That was a stake to the heart if I ever felt one.”
Evan snorted, “Sure it was.”
He bumped their shoulders and turned down the hallway to the physics labs, specifically Mckay’s lab. He figured that, of all the labs, Mckay’s would give Nikola the most access to whatever he wanted to play with. He just hoped Mckay’s own vacation hadn’t been cut short like his and he was still in Canada with is sister.
Atlantis herself was operating under a skeleton crew of ten: four soldiers, four scientists, a doctor and a nurse. The soldiers’ only objective was to ensure the physical security of the city wasn’t breached. There was a botanist to keep the greenhouses alive, an engineer to keep an eye on the major systems, another in charge of the minor systems and a gate tech to monitor everyone. Every other member of the expedition were either in meetings with the SGC and IOA or on forced vacations like Evan was supposed to be.
“Fascinating,” Nikola breathed.
He walked around the room, inspecting every little piece of technology Mckay had set up. Most of it, as far as Evan knew, was Earth based but with applications adapted from other races though he did see a few pieces of Ancient Tech lying around. He wondered if Nikola had the gene or if his electromagnetic ability gave him an edge over the non-gene users without the privileges of those with the gene.
Evan found a chair and perched on it to watch Nikola. This is what he liked most about being with Nikola. Watching him work was breath taking, and he was in the habit of having his sketch book with him. He was on his way to having an entire book filled of Nikola doing research, experimenting, drinking wine in thought and even a few of him getting angry and baring his fangs at the offending object.
This was no different and experience except Evan had never seen him with something entirely new before and it was different. Nikola was all evil grins as he flew through Mckay’s encryptions and into the Atlantis database, absorbing as much information as he possibly could. He muttered to himself, mostly talk Evan didn’t understand though he knew Nikola had found the city’s life signs, a reference to the ancient chair, and possibly the star drive.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Nikola exclaimed at some point. He growled and opened Mckay’s desk, ransacking it for a few minutes before coming up with a diamond shaped latticed handheld device. It was silver and the latticed indents were a variety of different colours, mostly shades of blue and green but there were reds and yellows as well.
Evan didn’t know what the hell it was.
“That’s supposed to be?” he prompted.
Nikola scowled at him, a scowl he was very familiar with but didn’t mind anymore because he was used to and amused by it as well. Sometimes Nikola forgot he wasn’t a genius too.
“It’s the Spectral’s Star. Legend says it amplifies a person’s mental capabilities,” Nikola turned the device around in his hand. “I’ve been searching for this for decades. I nearly thought I’d found it in Egypt, but that was just some hand device I couldn’t make work.”
“Wait you found a Goa’uld hand device in Egypt?” Evan demanded. “When?”
Nikola turned both hands up and gave him a confused look. “What’s a Goa’uld hand device?”
“It’s like a glove with a big amber jewel in the palm. The Goa’uld used it as a weapon and to torture people.” Evan replied, flashing back to his own experiences with the device. He hadn’t fought many Goa’uld, not like more veteran members of the SGC but he’d seen his fair share and been on the receiving end of the hand device a few times.
“Yea, I found that,” Nikola said nodding. “It was back in 1933, a few years after some big Giza dig the American’s did.”
Evan just stared at Nikola for a moment, “Sometimes I forget how old you are.”
Nikola grinned, “I have my dashing good looks to thank for that.”
Evan rolled his eyes, “So what’s the deal on this Star thing? Why were you looking for it?”
“Amplified mental capabilities. You humans only use a small portion of your brains, I use a bit more because, well…genius. Imagine what I could do if I was using 5 percent more. Or ten. Or even fifty! I don’t know how powerful this device is but there were stories of men who could move things with their mind, heal wounds with a single touch, even think on par with my ancestors. And we all know humans weren’t really smart a couple thousand years ago, not compared to the Vampires or to your Ancients or even to us now. But this device…” Nikola trailed off.
“So it’s like ascension?” Evan tried to clarify in his mind. At Nikola’s look he explained more, recalling Mckay’s near miss to visiting the high and mighty and what he knew of Dr. Jackson’s own experiences.
Nikola hummed thoughtfully, “The legends don’t have anything like ascension being the final result of this device’s use. Could be this was a pre curser to the one Mckay activated. I would have to see it to compare them.”
“No, that’s off limits,” Evan immediately told him. No one was allowed near the ascension lab and there were talks of dismantling the device so no one accidently or purposefully used it.
“But this device! Think about what I could accomplish with any enhancements it gave me. No, think about what you could do!”
“Are you looking at this from a genius’ perspective, or a megalomaniac’s?”
Evan winced immediately as Nikola paused and stared at him reproachfully. It was the No Man’s Land between them, Nikola’s desire to rebuild the Vampire Dynasty as it once was. Evan always maintained that it was too old fashioned to think that the human race would willingly subject themselves to vampire rule again. He thought that maybe it was ingrained in Nikola’s nature, a vampire trait that made them believe that just because they were more powerful, smarter and nearly immortal that they were better than humans. Evan knew that it wasn’t exactly the case with Nikola, that he respected a fair number of humans, Evan included or their relationship would never progressed as far as it had but sometimes he had his doubts. Sometimes Evan’s not sure if this is all just play time for Nikola, a passing whim while he waits for Helen because Evan’s not blind. He knows Nikola has deep rooted feelings for her he just has no real idea if those feelings have any role in their relationship. And Evan hates himself for the doubt and for how often it does actually creep into his mind and poison his thoughts.
It wasn’t a topic that came up often either. Evan was rarely ever around when Nikola was working on projects for his personal gain. They always met up at the Sanctuary. When there Nikola’s projects, while always providing some personal gain, were for Helen and the Network and Helen’s employees knew to leave them their short time in peace.
When it became apparent that neither of them were going to budge Evan sighed and ran a hand over his face. This was not how he had wanted this day to turn out.
“Would you use it?” he asked softly.
Nikola’s lips curled up slightly, “You already know the answer to that love.”
Evan chuckled and smiled because yea, yea he did already know the answer.
Nikola set the device aside after that and turned back to one of Mckay’s computers immediately entering into the city’s systems. At least, Evan assumed it was the city’s systems because all he could see were lines and lines of numbers and words that made no sense to him.
He watched silently for a while as Nikola tweaked some code and swore and insulted Mckay while he did it. He bit his lip to keep from bursting out in laughter when Nikola made four straight deep lines in the table with the slightly elongated claws of his right hand then furiously rewrite the entire power distribution protocol. He answered Nikola’s questions about Atlantis’s response to the Gene users, both natural and artificial and figured Nikola was rewriting at least half of those protocols as well.
They remained in McKay’s lab for days. Eventually Evan retrieved his own computer for paperwork and they only left when Evan couldn’t remain awake any longer or they needed food. But they both knew their time on Atlantis together was limited. Meetings and vacations would be ending and as much Evan loved the idea of Nikola staying full time they both had their obligations. But they had this and Evan couldn’t really have asked for anything more.
..........
Evan knew there was a big stupid grin on his face, the kind you got when your mouth was trying to rip your face in two and you just couldn’t help it because there was something really funny happening. Mckay ranting and raving about the rewritten protocols was just too much for him to sit through and take seriously though, not when he knew what had really happened.
And he knew he should have skipped the meeting, except that would have been a big a tell as his smiling but Sheppard is eyeing him curiously. Flickering back and forth between him and Mckay as if he was trying to work out a problem which Evan really hopes he isn’t close to doing. He raised his eyebrow at Sheppard in a silent “What?” and got an eyebrow in return with a head tilt towards Mckay.
It took Evan a minute to process that, to try and figure out what Sheppard was implying and when he does he almost made a distasteful sound because while arrogant genius is his type he’s had four years to get to know Mckay and there was no way in hell that could happen.
“Doctor Mckay,” Woolsey interrupted the tirade, leaning forward on his elbows, “do these changes have any negative effect on the operation of the city?”
Evan watched the play of emotions run across Mckay’s face, the aggravation and annoyance, the outrage and frustration all leading to the unwilling acceptance, “No.”
“Very well. As much as well all would like to know who in fact did make these changes I do not want it to kate priority over the preparations on our return to Pegasus. As tentative as the date is I do not want to give the IOA any chance to toss the operation out because we were not ready to go.”
Woolsey dismissed them and Evan was among the first to escape the room. He headed back to his office, the big stupid grin still on his face and he contemplated his options on sending a message to Nikola. He really needed to thank him again and tell him about Mckay’s fit.
“Oh, there you are Major,” Evan was waylaid by David at the door to his office.
“Something I can do for you Doc?”
He thought his office door open, elated at how Nikola’s changes made it so that he, as a gene carrier, wasn’t required to hit the controls of any door that either was keyed to him or not to anyone at all.
“Do you know why Sergeants James and Mallroy keep asking me why I dyed my hair back?” David asked, following him in.
Evan winced, but tried not to let it show, “Why, did you dye your hair while we were away?”
“Not that I remember.” Evan raised an eyebrow in wonderment and David forcefully corrected himself, “No.”
Evan shrugged, “I’ll ask them, see what’s up. Don’t worry about it,” he added, seeing David’s look. “Besides, it’d be really weird if you went and changed it on me now.” I really don’t need you looking more like Nikola than you do already.
Series: Sequel to Cosmic Love
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Sanctuary
Pairing: Lorne/Tesla
Rating: PG-13
Words: 2,245
Summary: Lorne sneaks Tesla into Atlantis
Notes: Written for Rinkafic who won me in Help the South, and I've finally, finally finished this.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Evan hissed, eyes darting around the empty corridors of Atlantis nervously.
“And yet, you let me in,” Nikola replied with a grin.
“Biggest mistake ever,” Evan mumbled.
If they got caught Evan would be stripped of his rank and thrown into a prison where no one would find him and Nikola would just be plain screwed. Interrogation and more than likely the discovery of his vampiric nature would be the least of his problems. He should have known the genius would connect his sudden return to the States with the disruption in the San Francisco Bay that Atlantis’ landing had caused. He should have resisted Nikola’s creative persuasion to allow him to tag along back to the city. He wasn’t even going to ask how he’d obtained Parrish’s ID, though he had made sure Parrish wasn’t dead. Evan liked his quirky Botanist.
“Come on, you know this is my kind of place,” Nikola argued on behalf of himself again. “Look, she already loves me.”
Nikola touched the paneled walls and generated a small magnetic charge. The lights around his hand flared in a way Evan had only ever seen Atlantis respond to Sheppard.
“And you’re already thinking of how you can use her only to move on when something new pops up,” Evan teased.
Nikola’s lips quirked and there was a flash of black in his eyes, “That was a stake to the heart if I ever felt one.”
Evan snorted, “Sure it was.”
He bumped their shoulders and turned down the hallway to the physics labs, specifically Mckay’s lab. He figured that, of all the labs, Mckay’s would give Nikola the most access to whatever he wanted to play with. He just hoped Mckay’s own vacation hadn’t been cut short like his and he was still in Canada with is sister.
Atlantis herself was operating under a skeleton crew of ten: four soldiers, four scientists, a doctor and a nurse. The soldiers’ only objective was to ensure the physical security of the city wasn’t breached. There was a botanist to keep the greenhouses alive, an engineer to keep an eye on the major systems, another in charge of the minor systems and a gate tech to monitor everyone. Every other member of the expedition were either in meetings with the SGC and IOA or on forced vacations like Evan was supposed to be.
“Fascinating,” Nikola breathed.
He walked around the room, inspecting every little piece of technology Mckay had set up. Most of it, as far as Evan knew, was Earth based but with applications adapted from other races though he did see a few pieces of Ancient Tech lying around. He wondered if Nikola had the gene or if his electromagnetic ability gave him an edge over the non-gene users without the privileges of those with the gene.
Evan found a chair and perched on it to watch Nikola. This is what he liked most about being with Nikola. Watching him work was breath taking, and he was in the habit of having his sketch book with him. He was on his way to having an entire book filled of Nikola doing research, experimenting, drinking wine in thought and even a few of him getting angry and baring his fangs at the offending object.
This was no different and experience except Evan had never seen him with something entirely new before and it was different. Nikola was all evil grins as he flew through Mckay’s encryptions and into the Atlantis database, absorbing as much information as he possibly could. He muttered to himself, mostly talk Evan didn’t understand though he knew Nikola had found the city’s life signs, a reference to the ancient chair, and possibly the star drive.
“Oh you have got to be kidding me!” Nikola exclaimed at some point. He growled and opened Mckay’s desk, ransacking it for a few minutes before coming up with a diamond shaped latticed handheld device. It was silver and the latticed indents were a variety of different colours, mostly shades of blue and green but there were reds and yellows as well.
Evan didn’t know what the hell it was.
“That’s supposed to be?” he prompted.
Nikola scowled at him, a scowl he was very familiar with but didn’t mind anymore because he was used to and amused by it as well. Sometimes Nikola forgot he wasn’t a genius too.
“It’s the Spectral’s Star. Legend says it amplifies a person’s mental capabilities,” Nikola turned the device around in his hand. “I’ve been searching for this for decades. I nearly thought I’d found it in Egypt, but that was just some hand device I couldn’t make work.”
“Wait you found a Goa’uld hand device in Egypt?” Evan demanded. “When?”
Nikola turned both hands up and gave him a confused look. “What’s a Goa’uld hand device?”
“It’s like a glove with a big amber jewel in the palm. The Goa’uld used it as a weapon and to torture people.” Evan replied, flashing back to his own experiences with the device. He hadn’t fought many Goa’uld, not like more veteran members of the SGC but he’d seen his fair share and been on the receiving end of the hand device a few times.
“Yea, I found that,” Nikola said nodding. “It was back in 1933, a few years after some big Giza dig the American’s did.”
Evan just stared at Nikola for a moment, “Sometimes I forget how old you are.”
Nikola grinned, “I have my dashing good looks to thank for that.”
Evan rolled his eyes, “So what’s the deal on this Star thing? Why were you looking for it?”
“Amplified mental capabilities. You humans only use a small portion of your brains, I use a bit more because, well…genius. Imagine what I could do if I was using 5 percent more. Or ten. Or even fifty! I don’t know how powerful this device is but there were stories of men who could move things with their mind, heal wounds with a single touch, even think on par with my ancestors. And we all know humans weren’t really smart a couple thousand years ago, not compared to the Vampires or to your Ancients or even to us now. But this device…” Nikola trailed off.
“So it’s like ascension?” Evan tried to clarify in his mind. At Nikola’s look he explained more, recalling Mckay’s near miss to visiting the high and mighty and what he knew of Dr. Jackson’s own experiences.
Nikola hummed thoughtfully, “The legends don’t have anything like ascension being the final result of this device’s use. Could be this was a pre curser to the one Mckay activated. I would have to see it to compare them.”
“No, that’s off limits,” Evan immediately told him. No one was allowed near the ascension lab and there were talks of dismantling the device so no one accidently or purposefully used it.
“But this device! Think about what I could accomplish with any enhancements it gave me. No, think about what you could do!”
“Are you looking at this from a genius’ perspective, or a megalomaniac’s?”
Evan winced immediately as Nikola paused and stared at him reproachfully. It was the No Man’s Land between them, Nikola’s desire to rebuild the Vampire Dynasty as it once was. Evan always maintained that it was too old fashioned to think that the human race would willingly subject themselves to vampire rule again. He thought that maybe it was ingrained in Nikola’s nature, a vampire trait that made them believe that just because they were more powerful, smarter and nearly immortal that they were better than humans. Evan knew that it wasn’t exactly the case with Nikola, that he respected a fair number of humans, Evan included or their relationship would never progressed as far as it had but sometimes he had his doubts. Sometimes Evan’s not sure if this is all just play time for Nikola, a passing whim while he waits for Helen because Evan’s not blind. He knows Nikola has deep rooted feelings for her he just has no real idea if those feelings have any role in their relationship. And Evan hates himself for the doubt and for how often it does actually creep into his mind and poison his thoughts.
It wasn’t a topic that came up often either. Evan was rarely ever around when Nikola was working on projects for his personal gain. They always met up at the Sanctuary. When there Nikola’s projects, while always providing some personal gain, were for Helen and the Network and Helen’s employees knew to leave them their short time in peace.
When it became apparent that neither of them were going to budge Evan sighed and ran a hand over his face. This was not how he had wanted this day to turn out.
“Would you use it?” he asked softly.
Nikola’s lips curled up slightly, “You already know the answer to that love.”
Evan chuckled and smiled because yea, yea he did already know the answer.
Nikola set the device aside after that and turned back to one of Mckay’s computers immediately entering into the city’s systems. At least, Evan assumed it was the city’s systems because all he could see were lines and lines of numbers and words that made no sense to him.
He watched silently for a while as Nikola tweaked some code and swore and insulted Mckay while he did it. He bit his lip to keep from bursting out in laughter when Nikola made four straight deep lines in the table with the slightly elongated claws of his right hand then furiously rewrite the entire power distribution protocol. He answered Nikola’s questions about Atlantis’s response to the Gene users, both natural and artificial and figured Nikola was rewriting at least half of those protocols as well.
They remained in McKay’s lab for days. Eventually Evan retrieved his own computer for paperwork and they only left when Evan couldn’t remain awake any longer or they needed food. But they both knew their time on Atlantis together was limited. Meetings and vacations would be ending and as much Evan loved the idea of Nikola staying full time they both had their obligations. But they had this and Evan couldn’t really have asked for anything more.
..........
Evan knew there was a big stupid grin on his face, the kind you got when your mouth was trying to rip your face in two and you just couldn’t help it because there was something really funny happening. Mckay ranting and raving about the rewritten protocols was just too much for him to sit through and take seriously though, not when he knew what had really happened.
And he knew he should have skipped the meeting, except that would have been a big a tell as his smiling but Sheppard is eyeing him curiously. Flickering back and forth between him and Mckay as if he was trying to work out a problem which Evan really hopes he isn’t close to doing. He raised his eyebrow at Sheppard in a silent “What?” and got an eyebrow in return with a head tilt towards Mckay.
It took Evan a minute to process that, to try and figure out what Sheppard was implying and when he does he almost made a distasteful sound because while arrogant genius is his type he’s had four years to get to know Mckay and there was no way in hell that could happen.
“Doctor Mckay,” Woolsey interrupted the tirade, leaning forward on his elbows, “do these changes have any negative effect on the operation of the city?”
Evan watched the play of emotions run across Mckay’s face, the aggravation and annoyance, the outrage and frustration all leading to the unwilling acceptance, “No.”
“Very well. As much as well all would like to know who in fact did make these changes I do not want it to kate priority over the preparations on our return to Pegasus. As tentative as the date is I do not want to give the IOA any chance to toss the operation out because we were not ready to go.”
Woolsey dismissed them and Evan was among the first to escape the room. He headed back to his office, the big stupid grin still on his face and he contemplated his options on sending a message to Nikola. He really needed to thank him again and tell him about Mckay’s fit.
“Oh, there you are Major,” Evan was waylaid by David at the door to his office.
“Something I can do for you Doc?”
He thought his office door open, elated at how Nikola’s changes made it so that he, as a gene carrier, wasn’t required to hit the controls of any door that either was keyed to him or not to anyone at all.
“Do you know why Sergeants James and Mallroy keep asking me why I dyed my hair back?” David asked, following him in.
Evan winced, but tried not to let it show, “Why, did you dye your hair while we were away?”
“Not that I remember.” Evan raised an eyebrow in wonderment and David forcefully corrected himself, “No.”
Evan shrugged, “I’ll ask them, see what’s up. Don’t worry about it,” he added, seeing David’s look. “Besides, it’d be really weird if you went and changed it on me now.” I really don’t need you looking more like Nikola than you do already.
no subject
Date: 2011-11-02 10:55 am (UTC)If some enterprising fan artist out there gets a peek at Evan's sketchbook of Nikola, I'd pay good money for them to share. DO WANT.
Thank you for writing & sharing this, & thanks to