Re: Stargate: Atlantis, Repli!Shep/Repli!McKay (the duplicates from "This Mortal Coil"), determinati
Sheppard's eyes were still screwed shut, so Rodney figured this was going to be the tricky bit. He slid up, trying his best not to be stealthy enough to startle or clumsy enough to alarm, and wrapped Sheppard up in his arms. He didn't rock, though he could have, he just. . . held on. He wondered if Sheppard would figure out that he was free, now, to move. He wouldn't have minded Sheppard touching him. Though he supposed he understood why he didn't.
Sheppard might not be Sheppard, anymore, but he still had Sheppard's muscle memory, and Rodney could feel tension flowing back into his body like monsoon rain into dry channels. Sheppard took a deep breath, possibly trying to dislodge Rodney, and then reached down with one stiff arm, flexing his wrist even as he reached for Rodney's crotch.
"I'll take a raincheck," Rodney said, batting Sheppard's hand away. He was far more exhausted than turned on, right now.
"Huh," Sheppard said, and then Rodney felt him touch his hair -- very lightly, as if testing to see if it were real. Which it was. It all was, that was the thing.
"After we see the Atlanteans," Rodney said, and felt the word go through Sheppard in a jolt. "After we've paid our obligations to the past. After that's done, we start creating our own future. We, meaning us, meaning all of us, including you, even if I have to drag you along kicking and screaming. Though I'd rather not." He paused, and then added, reluctantly, "It's enough for now, if you can just believe in me."
And God, God, he had gotten it right, feeling Sheppard's hand clench in his hair hard enough to bring tears to his eyes; and he was sorry, he wished it was otherwise.
Sheppard released him almost instantaneously. Rodney felt him withdraw, and he made himself sit up and get up, twisting the kinks out of his back and neck. Sheppard dressed swiftly, and Rodney couldn't look at him. He jerked his head and then headed out of the jumper, back towards the others, and he didn't see but rather felt Sheppard behind him, shadow silent and twisted by strange determination, but at any rate alive -- and that, well: Rodney could bear that burden. For now.