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"Incoming video transmission," Chuck announced.
Col. John Sheppard nodded. They'd been waiting for something like this. "Play it."
Cowan's flushed face appeared. "What is this?!" the leader of the Genii demanded, waving a paper in his hand.
"Sorry, no idea what you're talking about, and it's Col. Sheppard, to you, Cowan."
That seemed to make Cowan's pasty face turn even redder. "You, Col. Sheppard," he spat out the words, "have been trespassing! I have evidence that you've discovered an abandoned Lantean lab and made yourself free with its contents!"
"Is that so? As I recall, the Fliaian natives invited my team to explore their old ruins and the temple remains. I'd hardly call that trespassing."
"Perhaps they allowed it, unknowing that you would find a hidden Ancient lab and put your greedy hands all over its contents. Or that you would pay particular interest in finding weapons!"
"No, I'm sure they knew something was there. That's why they asked us to check it out. Ah, wait. I see now. This isn't so much about trespassing as it is about, we got there first." John had a bet with himself that Cowan's face couldn't get any redder and wondered if he'd be proven wrong.
Cowan's perpetual scowl grew ugly. "We want all the information you have about the weapon you removed. We know you have it. Do not deny it, Colonel. We found your fingerprints all over the removal area."
"Oh, that. You are aware, Dr. McKay is my soulmate?" John questioned with a casual smirk.
"Soulmates? With Dr. McKay? That's a stretch of the imagination I didn't think even you were capable of, Colonel."
"You might want a word with your spies then, because it's true. We've been soulmates since…well, we can skip that for now. It's a funny thing, having a soulmate. The things we share, for example, those prints aren't mine. They're Dr. McKay's."
"That's impossible. We found none of Dr. McKay's fingerprints anywhere near the device!"
"You wouldn't. You can believe me or not, but think about this. McKay is the most likely one on my team to go into an Ancient lab, while I'd stay in a position to watch his back."
It was interesting to see Cowan's face turn from accusatory to baffled. "I need you to explain this."
"Oh, I will. First off, though, the device McKay brought back isn't a weapon."
That was true. It wasn't a weapon unless John used it to hit Cowen over the head with it. "It's a piece of broken machinery, and we only took it after we promised the chieftain that his people would benefit from it if McKay could get it working again."
All true. Only they weren't planning to return it. If Rodney was right, and the machine was some kind of matter duplicator, Atlantis needed it. But they had promised to use it to make the Fliaian's life easier.
Unsurprisingly, Rodney's goal was to duplicate his remaining coffee beans. John's goal was to duplicate a generous supply of ammo. While they were at it, they could easily duplicate tava beans and kornish grain to supply the Fliaians with a desperately needed stable food supply. In fact, Elizabeth had insisted on it.
On the video, one of Cowan's henchmen passed him a note. Scowl deepening after reading it, Cowan said, "Very well, I accept that you aren't planning to use this device in an unprovoked attack against the Genii. But only because my people have spoken to the Chieftain. He confirms what you said about helping his village."
"Well…good."
"Just one more thing, Colonel, you haven't explained why we found your fingerprints and not Dr. McKay's."
"If you'd ever found your soulmate, Cowan, I wouldn't have to explain. Rodney is mine, and I'm his. When you've been together as long as we have, little quirks show up. And one of the quirks is with our fingerprints. Mine will look like his and vice versa. If it makes you feel any better, the first time it happened, it caught us by surprise too."
John took a moment to relish the surprise on Cowan's face before adding, "Now, if that's all? Good."
With a nod to Chuck, the transmission shut down.
Caught by surprise. Oh, yeah, you could say that again. They'd been caught off-guard, never expecting that particular result. Carson had run his battery of tests, shrugged, and admitted, "Well, it's not doing you any harm. You'd best get used to it."
There were other quirks that showed up over time. John discovered he enjoyed the hell out of reading Rodney's naked body like a road map. He instinctively knew how and where to touch. A slow lick here or a gentle nip there, leaving behind the hint of teeth marks. Not to mention the trail of shining fingerprints left behind with every touch.
The urge to be with his soulmate, right the fuck now, reared its head. Before he could touch his radio, Rodney's voice was in his ear. "Sheppard, meet in the data center. I've got something to show you."
John knew where he meant, but he had a hard time thinking of it as a data center. It seemed more like a library to him. A library with shelves full of crystals instead of books.
Oh, he understood why Rodney thought of it as a data center. It held a treasure trove of information just waiting to be tapped. Of course, nothing was easy, and it had taken time to translate the data once they'd found it.
That first year on Atlantis was spent trying to survive. It wasn't until six months into their second year that they found the time and resources to check the place out. Now, a year into the project, it still felt like they were just scratching the surface.
There were sections for linguistics, schematics for city maintenance, and entire areas laid claim to a hodgepodge of things they were still sorting through. One entire level had been dedicated to Lantean arts and history. And that's where John discovered a detailed history of soulmates.
He stepped into the library's main concourse to find Rodney studying a screen full of blueprints. He'd tossed the digital diagram up on the big, overhead display they'd installed for that purpose. He looked over at John and grinned. "Miss me?"
With a nonchalance faked down to his toes, he admitted, "Maybe."
Rodney let him get away with it, simply handing him a mug of coffee while making sure their knuckles brushed. "I found out how to fix it. Actually, I know how to build it bigger and better." He nodded toward the blueprints. Meet my design for a new, improved tri-dimensional matter copier.
"A 3D copier? Sweet, because that's what we're naming it."
Rodney wanted to argue. John could see it written all over his face. He also saw the moment Rodney gave in, any protest for a different name dying on his lips.
"Fine. We can call it a 3D copier. Just don't expect it to create anything original. It can only do exact duplicates, but it can do a lot at once. Granted, it needs a source of carbon and a few other common chemicals to draw from, but it works." Rodney pointed to John's coffee mug. "You're drinking the results."
"Cool."
"Yes, John. Cool. Better still, we can duplicate the crystals we don't have enough spares of. And no, it won't duplicate a ZedPM. Well, the shell of one, maybe. I've tossed that problem at Zelenka, but I doubt it will go anywhere."
"You said you could make a bigger one of these machines?" John leaned over Rodney's shoulder, just coincidentally close enough to press his chest against Rodney's back. He let Rodney's warmth fill something empty in his gut before pulling away.
Damn, Cowan. Their confrontation still rankled. It wasn't his question about soulmates, okay, maybe it was a little. But mostly it was the sheer nerve of the Genii commander to think the Genii automatically owned the rights to any newly discovered Ancient tech. Bullshit.
Rodney must have picked up on his mood, because he asked, "Everything okay?"
"It's fine. Got any more coffee?"
"Help yourself. The coffee pot is over by Zelenka. He hasn't moved four feet away from it since we created more coffee beans." Holding up his empty cup, Rodney added, "Get some for me too."
"Sure. Because we don't want you missing out on your usual eleven cups a day." With a shake of his head, he went to start a new pot of coffee—under Zelenka's watchful eye. While waiting for it to finish, John wandered over to where the history crystals were kept.
He could almost hear Rodney's voice in his head saying, "You always head over there. What's so interesting? Is it about the fingerprints again?"
He turned to look back at his soulmate. Rodney hadn't really said all that, had he? Impossible. Besides, Rodney was too busy doing something on this laptop to even notice what John was doing. Still, it was weird. He could have sworn he'd heard Rodney's voice in his head.
He went back to perusing the crystals. As if it were a debate. John knew exactly which one he wanted to review. He pulled the crystal out of its cradle and plugged it into the display port.
The first mundane title An Exhaustive Review of Soulmate History popped up. He'd read through that days ago. John scrolled until he came across a title he hadn't read yet. He didn't find any reference to altered fingerprints, but it did have a footnote that caught his eye. He flagged it for download.
Rodney came up behind him, offering John a fresh mug of coffee. "Find anything interesting?"
"Maybe. How's your project going?"
"We'll have something usable in a couple of weeks, as long as I can talk Elizabeth into letting me have one of the naquadah generators to use." He grinned, both of them knowing Elizabeth would grant it in a heartbeat. "So, what's got your panties in a twist about the soulmate thing?"
"I don't…how did you know?"
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Please, I'm me, of course I know. I know the concept of soulmates existed long before Plato wrote about it. I know the Ancients dicked around with human genes to enhance soulmate recognition. And, most importantly, if something bothers you, it concerns me, too."
He glanced down at where Rodney had hooked one finger into his belt loop. A simple, easy claim that John was completely on board with. "Okay, genius, it's the fingerprint thing. I tried ignoring it, but Cowan brought it up again. I can't figure out what it means, and that bugs me."
"Of course, you tried ignoring it. Lucky for you, I didn't. What? Anything that affects our bond is worth the time to investigate." Rodney's expression plainly stated, you're an adorable idiot if you need me to state the obvious. It made John want to bend him over the nearest console and fuck him silly.
Instead, he asked. "So, what did you find out?"
"Damn little we didn't already know. According to Carson, and he's the expert when it comes to this kind of thing, we aren't even sure yet if it has a biomarker like the ATA gene, with recessive and dominant strains."
"Maybe it's like a key fitting a lock. At least from what I've read, that's the Ancients' line of reasoning. When you meet the right person, under the right circumstances, something just 'clicks'. But that doesn't explain how or why it's working the way it does between us."
Rodney shrugged, "Some kind of voodoo is the best explanation I can come up with. If it makes you feel any better, I can assign a couple of my scientists to go through the main database. It might—it should—have more updated info."
Staring down into his coffee mug didn't cough up any answers, and Rodney didn't seem to have any. Calling enough, enough, John asked, "Lunch?"
"I could eat."
Over a meal of roast chicken, salad greens, and Athosian brown bread, John listened to Rodney talk. The patter of expounding on his genius, or how no one else could do, something or other better than he could, was predictable and surprisingly soothing. And it was why John noticed immediately when it stopped.
"What's wrong?" He reached for Rodney's hand and was shocked when Rodney pulled away. God-damn-it. He'd just missed something important and had no idea how to fix it.
"This…us." Rodney waved his hand indicting the two of them. "You didn't get any choice. Neither did I, but it hasn't exactly been a hardship." His expression softened. "Given a choice, I would have chosen you every time.
"But you didn't feel that way. Don't deny it, John. I've seen how easily you attract people to you. Any one of them would have been a better match than me." Rodney fell silent, his hands twisting a paper napkin into a hard, little ball.
"You're wrong. Maybe it took me a little longer to catch up, but I'm happy with what happened between us, Rodney. You…you make me happier than I ever thought I could be. I can't believe you could ever doubt it."
Yeah, a little longer to catch up. That day burned in his memory. Almost getting killed by an Ancient drone, sitting in a chair that lit up the universe, and at the same time, being confronted by a guy in orange fleece staring at him like he was the best thing since sliced bread.
To say he'd been in denial was putting it mildly. Between the emotional shock and the mental freakout, the new, delicate tendrils of the bond were easy to ignore. At first. By day three, feeling the constant pull toward Dr. Rodney McKay freaked John out even more.
Sure, he'd known about the possibility of finding one's soulmate. He'd just never paid much attention to what all the fuss was about, and certainly never expected to find his. A week later, he still thought it was something he could shake off. Boy, had he been wrong.
John's education in soulmates took a sharp turn when the boisterous and easily annoyed Dr. McKay pushed him up against the locker room wall. Kissed within an inch of his life, John got on the soulmate wagon so fast it made his head spin.
Things moved quickly from there. A handful of notifications, some paperwork, and soulmate accommodations were provided. Their bond grew stronger, and before John could parse what it all meant, they were suddenly on their way to Atlantis.
And now, sitting across from Rodney, looking at his downturned face, John realized he'd fucked up. "Aw, crap. I thought you knew how important you are to me. I figured the bond would tell you."
"You don't think we're a mistake?"
"God, no. I think you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. Can't you feel it?"
Then, because he realized a few words weren't going to be enough, John reached out.
Deliberately, knowing that everyone in the mess was watching them, John ran his thumb over the downturned tilt of Rodney's mouth. He didn't stop there. He gently dragged his fingertips down the sides of Rodney's throat, leaving clear, unmistakable fingerprints in their trail. They glowed against Rodney's pale skin. His claim, put out there where everyone could see.
Rodney shuddered under his hands. "Keep that up, and I'm going to have to kiss you."
"If you do that here, I can't be responsible for my actions," John husked. "You are the right one for me, Rodney, and the only one I want. It just took me a little longer than you to figure that out."
"I'm getting that impression. John…." Rodney stood, knocking the chair over in his rush. "We need to find somewhere private right the fuck now."
Two Weeks Later
"Everyone geared up and ready to go? Good." John looked over at Rodney. Their soulbond had only gotten stronger over the last few days. Now, John could see his lingering fingerprints from days ago all over Rodney, even if no one else could.
"I don't see why we have to return the 3D copier to the Fliaian council," Rodney huffed.
Pragmatically, Teyla pointed out, "You made another one, did you not? And is it not better than the original?"
"Yes," Rodney reluctantly admitted.
Ronon clapped his hand down on Rodney's shoulder. "So, we don't need it anymore."
"Besides, Elizabeth said we had too," John added, ignoring Rodney's put-upon sigh.
Returning the device might not have been in the original plan, but John approved. Frankly, it worked out better that way. Not to mention fostering a little goodwill between the Fliaians and Atlantis.
It was a couple of klicks to the village, but the day was warm, and the level trail made for an easy hike. The villagers lived in log huts, clearly well-maintained and camouflaged to blend in with their natural setting. John and his team made their way to the communal kitchen.
People greeted them with smiles. Most of them carried either something to contribute to the communal meal or wood for the fire.
Rodney set the copier down on a nearby bench. "Well, isn't there anyone here with intelligence to want to know how this works?" he called out, folding his arms across his chest while he waited.
With nothing else to do, Ronon opted to go with the hunters to bring back game for the stewpot. Per a previous agreement, Teyla went to discuss a trade deal with their weavers.
With everyone settled and with a reminder to all of them to keep in radio contact, John went to find the village chieftain.
Chief Manno was an amiable guy and usually one of the first to greet them. That they hadn't seen him since their arrival made the hairs on the back of John's neck itch. None of the villagers seemed concerned, so maybe the guy was just busy attending to other duties. Still, the Genii had been around just two weeks ago, and in John's experience, they were as hard to get rid of as teenage pimples.
John found him outside his hut, busily organizing a group of children.
"Colonel Sheppard! Welcome. Have you come back to visit the temple again?" Manno shooed the children off to do their chores before saying, "I heard you returned the device to us."
"Word gets around fast around here," John said. "We didn't see you in the central plaza. I just wanted to make sure everything is alright."
"Ah. Well, enough. Though I will say, it is an interesting time."
That didn't sound good. Manno indicated that John should follow him and headed down a well-trod path. They stopped at a deep, wide brook where several fish traps had been set.
As Manno bent to check the nearest trap, he stopped long enough to look up and say, "We can speak without being overheard here. Now, Colonel, can you tell me why the Genii are so interested in our tiny village?"
John cut right to the chase, "You already know we discovered a hidden lab in your abandoned temple. An Ancestor's lab. Only certain people could have accessed it, and McKay is one of those people. Cowan mistakenly thought we'd acquired a weapon and wanted to claim it for his own. I'm sorry you got caught in the middle of his demands."
"We know how to deal with the Genii. But tell me, Dr. McKay is of the bloodline? As are you? No need to say more. I should have realized the truth of it earlier. It explains the unusual strength of your bond."
John wanted to ask more about that, but right now, he was more concerned with warning the man about Cowan. "Chief Manno, the Genii can't be trusted. Dr. McKay has repaired the 3Dcopier, and we've returned it to you. But be careful, or Cowan and his men will steal out from under your nose."
"I am aware. The device will be protected. And, perhaps we will trade its bounty with others for a small fee. Perhaps for the Genii, a slightly larger fee." Manno grinned, and John found it impossible not to grin back.
"Chief, I have to ask about the soulmate thing. Could you tell me more about it? McKay and I have been playing it by ear, and if you could help…."
"I can share with you what I know. For one thing, I can see his fingerprints all over you—at least the part of you not covered by clothing. This is not…usual, and it indicates a very strong bond."
"You mentioned bloodline. How does that factor in?"
"Stories of the Ancestors told of this. To them, strong bonds were necessary and common. Sadly, the passing of generations and years of Wraith cullings have stolen much of that strength from us."
"Will you share these stories with us?" John asked.
"But of course! I look forward to it." Manno stopped to pull a large, fat fish from one of the nets and dropped it into a basket.
John shifted from foot to foot, uneasy with waiting. Standing around wasn't doing him any good or getting answers any faster, so he walked over to the next net and began helping.
That got him an approving nod, and finally Manno spoke up. "Tonight, at the evening circle, I will ask my people to remember the stories, and to write them down. When you come to visit us again, we will share them with you."
After a pause, he added, "You and your McKay both have the blood. There will be more revelations to come. I am sure of it."
Manno smiled again, but this time John didn't feel like smiling back. Who the hell knew what kind of revelations he and Rodney had to look forward to? "I don't suppose you could clear that up?"
After wiping his hands on his pants, Manno laid his hand on John's shoulder. "Don't fear it. It's not just about the blood. It takes a true love match to form such a strong bond."
True love. Framing it in those terms felt like a smack upside the head. He loved Rodney. He loved Rodney. John's knees threatened to give out.
Teammates. Lovers. Best friends and soulmates. How had something so obvious as being head over heels in love slipped by him? "I need to…gotta go find Rodney."
Chief Manno's laughter followed him all the way back to the village center.
Rodney was exactly where he'd left him. John braced himself for an awkward emotional conversation. He had Feelings. Lots of feelings and no fucking idea what to do now.
Rodney looked up from the kabob meat-thing he'd been communing with. "What's …oh. Figured it out, I see. Relax, I'm not going to make you talk about it. You'd probably have a heart attack where you stand."
"You knew? I didn't even know."
Rodney pulled him over to a bench, made him sit down, and shoved the kabob into his hand. "Eat. You’ve had a shock. It will help with the drop in blood sugar."
"I'm fine. Shit. I really don't see it coming, do I?" After a moment, John narrowed his eyes and pinned Rodney in place with a glare. "Wait a minute there, hot-stuff, when the hell did you figure it out?"
Rodney deflated. "Nowhere near as soon as I should have." He sat down on the bench next to John. "About a month ago, Radek stopped me in the hallway and told me to stop—and I quote—making moon eyes at you. Said that my staff have been snickering about it behind my back for months and—"
"—You were making moon eyes at me? Wow. Wait, does that mean…." The words caught in his throat while, at the same time, hope curled in his chest. Surely that meant Rodney was in love with him, too?
"Yes. Yes, you gorgeous idiot. I'm in love with you. I have been for quite some time, even if it took me longer than it should have to realize it." Rodney's face was so full of fondness that John had no choice but to kiss him.
His concerns over altered fingerprints and the meaning of soulmates fell away. Now he knew. John didn't need any Ancient storytelling to tell him that this, this thing between them, was exactly what it was meant to be.