Hindsight, Animal Husbandry

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

My rec table.

Claim: Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard
Title: Hindsight
Author: rageprufrock
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay.
Prompt: 2. AU
Rating: R.
Length: epic (24,150 words)
Brief summary: This is the kind of AU that changes one thing, just one small, maybe trivial thing, and then allows the universe to unfold accordingly. The Rodney here is a little shrill, but John is John: wanting the same things, believing the same things, working for the same things—or at least doing his damnedest in trying.

"Um, so," Rodney says awkwardly. "John, how did you come into your line of work?"

John tries very, very hard not to roll his eyes. "Recruited out of college," he says easily. "Though, you know, bad background, I'm a sketchy one."

The story is much longer than that, but Rodney's a crazy, lonely scientist and John's not interested in becoming anybody's boyfriend. It's dinner, and it'll be a nice break, but tomorrow he's got to go back to work, and he doesn't want to talk about moving from base to base, about F-16s and Ospreys, about vertical liftoff and wanting to do one thing all your life and not having the opportunity to even try.

Link to the story: Hindsight

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Claim: Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard
Title: Animal Husbandry
Author: casspeach
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay, Lorne, Cadman, Elizabeth Weir.
Prompt: 41. Redemption.
Rating: NC-17.
Length: epic (28,280 words)
Brief summary: John's a cowboy and Rodney's the new vet in town. This John is defined by his fierce independence, which in turn is motivated by his determination never to turn into his father. Money issues, intimacy issues, rodeo riding, pride swallowing, and growing up.

"I can't just take his –"

"Yes. You can. I don't think he's used to not being able to do anything to help. He can do this for you. Just –"

"Just let him?"

"Yes." Nick sat back in the chair by the bed and John knew that as far as he was concerned the conversation was over, but John didn't feel any better. There was an awkward silence for a while, which hurt, because silence was normal between them, but it had never felt awkward before, or at least not since the night all those years ago when he'd told Nick his terrible secret. Maybe that was why Nick had shut the topic down so hard, because he wasn't as okay with John's preferences as he was trying to be, and that was another kind of hurt, sweet and sharp at the same time.

Link to the story: Animal Husbandry