Aftershocks, Coping Mechanisms

[walkingshadow.livejournal.com]

My rec table.

Claim: Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard
Title: Aftershocks
Author: Shalott, aka astolat
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay.
Prompt: 9. Hurt/Comfort.
Rating: NC-17.
Length: medium (2,840 words)
Brief summary: Post-The Storm/The Eye. Coming down from terror, torture, and flashbacks with a hot shower and human contact.

John still got twinges in his face and his jaw, most of all on days full of clouds and rain, when it felt like some sharp hollowing acid was eating into the curve of his cheekbone, right above the joint, and if he had a hand free he'd shove his knuckles against it and try to press the pain out. Being tired made it worse, being cold, being wet; the pain would settle deep and draining, like it was never going to go away, and even with thunder on the horizon and water sheeting down, he'd be in the dry desert of that room again, and the taste in his mouth would be his own blood.

The Athosians were still coming back, but Bates and his men had the gateroom secured. His shoulder ached, but that was just ordinary pain. He'd killed fifty men, hands clean as snow, and another ten who'd managed to leave some dirt under his fingernails. That was something else, something he didn't really want to look at too hard. The storm had slid on past, now only a mass of wild dark clouds on the horizon and runoff streaming down the walls and windows of the city, and the low throbbing ache settled just below his left eye. All he wanted was to go to his room and crawl into bed and press his face into the pillows and breathe.

Link to the story: Aftershocks

+

Claim: Stargate: Atlantis - John Sheppard
Title: Coping Mechanisms
Author: amireal
Characters: John Sheppard, Rodney McKay.
Prompt: 43. Denial.
Rating: NC-17.
Length: epic (23,771 words)
Brief summary: The story starts with Rodney being seriously injured: there's blood, there's morphine, and in the middle of the chaos and the screaming pain, there's the discovery—or the acknowledgement—of what there is (or could be) between them. In the aftermath John tries to put it behind them, but Rodney's never practiced this level of denial before, and John keeps sending out mixed signals. Includes bonus Genii cameos and recurring hostage situations!

He slept and ate enough to keep moving, rearranged missions and duty rosters, not quite ready to replace Rodney on his team, however temporarily that might hopefully be, and visited his friend who lay unconscious and pale, swathed in white and strung with tubes and wires, looking like a discarded puppet amongst live people.

John kept a mental tally of the hours and minutes he visited, the number of times in a day. Sometime on day three he had a small panic attack when he realized the numbers were too high. He got that disconnected feeling in his legs, his head felt full of helium, and he had to sit down abruptly.

Link to the story: Coping Mechanisms