Work Text:
Lost in the Gaze
by Braycat
They were going to die.
They both knew their lives were going to end the second the Klaxon started to sound, signifying the opening of the F-302 bay doors. When the automatic movement of the huge hatch was finished the pair would experience a few seconds of panicked attempts to suck in oxygen which was no longer there and that would be it! Atlantis would be permanently deprived of the services of one newly-promoted Lieutenant Colonel and one highly-brilliant scientist.
There was nothing they could do to save themselves, so this meant there was only one thing to do. John and Rodney stared deeply into each other's eyes.
Their gaze never wavered, even as each precious second passed. They drank in the sight of each other, each trying to memorize the features on the face of their lover, before the end.
For a moment the pair, lost in each other, lost track of time until finally Rodney's mind, never entirely idle, caught up with the fact that they were still alive, even though they shouldn't be. Hermiod, the Asgard engineer had managed to raise the fighter-bay shield long enough to save them from imminent doom.
Both John and Rodney were loath to break their visual gaze, neither had ever felt more connected before, but duty called.
Thereafter followed frenzied minutes, unplugging computers from the F-302's, then a terrifying ride, at least from Rodney's point of view, while Sheppard chased down the enemy-controlled ship, and destroyed it, permanently removing the threat from the Wraith virus from the Daedalus and her crew.
It was only much later, when John and Rodney's naked bodies were completely entangled while they lay in John's tiny bunk, that the reaction set in.
This reaction manifested itself in the form of Rodney's fingertips trailing along John's cheek. John grabbed the wandering digits and corralled them within his own palm, before looking up. Rodney was staring at him with an intensity which made John shiver. "What?"
"I was almsot lost, you know."
John immediately understood. "I was drowning in your eyes too."
"No." Rodney corrected, slipping his fingers from John's grasp and sending them back on their path wandering along John's jaw. "Not drowning. Your eyes were my lifeline."
"You're right." John instantly changed his mind. "Not the end, but the beginning."
Rodney nodded. "For the first time in my life I wasn't afraid of dying, and you know why?"
John knew. "Because as long as our eyes stayed locked on each other, we would be together, if not this world, then the next."
"If not this world, then the next." Rodney repeated with a whisper before bending down to ravish his lover with kisses.
The two men now felt a sense of peace, even though they still were sharing a dangerous galaxy with the Wraith, because if the worst happened they now knew they would be together, if not this world, then the next.
Finis
Author's e-mail: gateship1@earthlink.net)