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The sky pinked up with the promise of sunrise. Rodney checked his watch with satisfaction as the upper limb of the sun met the horizon. It was still high summer and there was every chance they would cover forty kilometers before they stopped for the night. Assuming they kept to their schedule, they would arrive at the stargate in another six weeks, well before winter hit.
He poked at the fire, once the water boiled they wouldn't need it anymore but they might as well have tea with their breakfast.
Bill, Ted and Molly stopped nibbling grass and looked up expectantly, so Rodney knew John was awake. Since it was his night to skip watch, the fact he awoke first wasn’t surprising.
Ted shoved ahead of the other two, demanding John give her attention first. As he always did, John came over and kissed Rodney first. They allowed themselves this now, brief kisses and touches. Despite Teyla’s insistence that she and Ronon did not mind, both he and John felt it too cruel to rub their teammates’ faces in what they had lost and he and John still had. Besides, it wasn’t exactly a hardship to merely take a bit of extra time gathering wood some evenings. The fact that it gave Ronon and Teyla something to smirk about Rodney considered a bonus.
“Tea’s almost ready,” Rodney said as they parted.
“I’m going to take care of the kids. I’ll have some in a minute.” John smiled at him and wandered off.
“You do know I find it vastly disturbing you refer to them like they’re children, don’t you?” Rodney called after him.
“Why do you think I do it, Rodney?” John’s shit eating grin made Rodney smile back. He was seriously dating a twelve year old.
Teyla and Ronon stirred from their bedrolls and Rodney set out their cups for tea and plates with the fruit they picked up yesterday.
“Thank you, Rodney,” Teyla said softly as she cradled her cup.
Ronon snagged a piece of fruit and nodded to him. Rodney sipped at his own tea and soaked in the quiet of the morning. After three months on the trail, he’d learned to appreciate stillness.
John returned from giving the not-horses their morning attention and grabbed his own mug. He sat next to Rodney, thighs touching. Rodney leaned against John for a few moments, enjoying the simple show of affection out here where no one cared. Back home, the need to hide precluded even this much contact. In some ways he found himself less than eager to get back.
John nudged his foot to get his attention. “What are you thinking about so hard?”
Rodney refused to spoil the moment by reminding John of the restrictions that dogged their life back home. “I was just thinking how this particular mission is cursed,” he complained.
As a diverting tactic, it worked like a charm. “I believe we have experienced more good fortune than bad,” Teyla supplied predictably.
“The stargate and DHD getting buried under several tons of falling rock hardly constitutes an auspicious start,” Rodney pointed out.
“Yeah, but I pulled you and your tablet out of the room before you got buried,” Ronon said with a sly smile.
Rodney could mention the concussion, but he really didn’t want Ronon to feel bad, and while he mentally flailed for a safe comeback John weighed in again.
“And the Ancient lab gave us the location of the other stargate,” John said with nauseating optimism.
“On the other side of the continent!” Rodney volleyed back.
“I’d say that the fact that one existed at all is close to miraculous,” John insisted.
To steer the conversation back to safer ground Rodney changed tactics. “And the fact that you just happened to have the skill to tame three of the not-horses into being pack animals certainly came in handy.”
“The terrain has not been difficult.” Teyla swept her hand to indicate the vast, flat grassland that surrounded them. “We feared mountains would stand in our way.”
“Weather hasn’t been bad,” Ronon added.
They were all teasing him now, he really wanted to smile. Instead, he pointed his finger at each of them in turn. “Exactly! Our luck is bound to run out any time now. Who knows when we’ll get some torrential summer storm rather than nice, gentle rain? Or maybe the river has changed its course sometime in the last 10,000 years and we’ll have to cross it?”
As expected, all three of the others rolled their eyes at him. “Then we better get going, hadn’t we?” John grinned and started assembling the packs for the not-horses to carry. Ronon headed to the river to fill the canteens and the morning routine continued.
In truth, the number of things that failed to go wrong on this little expedition astounded Rodney. They found edible plants and animals, not to mention fresh water, and no one had suffered a severe reaction to any of it. They walked over two thousand kilometers without serious injury to any of them.
Vigilance kept this whole trip from slipping toward disaster. They focused on their goal and overcoming the obstacles they faced. In fact, the whole group became so focused on the journey to reach the other stargate that they all forgot a very simple fact.
Atlantis should have rescued them over three months ago.
True, the physical location of this planet was unavailable, and how the Ancients had managed to assign a gate address to thier secret weapons lab without giving its physical location was a mystery Rodney dearly wished he knew, but they had the gate address, and with one stargate out of commission the other should have opened, sending jumpers full of marines and scientists out searching for them. As much as he railed against them, he knew his people were capable. If a way to reach this planet existed he'd had no doubt they would find it. Rodney had made sure they hung around the site of the original gate for at least a week while he recovered from his concussion and John played cowboy.
No one showed up.
Rodney supposed the others might truly not remember that two stargates in close proximity, and yes the same planet was close proximity astronomically speaking, would have the same gate address. None of them had been at the SGC when Carter and O’Neill got redirected to Antarctica, or the problems with the Russian gate made the observation inescapable. More likely, in his opinion, they refused to think about it. He could play that game.
Still, he couldn’t help wondering what they would find at the end of their journey.
The simplest explanation dictated that the stargate they were headed toward was gone or buried just like the one they left behind. Other explanations existed. The gate might be on some kind of separate system, the Ancients had set the thing up after all. Possibly once they reached the other stargate they’d dial home and just walk through, or, if a problem existed, Rodney intended to do his best to bludgeon a working stargate out of whatever they found. Unfortunately, most scenarios he envisioned promised devastating loss when they reached their destination.
Once they got there would be soon enough to deal with being marooned permanently. He possessed far too little knowledge of people to know what to predict. Teyla had already experienced one entirely justified freak out over missing Torren’s early development. He was desperately attempting not to think about losing Jeannie all over again, he was pretty sure that if he let his mind go there he'd collapse in a totally humiliating, screaming fit. Maybe John and Ronon could pull their shifts as emotional support. Maybe they would all break down together.
If it came to that, they would cry and grieve and get each other through it. He believed that the four of them could conquer anything, even being stranded on this planet.
But until they arrived at the other Ancient lab, or at least the site it formerly occupied, Rodney intended everyone to continue going on the assumption that reaching the other stargate meant they were going home, because it was just possible it was true.
And his team thought he couldn’t act.
He’d been working on classified projects most of his adult life, he knew how to keep the important secrets.
“It is your day to tell a story,” Teyla reminded him as they finished packing up.
A long day of walking stretched before them and if words and misdirection could guard the people he loved from heartache, at least for the time being, well, he was good with words.
“Did I tell you I actually dabbled in theater when I was in high school?” He began as they grabbed their walking sticks and started out. “I even won a Sears Drama Festival award. Okay, so it was only a district award but there was some stiff competition, and I still say I would have won regional if we hadn’t experienced “technical issues,” because my performance was flawless.”
“Oh, I’m sure it was, Rodney,” John snickered.
Even as he scowled at him, Rodney thought his current performance beat the one he’d given at that long ago competition.