crossoverfic | The Saints of Atlantis 13

Title: The Saints of Atlantis
Fandoms: The Boondock Saints/Stargate Atlantis
Rating: PG15/Teen for violence and swearing
Author: Dragonfan

Five weeks total; one week in the Daedalus infirmary, one week under the care of Doctor Beckett in Atlantis and another three weeks back in the Daedalus infirmary, that’s how long Steven Caldwell had been under the torturous control of doctors. He was thankful to the doctors that he was still alive, and to the McManus brothers that his body was under his control once more, but he was more than ready to be rid of the doctors once they reached Earth. The brothers he wasn’t nearly finished with.

After the required debriefing, which was a torture he’d much rather have done without although he was well aware of exactly why it was necessary, Steven found himself flying to Boston. He’d managed to stay awake long enough the first week to thank Conner and Murphy for saving his life, and he’d gotten some information from them on their lives when they’d lived in the States. They had three friends that they’d left letters for in Boston; Doc, Duffy and Dolly. Doc was an elderly man, and Steven wouldn’t be able to talk to him, but Duffy and Dolly were detectives with the Boston Police. They’d know what Steven could do for the men who had freed him from the hell of being trapped in his own body while that fucking snake was in control.

Steven was able to find them at their station house. “Detectives Dolly and Duffy?” he asked.

“Ya, whatcha want?” Dolly answered, not looking up from his computer and the report he was typing in.

“My name is Colonel Steven Caldwell. I transported three of your friends to a remote military base.” At hearing this, the two detectives jerked their heads up. “They saved my life on the way out. Is there somewhere we can talk?” Steven was mostly recovered, but he still had trouble with his voice. The snake hadn’t bothered to be considerate on its way out and as a result his throat had taken a lot of damage. Steven was just glad that it was quiet enough in the room that he didn’t have to try and yell to get their attention.

“Sure,” Duffy said. “Come with us.”

In the detective’s car Steven said, after running a bug check with a piece of tech he’d borrowed, “Just drive around, we’re safe enough from being overheard here.”

“So, you heard the boys pray?” Dolly asked with a smirk on his face. There was a certain look that someone saved by the Saints had, and this guy had it all over his face. He was in the front seat with Duffy driving and had twisted so that he could look at Steven in the backseat.

Steven nodded. “As my men were pulling me out to get me to the infirmary for emergency surgery,” he told them. “The base Conner, Murphy and Romeo were sent to is extremely classified. I could go to jail just for mentioning its name to you, so I won’t. What I will tell you is what I can. The base is extremely isolated. There are only two ways to reach the base. My ship is one of them.

“One thing that you need to know and I’ll leave it up to you whether or not you pass it on to their families, is that people like the brothers who stay on that base for more than six months don’t want to leave it when their time is up. I’ve seen people that you’d swear on your grandmother’s grave, that there was no way they’d ever last six months, practically beg to be allowed to stay. There is something about that base that if you survive it, ties you there for the rest of your life.”

“You’re serious?” Duffy asked, glancing at Steven in the mirror.

Steven grimaced. “They’re like Sheppard. He’d rather slit his own wrists than leave that base. Even if the government pulled everyone else out, he’d find a way to stay. Beckett, McKay, all the others like them, they’re the same way. They’d rather die than leave that place.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Dolly said.

“I know it doesn’t because you have some vital pieces of information missing. Just please understand that I can’t tell you what those are. I don’t do treason.” The detectives nodded, frustrated but understanding Steven’s position. “I need to ship things out there for them so that they can build a life there. That’s why I’m talking to you. I don’t know what they need, hopefully you do,” Steven explained. He pulled out a small notebook, obviously prepared to take notes.

“You’re serious about this,” Duffy said. He’d thought that Caldwell was going to be springing a joke of some kind on them, but now he was realizing that there was no punch line.

“Those two men saved me from a fate that was beyond my worst nightmare, and I’m a combat vet. Whatever they need, I’ll get to them somehow.”

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Teyla and Ronon watched from the secondary seats in the cockpit of jumper three as Conner and Murphy piloted the jumper to the mainland. They had become used to how much a part of the jumper John was as he sat in the pilot’s seat. What they had never seen before was how both Conner and Murphy seemed joined not only to the small ship, but to each other as well. They did not need to speak to each other, even the small gestures that they normally seemed to use in the place of communication with each other was too slow and they moved in perfect unison. It was like their very thoughts moved from man to machine to man and back again faster than they should have been able to comprehend. It was enough to make both of them freeze in fear of distracting either twin and disrupting whatever it was that was happening.

The jumper landed in the space that had been designated as the landing pad and the twins removed their hands from the controls. “Woah,” they said, shaking their heads a little. Conner ran his fingers through his hair, while Murphy scrubbed his face.

“What did you two do?” Ronon asked. He really wanted to know because this seemed to be the same sort of communication that they used when they’d fought him at the party. “Because that was what Sheppard calls freaky.” Teyla nodded.

“No shit,” Murphy said. “That wasn’t…It was like it took our connection and…bypassed it with something faster.”

“We’re twins; we’ve known each other since before we were born. We know every move each other makes and when they’re made. I’d think something at the jumper and it was like…” Conner trailed off, completely unable to express what had happened.

“We’ve always had a talent for synchronicity, but that’s like a circuit that only touches when it wants to. The jumper made the circuit work all the time,” Murphy said.

“Aye, we must have been doing it when we touched the controls,” Conner nodded, still stunned. A glance and they shook themselves, shoving the eerie feeling away. “Well, we’re here. Are you sure you want us to do this Teyla?” he asked, a little concerned.

“Yes, this is what my people have chosen,” Teyla said firmly. Her spirit had been restored by the knowledge that although she carried the taint of the Wraith, there was nothing within her that had given in to it, and there was a chance she could have a child with no taint at all. “We have accepted some refuges from other worlds. It is always a concern that they are not the most welcome of people. As all will be brought before the mila poppaaem, no one can say that they have been singled out for any reason.”

“That makes sense,” Murphy said. The twins knelt down, crossing themselves and saying a swift prayer. Then they stood up, grabbed their pea coats and gestured for Teyla and Ronon to lead the way.

Halling had been waiting for Teyla to bring the mila poppaaem ever since she had brought the news of their arrival in Atlantis. So when one of the children burst into his workshop crying that Teyla had arrived with Ronon and two strangely dressed Earth born, he sent the child to gather everyone in the village together. It was easy to see that the child was right, these were Earth born. Their clothing was similar to that which he’d seen Colonel Sheppard wear when he was not in his uniform, pants called jeans, the tea shirts that all of them seemed to wear, and the sunglasses that Sheppard wore often, but that was where the similarity ended. These two wore black fabric coats and long necklaces, something that he had thought only Earth born women wore. They were also armed much more heavily than the Marines, something that he had expected.

“Halling, this is Conner and Murphy McManus,” Teyla said introducing the men. “They are twins, which means they are the result of a single pregnancy. Their ancestors were the mila poppaaem.”

“Welcome to our village,” Halling said as he shook their hands.

“Thank you for having us,” Conner said gravely. “Are you sure you wish to do this?”

“This is your last chance to back out. No one will think any less of you for doing so,” Murphy said just as seriously.

These were two men Teyla had described as constantly laughing and joking? Halling nodded. “We are certain. It is our honor to be the first to welcome the mila poppaaem back to Pegasus.” He was grateful that they knew to take this seriously. As it was they talked like Doctor Beckett did, and that was enough to relax those who had been nervous.

They took off their sunglasses and began, carefully walking through the small crowd. Murphy stopped by Jinto and Halling stiffened, but he merely leaned over and whispered something in the teen’s ear. Jinto blushed bright red and nodded. This pattern continued. Often they would stop, and say something, most often to the children and young adults, but occasionally to one of the older people. The reaction was usually a blush or a ducked head with a nod or a verbal agreement. Occasionally there would be a giggle from one of the smaller children.

But Halling was waiting for them to reach a man he had been watching for some time now. It was nothing he could bring to his mind, but there was an air around him that made Halling uneasy. It was because of this man that Halling had insisted on having the village examined by these mila poppaaem. If Teyla was right, and she usually was, these men had the gift to see evil, which had not been seen since the Ancestors left this galaxy. Halling needed to make sure that his people were safe. It took Halling a moment to see the pattern. Teyla caught on much sooner. They were moving so that the man Halling had been worried about would be the last one they looked at, and they would be in between him and the rest of the Athosians when they did.

Murphy patted the last child on the head and both he and his brother faced the one man that they’d spotted right off. If this was the reason that Teyla and Halling had wanted them to check out their people, then they were right. He’d hoped not to face this sort of evil here, where children were the most precious thing a small community could have and the people of this galaxy knew it. “Pedophile,” he said, his voice echoing with the man’s doom.

“Child thief,” Conner said, his eyes going from sky blue to the grey of a stormy sky.

“Child killer,” Murphy snarled. The look on the man’s face said it all, the charges were true. He broke and ran, the brothers chasing after him. Murphy tackled him; something Halling had only seen when Sheppard had introduced the children to his game of football. In an instant, all three men were down on the ground and the brothers were beating the man, giving more hits than they were taking. It didn’t last long.

Conner dragged the man back to the village square, while Murphy told the women of the village to take the children to where they wouldn’t get hurt. “But I want to see!” one small boy protested.

Murphy sat back on his heels. “This isn’t going to be like when the Wraith take someone. It’s going to be loud, very messy and scary.” Conner was dragging the man into place, upright on his knees, smacking him when he protested. “You need to listen to your ma. She knows best whether or not you should watch.” With that he went to stand on Conner’s right, directly behind their latest target. Murphy put his right pistol to the man’s head; right next to Conner’s left.

“And shepherds we shall be, For Thee my Lord for Thee, Power hath descended forth from Thy hand, That our feet may swiftly carry out Thy commands, So we shall flow a river forth unto Thee, And teeming with souls shall it ever be, E Nomini Patri, et Fili, et Spiritu Sancti.” Two shots rang out, and the body hit the ground. They would not give him the death he deserved with the children watching.