crossoverfic | The Saints of Atlantis 25

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

Colonel Sheppard wasn’t sure if he wanted the brothers to convert the Wraith to vegetarianism, (animalism?) or not. While having one Wraith abstaining from eating humans voluntarily wouldn’t mean much compared to all of the inhabitants of all the Wraith hives out there, he knew enough about history to know that everything began with just one person who had one radical idea. For a Wraith, not eating humans was about as radical as you could get.

While John was sure that the others on Atlantis would approve, (Carson hadn’t been the only person working on trying to find a way to make the Wraith do just that, although he’d finally given up his retro virus) they were still the enemy and inviting one home wouldn’t go over very well. Hell, Ronon had been zatted unconscious just so he wouldn’t try to take the Wraith out with his bare hands. He had to come up with something to say so that if the Wraith was coming with them, no one would kill him out of hand.

John glanced down at his unconscious team mate. Ronon was still out, but he wouldn’t be for much longer. He made a quick decision and dialed Atlantis. After sending through his IDC, and waiting for the acknowledgement, he opened his radio channel. “Atlantis, this is Sheppard. I’ve got some weird news over here, but I’m sending Ronon through first. He’s been zatted and he’s gonna wake up pissed as hell. I want him kept as far away from the rest of ART-1 as possible for now. He’s likely to tear Murphy in half and that’s the last thing I want to deal with.”

“Understood sir,” he heard from Lorne. John had always wondered just how it was possible that his XO was able to get so many meanings into just a few words. The ‘oh shit’ he really couldn’t blame Lorne for, after all Ronon made a habit of breaking Marines. The ‘oh lord, what’s my CO gotten into now’ wasn’t nice, but also something that he couldn’t blame Lorne for. Pegasus had a very bad habit of dumping on him and Lorne was usually the one stuck with cleaning up the mess. It was the ‘I’m going to have to kill Murphy’ and ‘that’s going to screw up my chances with Aislin’ that really made him want to smack Lorne for though. He had enough problems going on here. John didn’t need Lorne focusing on his love life or lack thereof.

John heaved and threw/pushed Ronon through the gate. “We’ve got him Colonel,” Elizabeth said.

“Ok, here’s the deal. The trade agreement went through, but just after we shook hands on it, the Wraith showed up. Things went about the way you’d expect them to, but some of the Darts were firing on other Darts, so I think we had two groups in orbit fighting over who got to cull this world. While they were duking it out, we managed to get the majority of the locals down to shelter. When I took a head count, the twins were missing. Ronon, Teyla and I went back out after them.”

John shook his head. Teyla and Rodney were headed up the trail and he could see Teyla was giving Rodney a sit-rep. “This is where it gets weird. By the time we found them the raid was long over with, but they were doing a stare down with a single Wraith, a male. The twins kept talking about a choice the Wraith needed to make, that’s when Ronon tried to take the Wraith out and Murphy stunned him. It turns out that the Wraith just found out the hard way that he can eat animals and he doesn’t have to eat humans. The twins were protecting his right to make that choice without interference. Right now I’m waiting to find out what his decision is. If the Wraith chooses not to eat humans, I invited him to come back with us, and before anyone gets their tights in a knot, remember that the twins can see if he’s lying to them or not.” John ran through what he’d covered in his head to make sure that he hadn’t left anything out.

There was a short silence that came over the radio, but before Rodney could get the rant that John could see about to explode out of him, Elizabeth said. “Good thinking Colonel. If we can get even one Wraith to stop feeding on humans, who knows what the end result might be?”

“Exactly what I was thinking Elizabeth,” John said. was “Although honestly I don’t think we’ll ever get to the point where we can negotiate with them,” he warned. In the end it would still probably come down to killing off all of the Wraith that wanted to eat humans.

Teyla held up her hand and motioned to the tree line. Conner came into view, followed by the Wraith and Murphy. “Well, that answers that question,” John muttered. “Alright Atlantis, it looks like we’ve got a guest. Please have two Marines and at least two shepherds standing by for guest duty. I don’t want anyone to shoot him unless it’s warranted. We’ve got an opportunity here people. Don’t fuck it up.” John tilted his head at Teyla, telling her to get Rodney through the gate. She nodded at him and grabbed Rodney’s arm, pulling him through to Atlantis. The twins didn’t stop, just nodded as they passed Sheppard, escorting the Wraith through the gate. He followed them, the last member of ART-1 to leave the planet.

In Atlantis, everyone in the control room froze while Sheppard came through and the gate shut down. The Wraith had stepped down from the dais the gate was worked into, but had gone no further. No one seemed to want to step forward and greet their newest ‘guest’, but then neither was anyone trying to shoot him and risking Colonel Sheppard’s wrath.

It was one of the McManuses that finally stepped forward, a tiny little woman half the size of the twins and almost twice their age. She was also carrying a weapon almost as large as she was. She gave the Wraith a once over and nodded sharply. “Well, I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. The little shits can be taught. Alright boys, you know the drill. Take this one down to see the docs,” she told the twins. “And as for you,” she shook her finger at the Wraith. “You’ve taken the first step on a very long road boy. It’ll be a long time before anyone will trust you completely, but hold true to your course and the trust will come in time.”

“Yes Aunt Ciara,” Conner and Murphy said, each of them kissing her on the cheek in unison.

They all walked down to the infirmary, with four extra men following them, or more precisely the Wraith. Truthfully, the only ones that were completely relaxed were the twins; everyone else was keeping one eye on the Wraith as he followed Conner’s instructions and sat down on one of the gurneys. Conner and Murphy took the next gurney over, sharing it as had become usual for them.

The Wraith eyed the doctors and nurses as they ran the team through their post mission physicals. “This is normal?” he asked.

“Aye it is,” Carson answered him. As not only the head of medicine, but also as the doctor who had studied the Wraith the most, he was the doctor elected to do the Wraith’s physical. “We’ve had a few nasties get loose on our homeworld and we’ve learned to take precautions with everyone coming through the gate, no matter who they are.” He began running an Ancient portable medical scanner over his newest patient.

“Will you two stop doing that!?” Sheppard asked, exasperated. Conner and Murphy had been getting ready for the nurses to take blood by shrugging off their jackets, rolling up their sleeves and sticking a chewing stick in their mouths.

The guards snickered at the twins’ confused looks. “What?” they asked.

“The only thing worse than the two of you doing things in unison is when you mirror each other,” Sheppard grumbled.

They shrugged, once more in unison. “Thirty five years Colonel,” Conner pointed out. “It’s not likely that we’re going to be able to change something we’ve not been able to control all those years.”

“Huh,” Carson said, looking at the scanner.

“What is it Carson?” McKay asked.

Carson glanced at his friend, knowing that if he didn’t get this under control quickly Rodney was likely to panic. Rodney was too smart for his own good most days, and he had terrible habit of thinking of everything that could go wrong and then babbling about it. “It looks like our friend here is in slightly better shape than the ones I examined after the siege. I hadn’t thought about it, but it is possible that although all Wraith have an advanced healing capability, their diet isn’t very healthy for them. Rather like you and powerbars,” Carson said, giving Rodney a knowing look.

“Oh come on! I only do that in an emergency when I can’t leave the lab,” Rodney protested.

“Nevertheless,” Carson went on above Rodney’s protesting his innocence, speaking to the Wraith, “if you don’t mind, I’d like to see if I can keep track of your health while you’re here in Atlantis. If I can get enough information I might be able to recommend a good diet for you…oh dear, Colonel?” Carson called.

“Yeah Doc?” John asked. He hated getting his blood drawn even if it was routine and really didn’t want to stay in the infirmary any longer than he had to.

“We need a name for our guest,” Carson pointed out. Wraith had no individual names; and few single positions within their hives.

“Why me?” John huffed.

“Because you’re the one who keeps naming them!” Rodney pointed out.

“Fine,” Sheppard drawled. “Your name while you’re with us is Michael,” he told the Wraith. “Happy now?” he asked the room at large.

“Nice, named after the Archangel,” Conner said approvingly.

“Yeah the biggest ass kicker of them all,” Murphy remembered out loud. “He’s also our family’s Patron Saint, for he is the Archangel of battle and defender of heaven against all that is evil.”

“All finished Michael,” Carson said, patting the newly named Wraith on the shoulder. No one mentioned that his hand was shaking just a little. “You can go with the Colonel now.”

The post mission briefing was less comfortable than usual with Michael in attendance, but they made do and told Elizabeth the basics of what had happened. Michael actually seemed to relax the longer the briefing went on. They soon found out why when he asked her if she were the Queen of Atlantis. “Not in the way that you mean, I don’t think,” Elizabeth said hesitantly. “I am the leader of our people, but it is only by chance that I am female. Our leaders are chosen from among those we believe have the best skills for that particular position. Doctor Beckett is our leader of medicine because he has both the medical skills and the leadership skills needed. Colonel Sheppard is the best person for leadership of our military. Doctor McKay is the best leader for our science team because he understands the most about the Ancients and how their technology works.

“Each of them has a second in command who would take over their positions if something were to happen to them, and their seconds have those who would take their place. Each of our people chooses an area that they enjoy or are very talented in as young adults, and they work hard to gain skills and experience in their chosen fields. As they advance in those skills and experience, they are given more responsibility until they have reached the place where they wish to be, or they have advanced as far as they are able.”

The idea was obviously a surprise to Michael. Elizabeth smiled. “You are free to ask any questions you may have Michael. If we don’t want to tell you the answer to your question, we’ll tell you that. As Mrs. O’Connell said, while you’ve taken the first steps towards gaining our trust, you don’t have it completely yet, but we’ll tell be as honest as we can be under these circumstances.”

“That is far more than I expected,” admitted Michael.

“In that case, you are free to wander around Atlantis as long as you stay in the unrestricted areas, do not try to lose your guards and do not attempt to injure anyone,” Elizabeth said, outlining exactly what was expected of him. Michael took that as a dismissal and left, trailing his four guards. “Whooo,” she collapsed back into her chair. “Why is it that none of you can go through the gate without finding some kind of excitement?”

Almost as one the five present members of ART-1 shrugged. “If you don’t mind my asking,” Murphy piped up. “Where’s Ronon? I’d kind of like to avoid him for a while.”

Elizabeth and nearly everyone else threw him a ‘no shit’ look. No one wanted Ronon on their case if it could be avoided. “He’s over in Little Tripoli, breaking the new Marines,” Lorne admitted.

“When he calms down a little, would you remind him that I did warn him more than once?” Murphy asked.

“Third strike, you’re out,” agreed Conner.

“Well on that cheerful note, I’ll see you all later,” Elizabeth said, dismissing them. “Oh and Conner, Murphy, I saw that you got something in the last databurst.”

Conner quickly pulled out his tablet and accessed their account. The others crowded around, knowing what the men were hoping the message was. “It’s from Ma,” he said and Murphy grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulling their heads together.

‘Boys, we’re coming to live on that base with you. If the rest of the family can come we’d better be welcome too. I’m getting too old to do this again. Taking care of you two as babies was hard enough.’ That was all the email contained.

The others were busy congratulating them, until Teyla asked them why they were so quiet. “Ma didn’t swear at us,” Conner said, obviously worried now that they were looking.

“And she spelled everything right, which means she was stone cold sober,” Murphy added, just as solemn as his brother. “That’s not normal for our Ma. She’s got to be about ready to fall over dead if she hasn’t been drinking.”

“Aye,” Conner said. “They’ll probably be on the next trip of the Daedalus. We’ll need to have everything ready before they get here. Anybody up for helping us to move?”