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“I thought that you said you were going to take him to the social services building?”
“Well, the social worker and I agreed that since they were so busy, it would be best if John stayed with me for the time bei-“
“So, what you’re saying, is the social services building was overrun, they obviously had too many cases to work with, and you got freaked out at leaving a kitten who was obviously attached to you there, and bullied them into letting you keep him?”
Rodney sighed, sitting on the couch next to Jeanie while they listened to the quiet talking coming from the kitchen. “Yes. I couldn’t live with myself if I left him there, Jeanie. You should have seen him, back in the labs where I first found him. They were going to experiment on him! Not only is that illegal beyond all measures, it’s immoral, and wrong. Jeanie, he… he was crying. Big upset eyes looking at me, I-“
Rodney cut himself off, making a choked off noise in the back of his throat. Jeanie felt a constriction in her chest for him. “I don’t blame you for taking him away, fact, I’m proud of you, Mer. I just… I’m not sure if you’re ready to be a parent. I just… I’m not sure if you’re ready to be a parent. Do you think you’re ready to have a kid? Even if he’s a kitten, he’s still a little boy, and he’ll need you, just like any little boy will need a parent.”
Rodney looked at her and shrugged, “I think I can do better than the foster system, at least. Mom and Dad trusted you to take care of a puppy when you were barely ten, and I’m twenty-three, I’m sure I can do better than a ten year old.”
Jeanie smirked, “Well, I had Mom and Dad’s help with Ray, and you’re about to be a single parent. So, you might change your mind later.”
Rodney snorted, still listening to Ray, Jeanie’s candid companion for the last eight years, talking with John, the kitten Rodney had saved on his first day at his newest job, from being poked and prodded all day in a lab. “You know what felt good?”
“What?”
Rodney grinned maliciously, “The looks on everyone’s faces when the police stormed the place. I don’t think that lab will ever dig themselves out of their own grave now. I don’t even care how good of a job it looked to be anymore, I want to watch them destroy themselves because of it. Who the hell could do that? I wonder how many other kittens- puppies! The probably had so many candid humans there, Jeanie, I don’t care how good of a job it was, anyone who knew what was going on and said nothing, they deserve to be buried under it forever.”
Jeanie was smiling when he looked at her, and he raised an eyebrow, “I know one thing. Even if you’re not the best parent in the world, I know you’ll protect that kitten with a fierceness like no other.”
***
Candid humans are no different than humans. Of course, they kind of had extra parts. Like, Ray, Jeanie’s candid companion, or John, Rodney’s new… son?
Ray had dog extras. John had cat extras.
It didn’t make them stupid. It didn’t mean they acted like their animal counterparts. There was nothing, legally, morally, or otherwise, that said that they were any lesser than humans. Of course, there would always be the human ‘purists’ who believed that they should be treated exactly like their counterparts.
These people were considered radical extremists and given almost no thought at all. They caused trouble, but for the most part, there weren’t enough of them to actually make an issue out of.
Then, there was the fact that humans themselves, had no ‘extra’ parts at all, and so, to be honest, you could always just argue that they had something missing.
Overall, humans and candid humans got along rather well. Canine candid’s were well suited for jobs such as being a cop, or doctor. Feline candid’s tended towards spiritual healers and caregivers.
Rodney had grown up around them all his life, he didn’t understand how he could walk into a lab, admittedly run mainly by humans, and find a little kit sitting on a lab table, while a doctor poked and prodded the little kitten with needles. He wasn’t even gentle about it, and the kitten was crying, big wet tears in his eyes.
Rodney hadn’t known what to do. This child was obviously not here of his own will, and from the way the doctor was talking to him, he wasn’t well liked either.
He’d been stopped from drastic measures when the doctor looked up and saw him, let out a huff and demanded that Rodney watched the kitten while he went out to get something to keep the boy complacent with.
If Rodney hadn’t been so shocked by the sight of him, he’d have snapped at him that he wasn’t here to be some crap lab assistant, but the man was out of the room before Rodney could do anything about it.
The kitten gave him a wary look, breath ragged while he scratched at a dark red rash on his right arm. It looked like whatever the doctor had injected into him, was not agreeing with him. His face was covered in tears and snot, and Rodney felt his chest constrict. The boy had another needle stuck in his neck, held down with tape, and a third on his leg. Rodney was kind of scared that whatever was going into his blood stream right now, the doctor didn’t actually care if it killed him or not.
He got closer to the table, but the boy scrambled back a foot, obviously wary of anyone coming near him. His scratching got worse, and Rodney was more than worried that he was going to make himself bleed. Rodney needed to get him out of here.
“Hey, I’m not going to hurt you. Please, I just want to take those needles out of you and get you out of here.”
The kitten didn’t seem to understand him much, eyes blown wide, and Rodney wouldn’t be surprised if he was drugged to the gills. “Hey, can you tell me your name?”
The kitten stopped scratching his arm for a moment before going right back at it, obviously bothered by it. “John.”
Rodney was about to side up to the table and sighed in relief, reaching out to pull the needles from his body, wanting to get out of the room before the doctor got back. He had no doubt that he could probably win in a fight against the old man, but he didn’t want to figure it out while there was a kitten in the room.
When John had the needles removed –and it angered Rodney to see it, the skin around the other needles was just starting to get red and puffy too- Rodney pulled him off the table and onto his hip. John didn’t seem happy about that, but it was mostly just the way that it irritated his red skin. Already, John seemed to know that Rodney wasn’t going to let the doctor come back and touch him again.
Rodney opened the door just enough to see out of the room, and the hallway outside it was clear. “I need you to be very quiet, John. We can’t let anyone know we’re out there, because we don’t want them to stop us.”
John nodded against his shoulder, little fingers clenched tight in Rodney’s shirt.
Rodney snuck out of the room, trying to keep quiet, but his sister had once told him that he had the subtly of a rhino in a china shop. At the end of the hall, he turned the corner and saw someone at the end of this one just barely turning around the corner, and fumbled for a knob on a door right next to them, stumbling into a supply closet with a sigh after words.
He turned on the light and set the kitten on a file cabinet, just high enough that Rodney could see his injuries.
He grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket and hovered over the keys. He stopped himself from dialing 911, and with a frustrated sigh, punched in Jeanie’s number. She knew all his new work info, and if he somehow got cut short, she wouldn’t stop until she knew he was safe again. While he waited for her to pick up, he wedged a broom handle under the door knob and looked through the medical supplies for something to help John with.
“What’s up? Hate the new job already?”
Rodney grabbed a set of gauze, MSM cream, and a jar of cotton swabs. He wasn’t sure if this would do any actual good to John, but he’d rather have the rashes covered before John scratched right through the skin. He was starting to rub at the one on his thigh, just under the small shorts he was wearing, and Rodney needed that covered. A touch to the kitten’s skin not covered by his tee shirt had him concerned at the cold there. “Jeanie, I need you to call the police. I walked into the wrong lab and found a man experimenting on a kitten.”
Jeanie let out a surprised noise, “You found someone experimenting on a candid?”
Rodney sighed, feeling exhausted already and nodded, phone pressed against his ear while he pulled a bottle of alcohol off the shelf and poured it over a cotton ball. John let out an upset noise when Rodney started cleaning the rash up, but didn’t pull back, something Rodney was thankful for.
“He… he had him hooked up to IV’s, and was prodding him with needles. Jeanie, there was no way this kid was here for actual treatment, what he was injecting in him is swelling the skin up, he’s got rashes from it, they were flat out experimenting on him.”
“Why’d you call me and not the police?”
“Because, and I know this is going to scare you, but it’s the kind of thing that happens in places like this, I need someone outside that believes me, in case I disappear.”
When Jeanie spoke again, her voice was shaky, “Okay, okay, Mer. Where are you in the facility? You said the place was heavily guarded? I need to know where the police can find you.”
Rodney sighed, trying to keep his fingers gentle as he rubbed in the cream onto the inflamed skin. John didn’t pull away though, so he assumed that it was some sort of relief. “A supply closet on the third floor, hallway C, the door is across the hall from a bathroom last I saw.”
“Okay.”
***
When there was a harsh knock on the door, Rodney nearly jumped out of his skin, arms tightening around the kitten in his arms, and heart hammering away in his chest. “Rodney McKay, if you’re in there, we need you to open the door.”
Rodney frowned, wanting to believe that, but wary of the other scientists in the building. “Slide your badge under the door.”
“What?”
Rodney scowled, hand stilling on the kitten’s back, “You heard me, slide your badge under the door. If you’re not police, get the hell back.”
Rodney looked over at the fire extinguisher that he’d hooked up to a file cabinet, pointed at the door. He’d have to open the door to use it, but it was rigged up to shoot out needles and anything else sharp enough that Rodney could find in the room, if the handle was squeezed.
This was not his first time working for a shady company, and Rodney did not relish the thought of spending a week in a dark room again.
A leather wallet slid under the door frame, and Rodney reached down to grab it, John still clinging to his front, where he’d been since Rodney finished bandaging his rashes up. The one on his arm actually seemed to be less swollen than it was earlier, and so Rodney could only hope that he had helped him.
“Is that proof enough?”
Rodney glared at the badge. It was real. “Where’s the doctor that was experimenting on him?”
There was a pause on the other side of the door. “Is the kitten in there with you?”
“Yes.”
“…he’s dead. He pulled a gun on one of the cops and we had to shoot. The entire building is being searched.”
Rodney nodded in approval and yanked the broom handle out from the door knob and pulled the door open.
“Don’t touch the fire extinguisher. It’s rigged to shoot sharp objects. John’s got rashes all over from the injections and needs medical attention.”
He shoved past the cop without preamble, honestly surprising the others with his bossy demeanor, and headed back towards the front of the building while one of the female cops tried to keep pace with him to check on the kitten.
One thing was for sure. No one was touching this boy until Rodney was sure he’d be safe.
***
Rodney had adopted John just before the boy’s eighth birthday. Of course, he didn’t have to, they’d made it several years without adoption, but the more annoying half of Rodney’s bosses kept hinting on the fact that they couldn’t send him out of the country without adopting John, or they’d all get shit about it.
Rodney may or may not have slightly, just a little bit, almost been using that as an excuse to not be sent anywhere else right now.
You can’t really blame him, he’s a single parent, and being a single parent means that the time that’s not consumed by lab hours, is usually taken up by a tiny purring kitten who refuses to admit that his own bed is perfectly fine and he doesn’t have to steal Daddy’s. No no, you can’t blame Rodney at all, he’s just trying to do his best.
Which is why, he is taking absolutely, completely, no bullshit from General Hammond right now.
“If you didn’t want me to bring him in, you shouldn’t be calling me in outside of my scheduled work time right now.”
George made a noise close to a steamed up tea pot, looking like he was refraining from saying some choice words in front of John right now, who was currently sitting at the debriefing table, working on his homework while Dr Daniel Jackson, an older tom who was Jack O’Neill’s candid companion as far as Rodney knew, was watching him and helping when needed. He was good with his numbers, of course he was, Rodney wasn’t going to raise an idiot, but was happily supplying answers from Daniel to help complete his essay.
Rodney bets that if he read that essay over for him later, it’d probably be mostly written by Daniel. He doesn’t think he’ll need to go over it later, if Daniel is helping him, it’ll be fine.
“Dr McKay, you really should have a babysitter on standby, all the other parents on the base have someone they can call, or several someone’s they can call if they’re called into the base.”
Rodney rolled his eyes, barely looking up from the calculations Sam had shoved into his hands the moment he was in the door. If he was going to listen to the general blather on, he might as well get his work done too. “I’ve been in this state barely long enough to get him into a school, and you guys are pretty much taking any other time I have. I’m lucky I can find the energy to get to the grocery store before the cupboards are bare.” Rodney trailed off, making some notes in the margins, voice lower now, “Weird, I never used to do that. I remember back before John, I used to just go to the store when I had the time, didn’t care if I lived off of take out for weeks at a time.”
He sighed, looking wary for a moment before scrubbing his eyes before looking back up. They weren’t normally working out of the meeting room, but there were a lot less things John could hurt himself with here, plus the airmen actually kept the coffee and snacks coming without any of them having to ask. A lot of them seemed to like John and Daniel.
Something about pheromones. Rodney’s first girlfriend was a cat, and Rodney could have sworn he wasn’t even attracted to girls till he met her. Something about the way she smelled made him want to roll around in it like a dog. He wasn’t a dog.
“Where’s the coffee in this place?”
George waved him off towards the carafe, and Rodney got up to get a mug. Obviously, George had given up on scolding him, having himself remembered that bone deep weary look on his face, from both his own kids, and when they grew up, and would ask their dad to please watch his grandkids for even just a few hours.
They still came to him with that request, and George almost never turned it down. He loved his grandkids.
“You know, I think this is actually a good time to talk about that day care program we were going over last month. We obviously still have need of it.”
George shook his head at Jack, “You know I can’t condone any children being trapped on this base with anything that might want to hurt them, and there is a lot that might want to hurt them here.”
Jack shook his head. He seemed to like John a lot too, standing behind him and Daniel, scratching at the kitten candid’s ears, grinning at the deep purr that came out from John’s throat. “This base is acres wide, and it’s got more than enough space. George, you know full well that just living in Colorado itself is a risky thing. Damn near half this state is a military base, and so yeah, this might be the most dangerous place, but this state isn’t safe itself. I was thinking that we could open something up, just at the edge of the property, and get a day care center running.”
George thought about that, “It’d have to be a big place, big enough for a few hundred kids if needed.”
Jack nodded, “Then make it a school. We can send air force kids there, both from here and the rest of schreiver, and it’ll be equipped to handle them overnight if necessary. But you can’t deny it anymore, George, the people on this base do have families and need a place to send them.”
George gave the colonel an amused look. “If you had somewhere to put Daniel just a few years back, we wouldn’t have a stargate program to talk about right now.”
Daniel gave them both a grin, and Jack looked back at him, amused, and scratched Daniel’s ears the way he’d been doing to John, no less than five minutes ago. “Well, who knows, maybe this kid’ll be running an SG base one day.”
George gave the kitten a chuckle, “In a galaxy far far away.”
***
So, it turned out, the galaxy wasn’t actually that far away.
The Pegesus galaxy was a dwarf galaxy in a nearby quadrant. And apparently, the home of the ancients.
“You know I’m not going to another fucking galaxy without my son! Stop asking.”
Weir sighed, sagging down in her chair. They’d just called in Rodney again to ask him about going once more, and Rodney was more than defensive about it. Apparently, he really didn’t want to think about living without his kitten. The kitten who was currently being lead away from her office, his tiny little fingers tangled up with Daniel’s while the other candid lead him back to the area he’d been using in the Arctic outpost. John was giving her a worried look. He really didn’t like how she kept trying to take his daddy away from him.
“What if John comes with?”
Rodney’s rant was cut short by the woman, giving her a look like she had just asked to… well… to bring a child to another galaxy that they might never return from.
He was more than unsettled to feel a knot unforming from his stomach, like it might actually be a good idea.
Oh god, he was screwed.
***
“I like it here.”
Rodney gave the kitten an odd look. John had found some sort of ground cushion –or, at least, a cushion that he’d happily put on the ground- and was taking the universes laziest catnap in the space under Rodney’s desk while Rodney tried to unpack around him. Rodney was kind of jealous how John was young and small enough to nap the day away, but at least it kept him from being out underfoot.
“Of course you like it here, you don’t have to deal with the annoying life sucking vampires.”
John sighed, moving up into a stretch on the cushion. He was so damn small, sometimes it took Rodney a minute to realize that kittens didn’t reach full maturity until their late twenties. John could very well be little like this for as much as twenty more years.
Christ, Rodney was barely past twenty six and he felt old as hell looking at the kitten.
To be honest, Rodney wasn’t even sure how the whole ‘human superiority’ thing came to be. Humans didn’t live nearly as long as cats and dogs did. Of course, dogs matured faster, but they still lived longer than humans did by far. Not only that, but humans were the minority in all cultures.
He shook his head when John got up, looking sleepy and relaxed in the warmth of the room. The climate in the city was actually very warm, and Rodney had already scolded him twice for falling asleep in sunny spots in the hallways.
Rodney momentarily thought about sending him off towards Weir to get them to talk about benches, or window seats, out in the hallways, because he could already tell, asking John not to sleep there wasn’t going to work. If he fits, he sits. But, Weir was a busy woman too, and so he decided not to bother her right now.
John stopped at his father’s side though, one little hand tangling up in Rodney’s pants leg, and looking up at him with big eyes. His ears were perked up a bit more than earlier, so he was waking up, but his eyes were still thin slits from the bright of the room. “Daddy, I like it here. The city is nice. She speaks to me.”
Rodney put another box down on the desk table for unpacking later and knelt down to pet John, who was holding his tail in both hands, grooming it gently while he leaned into Rodney’s hand. “I know, John. The city likes you too. I just don’t want you to get hurt.”
John grinned, leaning forward to press a kiss to Rodney’s nose, “I know.”
***
“Major Lorne!” Evan turned around at the sound of Rodney’s barking voice and frowned. “Watch him for a minute.”
Evan frowned, his ears drooping just a little at the top of his head. Unlike John, and about fifteen scientists who worked with Rodney, Evan was a canine candid, not feline. Of course, there were feline candid’s in the marines, and it’s not like Evan had ever been in a fight with one of them before, but, if John was anything like his father was, they’d probably be fighting within minutes of talking to each other.
Luckily, John was nothing like his father.
Evan looked down at the guilty looking kitten and frowned, “I thought they let you have the run of the main towers here?”
John gulped just a little, and looked at the gate with an intensity. Evan was waiting for the rest of his team –Rodney included- to get to the gateroom so they could leave, and this could be an issue. If John was in trouble with his daddy, they might be delayed a little.
“Um, well, I think that Daddy’s over reacting, to be honest. Don’t worry about it, it’s fine, he’s just always got a bug up his butt about something.”
Well, that was not helpful at all. Apparently, John didn’t follow directions as well as he should.
Evan raised an eyebrow, but decided to let it go for now. When Rodney came storming back into the room, with both Elizabeth and Carson behind him, John just about hid behind Evan to get away from them all, but Rodney looked like that only one of them that was annoyed, and so John let the doctor coax him over to his side instead.
Evan didn’t miss the complete look of guilt on Rodney’s face when he caught John’s eye and John just pressed further into Carson’s side.
Rodney still had that guilty look on his face, five minutes after them, Aiden and Teyla had gated out, and Evan finally broke, asking what had happened, remembering the look on John’s face as he’d cautiously been led out of the room with his hand in Carson’s while giving Rodney worried looks.
Rodney just looked at him with a big sigh and let his shoulders finally drop. “I might have over reacted.”
Evan nodded, “About?”
“One of the marines was teaching him how to fly a puddle jumper. I was hit with the sudden realization, once more, that I’ve brought my son, my small, kitten son, who had no choice in the final decision, to another galaxy, where there are creatures who are trying their hardest to kill us all, and one day I might not be able to protect him.”
They all gave him sympathetic looks, and Rodney finally shrugged, “He was actually doing pretty good in the jumper, flew it better than I did at least. Maybe he’ll actually like it here. Back on Earth, he was too damn smart, and knew too much about the SGC to actually make friends. To be honest, the only issue out here, other than the danger, is the lack of others his own age.”
Evan smiled a little, “Well, I’ll tell you one thing, Rodney, you’re not the only person in that city who would give their lives to protect him. Worry a little less, and let the marines teach him how to defend himself. At his age, there’s not too much else that he can do, he deserves that much.”
Rodney nodded, “Fine, but you keep your marines in line, Major! If I catch any of those idiots trying to teach him things he doesn’t need to know about yet, I’ll skin them alive!”
Evan nodded, “I expect nothing less.”
***
When Atlantis finally had contact with Earth again, it was a relief.
Actually, Rodney might have actually been so relived, he’d nearly cried, but it wasn’t because they were finally in contact with Earth. No, this relief had been a bit more personal.
“John, John please come out now, there’s nothing bad happening outside, Daddy promises.”
Rodney heard a nervous meow coming from behind one of the containers in the room. They were in the power control part of the city. One of the hardest places to breach. As soon as the wraith had started attacking, John was shoved into the arms of the scientist Rodney needed to send down to the room to watch things, having been told to stay there until everything was safe again. Rodney wasn’t going to risk him if he could help it.
Rodney frowned, hoping that John wasn’t too scared. Some kittens while still young, could easily lose the ability to speak in human tongues when scared. This isn’t actually an issue most of the time, since their parents could usually at least understand them, usually being a cat too, but Rodney was definitely not a cat.
He crouched down next to the crate and the kitten behind it, and held his arms open. “C’mere, kitten, Daddy has you, it’s safe to come out now.”
John gave another questioning meow, and Rodney tried to give him an encouraging smile, “Yeah, John, it’s safe. Nothing bad will happen, Daddy won’t even make you go back to our rooms, you just stick with Daddy for the rest of the day, okay?”
John seemed to take that as a good thing, cautiously coming out and slotting himself nicely into Rodney’s arms. Daddy always made him feel safer. Daddy had been protecting him from the beginning, all the way back since the bad man in the white coat had been hurting him in the lab. When Daddy first found him, his first instinct was to protect him. John always felt safe with Daddy.
John sighed into his neck, sagging against the human with a relief that Rodney shared with him.