Alone in Your Mind, 11/12

[gilascave]

Alone in Your Mind
Chapter Eleven

The rest of the Atlantis team were due back in an hour. Carson stood nervously in the middle of his medical research lab, wondering why he was worried about it at all. So, the others returned, life went back to...not normal, but whatever it had been before they'd left for Earth. He had a few things to look forward to, at least. Dr. Weir was supposed to be bringing back five new staff for the medical team, including an emergency room doctor. None of the current doctors' speciality was really emergency medicine, and they'd proven over again how much they needed one.

Having a few more nurses would also help spread out the workload a great deal; having additional personnel would bolster everyone's departments. Rodney had been talking about it just the previous night, listing projects he had just waiting for people to assign them to. He'd talked about it for nearly half an hour before Carson and John got him into bed by simply starting without him.

That was something Carson was trying not to think about. Things were going to change. None of them had said anything about it, and Carson got the feeling they were each waiting for someone else to begin. They'd have to do it today, because they'd not be able to spend the night together without talking about whether or not they still were.

Right at the moment he was alone; John and Rodney had said something about needing to get ready for the team's return. Carson had been told to wait there -- given strict orders not to wander off alone, no matter what Murdoc said.

He had a bad feeling there would be water balloons or red dye involved in whatever the two were planning, so he'd been happy to stay out of it.

But that had left him alone to either think about what was going to happen, or to read the repair manual in an attempt to not think. Of course he had work to do as well, but he couldn't focus long enough to do any of his research. He'd neglected it for weeks, already. Finally he'd taken up pacing back and forth and wondering what on earth -- or Atlantis -- John and Rodney were up to.

The door slid open and John tumbled through, laughing and stumbling forward again as Rodney shoved at him. Carson bit back the words 'where the hell have you been' because god knew he didn't want to be the mature one in this affair. The *only* mature one.

His two lovers came to a stop, half-leaning on each other and still giggling like schoolboys.

"Am I allowed out of my room now?" he asked, not bothering to hide how testy he felt. There they were, not even acting like they cared that tonight things might be going back to before. Of course -- they might not. They still had each other, didn't they?

John and Rodney both looked at him with equally startled expressions. "Er, yes? Why are you stuck here?" Rodney asked.

Carson folded his arms. "'And you're not to go wandering off anywhere, while we're out. That means no repairs, no just popping down to the workshop to fix something without me watching, no sneaking down the hallway to activate a communications panel no one knew existed and calling the next planet over for pizza.' Shall I go on, or just skip ahead to the part where I had to still be here when the pair of you returned?"

Rodney closed his mouth. Then opened it again, "It wasn't exactly--"

"It was," Carson interrupted. John and Rodney were still almost leaning against each other. Arms and hips touching like they were stuck in a cabinet, rather than in the middle of a laboratory. Carson felt irritated by the sight -- he brushed it off as nerves.

"Er, oh. Sorry, I didn't...actually mean you had to stay in here." Rodney looked thoughtful, then nodded. "No, I think I did." He grinned.

Carson wasn't terribly amused. "Well, now that you're here am I free to go?"

"You could have called," John said, tapping the radio on his ear. They'd taken to wearing them again just that morning. Trying to get back out of holiday mindset, Carson supposed.

"I didn't want to risk finding out what you were up to," he admitted. "In case Dr. Weir asks, I want to deny everything."

He'd expected a protest, or even mischievous laughter. What he got were two shocked expressions. John and Rodney looked at each other, seeming a lot more worried than any of their previous pranks should have warranted.

"You're not planning on bombarding the returning expedition with water balloons?" he asked, confused.

"Balloons? No...." Rodney's worried look gave way to a grin. "Ohh, that's good. Well, not so much given that the gateroom did flood, that one time. Wouldn't want them to think they'd come back to the wrong reality and everyone was drowning. But I like the way you think."

"Actually, we were-- should we show him?" John asked Rodney.

"I think it'd be easier." Rodney walked forward and took Carson by the arm.

"What are you doing?" Carson didn't fight him off, but he wasn't fully convinced he wanted to go with them, either.

"Showing you," Rodney said.

Carson let them haul him out of his lab and down the hallway. Neither John nor Rodney seemed willing to explain further, apparently thinking that showing him what they'd done would explain everything. They took him down the hallway and turned left at the intersection, heading towards the science labs.

They'd done something in Rodney's lab, then, and Carson guessed it had something to do with adding to John's list.

But they made another turn before then, and Carson consulted the map Murdoc gave him. There was nothing down this way but several of the scientists' quarters, and, further along, the pronan balconies. If Rodney and John were thinking of holding a celebration at sunset, this would make a bit of sense.

They walked past all the occupied quarters and made another turn. There was nothing down this way but empty rooms. At the end of the hallway was a transporter, but otherwise it was just a dead end. John and Rodney stopped in front of a door almost all the way down the hall, and Carson looked at the blueprints.

His mouth dropped open.

"Damn, you looked!" John said, pouting.

"It's..." The door slid open and they tugged him inside. Carson went, stumbling slightly. The room matched the blueprint exactly -- no surprise there, but he still wasn't sure he believed his eyes. The quarters along this hallway were for families, each of them with two, three, even four bedrooms. This one had three, as well as the front living area and a large, private balcony. There were large windows in one of the bedrooms -- he could see through the open door, part of one window. There was blue sky and sunshine streaming in.

He looked around and noticed two things right away. The first was that Rodney and John had already moved all their things in. The second was that they had moved *his* things in, as well.

"We were going to ask first," John began.

Rodney jumped in. "Then I decided that it would be more fun to simply do all the work ourselves so you'd feel obligated to give us both back rubs as a reward for our hard labour."

"We...live here?" Carson turned around, slowly. There wasn't much by way of personal effects filing up the place; it looked quite bare, in fact. Smaller quarters would have felt more homey, but with three people sharing space....

He turned to them. John and Rodney were grinning again, and John was practically bouncing on his toes.

"You like it? We picked it out a few days ago. Seemed to be the best one down here and it's close enough to the transporter that it doesn't matter that it's a bit farther away from everything." John was giving him a look that Carson had mentally dubbed the happy-puppy look.

"We...all three of us?" He'd expected a long, heartfelt discussion about matters. Perhaps even arguing, and saying very difficult things about not wanting to split anyone up but not being able to go on as before.

Instead they'd just moved, and everything was settled.

"Well..unless you don't want to?" Rodney sounded surprised at the idea.

"Oh, I do. I very much do." Carson looked around the room again, a bit surprised at how easy it was to say so.

"Come on and see the rest!" John bounced forward and took Carson by the arm again. "And no fair looking, this time." John gestured at his head, and Carson happily removed the map from the display.

He let John drag him from the living room and through the entire apartment. Kitchenette, tiny but serviceable eating area. One room already taken over as Rodney's office, the other more or less empty but for a few bits of furniture. John said it was his to do with, or they could share. Carson didn't know that he needed office space in his home as well, but simply nodded and let John drag him to the next room. The bedroom had a large bed right in the center of one wall and to the side were the huge windows he'd seen before. The door to the balcony opened out from that room, and Carson let himself be pulled outside.

"Isn't this great?" Rodney asked, taking a deep breath. "All that fine salty air and cold wind, which is really perfect for someone with sensitive lungs but other people, I'm told, don't care so much about one person's comfort as long as the view is good."

He was grinning, so Carson took the faux-complaint as intended. "It's lovely," he agreed. "Reminds me--" He stopped, then forced himself to say, "Reminds me a bit of home."

"Well, it is home," Rodney said in a blithe tone. "Not that you aren't welcome to rearrange your stuff, but may I remind you that some of us already did the heavy lifting and are still waiting for our backrubs."

"Rodney, none of us owns anything heavy to have been moved," Carson reminded him.

Rodney frowned. "Yes, well, but we still packed up everything and moved it. I think I pulled a muscle somewhere." He felt around his shoulder as if looking for the source of pain.

"I'll prescribe you a painkiller," Carson told him, unable to stop his sudden grin. Rodney pouted, so Carson just kissed him.

"Oh. Is that the painkiller? Because it might be working." Rodney looked thoughtful. "I think the dosage is too low."

"Do you, now?" Carson leaned in and kissed him again. When he finally let Rodney go, Rodney had a rather sappy smile on his face.

On his other side, John cleared his throat. When Carson looked over, John rubbed his own shoulder. "Ow?"

"Yes, all right," Carson said, and gave him two kisses of his own. He got an equally sappy grin on his face.

"See? I told you," Rodney said.

"All right, you win." John shook his head. He said to Carson, "I said you might want to be in on picking out the place."

Glancing over his shoulder, Carson shook his head. "No, it's perfect." The location really was excellent -- the transporter only a few moments' walk away, and the labs not far in case one felt like walking. The space was definitely welcome, although, "There's one next door a bit smaller, only two bedrooms; this one doesn't seem like too much space?" He couldn't imagine what they'd even use the third room for.

Rodney and John grew still, wearing matching expressions of innocence and guilelessness. "No, we liked this one," John said.

"What are you up to?" Carson asked, looking at each of them closely.

Rodney glanced at his watch. "Hey, look, we have just enough time to break in the bed before Weir comes back."

"What are you two up to?" Carson repeated, even as he let them pull him back inside, towards the bed.

"Um, having sex? I know we're not naked, yet, but give us two seconds." Rodney demonstrated by taking off his shirt.

"What are you two up to?" Carson repeated. He didn't stop John from pulling his own shirt off, though neither did he help when John began undoing his trousers.

"Rodney, John, what are you up to?"

Rodney was naked but for his underwear, now, and John was rapidly catching up. Carson ignored the fact that *he* was fully naked and being nudged towards the bed by Rodney.

"We're trying to have sex, but if it's going to be this much trouble, I don't think we'll bother." Rodney pushed him down onto the mattress and Carson rolled over onto his back. Rodney belied his words by lying down on top of him and kissing him, hands going right to his groin as though the foreplay had been waking him up that morning.

Which it probably had been.

"You know bloody well what I'm talking about," Carson said, getting only a few words out at a time. Talking became more difficult when Rodney and John started taking turns kissing him -- not to mention the fact it was getting more difficult to think. John was doing something to Rodney to make him moan in a very lovely way.

"Did you want us to talk you through it?" John asked. "Right now, Rodney's got his hand on your cock. I'm playing with Rodney's ass. Pretty soon someone is going to be shouting."

He ought to concede defeat and let them get on with it. But Carson frowned at John. "If you think that distracting me will make me forget you two are up to something--" His head fell back and he swallowed a shout.

Christ, but a man ought to give warning before sticking his fingers up there. He tried to refocus on what he'd been saying, but Rodney -- or John, or maybe...oh yes, that was definitely the both of them. He made a very undignified whimpering sound and saw John smirk.

"Don't think this gets you out of answering," Carson managed.

"So you want us to stop?" John asked.

Carson lifted his head. "If you stop, I will go back to asking you what you've done, doing, or plan to do that you refuse to tell me about."

Rodney and John looked at each other. They debated silently, with head motions and shoulder shrugs. They left their fingers where they were, though, so Carson didn't have to yell at them. Not yet.

Well, then, it wasn't like his own hands were broken, were they? Carson reached over and ran a fingernail very, very lightly down the shaft of John's cock.

"Jesus Christ!" John leapt practically off the bed. He was right back at Carson's side, though, kissing him like swallowing Carson's tongue was the only way to save the city from certain disaster. Rodney was muttering something in that distracted, turned on beyond belief way he had and Carson reached out with one leg and wrapped it around Rodney's waist.

"Right, right," Rodney said, and he shifted around. Carson was hoping for a fucking, but didn't feel the need to argue when Rodney leaned down and put his mouth on Carson's cock.

For several moments everything was going perfectly well and Carson thought that maybe Rodney and John really did deserve backrubs, later. Not that he'd have denied them had they simply asked. But--

"John! Oh my god, look!" Rodney was sitting up, his hand on Carson's no-longer-being-sucked cock.

Well, so, they'd finally found it. Carson sighed and didn't object when John stopped what he was doing and scooted down to look.

"Why aren't you wearing the piercing?" John asked, after several long seconds of silence.

"I didn't want to explain it, now, did I?" Carson raised his head to stare at them. He swallowed as Rodney fingered him right where the piercing hole was.

"To who?" John asked, looking confused.

Carson raised an eyebrow. "Alien city, faraway galaxy, aliens and accidents and how many times have I stripped *you* down to get you into a pair of hospital pajamas?"

John looked abashed; Rodney grinned. "I thought you let the nurses do that."

"Yes, well, they're the ones I didn't need knowing I had a piercing, aren't they? The first time anyone inserted a catheter, everyone in the bloody infirmary would know."

Rodney made a face. "Can we not talk about catheters when we're in the middle of sex?"

"*You're* the one who stopped and who brought up the matter in the first place," Carson pointed out.

"You don't like the idea of having something shoved up your--" John began.

"Ow! OW!" Rodney whipped his hands down to cover himself. "Can we *please* not completely kill the mood, here?"

John laughed and waggled his eyebrows.

"Oh do NOT tell me you're that kinky," Rodney told him.

"Did I say anything?" John asked in a tone of innocence.

"You didn't have to. You had that look like you wanted to expand my boundaries and trick me into deciding it would be a good idea. But no one is putting anything *inside* my penis, thank you very much."

John held up his hands in surrender. "I suppose I'll just keep after you to let me tie up your--"

"Are we done now? I have work I could be doing." Rodney gestured towards the room he'd made into an office.

Carson pushed himself up onto his elbows. "What, Rodney, you don't care to have a bit of leather and--"

"That's it." Rodney stood up and stepped away from the bed. "When you two are through talking about exceedingly unarousing things, I'll be back. Until then, I'm going to go work on some equations."

John laughed; Carson looked at him. "I *have* a bit of leather we could use."

John's eyes went wide and he choked back his laugh. "You...oh yeah? I didn't see it when we packed up your stuff...unless...that small belt?"

Carson nodded. "I don't know where you've put it, of course." He looked around the room, wondering which drawers were his, anyway.

"You're just doing this to see if I'm serious about leaving," Rodney said.

"No, no," John said, waving a hand as he headed for the closet. "Go. We'll scream when we're done."

"And before," Carson said.

Rodney didn't look amused. "You're joking. You don't really...oh, damn."

John and Carson both looked at him. Rodney nodded towards the small clock on the dresser.

Weir and the rest of the team were due back in ten minutes.

John dropped the belt, and leapt back onto the bed. "Just enough time to get rid of these before we embarrass ourselves." Then he slipped his mouth onto Carson's cock, and Carson realised he really *had* forgot to find out what the two of them had been up to.

**********