SGA fic: Breathe You Deep

[hth]

Breathe You Deep
by Hth

109k
various pairings
it's gen, it's het, it's slash, it's a floor wax!
Summary: Cold and flu season, like many other things, sucks more in space.
Warnings: A for Angst. The astute reader will notice that I hardly ever warn for angst, and might then imagine I mean rather a *lot* of angst. That's your warning. All sales final.

Special thanks to cesperanza for beta ("You're at about an eight, and I need you at about a four...") and as per usual to marythefan for encouragement and general evil ("What, you think I'm going to tell you *not* to do it?")

"You’re standing here telling us that half the galaxy, not to mention our friends, could fall over dead by Christmas, and you’re bringing us what, exactly, to deal with this problem? Amoxicillin and chicken soup?"

Comments

[astolat]

:'(

[livrelibre.livejournal.com]

Ah, you've given me a nasty case of the sniffles; I must now retire to bed, wrap up in my blanket and hope I'm not dead of it by morning. But seriously, characterization was spot-on as usual and that's what made it tragic (more than just the usual suckiness of life in the Pegasus galaxy and any other); being who they were split them apart or brought them together even at the last moment.

[brownbetty]

It is like a floorwax! Like a floorwax that makes me cry my way through an entire roll of toilet-paper, stupid floor wax.

I want to say, “Stop being so true and honest, it hurts!” but I don't mean it.

[sage]

oh jeez. This was brilliant and agonizing and so well done. I adore how all the usual pairings are turned upside down, and the way you write Laura -- if I could pick anyone to save the galaxy in the wake of this, it would be her. And John. And Rodney. (And hi, you even made me respect Caldwell -- that's miraculous!) This was amazing.

*adores*

[tingler.livejournal.com]

Well, now I guess we know what happens when Hth ships John and Teyla.

Hell? Meet Handbasket.

BeJEEsus!

I had to print this out to read because I had to go sit with my daughter's tummy ache and there was weirdness with the printing and I was starting to think I didn't get it all and then you KILLED RONON!! and I was starting to figure out that it wasn't all going to get fixed--in fact it wasn't even going to get a *little* bit fixed and and I think I kind of hate you a little bit right now. Umm, sorry? But you've got to sort of expect some pretty visceral reactions after you KILL RONON and RIP JOHN'S ALREADY MESSED UP HEART OUT OF HIS CHEST and oh, by the way, SHRED RODNEY'S HEART while you're at it!!!! and do it all so fucking beautifully.

::we pause this rant for a moment while tingler gets the Kleenex)::

Okay, I'm better. I do still love you. It just hurt a little too good there for a minute. It wouldn't be so bad if you weren't able to get so far under my skin. Everything was just a little too real, y'know? Elizabeth's discomfort around Caldwell and her *getting it*, what it was really going to be like, so quickly, Rodney's refusal to go see Ronon, then risking his very life by bringing John OJ, Carson and Cadman, Teyla's breakout and oh, God, the last thing she says to John...

'scuse me, I've got to go wrap some duct tape around my heart.

[palebluebell.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh dear me. That was just so very difficult to read, entirely too plausible - everything just far to real and sad and wrenching. So well done.

[not-sally.livejournal.com]

You really ought to warn it's a death-fic, despite your usual lack of warnings. It's not fair to the reader, otherwise.

[northern]

Oh my fucking god... I'm at work, and I'm almost crying. I hope noone asks me why.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Let me just stop sniffing.

Pandemic risk is one of the many things which I can just imagine the Atlantis expedition blithely ignoring, along with ethics, common sense and political nous. The way you've taken it and turned it into such a heartbreaking story is amazing. John's belief that he is a comfort to Teyla; Elizabeth's belief that they should stay, regardless of consequences; Teyla's reaction to the quarantine; Rodney's initial reaction to Ronon's illness - all these things made perfect sense to me, even where I think they're stupid. Amazing and painful.

[scififreak.livejournal.com]

Wow, this packs a punch. But it's a perfectly done punch in that 'why the hell hasn't this been done before' way, because it's sooo very obvious that this sort of thing would be bound to happen. Esp if they knew anything about history. They may not be handing out diseased blankets, but their prescence is enough. And the John/Teyla situation was heartbreakingly perfect. Especially how it ended. Because of course she would never forgive him for keeping her from her people, no matter how....hmm. I don't know what to call his intentions. Noble, romantic, selfish...yes. To all of them. But point being, it felt so true to the characters. And Ronon/Rodney...*sobs* Okay, this post is all rambly now. Stopping. Going to bed. an hour and a half late. *sigh*

[anatolia1.livejournal.com]

This was painful and sharp and so real it makes you hurt. I could really see something like this happening although if it happened on the tv screen it wouldn't be as honest...there would be a last minute cure. Thank you for sharing.

[opprobrium.livejournal.com]

Crap. This is so wonderfully terrible that I can hardly dwell on it. I want to thank you for not making it a happy ending, but it's tough! On some level, you're very brave for writing this. Were I in your shoes, they would have all lived happily ever after. And it would have sucked. You're the Peter Carey of the SGA fandom.

[severusslave.livejournal.com]

Damn, woman! I'm bawling here. ;_; I'm... I'm, wow, this story was so sad.

My throat hurts, *sniff*. Damn God, Ronon. Damn God.

[miaruma.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Flu. Something that should be explored way more in SG-Fandoms *sigh*. Or Pegagus-People with allergies against "our" medicine or something.

But you killed RONON, oh man. *sniffle* At least it happens at the end of the fic, and not at the beginning.
Fabulous writing as always ^^.

[anitac588.livejournal.com]

Very plausible idea, this pandemic. I really liked John and Rodney's friendship, it was nice to read about that for a change and how they'd handle each other's tough situation. Teyla... gah, she did rip John's heart out, didn't she?

[ladyagnew.livejournal.com]

"I brought you," she said darkly. "You took us from our world, the place of all our mothers and fathers. You shuttle us back and forth like children to be hidden under the bed when bandits raid. You do not know us, and our young people wish to know when they will be old enough to take up your weapons and serve under you. You have changed every aspect of our way of life, and I have urged my people, again and again, to let you do so. I have told them it was necessary for our survival, that they must let go of our past and look to Atlantis as our future. This is the future Atlantis has wrought for us. I will not turn away from my mistakes to save myself."

ah. The whole story is lovely, and Ronon's eyes glowing with joy at Rodney finally gathering his courage to see him? so many happies at that. So. Many. But the above paragraph? Something that I'll never get from the show and which I always wanted. The Athosians are given safe harbor and coddled, but there's not a true partnership between the Atlantians and them -- they're even cut off from the 'gate on the mainland, unable to leave or go of their own free will, given no real position of authority on Atlantis' ruling council, deprived even of their leader, though true, it's of Teyla's own choice. It mirrors the imperialistc colonial relationships of old so fucking well it's not even funny. Less brutality but just as much of a power differential. I love Teyla for saying these words, because if she tore her people from their place in the world for the possibility of fighting the Wraith -- of defeating the Wraith -- and all she received was this ugly, painful, useless death for her people? These would be her words.

[kellifer-fic.livejournal.com]

Wow and ow... my heart hurts just reading this...

But so achingly lovely.

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

I have been assuming all along that the Stargate has to filter out flu, measles, etc., otherwise this would be the basic story of everyone's life in the Gateverse. Good on you to spot that hyperdrive ships would be the spanner in the works.

The only characterization point I can't buy is Rodney not visiting Ronon for so long, because we've seen Rodney do the can't-keep-away pace right after they get back through the gate in "38 Minutes".

Now that you've RIPPED MY HEART OUT AND JUMPED UP AND DOWN ON THE BLOODY BITS, you need to write Rodney/Ronon sexx0rs and lots of it.

[lalejandra.livejournal.com]

Oh wow. I just -- that's very powerful stuff. Overwhelming.

[rosawestphalen.livejournal.com]

I want to say so many things to you about this story but words (and time) fail me at this very moment.
So I'll start with poignant, rich, and brilliantly devastating and come back to longer, more articulate comment later today.

[korestemenos.livejournal.com]

Gosh, that was so sad, and so spot-on character-wise. It's brought me to tears and I'm not at all sorry.

[amalthia]

not sure if this is great news or not but your story made me cry, which doesn't happen often when I read fiction.

[kalikahuntress.livejournal.com]

Beautiful and moving piece, thanks for sharing:)

[diluvian.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaigh!

Oh, that was good. Hurty, but well done.

[stungunbilly.livejournal.com]

Okay, you killed my boy.
AND you made the Miracle story into a precursor to HEARTBREAK. I can't even hope that John and Rodney would get together, because they are HOLLOW SHELLS. AARRGH!
But, where the hell have the plague stories BEEN? So, yes. Colonial bullshit needs an occasional wakeup call, it does. And it would suck, it would have to suck. I really liked the way you handled Elizabeth, too.
Beautiful writing, lovely and vicious and inevitable as the perfect form of a virus.

(ignore the following, it's whiny)
Now can we have a sexy one where Ronon rescues Rodney from space pirates, please? And gets everything his big beautiful heart desires?
::sniff::