Fic: How Not to Fly

[toomuchplor]

Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: NC-17
Length: 56 731 words

Summary:

And then the door chimed, and Woolsey came in looking mournful and anxious, and everything got derailed.

Death and life, hope and hopelessness, aren't just for the Pegasus galaxy.  Eventually, inevitably, it's going to happen on Earth.  John and Rodney, loss and family and what it means to be home.

Warning: Death of a minor canon character in a way integral to the plot; deals with bereavement and loss suffered by a major character.  No major characters die in this story, however.

How Not to Fly (on AO3)

How Not to Fly (on my site)

Comments

[wanted_a_pony]

Thank you for this, very much. Thank you for Nora & PJ, & the Rodney & "Yooj" they bring out. Thank you for showing the tragedy so honestly, with details so true & vivid I suspect you've done a hospital vigil or two. Thank you for taking the path of resistance & struggle, that left me guessing about where they'd end up & with whom, rather than the feel-good route. Thank you for stopping at a convenient point with some ends still loose, rather than wrapping up the story, because RL keeps going after the last page. Thanks for sharing all this with us!

[toomuchplor]

Thank you for showing the tragedy so honestly, with details so true & vivid I suspect you've done a hospital vigil or two.

Happily, most of my hospital vigils (firsthand) have been of the happy waiting-for-new-baby variety but I had a young relative with a severe brain injury while he was living abroad, and it was probably that experience (and my family's agony being so far away) that informed most of the Dave Sheppard arc. (My relative made a truly astonishing recovery against all odds, thank god.)

Thank you for stopping at a convenient point with some ends still loose, rather than wrapping up the story, because RL keeps going after the last page

This is great to hear! It wasn't possible for me (IMO, anyway) to create a 100% stable happy ending when so very much was on the line for John, Rodney, and the kids. (I do, however, have a couple of coda fics yet to be posted that may help wrap up a few loose ends anyway!)

Thank you for reading and commenting.