Cartography by Touch and History of Maps (rageprufrock) (M)

[mific.livejournal.com]

Show: SGA

Rec Category: Kate Heightmeyer (as therapist)
Characters: Kate Heightmeyer, John Sheppard, Rodney McKay
Pairings: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Categories: slash
Warnings: deals with tough subject matter related to rape, in the contenxt of a gradual uncovering in therapy.
Author on LJ: rageprufrock
Author's Website: See the AO3
Link: Cartography by Touch on AO3

Why This Must Be Read: This is a seriously great set of stories about John going through psychotherapy, as Kate helps him manage his defenses and gradually deal with a mission-related trauma that he's suppressing and denying, all the while trying to navigate his relationship with Rodney. This is honestly one of the best depictions of psychotherapy I've ever read, anywhere, and the metaphors for Sheppard's healing process are powerful.
Also, there's a companion-story with Rodney's POV: History of Maps, so I'm reccing them as a set.


Heightmeyer asks John what it was like to come home. She doesn't want to talk about his feelings about coming through that wormhole, with Ronon cradling him like a broken child or how Rodney had come down the steps from the control room, eyes huge like the ocean. She asks about Beckett and the infirmary.

"I gained an appreciation for my ex-girlfriends," John tells her, because he has always been good at talking around the truth.

Heightmeyer raises an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah. Stirrups, cold instruments, clumsy, Scottish hands," John says, and his voice is flat. There's a flash of heat in his chest. "Greasy, greasy cold KY."

"If you think you're going to gross me out," Heightmeyer says, "you're very much mistaken."

"You know the song and dance," John acquiesces.

"Not exactly the same steps," she answers, voice softer. "What did you do after the exam?"

Beckett had sent in two nurses--small, birdlike women, with blond and red hair who had looked at him with luminous and huge eyes--to clean him up.

"I took a shower," John says. "For--a long time."