New SGA Fic: In The Blink of An Eye
Title: In The Blink of An Eye
Author: katstale
Words: 17520
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Rodney volunteers John to assist the locals in order to gain access to an Ancient structure. Unfortunately, things don't go quite according to plan. (ShepWhump, RodneyWump, All-around Angst)
Notes: First and foremost, I must apologize to everybetty for the long delay in posting this. I am SO very, very sorry for the long delay. I can only hope you find it was worth the wait. Second, this was written for the sheps_atlantis ficathon. The prompt was for "ShepWhump... ShepWh- errr, I mean, infirmary scene (with Carson, natch), humor interspersed amongst the whumpage." everybetty, if this doesn't meet your expectations, I'll be happy to try it again after NaNoWriMo in December. :)
In The Blink of An Eye
Rodney bustled into the long-abandoned room filled with dormant Ancient equipment. Rubbing his hands together gleefully, he headed for the console in the center of the room.
"Rodney, should we not wait with Ronon for John to finish this...testing flight? What if he needs your assistance to land successfully?" Teyla was right behind him, a worried look gracing her features.
McKay waved her off, unmoved by her concern. "Oh please. Sheppard has Conan out there to hold his hand once he gets back on the ground--he doesn't need me, too. And if by some astronomically, infinitesimally small chance he does need my help? Well, that's what radios are for." Gracing her with a smug, know-it-all look, he tapped the device in his vest pocket.
Having said his piece, he set about brushing the dust from the surface of the unit and powering up the station. Taking his laptop out of his pack, he quickly had it hooked up to the main console and then set about checking over the smaller control panels dotted about the small room's walls. After ensuring that all were functioning, he headed back to inspect the data scrolling down the screen of his laptop, humming a nameless tune as he worked.
Satisfied with the data it displayed, he pulled out his LSD and checked for energy signatures. His eyes widened as his grin morphed into the Cheshire Cat's twin. "Bingo! We have here, ladies and gentlemen..." His tone and expression smug, he walked over to the far wall and waved a hand over the panel, which opened to reveal a round orange glowing disk. He pressed the disk which rose to reveal a very familiar object. Pointing to it, his smug expression still in place, he continued his commentary. "One fully functional and over half-charged ZPM. Exactly as I predicted, I might add."
Before Teyla could respond, Ronon's voice sounded over their radios. "Sheppard's coming back now. So far, so good."
Rodney was the first to reply. "Good. Once he's back on the ground, tell him to get his skinny ass down here--we've darn near hit the mother lode for a change."
"Tell him yourself; I'll let you know when he's down." Ronon cut the transmission without signing off, but it was plain that he considered the conversation over.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," mumbled McKay, reaching for the energy module. To his surprise, the glowing tube suddenly retraced and closed. Frowning, he waved his hand over it to raise it, but nothing happened.
He started over to his laptop at the main console when a nervous-sounding Teyla called out to him. "Rodney, I believe you should come look at this screen right away," she said, pointing to her left.
He'd barely made it two steps when a low hum began to build. He froze for an instant, a look of horror crossing his face. "Oh no! Nononono." He all but flew the rest of the way to the console and began frantically manipulating controls.
"Rodney?"
Teyla sounded even more nervous and wary, but the scientist had no time for explanations. "Working here!"
The humming intensified, gaining both volume and pitch as it continued to build, and Rodney cursed at the machine in front of him. "Come on, come on, disengage already!"
His hands stilled suddenly as the noise died out. The screen in front of him flashed a message in Ancient, casting an eerie glow over his features. He stared in disbelief at the words, ignoring Ronon's frantic voice in his ear telling him what he already knew. Swallowing hard, his eyes still wide with shock, he turned to Teyla. "Oh God. I just killed Sheppard."
~~A~~
John couldn't stop grinning as the Mallarian version of an airplane skimmed the treetops before again climbing to cruise above them. He had to admit, the craft did seem to be sturdy and well-engineered, despite their inexperience. Whether or not he was going to admit to Rodney that the scientist had been right about that remained to be seen.
"Sheppard?" Ronon's anxious voice sounded over the radio in his ear.
The pilot chuckled, keying his own mike. "I'm still fine, Ronon. You gonna stop radioing every time the wind changes, buddy. People will talk," he kidded.
"So?" Dex was apparently not in a joking mood.
"Just stay off the radio let me concentrate on flying the damn plane, will ya?"
"I thought this plane didn't respond to thoughts like the Ancestors' ships."
Caught in another downdraft, Sheppard fought for control as he ground out his answer. "It doesn't, which is why I need to concentrate on what I'm doing here. Now if you don't mind..." He finally managed to bring the craft back under control and returned to his previous altitude. "Maintain radio silence unless McKay or Teyla run into trouble. That's an order, by the way, so don't call me again just because I hit another rough spot. Sheppard out."
Expertly guiding the plane through the alien sky, his thoughts turned to his predecessors and their unfortunate demises. He supposed they should offer to set up some sort of flight training program for future prospective Mallarian pilots, as they would definitely need some help in learning how to deal with the constantly-changing wind conditions here.
Another rough spot drew him out of his thoughts. The slight dip in altitude was immediately followed by a familiar voice in his ear. "Sheppard?"
Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he couldn't help the exasperation that laced his reply. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to call me every time I hit some turbulence, buddy?"
"Huh?"
"Never mind, I'll explain later. I'm fine, the plane is fine, everything is fine. Okay?"
John could see Ronon's shrug in his mind as he answered. "Okay."
"Now as much as I'm enjoying our little chats here, I really need to get back to flying this thing. Sheppard out."
There was only a moment of silence before the Satedan's next call. "Sheppard?"
"What?" snapped the pilot.
"Lazzon says that's good and wants you head back to the landing site."
John shook his head. "This why you called in the first place, isn't it? You should have said something."
"Just did."
"That you did." John didn't feel like wasting anymore breath on arguing with the Satedan. "I'll see you back at the runway in ten. And check in with Rodney and see how he and Teyla are doing, will ya? Sheppard out."
The next few minutes were uneventful and John was able to just relax and enjoy the flight. He'd never get tired of flying, be it soaring through the clouds and sky on Earth or some alien planet where he was taking in the sights from the sky that no human had ever seen before.
His reverie was rudely interrupted by a bright flash of light from the ground below and he instinctively turned the plane in an attempt to avoid it. "What the..." Before he could even complete the thought, the plane shuddered violently as the bright pulse struck the aircraft. John fought to maintain altitude and speed, but the engines had already begun to sputter and the controls had become suddenly sluggish.
Knowing he'd never make it back to the landing site, Sheppard quickly scoured the nearby terrain for a place to put down. To his left, there was a small meadow that appeared to be his only hope. Everything else as far as he could see was trees, trees, and more trees. The engines gave a final gasp and died for good as he struggled to turn the plane toward the meadow.
Without power, there was no way for John to maintain his altitude and the aircraft dropped like a rock. He fought the controls, trying to get every bit of air he could in the hope of buying enough time to make it to the meadow.
The trees grew ever closer and it quickly became apparent that there was no way he was going to stay up long enough to attempt a landing. Praying that the parachute he'd been given was as efficient at the plane had been, he unbuckled his seatbelt and prepared to climb out.
John placed one foot on the seat and pushed off, expecting to find himself clear of the plane. To his unpleasant surprise, however, he went nowhere. Looking down, he found his other foot was wedged tightly between something protruding through the floorboard and the pedals. Cursing, he reached down to pull it free, but the boot remained stubbornly wedged in place. Knowing his time was running short, he jerked his foot hard, but again, it remained trapped. Desperate, he reached down and struggled to free himself.
Precious minutes passed as he tugged and pulled, costing him any chance at parachuting to safety. The plane skimmed the tops of the trees, the uppermost branches tearing at the underbelly of the aircraft as it gained speed during the uncontrolled descent. John knew there was no way to stop or even slow it to any degree, and that meant there was no way he'd survive if he stayed in the aircraft all the way down. At last, his foot came free and, offering up a quick prayer to whatever god might be listening, he took a deep breath and leapt from the plane.
~~A~~
"Ronon, put him down!" Teyla's eyes were flashing with anger. "He is a valued member of our team."
Dex continued to hold McKay against the tree, his arm across the scientist's windpipe cutting off his air supply. "He killed Sheppard. That means he dies, too," ground out the angry Satedan.
Rodney continued to struggle, pulling at the strong arms pinning him to the tree. "He's right. I deserve it." The scientist's voice was barely a whisper as he forced out the words in a sickly-sounding wheeze.
"It was an accident," insisted the Athosian. "And Colonel Sheppard will not be pleased when he hears of your behavior."
"Dead men can't hear." Dex was still holding McKay, his lips drawn up in a snarl.
"And what if he is merely injured and not dead? You are wasting valuable time with this childish vendetta--time that John may well be sorely in need of. Now let him go, Ronon."
Knowing Teyla was right, the Satedan let out a roar of frustration and abruptly dropped McKay, who promptly collapsed in a heap on the ground. He stood over the gasping scientist, glaring down at him. "We find Sheppard dead, then I finish what I started."
Rodney nodded in agreement, incapable of speech for the moment, and waved him away. Dex stalked off, stopping only long enough to tower over his female teammate and stare down menacingly down at her. "I take point. You want him breathing, you keep him away from me."
Teyla rolled her eyes and moved over to assist McKay in getting to his feet. Once he was upright, he waved her off, wheezing out his gratitude. "Thanks."
She nodded, prodding him to start moving. "I will cover our six," she informed him, her tone brooking no argument. "Ronon said that Lazzon was quite upset over the loss of yet another aircraft. It is quite likely he will send someone to find us."
Still rubbing his abused throat, McKay nodded and stumbled off after Ronon. He hadn't needed the reminder that he'd not only killed Sheppard, he'd also put the lives of his teammates in danger. Although with Ronon in his current mood, maybe not so much him. As pissed as the Big Guy was, he could probably stop anything they could throw--or fire--at him with one of those death-glares he was so good at. He could see it now. Bullets stopping in mid-air and dropping to the ground in a heap of melted metal. Bolts of energy would fizzle out with a whimper, all under the Satedan's withering glare. And all because of Rodney's own stupid greed.
Branches clipped him in the face and neck as they set a brisk pace through the dense brush, but McKay felt none of it. There was only one thing that mattered to him now: Sheppard was dead and it was completely and totally his, Meredith Rodney McKay's, fault. How had everything gone so wrong so damn fast anyway? For that matter, why had he ever talked Sheppard into flying the stupid plane in the first place?
Over and over the events leading up to the most spectacularly FUBARed mission he'd ever had the misfortune to undertake played out in his mind. They'd come to P9G-502 because of an energy signature that Reaves' team had picked up while on a trading mission. Reaves and his team were negotiators, not scientists, and though they could take readings, it was up to others to go back and investigate when those readings turned up anything interesting. Like energy signatures that indicated a planet might well have a working ZPM--which of course Rodney immediately volunteered his team to investigate.
The people of P9G-502, otherwise known as the Mallarians, were more advanced than most societies they'd encountered since coming to Pegasus. They had a long way to go before they would even come close to matching the Genii, though. Still, they had electricity and were extremely close to achieving air travel. That had piqued Sheppard's interest enough that he had immediately agreed to the mission, much to McKay's delight.
They'd hit a snag almost immediately upon their arrival. The energy readings were located in a highly-restricted area and the ruling council was dragging their feet about granting permission to investigate it. Something about religious rituals and procedures needing to be followed. Rodney had pretty much stopped listening after the word "no" though, so he had missed most of the details.
Sheppard and Ronon had been whisked off to tour the Mallarian equivalent of a military base while Rodney and Teyla were shown their scientific research division, including their fledgling test flight facility.
So when the tours were over and the council reconvened, he had offered to help them get their struggling aviation program off the ground in return for access to the site where the energy signature originated. And voila, suddenly the religious objections were all but forgotten. Well okay, so he'd had to include volunteering Sheppard as test pilot to seal the deal, but the man was always insisting he could fly anything so Rodney hadn't seen any problem with it. He'd seen the plans as well as the reports on the first three unsuccessful attempts, so he knew the craft was sound.
"Rodney!" Sheppard leaned toward him, speaking out of the side of his mouth while still smiling inanely at the council members. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
McKay rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I've seen all the data. This should be a piece of cake for you. And come on, what pilot worth their salt wouldn't want to be in on an alien version of Kittyhawk? You'll be famous."
The colonel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the far corner of the room, all the while smiling at the council members with that grin of his that for whatever reason seemed to turn every member of the opposite sex that he met into a gushing pile of goo. "If you'll just excuse us for a moment..."
The moment his back was to the council, however, Sheppard's smile disappeared. "Are you trying to get me killed here--again--or what? They've already crashed three prototypes and not one of those pilots has lived to tell about it!"
"Give me some credit, Colonel HotShot. I've seen the schematics for the plane and read the reports on all three of the crashes. The design is sound. Every single one of those crashes was caused by pilot error."
"So they say. But how do we know for sure the reports are accurate? Could be they're trying to cover up the fact that the crashes were caused by shoddy workmanship or defective materials or any number of other things--or am I the only one who thought of that?"
Rodney folded his arms across his chest, bristling at the accusation. "No, you are not the only one who thought of that. Which is why I insisted on inspecting the plane and the construction site. I also took some atmospheric readings. And lo and behold, I discovered that this planet has some rather unusual and unpredictable wind patterns. Changes can be sudden and sometimes drastic, which shouldn't be any problem for an experienced pilot like yourself. However for an amateur who's never flown before and without the benefit of an experienced teacher..."
"Yeah, yeah, okay. I get the picture." Sheppard paused and Rodney could see him thinking the situation through. "You're sure that the plane is sound? No chance that those crashes were due to anything other than pilot error?"
"Reasonably certain, yes. I'm as sure as I can be, at any rate." The scowl on Rodney's face deepened. "Look, I know you're still having some trust issues after Doranda, but I swear to you, I would never, ever suggest this if I thought there was even the slightest chance that that plane was unsafe."
"Not even if it meant getting your hands on a ZPM?" challenged the colonel.
Rodney felt like he'd been slapped. "Fine, I suppose I might have deserved that one. But I'd like to state for the record here that no, there is no way I'd ask or suggest you risk your life, not even if it meant getting my hands on a ZPM, as you so eloquently put it."
So in the end, Sheppard had trusted Rodney's judgment and agreed to fly the plane. And because of that, because Rodney just *had* to check out that energy signature sooner rather than later, Sheppard was dead. And Rodney had killed him.
He came to an abrupt halt, running smack dab into the middle of Ronon's back. He'd been so lost in thought, he hadn't seen the Satedan stop and give the signal to do likewise. So true to the laws of physics, he immediately bounced off the immovable object and hit the ground hard, landing square on his backside. The big man glared at him, prompting Rodney to swallow hard, but Ronon said nothing and simply waited for Teyla to catch up before explaining.
Like the Satedan, she was barely winded when she pulled up next to them. She stopped only long enough to pull Rodney to his feet before demanding answers. "What is it?"
Ronon's expression was grave as he turned to her, pointing in the opposite direction. "There."
Rodney looked past the mountain of a man to the terrain beyond. And there in a small meadow, he saw the smoldering remains of the airplane Sheppard had been flying. Until Rodney had shot him down, at least. A rock formed in the pit of his stomach as he surveyed the scattered wreckage, much of it still burning. How the hell could anyone have survived something like that?
He was startled out of his thoughts when Ronon suddenly grabbed him by the vest and pulled him close, glaring down at him. "You better pray we find him alive, little man. Now come on. And stay behind me."
~~A~~
Awareness returned slowly. At first John thought it was dark out, but then he realized that his eyes were closed and stubbornly refusing all attempts to open them. His head ached abominably, as did most of his torso and three of his four limbs.
He tried moving his fingers first, groaning as pain shot up his right arm and shoulder with the movement. His left arm seemed to be the least painful part of his body, so he again wiggled the fingers. This time they did more than merely twitch and he closed his hand into a fist.
The next step was attempting to raise the arm, bending it at the elbow. After several failures, he finally persuaded his hand to move up to touch his throbbing forehead. He knew the wet stickiness he found there was blood, even without seeing it. He tried again to force his eyes to open, finally succeeding after several attempts.
Above him, he saw blotches of green and brown interspersed with blue. He blinked, trying to bring it all into focus, but the blobs of color remained stubbornly blurred. Giving up for the time being, he closed his eyes and let his arm drop back to the ground.
He drifted in the darkness, but he had no idea how much time had passed when next he found awareness. Not caring to repeat the previous pain-filled experience with his hands and arms, he decided to move on to his other extremities and attempted to flex his toes instead. Another moan, this one closer to a scream, accompanied the pain that tore through both limbs. On one leg it was his ankle that seemed to be the source of his agony; on the other his knee seemed to be protesting the loudest.
He tried to take a deep breath and ride out the pain, but that act brought an entirely different world of hurt. He settled for taking rapid, shallow breaths until the agony returned to a more manageable level, but the darkness again stole him away before he could achieve success.
As before, he had no idea how much time had passed when he next opened his eyes. The green and blue blotches were slightly clearer this time, but still far from being well-defined. Whimpering, he turned his head to the side in an attempt to find some clue as to where he was--and how he got there.
Nausea threatened to spill the meager contents of his stomach, but he held on by sheer determination. Great, concussion on top of the broken ribs. Dislocated shoulder for sure, possible broken bones there, too. Ankle could be sprained or broken, no way to tell at the moment. Same with the knee.
It was then he became aware of the soft footfalls heading his way. He started to reach for his sidearm, but his dislocated shoulder quickly reminded him that it wasn't a good idea and he cried out in spite of his efforts to stifle the noise. That in turn, set off another round of agony in his chest. As his vision grayed out from the pain, he could do nothing save watch as a single pair of legs clad in tan-colored material stealthily approached. By the time the owner of those legs stood over him, John had again slipped into unconsciousness.
~~A~~
Ronon left Teyla and Rodney to pick their way down the steep hill to the crash sight while he silently disappeared back into the brush and forest they'd just emerged from. Rodney didn't really know what he was doing, nor did he care to ask. He was far more concerned with what he and his Athosian teammate were going to find down below in the wreckage.
For instance, would the body be intact? Easily identifiable? Burned beyond any hope of recognition? He tried really hard not to think about the possibility of having to comb the meadow looking for enough parts of his friend to bring home for burial, but the scenario refused to stop playing out over and over--in vivid Technicolor, of course--in his mind. More than once the unwanted thoughts had him stumbling and reaching out to steady himself, and more than once he ended up on his already-sore backside.
The third time he grabbed Teyla's shoulder to steady himself, she turned to him with a questioning look. "Perhaps we should stop a moment to rest?" she suggested, her patience clearly wearing thin.
Rodney waved her on. "No, I'm fine. Sorry," he added hastily, almost an afterthought. Brushing past her, he concentrated on his footing and ignored the acrid smoke from the crash drifting up to meet them.
By the time he reached the bottom of the hill, Rodney was winded and coughing persistently. Nonetheless, he paused only long enough to steel himself against what he expected to find before striding forward into the crash site.
Burning pieces of the aircraft were sparse at first, but the closer he got to the main impact site, the larger the fires and pieces of debris became. The smoke grew thicker also, making it more and more difficult to see where he was going. Finally he stopped to pull a handkerchief from his vest, wetting it down with water from his flask, and held it up to cover his nose and mouth.
He'd only made it a few steps further when he tripped on something, nearly falling into a burning chunk of the aircraft. Bile rose in his in throat as immediately recognized the dark object upon bending down to inspect it. He closed his eyes a moment, gathering what courage he could muster, and tentatively reached out for it.
He was breathing heavily, almost to the point of hyperventilating, by the time his hand closed around the black leather. Forcing himself to continue, he pulled on it until it was free of the wreckage it had been pinned under. He stood slowly and turned to show Teyla what he'd found.
Her eyes widened as she, too, immediately recognized it and her gaze instantly met his, asking the dreaded question without speaking a word. Rodney shook his head and her shoulders slumped in relief. She stepped forward, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder and nodded toward an unexplored area.
Rodney returned the nod, swallowing hard, and tucked Sheppard's empty boot under his arm. He patted her hand, still on his shoulder, and moved away to continue the grim search.
~~A~~
Ronon had managed to locate their Mallarian pursuers and was on his way back to McKay and Teyla to check in when he first heard the noise. He froze where he stood, waiting and listening in order to further pinpoint the location of the person who made it.
And he knew for certain it was a person. Likely it was Sheppard, but there was no telling for sure until he got closer. Much closer. Finally, another noise, this time louder and definitely a cry of pain. Moving as stealthily as he was able, Dex fluidly wove his way through the brush and trees.
He was almost upon him when he heard the whimpering. His heart rose to his throat as it became clear that the noises were definitely coming from Sheppard. Relief that his new friend lived warred with concern over how badly the man must be hurt to cause him to make those kind of noises.
When he drew close enough to see the pilot, Ronon could tell that the injured man was conscious. Yet he didn't dare call out for fear of bringing the angry Mallarians straight to them. By the time he reached Sheppard's side and knelt beside him, his eyes had closed. Dex carefully reached out and felt the side of his neck, relieved to find a steady, if somewhat weak, beat beneath his fingertips.
He knew that the search party was not far behind him. That meant he'd need to get Sheppard out of there as soon as possible. One look at the pilot and it was clear that his shoulder had been dislocated. Ronon took advantage of his unconscious state and quickly put it back into place. If he'd waited until Sheppard was awake, there was no way the man would have been able to keep silent while he popped it back into the socket and that would have lead the searchers straight to them. He used the pilot's outer shirt to immobilize the limb and then hurriedly lifted him over his shoulder into a fireman's carry. With a final look around to make certain they hadn't been discovered, he headed off to find Teyla and McKay.
Dex skirted the tree-lined ridge around the meadow clearing where the plane had gone down until he was satisfied that he'd put enough distance between himself and the Mallarians to safely treat the pilot's wounds and contact the others. Carefully, he lowered Sheppard to the ground and checked him over.
He pulled out his canteen and tilted it to the unconscious man's lips, letting the wetness run into the pilot's mouth, even though much of it ended up running back out and down his chin. He then poured some of the remaining water over as many of the cuts and abrasions to wash them off. Satisfied he'd done all he could with his limited supplies, Ronon keyed his mike. "I'm up on the ridge straight above and to the left of your current position. Mallarian searchers are close. You should both get up here now."
"Ronon, what is it?" demanded Teyla. "We have not yet located Colonel Sheppard."
Dex hesitated, not sure quite how to tell them his news. "Sheppard's alive, but he's hurt bad."
"Oh really. And how would..." Rodney was about to snap at him, when his eyes widened in realization. Turning to Teyla, he found much the same expression on mirrored on her face.
In wordless agreement, the pair abandoned their search and hurried up the steep hill.
"We are on our way now," said Teyla, scrambling up the incline as fast as she could go. And then she began to pray.
~~A~~
"What's wrong with him? Why is he unconscious? What have you done to him? Please tell me you haven't done anything to make him worse. And how did he get all the way up here after the crash?" Rodney rapidly fired question after question at the Satedan as he and Teyla approached.
Ronon stood from where he been kneeling next to Sheppard, stepping over the injured pilot to tower menacingly over the scientist. "Don't try to put this on me. I'm not the one who shot him out of the sky."
McKay flinched at the accusation, feeling much like he'd been sucker-punched. It was the last thing he'd intended to have happen when he entered that facility, but that didn't change the fact that he was the one responsible for the crash, which in turn meant he was the one responsible for Sheppard's injuries. While he was more than willing to own up to his part in the whole thing, if Conan had aggravated Sheppard's injuries or made them worse in any way, well, Rodney wasn't about take responsibility for *that* in any way, shape, or form.
And he was just about to tell Sheppard's pet-Neanderthal exactly that when Teyla deftly stepped between the pair and pushed them arms' length apart. "Now is not the time for petty recriminations," she hissed. "Should we not be concentrating on helping Colonel Sheppard rather than bickering among ourselves and making inane accusations? Your time and skills would be far better served finding a way to avoid the Mallarians and get him back to the stargate and Atlantis as quickly as possible, would they not?"
She let the two men digest her words before dropping her arms and making her way to Sheppard's side, where she immediately began to assess and bandage his wounds. Ronon continued to glare at McKay as he spoke to Teyla. "I'm gonna check the progress of the search party." Without another word, he turned on his heel and headed off.
Rodney watched him go before turning to observe Teyla tend to Sheppard's wounds. It was the first time he'd allowed himself to really look at the damage that the crash he'd caused had done to his friend. A trail of red snaked down one side of his neck from somewhere up higher in that unruly mop of hair on his head. Likewise, his face and neck were dotted with scratches, scrapes, and abrasions, and nearly all of them leaking varying degrees of red. His over shirt had been removed and re-fastened to trap one of his arms next to his body, which likely meant an injury to the shoulder or collar bone. Unable to see any further damage, he dropped to his knees and looked anxiously across at her while she continued to work. "So, um, ho-how is he?"
The Athosian continued to work, not stopping for even a moment to look up at Rodney as she answered him. "Aside from the obvious head and facial injuries, I believe he has dislocated his shoulder, as well as broken several ribs. His knee is quite swollen, however I am unsure if it is fractured or merely sprained. The same is true of his other leg, but at the ankle instead of the knee."
Even though he knew she wasn't looking, McKay nodded dumbly in answer. He continued to watch her until he could no longer stand the silence. "Can I, um, you know, help or...something?"
Teyla shook her head, applying the last of the bandages to Sheppard's face. "I am sorry, but there is nothing more to be done now until we can get him into Dr. Beckett's hands."
"Oh." Rodney pulled out his canteen and held it toward her. "Do you need some more water? I noticed that you used a lot of yours when you were, um..." He didn't finish the sentence, instead gesturing toward their fallen leader.
Ronon picked that moment to come silently sprinting back onto the scene. "We gotta move--now. Mallarians are maybe five minutes behind me, maybe less." Without waiting for them to say anything, he moved directly to Sheppard's side and pulled him up into a fireman's carry. Once the pilot was settled, he pulled out his blaster and set it to stun.
"What do you think you're doing?" hissed Rodney. "You could kill him carrying him like that with broken ribs!"
Ronon paid him no mind and started off, prompting McKay to grab his sleeve. Dex immediately brought the blaster up under Rodney's chin, flipping the switch to kill. "Let go, little man, or you die."
To his credit, Rodney didn't flinch. He stared back defiantly as he made his position clear. "Look, I might have been responsible for the crash, and as such, that makes me responsible for his current injuries. But Teyla said he's got broken ribs. If you carry him like that, odds are one of those ribs is going to puncture a lung--and that, my big hairy friend, would be a very bad thing for him...not to mention totally *your* fault."
Teyla stepped forward, but before she could intervene in any way, Dex cut her off. "That search party's gonna be here any minute. They catch up with us and he's dead for sure. So what's it gonna be? We gonna stand here and argue until they find us or get him to the 'gate and Beckett?"
"Perhaps it would be best if Doctor McKay and I were to carry John between us. That way both of your hands would be free to deal with any Mallarians we might encounter." Teyla worriedly checked the colonel over with her eyes as she put forth the suggestion.
"How you gonna manage that with his shoulder? Besides, no time for that now," insisted Dex. "We need to put some distance between us and the searchers."
Rodney sighed. "You have no idea how much it pains me to admit this, but Conan's right. If they're that close, then we have to get moving. We can figure it out once we've put sufficient distance between us."
Mallarian voices began to echo through the forest, the sound growing closer and closer. Teyla conceded the point by nodding in the direction they needed to travel. "You should take point. Doctor McKay can help you and I will go last to cover our exit."
Ronon didn't argue and set off at a brisk pace. Rodney followed close behind, wincing with each swing of Sheppard's hands as they swayed back and forth with each step the Satedan took. He could only imagine the effect all that bouncing was having on the injuries the colonel had sustained.
He was so busy watching Sheppard that Rodney didn't notice when Ronon suddenly pulled up and dropped to a crouch. McKay ran right into him, bouncing off and losing his balance. "What did you do that for?" he demanded, his voice a loud whisper.
Dex made a cutting motion with his hand across his throat, glaring at the scientist. Rodney was suddenly very glad that looks couldn't actually kill and didn't push the issue. McKay waited for some sort of signal as to what was happening, more than willing to defer to the Satedan. He had no illusions as to who was better suited to this particular aspect of going offworld. This was Ronon's forte, and Sheppard's and even Teyla's--and definitely NOT his.
Without making a sound, Ronon carefully laid the still-unconscious pilot next to Rodney, who still sat where he'd fallen after running into the Satedan. He then pointed between McKay and Sheppard, silently instructing Rodney to look after the injured man. At Rodney's nod, Dex abruptly turned and vanished into the woods ahead of them. Through the entire transfer, as well as his sudden exit, Ronon hadn't made any noise whatsoever, leaving McKay to stare after him and wonder where he was headed.
A faint groan next to him quickly brought Rodney's attention back to Sheppard. Another groan, louder this time, and the injured pilot's eyes began to flutter as he finally began to show signs of regaining consciousness. McKay wanted to feel relieved, but as he looked to where Ronon had disappeared and recalled the way he'd silently been told in no uncertain terms to remain quiet and his relief instantly morphed into worry of them being discovered.
Another loud groan from the colonel drew his gaze back to the injured man next to him. He reacted without thinking and placed his hand over Sheppard's mouth, cautioning him in a loud whisper as the pilot began to weakly struggle against the obstruction. "Will you stop that? Conan's off chasing someone...or maybe some*thing*...he didn't really say. But he did make it very clear that noise was a very bad idea before he left. So if I take my hand away are you going to be quiet?"
John stilled at the sound of Rodney's voice, breathing heavily through his nose. He managed a slight nod, so McKay slowly removed his hand. The physicist held his breath, watching anxiously to see if Sheppard was going to do as told.
The pilot's breathing was shallow and rapid, his face creased with pain lines. He started to pull his leg up, but immediately stopped, swallowing the cry of agony that threatened to escape with the movement. He gritted his teeth, but a soft whimper escaped along with a whispered slur of complaint. "H'rrts."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Well of course it hurts, you idiot. You did just fall out of the sky without a parachute--or at least not much of one. Now stop trying to move before you permanently damage something. Other than your head I mean, which has been well beyond all hope for years now."
Sheppard couldn't help but chuckle at McKay's response, which unfortunately set off another bout of coughing. Rodney could do nothing but watch helplessly as the pilot struggled to get himself back under control. It seemed like forever before the deep lines in the colonel's forehead eased and his breathing returned to the shallow panting. "Sorry," offered the physicist. "I should probably stop talking now."
"Yeah, you should. But odds are better of me flying one of the Ancestors' ships than you not talking." Ronon smirked as Rodney nearly jumped out of his skin at the Satedan's sudden reappearance.
"Would you *stop* doing that!" wailed McKay. "Because if you make me have a heart attack there will be two of us to carry, you know. And while I've no doubt that you'd love nothing better than to leave me here to fend for myself, we both know that Sheppard would not be happy to hear you left a man behind. Especially one who was dying because you gave him a heart attack."
Ronon snorted. "And how's he gonna feel when we all get caught because you can't keep quiet?"
"Stop." The soft demand immediately put an end to the argument as both men turned their attention to the injured pilot. "Team...gotta work...t'gether." John slowly looked around, paling even more as he did so. "Tey...la?"
It was the Satedan who answered. "She's gonna try to lead the searchers off to give us a better shot at making it to the gate undetected. She'll meet up with us there."
"Oh. Is that a good idea?" asked Rodney, clearly only now noticing her absence.
Ronon glared at him, though not quite the death-glare of earlier. "In this situation? Yeah." He didn't give Rodney a chance to question him further though, leaning forward and placing his hand gently on John's good shoulder. "We gotta go. This is gonna hurt," he warned.
John swallowed hard and closed his eyes a moment before nodding. "Do it," he ordered through clenched teeth.
The Satedan wasted no time in obliging him, grabbing him up into a fireman's carry before Rodney could even get this mouth open to protest. And while the move was fast, it had had been far from painless if Sheppard's choked off scream had been any indication. Ronon ignored it, knowing there was nothing to be done now but get the injured pilot to the gate as quickly as possible. He gave McKay a look that said he meant business in no uncertain terms, and prepared to set off. "Stay behind me, but stay close." He didn't wait for Rodney's answer; he simply pulled his blaster from its holster and set off, trusting McKay to do as instructed.
Rodney didn't need to be told twice. He pulled out his handgun and followed along behind, careful not to get too close but not lag behind either. He tried to be mindful of the noise, as Sheppard had been trying to teach him, but twigs snapped under his feet and branches whipped noisily back into place after he'd passed by. He could feel the big Satedan's irritation with him growing with every step he took, but if he was going to keep up as ordered then there was really nothing he could do differently.
To distract himself, McKay watched Sheppard's arms swing from side to side. The pilot's head bobbed, bumping against Ronon's back with every step, but Dex didn't seem to notice any of it as the trio made their way through the trees and brush of the forest. The movement had to be causing Sheppard ten different kinds of agony, but the colonel hadn't uttered so much as a sound since they'd set off. Rodney was pretty sure that meant he was unconscious again, but he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not in the long run. As a feeling of total helplessness settled over him, Meredith Rodney McKay did the only thing he could under the circumstances.
He prayed hard and kept on walking.
~~TBC~~
Part Two
Author: katstale
Words: 17520
Rating: PG-13
Summary: Rodney volunteers John to assist the locals in order to gain access to an Ancient structure. Unfortunately, things don't go quite according to plan. (ShepWhump, RodneyWump, All-around Angst)
Notes: First and foremost, I must apologize to everybetty for the long delay in posting this. I am SO very, very sorry for the long delay. I can only hope you find it was worth the wait. Second, this was written for the sheps_atlantis ficathon. The prompt was for "ShepWhump... ShepWh- errr, I mean, infirmary scene (with Carson, natch), humor interspersed amongst the whumpage." everybetty, if this doesn't meet your expectations, I'll be happy to try it again after NaNoWriMo in December. :)
In The Blink of An Eye
Rodney bustled into the long-abandoned room filled with dormant Ancient equipment. Rubbing his hands together gleefully, he headed for the console in the center of the room.
"Rodney, should we not wait with Ronon for John to finish this...testing flight? What if he needs your assistance to land successfully?" Teyla was right behind him, a worried look gracing her features.
McKay waved her off, unmoved by her concern. "Oh please. Sheppard has Conan out there to hold his hand once he gets back on the ground--he doesn't need me, too. And if by some astronomically, infinitesimally small chance he does need my help? Well, that's what radios are for." Gracing her with a smug, know-it-all look, he tapped the device in his vest pocket.
Having said his piece, he set about brushing the dust from the surface of the unit and powering up the station. Taking his laptop out of his pack, he quickly had it hooked up to the main console and then set about checking over the smaller control panels dotted about the small room's walls. After ensuring that all were functioning, he headed back to inspect the data scrolling down the screen of his laptop, humming a nameless tune as he worked.
Satisfied with the data it displayed, he pulled out his LSD and checked for energy signatures. His eyes widened as his grin morphed into the Cheshire Cat's twin. "Bingo! We have here, ladies and gentlemen..." His tone and expression smug, he walked over to the far wall and waved a hand over the panel, which opened to reveal a round orange glowing disk. He pressed the disk which rose to reveal a very familiar object. Pointing to it, his smug expression still in place, he continued his commentary. "One fully functional and over half-charged ZPM. Exactly as I predicted, I might add."
Before Teyla could respond, Ronon's voice sounded over their radios. "Sheppard's coming back now. So far, so good."
Rodney was the first to reply. "Good. Once he's back on the ground, tell him to get his skinny ass down here--we've darn near hit the mother lode for a change."
"Tell him yourself; I'll let you know when he's down." Ronon cut the transmission without signing off, but it was plain that he considered the conversation over.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," mumbled McKay, reaching for the energy module. To his surprise, the glowing tube suddenly retraced and closed. Frowning, he waved his hand over it to raise it, but nothing happened.
He started over to his laptop at the main console when a nervous-sounding Teyla called out to him. "Rodney, I believe you should come look at this screen right away," she said, pointing to her left.
He'd barely made it two steps when a low hum began to build. He froze for an instant, a look of horror crossing his face. "Oh no! Nononono." He all but flew the rest of the way to the console and began frantically manipulating controls.
"Rodney?"
Teyla sounded even more nervous and wary, but the scientist had no time for explanations. "Working here!"
The humming intensified, gaining both volume and pitch as it continued to build, and Rodney cursed at the machine in front of him. "Come on, come on, disengage already!"
His hands stilled suddenly as the noise died out. The screen in front of him flashed a message in Ancient, casting an eerie glow over his features. He stared in disbelief at the words, ignoring Ronon's frantic voice in his ear telling him what he already knew. Swallowing hard, his eyes still wide with shock, he turned to Teyla. "Oh God. I just killed Sheppard."
~~A~~
John couldn't stop grinning as the Mallarian version of an airplane skimmed the treetops before again climbing to cruise above them. He had to admit, the craft did seem to be sturdy and well-engineered, despite their inexperience. Whether or not he was going to admit to Rodney that the scientist had been right about that remained to be seen.
"Sheppard?" Ronon's anxious voice sounded over the radio in his ear.
The pilot chuckled, keying his own mike. "I'm still fine, Ronon. You gonna stop radioing every time the wind changes, buddy. People will talk," he kidded.
"So?" Dex was apparently not in a joking mood.
"Just stay off the radio let me concentrate on flying the damn plane, will ya?"
"I thought this plane didn't respond to thoughts like the Ancestors' ships."
Caught in another downdraft, Sheppard fought for control as he ground out his answer. "It doesn't, which is why I need to concentrate on what I'm doing here. Now if you don't mind..." He finally managed to bring the craft back under control and returned to his previous altitude. "Maintain radio silence unless McKay or Teyla run into trouble. That's an order, by the way, so don't call me again just because I hit another rough spot. Sheppard out."
Expertly guiding the plane through the alien sky, his thoughts turned to his predecessors and their unfortunate demises. He supposed they should offer to set up some sort of flight training program for future prospective Mallarian pilots, as they would definitely need some help in learning how to deal with the constantly-changing wind conditions here.
Another rough spot drew him out of his thoughts. The slight dip in altitude was immediately followed by a familiar voice in his ear. "Sheppard?"
Shaking his head and rolling his eyes, he couldn't help the exasperation that laced his reply. "I thought we agreed you weren't going to call me every time I hit some turbulence, buddy?"
"Huh?"
"Never mind, I'll explain later. I'm fine, the plane is fine, everything is fine. Okay?"
John could see Ronon's shrug in his mind as he answered. "Okay."
"Now as much as I'm enjoying our little chats here, I really need to get back to flying this thing. Sheppard out."
There was only a moment of silence before the Satedan's next call. "Sheppard?"
"What?" snapped the pilot.
"Lazzon says that's good and wants you head back to the landing site."
John shook his head. "This why you called in the first place, isn't it? You should have said something."
"Just did."
"That you did." John didn't feel like wasting anymore breath on arguing with the Satedan. "I'll see you back at the runway in ten. And check in with Rodney and see how he and Teyla are doing, will ya? Sheppard out."
The next few minutes were uneventful and John was able to just relax and enjoy the flight. He'd never get tired of flying, be it soaring through the clouds and sky on Earth or some alien planet where he was taking in the sights from the sky that no human had ever seen before.
His reverie was rudely interrupted by a bright flash of light from the ground below and he instinctively turned the plane in an attempt to avoid it. "What the..." Before he could even complete the thought, the plane shuddered violently as the bright pulse struck the aircraft. John fought to maintain altitude and speed, but the engines had already begun to sputter and the controls had become suddenly sluggish.
Knowing he'd never make it back to the landing site, Sheppard quickly scoured the nearby terrain for a place to put down. To his left, there was a small meadow that appeared to be his only hope. Everything else as far as he could see was trees, trees, and more trees. The engines gave a final gasp and died for good as he struggled to turn the plane toward the meadow.
Without power, there was no way for John to maintain his altitude and the aircraft dropped like a rock. He fought the controls, trying to get every bit of air he could in the hope of buying enough time to make it to the meadow.
The trees grew ever closer and it quickly became apparent that there was no way he was going to stay up long enough to attempt a landing. Praying that the parachute he'd been given was as efficient at the plane had been, he unbuckled his seatbelt and prepared to climb out.
John placed one foot on the seat and pushed off, expecting to find himself clear of the plane. To his unpleasant surprise, however, he went nowhere. Looking down, he found his other foot was wedged tightly between something protruding through the floorboard and the pedals. Cursing, he reached down to pull it free, but the boot remained stubbornly wedged in place. Knowing his time was running short, he jerked his foot hard, but again, it remained trapped. Desperate, he reached down and struggled to free himself.
Precious minutes passed as he tugged and pulled, costing him any chance at parachuting to safety. The plane skimmed the tops of the trees, the uppermost branches tearing at the underbelly of the aircraft as it gained speed during the uncontrolled descent. John knew there was no way to stop or even slow it to any degree, and that meant there was no way he'd survive if he stayed in the aircraft all the way down. At last, his foot came free and, offering up a quick prayer to whatever god might be listening, he took a deep breath and leapt from the plane.
~~A~~
"Ronon, put him down!" Teyla's eyes were flashing with anger. "He is a valued member of our team."
Dex continued to hold McKay against the tree, his arm across the scientist's windpipe cutting off his air supply. "He killed Sheppard. That means he dies, too," ground out the angry Satedan.
Rodney continued to struggle, pulling at the strong arms pinning him to the tree. "He's right. I deserve it." The scientist's voice was barely a whisper as he forced out the words in a sickly-sounding wheeze.
"It was an accident," insisted the Athosian. "And Colonel Sheppard will not be pleased when he hears of your behavior."
"Dead men can't hear." Dex was still holding McKay, his lips drawn up in a snarl.
"And what if he is merely injured and not dead? You are wasting valuable time with this childish vendetta--time that John may well be sorely in need of. Now let him go, Ronon."
Knowing Teyla was right, the Satedan let out a roar of frustration and abruptly dropped McKay, who promptly collapsed in a heap on the ground. He stood over the gasping scientist, glaring down at him. "We find Sheppard dead, then I finish what I started."
Rodney nodded in agreement, incapable of speech for the moment, and waved him away. Dex stalked off, stopping only long enough to tower over his female teammate and stare down menacingly down at her. "I take point. You want him breathing, you keep him away from me."
Teyla rolled her eyes and moved over to assist McKay in getting to his feet. Once he was upright, he waved her off, wheezing out his gratitude. "Thanks."
She nodded, prodding him to start moving. "I will cover our six," she informed him, her tone brooking no argument. "Ronon said that Lazzon was quite upset over the loss of yet another aircraft. It is quite likely he will send someone to find us."
Still rubbing his abused throat, McKay nodded and stumbled off after Ronon. He hadn't needed the reminder that he'd not only killed Sheppard, he'd also put the lives of his teammates in danger. Although with Ronon in his current mood, maybe not so much him. As pissed as the Big Guy was, he could probably stop anything they could throw--or fire--at him with one of those death-glares he was so good at. He could see it now. Bullets stopping in mid-air and dropping to the ground in a heap of melted metal. Bolts of energy would fizzle out with a whimper, all under the Satedan's withering glare. And all because of Rodney's own stupid greed.
Branches clipped him in the face and neck as they set a brisk pace through the dense brush, but McKay felt none of it. There was only one thing that mattered to him now: Sheppard was dead and it was completely and totally his, Meredith Rodney McKay's, fault. How had everything gone so wrong so damn fast anyway? For that matter, why had he ever talked Sheppard into flying the stupid plane in the first place?
Over and over the events leading up to the most spectacularly FUBARed mission he'd ever had the misfortune to undertake played out in his mind. They'd come to P9G-502 because of an energy signature that Reaves' team had picked up while on a trading mission. Reaves and his team were negotiators, not scientists, and though they could take readings, it was up to others to go back and investigate when those readings turned up anything interesting. Like energy signatures that indicated a planet might well have a working ZPM--which of course Rodney immediately volunteered his team to investigate.
The people of P9G-502, otherwise known as the Mallarians, were more advanced than most societies they'd encountered since coming to Pegasus. They had a long way to go before they would even come close to matching the Genii, though. Still, they had electricity and were extremely close to achieving air travel. That had piqued Sheppard's interest enough that he had immediately agreed to the mission, much to McKay's delight.
They'd hit a snag almost immediately upon their arrival. The energy readings were located in a highly-restricted area and the ruling council was dragging their feet about granting permission to investigate it. Something about religious rituals and procedures needing to be followed. Rodney had pretty much stopped listening after the word "no" though, so he had missed most of the details.
Sheppard and Ronon had been whisked off to tour the Mallarian equivalent of a military base while Rodney and Teyla were shown their scientific research division, including their fledgling test flight facility.
So when the tours were over and the council reconvened, he had offered to help them get their struggling aviation program off the ground in return for access to the site where the energy signature originated. And voila, suddenly the religious objections were all but forgotten. Well okay, so he'd had to include volunteering Sheppard as test pilot to seal the deal, but the man was always insisting he could fly anything so Rodney hadn't seen any problem with it. He'd seen the plans as well as the reports on the first three unsuccessful attempts, so he knew the craft was sound.
"Rodney!" Sheppard leaned toward him, speaking out of the side of his mouth while still smiling inanely at the council members. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" he hissed.
McKay rolled his eyes. "Don't worry, I've seen all the data. This should be a piece of cake for you. And come on, what pilot worth their salt wouldn't want to be in on an alien version of Kittyhawk? You'll be famous."
The colonel grabbed him by the arm and pulled him to the far corner of the room, all the while smiling at the council members with that grin of his that for whatever reason seemed to turn every member of the opposite sex that he met into a gushing pile of goo. "If you'll just excuse us for a moment..."
The moment his back was to the council, however, Sheppard's smile disappeared. "Are you trying to get me killed here--again--or what? They've already crashed three prototypes and not one of those pilots has lived to tell about it!"
"Give me some credit, Colonel HotShot. I've seen the schematics for the plane and read the reports on all three of the crashes. The design is sound. Every single one of those crashes was caused by pilot error."
"So they say. But how do we know for sure the reports are accurate? Could be they're trying to cover up the fact that the crashes were caused by shoddy workmanship or defective materials or any number of other things--or am I the only one who thought of that?"
Rodney folded his arms across his chest, bristling at the accusation. "No, you are not the only one who thought of that. Which is why I insisted on inspecting the plane and the construction site. I also took some atmospheric readings. And lo and behold, I discovered that this planet has some rather unusual and unpredictable wind patterns. Changes can be sudden and sometimes drastic, which shouldn't be any problem for an experienced pilot like yourself. However for an amateur who's never flown before and without the benefit of an experienced teacher..."
"Yeah, yeah, okay. I get the picture." Sheppard paused and Rodney could see him thinking the situation through. "You're sure that the plane is sound? No chance that those crashes were due to anything other than pilot error?"
"Reasonably certain, yes. I'm as sure as I can be, at any rate." The scowl on Rodney's face deepened. "Look, I know you're still having some trust issues after Doranda, but I swear to you, I would never, ever suggest this if I thought there was even the slightest chance that that plane was unsafe."
"Not even if it meant getting your hands on a ZPM?" challenged the colonel.
Rodney felt like he'd been slapped. "Fine, I suppose I might have deserved that one. But I'd like to state for the record here that no, there is no way I'd ask or suggest you risk your life, not even if it meant getting my hands on a ZPM, as you so eloquently put it."
So in the end, Sheppard had trusted Rodney's judgment and agreed to fly the plane. And because of that, because Rodney just *had* to check out that energy signature sooner rather than later, Sheppard was dead. And Rodney had killed him.
He came to an abrupt halt, running smack dab into the middle of Ronon's back. He'd been so lost in thought, he hadn't seen the Satedan stop and give the signal to do likewise. So true to the laws of physics, he immediately bounced off the immovable object and hit the ground hard, landing square on his backside. The big man glared at him, prompting Rodney to swallow hard, but Ronon said nothing and simply waited for Teyla to catch up before explaining.
Like the Satedan, she was barely winded when she pulled up next to them. She stopped only long enough to pull Rodney to his feet before demanding answers. "What is it?"
Ronon's expression was grave as he turned to her, pointing in the opposite direction. "There."
Rodney looked past the mountain of a man to the terrain beyond. And there in a small meadow, he saw the smoldering remains of the airplane Sheppard had been flying. Until Rodney had shot him down, at least. A rock formed in the pit of his stomach as he surveyed the scattered wreckage, much of it still burning. How the hell could anyone have survived something like that?
He was startled out of his thoughts when Ronon suddenly grabbed him by the vest and pulled him close, glaring down at him. "You better pray we find him alive, little man. Now come on. And stay behind me."
~~A~~
Awareness returned slowly. At first John thought it was dark out, but then he realized that his eyes were closed and stubbornly refusing all attempts to open them. His head ached abominably, as did most of his torso and three of his four limbs.
He tried moving his fingers first, groaning as pain shot up his right arm and shoulder with the movement. His left arm seemed to be the least painful part of his body, so he again wiggled the fingers. This time they did more than merely twitch and he closed his hand into a fist.
The next step was attempting to raise the arm, bending it at the elbow. After several failures, he finally persuaded his hand to move up to touch his throbbing forehead. He knew the wet stickiness he found there was blood, even without seeing it. He tried again to force his eyes to open, finally succeeding after several attempts.
Above him, he saw blotches of green and brown interspersed with blue. He blinked, trying to bring it all into focus, but the blobs of color remained stubbornly blurred. Giving up for the time being, he closed his eyes and let his arm drop back to the ground.
He drifted in the darkness, but he had no idea how much time had passed when next he found awareness. Not caring to repeat the previous pain-filled experience with his hands and arms, he decided to move on to his other extremities and attempted to flex his toes instead. Another moan, this one closer to a scream, accompanied the pain that tore through both limbs. On one leg it was his ankle that seemed to be the source of his agony; on the other his knee seemed to be protesting the loudest.
He tried to take a deep breath and ride out the pain, but that act brought an entirely different world of hurt. He settled for taking rapid, shallow breaths until the agony returned to a more manageable level, but the darkness again stole him away before he could achieve success.
As before, he had no idea how much time had passed when he next opened his eyes. The green and blue blotches were slightly clearer this time, but still far from being well-defined. Whimpering, he turned his head to the side in an attempt to find some clue as to where he was--and how he got there.
Nausea threatened to spill the meager contents of his stomach, but he held on by sheer determination. Great, concussion on top of the broken ribs. Dislocated shoulder for sure, possible broken bones there, too. Ankle could be sprained or broken, no way to tell at the moment. Same with the knee.
It was then he became aware of the soft footfalls heading his way. He started to reach for his sidearm, but his dislocated shoulder quickly reminded him that it wasn't a good idea and he cried out in spite of his efforts to stifle the noise. That in turn, set off another round of agony in his chest. As his vision grayed out from the pain, he could do nothing save watch as a single pair of legs clad in tan-colored material stealthily approached. By the time the owner of those legs stood over him, John had again slipped into unconsciousness.
~~A~~
Ronon left Teyla and Rodney to pick their way down the steep hill to the crash sight while he silently disappeared back into the brush and forest they'd just emerged from. Rodney didn't really know what he was doing, nor did he care to ask. He was far more concerned with what he and his Athosian teammate were going to find down below in the wreckage.
For instance, would the body be intact? Easily identifiable? Burned beyond any hope of recognition? He tried really hard not to think about the possibility of having to comb the meadow looking for enough parts of his friend to bring home for burial, but the scenario refused to stop playing out over and over--in vivid Technicolor, of course--in his mind. More than once the unwanted thoughts had him stumbling and reaching out to steady himself, and more than once he ended up on his already-sore backside.
The third time he grabbed Teyla's shoulder to steady himself, she turned to him with a questioning look. "Perhaps we should stop a moment to rest?" she suggested, her patience clearly wearing thin.
Rodney waved her on. "No, I'm fine. Sorry," he added hastily, almost an afterthought. Brushing past her, he concentrated on his footing and ignored the acrid smoke from the crash drifting up to meet them.
By the time he reached the bottom of the hill, Rodney was winded and coughing persistently. Nonetheless, he paused only long enough to steel himself against what he expected to find before striding forward into the crash site.
Burning pieces of the aircraft were sparse at first, but the closer he got to the main impact site, the larger the fires and pieces of debris became. The smoke grew thicker also, making it more and more difficult to see where he was going. Finally he stopped to pull a handkerchief from his vest, wetting it down with water from his flask, and held it up to cover his nose and mouth.
He'd only made it a few steps further when he tripped on something, nearly falling into a burning chunk of the aircraft. Bile rose in his in throat as immediately recognized the dark object upon bending down to inspect it. He closed his eyes a moment, gathering what courage he could muster, and tentatively reached out for it.
He was breathing heavily, almost to the point of hyperventilating, by the time his hand closed around the black leather. Forcing himself to continue, he pulled on it until it was free of the wreckage it had been pinned under. He stood slowly and turned to show Teyla what he'd found.
Her eyes widened as she, too, immediately recognized it and her gaze instantly met his, asking the dreaded question without speaking a word. Rodney shook his head and her shoulders slumped in relief. She stepped forward, placing a supportive hand on his shoulder and nodded toward an unexplored area.
Rodney returned the nod, swallowing hard, and tucked Sheppard's empty boot under his arm. He patted her hand, still on his shoulder, and moved away to continue the grim search.
~~A~~
Ronon had managed to locate their Mallarian pursuers and was on his way back to McKay and Teyla to check in when he first heard the noise. He froze where he stood, waiting and listening in order to further pinpoint the location of the person who made it.
And he knew for certain it was a person. Likely it was Sheppard, but there was no telling for sure until he got closer. Much closer. Finally, another noise, this time louder and definitely a cry of pain. Moving as stealthily as he was able, Dex fluidly wove his way through the brush and trees.
He was almost upon him when he heard the whimpering. His heart rose to his throat as it became clear that the noises were definitely coming from Sheppard. Relief that his new friend lived warred with concern over how badly the man must be hurt to cause him to make those kind of noises.
When he drew close enough to see the pilot, Ronon could tell that the injured man was conscious. Yet he didn't dare call out for fear of bringing the angry Mallarians straight to them. By the time he reached Sheppard's side and knelt beside him, his eyes had closed. Dex carefully reached out and felt the side of his neck, relieved to find a steady, if somewhat weak, beat beneath his fingertips.
He knew that the search party was not far behind him. That meant he'd need to get Sheppard out of there as soon as possible. One look at the pilot and it was clear that his shoulder had been dislocated. Ronon took advantage of his unconscious state and quickly put it back into place. If he'd waited until Sheppard was awake, there was no way the man would have been able to keep silent while he popped it back into the socket and that would have lead the searchers straight to them. He used the pilot's outer shirt to immobilize the limb and then hurriedly lifted him over his shoulder into a fireman's carry. With a final look around to make certain they hadn't been discovered, he headed off to find Teyla and McKay.
Dex skirted the tree-lined ridge around the meadow clearing where the plane had gone down until he was satisfied that he'd put enough distance between himself and the Mallarians to safely treat the pilot's wounds and contact the others. Carefully, he lowered Sheppard to the ground and checked him over.
He pulled out his canteen and tilted it to the unconscious man's lips, letting the wetness run into the pilot's mouth, even though much of it ended up running back out and down his chin. He then poured some of the remaining water over as many of the cuts and abrasions to wash them off. Satisfied he'd done all he could with his limited supplies, Ronon keyed his mike. "I'm up on the ridge straight above and to the left of your current position. Mallarian searchers are close. You should both get up here now."
"Ronon, what is it?" demanded Teyla. "We have not yet located Colonel Sheppard."
Dex hesitated, not sure quite how to tell them his news. "Sheppard's alive, but he's hurt bad."
"Oh really. And how would..." Rodney was about to snap at him, when his eyes widened in realization. Turning to Teyla, he found much the same expression on mirrored on her face.
In wordless agreement, the pair abandoned their search and hurried up the steep hill.
"We are on our way now," said Teyla, scrambling up the incline as fast as she could go. And then she began to pray.
~~A~~
"What's wrong with him? Why is he unconscious? What have you done to him? Please tell me you haven't done anything to make him worse. And how did he get all the way up here after the crash?" Rodney rapidly fired question after question at the Satedan as he and Teyla approached.
Ronon stood from where he been kneeling next to Sheppard, stepping over the injured pilot to tower menacingly over the scientist. "Don't try to put this on me. I'm not the one who shot him out of the sky."
McKay flinched at the accusation, feeling much like he'd been sucker-punched. It was the last thing he'd intended to have happen when he entered that facility, but that didn't change the fact that he was the one responsible for the crash, which in turn meant he was the one responsible for Sheppard's injuries. While he was more than willing to own up to his part in the whole thing, if Conan had aggravated Sheppard's injuries or made them worse in any way, well, Rodney wasn't about take responsibility for *that* in any way, shape, or form.
And he was just about to tell Sheppard's pet-Neanderthal exactly that when Teyla deftly stepped between the pair and pushed them arms' length apart. "Now is not the time for petty recriminations," she hissed. "Should we not be concentrating on helping Colonel Sheppard rather than bickering among ourselves and making inane accusations? Your time and skills would be far better served finding a way to avoid the Mallarians and get him back to the stargate and Atlantis as quickly as possible, would they not?"
She let the two men digest her words before dropping her arms and making her way to Sheppard's side, where she immediately began to assess and bandage his wounds. Ronon continued to glare at McKay as he spoke to Teyla. "I'm gonna check the progress of the search party." Without another word, he turned on his heel and headed off.
Rodney watched him go before turning to observe Teyla tend to Sheppard's wounds. It was the first time he'd allowed himself to really look at the damage that the crash he'd caused had done to his friend. A trail of red snaked down one side of his neck from somewhere up higher in that unruly mop of hair on his head. Likewise, his face and neck were dotted with scratches, scrapes, and abrasions, and nearly all of them leaking varying degrees of red. His over shirt had been removed and re-fastened to trap one of his arms next to his body, which likely meant an injury to the shoulder or collar bone. Unable to see any further damage, he dropped to his knees and looked anxiously across at her while she continued to work. "So, um, ho-how is he?"
The Athosian continued to work, not stopping for even a moment to look up at Rodney as she answered him. "Aside from the obvious head and facial injuries, I believe he has dislocated his shoulder, as well as broken several ribs. His knee is quite swollen, however I am unsure if it is fractured or merely sprained. The same is true of his other leg, but at the ankle instead of the knee."
Even though he knew she wasn't looking, McKay nodded dumbly in answer. He continued to watch her until he could no longer stand the silence. "Can I, um, you know, help or...something?"
Teyla shook her head, applying the last of the bandages to Sheppard's face. "I am sorry, but there is nothing more to be done now until we can get him into Dr. Beckett's hands."
"Oh." Rodney pulled out his canteen and held it toward her. "Do you need some more water? I noticed that you used a lot of yours when you were, um..." He didn't finish the sentence, instead gesturing toward their fallen leader.
Ronon picked that moment to come silently sprinting back onto the scene. "We gotta move--now. Mallarians are maybe five minutes behind me, maybe less." Without waiting for them to say anything, he moved directly to Sheppard's side and pulled him up into a fireman's carry. Once the pilot was settled, he pulled out his blaster and set it to stun.
"What do you think you're doing?" hissed Rodney. "You could kill him carrying him like that with broken ribs!"
Ronon paid him no mind and started off, prompting McKay to grab his sleeve. Dex immediately brought the blaster up under Rodney's chin, flipping the switch to kill. "Let go, little man, or you die."
To his credit, Rodney didn't flinch. He stared back defiantly as he made his position clear. "Look, I might have been responsible for the crash, and as such, that makes me responsible for his current injuries. But Teyla said he's got broken ribs. If you carry him like that, odds are one of those ribs is going to puncture a lung--and that, my big hairy friend, would be a very bad thing for him...not to mention totally *your* fault."
Teyla stepped forward, but before she could intervene in any way, Dex cut her off. "That search party's gonna be here any minute. They catch up with us and he's dead for sure. So what's it gonna be? We gonna stand here and argue until they find us or get him to the 'gate and Beckett?"
"Perhaps it would be best if Doctor McKay and I were to carry John between us. That way both of your hands would be free to deal with any Mallarians we might encounter." Teyla worriedly checked the colonel over with her eyes as she put forth the suggestion.
"How you gonna manage that with his shoulder? Besides, no time for that now," insisted Dex. "We need to put some distance between us and the searchers."
Rodney sighed. "You have no idea how much it pains me to admit this, but Conan's right. If they're that close, then we have to get moving. We can figure it out once we've put sufficient distance between us."
Mallarian voices began to echo through the forest, the sound growing closer and closer. Teyla conceded the point by nodding in the direction they needed to travel. "You should take point. Doctor McKay can help you and I will go last to cover our exit."
Ronon didn't argue and set off at a brisk pace. Rodney followed close behind, wincing with each swing of Sheppard's hands as they swayed back and forth with each step the Satedan took. He could only imagine the effect all that bouncing was having on the injuries the colonel had sustained.
He was so busy watching Sheppard that Rodney didn't notice when Ronon suddenly pulled up and dropped to a crouch. McKay ran right into him, bouncing off and losing his balance. "What did you do that for?" he demanded, his voice a loud whisper.
Dex made a cutting motion with his hand across his throat, glaring at the scientist. Rodney was suddenly very glad that looks couldn't actually kill and didn't push the issue. McKay waited for some sort of signal as to what was happening, more than willing to defer to the Satedan. He had no illusions as to who was better suited to this particular aspect of going offworld. This was Ronon's forte, and Sheppard's and even Teyla's--and definitely NOT his.
Without making a sound, Ronon carefully laid the still-unconscious pilot next to Rodney, who still sat where he'd fallen after running into the Satedan. He then pointed between McKay and Sheppard, silently instructing Rodney to look after the injured man. At Rodney's nod, Dex abruptly turned and vanished into the woods ahead of them. Through the entire transfer, as well as his sudden exit, Ronon hadn't made any noise whatsoever, leaving McKay to stare after him and wonder where he was headed.
A faint groan next to him quickly brought Rodney's attention back to Sheppard. Another groan, louder this time, and the injured pilot's eyes began to flutter as he finally began to show signs of regaining consciousness. McKay wanted to feel relieved, but as he looked to where Ronon had disappeared and recalled the way he'd silently been told in no uncertain terms to remain quiet and his relief instantly morphed into worry of them being discovered.
Another loud groan from the colonel drew his gaze back to the injured man next to him. He reacted without thinking and placed his hand over Sheppard's mouth, cautioning him in a loud whisper as the pilot began to weakly struggle against the obstruction. "Will you stop that? Conan's off chasing someone...or maybe some*thing*...he didn't really say. But he did make it very clear that noise was a very bad idea before he left. So if I take my hand away are you going to be quiet?"
John stilled at the sound of Rodney's voice, breathing heavily through his nose. He managed a slight nod, so McKay slowly removed his hand. The physicist held his breath, watching anxiously to see if Sheppard was going to do as told.
The pilot's breathing was shallow and rapid, his face creased with pain lines. He started to pull his leg up, but immediately stopped, swallowing the cry of agony that threatened to escape with the movement. He gritted his teeth, but a soft whimper escaped along with a whispered slur of complaint. "H'rrts."
Rodney rolled his eyes. "Well of course it hurts, you idiot. You did just fall out of the sky without a parachute--or at least not much of one. Now stop trying to move before you permanently damage something. Other than your head I mean, which has been well beyond all hope for years now."
Sheppard couldn't help but chuckle at McKay's response, which unfortunately set off another bout of coughing. Rodney could do nothing but watch helplessly as the pilot struggled to get himself back under control. It seemed like forever before the deep lines in the colonel's forehead eased and his breathing returned to the shallow panting. "Sorry," offered the physicist. "I should probably stop talking now."
"Yeah, you should. But odds are better of me flying one of the Ancestors' ships than you not talking." Ronon smirked as Rodney nearly jumped out of his skin at the Satedan's sudden reappearance.
"Would you *stop* doing that!" wailed McKay. "Because if you make me have a heart attack there will be two of us to carry, you know. And while I've no doubt that you'd love nothing better than to leave me here to fend for myself, we both know that Sheppard would not be happy to hear you left a man behind. Especially one who was dying because you gave him a heart attack."
Ronon snorted. "And how's he gonna feel when we all get caught because you can't keep quiet?"
"Stop." The soft demand immediately put an end to the argument as both men turned their attention to the injured pilot. "Team...gotta work...t'gether." John slowly looked around, paling even more as he did so. "Tey...la?"
It was the Satedan who answered. "She's gonna try to lead the searchers off to give us a better shot at making it to the gate undetected. She'll meet up with us there."
"Oh. Is that a good idea?" asked Rodney, clearly only now noticing her absence.
Ronon glared at him, though not quite the death-glare of earlier. "In this situation? Yeah." He didn't give Rodney a chance to question him further though, leaning forward and placing his hand gently on John's good shoulder. "We gotta go. This is gonna hurt," he warned.
John swallowed hard and closed his eyes a moment before nodding. "Do it," he ordered through clenched teeth.
The Satedan wasted no time in obliging him, grabbing him up into a fireman's carry before Rodney could even get this mouth open to protest. And while the move was fast, it had had been far from painless if Sheppard's choked off scream had been any indication. Ronon ignored it, knowing there was nothing to be done now but get the injured pilot to the gate as quickly as possible. He gave McKay a look that said he meant business in no uncertain terms, and prepared to set off. "Stay behind me, but stay close." He didn't wait for Rodney's answer; he simply pulled his blaster from its holster and set off, trusting McKay to do as instructed.
Rodney didn't need to be told twice. He pulled out his handgun and followed along behind, careful not to get too close but not lag behind either. He tried to be mindful of the noise, as Sheppard had been trying to teach him, but twigs snapped under his feet and branches whipped noisily back into place after he'd passed by. He could feel the big Satedan's irritation with him growing with every step he took, but if he was going to keep up as ordered then there was really nothing he could do differently.
To distract himself, McKay watched Sheppard's arms swing from side to side. The pilot's head bobbed, bumping against Ronon's back with every step, but Dex didn't seem to notice any of it as the trio made their way through the trees and brush of the forest. The movement had to be causing Sheppard ten different kinds of agony, but the colonel hadn't uttered so much as a sound since they'd set off. Rodney was pretty sure that meant he was unconscious again, but he wasn't certain if that was a good thing or not in the long run. As a feeling of total helplessness settled over him, Meredith Rodney McKay did the only thing he could under the circumstances.
He prayed hard and kept on walking.
~~TBC~~
Part Two