Trapped

by ValleyA

A tunnel collapse gives Rodney and Ronon a rare opportunity to talk. Another simple mission turned complicated.

"Trapped"

Synopsis: A tunnel collapse gives Rodney and Ronon a rare opportunity to talk. Another simple mission turned complicated.

Canon characters: Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, John Sheppard, Teyla Emmagan

word count: ~3200

rating: PG-13, mostly for language

a/n: This is from an idea that came to me after watching Doppelganger for the umpteenth time. Written for the Ronon/Rodney friendship challenge on the yahoo groups SGAHC list.

"Trapped"

by valleya

(Set immediately after Doppleganger)

Rodney coughed. The dirt so thick in the air it was hard to inhale. And the rumbling went on forever. He scrambled to move his limbs but the falling rock and dirt was burying him faster than he could dig his way out. All he could do was cover his head with his arms.

"Son of a bitch!" he exclaimed when things slowed down.

It took a moment for him to gather his thoughts, then he remembered the man who had pushed him clear.

"Ronon?" he rasped, recalling how Ronon had shoved him forward right before the tunnel they were running through gave way. Rodney had sprawled to the ground meters away from the main danger and the last Rodney knew, Ronon was back in the worst of it.

Finally, it was quiet – deadly quiet. Rodney swallowed hard.

"Ronon?" Rodney asked, hearing the raw emotion in his voice. Even where he was, he was covered by dirt and he struggled to dig himself clear of it.

"Ronon?" he asked again, raising his voice.

There was no reply. No noise. Nothing. It was like a morgue.

What if Ronon was buried? The thought of Ronon dead twisted a knot deep in the pit of Rodney's stomach. The thought made Rodney gasp in fear, shaking off the last of his stunned state. Rodney got to his knees and spread his hands out in front of him, trying to find the big man in the dark.

He went to speak and coughed instead. The air was still so thick.

He cleared his throat and tried again. "Ronon, you better speak up or I'll have to kick your ass when I find you," he said, willing gruffness into his voice when fear was all he felt.

Finally, Rodney gave into his fears and whispered, "Please don't let me be alone in here. I don't do well with enclosed spaces, especially in the dark."

Rodney wiped at the dirt on his face, then fumbled for his P90. Getting hold of the weapon, he felt around for the light switch and flicked it on. It seemed like a tiny little sliver of light cutting into a whole world of dark, its effect barely negligible, but it was better than the bitter darkness creeping in on him.

Rodney swung the P90 around, using the light to assess their situation. Man, they were so screwed. It seemed there was barely any remnant of the tunnel left. They were just in a very large pocket of open space.

He thought again of Ronon and his heart leapt into his throat. What was he thinking, wasting precious moments Ronon might need to survive. He scrambled forward, using the light on his P90 to guide him, but all he saw were huge mounds of rock and dirt everywhere – and no sign of Ronon.

"Ronon, where the hell are you?" he asked, then dropped his P90, letting it dangle from its tether, and started digging at his best guess where Ronon might have fallen when the tunnel ceiling collapsed on them. He left the P90's light on to offer whatever illumination it could as it hung from his tac vest.

"Ronon, come on, you big galoot, answer me," he said loudly as he began digging in another location when nothing came from the first one.

"I'm not going to let you die," he whispered and he sped up his digging efforts. "Not on my watch."

Rodney stopped when he thought he heard a low groan at the far end of where he had been digging. "Ronon?"

There was another groan, unmistakable this time.

"Ronon!" Rodney shouted. "Hold on, I'm coming to you!"

He scrambled to where he'd heard the groans. "Ronon, I'm here. Answer me if you can!"

Rodney brought up the light on his P90. He surveyed the area, holding his breath when he couldn't see Ronon, then he pulled off his backpack and grabbed an MRE. If Sheppard had been in there with him, he would have no doubt made some comment about Rodney picking an odd time to get hungry. The hell with him, Rodney thought, as he started using the MRE's flat surface to dig with.

Rodney had no idea how long he dug. It could have been seconds or minutes. All he knew was he couldn't stop – at least until his digging tool hit something solid and bigger than the rocks that were scattered about.

"Ronon?" Rodney called out as his fingers touched a limp hand.

"Ronon!" he exclaimed as he followed the limb up toward the chest, now seeing how Ronon had been turned away from him in the far corner. The way he was lying on his side with his head bent forward, Ronon had air to breathe while the rest of his body lay covered with rock and dirt.

After clearing the area, Rodney gently turned Ronon onto his back and noticed Ronon's skin still felt warm, but that could be residual. He leaned forward and placed his ear on Ronon's chest. He had just detected the sound of a strong heartbeat when a low grumble came from below. "If you're hugging me, I'm gonna kill you."

Rodney straightened and he sighed with relief. "You're alive!"

"Maybe."

"Oh, thank God, Ronon, I thought I was trapped in here by myself and I was going to freak out big time."

"What's new about that?"

Rodney grunted despite himself. "Funny. Har-har-har."

Rodney eyed Ronon closely. "You're making jokes, but are you okay?"

Ronon didn't answer. He was too busy looking around, as if he'd just noticed their situation for the first time. He frantically tried to rise, only to growl in frustration.

Rodney put a hand on Ronon's chest and held it there. "What's going on?"

"I'm stuck."

"Are you hurt?"

"Don't think so. Can't tell until I'm out of here."

"Hold on, don't move. Let me dig you out."

Ronon struggled to move. "I can – "

Rodney pointed a finger at him. "No, you are going to lie there and let me do this. If you move around too much, you might bring the rest of this tunnel down on top of us."

Rodney thought it was strange the way the muscles in Ronon's jaw twitched with tension and he looked like he was forcing himself to steady his breathing – Ronon usually handled disasters so much better than Rodney – but he didn't argue with him.

Now that his heart had slowed its pounding, Rodney realized there was also a distant shouting. It took him another moment to discern the shouting came from Rodney's dislodged ear piece for his radio headset. The shouting was Sheppard ranting on the radio.

After adjusting the position of his radio, Rodney could now hear Sheppard yelling at him. "Ronon? McKay? Somebody better the hell respond and fast!"

Rodney sighed with relief. "Oh, thank God, John, I'm here," Rodney rasped.

Teyla had her radio on, too, because Rodney could hear her as she said firmly, "Mister Woolsey said he is sending two jumpers."

"That's not enough," Sheppard growled, his voice was muffled as if he was moving. "Who knows how deep this collapse goes?"

Ever calm, ever sure, Teyla said, "It is a start. Doctor Zelenka is in a jumper with the combat engineers. They will assess the situation when they get here and make the appropriate arrangements."

"Teyla! Sheppard! We're here!" Rodney tried again. "Damn it, listen to me!"

Ronon raised his head, his eyebrows raised in concern. "Are they okay?"

Rodney nodded as Sheppard continued, "What if they don't have that kind of time?"

Then Rodney realized Sheppard sounded like he was digging with his hands. Knowing Sheppard, he'd try to dig a hole straight to them with pure stubbornness fueling him, then something happened because John hissed loudly.

Teyla's tone was softer as she said, "John, you are hurt. Let me dig."

"It's nothing. Get Atlantis on the line again and have Woolsey send a couple more jumpers with a medical team."

"There is already a medical team in route."

"Well, have him send at least one more jumper, this one with digging equipment, because we are going to need equipment to get them out."

Rodney shook his head. "Crap, John, I'm here! Can't you hear me?"

"John, please – "

"We can't stop now!" Sheppard's voice was muffled again, as if he was back at digging.

"We will find them, John." This time, it sounded like Teyla was digging as she spoke.

"We have to find them fast – "

Teyla said, "John, rest a moment before you collapse. I will continue digging."

Sheppard grumbled some type of refusal.

"McKay... " Ronon growled.

"Chill out for a sec," Rodney said as he pulled off his radio and looked at it with the P90's light. "Something's wrong with my radio. I can hear Sheppard and Teyla, but they can't hear me."

"Are they okay?"

Rodney nodded, then stopped. "Sounds like Sheppard is hurt, but I don't know how bad. They are digging on their side and there's help coming from Atlantis."

Rodney couldn't see anything wrong with his radio. Yet, Sheppard and Teyla couldn't hear him. Rodney put the radio back on his ear and tried tapping it again.

"John, rest," Teyla said. "You will be of no use to anyone if you collapse. Please, just for a moment."

"I'll rest when I know Rodney and Ronon are okay."

"Hell, John, we're right here," Rodney murmured. "We're okay, damn it."

Ronon swallowed. "What are they saying?"

"They're going crazy because they don't know if we are alive or dead."

Rodney stopped for a moment and stared at Ronon, snapping his fingers. "What about your radio?"

Ronon put a hand to his ear, then felt around. "Lost it."

Rodney pulled up his P90 and aimed it toward Ronon's ear, making Ronon squirm away from the light as he put a hand up to shield his eyes. "Sorry, sorry," Rodney said as he redirected the beam.

"Head injury?" Rodney asked as he glanced back Ronon.

Ronon shrugged. "Maybe."

"Yeah, well, close your eyes, I'm going to look around for your radio."

Ronon nodded and Rodney examined Ronon more closely while turning the light back toward Ronon to look for the radio. Rodney could see blood flowing freely at Ronon's temple and figured he probably had a concussion or something like that, but there was no sign of the radio.

Damn.

Rodney shone the beam up and around Ronon, assessing Ronon's position and wasn't happy with what he saw. The supports that had been holding back the hill above them were stressed to the max and Ronon was wedged pretty deeply into the rubble extending from the side of the tunnel.

"How bad is it?"

Rodney chewed on his lip. They were going to need a lot of help to get Ronon out without causing more trouble. Good thing Zelenka was on his way. He did reasonably well directing that sort of activity. He glanced back to Ronon and noticed he was still breathing fast, making Rodney wonder what type of injuries Ronon had going on under that mountain of debris.

Rodney scratched at his forehead and sighed. Yeah, they were screwed.

"What is it?" Ronon asked, looking up at him.

Think positive. He could almost hear John talking beside him. Ronon doesn't need to hear your doom-and-gloom outlook.'

Rodney straightened. "We've got a lot of work to do. Let me try digging you out again."

Rodney stopped and reached for his canteen. "Or do you need something to drink?"

"No, I don't want anything to drink, damn it. I need to get out of here!" Ronon growled with frustration and Rodney only then noticed Ronon's fingers were trembling slightly. On closer examination, Ronon was breathing harder than he should be.

"What's going on with you?" Rodney asked, squinting down at Ronon.

Ronon glanced away. "Nothing. Just get me out of here."

"Nothing?" Rodney asked. He pointed to Ronon's trembling fingers. "That doesn't look like nothing."

"Listen, McKay, get to work or else I'll do it myself."

Rodney started to argue with him again, then stopped himself. If Ronon decided he wasn't going to talk about something, there was no forcing him into it, but something had Ronon rattled, that was for sure.

Sighing deeply, Rodney glanced upward and caught sight of one of the torches left inside the tunnel to use for light. "Well, finally something in our favor."

He stood and walked to the torch, and then he lit the torch from his stash of matches in his tac vest. Suddenly, their pocket of open space was brightly lit and it was much bigger than he first thought. Things were looking up. Maybe there was something to be said for positive thinking. As long as the overhead supports held, they'd be okay. It was something of a miracle they were even still alive, considering the area behind them and in front of them had collapsed.

Rodney jumped when Lorne's voice came over the radio. "Colonel Sheppard, we are about to land at the coordinates Teyla gave us."

Sheppard cursed. "It's about damned time."

Ouch, Mister Positivity, Rodney thought, go easy.

Sheppard paused and let out a long breath. "Sorry, that wasn't fair, Major. I know you got here as fast as you could. Time is of the essence here. I'm sending Teyla out to lead you and the others in here."

"Yes, sir."

Rodney tapped his radio. "Major Lorne, this is McKay, can you hear me?" he asked in a rush, hoping beyond hope that there was some type of interference going on only within the tunnel.

He held his breath as he waited for a response that never came. Finally, he exhaled and looked to Ronon, shaking his head.

"I guess it's back to work before you start threatening me again," Rodney said as he started moving rocks off of Ronon.

Ronon helped as much as he could, but he seemed weak and he had a growing air of disorientation going on. Afraid that Ronon was going to pass out, Rodney started talking, "Since you don't want to talk about how you're doing, what do you think happened to cause the tunnel to collapse? You didn't hear or see anything before, did you?"

Ronon let out a deep breath and shook his head.

Rodney smiled. "Well, I have a theory."

"Big surprise."

Before Rodney could launch into his explanation, more rock and dirt started to fall. Rodney threw himself over Ronon and he felt Ronon clasp Rodney's arm at the elbow and squeeze hard as they rode out the rumbling.

The movement stopped and Rodney pulled away after a moment, brushing the dirt from his hair with one hand, but Ronon's grip stayed firm on Rodney's other arm.

"Ronon?" Rodney asked softly. "Are you okay?"

Ronon was puffing like a freight train. He must have realized he'd been holding onto Rodney because he let go of him like he'd been holding onto fire itself.

Rodney leaned closer. "What? What is it? Are you hurt?"

Ronon shook his head. "Just closed in."

Rodney paused as he sought to understand Ronon's meaning. "You're – you're afraid of enclosed places?"

Ronon shook his head. "No, just of being buried alive."

"Buried alive? That sounds like something I'd say."

"Great, now I sound like McKay." Ronon rolled his eyes. "Just get back to work."

"I'm not your slave, you know," Rodney muttered.

Ronon sighed. "No, you aren't. Thanks for helping me."

Rodney shrugged and started moving more debris off of Ronon. "Don't have much choice. It's not like there's a lot of other things I could be doing."

"McKay? Ronon?" Sheppard asked. "Can you hear me? Did that latest rumble affect you, too?"

And Rodney realized Sheppard had been calling to him for a while. Sheppard was breathless and sounded like he was hurting. Rodney wondered how that last rumble affected him and Teyla – and if their position was still safe.

"Sheppard?" Rodney asked hesitantly.

There was a pause, but Sheppard must have not been able to hear him because he said, "Well, if you can hear me but can't respond, help is on the way."

Rodney grunted. "Newsflash. Help is on its way."

He glanced at Ronon, then frowned. Despite the cold temperature inside the tunnel, Ronon was sweaty and he was still breathing fast. He touched Ronon's hand again, then his face and it was ice cold. "Don't you go into shock on me, Ronon."

"I'm fine," Ronon said through gritted teeth.

Rodney shook his head. "You are far from fine, my friend. Who knows what kind of injuries you have underneath all that dirt."

"I'm okay. I don't think I'm hurt, but I'll be a lot better once I'm free."

"Then what's got you so riled up?"

Ronon frowned, looking like he was working hard to rein in his emotions.

Rodney's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open a little. "Are you scared?" Rodney asked in a whisper, like it was some deep, dark secret they had to keep from the rest of the galaxy.

The lines on Ronon's expression deepened and Rodney knew he was onto something.

Rodney shook his head. "Well, that's nothing to be embarrassed about. I get scared all the time."

"I don't."

Rodney studied Ronon as he said, "I didn't think anything scared you."

Ronon rolled his eyes and sighed. "Right now, for me, this is like you being swallowed by a whale."

Rodney frowned. "A whale?"

Ronon swallowed, looking irritated, and he let out a long breath as he closed his eyes. "When I was a boy, I was playing in a dry riverbed and the riverbank beside me gave way, burying me in sand. I almost died. I would have died if my father hadn't been right there. He was strong and fast enough to dig me out."

Rodney scratched at his cheek. "Wow. That must have been horrifying."

Realization continued to sink in and Rodney looked around, shaking his head. "I can't imagine what you must be feeling right now."

A recent memory drifted into Rodney's thoughts and he snapped his fingers. "Wait a minute. Your dream – your nightmare with the crystal entity – you dreamt Sheppard was burying you alive."

Ronon chewed on the inside of his cheek, then nodded.

"That was your worst nightmare. Wow. After everything you've been through, that stays your worst nightmare."

Ronon shrugged slightly. "The whale stays as yours, right?"

Rodney nodded. "Damned Moby Dick. What was my father thinking?"

Rodney took a deep breath and patted Ronon on the arm. "Don't worry. We'll get out of this – "

Rodney heard Lorne and Zelenka's voices and knew they'd arrived at the tunnel opening. Rodney smiled. "Or at least Atlantis will get us out of this. Help has arrived. Just hang in there."

Ronon nodded. Rodney brushed some dirt from Ronon's shoulder. "I guess I better get back to work."

Rodney could hear the others over the still open radio line. Equipment was being set up and orders were being issued. Rodney's smile widened. Atlantis would get through to them. And Rodney meant to do his best to keep Ronon from getting swallowed by a whale or at least Ronon's equivalent of one in the meanwhile. It was time to get back to digging.

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