"Where is the moment when needed the most? You kick up the leaves and the magic is lost. You tell me your blue skies fade to grey, you tell me your passions gone away and I don't need no carrying on."

"Any life signs?" Sheppard asked, not entirely enthusiastic,

"None that I can see, this place is old, there's no one left." McKay replied wanting to go home, he hated these kinds of missions, creepy old abandoned village and no ZPMs.

"Alright, Rodney with me, Teyla, Ronan you go left, check for anything that looks important. We'll meet back her in, an hour." Rodney sighed and followed John on a worn out dirt path through a small burnt down village.

This planet was p5x-3395, a small planet similar to Earth that was found in the ancient data base with the description of "Allie." Shaking his head at the thought Rodney continued walking behind Sheppard. Then a small red dot appeared, faint but there, "Sheppard." Rodney yelled at him, because he had stopped walking when he saw but John kept on going. Jogging back John Sheppard looked at the screen,

"What is it?" he asked looking from the small screen of the life signs detector to his surroundings, McKay rolled his eyes and made a motion for him to follow, sometimes he wish people could keep up with him.

After about five minutes of walking around McKay finally found where the 'person' was, she was sleeping against a burnt hut, her short brown hair fanned out behind her. Sheppard and McKay crept closer; she was stunning, perfect features, and interesting clothing.

The young woman was wearing a torn light pink dress, with multiple scorch marks, rips and tares. Cuts and bruises covered her delicate figure. John and Rodney looked at each other for a moment, whoever this was; she had been through a hell of a lot. Carefully Sheppard touched her shoulder, hoping it was just enough to wake her, instantly she shot up, her eyes wide, face scared.

"Calm down, we're not gonna hurt you, we're friends." John Sheppard tried to soothe her, but Rodney smirked, he loved that line, you would either get a good reaction or get shot.

She relaxed against the hut she was lying by, and stared at them with her big brown eyes.

"My name is Mara." She said matter-of-factly, Rodney and John smiled at her, encouragingly.

"I'm Lt. Colonel John Sheppard, and this is Doctor Rodney McKay." He introduced, but she seemed lost, both literally and figuratively. When she tried to smile back at them it was a sad, tired smile, and her eyes bore some much pain and sadness Rodney wanted to take her in his arms and bring her to Atlantis, wait, he thought desperately, this can't be right, I'm the not the hero, that's always John, I'm always on the sidelines.

McKay sighed and watched as John tried to have a conversation with that young woman, she seemed distant just like Rodney did, not really thinking about what was happening, more about what had already happened.

Rodney kicked at some leaves that had fallen thinking about how he hadn't had the luck with women like Sheppard, it sounded childish but he thought it was about time that he found someone. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the thoughts of all the women Sheppard had dated since they came.

"Come on Rodney," John shouted over at him disturbing his thoughts. He quickly followed, but looked up at the sky for a brief moment, he was about to ask God if he would ever find someone to settle down with, he had always liked the thought of getting married one day. But as he looked up he saw that a storm was coming in. "Sheppard, we'd better get moving, it's about to rain." John looked up and saw that Rodney was right.

"Right, Teyla, Ronan, fall back to the gate." The familiar voice of Teyla answered back with an okay.

Only seconds after John had spoken with Teyla did it start poring,

"Oh this is just great!" shouted Rodney.

"I hate off world adventures, they always turn out like this!" Sheppard shot him a scathing look,

"Stop complaining, we're only a few minutes from the gate, come on."