Author's note: SPOILER ALERT!!! Part of this 'Missing Scene' is actually a transcription of a portion of the episode, so MAJOR spoilers for "The Tao of Rodney". DON'T READ IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED!!!

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters to Stargate Atlantis, nor am I making any type of profit from this story. It is a work of fan fiction, for enjoyment only.

Zapped

By KerrAvon

'Still nothing.' Radek Zelenka pounded on the keyboard with uncharacteristic ferocity, certain that the life of his friend hung on his ability to decipher and reverse-engineer the corroded, ten-thousand-year-old machine. Astoundingly, no one else seemed to recognize the danger, not even the man whose life he was trying to save. A 'mysterious energy pulse from a device created by the Ancients' that was 'meant to manipulate human DNA' could not possibly bode well long-term, no matter what short-term 'superpowers' Rodney manifested. Yet where was the Man-of-the-Hour? Busy in the Control Chair, rerouting power systems for maximum efficiency while ignoring his own peril.

Another set of Ancient glyphs scrolled up onto the screen as Radek's eyes narrowed in concentration. 'Now we're getting somewhere…' he thought, excitedly reaching for the control pad with his stylus. Simultaneously, the figures blinked from the wall screen as the room once again plunged into darkness.

Fury painted the Czech's vision a hazy red in the milliseconds it took for the emergency lighting to snap on. "That's it!" he hissed, then reverted to Czech in exasperation. Dropping his pad forcefully to the console, he whirled and stormed from the room, determined to have it out with Rodney once again. His monologue continued as he stalked angrily down the corridor, intent on mayhem. He had just turned the corner when the lights began to flicker. Glancing nervously at the ceiling, he lengthened his stride to a trot. A loud, electric 'pop' startled him; involuntarily looking towards the sound, he was rewarded with the sight of an arc of errant electricity skittering across the surface of the corridor wall and vanishing. The hairs on the back of his arms stood on end from both fear and the static permeating the atmosphere, as ozone filled his nostrils. As the technological lightning bolts began criss-crossing the corridor, he broke into a full-out run. No use; a blinding flash of light, a sharp stab to his chest, then oblivion.

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"Zelenka! Where's Zelenka? What the hell has he been doing?" McKay was close to panic as the realities of his new 'enhancements' sunk in. 'Those stupid, stupid Ancients and their botched experiments! I should know better by now!'

"We have massive power surges throughout the grid; shutdown protocols are not responding." Dr. Coleman kept her voice tightly controlled, yet still managed to project the urgency of the situation.

"Dammit…" With an effort Rodney dragged himself away from his own predicament and back to the job at hand before it got more out of control. Climbing back into the control chair, he closed his eyes and leaned back, activating it. Within moments he was immersed in the rerouting programs, reinstated the safety protocols, and in ninety-five seconds the reconfiguration was complete.

Snapping open his eyes, his evolving intellect focussed immediately on his previous pressing problem. Casting about the Atlantis floorplan, he muttered, "Zelenka…Zelenka…" His breath suddenly hitched as his eyes went wide. "Oh my God…."

Sheppard and Weir each took an involuntary step forward, Weir reaching a hand out as she did so. "Rodney, what is it? What's wrong?"

Not bothering to answer, McKay slapped his communicator. "Beckett! Medical emergency, corridor B-57 west. Zelenka's down!" Hopping out of the chair, he raced for the door, uncaring if anyone followed. The Medlab was relatively close to the site of Zelenka's injury, while the chair room was halfway across Atlantis; by the time he got there, Radek should already be in the infirmary. Weir's lips tightened into a thin line; with a wordless command to Sheppard, the pair quickly followed the chief scientist.

As he hurried towards the transporter, McKay's thoughts were in an anguished whirl. 'I'm a dead man?' he chastised himself, sarcastically repeating his earlier observation. 'Now Radek's a dead man, all because I was too busy feeling sorry for myself to complete the job I'd started. I was less than two minutes from being finished. Two minutes! Why couldn't I have just stayed on track for two lousy minutes?!?' Unconsciously he increased his pace to a near-run, the others close behind.

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The sight that confronted Beckett's team as they rounded the corner into the affected corridor was one he'd remember for some time to come. The scent of ozone hung heavy in the air as scorch marks blackened the walls. Fried electrical circuits hung haphazardly from the panels, occasionally sparking and snapping with random discharges as the failsafes cut in. His sharp eyes picked out the limp, blue-clad form that lay face-down on the floor ahead, unmoving.

"Radek!" Somehow, Carson had no doubt as to McKay's pronouncement, although how he'd known was a matter of conjecture. In a flash he knelt beside the still body, reaching for the carotid.

"No pulse!" he cried, rolling the scientist onto his back. "Begin CPR!" Snagging the O2 canister and cranking it up, he tilted Radek's neck back, fitted the mask against his face, and blew two breaths through the ambu-bag while making sure the chest rose with each breath. Then he handed it to one of the other rescue personnel so he could assess his patient. Quickly inspecting Zelenka's chest, he couldn't help noticing the charred hole slightly to the left of center in the blue cloth. "I need a pair of scissors," he instructed, and was instantly handed a set of ER shears. Yanking the shirt up, he split it from hem to neck to expose the ugly burn injury immediately below. Raw, seared flesh met his probing fingers, with a carbonized, black center. The heaped edges spoke of intense heat or electricity, abruptly applied.

"Looks like a lightning strike," he muttered aloud, the power surges of a few moments ago taking on a brand new meaning. "Right. Let's get him out of here. Let me have that." He reached for the ambu-bag and took over the respirations. The person administering compressions had already switched out.

Beckett kept an automatic rhythm with the nurse performing chest compression, simultaneously making room for the stretcher and a lifting board.

"On my count…one, two, THREE!" The group worked like a well-oiled machine, sliding Zelenka onto the board and raising him onto the stretcher without a hitch. Checking again for a pulse and finding none, Carson ordered, "Resume CPR" and returned to the rescue breathing with the bag.

"All right, people, let's move!" Pulling the cart up to its full height, the group set off down the corridor towards the infirmary. All the way there Beckett verbally encouraged the unconscious engineer, "Come on, Radek…come on…"

As they rolled through the door, Beckett resumed barking orders. "He's not breathin'; we need to intubate! Start an IV, wide open. Get that monitor set up." The stretcher wheeled up parallel to the exam table as an orderly locked it in place. Snagging one of the handholds to the backboard, Carson continued, "All right, on my count…one, two, THREE." With half-a-dozen helping hands, the white plastic board slid easily onto the table.

The automatic door to the infirmary whooshed open to an anguished cry of "Radek!" from McKay. Carson didn't have time to deal with him; he just hoped Rodney had the good sense to stay out of the way. "Get the leads set up, please," he instructed even as his people were automatically doing it. He placed the left lower lead himself, then took a quick view of the monitor. 'I was afraid of that,' he cursed to himself.

"He's in V-tach. Prepare to defib." Snatching the paddles from the crash cart, he rubbed the hastily-squirted lubricant evenly over their surface as he listened to the defibrillator power up. When it reached the correct tone he called, "Clear!" and began to place the paddles on the Czech's chest.

McKay suddenly snapping "Move!" and shoving him aside shocked him as much as if the paddles had discharged.

"Rodney, the man is dying!" Clearly McKay didn't understand the need for a rapid countershock. If one could be administered before too much cell necrosis set in, they might stand a chance. Of course, then they'd have to worry about renal failure from the myoglobinuria…

"No! Just give me a second; I know…" Oblivious, Rodney closed his eyes and stretched out his hands, palms down. His face was a mask of concentration as he placed them gently on the gory chest only millimeters from the wound. Beckett was preparing to violently push him aside if need be, but Weir caught his eye and gave a slight shake of her head. Beckett fumed; if they lost Radek because McKay was on some sort of power trip with his new-found abilities…Carson glanced at Rodney's hands in frustration.

They were glowing. McKay's hands were actually glowing. Before Beckett's astonished gaze the gaping burn wound began to resorb…to heal. Within seconds it had disappeared completely, not even leaving a singed chest-hair in its wake. Radek took the deep breath of a diver who'd just come up for air, then resumed breathing normally on his own.

Rodney's brows creased and his eyes cracked open in confusion as he lifted his hands from his friend's chest. He began slowly backing away from the bedside with the look of a hunted animal, unsure of the reaction of the audience around him. Carson had other concerns; far be it from him to look a gift horse in the mouth. Checking the monitors in disbelief, he ticked off the vital signs, one by one. "Heart rate's good…breathing steady…pulse is good." He allowed himself the luxury of looking over at McKay, now that his patient was miraculously saved. In fact, every eye in the room was on the suddenly-uncomfortable man until a noise from the bed caught their attention.

Zelenka's eyes flickered open and he tried to sit up onto his elbows. Carson automatically slid a supporting hand behind his shoulders to help.

Weir stared at him in concern. "Radek…you OK?"

He looked around, obviously surprised to be in the infirmary. "What happened?" he asked groggily, accent slightly thicker than usual. His eyes sought those around him, finally resting on McKay.

Rodney was done. Dropping both his eyes and his head, he turned and ran from the room. Radek blinked blearily, then opened his eyes wide to try and clear them.

"Just lie back and let me examine you," reassured Carson softly, helping him to the pillow a nurse had quickly placed behind the Czech's head. Weir watched on anxiously, while Sheppard stared at the doorway Rodney had vanished through.

Elizabeth, noticing John's inattention as Beckett began his thorough exam, jerked her chin towards the door and murmured, "Things seem pretty stable here. Why don't you go check on Rodney?"

The soldier flashed her a grateful smile and nodded. "Thanks. I'll do that," he replied, then took off at a run.

Reaching the hallway outside, he paused a moment to ponder direction. Where would Rodney go? His lab? His quarters? The Mess Hall? The gym? Shaking his head, John snorted and discarded that last locale as a possibility. Closing his eyes he thought, 'OK, I'm McKay. I've become smarter than I ever dreamed possible, and have amazing superpowers which are going to kill me soon. I almost caused the death of a friend, then literally brought him back to life. Where would I go to make sense of it all?' His eyes flew open as he snapped his fingers. "The balcony!" he exclaimed, then jogged down the right-hand hallway.

Sure enough, as the balcony doors slid open, a shadowy form was visible leaning heavily on the railing, staring up at the stars. John moved quietly so as not to disturb the skittish scientist, but made enough noise to alert him to the fact that he had company.

Without turning around, Rodney griped, "Do you mind? I'd like to be alone for a few minutes."

John nodded as he sidled up and stood next to McKay, mirroring his position against the rail. "No problem. I won't say a word." Not even glancing towards the increasingly-irritated astrophysicist, he kept his gaze on the night sky.

After a few minutes Rodney pursed his lips, squinted his eyes shut, and swung towards the pilot. "What are you doing here?" he spat.

John shrugged without meeting Rodney's eyes. "Looking at the stars. Beautiful, aren't they?"

Involuntarily returning his gaze to the sky, he nodded slightly. "Yeah…yeah, I guess they are. I didn't really notice."

"Then what are you doing out here?" Sheppard injected an intentional lighter tone to the question to let Rodney know that it was OK not to answer if he didn't want to.

For a moment it looked as if he wouldn't. Turning back towards the ocean, Rodney inhaled deeply, then puffed out his cheeks and released an audible sigh. Dropping his head, he stared at his clasped hands in front of him as if they held the secrets of the universe. Finally, in a small voice he replied, "I just needed to get my thoughts together. I mean, what happened back there…"

John nodded, still keeping his eyes on the stars above. "Yeah. Pretty scary stuff. And I was just watching."

Rodney swung away from the railing in sudden agitation, flinging his hands to the side. "My God. I brought him back to life. I brought Radek Zelenka back to life! No man should have the power to do that; that's the power of a god. If I can do that, what can't I do?" He fixed haunted eyes on John, who had turned to face him at his outburst. "Colonel…I'm not a god…" he concluded in a small voice. "I'm just a man. A very, very frightened man."

Sheppard moved close enough to drop a reassuring hand on the distraught scientist's shoulder. "Hey, imagine if you were a little girl."

McKay's brow crinkled in confusion at the apparent non sequitur. "What?" he finally asked.

"When I was stranded for six months with those pansy Ancient wannabes, I was injured twice by their 'beast'…badly. They had this five or six year old little girl who healed me from the brink of death both times. Apparently not everyone about to ascend develops this power; at least, she was the only one of her people to have it to any degree. It's just lucky for Radek that you did develop it."

"Yeah, well, if it wasn't for me Radek wouldn't have been in the situation to begin with." The self-loathing was evident in his voice as he swung back towards the ocean and took a deep breath, shrugging off John's hand in the process.

Sheppard wasn't going to give up that easily. "Now that's the kind of thinking you have to give up if you want to ascend. If nothing else, I learned that from my time with those people."

"But I don't want to ascend. I like it here just fine, thank you. I like it even better now that I…" he broke off, embarrassed.

"Now that you what?" asked John gently. "Have superpowers? A super-brain? Can't be super-ego; you had that already."

"Oh har-de-har-har," snarked Rodney, but Sheppard could feel his mood lift slightly. "That's right, make fun of the dying man." Frowning again at his own words, he continued, "I was going to say, 'Now that I can make a difference'."

John was actually startled. "What do you mean? You make a difference every day. How many times have you pulled our collective asses out of the fire with one of your brilliant schemes?"

McKay raised a shoulder in acquiescence. "Well, yes, that's true. But look at everything I've done since I was zapped by that machine; think about how much more I could do if I could survive this."

"Who says you can't? All we've got to go on are the Ancient texts on the matter, and we all know how frequently those smug, self-satisfied jerks were wrong. Besides, I don't think any of the Ancients shared your desire to not ascend. To them, ascension was the supreme goal of existence!"

McKay's eyes widened in realization as he excitedly waggled an index finger in John's face. "You know, you may be right. I'll bet they never even tried to reverse the process; they'd rather die than not ascend." His face fell. "But Zelenka's been working on reversing the process without much success."

Sheppard refused to let his enthusiasm wane. "Yes, but even under normal circumstances he's not you. And now? Rodney…you just brought a man back to life. As you yourself asked earlier, 'What can't you do?'"

The light rekindled in Rodney's eyes. "You know, you're right," he exclaimed. "If anyone can figure out how to reverse the process, it would be me."

Sheppard gave him a playful slug on the shoulder. "There's the spirit! Go get 'em."

"Right!" McKay strode excitedly towards the corridor, pausing just as he reached the balcony door. "If this doesn't work…"

"It'll work," interrupted John, taking a page out of the Elizabeth Weir Book of Positive Thinking.

"But if it doesn't…" McKay held a hand up to stay any further objection. "I just want you to know that I'll spend my few remaining days getting as much scientific advancement done as possible." He wiggled his fingers in front of his face demonstratively. "I'm not going to go all silver-eyed and god-complex on everyone, like in that Star Trek episode."

"Huh?"

McKay scowled. "Come on, I know you're a closet geek. I'll bet you know all the Star Trek episodes by heart."

John had the grace to look embarrassed. "Well, the original series, maybe…" he finally conceded. "But just because there was a drinking game involved!" he added defiantly.

"Of course 'the original series'. The others don't count," Rodney smirked. "Then you know the episode I'm talking about. They go through this barrier…"

"Where No Man Has Gone Before," supplied Sheppard.

McKay's grin threatened to split his face. "I knew you'd know it!" he exclaimed. "Well, anyway, I just wanted to reassure you…"

Sheppard waved him off. "Don't worry about it, Rodney. Just get to work reversing that machine." He kept the smile plastered on his face until McKay was well out of sight, then frowned a the memory of that episode. The fact that McKay even brought it up unnerved him. Touching a hand to his radio, he said, "Major Lorne? I need you to set up a guard detail…"

The End

AN: There was just so much missing between Radek's resuscitation and Weir's visit to Rodney in the lab that I felt the need to interject something. Also, I wanted to explain the guard that you can see posted outside the lab while Elizabeth and Rodney are talking.