Sort of grim, I think I've been reading too many books involving wars/battles/fighting to survive. Set in Pegasus, sort of AU. John/Teyla comes in at the end.
Disclaimer: I don't own Stargate Atlantis or the characters.
She realizes what it is before the scientist does. The thrumming in the air that reverberates all around them. "Wha-" he begins to say. Teyla launches herself at him, her arms catching him around the waist as her momentum carries them into the ground.
"the hell," he finishes with a groan of pain. Anything else that he was going to say is cut off by the explosion.
Her ears are ringing but she can still hear the whimpers that Rodney is making. Neither of them had expected this. If they had, they wouldn't have come.
She realizes that he's repeating something over and over, a sort of mantra. Then she makes out the words. "Shit, shit, shit."
As the ground settles beneath them, she rolls away and pushes herself up to her feet. They have to move. "Rodney," she reaches her hand towards him but he doesn't take it.
"We're going to die," he says. "We're going to die here, why did I have to-"
They do not have time for this. "Everyone meets with death eventually," she says. Before he can become inconsolable, she continues, "But for us, today does not have to be that day. Let us go." This time she grabs him by his TAC vest and hauls him to his feet.
They begin to run. Their boots sliding across the mud. People are now pouring out of buildings, their screams filling the air. Teyla sees men, women, and children of all ages. A few cry to them for help as a shell comes screaming in. This is not their war.
Rodney is on his radio, trying to raise Atlantis, but he quickly gives up. "Something is interrupting the signal," he pants.
They are cut off, then. Atlantis will not know that anything is wrong until they miss their scheduled check-in. The rest of the science team is huddled around Lt. Heinrich. One of them comes running towards them. "We don't know what happened," Jamison is saying. "One minute things were fine, then the next BAM."
Teyla does not know what happened either. There were reports of certain tensions on the planet, but they had been assured that the threat of the Wraith was enough to keep a civil war at bay. "We must make it to the Gate," she says.
The team looks at one another. They are scientists, not soldiers. "How?" He is tall and lanky, she thinks his name is Reynolds. "It's too far, shouldn't we just wait for a jumper?"
Teyla looks at her watch. By the time a jumper arrives, it will most likely be too late. "Our best option for survival is to make it to the gate."
"Is it?" Rodney asks, "Trying to make it to the gate means trekking through a jungle, do you know what's in the jungle? Things that can kill us."
"Emmagen is right," Heinrich says. He knows.
The sound of gunfire erupts behind them and they all instinctively drop to their knees. Teyla looks at the group. "That," she says firmly, "Is what will kill us." This is not their fight and she does not wish to be put in a position where they will be forced to take up arms. Colonel Sheppard and Woolsey would certainly not be pleased to discover they had involved themselves in a war.
Teyla had volunteered to accompany the scientists and Lt. Heinrich. Colonel Sheppard had reluctantly given in to one scientist's insistence that they check out the planet's use of technology. Rodney scoffed at the idea, "What can we learn from them that we don't already know? Besides, I'm sure the Wraith have taken out anything useful." But the scientist had insisted and John had given him a go ahead. Rodney had decided to go along. Teyla had a feeling that he wanted to make sure that he was there if anything valuable was discovered.
Lt. Heinrich had approached her. "I want someone with me who uses words before weapons," he had said. "Just in case." She had agreed and Colonel Sheppard had given her a go-ahead. "If that's how you want to spend your day off."
Things should have been straightforward. But like the majority of missions, things never went as they should.
As the gunfire continued, one of the scientists, Adrienne Lin, nods. "We should try for the Gate." Teyla recalls having talked to her before on Atlantis. Adrienne had been to nearly all the countries that made up the Atlantis expedition. She had told stories about rock climbing and kayaking. Adrienne had said something about loving adventure, she was about to get one.
Heinrich takes point and Teyla covers the rear. Adrienne is right behind Heinrich, directing him. Eventually the sound of gunfire becomes a distance spatter as the jungle envelopes them. It is overwhelming hot, the kind of heat that sticks to your skin, they begin to shed anything that is not a necessity.
Teyla is used to this sort of thing. She senses that Heinrich is also familiar with it and her suspicions are confirmed when he grumbles, "I thought I left the Congo behind me." She knows little about him. On their way in he had told her that he had been Marine Recon. From the way that he carried himself, she could tell that his training and experience was different than many of the others.
She trusted his skills, but a part of her wished that it was Colonel Sheppard. There was something to be said about a close knit team. And Sheppard's team was close. They could anticipate what one another needed without words. She trusted them implicitly and knew that they trusted her.
Currently it was as though she and Heinrich were animals leading their cubs to safety.
It was not long before they realized just how right Rodney had been. There were things in the jungle that wanted to kill them.
"Stop," Teyla whispered to Rodney. Her single word was passed along until it reached Heinrich. The line stilled and Heinrich turned towards her.
She motioned for him to listen.
"What is it?" Rodney hissed.
This time she was not the only one who heard the low grumble of an unseen creature.
Teyla brought her gun up and Heinrich motioned for the scientists to fall into a crouch. They had no idea what it was they were dealing with. Maybe it was nothing.
Then, Reynolds moaned. "I see it," he said, "I see it."
She followed his line of site, Heinrich was quicker. The creature was faster than either of them. The shot that should have hit ended in a tree and the lanky scientist screamed as the thing landed on him, claws outstretched.
"FUCK," yelled Jamison. Teyla and Heinrich aimed at the creature.
It was gone before they could fire.
"We're going to die," Rodney said. "I knew it."
"Calm down," Heinrich was looking around. "We keep moving." His eyes finally met Teyla's and she nods.
The trail becomes increasingly dense and more difficult to navigate.
"We can't make it," Rodney says, slumping to the ground. Teyla and Heinrich exchange a look. Maybe they cannot, but they must try.
There is a grumbling among the leaves and Heinrich gives a grim smile. "Well, it's a hell of a good day to die," And with that they meet the creature head on.
Now it is only Teyla, and Rodney left. They are running. The heat is oppressive, suffocating. "I can't keep going," Rodney is saying. "I can't." Teyla grabs his hand and pulls him. She does not let him know that he is not the only one struggling. Silently she repeats to herself, "one more, one more, one more." Just one more step.
Rodney is crying, silent tears are making their way down his cheeks among the sweat. "Blisters," he manages between breaths, "Can't. Take. Another. Step." She does not release her grip on him and despite his complaints, he continues on.
They are close when she feels something. A hot trail of blood forms on her arm. A thorn from a vine. They keep moving. It is not long before she begins to feel sluggish, as though her limbs wish to cease functioning. "Rodney," she says.
"Huh? What now? We're going to die aren't we? That thing again?" his voice sounds strangled by panic.
Her legs give out and he barely manages to catch her. "Are you alright?"
Teyla closes her eyes for a moment. "The plant," she says. "It was poisonous."
Rodney is looking all around, "What? What plant, where? What are you talking about?" He tugs at her. "No, oh no. You can't give up now. If you won't let me give up then I'm not about to let you."
"Rodney," she says, "I cannot go on. It is spreading."
"No, no no." He's looking around. "I can carry you or something. I'm not going to leave you here, not like this. "Besides," Rodney says. "If we don't, Sheppard's just going to kill me anyways." That is the last thing she hears before the darkness takes her.
When she wakes again, it's to find Rodney muttering to himself. His face is streaked with blood and he's kneeling beside the gate. "I don't believe this." He rocks back on his heels and closes his eyes, utterly defeated.
Her head is pounding and her body aching as though with fever but she manages to grasp his hand. He looks down at her. "Oh thank God," he says. "I thought I was alone, I really thought that I was alone. I didn't know what to do."
She cannot speak, she discovers. But her being conscious is enough for him. "I can't get it to work. I don't know what's wrong with it, it shouldn't be jammed but it is."
Teyla stares up at the sky. Night has begun to descend and in the inky blackness there is no indication that miles away people are dying. That among the muddy trail leading through the jungle people lie, never to rise again.
Rodney settles down beside her. "That thing is still out there. I can't get through to Atlantis." His hand lands on her shoulder. "I can't do it," he says as his voice breaks. "This is it, isn't it."
Her tongue is thick but she manages to speak. "It is alright."
He shakes his head, "because 'everyone meets with death.'…I didn't think this would be it. When we're up against the Wraith? Sure. But a jungle," he says with a laugh. "This is completely ridiculous. If this was the way I wanted to go, I would have taken a trip to South America."
There's a rustle near them and he quiets. Teyla manages to draw her knife, her entire body screaming in protest.
"Teyla, you can't. You're in no condition-"
He is right. While the paralysis is wearing off she feels a fever spreading through her. But she is not about to; as Rodney put it, allow a jungle to best them. She has survived far too much to allow this to be her end.
And so she fights. The beast leaps and she greets it.
When she wakes again, she is lying in the infirmary. John is sitting next to her; he must have noticed her stirring because he has set his book aside. "Nice of you to join us," he says.
She would speak but there is a tube preventing her.
"That poison was some nasty stuff, the cat too. I'll get Keller."
Once it is removed and she has had some water, she asks. "Rodney?"
John smiles, "He really came through, you know. Apparently you tried to fight it off but couldn't, no surprise considering your own body was fighting you. Rodney managed to kill it."
"He is alright?"
"Well…" John looks at the floor. "I don't know about 'alright,' he's alive though."
They were the only ones who had made it off the planet. It was supposed to be easy, simple.
John stays with her the rest of the day. Ronon comes to visit her. Finally, Keller kicks them both out. Before he leaves, John says, "You know, you might want to spend your next day off going to a nice hot spring. Someplace with less war and jungle cats."
Teyla is pulling on her running shoes when her door chimes. Rodney is there. He looks uncomfortable and she wonders if he has ever put his exercise clothes to good use. "I can't believe I'm doing this," he mutters."
"You asked if you could join me," she says as she stretches. Rodney watches her impatiently.
"I know I did but it's probably a bad idea."
"Come, Rodney," she says.
They fall into the routine and one day the door chimes but it is John instead of Rodney. "I was coming to see if you wanted to spar," he says.
"I cannot."
He looks slightly disappointed. It has been awhile. "In an hour," she says. "I will meet you in the gym?"
He nods. "See you in an hour." Rodney bumps past him. And John raises his eyebrows. "So this is your secret," he says.
"Secret?" Rodney asks.
"I've been noticing you've been looking a little…leaner, recently," he says.
"I just want to be prepared if I ever have to run for my life again," he says. "Now, if you'll excuse us."
Everyone meets with death eventually. But as they run, as their breathing becomes increasingly strained, they are reminded that they are still alive.
Teyla is still thinking about Rodney's words when she enters the gym. They face dangers everyday and perhaps the day will come when she is once again in a race to survive. John seems to notice her lack of interest in sparring and it is not long before they begin another, more suitable activity.
They lie together and John strokes her hair. It has been many months since the incident but Rodney's seemingly innocuous comment seems to have gotten to John as well. "I'm glad you're here," he says. She knows that he does not mean it literally, but she answers as such. "I do not wish to be anywhere else."