Chapter 2

Stargate Atlantis, set in season 3.

I do not own any of these characters.

I am sorry if my English sucks.

I am not a doctor. So if any of the symptoms and/or treatments aren't correct, don't sue me :P

They had been climbing for a while now. The air was getting thinner and Rodney found that is was getting harder to breath. The air was colder here as well. His hands and feet had gone numb a while ago, and his skin burned from the cold wind. He focused on climbing. Right foot, right hand, left foot, left hand. He repeated it over and over. His lungs burned from the effort, and his throat felt like he had swallowed a cheese grater.

Ronon watched the man in front of him like a hawk. One small step. It only took one misplaced step for the man to fall to his death. He had seen McKay's movements getting slower and less accurate. He had seen the man's skin turn white as a sheet. And now he saw his hands tremble.
"McKay" he said worried. Whether the place was convenient or not, McKay could not continue like this. But the man in question seemed not to have heard him.
He climbed up to McKay and touched his shoulder.
"McKay. You need a break"

Rodney yelped in surprise and quickly tried to get away from the man who had a grip on his shoulder. He jumped to the side, against a solid wall of icy rock. He fully collapsed against it, fell down on the rocky path and started to slide down the mountain. Ronon quickly lurched forward and grabbed the man, tightly holding him in place so he wouldn't slide down further.
"McKay" he yelled, readjusting his hold on the man and pulling his upper body up.
"McKay!" he yelled again, more loudly this time and shaking the man slightly.
Ronon saw McKay dutifully open his eyes. He crouched down next to him.
"You alright?"

Rodney nodded, even though he felt like crap. He felt dizzy. His head was pounding. His lungs burned. His throat was raw. He couldn't feel his hands and feet anymore. He was cold. So cold. He didn't even have the energy left to wrap his arms around himself to conserve any body heat he still had. Suddenly he felt nauseous, and he saw his hands tremble. Then something clicked in his mind.
"Oh crap!" he whispered.

"What?" Ronon asked worried. He saw that McKay felt anything but okay, but he didn't know what had caused it.
"Food... I haven't eaten anything in more than 6 hours..." McKay trailed off.
Suddenly it clicked in Ronon's brain. Hypoglycemic shock. He could go into a coma. He hadn't eaten since before the start of this mission. They had been walking all day, and now they were climbing the mountain with the air as thin as it was. How stupid of him not to think of this. He had heard McKay say he was hungry. He had heard him ask for food in the village. But he had simply pushed him on… On to the next task. He knew how serious his condition was. He had seen it on previous missions. On the first few missions together he had always heard the man ramble on and on about his so called medical conditions. He never actually believed any of them to be true. He had learned rather quickly that the man tended to see everything in a pessimistic, worst case scenario way and wasn't able to handle pain... at all. Even when he had a splinter, he screamed and yelled like he was dying. He actually hadn't thought much of him on the first few missions.
But then the team had been taken captive, and locked in a cell without food or water for days. Of course they had all been hungry, but McKay started falling ill, very ill. McKay had got them out of the high-tech cell, but had fallen in a coma soon after. Later he learned from the doctor that his conditions were very serious, and not something to mess around with. From that moment on he always kept medical supplies for McKay's conditions on him, at all times. You never knew what you walked into.
"Here" he said, handing over a couple of energy bars and a flask of water to McKay.

Rodney looked at the bars in his hand. He focused his eyes on the flavors. You always had to be careful with these things. He selected one of them and tried to rip open the package with his trembling hands. Ronon saw him struggle. He took the energy bar, opened it up for him and placed it back in his hands. Rodney stared at it again. Somehow the wrapping paper had disappeared. He wanted to know how that was possible, but decided that it could wait for later. He slowly started eating the bar, and as soon as he had swallowed the first bite the rest followed quicker. Within 10 minutes he had wolfed down 3 bars, and he took a few sips of water. He leaned back against the stone wall heavily. The headache was still there, but the dizziness faded away.
"McKay?" he heard Ronon say again, and he opened his eyes.
"Better?"
He nodded slightly, before closing his eyes again.

Ronon looked at McKay. The trembling in his hands was lessening, and his skin wasn't white as a sheet anymore. Also his eyes seemed more focused. It looked like they caught it in time. The young man that led them to the device stood to the side and looked down on them.
"Is he going to be alright?" he asked worriedly.
"He is now", Ronon grunted.
The young man nodded.
"I'm glad that he is. It is quite a climb up here, and some people can't handle it that well. That's why they chose me as the guardian of the device. My father used to be the guardian, and now he passed that task on to me. I come up here twice a day, to turn it on and turn it off again. But sometimes other people come up here, and they get nauseous, and dizzy and light headed. I think it is the air. But I'm not sure."
"This is not the air" Ronon answered.
"Then what is it?" the young man asked, worry and interest in his voice.
"He gets sick when he doesn't eat enough".
"What a strange sickness to have" the man mused, but he accepted the answer.
"Will he be okay to continue on?"
Ronon nodded slightly, focusing now on the man in front of him.
"McKay!" he said, tapping the man's face slightly.

Rodney felt the tapping on his face and opened his eyes. He focused on the man's face in front of him, and found that it took a lot less effort then a short while ago. He looked at his hands and flexed his fingers. The trembling was almost gone. He shook his head slightly, as if to get rid of the cobwebs in his head. The dizziness was now fully gone.
"I'm feeling much better. Thanks!" Rodney uttered to Ronon.
Ronon looked at the man's face. His color was returning. He had no difficulty focusing anymore. He saw the man cringe slightly when he shifted and the sunlight hit his eyes.
"Head?" he simply asked.
He saw McKay nod carefully.
Ronon padded down McKay's tag vest.
"Hey -" Rodney exclaimed.
"What -"
"Painkillers. You carry them in your vest, don't you?"
"Yeah, I do, but -"
But Ronon had already found what he had been looking for as he triumphantly pulled out a strip of Tylenol. He took out two of the pills and offered them to McKay, with his flask of water.
"Here", he just said.
Rodney took the pills without a second thought, and swallowed them quickly with a few sips of water. He sighed. How much he wanted to just stay there. How much he wanted to just close his eyes and fall asleep. He was so tired. His lungs were still burning and his throat was raw from the thin air. But he was immensely cold as well. The longer they stayed here, the colder he'd get. They had to go on. The quicker they finished this mission, the quicker he could return to the warmth of his beloved Atlantis.
"Shall we continue on?" he uttered, half-heartedly.

Ronon looked at the man, obviously calculating whether McKay would be able to cope or not.
"I'm feeling much better. And the quicker we finish this, the quicker we can get off of this mountain".
Ronon had to agree with that, but that didn't mean he had to like it. He pulled the man up and slung the heavy backpack over his shoulders once again. The wind picked up again and he felt the cold through his jacket. He quickly followed McKay and hovered close by. The man was far from okay, but Ronon agreed with what he said. The quicker they got to the device, the quicker McKay could fix it.
They continued on. The path zigzagged above them, and after a while they could see the reflection of sunlight on a metal structure of some kind. Their destination was in sight. That McKay hadn't seen this until they were almost there proved to Ronon just how bad the scientist felt. When McKay finally did realize they were almost there Ronon could see the relief in his eyes.
Yes, as soon as they were off of this mountain again he would make sure McKay ate a nice hot meal and got plenty of rest.

...

'Finally', Rodney thought when Ronon pulled him up onto the plateau. He sat there for a while, panting and wheezing, trying to catch his breath.
He became aware of someone opening a large door behind him, and he struggled to get up. He took a good look at the structure. The building was well hidden in the mountain side. Only the front was visible. The young man that had guided them there walked through the door.
"In here!" he yelled from inside the building.
Rodney stumbled in behind him, the sudden wall of hot air surprising him. Ronon followed him, and kept him steady and upright.
They continued down a dark hallway, and suddenly they walked into a large chamber, with a huge device in the middle of the room. Rodney immediately walked towards it, and circled around it, his eyes taking in every little wire and button, and his hands pressing and pulling on things. He gestured at Ronon, and the Satedan took the heavy backpack off and put it down next to the scientist.
"What have you been using it for? The wires have completely burned out and these -" he held up some crystal parts "are recently broken. And what is this?" he said, pointing at some parts that looked very different from the original parts.
"What happened here? What were you trying to do?" he asked the young man.
The young man started twisting his hands nervously.
"I... I don't..."
"I'm waiting!" Rodney said bluntly.
"I... there was... I... I was only...-"
"Yes, go on"
Ronon looked at the younger man. He was really nervous. Sweat glistened on his forehead and he looked like a trapped animal. Whatever he had done, it had to be something that was really dangerous, or forbidden. Why else would he get this nervous.
"I was... I found a book, hidden in the device. It had all kinds of notes in it. I think it was from one of the students of the original builders. I think this can be used as some kind of weapon. We were always taught that this device is build inside the mountain for a reason. That this mountain has too much energy, and that this device releases the energy into space, before it can explode. I was trying to keep the energy from releasing, and store it into this device." he told them, pointing at the parts that looked different.
"If I can find a way to store the energy, and release it when I need it to..."
"Are you insane?" Rodney cut him off.
"You have hardly mastered structural engineering, and now you're trying to toy around with stored energy? You know what can happen if it's not stored properly? If you store too much energy in it? If you're not able to release it in time? Are you really that stupid? You don't just start playing around with things like that -"
"I only wanted to get something more out of my job"
"You could have destroyed the whole planet, the whole solar system. Did you think of that? No of course not! You only wanted to have some cool new weapon and didn't think about the well being of anyone else. What if the energy you stored clashed with the energy shield you have around your home. What if it had taken down the shield? You would be giving the wraith a clear path to your people", Rodney spat out.
The young man looked about ready to cry, choking back tears.
"Enough McKay" Ronon mumbled.
Rodney looked the man in the eyes once more, fire spitting from them. But then he sighed and started rummaging in his backpack, pulling equipment from it. He quickly got to work.

Ronon was always impressed by the way in which McKay was able to switch from a tired, dead on his feet man, to the scientist that kept on working day and night. He watched McKay work for a while, but soon started to feel bored. Normally they would be out in a jungle, and he could keep himself busy with scouting the area again and again, always ready for the attack. But here they were in a building, high up on a mountain. There was no jungle here. There was no perimeter to walk. He felt the restlessness in his legs, and knew his body would rather be running around somewhere. But he knew better. He wouldn't leave the scientist out of his sight. You never knew what could happen.
Wraith, the Genii, people in general with bad intentions, natural disasters, animal attacks, accidents. There were so many things that could go wrong at any moment.
He still remembered the cave in only a short while ago, when he was assigned to protection duty. McKay had been scouting out the ruins of an ancient lab, and Ronon, bored as he was, had stayed outside watching the area. He had suddenly felt a rumble in the ground, and at the same moment he saw the whole building where McKay had been in, collapse. They had worked with 2 teams a full 36 hours to get him out. By that time McKay had been more dead than alive. He had been cooped up in the infirmary for 4 weeks. He still felt guilty over that.
Or the many times that villagers suddenly turned out to be traitors, working for the genii, or other people who could use McKay's knowledge. Or the ones that wanted to punish him for his attitude, or his work alongside Toth the wraith. More than once McKay had been the target, and he would do everything in his power to keep the scientist from getting hurt, even if he had to give up his own life to do it.
He also remembered the general clumsiness of the man. The scientist seemed to attract trouble like a magnet. Wild animals always seemed to search him out. The attack of the wolf pack had earned them all some nice battle scars.
No, he would stay here, and keep McKay company. This way he could keep an eye on the man's general well being as well and make sure he didn't overdue it.

"How could Eisen not understand what this device does? Did he even look at it? The man is more stupid then I thought. Even Kavanough would be able to at least recognize the energy storage and energy output. I am going to have a word with him." Rodney grumbled to no one in particular.
Ronon was so used to it by now, that he didn't get annoyed with the whining anymore. He even started to enjoy the rambling of the scientist. The trick was to not take it personal, and to not let it get to you. When he had finally figured that out, he was actually able to listen to the man's ridiculous behaviour without annoyance. He found it intriguing how someone so physically incapable of anything had the power to make grown men cry and wet their pants. Now he was able to read the man like an open book by measuring the offensiveness in his comments.

Ronon watched McKay work for a long time. It was already getting dark. McKay had taken half of the device apart and removed the newly added parts. He had then pinpointed the exact problems and rewired the device and installed the old and newly replaced parts back in. Ronon interrupted the scientist now and then and handed him an energy bar and a flask of water. Even though McKay would bark at him to leave him alone and let him work, he gratefully accepted the energy bars. Ronon knew the man always forgot the time when he dived into a new project. And he wasn't going to let the man slip off into a coma again, just because he forgot to eat.

...

Ronon jerked awake to the loud clunk of a metal plate being pushed into place.
Already crouching on his heels and hand tightly wrapped around his holster he looked around. Somehow he had fallen asleep sitting against the wall. He saw McKay pushing himself up from the device in the middle of the room and then looking at him.
"Finally awake? I thought you were such an early riser?" McKay shot in his direction before nodding to the entrance of the room.
"The sun has risen hours ago."
Ronon frowned at that.
'Hours ago? Had he been asleep for that long?'.
Indeed the sunlight only lighted a small path from the entrance. It wasn't showing the long stretched out path made of sunlight that would have been there if the sun had only just been rising. He stood up quickly and bend his knees and shook his arms and legs awake. His stomach grumbled loudly.
"I have put your breakfast over there" McKay said, pointing towards a corner.
"It's not much, just bread and eggs, but it's better than nothing"
Ronon nodded slightly and made his way towards the corner.
"Neel brought it to us".
"Neel?" Ronon asked with his mouth full. He had found the basket with food with the remains from last night's dinner, and had pulled out the largest bread and had started eating immediately.
"Yeah, that's the name of that idiot that almost blew us all up".
"Hmm" Ronon replied.
"He's outside, somewhere" McKay gestured towards the entrance.
"Said he had some things to take care of and that he would be back later."
Ronon also looked at the entrance.
"That was hours ago, when he had just delivered us the food. You'd think that he would want to stay close by, since it was his fault that we're here in the first place. You'd think that he would want to know what I'm doing to fix it. It's weird" McKay sounded genuinely puzzled.
"How come it's weird?" Ronon mumbled around the bread in his mouth.
McKay looked at him and sighed.
"As a scientist and as a guardian of this place, he would need to know everything that goes on around here. Even though he was messing around with all this stuff, he would need to know the status of everything. Especially since his job is to keep the whole mountain from blowing up. It is a pretty important task. Strangers come in here to fix the mess he has made, and suddenly he disappears. Trusting, turning over his task, his sole job, to people he has only just met. It's not right. It's weird".
"Maybe he was just ashamed", Ronon said, tearing off another piece of bread.
"Even if he's ashamed, it shouldn't stop him from doing his job. I don't like it. Maybe he has other experiments running, and now that he knows how dangerous it could be, he is shutting it off."
Ronon shrugged.
"That's good".
"Yeah, it is..." McKay replied, lost in thought.
Suddenly a rumble shook the mountain and pulled McKay from his thoughts.
"Yes yes" he mumbled to himself and his hands darted quickly over the panels, pushing all kinds of buttons.
It never ceased to amaze Ronon how expertly the man could handle any device thrown at him. He watched in awe as numbers, diagrams and text fluttered across the screen. He felt another rumble shaking the mountain.
"This should be it" he heard McKay say as he hit another button.
He felt the tinge of electricity in the air as it made the hair on the back of his neck spike. He heard a distant whine of something charging, and suddenly a loud Whoosh could be heard as the electricity was released.
"It's not enough yet" McKay mumbled to himself and repeated the actions. After three more rounds of releasing the build-up energy, he was happy with the energy readings from the device.
"Now, if Neel turns the device on in the morning again, and releases the energy once a day, there shouldn't be any lasting effect of the device being shut down for so long".
Ronon simply grumbled something. He didn't care about such things.
"So, you're finished?"

Rodney nodded. Oh, how ready he was to go home. He longed for warmth, coffee, a good meal, and a nice bed to sleep in. He longed to be back in Atlantis. He was tired. So tired. And now that he was finally finished he could feel the aching in his body. He was sure that if he wanted, he could sleep right here, right now.
"Let me just pack up, then we can finally go back to Atlantis".

Ronon looked at McKay. Now that the man was finished with the repairs his whole body seemed to slump in on itself. He had dark circles under his eyes, clear evidence that he had worked all day and through the whole night, again. And god knows how long he had been up before that. He saw the man trembling, from the cold, lack of sleep, lack of energy, lack of food. He pulled out the last of his energy bars and handed it to McKay.
McKay looked at him, dumbfounded.
"Eat. You're gonna need the energy" Ronon replied gruffly.
"Thanks" McKay said, surprise evident in his voice. He squinted his eyes and focused on the flavours. You could never be too careful. Apparently satisfied McKay pulled of the wrapper and started eating it.
Ronon moved to McKay's backpack and slung it over his shoulder with a loud clunk. Ronon felt the equipment rattle and press into his back.
McKay threw him an annoyed look. Ronon knew exactly why, but just arched his eyebrow, daring McKay to say something about it. McKay seemed to debate whether it was worth it or not, and in the end he just pressed his lips together and continued eating the energy bar.
Ronon saw McKay trying to stifle a loud yawn.
'Yes, he would need all the energy he could get. Climbing a mountain with McKay on his best was a challenge. Climbing a mountain with McKay dead on his feet, falling over from sleep deprivation was a disaster waiting to happen. They were just gonna have to do this one step at a time', Ronon thought.

...

Rodney sat against a large bolder, letting his head lean against it. He was exhausted. It had taken about two and a half hour to climb down again. After only ten minutes the cold had crept back into his bones and had made him shiver uncontrollably. His hands and feet had gone numb from the cold, and his skin had turned an angry red from the cutting wind. He already was tired as hell, and lack of sleep and coffee made it hard to focus. Ronon had taken precautions and tied the ending of a rope around McKay's waist and the other end around his waist. He let McKay walk up front and was walking just a step behind him, keeping his hand on McKay's shoulder to steer him in the right direction or keep him from moving all together. It worked quite well, but it took up a large amount of time and was taxing on the both of them. Now that they had finally reached the bottom, Ronon had steered McKay to the large bolder and propped him up against it. He had untied the rope connecting the two of them and was just putting it away when Neel climbed down from the mountain.
"I went inside the chamber, but you had already left. Then I went to look outside and saw you climbing down. I gathered the remains of the food and followed you" he told them triumphantly.
Ronon looked at him. Obviously the boy was rather quick in climbing the mountain. Why hadn't he let them know that he was close behind them? And more important, how come Ronon hadn't noticed him that close behind. Obviously this boy was a lot stealthier then he let on. Together with McKay's observation earlier about the boys behaviour made it so that Ronon couldn't find himself to trust the man. He would keep an eye on him.
Neel slumped his shoulders, seemingly taking Ronon's absence of reply personal.
"Is there some left?" Ronon grumbled.
The boys face lit up.
"Food you mean? Sure" and he pulled out another loaf of bread and 1 boiled egg from the basket.
"Here" he said, handing it over to Ronon.
Ronon walked back to where McKay sat against the bolder and found the man sound asleep, snoring slightly. A small smile tugged at the corner of Ronon's lips. They could stay here for a little while. He lowered himself on the floor and tried to find a comfortable position. He divided the bread in three pieces and held one out to Neel.
"Are you going to stay here?" he asked, his gaze wondering from Ronon to McKay, ignoring the offered piece of bread.
"Just for a while, so he can at least get some strength back", Ronon answered, gesturing towards the sleeping man, and putting the piece of bread next to the chunk reserved for McKay.
"Do you know the way back by yourself?" Neel asked, looking down the path.
"The path we took to get here wasn't difficult".
"Then I should get going. Omac, our leader, was expecting you back yesterday. I'll inform him that you're on your way and that they can start the preparations for the feast again".
Ronon looked him in the eyes again and nodded. What the boy was saying sounded off somehow. Why would this Omac be expecting them back yesterday. Neither he, nor the boy knew how much time it would take to fix the device. And even worse, the scientist that had already been here was unable to determine the problem. If anything, they should have been expecting McKay to take weeks for the repairs. The boy seemed deliberately evasive, secretive, nervous, but brave too... and smart. There was something weird about him, as McKay had said it. Ronon couldn't quite put his finger on it. The earlier they were off this planet and back in Atlantis the better.
"Oke. I'll be going then" the boy said with a wavering voice and turned around.
Ronon grunted a reply and the boy took off.
Ronon watched him go. Something about the boy kept bothering him. He didn't know what it was. He just hoped that whatever it was didn't turn out to be something bad. He would just have to keep an extra eye out when they were back in the village.
But for now he would just rest. He munched on his piece of bread and let the sunlight warm his features as McKay's soft snores filled the air.

\To be continued