Ronon

He wanted to scream. He wanted to run. There was blood everywhere. A dark smear traced the wall above Sheppard's head and a puddle was spreading behind where he sat crumpled against the wall.

When John slowly lowered his head to his knees and went still, Ronon put his fingers in his hair and screamed a curse of frustration.

"What do we do?" Teyla asked. "He's...he's passed out. We could carry him now." The helplessness in her voice cut Ronon worse than any blade ever had.

"It's too far. It'll take too long to fight our way out. John doesn't have that long."

"Atlantis will send help."

"We're not overdue. It will be hours before they send someone to check on us," McKay retorted, sounding angry.

"Then maybe there is a medical facility in this base that we could take him to. Somewhere we could find supplies that would sustain him long enough for us to bring help back from Atlantis." Teyla was not one to give up easily, Ronon thought.

McKay's head jerked up at her suggestion and he began poking at his palm scanner, but Ronon knew they wouldn't find a clinic. They'd walked most of the outpost before the bandits invaded. The place was old, abandoned and not particularly well stocked.

Teyla's eyes were pleading, and she kept twisting John's hand between her own. Ronon dropped to his knee, put his hand on Sheppard's shin and studied his friend. Sheppard didn't move. If he took any breaths, they were too shallow for Ronon to see. Dreading the answer, he lifted his hand and pressed two fingers into John's neck. The weak pulse that did remain was growing faster and fainter even as his touch lingered.

"We'll stay until...we're sure. We'll stay with him. Then we'll kill every damn bandit in this hell hole and take him home."

Teyla closed her eyes, tears brimming the lashes. She shook her head, unable to accept the answer. The stillness that fell upon the hallway was oppressive, like a heavy suffocating blanket.

"Teyla, you're a genius!" McKay suddenly exclaimed, his voice sounding loud and shrill. He was still poking at his scanner. Ronon glared, irritated at the interruption of their vigil. "You said sustain him," McKay just bellowed even louder when no one answered.

"There's no clinic here, McKay," Ronon growled feeling his lips peel into a snarl.

"No, and if there was, I'd be very skeptical about the state of cleanliness and the expiration dates of any supplies that did happen to be around. This place is a bacteria pit if I've ever seen one and we'd kill him from infection even if we managed to - ."

"McKay!"

"There's no clinic, but there is a stasis pod!" McKay shoved the scanner under Ronon's nose. He just batted it away, staring at McKay, hard.

"A stasis pod? Like where they kept Beckett from getting sicker?"

"Yes. Six corridors over and one level up. It's not close but there aren't any bandits on the scanner between us and it. We put Sheppard in there, turn it on, and he doesn't get any worse until we come back with Beckett and Jennifer and an entire surgical team if we have to."

"Does the pod have power?" This was from Teyla and Ronon was grateful for her clear head that could think of the technical things he could not. McKay wagged his head and Ronon's snarl grew deeper.

"Tell the truth, McKay," he spat. "I won't drag him around this place for nothing. He deserves better."

"It's off at the moment, but this whole complex is powered by geo-thermal energy, like the Taranian complex but not nearly as large as that one, so it should just be a matter of directing the power from the main generator to the stasis chamber."

"Should be?"

"Look, I can't promise anything, but other than just sitting here and watching my best friend die, I've got nothing else. Nothing. In the pod he'll have a chance. A slim one, agreed, but I owe him that much. I owe him a chance. He's...he's given me that more times than I can count."

McKay's voice broke and he looked away.

Ronon took a deep breath, feeling the choices before him. He could honor his friend into the comfort of death, or he could drag his friend through dark corridors on the small chance that Sheppard might fight his way back from death another day. When he thought about it that way...

"Let's do it. Help me get him up. I'll carry him. Teyla, you and McKay get us there."

The decision made, they moved like the team they'd become. Teyla and McKay hauled on John's arms and got him high enough for Ronon to duck and lift him over his shoulders into a fireman's carry. This time, John didn't cough, but Ronon heard a slight gurgle as John's chest fell across his shoulders.

"Move."

They moved. Away from the Stargate, away from home, they plunged into the corridors of the alien outpost as if pursued by demons. McKay's scanner led them through corridors where the lights didn't work and up a rickety stairwell. Ronon's legs were burning and his shoulders ached. Sheppard wasn't the tallest man he knew, but he was solid.

When they entered the last long corridor, Ronon felt himself trembling, breathing hard, but he wouldn't stop. None of the others could carry him as far as they needed to go. He was Sheppard's chance – but he felt that chance slipping away the longer they walked. Not once had Sheppard moved as they traveled. Not once had Ronon heard a groan or a puff of air. McKay ducked into a dark room and had the lights on by the time Ronon stumbled through the door.

Teyla held his arm and Ronon braced himself against the doorframe while McKay slapped at the console on the stasis pod that was shoved into a corner of the tiny science lab. The man was muttering, constantly and furiously. When the curses became audible, Ronon chuffed.

"Does it work, McKay?"

"Just another minute," McKay snapped back and then he lunged across the room to yank at a panel on the wall. Ronon fidgeted and Teyla threw him a concerned look before she joined McKay at the panel. Together, they managed to wrench the cover off and McKay dove into the wall headfirst, almost disappearing completely within the panel.

McKay's crow of triumph came just before the consoles and the pod and most of the rest of the gadgets on the walls began to glow.

"Go! Put him in. I've got power stabilized to the pod."

They met at the pod. Ronon took a deep breath, met Teyla's eyes who nodded with readiness. As if choreographed, Ronon heaved, Teyla snatched, and together they managed to prop John in the stasis pod just as Rodney shoved a finger at the activation button.

The blue glow surrounded John and he froze, mid-slide to the floor.

For a long time, Ronon just stood there looking at his friend while his arms shuddered and his legs ached with fatigue. John "stood", his shoulder and head flopped against the side of the pod, his knees locked upright, but unsupported. Trickles of blood trailed from the corner of his mouth and his nose.

"What have I done?" he heard McKay whisper and Ronon was shocked to find the scientist staring in horror at John. He turned wide eyes on Ronon. "What the hell have I done?"

"I thought this would give him a chance," Ronon answered, puzzled by the man's distress.

"Is he even alive? Was he alive when we put him in there?"

"I... I don't know. We were fast. Faster than I hoped. Beckett can bring him back."

McKay clamped his mouth shut, then turned away. Ronon looked back at the pod and felt a shiver of dread as, this time, he saw what McKay saw: If Sheppard was dead, they'd dragged him around for nothing, delaying his friend's final rest. Ronon's people weren't very spiritual, but they respected life and the body that contained it for a time. If he wasn't dead, then Ronon had just frozen his friend in a perpetual state of dying.

But...he'd had to do it. Because McKay was right – John had given Ronon more chances at life than he could count. He'd saved him from running – twice. From Wraith addiction. He'd given him purpose and a way to hurt the Wraith.

Ronon couldn't save his friend from death. But he sure as hell could hold off the fight until another day when the odds were more in John's favor.