A/N: I don't own any part of Stargate Atlantis. I make no mone from this. Once again, unbetaed, so any mistakes are my own.
Elizabeth woke up slowly. She couldn't figure out why she was so cold, or why her bed was so hard and wet. All of a sudden she remembered what had happened, and her eyes popped open. There were trees everywhere, but no sign of Ancient ruins. She sat up, and her head started spinning. She closed her eyes, and felt her head. Her questing fingers found a nice sized lump on the back of her head. She didn't think anything else was wrong, other than feeling like one big bruise. She looked around trying to find Radek, and found him face down about two metres away. It looked like he had had a bit of a rougher landing than she had. His arm was twisted underneath him, she couldn't tell if it was broken or not. She crawled toward him, calling his name, and was rewarded with a groan.
"Radek? How are you feeling?"
"Elizabeth? What happened? Where are we?" His questions broke off with a sharp inhalation and a bit off curse in Czech as he rolled over onto his back.
Well, I guess that answers the question of whether his arm is broken or not, came the inane thought. "Radek, I think your arm is broken, you need to stay still so I can get a look at it, and confirm that." I'm not a doctor, I wish Carson were here. How am I supposed to set his arm if it is broken? What am I going to use? We don't have anything, do we?
"Radek, do you have a first aid kit with you? I need something to use to splint your arm with."
"No. No kit, but plasters and Tylenol. Look in backpack to see what else.
That fragmented sentence told her how much he must be hurting, for his English was normally perfect except for a slight accent. She looked around for his backpack, but couldn't find it.
"Radek, I can't find the backpack. Whatever sent us here must not have sent that. Is anything else missing?"
"I no longer have weapon. We must have somehow triggered a safety device in the lab, something to transport perceived threats away before damage could be done."
"Radek, I have to immobilise your arm. What do you have in your pockets?"
A quick search of their pockets yielded three power bars, a bottle of Tylenol, and an assortment of junk. She looked around for anything straight that she could use as a splint. Finding two sticks that looked about the right size, she picked them up, and then grabbed Radek's arm. It looked straight, so she laid the sticks along side it, and used their belts to tie the whole thing to his arm. It wasn't very secure, but it was better than nothing. More would have to wait until they were back and Beckett could set it properly. She gave him two Tylenol, hoping that would help with the pain.
"Can you stand up? We need to try to figure out where we are and how to get home." She stood up and extended a hand to him. He looked at her, and for the first time, she noticed that his glasses were bent completely out of shape. They were still in one piece, but they would need some work before they fit right again. He extended his good hand, and she helped him to his feet. He gasped, and she realized that there was no support for his arm. What can I use as a sling? Something to keep his arm supported. Having no other ideas, she shrugged out of her jacket, and tied it around his neck as a makeshift sling. Once again it was not great, the hem of the jacket hung to his knees, but hopefully good enough.
As she stood, trying to figure out which direction to go, it finally sank in. They were alone, with limited supplies, no idea where they were, or how to get home, neither of them had much survival training and just to top it all off, it was raining.
Why did this happen? Major Lorne and his team had already checked out the ruin. Nothing happened to them! Why us?
Picking a direction at random, she and Radek started moving. Neither of them was very steady on their feet, so progress was very slow. After about an hour, they had to stop. The light was fading, and it was getting to hard to see anything.
They stopped in the shelter of a large tree, and Radek pulled out two power bars and handed one to her.
"Radek, why do you have so many power bars in your pockets?" It was unusual to find people carrying more than one.
He looked slightly embarrassed, "I work with Rodney. We quickly learned that normal human 'weaknesses' such as hunger lead to diatribes about not being dedicated enough. We all carry something to eat, so we have to leave the lab less often. I carry extra, because a hungry Rodney is a Rodney no-one should ever have to deal with."
She mock-glared at him, "Are you saying that you expected me to treat you like Rodney does? Why, Dr. Zelenka, I'm insulted." She nearly burst out laughing at the expression on his face.
"No, no, no, you would never do that. I just meant that it was habit…" his voice trailed off as he caught sight of her expression. "Oh. I see. Tease the hurt man who has just fed you."
Elizabeth couldn't help it. It wasn't really funny, but the stress of the day caught up with her and she started to laugh. Radek joined in, and they laughed until they were out of breath.
"Do you have any ideas how we are going to get home? Do you have any idea of where home is?" Elizabeth didn't think Radek had really thought about getting home yet, what with dealing with a broken arm and just staying on his feet, but she thought she would give it a try.
"Not yet. We shouldn't be too far away, that flash of light was probably a transporter beam, like the Asgard. That means we can't be too far from where we were. Rodney should be able to find us. Why this happened, I have no idea. It makes no sense. Major Cyncad was already inside, and the Majors team was also. Why did nothing happen then? For now, though, we must make sure we will not be Dr. Beckett's guests for very long"
Taking that as an unsubtle hint, she tore open the power bar and started eating.
Neither of them knew how to get a fire started in the rain, so they settled down in the dark to try to get some sleep. Elizabeth lay there awake, her mind moving too fast to sleep. She was trying to figure out how she and Radek could stay alive until they were found. They only had one power bar left, and no water. They had no supplies, and no way to defend themselves if needed. She hoped they would be found soon.
As the night wore on, the temperature started dropping, and she started shivering. She curled up a little, trying to keep warm. I wish I'd 've gotten my jacket back from Radek; it would be a lot warmer with it. All of a sudden, Radek was beside her, resting his broken arm on her side. He was pressed up all along her back, radiating warmth. Normally, she would be uncomfortable like this, but she was too cold to care. She finally drifted off to sleep, feeling strangely safe.
Feeling Elizabeth relax into sleep, Radek let out a breath of relief. He had not been sleeping; his arm was hurting too much for that. He could hear Elizabeth moving around, and knew she wasn't sleeping either. She must be cold. I know I am, and I have my jacket. He felt a little guilty for that. She should have used his jacket for the sling, but it would have been agony getting it off. He couldn't give her jacket back, but maybe he could do something else. He crawled over, and positioned himself along her back. He placed his bad arm on her ribs, hoping that he hadn't overstepped his bounds. She stiffened a little, but then relaxed and seemed to fall asleep. More comfortable then he felt he should be, he also fell asleep.
"It sounds like you saw an Asgard transport beam. That means they can't be very far away! Sheppard, we have to go back, maybe there's something that could tell us what happened!"
"I do not believe it is a good idea to go back. We still do not know what happened. We do not want to lose any more people to this…transporter beam." Teyla looked unhappy as she spoke, but it needed saying. They couldn't rush in and risk losing more people, no matter how much they wanted to. Rodney looked affronted, then realized the sense of what Teyla had said.
"I know that, but…." He trailed off, a look that John knew well appearing on his face.
"Spill McKay. I know you have an idea, so share it with the rest of us."
"Major, you say Sergeant Cyncad was already inside the ruin when Radek and Elizabeth disappeared right? So we don't send someone else, we send someone who has already been there. We send Sergeant Cyncad back to the planet with a camera, he photographs everything inside the ruin, and comes back here. Then I can figure out what happened to Radek and Elizabeth."
John tried to come up with a problem in the plan. It sounded like it would work, but they had all learned that Pegasus routinely threw wrenches into plans. That didn't mean they wouldn't try, but that they had to be prepared for anything. Still, the fact that Cyncad had already been inside twice made it unlikely that whatever happened to Weir and Zelenka would happen to him.
"You have a go. Send Cyncad, and find one of the linguists to help you translate the writing. We need to find them as soon as possible, we don't know where they are or what cold be happening to them. " John was happy that they had a plan. The sooner they found Radek and Elizabeth the better. He was concerned about the amount of supplies they had, and their ability to find other means of support. Neither of them had survival training, other than the basic "Survival 101", and neither routinely went off world to get more practice. Zelenka in particular was hopeless off planet. He was brilliant in the labs, but out of his element off planet.
"We'll get them back. We have to."
Radek woke up first the next morning. Elizabeth had curled up in a tight ball to stay warm, and he had wrapped himself around her. He was still cold, but his back was much colder than his front. He was hungry, thirsty, cold and wet. Elizabeth started to stir, and then woke up.
"Morning. How is your arm feeling?"
"It is still broken. Do you have any more Tylenol?"
She grinned, and fishing the bottle out handed him two more of the little white pills. Since they didn't have any water, he had to dry swallow them. It was kind of ironic that they were soaked to the skin, but had no water to drink. They didn't even have anything to collect the rain in, and standing in the rain with your mouth open wasn't a very good idea.
"Elizabeth, you should take your jacket back. We can find something else to use as a sling. You need your jacket more than I do." Much as it pained him to say that, Elizabeth was shivering and her jacket would help with that.
Elizabeth smiled at him, "Radek, I would love to take my jacket back, but you still need it more than me. If you don't have support for your arm, you won't be able to go far, and we can't stay here. We need to find water and hopefully a place out of the rain. We need a place to stay so Rodney and John can find us. Keep it for now."
Radek acquiesced, vowing to insist on giving her jacket back if it got any colder, regardless of what she said. He didn't want her to get hypothermia because she was too stubborn to take care of herself.
They decided not to eat the last power bar yet, it was all they had, and they weren't too hungry yet. The next thing they needed to do was find some water. To that end, they stood up and started walking. They still didn't know where they were going, but moving was better than staying in one place and doing nothing. It rained steadily as they walked, but at least the temperature stayed steady. After several hours of walking, they had still not found a source of water or shelter. They took a break, and each had a bite of the last power bar. It didn't assuage the hunger they felt, but it was better than nothing. After a short break, they started walking again. They didn't find anything, and several hours later the sun started to go down again. They decided to stop for the night. To try to keep each other warm, they sat with Elizabeth's back to a tree with Radek in front of her leaning against her and her arms around him. Under any other circumstance, Radek would have been elated to be in that position. As it was, he just huddled into Elizabeth, trying to glean a bit of warmth from her. The cold, hunger and small amount of sleep had taken a toll. They both fell asleep sitting under that tree.
They awoke stiff, cold and still hungry. Elizabeth was shaking harder than she had been, even though the temperature has stayed constant.
"Elizabeth, you must take your jacket back now. You will get sick if you get too cold, and I will not let that happen. I can support my bad arm with my good arm if I must, but you are taking your jacket back."
"Radek..."
"No Elizabeth, I must insist. We have problems enough without you getting sick. If that happens, I can not carry you, and we still don't have any water. If I must, I will take your jacket off myself, no matter what that will do to me. It seems that Colonel Sheppard isn't the only one with self-sacrificial tendencies."
Elizabeth looked mulish for a minute, but Radek had been practicing his glare on Rodney for the past two years, and recognising the futility of arguing, she sighed and gave in. She untied the knot in the arms of her jacket, and gently eased from around Radek. He paled a little, and cradled his broken arm to his chest. She put her jacket on, the arms were a little stretched, but other than that it was fine. She pulled it a little bit tighter, already feeling better for wearing it, and reluctantly got to her feet.
"Radek, I know you're hurting, but we need to keep moving. We have to be getting close to water now. Once we get to some, we can stop, and stay in one place."
"I know. Help me up. How are you doing? Are you feeling warmer?"
"I am. Thank-you Radek. I know I can be a bit stubborn, but I guess you're getting good at dealing with stubborn, aren't you?"
He blushed, and stammered something that may have been a denial, whether about her being stubborn, or him having practice dealing with it, she couldn't tell.
"Lets get moving. Hopefully we'll find something today."
It was still raining, and neither of them was in the mood for talking. The rain, the cold, the grey, the hunger, not knowing where they were going, or how long it would take to get home, was wearing on them. They were both very cold, and their progress had slowed considerably.
Elizabeth had just turned around to see how Radek was doing, when the rocks she was standing on shifted, and threw her off balance. She took a step to steady herself, and stepped into a depression. That caused her ankle to roll, and she fell to the ground. She started to stand up, gasped, and collapsed back to the ground. Radek came up to her. "Elizabeth? What's wrong?"
"I think I just broke my ankle. I can't stand, which means I can't walk on it. Radek, you'll have to keep going. Find water, and bring some back. I'll wait here for you."
"Elizabeth, that plan won't work. I don't know where I am going, I'd probably get lost coming back, leaving us both alone. I also can't carry anything, even if we did have anything to store water in. Lastly, I don't know if splitting up is the best thing to do. If we fall asleep separately, we loose more heat than if we stay close together."
His face went bright red as he said that last, but didn't back down. "We'll just have to stay here, and hope Colonel Sheppard and Rodney find us soon."
Elizabeth just sighed, and nodded. "Help me up. I can't stay here. We'll shelter under that tree over there," and pointed to a huge tree with thick branches that would keep the worst of the rain off their heads.
Radek nodded, and extended his good hand. That left his bad arm unsupported, but Elizabeth needed help getting up. She took his hand, and managed to get up without putting too much weight on her bad leg. She didn't want to hop, that would jar Radek too badly, so she sort of limped along, trying to not put weight on her leg. They were both shaking and in pain by the time they got to the tree they were planning on staying under. Elizabeth sank down to the ground with a relieved exhalation. Radek followed, he wasn't in any better shape. She lay down and curled up, cold and miserable. Once again she felt Radek lie down behind her and wrap himself around her. He had to be careful where he rested his broken arm, but he eventually found something that didn't put too much strain on it.
This is much better than lying by myself, Elizabeth had to admit to herself. She started feeling a bit warmer, and the feeling of safety came back.
She and Radek lay under the tree, and gradually the temperature started to drop again. They both started to shiver again, and huddled even closer to each other.
Eventually exhaustion set in and they both fell asleep.
As they slept, the temperature kept dropping, and sleep turned into unconsciousness.