A/N: Thanks for the reviews and positive feedback. I'll try to update more frequently than the others. Thanks BetherdyBabe for brainstorming.

Some dialogue taken from Gateworld.

Rodney put the small black velvet box in his pants but realized Sheppard would see the bulge and he'd never live it down. It went into his small overnight back that he'd packed for his weekend trip to Earth next. Thank goodness for the gate bridge or he would never have survived Jennifer's four-month departure from Atlantis.

"No. If it's in the pack I might forget it." He took it out once more and this time stuck it in his jacket pocket. "Now I'll have it when I need it."

"McKay," Colonel Carter's voice sounded in his ear.

"What!" he snapped. His mind already 24 hours in the future when he'd meet Jennifer at her Uncle's place outside Colorado Springs to escort her to The Broadmoor.

"We've got some issues with the gate bridge. Please come to the control room, Rodney," Sam said, her voice annoyed but controlled.

"No," he shouted. "I'm leaving in a few hours. This can't happen." Rodney couldn't -no… wouldn't- allow anything to keep him from Jennifer this weekend. After nearly a year of being together, tomorrow night was when he was going to show Jennifer what she meant to him. " Zelenka must have messed something up."

"Then get up here and fix it," she replied.

John Sheppard walked into the Control Room accompanied by Master Gunnery Sergeant Richards. Sam, Radek and Rodney were sitting at separate consoles typing busily.

"What's going on?" he asked, finally able to relax after the tension of Teal'c's visit.

"Intergalactic Bridge is down," Rodney snapped. His fingers flying over the keys and eyes darting around the various screens before him. He looked absolutely livid.

"How'd that happen?" John knew Rodney had requested leave this weekend and assumed he was going back to see Jennifer.

After he threatened to sacrifice himself to save his sister, there was even more of a strain on their relationship than before. The Colonel really liked Jennifer, but he wasn't sure Rodney was up to supporting someone who was trying to overcome a traumatic experience. John feared they were nearing the end of their yearlong relationship.

"I don't know. They were sending the daily status reports to the S.G.C. and couldn't connect to Midway." Rodney didn't look up and continued to work.

"Some kind of malfunction, either in one of the Gates or the call-forwarding macro." Sam was as equally engrossed in her screen.

Radek stayed out of the conversation.

"It's probably just a glitch – a simple software hiccup," Rodney said, sweat obviously forming on his brow.

"Hiccup?"

"We hope," Sam said.

John's eyes widened and he glanced at Richards. "Ronon and Teal'c!"

"The malfunction occurred several minutes after they went through. I'm sure they made it to Midway." Rodney brought up a picture on the screen of the bridge and the location of the malfunction.

"But we can't be absolutely certain," Sam replied.

Rodney looked at her indignantly.

"Since when is Rodney the optimistic one?" Radek questioned from his location in the back of the control room.

"Those Gates are in space. If they walked through," John stopped talking.

"No. No. No. Look, the glitch occurred at M4F-788. That is a planetary gate at the edge of the Pegasus galaxy which means worst-case scenario they stepped through the puddle and they found themselves stranded on an uninhabited planet." Rodney waved off a comment from Sam.

"Stranded. More time together – just what they need!" John muttered to Richards.

"I didn't realize Ronon could be so ignorant, sir," Gunny said quietly to his CO.

John's eyebrows rose.

"I'm surprised he hasn't realized Teal'c has been playing him all along," Richards replied.

An hour later after discovering that the Wraith hijacked the intergalactic bridge, Rodney found himself suited up with a P90, standing between Sergeant Warrington and Master Gunnery Sergeant Richards.

The big Marine from Bermuda was often assigned to guard Rodney if Richards was needed elsewhere. Since they were going into an unknown, potentially deadly situation on the Midway station, his skills were greatly needed up front with Colonel Sheppard.

"We have to assume the Wraith have taken over Midway Station," John said to the twenty men assembled with him. "I want five teams. Richards, Warrington and McKay are with me."

John continued to talk about what to do once they went through the gate, but Rodney honestly couldn't focus. He was going to let Jennifer down. She didn't know he was surprising her by coming back early to accompany her back to Atlantis. The woman he loved was clueless of his plans for them to spend a couple nights at The Broadmoor hotel and resort in Colorado Springs. Now she'll hang out with her Uncle who hates me, find out the bridge is down and board the Daedalus for a three-week journey back to Atlantis.

Rodney's stomach clenched as he remembered his last encounter with the General. The genius thought a fishing trip with Mister Keller might give him the perfect chance to ask the age-old question all fathers' dread. Unfortunately, he didn't count on one over-protective Uncle to tag along.

"The Pegasus gate is activating," the Wraith tech said.

Jennifer and Bill Lee were seated on the floor at the far end of the room so they couldn't see out the window to the gate room or the pictures on the monitors. She closed her eyes as a wave of panic once again set it. "Doctor Lee, if more Wraith are coming through, we've got to stop them." She hated to beg, but she needed the engineers to support her. "I don't know enough to know what to do to shut them down or destroy the station."

"Let's not get too hasty," Bill said.

The Wraith suddenly shouted, so the two hostages looked around the main console station. They could see the monitor and several figures in black entering.

Jennifer's heart skipped a beat and a grin spread over her face. The stance of the front men was known to her, having fought with them almost a year ago. Master Gunny Richards and Colonel Sheppard were shooting at whatever was moving. As blue blasts reigned down, causing them and those to follow them to jump off the ramp from the Stargate or fear being stunned, fear replaced her elation. Rodney! He'd just walked into a Wraith trap if John brought him along. "Bill, we've got to help them."

"What can we do?" the engineer asked.

Jennifer looked wildly around. She needed to somehow warn the men coming that there were perhaps sixty or seventy Wraith on the station with hundreds more on the way.

TBC

A/N: Making some changes to how Midway unfolds. Sorry for Ronon lovers, but I always shook my head at the Ronon versus Teal'c thing as something entirely fabricated to get them to fight. I feel they would have gotten along instantly like they did at the end of the episode. They are both warriors and 'outsiders' on their Gate teams. Oh well, so much of my rant.