Chapter Three -
"Okay, is it just me, or has this cell gotten smaller since we got here?"
"It's just you." John assured him. "McKay, we've only been here half an hour. I suggest you just relax a bit…"
"Relax? How am I supposed to relax?" Rodney demanded. "Maybe if I just…" He tried rattling the door of the cell again, to no avail.
"What do you know. Still locked." John said from what was a sorry excuse for his bed.
"Well at least I'm trying to get us out of here!" Rodney snapped. "All you are doing is sitting there!"
"There are guards everywhere, we have no weapons, no means of getting back to the gate…what we need to do is think this situation through rationally."
"Fine, you sit there and think all you want. In the meantime, I'll keep working on an escape!" He said angrily. He turned and kicked the bars of the cell so hard he winced, and hopped on the other foot over to his cot to sit down.
"Are you -"
"I'm fine." McKay interjected, almost resentfully.
"Come on, man, what's with all the hostility?" Sheppard asked. McKay sighed and stared down at the floor.
"I'm sorry." He said. "This is all my fault."
"What are you talking about?"
"The jumper -"
"It malfunctioned. It happens. The ancients screwed up with a lot of stuff."
"Yeah, well I should have been able to fix it. I'm supposed to be the most brilliant scientist on this expedition…"
"And you are. But you aren't expected to know everything."
"Yes I am."
"No you aren't. You are as smart as someone can possibly be without being totally full of themselves."
"You don't think I'm full of myself?" Rodney asked, surprised.
"I said TOTALLY full of themselves. I still think you're full of yourself, just not totally." John answered awkwardly. To his relief, Rodney smiled a little bit. But the smile disappeared quickly.
"How can someone be so smart, and yet so stupid?" He asked.
"Huh?"
"You told me to stop. But I kept going, trying to fix it. Maybe if we'd jumped earlier, they wouldn't have spotted us. But I didn't stop."
"I don't really think it would've made that big a difference…"
"I'm still sorry. I should know by now, that you a smart guy too. There've been so many times when I thought something, but you knew better. And I still never listen…" His voice trailed off. John wasn't sure what to say. Until this point, he was sure Rodney hadn't even noticed he'd been doing that.
"It's okay, Rodney." He said. "Just try listening next time."
McKay now had his back against the wall, his shoulders slumped and feet on the bed, knees bent up. John noticed his eyes seemed glossy, and his complexion looked a bit pasty.
"Hey, are you feeling alright?" He asked after a moment.
"Fine." Rodney mumbled. "I'm just a bit cold."
John frowned. The cramped room was anything but cold, with no windows for ventilation. Yet Rodney stripped the thin, scratchy blanket from his bed, and wrapped it around himself.
"Are you sure? It's actually pretty warm in here. You might have a fever."
"I'm okay. I just need some rest." It was incredible how the agitated, anxious man whom John had entered the cell with, sat in front of him now, tired and quiet. It was very out of character for Rodney to not complain about even the slightest ailment.
Yet John didn't want to further injure Rodney's ego by persisting, so he dropped it.
A few minutes later, Rodney was laying on his cot, facing the wall away from John, breathing heavily. He was asleep.
John decided to follow suit. It was most likely still very early, but he was tired, and in no frame of mind to devise a brilliant escape plan.
He lay back, and glanced over at his friend. He wondered if Rodney felt everyone was disappointed in him if he didn't know something. Admittedly, John thought Rodney knew too much for his own good, but he never felt that the scientist had failed if he didn't know something. That would be way too much pressure on one person.
Sheppard fell asleep eventually, thinking that maybe some of McKay's complaining was justified.
A/N: Sorry about the wait. Please R/R!
