A/N: Thank you again for you reviews! As promised, you didn't need to wait a week for this one as it is pretty short. Some more whumpiness though! Enjoy!

Chapter 4

Sheppard didn't like McKay's silence. The scientist hadn't said a word since he blamed himself for Sheppard's burns. No amount of goading or teasing from Sheppard had gotten a response from him and that was really worrying the Colonel.

"Come on, McKay. I thought you needed to keep your mind occupied? How about some more prime not prime?"

"I'm busy," McKay finally muttered.

"Busy? You mean this walking thing? Haven't you figured that out yet?"

"Ha, ha… No, I'm busy trying to come up with, 'something else,'" he said.

Sheppard was silent for a moment before he decided that this was probably where he needed to at least try and be delicate with his phrasing. "Ok… I thought that you said that there wasn't anything else?"

"Doesn't mean that you're still not going to ask for it," came a rather acerbic reply.

"And have you come up with, 'something else,' yet?"

"No," McKay sighed. There was a brief pause where Sheppard knew that McKay was gathering his thoughts on the matter before presenting them. "Look, there is simply nothing else that I can do."

Sheppard was a little stunned not so much by the words, but at the tone they were delivered. It was a defeated, guilty tone rather than the angry, agitated tone that he normally used when explaining to Sheppard that there were limits to even his abilities.

McKay continued as Sheppard weighed his friend's tone. "I know that the gate jump thing is incredibly risky. Any number of things could go wrong even besides what we already mentioned. We have no idea where a successful jump will take us. For all we know it could be to a space gate or even to Atlantis."

"Well that would be a nice change," Sheppard said with a smile that McKay's next words quickly crushed.

"Accept we would have already entered the gate before it connected there and wouldn't have sent through our IDC. We'd connect with the shield even before our molecules had a chance to reintegrate. Instant death. Though, granted, I'd prefer that to the space gate thing. Probably take a second or two of decompression to kill us there. Or maybe just a flash freeze… either way, not my choice of death."

"Personally I'd rather avoid it all together."

"You know I would too," McKay said. "But right now, I think the only way to give ourselves a chance at that outcome is to play against the odds and try to jump the gate."

Sheppard realized that McKay was fixated on something again. It was just like Doranda… he thought he saw a solution and it was the only thing that he could see until it literally blew up in his face. But he didn't want to engage in that debate again so he said, "I get it, McKay. I'll think about it for now. We've still got another hour before we have to take that step."

"It's the only option, Sheppard," McKay said flatly but didn't seem to be in the mood to press the issue at the moment either.

And so they trudged on in silence for a while more until they finally came to another rocky ledge. McKay made a wobbly jump onto it before falling over. Sheppard didn't bother to wait for him to move. He simply adjusted his jump and came to a stand beside his exhausted friend.

"We don't have long, McKay," he said almost apologetically.

McKay simply nodded his head but continued to curl up on his side and close his eyes.

Sheppard sighed and knelt down beside McKay. He held the water bottle in front of McKay's face and said. "Here, you need to drink again."

McKay cracked an eye open and then reached for the bottle. As he took it, he looked back at Sheppard and said, "You first," and handed it back up.

"I already…" Sheppard started.

"No, you haven't." McKay told him firmly. "It weighs the same as it did when I handed it back to you before. You probably didn't have any that time either but I didn't exactly have any proof then."

Sheppard sighed and said, "You need it more. We don't have much further to go."

McKay just glared at Sheppard in his most stubborn manner as he continued to hold the bottle out to him. Sheppard finally sighed and snatched the bottle from him. He popped the top and quickly took two small sips and then handed it back. "Satisfied?" he asked, irritated that he just let McKay, of all people, bully him.

McKay took the bottle back and frowned at Sheppard before he also took two small sips and capped the bottle again. "The rest was for you," Sheppard told him.

"No, I had as much as you. I might not have the ability to tell exact weight, but I can guess pretty close. I just had the same amount of water that you took."

Sheppard scowled at McKay. "Hey, don't try to trick a scientist with such an obvious ploy and we wouldn't be having this discussion," McKay said as he tossed the bottle at Sheppard since he obviously wasn't going to actually take it back.

"Damn it, McKay!" Sheppard snapped as he picked up the bottle.

"I thought we couldn't stay long?" McKay said as he started to struggle to sit up again.

"You're at least taking this!" Sheppard growled at him as he restrained McKay with one hand and held out the other half of the power bar with the other.

McKay gave a scoffing laugh as he said, "Thought as much. I might be hypoglycemic, but you do need to actually eat and drink at some point. You are still human, right? You didn't go and mutate when I wasn't looking or something did you?"

"Rodney! Eat the god damn power bar!"

"Or you'll what? Leave me here? You might as well do that because slipping into a coma right now sounds far better than gating to another planet where we get to do this all over again. Because that's what you plan on doing, isn't it? You have no intention of trying my idea. You just want to keep dragging me through this torture course until I completely fall apart, don't you!"

"McKay! What the hell is your problem? I'm here too, or haven't you noticed? I'm working my ass off you get us both through this alive and I don't appreciate you laying out a plan that has a very high probability of undermining that work!"

"The plan I laid out is the only one that has a chance of us getting out of this alive!" McKay snapped back as he clambered to his feet to face off to Sheppard. "You're just too busy playing super hero to see it!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"That you like being the hero. You like making the noble sacrifices to keep your weakened teammate alive. You like being the only one around to save my ass when I'm trapped in the well or fall of the cliff or pass out. You like being the hero here so much that you can't see how much I'm… We're both suffering here. Please, let's end this one way or another…" McKay ended with a defeated plea.

Sheppard stared at his friend for a long moment before he turned away and ran his hands down his face in frustration. "I'm sorry, McKay… I really am… but I can't take that risk…" suddenly he reached into a pocket on is vest and spun around, pointing a stunner at McKay. "I'm getting you out of this if it kills me," he said softly and then pulled the trigger.

A look of disbelief crossed McKay's features the instant before he went rigid and then crumpled to the ground. "You're going to kill yourself with these arguments, McKay," Sheppard said softly as he came over and hefted the man onto his back. It took a while to get him positioned and secure, but after a minute, he thought he had a pretty good handle on him.

"Besides, it wasn't going to be much longer before you passed out on that beam and I don't know if I will be able to catch you like that again," Sheppard continued to rationalize his motives to the unconscious McKay.

He reached the other side of the ledge and then readjusted the force of his jump back to the structure with the added weight. With a deep breath, he blinked his eyes and then leapt. It was going to be a very long and hard march now, with far too little time, but he wasn't going to fail his friend. He had to get to the gate and get through before the bomb went off. It was the only way that he could keep them both alive for a while longer.

XXX

Sheppard had been wobbling along the beam for a while now. Every time he looked up, he could see the gate in the distance, but that distance just never seemed to get any closer. He couldn't take a look at his watch with the way that he was holding McKay and trying to keep himself stable at the same time.

He had stopped sweating some time ago and the world was tilting around him, making the issue of balance that much more difficult. But the end was in sight… if only it could get a bit closer…

"Shhhep," came a half awake mumble from his back. He felt a slight movement as McKay lulled his head a bit. "Shhheppard… you…shot…me," McKay muttered, still obviously not completely coherent yet.

"Sorry, buddy… it… was…" he felt his head getting light and he tried to shake it like he had been doing to jar himself back awake, but the movement seemed to only make it worse. "Was…" he muttered again, trying to think of what, 'it was'.

Just as McKay opened his eyes and blinked at his new position, Sheppard's head drooped and then his body slumped where he stood, slipping off the edge of the beam and taking them both towards certain death.

"Sheppard!" McKay screamed as he caught the beam they had just been standing on with his hands by pure reflex. Tightening his legs around the now unconscious Sheppard to keep him from falling had been a bit slower reaction. Sheppard was just barely caught under his arms between McKay's legs.

"Oh crap, oh crap, ohcrapohcrapohcrap," McKay muttered as he tried to adjust both his grip on the beam and his grip on his friend.

"John! John!" he screamed. Once again using the single syllable name was far more energy efficient than the two.

"JOHN!" he screamed in utter terror as he felt Sheppard slip an inch further.

Suddenly Sheppard snapped awake with a jerk, sending him slipping completely free from McKay's legs. "NO!" McKay screamed as he felt Sheppard slip free.

Suddenly two points of pain shot through McKay's hips where Sheppard had reached up and gripped his friend before he plummeted to his death. "Oh god, Rodney…" Sheppard breathed as he was finally able to take in what must have just happened.

"John... John, I'm slipping…"

"Right, ah, give me just a second," Sheppard said as he tried to shake the cobwebs from his brain again. He reached up with a hand and grabbed onto McKay's vest. Carefully and as quickly as he could, he climbed up McKay, back to the beam.

"John… hurry," McKay practically whispered as Sheppard was right behind him, reaching for the beam. Hot tears were prickling the corners of Rodney's eyes as he silently prayed to be able to hold on for just another few seconds. His hands were slipping and Sheppard didn't yet have a grip on the beam. If he fell now, they were both done for.

"Hold on, just a few seconds, Rodney," Sheppard's gentle voice told him. A few seconds later, John was lying on the beam again and helping Rodney back up as well. It was a lot like the last time that Rodney had fallen, but this time, John knew that it really was his fault this time.

"You… idiot…" McKay managed to gasp out as soon as he was on the beam before he promptly passed out again.

"Yeah… yeah I am, Rodney," John agreed whole heartedly. He sat there a moment, staring at his friend's unconscious form. He nearly killed Rodney just now simply because he didn't want to listen to the scientist's very valid arguments. There was really no justifying what he had done to his friend. He didn't want to argue anymore and… truth be told… he probably did like being the hero on some level. He had wanted to be the one to save his friend and he was willing to put them both at risk to do so. That was where he had made his mistake.

"You're right, Rodney," Sheppard said as he started to get up again. He glanced at his watch… five minutes, twenty three seconds. "I know that you're used to hearing it by now, but maybe not from me." John continued at he took a hold of Rodney's hands and began to slide him along the beam. John knew that it wasn't going to be pleasant when Rodney woke up to having burns on his backside from the maneuver. But it was far less likely to take him with if John decided to take another tumble.

"If we gate to another one of these torture worlds, we're both dead," John kept talking as if Rodney was still awake to hear him while he continued to doggedly move them along towards the gate. "The only chance we have is to do the gate jump. It's a slim chance… but a slim chance is always better than no chance."

He glanced back and saw that he was almost to the end of the beam. A four foot gap was all that separated him from the ledge that the gate was on. He bent over and patted McKay on the face. "Rodney… Rodney… Come on… I need to you wake up for just a minute…" there was no response.

John sighed and then managed to lift McKay up onto his shoulder and then made the leap across. He nearly slipped and fell at the edge, but he managed to throw his and Rodney's weight forward at the last second, sending them crashing onto the rocky ground.

Sheppard groaned as his body protested the prolonged abuse that he had been putting it through. He rolled onto his back and looked at his watch. Another groan pulled from his lips when he read two minutes, nineteen seconds.

He got up and stumbled over to the DHD. He quickly punched in the Alpha site address, knowing that that was not where the gate was going to connect to. The gate burst open… one minute fourteen seconds.

"McKay!" Sheppard yelled as he ran back over to get the scientist. "McKay, how long? You never said how soon was too soon!"

He was shaking the man now but all he received was a slight moan. "Damn it," Sheppard muttered as he picked McKay back up and carried him over to the open wormhole. He glanced at his watch when he got there. Forty six seconds.

He slipped McKay off his shoulder and stood him up so that he was leaning against his chest. "Come on McKay!" he called again with another shake.

"Wh…?" he muttered.

"Rodney!"Sheppard called desperately looking at his watch again. Twenty nine seconds.

"Whaaat?" McKay slurred.

"How long before the bomb should we go through?"

"What?"

"The timing! You said that the timing for the gate jump had to be precise!"

McKay blinked. Sheppard's watch read seventeen seconds.

"Gate jump?" he glanced next to them and saw the active Stargate. Suddenly Sheppard's question made sense.

"No more than a second… not much less either," McKay quickly spat out.

"Ok, hold on," Sheppard said as he looked at his watch and hoped that he had the timing between activation and his watch correct. "Five, four…" McKay's eyes became wide as he realized how close they were cutting it. "Three, two…" Their eyes met and a silent goodbye passed between them if this didn't work. "One!" Sheppard tossed them both sideways through the gate.

0.56 seconds after they disappeared, the gate exploded, setting off a massive volcanic event over half the planet, obliterating everything that had remained there until that point.