A/N: A tremendous thankyou to CleanWhiteRoom and Sacredclay for their beautiful encouragements. That's all I have to say about that :P

I posted the link to my friend's deviantart account and then discovered that doesn't allow that. Her name is EuticphicL, and she makes the best SGU fanart out there today, and bless it's mostly Rush/Young! So please go check her out, she's really brought life to my story.

It was a downpour like nothing imaginable on Earth. Rush was soaked to the bone immediately, and he might have been swept away if the Gate wasn't on an elevated portion of land and still out of reach of the rushing water…for now.

He resisted the urge to duck as blinding flashes struck the Stargate every second, making it crack and sizzle dangerously. He held his hand above his brow to be able to see without rain running in his eyes. The water was turning everything up, swirling with eddies and ripping up shrubs. He unclipped his pack and left it with the disk by the Gate as he took a couple tentative steps into the flood. He was only ankle-deep and already he had to use all his strength not to be swept up. He needed to reach an outcrop of rocks a few meters out and secure himself. He couldn't see the ground through the mud, couldn't see the unevenness in the land.

He tied one end of the rope around his waist and legs like a harness and waded further out. The Kino they had sent through to search for the Colonel floated around his head and the anxious voices of his crew mates permeated the static.

"Oh my God…" James breathed.

"Rush, what the hell are you doing," Scott warned.

"You're crazy. No, I take that back, you're insane!" was Eli's horrified input.

"Shhh, Eli, don't!"

"Chloe, he's in the water!"

"Alright, everyone just stay calm," Camille interrupted.

"Did I just hear that right, Doc?" said Greer incredulously, perhaps even hopefully.

"The more you distract me the more likely it is that you'll die," replied Rush cuttingly.

"Take it easy, Doc. But whatever you're gonna do you need to do it fast…a few more minutes and my feet won't touch the bottom."

"Yes, a reminder of your imminent mortality will make me work much faster, thank you!"

Now properly secured, Rush spared no caution getting back to solid ground as quickly as possible.

"Don't sweat it. You've gotten us out of impossible situation before…you'll manage this time too."

"I feel so reassured by your platitudes."

Greer had no idea what Rush had in mind, but he wouldn't be risking his life if it wasn't a good plan. That much he trusted, at least. "Just focus, Doc. It'll be fine."

Rush wanted to retort that this most certainly wasn't fine, was as far away from fine as it gets. He was making this up as he went. He wouldn't have time to make mistakes, he had one opportunity to save their lives and it rested solely in his hands. So no, this most certainly wasn't fucking fine. But he had to control his anxiety, or it would slow him down. He was normally the type of person who worked well under pressure…just not this kind.

Rush reached the muddy bank and set up right next to the gate, where he was as high as he could get without being in the path of the vortex. He pulled a thick, torn plastic sheet from his pack and draped it over his head and the disk, which was in front of him; it wasn't to protect the equipment, but so he could see what the hell he was doing. He nestled the Alteran life signs detector between his knees and released a Kino into the rain.

His hands shook violently as he turned the disk-device on. A green, lush terrain presented itself as a holographic projection above it. Rush navigated out of the planet database and into the device's control panel. Many of these Ancient words he didn't recognize and the dialect made his work difficult.

The first Kino hovered just within sight.

"What's he doing?" Chloe asked.

"I dunno, I can't see with that thing on him…what is that anyways?" Eli answered irritably.

"Plastic wrap from the supplies we brought through from Icarus," said Brody.

"Would you people bloody stay quiet!"

"A bit hard when we have no idea what you're doing."

"This device scans planet surfaces by a three kilometer radius relative to its position." Rush hoped that was enough to shut them up.

"That's…cool," said Eli. "Wait why didn't you tell us what it did before we went to the ambiguously treacherous monsoon planet?"

"Eli's right, we could have used it to get a better idea of the layout of the land," said Brody. "Does it report weather patterns? It might have been able to predict the storm…"

"I didn't know its function exactly! In the Gate room it just came to me."

"How could you not know, you've been studying what we brought back for weeks now," Eli cried.

"I only had a vague idea – can we leave this discussion for later?"

There was a brief silence

"Have you done this before?" Brody asked.

"No."

"Then how do you know it'll work?"

"Because it's all I've got!"

"How long is it going to take?" Camille interjected.

"I don't know! I've initiated the scan, I don't think it will be long but there's no way to tell."

Scott spoke next. "Not that I doubt you, Doc, but the Colonel and Sergeant are underground. Is that thing built for subterranean scouting?"

Rush hesitated. "Not exactly."

"TJ, I just lost the Colonel for a few seconds," said Greer with an edge of panic.

"Greer, don't let him fall asleep. Sir…Sir! Can you hear me? It's imperative that you don't fall asleep," TJ practically yelled. "You have to stay awake."

"Hnn…TJ," came Young's pained reply. "I dunno…how much longer I can…" His voice faded out, too exhausted to continue.

"We're working on getting you out of there, Colonel, but you have to stay awake," Scott said firmly, like he was giving a direct order. "Greer…"

"Understood, Lieutenant."

"Rush, whatever you're going to do, it needs to be now!"

"I'm working as fast as I can! There's nothing I can do while it's scanning!"

"Rush…" Colonel Young rasped, and Rush looked up startled. "You're…'lotta…work."

An ghost of a grin quivered on Rush's lips. That was the first thing Young had said to him in 52 hours. How predictable, and strangely comforting. Rush was acutely aware that everyone was listening, so didn't respond. In this emotional state they would easily pick up things he didn't want them to know, that he himself didn't want to know. He made a silent promise to not let that be the last thing he ever heard from that man.

The device beeped and up came the planet's tundra planes, how they normally looked without water.

"Scan is complete. All of you shutup and let me work. Rush out!"

At the center of the map was a dot representing his life signs.

Rush brought up the list of alloy and chemical contents in the ground and typed in a compound formula. The hologram flashed and displayed concentrations of his query as red patches. He then attempted to modify the parameters of the search to expand several meters below ground and…bingo. The hologram flashed again as it scrolled down to show a network of tunnels where the polysilicate alloy wasn't present, meaning gaps in the earth. Still, it wasn't reading Greer or Young.

He replaced a crystal in the scanner with one from the Alteran life-signs detector. A few more modifications were required, but he finally got them on the screen.

"Greer, I've located your position, standby."

They were roughly two hundred meters from the Gate, a little more if one accounted for the meandering of the tunnels. The closest surface access was thirty meters North-West from his position. Rush programmed his Kino to emit a high-pulse frequency, and modified the scanner to detect it. Then he sent it away, controlling it manually with the remote. It was like driving a toy car half a kilometer away through binoculars. He had to constantly consult the scanner to make sure he was heading in the right direction. When it came time to thread the needle, so to speak, Rush took a few tries, but he got the Kino through the hole and underground.

It was slow going. Rush switched on the Kino's night vision and his anxiety peaked as he saw only a few feet remaining between the rising water and the roof of the tunnels. His every movement of the controls was deliberate and precise; he wasn't keen to find out if Kinos could swim.

"Greer, there's a Kino approaching your position. It should be a few meters in front of you."

Simultaneously, Rush caught a glint from Greer's dying flashlight and the Sergeant's exuberant voice, "Here! God Damnit, you Son of a Bitch, you did it!"

A collective noise of celebration crackled from Destiny.

However Rush could see the situation for what it truly was.

Even by the green glow of night vision, Young looked pale and barely there. His left arm was strapped to his chest with a belt and torn fabric, and even though it was being washed away, he was obviously severely wounded and losing blood. Young looked up at the Kino and his awareness seemed to come forward out of pure survival need. Greer had to hold him and tread water; his feet no longer reached the bottom and there was nothing in the way of roots for him to hold.

"We'll follow you, Doc."

The journey back was much slower. Rush was quickly developing a new appreciation for Greer's physical prowess and mental determination. Not only was he hauling a full grown man behind him, but it appeared he was swimming against the current.

"I don't mean to be negative," said Brody, "but you've only got three minutes before the Gate shuts down. The Lightning will have nowhere to go, if it hits the water anywhere near you the shock…"

"That's where you're wrong. For several seconds after it shuts down, a Stargate emits residual electromagnetic static that will keep attracting the lightning."

"Wait, hang on…I think he's on to something," said Eli. "But if the timing is off…"

"You should have enough time to dial back."

"Should?"

"Look Eli, we don't have time for you to second guess everything I'm doing!"

"Hang on, why are we dialing you?" asked Brody.

"Because Scott and TJ are going to come through and help me pull Colonel Young and Sergeant Greer to the surface."

"They're getting ready now, Doctor," informed Camille. "Anything else you need?"

"Rope. Lots of it."

The Gate shut down, and the lightning did what Rush predicted. The chevrons lit up and the vortex exploded and Rush's backup came through.

"Where is it?" Scott yelled over the rain.

Still focused on the Kino, Rush showed them the holographic image and pointed to an outcrop of rocks.

Scott waded out and untied Rush from the rock. It looked like they had brought all the rope on Destiny, and they knotted the ends together. TJ was the counterweight as Scott plunged right into the flood, letting the current do most of the work. Getting back would be the hard part.

He located the crevice easily enough by following the way the water got sucked in, and he fed the rope down.

"You're almost there," Rush told Greer. "Just a couple dozen meters more."

The end of the rope tugged faintly.

"I think I've got 'em…I've got 'em!" Scott yelled.

The Kino came out first, and then…a shock of black hair through the rain. Rush got up on unsteady feet, not caring that the water ran into his eyes. Scott hauled Colonel Young out, like a doctor excising a stubborn baby from its mother – feeble and vulnerable and crying. Rush grew weak in the knees seeing Young standing on his own two feet, still moving and breathing. TJ secured herself to the main rope and waded out to them.

The water was almost to the Gate, and Rush's feet were sinking into the silt as he braced against their weight.

TJ grabbed hold the front of Young's jacket and pulled him forward. He grimaced, obviously in great pain, but helped her as much as he could. Then Greer appeared, looking on the verge of collapse, and uncharacteristically accepted a hand from Scott.

When the Colonel finally made it to the Gate, he collapsed on his knees into the shallow water. Rush almost went with him, but the other two were still out there. TJ was already checking Young over, looking for head injuries and anything immediately life-threatening. She tried to tilt his head up, but he wouldn't cooperate, and then Rush saw why.

Through the torn sleeve of his jacket he saw something sharp and white protruding from Young's skin – bone. Jesus Christ he had snapped his arm in two. And his every muscle was tense against the unbelievable agony.

As Scott and Greer stumbled clumsily onto the bank, TJ shook her head, unable to coax Young to do anything for her. "He's lost a lot of blood. I need to get him back to the ship right now."

"Pack up the gear, let's get the Hell out of here," Scott ordered.

"Destiny, this is Rush. Shut down the Stargate on my mark." He programmed an automatic dial-in on his remote. "Now."

From there, everything stringed together into one big blur. They went through as quickly as possible, followed by gallons of muddy water that covered the Gate room floor. Barnes and Inman carried Young to the infirmary on a stretcher as TJ walked briskly at his side. Greer insisted to Park that he was okay, that he would take his time and walk. Still, she held his arm and guided him out and James followed close behind. As for Rush…he didn't hear Camille asking if he was alright, didn't feel her hands steadying him. He didn't recognize Eli as he praised his brush with death or took notice of Chloe's large worried eyes. He dropped all his gear and left it there, left them all there staring after him.

Next he knew he was standing in the doorway of the infirmary, watching Colonel Young thrash about as James, Greer, Barnes and TJ tried to hold him down.

"Hold him still I need to stop this damn bleeding."

TJ pressed a few layers of gauze down on Young's arm. A torturous cry ripped through his throat and he nearly knocked James back as he tried to rip away from TJ.

"Inman, give him another shot of painkillers, he's still feeling this!"

Rush wondered if the Colonel knew where he was. He had never seen the man look like this, face twisted grotesquely, veins in his neck bulging and so utterly frightened. And his voice – so foreign and horrific that he never imagined Young was capable of making those kinds of sounds. Against his will, Rush's memory flickered to cold wet halls and his own screams as his mind was taken apart piece by piece.

As Inman administered another dose, Young went slack, and Rush slipped away unnoticed.

Once in his quarters, Rush pulled off his wet clothes and hung them on his chair to dry. He had to fight his fatigue as he wrestled out of his jeans, then jacket and the Colonel's black shirt. He stood naked, not sure what to do, until his body finally decided that he was too cold and he slipped under the covers. All of him was numb.

"Doctor Rush, this is TJ."

Rush jolted awake. He glanced at his watch; he had been asleep four hours. As he unhooked the radio from his discarded belt on the floor he tried to keep the sleep out of his voice.

"Rush here."

"Can you come to infirmary?"

"Yeah…yeah I'll be right there."

He sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his face. His skin felt tight, as if from evaporated tears, though he couldn't remember crying. Everything was either sore or aching, but at least it was spread out over his entire body and not localized into one painful spot. He rubbed the scar of his abdomen absently.

His clothes were still wet and had left puddles on the floor. But his shirt was almost dry so he pulled it on with his black BDU pants. The outfit made him look unhealthy, like he had recently lost an unnatural amount of weight and no longer fit into his clothes.

His boots and socks were still hopelessly soaked, so he walked out barefoot.

TJ was still working, cleaning instruments and washing bloody gauze when Rush walked in. She smiled faintly.

"Hey, have a seat over there."

He spotted the Colonel asleep in a darkened part of the infirmary covered in blankets.

"What's this about?"

"You left before I had a chance to examine you."

TJ set down a tray of supplies and motioned for him to sit. He looked over at her dubiously then back at Young.

"He's in critical condition but stable. Doctor Rush…" she called with more authority.

Sighing, Rush did as he was told and looked at TJ obliquely through his curtain of hair. She took out her pen light – he grimaced. He bowed his head reflexively as she pointed the thing at his eye. She tilted his chin up and made a coaxing sound and he reluctantly complied. She turned it on and Rush jolted away, and shot a hand out to keep her out of reach.

"Easy…one more." She placed his hand on his lap.

Rush shook his head and turned away.

"Okay…okay, just relax." She touched his cheek softly, smoothed his hair out of his face and looked at his eyes. "You have a bit of a temperature…and your pupils are dilated. What were you doing before you came here?"

"Sleeping."

"Sorry, I must have woken you."

"When you go on a daring rescue the first thing you tend to do when you come back is sleep," Rush said good naturedly, which put her at ease.

"Do you have pain anywhere?"

Rush furrowed his brow.

"I mean from injury."

He shook his head, his eyes flicked briefly to the Colonel.

"When was the last time you slept before today?"

Rush shrugged. "I don't know really…"

TJ crossed her arms and stared at him.

"Fourty hours, maybe more."

"You're run down."

"Not anymore than everyone else on the ship."

"Much more than anyone else on the ship."

She took his blood pressure, listened to his heart and measured his pulse. She didn't miss the way he subtly tensed when she brushed against him, or how he pulled back minutely at a sharp noise. The sparkle in his eyes dimmed every time.

"I'm going to take a blood sample, check your hormone levels. You might be suffering from adrenal fatigue. With everything that's been going on lately I wouldn't be surprised."

Rush let her tie a tourniquet around his bicep. He shifted his seat nervously.

TJ observed him carefully and made the effort to suffuse her movements with a calm state of mind. She had discovered early on that Rush disliked needles more than average folk, but she had never seen him this jumpy about it. His face was drawn and his eyes closed, but TJ read his fear by the way his eyelids quivered and his mouth tightened. She disinfected the crook of his arm and his eyes snapped up to her accusingly, like he was only now realizing what she was going to do.

"You seem a bit on edge. What's on your mind?"

Rush shook his head. "Is this really necessary?"

"It'll at least give me an idea of how compromised your immune system is."

"To what end?"

"To determine how much downtime I give you."

TJ's demeanor dared him to counter her authority and promised that if he did he would lose. Rush stayed uncharacteristically silent but his glare could make the dead cringe.

"Well it won't make much of a difference," he stated matter-of-factly. "Colonel Young's doing that for you."

Ah that must be it, thought TJ. What bothered Rush was the man asleep in that bed over there. Even unconscious he had a menacing effect on the scientist, though she was the only one on board who knew why.

When Rush saw the syringe, he instinctively drew his arm closer to his body. TJ pulled his elbow gently forward. In his favor, the veins in his arms were prominent, which made it easy for TJ to slip in. Rush's breath caught in his throat but he showed no other signs of discomfort.

"All done. Now I want you to go back to your quarters and sleep."

"Something I'd still be doing if you hadn't called."

He kept a serious tone, but the lack of venom in the statement prompted TJ to smile.

"And don't skip meals," she threw over her shoulder as she retreated to her office.

Rush lingered a while and when he was sure that TJ was busy and that he wouldn't be seen, he went to Colonel Young's bedside. He crept around slowly, like he was afraid of what he would see.

Young's lips were slightly parted and his skin was ghostly pale and translucent around his jaw where Rush could see hints of blue veins underneath his afternoon shadow. His eyelids didn't flick with REM sleep and the lines on his brow were relaxed almost to smoothness .He could be dead if not for the almost imperceptible rise and fall of the blankets.

Rush stared at him like he had a foul taste in his mouth, unable to tear his eyes away. Perhaps subconsciously he hoped the burn of his gaze would stir the Colonel so that he'd know it wasn't a corpse lying there.

"He called for you, when your medic was operating on him."

Rush jumped and the AI looked curiously at him, unaccustomed to such a reaction.

"I've told you to stop saying those sorts of things."

"It's obvious that you care for him. You wouldn't be here otherwise." It narrowed its eyes. "It's not like you to ignore evidence."

"It's not as simple as that. This isn't a mathematical equation with a definitive answer."

"You have feelings for him. The answer seems clear to me."

"Of course it would, you're not capable of perceiving human relationships the way we do. Everything from the way you mimic our gestures to your breathing is artificial."

A look of pain crossed Emily's face, and though it was only a product of complex algorithms and sensory input Rush found it quite unsettling.

"It would be impossible for you to understand," he told it gently.

"Explain it to me."

Rush shook his head. "Even if I had a way of showing you what I mean, it's still irrelevant; any relationship I have with Colonel Young will never cross the professional barrier."

The AI watched Rush go, and then disappeared into the ship.

TBC