Life
Rodney's team had left him to die alone on the forest floor where he had fallen. Only the leaves above were his company as they swayed in the breeze.
The vibrant life around him ignored the red flowing from his side as he bled and gasped. After all, trees did not bleed like people did or show and feel pain.
As he watched them, they reminded him that he was just a small part of the universe. They would carry on after he was dead and long since turned to dust without any emotion or acknowledgment that they had witnessed his passing.
He closed his eyes as the burning pain in his side from the bullet increased to an unbearable level.
Despite his brilliance and ability to comprehend mysteries far beyond most peoples' understanding, which set him apart from nearly everyone, he was still only a human being and a bullet could hurt and kill him just as it could anyone else.
His hand was doing very little to help the agony or stop the blood loss. He winced and opened his eyes again so that he could see the canopy.
He wished the trees could help him in his lonely pain and fear, but they resolutely ignored him and made him feel so hollow in his insignificance to them.
They were also alive, weren't they?
His friends and teammates had abandoned him, even Teyla who appeared to still have her mind. He wondered whether he had hallucinated Sheppard pulling the trigger in betrayal, but the physical pain was all too real for that to be possible he realised in abject misery.
Someone came over to him and grabbed hold of his hand as they laid a bandage over the wound. The leaves continued to rustle nonchalantly and the sun twinkled down on him between the gaps. They still took no heed to him even now that he had the mercy he so desperately needed.