Author's Note: So, who feels like writing an essay for me? Cause I am wrecked, I only got 4 hours sleep yesterday, and had a late night last night... no, no takers? Bugger, looks like I'm keeping the eyes open for a little while longer.

Anyways, here's the next chapter, and it's nearly finished now, only one more chapter after today!

Thanks again to everyone who's reviewed!

Chapter 25

The bang sounded too loud in the noiseless room.

Sheppard slumped forward, but his hands released their death grip on Ronon's throat and the big man sucked in air with a panicked desperation, coughing and gagging as he breathed once more.

Gibbs checked only to make sure the Satedan was alive before moving forward to see how Sheppard was doing. He really hoped he hadn't killed the guy.

Ronon was closer though, and he pushed Sheppard back, still coughing, checking for a pulse even as they both realized that the colonel was shaking like a leaf.

"He's going into shock," Gibbs told Ronon. "He's lost too much blood. We need to get him to the infirmary."

The figure on the floor seemed to hear, and let out a choked cry. "Ronon… God, I didn't mean… I couldn't stop myself…"

Sheppard opened bloodshot eyes and looked around, trying to focus on his friend. "I'm sorry… I couldn't… just kill me, please, I don't want to live with that… that."

"Not a chance, Sheppard," Ronon told him in a hoarse voice.

The shaking man moved faster than a whip, reaching for Ronon's blaster that had been dropped just out of reach, but the Satedan moved faster, grabbing Sheppard's hand and pulling it back like dragging back a kitten.

"Not happening, Sheppard. This wasn't your fault. This wasn't you."

"It was me every second," he snapped, before flinching away. "I don't want to… I tried to… please, Ronon."

Gibbs was glad he wasn't a part of this. He tried to step back silently, and managed it, leaving this broken, quivering Sheppard to Ronon. The big man seemed to be handling it a lot better.

"I've got something even better, Sheppard," Ronon muttered, grabbing a somehow still intact syringe from his pocket. "It'll make you feel better."

Sheppard was drifting away, and only nodded, eyes fluttering closed. Gibbs glanced at the syringe and cleared his throat.

Ronon looked up at him. "It's the cure," he explained. "But I need your help. It isn't going to be pretty."

Sheppard was unconscious by the time Gibbs knelt beside him, and Ronon was injecting the syringe into Sheppard's chest, directly over his heart. Probably into his heart, Gibbs thought, remembering the length of the needle. Almost immediately, Sheppard began shaking.

"Hold him down," Ronon instructed quietly. "We'll get him to the infirmary as soon as the shakes stop."

"And until then?" Gibbs asked. "I've shot him twice."

"I noticed," Ronon told him dryly. "But this is Sheppard. He'll be right."

Gibbs heard the unspoken sentiment, but he decided not to mention it. Mostly because he thought the same:

He has to be.

Rodney sat waiting anxiously on the side of the bed, legs swinging over the side. McGee stood nearby, waiting with him. Supposedly the agent was here to keep him company, but he hadn't said anything since the marines had walked in with an unconscious Teyla and a concussed Ziva. Which McKay had to admit, had him a little worried as well.

One of Jennifer's nurses was looking over the Athosian, while the agent was sitting in a bed, watching over everyone. McKay hadn't missed the way her eyes flickered more often towards the curtained off section of the infirmary, where DiNozzo slept in a medically induced coma.

Suddenly a whole bunch of nurses walked out of the fore of the infirmary, each with a syringe in their hands. McKay – and McGee – watched them, not daring to hope just yet, not daring to wonder. Was it true? Was it really, really true?

And then Keller walked over to him, a big grin on her face. And Rodney let out a relieved laugh.

"So it's true?" he demanded in a high voice. "I'm cured."

"One hundred percent Wraith-made-virus free!" she told him, one hand on his knee, obviously trying to contain her own relief to publicly acceptable. Just like everyone else as they spread the good news.

Rodney suddenly found that publicly acceptable just didn't show enough of the relief he was feeling. Grabbing Jennifer's face, he pulled her in and planted a wet kiss on her lips.

He let her go, immediately shocked that he had done that – though McGee seemed even more stunned by the show of affection – while Keller blushed.

"Uh, sorry. Actually, no I'm not." He slid off the bed and only just barely stopped his feet from dancing a jig, because him dancing was not a pretty sight. "Because I'm virus free! We did it, McGee, we brought it -."

The infirmary suddenly hushed as the doors banged open and Ronon ran inside, a limp and bloody Sheppard in his arms. It took everyone a moment to realize Agent Gibbs was there was well, watching over the two of them as Ronon dumped Sheppard on a bed. McKay was sure he wasn't the only one to notice Gibbs' own bleeding wound, or Ronon's bruised neck, but Keller just took one glance at the two of them, saw their stubborn looks and clicked at a nurse for one of the trays of needles.

"We already gave him the cure," Gibbs interrupted before the doctor could give Sheppard a double dose. "But I had to shoot him twice to take him down."

"Jesus," Keller cursed as she checked Sheppard over. "He's… I don't even know how long this virus has been in him anymore, but it's taking its toll. Or it was." She looked up at one of her nurses. "Prep him for surgery," she ordered. "First we need to get those bullets out, to stop any risk of infection. Then we stabilise him and get him better."

They rushed away, and Rodney corralled Ronon as McGee walked over to his boss. "What happened?" McKay asked, looking after the bed Sheppard had been on.

Ronon grunted. "He was a lot harder to take down than you," the Satedan explained in a hoarse voice. "A hell of a lot harder."

"It's been… what, maybe… twenty-five hours since he was infected. We all knew Sheppard was one to ignore pain, and disease and Wraith viruses that make you go nuts enough to shoot your team mates."

He shook his head as Ronon dropped his head. The latest entrance to the infirmary had reminded him his job wasn't done yet. Atlantis still needed fixing. He sighed and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" Ronon asked as a nurse tried to drag him away, with no luck.

Rodney turned and gave a sad grin. "Someone's got to finish saving the day."

It took another hour to get all ATA gene holders to the infirmary where they were promptly quarantined. Some fought harder than they should, slowly submitting to the virus they had caught, but regardless, they were all given the cure Ronon, McKay and McGee had brought back from the alpha site. Or what had been the alpha site.

Only once the city – barring the infirmary of course – was free of any ATA positives – barring McKay, who was already cured – Zelenka got back on his computer and started typing furiously once more, McKay again at his shoulder, offering encouragement, or more often offering insults.

And when that was done, and the city had had the John Sheppard special – a reboot – the doctors and nurses, and several scientists not involved in helping those injured in the attempts to gather all the ATA positives were allowed out to decontaminate the city of any lingering traces of the virus.

McKay remained in the control room for that, making sure the city was running properly, Zelenka by his side, the theory being that even though they were both tired, dead on their feet, one would see what the other missed in his weariness. And slowly, but surely, they brought the city back to life.

Only then did they do the same in the infirmary – having made sure Sheppard was out of surgery – cleansing the system now that all the ATA positives were immune or cured of the virus, rebooting, and decontaminating what they could.

By then McKay was sure he was about to drop from sheer and absolute exhaustion. He sat down in a chair after kicking someone out, and let his head bang onto his crossed arms atop the console.

A minute later someone touched his arm, and he jumped awake, looking around, wondering what had gone wrong now. It was only Woolsey, looking just as tired.

"I think you should head to your quarters, Dr McKay," the expedition leader ordered. Seeing McKay about to argue, he added, "Not only have you been sick, running about and saving the day, but it's also been three days since you've had any proper sleep." He paused as McKay looked at him, a little stupefied. "Go to bed, doctor."

"Yeah," McKay muttered. "I think that's a good idea. Night. Is it night?" He wasn't sure anymore. He hated being sick.

He set out to go to his quarters, just like Woolsey had ordered, but for some reason when he lifted his head he found himself at the entrance to the infirmary he had left a few hours before.

Well, who was he to deny his head, or whatever it was that had brought him here. He walked in, and immediately spotted Ronon sitting beside Teyla's bed. The Athosian woman was awake now, for which Rodney was grateful, and she waved to him as he walked over to join.

"McKay, you look terrible," Ronon muttered in that hoarse, broken voice by way of greeting.

Rodney sat heavily in the chair he pulled over. "Trust me. However I look, I feel worse. I wanted to go to bed."

"Let me guess," Teyla said with a smile. She couldn't quite hide the pain she was apparently feeling though. "You were needed for some big emergency."

"Oh, no," he told them. "This was after that. No, somehow I ended up here instead. So, how are you two?"

"We will survive," Teyla told him heavily. "What about you?"

"Just exhausted now." He looked around, searching for a familiar body. All he found was Gibbs and his team talking quietly amongst themselves around the unconscious DiNozzo and a whole bunch of sleeping or injured (or both) marines. "Uh, how's Sheppard?"

"He's alive," Keller suddenly interrupted, making Rodney jump as she appeared from behind. "And he's breathing on his own, which is a good sign. Both bullets missed anything vital, and once we got a few litres of blood back in him, he started improving."

She still didn't look happy, and she knew the three saw it when they shared a look. "It's nothing. Well, not nothing. He's going to be fine. The virus seems to have done a lot of damage though. It's just going to take him a while to get his strength back. But he will."

"Yeah, he's a stubborn bastard like that," McKay muttered, rubbing grit out of his eyes. "How's everyone else? How's Lorne?"

"Everyone's steadily improving, even those that weren't infected, who were injured. Hell, even Sergeant Holt is getting better," she told him, a smile finally brightening her face. "The major is already stabilising, and he was the closest to… The virus might have stopped making his ATA create the alien hormones, but it had found its way to his immune system." She shook her head. "You, Ronon and Agent McGee saved his life. You saved everyone's life."

Rodney seemed to blush. "Well, it was a group effort," he mumbled, putting his head down.

Keller seemed to realise he was uncomfortable, because she stood up straighter. "Anyway, I need to get back to my rounds. Get some sleep McKay."

The scientist snorted softly as she walked away. "She should take her own advice. She's been awake just as long as us. Probably longer, and doing more."

Teyla grinned softy, obviously trying to hide it. "She will sleep when she has to," the Athosian argued. "You, on the other hand, are still recuperating. Go to your quarters, Rodney. Sleep."

The third repeat of the order seemed to make it finally sink in, and McKay nodded, stifling a yawn. "Yeah. I think that's a good idea." He looked outside, at the rising sun. "My body clock is going to be so screwed after this."

Gibbs watched McKay stumble his way out of the infirmary, eyes already half closed with the sleep they all desperately needed. But he doubted if any of them would be leaving this infirmary before DiNozzo woke up. The Atlantis team might be used to this sort of thing, but it wasn't every day a member of NCIS caught an alien virus and tried to kill people.

The senior agent looked back to his team and leaned back in the chair as the conversation between Ziva and McGee dwindled to a close as well. They sat in a moment of comfortable silence before the Mossad officer suddenly shook her head.

"It feels like we've been here for weeks," she told them, lacing her hands behind her head. "But we've been here just over two days. Think the rest of our holiday to another galaxy will be just as exciting?"

"Exciting isn't the word I'd use," McGee muttered, having trouble keeping his eyes open. "Terrifying, maybe. The amount of times we came close to being killed."

"We face that every day," Ziva argued. "Every time we corner a suspect, approach a scene, investigate a crime, we run the risk of someone trying to… counter our techniques."

McGee saw through her euphemism. "Yeah, but I know how to deal with that," he reminded her. "Here, everything is so far beyond us." He paused, glancing at his two team mates. "Well, me, anyway."

"Not true," Ziva retorted as Gibbs leaned forward.

"Ronon told us about what happened at the alpha site," the senior agent continued. "You tackled McKay and injected him with the cure." He lowered his voice and glanced over at the mentioned alien. "I saw him with Sheppard, and he wouldn't have done anything to kill him even when he was being killed. He had his blaster set on stun the whole time, even knowing it wouldn't do any good."

"We would not have done any different if we had been faced with the infected Tony," Ziva defended, glancing at Ronon and Teyla as well. "We would not have been able to kill him."

"Not saying we would have, it was hard enough shooting Sheppard," Gibbs clarified with a shake of his head. "But -."

As if knowing they were talking about him, DiNozzo suddenly shifted on his bed, face screwing up as everything hit him at once. Waking slowly, and groggily, the agent opened his eyes with a few blinks, looking around with a bleary gaze.

"Hey," he greeted as they all leaned closer. "This is an unusual sight. My head is killing me."

He put a hand to his forehead and found the bruises and cuts from Sheppard's hits. "Am I remembering wrong, or did a certain colonel hit me?" His eyes widened, and he paled, looking guilty. "Tell me I did not shoot two marines."

His three team mates shared a look, and McGee sighed, knowing he was going to have to explain, but not really wanting to.

"You'll remember in time."

Yep, just one more chapter to wrap everything up and then that's it... Man, I'm kinda sad about that.