Author's Note: I would like to thank my beta reader, Nika Dixon, for her guidance and her quick review of this chapter despite having much of her own writing to do. Any mistakes here are purely my own. The delay in posting this chapter is purely my fault alone. RL got in the way but I'm back now.

Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Stargate Atlantis or the characters. The only thing that is mine are any original thoughts or characters that you may find here.

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to leave a review. If you haven't left a review yet then, please do. It's easy. All comments are welcome and I will reply. Now on with the adventure.

Chapter 25

Weir sat in her office, her laptop open before her. To anyone outside her office it looked like she was engrossed in her work. She wished they were right then at least she could distract herself for a moment instead of worrying about John. She knew Lorne would do his best but she also knew he might not be able to fulfil his promise of finding the missing men.

She tried to shake her dark thoughts, noticing that she'd been staring at her laptop screen for so long that the laptop had gone into sleep mode leaving the screen black. She activated it again with the push of a button just as the gate alarm sounded. She jumped out of her chair and rushed to the control room. Please let this be Ronon bringing them back. It has to be. No-one else is off-world at the moment.

"It's Lucas' IDC." announced Chuck.

"Lower the shield and open a radio link." ordered Weir. "Do you have them Sargeant?"

"Um ... no ma'am we don't."

Weir frowned. "Then why are you returning, Sargeant?"

"Dex and Dr Johnson have vanished, ma'am."

Weir looked down as she absorbed his reply, "Come on through Sargeant. We'll debrief in my office as soon you get here."

Moments later the jumper emerged from the wormhole and rose on its way to the jumper bay. Weir turned away and tapped her earpiece. "Major Lorne, come to my office now and bring Radek with you."

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Lucas stood in Weir's office as he made his report to Weir and Lorne.

"You did the right thing, Sargeant." commended Lorne. "Check in with the infirmary and then get some rest."

"Yes sir." Lucas nodded before heading towards the infirmary.

"I'll add some extra men." said Lorne.

"I'll speak with Soong and Salesi." added Zelenka.

Weir looked at the two men in her office, both good men in their own fields but four good men had already gone missing, could she put more at risk? "I do not want anyone to take unnecessary risks. Radek, I do not want anyone else going missing. If you cannot decipher that device without triggering it then I want you to abort the mission and return."

"But what about the Colonel and the others?" asked Radek.

"I'm sure Rodney is working on the problem wherever they are." replied Weir.

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Rodney woke with a start. He had been dreaming. The dream was already fading from his memory but he could remember the fear he had felt at being trapped and all alone. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as his foggy brain registered that he was not on Atlantis. If he had been then his back would not ache the way it currently did. He looked down and saw that his laptop had slipped onto the floor beside him. He didn't know when he'd fallen asleep, but he did remember that he had planned to stay awake and guard Sheppard.

He glanced across to where Sheppard lay and noticed that he was sleeping peacefully at last, exhaustion having finally dragged him into a dreamless sleep. He had been tossing and turning earlier, mumbling in his sleep and waking frequently. Whatever he had been dreaming was obviously not pleasant. Rodney suspected the concussion had something to do with it. He was sure Sheppard had one. Beckett would've woken Sheppard every couple of hours to check his brains still worked and that there were no complications. He knew he should do the same but what was he going to do if there were complications? Besides Sheppard's unpleasant dreams had taken care of the issue for him causing him to wake in his bid to escape from their untold horrors.

Rodney pushed himself to his feet and stretched in an attempt to rid himself of the kinks he was sure were permanent. Trust him to fall asleep leaning against the wall. His head had been slumped against his chest when he'd woken and the muscles in the back of his neck ached from the strain. He looked across at his pack knowing he had Ibuprofen amongst his gear but one glance at Sheppard made him ignore it. Sheppard was bound to need the pain-killers upon waking.

Rodney made his way through the tunnel and stepped outside to check the weather conditions. He noticed that it was still early and the sun had not yet risen above the horizon. The temperature felt barely above freezing but he had lived through worse in his native Canada. He could see there had been more snow overnight as he looked across to the trees that stood between him and where they had left the jumper, deciding that there was enough light for him to find his way through the trees safely. He turned and made his way back inside the mountain. Sheppard was still out of it. He scrounged in his backpack looking for something to write on. He finally found a torn sheet at the bottom of his bag and wrote Sheppard a note saying, "Stay put. I'll be back as quickly as I can. Hopefully with help." He placed a canteen of water by Sheppard's side, leaving the Ibuprofen next to it and stood the note upright using the canteen for support.

It worried him that Sheppard was laying there so still, his face pale and drawn even in his sleep. Rodney watched his friend for a moment before rising to his feet and heading back into the tunnel.

The sun had risen further in the time Rodney had been in the mountain. He turned to his right and made his way around the base of the mountain as quickly as the soft snow would allow. He had always loved fresh snow when he was growing up but now he hated it as it slowed his passage. He could feel it working its way into his boots and making his socks damp and uncomfortable.

Suck it up, stated the Sheppard voice in his head.

"I am. I'm doing this aren't I?" snapped Rodney.

Yes, you are, replied Sheppard's voice again. You do know I'm not really here don't you?

"Of course I do." Rodney rubbed his cold arms as he kept moving, cursing their bad luck under his breath as his feet sank further into the soft snow. Staying upright as he moved was taking all of his concentration and he nearly missed seeing the clearing through the trees to his right that marked the spot where they had left the jumper the day before.

He pressed the remote control button to make the jumper visible but nothing happened. "I'm sure this was the spot." He tried the remote again but still no jumper appeared. He stumbled on for another hundred metres and tried again before returning. He considered that maybe the blast had affected the remote control and stepped out into the middle of the clearing expecting to find the jumper by walking into it but he managed to cross the clearing completely without hitting an obstacle. He crossed over in another couple of spots with the same result.

"Crap. Don't tell me that they left without us. No that doesn't make sense. They wouldn't leave us. Me maybe, but not Sheppard." He tried calling Ronon and Teyla on his radio and still got no response. He couldn't believe it. He looked around the clearing again realizing that if the jumper was in the clearing then the snow would've banked up on one side making it easy to find. The jumper was definitely gone and so were Ronon and Teyla. That meant Major Williams and his team were most likely gone as well. He truly was on his own.

What about me? asked the voice in his head.

"Voices in my head don't count." replied Rodney.

No the 'me' back in the mountain.

"Shit!" Rodney looked at his watch and realized he had been gone far longer than he had intended. He needed to get back to Sheppard. Rodney started back to the cavern talking to himself as he went. "What have I done? I've killed them."

TBC

A/N: Oh my, poor Rodney. He does get a rough time of it at times doesn't he? But at least Weir has confidence in his abilities even if he's doubting himself. Will he be smart enough to work out what we all know? Maybe, he is Mensa after all. If you want to find out may I suggest pressing that little grey button at the bottom of the page and leaving me a bribe in the way of a review. I respond well to this kind of bribery.