John disconnected the call as Teyla returned, carrying a tablet. She knelt down beside him, placing the tablet on the floor in front of her. The screen hurt John's eyes, the bright light adding to the stabbing pain in his head, and he winced away involuntarily.

By the time he reopened his eyes, Teyla had turned the brightness lower. Carefully, John peered at the dim screen and managed to make out the outlines of a map.

"You got it," he mumbled, momentarily dropping the charade. Teyla knew exactly how injured he was. He wasn't fooling her, and attempting to do so would be an unnecessary drain on his energy.

"I did," Teyla said gently. "I suppose Dr. Zelenka has managed to preserve some of the city's systems. We are fortunate."

"Zelenka," John muttered, pressing the heels of his hands into his eyes. He'd forgotten about Zelenka. Or at least, he'd been keeping a running clock in his mind of how long they had until they all blew up, but he'd forgotten to actually check in with Zelenka in a while. It was possible that they had more time, or less. John didn't really think much had changed, Zelenka surely would have told him, but he still had to check. He'd left it too long already.

"I gotta call Zelenka," John whispered, half to himself and half to Teyla. "Forgot…."

"You have been very busy," Teyla said firmly, the tone of her voice making it clear that John was not to blame himself. He looked over at her, and she narrowed her eyes at him, as if daring him to disagree.

John gave her a small smile and tapped the comms. "Zelenka?"

John heard the comm click on, but Zelenka immediately broke out in an unintelligible string of Czech instead of actually responding to John. John was too startled to cut him off for a moment, and just let him run out of steam. The scientist sounded panicked, and somewhere in the back of his mind, John started to process that that was not good.

"Sheppard?" he finally said.

"Yeah. How...how is it going?"

"We have just over an hour before everyone on the base dies," Zelenka said. "The systems are-"

"So...not good?"

"I did not say that," Zelenka said agitatedly. "I am almost done. I am connecting some things here, and then I will move to the Gateroom to finish."

"Oh," John said. "So we're...not going to explode?" That was not the news he had expected, but it was certainly what he wanted to hear.

"I cannot say for sure. But I am trying to keep us from exploding, yes."

"That's-"

"I will see you in a few minutes," Zelenka said, sounding distracted. "I am going to stop talking now."

"Oh-"

Zelenka disconnected with a click of the comms, and John leaned his head back against the wall.

"That did not sound good," Teyla said.

"It actually...wasn't as bad as I expected. He's coming here to fix the last few things. And then I think…."

John didn't dare to say that then he thought they would be okay. Zelenka's repairs were just one small part of the whole situation. If Zelenka didn't get the life support fixed, they would die. But if Rodney couldn't finish the weapon, or Ronon couldn't beat the Replicator, or the nanites inside Elizabeth were activated….

Teyla seemed to understand, and she laid a hand on John's shoulder.

"At least, in one hour, this will be over," she said.

At this point, even that was comforting.

Ronon ran through the hallways, occasionally turning down a passageway at Teyla and Sheppard's directions in his ear. He didn't need much correction. Even though he'd never taken these particular pathway, his sense of direction was excellent, and he knew Atlantis well.

It felt good to run. Ronon knew he'd only been stuck in the cell for a little over a day, but it felt like an eternity. Maybe he should be conserving energy, given that he hadn't eaten until John had made him take the protein bars, but Ronon felt like he had more than enough to spare. He was worried about John, about Rodney, about Elizabeth, about everyone on Atlantis who would die unless Ronon could kill an unkillable robot. Running was keeping him calm, giving him a direction and a focus to all the pointless anxiety.

"You must take another right, and you should be able to see Rodney and Carson's lab on your left," Teyla said calmly.

Ronon turned right, and halfway down the hallway was an open door. He could hear Rodney's raised voice inside, talking frantically about science words that - as usual - Ronon couldn't understand. He didn't think he'd ever been so happy to be confused.

Ronon slowed and approached the lab at a walk. McKay tended to frighten easily, at a number of bizarre things, and Ronon hadn't seen the physicist yet. For all he knew, entering the room at anything more than a sedate walk could spell disaster for Rodney.

"Rodney, just lie back-"

"I need to tell Ronon what to do when he gets here," Rodney complained, pushing weakly at Carson's hands.

Ronon froze in the doorway, surveying the scene before him. Rodney looked terrible, as bad as Sheppard did, face drained of color and pinched with pain. He was half-curled on a gurney, propped up on a pillow, but he at least seemed animated enough to be fighting with Carson. That had to be a good sign, right?

"I'm here, McKay," Ronon said, swiftly crossing to the gurney and placing a hand on Rodney's shoulder. He pushed him down gently, but firmly. Rodney didn't resist, instead blinking owlishly up at him.

"Ronon? Umm, that's...you, right?"

"Yeah, it's me. I'm wearing this stupid thing, see?" Ronon fiddled with the pockets of the hated tac vest, and was rewarded with a small smile from Rodney. "Good to see you're okay, McKay."

"'Okay' is a strong word," Rodney huffed, and Ronon grinned, shoving Rodney's shoulder very, very softly. Words weren't something Ronon had an easy time with, but he wanted to make sure Rodney knew that he was proud, and that he was glad he was alright.

"Let's see that weapon," Ronon said. "It is done, right?"

Rodney grimaced. "I mean...I've done everything I can. But I was on a tight deadline. And I wasn't exactly able to test it. And my supplies were pretty limited."

"And you have a bullet hole in your stomach," Carson added helpfully.

"I'll make it work," Ronon promised.

Rodney held out a small rod, maybe about a foot long and an inch and a half wide, with one pronged end. "Alright, this is what I have. This end is electromagnetically charged, and it should disrupt the bonds between the nanites. But-"

"That's the weapon?" Ronon asked skeptically. It looked very small. He knew Mckay didn't know much about weapons, but this seemed….

"Yes, and-"

"And you're sure it'll work?" Ronon asked.

"Yes," Rodney said impatiently. It occurred to Ronon then that Rodney's voice was tight and breathless with pain, and Ronon decided not to interrupt again. Delivering this explanation was clearly taking all that his friend had. "But as I was saying, it's not a very strong charge. It should...do the trick, but it might take a few direct hits."

Ronon...didn't like the sound of that. A Replicator, especially a Replicator version of him, was bound to be a formidable enemy. Ronon wasn't sure that he would be able to get a few direct hits in. Even one good hit with the short metal rod seemed to be asking kind of a lot.

Rodney must have seen something in his expression, because he immediately looked down, tangling his fingers weakly in his blanket. "I know it's not...ideal. But it was...the best I could do…."

"You did good," Ronon said, taking the rod from Rodney. It was oddly light, and felt almost fragile. But Rodney seemed very weak. Ronon supposed if he had been trying to make anything more substantial, he might not have been able to hold it.

"Thanks," Rodney huffed, leaning back against the pillow. Ronon noticed that there was a red patch on his white scrubs top, and his eyes widened slightly.

"What happened there? Are you okay?"

Rodney rolled his eyes, making a face that usually infuriated Ronon. This time, Ronon let it pass.

"What happened is I was shot," McKay said snarkily, and Carson sighed and jumped in.

"Rodney's wound reopened. But I got the bleeding stopped, and he's finished the weapon, and now he's going to lie very still and quiet." Carson glared at Rodney, apparently trying to threaten him into lying very still and quiet.

"Like I want to be moving," Rodney muttered, sinking further into the pillow and looking as if he would be perfectly happy if he never moved again. "I'm not Sheppard."

Ronon winced, then struggled to arrange his features into neutrality as he caught Carson glancing his way. Carson looked at him sharply, but didn't say anything in front of Rodney.

"Okay, Rodney, I'm going to give you the good drugs now."

"'Bout time," Rodney mumbled. He seemed to have deteriorated even in the short time since Ronon had arrived. Now that he'd finished explaining the weapon, his face was gaunt and haggard, pain slurring his words.

"I'm going to give you a lot of the good drugs now," Carson amended, coming to the same conclusion that Ronon had. "And you're going to go to sleep. Ronon and I will call someone to come get you, and then I'm going to go make sure Elizabeth is alright."

"Fine by me," Rodney whispered, closing his eyes. Ronon carefully shoved the flimsy-looking weapon into his belt and patted Rodney's shoulder again.

"Thanks, McKay."

"Welcome," Rodney slurred. His eyes stayed closed. He'd be asleep by the time the drugs hit his system.

"Okay, Doc," Ronon said, already starting towards the door. "Let's go fight a robot."

Zelenka had done it. At least, he thought he had. At this point, he wasn't sure of much of anything anymore. The lack of sleep, combined with the near constant doses of stimulants, had taken their toll.

Still, this was the one thing Radek felt confident about, even in his current state. Whatever Rodney might say, Zelenka was a damn good scientist, and he'd finally fixed the life support. He was just going to call Sheppard, and the Colonel would give him the go ahead to bring it back online, and his role in this whole nightmare would be over.

"Colonel Sheppard?"

"I hope this is good news." John's voice from the other end sounded at least as exhausted as Zelenka felt, and Zelenka felt a sudden pang of sympathy for the overworked Acting Head of Atlantis.

"Yes. I have fixed the life support. I will come to the Gateroom now, and then I just have to reconnect the control panels to the power supply. It should take no more than a few minutes."

"We aren't gonna explode?"

"Not because of me," Zelenka said wearily. At this point, if they did explode due to an entirely unrelated reason, he wouldn't even be particularly surprised. He didn't want to tempt the universe by categorically stating that they would not explode.

He heard John let out a shaky sigh on the other end. "Good job," he whispered.

"I will see you in a few moments," Zelenka said, and clicked the comms off.

Zelenka stood up, and had to immediately grab onto the wall as the world swirled sickeningly around him. His vision flickered in and out for a moment, and it was just through sheer force of will that he didn't immediately pass out. He had been crouched under a control panel for so long that he hadn't realized how bad things had gotten. He opened the few fixes he had to do in the Gateroom really would be as quick and easy as he hoped. Otherwise, he wasn't sure he'd make it through.

Once Zelenka had caught his balance, he ordered a few of the scientists who had been helping him with the life support to go to other areas of Atlantis, and confirm that once the systems were powered back up, they did what Zelenka expected them to do. He had a few others stay put, working on patches for some of the less crucial systems, and he had a couple stay on comms, so they would be able to warn him if he accidentally caused a critical overload.

The walk back to the Gateroom felt like a dream for Zelenka. He had been working in the dim lights of the secondary control room for so long that the brightness of the main hallways hurt his eyes. He was horribly dizzy and starting to feel pretty sick. He knew the walk to the Gateroom couldn't be more than five minutes or so, but it felt like hours.

Once he arrived in the Gateroom, he figured he should check in with Colonel Sheppard, but he didn't see him at first. It took Zelenka a little while to spot him, sitting on the ground next to the control panel, being tended to by Teyla.

Zelenka wondered why Colonel Sheppard was sitting on the ground. That seemed like a rather odd place for the Colonel. He looked pretty pale, so maybe….

The sight of the blood immediately triggered Zelenka's gag reflex. He put a hand over his mouth and swallowed down the urge to vomit as he approached Sheppard. There was a growing puddle of red on the floor beneath Sheppard. He was covered with jackets to the waist, but they couldn't quite hide the fact that one of his legs was lumpy and misshapen. He had thought that Sheppard had sounded a little breathless over the loudspeaker, and rather off over the comms as well, but he hadn't realized...he hadn't thought….

"Colonel…." he said, standing in front of Sheppard and trying to look studiously at his face instead of his leg. "I-"

He broke off with a small cough, putting a hand over his mouth again. Even if he tried to look just at the Colonel's face, he could still see the puddle of blood in the corner of his vision. Zelenka wasn't sure what to do. He couldn't exactly close his eyes. Staring at the ceiling seemed as though it would only embarrass both of them, but Zelenka thought that if he continued looking at Sheppard's blood, he was definitely going to throw up. Surely, that would only be more embarrassing?

"'Sokay," John said softly, as if he'd read Zelenka's mind. He sounded unimaginably weary, and now that Zelenka had seen him, he could hear the pain lacing every word. "Just...turn around or somethin'."

Zelenka was not about to argue. Gratefully, he began to stare fixedly at the wall, avoiding the sight of the pool of blood shining red against the gateroom floor.

"I am going to fix the life support now. It will be about ten minutes, and then we will have all systems restored."

"Great," John whispered.

"All systems?" Teyla asked, and he caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of his eye as she rose from John's side and moved into Zelenka's line of sight. She was frowning.

"Yes," Zelenka said, wondering what could possibly be the problem now. "Everything will automatically reboot when I bring the main power conduit back online."

"Oh," John mumbled, sounding very small and miserable.

Quickly, Zelenka flicked his gaze back over to Sheppard, who suddenly looked defeated.

"You're right, Teyla," John said softly. "Zelenka, don't...don't bring it up yet. Can you fix it, an' keep it ready to reboot when I say?"

Zelenka blinked. "Yes. But why would I? If I do not reboot the system, we are still going to explode. Very soon now."

"'Liz'beth," John slurred, and Teyla cleared her throat.

"The Replicator is attempting to awake the nanites in Dr. Weir's system. If it succeeds, Atlantis will still fall, whether or not we stop the city from exploding."

"And reloading the system will also turn on the power to the Nanite Lab," Zelenka finished with a sigh. "Of course it will."

"Can't believe I almost forgot," John whispered, almost inaudibly. He clearly hadn't intended for anyone to overhear.

"It is alright," Teyla said. "Now we have remembered, and Zelenka will keep the power off."

"For a little longer," Zelenka interjected quickly. "Nanite Lab or not, I...don't know how much longer Atlantis can last. I must turn the power back on soon, or we are all going to die."

"I know, I know," John said. "Just go...make sure everything is in place. Everything except the last step. I'll get on comms with Ronon, and as soon as he says it's safe, I'll signal you to turn it back on."

"Alright," Zelenka said, nodding. This would just take...a little longer. Just a little longer. And then he could finally rest.

Teyla knelt in front of John, pleased when his weary eyes locked on her. She laid the back of her hand against his forehead. He had been cool before, and he still was. He would likely feel a bit cold to the touch until he could get to a doctor, and they could replace some of his blood volume. He was still horribly pale, and his eyes were shadowed.

"Watcha doin'?" he asked. She knew he didn't like being coddled, but he didn't move to push her hand away. He just stared up at her, a heartbreaking mixture of vulnerable and numb.

"I am checking your temperature."

"I don't have a fever," he said. "I'm really cold."

"I can tell, John. I believe it is from the blood loss."

He made a soft hum of assent.

Teyla brushed his bangs back from his face in a nearly involuntary motion that reminded her of how she would soothe a young child. He didn't protest the touch, which was somewhat alarming in and of itself. He just closed his eyes.

"Can I get you anything?" Teyla asked. It had been over two hours since she had found John bleeding in the hallway, and she could tell that he was fading fast. She hoped, for all of their sakes, that Ronon arrived at the nanite lab soon. She wasn't sure what would fall first - Atlantis or John.

John shook his head slightly, eyes slipping closed.

"Water?" Teyla asked.

"No. Had a little earlier."

"Do you need more Advil?"

"Don't...think I should take anymore."

"What about the stimulants?" she finally asked, somewhat reluctantly. She knew those were the hardest on John's system, and his system had already been through enough.

But he shook his head again. "Can still feel the last ones. I've had enough."

Teyla sighed. If John was admitting even that much, she knew the stimulants must be making him feel very uncomfortable indeed. She would do anything if it would let John finally rest, but there was nothing that could be done. He just had to last a little longer.

John reached forward for the tablet, freezing as he extended too far. The last of the color drained from his face. Teyla resisted the urge to shout at him for trying to do too much. She was just tired, and John didn't need her to pile on. Instead, she picked up the tablet, moving to sit beside John. She angled the map so he could see, and waited for his breathing to steady out to the shallow cadence that had become his normal.

"Gotta call Ronon," John whispered. "An' Carson, if he left."

Teyla nodded, and John reached clumsily for his comms. After a few uncoordinated tries that were increasingly hard to watch, John managed to click the channel open.

"Ronon?"

"Hey, Sheppard. Doc's here too."

"I am," Carson said. "John, Rodney's still in the lab. He's stable, and asleep, but I've had to leave him alone, can you send Marines-"

Carson was beginning to sound panicked now, and Teyla cleared her throat.

"He will be alright," Teyla told him softly. "We will take care of it."

"Just...just give us a minute," John said, and the channel went dead. He looked back at Teyla, and she watched as he came to the same conclusion she had. John sighed softly and hung his head. He looked suddenly defeated, and Teyla leaned slightly closer, pressing her arm against his.

"We can't spare the men, can we?" John said. It wasn't really a question.

"I do not think we can," Teyla admitted. It hurt to think of Rodney abandoned in the back halls of Atlantis, alone and deeply vulnerable. But all the available Marines were keeping the personnel out of the hallways, heading towards the Nanite Lab, guarding the teams of scientists. They were all stretched to the limit.

"We don' even have anywhere safe t'put him," John mumbled quietly. "If somethin' happens…. " John fell silent, squinting at the map.

"You are right," Teyla said. "Sending Marines towards his location is a risk. They may cross paths with the Replicator, either before or after retrieving Rodney."

"Can't risk that," John whispered. "How 'bout a doctor? If they can get out the same way Beckett did…."

Teyla was shaking her head before he finished the sentence. "I believe communications within the infirmary are down. I have not been able to reach anyone currently inside the infirmary. I have been trying."

"McKay's gonna have to wait," John said, and he ducked his head again, his misery evident.

Teyla pursed her lips and nodded. She didn't like this idea anymore than he did, but she knew they didn't have a choice. She watched as he fumbled with his earpiece again and tried not to think about how Carson and Ronon would react.

"We're dealing with Mckay," John said, and she heard Carson's sigh of relief. Teyla supposed it wasn't exactly a lie - the Mckay situation had been dealt with, just not in the way that any of them wanted or expected. As much as she hated misleading Ronon or Carson, the same way she had been misled about Rodney's injury initially, she knew that neither of them could afford a distraction.

"Thank you," Carson said. "He should be fine for a while, but he's on heavy drugs, and I'm-"

"Where are you?" John interrupted. "Do you know how to get to the Nanite Lab?"

"Not exactly," Ronon grunted.

"We haven't taken any turns yet," Carson volunteered. "Not since leaving the lab."

"Alright," John said, turning his tennous focus to the map in front of him. "So that would make you guys…."

"Right here," Teyla said gently, pointing to the stretch of hallway where Ronon and Carson should be. "Keep going down that hallway until you see...it looks like it might be a large window. And then take the next right. After that you'll have to go down a little."

"Thanks, Teyla, Ronon said.

"And hurry," John said emphatically.

"We are hurrying as fast as we can, son!" Carson sounded a bit out of breath, which suggested to Teyla that they were in fact going as quickly as they could, at least with both of them starving and exhausted.

"No I mean...Zelenka's holding off restoring power to the city," John said, all in a rush. "The Nanite Lab should have...reduced functionality. Replicator might not be able to activate the nanites in Elizabeth without more power."

"Oh," Carson said softly.

"But if you don't get to the Replictaor fast-"

"Atlantis will explode."

"Yeah," John said with a grimace. "Or we'll have to turn the power on, and he'll turn Elizabeth into a Replicator."

"Come on," Ronon said emphatically. Teyla heard what sounded like a small scuffle, and a few muffled swear words from the doctor. Then the sound of pounding feet. If they hadn't been running before, they certainly were now.