A BEE IN THE BONNET
By NotTasha
PART 14: ROLLING PINS AND PYTHONS
There was that odd, exhilarating sensation of flying again and a rushing sound filled his ears – then John was plunged into blackness. Oof! Sheppard's head slammed into the ceiling above him as he unintentionally threw back his head at the change. Black… all around him… black. And the floor beneath him was rippled and bumpy – about as uncomfortable as laying on a bed of rolling pins and pythons.
"McKay?" There was no answer. "Rodney!" Nothing. Damn it! Sheppard blinked, trying to clear his vision, but the darkness remained. Blindly fitting the 'bee' into his pocket, he snapped on the flashlight that Ford had given him.
The light cut through the blackness, illuminating a narrow space and an impossibly long corridor of tubes, cables and ducts, on ceiling and floor, spanning the length of this particular arm of Atlantis. He swung the light around – not interested. The beam struck a head of hair, just inches away.
Thank God… thank God… he'd finally found that irritating son-of-a-bitch.
"Rodney?" Sheppard called softly, reaching out one hand to touch the side of McKay's head. They were laying head to head, and he could hardly see the man. No response. Not even a flinch. John struggled forward, trying to maneuver in the too small space. "Pain in the ass place to get yourself stuck," he commented as he wiggled.
How the hell did the Ancients figure that ANYONE could work in this space? "Rodney?" He positioned himself so that he could see the scientist's slack face.
"God, Rodney, you look awful." It might have just been the light from the flashlight, but Rodney looked pale as a ghost. McKay lay on his back, with his head turned to one side, an arm crossed across his chest, the other at his side. A tiny shaft of light came down at him, like a laser pointer in a lecture. Sheppard tried not to think that the Canadian looked like a corpse, laid out in a coffin. "You really should consider getting yourself a tan or something."
McKay was breathing, slowly – deeply – almost sighing with each breath.
Tentatively, John reached out one hand to touch McKay's neck, finding him cold and his skin tacky. John waited, needing to find a pulse. There it was. John closed his eyes. The pulse seemed weak and far too quick. Damn it…
Weir's voice suddenly sounded on the radio, startling him. "Major Sheppard, report! You just disappeared!"
"Yeah, that was kind of the idea."
"Well, you rather startled all of us. Did you find him?"
"Yes, yes! He's here!" Sheppard returned, irritated. Didn't he already tell them that Rodney would be here?
"How is he?" That was Beckett.
"He's unconscious," Sheppard replied testily.
"He's not stuck inside anything is he?"
"No, he's not stuck in anything," Sheppard declared, moving the light about to make sure. It was hard to see all the way around the scientist, considering their positions, but as Sheppard waved the light around one side of the physicist, and then the other. It looked like McKay was free. Thank God for that.
"How's he doing?" Becket's' voice cut through again.
"He looks like crap," Sheppard returned. "He's pale. His breathing seems slow and his pulse is fast."
"Kin you give me a pulse rate?"
"No, I can't give you a rate!" Sheppard shot back. "Just get him out of here, now, or I'll do it myself!" He felt for the bee in his pocket.
"Don't use that thing!" Beckett's response came quickly. "Major, it went wrong last time you tried with two! He can't concentrate on where you're goin'. And what you're tellin' me is that he isn't strong enough for you to do this again. Don't do it! Major, d'you hear me?"
John pulled his hand away from the pocket as if stung by the faux bee. "I hear you," Sheppard responded, knowing Beckett was right. Damn it! If McKay was this sick already, he wouldn't be able to handle another trip.
"Where can we get through the floor?" Grodin this time, sounding anxious – ready to go.
Sheppard swung the light around, leaving his other arm on Rodney, moving from his neck to his shoulder, wrapping the arm protectively around his head. John surveyed the situation quickly, and smiled at a realization. The Ancients didn't make the crawl space wide enough for 'crawling' because they didn't need to. "They've left a whole row open," he spoke into the radio. "About two feet to the left of me. It seems to go the whole length of the corridor. There's nothing on it."
"Where?" That was Ford. "We can't see you, sir."
Sheppard let out an exasperated sigh. Of course, they had no idea of his position. "Stomp your foot, Ford!" he ordered through the radio.
In response, John heard a muffled thump. "You're to my right," Sheppard stated. "Move a couple of feet toward the other side of the corridor, and do it again."
He looked to McKay in commiseration, keeping one hand on him. "We couldn't have heard you in here," he stated aloud. "Could have shouted your lungs out and no one would have heard. Did you shout?" He wondered if McKay had even tried.
The scientist said nothing.
"You sure found a crappy place," Sheppard muttered. "Makes me claustrophobic just being here." And he grimaced, remembering once that McKay told him he suffered from that phobia. "Hell of a place," he muttered. "Fit for bats and maybe those… blind mole rat things. What do you know about those?" he asked, wishing he could get a response. Usually McKay couldn't help but answer a question. Instead, the doctor's slow breathing seemed to hitch.
Sheppard felt suddenly cold. "Don't do that!" he ordered.
He could vaguely hear Aiden moving above him, and then another muted thump. "You're not there yet! Further!" he directed. He kept hold of Rodney, wishing the man wasn't so cold, that he didn't feel so clammy, that his breathing didn't seem so strange. "Come on, Answer Man… just hang on a bit longer." He felt for a pulse again and didn't like what he found. "Can you hurry this up!" he cried into the radio.
"We're doing what we can," Aiden responded, as he moved again and thumped his foot.
"There!" The quality of the 'thump' changed as Ford reached the bare row.
"Do you see a hatch?" that was Grodin talking.
"No, I don't see any goddamn hatch! Just get us the hell out of here!" There was a pause… probably Grodin scanning the area, trying to find exactly where to begin the surgery on the floor. The sound of a saw cutting through the roof above him was the best thing Sheppard had heard all day. He maneuvered closer to McKay, getting between the falling dust and the scientist. "You're almost out of here, Rodney. I swear, we're getting you out."
But McKay gave him no response. He continued to breathe slowly, stopping and starting. "Hurry," Sheppard whispered, watching as light finally knifed its way in, along with the blade. The major cursed, thinking that McKay had been in this blackness for so long – stuck on this uneven and horribly uncomfortable surface. This place wasn't even fit for blind mole rats.
Then, with amazing speed (but not fast enough as far as Sheppard was concerned) the roof peeled back and Ford's head appeared upside-down in the hole. Sheppard's flashlight drew the soldier's attention and he squinted toward them. Aiden grinned.
"We got you," Sheppard whispered to McKay. "You're getting out – now."
TBC
A/N: See! I told you they'd find him! Poor guy. I feel a little sorry for what I did to him... a little