Disclaimer: - I own very little, and certainly none of the characters of Stargate Atlantis – ah, if only I did I'd certainly have some fun with the character development!

Perspectives Chapter 2

Turning his body John didn't even slow down as he sprayed a hail of bullets in an arc through the trees behind his team, covering their retreat. For a simple "meet and greet" this whole mission had certainly gone all to Hell pretty fast.

The people of this world were supposed to be a little wary of strangers, and although her people hadn't been here since her father's time, Teyla hadn't anticipated any problems. John cursed himself for taking her word for it. He'd become too complacent, relying on Teyla's local knowledge far too much. He'd decided not to bring a Puddle Jumper, commenting that a nice walk in the woods would do them all good. He'd even made some facetious comment about Rodney spending too much time in his lab, and the need for him to get some exercise. Well, they'd all had plenty of that.

The village had been a pleasant five-mile walk from the Stargate. The pathway through the woods a little overgrown, but not difficult to follow. They'd all enjoyed it; even Rodney's grumbles about sore feet, and too many insects, sounding more like they'd been made out of habit than genuine annoyance. Situated in a shady woodland glade the village would've been picturesque, if it wasn't for the fact it was run down, and abandoned. Teyla had been unable to offer an explanation, and a closer inspection had reveled that the inhabitants had apparently left in a hurry. However, they hadn't had a chance to ponder the circumstances that might have led to the village been abandoned, because the peace had been shattered by the first bullet whizzing past his ear.

At first they'd hunkered down behind the wall of the nearest cottage as they'd tried to identify who was attacking them. After the first few shots their attackers had gone quiet, and he'd tried shouting out the standard, "We're peaceful explorers" spiel, but to no response. It had been the silence that had bothered him. He could remember Rodney hissing out the hope that whoever it was had been trying to scare them and had gone away, but John hadn't been convinced. He could remember the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end as he'd realised that they were being watched, and encircled. He'd only had time to whisper a few quick orders to the others about making for the Stargate, staying together, and watching each other's backs. He'd covered them as they'd made a break for it, but there had been more assailants waiting for them in the cover of the trees than they'd anticipated, and they'd found their retreat to the Stargate cut off. Ford had had point, and they'd all followed him as he'd veered away from their attackers, and made a frantic dash through the undergrowth.

John had made sure he'd brought up the rear, not worrying so much about Ford or Teyla, but making sure he'd kept a close eye on Rodney. While Ford was young and fit, and Teyla was self-assured in amongst the trees, running with a natural grace that put them all to shame, poor Rodney had neither fitness nor grace on his side. However, John couldn't fault his determination, despite the fact that he'd soon been stumbling and blowing hard Rodney had just about kept up, and John had only had to haul him up from the ground by his collar a couple of times during their heedless flight.

They'd kept up a good pace for twenty minutes before he'd eventually called a halt to try and get his bearings, and to listen for signs of pursuit. It hadn't been long before they'd heard it. A large group of men were moving swiftly through the trees towards them, and they'd had no choice but to move on. So a pattern had been established. Frantic runs through the woods trying to make sure they were circling back towards the Stargate, interspersed by minutes spent trying to catch their breath, panting, and gulping water from their canteens when they could. They'd even spent several hours hunched down in a gully, not talking, barely daring to breath, hoping that their pursuers would give up the chase. However, whoever these people were they were tenacious, and the team had had to fight their way out of their hiding place when they'd gotten too close to being tracked down.

John could see that the trees ahead were beginning to thin signaling the end of the woodland, now he had another problem to consider. The Stargate was about a mile away from the tree line, but the ground between here and there was completely open. They wouldn't make it half way to the gate before they'd be cut down. He had to hope he could find some kind of cover, and that Elizabeth Weir would follow protocol.

They had been due to report into Atlantis thirty minutes ago, and if Weir followed standard procedure she should be just about ready to get Grodin to open the gate and try and establish radio contact. All he had to do was keep his team together, and safe, until reinforcements showed up.

Turning back towards his team he noted that Ford and Teyla had already broken cover and were heading out beyond the tree line, he had to curb his own desire to join them, and turn his attention to his civilian team member. Not for the first time John wondered if he was going to regret his decision to have McKay on his team. There was no doubt the man had pulled their asses out of the fire on more than one occasion, but John was afraid that one day Rodney's lack of military training was going to get him seriously hurt, or worse, and John wasn't sure how he'd be able to handle that.

When he'd first met him Doctor Rodney McKay had struck John as a typical civilian scientist – whiny and too full of his own importance. It had only been once they'd made it to Atlantis that he'd begun to revise his assessment of the man. He'd realised that Rodney's boast about being the most intelligent person on the Atlantis team was actually not an idle claim, but the simple truth. However, it had been McKay's discovery of the shield devise, which had really opened John's eyes to the man that Rodney McKay could be, if he just let his guard down around other people a little more often. His almost child-like delight in his ability to use Ancient technology, once his gene therapy had begun to work, had swept John along too. The rather wicked sense of humour Rodney had displayed when he'd talked John into throwing him off the balcony in front of Grodin and Weir, just to see their reaction, had appealed to John as being somewhat akin to his own. However, it had been the quiet courage Rodney had shown, facing the shadow creature on his own to save the whole base, that had impressed John the most, and which had convinced him that Weir's suggestion that Rodney should be on his team wasn't entirely erroneous.

Suddenly John found himself breaking through the trees a few steps behind Rodney, blinking rapidly as his eyes adjusted from the cool shade of the woods to the bright open sunshine of the heath. He could see Ford and Teyla off to his right where they had sought the safety of the only cover the open heathland afforded them. A line of large boulders, that looked incongruent in the landscape, lay before them. John could remember how Rodney had gone into lecture mode when they'd first seen them earlier that day, hypothesizing that they were a stone circle of religious significance. At the time John had tuned Rodney out a little, and just let him go on, being more interested in scanning the trees for danger. Now though he thanked whatever deity these boulders had been placed here for, because it had hopefully given them a chance. He watched Rodney flopping down behind one of the boulders before he followed suit, but not before he'd signaled Ford to dig in.

John felt the adrenaline coursing through his body, his "flight or fight" response heightening every sense. He took a breath, and then let his training take over. He scanned the tree line watching carefully for the first signs of any movement. He had no doubt that their pursuers weren't about to give up now, not when it seemed that they were pinned down. Mind you they wouldn't be far wrong, they were pinned down here, but with the promise of reinforcements soon, when Weir opened the Stargate, John knew their chances of survival were infinitely greater here than out on the open ground.

Just then something tickled at the edge of John's consciousness, and turning he found himself looking across at Rodney. McKay looked exhausted, his face flushed, sweat plastering his hair to his head, his heaving chest showing that his breathing was only just beginning to calm down from the strained wheezing that John had been listening to with concern for the last two miles of their run. Looking directly into Rodney's eyes John could see the fear and uncertainty in their depths, and something else perhaps. Something that John had thought he'd seen there briefly several times before, a look so fleeting that he wasn't sure if he'd really seen it there, or if it had been a case of wishful thinking. John pushed his own hopes into the back of his mind, and concentrated instead on a team mate who needed the reassurance of his team leader. So he plastered one of his best, most cock-sure, grins on to his face before he turned his attention back to the trees.

The crack of a gun shot wasn't too much of a surprise to John, but his heart flipped in his chest when he realised that the shot had been aimed in Rodney's direction. He risked a quick glance, telling himself it was a strategic damage assessment, and not the worry of one friend for another. Relief flooded through him when he saw that despite some blood on his face Rodney was fine, and indeed was doing his best to make himself as small as possible behind his boulder. John hoped that Rodney would keep his head down as he turned back to look out towards their attackers, and concentrated on laying down suppressing fire.

Through the deep shadows of the trees John could see small movements as the men who hid there tried to ensure they had good cover, and good vantage points to fire from. While watching the men in front of him, he also tried to watch their flanks, knowing that if it were him in those trees he'd try to get around behind his targets. While he didn't know how strategically sophisticated his enemy was John wasn't going to make the mistake of under-estimating him. He certainly hadn't seen anything today to suggest that their pursuers were militarily inept.

Above the noise of gun shots that rang out fairly regularly from the trees, and from Ford and Teyla, John was surprised that he heard the soft grunt off to his right, and slightly behind him. Turning his head he was just in time to see the man who'd crept up on him collapse to the ground, a look of infinite surprise on his face, and a growing stain on blood on his chest. John felt shock flood him as he realised that he hadn't even known the man was there, and that he had no doubt been moments from death without knowing it. Jesus, he thought, Aiden had just made the shot of his life, complete accuracy from a good twenty-five meters. He turned towards Ford's position intending to signal his thanks when he saw something that made the blood freeze in his veins. Rodney was standing up completely exposed, one arm outstretched towards him, his sidearm pointed not at John, but beyond him. It all fell into place, the shot that saved his life, the devastated look on Rodney's face, but to John's horror Rodney stood frozen looking beyond him towards the place where the other man had been standing. Just as John opened his mouth to yell at Rodney to get down, the brief silence that had followed the fall of his attacker was broken by a single gunshot. For the first time that day John truly felt terror well up in his throat as he watched Rodney falling bonelessly to the hard ground.

He didn't move, and John couldn't see if he was still breathing or not. He could hear his own voice joining Ford and Teyla's as they shouted for Rodney. He had to suppress the urge to move, to break cover and try to get to his hurt friend. It wasn't easy, John could feel the muscles in his legs bunching, poised, ready to carry him across the short distance that separated them. It was with some difficulty that he managed to suppress the instinctive urge to reach Rodney's side. It was also incredibly difficult to refocus his mind on the job at hand, to refocus on his survival. Despite his body returning fire on their attackers most of his mind was trapped in a loop, watching Rodney fall.

He actually jumped when his radio crackled to life, and he heard Elizabeth's concerned voice requesting radio contact with Atlantis.