TITLE: Wait Until Dark

AUTHOR: Susan Zell

DISCLAIMER: All characters belong to Gekko and Sci-Fi and to those luckier than I. All I know is that they aren't mine so no profit has been made by this venture.

SUMMARY: Nightmares and paranoia plague Major Sheppard and his team must determine why before he sinks so deep that there may be no returning.

SPOILERS: Everything up until after "Childhood's End."

RATINGS: PG-13

TYPE: Drama mainly and some minor hurt/comfort; also some very minor 'shipping though I haven't made my decision between the ShepWeir or the Sheyla camps. So I'm keeping both ends open for now. I always try to follow show canon so I'll leave that decision up to them.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: My first Stargate Atlantis fic so be gentle. If it goes well, I may write another.

Chapter Four

"Found Out"

Lunch at the Mess was always a hit or miss affair. There were times it was crowded and other times it was deserted. This afternoon it was the latter; most of the next shift crew had eaten and departed. Since the team was off the usual rotation, they could take their time for a change. They all woke late and wandered in for the noon feed.

Ford was the first in and looked as spry as ever, despite his condition from yesterday's mission. McKay wandered in a few minutes later and came back with a heaping plate of food.

"Don't tell me, you missed dinner last night?" Ford asked. His plate was only half the size of McKay's.

"Nonsense. I just burn up a lot of energy on missions."

"Running for your life will do that."

"I just wish it didn't happen so often." McKay waved his fork at Ford. "Have you noticed how it's always life and death with us? That isn't normal. None of the other teams are like that. They have quiet fact finding missions."

"You're exaggerating."

"Am I? Just yesterday Stackhouse's team found a nice quiet ruin and nothing chased them into a swamp. And Morton's team, last week they found friendly natives that were perfectly willing to trade without any repercussions. Tell me why that is?"

"You're being paranoid."

"Who's being paranoid?" Sheppard sat down with a cup of jet black coffee in his hand.

"McKay," offered Ford.

"I am not. I'm making an observation and that's different."

The major merely raised a weary eyebrow.

"I was just saying that we always run into trouble. Just once I'd like to have a quiet mission with no one shooting at us. Is that too much to ask?"

"Not at all," replied Sheppard. "I'd like a bit of that myself." He stifled a yawn and rubbed the grit that still lay in his eyes.

"You still look beat, Major. How's the arm?" Ford was surprised to see his CO up and around, especially after yesterday's fiasco. The wound on his arm was nothing to sneeze at in his opinion. He had carried Teyla almost a mile through the swamp. The major should be taking it easy.

"Fine, and I slept like a baby...eventually."

"Doctor Beckett's drugs worked like a charm then, eh?"

Sheppard changed the subject. "How's chow?"

"Barely edible," declared McKay as he shoved in a mouthful of instant mashed potatoes.

"Anybody went to see Teyla in the infirmary this morning?" asked Ford.

"Yeah, Taught her to drive a wheelchair. She's back now with the Doc for those tests." Sheppard leaned back in his seat in an attempt to ease an aching muscle in his shoulder.

"Do you think they'll send us out again this week?" McKay shoveled in more food, chewing methodically.

"I wouldn't worry about it, McKay."

"Worried? I'm not worried. Just wondering. A person can wonder, can't they?"

"Sure." Sheppard rubbed at his temples as his head started to pound. Usually McKay was the catalyst but this time he was sure the cause was Steve. He sighed wearily.

"I think we have some down time coming our way, so don't sweat it," Ford assured the man. His eyes darted again to his commanding officer. Sheppard looked exhausted and that concerned him. Maybe the major had taken more of a hit yesterday than he had let on. "Maybe you want to wash that coffee down with something solid, eh Major?"

"Coffee's just fine, Ford."

Ford looked the Major in the eye and then glanced away when Sheppard returned it directly. "So what we doing on our time off then?" the young officer deflected.

"What do you mean we, Kemosabe?" replied Sheppard.

"I don't know, I just thought we could watch a film or something. Maybe invent a new game like that one we tried out in the east corridor last month."

"Oh the one with the cups and the gelatinous substance--," McKay almost sounded excited.

"Yeah," answered Ford, leaning forward. "Except this time we get the large pots from the mess and we fill them with that ancient gel we found and --"

Sheppard rose from the table.

Ford paused and regarded his CO. "Major?"

Sheppard waved his hand for his lieutenant to continue. "Go for it, kiddies. It sounds like it has the makings of becoming a classic."

"You don't want to join us?" McKay's head cocked. "Aside from the scientific curiosity you should have about such things, and working on the assumption that the gel doesn't have any relativistic qualities, at least I certainly hope it doesn't, we can use the standard equations from Newtonian physics for its motion. Treating the gel as a projectile, we'll have to analyze the horizontal and vertical motion separately and thus have two components for velocity: x and y. There is air resistance to think of, but as this is all just for fun we'll ignore that for the time being. So for horizontal velocity, xVt cos q with q the angle of projection. For vertical velocity we of course have to take into account Atlantis' gravity, which is, as you know, slightly different from Earth's, but we'll still call it 'g' for the sake of argument. So, working from a base of sut1/2at² and vuat, where uV sin q, we get yVt sin q -1/2gt². And if we then work out the first differentials of those equations we can use them to derive a formula giving us the velocity and angle of motion at any point during its flight which would be--" He paused in his speech when he saw Sheppard's growing blank expression. "Alright, it's my curiosity that's peaked by that, but you, you should just be, you know, intrigued because it's cool. You like cool."

Sheppard couldn't help it. He had to blink a few times to bring his thoughts into focus. "Maybe later."

Ford shook his head at McKay, warning him to back off. Maybe Sheppard wasn't feeling up to off-duty mischief. He was probably still sore and worried about Teyla.

"But--"

"McKay, we'll perfect it and then show it to the Major. Right, Major?"

"Yeah, sure."

"So it will be like preliminary testing?" McKay remarked.

"Yeah, exactly."

Sheppard smiled as he watched McKay's disappointment fade. The scientist looked behind them toward the kitchens.

"Okay, the pots are probably just sitting there, waiting to be cleaned."

Ford clapped his hands together eagerly. "Well, let's help them out. We'll clean them and then return them."

McKay pondered the possibilities. "I wonder if that gel is soluble."

"You think too much, McKay," Ford commented.

"It's my nature." He regarded the young Lieutenant. "And some people don't think near enough."

Abruptly there was a voice over their heads. It didn't sound tinny like Earth intercoms and it sounded everywhere instead of coming from a central location. McKay still hadn't figured out how the base's intercom system worked but he would eventually. That he swore. It was annoying not knowing how things worked.

"Major Sheppard, report to the debriefing room." It was Weir's voice

"Knew this was coming," muttered Sheppard. Damn Kavanagh. He had probably squealed like pig. He drained his coffee as his two teammates regarded him.

"What's up?" Ford asked. "New mission?"

Sheppard shook his head. "Nah, she probably just wants me to explain why I shot the Wraith prisoner."

"What?" exclaimed McKay.

Sheppard placed his cup in the dirty dish receptacle.

Exchanging surprised glances, Ford and McKay shoved their plates aside and ran after the Major.