SURVIVING THE SIEGE (Tag for Siege II)
PART FIVE: THANKS FOR THE RIDE

"Can you move?" Teyla asked, drawing Rodney up into a sitting position. He still looked horribly disoriented, like he had just been put through hell, and she hated the fact that it wasn't over yet. "Doctor McKay, can you move?"

He blinked slowly, and met her eyes. With a nod, he pushed himself forward off the chair…and fell forward into her arms. Propping him up, she got an arm around him and steadied him on his feet. After a moment, he seemed to be standing on his own and he pushed her away.

"Stackhouse?" he said quietly.

Teyla nodded, stepping away from him. As she watched, he raised his hands to his face, bracing them on the sides of his head, then roughly ran his fingers through his hair, rubbing his scalp as he did so. When she was sure he wasn't going to collapse, she turned and headed to the still open doors to the outer hallway. Readying herself, she checked to the left and right for danger before leaning down and grabbing Stackhouse's inert form by his vest. With a grunt, she pulled him inside the chair room and sealed the doors.

When she turned around, she saw Rodney had somehow made it to the small laptop behind the chair, and appeared to be typing on it. He looked better, though still very pale. At least his eyes seemed focused again.

"What are you doing?" she asked, leaving Stackhouse where he was so she could join the doctor.

McKay didn't answer, just continued to type. She watched over his shoulder, but didn't understand the meaning of any of the information sliding past. It was just numbers and symbols—all meaningless to her. After a moment, the screen shut down and he closed the laptop. With shaking hands, he undid the wires attaching it to the base of the chair and held it up to her.

She looked at it a moment, questioningly.

"Information," he said, as if that explained everything, "about the chair."

She frowned, but took it, still not understanding. When she looked back at him, he appeared puzzled by something.

"You have blood on your face," he said, his eyes almost dissecting her. "Are you all right?"

Teyla's eyebrows lifted, and, resting the laptop in one palm, she reached up with the other hand to touch at the wetness she felt on her face. Pulling her fingers forward, she marveled at the red. She blinked once, then realized: "It's yours," she said, looking back at him. "When I caught you. Your…." She swallowed, then shrugged, "I'm fine."

McKay's eyes lowered, but didn't look all the way down at his chest. Fact was, he didn't want to—feeling it was bad enough. Instead, he just said, "Oh. Well, good. I was…." He shook his head, not finishing the statement.

He stood then, his shoulders looking like the weight of the world was on them, and walked carefully over to Stackhouse, as if unsure that he was walking in a straight line. Squatting next to the downed soldier, McKay pulled out a lump of what Teyla recognized to be C-4 from Stackhouse's vest, and a detonator. Still frowning, he turned and headed back to the chair.

She understood then, as he affixed the lump to the chair and attached the detonator. Satisfied that he'd done the job well enough, he looked back at her, where she still held the laptop to her chest with one hand, and her P90 with the other.

"Just in case," he shrugged, smiling weakly. "It'll make me feel better, in any case. I know there's not much point."

She nodded, understanding the need to feel just that small piece of control. Just in case.

"You seem better," she noted.

"Yeah," he agreed. When he didn't add to the simple statement, Teyla sighed. It was very unlike him, but it was better than nothing. After all, she wasn't exactly thinking clearly herself. Her eyes looked again at the dead Wraith, her blood thirstiness from earlier seeming very foreign to her now. As if it had been someone else.

"I'll carry Stackhouse," he said then, drawing her attention back to the scientist. He walked back over to the unconscious soldier and pulled him up by his vest.

"Where?" she asked.

"To the Gateroom," he answered. He clenched his jaw, muscles bulging as he pulled Stackhouse up…then over his shoulder. He grunted as both he and the man he was trying to carry listed sideways, Stackhouse nearly slipping off his shoulder. Adjusting, he managed to achieve an awkward balance, panting a little at the exertion.

"Doctor Weir told us to stay," she stated.

"Why?" he replied, clenching his teeth against the spinning of the room. "We can't do anything here." He already sounded stronger as he spoke, and there was more energy in his movements. The lethargy still pulled at him, but he was clearly not ready to give up just yet. "I'll take Stackhouse's P90—can you get it for me? Then we'll transport to the corridor outside the Gateroom. If there are any Wraith there…." He arched an eyebrow, his meaning clear.

She nodded, then smiled, the look wolfish on her face. "We take them out," she finished. She stepped across the room to him, and handed him her P90. Then she bent down and picked up Stackhouse's from off the floor. Her eyes met his as she straightened again. "As the major would say, works for me."

McKay nodded back, and let Teyla lead the way to the transporter.

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"John?" Elizabeth looked at the screen, grimacing as it proved the major correct, and doing her best to ignore the thudding sounds from the outer doors. "There has to be another way."

"Oh really?" John asked, sarcasm dripping from his tongue, "I think McKay's pulled out his last rabbit, Elizabeth. He's been a miracle worker, but he's not God."

"Maybe…," Elizabeth looked at Zelenka, "Maybe Sheppard can drop the bomb near the ship, and we detonate it from here?"

"Not enough time," Zelenka explained, his tone dark. "The major will need to be out of range of the explosion. You saw what it did to those darts in range of the hive ship."

"Yes, so?"

"So," the Czech shook his head, "he drops it off, we can not wait for him to fly away. They will detect it the moment it is outside of the jumper's shielding. They will simply blow it up, before we can detonate the weapon."

Carson shook his head, "But, won't their blowing it up…?"

"No," Zelenka lowered his eyes, "It doesn't work that way."

"So," Sheppard said, "What you're saying is, either way, I'm a dead man."

"Yes," Zelenka could feel Elizabeth's anguished stare, and he couldn't meet it.

"Then I'm going to have to go through with it. Nothing's changed."

The thudding was getting louder, and metal began to creak. Elizabeth closed her eyes.

"Do what you have to, John," she said finally, her heart breaking in her chest. "And thank you."

"Why not just attack the main hive ship with what jumpers we have in the air?" Rodney suddenly asked over the radio, his normal clipped tone back.

Elizabeth couldn't resist a small smile, and when she looked over at Zelenka and Beckett, she saw relief on their faces as well. How odd that they should be so happy to hear McKay's voice.

"What?" That was from John. "Rodney?"

"Are you all right?" Carson asked into his radio. "Teyla said you'd been wounded."

"I'm fine. Now listen to me, the jumper's weapons are damn powerful, Major. Fire all of them at the hive ship, and do some real damage to it. Maybe it'll be enough to send it packing, or even destroy it. Jumper Four is still up there too, isn't it?"

"Yes," Elizabeth answered, her eyes glancing at the white dot on the lower right hand side of the screen. Jumper four was still running reconnaissance. It would be called back at the last minute, as soon as she set the self-destruct to go.

"Then have them work together. Major, send everything you've got at the hive ship. Jumper Four can do the same. And while you're at it, drop the nuclear weapon as close to the hive ship as possible. Then, as soon as you're far enough away, assuming that it hasn't been destroyed by the hive ship, Radek can detonate it."

"I'll have to decloak to do that, McKay. We both will, me and Jumper Four."

"So? Think Top Gun, Major, just don't pull a Goose."

John snorted, "And you make fun of my movie references?"

"Major, you know what I mean."

"Yes, but here's the difference. My way, I die, but the hive ship is definitely destroyed, and you, Jumper Four, and everyone else have a better chance of surviving until the Daedalus gets here. Your way, nothing's definite, except that me and Jumper Four could both still die, and no one gets any extra time. Doesn't seem like much of a choice, Rodney."

"Major, it could work. You…you just have to—"

"Rodney," Elizabeth interrupted, her tone colorless, "John's right."

"No, Elizabeth. It could work. All we need is time. It's been almost four days…."

She shook her head, "John," she said, "Go ahead."

"Elizabeth!" Rodney begged,"Please! We just need to wait a little—"

"Going," John affirmed Elizabeth's order.

"No!" Rodney shouted, fully angry.

Suddenly, machine gun fire sounding from the outer hallway split the tension in the Gateroom, and everyone looked towards the doors leading to the transporters. The six soldiers positioned defensibly before them held an array of both P90s and M-16 rifles up high, waiting stoically for whatever was coming.

"Elizabeth," Carson said, pulling on her arm. He held up the life signs detector.

She watched as the five or so white dots gathered just outside that particular door disappeared….leaving three dots standing a little further down the corridor, one of which appeared to be practically on top of another one.

"Open up the doors," Teyla commanded. "It is us."

"And they're alone," Carson confirmed, looking towards Elizabeth.

"Open the doors," she ordered, looking over at one of the techs.

The marines didn't let down their guard until Rodney staggered through with Stackhouse over his shoulder, and Teyla watching their back, climbing over the bodies of the dead Wraith drones in the hallway. As soon as they were in, the doors were resealed, and Beckett was reaching to help take Stackhouse from Rodney's shoulder. As soon as the weight was gone, Rodney stumbled and landed on his knees…then onto his hands. Beckett quickly placed Stackhouse on the ground and checked his vitals, then swiveled around to check on Rodney.

McKay brushed him off, practically smacking his hand, and lurched back to his feet. When Beckett tried to help him again, he shoved him back and turned to glare at Elizabeth. He was a mess – paler than a ghost, with so much shadow under his eyes that he looked like a ghoul, and blood all over the front of his blue shirt from where the Wraith had touched him. His eyes were red, his lips blue and he was visibly trembling.

"He doesn't have to die!" he threw out, his voice coarse despite the anger fueling it, fueling him. "Only one hive ship left. He doesn't have to do this! There's time to wait now…."

She stared back at him, then looked up as the banging continued against the other doors. When she looked back at the scientist, she had steeled her jaw.

"That's the Wraith, Rodney," she said, pointing vaguely upwards. "According to Carson's life signs detector, there are close to thirty of them trying to get inside here. And even if we manage to take those down, they'll just send more. But if we destroy that other hive ship now, we might be able to kill these…and they won't send more. They'll run away with what they have. I have to believe that."

Rodney grimaced, "But the Daedalus—"

"Is not here. And we don't know when it will arrive. It could arrive in minutes…or hours…or even tomorrow. We don't know. And we don't have the time to wait anymore." She grabbed the mic by her mouth, not taking her eyes from Rodney's, "John, what's your status?"

"Forty five seconds to impact. Get ready to detonate the bomb, Zelenka."

Over by the display still, Radek closed his eyes, pulled the second detonator from his pocket, and nodded. "Ready."

Elizabeth continued to stare at Rodney, until he shut his eyes to her and turned away so as not to look at her any more. Elizabeth watched him a moment longer, then put her head down.

The banging got louder, and suddenly gunfire lit inside the control room. Above them, they heard the lieutenant shouting orders at his men to stand fast. Flashes of white light from overhead told them that the Wraith had breached the upper doors.

No one inside the control room moved.

Teyla stared between McKay and Elizabeth, at their solitary poses, then past them to the display screen.

At where PJ-03X closed in on the other hive ship.

"Thanks for the ride, Atlantis," John said over the comm. "It was the greatest of my life."

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John shut off the radio then, not wanting to hear them reply.

He pressed forward on the controls, accelerating the jumper and angling towards the bottom of the last remaining hive ship.

And closed his eyes.

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TBC

And thanks for all the reviews! And I'm sorry I'm shortchanging Ford! I saw the photos on Gateworld, and saw the images in the infirmaryand it sort of colored everything. Like the blood on Teyla's face—that came from the photos too. It's interesting how much images can shape imagination, don't you think? Anyway, I just didn't want to touch him. His story line looks so huge in the real Siege III, so I'm avoiding him altogether. I'm just a big scaredy cat.