AN: Hi everybody, well, here's chapter 2. I just wanted to say a couple of things. I'm kind of playing this as a future fic, with a certain event in The Siege Part 1 never happening. You'll know it when you see it, its nothing big though. Mainly I'm saying this is a future fic because of Rodney's and everyone else's attitudes toward each other. How far into the future, no clue, just a point where they're comfortable with each other and a real family. I'm really playing with what Rodney said to his sister in Letter from Pegasus and about everyone being a family. Yeah, I'll shut up now.

Thanks to my reviewers:

Delles
Skugga
Angw
Shootingsilverstarlight
Prepare4trouble
Annie
Dee
Mae
G
Fanficaddict
Norah-hunt

You guys are great, keep those reviews coming!

And now back to our regular scheduled story, already in progress.

Chapter 2-Dealing

Rodney wasn't expecting to be feeling better when he woke up this time, but he actually did. Not to say he didn't feel like he was hit by a bus, just a smaller bus than the past week. At least that's how much time he guessed had gone by, who knows how long he had been out. Guess I'd have to say it feels like I've been hit by a jumper, since I have yet to see a bus in this galaxy. The floor wasn't as hard as he remembered, and it took him a minute to find out why. He wasn't in the cell anymore. He opened his eyes and could actually see. He was still in a cell type room, but it was cleaner, warmer, dryer, and brighter. He tried moving, and while everything was sore and heavy, nothing yelled for his attention. He noticed his ribs were wrapped and all felt back in place and all of his other injuries were simiularly taken care of.

This is going to hurt, he thought as he pushed himself up into a sitting position, then waited for his body to settle back down. He then pushed himself to his feet, hoping to stay on them. The room only spun a couple of times before it landed and stayed in position. Well, I know I'm definitely not in Atlantis, or Carson would be on my ass by now, so where am I?

Before he could start exploring the rest of his new residence, heavy footsteps were heard and the door was quickly opened. Three men stood there, the middle one slightly smaller than the other two and was clearly in charge. Jeez, and I thought Teal'C was big. These guys could snap him in half! The middle one then sized Rodney up, then gestured to the other two to apparently grab him and force him out of his cell, because that's what they did.

Once out of the cell, he was lead out of the building and into a line of about 20 other men. They were all chained together and then blindfolded. Rodney guessed they were being thrown in the back of what their version of a truck was. Guess these guys may have a bus after all. Look's like I'm going on another field trip he thought as he slumped in defeat. Knowing the farther he went, the less likely his friends were to find him.

!#&!

The scene inside the conference room showed three exhausted people who hadn't slept in two weeks. Lt. Ford had his head resting in his arms on the table, resting without actually sleeping. Teyla had her normal somewhat regal posture, but could barley keep her eyes open. Major Sheppard looked dead to the world slumped down in his chair staring at the wall. This is the sight Weir walked into.

"As of 0800 hours this morning, the three of you are off duty for the next three days." Weir said as she sat down, looking at the remains of her head team.

"What?" John stared at her confused.

Weir sighed. "The three of you haven't slept in weeks, you're in no condition to be working, especially to go off-world. I'm giving you three days off to recover."

"Recover!" Sheppard said in disbelief. "Rodney is god knows where being put through who knows what and you want us to take time off? You've got to be kidding me." He stood up and started to pace.

"Yes, John. You've been through hell these past two weeks, and there's nothing else that can be done short of exploring every planet in this galaxy…"

"Then why aren't we doing that?" he snapped.

Weir took a deep breath. As much as she wanted to do as he said and agreed with him, she knew she had to hold it together for the city. "Look, Major, I know this is hard. That is why you are not on duty for the next three days. We have no leads as to where he is. There is nothing more we can do. We knew things like this were going to happen, we just have to move on and deal with it in our own way. If we come across a lead, we'll follow it, until then there is nothing we can do." With that she left the room, went into her office and closed the door.

Teyla watched as Sheppard stood frozen where he was, then he vaulted out of his chair and out of the room. She also noticed Ford didn't even notice, he just calmly stood up and walked out. Even though Teyla was used to losing the people she cared about, none of them had had the same impact after being lost as had the astrophysicist. Teyla got up and walked out to the balcony. She rested her arms on the railing and bowed her head to the ocean. She knew Rodney was still alive, she could feel it, he felt it was his duty to drive everyone on Atlantis crazy and she knew in her heart that he wouldn't give up without a fight. He wasn't different from the man she had first met all that time ago, he was just becoming more of who he was suppose to be. We'll find you Rodney.

Until then, she would look after the other members of her team, show them they weren't alone in their struggles. She would let Sheppard have his space for the moment, but she knew Aiden would want to talk, to work through all of this chaos. She looked up again and stared at the ocean. Hold on Dr. McKay. With that, she turned and went off to find the youngest member of her team.

!#&!

Elizabeth sat inside her office, like she had the past couple of day. No one entered besides Peter, and even he knew not to disturb her unless it was necessary. She didn't notice the tears slowly make their way down her face. Doesn't John know I don't want to give up either? Doesn't he know how much this is killing me too? But she knew he didn't. He was too focused on his goal to notice anything outside his mission scope. She was starting to loose her grip. Loosing people was hard and at the beginning of this mission, she swore to herself that she wouldn't get favorite's, she wouldn't get this close because stuff like this would happen. But somehow, some people got closer than she said she would allow, and she grew more attached to some than others.

Now that she had faced her toughest loss yet, she wasn't sure she could do this anymore. It was getting too hard.

!#&!

Major John Sheppard stood in the doorway of Rodney McKay's lab. Although the scientists knew they had given up search for the head of their department, they hadn't cleared his office. Over the past two weeks, the only time they entered his office was if they needed something in his lab or some of his research. Other than that, they felt it was wrong to disturb anything else.

He started walking about the room, running his hand around his desk, then went to sit in his chair. He smiled at the piles of power bars on the scientist's desk, some still waiting to be eaten and others just empty. It was then that he noticed something sticking out of a pile of papers and folders that seemed like it didn't belong. He reached over and gently pulled it from the stack and noticed it was the back of a picture, two of them. Turning it over, he felt his breath catch in his throat. The first one was old, it had a boy about 3 sitting in the lap of a girl about 8. It wasn't hard to see that the boy was Rodney, he just had this look about him that you could recognize anywhere and he guessed the girl was his sister, Jeannie. John knew somewhere in Rodney's heart, even before this mission, he had wanted to find a way to get closer to his sister, this picture just proved it.

The second picture was what really hit him. He didn't even know existed, but he knew where it was from. It seemed like all of Atlantis had taken the day off and went to the mainland. Many of the personal had taken to working on surfboards during their free time on Atlantis, including SGA-1. He himself knew how to surf, and had shared some stories with Ford about different wipeouts and perfect waves, so he knew the Lt could surf, but both were surprised to learn that McKay was one of the best they had seen. The picture was at about mid-day. They had found someone to lend their board to Teyla and the four of them were just out, sitting on their boards, waiting for the next wave. It was taken after Aiden had made some joke, so they were all laughing and smiling, looking more carefree than they probably ever felt.

John just sat there and stared at that picture for what felt like hours, just remembering. All of the laughs and bad jokes, the complaining and whining on the missions when he had to walk too far. All of their bickering. He rested his head in his hands, he didn't know what to do anymore. He stayed there well into the night, needing to be around something that remind him of his friend.

!#&!

AN2: Ok, that's it for now! I'll probably only be able to update once a week or so because college sucks and I still haven't figured out why I'm taking 19 units. Although lots of reviews may make me go faster, so REVIEW please? Ok, time for me to shut up, peace.