A Friend In Need
Author's Note: Fourteen reviews! (Does a happy dance) Wow, you folks are too great:D
Elisa - Thank you so much! Again:) I really appreciated your review for No Picnic, too, by the way:) Hope you enjoy the rest of this fic... And then there are a few more lined up as well...
dragonfairymaiden - Thank you! I love hearing my fics are well written... (Grins) :)
peregrine - Yay, you liked my characterisation:) The rest is on its way...
em - If you liked that whumping, wait till you see this chapeter... Heh heh... >:)
angw - How right you are! Read on... :)
rogue1503 - (Smiles happily at the compliments) Thanks so much:)
L E McMurray - Actually, my favourite thing is trying to get into Rodney's head, so I'm glad you think it worked well. Thanks:)
fififolle - I'm so glad you like it:) Yeah, I tried to give everyone something to do at some point... Wouldn't want Ford to get to feel left out! ;)
Bayas - Thank you! I love writing John and Rodney sappy friendship fics... Glad you enjoy reading them. :)
szhismine - Thanks so much! Part two, coming up:)
LTwill - Here it is. Thanks, and hope you like this one, too:)
parisindy - Thank you for the review, so glad you like it:)
ESCotLoE - Wow, that is some nice shameless begging! (Cue Applause) Thanks, that felt great... :D Consider yourself rewarded with this next chapter. Ah, but remember: there are THREE parts...The angst ain't over yet! >:)
Terri - Here's the next bit! I know, isn't he just adorable when he's being pathetic? Sniff... :)
Hm... Looks like FanFic has decided to have half of my exclamation points for lunch... Ah well, you get the picture anyway. ;)
I can't tell you all enough how much I enjoyed reading those reviews:) And now, to prove that flattery will get you everywhere in Sidera's World, here's Part Two of three... It's longer than the last one -and it's more violent! >:D
Part 2: P6A-260
Rodney stepped out of the event horizon to see a world oddly familiar. He rolled his eyes. Trees, sky, even the area surrounding the Gate were strikingly similar to M7G-677. It had been a stupid planet, and Rodney really didn't feel like being reminded of it right now.
He snuck a glance at the Major where the man stood a little ways ahead, and pulled out his Ancient scanner, trying to keep his attentive gaze from being too noticeable to its subject. He'd told Carson that Sheppard shouldn't be on his feet yet, not after being poisoned by a nasty alien thing a mere week earlier. But Carson had just answered that he was the medical doctor around here, and the Major had recovered perfectly, no complications whatsoever. Besides which, he was a truly terrible patient.
Rodney had been disgusted. As if that was any reason to let him out of the infirmary early! It didn't occur to him, of course, that if the situation was reversed, he'd be saying exactly the opposite.
So Beckett had cleared John for off-world travel, provided he took it easy. Rodney had snorted at that, and gone to talk to Elizabeth instead. As if anyone could take it easy off-world! Whenever you wanted a nice, quiet mission, that was just when everything went horribly wrong. He'd known that already from reading the SGC mission reports, and recently he'd been learning it from personal experience as well.
Rodney sighed and shook his head as he saw John favor his right arm in a gesture to Ford. Elizabeth hadn't cooperated either. He'd tried to tell her that the Major couldn't be ready for this yet, that he ought to be in bed resting for a few days more, at least, but she hadn't listened. She'd decided that Beckett's word was law in such matters, which apparently meant that no one else got any input at all.
Rodney frowned. She'd even seemed amused about something. Elizabeth was strange sometimes. What was so funny about him trying to prevent someone who wasn't fit from overexerting themselves when they should be resting? It was a mistake, he was sure of it.
Rodney quickly lowered his gaze back to his scanner as he saw John turn in his direction. He shuffled uncomfortably as the soldier came nearer. If the Major ever found out what he'd been saying, Rodney would be humiliated for the rest of his life. And he wouldn't enjoy that.
"So... McKay."
"Mm?" Rodney replied, avoiding the other's eyes and attempting to look innocent.
"What's up?"
Rodney was surprised, and for a moment he actually looked into the Major's face. Then he realised that this was probably something to do with how he'd noticed him staring, so he got awkward again. He cleared his throat. "What do you mean?"
He caught the slight movement as John cocked his head. "Well, you've been awfully quiet for the past few days. And, if you'll excuse my saying so..." He trailed off, glancing over at Teyla and Ford from where there were watching. "That's not exactly normal for you."
"Yes, well..." Rodney waggled his head a little, not sure what to say. "I've been-" He caught himself just in time before admitting something along the lines of "tired", or even worse, "guilty" or "upset". "Busy!" he finished with a tad too much energy, and a sharpness that startled even him. He looked up, hoping he hadn't hurt the Major's feelings or anything.
He thought John looked slightly unhappy, and kicked himself mentally.
"All right," John said as he turned away. Rodney was frankly surprised at what he said next. "Ford, Teyla, stay here. McKay and I are going to go look for ZPMs."
"Sir?"
"What?"
John's reply was directed towards Rodney instead of Aiden. "I was under the impression," he said seriously, "that we needed ZPMs."
"Well, yes, but-"
"Okay. So we're going to look for them. Last planet we were on that looked like this had one, if you remember."
Rodney winced. Don't remind me, pretty much summed up his feelings.
"Sir, are you sure? I mean, last time-"
"I know what happened last time, Lieutenant," Sheppard told his second-in-command calmly. "But we can't discontinue out search for a new power source just because we ran into some trouble on one planet."
Rodney stared some more. Suddenly, the Major was saying all the things he usually had to say himself. How very odd.
"Isn't that right, McKay?"
Rodney jumped as John addressed him. "Yes! Yes, of course... not."
Sheppard nodded at the confirmation, and turned back to Ford, who was definitely looking reservedly disapproving. "We won't be far off."
"Yes, sir."
Teyla spoke up next, diplomatically. "Major, I am concerned that you may not yet have recovered fully."
Rodney blinked. He would never have had the nerve to say that to anyone's face. Probably because the Major would bite his head off. But Teyla was immune to that kind of thing. In fact, Rodney concluded, he himself was the only person who was ever impolite to Teyla. But then, really, he was impolite to everyone.
John gave the girl half a smile. "I'll be fine, Teyla. Besides," his gaze shifted to Aiden, "we'll stay in radio contact. We need anything, you'll know about it. All right?"
Teyla considered this, her eyes lifted to some point above the treetops, for all the world as if it was ultimately her decision. Rodney could never quite understand why this sort of thing didn't offend the Major, but it didn't. Rodney stole a glance at him; he looked anything but offended.
"Very well," Teyla decided at last.
"Good," John said cheerfully. "We should be back soon anyway." He gestured to Rodney. "Right, McKay, let's get going."
Rodney was staring at him, and John paused when he noticed.
"McKay? Something wrong?"
Rodney hemmed and hawed, not sure how to say what he was thinking, or even quite what that was. There was something he wanted to say, he knew that.
"You all right?"
He saw John's collected gaze on him, and was painfully aware of Ford and Teyla also looking at him from behind.
"Well..." Rodney started, then lost his train of thought. He tried again. "Look, shouldn't we take Teyla and Ford?"
He could feel rather than see the raised eyebrows.
"What for?" Rodney was sure there was some kind of sarcasm - or something - in that tone, even though he couldn't hear it. There must be.
But he started to answer that one instinctively. "It's just that you-" He broke off abruptly, realising what it was he'd almost admitted to, that he was still worried about the Major's well-being. Especially, he thought, with himself as the only help should something go wrong. That had been the trouble last time, and he really, really didn't want to do that again.
He gulped. He couldn't say that! "Maybe you should take someone else instead of me." It came out all in a rush.
But Sheppard wasn't taking the hint. "Well, you're the one with the Ancient thing."
"True," Rodney conceded, unhappy with his inability to make the Major understand. He thought of saying that anyone else could use it, because it was easy to detect power traces and deduce that they originated from a ZedPM, but dismissed the idea again immediately. Because, actually, it wasn't easy.
He felt a hand on his arm, and almost jerked himself away from it when he saw that it was the Major. "We'll be fine, McKay. There can't be poisonous aliens waiting for us on every planet, you know."
Rodney opened and closed his mouth a few times. It wasn't just the poisonous aliens. Anything that happened, he would be the least possible help. Ford or Teyla could do so much more! And it just shouldn't be happening this way, because every minute the Major was alone with him, was a minute that Sheppard's life was in danger.
"Look, Major, I think you ought to take someone else along." The words came out before he could stop them.
"Why?"
"Well, because..." He looked up to the sky for inspiration, and also to avoid the Major's too-direct eyes. "If something does happen, I-" Once again, he caught himself just in time. Oh, he didn't even want to think of how they'd laugh at him if he had finished that sentence!
He ducked his head, suddenly changing moods, and snapped out, "Never mind!"
"All right then," he heard the Major say. "Let's go."
He started to walk off with a nod to Aiden and Teyla, and Rodney automatically followed, lapsing into thought.
He didn't know why he kept doing things like that. Honestly, it had never been hard to hide how he felt in the past. Why the multiple almost-slips now?
He decided it was probably just his desperate attempts to feel wanted again. Pathetic. The Major didn't want him, least of all after what had happed on their last mission, and Rodney understood that. It didn't hurt him at all. Of course. He was used to that. He'd gotten over things like that years and years - actually, decades ago.
Really, he had.
Part of him cynically whispered that he wasn't even fooling himself, but he ignored it, and just kept on walking and staring down at the scanner.
Pretty soon, he'd be safely indifferent to the Major again, and to everyone else as well, and then he wouldn't have to worry about this.
He'd tried, back in Atlantis, when the major was well enough to talk, to ask to be transferred off the Team... But John had cut him off before he'd had a chance to work himself up to it, and changed the subject. And Rodney just hadn't had the nerve to bring it up again.
But there was still something he could do to protect those around him, and to protect himself, too. He could hold himself aloof. He had let some of his painstakingly constructed reserve slip away lately, and he wasn't going to let it happen again. If he discouraged all friendly advances - or what his mind wishfully told him were "friendly", which was ridiculous - then people would stay away from him, and they wouldn't get hurt by his stupid mistakes any more.
And he wouldn't have to feel guilty any longer.
He wouldn't be forced into situations like this one.
But he'd found that the facade was disturbingly difficult to erect again after it had been partially torn down.
He just had to keep telling himself that he wasn't losing anything. No one actually wanted him around, so a little rudeness should discourage them. And that shouldn't be too hard for him, he thought bitterly, recalling all the people in his past who had told him repeatedly how rude and difficult to get along with he was.
If they didn't need information from him, no one would ever talk to him at all, he reminded himself. Certainly, they'd never dream of actually starting a conversation with him, just for the sake of chatting. The day that happened, he'd probably have a heart attack, he concluded cynically.
John eyed Rodney as they continued walking. The scientist was tramping along next to him, looking down fixedly at the Ancient device he was holding, and obviously not seeing it at all. John watched the expressions coming and going over Rodney's lowered face. It looked as if two different parts of him were having an argument. If there were a brick wall up ahead, John thought with a grin, Rodney probably wouldn't notice until he crashed into it. Maybe not even then, actually.
John shook his head slightly. McKay hadn't been acting like himself since that... poison incident. He'd been too silent, too reserved, and he snapped at people suddenly for no reason.
After a conversation with Dr. Weir, John had concluded that it was worry, of all things, that was making McKay behave that way. And for him, no less.
Weir had told him how Rodney had made such an impassioned case for John's staying in Atlantis a little longer. And despite the fact that the last thing he wanted was to be cooped up for a single day more, he'd been rather touched by that.
Not that he'd ever admit that to McKay. Nope, he'd sooner be dead.
Still, it had showed him once again that McKay wasn't so bad if you got past his unsavory exterior. He was appallingly rude and arrogant, and there were days when he literally did nothing but complain. And he was a genius, of course; everyone knew that. But recently, John had been seeing some of his hidden depths, and they always surprised him.
And no matter how you looked at it, McKay had saved his life back on that planet. The least he could do was be friendly in return, when the scientist was obviously upset about something.
John accordingly glanced at Rodney again, in time to see one side of his mouth tilt up in a private sneer. He decided to say something, get Rodney to talk, instead of holding imaginary conversations with himself.
"So, been doing anything interesting?"
The self-derision vanished in a instant, and the grey eyes that snapped up to meet Sheppard's now held nothing but total shock. "What?"
"Well, you said you'd been busy lately; I was wondering if it was anything interesting."
He watched as Rodney came to a halt, and waved his hands around, blinking helplessly, just as if that were the single last thing he'd been expecting to hear. He finally got a response out, though it wasn't much of one. "What?" he asked again.
John gave him an amused look. You'd think the man had never had a conversation in his life. Come to think of it, he probably
hadn't
had that many normal conversations... "Just a question, McKay," he said, keeping his tone friendly.
Rodney's head went back and his jaw set, the eyes losing most of their expression. "Oh, of course. Why did you want to know?"
"Just trying to make conversation," John told him honestly.
The head came down again, and the look of surprise returned as Rodney stared at Sheppard with his mouth open. "Why?" he finally gasped. John gave him a very strange look. Rodney seemed to realise how odd that must have sounded and waved one hand around. "Sorry... Stupid thing to say."
Sheppard was tempted to say that, Yes, it had been - but he knew now wasn't the time for that.
He watched as Rodney regained a partial grasp on reality. "What was the question again?"
"Wanted to know if you'd been doing anything interesting lately."
He watched as Rodney, almost nervously, started to smile. "Well, actually..." he began.
He launched into a long, technical description of something they'd found in one of the labs of Atlantis, growing more and more animated as he went on. John didn't understand most of it - actually, that was an understatement - but it had a lot to do with Ancient databases, quantum physics, and, apparently, Kavanagh. John somehow managed to pay attention even though he didn't have a clue what the astrophysicist was talking about most of the time. Rodney was obviously enjoying letting some of this out, so John was happy to oblige.
John tipped his head to one side, watching the scientist, who had somehow neglected to start walking again. Rodney's hands were going almost as quickly as his tongue, and though his eyes were mostly turned to the surrounding trees, they'd lost their unhappy squint. And he was smiling, something John realised he hadn't seen in a while. In fact, he looked more like a happy kid than he had since they'd first come to Atlantis.
Which was understandable. McKay was head of the science division, which was by far the largest of the three the Atlantis expedition had been divided into. And, in a way, it was also the one that carried the most responsibility. The City was thousands of years old, and held all kinds of things that most of humanity couldn't begin to understand to save their lives. And that was the scientists' job; they were always at it, trying to decipher the secrets of this or that device.
And McKay had to organise it all, keep his finger on all the strings at once, and to make sure nothing went wrong. Sheppard suddenly began to comprehend Rodney's apparent relief at going off-world occasionally. He must never get to relax while in Atlantis itself. Not that most missions were exactly relaxing, but still, any change must seem like a good thing sometimes.
And, of course, there was also the fact that very few - okay, maybe none - of the people he worked with all the time actually liked being around him. Which was also understandable. John had seen the way he treated his research teams, and it wasn't a very pretty sight. And Rodney wasn't much more agreeable on a personal basis either.
John hadn't really considered all this before, because McKay always seemed to be so... self-sufficient. He didn't seem to need anyone else, in any way, shape, or form. And he very often gave the impression of having no use for people, period. But everyone needs someone, and John knew from experience that responsibility is a very wearing thing. And now he decided that if McKay wasn't actually showing the strain - well, then he was hiding it.
And maybe that incident with the poisonous alien thing had just been the last straw.
So maybe he just needed a friend, someone to talk to. Hey, everyone did now and then. And, as far as John was concerned, everyone deserved the chance at one.
Rodney was still talking. "As if just throwing the laws of thermodynamics out the window would solve all our problems... Please! And the man calls himself a physicist!" Rodney let out a derisive snort. "Do you believe that, Major?"
John noticed the grey eyes looking up at him, and roused himself from his train of thought to answer. "Right." He gave a few exaggerated nods, just to punctuate his agreement.
Rodney's eyes narrowed, but the hint of a smile didn't go away. "You know, Major, I don't believe you understood a word of what I've been telling you."
John pretended to look offended. "Course I did!"
Rodney made a little noise to himself, as if he was enjoying this, and kept up his derogatory remarks. "Not surprising. I wouldn't have expected you to, Major."
"Then why were you telling me?" Sheppard raised his eyebrows in a gotcha-there kind of look. If it was the insult game, well, he could play that.
"Because, Major," McKay responded without missing a beat, "someone needs to cultivate your ignorant military mind, and I have decided, out of the goodness of my heart, to take up the task myself. Though I imagine, since it's you we're discussing, Major, that my efforts will be in vain. Still, there's a certain nobility in pursuing a hopeless cause, or so I hear, though personally -"
"Hey, that mean something?"
Rodney looked confused. "What? Does what mean something?"
"That." John pointed at the screen of the Ancient scanner, which he'd noticed was exhibiting all sorts of text and blinking images.
"Huh!" Rodney bent over the device again, which he had forgotten about during his mostly-one-sided conversation with Sheppard. "Yes, actually, it does."
John tried to look, too; even though he knew he wouldn't understand it, he wanted to see for himself. Nope, that didn't mean anything to him. He stole a glance at McKay, whose eyes were darting over the cryptic alien gibberish. Well, they were both looking at the same thing, and McKay did understand it. Just making sure. He would have to ask after all. "So what does it mean?"
There was a funny glow in Rodney's eyes now as he looked up. "There's a power source somewhere around here." He glanced at the screen again, then pointed. "That way."
Rodney looked expectantly at the Major, and thought several things all at once. Was it a ZedPM? Could be, he couldn't tell how far away it was yet, and something seemed to be interfering with the readings. Localised, maybe mineral deposits or something. Too bad he hadn't had this scanner on M7G-677... No, he didn't want to think about M7G-677. Don't go there. This planet was already disturbingly similar, and now it had a power source, too. Well, he was not going to do anything stupid this time. So it would be fine.
He listened to the Major updating Ford and Teyla on the power source and their position. Not that he needed to: this planet looked about as harmful as a walk in the park. Which, of course, didn't necessarily preclude the possibility of something going wrong - you could get killed walking in the park. It was just highly unlikely. You could run into a rabid dog, or someone who really, really didn't like you, or possibly... Oh, the Major was finished now.
"Right, McKay..." Sheppard made a wide gesture, but with his left arm rather than his right, Rodney noticed guiltily. "Lead on."
Rodney did so, watching as the readings got steadily stronger with every step he took. Yes, something was definitely causing localised interference, and the power source was quite close by.
Not a ZedPM though, he concluded disappointedly. The readings weren't nearly strong enough, and they would be from this distance. Still, definitely worth having a look. Almost anything was, especially if you'd travelled all the way to another galaxy just to see what was there.
"Well," he informed the Major, his gaze still glued to the screen of the scanner, "the bad news is that it's definitely not a ZedPM. However, the good news is that we won't have to walk much farther-" He heard a snort of laughter from the Major's direction, which he ignored, because he was too busy to think of a fitting response right now. "The power should be coming from right over here..."
Abruptly, the trees stopped, and John and Rodney found themselves right in the middle of some fairly extensive ruins before they'd even seen them coming.
Rodney groaned, letting his arms fall to his sides. "Oh, this is so totally deja vu!"
Sheppard nodded.'
Trees, power source, ruins... It was M7G-677 all over again. All they needed now were a whole bunch of kids with arrows, and a couple of Wraith probes.
And, Rodney completed the mental tally, a few very dumb and almost fatal mistakes on his part.
Gloomily staring at his scanner, he heard Sheppard talk into his radio. "Ford."
He waited a minute. No answer.
"Ford, come in," he tried again.
Nothing.
"Lieutenant, do you read?"
Still nothing.
"Oh!" Rodney suddenly realised something.
"What?"
"Well, when I first picked up the readings, it looked like there was some kind of... Well, I couldn't be sure, but-"
"What!" Sheppard asked again.
Rodney blinked. Why did he have to be so snappy about it? He piled an extra load of patience onto his tone. "Something in these ruins seems to block energy waves."
"And you didn't think to mention this, because...?"
"How was I to know it would affect the radios? Seriously, Major, I can't predict the future."
John made a face. Rodney caught him at it, and frowned back, going into grumpy mode again. Looking back at his scanner, he marched off without a word.
John rolled his eyes, deciding he was entitled to it, and followed Rodney.
They got practically to the middle of the ruins before McKay spoke again. "There, that should be it."
John glanced around, not seeing anything promising. "Where?"
"Right where I'm pointing. Are you blind, or what?"
"I'm not blind, I just don't see anything that looks like a power source."
"Well, what do you expect? A big flashing sign reading, 'Attention, Power Source Here'?"
"I'm just saying." He walked towards the spot, where there was nothing to be seen but a lot of grass. Rodney went with him, still talking.
"Well, what you're saying has very little actual content, it seems to me. I mean, I'm telling you there's a power source here, and since I happen to be the one with the PhD in physics and the alien device for detecting energy signatures, I think you might take my word for it. It isn't as if I had anything to gain by telling you the wrong place." His tone became mocking. "'Oh, fooled you, Major! The power source is actually behind you. Isn't that funny?'" He went back to being grumpy. "Maybe you have time for games; I don't."
John wasn't stupid, and he caught on to the fact that this was an indication of the strain of responsibility. Luckily, he had an almost infinite amount of patience under normal circumstances. "Sure you do, McKay. Everyone has time for games." He gave one of his friendliest smiles, which he was sure McKay saw, even though the scientist was pretending not to pay attention. "In fact, Ford and I have been teaching Teyla to play cards. Why don't you come along tonight?"
"I'm busy."
"You can't always be busy."
"I can see how the concept might be incomprehensible to you, Major, but I assure you that a man in my position can most certainly always be busy." Almost without changing his tone, he added, "There. Right here." He looked up at John, apparently forgetting that he was in the middle of a fight with him. "It's underground. We must be standing right on top of it."
John frowned, but before he had a chance to reply, there was a slight tremor beneath their feet.
Rodney froze, looking scared. "What was that?"
It took about two seconds for it to click, for John to be sure. Two seconds too long... He started to yell for McKay to run, but it was already too late.
In a terrifying wave of dirt and noise, the ground fell away beneath them...
... And the next thing John was aware of was a strange muddle of sounds and sensations. They didn't seem to have any distinct identities of their own; they were just what there was, apparently, for now. Not that time was distinguishable in the overall mess either.
With some amount of effort, John separated some of the elements combining to create such a bewildering whole: darkness, pain, something hard against his back, and an insistent, panicky voice...
The voice was saying words now. "Major! Major, are you all right? Say something! Major, answer me!"
The words didn't make much sense, though, and John didn't really feel like trying to figure out what it all meant. It probably didn't mean anything.
Something was moving, and then John felt fingers pressed precisely to his wrist. A sigh of relief from the voice next to him, and then the hands moving him. Suddenly, the pain, which had been sort of in the background with everything else, flared into too-clear existence.
John groaned.
"Major?"
The pain had roused John somewhat from the limbo of semi-consciousness, and he knew now who the voice belonged to. He also knew exactly where he hurt the most, which was nice.
"McKay?"
"Major, can you open your eyes?"
He tried a little. "Don't think so..."
"Major, I think you may have a concussion, so I need to make sure that your pupils are equal and responding." A sound of dirt shifting next to him. "You're going to have to open your eyes."
Painfully, John did so. If he'd had more breath to spare, he would have remarked on how it was a lot harder than it sounded. He gritted his teeth as a very bright light blinded him momentarily.
"All right, Major. They look fine. I'm guessing it's only a minor concussion."
John was looking around, willing himself to take stock of his surroundings. As his sight adjusted to the darkness, he realised that it wasn't really terribly dark after all. There was a large hole above them, and there was plenty of light coming in...
A hole, and they were at the bottom of it.
The landslide.
He turned to the scientist still hovering over him.
"McKay? You all right?"
He saw that Rodney was covered in dirt; any other time, he would have felt like laughing. And he himself probably looked pretty much the same. Great. He'd have to take another shower when he got back to Atlantis.
McKay was waving one hand around. "Oh, yeah, pretty much. Dirty, few bruises... But what am I talking about? You're the one with the concussion."
John started to acknowledge McKay's good point with a head movement, but thankfully thought better of it in time.
He looked towards the top of the hole. Actually, the slope wasn't that steep, and it certainly wasn't straight up and down. "We might be able to climb out."
McKay glanced over his shoulder. "Yes, I thought of that. But I doubt I could drag you."
John wrinkled his forehead. No, that wouldn't work. Then there was only one solution. "I can make it..." He started to drag himself up, and Rodney hardly had time to get the beginnings of a protest out before a sudden pain in his right arm made John give up.
He squinted at it. Not broken, he could tell that much. It would hurt a lot worse. But it wouldn't move right, and it was hanging at a funny angle.
McKay had started feeling around the joint of his shoulder. "I think you've dislocated your arm."
"Great."
"Yes."
John knew he could never get out with one arm useless, and he could see that Rodney knew it, too. He fingered his radio with his left hand. "Lieutenant, come in."
There was only static in reply.
"Yes, and the, uh, radios still seem to be out of order. I think it's probably mineral deposits, maybe naturally occurring, which the Ancients utilised as a sort of defense. Probably picked this planet and this specific location in hopes of masking their outpost from the Wraiths' sensors..."
John let him rattle on. The scientist's mind was obviously not on mineral deposits.
Rodney trailed off. "How do you feel?"
"For a guy with a dislocated shoulder and a concussion lying at the bottom of a hole... Not so bad."
"Ford and Teyla will come looking for us soon, won't they?"
"Yeah, but personally," John looked up at Rodney, "I don't feel like waiting here that long."
"So what do we do? Fly out of here?"
Well... John had thought of something. He didn't like it, and he knew McKay wouldn't like it either, but it was a solution. It wasn't as if his arm was broken...
He cleared his throat. "You think you could reset my arm?" He tried to sound casual about it, but McKay wasn't buying the act.
"What! Me! But, I don't know how, I have absolutely no medical training, what if I hurt you more?"
John waited for Rodney's initial panic reaction to die down. "It's easy, anyone could do it."
"Oh, sure!"
"No, really. You just pop it back into the socket. Can't go wrong." This wasn't technically true, but John was willing to take his chances.
Rodney was looking at him in open disbelief now. "You want me to?"
"Yep."
"Oh... Well... All right then... But you're going to have to tell me what to do."
John tried not to look nervous; that wouldn't help McKay. "Right," he said. "Now, you just take it, and pop it back into place."
Rodney had his hands around John's arm and shoulder now, but he still wasn't doing anything. John could feel the scientist's fingers gently clasping and unclasping. It wasn't hurting at all: McKay was strangely good at being careful. Probably due to all those alien thingies he was always working on.
"Oh, well then!" Rodney mocked half-heartedly; then he sighed. "Do you think you could be a little more specific?"
"That's really all there is to it."
"Oh."
Rodney was blaming himself again. If he'd been paying more attention, if he'd been more careful, if he hadn't let John draw him out - again - the Major wouldn't be in this mess. Granted, he himself would be anyway, but that really wasn't the point. The point was that he'd failed yet again, and if he had just held on to his resolve to discourage all friendly advances - which maybe really were meant to be friendly after all - the Major might not have followed him and fallen down this hole.
He didn't know what to say. He hated to ask for forgiveness for the second time in a week for almost killing the Major, especially when they weren't out of danger yet. Not by a long shot. And now the Major wanted him to try to fix his arm. As if he could fix anything! But Sheppard just wouldn't take "No" for an answer.
Rodney couldn't see any way out. And maybe it would be easy after all. Maybe.
He started.
John gritted his teeth, but Rodney was very, very thankful to see that he didn't look like passing out again. So hopefully, he wasn't really hurting John as much as he thought he was.
Weren't you supposed to keep them talking or something when you did things like this?
Rodney couldn't think of a thing to talk about. At least, not anything helpful.
How about card games? Yes, the major had invited him to come play cards with the rest of the team. Rodney had known they were doing that, but he'd always opted out, preferring his work to pushing himself on people and spoiling their fun. And there was certainly always plenty of work to do.
But the fact that the Major had asked him... Well, he had actually seemed to mean it, and Rodney had made sure not to let on how much it had made him hope that he wasn't entirely unwanted. Because he shouldn't hope that. Look what happened to people he just talked to!
Anyway, cards, right. It would do for a conversation topic.
Still focussing on trying to feel his way to resetting the joint, Rodney made an attempt at giving the Major something else to think about. "So, Major, you said you and Ford have been teaching Teyla cards."
"Yeah!" A gasp, a little too violent. Rodney wished he could stop, because he hated to be causing the Major more pain, and deliberately at that. But he just went on.
"What game, exactly?"
"Poker. We taught her poker. She's pretty good at it." He raised his eyebrows in a surprised expression. "After she got the point of it."
Rodney was fairly happy to note that his distraction seemed to be helping a little. He went on talking. "I've never been very good at poker, actually."
John's hazel eyes came up unexpectedly to meet his own. Disturbingly, they seemed to read everything in an instant. Everything Rodney was trying to hide from him. The one thing he knew was that you never let on how worried you were to the patient, and he suddenly thought that he wasn't doing a very good job.
"Yeah, I got that," he heard John say. Rodney had already turned his eyes somewhere else. Oh, he was so screwing this up...
Unexpectedly, John spoke again. "So, you gonna come tonight, or what?"
Rodney shrugged. "I doubt you'll be playing tonight. Beckett doesn't really like crowds in the infirmary."
"Not gonna be in the infirmary," John stated with determination.
Rodney glanced at him unhappily. "Right..." He wasn't doing this right, he could tell. If the Major wasn't in the infirmary for days, it wouldn't be because of his help.
"Nope, not going back there." The Major was trying to ignore the pain, to pretend it wasn't there. He was doing a very good job of it, too, apparently. He quirked his eyebrows a little pathetically. "I just got out of there."
"I know," was all Rodney was up to saying. He just couldn't feel the way to move the bones. He was afraid he was making it worse. It was obviously hurting the Major...
Rodney was the first to admit that he didn't know about people: he had never been very talented at figuring what made humanity tick, socially, psychologically, or physically. He understood things that followed rules, things you could take apart, whether literally or figuratively, mess around with, and throw back together again with a few changes to make them work even better than before.
His life, for years and years now, had been a life of machines, mathematics, and material laws. The stuff of the Universe that made sense. The stuff that was safe. And now, suddenly, he'd been launched unceremoniously into the world of people: he was on a team, he had dared to hope he had friends... Though this did come with the price of being expected to be polite some of the time... Who knew he'd have more of a social life stranded in another galaxy?
He'd been trying to do it right, to make it work... But people just weren't like that. And worst of all, these people, his team, had come to depend of him. And sure, give him an alien device, and he was good to go... Actually no, he amended mentally, he wasn't all that good at those either, was he? But he was absolutely no help at all with a human being. Once you broke a person, you couldn't just wire him back together, and replace the casing.
And McKay broke everything he touched, he thought gloomily.
Honestly, this was really Beckett's department. Rodney considered saying that to John, but one look at the soldier told him it wouldn't be considered a helpful remark. He could feel the bones underneath the flesh and muscle. He tried to concentrate on that, to move it back into place... Oh, who was he fooling? He didn't know enough, wasn't the least bit qualified. Why had he let the Major talk him into doing this in the first place?
Then his hands slipped, and John finally did let out a grunt of pain. His eyes shut very hard, and his left hand started clenching and unclenching. Rodney could see the knuckles turn white when it was in a fist. He backed away a little, as if his mere proximity could make things worse, which was more or less his opinion at this point.
"I can't do this." It was hardly more than a whisper, and still the Major somehow heard it.
"You're doin' good," he told Rodney, but his eyes didn't open, and the creases of pain were still very visible on his forehead.
Rodney shook his head. He meant it. He simply could not do it. It wasn't his thing, and he'd just make everything worse, and that wasn't what he wanted at all.
"No," he said. "No, I'm not. I'm not helping, for all I know I could be complicating your injuries -"
"McKay!"
"No!" He knew he was letting it show too much, but he couldn't stop now. "No, Major, I am not going to hurt you more!"
Now the Major's eyes did open, and he looked up at Rodney with total sincerity, something Rodney found a little unsettling. Especially because there wasn't the least bit of anger or blame, and, oh, there should have been... Why wouldn't he understand that this was all Rodney's fault?
"I can't do it." Rodney made it a statement, pure and simple.
"There isn't any other way."
But there was. Something Rodney had thought of back when he'd first regained consciousness to find himself half buried, but physically fine, and the Major out cold on the other side of the pit.
"I could climb out and get help."
He watched for the Major's reaction, and couldn't tell how his plan had gone over. He didn't like to leave him alone... But if he could just get beyond the ruins, he could radio to Teyla and Ford...
"And get Teyla and Ford to drag me out of here."
"Something like that, yes."
John sighed, and Rodney could see that he didn't like it for one reason or another. But he didn't say why. He just said, "Okay, go."
"Right." Rodney got up, ignoring the stiffness of his legs and arms, and walked over to where the dirt started slanting upwards. It did look pretty steep... But he was sure he could make it. He stood there, rubbing his hands together nervously and trying to determine if there was any way up that was better than the rest.
"You can do it, McKay."
Rodney wheeled around, then looked back again. "Yes, right," he said, and he wasn't being sarcastic, just accepting the encouragement in the spirit it had been offered.
Left to himself, Rodney would never have even tried to climb out. Well, maybe he would if he were stuck here, but he sure wouldn't as a hobby. But if the Major thought it could be done, then he'd do it. He'd have to. Maybe that would show everyone that he wasn't useless, that he could help fix what he'd screwed up.
He started to climb, feeling John's eyes drilling into him from behind. He had to do this to help the Major.
He was already halfway up when the dirt shifted beneath him the first time. He grabbed on to a rock in time to save himself from falling, but the sensation had been very disturbing.
"You all right, McKay?"
Rodney caught his breath, at least almost, and shouted back, "Yes, but this slope seems to be pretty unstable. I'm not sure if I can-"
"You'll be fine," came the calming voice from behind him. "Just keep going, you're more than halfway there."
Rodney was grateful for the moral support. The Major had faith in him. Well, he wasn't going to disappoint him. He wasn't going to fail again, not when he had a chance to be useful.
He kept climbing.
There were more and more slidings beneath his feet as he got higher up and the slope became steeper. But he always managed to retain his balance somehow. And it was good to be fighting for a goal, to have something to do, some way to help.
The Major occasionally contributed something cheerful from his position on the "floor" of the pit. And Rodney always appreciated it, though he never said so, of course.
Now Rodney was almost at the top. The last couple of feet, however, were completely vertical, so he'd have to reach for it and haul himself over the edge. Clinging to the rather unsteady dirt and rock beneath him, he tried to nerve himself to do it. He knew he had to, but it just seemed like such a bad idea...
"By the way," the Major said from behind and beneath Rodney, "how come you didn't get a concussion and a dislocated shoulder?"
Rodney remembered the shove which had sent him out of the worst of it at the last possible second and gulped. Yet another one he owed the Major, and which he could never, ever repay. "Actually," he answered, "you pushed me."
"Don't remember doing that."
"Well, you can take it from me, you did."
"Go me."
"Yes."
A long pause as Rodney considered the edge of turf so close above him. He decided to add something to that last bit of conversation. "Thank you. By the way."
"No problem, McKay."
Oh, yes, Rodney definitely had to get out of here. No matter what. Because otherwise, he wouldn't be able to live with himself.
"Actually," Rodney shouted down as he reached for the ground above, "I think I will, uh, take you up on that invitation for tonight."
"Good." Rodney had grabbed the grass now, but that wasn't really much of a handhold. John was still talking. "Just don't bring along anything you care too much about, cause Teyla gets better every night."
Rodney laughed absentmindedly. He really wasn't sure if he could pull himself up using just the grass as a support. But the ground was slipping out from under him, and it was now or never. He pulled, and got almost over the edge, when the whole world just seemed to implode all of a sudden.
Then he was sitting upright, and he knew that he was at the bottom of the hole again. He was staring at the Major, across from him, and had a distinct sense of having done all this before.
The Major was shouting something at him, but he couldn't make it out. His own name, and something about... doing something. He really didn't feel up to doing anything. He wanted to tell the Major that, but his tongue just wouldn't work.
Besides which, the Major seemed to be so far away... Rodney was sure he couldn't shout that far. And he couldn't move either, which was odd.
Rodney was trying to get his bearings, but it was all so terribly confusing. He was sure there was something he should be doing, something that he should remember, but he had no idea what. And no way of finding out either.
Somehow, magically, his head cleared a little, and he remembered climbing... To help the Major. The Major was hurt. Rodney looked over at him, squinting a bit to bring things more into focus. It didn't help much, everything was still blurry. But now he could see that the Major was more than half buried in dirt and rubble. He was still shouting, and digging furiously and ineffectually with his good arm.
Rodney didn't know what the trouble was, but whatever it was, he knew it was his fault. All this was his fault. And now he was no use at all, because he couldn't even move. He couldn't help the Major. He never could.
"Rodney! Answer me!"
The sounds had started being words, which was vaguely interesting. Rodney wanted to ask what was the matter, but he couldn't say much, so all he managed was, "What?"
The sound of his own voice startled him, and he blinked a few times. It didn't even sound like him.
He was sure John couldn't have heard him from all that way away, but apparently he had, because he said something back. "McKay, stay with me."
Stay with him? He was with him. That was the whole trouble. Still, the Major didn't seem to understand that. "I'm here," Rodney told him, hoping John would explain what he meant.
"Good," said John. "Don't go anywhere, okay?"
Rodney wanted to ask him what this was all about, but he couldn't get enough words together at once to do it. And now everything was going so blurry... Like some kind of dark fog, rolling in at the edges of his vision, making the Major seem even further away...
"Rodney!"
Rodney jerked his head back up, and realised there was something very funny about the side of his face. He got one hand up to touch it, and it felt warm and wet... He stared down with a sort of impersonal wonderment at the red on his fingers through the fog.
"I'm bleeding." He was surprised, confused... And he didn't know why he wasn't more scared; he thought he should be. Because now he saw that the whole left side of him was red, and that wasn't good.
But, strangely, it didn't seem to matter very much. Nothing did. The fog was taking him away somewhere, and he'd just see what it was like when he got there. He couldn't think about it now.
"McKay, stay with me!" A forceful voice from somewhere outside the fog, and two intense hazel eyes holding his own.
The Major.
But why did he want him to stay here? He couldn't help now, he was no good. He'd failed. He always failed.
"Stay with me!"
Rodney could see in the Major's eyes that he cared very much about this, but he didn't know why. His voice was like an anchor in all the shifting fog... But still, Rodney couldn't hold on... He was drifting away...
He wanted to tell the Major he was sorry, that he couldn't do it...
... He couldn't hold on any longer...
... He couldn't help him...
... He couldn't reset his arm...
... Couldn't climb out...
... Couldn't get him back to the Gate fast enough...
... Couldn't fix the device on M7G-677...
... He couldn't even tell him how sorry he was...
He'd failed so many times, and now he was failing again. And still he couldn't help it.
I'm sorry...
"McKay! Rodney!"
Can't...
And he saw the despair in the hazel eyes as the dark fog closed over him...
John hit the rubble so hard it hurt, but he didn't care. He felt terrible, but it didn't matter any more.
How could this be happening!
"RODNEY!"
But Rodney didn't answer. He'd slid down sideways, and after that one, final, wide-eyed, pleading stare, his eyes had fallen shut... And they didn't reopen.
John told himself that he was wrong to think that they never would...
"C'mon, McKay, don't do this...!" John bit back a moan and scrabbled with his one good arm at the rubble that had trapped him. But it didn't do any good. He was well and truly stuck.
He'd been so sure McKay could make it out. He'd watched the scientist somehow get to the top, never giving up when almost anyone else would have called it a day long before. The dogged determination of the man was just astounding. And Sheppard had congratulated himself anew on picking someone like that to be on his team.
But then it had all fallen apart, literally, at the very last minute. The area had still been unstable. John knew he should have thought of that. If he hadn't had a concussion, he probably would have; but that didn't help now.
Second thoughts hadn't made a bit of difference when tons of dirt suddenly came crashing down, half-burying Sheppard, and dropping McKay twenty feet with a lot of very hard rocks for company.
He'd watched Rodney regain consciousness very briefly. Watched him go out again.
And now he was watching as he slowly bled his life away onto the cold ground from a wound on his head.
And he couldn't reach him.
A dozen feet away, and there was absolutely nothing he could do.
And there was such a lot of blood...
Blood all over the side of Rodney's face, blood soaking his tan jacket... Red covering the stones beneath him... More and more of it all the time...
"Dammit! Rodney..." It was only a whisper now. No good in shouting any more, because there was no one who could hear him.
No McKay to make a smart-alec response.
John buried his head in the crook of his arm. Where had it all gone wrong? What had he done to cause this? Answers came back quickly enough.
He should have been paying more attention, should have been thinking faster, should have known that where McKay went, trouble followed. He should have been more careful. That was his job, what he was here for.
And he'd failed miserably at it.
Worst of all, he'd put one of his team at even greater risk in an already-bad situation. Why had he ever let McKay try to climb out on his own? It hadn't seemed like such a bad idea at the time, but now... It had just been dumb. He should have stopped him. Ford and Teyla would have shown up soon enough...
But now it wouldn't be soon enough. Rodney was dying.
He'd failed, and Rodney was paying for it with his life.
John looked up again, saw Rodney where he lay at the other end of the pit. Out of reach, just too far from help... Saw the blood everywhere... Time was running out for Rodney, and John knew it. But it was too late now. Too late to make up for his mistakes.
It shouldn't have been this way. It wouldn't have been, except for him. John knew it was all his fault.
He'd never forgive himself. He'd never trust himself again now. McKay had trusted him, and look what had happened.
"McKay..."
John was surprised to hear that he'd said it out loud. Just an uncertain breath of a word. A name, the name of someone who had been... his friend, really, though he hadn't realised that in so many words. The name of the friend he'd led to his doom.
There was only one thing left for him to do now; and it was too late to do even that right. But John said it anyway, because it was all he had left to give.
His voice became steady and clear as he told Rodney that last, all-important thing.
"I'm sorry."
If only Rodney could actually hear him... But he couldn't, and there was nothing John could do to change that.
Nothing he could do to change any of this.
John closed his eyes, and waited for... What? The end? Death? He was very much aware that he wasn't dying himself, so he wasn't sure what he expected... But it didn't matter now.
"Major."
John half-roused himself from the daze he had slipped into. Had that voice been real, or...? He stared at Rodney, hoping irrationally for some sign... But he lay as still as before, and the pool of blood had spread further. No, it must have been...
"Major!"
This time John could locate the voice, and his head snapped upwards, to the top of the hole.
"Teyla?"
He could hardly believe it for a second, figured his mind was playing tricks on him. But there she was, standing above and looking down with concern clearly written on her face. Yes, she was real.
"Teyla!" he shouted up, suddenly regaining all the strength he had lost with the onset of despair. "McKay's hurt, call Atlantis!"
He tried to convey the urgency to her, and was frustrated when she lingered a moment longer. "Are you also hurt?"
"Yeah..." He thought of telling her more, then glanced again at McKay... No, no time. It might not be too late yet - if they hurried. "Yeah, but McKay's not good. Go."
Not exactly his most lucid attempt at communication, but Teyla gave a confident nod, and disappeared from view. He could hear her calling to Ford; she'd understood. Teyla always understood.
"Hang on, McKay, help's coming."
It was a bitter thought that he couldn't have been the one to give that help... But who really cared if it turned out all right?
"Just hang on."
It seemed like forever until help did arrive. A long, timeless stretch of tortuous anxiety during which John kept talking, trying to hold himself and Rodney for as long as it took. He didn't know if it actually made a difference to his friend: Rodney seemed to have gone somewhere far beyond anything that could affect him. But John wouldn't accept that, not now that there was hope.
And talking certainly did help him, so that's what he did.
Teyla stood guard at the top of the pit, P-90 ready, while Aiden ran towards the Gate, and help.
He'd set off at his fastest pace when she'd told him that Major Sheppard and Dr. McKay were injured. She could only hope and pray that it would be fast enough.
She hadn't been able to see Rodney, not even from the nearest she'd dared to stand to the obviously unsafe edge of the pit. But the tone Major Sheppard had used had conjured up all sorts of visions, some imaginary, and many real, of violent deaths. Even when men didn't fight eachother, they still had to beware of nature. Sometimes it was the latter that did the worse damage.
She peered worriedly into the trees, futilely searching for signs of Lieutenant Ford's return. She'd hear him long before she could see him, but that didn't stop her from using all her senses to try to get the earliest knowledge of his return with the help from Atlantis.
Major Sheppard had been injured too, fairly badly, from what Teyla had been able to see in the dimness below. She wished with a sudden, bitter ferocity that she could do something for them right now. What good was she doing standing here? Keeping guard - against what? If the medical team waited much longer, she was very much afraid that nothing she could guard against could make things worse for either of the injured men below her.
Teyla sighed. Her life under the Wraith had familiarised her with feelings of helplessness and inadequacy. But it never made it any easier to just do what she could, and forget about what it was they really needed... What she couldn't give them.
She heard a murmur from below, a voice. She cocked her head and stepped a little closer.
It was John, talking to McKay.
"When you wake up and start telling me what an idiot I was to get you into this mess, McKay, I just might agree with you."
A smile lifted one side of Teyla's mouth. It was good to hear the Major's voice, and as long as he was talking she could keep that worry at bay. Though the fact that McKay wasn't answering could only be interpreted as confirmation of her suspicions as to his state.
"You wouldn't want to miss a chance like that would you?"
Major Sheppard and Dr. McKay had a very... unusual friendship. They spent most of their time either arguing or baiting eachother. But Teyla had recognised very soon after her arrival in Atlantis that these two somehow, against all probability, had something in common.
She had never met anyone like Dr. Rodney McKay, and hadn't understood at first how anyone could get along with him. His "conversations" seemed to consist only of complaints or derogatory remarks about others. He was easily the most arrogant man she'd ever come across... Or so it had appeared.
Teyla had discovered that one of the biggest surprises in the City of the Ancients was the true nature of Dr. Rodney McKay. She had come to recognise a very brave, very good, unselfish and caring man - who gave the almost flawless impression of being just the opposite.
"Don't die, Rodney... Cause if you do, I'll have to put Kavanagh on my team, and I know you wouldn't 't like that."
Major John Sheppard was more what he seemed, but also unlike anyone else she had ever some across in all her interplanetary travels. (Although, admittedly, those were beginning to seem insignificant by comparison to those of the people of Earth.) But John Sheppard still hid a lot of himself beneath a mask... And to hear him desperately trying to keep a dying friend alive with only his voice revealed a lot about the side he usually kept buried.
He was just the opposite of Rodney, in a way: Everyone liked him. But he had very, very few friends, and in that they were alike.
"Kavanagh's even more annoying than you. It'd be enough to make Teyla and Ford count their blessings."
Teyla didn't smile at this. She already had counted her blessings in her teammates. She didn't need the loss of any of those to make her recognise how fortunate she was.
"Hang in there, McKay. I'm not gonna lose you now."
Teyla gritted her teeth in frustration, knowing how little say John had in the matter. She'd seen so many people killed, taken; all she could do was stand by and watch. Friends... And family...
It was terrible to realise that even with all the technology and the knowledge that the people from Earth possessed, they also had no choice but to stand by and watch as people they cared about were taken from them.
But Teyla knew that that didn't mean you stopped trying. It just meant that you had to try harder.
Teyla's head whipped around as she heard a sound in the underbrush nearby. Someone running... More than one person, in fact. Yes, it could only be Lieutenant Ford with the medical team from Atlantis.
Teyla smiled. Maybe they wouldn't lose this battle after all.
John heard noises from above, people talking, running feet...
"Teyla?"
He didn't see her, but he heard her call down, "The doctors have arrived from Atlantis."
John didn't say anything, he just nodded weakly, even though there was no one there to see him. He wasn't feeling too well...
"They got here, McKay. You'll be all right."
And after that, everything was a little bit blurry. Rescue teams came down and checked them both. They got him out, got McKay out.
Then he stood, with Ford's help and against Teyla's protests, on the surface and watched the medics clustered around the stretcher they'd put Rodney on. Rodney hadn't regained consciousness throughout the whole process of being pulled from the pit. John hadn't liked the looks on the doctors' faces then, and he didn't like the looks on Aiden's and Teyla's now.
"He's gotta be okay," John said, defying what he and everyone else felt. He gulped, sick as much with worry as with his various injuries. "It's my fault he's like that."
"Not your fault, sir."
"There is no way you could have prevented this, Major."
John nodded. He wasn't convinced... But it still helped a little. "Thanks," he told them.
A couple of medics came to look John over, applying field dressings and putting something on his dislocated arm until it could be fixed properly in Atlantis. Then they headed back towards the rest of the medics - all taking care of Rodney. John, Aiden and Teyla just watched, knowing all too well that there was nothing they could do.
After what seemed an eternity, during which Ford and Teyla both tried several times, unsuccessfully, to get him to at least sit down, John saw a harried Dr. Beckett coming towards them. He looked almost as worried as John felt. But not quite as dirty, John's mind added on its own.
"Doc?" That was Ford. John didn't seem to be able to find his voice any more.
"It should be safe to move him now, so we need to get you both back to Atlantis." Beckett wasn't hiding how serious this was. "But if we hurry... He's lost a lot of blood, but there's a good chance he'll recover."
John heard three huge sighs of relief, one of them his own.
He saw some medics coming towards him with a stretcher, and found he couldn't hold on to consciousness any longer.
He didn't even remember the hurried trip back to the Stargate, and the safety of Atlantis.
Author's Note: Hm... Well, this complicates matters. Now John feels guilty, too! I think our boys really need to have a talk and sort this whole thing out... Stay tuned for Part 3!