A/N: This is the betaed version now. I haven't made any major changes to the plot, just a few spelling and grammer problems.

Day 3

Elizabeth looked over Caldwell's report. She still couldn't accept that they'd lost John, Rodney and Ford, and kept searching the report for some hint that they might still be alive. All of them were invaluable to the expedition. Rodney's knowledge of Ancient technology easily outweighed his foibles, and John made an excellent head of the military.

She sighed as she opened a clean document on her laptop. She now had the hard job of writing yet another eulogy, and as ever, she hadn't a clue where to start.

A knock on her door attracted her attention. Dr Zelenka, straight off of the Daedalus, was standing there with an anxious expression his face.

"Doctor Zelenka. What can I do for you?" She asked, trying to sound genuinely pleased that he had returned so soon.

"We need to get back to the site where we found Ford."

"I've read the report. I thought the puddle jumper had been destroyed?"

"I am not so sure. You see, Hermiod and I believe that it could be possible to detect a remnant of their trail."

"If it exists…" Elizabeth added.

"You have given up on them already?"

Elizabeth paused, and then said, "I'm sorry, Doctor, but I cannot expend any more time on this."

"Well, can I take a jumper there and investigate?"

"It's two days from the nearest gate, and I can't release you for that long either."

"Elizabeth, please…" he said pleadingly.

"I'm sorry, but my answer is still no, and that's my last word."

Zelenka sagged. He'd hoped that he'd be given one last chance to find them. As he turned to leave, Elizabeth said,

"I think you should be the one to write Rodney's eulogy. I think you're the person who really knew him best."

Zelenka turned to face her again, and started, "I don't…" he stopped, and turned around.

Elizabeth could see his reason for hesitating. Somehow, the funeral made the facts seem certain, irrefutable. It was hard to plan as well, and thinking about that made Elizabeth's emotions stir up again. She took the moment Zelenka used to compose himself to pull herself together.

"I would be honoured." He said a little thickly.

Rodney had finally managed to drop of into a restless nap, until John nudged him alert.

"Wha'?" His nap had done little to make him more awake.

"We're near now." John replied, equally tired. He pointed to the now obviously snowy planet.

Resisting the urge to just lie back and go to sleep again, Rodney ran a scan of the planet. An enlarged image of it appeared on the front screen, and a point flashed.

"That's the gate." He said.

John nodded, and adjusted their course slightly. "Have we got any water left?" He asked.

Rodney picked up the only canteen that hadn't been dumped into space. When he shook it, it sounded almost empty. Without hesitating, he handed it to John, who waved it away. "Go on, you need it more than me, and besides, there's plenty of water where we're headed." Rodney insisted, grinning a little.

Reluctantly, John took it, and swallowed the last mouthful. Looking at Rodney, he said, "Beard's coming on."

Rodney scowled.

Elizabeth looked at the still blank document in front of her. She had written so many eulogies, so many letters to next of kin. They never got easier, especially for someone she had been as close to as she had been to John and Rodney.

A knock on the door caught her attention. Teyla was standing there.

"Oh, Teyla, come in." Elizabeth tried and failed to put on a welcoming smile.

"You asked to see me?"

"Oh? Oh, yes. Please sit down."

Teyla took the seat opposite Elizabeth at her desk.

"Teyla, I'm not really sure how your people conduct a funeral, but we have a tradition where the person's closest friends make a speech. I know you and John were quite close, and I was wondering if you would do that for him."

Teyla paused for a moment, wondering what to say. "I am honoured you asked me, but surely you know him better than I?"

"We met not long before the expedition left. You have spent more time in his company than me."

"That may be so." She paused again. "I will try."

"I am sure John would have liked you to do this."

"Perhaps."

Rodney, who was still really tired, was running a check over the jumper as they made their final approach to the planet, well, what was left of the jumper, anyway. Almost the entire rear hull was gone, as well as a few bits of the surrounding area. Then he noticed the warning light over the engines.

"Oh dear." He said.

"What?" Replied John.

"The reverse thrusters are damaged. There's no way to fix them."

"What does that mean?" John asked through a yawn.

"It's going to be a bumpy landing." Rodney replied through a similar yawn and a scowl.

"As if we don't have enough to worry about." He looked at the area in front of the gate. At least it was about flat, but John's knowledge from Antarctica warned him that there could be hidden crevasses or pits of snow like quicksand. It was too late to do anything about that now. They were just about to enter the atmosphere. "Oh well." He sighed, "Be ready to dial the date and enter your IDC. And hang on!" Rodney nodded, and with his GDO in hand, grabbed the end of the DHD.

John did his best to keep them on a reasonably straight course, but they were heading for a very hard landing if they couldn't slow down. In a desperate measure, just before they hit the ice, and while they were flying reasonably horizontally, John swung the jumper around. Turning up the throttle, he put the full force of the engines to work slowing them down.

Even with this added deceleration, both men were thrown to the floor when the jumper ploughed into the snow and ice, but John's daring manoeuvre saved both of their lives. Both men unconscious, the jumper dug a trench as it landed, before finally coming to rest, facing the right way again, deep in a snow drift.

Beta's note: Hey folks, very sorry for the waiting! Don't blame the Author, it's all my fault looks down, scrubs foot on floor. Ah well shrugs I've got another chapter to Beta!