Chapter Two

Sheppard felt better once they made it back to the jumper in one piece. He hadn't intended to take his own case of the jitters out on Rodney but he'd been worried about their situation until he'd found the estuary and the river feeding into it. The jumper was a natural shelter, they could probably get most of their food from fishing, and they had a water source. He could relax a little. Not much but some. There was still the matter of ensuring their only source of heat didn't fail any sooner than necessary, but right now they could survive.

He'd realized they were in trouble as soon as the jumper had been damaged. Controls gone to shit, no maneuverability, the jumper proving that the only thing that ever kept it pointing in the right direction was a finely tuned computer guidance system and kick-ass engine power. Fighting the damn thing all the way he'd angled the ship so the butt was lower than the front in a vain attempt to create some drag across the belly and tried to aim for an area on the planet that just might give them some chance of getting out alive. It had been a knee jerk reaction but he'd seen the telltale signs of a river emptying into the sea and knew that at least they could find fresh water.

He'd been more astonished than Rodney to find he'd somehow managed to get them down in one piece. They were still stranded, but baring any accidents, they would be alive when a rescue team turned up.

That just left the standard challenges of a mission. Such as keeping Rodney McKay upright and walking the mental health line. Something Sheppard was good at doing for a specifically short duration. A week - maybe two – tops. Sheppard clung to the knowledge that no matter what happened, the requirement to spend every waking hour and maybe every sleeping hour with Rodney McKay would be limited. As much as he liked Rodney as a friend he also liked the fact that he could get some down time. He knew that after a mission he could go and hide in his quarters and Rodney could go and verbally harangue someone else.

A month or more of Rodney was going to test his patience.

On a more positive note, Rodney seemed to have run out of steam right after he'd turned the heat back on and checked the power levels. He was quietly sitting on one of the benches in the back of the jumper, contemplating his muddy boots, and Sheppard was happy for this quiet side of his companion to continue. It gave him a chance to check some boxes for the night vision goggles.

"It's going to be dark soon," he said to himself and to Rodney.

Rodney nodded but didn't reply.

Sheppard continued. "I thought I'd take the first watch."

Rodney ignored the statement. Instead he replied, "My shoes are wet."

As if this had anything to do with their situation at the moment. Some days he just couldn't follow McKay's train of thought. If it was a train at all. Most days it was more like a ship that had lost rudder control. He chose to ignore the remark, figuring McKay would complete it eventually.

"I'll take it to zero-four-hundred. You take from zero-four-hundred to eight-hundred."

"My feet are cold. My feet are cold because my shoes are wet. My shoes are wet because you insisted on making me go for a hike."

Okay, so there was the rest of the thought. Rodney was clearly in a pissy mood.

"Had to be done and I'm sorry that your feet are cold. Take off your shoes and let them dry out. Tomorrow I'm going to rig something, so you'll be more comfortable."

Having complained about his feet, McKay rambled into another topic that had clearly been weighing on his mind.

"You know if there's something really big is out there, we don't stand a chance. Okay, yes, the life sign detector didn't show anything but is that any indication of a lack of life signs? They might not be in range…"

"How big were you thinking? 'Cause unless we get a T-Rex running at us I'm thinking my trusty P90 is going to put it out of commission."

Rodney looked up from his shoes. "Are we sure this planet is uninhabited?"

"Not totally sure, but pretty sure."

"Great. So apart from the unknown carnivorous life forms we might also run into the not-so-friendly natives."

"Rodney, you saw about as much of the HUD info as I did. The HUD said zip, nadda, zero."

"The same HUD that went offline about two-seconds later?"

"Yes, that HUD." Sheppard found the night vision goggles as he talked to Rodney and a set of torches. He'd been reminded by more than a few people that uninhabited planets were uninhabited for a reason and he didn't want to go there just yet, so he went for a change of subject. "So, we've got some time to kill before beddy-byes. I don't suppose you brought a pack of cards with you?"

"The only card game I've got is Solitaire. On my PDA."

"Okay, maybe we'll just have to get a campfire going and have a sing along." He said it with a straight face. Sort of.

"There will be no singing. If there's any singing I'm walking into the ocean and drowning myself."

Sheppard smiled as Rodney started to sound more like… Rodney. "Scratch the singing then. I guess that leaves eating."

Rodney brightened considerably at the mention of food and Sheppard pulled down the case containing their meager supplies, dug around in the contents.

"Since it's our first night in our new home, I think we deserve not one, but two power bars." Sheppard pulled out a selection from the case with a flourish and laid them across the bench. "Peanut butter, or chocolate and peanut butter?"

"Two? Two measly power bars for dinner? We've got MREs, we could have those because I for one could really do with a meal."

"It's a lot smarter if we conserve our rations. We might need them if the going gets tough."

Rodney stared at him in disbelief. "The going gets tough… What, may I ask, is it now? A freaking camping trip?"

Sheppard suppressed a sigh. "I just think it's a lot smarter to concentrate on living off the environment, just in case." He winced at that phrase. He really had to learn not to use phrases like, 'just in case', 'being careful', or 'having a backup in case of emergency' around Rodney.

Rodney didn't say anything, perhaps sensing that Sheppard was serious and grabbed two peanut butter flavored power bars. He tore off a wrapper and took a bite.

"Yummy."

"I thought you liked them."

"I like them when I'm on the verge of falling over from low blood sugar and because they're the only thing that will fit in my vest pocket."

"Yeah, I keep hoping they'll figure out how to miniaturize a turkey sandwich." Sheppard mimicked Rodney and tore off the wrapper. Took a bite and started chewing. It wasn't that bad but like all things designed in conjunction with the military it was designed to keep a person going, not so much for the actual enjoyment.

Rodney, beyond hungry, inhaled the first bar, then tore into the second wrapper. He slowed about half way through and began to relax enough to actually chew his food.

Sheppard in the meantime had barely worked his way through the first one. He decided against consuming the second and instead put it in a vest pocket.

Their first meal in their new home took a total of fifteen minutes and only because Rodney managed to pace himself near the end, perhaps realizing that he wasn't going to be able to avail himself of any midnight snacks in the near future.

Rodney looked forlornly at the wrappers and asked, "Now what do we do?"

Sheppard glanced at his watch. Evening had arrived and it was nineteen-hundred hours. Crap. It was going to be a long night. He grabbed a torch, turned it on and once more studied the world that lay beyond the confines of their jumper.

There as a full moon. The light spilled onto the beach, the darkened sea was highlighted in places and there was nothing much to be heard except for the rhythmic sound of white tipped water rolling onto the shore. It was cold and still and it was kind of peaceful.

"I'm going outside. Want to come along?"

Rodney seemed startled by the suggestion. "Outside?"

Sheppard gestured in front of him. "Seriously, outside is practically inside anyway with the hatch open. It'll kill time."

"Or kill us. It's freezing."

"Then use the sleeping bag as an extra layer."

Sheppard didn't wait for McKay to follow him, just stepped out of the jumper and strode down the sand towards the waves.

Behind him he heard the sounds of griping. "Oh. Fine. Fine!"

He walked a few meters forward and looked up. Looked up at an alien sky and the stars of the Pegasus Galaxy. There would be more visible if not for the moon, but there was enough. He turned the torch off, let his eyes adjust.

This was his secret thing. On every alien world where he'd ever seen night fall, he'd tipped back his head to look up at the sky and see the stars, pick out the patterns, name constellations. People had navigated by the Northern Star in the Northern Hemisphere, by the Southern Cross in the South. Somewhere in the skies he gazed at there was someone else's North Star guiding them all to their destinations.

He saw that Rodney had joined him out of the corner of his eye. The scientist had placed his sleeping bag around his shoulders and it made him look like he'd escaped from a rest home.

Rodney followed his line of sight and also stared up at the night sky.

"You want first dibs on naming rights?" asked Sheppard.

Rodney didn't look at Sheppard, just continued observing. "I always wanted a star named after me."

"Now's your chance. But don't limit yourself because I'm going for a constellation."

There was silence as they tried to pick out likely patterns in the sky. Rodney eventually seemed to settle on a set of stars in the west and held out his arm, making a fist.

"Gateship One."

"Where?"

Rodney measured off two lengths upwards with his arm. "Twenty degrees altitude and 270-degrees azimuth. I think."

Horizontal coordinates. Sheppard had gone through the basics of navigation when he was in his flight classes. It was a simple method of estimating the position of an object in the sky and a pretty good one. He closed one eye, held out his own arm, made a fist, measuring upwards to follow Rodney's directions and found the constellation. Yeah, it looked like a jumper.

"You're never going to let me forget that are you?"

"You said I had first naming rights. I want Gateship One."

Sheppard nodded. "Okay. You got it."

"Your turn."

He went back to checking out the stars, casting around for something that struck his fancy. To his amusement, he saw the perfect constellation for naming.

"Stargate. Forty-five degrees altitude, 180-degrees azimuth."

Rodney shuffled around and check out Sheppard's find. A compact circle of stars glimmered above him.

"Pity it's not the real one."

"Yeah." A depressing thought and one that Sheppard didn't want to dwell on. "Next constellation has to be named after the first person you had a serious crush on."

"I'm not doing that," squeaked Rodney.

"Why not? They're not here and I'm not telling if you're not."

"Because it's completely pointless."

"We can't name every constellation after stuff in Atlantis. That'd be completely lacking in imagination and I'm not going to enjoy sitting out here watching constellations called DHD and MALP."

"Fine. If it'll make you happy… My lab partner Tracy."

'Did Tracy have a last name?"

"Yes, but I'm not telling you. Who was yours?"

"Miss Watson. Sixth grade teacher.

"Did Miss Watson have a first name?"

"Yes, but I have no idea what it was."

He wasn't sure but he thought he saw Rodney smile a little and they went back to trying to find a group of stars that might be misconstrued as having the shape of a woman. They had no luck and it wasn't for lack of trying.

The next time Rodney spoke it was to complain. "I'm getting a crick in my neck."

He'd have to agree with that statement. "Me too. 'Sides, I think we can safely say that we're not in any hurry to complete this within the next week."

"What gave you your first clue, Colonel?" Rodney was trying for a joke but it just came out bitter and unhappy. Sheppard passed the torch off to Rodney.

It was a mere few steps back into the jumper. Sheppard risked a glance at his watch. Twenty-hundred hours. If he could keep Rodney entertained for another hour or two, exhaustion might set in and he'd go to bed. It would be harder for Rodney to complain or feel any anxiety if he was asleep – or at least, that was Sheppard's current assumption. In reality he doubted either of them would be able to do more than doze.

Inside the jumper Rodney had deposited himself in a chair up front and was occupying himself by swiveling it from left to right while waving the torch around. Then Sheppard clicked. The guy was always used to thinking. Thinking about solving problems, postulating a theory, thinking about solutions to the theory. Without the constant source of stimulation and the opportunities to hyper focus Rodney was literally clueless. He had no idea what to do apart from work.

Sheppard's own theory was that if they could settle into some sort of routine then Rodney would be fully occupied. It wouldn't take much either – the chore of living would keep them going from dawn until dusk. There was food to find, water to carry, a fire to get going and keep going, and basic hygiene to sort out. Rodney wasn't going to have much time to worry. Hell, neither of them were going to have much time to worry. At least, that was the theory.

He just hoped that they weren't on the receiving end of any unexpected surprises.

"Rodney, keep that up and you'll break the chair not to mention using up the batteries."

"It's Ancient. It's not supposed to break."

"Way to go on the subtext, but it's not going to change anything."

"Great." The chair stopped swiveling but the torch continued its light show on the roof.

"You need to go to bed."

"Let me just explain. Again. I am not five."

"Look, I'm going to wake you up at oh-four-hundred whether you like it or not. If you want to get a decent length of sleep you'll think about trying."

Rodney turned off the torch, plunging them both into semi-darkness. Sheppard grabbed it off him while he had the opportunity. Moonlight spilled through the jumper's forward windows.

"Fine. If you want to play mother, I'll do as I'm told. Are you going to tell me which side I can have too?"

"No, Rodney. You can choose whether you want the left bench or the right bench."

"I'll take the left."

"There you go. That was easy."

It was clear that Rodney just wasn't going to be jollied out his bitchy mood. Rodney put his hands on his hips.

"I need the torch back. I have to make a bathroom visit."

Sheppard handed the torch back again, followed Rodney to the hatch.

"You had better not even contemplate supervising," said Rodney.

"Don't worry, the thought of getting anywhere near you would probably cause the power bar I ate to reappear. Just do me a favor. Take a leak on the side of the jumper. I don't need you wandering up into a sand dune, or trying for a tree and getting lost."

"Isn't that unhygienic?"

"I think the jumper's hull can take it and the sand will absorb it."

Rodney made an 'ewwww' expression then disappeared around to the right of the jumper.

Sheppard waited at the entrance, nervous at having Rodney out of sight and instead relying on the spill of the torchlight to indicate Rodney hadn't strayed too far.

Silence. Sheppard waited for what he thought was a suitable time and then spoke up.

"You finished yet?"

"Stop talking, I'm trying to concentrate."

He did as he was told, heard the dull splatter of urine hitting sand and the sound of a zip going back up. Then there was the sound of Rodney tripping over his own feet.

"Owwwww!"

Sheppard was instantly alert. "You okay? You need any help?"

"God damn it no. I do not need help. I just tripped but I think I hurt my finger."

"Okay, well why don't you complain inside."

Rodney reappeared a few seconds later, looking even more depressed. He shoved the torch at Sheppard, making him hold it while Rodney studied his right forefinger in earnest.

"Look at that. I'm bleeding!"

"It's a scratch."

"But I'm bleeding."

"It's a scratch."

"It could get infected. We're on an alien world and I could get infected with God knows what especially since we've got primitive hygiene standards."

"Then go and use the medkit. You know the thing with the iodine and Band-Aids in it."

Sheppard tried to suppress a sigh and shone the torch over to webbing holding the plastic container. Rodney did as he was told, carefully swabbed at this wound and then wrapped it in flesh colored plastic. Mission accomplished, Rodney started dealing with other concerns.

"We got any wipes around here?"

"Don't think so."

"Ugh."

"Be a man Rodney. You can survive the contamination for one night. Besides, the last thing I heard, urine is sterile."

"Until it leaves the body," shot back Rodney.

Knowing the man as well as he did, Sheppard concluded that Rodney was now probably contemplating the horrors of having to use a field latrine. Translation: big hole in the ground.

His erstwhile companion didn't say anything else but spread out his sleeping bag on the left side bench. He took off his jacket, balled it up to create a pillow, removed his shoes, grimaced at the state of his socks but left them on because, he explained, he hated cold feet. Then he zipped himself up and lay there bored and wide awake.

Sheppard took the opportunity to put on the night vision goggles, strap the P90 to his vest and pick a good vantage point to wile away the next eight hours or so.

"I'm not sleepy," stated Rodney about two minutes later.

"Try closing your eyes."

There was a nano-second of silence.

"Still not sleepy."

"Try solving a problem or something. Quietly."

"Can't think of anything."

"I thought you were trying to get a workable grand unification field theory going."

"It's just a hobby. The universe keeps getting weirder which means it keeps getting hard to find a universal constant. Actually there probably isn't one and that's going to freak a whole bunch of scientists out."

"So God plays dice?"

"Quoting Einstein. I'm impressed."

"I liked Niels Bohr's reply better. 'Einstein, stop telling God what to do'. But I couldn't think of a way to segue it into the conversation."

"That's a big word Colonel."

"Conversation?"

"No, segue."

"So does he?"

"At this stage in the physics game it looks like he plays bingo, poker, and the lottery."

"That's God for you. Just when you think you've got things right he shifts the finish line."

Rodney let out a chuckle at the thought. "It's as good as explanation as any."

Sheppard turned his attention back to the beach looking for any telltale heat signatures and found nothing. If this world had any substantial wildlife he wasn't seeing it. He resisted the urge to talk to Rodney again and hoped that Rodney would drift off once he had a chance to settle down.

Two minutes later there was a shift in his friend's breathing and at long last it seemed Atlantis' lead scientist had actually fallen asleep.

((--))

Teyla Emmagan had never felt more out of place than she did now. Without Sheppard and McKay it seemed that she was a stranger on Atlantis. Or at least, that was what she felt like and she was almost certain Ronon was going through a similar experience.

She hadn't realized until now how much she was part of Sheppard's team and how much being part of that team grounded her amongst the humans.

Now that he was gone, she was in a holding pattern. She desperately wanted to be involved in trying to rescue Sheppard and McKay but she had been told by Dr. Weir and Dr. Zelenka that there was nothing to be done. It was going to be about time and patience. Normally this wouldn't have fazed her. She was used to being patient. She was used to time passing in its set way, changing people and villages, taking what it wanted away and putting new things down when it felt like it. But in this case she had an aching desire for control. To demand that the Daedalus turn up immediately even though it was impossible, for the stargate to activate even though it was impossible, for the trip in a jumper to be a week long even though it was impossible.

She was trying to work out her aggression with weapons training. Ronon had volunteered to be her partner but he hadn't quite mastered the sticks yet. He was good but prone to rushing in head first and getting beaten by Teyla as a result. In that way he reminded her of Sheppard.

Ronon came at her, charging forward aggressively in the hope of beating her onto a submissive position that would allow her to be flung to the floor. He swung the two sticks efficiently catching her squarely on her forearm before she stepped back, turned, and hit him square on the backside. Then she caned him over the back of the thighs. Sheppard had tried that maneuver before and she'd hit him before. Many times. Unlike Sheppard, Ronon didn't go down and instead promptly recovered to a standing position, facing her with a wicked grin.

"You hit hard for a girl."

"I am glad you think so."

"No wonder Sheppard is always covered in bruises."

"The Colonel bruises easily."

Ronon let out a snort of amusement. "I don't think he bruises that easily."

"What are you suggesting? That I enjoy hurting the Colonel?"

"No, I was thinking you enjoy that you're capable of beating him. You were the Athosian's leader. You want to make sure Sheppard understands you're still a leader. That you're more than a match for him. I'm surprised he keeps coming back."

"I do not think that is the case."

They continued to circle each other as they talked. Ronon waiting for his opportunity to pounce all the while wearing his not-quite-smile.

"I know you want to rescue him bad Teyla, but it's not gonna to happen."

"You want to save him too. If you didn't, you wouldn't have protested so much in the briefing room."

"Yeah but I also know when to just wait a situation out. When I was a runner I knew that I was always going to have to cut my losses. Sometimes I could hole up on a planet and get a little respite but eventually the Wraith were gonna show up and it was time to leave. There was no use getting riled up about it. It was just time to leave. So I left."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning, that Sheppard's smart and he's tough and we'll get there and he'll be fine because he thinks the same way. He'll endure because he has to."

Teyla held up her sticks, twirled them fast in a tight circle as a challenge.

"I hope you are right, Ronon."

"I'm always right."

They attacked each other again, fighting, retreating, dancing into arm's reach and out again, burning off their pent up energy.

((--))