Chapter 8: A Dark and Scary Place

"Rodney, you ok?" Sheppard asked hoarsely, coughing as dust settled over him. He felt terribly disoriented. As the walls had buckled towards them and the doors had slammed down in the corridor, the lights had also gone out, plunging them into darkness. He got that the trap was supposed to crush them as the walls closed in, but what he didn't quite understand is why they weren't dead. Well, he wasn't, anyway. From where he had fallen, he could feel one wall against his back and the other one against his legs. He figured they had stopped about three feet apart.

He struggled to his feet. "Rodney?" he called again.

This time he was answered. By a blood-curdling scream. "Ohgodohgodohgod!" Rodney cried from somewhere in the darkness. "Help! Get me out!" His yelling degenerated into something less than intelligible words.

Sheppard crawled towards the voice, noticing as he did so that the walls were tapering closer together. He found Rodney wedged in a sitting position, partly turned. He was being pressed on both sides by the walls, although probably not hard enough to cause damage.

But oh damn. Claustrophobia, and the walls really had closed in on him! Poor Rodney! Sheppard grabbed him by the shoulder and chin. "Rodney, listen to me! You're ok!"

Rodney didn't stop thrashing and yelling. Sheppard let go for a moment to switch on the light on his P-90. "RODNEY!" he said more loudly.

Rodney turned panic-filled eyes on him, still babbling incoherently. Sheppard grabbed him by the shoulder and arm and pulled backwards, managing to free the panicky scientist. In fact, he managed to free him with such force that he was toppled mostly on his back, with Rodney on top of him.

He grunted in pain as Rodney's thrashing put an elbow in his ribs. "Rodney, stop it! I've got you! It's ok!" But nothing was getting through. He sighed and slapped Rodney's cheek. Hard.

That worked, to some degree. Rodney stopped moving, surprised, then collapsed on top of him. "The walls…" he mumbled through a face full of flak vest. "Oh god, the walls are closing in…"

Sheppard wrapped his arms around Rodney's back, feeling the other man shivering. "Calm down," he soothed, "they stopped."

Rodney took a few shuddering breaths, then pushed himself up off of Sheppard, who immediately let him go. As Rodney sat up, the room got brighter, as he had been blocking the flashlight before. Rodney swallowed and stared at Sheppard. "They walls really did close in," he whispered, wild-eyed.

Sheppard grimaced and sat up. They were still pressed very close in the narrow space, but there wasn't anything he could do about it. "You ok?" he asked.

Rodney stared at him. "No, I'm NOT ok! How the hell could I be ok? Hello, claustrophobia? Walls closing in? Well, they really DID close in this time!" He started shaking again.

"Rodney!" Sheppard nearly shouted in his face, trying to stop the rising panic attack. "I meant, are you injured?"

Rodney took another breath, making a heroic attempt to calm down. "I don't think so. You?"

Sheppard moved various arms and legs experimentally. "Just bruised, I think."

"Well, the rocks didn't explode," Rodney said, trying a small smile, still clearly one step away from panic.

Sheppard clambered to his feet. "No, they didn't. Now we just have to figure out how to get out of here,."

That turned out to be the wrong thing to say. "We're trapped?" Rodney whimpered. Then more loudly, "Oh god, we're trapped below tons of earth and the walls close in and there's no way out and no food or water and we're going to die down here and no one will ever find our bodies and—" He broke off when Sheppard slapped him again. "Ow," he muttered.

"Sorry," Sheppard said insincerely. He pulled Rodney to his feet by the arm, eliciting a cry. "What?"

Rodney pulled his arm away, rubbing at his shoulder. "That hurt. I think there's something wrong with my shoulder."

Sheppard thought about how he had been wedged in by the walls. "Let me see."

Rodney turned his right side towards Sheppard for inspection. He probed the shoulder, gently rotated the arm. Rodney sucked in a breath, but didn't cry out. "I think it's just bruised," he said after a moment. "At least, there doesn't seem to be any dislocation."

Rodney nodded. "Now what?" he asked tentatively.

By way of reply Sheppard tapped his radio. "Teyla, Ronon, you guys ok?" he asked. When there was no reply, he exchanged a look with Rodney.

"Ronon, Teyla?" Rodney tried, tapping his own radio. Still no response. "Must be the shielding," he told Sheppard with a painfully fake confidence.

Sheppard nodded, deciding to accept that for now. "Right. Let's get out of here."

"How?" Rodney asked, looking panicky again.

Sheppard started walking towards where Ronon and Teyla had headed, which was the direction they needed to go and also the way the walls widened. "We go…this way," he said, gently tugging Rodney after him. The scientist followed along, uncomplaining.

About one hundred feet down the tunnel from where Sheppard's rock had been was where the door had slammed down from the ceiling, sealing them in. At that point, the walls had stopped about six feet apart. Sheppard shone the light upwards, and saw why, as well as why the lights had gone out. Apparently the tunnel wasn't in that good a shape. There was a crack on the ceiling here. One piece of ceiling had nearly fallen with the door, pulling wires out (destroying the lights), and blocking the walls from coming together all the way.

"We're alive due to shoddy construction," Rodney said, giggling. There was something disturbingly hysterical about the sound, and Sheppard wanted more than ever to get his friend out of the confined space.

"Rodney," he said, trying to draw the man's attention away from the claustrophobia, "Think you can get anything going with all the wires up there?"

Rodney followed his gaze to the exposed wires in the ceiling. "Well, I suppose I could probably work on a really good case of electric shock. But I assume you meant more along the lines of getting the door up."

Sheppard tried on a smirk. Rodney was sounding more like his old self. "Yes, more like that. Can you do it?"

"Is the Pope Catholic?" Rodney answered automatically. "The problem will be getting up to it." The ceiling, even partly fallen down, was still about eight feet over their heads.

"You could stand on my shoulders," Sheppard suggested.

Rodney gave him a look. "You have got to be kidding me."

"Well, since I don't see any conveniently-placed stepladders, then no, I'm not kidding you."

Rodney looked up again as a spark crackled from the damaged wires. "I wasn't kidding about the electric shock," he commented.

Sheppard followed his gaze, then clapped Rodney on the shoulder. "I know you can do it," he said with far more cheer than he felt.

"What, shock myself? I'm sure you're right," Rodney muttered, but he had started pulling things out of his pack, which was miraculously still with them. "This will be trickier without proper light or my scanner," he said over his shoulder, "but probably not impossible." He stood up, shoving tools into his pockets. "How exactly are we going to do this?"

Well, that was the million-dollar question, wasn't it? Sheppard was in good shape, but Rodney wasn't exactly Kate Moss. He was heavy. And probably not strong enough to be very stable. "I think you'll be high enough if you sit on my shoulders," he said slowly, gauging distances.

"Oh lovely," Rodney muttered.

After several false starts, Sheppard had managed to hoist the scientist up, and stood swaying as Rodney reached for a wire. "Can you reach?" he panted.

"Yeah," Rodney responded, sounding strained. "Barely. Look, Sheppard…"

"Yes?"

"You ever breath a word of this to anyone, and I'll deny it and seek revenge until the day I die," Rodney told him calmly.

Sheppard snickered. "My lips are sealed."

Rodney worked in silence for several minutes, the only sound their breathing and the occasional popping of electricity. Suddenly he let out a yell, and Sheppard actually felt the arcing of electricity through his body from Rodney's as they both fell to the floor. The flashlight hit hard and went out, plunging the room back into darkness.

Sheppard lay stunned for a moment. He could still feel the electric jolt, not to mention the jolt of having the wind knocked out of him from falling down. When his head cleared, he felt around for Rodney.

He found him laying sprawled against a wall, breathing hard. "Rodney?" he asked softly, feeling for a pulse. He found it, strong and rapid.

Rodney batted his hand away and coughed. "Sorry. I'm sorry." With a small click, a light came on. When Sheppard could see again, he saw Rodney holding a penlight and looking at him guiltily.

"What?" Sheppard demanded in the dark. "You're sorry for being electrocuted?"

He was close enough to feel Rodney shrug. "Yeah," he said by way of explanation.

"I was the one who told you to go up there. That make the second time in two days," Sheppard said bitterly, unable to stop himself.

"What are you talking about?" Rodney demanded. "Second time for what?"

"Second time I've nearly killed you," Sheppard said softly, looking away.

Rodney looked at him, face a mask of confusion. "What do you mean, you nearly killed me? My own stupidity nearly killed me!"

Now it was Sheppard's turn to stare. "Rodney. You spent two hours—TWO HOURS—telling me yesterday that something wasn't right. If I had been paying more attention you wouldn't have…you wouldn't have…" his voice trailed away. He wasn't good at this emotion stuff, and right now he could feel quite a bit of emotion.

"You're blaming yourself for that?" Rodney asked incredulously. "I thought you were mad at me for being so stupid!"

Well, hell. Sheppard shook his head. "And I thought you were mad at me for letting it happen."

Rodney grinned crookedly, looking relieved. "So you're really not mad?"

"Well, not at you," Sheppard clarified.

"It really wasn't your fault. I should have been more…obvious," Rodney said softly. "Look, I know I complain pretty constantly about stuff like that. You had no way of knowing. Hell, I didn't even know I was really sick until I saw the look on your face."

Sheppard flopped his head against the wall. "Still, I'm the leader of the team. It's my job to keep you all safe, not try to get you all killed."

"John," Rodney said softly. Sheppard looked at him, startled. He had never called him by his first name before. "None of this is your fault," Rodney said, looking at him steadily.

"What about nearly crushing Teyla and Ronon with a rock?" Sheppard demanded.

"Still not your fault. Stupid, maybe, but not your fault," Rodney said, undeterred. "Yes, so you leapt before you looked. But hey. That approach usually works for you." He smiled gently. "Sheppard, we're all doing our best here. Stop being so hard on yourself."

Sheppard stared for a moment. "When did you get to be wise, McKay?" he asked, grinning suddenly.

Rodney shrugged, looking vaguely embarrassed. "Hey. I just don't want…I don't want you to stop trusting yourself."

Ah, trust. It all came down to that, didn't it? And Rodney was right. For the last several hours, he really had been slowing losing faith in his leadership skills. He realized now that was probably more destructive to the team than any little mistake had had made. "Everyone makes mistakes," he mused softly.

Rodney nodded. "Yes. I'm glad you finally agree."

"But I want you to stop blaming yourself for the heatstroke," Sheppard continued. "That wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't yours."

"Fine, let's blame Mother Nature then," Sheppard suggested, sensing an argument he couldn't win.

Rodney nodded. "Works for me. I've always thought she was a bitch anyway."

Sheppard chuckled and got to his feet. He held out a hand to help McKay up. "Well, let's see what we can do about this, shall we?"

Rodney stood up reluctantly. "I'm not sure there's anything we can do."

"Why?"

"Circuits are pretty fried. It looks like the ones powering the door were badly damaged."

"Well, if anyone can do it, you can," Sheppard said confidently.

Rodney gave him a look. "You really believe that, don't you?"

"I guess I've been listening to the hype," Sheppard said, keeping his tone light.

Rodney snorted, but he looked pleased. That is, until he looked back up at the frying circuits. They were, if anything, jumping and sparking more than ever. "Dammit," he muttered.

Sheppard sighed. It didn't look good. He wondered if there was anything that Ronon and Teyla could do from their side. But neither of them had the gene, did they? So they wouldn't have been able to do anything even if they found an access panel. Speaking of them, now that they were closer…he activated his radio again. "Ronon, Teyla. Please respond."

He was greeted by static, and nothing more. Rodney's shoulders sagged, and Sheppard realized he had been just as hopeful that the radios would work. "The door must be shielded," Rodney said unhappily. "I'm sure they're fine."

Sheppard wasn't, and he didn't think Rodney was either, but he didn't say anything. He just walked back over to stand beneath the frying wires. "Ready to try this again?" he asked.

"No," Rodney said honestly. "But considering we have no choice in the matter…"

"Just try not to electrocute yourself again," Sheppard said.

"Oh, thank you. I needed to be told that. Otherwise, I might have done it just for the unique feel of welding my fingertips to hot metal!" Rodney snapped.

"You hurt your fingers?" Sheppard asked, concerned.

Rodney actually hid his hand behind his back, even though with only the penlight it was too dark to see anyway. "I'm fine."

Sheppard snorted, unconvinced. "Sure. We're both fine. And we'll be even more fine when we get back to Atlantis and pay a little visit to Carson."

Rodney relaxed when he realized Sheppard had included himself in that statement. "You know," he admitted, "I don't think I'd mind that very much right now. Let's get out of here." He shuddered, glancing again at the walls.

Sheppard nodded and hoisted Rodney up again. He tried his best to hold still, but with Rodney moving about that was almost impossible. Rodney muttered absently while he worked, occasionally flinching as a popping wire got too close. After several minutes, his body tensed. "What is it?" Sheppard asked.

"I think I've got it," Rodney replied. "But we're going to have to get through immediately once I open this, because it'll come right back down again."

"Understood. Go ahead."

"And…ah, there's a teeny, tiny possibility that this will cause another small spark."

"As in, you're about to electrocute us again?"

"As I said, Colonel, there's a small chance of that."

Sheppard sighed. They still didn't have a choice. Besides, it didn't seem to be a fatal voltage anyway. "Go ahead."

As Rodney made the last connection, Sheppard realized that the voltage was much, much higher this time.