A/N: I'm glad that people are making the Indiana Jones connection with this. Yes, I AM shamelessly ripping off Raiders of the Lost Ark. :D

oOo

Chapter 9: Leap of Faith

Rodney awoke to the sensation of someone gently slapping his face. His eyes flew open to complete darkness. "Oh god!" he exclaimed, sitting bolt upright, claustrophobia crushing the breath from his lungs. The walls were going to close in again, if they weren't already. Ohgodohgod…

Someone roughly grabbed his shoulders. "Calm down," Ronon's voice said firmly. "You're fine. It's just dark."

Rodney forced himself to take a breath and calm down. "Sheppard?" he asked, managing to keep his voice close to the normal range in pitch and volume, with only a slight crack in the middle of the name.

"Right here," came Sheppard's voice off to his left.

Relief flooded through him. "So we got through the door?"

"Yeah. And you were right about the…ah…slight shock," Sheppard said, voice heavy with sarcasm. "Jesus, McKay! Why didn't you tell me how big a jolt that would be?"

Oh right, electricity. Rodney noticed for the first time how much his fingers hurt. He hissed, pressing his hand against his chest. Second degree burns, for sure. So much for having his fingers for typing. He took quick stock of his other symptoms: heart rate was fast, but steady, head hurt badly, shoulder hurt…actually, pretty much everything hurt. He sagged back down, not even caring as Ronon's strong arms helped him. "Sheppard, you ok?" he asked, realizing he wasn't the only one suffering the aftereffects of acute electrocution.

"I'm fine. I'm not the one who was unconscious."

"Is that 'I'm fine' as in 'I'm not injured,' or 'I'm fine' as in 'I won't die before we get home to Beckett, probably?'" Rodney asked, trying not to think about the 'unconsciousness' comment.

Sheppard sighed in the dark. "Little bit of one, little bit of the other. I'm…functional. How are you?"

Rodney was tired of being stoic, and he realized that none of his teammates particularly expected him to be. He sighed. "Hurt like hell. Headache, shoulderache, burned the hell out of my fingers. But I can walk, so yeah. Little bit of both."

Sheppard moved closer. "Glad to hear it."

"Hey," Rodney said suddenly. "Where's Teyla?"

"I am here," she said immediately. "Do not worry."

"You ok?" Rodney asked. "And Ronon? Did you guys get caught in anything…nasty?" He shuddered, thinking about the walls closing in.

"We are fine," Teyla reassured him. "Nothing happened on our side of the door except that the lights went out. We were very worried."

"Join the club," Sheppard muttered.

"Why'd the lights go out?" Ronon asked.

"The…the trap," Rodney said, swallowing and trying not to think about the damned walls closing in, "when the door came down, it brought down part of the ceiling. Shorted out the lights. Hopefully just in this area."

"Also saved our asses," Sheppard pointed out. "If the ceiling hadn't come down…" be broke off. "Sorry, McKay."

Rodney shivered. "Yeah, not wanting to think about that."

"I believe the lights are off in the whole tunnel," Teyla said. "I see no light at all, and the tunnel is straight, is it not?"

Damn. She was right. Hopefully this wouldn't affect the Stargate. Rodney decided that that was one fear he should keep to himself, though. "Right," he said. "You're right. But it also means there won't be power going to the traps, so it should be pretty safe."

"As long as there aren't any pits full of snakes or something," Sheppard pointed out dryly.

"Oh thank you, Mary Sunshine!" Rodney snapped. "Does anyone have a light?"

"Mine's broken," Sheppard said. "And I think yours is still on the other side of the door."

"I've got nothing," Ronon said.

"I have my lighter," Teyla said, "but I do not know if it would be helpful. It can only be used for short bursts, and our eyes would not be able to adjust to the light that fast."

"Anybody got a torch?" Sheppard asked, sounding as if he didn't really expect an answer.

Rodney was thinking about it seriously, though. What did they have on them that would burn? Clothes? Probably not. Military issue clothing tended to be fire-retardant. Power bars?

"I've got a flash-bang," Sheppard offered.

"Oh, yes, Colonel, that would be helpful," Rodney snapped, irritated at the distraction. Anyway…what else did he have that would burn? Pack? No…wait a minute. He dug out the scanner and flipped it on. Its power cell was too far gone for it to work, but maybe…yes! The screen glowed faintly. It wasn't much, but it was better than nothing.

"Well," Sheppard said after a minute, "Better than nothing."

"Not much," Ronon said.

Rodney tried to ignore his less-than-supportive teammates. The light was just enough to make large shapes visible: he could make out the bulk of Ronon, next to him, Teyla, over near a wall, and Sheppard, leaning against the wall next to her. But it was too dim to see the ceiling, and not really bright enough to show them the floor. But it was all they had. He tried to stand, and immediately sank back down, legs like rubber. He now had a pretty good idea of why Sheppard was leaning against a wall.

"You ok?" Ronon asked.

"Just…help me up," Rodney grimaced, holding out a hand. With Ronon's help he was able to stand, and after a moment swaying, he was able to stand unassisted. God, he felt like crap. Well, tens of thousands of volts would do that to you. He held out the scanner. It didn't help. It was still dark. Dammit.

"Ready to go?" Sheppard asked jauntily, pushing away from the wall and walking over to Rodney, only staggering once.

Rodney gave him a look. "Little bit of both, huh?" he said out of the corner of his mouth.

"You're one to talk. I could, at least, stand up on my own," Sheppard replied, sounding affronted.

Rodney snorted, but didn't take the bait. Instead he just angled the scanner to point at the floor and started forward, placing his feet carefully. Sheppard walked close by his side, and Ronon and Teyla made up the rear. Huddling in a tight little knot around the meager light, the group made their way down the hall.

It was only because Rodney and his light were in the lead that they didn't fall into the pit. He was watching the floor, glowing very slightly blue in the light, when suddenly darkness loomed in front of him. With a yelp he stepped backwards, throwing an arm out to stop Sheppard and causing Teyla to run into his back. Her bump knocked him off balance, and he floundered, nearly falling anyway, until Sheppard's steadying arm caught him. "Good god," he panted when he could talk again.

"What is it?" Ronon asked, peering over the top of his head. "Oh," he said, catching sight of the hole.

"Wonder how deep it is," Sheppard mused, kneeling at the brink.

Rodney knelt too, holding the scanner into the pit. He couldn't see the bottom, but that didn't mean anything, since the light only went about a meter anyway. "No clue," he said.

There was a little clink in front of him, and he started and jumped backwards. "Relax, Rodney," Teyla said behind him. "I threw a pebble."

"Warn a person next time," Rodney said testily.

"I am sorry," Teyla said. "But I do not think it is deep at all. The stone hit almost immediately.

"Gimme that light," Sheppard said. Rodney complied, curious. Sheppard stretched out on his stomach and reached his arm down as far as it would go into the pit. Rodney bit off a comment about the possibility of having something reach up and grab it. "Ah-ha," Sheppard said momentarily.

"What? What?" Rodney asked. "You see the bottom?"

"Not exactly," Sheppard said, and Rodney could hear a smirk in his voice. "But I found where our big ass rock went."

"Oh," Rodney said. That explained why they had stopped hearing it rolling so soon.

"How far down is it?" Teyla asked.

"Looks like…" Sheppard grunted as he stretched his arm down as far as it would go. "Looks like just a few feet. But farther than that here at the edge, since the stone is round."

"So we can climb over it?" Ronon asked.

"Probably," Sheppard said, handing the scanner back to Rodney and sitting up. "Be a bit dangerous in the dark, though."

"Be a bit dangerous anyway," Rodney muttered. Sheppard's snort told him he had overheard. "We need better light, damn it!"

"I'm open to suggestion," Sheppard said.

"I've been trying to think of something we could make a torch out of," Rodney admitted. "But I can't seem to come up with anything."

"You'd probably have better luck trying to fix my flashlight," Sheppard commented.

"Well, hell," Rodney said, feeling stupid. Of course he could fix the flashlight. In the dark. With no tools. Child's play. "Hand it over."

"You can fix it?" Sheppard said, sounding surprised.

Rodney's only reply was to snap his fingers and point at the light. With a sigh, Sheppard unhooked it from the P-90 and handed it over. "I should have thought of this," Rodney muttered, frustrated.

Sheppard sat down beside him and quietly took the scanner, holding it to shed the best light possible. Rodney gave him a grateful glance before attacking the broken flashlight. "Don't beat yourself up for not thinking of it," Sheppard said after a moment.

Rodney snorted, not looking up. "Sure. Because it's a really easy thing to overlook. Broken piece of technology, I should have thought to fix this first. We could have been killed falling in a pit before I though of this!"

"Rodney," Sheppard said. Rodney glanced up at the tone, but it was too dark to see his face. "Look. You had just been knocked unconscious by a major dose of electricity. I don't think anyone here was expecting you to come up with a brilliant plan for light. And you did come up with the scanner, so give yourself some credit."

Oh boy. Their defenses must still be really low, Rodney thought. Sheppard never talked to him like this normally. And normally, he would never be berating himself aloud, either. "Thanks," he murmured softly. "Ah! Got it!" He clicked the light on and was surprised to hear Teyla actually clap in commendation.

"Good job, Mister Fix-it," Sheppard said, clapping him on the shoulder before standing back up.

Rodney grinned, but kept the light pointed away from his face so no one could see it. Fixing a flashlight wasn't exactly a major accomplishment, but right now, it felt like one. He handed the light to Sheppard and took back the scanner, switching it off and stowing it.

Sheppard pointed the light into the hole. With better illumination, Rodney could see that his assessment had been correct. The boulder sat in a hole, and the top portion of it was less than a meter below them. Of course, the near edge was a lot farther down than that.

"Bit of a crevasse to fall into," Sheppard said, gesturing at where the near side of the boulder rested against the side of the pit. "About eight feet down."

"So we jump," Ronon said.

"Onto a round boulder, with the top portion nearly two meters away from us?" Rodney demanded.

"Yeah," Ronon agreed. "Exactly."

"Maybe you can do that," Rodney said, realizing that was true, "but I'm not so sure the rest of us can. Teyla's got a sprained ankle—what do you think would happen if she lands on it?"

"I will be fine," Teyla assured him, sounding slightly annoyed at his concern.

"Ok," Rodney ploughed on, "then what about Sheppard? Don't think I haven't seen your lack of balance, and the fact that you're limping," he said as Sheppard opened his mouth to protest. "And as you can probably all guess, there's not a snowball's chance in hell that I could jump that far without falling off." The last he admitted in a rush, glaring around at his teammates.

"Rodney, take a breath," Sheppard said when he stopped talking. He waved the light across the pit. "If you'll notice, the pit extends all the way from one side to the other. Jumping is the only way we're going to be able to get across. Unless you think we can scale it, or have another idea," he finished, raising an eyebrow.

At least, Rodney assumed he had. He couldn't actually see the man's face at the moment. It was just something Sheppard would have done. "No, I don't have an idea, I just don't want to fall off the side of a killer boulder," he said.

"It's a jump down," Ronon said. "So that would make it easier."

"And then the second jump?" Rodney demanded.

"Bigger target to aim for," Ronon shrugged.

"That'll definitely be the hard one," Sheppard nodded. "Still, I really don't think we have a choice, and we really want to get out of here before the power decides to come back on."

Rodney shuddered at the thought of all the traps they had probably triggered walking through the dark. But the odds that the power would fix itself spontaneously were next to zero.

"Ronon?" Sheppard said. "Want to show us how it's done?"

The runner grinned and leapt, catlike, onto the top of the boulder. It was less than two meters, Rodney realized, but not by much. One meter down, and about one and a half or two over. Let's see…square the legs, square root of the hypotenuse. Who cares? It was still too far to jump.

Sheppard held light steady on the rock. Ronon had landed perfectly, of course, and was now bunching his muscles to leap up to the other side of the tunnel. Sheppard shifted the light accordingly, and Ronon leapt. He had a little bit of trouble, but caught with his arms and vaulted over, coming to rest in a crouch. He straightened, smiling.

Sheppard turned to look at Rodney. "See, nothing to it." But he didn't sound as convincing as he probably thought he did.

"No way in hell," Rodney reiterated.

"Teyla, can you do that with your ankle?" Sheppard asked her.

"I believe so, Colonel," She returned. He held the light for her and she leapt, just as gracefully as Ronon. Her landing was awkward, though, because she landed only on one foot. She had to wave her arms to brace herself. But then the was on top of the boulder. Sheppard moved the light again, and she jumped. She would have missed, lacking the push-off power of two feet, but Ronon caught her wrists and hoisted her up.

Rodney took a shuddering breath, feeling Sheppard's eyes on him. "Your turn," the Colonel said.

"Aren't I the lucky one?" Rodney took a step forward, then stopped. "Sheppard, I can't do this! You know I can't do this!"

Sheppard moved the flashlight so that it partially illuminated his face. So that Rodney could see his eyes. "Rodney," he said quietly enough that the others couldn't hear, "you also said you couldn't lift that door, remember? And you said you couldn't get that spaceship to work in time. There have been a lot of things you couldn't do, and you've managed to do every single one of them. You can do this too."

"But those were brain things! I can do brain things! This is a body thing, and right now, my body's just not capable—"

"Rodney," Sheppard said again, tone soothing. "You can do this."

Rodney opened his mouth to argue, but gave up. If Sheppard thought he could do it, maybe he just could. At least he had to try. He couldn't let him down again, ever. Not after Doranda. "Ok," he finally said. "I can do this." He still wasn't convinced, but what other choice did he have?

Sheppard smiled and turned the light back on the boulder. "Take off your pack, though," he said. "I'll throw it to you once we're across."

Rodney did as he was told, then went back to standing at the edge of the pit. Really, it would have been possible if he weren't so tired and sore. It was less than two meters to the center of the rock. And once he got there, Ronon could help him on the other leap. Ronon would have to help him, because Sheppard's faith aside, he knew he wasn't going to be able to leap up that far.

"Rodney," Sheppard prompted when he gave no indication he would ever jump.

"Fine, fine, I'm going," he said with irritation, trying to cover his nervousness. Taking one last deep breath, he leapt at the center of the rock.