A/N: Because this chapter is so short, I'm going to give you two today.

oOo


Chapter 11: Not Quite Out of the Woods

Rodney had mostly cleared the door when it crashed down, hitting his leg. He let out an involuntary scream as it crushed the flesh of his calf. With another yell, he pulled his leg free. God, it hurt like a mother!

He slumped against the wall, pain filling his senses. When it died down enough he could think, he heard Teyla saying his name. He opened his eyes to see her kneeling next to him, clearly worried. "I'm…ok," he managed to pant.

To his surprise, Teyla smiled. "I am beginning to think that 'ok' and 'fine' must hold a different meaning for you and the Colonel than for me," she said.

Rodney smiled in spite of himself. "Oh, and you and Ronon are so much better about your pain?" he retorted, clutching at his leg.

Teyla gently removed his fingers and rolled up the slightly torn (but not bloody, he noticed) pant leg. He cringed as she palpitated the area gently. "It is not bad," she said finally. "You will have deep bruising, but nothing is broken."

Rodney finally had the courage to look. On the outside of his leg, from just below the knee to just above the ankle, a band of skin was horribly discolored. It was the biggest blood blister he had ever seen. He swallowed, feeling nauseous. But she was right; it wasn't broken. Even the skin wasn't. He pushed the pant leg back down to hide it. "Right then," he said briskly. "Let's see about getting out the others, shall we?"

Teyla nodded and helped him stand. He almost waved her away, but when he put weight on his leg it nearly buckled, and he found himself leaning into her for support. After a moment, he hobbled over to the control panel by the door. This one was much more obvious, due to the fact that they had light. He stood looking at it for a moment, wishing he had his scanner.

"What is wrong?" Teyla asked.

"Oh, I was just wondering if it's booby-trapped," he said.

"Oh," she said, realization dawning. "With power in this section, we have to once again worry about traps." She drew her gun and faced down the hallway.

Rodney seriously doubted that whatever would come at them would be deterred by a handgun, but he figured it was all good as long as it gave her some confidence. He turned back to the control panel. Let's see…how could it be trapped. Well, let's see: electric shock, poison…those were the direct ones. More subtle would be something like releasing snakes from the ceiling. Could be anything. Giving up, he pried off the cover, looking up nervously when that action didn't cause anything to jump out at him.

Satisfied that nothing was going to fall on him, either, he turned back to the panel. To his surprise, there weren't any crystals. It looked like…wires. Like ordinary, non-Ancient wiring. That didn't make any sense. The Ancients didn't use wiring like this. Perplexed, he stared at it.

"What is wrong?" Teyla asked from beside him.

Rodney shrugged. "I don't know, exactly. But this panel's not an Ancient design."

"Can you make it work anyway?" Teyla asked.

"Of course I can!" Rodney snapped, offended. "Piece of cake." To prove his point he switched the two most likely wires, and the door obligingly began to rise.

As soon as the door was up enough to allow a person through, Sheppard was through, rolling to a crouch, obviously still blinded by the light on this side. "Rodney!" he yelled.

Rodney sank down and grabbed him by the shoulders. "We're fine! We're fine," he said, sensing his friend's understandable fear. He must have heard the shout. Dammit. "Sorry to scare you."

Sheppard blinked at the light. "What the hell happened?"

Rodney grimaced. "Caught my leg a little. Don't worry. Nothing's broken."

"Let me see."

Rodney pulled away. "No. Later. I'm ok." At this last, he glanced at Teyla, who raised an eyebrow at him.

As he stood up he saw Ronon. The Satedan had come through more slowly, but with just as much concern. Damn. Now he really felt badly for scaring them. Rodney cleared his throat. "Well, shall we get back to the gate?"

Sheppard looked both ways down the tunnel, clearly disoriented. "Sure. That way, right?" he guessed, gesturing.

"Ah, that way, actually," Rodney said, pointing the other way. "About a kilometer, if I recall. And Colonel," he said, putting out an arm to stop Sheppard as he started to move. "Traps, remember?"

"I'll go first," Ronon said. "I can spot them."

Sheppard opened his mouth to argue, but Rodney stepped on his foot. "Good idea. But remember they might not all be triggered by the floor."

Ronon nodded and started off, eyes glued to the floor tiles. Rodney followed, limping, and pulling a limping Sheppard behind. Teyla took up the rear, also limping. God. Carson would be yelling at them for a week, at least. That is, assuming they ever got home.

"What the hell was that?" Sheppard hissed in his ear.

Rodney turned and blinked innocently. "You were going to argue that you should go first, am I correct?"

"Of course."

"Can you spot the floor traps?" Rodney continued, sensing victory.

Sheppard's gaze shifted away. "Well, not exactly."

"Then that is what that was," Rodney said triumphantly.

"Bastard," Sheppard muttered, but he didn't really look like he minded that much.

They walked slowly forward, following in Ronon's footsteps even though he hadn't indicated any suspicious-looking stones. Rodney looked around, trying to spot something the others missed. His eyes landed on the walls, which looked…odd, somehow. Like they had little circles in them, from about knee-height up.

"Well, this can't be good," Sheppard commented, following his gaze. Suddenly their eyes were drawn upwards to where a blue light had begun to flash in the ceiling above them. "Oh, shit!" Sheppard yelled, swiping Rodney's legs out from under him. "Get down!"

Rodney fell backwards, and so he had a beautiful view of the arrows that started to fire out of the circles in the walls. Sheppard had hit the floor next to him, possibly in time. He couldn't see Teyla where he was lying, but since he would be able to see if her had she remained standing, he took that as a good sign. Ronon, however, was slower to respond, and Rodney heard and saw several arrows smack sickeningly into him before he managed to hit the floor. Arrows continued to fly overhead for a few moments more, then stopped. Rodney was just contemplating if it was safe to check on Ronon, and Sheppard was just starting to struggle to his knees, when the stone block dropped from the ceiling.