Chapter 14: house of horrors

They teetered, they cursed, they edged along the wall, but to both their amazement, they made it across. Sheppard, who was first, waited for Rodney, then both men collapsed to the floor, panting—not from exertion, but from fear. "God," Sheppard managed. "I didn't think I had a problem with heights."

"Me either," Rodney said.

They stayed on the floor until they caught their breath, then Sheppard stood with a groan, trying to put weight on his knee. He reached down a hand to help Rodney, who winced as he too put weight on his injured leg. " Carson's never going to let us off-world again," he said, trying to lighten the mood.

"I'm not sure I'd blame him," Rodney said heavily. So much for lightening. They staggered together down the hallway. Teyla and Ronon weren't much farther on, just around the corner. Teyla looked up at their approach. Ronon, sitting slumped against a wall, didn't.

Sheppard went over to him and knelt, favoring his knee. "Ronon?"

The runner looked up at him, face pale. "I'm just…catching my breath."

Sheppard regarded him. He was obviously in a lot of pain, and he had lost a lot of blood. But his bandages hadn't bled through, so that was encouraging. Grimly, he turned back to the door.

Teyla was shining the light on the ceiling, showing Rodney the panel. "I think I see how this works," Rodney said. "Or how it would have to. Sheppard, can you lift Teyla up to take a look?"

Well, he would pretty much have to, wouldn't he? He just nodded, and with Rodney's help she was soon standing on his shoulders. "What am I looking for?" she asked.

"Feel for anything around the panel that might be a switch."

Teyla felt around, then exclaimed in surprise. "I have found something."

"Ah," Rodney said. "This would be them getting smarter. Newer design. Hide the reset switch. Flip it, Teyla."

She did as she was told, and Sheppard jumped as the door grated upward, nearly dislodging her. She bent and leapt off his shoulders, a feat that on a normal day would have been nothing to the Athosian. However, with her ankle and her exhaustion, she fell badly. Rodney tried to catch and support her, but the end result was both of them tumbling to the floor, Teyla slightly on top.

On a good day, Sheppard would have been able to keep from laughing. But his defenses were down, he was exhausted, and there was something comical about it. His only consolation was that Ronon was laughing too.

"I'm glad—oof, Teyla!—glad you find this so funny," Rodney growled as they tried to pick themselves up. "Laugh at others' pain. Very supportive."

Sheppard bent to help, trying to stop the laughter that was taking on a bit of a hysterical edge. "I'm…I'm sorry," he gasped. "Of course it's not funny." He pulled Teyla to her feet. She immediately went to help Ronon up as Sheppard extended his hand to Rodney.

Rodney took it, but didn't use it to lever himself up. Instead he put all his weight into it, and pulled Sheppard to the floor. "Now who's laughing?" he asked, struggling to his feet. He didn't offer Sheppard a hand. There was a ghost of a smile on his face as he turned to limp through the doorway. "Come on, fearless leader," he called over his shoulder. Sheppard struggled to his feet and followed. He nearly ran into Rodney, who had stopped just through the doorway. In a moment he saw why.

From here on, the traps had been sprung as far as they could see. There were spikes, arrows, and other various pieces of nastiness. There was also a lot of blood. "Oh no," Rodney breathed.

"Yeah," Sheppard said grimly. He went over to a wall of spikes sticking halfway across the corridor at thigh height and gingerly touched some of the blood. Sticky. It hadn't been here all that long. "Dammit, this has to be from our people!"

"Those power surges," Rodney said numbly, surveying the damage. "They must have sent a team to look for us."

"Dammit!" Sheppard swore again.

"Don't see any body parts," Ronon noted, "Just blood."

Sheppard shuddered at the image, but the runner was right. There was blood on the spike he had touched, and blood leading down the corridor and some on the walls (in handprints). It looked like someone had gotten spiked, and then gone back down the tunnel to the Stargate. So maybe nobody had actually been killed trying to get to them.

"I hate to sound morbid, but at least this makes it easier for us to get through," Rodney noted. Sheppard gave him a dirty look, but couldn't argue the logic.

They picked their way down the tunnel, bypassing the spent traps. They saw no signs of, as Ronon had put it, body parts. Just the blood. It looked to be from the same person, but it was so much blood. Sheppard just hoped they had gotten out in time. Whomever they were.

He was stopped as Rodney suddenly backpedaled into him. He caught the scientist and kept him from falling, felling the tension in his body as he did so. "Rodney?"

Rodney turned to face him, eyes haunted. "S…sorry." Sheppard looked past him. Oh. It was another stone block. No wonder.

He put a steadying hand on his elbow. "It's ok, we're on top of it this time," he said, pulling Rodney up to stand on it. Ronon and Teyla were already up and walking across. This one was flush with the floor. Sheppard wondered briefly who was underneath them, before he realized it wouldn't be completely down if anyone had been trapped. Good for that, anyway.

"I…know we're on top," Rodney managed. "It's just…" his voice trailed off and he shrugged helplessly.

"I'm going to have nightmares about this place myself," Sheppard said, giving Rodney's elbow a squeeze. Rodney looked at him with gratitude, then resolutely walked across the stone.

The rest of their trip to the Stargate was uneventful. Every trap was sprung, and they didn't encounter anything impassible, like a door or a pit. The blood was still there, a constant presence in Sheppard's brain that someone had been injured, possibly killed, trying to rescue them.

They rounded the last corner, and suddenly the Stargate was visible in front of them. "Oh, god, is that a sight for sore eyes!" Rodney exclaimed. Sheppard nearly laughed with relief, and he saw the sentiment reflected in the faces of his teammates…his friends. Rodney even had tears in his eyes.

They walked nervously to the gate, half-expecting it to be snatched from in front of them. But they got there, and nothing stopped them. Sheppard reached for the DHD, which was also covered with blood. Rodney put out a hand to stop him from touching it. "Wait."

"What?"

"You have the ATA gene," Rodney said. "It would be better not to tempt fate."

It went against every fiber of Sheppard's being to let someone else do something dangerous. It should be him. He didn't want to ask Teyla or Ronon to do it. He looked at Rodney to argue, but stopped. So far, Rodney had been pretty much right about everything they'd encountered here. If Rodney thought it was a bad idea to touch the DHD with an ATA gene, then Rodney was right. He took a deep breath. "Teyla? Want to do the honors?"

She nodded. Propping Ronon against Sheppard, she dialed. To everyone's infinite relief, the gate burst to life, and no traps were triggered. Sheppard hastily activated his GDO. Moments later, they were home.