They'd found a cave with an entrance that was fairly well camouflaged by brush and used it as a place to regroup and figure out their next move. "Rodney, is there anyone near our position?"

Still shell-shocked at being splattered with Kolya's little gray cells, Rodney just stared at him, uncomprehending. "How the hell should I know?"

Sheppard chucked him hard on the shoulder with a fist. "Use the damned life-signs detector! Get your head in the game, McKay!"

"Fine, head in the game!" Rodney pulled the detector from a pocket in his vest. "I'll just ignore the fact that you could've blown it off with that little stunt back there, and work like nothing's happened. Plus, I'm not the only person who can use this thing, you know." He looked at the blips on the screen. "No, no one is near this cave at the moment. They mostly seem concentrated in the area of Kolya's body."

"Great. See if you can detect any energy readings, anything that will give us an idea what we're really up against here. Ronon, Teyla – go check out the gate and let us know if it's being guarded."

With a nod, Ronon and Teyla left the cave. Rodney set about scanning and trying to forget the blood and tissue that was drying in his hair. He was dimly aware of Sheppard lowering himself to sit beside him, their backs to the wall of the cave.

"I wouldn't have hit you," Sheppard said mildly, after a while.

"Huh?"

"You said I could've blown your head off when I took out Kolya. I wouldn't have. I was being careful."

"Careful? You just pointed and shot, like the gun was a Polaroid camera!"

"Yeah, but I'd calculated the exact angle needed in my head. I knew I was going to hit him and not you."

Rodney considered addressing the many variables in the scenario, such as the uneven bark on the tree he'd used for the ricochet, the unknown density of the wood that would have affected the trajectory, and the possibility that Kolya or Rodney might have moved slightly before the bullet arrived at its destination. In the end, it was just easier to keep scanning. His head itched, and he reached up to scratch it, then remembered why it was itching and yanked his hand back down.

"Here." Sheppard took out a cloth and began to wipe Rodney's hair.

"Uh… thanks."

"No problem. How's the scan looking?"

"Oh. Um… so far, pretty much nothing. I mean, there's a faint anomalous reading northeast of this position, but it's probably not worth looking into."

Sheppard had finished the hair-wiping and was crumpling the cloth to hide the results from Rodney's squeamish eyes. "Why not?"

"Well, because we're heavily outnumbered against an enemy with comparable-to-superior technology. I don't have much expertise in military strategy, Colonel, but our course seems pretty clear to me."

"Good point." Sheppard sighed and stretched one leg out, then grinned. "You know, this sort of reminds me of the time that Batman—"

"What are you doing?" Rodney said flatly.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, what are you doing, as in, why are you suddenly acting chummy with me? All day long, you've treated me like your personal whipping boy, and now suddenly, we're all Butch and Sundance."

With a sigh that spoke volumes about the burdens of being friends with McKay, Sheppard said, "Well, let's just hope this situation works out a little differently from that one."

"Count on it. Running out to my certain death with guns blazing is definitely not on my agenda. Ever."

"Sheppard," Ronon's tinny voice said over the radio. "We're at the gate. No guards."

"Stay put. We're on our way." Sheppard broke the connection, then clapped Rodney on the shoulder. "C'mon, buddy. Time to make a break for it."

------

They caught up with Ronon and Teyla, who were staking out the gate from the edge of the woods. "We're clear?" Sheppard asked quietly.

Teyla dipped her head in an exotic nod, her wide feline eyes eloquent. Rodney wondered if maybe she had laryngitis.

"Okay, let's mo—"

Sheppard was interrupted by a barrage of energy weapon fire, all of which hit trees, ground, and brush alarmingly close to their bodies without actually wounding any of them. "To the gate!" Sheppard yelled as he returned fire, like anyone might be seriously considering another option.

Rodney let Ronon and Teyla take the lead, mostly because they ran a lot faster than he did. Sheppard brought up the rear, laying down some cover fire and nearly running Rodney over. "McKay! Get your ass to the DHD!"

"I'm trying! I'm running as fast as… I can't seem to…" He stole a glance at his feet, which felt as though he were running in big oversized clown shoes. Didn't he usually manage to run better than this? Hell, this wasn't his first time to get shot at.

A violent shove from behind reminded him that Sheppard was still screaming at him to run. "McKay! Dial the gate before we all get toasted!"

Stumbling up to the DHD, Rodney started slapping symbol buttons and wondered why the hell it always fell to him to do this. Seriously, how hard was it to memorize Atlantis' address? And any monkey could be taught to push buttons.

"Hurry!" Sheppard yelled.

Right. Like Rodney had control over how fast the gate dialed. He'd only dialed a few symbols when his right boot suddenly exploded as it was hit by a energy weapon blast.

"Oh my GOD!" he screamed. "I'm hit! I'm really, really hit, and it HURTS! It-hurts-it-hurts-it-HURTS!" He doubled over, and seeing his disadvantage, Kolya's men begnn concentrating their fire upon the area surrounding the DHD.

"Fall back!" Sheppard was shouting, and Rodney did. "Get up, dumbass! I meant, fall back to the woods!"

"Right, because running will certainly be possible when my FOOT is disintegrated!" Sheppard could be so dense sometimes.

Before Rodney even finished that thought, Ronon had scooped him up and tossed him over his shoulder, without even breaking stride as he loped away from the gate toward the woods on the other side.

Sheppard and Teyla spread out, alternately running and shooting, protecting Ronon's retreat with the wounded scientist. Once Ronon reached the cover of the woods, he set Rodney down gently and then stood with his back to a tree, reaching out to fire his blaster weapon to help their other teammates reach safety.

Teyla was about twenty feet behind Sheppard when she was hit by a blast from an energy weapon. She'd fallen to the ground and wasn't moving, as far as Rodney could tell. Sheppard had turned back, trying to reach her, but the enemy was moving in fast. Rodney could see he wouldn't make it, and Ronon darted out to intercept, dragging Sheppard into the woods.

Teyla's position was quickly overrun, and Sheppard gave the order to fall back further into the woods. "We're just going to leave her?" Rodney asked, confused.

"We don't leave people behind!" Ronon shouted.

"Yes, well, that's sort of what I'm asking about, here, because it looks to me like—"

"Shut up, McKay!" Sheppard snarled. "If you'd dialed the gate when I told you to, this wouldn't be happening!" He turned to Ronon. "You help him. We'll find another hiding place and figure out a way to rescue Teyla."