Thank you, Angela, you are my hero.

Notes: Thanks for the comments, you guys! I hope your IQ is as high as it used to be :)

Chapter the Second: Falling for the first time.

John sat beside McKay, listening to the man's mumblings. His headache had receded, Teyla was coherent once more, Ronon was sharpening his knives filling the room with a schick-schick and giving John a quick jolt of my-team-is-great pride. The warmth from Rodney's body seeping into his was just an extra touch of the familiar. Until it wasn't anymore.

"AAAAAAAAH!"

Sheppard felt the heat disappear and the fleeting brush of a hand as it fought for purchase on his pant leg. He moved, attempting to grab the hand, but missed by an inch, feeling the air move as the hand was drawn – pulled – away. Sheppard struggled to stand and forced his eyes to open wider, hoping for the sudden ability to see in the dark. "Rodney!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"RODNEY!" Sheppard heard Teyla and Ronon's voices, shouting as he was.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Rodney shouted back.

"What are you doing?" John asked, stupidly. It's not as if Rodney was doing anything; he was going because someone, or something, was taking him. John heard the drag of cloth against rock, a quiet sound he would describe as "schmulp" and a long, falling-in-the-well kind of scream. A long, falling-in-the-well, girlish, scared-out-of-his-mind Rodney kind of scream growing fainter and fainter.

"RODNEY!" He hurried to the scientist's last heard location before the harrowing experience repeated itself. There was a surprised cry, the same drag of cloth and Teyla's falling-in-the-well scream. Sheppard noted automatically that it was considerably less high-pitched than Rodney's had been, but refused to acknowledge the humour in that. It was a reflex, by now, taking and storing funny Rodney-moments. This was excruciatingly unfunny.

It was even less funny when Sheppard let out his own scream, leaving it hanging in the air for Ronon to hear. He felt a tendril, a something, wrap around his waist and pull. He plummeted, face first, to the ground and felt it open under him. Solid rock was suddenly malleable Play-Doh, and he was being pulled through. He felt the substance holding him recede before he was hurled through a large cylinder. It was smooth all around him, though Sheppard kept his skin far away from the friction a fall at this velocity would generate. After some time spent in freefall, with only the sound of whistling air as company, John saw light coming from below. Light, at the end of the tunnel. You weren't supposed to go to it before your time. This wasn't John's time, but he went to it; he had no choice in the matter, gravity took care of that.

--OOOOO--

Ronon opened his eyes to a less than pleasing sight: a big frowning face.

"Good! You're awake! Get dressed; you're scarring me for life."

"McKay," Ronon growled, pushing the crowding man away. He lifted himself on his elbows, looked down at his naked body and a bit further down until he could see clothes piled at his feet. McKay had already retreated to the other side of the room, crossing his arms and tapping his foot impatiently.

Ronon stood leisurely, stretched languidly and scratched his stomach, which earned him an impatient huff. He reached for his clothes and put them on, looking in his mind for an explanation. It took him a moment to realise he had a better data-bank just a few feet away. "What happened?"

"You don't remember? You don't remember. How could you forget that? Oh, no! You don't have amnesia, do you? Do you know who I am? Do you know who you are?" McKay drew closer, all blustering concern and impatience.

Ronon stared at McKay before answering. "Something grabbed us."

"Yes, yes. Something grabbed us. I fell through a tube. Did you?" Rodney was pacing the room, alarm rising, exuding nervous energy.

"Yeah. After?"

"I only know I fell and woke up here." He indicated the room.

Ronon turned away from his team-mate, noting the rocky enclosure in which they found themselves. He reached out, rubbed the wall with his hand and concluded they were in a room similar to the one they had occupied before falling through the ground.

"Good news, I don't feel sick, or hurt, or feverish. Do you?"

"I'm good."

"Yes, well, aren't you always? The point is, we're not harmed, we're dressed, there's food there," Rodney said, pointing to a rather large table covered with wares. "We're missing half our team and – what are you doing! Don't eat – ah, come on!"

Ronon thought food would help with his general mood, and it did. As he sank his teeth into moist sweet bread, he felt nothing but goodwill toward his fellow men. That is until McKay resumed his yapping.

"Don't eat that! Are you insane? They could be drugging us! You can't be drugged! I've, uh misplaced my gun and we've lost Sheppard and Teyla. You need to be alert."

Ronon ran a quick stroking finger over his Adored and reached for more of the bread. "Eat, it's good. Sheppard and Teyla can take care of themselves." Ronon didn't think the other half of the team was in a much different situation than he and McKay were.

"Yeah?"

Ronon nodded as he stuffed his face. He took a deep swallow from the glass and watched McKay come closer to the table, select a piece of bread and sniff it prissily. Ronon was certain it would be fine. It didn't taste anything like lemon, or lime, or oranges or those weird things from P3M 2F6. It was better to be well fed than be forced to fight and escape on an empty stomach, especially when he had sole responsibility of McKay. Ronon had learned his lesson well. McKay was the civilian, McKay had to be protected, McKay had to be watched. McKay was not to be lost, left alone, or injured. McKay was not to die. Under no circumstances would Sheppard allow his scientist to come to harm. If Ronon wanted on the team, Sheppard had said, he had to understand that McKay was the token ignoramus civilianus. Whilst Ronon had been unfamiliar with the expression, he'd known Sheppard had been serious despite the smirk he'd exhibited at the time. The science team was the core of Atlantis. They were precious; they were to be safeguarded at any cost. Ronon knew how to follow orders, how to fulfil his mission. He would get McKay back to Atlantis in one piece, if not completely healthy, and would certainly get some food into him. He'd learned that lesson too: a hungry McKay made the idea of shooting him much more appealing than it usually was.

Ronon ate and drank his fill, McKay keeping up with him after a moment's hesitation. Once they were happily replete, they shared their thoughts on the next sequence of events.

"We find Sheppard, Teyla, and go."

"Yes, great plan, Behemoth. The tricky part is how." Rodney rolled his eyes. He reached for his pack, laying in the corner, and kept a loud monologue going. "They didn't take anything. Makes you wonder what kind of morons they are. They probably don't know how any of this works, or what it does. They can't see the threat I represent." He released a small, mocking laugh. "And that makes them the kind of moron I like."

Rodney stood, his gaze locked on his screen. He held his gizmos as he slowly made his way around the room. He made humming sounds, huffing sounds; normal sounds that did not alert Ronon. It was only when he let out a pleased, and rather fond, "there you are," that Ronon drew closer.

"Found something?"

Rodney ignored him.

"McKay."

"Yes, yes, give it a minute!"

There were a few more minutes of hum and hawing. Ronon stood close to Rodney, not enough to be of annoyance, but enough to pull him out if the wall decided McKay would be a tasty treat. It didn't. Instead, it gave in to McKay's impertinent insistence that it do what he wanted. The rocky surface parted silently and without difficulty, drawing Ronon toward the conclusion that it was not stone.

They stepped out into a roofless, stone-walled structure. From atop the curved walls encircling them, hundreds of faces stared.

Ronon drew his weapon out.

"Oh. This isn't good," Rodney said, stepping on Ronon's shadow in an effort to barricade himself behind the mountainous man.