Chapter Three

Sheppard had taken a quick break a few hours later and fell asleep without meaning to. When he awoke, he opened his eyes to find Zalea asleep with Masan lying on her chest. He smiled at the sight and felt strangely warmed by it. He looked around for McKay and found him staring up into the opening made by the ceiling's collapse. Sheppard sat up and fumbled with the dressing around his head, and then pulled it off in irritation.

Getting to his feet, he wandered over to McKay. "What're you looking at?"

"Oh, hi. The broken timber from the collapse. I was wondering if we could move some of it from the collapsed section to shore up the beams that look most problematic."

Sheppard nodded in agreement. "That's a good idea."

He started to walk toward the pile of rubble and McKay ran to catch up with him. "Wait. It might be a good idea, but I wouldn't just go traipsing around without careful examination – "

"I'm careful," Sheppard said with quiet annoyance as he stepped around McKay.

"Yeah, that's why you've got that gash on your forehead."

"Some things are calculated risks," John said as he stopped in front of the collapsed area, his gaze skimming over it until he saw what he wanted. He hoisted himself up and into a position where he could stand.

McKay's voice echoed his nervous movements. "Watch your step. Who knows what is exposed up there. You could – "

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," Sheppard said as his eyes got used to the darker lighting up above. Still, he didn't move, mostly because he was dizzy from the climb, not that he'd let McKay know he was right, but it was also dark and ominous up there. Once the dizziness had passed, he could see one of the loose timbers nearby and started to make his way over to it.

"Watch your step," McKay repeated.

"Yes, Mother," Sheppard said with sarcasm. He started to move forward when his boot went through the debris up to his knee.

"What? What was that?" McKay asked, standing on his toes to see Sheppard.

Sheppard had managed to catch himself before he did any damage, so he only had scratches on his shin, but the scare was enough to make him reevaluate his decision to go up there. He turned and looked down at McKay. "I'm fine, but this stuff is too unstable."

"Ya think?" McKay muttered.

It took Sheppard a lot more effort to get down than climb up. "Okay, McKay, I'll give you this much. Sometimes, you do manage to be right," he said breathlessly as he leaned against the collapsed section. Rodney looked like he was trying very hard not to say, 'I told you so', but he managed to remain silent. After a minute, he changed gears and asked, "Are you hungry?"

Sheppard frowned at him. "Is that all you think about?"

McKay looked at him with a blank expression. "What's wrong with food? We need to keep our strength up."

Sheppard started to shake his head, and then realized he was a little hungry. "Okay, food is a good idea."

McKay smiled. "That food pouch you gave me earlier wasn't half bad. Let's go see what else they've got in there."

Zalea opened her eyes as they approached. She checked Masan and then looked back at them. McKay stopped. "We were just going to try some of the meals in storage. Would you like one?"

She shook her head, but sat up. "I'm not hungry, but I would like some water."

"Stay put, I'll get it for you," McKay said.

Sheppard looked down at her as she smoothed out some wrinkles of the coveralls she'd put on after Masan was born. "How are you feeling?"

"Better than I thought I would be."

McKay returned with her water, and then gave Sheppard one of the two meals he had with him as they sat beside her. McKay opened the outer wrapping of his meal and sniffed at it. Intrigued, he smiled and took a big bite. Sheppard looked at his serving. It was some type of pita bread with meat inside.

Smiling, McKay took another big bite. "This isn't half bad," he said with a full mouth.

Sheppard opened the wrapper, but he didn't think it smelled as good as McKay thought it did. He took a tentative bite and let the flavors wash over his palate. It was actually pretty good until his stomach started doing flip-flops. He set the food down as he tried to swallow back the nausea.

"We should check in with Zelenka and Lorne," Sheppard said after a moment, preparing to get to his feet. "I'll do that while you eat."

McKay nodded, but his eyes were on Sheppard's discarded meal. "Sure. Hey, are you going to finish that?"

McKay looked at Sheppard like a puppy begging for a treat. Sheppard made a face at him. "No, I'm not that hungry. It's all yours."

"Thanks!" McKay said.

He scooped up the meal, and then noticed Zalea looking at him strangely with her bottle of water in midair. She sounded slightly confused as she said, "You do know there are several meals in the cabinet if you are still hungry?"

"Um, yeah, but this will suffice for now," McKay said, with a hint of guilt. She still stared at him, making him say, "Well, you see, I have a very high metabolism and – "

Sheppard shook his head as he tapped his radio. "Dr. Zelenka, this is Sheppard checking in. How much longer do you think you'll be?"

He frowned when he got an answer he didn't like. "Damn," he said with a sigh.

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Sheppard rubbed a hand over his face. It had been hours since his check in with Zelenka. McKay and Zalea had fallen asleep, along with Masan, leaving Sheppard to watch over them. Then Masan started fussing as he lay beside his mother. John didn't want him to awaken the others, so he'd picked him up. After a little rocking, Masan fell right back to sleep, lying in the crook of Sheppard's arm.

Sheppard wondered if he should call Zelenka again, but decided not to. He'd harassed the Czech enough already and the man knew to call him if there was any new developments. He remembered his most recent conversation with Zelenka.

"There is no safe way to get through this rubble without bringing it all down on top of you, so we are going to cut through one of the power conduits that run down and parallel to your level, and then break through the wall to reach you. There's about twenty feet between the two structures, so it will take time to dig and shore up the tunnel as we go."

Sheppard looked at his watch. Another six to eight hours now seemed like an eternity. He let his thoughts drift and became aware of soft breathing, little puffs of air blown in his direction and smiled. When he looked down, he saw Masan's eyes open and seeming to be studying him. He brought a finger to the baby's chin. "You are amazing," he whispered.

Masan's head bobbed up and down. Sheppard smiled. "Glad you agree."

Then Masan tried to turn his head to suckle on his finger which Sheppard moved away quickly. "That's not really what you want."

He sat up and Masan didn't appreciate the change in position. He started crying. Zalea opened her eyes and looked around for the baby. Her sudden fear was soon replaced with relief when she saw Sheppard holding him. Sheppard gave her with a woeful smile. "I think he's hungry and I don't have the right equipment to feed him."

Zalea chuckled and held out her hands. Sheppard brought him over to her, kneeling as she took the infant. She kissed Masan on the top of his head as soon as he was in her arms. Sheppard started to turn away, but she stopped him with a hand on his arm. With her lips still touching the baby's head, she asked, "How are you feeling?"

Sheppard gave her a smile. "It's nothing to worry about. Honest."

"I hope it isn't," she whispered, tears welling in her eyes. "Thank you. I don't know what I would have done without you or Dr. McKay to help us."

Sheppard shrugged. "You're a strong lady. You did the hard part. We just helped out a little."

She reached over and kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you anyway."

He got to his feet as Zalea turned her back to him to face the wall and prepared to nurse Masan. As he stood there, he sensed McKay was awake.

"You rested up some now?" Sheppard looked down at Rodney.

"As rested as I'm going to be."

"How's that shoulder?"

McKay looked away and took a deep breath. "Feels like I got kicked by a rogue elephant."

"That's better than feeling like you've been trampled by one." He gave McKay a hand up. "Well, Lorne told me the rescue teams are progressing on the tunnel faster than they thought, so that's encouraging."

McKay grunted and got to his feet. "Encouraging? We could have probably dug ourselves out faster . . . " he said with a disgusted sigh.

He walked over to the control panel he'd been working on before the quake and picked up some wires. Sheppard followed him over. "What are you going to do?"

McKay shrugged. "Try to finish up what you volunteered me to do."

Sheppard winced. "Look, for what it's worth, I'm sorry that it led to this."

McKay absently rubbed at his shoulder. "Well, as someone said recently we can't just stand around here doing nothing. Besides, I think we've almost got the problem solved."

Zalea came up from behind them. "Need some help? Masan's asleep again and I'm tired of lying down."

McKay smiled. "Well, yes, you could work on splicing this connection to that one over there. Hopefully, it will bypass one of our problem areas. I'll work on bringing up the main grid as a simulation on my laptop."

Sheppard grunted in surprise. "You mean this stuff is still working? After all the damage?"

Zalea nodded. "The heart and soul of the power plant are in these lower levels. The upper floors were mostly administrative."

McKay waved a hand as he started working on his laptop, assuming that distracted air he always got when he was multitasking. "Their master systems have all kinds of redundancies and safeguards. At least as far as what I need to do."

Sheppard put up his hands. "Okay, I'll let you work. Is there something else I can do?"

"Go away?"

Sheppard gave McKay a dirty look, but backed away as requested. Once again, it was time to let the science guys work and that was fine by him. He'd find something to keep himself occupied.

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"Ah, crap," Sheppard muttered as he pulled Masan away from his chest and then his shirt with the other hand. "He just peed on me."

McKay chortled and said, "Then, it's actually 'ah, pee', and not 'ah, crap.' Two entirely different scenarios."

"This isn't funny," Sheppard said as he glared at him.

Zalea came over to take Masan. "I warned you that he'd just been fed."

"Yeah, well, he was crying, you were busy and I was helping. Now I need to find another shirt."

He handed Masan to Zalea and pulled off his t-shirt. Masan wasn't happy going back to Zalea and started crying again, louder this time. Zalea rocked him gently as she reached into the cabinet and pulled out a pair of coveralls. "This is the best we have in the way of other apparel."

Sheppard looked at them and frowned. "Thanks. And to think I was starting to get fond of the little guy . . . "

"He is crazy about you too," Zalea said softly as she took one of the blanket remnants and used it to change Masan's wet diaper. Sheppard stepped into the coveralls as Zalea looked in his direction.

McKay turned toward them, looking over his laptop. "I could really use some help here, Zalea. We are at a crucial juncture."

Zalea glanced to McKay, and then Sheppard. Masan's crying kicked up another notch and Sheppard sighed. "Fine, I'll take him. Go help McKay. I feel next to useless right now anyway. What I wouldn't give to have my PDA with me."

Zalea handed him over asked with a smile. "What about if he pees on you again?"

Sheppard grimaced and cleared his throat. "At least there's a few more pairs of coveralls to go through, if needed."

"Zalea . . . " McKay said with irritation. "I'm waiting . . . "

"Yeah, yeah, she's coming, McKay. Give her a break. You do remember that she just had a baby?"

McKay just waved a hand in his direction and ignored him. Sheppard glanced down and spoke to Masan, "You have to forgive mean old Uncle Rodney. He's kind of like the Grinch. You know, that guy whose heart was two sizes too small, but he grows on you."

"Har-har-har," McKay said without looking back.

Masan quieted some, but didn't stop crying completely, so Sheppard started rocking him as he walked around the room.

"And you better not tell anyone that I'm doing this, kid," he whispered to Masan. "If word of me babysitting gets out back at Atlantis, I'll never hear the end of it. It's going to be bad enough as it is after they hear I delivered you. I can hear the jibs already . . . "

Masan hiccupped and Sheppard put him up to his shoulder and patted his back. He pulled him away a bit and added, "And if you burp up on me, I'm handing you back to your mother, understood?"

Masan looked at him intently and Sheppard wondered what the infant saw when he stared at him like that. Sheppard stopped near the base of a column next to the collapsed section and turned to go back in the other direction when there was a rumbling from above. It was the last thing he saw before everything came crashing down around him.

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