Disclaimer: Sadly, though I truly wish either one of us did own this...we don't :(
Authors' Note: And now! The end is near! And so we face, the final curtain! Ahem... yes, it's true, this is the end folks (aside from the epilogue) So go forth! And Enjoy!
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
Chapter Eleven
"A Wraith attacked the city?!"
"We think it was just a scout," said Weir. "When it first appeared on sensors we sent out two 'jumpers to intercept. It shot down McKay and Bates' 'jumper before self-destructing. Markham and Miller in the second 'jumper are on aerial surveillance, to try and find out what exactly the Wraith was doing up there before it exploded. There are two search and teams in the area, but so far we've been unable to locate Rodney's 'jumper; it came down in a part of the city still damaged from the original flooding of the storm."
"Doctor Weir!"
They all turned to stare at Chuck who was jabbing at his screen excitedly. "I'm picking up a signal from the area the 'jumper went down."
"Relay that information to the search and rescue teams," Sheppard ordered, leaning in to look at the information on the screen. He straightened and looked back at his team. "Don't bother getting changed, we're going after McKay."
o o o o o
Well, it had taken far too long and probably cost him full arm movement for the rest of his life, but Rodney had managed to get the 'jumper's backup power relays online. Enough to send a signal to Atlantis' main internal sensors, anyway. Pretty little beacon, blinking on their screens.
Rodney blinked. He felt dangerously light-headed, possibly a combination of blood loss, shock and head trauma, who knew? He staggered over to the bench, moved some debris out of the way with a pathetically weak hand and sank down onto the seat, groaning out loud when his guts rearranged themselves.
One quick look told him Bates was still unconscious, and a look in the other direction told him that the 'jumper's rear hatch was still closed. The manual override to open it was either partly embedded in the floor, or there was a secondary one somewhere in the ceiling – either way Rodney didn't fancy his chances after his efforts with the power relays. And if he remembered correctly, outside of the 'jumper bay, it was almost impossible to open the hatch from the outside.
It was the override or nothing.
"Eeny, meeny, miney... moe?" Rodney's voice sounded ragged and high-pitched, even to his own ears. "I really hope you appreciate everything I'm doing for you, Sergeant," he added, just for effect.
Using the arm that wasn't holding his guts together, Rodney manoeuvred himself into a standing position, and moved slowly around the debris and scattered equipment to the very back of the Puddlejumper. Once there he put out a hand to steady himself and tried to find the two locations for the override mechanisms without moving his head.
The floor switch was easy enough, and since getting closer to the ground meant there was less space in which to fall, Rodney elected to use that one.
A couple of torturous minutes later, he was sat on the floor, awkwardly positioned around the debris and other things that had fallen off walls and ceiling. The hatch's override was right in front of him, a small lever just protruding out of the corner where the hatch and the floor met.
Rodney tugged on it.
Nothing.
Quashing the voice that told him he was gonna die in here, Rodney stared at the lever. Wrapping his hand more firmly around the handle, he tried again.
It moved about an inch.
Better than nothing, even if Rodney's entire arm now felt like it was going to fall off at any given moment. Using the handle itself as leverage, Rodney got himself into a kneeling position, crouched over the handle, and tried pulling it again, up towards him.
Finally! Finally it released in one quick movement, a very satisfying creak telling Rodney that the 'jumper hatch should be going up any second now.
Down, even. Damn, his head hurt.
Except that it didn't. Rodney craned his neck, and saw that the hatch had come down by maybe six or twelve inches, nowhere near enough for anyone to get in or out.
But he could hear noises now – ones that weren't being made by him or his guts, or any other part of him, for that matter.
"LT! They're over here!"
"Get the rest of that hatch open, Sergeant!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Arnand to Major Sheppard. Sir, we've found the crashed 'jumper."
"I'm reading two life signs. Where's that medical team?"
Still crouching over the hatch release, Rodney could only stare as in slow and jerky movements, the hatch started to move the rest of the way down. He realised there were four hands pulling the thing, and he barely had time to comprehend this when he was suddenly swamped by people.
"Doctor McKay, where are you injured?"
"Where's Sergeant Bates?"
"Did you see what the Wraith dart was doing before it self-destructed?"
And then one voice that cut over the rest, one Rodney didn't think he would have ever heard again. "Out of the way everyone, give the man some space!"
Rodney blinked. "Major?"
Sheppard knelt down next to him. "Yeah," he said, sounding out of breath. "Jeez, McKay. I leave you alone for twelve hours and you crash a Puddlejumper."
"It wasn't my fault!" Rodney squawked. "We were fired – oh God. Bates. Bates is back there. He's unconscious. Bleeding, I mean, really bleeding."
"Aye, and so are you," another voice said.
"Carson?" Rodney asked, feeling stupid.
Carson moved around Sheppard to get to Rodney. "Aye." He turned behind him. "Someone get me a gurney and an IV drip!"
"Yes, Doctor!" someone replied.
"Come on, McKay," Sheppard coaxed, working with Carson to get Rodney to his feet. "We got you."
Rodney couldn't help himself. "Really?"
"Yeah, really," Sheppard replied.
"Oh, that's good."
He blacked out.
o o o o o
John stood in the doorway to Weir's office; she looked up and gestured for him to sit. "How are they?"
"Carson's got them in surgery, he says they should be okay," he said moving to slouch in the offered chair.
"Good," Weir replied, clearly relieved, "How did the search for the ZPM go?"
"We didn't find it, but we did run into an old friend," John flashed a disarming smile. "Hey, when were you gonna tell me that Kolya knifed McKay?"
Weir blinked, clasping her hands together on the desk. "I assumed you already knew."
"What kind of dumbass excuse is that?" he demanded. "When a member of my team gets tortured I think I have a right to know!"
"Rodney clearly had his reasons for keeping quiet." She gave him a hard stare. "Didn't you wonder where the cut came from in the first place?"
"I, uh," John sagged down in the chair. "I figured he just cut himself on something, he wasn't making a big deal about it and if anything is wrong he usually bitches about it till his very last breath." He glared at her. "You should have told me."
"You could have asked," she replied simply.
"I should have known," John admitted quietly.
"There was so much to do following the storm," said Weir gently. "No one had any time to think about anything." She smiled ruefully. "And Rodney doesn't always help matters."
"I want him back on my team."
Weir leant back in her chair, unclasping her hands. "That," she replied, "is Rodney's decision." She gave him a searching look. "And what about Radek?"
"I'll work something out," John promised, already running through the possibilities in his mind.
o o o o o
Teyla looked up as John entered the infirmary. "Doctor Beckett says Rodney will be out of surgery in another hour," she told him.
"And Bates?"
"Longer than that," Ford spoke up, looking despondent. "Doc said he had massive internal bleeding, worse than McKay's. Even with all the Ancient equipment, it's still gonna take a while to fix."
"The Puddlejumper is salvageable, however," Zelenka added. "I already have teams working on getting it back to the 'jumper bay for repairs."
"Yeah." John rubbed the back of his neck. "Speaking of which..."
The three of them looked at him expectantly.
"Zelenka, can I talk to you in private for a moment?" John asked, indicating Beckett's office.
"Of course," Zelenka replied. He looked slightly puzzled, but followed John into the office anyway. Once the door closed, John turned around to face the scientist, suddenly at a loss for words.
"It is about McKay, isn't it?" Zelenka prompted.
"I... yeah," John admitted sheepishly. When he's out of surgery, and wakes up, and... you know... I... want to ask him to rejoin the team."
"Okay," Zelenka said.
"Okay?" John repeated. "That's it?"
Zelenka smirked. "Clearly you do not know Rodney very well. I had sneaking suspicion this would only be for the short term, but it turned out to be longer than I thought. I do not mind returning to purely lab-based work again, although..." he trailed off.
John figured he knew where this was going. "I'll talk to Stackhouse and some of the others, see if there's an opening for you somewhere."
"I – that would be wonderful," Zelenka replied, beaming.
"No promises," John warned. "We can't have both you and McKay off-world at the same time."
"Yes, Kavanagh would have the time of his life trying to stage some sort of coup," Zelenka agreed, but he was still grinning. "We mustn't have that."
"No," John replied. "So... you're cool with this?"
Zelenka regarded him for a moment, and pushed his glasses up his nose. "You are cool, Major. I, on the other hand, am fine."
"Okay," John said. "Okay."
"I think we should tell Teyla and Lieutenant Ford now," Zelenka said, calmly now. Then, almost inexplicably he brightened up. "Does this mean no more insipid nicknames?"
John snorted, and opened the door for Zelenka to leave the office first.
The End
000 Epilogue coming soon, we'd love to know what you think! 000