'What do you mean?' John asked, warily.
Although Aiden was cradling Laura in his arms, he managed to raise a finger to his nose and tap it with a cheeky grin. Inwardly Elizabeth groaned; for a second she had allowed herself to hope, but this was clearly some 'adventure' to Aiden – one that he wasn't taking seriously.
'Our lives are at stake here!' Rodney yelled, irrationally.
But Aiden continued to grin in that satisfied way and Rodney angrily scrunched his jacket up and threw it on the floor before flouncing down and resting his head on it, his back to the rest of them. In the midst of her sleepless, frustrated mood, Elizabeth had a small urge to scream at him for being so childish and petulant, but it would have been hypocritical and she just about had enough patience left. At this stage, it wasn't being kept prisoner that was driving her mad, it was watching Rodney devolve into a seven year old. She dreaded to think what Meredith was going to do when she told him where to go again at six.
The more she thought about Meredith, the angrier she found herself. Who was he to take them hostage and make the demands that he had? And how had anybody thought this egotistical, sociopath was the right man to lead an expedition? He was pretty much irremovable too, given that they had no IOA on their backs or, as Meredith put it, 'the Daedalus dropping by every couple of weeks'. They could swap for a week; he'd soon be begging to come back if he didn't get kicked out first.
The team had all sat down on the floor, the way they had spent the previous evening and she followed suit, not wanting to draw attention to herself. It was strange, she had always wanted the opportunity to sit down and get to know all of the people in this room better, and yet she had barely uttered a word to them. Somehow it didn't feel suitable for her to start asking Radek about his college days. It didn't feel suitable to do anything other than sit around in a melancholy state the way the rest of her team were doing; she should be 'rallying the troops', doing anything to keep them sane, but she knew that they were intelligent men who wouldn't buy fakes smiles and promises that everything was going to be okay.
'I spy with my little eye...' John said, half-heartedly.
Elizabeth looked over at him and smiled at his attempt to find something that would drag them out of their moods.
'Prison? Cell? No food?' Rodney said, through gritted teeth.
'I can try and get you some food.' Ford offered.
'Please do.' John said, looking at Rodney.
Ford left the room with a grin at John, leaving Laura wiping her tears and determinedly staring at anything other than the cell directly in front of her. This had no doubt been Meredith's idea of punishment – forcing her to stand there and look at the man who she clearly felt responsible for the death of. On hearing that food could be on its way, Rodney had sat up and they were now able to look at the misery in his face.
'You know, part me hopes he doesn't bring anything back just to see your reaction.' John commented.
'And I suppose you think that's funny?' Rodney asked.
'That depends if he brings food or not.' Sheppard hit back.
'Leave it.' Elizabeth said to John.
'Don't 'leave it'. You know, everything was going fine until you two screwed up.' Rodney said.
'Rodney.' Carson warned.
'Don't pretend you haven't been thinking it. While us three have been working our backsides off, you two have been swanning around, starting fights, sleeping with men who are taken and now we're paying the price.' He hissed.
Well, they were certainly talking now.
'I can't recall sleeping with any men since I've been here.' Sheppard commented in a light tone.
'I'm talking about her. I mean seriously Elizabeth, what were you thinking?' Rodney asked with more than a hint of disgust in his voice.
'I haven't slept with Jonathan.' Elizabeth said.
But a blush rose to her cheeks as she considered the technicality that this was based on. She had slept with a version of him, but he was missing 'athan' on the end of his name. Convinced that she was lying, Rodney rolled his eyes with revulsion and she was glad that he didn't know about what had happened between her and John. He'd get at least another five minutes ranting out of that.
'We need to stick together; if we can just get out of here we can activate the Stargate and forget this ever happened.' Radek said.
'Once we get the device going.' Carson said, sadly.
'But the device is ready, I thought McKay...' Radek said.
They all looked over to see the expression of anger on McKay's face mangled with guilt. The deceit cut through her.
'You son of a bitch McKay.' Sheppard said angrily, 'After everything you just said, the reason that we are all stuck here is because of you.'
'I'm sorry.' He said, not managing to meet any of their eyes.
'Sorry doesn't cut it McKay. If we ever get out of here I am sending you straight back to Earth.' Elizabeth yelled.
For the first time in her life she had reached breaking point. She was more hurt than she would ever care to let on to McKay. All those years spent building a working relationship - a friendship, were ruined, just like that. She had known that he was playing for time, desperate to work alongside Meredith for as long as he could, but for him to know that the device was ready, that they could go home with knowledge acquired and not tell them...she was disgusted with him.
'How could you Rodney?' Carson asked, searchingly.
'I didn't know that Meredith would turn on us!' Rodney said.
'Really? I'm pretty sure that if you search deep enough you'll realise that that's exactly what you have done to us.' Sheppard said.
'You have done some despicable things Rodney, but this is the worst of all of them.' Radek said, shaking his head.
'I'm sorry! I really am. If I could turn back time, which admittedly isn't possible given...'
'Just shut the hell up!' John shouted.
'Hey guys.' Jonathan said.
Elizabeth looked up to see him entering the cell with Ford closely following with sandwiches which he happily handed out to all of them.
'What are you doing here?' She asked.
'I've come to tell you about our little plan.' He said.
'Some good news at last. What is it?' Elizabeth asked.
'Basically, we're going to sedate Meredith in his sleep, stash him in a storage closet, put your McKay in his place and get you all home.' Jonathan said smugly.
'And Plan B is?' John asked.
'What's wrong with our plan?' Jonathan asked.
'Nothing is wrong with the plan – just the person that it involves. It turns out that our Doctor McKay isn't the person that we thought he was.' Elizabeth explained.
'Meredith?' Jonathan said, disbelievingly.
'In the metaphorical sense,' Elizabeth smiled.
'I want to do it.' Rodney said, standing up with a look of determination.
'So you can fill Meredith in, no doubt.' John said.
'No. I know that I can never really repair the damage that I have done, but the least I can do is help get you guys out of here.' Rodney said.
'That's very admirable Rodney.' Elizabeth said.
He was finally able to meet her eyes and smiled sadly at her. Maybe he was genuinely sorry after all.
