For disclaimer check the 1st chapter...

A/N: Okay, this one is longer. Also this chap has some Shep whump and if you're thinking it's not good enough cause he has a healing device... bear with me. Enjoy!

Chapter Five

John saw a young kid aiming a gun at a similarly young marine, he recognized him as Lt. Ramirez, who was too busy to notice what was going on. He didn't want to be responsible for killing a kid even if it was justified. He ordered him to put the gun down but the command fell deaf to the kid's ears and to make matters worse John definitely didn't like the wild look on his eyes. The shots were quieting down. He tried to reason with him but the kid wasn't paying attention. Both of them pulled the trigger and two bodies fell down. The kid's fate took a turn the moment he fired his gun at his man. Sheppard didn't want to have another soul in his conscience, he only wanted to stop the kid and a shot to the leg easily did that. Ramirez got up and moved in haste to neutralize the young man who almost took his life without him knowing. After he assessed his enemy's wound and concluded it wasn't life threatening, he checked his own shoulder. The young soldier gave Sheppard a silent report that things were handled and secured and with that he carried on with his duties. Sheppard saw the gratitude in the soldier's eyes too but they didn't have time to acknowledge emotions right now.

He had no idea how things had gotten this bad but then again it appeared to be the Pegasus Galaxy's way of things. One minute they're fine and the next it's a fight between life and death. And it was just Sheppard's luck that the one mission Woolsey had approved him to go on ended up being a trap. Maybe it was Ronon's fault for jinxing them, maybe they shouldn't have talked at all about bad luck before going through the wormhole or maybe he should've paid attention to Teyla's apprehension about the mission. Sheppard knew it was never wise to dwell on the maybe's or what if's but they were always there and sometimes it was just hard to ignore them.

McKay had been holding his own during the gunfight. He had actually become a decent shot, probably because of all the previous bad experiences that ended in a shootout against villagers, Wraith and other kind of monsters. But he still was a bit off when it came to counting the rounds to know when he had to change the clip. One particularly angry looking native had him in his line of sight and McKay was reloading at the time. McKay heard a gunshot and with his gun ready, he pointed to where the sound had come from, only to see a bad guy falling. He turned to Sheppard.

"What? … How? …" - Words failing to form a proper question.

"You're welcome; now keep your eyes open."

"This is madness!"

"No more than usual."

Even when it felt like hours to them the attack had only lasted minutes. Then again it was all the time needed to kill and wound many. Once Woolsey had sent the back up team (after Teyla, with little but appreciated help from McKay, had taken out the couple of guys guarding the DHD thus granting the new team safe passage through the gate), the tables had turned and Atlantis took control over the situation. The fire had diminished considerably, but there were still a couple of stubborn rebels still shooting. Sheppard was running around making sure things had calmed down once and for all. As the last shots were fired he felt the projectile slam into his chest with such force that he staggered backwards and found himself falling to the ground, his arms flung out from his body and darkness embraced him. McKay could only watch helplessly as he went down and admire at the same time how Sheppard managed to get the guy before he got him. Of course admiration could wait until he knew Sheppard was okay and it could keep on waiting after that as well. Just when he was about to go help Sheppard he felt his head being split open and his vision going dark.

When he returned to consciousness it was because a constant drop of something falling in his eyes demanded it. He was lying on the ground on his side. He tried getting rid of the offensive drop with his hand but it only brought him pain. He looked at his hand, vision a little blurry, but he found blood on it and everything fell into place. McKay let out an uncharacteristic expletive and tried getting to his feet only to fall right back down when his legs felt like the earth shook underneath him. He didn't know how long he was out but the fact that the blood covering the side of his face was running in a steady stream meant it wasn't long, otherwise it would have slowed down. He could see a dark figure laying a few feet from him. Sheppard! His mind screamed at him and his stomach turned. McKay pushed every hurt aside; if he had to crawl to the man he would. It took more than willpower but he reached the unmoving body of Sheppard as fast as his out of shape body would let him, which was surprisingly fast, if Sheppard was conscious he would've been impressed. Fear and adrenaline were pushing him to a new limit. He didn't even notice the fire had ceased around him, instead he focused on the task at hand: Sheppard. He opened his vest and shirt, there were no penetrating wounds, but there was blood around his side and two dark marks gradually changing color to match the skin tone; a small one under the blood and a large one right above his heart. He pressed his fingers against John's neck waiting to feel his pulse, but nothing happened. He changed the position of his finger thinking he must have done it wrong but there was no pulse beneath his fingers.

"Don't do this to me Sheppard!" Rodney frantically began doing CPR on his friend. He was so nervous he didn't even know if he was doing it right. He started with compressions, stopping to breathe air into Sheppard's mouth while reminding himself that he's going to owe him after this. Compressions again, and then he hears 'snap'… "Not Good." As he was pressing down on Sheppard's sternum something snapped and shifted on the inside. Since obviously a broken rib was better than death he kept going until Sheppard started coughing and groaning.

"You ok?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," came the croaked reply.

"I think I might have broken a rib or two. I'm sorry but it's your fault for going all heart stopping on me."

"I think I feel them but hopefully not for long." – Sheppard said tapping the Ancient device. He got up slowly and made sure his feet supported him before he attempted walking.

"You okay buddy?"

"My invaluable brain is intact and I'll complain your ears off once we're back home where there are no bullets or bad guys ready to kill us."

John was sure McKay was giving him a half truth but he didn't have the right to questioned him about it; device or not he was hurting and he wasn't coming clean about it either. It seemed he had been hit right in the chest, but he kept going like nothing had happened: not the part about having stopped breathing nor the losing a pulse part. For him the job didn't finish after getting a bullet to the vest. It did when all bullets ceased flying and sometimes not even then. He had a responsibility to his men, to his team and nothing was getting in the way of that, especially with his new gadget. So if his heart was beating again, his lungs were working and he was able to move he would keep going until everyone was safe. – "Let's put an end to this mess so we can go home." – He walked to where the rest of the soldiers were gathered. – "Status."

"The enemy fled, possibly regrouping, Sgt. Johnson and Lt. Ramirez are wounded."

"Grab you gear, help the wounded, we are heading back. This is Colonel Sheppard requesting a med team meet us at the gate." He waited to hear the crackling on the other end letting him know Atlantis was receiving.

"I'll inform Dr. Beckett."

"Sheppard out. McKay can you get us out of here?"

"With pleasure. You know it would be nice for a change if we could visit planets where things didn't go wrong."

"Where have you been McKay? We don't even need to get out of Atlantis for things to go wrong."

"You're right, which is just sad."

"Okay people listen up! Wounded first!"

TBC