As they trudged along, the three men kept sharp eyes and ears out for anything unusual. However, the sound of rain falling on the trees around them and having to continually wipe water from their eyes made conditions less than ideal.
"What do you think this guy's problem is?" Evan asked, again taking the time to ponder on what they'd done to warrant such hostility from someone – thing? – they'd never met.
"What makes you think it's a man?" Laura asked, looking back at him with an eyebrow lifted.
Ronon chuckled softly as Evan stuttered to come up with a reply.
"Well, I…I mean, it's just…I'm not saying…oh, come on Laura."
She laughed.
"I'm just," she broke off, sneezing violently. "Just kidding, Evan."
Wrinkling up her nose, she sniffled and then sneezed again, burying her face in her makeshift sling.
"Great," she sighed. "Just what I need."
She felt another sneeze coming on, but when she hunched over to muffle it against her arm she felt her broken rib shift and her sneeze turned into a simultaneous choking kind of exhalation and inhalation of air. She tensed up and immediately cried out in pain, but that was cut off by a sudden burst of coughing brought on by the confusion of air and moisture in her lungs.
Ronon stopped for a second, tightening his grip on her convulsing body, before she managed to suck in enough air to urge him on.
"Keep…going," she choked out, dropping her head back briefly out of exasperation. "I just want…to get…back to Atlantis."
Evan, who had been prepared to pluck her from Ronon's arms when her coughing fit had started so that he could take care of her himself like he wished he could, walked anxiously along behind them until she got her breathing under control.
"Laura, you alright?"
Turning her head, she propped her chin wearily on the shoulder of her right arm, which she had wrapped around Ronon's neck, and looked at him for a minute.
"Not really," she sighed finally, giving him a wan smile of attempted reassurance.
"We're almost there," Sheppard spoke up from behind.
"Yes, Sir," she replied. "I can handle it. A Marine never goes down without a fight."
Evan smiled at her Marine Corps gusto. He could always count on that to pull her up when she was feeling low.
"I think," Ronon said, "that if I were to join your Earth military, I would be a Marine."
His comment made Laura smile, while Sheppard and Lorne both made noises of affront which, in turn, made Laura laugh.
"Oorah," she proclaimed smugly.
"Hooah," Sheppard and Lorne said loudly in protest.
Ronon looked down at Laura questioningly.
"What–."
But his question was cut off by a single crack of gunfire and his own startled roar of pain. Unprepared for the sudden shock of injury to his body, his left knee buckled and he and Laura went tumbling down. With her left arm immobilized, Laura was unable to reach out to break her fall. Her shoulder hit the ground with a jarring thud and for a brief few seconds before Ronon was able to control his body motion, his weight fell against her right side.
He rolled away from her almost immediately, but it was too late. Pain exploded in Laura's chest, stealing her breath and almost her consciousness. Amid the panic and the desperate wish for oblivion, there was also confusion. This pain was not that same she remembered from the last time she'd experienced a punctured lung from a broken rib.
Sheppard was unloading his P-90 into the trees around them, fed up with not being able to see just who or what it was that was so intent on killing them. Ronon, who had been hit in the upper right side of his back, yanked out his blaster with his left hand and began firing.
Meanwhile, Evan had ducked and was crawling over to where Laura lay, dazed and gasping. He put a hand on her cheek, vaguely surprised and distressed to notice that it was warmer than he knew it should be. Her eyes were frantic, and he knew something bad had happened.
When he glanced down to where her hands were firmly pressed against her side, he felt his heart seize up when he saw that her fingers were coated in blood.
"Laura."
Her name escaped his mouth in a breath of fear. Something was very wrong, and as much as he wanted to know what it was so he could fix it, he was afraid of what he might see. Seeing his stricken features, Laura followed his gaze to her side. It was then that she became aware of something hard and slimy beneath her fingertips. She tried to move her hands away, but shock kept them frozen in place.
"Evan," she whispered, "you're going to have to help me."
Slowly, he gripped her wrist and cautiously pulled one hand away. It immediately clamped down on his, so he wrapped his fingers around it and reached for the other with his free hand. When he had pushed her left hand to the side, he let out a string of curses at the sight before him.
The force of Ronon's weight had pushed Laura's broken rib through the skin, and it was now poking out of the open wound it had created in her side. She brought her left hand to hover over it, unsure of what to do.
"Oh, God. Oh, man. Evan," she moaned, her breath hitching as she looking at him pleadingly.
Her hand was shaking in his, and he wondered if it was from shock, the pain, or the fever. He'd had some basic medical training – they all had – but it seemed to have flown out the window in the face of his distress.
By this time, Sheppard had backed up toward the two of them, eyes still scanning their surroundings. He squatted down beside Lorne and looked down to say something, but it died in his throat when he saw Laura's condition.
"Oh," he said. "Crap."