A/N: My apologies, I was going to put this up on Christmas when I realized I had completely erased the finished product. Yoinks! Luckily, the rough draft was around and I worked from there. So sorry for the delay.

Scene III

The Expanse

This is all Zelenka's and Gibb's fault, Rodney thought as he stood at the indented place in the landscape. The three of them had drawn straws on who would get the mini-vacation and who would get the two grocery runs. Zelenka pulled the two hour mission with Lorne. Gibbs pulled the overnighter with Korkov. And he had pulled the four day, trapped in a small, tin can journey from hell, which by the way, turned out to be more of a two day trip walking in the baking sun in hell. It came complete with demons, might he add, and he had bent back a finger nail while digging.

In retribution, Zelenka was going to be making an unnecessary run back to the Kill-a-Kid world. Rodney would supply the finger paints. And, Gibbs was going to have to do maintenance on the desalination plant. All sorts of lovely and putrid things always got stuck in the grates. Rodney laughed evilly to himself; it was good to be the boss. What was the use of power if it could not be abused every once in awhile?

"On three…" Rodney said. "And I mean when I say three…one…two…three…" Ronon and he pulled the Colonel out of the sand by his shirt and vest. Initially, all that had been visible was a boot and a tuft of hair. It was like the Wraith had planted Alfalfa of the Our Gang in the middle of the desert just to see if he would grow.

Rodney was finding it harder and harder not to laugh at some of the most completely inappropriate times, because, it seemed, that Sheppard had found his own grave, which was not remotely funny. As it turned out, it was where the Wraith had obviously buried itself and waited for the tail end of their little band to pass- going for the easy prey first, apparently. That too was not funny because Ronon and he had completely missed this when they had passed by.

Sand caked on the blood from the cut on Sheppard's head and the bandage was long gone. He had just come over the rise to see Teyla about to be fed upon and Ronon firing and sprinting full speed down the dune.

It was so not happening to one of his teammates if he could help it. Ronon had apparently agreed and announced his presence with deadly authority. Rodney had a moment of nausea when the Wraith's hair went flying and not the rest of him. He got over it and moved on to the next crisis, which was Sheppard buried up to his cowlick in sand.

They let Sheppard drop delicately in the pulverized, quartz crystals next to Teyla.

Ronon put one hand on his thigh and bent over to catch his breath. "There is a protected position on the other side of the dune, a rocky area with a small overhang. It's the best we could do."

"They have the pup tent we saved from the wreck," Rodney gasped, exhausted. He checked Sheppard to make sure he was breathing (which he was) and then studied the dune.

Teyla sat up in the sand and silently nodded. Everyone looked at John.

"You wait here with Rewapeh and we'll drag him over to it. I think we can go around on this side," Rodney said still taking heaving breaths and pointing to his left.

Speechless, Teyla nodded again and cradled the baby who decided it was time to cry even louder from all of the jostling. The shrill wail sent Rodney and Ronon off as they dragged John by the vest to the other side of the dune.

Rodney thought Carson would probably have a conniption watching them drag an injured person like a sack of grain, head flopping around like a bobble head. Well, Ronon had said, when they began their scouting, "We're in survival mode McKay, not comfort mode." Carson would just have to deal and Rodney would just have to not obsess over it.

Ronon said his little bit of backwoods' wisdom when Rodney had started to complain (like he was want to do on occasion) about the heat, the sand, the Wraith, the sand, and the heat. He might have thrown in something about his arm, and head, but hey, that had been about twenty minutes ago so…it did not matter anymore, anyhow. Ronon had retorted and Rodney decided that it was better to cower and shut his mouth than argue with Ronon and beloved.

He laughed to himself because they were pulling his best friend across the sand to another boulder grouping so he could at least die in the shade. He wanted to have better thoughts, but right now he was just a pinch pessimistic.

He was tired. He was in pain. He was generally pissed off because Sheppard was dying and there was not a damned thing he could do about it, and then there was a seriously injured Teyla with a baby.

They left Sheppard in the shade and returned for the seriously injured Teyla with the baby, Roo-pa-pah or something close to that. Since he had bandaged Teyla's head and her knee, he knew that she was not as bad off as Sheppard, but she was running a close second. She too had mentioned pain in her abdomen and Rodney figured that they both were slowly bleeding to death on the inside.

God, this situation sucked. Had he mentioned there was a baby and pissed off Wraith to go with the blistering heat on his delicate skin?

Four day trip…should have nicknamed the Puddle Jumper the Minnow even though they were coming back to port early- so to speak. This planet was in the database as an abandoned outpost, but there had been other planets that used this Gate because of Ancient technology. Transporters or some such thing…right now, even as much as that kind of technology had his inner child drooling like it was Christmas morning; he had a few, more pressing issues. And no readings to back it up, but still the issues pressed as his boots swished in the sand.

As they walked back to Teyla, he checked the LSD and came up with nothing but the five of them. However, the Wraith could hide quite effectively as they had found out before. They would have to ask Teyla what she felt and if she could tell how far. She was a divining rod for Wraith. Point her in the right direction and off they would go. They put so much faith in it that they sometimes forgot the impreciseness and fallibility, hence, the Wraith sneaking up and overwhelming Sheppard and her.

However, her ability meant there was still hope and so he would have to keep up the front of survival, because no matter what, you did not give up. He had had that lesson drummed into him for almost three years now. And seeing as he was a quick study and an uber-smart individual, he actually learned it and made it his own. He had great teachers, not that they needed to know that little bit of information. He was going to give them a chance to keep on teaching his obtuse self.

Rodney took the baby in his arms and tried not to panic. Ronon was better suited to help Teyla and him the rug-rat. It was the first time that he had held the little squirt and, hopefully, the last, but he would not count on it.

He just knew he was going to break it like his sister's Barbie doll…Malibu Barbie if his memory served. Actually, he had not broken the doll, but the really cool Dreamhouse that she had gotten for Christmas one year.

Who knew that an eight year old could not sit on top without it folding up like an accordion? With his brilliance, and the fact that he was not that heavy, and that those corporate moguls at Mattel should have built a better dollhouse, he had placed blame squarely on her shoulders. How come she left it out in her room where he could enter and sit anyway? So, he would not treat the baby as a Barbie or a dollhouse.

Of course, there were the glass stirring rods; he rarely broke them. They were more prevalent in chemistry and biology, but every once in a while he had to do something involving chemical or organic specimens. No, that comparison was not as helpful as he thought it would be because he could not see himself holding the baby like a stirring rod.

Anyway, the inappropriate laughter reappeared as he remembered Sheppard asking him to give him a few to act as swizzle sticks for cocktails. Where that man had found something to make cocktails…because Radek's first still had been dismantled…he stopped the line of thought just in case he incriminated himself to absolutely no one.

His laptops! He handled those with the utmost care. That's what he'd do; imagine the baby as a precious computer. Easy, sensible and a great solution to the problem. He puffed out his chest as he continued his streak of genius in finding logical solutions to everyday problems. It also made holding this squirming and screaming mouthpiece a lot easier.

When they finally returned to the rocks, they all rested in the shade and drank a little water. Ronon checked Sheppard and Rodney let Teyla care for the baby one last time. It was not a hard sell. He figured his turn was about to start and why not let her have one last opportunity to earn her way. He devoured a MRE of beef and noodle and rechecked their supplies. It was then that he noticed everything in Teyla's bag had burst.

"The stunner," she said dejected. "The energy must have burst the milk bottles and collapsed our plastic ones."

"Now, our water and milk are in even shorter supply," Ronon remarked while closing his eyes and looking like he was thinking what they were going to do next.

"What we've been doing," she advised apparently reading his mind. "Just with less."

What she did not say was, "It won't matter for us soon, anyway."

For one, Rodney was glad of it.

After a short rest, Ronon and he started setting up the small tent in the crevasse of the rocks that would act as their shelter until help returned. They checked Sheppard once more as they moved him inside the tent. Rodney placed a hand on Sheppard's shoulder and said a quick silent good-bye.

Ronon readied a bag to help them carry the little bundle of joy and drool. Teyla held the baby and watched as they readied for their part of the journey. They had to get moving and soon.

Finality set in and Ronon stood up. He composed himself and looked at the two remaining behind with fewer supplies than anticipated.

"See you soon."

Teyla returned it with a nod and beckoned him to come closer. She gave him an official Athosian farewell and let him go with a sad smile on her face.

Rodney came up next, but she did not let her farewell end with the head butt. She gave the baby to him and took a hold of his good arm.

"Dr McKay, when we first met, I thought you were a self-important and strange man," she delivered the words with a soft, yet mischievous smile. "My opinion has not changed."

He huffed and puffed with indignation. Here they were in the middle of the desert and she was taking this time, maybe her last words to him, to insult him?

"However, it has expanded."

Okay, maybe he was wrong.

"You have grown with wisdom and humility, but not too much humility for it to get in the way of your scientific sensibilities, doctor." Once again her delivery was with a warm, playful smile. She was fading, yet she was supporting. It filled him with remorse and anger at the situation.

"You have found a place in the grand scheme and have flourished. I am proud to call you my friend. John is proud to call you his friend. We are family…"

Rodney could not help it, the Pointer Sisters popped into his head; and he tried to chase it away until Gene Hackman dressed as a woman sacheted through his skull; and then he lost the battle with the giggles. Then he wanted to bang his head against a rock because Teyla was saying good-bye to him and all he could see was The Bird Cage.

She stopped for a moment and raised an eyebrow at the smirk on his face and the sputtering from his lips. He wiped the thought from his mind and gave her his undivided attention.

"As I was saying, we are family," she waited for him to smirk again and when he controlled the impulse, she continued, "My faith is in you and Ronon to bring the others back and deliver our bonded daughter to Atlantis. We will be here and we will be waiting for you."

"I'll take good care of Roo-a-boo-boo," he said with a sly smile on his face.

"It's Rewapeh," she gently corrected with a soft smile of her own.

That was Rodney's good-bye to the other half of his team. Sheppard never regained any semblance of consciousness and Teyla spoke of her faith in them. Ronon and he started their journey over hills of sand, mounds of gravel, and rocky mounts that scraped their hands and chewed-up their knees.

They stopped periodically to take care of baby things and dribble water into their own mouths. Rodney donned a bandana that Sheppard had brought with him to cover his tender scalp. He would have to thank the pilot…or not. No, he would get the chance to not thank him and make it sound like his divine right as a member of the team to use the scrap of material.

They trudged on as the scenery changed from rock, to other rock, to other rock. If any geologists asked, he could tell them with unequivocal knowledge that the rocks were tan and very hard. Thus was the extent of his study of the formations on this little slice of baked clay. He could also relay that the ground compacted in some areas as hard as his mother's Christmas sugar cookies. Mrs. McKay was many things, a baker not among them. Bless her, she tried.

They entered a large expanse of salt flats and crunched across it. He was now wishing that he had stolen Sheppard's sunglasses. It was not like he was going to need them sleeping away in a tent with Teyla. He quickly diverted his mind away from the two of them and back to the surroundings. With all this salt, potato chips were constantly on his mind and how good they would taste. As they exited the salt flats with its blinding white, they crossed more rocky ground with oh, hey, lookey there, sand.

The baby slept. The baby ate. The baby pooped. Rodney dealt. He also realized he was not ready for this type of responsibility yet. Fate of universe, no problemo. Fate of one, infant girl, aack!

As they swished along in the sand, Rodney contemplated all the wonderful sand-colored sand. The sand was not fine and powdery like a white beach, but more granular- more like sugar and not like flour. All this thinking of food made him hungry; and the baby started squirming; and he lost his concentration; and was not watching were he was going; and walked right off a small ledge of sand stone.

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A/N: Happy New Year to all! Thanks for reading and once again sorry for the delay!