"A little walk…hmph…right," mumbled Rodney as he trudged up a hill climbing over some moss-covered boulders. "Sheppard, seriously, covering three miles is torture!"

"Three miles should take a fit person 30-45 minutes," Sheppard shouted over his shoulder, not even looking to see how far back Rodney had fallen behind. "Keep up the pace you are taking and we may get there by nightfall."

"You know what," started Rodney, but he was cut short when his hand slipped on the slick moss and he quickly did a face plant into the craggy rock on his right. "Gah…oh, ah that's going to leave a mark."

Rodney slowly shoved his right forearm up the rock and pushed to stand up, although slightly bent over.

"McKay, you all right?" asked Ronon, as he stepped closer from behind.

"Yeah, I'm fine…just left half my face on the rock is all." Rodney said as he opened his eyes to a pained squint.

"Rodney you are bleeding," Teyla said matter-of-factly as she looked him over.

"I am?" Rodney's concern grew as soon as he heard her say those words and like a reflex his hand went quickly to his face and came into direct contact with a ragged cut. It started above his right eye and continued through his brow to the corner.

Sheppard, hearing the commotion, finally made it back to his team to catch Rodney flinching as he took his hand away from his eye. It looked a mess and he knew it had to hurt as Rodney's moss and dust-covered hand went right into the cut.

"Can't take you anywhere," Sheppard said coolly seeing the situation thankfully was not that serious…although it could have been if that rock had hit a quarter of an inch to the left into Rodney's eye.

"John…" Teyla peered back at him with the corner of her mouth screwed up, then turned back to continue batting Rodney's hands away from his face, till Ronon had had enough and grabbed his arms to help her.

"Thank you," as she looked up to Ronon and then quickly took out a piece of gauze, dampened it with water and started dabbing at Rodney's face.

"Ow…is it bad…I can't see…there's something wrong with my eye," Rodney began to wriggle in vain to get his hands free from Ronon to wipe at his eye.

Sheppard came up closer to calm him as he noticed Rodney quickly becoming distressed at the situation.

"Rodney, calm down and let Teyla clean you up. You're fine, you just have some blood running into your eye."

"What, oh…that's gross…get it out!" Rodney did not like the thought of his eye that way.

Teyla was holding the gauze to his brow to try and stop the flow and then took her other hand, cupped his chin and tilted his head to the right.

"Hold still Rodney, I'm going to flush your eye with some water," said Teyla soothingly as she began to pour the water over his eye.

Rodney jerked as the cold liquid hit him and he automatically began to blink away the deluge, noticing that he could begin to see much better. Teyla finished and patted his face dry with a cloth. She then finished by taping a fresh piece of gauze to his brow.

Ronon eased his grip on his arms and Rodney's hand quickly flew back up to his face to feel the gauze that, due to the path of the wound, hung over his eye like a horse blinder.

"Just great, now I can't see anything to the right."

"Would you rather not see at all…Rodney be thankful you still have your eye," Sheppard knew Rodney sometimes hid his fear by being sarcastic…but the overuse sometimes warranted him to say something to bring Rodney back to reality.

"Well, if you thought my pace was slow up till now…just imagine a person that can't see anything to the right and how slow I'll have to move now. Man, I bet I'll have to get stitches"

Sheppard rolled his eyes but when Rodney was right, he was right.

"Well, you know women love scars Rodney and as far as your hindered sight, we'll just let you set the pace; besides its kinda nice out here," Sheppard liked to be outdoors, so much really that he didn't mind the extra time it would take to get to where they were going.

"I'm so glad my injury can make you happy," Rodney sneered.

They all began to re-gather themselves to start back on their journey as Rodney sized up the energy signal again.

Sheppard began to start walking then halted and turned, "Oh, and Rodney watch your step."

Knowing Rodney was ok, for the most part, all three of them smiled and continued their 'little walk' while Rodney cautiously chose his next few steps.

TBC