"O no no no no no no no no. I am not getting in there."
"You can't stay out here. It's starting to rain. You have a fever. You need to rest in warmth."
"Exposure is way more fun than tons of earth crushing you to death. Everything is more fun than tons of anything crushing you to death. Well, maybe not Wraith. And drowning. And..."
"Rodney…"
"Dr McKay?"
"What is it, um… Esposito?"
"If they are tracking us and they spot you outside of the cave, you could endanger the whole group."
There was a dead silence for a moment, all of them waiting for the sure outburst.
"Oh, goddamn you and your reasonable arguments."
The cave was not tiny per se. But in the semi-darkness that was descending, it looked like a gaping mouth in the face of the mountain. They awkwardly huddled together for warmth, since they agreed that lighting a fire would be the worst possible idea and the night was slowly getting colder.
They situated Rodney somewhere in the middle, not in the far back of the shelter, where his breathing hitched and eyes got wild for a moment, but between themselves. The military vest now served as a makeshift pillow and someone provided their light jacket to throw on his trembling shoulders.
Mallozzi told them that the infection was progressing fast and that if they didn't get help, it could get dangerous.
"Doctor Kusanagi," McKay then said and she perked up immediately.
"Yes, sir?"
"You know how to get to the gate from here?" his words were getting a bit slurred.
"Yes."
"Good. Take Esposito and the Life Signs Detector and scout ahead. Check how many people are at the Stargate and the easiest routes to access the DHD with the least possibility of horrible death. Esposito, take the 9mm but use it only if absolutely necessary. Return as fast as possible and for heaven's sake, watch each other's backs. I swear, if I have to make one more of those family death notice videos, I'm gonna lose it and stab someone."
The women nodded and left quietly. The whole group stared after them until they vanished in the dark and then zeroed in on Rodney as one, even Radek was surprised.
"Seriously? Kusanagi and Esposito? Are you out of your mind?"
"Not as much as I thought I was just a few minutes ago. They were the best choice from your merry bunch of losers."
"How do you figure that, oh Wise One? Hm?" Radek said, crossing his arms. Rodney blinked at him blearily for a moment.
"Esposito was raised in military bases, her father was a, um… military something something. She knows her way around a gun, at least. And Kusanagi, apparently, is a very dedicated survivalist and attended some pretty hardcore youth bootcamps. The tiny Asian could kick your ass into next week." His eyes closed somewhere in the middle of his mumbled response so he completely missed the astonished looks he got for it.
"And you know that how?" was Donaldson's incredulous question.
"Contrary to popular belief," Rodney's eyebrows creased with the increasing effort of talking. He smiled humorlessly, raising a shaky finger in a gesture of a drunk philosopher that fit his current speaking cadence. "I do read your files, people."
After that, he seemed to drift a bit. Radek frowned. Rodney was loosing coherence and Zelenka was pretty certain that it wasn't just from the infection.
"All right, Doctor McKay, it's time to eat something," he said. "Help him sit, please."
"We have food?" Simpson asked hopefully.
"There are a few MREs from the vest but we'll have to share. And he really needs to get some sugar in him so he gets a whole package."
"Don't tell me you buy into this hypoglycemic crap, too!" Donaldson commented but he wasn't as sure of himself as just this morning. His face fell, when Radek's dark glare turned on him.
"Oh, I buy into it," he said with deceptive calm. "I bought into it when I had to wait for a chopper in a week-long blizzard in Siberia, glad for his seizures because they were not a coma. I also buy into it every time he crashes after a week long crisis on Atlantis because I am as busy as he is and forget to remind him to eat or at least take a glucose pill. Just because you do not see it happening, does not mean it doesn't."
"O-oh…"
There was a moment of loaded silence after the short tirade. Radek Zelenka was generally not a very outspoken person and because of that, it made even more of an impression. They all started when a throat was cleared.
"Now Radek, stop selling my sob stories before I publish my autobiography," was a quiet quip, followed by a nervous shuffle of Rodney's hands. He finally pointed at the MRE. "Gimme that."
They handed him the food and helped him up a bit. No one commented on his messy eating. They shared the rest of the packets as evenly as possible.
They laid McKay down, after that. Coleman dribbled some water into his mouth from a bottle she's been carrying with her since they left Atlantis. They all listened to his heavy breathing amongst the muted sounds of an alien forest, waiting for two petite women to come back and tell them if they could do anything to get back home. Mallozzi busied himself with checking other scientist's injuries, as much as the darkness and the tiny flashlight they had allowed.
They murmured consolations to each other, someone cried a bit. They knew that come morning, Atlantis would send someone so check why they haven't dialed in to report, but so many things could go wrong in that time. So many thing did go wrong. Fear was their blanket for now, with added bonus of guilt and worry over their head of department. With everything they saw and learned about him today, quiet questions arose what else he's been hiding behind his cynical, childish mask of general assholery. It was undeniable that he most probably saved their lives today, risking his own in the process. Even if they didn't feel inclined to befriend the man, they at least owed it to him to get him back home in one piece.
Esposito and Kusanagi came back after about two hours. By that time, Mckay woke up from his daze, a bit more lucid after the bare minimum of nutrition he got.
"Report," he said upon seeing them and giggled right after. "Damn, I always wanted to say that."
Esposito threw an uncertain glance at Zelenka but Miko didn't hesitate with her answer.
"There are about forty men and women around the gate, making camp, Dr McKay. They seem to be a mix of soldiers and what I would assume are scientists but their perimeter is solidly secured and in my opinion not breakable with our available resources. There are patrols scattered around the hills, we had to work hard to avoid them.. We think that they are some sort of traveling expedition, they have a lot of equipment with them."
Rodney stared at her for a moment, his face expressionless.
"Kusanagi, when we get back, you should definitely consider military career. You obviously have more talent for that than for any sort of science."
The small woman seemed pleased and offended at the same time.
"Squeeze in, warm up. The rain probably didn't do you any favors, one fevered scientist is enough for today."
"Yes, sir."
"This is bad. Real, real bad," Rodney mumbled to Radek, doing his best to keep his voice from reaching the other scientists. The Czech nodded, glancing into his friend's bloodshot eyes.
"We have two hours to the morning report deadline. It's not that long."
"Yeah, maybe not but assuming Kusanagi know how to count without using visual aids and guessed their numbers correctly, it will be difficult to avoid discovery from their patrols. They're probably scouting for the hidden weapon facility, so they'll look into every nook and cranny."
"What should we do then?"
"You didn't seriously just ask me that. How should I know? It's Sheppard's thing to be all tactical and strategy-y!"
Rodney seemed barely lucid and Radek felt bad to push him. His fever was on the rise again and the added stress of their new surveillance was definitely not helping. But they had no choice. They needed some sort of plan.
"So ask yourself: 'what would Sheppard do?'"
McKay seemed to consider that, looking to the entrance.
"What would Sheppard do… What would Sheppard do…" Rodney muttered to himself, thoughts swirling in a fevered soup of disjointed thoughts. The problem with being a genius was that the constant thinking never ceased, even when his brain was physically incapable of doing it right. It was a dizzying array of half-formed ideas, bad puns and muddled equations that plagued his days, only made worse by the blasted infection.
"What would Sheppard do…"
"I would retake the jumper but wouldn't recommend that to you."
Rodney flinched, his eyes going large as a black-clad, wild-haired man strolled casually through the cave entrance, his hands in his pockets. He wasn't wearing tactical gear and was weaponless, his pants and t-shirt completely out of place in the cold night. It took Rodney all of three seconds to realize what this was.
"Oh, come on!" he said way too loudly, not realizing that he startled the dozing bunch of scientists half to death. He didn't register that, as the hallucination looked at him with this annoying smirk.
"R-Rodney?" Zelenka's uncertain voice made its way through the haze his mind was currently in but he ignored it completely. He was livid.
"I refuse this. I don't want you here," he stated as strongly as he possibly could, pointing his finger at the hallucination.
"You can refuse all you want. But you should move from here."
"No. No. You don't get to give me any advice. You refused to come here so you don't get a say in this."
The not-John leaned forward a bit.
"I am not here. I'm you, dumbass. And I tell you you should move from the cave."
"We can't move, we'll be spotted in five minutes! We have injured people. I'm injured people!"
"Yes, Rodney, you are," the vision answered pointedly, in this annoyingly Sheppard way. "But when did that ever stop you?"
"Like, five hours ago, when I collapsed with this burning hole in my side! How do you imagine I make the trek, huh? You stupid hallucinations and yous stupid advice. I swear, if you start stripping right now I am so done."
"McKay, you are making yourself look even crazier than you are in front of your subordinates."
Rodney froze for a moment, then spun his head to the ten people that stared at him with morbid fascination. Mallozzi was tentatively moving towards him, raising his hand to put it on Rodney's arm. One death glare stopped the motion.
"Doctor McKay? Are you all right?"
"Well does it look like I'm all right?!" McKay snapped defensively. "I'm hallucinating a John Sheppard. Under what circumstances is that all right?"
From the corner of his eye he could see Sheppard snigger.
"Oh, laugh all you want, you crappy imitation!"
Just then a shiver wracked his whole body and he folded in on himself. Warm hands steadied him before he toppled over.
"We need to do something, he's getting worse!" he heard from the side.
"Rodney," John cajoled mildly.
"What!"
The people around him started but he ignored them.
"Remember what happened when you didn't listen to Sam in the jumper? Now you really need to listen to me. You have to move away from the Gate."
"That was different! I was completely alone, drowning at the bottom of the ocean and with a concussion. There are people here I can brainstorm with. Smart people!"
"Yes, there are people. But right now you're under a lot of stress - and we all know how you react to that - you have a high fever and are put in charge of innocent civilians that rely on your experience and leadership. And you obviously feel you needed someone you trust with your life to lean on and advise you. So here. Your voice of reason, impersonated. You need to move."
Rodney closed his eyes for a long moment, collecting his jumbled thoughts and looking for a way to address this. He turned to the people that justifiably looked at him like he was a crazy person.
"Ok, look. I know how this seems," he said to them. "And I need someone to verify this for me because my subconscious mind in the form of an extremely annoying Colonel tells me that we need to move from this cave and away from their perimeter, stat. The patrols are probably looking for a hidden facility and will make their way here sooner rather than later. If they are moving radially from the gate, which they probably are..."
There was a loaded silence in which Rodney suddenly found John leaning down even more.
"Wow, look at how not crazy that sounded, good job, buddy!"
"Screw you. So. Anyone? Insane, fever induced babble or coherent thought? I really need some input here."
"I think this is a good point."
Haugen. Thank God, he's one of the smart ones.
"Um… thank you?"
Did he just say that out loud? Damn it! And the stupid hallucination kept snickering at him.
"Is it smart to move the injured in the dark?" someone else asked but Rodney was focusing on chasing away the spots dancing before his eyes too much to care who.
"If they are broadening their paths, it won't take them too long to reach this place. It looks like Dr McKay does have a good point.
"Kusanagi, could you scout ahead?" Rodney asked, fighting a sudden wave of tiredness. "Somewhere in the direction opposite of their gate outpost."
"Yes, Doctor McKay!"
"Good, good. Keep… radio contact. Don't take too long."
They crawled out of the tiny cave fifteen minutes later to follow Miko to a new location. Almost immediately they discovered that the light rain that had fallen over the area a few hours earlier made the forest cover slippery and hard to traverse. Just ten minutes into the trek, Dr Simpson, who's ankle was still swollen and difficult to step on, slipped badly, only to aggravate her injury even more. As Mallozzi fretted over her makeshift splinter, she wiped a tear of pain from her eyes and looked at them miserably.
"I'm slowing you all down… Maybe you go on, I'll try to catch up…" she said, trying for bravery but failing somewhat spectacularly.
"Yeah, no. C'mon, get up and let's go," was a hoarse answer from somewhere in the front of the group. The scientists split like a tiny red sea to create a path for eye contact between the blonde and the man currently leaning against a tree.
"Dr McKay, I can barely walk…"
"Oh, that's rich, Simpson. Say that to me again," he grunted, staring at her daringly.
"Sir…"
"No. You don't get to be a martyr today." He pushed away from the tree, wobbling just the tiniest bit. They could all see the rant building up, like a high energy cannon. "You don't get to put it on my shoulders that I left you behind, risking your life and ours. Because that's what you'd do, staying here in the open, risk our safe return home. When they'd find you, a lone woman in the woods, what do you think they'd do to you, hm? Besides the obvious choice for a group of brutish mercenaries faced with a defenseless female, of course. The answer is - if they didin't kill you on the spot, they'd probably try to get intel from you. They'd threaten you, and beat you and cut you. Believe me, they'd make the pain and fear so unbearable that you'd sing like a canary. And that we can't have. 'Cause all scientific discoveries we make are worth crap if we endanger anyone on Atlantis. First and foremost we protect each other. By protecting yourself, you are helping prevent harm to your colleagues. So suck it up and get a move on!"
Nobody said a word, as a tiny sob escaped Simpson's throat. Rodney, winded from the exertion, lost most of the angry steam in the silence, his eyes doing this awkward little dance of uncertainty, before he raised his chin again and turning around to resume his pained trek. Zelenka hesitated for just a moment, before taking up his position as a human crutch.
"Is she following?" Rodney whispered, his eyes trained on the ground below his feet.
"Yes, they are helping her to her feet."
"Good. Because I don't think I can make another speech like that anymore."
"I think that one was enough, Rodney."