Debbie418uk2's chapter 60, 'Payback'. This is a tag to it, so everyone can see how it goes with John's POV. I don't own the scenes of John's near-deaths, and Rodney's near-death. I also don't own Colburn or the pretty hypnotizing disk-thingie, or Kara Springer. LOL

Jasminesmommy – I'd never put Rodney through the shock of having to do mouth to mouth on John…. Though… (thinks for a moment)… Possible muse?

Puddle-Jumper38 – The only difference is that McKay would have had a severe reaction right away, and I was going for less severe, just to be safe. It's ok though, Debbie418uk2 explained it (Thank you, thank you, thank you!) :)

Debbie418uk2 – Thank you for that. I actually have another chapter where John is bitten on the throat and it not only swells out but in as well, cutting off his air. His throat doesn't close up completely, though, so I have another team bringing Carson who puts a tube down John's throat so they can get back to Atlantis.

x Varda x – Thank you :)

Snow'sLuckyCat – Thank you :) I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm trying to stay as true to the characters as possible, it's a lot of fun getting into their heads and figuring out how they would respond to some things.

Thanks you :) I didn't even realize that I'd done that with Rodney. I do like to show that he does have a stronger side to him, too.

I hope you all continue to enjoy this series because with three hours or more a day to work on it… (Has a LOT of chapters yet to come, thus the now twice a week updates)

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

(John's POV)

Pre-flight checks. Necessary, important and pretty easy to do. The first key thing is to turn on the power, obviously. What I don't understand is how or why someone hacked into the programs and almost electrocuted me. Ok, no, not almost. They did manage to electrocute me, I just didn't understand how. Oh, sure, Rodney explained it and I understood the basics, but I guess I was still kind of in shock.

No pun intended.

I'd almost died. All I felt was the tingling heat surging through my body as the electricity coursed through me. It didn't hurt so much as feel horribly uncomfortable. I couldn't speak, move or even breathe. It actually kind of felt like my lungs were being squeezed, even as my entire body froze. I barely even registered it when Rodney shouted something, and there was movement at my side. Things faded away quickly, whether because I was loosing consciousness or dying, I didn't know. It probably wasn't that long, but it felt like forever and I felt as if I was… Well, just let go. As everything faded into darkness, I heard someone speaking as my body slumped forward as everything turned black.

(Later that Day)

"You didn't bring any food with you by chance?" I asked hopefully as I saw Rodney heading my way. You wouldn't believe how badly I was craving a burger right about now, but all Carson seemed to feel like feeding me was jello and fruit.

I'd regained consciousness a while ago, and despite having pains in my chest, a monster headache, and this residual tingling through my body, he mentioned I'd be ok. Well, that and the big bandage that ran up to my wrist. Carson had taken time to explain that I had received an electrical shock, though no one really knew what caused it at the time. I was just plain confused. What the hell happened?!

Rodney shook his head, his hands in his pockets. "Not this time. I may be able to smuggle you in something, later. How are you feeling?"

I didn't want to tell him about the chest and head pains, despite his hard exterior, I knew he would worry. "Well, my hand's sore from the electrical burn and I still feel kinda tingly, but I'm doing good. Thank you, by the way."

My mind was still running over the fact that I'd been electrocuted in a jumper, just from a pre-flight check. Rodney informed me it appeared to be sabotage, and I winced, not really sure what to say to all that. Rodney also went on to explain that it was a very complex system, and actually seemed impressed by it.

Someone was trying to kill me, and Rodney was impressed by the method?!

"But if someone's out to kill you, there are probably simpler ways."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Gee, thanks."

Rolling his eyes, Rodney shook his head and turned his attention to my tray of fruit and jello. "You know what I mean." I gave him a lopsided smile, but I don't think he noticed as his eyes scanned the jello on my tray. "Got any of the blue kind…?"

(Next Day)

Luckily my jolt wasn't too bad. Carson was set to release me the next day, which I told Rodney. Actually, I was up and about for today, and I had plans to fully enjoy my day off. Kara Springer, one of the marines that came with the new batch. She was a real cutie, with shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes.

Did you know Rodney made a lake out by the west tower? It was all a bunch of very advanced techno babble, but the place was definitely nice. And Rodney had never opened it to the general population, so I'd be the first one to get to give Kara a tour.

"Well, remember that rowboat I requisitioned when you came up with that idea?"

Rodney laughed and shook his head. "I still can't believe you got away with that!"

Shrugging, I grinned at him. I wasn't about to tell him I had to bribe Colonel Mitchell with a month's supply of beer and chips, on my dime, for this. It probably would have been worse, but General O'Neill showed up and seemed to save the day. Despite how odd the request was, he thought it could be fun to have something a little more low-tech on Atlantis.

Explaining briefly my plan to Rodney, I stared blankly as he went into a detailed account of why I had to make sure the overflow gates were kept shut. I actually understood a lot of it, but when he said it was simple, I knew he was dumbing it down for me. When Rodney said something was simple, trust it to be as far from simple as humanly possible.

Either way, I got a couple of marines to carry the boat to the west tower, as it apparently wasn't fit for transport. That kind of sucked, but I owed them for this and I knew they'd made it good. I was just lucky someone agreed, or I'd have had to carry it over, and my hand was still sore from yesterday. I dressed in my usual Atlantis gear, black t-shirt and pants, and Kara was wearing a nice blue sundress that just seemed to bring out her eyes even more. As I stepped up to the door and waved my hand over the console, a resounding voice echoed through the hall, and I was sure I jumped a foot in the air.

"ATTENTION! YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO ENTER A RESTRICTED AREA!"

"Jesus!" I jumped back and looked around for the source of the voice.

"Yes?" The voice sounded again, but much more…normal, and pleasant. "Can I help you?"

For a moment, I considered it, but then I recognized the voice as another of the newer marines. Funny enough, the man's name was Jesus, he was Spanish, I think. Talk about irony, huh? "Uh, yes. I'm Colonel John Sheppard…"

"Ah, yes. Dr. McKay said you'd be coming. Please proceed."

The door opened quietly and Kara and I stepped onto a large open area. I was expecting maybe just a nice lake or something, but it looked like Rodney had gone all out. Maybe it was done recently, but there was tons of artificial foliage to make it looked like a forest. Fake grass lined the lake, hemmed with amazingly real looking wildflowers. It was all just amazing, and I glanced at Kara to see her taking it all in with a shocked look.

"Wow."

I agreed silently and turned off the water fall via the console by the door before turning around again. The sound of the waterfall was replaced with an enchanting chorus of singing birds, and sighed, knowing I was going to owe Rodney big time for this, and that he wasn't going to let me forget it so easily. "Well, it might just be worth it."

"What?" Kara turned to me with a smile.

Shaking my head, I took her hand with a smile. "Nothing. Let's test out the waters."

It was all remarkably uneventful. Nice and relaxing. I took the boat out into the center of the lake before turning it towards the window and laying back with Kara. There we just relaxed as the sun began to set. I was actually starting to fall asleep when Kara nudged my arm, hard, with a wide-eyed look.

"John! We're moving!" She sat up quickly and looked around.

Sitting up as well, I followed her lead, even as my ears picked up the sound of water falling instead of the chorus of birds. Looking towards the waterfall, I noticed that the plexiglass had retreated and we were heading towards the edge. I didn't even give it time for thought, but quickly grabbed the oars and began rowing as hard as I could. It wasn't as easy as it looked. I had to fight the current. It didn't take long before I could feel beads of sweat slipping down my face, and my hand was seriously beginning to burn again.

Sliding to the center of the boat, Kara looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened even more. "It's gaining on us!"

I can see that, thank you. I thought as I panted heavily. My arms and back were burning as I fought the current. Every time the oars went into the water, I was sure they were going to be ripped out of my hands, but some how I managed to keep holding on. "How far is the bank?" Maybe it wasn't that far. Maybe we could swim for it.

"About a hundred feet. Could we swim for it?" Apparently she'd had the same thought.

Unfortunately... "Negative. No swimming is going to buck this current better than a pair of oars, and I'm not doing so hot." Gasping painfully, I tried to ignore how my lungs were screaming and burning. I tried to tap the radio, but every time I stopped rowing, the boat almost jumped towards the waterfall. It was just too dangerous. Praying the area wasn't RF shielded, I turned to Kara. "Kara! Hit my radio!"

She did so quietly, her eyes the only sign betraying how worried she was.

"Rodney!" Gasping for air, I tried to focus on rowing. "McKay!!"

"Geez, you don't have to shout!" Rodney's almost indignant voice came over the radio.

"We're going over the waterfall!" I didn't even waste time with banter, as my mind was beginning to haze with the pressure I was putting into rowing. One of my arms faultered, and I quickly pressed back, continuing rowing. When Rodney seemed shocked into disbelief, I explained briefly. "I'm...rowing! The barrier opened...the waterfall..."

"It's not supposed to do that!"

No duh! But it is! I was about to yell at him to stop talking and start working when he mentioned he'd accessed the program and was in the process of shutting it off. He told me to hang on a moment, and I had to tell him I didn't have a minute left. My arms were quickly beginning to numb, and the boat was moving faster as my rowing automatically slowed down. Keep rowing! Keep rowing!

Just when I thought it was the end, the barrier slid back into place, and the boat surged forward as the current stopped. I was almost thrown by the sudden force, and lack of force at once, and didn't even hesitate. My arms were pretty much numb, and my shoulders, chest and back all hurt like you wouldn't believe, but I rowed back to shore, where I got out of the boat, helped Kara out, staggered towards the fake grass, and collapsed, gasping for air as I tried to relax all my sore muscles. I'm so gonna feel that tomorrow!

Hearing a scraping sound, I just barely managed to get my head up to see Kara dragging the boat in from the water, and sitting next to me. We just stayed like that for a few moments, relaxing after our near-death experience. Of course, Rodney showed up, and began working on trying to figure out what the hell happened. I'd still been logged in, as far as anyone could tell, but he seemed to be running every scan known to man to try and find the problem.

It was beginning to look like sabotage again, only this time, they almost took out an innocent bystander at the same time.

(That evening)

Ok, so two near-death experiences later, and obviously Rodney's on something. We're in his lab, talking about who's probably watching and what they might want. He pointed out a camera in my room, which is freaky of it's own accord. I mean, can we say 'stalker'? But the point is, I'm here asking him for ideas, since I'm clueless, and you know what he said?

"We let him kill you."

And the worst part about it was that he spoke of it like he was talking about the weather. Calmly and matter of factly, like he wasn't talking about my murder. Of course, I whole-heartedly disagreed with this choice of action. I kind of liked living, thank you. But he explained that if we can fake my death, it might lure the guy out.

So Rodney would be keeping in touch with me via my radio, and I was to go to bed like everything was normal. Funny how he made that sound so much easier than it actually was. Here I'm laying in my bed, staring at the ceiling and trying to find the camera without being too obvious. I knew it was there, but I couldn't see it. Again, just a little disconcerting.

"Turn over and try to look like you're asleep." Rodney was beginning to sound a little irritated and bored, but at least I knew he was paying attention and it made me feel surprisingly better. "Nothing's going to happen while it's obvious you're still awake."

Sighing, I turned on my side, feeling my heart beat shakily. I didn't know what to expect, so my body was completely keyed up. "What if nothing happens?" Maybe the guy knew he was being watched. Or, maybe after two failed attempts, he'd give up...?

"Then I've blown another night's sleep." Rodney sighed as well, sounding even more bored.

I forced my body to relax with meditative techniques I'd learned a while ago. Relaxing into my matress, my mind stopped focusing on the iminent danger and started focusing more on how comfortable I was. It felt like forever, but was probably no more than twenty minutes, but I began to doze off. Then, I heard a noise. "Rodney?" Speaking carefully, I managed to keep my mouth fairly still.

"Yes?"

"The water in the bathtub just turned on. Sounds like the tub's filling." Atlantis was fairly advanced, but they still hadn't come up with showers that turned on by themselves. Either I was haunted, or my so called attacker was making their move. I was about to move, to go turn it off, when Rodney's voice stopped me.

"Stay still. You're supposed to be asleep, remember."

I could just play it off like I'm a light sleeper and it woke me up. I thought darkly, keeping still and biting back the urge to make a comment. I heard water hit the floor and just barely managed to keep from frowning. "It's overflowing."

"I see it. There's water on the floor."

I could make out the sound of keys tapping on Rodney's end and was more thankful than ever that he was there with me. "Is he going to drown me?" Again I just barely managed not to frown at the thought.

"Doubt it. Keep away from the bed frame."

"Why...?" Moving towards the center of the bed, carefully, I listened as Rodney explained that there might be a current in the water. An electrical current. My heart skipped a beat. If even the tiniest thing went wrong, I'd be electrocuted. Rodney mentioned looking directly down on me and not being able to see how high the water was. Apparently he saw that as an advantage, though I'd see it more like a disadvantage. If he judged wrong... "O...k..." Rodney wanted me to tell him when the water was about halfway up my bed. "Can you tell if he's watching?"

"Not without tipping him off to my presence. Don't worry, he's watching. Is it halfway yet?"

Oh, right, the water. Peeking through my lashes, I swallowed heavily. "Just about." He told me to start twitching and flailing around, but to be careful not to touch the bed frame. I did as he wanted, resisting the urge to roll my eyes with how ridiculous I felt. After a couple minutes, Rodney told me to stop and lay perfectly still. The water was still rising, but I did as he asked and surprise, surprise, the water stopped. It drained out, just as Rodney predicted, and fans turned on, blowing me dry. He instructed me on what he thought was going to happen, then there was a brief pause.

"Someone's calling me. I'll meet you in the mess hall. Make sure the water's receded before you move."

Like he had to tell me twice. Laying perfectly still as the water continued to drain, I heaved a bit of a sigh, just glad tonight's attempt was also a failure. "Thanks, Rodney."

"Hey, now we need to find out who's doing this." He disappeared from the radio, which I could tell with a corresponding click.

(With Radek)

I'd thought it was all over. All the drama would be finished. We foiled another attempt, I was to meet Rodney in the lunch room and we'd work on who was doing this. What I didn't understand was how it went from wandering out of my room about ten minutes after the water had receded, to standing by the doorway as Rodney was rushed to the infirmary.

I thought he'd been shot, or stabbed or something. Carson was hovering over him, Rodney was practically unconscious, and there was a tube down his throat. When I'd asked a young female scientist who was there, judging by the look on her face, she told me straight out that Rodney had come in and drank a glass of lemonade. Then when I chased down Carson a little while later, he confirmed it.

Everyone knows Rodney's deathly allergic to citrus. Why the hell would he drink lemonade?? Rodney is the kind of guy to freak out over a splinter, he'd never take his life for granted like that. It's suicide. Everyone knew it, Rodney knew it. It didn't explain why he did it.

But it did give me an idea, when Carson stated Rodney had been acting weird. He'd walked right by him, ignoring him, and downed a glass of lemonade before greeting him pleasantly. That was wrong for many reasons. A) Rodney would never ignore Carson, they were good friends. B) Rodney would have to be on something and completely amnesiac and stupid to drink anything citrus, and C) Rodney never did anything pleasantly. Something was really wrong here.

Taking Rodney's computer to Radek, I had him analyse it and I wasn't surprised to find that someone was indeed behind Rodney's insanity. I was surprised to find out it was Rodney's log in, meaning Rodney, who kept trying to kill me, but it wasn't him. He was being controlled.

"Well, he's got the ATA gene." I stated grimly as I watched Rodney staring at a clearly alien artifact in his hand, blankly. The second man in the room had brought an artifact in, in a box, and when Rodney grabbed it, it lit up, and obviously did something to him, if his blank stare was anything to go by. "Can we see his face?"

Radek remembered the young man as a new bio assistant who worked with Wilson. When asked to zoom in on the name tag, he obviously didn't recognize the name, but unfortunately, I did. I knew it all too well.

"Colburn."

(A few days later)

When Carson finally took Rodney off the ventilator and weaned him off the sedatives, I stood by his bedside and explained to him how it was Colburn that put him up to all this. I hadn't wanted to mention that Rodney was involved at all, knowing it would upset him, but Elizabeth had already found out through Radek, and I knew that if he didn't find out from me, the Atlantis grapevine would get him.

He didn't take it too badly, on the outside. He even boasted about it being some pretty genious work. I explained about the device, too, knowing it would interest him, despite how dangerous it was. We'd contacted the SGC, when we sent Colburn back, and they mentioned they had no idea it had even gone missing. They were looking into that. Daniel Jackson was all too happy to have it back, though.

And he really can keep it. I thought as I nodded at one of Rodney's comments. After a few minutes of talking, Carson came in and almost glared at Rodney, though the relief was almost tangible. He kicked me out, and I vowed to myself that Rodney and I would go hang out at that little lake some time.

No boating, but it could be a nice place to relax. Maybe turn off the sound effects and watch a movie or something, if we got bored.

But that was later. For now I'm going to go get a good night's sleep, thankful that I can once again do so, without worrying about being electrocuted or drowned.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Hope you like it.

I just summarised some parts in here, because otherwise it would have been really long. There you have it, John's POV of 'Payback', written by Debbie418uk2.

R+R please

Thank you

Tenshi