John's Point Of View:

Keller had released Tegan just three days after Koracen had put her in the infirmary. I'd asked Woolsey to put the team on light duty for a week after to give her some time to get back on her feet, but she was suprisingly quick to bounce back after the beating from hell. By the end of the week she was training hard again and back in shape like nothing had ever happened, so Woolsey quickly put us back to normal duty once more. It was now a full two weeks since anything bad had happened on Atlantis (which had to be a record) and I was in the mess hall grabbing lunch with Ronon. The mess hall seemed to be a favourite meeting place for our team, when there was nowhere to go, we went here. Teyla and Kanaan often sat with us with little Torren, man that little guy was cute and he was best friends with Tegan. She'd grown more comfortable around him and now they were thick as thieves, which means that not only had she taught him how to irritate me but she laughed and didn't bother to stop him when he did. Though how she knew that having a little finger poking my cheek repeatedly would irritate me was beyond me...sense the sarcasm.

Ronon was just fnished scarfing down his sandwhich when the city wide speakers sprung to life,
"Would Colonel Sheppard and his team please report to the armoury." Ah, good old Chuck, you could always count on him to keep you updated. Ronon huffed, looking at his uneaten jello with such irritation in his eyes it made me chuckle,
"Easy Chewie, you can bring it with you." I promised him as I stood up. My chair made that horrible metallic screech as it scraped back across the floor, and I involuntarily cringed. When we got to the armoury we found Teyla and Tegan were already there, speaking quietly to one another with Tegan making hand gestures as they laughed. Rodney stood off to the side, looking miffed, and I assumed the conversation was about him. Woolsey walked in a few seconds after me and Ronon had and looked at each of us in turn.
"Thank you all for coming. Doctor Nichols and his team were exploring M44-5YN, and they're now an hour and fifteen minutes late and aren't responding to radio calls. I'd like you to go and see what's wrong and bring our people home." Woolsey ordered with his face set in it's usual permenant grimace. Within minutes we had geared up and stepped through the gate. I had to admit the landscape we were met with was a little depressing.

The land was barren, nothing more than a dusty desert stretching almost as far as the eye could see. The gate itself was in a bowl, with mountains surrounding us on every side. By now the sky was dark, and I realised that here it was night time and the sky was speckled with bright stars. Frowning slightly, I watched as something kicked up the dust on the horizon.
"I thought there was a village here?" Rodney asked, sounding suprised. Squinting my eyes I tried to make out what that thing was, watching it rolling towards us. Rodney was rambling again and I shushed him quickly, kneeling down and pressing a palm to the floor where I could feel vibrations coming from the ground. My frown deepened. Was this an earthquake? Straightening up I frowned, whatever that thing was on the horizon was coming faster now. I could hear a faint rumbling approaching with it and an uneasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach.
"Sheppard that's water!" Tegan sounded anxious as I stared wide eyed at the moving thing. The vibrations under my feet were getting stronger, the rumbling sound was growing louder and turning into more of a crashing noise, the whole bowl of barren land we were standing in was filling up with whatever it was and I watched as the thing tossed and turned, it was then that I noticed the spray kicking up from it and realised that Tegan was right.
"Stay close to the gate, I'm dialling home." I ordered, running to the DHD as my heart began to pick up it's pace.

The huge body of water was closing in on us fast and before I could reach the DHD it had knocked me to the floor, sweeping my legs from under me and soaking me from head to toe as I toppled forward. Gripping the DHD tightly I punched in our address as quick as my hands would let me, but the force of the water against my legs was making it hard to stand. There was a loud yell as my team cried out and I saw them desperately clinging to the edge of the gate and holding onto each other. The wormhole spat out and then settled into the familiar puddle, "Don't send the IDC!" I hollered while spluttering and spitting out water, it was salty. This was sea water. The water was rising fast, it had flooded in and obscured the floor from view and was up to my waist now. The DHD was slick and wet and I was struggling to hold on, the current was moving to fast! My hair was dripping, my clothes were sticking to me and my boots were heavy and completely full of the salty sea water. My heart was racing in my chest, the adrenaline surging around my body as I jolted to the left when the water hit me again. The waves crashed over me and sucked me under, my feet had long since left the floor and I couldn't hold onto the DHD any longer. I was flung sideways and pulled under, managing to inhale raggedly just before I ducked under the surface. The current was strong and flipped me head over heels, smacking me into something hard so my air left me in a rush of bubbles. My eyes stung as they shot open and the salty water invaded them, the throb in my back was killing me and with the water pressing against my body and chest my energy was fading fast, but I had to get to the surface, I had to make sure my team got out of here.

My hands hit the solid thing behind me and I realised it was the gate, and looking up I could see the surface shimmering above me. I pushed myself up, using the gate to climb up higher and high, but now my lungs were burning with the need for oxygen as I inched my way up to the surface and I began to panic I wouldn't have the energy left to make it. Were my team okay? The thought that they weren't, that they might not have made it cut through me like a knife, and I threw myself heartily into my task. I was so close to the top, so so close but I wasn't sure how much longer I could carry on. Black dots were beginning to cloud my vision and I was starting to sink again, I couldn't keep myself up and I realised this was it. I was going to die. I was going to die and my team...I couldn't bring myself to think about that. Then suddenly I was rising again, my body felt weightless, like air was lifting my limbs as I floated to the surface. No, no I wasn't floating, I was moving to fast for that. I broke the surface and took in a desperate gasp for air. My lungs were on fire and each breathe was agonising, like swallowing thorns, but I forced myelf to drag air into my lungs, coughing and spluttering as I did so. My ears were ringing as my vision slowly cleared,
"Sheppard! Sheppard! John! Can you hear me! John!" someone was desperately calling my name. God my eyes were stinging. My body was so tired and I could feel it being dragged roughly up the gate. Then it was resting against something soft and wet and I zoned in and out of it for a while, knowing I wasn't in danger of drowning again anytime soon. Trying to steady my breathing made me cough, and I leaned heavily to the side while my stomach churned, knowing this wouldn't end well. Somebody held me tightly so I didn't fall as I heaved up my lunch, the acid burning my throat but getting of the salt water in my stomach at least.

"Easy Sheppard, easy I got you." Groaning, I lifted my head to see Tegan looking over me, her eyes were soft, concerned. She was the one holding me up. Her hair was plastered to her face and her lips were blue, I could feel her shivering a little, "Rodney, tell them we need a medical team when we get back." she said without moving her eyes from me. Her teeth were chattering but she still managed to smile slightly as she pushed some of my own sodden hair from my head, "Loving the wet look." she quipped and gently pushed me into a sitting position. Rolling my eyes slightly I murmered a quick thank you and straddled the top of the gate. There was water all around us, it had filled the bowl up now. The sky was dark above us and the gate was completely covered by water, except for the top which was where we were sitting and thankfully didn't seem to be in danger of going under anytime soon . We were all okay it appeared, even if we were all shivering and Rodney was clasping his hands and blowing on them in an attempt to warm up, but he did tend to over dramatise things. Teyla and Ronon were watching me worriedly, waiting to see what I would do next. Touching my hand to my earpiece I swallowed, god the acid in my throat still tasted horrible.
"Atlantis this is Colonel Sheppard. Do not take down the shield, repeat do not take down the shield. There's water flooding the gate right up to the top, if you drop that shield you'll flood Atlantis."my voice was raspy but they understood at least.

Woolsey sighed slightly but replied within seconds,
"We'll wait the thirty eight minutes for the gate to shut down and then I'll send a jumper to pick you up." Nodding slightly I cut my ear piece off and heard Rodney groan. With a sigh I realised we were in for his usual we're all going to die rant.
"I bet Doctor Nichols's teams dead. This planet, it's suffering from the effects of global warming, all the low lying lands flooded." he informed us, shivering violently. We were all going to get hypothermia at this rate, that much was certain. Speaking of shivering, Tegan almost fell off of the gate she shivered so hard. Wrapping my arm securely around her shoulders I pulled her close, feeling a jolt of electricity run through my side.
"Lovely Rodney now everyone huddle up, this is going to get cold. Tegan get infront of me." I ordered. Ronon and Teyla moved to do as I said and slowly Tegan did to, looking back at me curiously. Trying my best to remain nochalant I pulled her back between my legs so she was against my chest.
"I really don't think that-" she started, but I cut her off.
"No, we both need the body warmth, now's not the time to be modest Lieutenant." Honestly, I'd been hoping calling her Lieutenant instead of just Tegan would make it less awkward. It really didn't.

It kept us warm at least, as we sat for thirty-eight minutes in the freezing cold ontop of the gate. The water had receeded slightly but not by much. When the jumper finally came through, Keller was waiting in the back with the rest of Lorne's team with thermal blankets. Rodney practically collapsed into his and Tegan rolled her eyes,
"R-Rodney y-y-your and i-idiot." she stammered out, shaking her head and drawing her own blanket closer around her. Rodney rolled his eyes slightly and Tegan dropped her head onto his shoulder, looking exhausted as I settled down across from them to watch Coughlin pull up Teyla, who was wrapped in a cocoon of thermal blanket by Keller the minute she was on board. Tegan let out a gasp and I looked back at her immediately, worried something had gone wrong. "Rodney y-your burning u-up!" she exclaimed, her teeth still chattering and breaking up the words. Keller's head whipped around and she was quickly checking him over as they hauled Ronon in too. Closing up the back of the jumper Lorne took us higher, beginning to fly in a wide arc to double back to the gate and take us home. Keller looked utterly shocked as she looked up and called to Lorne,
"Get us back as soon as you can, he needs the infirmary stat." Tegan was looking utterly drained. Sniffing slightly, she wiped a droplet of water from her nose that had dropped from her hair.