It was a nightmare come true, he never felt so helpless in his entire life as he sat by his brother, holding his cold limp hand, looking into his pain filled eyes. "Can't this thing go any faster!" Rodney growled in frustration.

"Rod," came John's hushed agonized voice.

"Shh…don't worry, we'll get you home," Rodney tried to whisper some calm platitudes but he wasn't their mother, he wasn't as good at comforting words and loving gestures.

"Rodney…"

"Try and breathe through the pain John," Rodney whispered. His own heart breaking at the sight of his big brother. He had only seen John in pain once in his life, and even then John seemed to have complete control over himself.

Time seemed to pass forever, until they could finally see the gate nice and close. They all watched and waited, Rodney and Teyla in the back trying to help the major. They watched, until suddenly they stopped, sending everyone flying around the jumper. Rodney felt his hand slam into the back of the jumper. He grunted as everything went black where he had fallen by his brother's side.

When he awoke he was horrified to see they were obviously stuck in the wormhole. He was vaguely aware as time three minutes passed by, as Aiden told the story of what had happened, a team was brought together on Atlantis. But as Rodney looked at his brother, he knew he could really only truly rely on himself to get them out of this. That's when it dawned on him, he stood up and closed the bulk head doors, "sorry here," he whispered turning on his little flash light.

"Jumper one, this is Atlantis," came Grodin's voice over their radio's.

"Still here." Rodney replied, pressing the com in his ear.

"We recommend closing the bulkhead door."

"Oh, good thinking," Rodney replied sarcastically, "What else?"

"We're still working on the problem. We'll get back to you. Atlantis base out," Grodin's reply came.

"Thanks for calling! Anyone else claustrophobic or is it just me?" Rodney whispered as he began to shake. This small space was driving him insane. He looked over and met John's pain filled eyes.

"Why'd you close the door?" Ford questioned.

Rodney was so tired of the little twit questioning everything he ever did, Ford had been one of the people Rodney had told John was just waiting for him to screw up. "So that when the Stargate shuts down and the forward section is severed, we're not directly exposed to space," replied Rodney as he continued to work

"Will it hold?" Ford asked hopefully.

"Like a screen door on a submarine, I just prefer apoxia to explosive decompression. It's a personal thing."

"If the air is gonna get thin in here, you really do have to calm down," Ford said in an almost mocking tone. Rodney glared at him, didn't the boy understand, didn't he get that they were going to die. That his brother would die. And probably long before twenty seven minutes were out.

"Wait till you see how thin it gets in 27 minutes…" began Rodney

"Rodney–" John spoke in a warning tone. He knew about Rodney's past better than anyone, he knew what happened when Rodney got claustrophobic. He didn't blame the man for having the problem, he'd been that way since the day he had arrived in John's life.

"Vacuum. That's thin," barked Rodney.

"Knock it off," came John's weak voice. He was waiting for his voice to penetrate Rodney's mind enough to get him to calm down.

"Well, I apologize for being the only person who truly comprehends how screwed we are!" yelled Rodney.

"Don't talk to me about screwed," John barked out. Rodney's eyes turned to him, his mouth closed and he became silent, realizing what he had just said. He looked down at the floor. He could feel Teyla and Ford's angry distrusting glares on his body. He knew they hated him, he was amazed John didn't hate him so much

"And let's not give up on Markham and Stackhouse either. There's plenty of time to solve this thing. But you've got to stop using your mouth and start using your brain," John said, his voice still commanding and rough.

"I'm sorry, Major. I'm…I react to certain doom a certain way. It's a bad habit and…and…maybe there's a way to manually retract the mechanism," he whispered. John sighed, he hated it when he broke his brother like that. Hated to watch him look so defeated. He wasn't used to seeing the man like that.

"Yeah. Maybe there is," replied Sheppard softly as he eyed his brother, an apology forming both his eyes and Rodney's.

"Major," Teyla whispered softly. John turned his eyes to look at her weakly.

"Definitely beats the broken leg," murmured John. He smiled weakly when he heard Rodney snort in laughter.

"When did you break your leg?" questioned Ford.

"I was fifteen…and my…my brother decided to play on top of the roof…well actually our dad told him to go clean some of the debris off from a storm the night before," John grimaced. Rodney looked at him sadly.

"I went up there to help, thought the kid could use a hand…I guess I startled the hell out of him because one minute he was fine and the next minute I touched him and he whirled around. He threw me off balance a little and I lost my footing…"

"You fell off the roof when you were fifteen?"

"Yeah, my brother felt guilty for months."

"Still does," came Rodney's small reply.

"What?" Teyla spoke.

"I said he probably still does," stated Rodney as though he hadn't said what she probably heard.

"How old's your brother sir?"

"A year younger than me," John said grimacing as they began trying to find ways to get the thing off him.

"He's lucky to have a brother like you," Teyla said smiling.

"I'm lucky to have a friend and brother like him too," John whispered, catching Rodney's eyes.

Rodney smiled slightly, glad that while his brother had yelled at him, he didn't hate him.

"Keep talking Major, it might make the pain seem less obvious tell us about your brother?" Ford said as he moved onto the next thing.

"What was he like?" Teyla questioned, seeing the talking as a diversion.

"What does he do now?"

"He works on missions for the Air Force…"

"Wow, so both of you did it," grinned Ford.

"Not originally, little punk went to sign up with me the day after I turned eighteen and didn't sign up."

"Wasn't old enough," came Rodney's reply.

"Yeah…funny that's what he said," John stated, "I give him credit though, had balls, he was involved in the Stargate Program too…he's a scientist."

"And he's not on this mission? He could've taken Kavanagh's place," grinned Ford.

Rodney snorted again slightly, "he's probably smarter than you McKay," joked Ford.

"Oh I dunno, McKay's pretty smart," John said smiling.

"We're going to try the water now," Aiden began to pour the water on the bug, where he had just put the salt.

Rodney felt tears well in his eyes as he listened to his brother scream and cry out in pain, he wanted to do something, anything to help him. He was furious that he had allowed them to slip in further. He was angry that with fifteen minutes left they had very solutions and even less time. He was stunned in silence when the thought of killing John came up into the conversation. He wanted to scream, tell them they couldn't kill him, he wanted to do anything. But John stood firm, he eyed his brother quickly, then yelled for Ford to shock him. Rodney's eyes fell on the dead…dead prone form of his only brother, the only other person in this world that honestly seemed to care about him to any extent. They couldn't revive him, and Rodney was quickly getting more and more frustrated. At one point Rodney remembered trying to make Ford step into the event horizon, he wasn't going to let some twenty five year old die. He couldn't. He had to get this stupid thing working. He was thrilled when he heard the engine pods completely retract. Less then thirty seconds later he was shoved into the worm hole, and the jumper followed quickly after.

Rodney stood in the back of the jumper watching them try desperately to bring John back to life, he could feel his stomach churning, his heart beating through his chest, his eyes burning. "please John," he whispered as continued to watch. He knew Elizabeth and Teyla were eyeing him.

"I've got a pulse, a steady beat," called Carson. Seconds later they were transporting him to the infirmary. Rodney instantly followed, like a lost puppy in need of his owner, or in this case his brother.

"Rodney ya need to get out," Carson said gently. They were setting John up on an IV and checking his vitals, but he couldn't do it with Rodney hovering like he was

"Carson…" Rodney began.

The doctor moved over to his close friend and gently grabbed the man's shoulders, "I can't help him with you hovering, I promise he's going ta be fine lad. I have never and wouldn't lie to you. You need food and rest, go, get something to eat. Take a shower, and even a small nap, come back in two hours, he might even be awake by then laddie."

"Can…can I at least see him."

"Rodney, go, now, before I have you sedated and placed in the bed next to him."

Rodney left the infirmary, his shoulders slumped, Carson's heart went out to the scientist, it was obvious these two had one hell of a bond, and Carson loved that the two brother's were so close. However, Rodney needed taking care of just as much as John did.

As promised Rodney returned two hours later, on the dot, he was showered, although Carsonwas fairly sure Rodney hadn't slept at all, and if he'd eaten he certainly didn't look it.

However Carson wasn't going to send the lad away, he allowed John's brother to walk in and take a seat beside the bed, "he should be wakin' shortly lad."

"Carson…"

"Rodney, this wasn't your fault, an' don't be blamin' yourself for it."

"It shouldn't have taken so long."

"Listen to the goodscientist, Rodney," came John's half awake voice.

"Hey," Rodney said as he sat up straight by his brother.

"We've gotta stop meetin' like this baby brother," John grinned gently as he squeezed Rodney's hand.

"I'm glad you're okay."

"Glad to be okay, breath Roddy, we made it out alive together."

"What were you realy going to say when Liz stopped you?"

"Random question to ask a man who just woke up, I was gonna tell them that it's been an honour to work with you all, and I was gonna tell Carson to take care of my little brother."

"I would have John," stated Carson smiled softly.

The three friends stood in comfortable silence, Carson knew he had become like the third brother of the family, he enjoyed the relationship he had with the two men. They were the three closest people on the base.