Caves are not awesome (McKay/Sheppard, G)
Title: Caves are not awesome
Author: ca_pierson
Recipient: temaris
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: Gen
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis doesn't belong to me, neither do the characters. This is a transformative work and I am not making any money from it.
Author's Notes: Merry Christmas, temaris! I hope I managed to find something you like. Thanks for the quick yet thorough beta and the kind words, you know who you are ;).
Summary: Drudging through a muddy, dirty, boring cave with two guides, whose torches leave flickering light on the rough cave walls, Rodney has plenty of time to wonder how John always gets them into these things.
.~O~.
Drudging through a muddy, dirty, boring cave with two guides, whose torches leave flickering light on the rough cave walls, Rodney has plenty of time to wonder how John always gets them into these things. It's definitely John's fault, that they just spent what felt like hours - but according to his watch has been only 30 minutes - spelunking. The natural response to what boils down to "do you want to check out our great caves?" should always be a "no". "Awesome" isn't even on the top ten list of appropriate answers. Not even if they claim there is a temple of the Ancestors there. Without evidence Rodney can't really believe anything their new "friends" say. Not after that last mission where they drudged through the wood only to find a shrine hewn from stone rather than an actual Ancient outpost. At least he isn't expected to nod along or say anything; John has it all down with the nodding and Rodney is more than happy leaving the "talking to the natives" part to Teyla.
The caves are quite spacious in some parts, but they entered a side-arm or whatever it's called five minutes ago where it is tight enough that Ronon needs to be careful or he'll hit his head on the odd outcrop of rock. Rodney has to duck occasionally and he's not looking forward to crawling through the gunk on the floor. Once the walls seem to close in on them Rodney is seriously trying to figure out how they found this thing in the first place, because there is no way anyone would come in here on purpose and they are not suitable for an entire tribe to hide in.
He viciously stomps down on the urge to ask when they're there. Misery is no reason to give John the satisfaction - and the ammunition for later. "This is a really great cave," John say right then, as the will to live slowly drains out of Rodney with every step. At least their last mission hadn't been quite this boring. Actually, maybe it had been and the good food had mitigated that together with the promise of some Ancient devices in trade. "Huh," Rodney mutters, not sure what that says about him.
For the casual observer Teyla looks like she is impressed, smiling at their hosts, but whenever Rodney turns to squeeze through a particularly tight passage there is that look in her eyes that means John or Ronon will come back from sparring with more bruises than normally. Ronon follows after Teyla right now and Rodney can barely see him, but he can hear the curses whenever Ronon has to squeeze himself through one of the smaller spaces.
Their second guide trails behind Ronon, ostensibly to make sure no-one gets lost and all Rodney can see from him is the flickering light of the torch he's carrying. Not that any of them were stupid enough to go off the path or stay behind.
"There will be a feast when we get back to the village," the guide in the back says, Elf or whatever his name is. Not that it matters that Rodney doesn't remember. Teyla is good with that sort of thing and so is John. "We are almost there, Colonel Sheppard. Your Doctor McKay can take as much time as he would like in the temple before we head back for the harvest festival-"
Rodney stops listening as he watches John squeeze through the tightest spot yet. The part on the left looks smoother than the rest of the cave, maybe a bit battered but not as ragged as the rest of the cave. "If it keeps getting smaller we'll get stuck," Rodney tells John, who's now through and waving at Rodney to get a move on.
"Don't worry, Rodney, we won't leave you behind." He's been good about helping Rodney keep calm, even if most of that had been through needling and poking fun at how he had fallen asleep on John during their last movie night. Rodney is half way through when he notices that it's only rock on the right side, rather than the left. It's grey, rough metal and when John touches it lights up like any other Ancient gadget rolling over for John.
There's barely enough time to shoult "don't touch" when the ground starts shaking underneath them. Rocks are coming down on them and Rodney does the only thing he can: he grabs hold of John's tac vest as the path they're on unravels, John almost going down with it. John's heavy and the muscles in Rodney's shoulder will hate him for it when he takes all of John's weight to stop him from going the same way as the cave-floor. It's not a good solution, because seconds later they're both falling, bouncing hard enough for Rodney to lose his grip. He know he's yelling but over the thundering noise of the moving mountain Rodney can't even hear his own voice, never mind any of the others. He feels himself hit something and the world goes blessedly black.
~ooo00O00ooo~
He wakes up coughing and hurting everywhere. There's no way to tell how long he'd been out and the fall has left him disoriented. It takes him a few heartbeats until he's sure the floor isn't going to fall out from underneath him again, before he painfully rolls over. There isn't a part of his body that doesn't hurt from scrapes and cuts. Keller is going to have a field day with him. He keeps coughing from the dust and dirt he's disturbing with every move, hurting when he breathes it in, scratchy and horrible in his throat. He coughs up half a lung before he manages to push himself to his knees while his shoulder protests loudly. In the quiet after all the noise Rodney's ears ring from all the noise, his own painful gasps for air loud and echoing in the dark, enclosed space.
Searching through the pockets of his vest for his spare flashlight, Rodney forces himself up slowly, using the techniques Teyla had taught him to control his breathing to push through the pain. They aren't exactly working and he'll complain about it later, once he'd found his team and they are all safe. "John?" he asks, remembering John slipping out of his grip with rising dread. He lifts a hand to activate his radio only to find he'd lost it in the fall. "John!" he repeats, his voice breaking as he coughs again. "Teyla! Ronon!" The light's a relief because the darkness is getting to him already. Until Rodney's brain catches up with what he's seeing at least. A bare foot sticks out from under one of the larger rocks, blood pooling underneath and the sight lets Rodney's stomach sink and he's suddenly feeling sick. He's seen a lot of dead bodies over the last few years, far more than he ever wanted to, but all he can think of is the look on John's face as the wall lights up and the mountain starts shaking. Surprised and scared all at once.
"No, no, no," Rodney mutters, shaking himself in order to be able to move. Seconds tick by before he can really comprehend it all. "Oh god." Part of him knows there is no way that it could be any of the team. They're all wearing ankle high, tightly closed, military issue boots. But the niggling voice in the back of his head that just never seems to go away keeps repeating their names. Who knows how far they'd fallen, who knows what could have happened to them.
He's on his knees next to the rubble, digging through it with his bare hands, flashlight on the floor next to him lighting the grisly scene. There's blood on the stones, making them slippery, but Rodney needs to know and has to make sure. Everything is grey down here, dust swirling up with every move Rodney makes. His own BDUs are covered in the vile stuff and every move Rodney makes swirls up more of it into the air. It takes years to get through, or maybe minutes, but he finds the broken body of one of their guides, eyes staring sightlessly into the darkness behind Rodney. Rodney stops, shaking with relief even though his fingers ache and itch from dried blood.
A few calming breaths later, Rodney grabs his flashlight and gets up. "Ronon! Teyla! John!" he yells, hoping at least one of them is conscious. He runs his flashlight around the rubble, realizing that the little area he ended up in is bigger than he thought at first with the light getting lost in the darkness when he looks up. The entire mountain must be full of caves, collapsing on each other when the Outpost powered up. He's surprised the entire thing didn't come down on them.
"Rodney! We're here!" Teyla's voice is very faint, with Ronon joining into calling out for him. It's loud enough for Rodney to follow it to what looks like a wall made up of large boulders that look horribly unstable. Moving them is completely out of the question. They haven't survived this long just to get crushed now by touching them. There's light trickling through where the boulders were stacked unevenly, but Rodney has to get down on his knees again to look through one of the larger gaps.
"Are you guys okay? Is John there?" Rodney asks, worriedly listening to Teyla and Ronon cough on the other side. All he can see is someone's legs. He thinks it's probably Ronon, but that's just a guess. He wishes he could see more of them and reassure himself no one is bleeding to death.
"No, it's just us and Elev. Teyla got hit by a rock," Ronon said.
Rodney has to laugh at that. It's a touch too hysterical to be comforting, but Rodney can't help it. "Yeah well, we all got hit by rocks," Rodney says once he's regained his composure. At least Ronon and Teyla were alive. Rodney can work with not dead. He runs the light around the room again, avoiding the place he knows Elev's friend is lying at. "It all looks too instable to try and clear a way. I don't think we can risk moving even one of the rocks. If it comes down on us we're all dead."
"Yeah," Ronon agrees. "Do you still have your first aid kit? Teyla lost hers." Rather than wait for Rodney, he puts an arm through the holes Rodney is using to look through the rubble.
"Oh my god! Are you insane? Do you want to kill us?" He still tugs the kit out of his tac vest and puts it into Ronon's open hand. "How bad is she hurt?"
"Not that bad and I'm not gonna touch anything," Ronon says, gruffly. "Just give me one of the bandages and keep the rest for when you find Sheppard and Annis. We're mostly okay, couple of cuts and bruises." Rodney knows the first aid kit like the back of his hand and hands Ronon a bandage in record time. There's a shuffling sound on the other side and Rodney watches Teyla sit down on a larger piece of rock with their other guide hovering nervously.
"I already found Annis," Rodney tells them, swallowing heavily. "He wasn't so lucky and got crushed. I'm sorry." Elev just puts his hands over his face, but says nothing. Rodney can see his shoulders shake.
"Rodney, what happened?" Teyla asks as Ronon wraps the bandage around her upper arm.
"What happened?" Rodney repeats, feeling the hysteria rise up again. "John touched the Ancient Outpost. Without taking a look at the readings I can't say why it brought down the mountain, though. It shouldn't even have activated! The outer walls are protection, they don't react to the gene. It could have been anything from a programmed response or a defense protocol, to an error in the code." Rodney turns away from the boulders that separate them. He looks around the desolate area they are imprisoned in, feeling helpless. There is still some dust in the air, floating in the cone of light Rodney's flashlight produces. "Any of you still have a radio?"
"No," Teyla says. "We lost them in the fall."
"Yeah, I didn't think you did, but it was worth a try. We'll miss our check-in, Carter will send a rescue team and we'll be out of here in-" he stops talking. There is a quiet cough from the far end of his prison.
"Rodney?"
It's John. "John's alive," Rodney shouts to Teyla and Ronon before he carefully picks his way towards where John must be. "I'm here, John, keep talking."
"I liked the cave better when it didn't try to crush us," John says, weakly. He starts to cough and doesn't seem to be able to stop.
It's enough for Rodney to pinpoint where he is, but it still feels like too long before he's kneeling next to John. Up until the moment he puts his hands on John's shoulders, Rodney can't really believe what his eyes tell him. John doesn't look good, banged up and cut up like he is, but he's alive. A bit of rubble ended up on top of his legs, but John is luckz lucky and some of the bigger rocks looks like they'd missed his head.
"I'm pretty sure I broke my right leg," John whispers when he finally stops coughing. He's too pale and Rodney can see his hands are shaking. "Are Ronon and Teyla okay?"
Rodney is still running his hands carefully over John, trying to remember everything he's learned about first aid since he went to Atlantis. "Yeah, they're fine. A little banged up, but otherwise fine. One of our guides is dead, but other than that we were incredibly lucky. They'll find us soon enough, we missed our last check-in, Carter should know that we're missing by now."
"She'll probably have sent someone through by now," John sounds breathless, Rodney doesn't even know where to start with helping him. He doesn't want to make it worse, but he can't just do nothing either.
"They won't even know where to start looking for us. I don't know how far we dropped down, but unless they somehow manage to boost our trackers through the interference of both the Outpost and the depth we're at there'll have to go into the caves and physically look for us."
John doesn't weight in with an opinion, a sure sign of in how much pain he is in at the moment. He doesn't stop Rodney from preparing a syringe with Morphine either, which somehow freaks Rodney out more than anything else.
"I'm going to give you a shot of morphine now," Rodney tells John, not wanting to surprise him by just stabbing him. He follows that up by injecting it just the way Carson had shown him how and moves on to the next problem. "I'm going to borrow your first aid kit and get these rocks off you." He waits for John to nod weakly before he frisks John quickly.
John surprises him by grabbing Rodney's wrist, stopping him when he is pulling the kit from where John's stashed it in one of the front pockets. "Don't go, Rodney."
"Not going anywhere, I'll just have a look at your legs," Rodney tells John and gives him the flashlight. "Hold on to that for me."
"Alright."
He's careful clearing the rocks off John, shocked at the amount of blood underneath him. "This is the last time we're going into a cave. Every time we do, it's not fun. I think we should probably just stay on Atlantis for like a month, we all have enough vacation time saved up for a long holiday."
He knows this is going to be painful for John, but going slow isn't an option, so he hurries to remove the rocks, both first aid kits open next to him. John's sharp intake of breath and the way his jaw clenches is the only indication as to how much the jostling of his bones really hurts, but there is nothing Rodney can do to make it any easier on him. All he can do is stop the bleeding as much as best as possible.
Rodney doesn't know how long it will take for them to be rescued, but there's no way he will watch John bleed out right in front of his eyes, not on his watch. Working with an efficiency that even surprises himself, Rodney tries to keep the conversation on a happier topic. "You know, I think somewhere warm would be good. With beaches. You like beaches, don't you? At least I always thought you prefer the warm to the cold. I'm not really bothered, weather only concerns me where it becomes a health hazard, but you know that. I guess if we go to the beach you could put that surfboard of yours to good use. One of the marine biologists told me the mainland gets some great waves. No idea why she thought I'd like to know that, but hey, occasionally this type of useless information comes in handy." He's back to kneeling next to John's head by the time he says, "I think you'd definitely like that."
"Yeah," John says through clenched teeth, but he reaches for Rodney again even though he has to be in agony right now. Rodney lets him wrap a hand around his wrist. As long as he doesn't stop him from preparing another shot of painkiller just in case, Rodney really doesn't mind. "That sounds great. Torren would love that, I think. Maybe we could talk some of the others to come with, make it a big thing with a barbeque and a bonfire."
"I'd have thought you'd like to keep it to the team only."
John blinks, his face relaxing. "Nah, Zelenka could use some sun once in a while as well. If he doesn't, he may try to kill you with a fork eventually."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Zelenka is scrappy and sneaky."
"He could totally take you," John agrees.
Rodney snorts at that, "I'd hope my team would have my six. But sure, that's settled. We're all going to the beach on the mainland, you can surf, I'll get sunburnt, we'll all be happy and -"
"Rodney," John interrupts, "they're probably not gonna to be here soon enough." Rodney opens his mouth, but John keeps talking. "I'm bleeding and I got knocked around pretty bad on the way down. I just want you to know that I lied when I said I love you just like a friend. 'Cos I actually kinda like-like you."
"John-"
"Let me finish," John says, squeezing Rodney's hand. "This isn't your fault. Whatever happens, you did what you could. I suck at this sort of thing. Every relationship I've ever had went down in flames eventually. And I didn't want to lose you as a friend, because knowing you was the best thing ever. So I thought we had plenty of time and I'm so stupid."
He says it all in one breath, like if he doesn't he won't get it out at all, which probably is absolutely true. John is more than just a little constipated when it comes to how he feels. Rodney blinks, unsure of what needs the most attention at first. He settles on saying, "You 'like-like'me?"
"Yes?" It comes out as a question, coughing again.
"Well, at least you admit you're stupid, so when I say you're a moron it won't come as a surprise," Rodney says.
John blinks at him. "I -"
Rodney just leans down and gently kisses John. It's nothing more than a brush of lips, certainly not what he'd like to do eventually. "I love you, too, you idiot."
The tingling starts first and Rodney can't believe their luck when the transporter room of the Daedalus starts taking up the place around them rather than the darkness of the cave. There's medics already in place, taking John with them as well as Ronon, who's an idiot and should have said something about the broken wrist while they were talking.
Teyla, despite being banged up and bandaged, was better off than Ronon. She puts her hand on Rodney's shoulder, squeezing gently. "They will be fine," she says, before they, too get carted off to medical. In the background he can hear one of the doctors talking to their guide, explaining what happens next and where he is.
Rodney doesn't know how they did it, how the Daedalus could possibly have found them. Right now it's not important. They're still alive and Rodney's stomach finally unknots completely. He'll find out the logistics of it later on.
He tunes out the doctor working on him, only answering direct questions, he's too busy watching the others whizzing around John. They're working fast, but the urgency of a life threatening situation is absent from their behavior. He lets his gaze wander to Ronon and Teyla on and off, checking that they are still fine.
"I've given you a light sedative, Doctor McKay," the doctor tells him. "Now let's clean up all these cuts and then we'll get you a bed so you can get some rest, okay?" She's gentle, but cleaning the scrapes still stings.
John's hooked up to monitors now, beeping steadily.
"Okay," Rodney tells the doctor. He doesn't think he'll get any sleep, but not doing anything for a while sounds really good.
It's not until he's in a bed with Teyla to his right, scrubbed clean, bandaged with 15 stitches in various places that he finally relaxes completely. Next time the natives offer them a tour through a cave, they'll just say no.
The end.
Author: ca_pierson
Recipient: temaris
Pairing: McKay/Sheppard
Rating: Gen
Disclaimer: Stargate Atlantis doesn't belong to me, neither do the characters. This is a transformative work and I am not making any money from it.
Author's Notes: Merry Christmas, temaris! I hope I managed to find something you like. Thanks for the quick yet thorough beta and the kind words, you know who you are ;).
Summary: Drudging through a muddy, dirty, boring cave with two guides, whose torches leave flickering light on the rough cave walls, Rodney has plenty of time to wonder how John always gets them into these things.
.~O~.
Drudging through a muddy, dirty, boring cave with two guides, whose torches leave flickering light on the rough cave walls, Rodney has plenty of time to wonder how John always gets them into these things. It's definitely John's fault, that they just spent what felt like hours - but according to his watch has been only 30 minutes - spelunking. The natural response to what boils down to "do you want to check out our great caves?" should always be a "no". "Awesome" isn't even on the top ten list of appropriate answers. Not even if they claim there is a temple of the Ancestors there. Without evidence Rodney can't really believe anything their new "friends" say. Not after that last mission where they drudged through the wood only to find a shrine hewn from stone rather than an actual Ancient outpost. At least he isn't expected to nod along or say anything; John has it all down with the nodding and Rodney is more than happy leaving the "talking to the natives" part to Teyla.
The caves are quite spacious in some parts, but they entered a side-arm or whatever it's called five minutes ago where it is tight enough that Ronon needs to be careful or he'll hit his head on the odd outcrop of rock. Rodney has to duck occasionally and he's not looking forward to crawling through the gunk on the floor. Once the walls seem to close in on them Rodney is seriously trying to figure out how they found this thing in the first place, because there is no way anyone would come in here on purpose and they are not suitable for an entire tribe to hide in.
He viciously stomps down on the urge to ask when they're there. Misery is no reason to give John the satisfaction - and the ammunition for later. "This is a really great cave," John say right then, as the will to live slowly drains out of Rodney with every step. At least their last mission hadn't been quite this boring. Actually, maybe it had been and the good food had mitigated that together with the promise of some Ancient devices in trade. "Huh," Rodney mutters, not sure what that says about him.
For the casual observer Teyla looks like she is impressed, smiling at their hosts, but whenever Rodney turns to squeeze through a particularly tight passage there is that look in her eyes that means John or Ronon will come back from sparring with more bruises than normally. Ronon follows after Teyla right now and Rodney can barely see him, but he can hear the curses whenever Ronon has to squeeze himself through one of the smaller spaces.
Their second guide trails behind Ronon, ostensibly to make sure no-one gets lost and all Rodney can see from him is the flickering light of the torch he's carrying. Not that any of them were stupid enough to go off the path or stay behind.
"There will be a feast when we get back to the village," the guide in the back says, Elf or whatever his name is. Not that it matters that Rodney doesn't remember. Teyla is good with that sort of thing and so is John. "We are almost there, Colonel Sheppard. Your Doctor McKay can take as much time as he would like in the temple before we head back for the harvest festival-"
Rodney stops listening as he watches John squeeze through the tightest spot yet. The part on the left looks smoother than the rest of the cave, maybe a bit battered but not as ragged as the rest of the cave. "If it keeps getting smaller we'll get stuck," Rodney tells John, who's now through and waving at Rodney to get a move on.
"Don't worry, Rodney, we won't leave you behind." He's been good about helping Rodney keep calm, even if most of that had been through needling and poking fun at how he had fallen asleep on John during their last movie night. Rodney is half way through when he notices that it's only rock on the right side, rather than the left. It's grey, rough metal and when John touches it lights up like any other Ancient gadget rolling over for John.
There's barely enough time to shoult "don't touch" when the ground starts shaking underneath them. Rocks are coming down on them and Rodney does the only thing he can: he grabs hold of John's tac vest as the path they're on unravels, John almost going down with it. John's heavy and the muscles in Rodney's shoulder will hate him for it when he takes all of John's weight to stop him from going the same way as the cave-floor. It's not a good solution, because seconds later they're both falling, bouncing hard enough for Rodney to lose his grip. He know he's yelling but over the thundering noise of the moving mountain Rodney can't even hear his own voice, never mind any of the others. He feels himself hit something and the world goes blessedly black.
~ooo00O00ooo~
He wakes up coughing and hurting everywhere. There's no way to tell how long he'd been out and the fall has left him disoriented. It takes him a few heartbeats until he's sure the floor isn't going to fall out from underneath him again, before he painfully rolls over. There isn't a part of his body that doesn't hurt from scrapes and cuts. Keller is going to have a field day with him. He keeps coughing from the dust and dirt he's disturbing with every move, hurting when he breathes it in, scratchy and horrible in his throat. He coughs up half a lung before he manages to push himself to his knees while his shoulder protests loudly. In the quiet after all the noise Rodney's ears ring from all the noise, his own painful gasps for air loud and echoing in the dark, enclosed space.
Searching through the pockets of his vest for his spare flashlight, Rodney forces himself up slowly, using the techniques Teyla had taught him to control his breathing to push through the pain. They aren't exactly working and he'll complain about it later, once he'd found his team and they are all safe. "John?" he asks, remembering John slipping out of his grip with rising dread. He lifts a hand to activate his radio only to find he'd lost it in the fall. "John!" he repeats, his voice breaking as he coughs again. "Teyla! Ronon!" The light's a relief because the darkness is getting to him already. Until Rodney's brain catches up with what he's seeing at least. A bare foot sticks out from under one of the larger rocks, blood pooling underneath and the sight lets Rodney's stomach sink and he's suddenly feeling sick. He's seen a lot of dead bodies over the last few years, far more than he ever wanted to, but all he can think of is the look on John's face as the wall lights up and the mountain starts shaking. Surprised and scared all at once.
"No, no, no," Rodney mutters, shaking himself in order to be able to move. Seconds tick by before he can really comprehend it all. "Oh god." Part of him knows there is no way that it could be any of the team. They're all wearing ankle high, tightly closed, military issue boots. But the niggling voice in the back of his head that just never seems to go away keeps repeating their names. Who knows how far they'd fallen, who knows what could have happened to them.
He's on his knees next to the rubble, digging through it with his bare hands, flashlight on the floor next to him lighting the grisly scene. There's blood on the stones, making them slippery, but Rodney needs to know and has to make sure. Everything is grey down here, dust swirling up with every move Rodney makes. His own BDUs are covered in the vile stuff and every move Rodney makes swirls up more of it into the air. It takes years to get through, or maybe minutes, but he finds the broken body of one of their guides, eyes staring sightlessly into the darkness behind Rodney. Rodney stops, shaking with relief even though his fingers ache and itch from dried blood.
A few calming breaths later, Rodney grabs his flashlight and gets up. "Ronon! Teyla! John!" he yells, hoping at least one of them is conscious. He runs his flashlight around the rubble, realizing that the little area he ended up in is bigger than he thought at first with the light getting lost in the darkness when he looks up. The entire mountain must be full of caves, collapsing on each other when the Outpost powered up. He's surprised the entire thing didn't come down on them.
"Rodney! We're here!" Teyla's voice is very faint, with Ronon joining into calling out for him. It's loud enough for Rodney to follow it to what looks like a wall made up of large boulders that look horribly unstable. Moving them is completely out of the question. They haven't survived this long just to get crushed now by touching them. There's light trickling through where the boulders were stacked unevenly, but Rodney has to get down on his knees again to look through one of the larger gaps.
"Are you guys okay? Is John there?" Rodney asks, worriedly listening to Teyla and Ronon cough on the other side. All he can see is someone's legs. He thinks it's probably Ronon, but that's just a guess. He wishes he could see more of them and reassure himself no one is bleeding to death.
"No, it's just us and Elev. Teyla got hit by a rock," Ronon said.
Rodney has to laugh at that. It's a touch too hysterical to be comforting, but Rodney can't help it. "Yeah well, we all got hit by rocks," Rodney says once he's regained his composure. At least Ronon and Teyla were alive. Rodney can work with not dead. He runs the light around the room again, avoiding the place he knows Elev's friend is lying at. "It all looks too instable to try and clear a way. I don't think we can risk moving even one of the rocks. If it comes down on us we're all dead."
"Yeah," Ronon agrees. "Do you still have your first aid kit? Teyla lost hers." Rather than wait for Rodney, he puts an arm through the holes Rodney is using to look through the rubble.
"Oh my god! Are you insane? Do you want to kill us?" He still tugs the kit out of his tac vest and puts it into Ronon's open hand. "How bad is she hurt?"
"Not that bad and I'm not gonna touch anything," Ronon says, gruffly. "Just give me one of the bandages and keep the rest for when you find Sheppard and Annis. We're mostly okay, couple of cuts and bruises." Rodney knows the first aid kit like the back of his hand and hands Ronon a bandage in record time. There's a shuffling sound on the other side and Rodney watches Teyla sit down on a larger piece of rock with their other guide hovering nervously.
"I already found Annis," Rodney tells them, swallowing heavily. "He wasn't so lucky and got crushed. I'm sorry." Elev just puts his hands over his face, but says nothing. Rodney can see his shoulders shake.
"Rodney, what happened?" Teyla asks as Ronon wraps the bandage around her upper arm.
"What happened?" Rodney repeats, feeling the hysteria rise up again. "John touched the Ancient Outpost. Without taking a look at the readings I can't say why it brought down the mountain, though. It shouldn't even have activated! The outer walls are protection, they don't react to the gene. It could have been anything from a programmed response or a defense protocol, to an error in the code." Rodney turns away from the boulders that separate them. He looks around the desolate area they are imprisoned in, feeling helpless. There is still some dust in the air, floating in the cone of light Rodney's flashlight produces. "Any of you still have a radio?"
"No," Teyla says. "We lost them in the fall."
"Yeah, I didn't think you did, but it was worth a try. We'll miss our check-in, Carter will send a rescue team and we'll be out of here in-" he stops talking. There is a quiet cough from the far end of his prison.
"Rodney?"
It's John. "John's alive," Rodney shouts to Teyla and Ronon before he carefully picks his way towards where John must be. "I'm here, John, keep talking."
"I liked the cave better when it didn't try to crush us," John says, weakly. He starts to cough and doesn't seem to be able to stop.
It's enough for Rodney to pinpoint where he is, but it still feels like too long before he's kneeling next to John. Up until the moment he puts his hands on John's shoulders, Rodney can't really believe what his eyes tell him. John doesn't look good, banged up and cut up like he is, but he's alive. A bit of rubble ended up on top of his legs, but John is luckz lucky and some of the bigger rocks looks like they'd missed his head.
"I'm pretty sure I broke my right leg," John whispers when he finally stops coughing. He's too pale and Rodney can see his hands are shaking. "Are Ronon and Teyla okay?"
Rodney is still running his hands carefully over John, trying to remember everything he's learned about first aid since he went to Atlantis. "Yeah, they're fine. A little banged up, but otherwise fine. One of our guides is dead, but other than that we were incredibly lucky. They'll find us soon enough, we missed our last check-in, Carter should know that we're missing by now."
"She'll probably have sent someone through by now," John sounds breathless, Rodney doesn't even know where to start with helping him. He doesn't want to make it worse, but he can't just do nothing either.
"They won't even know where to start looking for us. I don't know how far we dropped down, but unless they somehow manage to boost our trackers through the interference of both the Outpost and the depth we're at there'll have to go into the caves and physically look for us."
John doesn't weight in with an opinion, a sure sign of in how much pain he is in at the moment. He doesn't stop Rodney from preparing a syringe with Morphine either, which somehow freaks Rodney out more than anything else.
"I'm going to give you a shot of morphine now," Rodney tells John, not wanting to surprise him by just stabbing him. He follows that up by injecting it just the way Carson had shown him how and moves on to the next problem. "I'm going to borrow your first aid kit and get these rocks off you." He waits for John to nod weakly before he frisks John quickly.
John surprises him by grabbing Rodney's wrist, stopping him when he is pulling the kit from where John's stashed it in one of the front pockets. "Don't go, Rodney."
"Not going anywhere, I'll just have a look at your legs," Rodney tells John and gives him the flashlight. "Hold on to that for me."
"Alright."
He's careful clearing the rocks off John, shocked at the amount of blood underneath him. "This is the last time we're going into a cave. Every time we do, it's not fun. I think we should probably just stay on Atlantis for like a month, we all have enough vacation time saved up for a long holiday."
He knows this is going to be painful for John, but going slow isn't an option, so he hurries to remove the rocks, both first aid kits open next to him. John's sharp intake of breath and the way his jaw clenches is the only indication as to how much the jostling of his bones really hurts, but there is nothing Rodney can do to make it any easier on him. All he can do is stop the bleeding as much as best as possible.
Rodney doesn't know how long it will take for them to be rescued, but there's no way he will watch John bleed out right in front of his eyes, not on his watch. Working with an efficiency that even surprises himself, Rodney tries to keep the conversation on a happier topic. "You know, I think somewhere warm would be good. With beaches. You like beaches, don't you? At least I always thought you prefer the warm to the cold. I'm not really bothered, weather only concerns me where it becomes a health hazard, but you know that. I guess if we go to the beach you could put that surfboard of yours to good use. One of the marine biologists told me the mainland gets some great waves. No idea why she thought I'd like to know that, but hey, occasionally this type of useless information comes in handy." He's back to kneeling next to John's head by the time he says, "I think you'd definitely like that."
"Yeah," John says through clenched teeth, but he reaches for Rodney again even though he has to be in agony right now. Rodney lets him wrap a hand around his wrist. As long as he doesn't stop him from preparing another shot of painkiller just in case, Rodney really doesn't mind. "That sounds great. Torren would love that, I think. Maybe we could talk some of the others to come with, make it a big thing with a barbeque and a bonfire."
"I'd have thought you'd like to keep it to the team only."
John blinks, his face relaxing. "Nah, Zelenka could use some sun once in a while as well. If he doesn't, he may try to kill you with a fork eventually."
"Yeah, you're probably right. Zelenka is scrappy and sneaky."
"He could totally take you," John agrees.
Rodney snorts at that, "I'd hope my team would have my six. But sure, that's settled. We're all going to the beach on the mainland, you can surf, I'll get sunburnt, we'll all be happy and -"
"Rodney," John interrupts, "they're probably not gonna to be here soon enough." Rodney opens his mouth, but John keeps talking. "I'm bleeding and I got knocked around pretty bad on the way down. I just want you to know that I lied when I said I love you just like a friend. 'Cos I actually kinda like-like you."
"John-"
"Let me finish," John says, squeezing Rodney's hand. "This isn't your fault. Whatever happens, you did what you could. I suck at this sort of thing. Every relationship I've ever had went down in flames eventually. And I didn't want to lose you as a friend, because knowing you was the best thing ever. So I thought we had plenty of time and I'm so stupid."
He says it all in one breath, like if he doesn't he won't get it out at all, which probably is absolutely true. John is more than just a little constipated when it comes to how he feels. Rodney blinks, unsure of what needs the most attention at first. He settles on saying, "You 'like-like'me?"
"Yes?" It comes out as a question, coughing again.
"Well, at least you admit you're stupid, so when I say you're a moron it won't come as a surprise," Rodney says.
John blinks at him. "I -"
Rodney just leans down and gently kisses John. It's nothing more than a brush of lips, certainly not what he'd like to do eventually. "I love you, too, you idiot."
The tingling starts first and Rodney can't believe their luck when the transporter room of the Daedalus starts taking up the place around them rather than the darkness of the cave. There's medics already in place, taking John with them as well as Ronon, who's an idiot and should have said something about the broken wrist while they were talking.
Teyla, despite being banged up and bandaged, was better off than Ronon. She puts her hand on Rodney's shoulder, squeezing gently. "They will be fine," she says, before they, too get carted off to medical. In the background he can hear one of the doctors talking to their guide, explaining what happens next and where he is.
Rodney doesn't know how they did it, how the Daedalus could possibly have found them. Right now it's not important. They're still alive and Rodney's stomach finally unknots completely. He'll find out the logistics of it later on.
He tunes out the doctor working on him, only answering direct questions, he's too busy watching the others whizzing around John. They're working fast, but the urgency of a life threatening situation is absent from their behavior. He lets his gaze wander to Ronon and Teyla on and off, checking that they are still fine.
"I've given you a light sedative, Doctor McKay," the doctor tells him. "Now let's clean up all these cuts and then we'll get you a bed so you can get some rest, okay?" She's gentle, but cleaning the scrapes still stings.
John's hooked up to monitors now, beeping steadily.
"Okay," Rodney tells the doctor. He doesn't think he'll get any sleep, but not doing anything for a while sounds really good.
It's not until he's in a bed with Teyla to his right, scrubbed clean, bandaged with 15 stitches in various places that he finally relaxes completely. Next time the natives offer them a tour through a cave, they'll just say no.
The end.