Word Count:
1,255
Rating:
PG
Category:
Angst
Story Status:
Complete
Summary:
Rodney's lost and alone.
Beta:
Thank you to Jayne Perry for the beta-reading.
Warmth
By Leesa Perrie
Snow. Cold and wet and miserable. One of the many
reasons
for leaving Canada. Though Russia was worse. At
least the
food was edible in Canada.
He shivered. You’d think with all the layers he had
on, and
the military snow gear, he’d be nice and warm.
Wrong.
This place was cold, cold, cold. Colder than
Antarctica.
Huh, another cold place he’d found himself. Maybe
it was
his fate, to end up in cold, lonely places. And to die from
hypothermia. Maybe someone would find him a few hundred years
from now, a human Popsicle waiting for some future archaeologist to
find and study. A scientific curiosity.
His fingers and toes were numb, and his nose. That
couldn’t
be good. How long before frostbite set in? It
probably
didn’t matter, he’d be dead from the cold before
his
extremities started to fall off. He hoped.
He looked up at the crevasse he had fallen down. The hole
that
had opened up under his feet had sealed over. Waiting for the
next victim. The next idiot to run without looking.
Not
that he would have known the ice was thin there. That
wasn’t the sort of thing he’d bothered to learn;
how to
look out for ice traps. And he was too busy running from the
unfriendly locals anyway.
Who would have thought there would be people living here?
Trust
their luck to run into some Pegasus version of the Inuit on Earth,
though he didn’t think they would have attacked his team for
no
reason, with no warning. Not like these people.
He’d got separated from the others during the
fighting.
You’d think it would be impossible to get lost,
wouldn’t
you? But there was ice hills and mountains all around the
place. And the blizzard that started as they ran towards the
gate
hadn’t helped any. He could only hope Sheppard,
Teyla and
Ronon had made it to the gate. Made it back to Atlantis.
He knew they’d send a search team, but he didn’t
think much
of his chances of being found. Especially now the hole
he’d
fallen through had iced over. And the blizzard would have
obliterated his tracks. And there was something in the ice
that
affected the life signs detectors, and the radios.
They’d
soon worked that out after arriving.
It wasn’t even like they’d managed to find the
source of
the energy readings the MALP had picked up. They had been
heading
in that direction when they had been attacked.
They should have brought a jumper. But there was a wall of
ice
just in front of the gate, and they didn’t think the jumper
could
fly through it without damage. It may just be water, except
that
it wasn’t, otherwise it wouldn’t affect their
radios and
such like, but ice could be damn solid in these sorts of conditions.
He hadn’t even wanted to come. Let some other poor
saps
come instead. Even the possibility of finding a ZPM had paled
when he’d seen the weather conditions. Let someone
else
have that glory. Especially as he didn’t think
there was a
ZPM here, or if there was, it was severely depleted. The
energy
signal wasn’t very strong. But, no, Sheppard had
insisted
they check it out.
So long as he was shivering, that was good. When he stopped
shivering, that’s when things would get bad. When
hypothermia would really set in. So, the shivering was
good. The chattering of his teeth was also good.
If only it wasn’t so cold. He supposed, it
wasn’t
really a crevasse. Well, the first bit was, but it had opened
into an underground cavern. An ice cave.
He’d tried
to climb back up, but he didn’t have the right
equipment.
Couldn’t get any foot or handholds in the smooth ice
wall.
Too smooth, surely? But what did he know about ice caves?
Volcanoes, yes. Ice caves, no.
At least there was light. An eerie light, but better than
dark. And the ice cave was quite big really. No
need for
his claustrophobia to kick in. But his watch had been broken
in
the fall, and he couldn’t tell how long he had been
here.
It felt like hours, but he knew it could be less. Or more.
He really didn’t want to die. Especially all
alone.
Though he guessed that would be fitting. He’d lived
most of
his life as a loner, a misfit. The geek in the classroom who
was
smarter than everyone else. The irritating scientist who was
rarely wrong. But, oh boy, when he was wrong…well,
a large
part of a solar system in this galaxy showed how spectacular his being
wrong could be.
Or when Carter got hurt that time.
So, he guessed, it was really quite fitting that he’d die
alone. The perfect end to a perfect life. Not.
He was getting colder. But he knew that feeling warm was a
bad
sign. Unless, of course, he was rescued. Then it
would be
different, but right now, getting warmer was a bad sign. So
getting colder, that was okay. As was the
shivering. A sign
he wasn’t in the latter stages of hypothermia. Good
signs. Really…
…Damn, what was that? It felt like ice falling on
him. He
opened his eyes, struggling against the ice that had formed around
them. He hadn’t realised he’d closed his
eyes.
Had he drifted off for a bit? He suspected as much.
And, oh
no, no, no, he wasn’t shivering anymore. That was
bad. He knew that was very bad. Not a good sign at
all.
More ice fell, and he could hear sounds from above him.
Turning
his head upwards, and what an effort that was, he saw more ice
falling. And a hole was appearing in the ice above
him.
Rescue? He wasn’t sure. He watched,
feeling numb, as
the ice continued to fall and the hole continued to get
bigger.
Then, after a pause, there was movement above him. A
rope.
Two blobs, people he realised, coming down the hole.
They’d found him! Must have found a way to get past
whatever was affecting the equipment. Probably had Zelenka to
thank for that.
As the people got closer he recognised two marines from
Atlantis.
That is, he knew he’d seen them about, but he
didn’t know
their names. They came to a stop in front of him.
“Dr McKay? Are you alright?”
He tried to answer, but his mouth wouldn’t
cooperate. He
closed his eyes again, and drifted. He heard voices, but
couldn’t make out what was being said. And then
people were
moving him. He opened his eyes again. A harness of
some
kind was being placed around him. It was strange, he
couldn’t feel his limbs. He felt
detached. And then
he was travelling upwards.
More hands, pulling him onto the surface. Strapping him onto
a
stretcher. More voices, words. He let himself fall
into the
darkness…
…And awoke to bright lights and warmth. Wonderful,
blessed, beautiful warmth. He knew he was home.
Safe.
Dry. Warm, warm, warm. Oh, how wonderfully warm.
And then pain. From muscles that had been shivering for too
long. From his extremities as they warmed. From the
bruises
he had sustained when falling into the ice cave. From a
headache
pounding behind his eyes. He groaned, closing his eyes, and
wishing the pain away. But knowing the pain was a good sign,
as
it meant he was alive. And warm. And not alone
anymore. He was home.
And he was warm.
The End