Author's Note: So here's another chapter. I tried something a little bit different in the middle of this one, so please let me know if it did or didn't work.

All reviews and critiques are welcome. Enjoy!

Jennifer stared blindly towards the eastern horizon. She'd settled herself down on the pier hours ago, when the sun had still been high over the water. Then, the deep blue of the ocean had sparkled – the sun's white, bright rays glistening off the peaks of millions of tiny waves like diamonds. Now, the vast expanse of water lay like molten lava before her – burnt crimson and gold. The sun setting while the first of the planet's two moons began its nightly journey across the sky and the stars blinked faintly in the fading light.

It wasn't quiet out there on the northern pier of Atlantis, not with the persistent hum of the city always in the background, and the waves crashing up against the solid walls at her feet. But the stillness soothed her turbulent thoughts and calmed her frantic mind. It was the only place left where she could be alone, where no one and nothing expected anything of her – at least for a little while. Eventually, reality always managed to catch up.

Jennifer heard footsteps approaching behind her, tentative and slightly shuffling. She knew who it was – the only other person who knew she came here.

She turned her head and lifted it up to face her visitor, squinting her eyes against the setting sun's final glare. She smiled brightly and patted the spot next to her, inviting the newcomer to join her. She didn't mind the company and it was her medical opinion that some relaxation would do him a world of good, even if it was just for a few moments. Rodney needed to relax more. They all did.

"Lorne and his team are back from M7G-435," Rodney started, ignoring the proffered seat.

Jennifer sighed heavily, rolled her eyes, and turned her gaze back towards the view.

Rodney shifted uncomfortably and clasped his hands behind his back before continuing. "The population there was among the least affected by the drug. You need to take a look at those samples."

Jennifer watched, mesmerized, as a rogue wave crashed against the pier below her, sending droplets of water scattering across her bare feet dangling over the edge. She shook the water off, blew out a measured breath before lifting them back onto the pier and pushing herself to her feet.

She took her time rolling down her pant legs and brushing the wrinkles out of her uniform. Jennifer pulled her jacket back down from where it had begun to bunch up around her waist and turned with a shake of her head to face Rodney's disapproving frown.

"I never used to do this, you know," her soft voice broke through the silence between them. "I never had the time," Jennifer smiled sadly. "Nor the inclination. Now it seems like this is the only thing that makes sense anymore. The only thing that remains constant while everything else insists on changing."

Rodney's frowned deepened, the confusion evident on his face, but he remained silent and watched as she turned her back towards him to watch the sun finish its slow descent.

"It's not the same as on Earth, of course. Sun sets in the east. The planet has two orbiting moons," her voice trailed off when she heard Rodney grumble and shift impatiently behind her.

"You didn't have to come, Rodney," Jennifer declared softly. "If this bores you so much."

"Yes, of course," Rodney retorted, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I could have just yelled very loudly and you, with your supersonic hearing, would have heard me all the way from the infirmary-"

"Which," he deftly interrupted her attempt to speak when she spun to face him once more. "By the way, is where you left your earpiece."

Jennifer cocked one delicate eyebrow, slowly placed her hands on her hips, and tilted her head to one side.

"I repeat," she replied slowly, her voice low. "You didn't have to come, Rodney."

"If you hadn't abandoned your only form of long-distance communication-"

Jennifer raised both eyebrows as she watched Rodney's hands grow increasingly animated - a tiny smirk playing at her lips.

"And if you didn't always insist on coming out here to your secret, little clubhouse, maybe I wouldn't have-" Jennifer watched his eyes as her implication finally dawned on him – his face going slack, his hands stilling mid gesture – and bit back a laugh.

"Had to," Rodney finished lamely, hands falling at his sides.

Refusing to meet her laughing eyes, he looked past her, watching the sun finish its long descent and disappear under the distant curve of the planet's surface.

Jennifer's smirk melted into a smile. Her eyes, no longer bright with laughter, were bright with something else. Touched that Rodney would be considerate enough to keep her nightly ritual a secret, she moved a step closer to him, stopping when his unusually calm expression turned to one of consternation.

"Who is it?" Rodney demanded over the open channel.

Jennifer tensed, her smile fading, eyes growing wary. She assumed someone had dialed Atlantis' gate and by the sound of things, it wasn't someone they'd been expecting.

Rodney's eyes widened, full of disbelief. She wanted to ask what was going on. She wanted to know, but at best she'd get an impatient hand wave from Rodney and at worst she'd distract him from the task at hand.

Damn it all to hell, she thought angrily to herself. This was the last time she was leaving without her earpiece.

"Gate Room."

It took Jennifer a couple of seconds to register that Rodney was speaking to her now.

"What-"

"Now." Rodney spun on his heel and made a dash for the door at the other end of the pier.

Jennifer's gut tightened, confusion rapidly being replaced by fear. Rodney McKay never ran. Not unless his life was in danger or his team's. Never.

Later, she would think back and take it as a sign.

That call, on the night she'd finally found time for a little peace amid the chaos of uncertainty in the Pegasus Galaxy, had been just the start of the nightmare that was to come.

"There wasn't anything we could do, Dr. McKay. The Phoenix just couldn't take the onslaught."

"And Colonel Carter? You all beamed down to the planet. Where is she?"

"She stayed behind. She wanted to make sure everyone was off before she beamed herself down. I don't know where she is."

"Where the hell is that med team, Chuck? My men can't wait forever!"

"Med teams two and three are already off-world. They're not scheduled back for another three hours. Dr. Keller has a code blue in the infirmary. We don't have anyone to send. You have to get to the Gate, Major Lorne."

"I have 3 men with bullet wounds, another with a spinal injury, and I've got a broken leg. We can't get to the Gate."

"Give me 0.5 mg atropine. Clear"

"We have sinus rhythm. BP 90 over 50"

"0.01 mg of epi. We have to intubate."

"Doctor-"

"Get me a 5.5 tube."

"Dr. Keller. We don't have the power here necessary to keep him on a respirator."

"We'll do it manually. Sharon. The tube."

"Take a look around Jen. You don't have enough staff to take care of those that have a fighting chance, let alone the ones that are almost dead."

"Dr. McKay!"

"What?"

"I need that hyperdrive ten minutes ago, Dr. McKay."

"How about you let me get the Deadalus running with a minimum of interruptions and I'll let you concentrate on keeping us from exploding until I'm done. How's that?"

"I wouldn't need to keep us from exploding if that hyperdrive were online."

"Thank you. Because what I really needed right now was another reminder that we're all going to die!"

"Come in Dr. McKay."

"Yes. What is it?"

"We just received a transmission from off-world."

"And?"

"It's from Ronon's group, sir."

Jennifer stared blindly towards the western horizon. The sun had started its majestic rise just minutes ago, washing away the vestiges of night, shimmering over the vast expanse of ocean.

The planet's two moons were a faint glow in the sky, nearly obscured now by the wash of orange painted across the sky and the bright orb seemingly rising out of the ocean.

She shivered slightly as a gust of cold air blew across the pier, mussing her hair, encouraging her to put her jacket back on. She didn't. The cold was welcome. Cold was good. Anything to wash away, maybe even replace, the numbness she'd felt inside for so long now.

How long had it been, she asked herself. How long since the last time she'd been able to just sit and think and not have to rush to someone's bedside? Ground-side would often be more fitting, she thought bitterly.

The days, the weeks, and the months had all started to melt together lately. She couldn't keep track of one day ending and another beginning. She couldn't keep track of when last she'd ever had a night of sleep to separate the two.

Footsteps approached behind her. They stopped at her side. Her visitor lowered himself to the pier heavily, dangling his legs over the edge to join hers in the water.

She peered at him through the corner of her eye. She quickly scanned his rumpled appearance – hair that Sheppard would have been proud of, a jacket that hadn't seen a cleaning in more than a few days and had the coffee stains to prove it, and the exhausted and weary expression of a man not having seen a bed in just as long, if not longer.

Rodney quietly reached over and clasped her hand tightly.

Jennifer didn't blink, but she let a small smile grace her lips. It felt foreign to her, that upward curving of her mouth. It was something she hadn't had reason to do in a while. It felt good and she felt some of the numbness wash away.

She squeezed his hand in return and shifted her eyes back to gaze on the horizon. She watched, fascinated, as the bright glow of the sun crept over the water, inching its way toward them until its outlying edges tickled their toes with warmth.

She felt Rodney's solid, warm hand in hers, felt the cold of the water and the wind, and the warmth of the sun's glow. She closed her eyes and realized this was the most and best she'd felt for months.

And for the first time, in a long time, she felt hope.