The usual legalese here: I don not own Stargate Atlantis or any of its characters. If I did, there would be a season 6. MGM owns it as far as I know.

Takes place after 'Brainstorm' and there's a mention of something that happened in the episode, so spoiler alert for that, I guess.

Heartfelt thanks to nodoubtfan for looking this over for me…you rock!

Any thoughts, praise or criticisms you might have are welcomed.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Every two hundred and seventy-five years or so a planet, called Korathin by those who had once called the world their home, experienced atmospheric disturbances the likes of which most Earth born humans would not be able to comprehend. The Storms as they were so aptly called, with winds that topped out at three hundred and fifty kilometers and hour, well above the minimum standard for Earth's Category Five hurricane classification, destroyed nearly everything that resided on the surface. Naturally, over time the people of Korathin moved most of their cities underground, and wisely rethought their building techniques for those few structures that remained above ground.

Along with the winds came the rain; monsoon like deluges that cleansed the land as one would wash mud off their faces. Part and parcel with this were the electro-magnetic storms, localized miniature beasts within the bigger demon, that lasted for hours that stretched into days, even long after the winds had diminished and the rains had eased.

The Storms left nothing but death and destruction in their wake. And wouldn't it just be John Sheppard and Rodney McKay's luck that they would find themselves on Korathin just as another cycle of The Storms were about to hit.

---------------------------------------

"The interference is getting worse!" shouted McKay as he held his hand up in an attempt to shield his face from the wind driven rain. "I don't know how much longer we'll be able to keep in radio contact with Teyla and Ronon if it isn't already too late!"

Sheppard ducked behind a large tree and found some relief from the wind and rain. He was just about to tell Rodney to do the same when he looked over and found Rodney already hunkered down behind a substantial boulder.

"How much farther is it to the gate?" yelled Sheppard over the howling gale.

Rodney looked at Sheppard and shook his head. "Too far! We'll never make it in this wind!"

Sheppard cursed and was disappointed that his vehemence was lost in the deafening gale. He took a deep breath and rocked back and forth in an attempt to build up some momentum. On the third movement he jumped across to where Rodney was hiding and nearly cursed again when the wind caught him halfway across and started pushing him back towards the ruins they had just left. His arms flailed about as he tried to regain his balance, but he was losing the fight until Rodney's hand grabbed the edge of his flak jacket and pulled him down.

Sheppard caught his breath as he knelt down next to Rodney and gave his friend and appreciative tap on the shoulder.

Both men instinctively ducked as a tree that looked big enough to supply enough timber to build Noah's Ark sailed by just above them.

"We have to get out of here!" yelled Rodney as he wiped the water off the screen of his tablet. "The survey team report says there are some caves just over there!" Rodney indicated the area off to their right with a wave of his hand. He looked at Sheppard. "It's all we've got!"

Sheppard was just about to agree when a burst of static shot into his ear. 'Tey….nel….ard. Can…he…me?'

He reached up and tapped his earpiece and replied. "This is Sheppard!"

'Teyla to…ard. Ple….ond.'

"Go ahead, Teyla!" yelled Sheppard.

Rodney shook his head again. "She can't hear you! The storm is more intense around here! I'm surprised you're hearing her at all!"

'Joh….if y…ear me…Ron…I are at…gate…will sen…lp as…possib…'

John looked at Rodney, who was looking at him expectantly. "Sounds like she said they were at the gate and would send help."

Rodney held up his tablet for Sheppard to see. The glowing letters and numbers on the screen were fading in and out, scrambling into gibberish before his eyes as the air around them became more and more charged. "It's getting worse by the minute," Rodney explained loudly. "Not even a Jumper will be able to handle the wind and the electricity in the atmosphere will probably fry half its systems. It's just too intense!"

Sheppard cursed again. He motioned in the direction that Rodney had earlier indicated. "The caves it is then!"

Rodney nodded and looked to his tablet. "Oh no!" He looked back to Sheppard, his eyes wide with horror. "It's dead! I don't know where the caves are!"

Sheppard fixed his friend with a confused look. "I thought you said they were that way!" he said with a point.

Rodney nodded and rolled his eyes. "They are in that general direction, but there were specific directions in here!" he said as held up the now inert piece of technology.

Sheppard's mouth pressed into a fine line for a moment before saying, "You'll have to guess!"

"What!" exclaimed Rodney so loudly that Sheppard thought for a moment that wind had died down, he was able to hear him clearly. "We don't know where they are and in case you haven't noticed this weather isn't exactly 'let's go for a nice Sunday stroll' weather!"

Sheppard leaned closer to Rodney and put his hand on his friend's shoulder to calm him down. "You said it yourself: it's all we've got! This could go on for hours and maybe even get worse! We can't stay here!"

As if to emphasize what Sheppard was saying another big tree flew towards them, only this one hit the boulder they were sheltering themselves with and shattered into splinters all around them, which were immediately picked up by the wind and carried along like thousands of tiny darts.

"Time to go!" said Sheppard as he crawled over to Rodney's other side. He peered through the rain towards the small rise that Rodney had indicated. There were no buildings around to use as windbreaks or shelters, but there seemed to be a natural valley from their current position that went at least half way to a rise. Valley was a generous term, of course. It was only a couple of feet deep and was probably a stream at one time, and probably would be now if the rain that was falling so heavily wasn't being blown nearly horizontal by the wind.

Sheppard turned back and was relieved to see Rodney on his knees ready to follow. "We'll belly crawl along that trench!" explained Sheppard. "Hopefully we'll see the caves over there or something that can help us!"

"Hopefully?" repeated Rodney with a groan. "Not one of your better inspirational speeches, Colonel!"

Sheppard nearly smiled as he turned around. He unclipped his P-90 from his vest and lowered himself belly down to the ground, raising himself up on his elbows and holding his weapon in his arms just as he was taught to do so very long ago by his maniacal drill Sergeant. He turned enough to look back. "Ready!"

Rodney nodded, though he was nowhere near ready. He held his tablet in front of him as Sheppard was doing with his weapon.

"Leave it!" yelled Sheppard.

Rodney was about to comment on the cost and the valuable data that was stored on it but Sheppard beat him to it by saying. "It's dead, isn't it?" Rodney nodded and took the tablet in his hand and began to place it behind him, only to have it snatched from his hand by the gale that was currently making their lives miserable. The last Rodney saw of the tablet, it was flying like a frisbee along the terrain about five meters high in the air at an ungodly velocity.

He looked to Sheppard and nodded.

Sheppard returned the nod and took a deep breath. Here goes nothing, he thought, and began his crawl.

Rodney ducked as low as he could and followed Sheppard, keeping his head as low as possible and not even bothering to look up until the top of his head impacted the bottom of Sheppard's size 11 boots. He looked up and saw that they were about halfway through the trench, and looking past Sheppard he couldn't see anything that would necessitate stopping.

"What are we waiting for?" yelled Rodney. For a moment there was no response from Sheppard and Rodney was beginning to wonder if the Colonel had even heard him, as the winds were getting stronger, and therefore louder. He was about to reach up and tap Sheppard's boot when Sheppard turned around and gave him a meaningful look.

"Wait for it!" Sheppard said before turning back to face forward.

Rodney was about to ask for some clarification when he saw what Sheppard was talking about. A tree, stripped of most of its roots and limbs and bigger than the two that they saw earlier, rolled along the ground twenty meters ahead of them from their left heading to their right.

Sheppard couldn't help but stare in awe of the tree trunk, it's diameter about as big as a Puddle Jumper, as it kept turning and turning. It ran over the trench, its size and its velocity ensuring that it had no chance of getting caught up in the stream bed and blocking their path. It didn't take long for the tree to roll away from them, and John started moving again as soon as he was sure that the tree was far enough away as to not pose any danger.

He'd gone a couple of meters before he checked to see if Rodney was following him, and to his surprise Rodney was right on his heels.

Rodney stopped when Sheppard did and looked up, half expecting to see something else getting ready to fly across their path, but instead he saw Sheppard checking on him. Rodney appreciated that his friend was looking out for him, but it irritated him that they stopped when another tree or something bigger or heavier could be bearing down on them. He was wet, tried, cold and mortified…the last thing he needed was to be coddled if it meant stopping. He motioned the Colonel onward with a wave of his right hand and followed when he John began moving again.

As they moved he tried to recall the exact location of the caves, with more success than he thought he'd have. He remembered that they were to the left just before they hit the rise ahead of them.

Good news, bad news, thought Rodney as he crawled along. The good news was that he remembered where the caves were and that they were relatively close. The bad news was that they were about to run out of their protective trench with a ways to go to get to them.

Sheppard stopped ahead of him again, and this time the Colonel rolled onto his left side and waved for Rodney to come up next to him. Rodney hesitated for a second, more than a little uncomfortable with the closeness of their positioning, but then moved upward. When he was next to John he rolled onto right side so he could face Sheppard and said, "I remember where the caves are." He pointed to the left and said, "There, right up there."

Sheppard looked in that direction and lifted his head a few inches. "I can see one!" he exclaimed. He lowered his head and said, "It's not far, but it's not going to be easy!" He reached down and undid his belt, then lifted himself enough to take it off completely. He made a slip knot at both ends of the belt and placed one loop over his right hand and let the knot tighten around his wrist. He gave one tug to check the effectiveness of the knot then handed the other end to Rodney.

"So we don't get separated!" explained Sheppard unnecessarily.

Rodney took the loop and repeated the motion that Sheppard had made. When he was done Sheppard said, "We'll have to keep low. There's a rock almost the size of the one we were just behind about halfway there. We'll stop there for a second and then make a run for the cave!" He waited a heartbeat. "Got it?"

Rodney nodded and said, "Don't have much of a choice, do we?"

"Not really!" Sheppard turned and put his hands down onto the damp stream bed and turned to look at Rodney. "On three! One…two…three!"

They scurried out of the trench on all fours, hurrying as fast as their tired arms and legs could take them. There were all sorts of projectiles flying by, from tree limbs, to trees, to rocks and parts of ruins that only now had fallen victim to the extreme weather of the planet.

It only took them a couple of minutes to reach the rock near the mid-point of their run through the gauntlet, but the force of the wind pushing against them made it feel like twenty minutes.

Sheppard took several deep breaths when they were both safely crouched down behind the rock. Rodney was breathing heavily, but was unhurt.

Rodney peered around Sheppard to get a look at their destination. It was still farther away than he liked.

Sensing Rodney's unease Sheppard said, "Almost there, Rodney!"

Rodney nodded and prepared himself for the final push as Sheppard moved to get ready himself.

"One!" shouted Sheppard, "Two! Three!"

The driving rain hit their faces hard as they emerged from their shelter, but neither faltered. They both knew what was at stake, namely their survival, and stopping or slowing down out in the open simply wasn't an option. It didn't help that the ground they were now crawling over was rockier and rougher than what they had been on, but they couldn't choose where to go.

Come on! Come on! thought Rodney as they neared the cave. A few seconds later, he saw Sheppard disappear into the cave, get up on his knees and turn towards him, using his free hand to brace himself against the mouth of the cave. Sheppard opened his mouth to say something when his eyes darted off to Rodney's left. All he could see was Sheppard's face turn from cautious optimism to horror.

Rodney had just enough time to turn and realize why before the baseball bat like tree limb that had been hurtling towards him glanced off the left side of his head, plunging him into darkness.

Sheppard watched helplessly as the limb hit Rodney, and cursed as Rodney's arms gave out, sending him crashing to the ground. Rodney had barely touched the rocky ground before the wind picked him up, and Sheppard threw his P-90 into the cave and shot his right foot out for added leverage as the belt that was connecting him to his friend became taut and tried to pull him out of the cave.

He could feel the belt move in towards the side of the rise as the wind continued to try to take Rodney and pull him out of the cave.

His left hand grabbed at the wall of the cave and found an indentation in the wall deep enough to act as a solid handhold. Summoning all of the strength he had left, Sheppard gritted his teeth and pulled with his left had while his right foot dug into the rock and pushed as hard as it was able. Slowly, agonizingly slowly, he was able to pull himself farther into the cave, and by extension bring Rodney inside.

He had no idea how long he'd been at it when the tension on the belt suddenly eased, sending him down onto his ass in a heap.

"No!" he yelled as he yanked on the belt, fearing the worst, that the belt had snapped and Rodney was lost. The belt became tight again however, and Sheppard was relieved beyond words when a hand grabbed at the edge of the cave. Sheppard jumped up and grabbed Rodney's hand and pulled him inside.

Just in time too, for just as they managed to get a couple of feet inside the cave, Rodney collapsed into Sheppard's arms. Sheppard dragged his friend farther inside the cave until he couldn't feel the wind any more. He gently lowered Rodney to the floor of the cave and retrieved the flashlight from his vest and turned it on. The first thing the beam of light found as it danced along the floor was his weapon, which he retrieved just in case they weren't the only things in the cave looking for shelter. He turned the light from his P-90 on and added its beam of light to that provided by his flashlight. A further examination of the cave showed no other would be shelter seekers, and with that worry banished Sheppard turned his attention to Rodney.

He knelt down and took off his tac vest, and then lifted Rodney's head enough to place the vest underneath his head so that it was off the damp floor. Using his flashlight, Sheppard leaned over and checked out the bloody spot on Rodney's head where the tree branch had nailed him. The damage wasn't severe; at least it didn't seem to be in the limited light of his flashlight, and to his immense relief Rodney's eyes fluttered open.

"Where are we?" asked Rodney weakly.

"We're in the cave," responded Sheppard as he reached into one of Rodney's tac vest pockets to retrieve some standard issue glow sticks. He cracked one and threw it farther onto the cave, which only went in for another twenty feet. He activated a second and tossed it a foot or two away so it would light up their immediate area. "How are you feeling?"

"How do you think I feel?" responded Rodney sharply. "I have a terrible headache, I'm soaked to the bone and," he yawned and added, "I'm sleepy."

His eyes started to flutter closed but snapped open when Sheppard yelled his name.

"Don't go to sleep, Rodney," ordered Sheppard. He was amazed that Rodney had blacked out twice already and managed to come to. He didn't want to risk Rodney going under for a third time. "You gotta try and stay awake."

"Easy for you to say," responded Rodney. "Mr. Colonel Soldier Sheppard."

Sheppard worriedly glanced outside and wondered just how long it would take for the storm to ease and for help to arrive.

He checked to see if Rodney was still awake and then stood up to take stock of what they had in the cave, which turned out to be nothing. No wood for a fire, nothing edible…nothing.

He walked closer to the mouth of the cave and sighed when he realized the storm seemed to be getting worse. He looked back to Rodney and shouted, "Rodney!" as he rushed back inside. Rodney opened his eyes and Sheppard said, "Stay awake! Talk to me."

"About what?" asked Rodney sleepily.

"Something," replied Sheppard as he sat down next to Rodney and dug out a bandage from Rodney's vest. As he opened the package and took out the gauze pad he said, "Anything. It doesn't matter." He placed the bandage against the cut on Rodney's head and searched for the medical tape in the same vest pocket as the bandage had been in. When he found it he tore off two strips and applied it to the pad on Rodney's head. "The Theory of Relativity," said Sheppard as he leaned back against the wall next to Rodney's head. "Tell me about it."

Sheppard closed his eyes as Rodney started mumbling about Einstein and his famous theory and hoped to whatever higher powers were listening that help would come soon.

---------------------------------------

Two hours later Rodney was still rambling about the Relativity Theory, though Sheppard had to prod him along a couple of times.

He was getting tired himself, though he wouldn't dare let himself go to sleep and leave Rodney on his own.

He simply would not.

He looked down and saw that Rodney's eyes had closed, though his mouth was still moving. He reached over and put his hand on Rodney's shoulder. "Open your eyes, Rodney."

Rodney complied and Sheppard tapped Rodney's shoulder supportively. He opened his mouth to ask Rodney to talk about something different when a static burst in his ear nearly frightened the crap out of him.

'lus to Col …hear…I rep…Daed…to nel Shepp…can you…me?'

Sheppard looked down to make sure Rodney was awake, and when he saw that the scientist's eyes were open he jumped up and moved closer to the cave entrance. When he was as close as he dared he reached up and tapped his comm. "This is Sheppard. I can barely read you, Colonel."

'Good to…your voic…Is …kay with…'

"We're both here, but McKay's been hurt," explained Sheppard. "We need to get him out of here now!"

'Diffi…stand you…Stand…'

Sheppard waited and rocked back and forth on his feet, humming with anticipation. Finally the comm. crackled again.

'Can you hear me better now, Colonel.'

"Affirmative," replied Sheppard as he glanced back to see Rodney's eyes half open. "McKay has taken a pretty bad blow to the head, Colonel. He needs to get out of here."

'We're trying, Colonel,' replied Caldwell. 'The electro-magnetic activity in the atmosphere around you is interfering with the targeting sensors. We can't get a good lock.'

"Colonel," said Sheppard as quietly as he could, "if Rodney doesn't get out of here soon, he might not make it."

'Understood, Colonel. We're working on the problem and Dr. Novak is confident that she can cut through the interference in short order. Stand by.'

Sheppard turned around and took a step towards Rodney when another voice in his ear made him stop.

'Colonel Sheppard, this is Dr. Keller. What…what happened?'

She's frightened, realized Sheppard. He could easily hear it in her voice. "The winds are pretty strong down here, Doc," replied Sheppard as evenly as he could. The last thing he wanted to do was sound concerned. "This planet's version of a baseball bat hit Rodney's head above and a little ahead of his left temple. It looked like a glancing blow but it knocked him out, though he woke up pretty quickly. I've been trying to keep him awake ever since, but he was tired before he was hit."

'How long ago did it happen?'

Out of habit when answering a question that he didn't know the answer to or was at the least unsure of, he shrugged. "Two hours, maybe three."

'I…what about the impact area?' was her reply. 'Any swelling or bleeding?'

Sheppard nodded, then shook his head as he remembered he was talking to someone on a spaceship in orbit somewhere. "Some bleeding, but not much. There isn't a lot of swelling either that I could see."

He raised his hand to his ear and covered the earpiece, straining to hear what she was saying. A second went by before he realized whatever she was saying wasn't directed towards him but someone aboard the Daedalus.

'Lindsey says it will be a few more minutes, John,' she said. 'Keep him awake until then.'

"No problem, Doc," replied Sheppard with a slight grin. He started making his way back to Rodney's side and added, "I've managed to do it for this long."

He sat down next to his friend and reached over to tap him on the shoulder. Rodney's eyes shifted to look up at him and Sheppard grinned. "The Daedalus is in orbit. Novak should get us out of here soon." Sheppard looked up to the roof of the cave and he gazed at it as though he could look through it, through the clouds and out into space. "I wonder how they got here so fast."

"Proximity," murmured Rodney.

Sheppard looked down to him and said, "What was that, Rodney?"

"This planet is close to Atlantis," said Rodney slowly. "It wouldn't take long for them to get here."

Sheppard nodded. "I forgot about that." He looked down and saw that Rodney had closed his eyes. "Open your eyes, McKay!" Rodney's eyes opened again and Sheppard said, "Keep talking to me." He thought for a second and then said, "What's the most beautiful thing you've ever seen?"

"What?"

The surprise in Rodney's voice caused Sheppard to smile. "The most beautiful thing you've ever seen," he repeated. "What is it?"

Rodney went silent and Sheppard thought that perhaps he'd fallen asleep. He shifted on his rump so that he could get a better look at Rodney, and when he did he saw that his friend was still wide-eyed if not bushy-tailed.

"I'll go first," said Sheppard after a minute. "The most beautiful thing I've ever seen is Atlantis from the air." He put his flattened left hand in the air perpendicular to the ground and then gently swung his free hand up towards it in imitation of a Jumper approaching Atlantis. "If you do it just right, at the perfect time, you can bring a Jumper up and get Atlantis on the horizon with the setting sun behind it," he put his hands together and gave a contented sigh, "and there is nothing more beautiful." He glanced down to Rodney. "To me at least. What about you?"

Rodney mumbled something that Sheppard couldn't understand. He reached down and placed his hand on Rodney's shoulder again, this time leaving it there for moral support if nothing else. "I couldn't hear you, Rodney."

"Jennifer," repeated Rodney, and there was an unmistakable air of happiness in his voice as he said it. "She's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen." He stopped for a moment and added, "Most beautiful thing…I've ever…seen."

Sheppard bolted up off his ass and fell to his knees next to Rodney. "Rodney! Wake up!" He reached over and put his hands on Rodney's shoulders and gave him a gentle jostle. "Open your eyes, McKay! McKay!"

John straightened up and tapped his earpiece. "Sheppard to Daedalus!" He waited for a moment and repeated the call. "Sheppard to Daedalus!" No response. He tapped his earpiece again and tried one more time. "Sheppard to Daedalus!"

'Standby for transport, Colonel,' came Novak's voice. 'Diverting emergency power. Three…two…one…now!'

Sheppard felt the familiar sensation engulf him accompanied by the usual flash of light and a moment later his eyes focused on the Daedalus' sickbay.

"Rodney!" called Keller as she knelt down next to Rodney's left side.

Sheppard moved out of the way as Keller lifted Rodney's eyelids one at a time and checked his pupils with a penlight that she seemed to produce from out of nowhere.

As she removed the bandage he had placed over Rodney's wound to get a look at it she said, "When did he lose consciousness?"

"A few minutes ago," replied Sheppard as he moved before one of the orderlies hip-checked him out of the way.

"Okay we need to get him up on a gurney and under a scanner," Jennifer said as she started to get up. She had managed to get halfway up when Rodney suddenly reached out and grabbed her right hand.

"Hey," she said as she settled back down next to him.

Sheppard wasn't sure if it was just him or not, but all sound and movement seemed to stop in the room as Jennifer reached over with her free hand and caressed his friend's cheek.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice telling him that she knew he felt like crap.

"You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he said with a small smile.

A tear instantly appeared and slipped down her cheek as she leaned in closer and said, "I know…I heard you tell Colonel Sheppard." She reluctantly took her hand from his cheek and wiped the tear from her face with her thumb. "We need to get you out of here now. Try to stay awake, okay? Will you do that for me?" She placed her hand on his chest and added, "Please?"

Rodney lifted his hand unsteadily and let it fall to rest upon the hand that she had just settled upon his chest. "Well, I'm really tired, you know? Sheppard had me crawling around down there on all fours in the middle of a monster hurricane."

"Sounds to me like he's going to be just fine," commented Sheppard amusedly as he folded his arms across his chest.

Jennifer laughed as she extricated her hand from Rodney's and stood up. She nodded to the orderlies to proceed, and as they went to work getting Rodney on a gurney she walked over to stand next to Sheppard. She gave him an appraising look before asking, "Are you okay, Colonel?"

"Fine, Doc," he replied with a nod. He screwed up his nose as he added, "All I need is a hot shower."

Jennifer nodded and moved to follow Rodney's gurney.

Before she got too far Sheppard said, "Hey, Doc. How'd you know what Rodney said down there?"

She smiled and pointed to his ear. "You had your comm. line left open, Colonel."

"Oh," he said as she turned and left. He smiled and said to no one in particular, "How about that."

---------------------------------------

"Isn't this getting a little old?"

Jennifer looked up from the tablet resting in her lap and found Rodney watching her. "Isn't what getting a little old?" she asked as she placed the tablet on a nearby table and stood up next to his bed.

"Me waking up in one of these Infirmary beds after getting some sort of unbelievably unfortunate injury, or disease or whatever." His eyebrows lifted in thought for a moment. "It seems to me that it should be getting a little old."

A little imp moved within Jennifer and she gave him a scandalized look. "Are you saying you're getting sick of me being around when you wake up?"

"I said no such thing," declared Rodney instantly. "I just mean that…" He stopped when Jennifer smiled and he caught on. "Very funny, teasing an injured man like that."

Jennifer reached over and took his hand in hers. "You're right," she said softly as she looked at their combined hands. She looked up a moment later and gazed into his eyes. "I'm sorry."

"Yes, well," he said as he got a glint in his eye, "you're forgiven."

"Good," Jennifer declared grandly. "I'd hate to think you were going to stay mad at me forever."

"I can say with utmost confidence that that could never happen," Rodney said as he lifted their hands up so he could see them.

"How long have you been awake?" she asked as she watched him study their hands.

"A few minutes," he replied. His head was hurting, but it wasn't as painful as he expected it to be. He glared at Jennifer, at least he tried to glare but realized he was unsuccessful when she gave him a knowing smirk, and asked, "How long have you been crammed into that little chair waiting for me to wake up?"

"Not that long," she lied, and from the disapproving look she received she knew he knew better. "How's your head?"

"About as well as you could expect," he replied, honestly but evasively.

Jennifer nodded and used her free hand to tuck her hair behind her ear. "You really scared me this time."

"Well it's not like I tried to do it!" exclaimed Rodney more loudly than he meant to. "It wasn't…" He ended his tirade the instant he saw the haunted look in Jennifer's eyes.

"That's not what I meant," she whispered as her hold on his hand tightened.

And he knew that, and he cursed himself once again for shooting off his mouth without thinking. "I know," he said gently. "I'm sorry for…I'm sorry."

Jennifer nodded and sat down on the edge of his bed, and then moved her free hand over so that his hand was now between both of hers. "When the Daedalus went into orbit and we could see what was happening on the surface- it just looked so bad that…" She hesitated for a few seconds and looked up into his eyes again. "And when John said that you'd been injured, all I could think about was what if…" She trailed off, unable to even voice the thought of losing the man she'd come to love so much.

And Rodney understood that all too well. It wasn't that long ago that he found Jennifer unconscious and not breathing in a puddle of freezing water. He meant what he said to her after he brought her back to life that day- he really didn't know what he would have done if he lost her.

"Well, you don't have to worry about it now, do you?" he said with the arrogant confidence that he was so well known for. It had the affect he was looking for and Jennifer couldn't help but smile at him.

She looked down to their intertwined fingers for a second before looking back up to him and saying, "I love you."

Rodney felt the smile automatically burst onto his face, and the knowledge that once upon a time, before he'd managed to fall in love with Jennifer Keller, the words he was about to say would not have come with the ease that they did now. "I love you, too."

Jennifer leaned down and kissed him, and while her lips touched his he was able to forget about the throbbing in his head, the fact that only hours earlier he'd been struggling against an awesome force of nature to survive, and the fact that he still had a lot to learn about properly loving someone so caring and loving as Jennifer.

After too short a time in his not so humble opinion, Jennifer lifted her lips from his and leaned back so that she could look at him. After moment he was able to shake the usual surprise that came along with a kiss from Jennifer, that ever present shock that someone like her would love someone like him, and he said, "Now that's something that will never get old."