Never Put Off... Tomorrow May Never Come

by Annie

URL: http://www.area52hkh.net/asa/annie/neverput.php
Summary: Things don't play out quite the same way after John, Teyla and Ronon leave on Ford's mission
Info: A lot of the lines come from the episode

Rodney sat watching the guards play their game, worried about his friends. John, Teyla and Ronon had been gone for too long, according to Ford's plan they should have been back a while ago. The guards Ford left weren't helping, they weren't listening to his valid concerns regarding the missing team. Realising that any sort of rescue was up to him, Rodney made his way to Jace's lab and sat in front of one of the computers. Rodney started manipulating the systems and a short while later sat back with what could be called a Genii version of the tablet PC, in his hands. Heading to where the enzyme was kept, he started talking to himself.

"Okay, you can take them out easy. Just a few well placed karate chops and, and, and, and down they go. Piece of cake. Let's uh..." He reached for the cabinet and then withdrew his hand. "Are you an idiot?" He walked away from the cabinet then turned and headed back. Staring at his reflection, Rodney thought about John and the way things were messed up between them. "Desperate times, desperate measures." Opening the door, he reached for a small vial, paused, and then picked up one of the larger bottles. Staring at it, he continued, "That's one hell of a karate chop."

Rodney injected the entire bottle of orange enzyme, took a deep breath and felt the strength course through him. "Lock and load."

After beating the guards up, something he thoroughly enjoyed after the threats they had made earlier, Rodney searched Ford's room and found the missing control crystals. Making sure he still had the tablet PC, he headed to the DHD and once it was fixed dialled Atlantis.

Shouting, "I know what I need to do!" as soon as he appeared in the gate room, Rodney saw Elizabeth heading towards him.

"Rodney? What's happened? Where are the rest of them?"

"There's no time, no time. The planet, not Ford's, the one the, uh, ship's headed towards. We need to get there and we don't have much time." Feeling the enzyme work it's 'magic', Rodney paced the room not even noticing the people standing around. "I was barely able to escape myself, but I managed to take out the guards." Turning to Elizabeth, he grinned and continued with his tale. "Oh you should have seen me. I was amazing! I wish we'd got it on camera because... That's not the point."

"Rodney, slow down. Are you alright?"

"Yes, yes. I mean, um... I dunno." He started to pace again as he continued, "I mean I did take out the guards and they were huge and dumb and stupid and..."

"What guards?"

"Ford's guards. Haven't I mentioned Ford?"

"No, you didn't. And you haven't mentioned Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon either."

"Yes, they were there too. And there were the two guards. They were huge and massive and I had to take them out, so I had to inject some of the enzyme."

"You took some of the enzyme!?!" The shock in Elizabeth's voice got through to Rodney, just for a moment.

"No no no no no no no. I didn't take some of the enzyme, I took a lot of the enzyme." Holding out the tablet to Elizabeth, he continued, "For Radek, it's all on there. Ford double-crossed Sheppard but they've been gone too long. We need to stop the ship from getting where the ship is going."

Taking hold of his arm, Elizabeth said, "Come on, come on. Let's take a walk to the infirmary, alright?" and started to head away from the gate.

"Whoa, no no no what are you doing? No no no no." Pulling away, Rodney headed back towards the gate. "I don't want go to the infirmary. I want to go to the, to the, um..."

Elizabeth paged Doctor Beckett as Rodney's knees buckled and he hit the floor unconscious, telling the medical doctor they had a medical emergency and they were headed to him. As two soldiers picked Rodney up from the floor, Elizabeth passed the tablet to one of the scientists and instructed them to get it to Doctor Zelenka before following the soldiers carrying Rodney.

*****

Hours later, Elizabeth and Colonel Caldwell made their way to the infirmary to get an update on Rodney's condition. Carson saw them enter and made his way over to them.

"Colonel Caldwell, I didn't think you were due back here for days."

"Doctor Weir requested that we join the search ASAP so we pushed the engines a little."

Elizabeth looked over to where Rodney lay in a bed and asked, "How is he?"

Carson turned to look at his friend and replied, "I've had to sedate him, administer a beta blocker to try and bring his blood pressure down to a more manageable level. It's a bloody wonder he hasn't suffered a stroke."

"How much of the enzyme did he take?" Elizabeth asked.

"A very large dose, I'm afraid. I found a significant amount of it in his system, as much as Lieutenant Ford."

"Can you wean him off it?" she queried.

"I wish I could. Unfortunately, Lieutenant Ford took the last supply of our enzyme when he left Atlantis, so an incremental withdrawal is out of the question."

Caldwell joined the conversation at this point. "Unless we harvest more enzyme."

"Not an option. By the time you go out and collect it, the enzyme will have broken down in his system already. No, I'm afraid for Rodney the only choice is..."

Caldwell looked over to where Rodney lay. "Cold turkey."

"Aye, to put it bluntly. I can administer some drugs to help ease the process; anti-nausea medication, pain reliever, benzodiazepine for anxiety, as well as a multi-vitamin injection to bolster the immune system..."

"Good."

Carson shook his head at the hope he could see in Elizabeth's eyes. "But there's no dodging the fact it's going to be difficult, possibly even deadly."

"What?"

"Elizabeth, it's going to be a very hard slog for Rodney to get over this."

Just then Rodney let out a shout and started to strain against the restraints.

"Let me go, I've got to save them. Sheppard!"

"Oh bloodly hell." Carson ran back over to Rodney, calling for a sedative.

Pulling against the restraints, his face showing the strain, Rodney begged, "I need more enzyme, please you have to give me more enzyme!"

Inserting a syringe into Rodney's IV, Carson said, "We don't have any more of the enzyme, Rodney."

"You're lying!" Rodney screamed. "I know you do. I have to go and save John, I have to get him to trust me again..." Rodney's voice trailed off as the sedative took effect.

Elizabeth was shocked at what she had just witnessed, at the pain she could hear in Rodney's voice. "Keep us informed, Carson, Colonel Caldwell and I have a briefing to attend to try and find our missing team members."

Carson nodded as he continued to monitor his patient.

*****

"Doctor Zelenka?"

Radek pushed his glasses up his nose and looked at the people round the table.

"According to Rodney's notes, Lieutenant Ford has gathered men and has doped them all on the enzyme. They caught Colonel Sheppard's team, drugged them then coerced the Colonel, Teyla and Ronon into joining them on a mission."

Caldwell leant forward. "What mission, Doctor, and why wasn't Doctor McKay included."

"Rodney was left behind to ensure Colonel Sheppard helped in destroying a hive ship.

Elizabeth stared at him in disbelief. "A hive ship?"

"Yes, it appears Ford and his men had managed to steal a dart to assist in the mission. They needed Rodney to fix it and Colonel Sheppard to fly it. Rodney downloaded all of Ford's intelligence on the Wraith along with details of the mission and the coordinates of the planet the hive ship is going to."

"So there is a chance we can rescue them, Radek?" Elizabeth wanted to know.

"If not, we can at least warn the planet a culling is imminent."

"Do we have enough time for that?" Caldwell asked.

"If information Rodney provided is correct, you should. It will be close but the Daedalus may be able to get a radio lock on the Colonel and his team inside the hive," Radek answered.

"And possibly beam them out," Lorne stated.

"What do you think, Colonel?" Elizabeth said.

"The Daedalus will head out as soon as Major Lorne and I are onboard."

*****

Caldwell and Lorne watched as the hives started firing on each other.

"Why are they attacking each other?"

"One of the darts was firing on the other ship, Sir."

"I wonder why."

Lorne took a deep breath, a look of disbelief on his face. "Colonel Sheppard."

"What?"

"It's Colonel Sheppard, Sir. He's getting them to fire at each other!"

A bright orange light engulfed the bridge of the Daedalus as both ships exploded. There was silence before a voice said, "Everything was destroyed in a fifteen thousand metre radius."

Turning to Major Marks, Colonel Caldwell asked, "Did any darts survive?"

Checking his screens, the major shook his head. "Negative, Sir."

"Inform Atlantis of the situation and let them know we're on our way back."

*****

Chuck closed down the radio connection and made his way to Doctor Weir who was watching over the gate room from the walkway to her office.

"We received word from Daedalus. They said they should be back to Atlantis by nineteen hundred hours."

"They called the search off?"

"They said there was nothing to search for."

Elizabeth didn't reply for a few moments before quietly saying, "Thank you." Chuck nodded then walked back to the consoles. Before she made it to her office, the gate dialled in and alarms sounded. Heading over to Chuck, she asked, "Who is it?"

Chuck checked the computer and smiled. "It's Colonel Sheppard's code."

"Let them in." Elizabeth ran down the stairs, and watched as John, Teyla and Ronon walked through the gate.

"Sorry we're late," John said, grinning.

"We were worried you were dead."

"No, we're tougher than that."

"Well let's get you to infirmary, I know Carson will want to check you all over."

John started to tell Elizabeth what happened on the hive ship and soon the four of them made their way into the infirmary. Elizabeth saw curtains were pulled around the bed Rodney was in as she said, "The Daedalus reported all ships were destroyed..."

"I knew when the hives started to shoot each other it was just a matter of time before they blew each other up, so I went to the space gate and dialled an address where I could land safely. I didn't think the dart could fit into our gate room."

Teyla said, "The Colonel was kind enough to make us whole again and returned home."

"I'm curious, John, how did you know the Wraith would fight each other?" Elizabeth asked.

"A little intel from Ford, plus, uh, I kind of goosed things along with the Queen," John replied as Carson came out of the curtained area. Seeing them, he made his way over to the group.

"Colonel, Teyla, Ronon, it's good to see you all. Doctor Weir, I was about to call you about..."

"Is he awake again? Has he said anything else?"

"No, he..." Turning to the others, Carson said, "I understand that Teyla and Ronon have been taking the Wraith enzyme so I'll be wanting to check you out."

"We are both fine, Doctor Beckett," Teyla answered. "The enzyme left our systems while we were on the hive ship, thankfully we hadn't been on it long enough to be addicted to it as Aiden was."

John frowned. "How do you know about Teyla and Ronon, Carson? And you haven't explained how the Daedalus knew to be at that planet either, Elizabeth."

"Rodney told us," Elizabeth answered.

"Doctor McKay is back on Atlantis?" Teyla asked.

Before Carson could say anything, Elizabeth told them what Rodney had done.

"McKay shouldn't have done that," Ronon said.

"No, he shouldn't," Teyla agreed.

"He wanted to make sure you were all safe, he was worried that something had happened to you all," Elizabeth countered. "He... He said..."

"What?" John asked.

Elizabeth looked uncomfortable as she answered, "He wanted your trust back, John."

"He what?" John asked, shocked. He knew things had been strained between the two of them since Doranda, but had thought Rodney knew that they were working both their personal and professional relationships out. Realising that maybe he hadn't told Rodney that he trusted him, John looked around for his partner. Noticing the curtained off area for the first time, he continued "Is he in there? Can I see him?"

Carson shook his head, sorrow clear in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, John. Taking as much enzyme as he did was too much for Rodney's system, he died from a massive heart attack just before you arrived in the infirmary."