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Rodney watched until Ronon and Teyla disappeared from view. It had taken them four hours to walk to walk to the ruin of the Ancient building so, even with Ronon and Teyla running all the way back to the Gate, it was likely to be at least three to four hours before help arrived. Unfortunately, the dense vegetation around the Stargate precluded the use of a Puddlejumper.
It had actually been quite a pleasant walk. It was late spring on the planet and the day had been warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze stirring the trees and grasses. Everything had been going well until they got halfway back to the Gate when John stumbled and fell down a hole in the ground, unfortunately hitting his head on a small rock on the way as well as breaking his ankle in the process.
So here they were, late afternoon, stuck behind a rocky outcrop which at least gave some shelter and protection, while Ronon and Teyla went to get help.
Rodney glanced down at John, realizing that he was close to falling asleep. He added a couple more logs to the fire before locating both emergency blankets and shaking them out, placing one on the ground and up the wall at his back to ward off the chill of the stone and keeping the other to one side.
“Come on, John; time to get ready for bed.” He said softly, nudging John with his elbow. “We need to share body heat and try and get you warmed up. On top of that I need to be able to wake you up at regular intervals. Knocking your head that hard must have given you concussion.” John groaned but came around enough to allow Rodney to maneuver him, carefully minding his broken ankle, so he was sitting between Rodney’s legs.
Rodney wrapped the second blanket around them both, anchoring both ends behind his shoulders and wrapping his arms tightly around John. To his relief, John’s head quickly dropped onto his shoulder and John relaxed into the embrace. It wasn’t long before Rodney felt the tremors reduce until John was no longer shivering.
“Sleep John, I’ll take first watch.” Rodney assured him softly as John fell into an uneasy sleep. “I’ll protect you.”