If McKay had known that his morning was going to be this he would never have gotten up to the screaming going on outside his door. If he had any sense at all he would have rolled over and went back to sleep and the following incident would never have occurred. Unfortunately for Rodney, he didn't.

Rodney rolled over in his sleep, it took a lot to wake him some morning especially ones following missions that didn't include a lot of rest time. This was one of those times; however, even he couldn't sleep through the banging and screaming that was taking place just outside of his room.

Tearing out of bed like a bat out of hell McKay rushed to the door clad only in his briefs, upon opening it he discovers a young scientist twisting on the floor, partially wrapped in toilet paper.

"Heeeelp me! Heeeelp! I am being attacked!"

"Calm down, there is no one here I'll call-"

"Ahh! The giant brown spider! Mommy save me! Save me!"

By this time McKay has realised that the man in front of him is not in any danger at all, in fact after seeing the now very pissed off look on Rodney's face he is not screaming at all but laughing to the point of tears. It has become very apparent that someone has spoken about the 'incident' from the other day. And it could only be one man.

"Sheppard." Rodney said softly through gritted teeth.

It hadn't exactly been one of Rodney's finer moments, but he had been lead to believe a few things before he had fallen into such an unbecoming situation. The first thing was that Teyla mentioned she had been to this planet numerous times, and though uninhabited it didn't have anything dangerous on it. So it was likely that the population had been wiped out by the Wraith at some point. The second happened many years ago on a camping trip as a child, not exactly one of Rodney's favourite things to do even then and so the fact that he had been attacked, yes attacked, by a venomous brown spider never really left him.

So, here they were checking the place out (another team had scanned the area and reported possible ancient technology around and Rodney wanted to check it out himself) when who of all people should fall slightly behind the rest of his team, trip over a recently fallen branch, and end up face first in the mud? Rodney McKay of course.

If that had been the worst of it they probably all would have had a good laugh at him and left it at that. However, that wasn't exactly the 'incident'. Sitting up and wiping some of the guck from his face, and unaware of the fact that the rest of his team was running back to him after he let out his anger at falling quite loudly, he looked up and froze. There, above him in what could only be described as a giant death trap was the biggest spider McKay had ever seen in his life. It was at least two feet long and he wasn't positive but was almost sure that there was no such a creature back home.

He decided if he didn't move, perhaps it would carry on its way, he had no such luck. The thing leapt directly at his face, and when McKay saw a glimpse of brown hair flying towards his face he couldn't help it. He let out a very high pitched girlish scream. Flashing back to that moment as a child he didn't call out for his team.

"Mommy!"

Rolling around in the mud, arms flailing about, screaming for his mother in a very girlish manner, Sheppard, Teyla and Ronon came upon Rodney and they couldn't help it, they laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Of course by this time the large, though completely harmless, spider had long since vanished. Rodney managed to make them swear to secrecy about the entire 'incident'. And there was only one man who would break that promise for a prank.

Rodney wasted no time in locating his arch nemesis and team leader, Sheppard. He asked everyone who passed by where they had last seen him, and it appeared from the general consensus that he was in the mess hall. Pace quickening once his destination was assured McKay resisted the urge to actually break out into a run, there was no need to waste his energy on that when he would need all of it to pound the life out of his 'friend'.

Finally, he reached the mess hall and opened the doors, he practically jumped in surprise of what he saw. "Whaaa...?" He managed to squeeze out gesturing ridiculously at the room.

"Greetings Rodney, I believe that correct thing to say is Happy Canada Day." Teyla said, offering him a smile and leading him gently towards the large cake on the table.

Rodney squinted in the direction of Sheppard who rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Sorry McKay, we just wanted to make sure you didn't have a chance to really think about it a spoil our little surprise party." McKay opened his mouth, most likely to tell Sheppard off anyways when his friend thrusted a plate at him with a large corner piece of cake on it. "Cake?"

If there was one thing that seemed to make everything else alright, it was cake. Shutting up for once, but certainly saving the lecture for later, he took his cake and ate it too.