1. Mission

_A/N: This is the first story ive written. So far i've written about 15 short chapters (13000) words or so but as i am unfamiliar with how this works i'm posting them individually, hopefully all of them in the next couple of days. Hope you enjoy and any feedback would be greatly appreciated :)_

Shepperd kicked a pebble across the wet ground before looking up to survey the terrain once more, the hills were lush and gree

Sheppard kicked a pebble across the wet ground before looking up to survey the terrain once more, the hills were lush and green with thick foliage but he knew now that this was because of the astonishing amount of rain this damn planet had.

"McKay, will you hurry up already!" he shouted with frustration. "There's nothing here, even your stupid scanner agrees with me!"

Rodney had insisted that the old ruins be checked as soon as he heard about them. Always keen to make new discoveries he often spent hours going over piles of rubble just like this one on other planets they visited. And still he had yet to find his all time wish, a fully charged ZPM.

McKay looked up with annoyance on his face "Colonel, have you ever heard the saying never hurry genius!?"

"McKay…" Sheppard drew out the single word, adding a level of threat and irritation to it.

"Fine, fine, just give me two more minutes, then we can go" McKay sighed.

"Good" Sheppard said, satisfied. "Hopefully Dr. Keller, Ronon and Teyla will be finished in the village and we can go back to Atlantis and dry off, finally." He was almost bouncing where he stood, _like a small child_ McKay thought to himself as he began packing his equipment away.

Sheppard marched at a quick pace along the well worn trail that ran between the village and the ruins, aware of everything in his surroundings but not really suspicious of it. the villagers had been extremely welcoming to their guests from the ring of the ancients and they were such a backwards society, still living in mud and straw huts, that Sheppard saw little threat posed.

Keller had come through when Teyla had learnt, through one of the elders in the village, of an unusual plant that grew on the planet. According to the villagers, when mixed correctly with other indigenous plants, could heal almost every physical injury. _Surely they will have picked enough of the stuff to take back to Atlantis by now_ Sheppard thought as they walked.

They got back to the village just as it began to rain for the third time in as many hours. Each time it had been as though the sky had opened up to release an invisible ocean hidden by the thick clouds. Sheppard and McKay jogged the last 100 meters and ducked into the first hut they came to. McKay grumbling the entire way about the weight of the equipment he carried.

"McKay, I get the point, its heavy but would you prefer you get shot if we're in a fire fight because I had my hands full with your stuff."

McKay stopped dead in his tracks, just inside the opening of the hut, a look n his face, as though this thought had never crossed his mind. "Well… no I guess not" he replied.

"Good, then stop whining." Sheppard retorted.

From experience they knew the rain would last no more than10 minutes but in the meantime Sheppard set about entertaining the 3 small children who were the inhabitants of the shelter. From out of one of the many pockets of his flack jacket Sheppard pulled a lighter and put it in his trouser pocket. From the first pocket he then pulled a small, round, ball filled with plastic beans. He began to kick it around in the air, occasionally performing a flashy trick. The kids watched with amazement and when he eventually stopped they clamoured for more.

When the rain stopped, just as suddenly as it started, and the slightly damp Sheppard and McKay made their excuses and went in search of the rest of the team. They walked through the dripping village which began to steam as the new water began to evaporate. As they walked the villagers began to emerge once more from their huts and the village came back to life. Children ran up to Sheppard to see if he would teach them new games while Rodney battered away the little hands that tried, in vain, to see if he would give them anything.

Ronon smiled a predator like smile when he saw Rodney's discomfort but Rodney just kept moving, pretending to ignore everything around him.

"You got everything you need doc?" Sheppard inquired to Keller.

"Yes, I think so," Keller said, seeming slightly flustered, "I'm certainly ready to go." She continued, already starting to walk in the direction of the stargate.

When Keller's back was turned Sheppard raised a questioning eyebrow and Teyla answered by saying; "The Doctor just received a proposal for marriage from one of the men in the village."

"Yes, he was a lovely man but I pointed out that I couldn't drop my responsibilities and settle down just yet…" she trailed off as even she realised that her dismissal had been weak.

Keller kept her eyes fixed pointedly ahead but she couldn't keep from hearing the amusement present in Sheppard's voice; "well I give you my congratulations and I'm sure that if you requested Weir would give you the chance to go through with the marriage."

No sooner had he said this however Keller fell to the ground, unmoving.

Pulling his gun up into the ready position, Sheppard was aware of Ronan and Teyla doing the same.

Rodney hurried over to Keller to check that she was ok and, finding a strong pulse beneath his fingers, called out "I think she's just unconscious."

Sheppard surveyed the area around him trying to ascertain who, or what, could have knocked Keller out.

He saw a quick movement behind the trees to his right, but even as he turned to fire he saw Rodney slump down on top of Keller.

"Teyla, Ronon!" he shouted "take Rodney to the gate and dial Atlantis, I'll be right behind you with Keller."

Teyla and Ronon both nodded, knowing that it was pointless to argue with Sheppard. Ronon slung Rodney over his shoulders in a fireman's hold and began moving in the direction they had originally been travelling, Teyla close behind, looking in all directions for their unknown assailant or assailants, her weapon ready.

Sheppard bent down to pick up Keller but even as he did so he felt a sharp prick in his shoulder and then darkness rushed in to claim him.


	2. Escape

Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Ronon and Teyla made it to the gate without incident. Teyla had seen Sheppard go down but decided not to mention it to Ronon until they were far enough away that she could convince him not to go back. If that were to happen then she was sure they would all be captured.

"Where's Sheppard?" Ronon panted as he shifted Rodney in to a more comfortable position.

"He is not coming" Teyla replied briskly, even as she began to dial the gate

"We have to go back" he insisted immediately, just as Teyla had known he would.

The gate sprung to life and the chevrons began to lock into place. The event horizon shot into being with its typical whoosh and Teyla began to move towards it, saying as she did; "It is too late, we have to go back to Atlantis and tell them what has happened so that they can send a rescue team."

Ronon just grunted and moved to stand beside Teyla as she began to type her identification code into the GDO. He flicked on his radio and said, "Atlantis this is Ronon, we've run into a bit of a problem here and need medics in the gate room."

By this time Teyla had finished typing in her IDC and started moving towards the gate. Ronon followed close behind.

Les than a meter from the gate Ronon saw Teyla raise a hand to her neck before stumbling and falling. He raced towards the gate and slung Rodney off his shoulders before unceremoniously throwing him into the event horizon.

Turning back for Teyla, Ronon saw several of the villagers emerge from between the vegetation. Two of them were carrying blowpipes whilst the others had nothing but bows and arrows.

Ronon thought he caught a glimpse of black lying in the undergrowth before he too felt the sharp sting of a dart in his thigh. He fought off the wave of dizziness that threatened to engulf him and took several, unsteady, steps towards the gate. Two more darts hit him and he toppled to the ground, still trying desperately to fight the overpowering drugs that raced through his system. The last thing he heard was "copy that Ronon, medics will be standing by", as all too soon he was enveloped by a suffocating darkness…


	3. Confusion

Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Samantha Carter stood in the control room, looking intently down into the gate room. She knew all too well from experience that a seemingly harmless mission could turn into a disaster in seconds.

She had just replied to Ronon's message when an unconscious McKay had come tumbling through the gate.

An expectant silence filled the room as everyone present waited for the rest of the team to follow. However, a minute later no one else had stepped, or for that matter fallen, trough and the gate shut down.

Sam sighed; she had a feeling that the next couple of days would be really long.

A medical team had already converged on Rodney and had put him on a gurney. They had started wheeling him towards the infirmary by the time Sam had descended the short flight of stairs leading from the control room to the gate room.

"Will he be alright?" She asked the passing medic.

The man nodded and replied "I think so, he only seems to be unconscious and there are no obvious external injuries but I'll need to run more tests before I can be absolutely sure."

Carter nodded, satisfied, they were the best doctors in two galaxies and she knew they knew what they were doing. Returning to the control room she said; "have Major Lorne prepare his team and then come and see me, I will be in my office."


	4. The Nightmare Begins

Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Rodney woke with what felt like the worst hangover in human history. He cracked open his eyes and immediately regretted it when the bright lights of the infirmary shone into his eyes. Furthermore he felt like he was about to throw up.

He groaned and heard a voice say; "Inform Colonel Carter that he's awake."

Rodney glanced over, looking for the other members of his team, but he appeared to be the only occupant other than the doctor standing at the foot of his bed.

The doctor looked up from the chart he was reading and smiled. "Well, I can imagine you have the mother of all headaches but you should be fine. You hit your head pretty hard when you came through the gate, I would like to ask you a few questions just to make sure you don't have a concussion. What's your name?"

Rodney huffed and retorted, "What do you think my name is? Spock? I am Rodney McKay, doctor of astrophysics, not voodoo, and I am in the Atlantis infirmary. I have no idea what day it is but the day I was last conscious in was a Wednesday. Furthermore, I have no idea what your name is nor do I really care."

"Yes I would say you are fine." The doctor merely said, not at all insulted, before briskly taking Rodney's pulse and making some notes on the chart.

"Give him a break McKay" carter told him as she walked into the room, "he's just doing his job. I thought even you would have appreciated that by now."

"Yes well… I'm me" Rodney retorted, seeming slightly unsure of himself.

"Rodney" Carter said gently, returning to the matter at hand, "we need to know what happened, where are the others?"

"What?" Rodney asked, startled, "you mean they didn't come back with me?"

"no" Carter countered, "you were the only one who came back, Teyla dialled the gate and sent her IDC and then Ronon radioed in to say you had run into some trouble and you came through the gate, rather unceremoniously I might add." She said the last bit contained a faint hint of amusement.

"I…but…well, Dr Keller fell down and I went to check on her, her pulse was strong and then… that's the last thing I remember… Teyla, Ronon and Sheppard were definitely still on their feet though" he added as an afterthought.

"The drug in your system was fast acting but also seems to have been broken down fairly fast." The doctor took this opportunity to say. "You'll be glad to know it is still Wednesday," he added wryly. "I'd like to do a few more blood tests, but you are free to leave the infirmary and go and clean up."

"Yes… I think I might do that." Rodney said, absentmindedly, already swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

"I sent Major Lorne and his team out in a cloaked jumper" Carter informed Rodney as she walked with him in the direction of his quarters "but so far they've had no luck."

"Hmmm… have they collected the last 50 gate addresses dialled?" Rodney enquired.

"Of course, but we were hoping they were still on the planet. The search team thought they had a signal from Colonel Sheppard's subcutaneous transmitter but when they searched the area they couldn't find anything. I've sent them back with a science team… but still nothing."

"Who did you send?" Rodney posed the question almost innocently, hoping it was Zelenka, who in Rodney's opinion, though he would never say so to the Czech, was the second best, f not Rodney's equal, in Atlantis.

"I sent Kavanah and Peters." Carter told him matter-of-factly.

"Well there's your problem right there!" Rodney almost exploded. "Never send Kavanah to do anything important, he's absolutely useless. In fact, I'm surprised he has even managed to last here so long."

Carter looked slightly bemused. "I was told he was very qualified."

"Whoever told you that is stupider than Kavanah" Rodney retorted angrily, his intense dislike of the man getting the better of him. It was no secret on Atlantis that the two men despised each other but Carter, being new, had no inkling of the depth of this mutual dislike.

"Very well, I'll send someone else as well. Who would you recommend, other than yourself of course?"

"Zelenka" Rodney replied instantly, "The man knows what he's doing."

"In the mean time," Carter ordered "get some rest."

"I don't need rest" Rodney huffed, "I need to work."

"Tough" carter told him, "I'm making it and order."

Rodney huffed once more but did not argue back. Carter thought that he still looked a little tired; he just didn't want to admit it.

They parted ways at Rodney's room, Carter heading back to her office, and Rodney going to get changed.


	5. Drug

Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Ronon and Keller were already awake when Teyla finally began to stir. As soon as they saw her eyes lids begin to flicker they went to her.

"Don't open your eyes just yet." Ronon advised as he came nearer, "it'll hurt like hell…" he trailed off as Teyla opened her eyes and sat up, fast.

"I am fine." She told them as Keller moved in, in an obvious attempt to check her over. "I feel no worse than before." She continued, looking around, taking in their surroundings.

They were in a dark room. The walls were grey and there were no windows. The door in one wall looked sturdy, made of a metal much like iron. There was a distinct air of dampness and oppression that Teyla had to suppress as she began to feel slightly claustrophobic, extremely unusual for her.

Once she had finished surveying their cell her gaze returned to her companions. Ronon was rubbing his head as though he was suffering from a severe headache and Dr Keller looked haggard and pale. Sheppard, however, was still unconscious.

Seeing the direction of her gaze Ronon said; "I'm not sure what they gave us, but it doesn't seem to be agreeing with him. Isn't he usually the first one awake after something like this happens?"

Teyla nodded, slightly worried now, John was nearly always the first to wake after they were knocked unconscious; whether that had anything to do with his Ancient gene she was unsure. At the same time she couldn't help but find it funny the way Ronon had said 'something like this' as though it was a regular occurrence. _Come to think of it, _she thought_, this does happen to us quite a lot really._ The one small comfort she had was that the cell did not look like something the Wraith or the Replicators would build.

"He'll be alright as far as I can tell without my equipment" Keller informed her. "whatever they got us with, we all seem to have reacted in different ways; you seem to have no ill effects, Ronon over there feels like he had hammers working on his brain, which is making him a mite grumpy I might add, and I feel slightly queasy, but other than that fine. We will have to wait until the Colonel wakes up before we know what his symptoms are…"

Teyla thought that Keller looked tired and a little stressed, and then it hit her; this was the first time Keller had been in a situation such as this.

"You are doing very well doctor." Teyla said, trying to be comforting, "I'm sure Dr McKay will have woken up by now and Atlantis will have sent search parties."

Keller just nodded.

"I wouldn't be so sure" a disembodied voice told them smugly.

Ronon spun round looking for the source of the words, a feral growl escaping from deep in his throat.

"Now, now, calm down Setadan, you will only make your headache worse"

"How do you know I'm from Sateda?" Ronon demanded angrily

"The same way I know that your pretty dark skinned friend is Athosian and the one on the floor unconscious is an Ancient. I have to admit, I am puzzled by the last of you but I am sure we will have plenty of time to determine that later… the drug coursing through your bodies has been specially designed to cause different reactions based on the different genetic types that it encounters."

"That's fascinating" Keller said, unable to contain herself, "how…"

Ronon cut her off saying "Well your drug's got a fault, Sheppard isn't and Ancient."

"we shall see" is all the voice said. If there was any emotion it was undetectable. "if I am right he will wake up soon with extreme muscle fatigue all over his body, which will last for about 10 minutes. I must say I do hope I'm right, I am very keen to add a living Ancient to my collection."

No one could think of a reply to this, so instead they all kept quiet, each nursing their various symptoms, waiting for something to happen.


	6. Incapacitated

**Chapter 6**

Sheppard ached all over. He felt like he had run five marathons and then been beaten up repeatedly. Pushing himself over onto his back he found three pairs of worried eyes looking back at him.

"How do you feel Colonel?" Dr. Keller asked as she picked up his wrist to check his pulse.

"Like I've been training with Ronon for a solid week." Sheppard joked, "Speaking of which," he said noticing Teyla and Ronon behind Keller. "Didn't I order you to go back to Atlantis and get help?"

"I got McKay through the 'gate" Ronon stated defensively "but I went back to get Teyla, she was only a meter from the 'gate, I thought I'd have time."

Teyla was staring at Sheppard with something new on her face, noticing he asked; "What's with the stares, I'm not dying you know."

"It is exactly as the man said it would be extreme muscle fatigue for a short time."

"Yes, I suppose, but we could explain that by Colonel Sheppard's ATA gene, that's probably what the drug detects when it reacts." Keller explained, satisfied that Sheppard was fine.

"Would someone care to tell me what's going on?" Sheppard asked as he propped himself up against the nearest wall and began to loosen his stiff muscles.

He sat in disbelief as the others told him what they knew of their situation. When told about what the voice had said Sheppard turned to Teyla and said; "I can guarantee you, I'm human, you think I might have noticed if I was an Ancient, you know, they can do really cool stuff that is way out of my league."

Teyla just nodded.

Sheppard's eyes narrowed as he realised something; "Hey, you said something about this guy talking about a collection... you don't think he collects people, do you?"

The silence that followed was answer enough.

"Right, I don't know about you guys, but personally, I'm not overly keen on being part of any collection. How 'bout we find a way out of here instead? Come to think of it... where is here anyway?"

The voice, man, chose this time to start speaking again.

"Now that you are all awake I think we should meet face to face. Video monitors are awfully grainy and I would like to inspect my new centre pieces."

"You know, that's just creepy" Sheppard stated to no-one in particular. "I don't really want to be a centre piece, if you wouldn't mind." Sarcasm creeping back into his voice.

The voice continued as if Sheppard hadn't said anything; "I would suggest you don't resist my people, life could be very unpleasant for you otherwise."

"Oh yes, the thought of losing these lovely ocean views is just too much to bear." Sheppard retorted sarcastically, sweeping his arms around to indicate the windowless room.

A dull metal clunk sounded through the small empty room, and all four of the room's occupants turned to face its source. Slowly the door began to slide into the wall to reveal four guards, with no visible weapons, waiting for them.

"Only four guards?" Ronon asked, and Sheppard could immediately see where his line of inquiry was heading.

"I believe that will be sufficient." The bodiless voice replied, confidence radiating from the hidden speakers.

Indicating to Teyla to stay back and be prepared to make sure Keller was with them, John and Ronon stepped towards the door, pretending to be meek and subdued. As they stepped through the door, however, both lashed out, hitting the guards nearest them.

The pain was immediate and unrelenting.

Sheppard had no idea where the pain was coming from but as he collapsed to the floor, holding his head in agony, he saw Ronon hit another guard before he too succumbed to the pain.

Teyla, seeing what happened to john and Ronon, chose to bide her time until she could be sure of achieving something.

Two more guards appeared from nowhere and then the original four picked Sheppard and Ronon up and carried them away. The two new guards silently indicated that Teyla and Keller should follow.

They walked down a long, straight corridor for several minutes, much like the cell there were no windows and the walls were a dull grey colour. At the end of the corridor was a set of double doors that slid back to reveal a large elevator. Once all four prisoners and their guards were in the elevator the doors slid shut once more.

There were no buttons in the lift but as soon as the doors closed it began to move.

It took more than five minutes for the lift to reach its destination. Once more the doors opened but this time the scene was very different.

* * *

_A/N: i have to apologise for the cliff hangers, it seems that every time i come to the end of a chapter a cliffhanger appears:(_

_Thanks for the reviews, to have them so soon is really encouraging, i will try to post more as fast as i can._


	7. Detected

Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

"Oh, oh" Zelenka gasped suddenly as a beeping emitted from his hand-held device. "I am getting a signal from Colonel Sheppard's transmitter; he is definitely still on this planet."

Lorne looked up from the rock where he was sitting. "You're sure? The last team picked up a signal that was coming from the middle of nowhere."

"Yes, yes, I'm sure." Zelenka confirmed distractedly as he started trying to triangulate the signal. "It is definitely his signal"

"Can you find out where it's coming from?" Lorne asked, climbing from his seat. It was the first break they had had in several hours.

"Yes, I can, just give me a minute, the signal is much weaker than I would have expected I will need time to recalibrate the sensors" he replied in a slightly frustrated tone. Several minutes later, after much muttering in Czech, he piped up again "the signal is six clicks north-west of our current position."

"Right, that's it. Zelenka, Green is going to take you back to the 'gate and he's going to report in" Lorne told him, signalling to one of his men, "the rest of you are going to come with me and we are going to go and check out the location."

"Yes, right, certainly." Zelenka agreed. He was not all that keen on this type of fieldwork; this was much more down Rodney's line. He couldn't wait for Colonel Carter to reinstate Rodney to active duty. At the moment he was sure that Rodney was probably terrorising all the other scientists that were currently stationed on Atlantis and all their work was, undoubtedly, inevitably slowing down. Regardless of the fact that the man was a genius he was not really compatible with an efficient working environment.

Zelenka and Green reached the gate without incident and they dialled. While Zelenka walked through the event-horizon Green activated his radio and began to give a detailed report to Carter.

As soon as Zelenka stepped through the horizon and into Atlantis he was bombarded with questions from Rodney.

"Have you found them yet?" Rodney pounced. Zelenka jerked backwards, almost tripping over.

"No Rodney, I have not found them yet" Zelenka replied impatiently as he brushed past MacKay "I merely pointed Major Lorne and his men in the direction of Colonel Sheppard's transmitter."

"Good then you have found them" Rodney continued as if what Radek had just said had only barely registered.

"No, that is not what I said. I said I pointed them in the right direction, I do not believe that that infers that I found them, merely that there is a possibility." Zelenka kept walking even as Rodney jogged to catch up.

Noticing what was occurring between her two senior scientists below Carter began to descend the steps from the control room. "McKay" she said irritably, confirming Zelenka's earlier suppositions, "I told you to go back to your room and rest, and to stop bothering the other scientists. I will tell you when we have anything of substance regarding the whereabouts of the rest of the team, ok?"

"Fine, fine." Rodney replied. Everyone that was watching knew that he hadn't really taken her order on board but for the time being he was out from under their feet.

As he walked off Carter walked over to where Zelenka stood "what do you think?" she asked "How promising is it."

Zelenka took a moment to think about his answer before he replied. "I do not think that it is easy for the transmitter to be removed, what is more the signal would not be detected by our instruments if the transmitter is no longer on the planet. But to be honest Colonel I do not know. It really depends on what Major Lorne finds." He could not help but to feel slightly depressed by what he was saying.

"Thank you for being honest Radek." Carter tried to cheer Zelenka up. "At least we have something to follow up now."


	8. Encounter

Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

The room that the group found themselves in was huge, the vaulted ceiling extend over one hundred feet above them, supported by Romanesque pillars. Near the top of the wall gigantic windows allowed sunlight to stream into the hall.

Looking up at the windows Sheppard said "well no hope of going out that way… is that trees I see?"

"It certainly appears to be Colonel" Teyla remarked, "but I do not recall seeing anything that could possibly be that high on the planet we were on, perhaps we have been moved."

"Yeah well what good does that do, I say we attack now and get out of here." Ronon grunted, standing up straight as the disabling pain began to wear off.

"I do not think that would be wise Ronon, not until we can determine what caused your pain, do you agree Doctor?" Teyla addressed Keller who, up until that moment in time had been staring around her in amazement.

"Hmmm? What?" She asked startled at being addressed

"Is there something that has caught your attention?"

"Well not so much, I was just wondering if it's possible that we are underground."

From the opposite end of the room came a slightly demented laugh.

"That one is quite astute." came the observation. "She is quite right of course; we are one hundred and twenty feet down, with your current quarters being several hundred feet below us." Addressing the guards the voice said, "Bring them here, and let me have a look."

The group was shoved roughly forwards and they began to advance towards the end of the hall. Sitting on his throne that was perched on a raised platform sat the owner of the voice that had addressed them earlier.

The man wasn't much to look at, he wore richly woven clothes and a heavy crown upon his head but they couldn't hide his diminutive stature and the large belly that protruded.

"I always like to meet my captors." Sheppard quipped as they reached the base of the platform and were forced to kneel by a sharp blow to the back of their knees.

"Yes, well I don't usually like to meet my specimens until they have been properly prepared but you are such a strange mixture of species that I felt the need to see you in the attire you were bought in with. I must say I thought there was something wrong with the monitors but I wasn't mistaken. Tell me, where is it you come from and why are you all travelling as a group, dressed in such a uniform?"

"If you don't mind id like to reserve my right to an attorney." Sheppard replied

The odd king was not the only one that gave him a questioning look _I really need to show Ronon and Teyla more TV_ Sheppard thought. The only person who had understood his reference was Keller and, this being her first time in captivity; she had elected to remain quiet. However, when he glanced in her direction he noticed the corners of her mouth twitch ever so slightly.

"Never mind, you will tell me eventually." The king had realised that Sheppard wasn't telling him anything of value and had decided to move on.

At that moment there was a loud bang and a villager from earlier on walked in nervously, escorted by two hulking guards.

"Still on the same planet then" Ronon remarked upon seeing the man. There was a menacing look in his eyes that the group knew only too well.

"You know, just for once I would like to visit a planet where people were not trying to extort us, capture us or kill us, just once. I had high hopes for this place." Sheppard commented, trying to relieve the tension that was building in the air.

"Yeah, maybe next time." Ronon grunted, realising what Sheppard was trying to achieve.

"You have done well this time slave; I will spare your village this year." The king said coldly to the villager who was basically cowering at the foot of the throne, right next to Teyla.

The villager banged his head against the floor several times before shuffling backwards out of the room.

"Perhaps a small amount of apathy would go a long way with these people" Teyla stated quietly.

"Nonsense woman, why would I do that when intimidation works just as well?"

Teyla had no reply to this and instead said nothing, knowing well when she had said too much.

The king's demeanour suddenly changed and, addressing the guards he said "prepare the ancient first, take the others back to their cell."

Ronon looked as if he was about to spring so Sheppard just said, "go with it Ronon, there's nothing we can do just yet, don't fight it."

Keller looked as if she too were about to protest so he turned to her and told her "I'm making that an order, no protesting" before he was yanked away and taken through a third door which, until that, moment nobody had noticed.


	9. A Bad Day Gets Worse

Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Teyla Ronon and Keller were taken the same route they had come on the journey to the hall. Ronon was constantly turning to look at the guards and what weaponry they had while, in deference to Sheppard's orders, he took no action that may further antagonise their captors. Within minutes they were stopped in front of an indistinguishable door, just like all the others in the hallway.

One guard opened the door while the second roughly shoved Ronon in and then gestured to Teyla and Keller to follow. They obeyed without resistance.

As soon as the door swung closed Ronon threw himself at it in frustration. As a result loud echoing bang could be heard resounding down the corridor.

"I do not think that will help Ronon." Teyla remarked from where she sat on the floor.

"Yeah? Well it makes me feel better." Ronon retorted.

"Is it just me or does this room look slightly different to the one we were in?" Keller asked, breaking the silence she had maintained until that moment.

"Yes, I believe you are right." Teyla agreed as she looked carefully around the room, "the walls are not as damp and the room appears to be slightly smaller."

"So what?" Ronon asked, "How does that help us, or Sheppard?"

"We know that we are in a different part of the complex, surely there is a reason for this, I believe we are in the opposite end from where we were before."

"How do you know that?" Keller inquired, despite everything she was fascinated.

"Well, I cannot be sure as many of the passages look very much the same, but I believe we turned down a corridor that went off at an angle from the elevator, and it began to slope downwards. If I remember correctly, the first time we approached the elevator we were also on a downwards slope, thus this time it would be an upwards slope if we were heading back to our original cell. Hopefully this means that we are not too far away from where they took colonel Sheppard."

"That is amazing," Keller commented, "I never even thought to notice the gradient of the hallway."

"Neither did I, and I didn't notice the difference in the cells, it just shows us that this place is a maze and we are going to have a hard time getting out of here." Ronon said pessimistically as he flopped down on the floor next to Teyla.

At that moment they heard an agonised yell from farther down the hallway…

**10 minutes earlier**

The door through which Sheppard was taken led to yet another elevator. This one was much smaller with only just enough room for Sheppard and his two guards to fit in. As the door slid shut Sheppard shifted slightly, looking for any cameras. He saw none and, knowing he had a very limited window, he immediately turned and grabbed the weapon of the guard his right, feeling slightly hypocritical given the orders he had relayed to Ronon and the others not minutes before.

"Sorry guys, no hard feelings, but I don't really want to become part of some weird collection." As he said this he hit the guard, who still had his weapon, over the head before turning on the now weapon-less guard.

Dispatching this second guard just as quickly, Sheppard turned as he heard the elevator doors open.

Standing on the other side of the door were four angry looking guards.

"Oh, this really isn't my day" Sheppard groaned as they pulled him from the elevator and swiftly moved off down the hallway, leaving the two unconscious guards on the floor of the elevator.

The room they entered immediately had Sheppard worried but, not wanting to show this he instead pulled out his sarcasm. "Love what you've done with the place, interesting use of stainless steel, perhaps too much for me but never the less each to their own. You will have to give me the number of your designer though."

From the confused looks on the faces of the people in the room Sheppard knew he had achieved his aim of bewildering his captors.

This didn't last for long however. The guards, with Sheppard between them, had paused at the doorway but with a signal from one of the men in the room they began to move towards the centre of the room and the shiny metal table that was there.

The four of them lifted Sheppard completely off the floor and slammed him down onto the table.

Grunting as he hit the table, hard, Sheppard told them; "that REALY wasn't necessary you know, you could have just asked"

He looked around him, desperately trying to see something that he could use as a weapon as the guards began to strap him tightly to the table using leather straps that encircled his wrists, ankles and upper shoulders, essentially forcing him to lie face down on the table.

"This is really uncomfortable, do you think you could loosen these straps, I promise I wont go anywhere." He quipped once more.

This attempt at sarcasm also passed the people in the room by as one of them approached, saying as he did so; "I would have to disagree with that, the pain always makes people want to move and that does so much more damage"

A blinding light was switched on and Sheppard squinted through the glare, taking in the room that was now illuminated. It was only slightly larger than the cell they had been kept in before but instead of plain grey walls, all Sheppard could see were cupboards full of phials of liquid and many unpleasant-looking surgical instruments. The only wall that looked vaguely different was the one directly in front of Sheppard, this one had bars that looked out into a small holding cell, or so Sheppard assumed.

From the corner of his eye he saw the man, who had spoken before, approach. This time the man carried an enormous syringe containing a viscous blue substance. He placed this syringe on a tray that was next to the table which Sheppard was strapped to and picked up a slightly smaller syringe, saying as he did so; "his royal highness insists that we obtain blood and spinal fluid before we begin preparation, please refrain from moving, it makes everything so much more complicated and in the long run this process does no damage."

"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one who's losing the fluids." Sheppard said. He felt the tiny prick of a needle and glanced down to his side to see the man with the syringe pull back on the plunger of the syringe, withdrawing blood as he did so.

"You see that really wasn't so bad was it... I do wish these morons would think when they are told to do something…hand me the scissors please" he comment to someone else.

This about turn had Sheppard slightly confused for a second but then he felt the man lift his t-shirt from his back and begin to cut it off.

"You know… I usually like to at least get a persons name before I get undressed for them." Sheppard said to no one in particular. "Never mind, I'll call you… Dracula." He continued, noticing the pasty colour of the man's hands and assuming the rest of him would look much the same. He got no reply to this but this was not an uncommon occurrence. Flexing slightly, Sheppard tested his bonds. They were good; there was no way he was going to get out of them without some sort of knife.

It was at this point that he felt a strong pressure just below his shoulders, in the middle of his back. This feeling was swiftly replaced with a burning sensation that rapidly spread down his spinal column.

"Jesus, what the hell is that?" he gasped as the pain intensified; it was almost unbearable by this point.

"This is just a small procedure that every new person has to undergo before they are added to his highness' collection." He was told in a very manner of fact tone by Dracula.

"Well, whatever it is would you mind stopping?" he asked not holding out much hope.

"No. I am to perform this procedure before giving you the cocktail mixed by his highness himself. Do not worry, I am becoming very adept at this, it will not take me more than half an hour."

"Oh, great, well thanks anyway." Sheppard groaned. The pain had reached its peak, or so he thought. However, the next minute he felt a knife-like sensation in his back and was unable to withhold the scream of agony that overwhelmed him.


	10. Results

**Chapter 10**

Once Sheppard's screams had begun none of the inhabitants of the underground collection had been able to sit still. Many of them knew the same agony, and many more still felt the after effects from it. There were three people who had no idea what was going on and they were immediately concerned by the level of pain they could hear in their friend's voice. Ronon had begun to pace like a caged tiger while Dr Keller and Teyla had tried in vain to peer out the small peep-hole in the door of their cell. After an age everything went quiet. This was, if anything, worse as they no longer knew if Sheppard was even still alive.

"I knew we should have fought when we still had the chance" Ronon growled, stopping his pacing long enough to make his statement before resuming once more. "I say we fight now, next time they come back here. We have no idea what they did to Sheppard, for all we know we could be next."

"Regardless of this Ronon, we must wait until after the next time they move us. They could very well take us to Colonel Sheppard. I agree that if this is not the case then we should indeed fight. No matter what we must not be split up again." Teyla said, in a thoughtful tone. It was obvious that she was already considering all the angles behind their possible escape.

"In all my years as a doctor, I have never heard anybody scream like that…" Keller said in a small voice, she looked pale and slightly ill.

Teyla immediately assumed it was shock but before she could say anything that might comfort the distraught doctor, Ronon said, simply; "I have."

No one could think of a reply to this statement and the group once more lapsed into silence. This silence was broken every so often by the moans of the other prisoners in the surrounding cells.

Eventually the clicking of boots accompanied by the jingling of keys roused each member of the team from their own private thoughts.

Standing, they all moved to the centre of the cell, facing the door. The door swung open to reveal half a dozen guards.

"Bit more of a threat now?" Ronon asked in his typical growl.

None of the guards replied however the one standing in front of the door gestured for the three to exit the cell.

At first they hesitated but then Teyla said quietly "perhaps they will take us to Colonel Sheppard."

Ronon just nodded, moving towards the door. Teyla indicated to Keller that she should follow Ronon while Teyla moved in to stand at the rear of their short line.

* * *

Marching quickly down yet another dull hallway they were taken into a shiny metal room. At the far side they could see a cell that contained a single occupant…

Lying on his side on the bare concrete floor, Sheppard was facing towards the group. Somewhere along the way he had lost his shirt, his eyes were shut and for a moment they all thought he was asleep, that was until a grimace of pain flashed across his features.

Keller, in complete disregard for their captors, crossed the room, skirting the massive steel table that dominated the middle. Crouching down she looked through the bars in an effort to detect the source of Sheppard's discomfort.

Teyla and Ronon, slightly more wary of their guards, followed suit close behind.

The front of the cell slid away and the message was clear, enter…

As they walked into the room Sheppard groaned and said, "please don't touch me doc, I know what you are thinking, but please don't."

Keller nodded and then, realising that Sheppard still had his eyes tightly closed replied "I'll try not to Colonel." Her quick eyes noticed the viscous blue liquid that ran through and IV into Sheppard's arm and she ran though a list of possible drugs that she knew of. Coming up dry she instead started to circle round the prone form of the colonel.

When she saw his back she stopped dead, staring in horror.

From the base of his skull until just above the top of his trousers, Sheppard had a series of what appeared to be small black plugs or electrodes. The area around each of these objects was swollen and bruised. "Oh my, that doesn't look good" Keller muttered to herself.

Hearing her words, Teyla and Ronon, who until that point had been standing out of the way, came round to look too.

"What are they?" Ronon asked.

"I wish I knew," Keller told him "what's worse I don't know what they are supposed to do…"

Taking off her jacket Teyla laid it over the prone colonel; she had noticed that he was beginning to shiver, regardless of the fact that the room was warm and stuffy. As she did so, her hand brushed his bare skin and there was a bright flash where the contact occurred. Teyla jumped back but not before a warm feeling began to spread through her body. She began to feel better than she had in days and all the small cuts and bruises that covered her body faded and disappeared.

"Well, that was different," Ronon commented "what happened?"

"I have no idea" Teyla said in amazement, glancing at Sheppard.

"It doesn't matter right now," Keller told them "if you don't feel any different then we can figure it out later, in the mean time let's try and make him comfortable. I don't want to touch anything until I know what these things are doing to him."

Keller too pulled off her jacket but this time she rolled it into a ball and placed it under Sheppard's head.

He groaned as she shifted his head and gasped; "I thought we agreed that you weren't going to touch me doc…"

"Yeah well I'm a doctor, I'm not very well going to sit around and do nothing if I had a patient" Keller retorted.

The voice chose this moment to pipe in. "Make him as comfortable as you like… doctor… but I would not advise removing the serum, it is the only thing keeping his true pain at bay… and preventing any further damage…"

Ronon looked around the cell, wanting to find something to glare at but finding nothing he let his frustration get the better of him. Turing fast he punched the wall hard.

"That will serve no purpose" Teyla admonished.

"I hate being locked up" he almost shouted "this bastard is worse than the wraith, at least they have a reason for what they do, he just does this for kicks. Have you noticed, the villagers are terrified of him and his guards never say a word, they are like… what is it Sheppard calls them?"

"Robots?" Sheppard's strained voice suggested from his position on the floor.

"Yeah, those" Ronon agreed "it's like they have no will power of their own."

"Regardless, I think we should try and rest, if we are going to get out of here you will need you strength, all of you, Doctors orders..." Keller seemed to have improved in confidence since the beginning of the ordeal, possibly because she now had a patient to treat and was in relatively known territory.

* * *

_A/N: So here's a slightly longer chapter to satisfy those of you who have added me to their story alert list... i was going to put up all 15 chapters over this week but looking through the story i found places where i have decided to add more detail or different events. im really sorry for the delay but bear with me:D _

_thanks to those of you that have reviewed im becoming addicted to reading your comments!_


	11. Discovery

Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

Major Lorne and his men had spent the best part of an hour hiking to the co-ordinates that Zelenka had provided them. Normally it would never have taken them so long to walk such a short distance but this planet's vegetation was so think it made it very difficult to move steadily in one direction. _Just adds to the lovely soaking we are getting_ Lorne thought to himself as the rain let up once more.

As they emerged from yet another mass of bushes they came upon a clearing. "These are the coordinates that the Dr. Zelenka gave us sir." One of his men told him.

Glancing around the clearing there was only one visible structure. "Are you positive?" Lorne asked.

The only building was a small mud hut that looked barely large enough to house four or five people, let alone four restrained hostages and their guards.

"Yes sir, one hundred percent." The soldier replied.

Lorne sighed; it looked like this was just yet another dead end. "Fine, let's check the building."

Moving quietly the men started to move around the clearing so that the building was flanked from all sides. When he saw that all of his men were in place Lorne gave the signal for them to move.

Breaking through the door they stopped short at the sight that met them.

The room was completely empty save for a hatch on the floor that was firmly closed.

"Well, that was certainly unexpected." Lorne commented as he examined the technology locking the hatch, it was way beyond any expected on the planet given the evidence prevalent in the village. "I'm going to report into Colonel Carter."

He walked out of the hut reaching for his radio as he did so. "Green, come in…"

"Green here." Came the reply almost instantaneously.

"Dial up the gate, I need to get in touch with the Colonel"

"Yes sir."

Over the radio Lorne heard Green dial the gate and the familiar sound of the activating wormhole. "Colonel Carter, this is Major Lorne. We may have found something."

"What have you found?" Colonel Carter came back almost immediately.

"There is evidence of a much more technologically advanced society here than we previously thought."

"Lantean or Wraith?" Lorne could hear the concern in Carters voice.

"No, no, nothing like that, it kind of resembles technology on earth… there is a hermetically sealed hatch that has a key pad on it. We should be able to break it open with a small amount of explosion and still avoid detection."

"Very well, you have a go. I will send a second team in to guard the gate and provide support should you need it. Be careful, the last thing we need is to lose another team." Carter told him.

"Ok, Lorne out"

Taking a small amount of the C-4 that he always carried, Lorne carefully placed it so that it would blow off the lock but not the entire door. Signalling to the other members of his team to withdraw he then took out a detonator and detonated the explosive. They heard a loud pop and the sound of the hatch opening.

"Let's move out, but be on guard." Lorne ordered.


	12. A plan, sort of

Chapter 12

**Chapter 12**

They had been resting in the small cell for hours. Ronan and Teyla took it in turns to stay awake and on guard, not wanting to be surprised the next time someone came. Sheppard had wanted to take a watch but every time he tried to move he experienced shooting pains up and down his body and Keller would force him to lay still, worried about causing more damage.

"We need to get out of here" Sheppard said softly, rolling slightly to ease the pressure that he felt down his back. He broke the silence that had fallen in the last hour or so and Keller jumped as Teyla stirred from her light sleep. "Anyone got any ideas?"

Keller happened to glance down at Sheppard's back as he moved and noticed that the, previously black, electrode at the base of his spine was now flashing in a steady rhythm. "What is that?" she exclaimed.

Ronon and Teyla looked down, and shocked looks passed over both their faces.

"What?" Sheppard asked confused "what's wrong?" he tried to turn to look over his shoulder but quickly stopped as he felt the start of the almost familiar pain begin.

"One of the… implants is giving off light." Keller told him, checking Sheppard's pulse. "And…" she said taking his pulse again, this time watching the flashing light "it seems to be flashing in time with your heart beat. That is bizarre it seems to be some sort of alien heart monitor, but if that's the case what are the others for."

Sheppard could almost imagine the cogs in Keller's head going into overdrive as she tried to figure out the solution to the puzzle that she was now faced with.

Teyla had also realised what Keller was likely thinking about and, in an effort to refocus everyone's attention she said; "perhaps it would be best to find the answer to that at a later date, when we have more time to properly consider all the possible answers."

This statement seemed to have the desired effect of drawing the group back to the present and the much more immediate problem.

"Right," Sheppard said suddenly, "help me up Ronon, I'm not going to be of any use lying on the floor."

Keller made to protest but Sheppard just turned to look at her. "You do want to get out of here before the rest of you have the same problem I'm currently experiencing?" he asked pointedly.

Keller deflated visibly and Ronon, glancing guiltily at Keller put his hand out for Sheppard to grasp. As their skin came into contact blue sparks flashed briefly once more and immediately Ronon felt his lingering headache, from the drug as well as the slight battering he had received, fade and disappear.

Once more silence claimed the room but it was quickly broken by Sheppard who said in a strained voice; "would you help me up already, I feel queasy in this half sitting position."

Ronon snapped out of his stupor and helped Sheppard climb the rest of the way to his feet. When he was finally standing Sheppard tried to conceal the fact that he was leaning heavily on the wall to support himself. This was patently clear to all in the room however all, including Dr. Keller, refrained from mentioning anything that would give away this failure.

"Okay, so… step one would be getting out of this cell." Sheppard commented to himself, walking slowly towards the wall of bars, still leaning heavily on the walls as he moved.

Ronon, at Teyla's indication, moved a discreet distance behind the colonel, ready to catch him and prevent any further damage being caused should he fall. On the floor both women's jackets lay discarded and forgotten, leaving Sheppard's bare torso for all to see. The two electrodes above the constantly flashing one were now glowing a dull red, however, each time the colonel shifted his weight more would light up briefly along his spine, to varying heights, before flashing off when he paused to collect himself before moving once more. The drip that had been attached to his arm, and otherwise forgotten until that moment, pulled taught suddenly and then ripped free of Sheppard's arm. However, this barely seemed to register on his features as his full concentration was focused on getting to the front of the room.

Finally reaching the front of the cell, Sheppard leaned slightly to examine the bars that separated them from the lab. Teyla came over to do the same at the opposite side of the room and eventually they met in the middle.

"I've got nothing. What about you?" Sheppard asked her nonchalantly.

"I too found no indication of how we are going to open these bars." She told him in reply.

Just as Sheppard was about to curse the door to the lab opened and several guards came in accompanied by a scientist carrying four metal bracelets.

"Great, just what we need" Sheppard groaned

"Yeah," Ronon said grinning evilly, "a chance to get out of here."


	13. Fight

Chapter 13

**Chapter 13**

The scientist continued across the room while still more guards came into the room. He paused briefly to press a button on one of the many consoles in the room and the bars to the cell slid back.

Beside him Sheppard could feel Ronon tensing up ready to spring when the chance presented itself. Teyla too was preparing herself in her own way on Sheppard's other side with deep calming breaths, oxygenating her body. Meanwhile, Keller slid discreetly to stand behind the others, knowing she would not be able to help in this particular area.

The scientist paused once more, on the threshold of the cell, waiting for the guards to go in front of him. By this point there were over a dozen guards in the confined space of the lab.

As the first of the guards crossed the threshold of the cell Ronon and Teyla both lunged in unison attacking with strength and speed, taking down the guards before anyone knew what was happening.

Sheppard moved to intercept the next guard to enter but at that moment a blinding headache assaulted him forcing him to his knees. From the corner of his eye he saw Keller move to check on him before looking up with fear on her face and backing away.

Someone roughly grabbed his left arm forcing it up behind his back with such force that he felt the shoulder joint pop from its socket. For what felt like the thousandth time that day he yelled in agony as the scientist, ignoring Ronon and Teyla, strode across to him and forced the bracelet around his left wrist. There was a brief burning sensation that almost immediately turned to a dull throbbing. This sensation was all but engulfed by the other pains radiating across Sheppard's body.

From across the room there was the loud crack of a gun and a grunt of pain before Sheppard heard Teyla cry out "Ronon"

There was a dull thud as something hit the ground, hard.

From his position on the floor, Sheppard looked across the room to where he had last seen his friends and team-mates fighting. What he saw shook him to the very core.

Teyla was struggling trying to free herself from the grip of three huge guards while lying on the floor next to her was Ronon. His chest was covered in blood and Sheppard could see blood pooling on the floor as it seeped from beneath Ronan's body.

An over-riding anger consumed Sheppard as he saw his team-mate and friend lying on the floor bleeding to death. The anger was so strong that Sheppard temporarily forgot all his pain. "You son of a bitch!" he yelled at the scientist that now stood in front of him.

Forgetting common sense Sheppard lunged at the man and tackled him to the ground before punching him repeatedly with his one good arm.

Another shot rang out and Sheppard fell back, a sharp pain emanating from his chest. Looking down at himself he saw a small round wound on the upper part of his bare chest. "This is really not my day" he groaned as he let his head fall back hitting the ground with a thump.

The guards hoisted the battered scientist back on to his feet and then all withdrew from the cell. The other three bracelets lying discarded on the floor, forgotten.

Keller appeared in Sheppard's line of sight, a worried expression on her face. "How do you feel colonel?" she asked not looking at his face but the fast numbing area of his chest.

"Well," he replied "I think this may be the first time I've been shot, but at least this time I'm not going to turn into some bug thing. It hurts like hell though." Remembering Ronon, Sheppard looked across the room to see Teyla hunched over his friend applying pressure to his wounds. "How's Ronon?"

Keller's face was pinched in a worried expression and Sheppard could see that she was exhausted, physically and mentally. "I don't know what to do for him, I don't have any of my equipment with me and if we don't do something soon he's not going to make it through the next couple of hours."

"Help me get over there." Sheppard ordered, a crazy idea suddenly crossing his mind.

"I'm not sure it's a good idea for you to move colonel" Keller flatly told him "it could cause more damage."

"I don't care" Sheppard replied "just get me over there."

Keller nodded slightly and, taking Sheppard's shoulders, pulled him into a sitting position. Sheppard grimaced from the pain but remained silent, his complete concentration on what he needed to try.

With a lot of support from Keller, Sheppard managed to move the two or three meters across the room to kneel at his friend's side. Teyla looked at Sheppard and, seeing the look on his face, moved away from Ronon.

Looking down at his hands for a moment, hoping that this crazy idea would work, Sheppard moved the torn up jacket Teyla had been using to stem the bleeding and put his hands on Ronan's bare skin.

Bright blue light surrounded his hands as they made contact and Sheppard could feel the wounds beneath his fingers begin to knit themselves together and close. It was getting harder for him to breathe with every moment that passed but he ignored this sensation and continued to sit with his glowing hands pressed up against Ronan's chest.

Eventually his hands stopped glowing and he sat back, absolutely exhausted. All he wanted to do was go to sleep for a week. "I think I'm just going to go to sleep for a while" he told the others quietly.

Ronon was sitting up slowly as if expecting a great amount of pain and, finding none, he started to wipe the blood off his chest as though he couldn't quite believe it. Sheppard crumpled to the ground barely conscious and within seconds Keller was at his side closely followed by Teyla and, after a brief pause, Ronon.

"You can't go to sleep colonel." Keller told him insistently, pushing him into the recovery position as she did so. As soon as she turned him over however the exit wound in his back became very visible for all to see. "My god," Keller gasped "he's losing too much blood; we have to get him out of here now"

Ronon grabbed the other jacket lying forgotten on the floor and began tearing it into strips. "Good idea Ronon" Keller told him "we need to slow the bleeding." Taking the strips Ronon handed them Teyla and Keller began packing the wound with the fabric.

As they did this Sheppard's breathing became ragged and each breath began to rattle in his chest. "His lungs are filling with blood." Keller stated her voice sounding slightly detached as though she was merely an observer. "Help me sit him up, that should help for a little while.

Ronon propped Sheppard up and Keller pushed his knees in towards his chest. Instantly the rattling stopped but he groaned softly in pain.

"John, you must stay awake." Teyla told him.

The sound of her voice seemed to bring him round slightly as he lifted his head and looked at her. "Is Ronon okay?" he asked, seemingly unaware of his own plight.

"Ronon will be fine" Teyla reassured him

"Yeah good as new" the Satedan supplied from his position behind Sheppard.

"Good to know" Sheppard replied grinning slightly before beginning to fade once more. "How's about we exit stage right now?" he added almost inaudibly.


	14. The King

**Chapter 14**

**At the same time…**

Lorne and his team had met no resistance at all as they traversed the tunnel that accessed the surface, a fact that had left Lorne feeling slightly uneasy. He couldn't shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with this place but at the same time thought; _perhaps it's just the fact that we are underground_.

They had been moving at a steady clip for the best part of five minutes and appeared to be constantly descending deeper into the earth. As they did so there was less light and the air smelt much damper.

The corridor they were currently traversing had barely any light at all and Lorne was about to order his men to don their night-vision goggles when they turned the corner and saw, at the far end of the tunnel, a doorway rimmed in bright light.

Signalling to slow down Lorne took the lead and carefully approached the door. It was not totally shut and the light was almost blinding after the dark tunnel.

Stopping a minute to allow his eyes to adjust, Lorne stealthily pushed the door open slightly wider with the muzzle of his P-90.

From his position Lorne could see part of a massive room with a very high ceiling and, off to the left, a high backed chair that partially obscured the diminutive figure sitting in it. To either side of the throne, that was the only thing Lorne could think it would be, stood two guards, the first ones they had seen. The guards were looking forward and Lorne got the impression that they were staring off into space.

In front of the throne there was a projected screen that showed a group of people in a small dark room. For the time being Lorne determined that his chief focus should be in taking out the guards and taking the occupant of the throne as he was most likely to know the location of Sheppard and his team. As such Lorne disregarded what was taking place on the screen.

Lorne was calculating all the angles of what appeared would be a fairly swift confrontation given that the guards in the room were out-numbered by the members of his own team. He glanced at the man on the throne just as the man turned to press a button on the arm of the chair. The man looked back at the screen and a look of shock and slight terror passed across the part of his face that Lorne could see.

Lorne looked at the screen to see what had scared the man so and realised that there were several people fighting on it. Recognition hit as he heard the man say to no-one in particular; "use whatever force necessary to subdue the subjects."

The guard on Lorne's side nodded slightly and Lorne realised that his CO was in serious trouble. Turning back to his men Lorne quickly signalled instructions and then pushed open the door, wide enough for his team to pass through.

Two men took out the guards while the third trained his P-90 on the man on the throne. Lorne scanned the room looking for any other threats and, seeing none he turned his full attention to the man on the throne. The two guards had put up slight resistance and had consequently been shot. Without the protection of his guards the man on the throne was cowering pathetically. Content that the situation had been secured for the time being Lorne looked up at the screen in time to see first Ronon and then Sheppard go down.

Whirling round Lorne too pointed his P-90 at the man on the throne and told him straight out; "tell your men to pull out or I will shoot you! And no funny stuff."

The man nodded quickly and said once more to no-one in particular "that will do back to your positions."

Looking back at the screen Lorne was relieved to see that the guards were withdrawing from the cell. He could see his CO moving towards the grievously injured Ronon despite his own injuries. "Where are they?" Lorne demanded his eyes still on the screen.

There was a slight hesitation from the man before he answered. "There would be no point in me telling you, you would never be able to find them."

"Fine then, you can take us to them." Lorne said. He had noticed a weird light surrounding Sheppard and Ronon but before he could take a closer look he turned back to his men and ordered them to secure the prisoner so they could move out.

* * *

_A/N: Ok well im terrible with the cliffhangers i know... im only going to say this once in a while because it has less of an impact if its said every chapter... thank you all so much for the reviews and to those who have favorited (i know its not a real word) me my story etc... i really love reading what people have to say, even criticisms have advantages:) hope you are enjoying, at least another 5 chapters to go i think._

_I got a couple of people asking how they were going to escape from this one and in all honesty i wasn't really sure but finally a chance for major Lorne to benefit from his so far exhaustive search... its too convenient for the escape to be easy ;)_


	15. Rescue

Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

"Colonel," Keller said softly "I need to put your shoulder back in place, the longer its out the more damage it will do."

Sheppard just nodded, too tired to do or say anything else. This wasn't a new experience but that didn't make it any easier.

Ronon shifted behind Sheppard, allowing Keller full access to Sheppard's limp arm. This in itself hurt but then Keller picked up his arm and started manipulating it. There was a distinct 'clunk' as the joint fell back into place. With this 'clunk' came an enormous amount of pain and, once more, Sheppard was unable to stop himself from yelling.

"That's it, its back in place." Keller said, relieved. She glanced once more at the exit wound on Sheppard's back and noticed that all of the electrodes along his back, right up to the base of his skull, were glowing a dull red. Suddenly everything fell into place. "They monitor the amount of pain he's in as well!" she exclaimed as realisation hit.

Ronon and Teyla both knew what she was talking about and although they didn't think it was the right time they didn't need to ask any questions, her deduction made sense. As such both just nodded in understanding.

The door to the lab opened once more and Ronon jumped to his feet, ready to fight, forgetting that he was Sheppard's main support. Fortunately Keller managed to replace Ronon before Sheppard fell too far.

Ronon and Teyla stood together and, seeing who was coming through the door, Ronon growled; "come to see the results of your handiwork?"

The ruler looked into Ronon's eyes and the terror was plain on his face. As he advanced further into the room they noticed the barrel of the gun that followed closely behind.

Teyla, realising that help was finally on its way, turned back to Keller and Sheppard; "John you must stay awake just a while longer, we are about to get out of here."

Sheppard gave no indication that he had heard Teyla but his eyes remained open despite his shallow breathing.

Lorne followed the gun into the room, closely followed by the rest of his team. His mind quickly processed the scene before him, pushing the horror of it to the back of his mind to be dealt with at a later date.

The floor of the small cell, as well as its occupants, was bathed in a thick coat of blood. Ronon's clothes appeared to bear the brunt of the blood while blood still flowed sluggishly down Sheppard's upper torso.

"But… we saw you get shot!" one of the younger lieutenants exclaimed as he watched Ronon move freely, and painlessly across the cell.

"I did, long story." Ronon merely replied.

"Open the cell." Lorne ordered the astounded King.

The King didn't try to argue, a first since he had been captured, much to the relief of the soldiers who had had to put up with him for too long.

The door slid back into the wall with a slight grating noise.

Ronon, with a nod from Keller, pulled Sheppard to his feet but he was supporting him so much that he was practically carrying the smaller man, this much was obvious to Lorne. Teyla placed herself on Shepard's other side before suggesting; "Perhaps it would be wise to leave, we have seen a great many guards here."

Lorne nodded in agreement and demanded from the King; "what's the fastest way out of here?"

The King paused before replying… "I can show you… but my guards are on the way, you will not get out of here."

"We'll see about that." Lorne declared, roughly shoving the King ahead of him. "Ok, let's move out."

The King was placed at the front, followed by Lorne with his gun pointed at the King's back. Behind Lorne came the recently rescued flag team and Lorne's men bought up the rear, ready for any surprises.

As they were about to leave the lab Keller had a sudden thought and, rushing back across the lab, grabbed the IV bag containing the bluish liquid before rejoining the group.


	16. Flight

The group was halfway down yet another indistinguishable grey corridor when the King's guards appeared at the end, armed and r

The group was halfway down yet another indistinguishable grey corridor when the King's guards appeared at the end, armed and ready for a heavy fire fight.

Not willing to take any chances Lorne and his men opened fire with no warning.

Ronon and Teyla pulled Sheppard to the ground, almost overbalancing due to his dead weight. Ronon reached up with one hand to pull a dazed and shocked Keller down too as she had frozen where she stood.

Bullets flew everywhere, ricocheting off the solid walls. Due to some previously unfound luck not a single one managed to hit the cornered Lanteans. The bullets that made contact with the guards however, caused sparks and some peculiar black liquid to shower everywhere.

From within the melee Sheppard chuckled wetly and said; "what d'you know, Ronon was right, they are robots."

The fire fight was over in a matter of minutes with all the robot-guards lying broken on the floor.

"You were saying?" Lorne asked the King, pausing before continuing; "now show us the way out."

Ronon and Teyla picked themselves up off the ground. Keller, on the other hand, remained at Sheppard's side on the floor. Looking at Lorne she said; "as soon as we are able Major, I would like to suggest that you radio ahead that we have a medical emergency."

Everyone looked down at Sheppard and it was patently obvious he was no longer part of the conscious world and his tenuous grip on the living world was fast fading.

"Let me take him." Ronon suggested "we can move faster that way and you can give Teyla a gun so she can fight should she need to."

Lorne let his P-90 hang before pulling out his 9mm and giving it to Teyla. When Teyla had the gun he then helped prop Sheppard up in a standing position, long enough for Ronon to pick him up in a fireman's lift. "Ok let's make this as quick as possible." He ordered before signalling that the group should continue in previous formation.

They moved at a steady clip, the rescued team making much better time than Lorne would have thought given the pain and exhaustion Lorne ad expected them to feel.

The King was moving quickly out of sheer terror and an over-riding desire to get rid of the strangers who had so easily overcome his elite guards.

After just a few minutes the King stopped before a door and said timidly; "beyond that door is a rising room that will take you to the surface, from there you can follow a path for approximately one and a half miles to the ring of the ancients. Please leave now…"

"Oh no you don't." Lorne replied "you're our insurance in case anymore of your guards…"

"Or villagers!" Keller piped in.

"Right or villagers should attack us."

"But…" the King began, trailing off at the looks he was getting from the people around him, "very well" he sighed in resignation.

The elevator was big enough to hold the entire group, unlike some of the others that various individuals in the group, namely Sheppard, had encountered. There were no buttons in the lift but as soon as the doors closed it began to ascend.

It took a little over seven minutes for the elevator to finally come to a stop. When it did the doors opened and the soldiers exited first, searching for any signs of trouble. It was just as the King said, the elevators opened into yet another hut in a clearing with a defined path leading away.

When the soldiers signalled the all-clear Ronon emerged with Sheppard and Teyla and Keller followed close behind, Teyla now in charge of keeping an eye, and a gun, on the King.

Lorne pulled out his radio and spoke into it; "Green, come in please."

There was a hiss of static before Green's reply came through, loud enough for all to hear. "Green here sir. Glad to know you're still with us."

"We are and we found Sheppard and his team, dial Atlantis and inform Colonel Carter, then inform her we have a medical emergency inbound. Our ETA is…" he said checking his watch "twelve minutes."

"Yes sir." Was Green's short reply.

* * *

_A/N: Sorry for the delay folks... we've reached the end of the pre-written chapters and so this story is now getting updated as the chapters are written._

_The delay was due to a mixture of visiting family and friends with more still to come so no promises on the speed of the updates:D_

_read and enjoy, this was more of a filler chapter than anything else, to link us to the next lot of action... please feel free to comment and suggest improvements as im not sure im happy with it yet but didnt want to leave everyone waiting!_


	17. Journey

Chapter 17: Journey

**Chapter 17: Journey**

The group looked at Lorne who turned to the King and asked; "does this path lead to the Stargate? Don't even think about lying to me."

The King hastily nodded and started backing away.

"I already told you, we require your presence until we leave this planet so be co-operative" Lorne commented interpreting the King's actions.

Ronon shifted Sheppard slightly, redistributing the man's weight. Sheppard didn't make a sound, attesting to how serious his condition was. "We should get moving then." He suggested. To an outsider Ronon did not appear in the slightest bit phased by the situation they were in however, Lorne, Teyla and Keller all heard the undercurrent of urgency in his voice.

Lorne nodded slightly to Ronon and said; "Yes you're right… take up standard formation."

With practiced ease Lorne's men took up forward and backward positions and began to move.

After several minutes Teyla piped up saying "Something is not right, it is too quiet." And indeed she was right; the jungle surrounding them was still, not a bird or insect made a noise. The only sound was the occasional rustling of the leaves on the trees and bushes as the wind ebbed and flowed.

"Pick up the pace and stay sharp." Lorne ordered picking up on Teyla's unease.

The group sped up and broke into a slow, but distance-eating, jog.

All of a sudden Lorne's radio came to life. "Major, we are under attack!" came Green's slightly panicked voice. In the background gunfire could be heard. "Twenty or so men in black armour just came out of nowhere."

"They are robots." Lorne calmly relayed to the man, "two or three body shots will take them out. Dial the 'gate but don't send your IDC until we reach you, we're two minutes out."

After just a minute the jungles silence was shattered by the sound of gunfire. They picked up the pace still more and, rounding the last corner the shimmering stargate came into view, surrounded by fighting figures.

Raising their guns Lorne, Teyla and the other men entered the fray. The sky chose this moment to once again open out to allow the deluge of rain that was so typical for the planet.

Ronon indicated to Keller to stay close while ducking down at the edge of the clearing waiting for an opening to allow him to get Sheppard through the 'gate.


	18. Final encounter of the violent type

**Chapter 18: Final encounter of the violent type.**

Turning quickly Lorne grabbed the collar of the King's silk shirt. Pulling him in front of him he yelled "Stop shooting now or I will kill him."

The robots didn't seem to take any notice so Lorne yanked the King round to face him and said "Tell them to stop or I will put a bullet in you."

At that point the King fainted in fear.

"Perfect, just perfect" Lorne muttered to himself. Raising his voice Lorne called; "Sergeant send your IDC then get through the gate" turning on his radio he then spoke; "Atlantis this is Lorne, we are coming in hot, have security teams standing by."

"Copy that" came Carter's voice, "security teams standing by."

Green stepped through the gate and Ronon took that as his cue. Hoisting Sheppard into a more secure position he pulled Keller up, pushing her so that she was running fast.

When they reached the gate Ronon all but shoved Keller through the event horizon, pausing to make sure that Teyla, who was right behind him, went through the gate first.

Just after she stepped though the stargate there was a massive explosion that ripped through the air. White hot shards of metal rained down on the group surrounding the gate.

Ronon heard Lorne yell in pain but, seeing him still standing on his feet, didn't hesitate in stepping though the gate himself, knowing the others would be right behind him.

Stepping into the gate-room a fraction of a second later he was met by numerous gun barrels. Ronon stepped swiftly to the side in order to ensure the others could easily get though and to ensure he wasn't in the line of fire should one of the robots emerge.

As he moved pain seared down his side but as soon as it registered in his mind however, the pain subsided to be replaced by a familiar warmth.

Lorne and his men were right behind him and as the last man stepped through, accompanied by an energy blast that had people scattering, the gate shut down.

Lorne stumbled even as medics rushed to help him.

Two more medics and a doctor pulled a gurney up beside Ronon, allowing him to carefully position Sheppard on it.

As soon as Ronon stepped away the gurney began to move, pushed by the medics. Keller followed a step behind, filling the doctor in on what she knew.

* * *

_A/N: i know both these chapters are really short and i apologise, i probably should have put them together as one but i find it easier to change perspectives if i change chapters, plus it creates cliffhangers that leave you guys wanting to read more ;)_

_The next chapter is from Sam's POV but youre going to have to wait a few days for that im afraid... its slightly AU as this story is set after search and rescue but Sam kinda grew on me over the last season so she gets a stay of execution from me :)_


	19. Winddown

**Chapter 19: Wind-down**

Sam descended from her position in the control room to take a closer look at the remaining team members. She couldn't quite stifle her gasp when she saw the blood soaked people. Turing first to Teyla she said "It's good to see you in one piece." Looking the woman over she continued "I assume that is not your blood?"

"No" Teyla conceded, "it is Colonel Sheppard's, I am unharmed… once Ronon and I have given our reports I would like to ask if it would be possible to check on Toren before I proceed to the post-mission check-up."

Carter considered the request for several seconds. She was on the verge of denying it when she noticed the slightly haunted expression that ghosted across Teyla's face.

"very well, as long as you agree to proceed directly to the infirmary afterwards."

"Of course Colonel Carter, you have my word." Teyla conceded inclining her head slightly in the typical Athosian manner.

Sam the turned to face Ronon, the big Satedan was staring in the direction of the infirmary, absently brushing pieces of red-hot metal of his burnt and torn clothes, apparently not burning his hands in the process. He had even more blood on him than Teyla.

Seeing no sign that he was injured she asked "Is that all Colonel Sheppard's blood too?" starting to seriously worry for the welfare of her chief military officer. She had seen enough combat to know that that much blood loss was just about always fatal. Ronon's answer stopped her worrying in its tracks.

"Nah, most of its mine." He replied still looking down the corridor.

"Where are you injured?" she demanded, reaching for her radio to call for another gurney.

"I'm not."

Carter paused in her actions, a puzzled and slightly annoyed look crossing her face. "But you just said…" she trailed off as Teyla shook her head, adding "it is a very long and fairly complicated story. Perhaps you would like to hear our reports?"

Carter nodded agreeing "maybe that's a good idea Teyla. My office?"

Ronon and Teyla merely followed Carter up the stairs towards her office not uttering a word, Ronon looking like he wanted to be anywhere else.

Suddenly he asked "Where's McKay? I know I threw him through the gate."

Something between a smile and a grimace creased Sam's face as she said "I, uh, had to have him sedated after he made Dr. Lim so nervous she almost caused a chain reaction in one of the naquada generators, they could have exploded!" she stated defensively "I would have just confined him to quarters if I had thought we could keep him from getting out. Besides, his blood pressure was abnormally high, even for him."

Teyla and Ronon just smiled, helping Sam relax slightly, she had forgotten that the team knew Rodney better than anyone else ad would probably understand her actions.

Looking at Ronon, Teyla turned back reassuring "we understand Colonel Carter, there has been more than one occasion where we have had the urge to… subdue Dr. McKay."

Sam smiled tiredly and said "thanks Teyla, its nice to know someone understands… well, shall we get on with the briefing?"

* * *

It took Ronon and Teyla half an hour to give a detailed account of what they had seen and heard. Throughout Sam kept quiet allowing them to give their accounts uninterrupted. When they were done she sat back

"Ok, well, I'm glad that you are both alright… now." She added glancing at Ronon. "Ronon I would like to have you thoroughly checked out if it's all the same, I know you feel fine," she said heading off his protests "but I just want to be absolutely positive. Teyla you can go and see you son but make sure you report directly to the infirmary after that."

Ronon and Teyla stood and left the office, leaving Sam sitting with her own thoughts.

After several minutes she activated her radio saying "This is Colonel Carter, can anybody give me an update on the status of Colonel Sheppard?"

The voice of one of the nurses came over the radio after several seconds, "They're still trying to stabilise him for surgery Colonel, and we will call you when we have more information."

"Thanks Kelly" Carter signed off with a deep sigh.

* * *

_A/N: heres another chapter for you enjoyment... what happened to all my reviews? they were sadly lacking for the last chapter... Anyway hope you enjoy, this story has been slightly longer than i expected it to be and everytime i get to the point where i think _just a few more chapters to go_ i end up adding even more:D_


	20. The Infirmary

**Chapter 20: The infirmary**

Ronon Turned into the infirmary and stopped in the doorway, observing the frantic action that was centred around two prone forms.

Looking at one of the forms he heard Lorne's irritated voice telling a doctor to go and tend to the Colonel.

"Colonel Sheppard is in the best hands Major" came the doctors calm voice, "now please lie still while I asses the damage done to your shoulder."

More than used to the routine when Sheppard was injured, Ronon decided to approach Lorne's bed. He knew there were several possible outcomes, two inevitable none the less.

The first out come was that he would be shooed away while the second option was that someone would notice him and take him away to be examined himself, the third option was that he would have the chance to talk to Lorne.

As he approached the bed he heard the doctor sigh and say "lie still for a few minutes major. I'm just going to go and prep for surgery."

Lorne looked unhappy but conceded to doing what he was told.

As the doctor walked passed Ronon, Ronon could have sworn he heard the man mutter something about Colonel Sheppard being a bad influence on the military personnel when it came to being treated. This made Ronon smile his typical feral smile, there was no doubt that Sheppard was notorious for trying to get out of the infirmary as fast as possible and that many of the younger marines, and even quite a few of the more experienced soldiers, admired the man greatly.

Lorne glanced towards the bed Sheppard was currently occupying and noticed Ronon standing nearby. "Ronon, are you ok? I saw some of the shrapnel hit you."

Ronon looked down at his side where charred fabric met his eyes, finally understanding why he had felt the searing pain earlier. "Yeah, I'm fine"

"And what about earlier, I could have sworn I saw you get shot, you've even got the holes in your shirt to support that!"

Again Ronon looked at his shirt. "Yeah I did, Sheppard healed me… I think. "he supplied in such a tone that anyone who was new to Atlantis would have thought that it was a fairly regular occurrence.

"You're going to have to explain that to me properly at some point" Lorne informed him, spying the doctor approaching once more.

Ronon took the chance to study Lorne more thoroughly. The man looked much paler than normal and he grimace every time he took in a breath. There was a large piece of metal sticking from his shoulder that looked suspiciously like a piece of robot guard. Blood was still spreading slowly across his bare shoulder. "Um…" Ronon said awkwardly, drawing Lorne's attention once more "Thanks… for saving us, we wouldn't have gotten out of there without you…" having never been very good at saying thank you Ronon trailed off, at a loss for words.

Lorne understood and on some level he was touched that the normally silent man had even tried, it meant a lot.

When the doctor saw the state of Ronon's clothes he hesitated briefly, looking for injuries, before continuing over. "Mr. Dex as you can see we are quite busy here at the moment so I am going to have one of the nurses check you out until a doctor is free to come and give you a more thorough examination."

"It's no problem" Ronon told the doctor, "I'm not going anywhere."

The doctor nodded and signalled for another nurse to come over.

As Ronon was led away he heard Lorne begin to complain once more as his bed was wheeled towards the operating rooms, a frustrated sigh escaped the harried doctor.

* * *

After the nurse had checked his blood pressure, temperature, heart and lungs Ronon was left pretty much alone. At some point during the exam Sheppard had been wheeled into another operating room and the infirmary had become much quieter as the remaining staff treated Lorne's team for minor cuts and burns as well as performing post-op checks for other off-world teams.

About five minutes after the nurse had left Ronon, Teyla entered the infirmary. Spotting Ronon she walked over to him, her stance betraying the calm and relaxed state that she always adopted, unconsciously, after being with her son.

"How is Toren?" Ronon asked

"He is well, the same as when I left, sleeping. According to Kanan he only woke when he required food or fresh clothes, it is very unusual…"

"Yeah" Ronon grinned "the one time you have to sleep the entire night is the time you are trapped in a lab on another world." He knew he had to make light of the situation, worried that Teyla's thoughts would turn much darker, to her effect on her infant son among other things.

"This is true" Teyla agreed, also smiling "I pray to the ancestors that Toren continue to sleep through the night."

They lapsed into silence but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, rather companionable. They both sat perched on the end of the bed Ronon had been assigned for the duration of his stat in the infirmary, watching the goings-on in the large room.

After a while Sam entered the room and spotting them, walked over to the bed. "Are you ok?"

Ronon sighed lightly, starting to get irritated with the constant worry, but not willing to show his emotions openly. "Yeah, don't have a mark on me."

Knowing not to push the issue Sam continued; "anyway, I thought you should know that Rodney will probably wake up soon…"

"Where is he" Teyla asked immediately understanding Sam's silent plea.

"He's at the other end of the ward… in the privacy section." Sam replied, relief flooding her features. "I'll let you all know if anything changes with John"

Teyla and Ronon both stood and proceeded to the other end of the infirmary. Rounding a curtain they immediately saw Rodney's bed and pulled up chairs so that they sat on either side of him.

A nurse rounded the curtain and when she saw r the pair she broke into a smile. "thank goodness, I was terrified that Doctor Albright was going to make wme stay in here to monitor him as he wakes up… will you give me a call if anything seems wrong… there shouldn't be a problem it was only a mild sedative but knowing Dr. McKay… even the most minor of headaches would have been conveyed to everyone here…" realising she may have said too much the nurse trailed off but Teyla just smiled at the young woman while Ronon remained impassive.

* * *

_A/N:12 reviews in 2 days! its a new record for me and thanks to all the reviews i was spurred to write this chapter earlier than i was planning. your reviews were really encouraging but not only that they helped me to think of new ideas, adding to ones i already had and increasing the detail i added, i certainly think this chapter is one of my best yet, detail wise anyway..._

_it has come to my attention that the whole _something isnt right its too quiet_ thing is very very VERY cliche and for that i apologies but i was really struggling to think of a way to link the escape to the fight to return home so thats how it ended up...SORRY! you can blame writers block for that one :D_

_Q: does anyone know how toren is spelt? one r or two? i haven't ever seen it written so im not sure and so its been written based on pronunciation..._


	21. Awakening

**Chapter 21: Awakening**

Rodney stirred and the first thing he felt was an over-riding sense of irritation, _How dare they sedate him! He was by far the most qualified person on Atlantis to find his missing team!_ This sensation was quickly replaced by a slight feeling of nausea.

Opening his eyes, fully intending to yell at the first person he saw, Rodney immediately squinted and frowned as a shadow obscured the bright lights of the infirmary. As his vision cleared the shape in front of him solidified into the face of Ronon.

Ronon grinned in his typical manner before sitting back in his chair, forcing Rodney to turn his head in order to keep him in his line of sight.

"Oh thank goodness it was just a nightmare" Rodney breathed in relief, noting that Ronon didn't have even a scratch on him. What he didn't know was that during his exam a nurse had bought Ronon some fresh clothes to change into, taking away the bloody and ripped clothing he had been wearing.

"That depends. Did it have a man-eating whale or us disappearing?" Ronon asked, he was much more talkative than usual of so it seemed to Rodney who frequently got the silent treatment from the big man.

He was about to come back with a smart retort when he realised there was no way Ronon could have known what his nightmare was unless it had actually happened.

Snapping his head to the other side of the bed he felt another wave of nausea break over him. He saw Teyla and then, noting she too was unharmed, continued to look round.

"Where's Sheppard" he demanded as he finished surveying the entire room.

The slightly amused expression Teyla had adopted at Ronon's comment instantly vanished. "Both he and Major Lorne are currently in surgery." She replied softly.

"Lorne?" Rodney asked, bemused "Lorne wasn't on the planet with us…was he?"

"No, Major Lorne and his team facilitated our escape, we met with heavy resistance."

"Oh…" Rodney trailed off before remembering something else "and Jennifer, where's she? Is she alright?"

"Yes she is fine; I believe she is currently aiding the surgical team."

"Oh…" again Rodney trailed off; this time the team lapsed into silence, waiting for news.

After some time a nurse came bustling in and, in a no-nonsense manner, began to check Rodney's vitals. It was clear from her attitude that the medical team had sent in a battle hardened veteran to deal with the irritable McKay.

"Everything seems fine" the nurse pronounced several minutes later as she finished the last of her checks. "A doctor will come by later just to check. Mr Dex, I'm to tell you that Doctor Albright is finished in surgery with Major Lorne and will be ready to give you that check-up in about ten minutes."

Ronon just nodded trying to conceal his irritation and only just succeeding.

As the nurse left what she had just said seemed to register with McKay, "Wait… check-up? What's wrong with you?" his surprised tone conveyed more worry than his words would ever achieve.

"Nothing, that's the problem." Ronon told him.

"As usual Conan's riveting and intellectual explanations have massive gaps." Rodney exclaimed, turning to Teyla, the look in his eyes pleading with her to provide more information. It was possibly one of the few times the pair had seen him at his most vulnerable.

"Ronon was shot," Teyla explained, taking pity on the confused McKay, "however, as you can see he is no longer harmed, this is mostly thanks to Colonel Sheppard… I believe."

Rodney looked between the two and it was obvious that all the possibilities were running through his brain, trying to determine the most likely scenario. "But… how?" was all he managed to say.

"Gotta go." Ronon said jumping to his feet, he wasn't sure what was worse, having to sit through a long, and likely often repeated, explanation of his immanent and then not so immanent demise yet again or the battery of tests he was sure to be put through.

At the same time Teyla replied "it is a long story."

Teyla and McKay both looked at Ronon who merely shrugged before turning and leaving the curtained off section, leaving Teyla to what he considered a daunting task.

* * *

_A/N: My profuse apologies for not updating sooner, i have been distracted by the whims of the grandparents and other family members :) Here's two chapters to make up for the delay and theres a possible third for today or tomorrow, depends when i get the chance to finish it...  
_

_Meggaly pissed that Sci Fi is cancelling Stargate Atlantis, one of the worst decisions they have made to date!! Not going to watch universe as it sounds too much like farscape, enterprise and battlestar galactica to name a few, only one of which i liked even vaguely... any way the ramblings of and annoyed fan sorry.  
_


	22. All Clear

Chapter 21: All clear

**Chapter 21: All clear**

The Doctor was waiting outside the curtained off area, fresh uniform and coat on. Ronon distinctly remembered the previous clothes had been covered in liberal amounts of blood.

Gesturing, he led Ronon into the room where the Ancient scanner was stored.

"I'm sure you know the drill by now." He said, indicating the bed.

Ronon merely nodded, not dignifying the supposition with an answer, before going to lie flat on his back on the scanners bed.

The body scan took a matter of minutes but even this time Ronon considered to be wasted.

Sheppard had once heard Ronon grumbling to himself about the amount of time he spent under the scanner. Upon hearing this he had burst out laughing. When Ronon had demanded what was so funny Sheppard had gone on to explain about all the different machines, with lettered names such as X-ray, MRI and CT, that were required to do the same job as the Ancient device, Furthermore, he had explained the many hours it could take to undergo these various scans. This explanation had placated Ronon somewhat and it was this memory he used to distract himself as he now lay under the scanner.

The scanner shut down but the doctor did not move, examining the data the scanner was providing. After less than a minute Ronon sat up, knowing that had the doctor not been so engrossed in the data he would have told Ronon to do so.

When the doctor got to the data about Ronon's chest he let out an exclamation of surprise; "that's quite remarkable! There is a bullet lodged in your chest but no indication of how it got there, no scar tissue or anything, its as if it were beamed into you using Asgard technology."

Ronon just looked at the doctor, he couldn't care less what it looked like, and only that it was no longer going to kill him.

"Don't worry" the doctor told him, misinterpreting the look "I'll have to do more tests to be sure, but I'm fairly certain that it poses no danger to you. Unless of course you are exposed to a very strong magnetic field." He added in after thought.

Ronon merely grunted and stood "What's next?"

"I need to draw some blood to check for any foreign substances."

Half a hour later having been poked and prodded a dozen times Ronon was pronounced healthy and unlikely to drop dead at any moment. He was released and went back to Teyla and Rodney who, by that time, had finished their discussion.

The three than waited in silence for news of their friends.


	23. Double shot of News

**Chapter 23: Double shot of News**

Sam took a deep breath before entering Rodney's curtained-off section. She knew that Sheppard was due out of surgery soon and that as head of Atlantis she would be the first to be updated. However, having been in similar situations with her old team countless times, she was also well aware of their need for information. As such, she decided to kill two birds with one stone.

Entering the area, she was surprised to see that Rodney was watching her with very little animosity, not something she would have expected from the old McKay she knew on Earth.

"Colonel Carter." Teyla greeted formally.

"Teyla, Ronon…" after a brief pause, "Rodney." Seeing that none of the people in the temporary room were about to explode on her she continued; "I hope you don't mind, I thought I might join you… Colonel Sheppard… John is due out of surgery soon according to one of the nurses. I thought you might like to hear what the doctors have to say when they make their report…" She trailed off, trying not to reveal how unsure she was feeling.

Teyla looked grateful while Ronon wore his usual impassive expression. McKay was the hardest to read as Sam saw any number of emotions flit across his face.

Rodney was the first to break the silence. "Pull up a chair then Sam, no point in standing around, we could be here a while."

Sam took up the offer and sat down.

"How is Major Lorne?" Teyla enquired once she was seated.

Sam shifted uncomfortably a grimace crossing her features. "He'll live but apparently the shrapnel caused a massive amount of nerve damage, there appears to be some doubt as to whether he'll ever regain full movement of his arm." She knew this was bad news for the team but saw no point in trying to sugar-coat something that the experienced team would notice as soon as they saw Lorne.

The group once more lapsed into silence.

Almost half an hour later Rodney once more broke the silence when he said; "What I don't get is if Sheppard was able to heal Ronon's injuries then why can't he heal his own?"

Sam was the one to reply to this, "I'm still not entirely sure how all this happened and I don't want to make any assumptions without more facts but…" she paused, steeling herself, "several years ago SG-1 experienced something similar. We encountered a living Ancient in Antarctica… but she was carrying a plague that we all contracted. Ayiana was able to heal us but couldn't do so for herself, this may be similar."

"You met a real Ancient and contracted the Ancient plague." Rodney enquired in a slightly disbelieving tone.

Sam merely nodded.

"I really need to read SG-1's mission files at some point." Rodney muttered to himself.

This train of thought was interrupted by Dr. Keller entering the area. "Colonel Carter, one of the nurses told me you were in here." She looked exhausted and was still in her surgical scrubs.

"How is he?" Carter asked almost immediately.

Keller sighed, "it's hard to tell at the moment, he's in serious condition but stable for the time-being. I'm probably going to need more of his blood type, we had to use quite a lot of our stock during surgery, so any people who are willing to donate should come into the infirmary this afternoon."

"I'll see to it" Carter informed her "What is the extent of Colonel Sheppard's injuries?"

"Well, aside from the obvious bullet hole there was extensive damage. The bullet pierced his ling before exiting from his upper back. This in itself would have been fairly easy to repair however, while he was under the Ancient scanner we discovered that the bullet hit a rib and fragmented. We had to open him up to repair the internal damage." Keller paused to look at the stunned group, reluctant to continue. "Colonel Sheppard was also hit with two large pieces of shrapnel, they didn't penetrate his skin but they did cause significant second degree burns across his back. Now for the good news, barring any problems, and if we can get him through the next week or so, I'm hopeful he'll make a full recovery in time. There is likely to be significant scarring but we haven't detected and nerve or spinal damage."

The tension that had been crackling in the room subsided slightly at Keller's positive prognosis. Sheppard had an uphill battle ahead of him but all the people in the room had been with him at different times when the diagnosis was much worse.

Keller continued before they could ask any questions, "For the time being we have Colonel Sheppard sedated and on a ventilator to give his damaged lung time to heal before it starts doing all the work again. I'm confidant we stopped the internal bleeding but we are going to put him back under the scanner once he's stabilised, to ensure we managed to remove all the bullet fragments."

Sam nodded "Thanks Jennifer. You look exhausted; perhaps you should try t get some sleep."

Keller nodded, trying to repress a yawn. "I will, after I've had a look at our blood-work, yours in particular." She added pointing at Ronon.

"One last thing before you go back to work," Carter called out before Keller could exit the room. "What about the devices in Colonel Sheppard's back that Ronon and Teyla told me about?"

"Umm…" Keller said stalling for time to choose the right words, "I've had Dr. Zelenka check them and they don't seem to be emitting any signal that could be transmitted to someone… as far as we can tell it's some sort of barbaric body monitoring system. It seems that each of the devices has linked into the Colonel spinal chord so there is no way of removing them without causing permanent paralysis. To be on the safe side however, I asked Dr. Zelenka to erect a dampening field around the infirmary until we are absolutely positive that the devises won't compromise Atlantis' security."

"Excellent work Jennifer." Carter praised knowing that had Keller not already done it she would have ordered the dampening field erected.

"Right," Rodney said his tone very final, "I think I've wasted quite enough time in this bed already." He threw the covers off himself to reveal that he was fully clothed. "I have work to do; we have to make sure that Sheppard doesn't pose a security threat."

The group wasn't fooled; they all knew that immersing himself in work was Rodney's was with dealing with stress situations.

"I guess I should get back to work too," Carter commented, almost wistfully "This city definitely does not run itself and I swear if I left my office for more than a few hors I wouldn't be able to get back to my desk though the mountain of paperwork." She too stood and started to head for the infirmary door "I'll come back later to check on your progress."

Ronon and Teyla started in the direction Keller had headed, hoping to be allowed to sit with Sheppard, all of them could already tell his location from the constant beeping of the heart monitor accompanied by the eerie whoosh of the ventilator as it filled Sheppard's lungs with precious oxygen.

* * *

_A/N: well this chapter was supposed to be up yesterday but then i got over 110 viruses all in one go and as you can imagine my computer didnt take to kindly to the intrusion, thus the delay... wont be posting again till the end of the week as i am house-siiting for someone and while i will have plenty of time to write i will be lacking a certain important item for internet interface... Hope you enjoy this chapter, finally some questions answered! _

_I did add an illusion to the season 6 SG-1 episode _Frozen_ just in case anyone was wondering :D_


	24. Home

**Chapter 24: Awakening**

The first thing John saw when he opened his eyes was bright white lights. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the sudden light but when they did a familiar ceiling came into view._ The infirmary_ his brain supplied for him. He had lost count of the number of times he had awoken to the sight of this very ceiling.

With this realisation came a mixture of emotions; relief at having escaped once again, despite the fact that the details of said escape were sketchy at best, worry, for the rest of his team, and resignation to the fact that he wasn't likely to be getting out of the infirmary any-time soon if his recollection of recent events was at all accurate.

Turning his head very slightly, he searched for the member of his team that would be sitting vigil close by.

If the familiar scratchy feeling in his throat and the foggy feeling in his head was anything to go by he had been on a ventilator at some point and thus was probably out for quite a while.

Drawing in a deep breath to demand how long he had been out the breath instead burst from his lungs in a gasp as pain seared from his chest to his navel.

He heard the annoying beep of the heart monitor begin to speed up and knew he had to get himself under control if he was to have any chance of avoiding drawing the attention of the medical personnel. Shifting slightly in an effort to make himself more comfortable he only just managed to contain another gasp as his attention was drawn to a number of spots on his back that flared in pain.

Realising that moving anymore may cause still more pain he instead lay perfectly still, drawing in shallow breaths.

Turning to look at Ronon, John saw that his efforts to avoid doctors had been in vain as Dr. Keller now stood next to Ronon.

"How do you feel?" she asked, seeing that he had managed to contain the pain slightly.

John took a minute to take stock of all his various aches and pains. Looking down at his chest he saw that while someone had dressed him in scrub bottoms his chest was bare, revealing a large amount of bandages and gauze, monitor leads sprouting from various places, some in plain sight others snaking from beneath the bandages.

"If possible…" he paused, " I feel worse than before, I don't remember half of these injuries… what happened?" he finished his answer with a question that was burning in his mind.

"Well, how bout I start with you getting shot." Keller began a slight hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"That I remember… vividly" john told her frankly.

"Well after that you got hit by burning shrapnel and then I had to do damage control" she told him, pointedly looking at his chest.

"Oh" was all john could come up with, he definitely didn't remember shrapnel. "Is everyone else ok?" he asked.

"Well, Ronon was also hit by shrapnel," she saw John looking Ronon over. "It burnt right through his clothes and I assume it was doing the same to his skin but he just brushed it off as though it wasn't even there."

"So, you invincible now buddy?" John asked the big man, only semi-joking.

Keller answered before Ronon had the chance. "He was carrying you at the time. I suspect that may have contributed to his seeming invincibility."

Once more John was left with nothing to say.

"Major Lorne's team sustained superficial scratches." Keller continued, she decided to omit Lorne's injury for the time being. Knowing Sheppard, he probably would have tried to get out of bed and the man certainly wasn't in any state to be trying to do so for a while yet.

"That's good to hear." John said, stopping briefly to catch his breath. "How long was I out for?"

"Four days." This time it was Ronon who replied.

"Could have been worse I suppose." John mused, almost to himself. He hated losing so much time in that way.

"Speaking of which," Keller interrupted his thoughts, "you should be getting more rest. I'm afraid you are in for at least one more round of surgery this week." Seeing John's questioning and slightly horrified look she explained; "When your shoulder was dislocated there was extensive muscle damage, if we don't repair it you will continue to have problems with it. I wanted to wait until you were slightly stronger."

John gave a minute nod and sunk back into the pile of cushions supporting him.

"We'll leave you in peace for a while" Keller told him, indicating for Ronon to follow her.

Sheppard didn't acknowledge her; sleep was tugging once more at his foggy brain.

* * *

_A/N: my profuse apologies for the massive delay but im having huge problems with the ol' computer and it took me something like 50 restarts to type out one chapter. so, despite the fact that ive written another 3 chapters you will have to bare with me with the updates, im hoping to have another chapter up this weekend but you never know. on top of all that we are moving and have to pack up the house so time to fix the computer is limited. in the meantime enjoy :D  
_


	25. More potential scars

**Chapter 25:**

A while later John was woken by a loud banging and shouting.

Looking up from his position on his bed he was able to see the doors leading from the ward to the main infirmary. He was shocked to see the doors closed and realised that the banging that had awoken him was coming from people trying to get in.

The thought that now he wouldn't have to have that second surgery crossed his mind however, this thought was almost immediately chased away by the rational part of his mind telling him that he need that surgery if he was ever going to stand the chance of returning to active duty.

Less than a second later the doors slid open to allow Rodney, two nurses and Dr Albright to tumble into the room.

Regaining his composure Dr. Albright strode towards John, "Colonel Sheppard, are you ok? We've been trying to get in here for the past twenty minutes." Checking John's vitals he said; "good work Dr. McKay."

Not usually one to admit to failure Rodney was furiously tapping away on his data pad. "It wasn't me." He huffed after a moment of silence, all but the beeping of Sheppard's monitors, "The doors opened on their own."

"Maybe there was a glitch" One of the nurses suggested almost timidly.

McKay just shook his head impatiently. "No, no. if that was the case the systems would have detected it and I could have repaired it. No, this is as if some invisible force was holding the doors closed… I need to do more research." With this parting McKay turned on his heel and hurried away, all the while tapping on his data pad.

John tried to discreetly resettle his weight as the burns on his back came into contact with the mattress. However, before he could complete the tiniest shift a burning sensation tore down his front.

"What kind of damage control was that!" he gasped as the infirmary staff rushed to check on him.

"The kind that saves your life Colonel." Dr. Albright informed him. "You had extensive internal bleeding; the only way to repair it was to open you up."

Deciding not to dwell on that particular subject any longer John began to take stock of all his other aches and pains.

The pain medication was doing a good job in masking all but the worst injuries and John was surprised to realise that he felt a lingering ache in his left wrist.

Looking down once more, this time taking care not to move more than necessary, he saw a metal bracelet encircling his wrist. The skin visible on either side was red and inflamed.

"What is that!?" he inquired, curiosity overriding a number of different emotions currently trying to take hold.

"That was actually what we were coming to talk to you about" Albright informed him, "We think its some kind of identification bracelet but whatever it is, it has caused some kind of reaction with your skin. We've tried everything short of a blow torch to get it off." Seeing the concerned look on John's face he quickly continued; "two weeks ago some of the researchers exploring the lower levels of the city found what you might call a workshop. There were some cutting tools in there that, thus far, have met with little resistance but I wanted to consult you before proceeding."

A resolute look crossed John's face as what he had been told sunk in. "Do it. I want this thing off me, whatever it's doing I can feel It." realising he needed to elaborate he added, "It aches, even with the pain meds."

A look of dawning comprehension arose on Albright's face and his answer to this information was; "I'll sort everything out and return in an hour." Before nodding once and leaving in a distinctly Rodney-ish manner.

John drifted for an hour, at various times members of the medical staff had come to check on him and he was fairly sure he had seen Teyla approach with Torren right before he had drifted off once more.

The last time he awoke he realised that he must have been out of it for at least twenty minutes as there were a number of people gathered round him. The group included Drs Keller and Albright, a nurse, Colonel Carter and one of the military contractors he recognised as a combat engineer.

He was uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting and voiced this feeling; "are all of you really necessary?"

Keller glanced briefly at Carter before answering, "This is new technology for us and we need to take every precaution."

John decided nodding was the best response to this.

Somebody gently began to manipulate his left wrist, every tiny movement sending shooting pains through his shoulder. Repressing the gasp that threatened to emerge, he bit his bottom lip and scrunched his eyes shut.

After a few minutes, that felt much longer to John, the voice of the engineer said "I think the best bet would be to cut here." John felt a slight pressure as the man indicated the area. "It looks like some sort of lock; the… bracelet should just fall away if the lock is broken."

There was a mummer of general consensus from the group before Keller said; "we are going to try and t this off now Colonel, Ok?"

John just nodded once more.

There was a lull in discussion for a minute as the engineer went to work. John felt a brief burst of heat and then the constant pressure round his wrist loosened and disappeared completely.

"It looks to be a nasty second, possibly third, degree burn." Keller informed, prompting John to open his eyes.

Looking down at his wrist he saw that the skin did indeed look blistered and burnt.

"That would explain the discomfort you were feeling colonel" Albright explained picking up John's hand to rotate it to face palm-upwards.

Albright dropped his hand as John almost recoiled, remembering just in time not to move, from the sight that met their eyes.

Seared black into the inside of his wrist was a small symbol. It consisted of four half circles back to back with short lines extending from the ends of the semi-circles.

"What is that?" Carter asked in shock.

John was sure he had seen the symbol somewhere before but couldn't for the life of him remember where.

Keller however placed it almost instantly, "It's the Kings crest." She told the group, "I remember seeing it carved onto the back of the chair he was sitting on."

As soon as she said this John too remembered the small black crest but before the horror of what had been done to him could sink in Keller continued; "I'm afraid we are going to have to clean that out in order to fully assess the extent of the damage and to prevent an infection getting hold, that would lead to even worse scarring."

"We should probably leave you to that then" Carter commented, obviously deep in thought "I have to go and make a report to the SGC anyway."

Carter and the engineer left quickly to go and see to other matters that required their attention and, as John suspected, to avoid watching the debraiding of the burnt skin around his wrist.

* * *

_A/N: ok i know i said i was going to get the next two chapters up last weekend but then i went and accidentally packed the book that id written them, its taken me this long to find it again so my apologies! there is a second part to this chapter which i will upload tomorrow i promise hope you enjoy this for the time being... still quite a few more chapters to go but for the moment they are just rough drafts in my head :D _

_no promises on when the unwritten chapters will be posted as i discovered today that the moving van is coming in a week (we only decided to move 2 weeks ago) and barely any of our furniture is packed, so again apologies if theres a bit of a break._

_Thanks again to the frequent reviewers but to those of you that read and dont review... a few lines goes a long way to helping speed me up and convince my parents to give me time off to write rather than pack... so any review will be tremendously appreciated oh and any comment on the fact that ive started using John instead of Sheppard, im not sure i like it but seen as its supposed to be from his pov at the mo i guess it makes sense, still not sure tho even after rationalising it to myself._


	26. Working with the military

**Chapter 26: Introduction to working with military personnel in the Pegasus galaxy…**

"I'm going to give you a local anaesthetic to help with the pain while we de-braid the burn." Keller told John, quietly removing a needle from one of her coat pockets.

"Do you… always carry those sorts of drugs in your pockets." Sheppard joked trying to make light of the situation but failing as his breath hitched in his lungs.

Keller decided to ignore the indications that Sheppard was in pain and continued with his jest; "Only when you're concerned Colonel, you have a habit of ending up on the infirmary watch list. If not due to grave injuries then due to the fact that you are likely to get up and walk away _before_ you are released."

Sheppard smiled sheepishly and groused, "I wish you had been carrying one of those when we were off-world." even as Keller began to inject the anaesthetic directly into the burn.

Although he gave no indication that what she was doing was causing him pain, wearing his typical stoic look, Keller could see a dim red glow coming from beneath him.

As Keller began to clean the nasty burn, with Kelly to assist, Dr Albright muttered something about going to check on their other patient, all the while grumbling something about one Sheppard being enough. A grin crossed Kelly's face as she heard this but Fortunately Sheppard was so focused on keeping his pain off of his features that he didn't even register that there was another patient let alone a troublesome one.

"The Major isn't that bad is he?" Kelly inquired as she handed Keller another piece of gauze.

Glancing down at Sheppard, Keller realised that he was too out of it to really comprehend the conversation and she felt free to answer. "He's not nearly as bad as the Colonel here but even so, most of the military men here have problems sitting still. In some ways that is what makes them so good at what they do but it also means they're a pain in the ass to treat." Looking up at Kelly briefly before continuing her work, Keller saw how young Kelly really was, even by the standards of much of Atlantis. At the same time she remembered that Kelly had come with the last lot of new recruits on the Dedalus not two weeks previously. "You haven't been here very long have you?"

Kelly just shook her head.

"The longer you're here the more you see, the thing is its tough out here, especially seeing as we are fairly cut off from earth, people sometimes feel isolated here. It helps morale when Colonel Sheppard bounces back from injuries quickly. The fact is most of the time he isn't nearly as well as he makes everyone think. But he knows what makes the people in this city tick and does everything to ensure that it runs smoothly." She indicated a smooth pink scar along Sheppard's side, where his bandages hadn't covered. "That happened less than a month ago, and if you look on the other side you will find another scar that's very similar. First he had a building fall on him then a week later he was stabbed by a… plant for lack of a better word. In most circumstances there is no way I would allow him back to active duty but this isn't most circumstances. To answer your question he's needed and so is major Lorne, as a result they can't just sit on the sidelines."

As Keller came to the end of her "introduction to working with the military in the Pegasus Galaxy" speech she finished cleaning Sheppard's newest injury. taing a close look at the wound she became conscious of the fact that the black symbol was still very much apparent. "How strange, I would have expected that to come off when I cleaned it…"

"Why would it still be there then?" Kelly posed the question her curiosity evident.

"The only possible explanation is that there was some sort of compound added to the bracelet to cause a permanent mark to be formed. I suppose that makes sense," she added to herself "but I can't for the life of me think of any compounds that would react in that way. This is the second time this week I've come across a mystery compound." She told Kelly, "I still haven't figured out what Colonel Sheppard was given while we were on the planet and how it caused the healing ability we saw." Sheppard stirred slightly at the mention of his name but miraculously at some point he had drifted off to sleep and, worried about waking the man Keller decided she should leave him in peace. "I think we should go now, I'm done her and he needs all the rest he can get. I think he's stable enough for the surgery to repair his arm but I want to be absolutely positive so, barring any complications, could you put the surgery up on the roster for the day after tomorrow?"

"I'll do that right away" Kelly said, picking up all the discarded instruments and gauze that they had used.

"Thank you"

Once Kelly had left Keller moved to the head of Sheppard's bed and watched him sleep, observing the small lines of tension that creased his face. Looking up and the monitors that surrounded his bed she noted that, although his heart rate was very slightly elevated, his blood pressure was still lower than she would like. Knowing that it was higher than it had been when he had first gone into surgery she decided that it wouldn't hurt to give him another transfusion of type positive blood.

Lightly brushing the hair away from his face she whispered "I'm so sorry I couldn't do more" Knowing that her guilt was overriding her common sense.

Moving to the foot of his bed she wrote her observations and orders on his chart, the thought of how thick his records already were briefly crossed her mind. At the rate he was going he was soon going to have a whole filing cabinet draw to himself.

Heading toward the door to the main infirmary she paused and looked back into the room, sighing as she did so. By the looks of it Atlantis' commanding officer was going to be out of commission for some time to come and his second in command was likely to be sent back with the Dedalus the next time it came through. She could only imagine all the potential problems that could arise from this fact.

Finally leaving the room Keller decided to go in search of Teyla, whom she knew wanted to spend some time with John, before returning to her duties.

* * *

_A/N: I know i promised i would a post a chapter this weekend so here it is, just made the weekend part... been away from the computer so its a bit late in coming. just a warning but it could be a while before the next chapter, i will do my best but no estimates this time._

_enjoy and dont forget to review!_


	27. Complications

**Chapter 27: Complications**

John awoke to a world of pain. Lying as still as possible he opened his eyes staring at the ceiling. He sensed the movement of someone sitting nearby but was afraid to move, further aggravating the already unbearable pain.

He realised, quite suddenly, that he was in a lose lose situation. He could communicate his pain, making it worse, or he could remain silent and try to ride out the pain without relief. His hate of pain medications such as morphine was coming into play as he struggled over his options.

Before he could come to a decision a red light flashed across his vision, filling the room before flashing off again, repeating over and over, much as though the city was on emergency power.

* * *

Jennifer was sitting at her desk, staring into the lens of a microscope at a sample of Sheppard's blood. She wasn't a genetisist by profession and her brain was becoming foggy with all the different theories that were streaming through her head.

She sighed deeply as she began to nod off, hitting her eye lightly against the lens. She couldn't help but wish that Carson was here to help her. He was so close, just two floors below, and yet too far to be of any assistance.

She was just beginning to nod off once again when a siren began blaring less than a meter behing her. Jerking upright she practically tumbled off her chair and it was only by some miracle she ended up standing.

Despite having no idea where the noise was coming from she was fairly sure that there must be a problem.

Having decided this she rushed from the room, leaving the mystery of the siren for a later date.

* * *

Teyla appeared in John's line of sight, her profile lit by the red hue of the light. "Colonel Sheppard, are you ok?"

John met her eyes, trying to silently communicate his dilemma. From the corner of his eye he saw another scrub-clad figure approach.

This person had an arm secured to his chest by a sling.

As the figure closed in John realised with some confusion that it was Lorne.

"Is everything alright Teyla?" He asked as he reached John's bed.

"I do not know" Teyla's worry was apparent not only in her voice but on her face.

"What's going on," a third voice. "One minute I'm sitting quietly in my office doing paperwork, the next an alarm I wasn't even aware existed begins blaring and I come out to see one of my wards glowing re…" Keller's tirade trailed off as she came into John's line of sight, noticing his rigid position. "What's wrong." She immediately enquired.

"The Colonel appears to be in some discomfort." Teyla explained the worry still evident in her voice.

"His oxygen stats are dropping" Keller exclaimed somewhat puzzled. "Colonel I'm going to put an oxygen mask on you before I try to figure out what's wrong." She said even as she started to pull out the mask next to the bed with one hand, simultaneously pressing the call button with the other. "I want you to take nice deep breaths if you can, are you in pain?"

John locked eyes with her, "Ok I'll give you something extra for that." She injected something into his IV port and he quickly began to relax as the drug spread through his body.

"What are you doing out of bed Major?" Keller asked not looking up from his ministrations.

"It was kinda hard to miss that something was wrong doc." Lorne explained defensively.

Keller just sighed "there's nothing you can do so I suggest you return to your bed before Dr. Albright sees you."

A slight grimace flashed across Lorne's face and, checking once more to see that his commanding officer was indeed alright, warm breath steaming against the oxygen mask, he hurriedly returned to his bed on the other side of the ward.

"What is wrong?" Teyla asked, slightly curious despite her worry.

"I'm not sure yet, just give me a moment." One of the male nurses entered as Keller began to check under each of the bandages covering Sheppard's upper torso.

Teyla tried not to show any emotions as she was once again reminded of what John had endured.

"They all seem to be doing much better than I had hoped. Ok then, Andy would you help me roll over." This last bit Keller addressed to the nurse.

A look of pure panic engulfed Sheppard's face but before anyone could truly grasp this he smoothed his face over once more.

"On the count of three we are going to roll him on to his left hand side… one, two, and… three."

Between them, Keller and Andy efficiently moved Sheppard so he was lying on his side.

Teyla knew they did it in such a manner so as to cause as little pain as possible but never the less, she still heard a quiet groan of pain escape John's lips.

Once she had ensured that Sheppard was secure Keller began to probe his injuries.

"Ok we can roll him back over again."

Keller's statement surprised Teyla as she hadn't realised she had drifted off in her own thoughts.

They lowered Sheppard back down, this time no-one doubted the look of pain.

"Andy could you get me ten cc's of intravenous ibuprofen"

Andy was gone for less than a minute and when he returned he was carrying yet another syringe.

Once again Keller injected the contents of the syringe straight into Sheppard's IV port. Looking directly into his eyes she said; "That should help Colonel, just give it a few minutes to take effect."

Teyla just watched on as the tension lines on Sheppard's face began to lessen and fade. "That will probably make you drowsy so I'm just going to give you a brief explanation before you fall asleep again." Pausing to ensure that she had Sheppard's attention "essentially there was a bit of swelling around the sites of those monitoring devices, that's what was causing your discomfort. I gave you an anti-inflammatory to take down the swelling, which should help, in the mean time I think you should try and rest."

John opened his mouth but instead of the complaint Keller and Teyla had been expecting he simply said "thanks doc"

Teyla followed Keller as she left. Once she was sure she was out of Johns hearing she politely asked "is the swelling serious?"

Keller thought her answer through. "I don't think so. I'm fairly sure it was just superficial tissue swelling. I have to admit I was slightly worried that it was affecting his central nervous system but when his breathing eased so did my fears." She could see that Teyla had not fully understood. "Um… the central nervous system controls everything the body does, including keeping the heart beating and breathing." Seeing that her explanation had been successful she moved on. "I'll have someone check on Colonel Sheppard every ten minutes but barring any further complications I don't see any reason why we can't go through with the surgery on his shoulder tomorrow morning."

"Thank you Jennifer." Teyla said with gratitude when she finished. Taking a closer look at Keller's face she said; "Perhaps you should take your own advice and get some rest. I do not believe you have had a sufficient amount of rest since we returned from P35-29X"

"I guess you're right" she conceded "but I can't seem to shut my mind off, I'm still trying to figure out what happened to Colonel Sheppard."

"You will find the answer in time." Teyla calmly told her "but perhaps you will find the answer faster if you had a sufficient amount of sleep. The Colonel's transformation has not, in itself, had any negative consequences to his health." she reminded her.

"You're right, thanks Teyla." She began to head for her office but Teyla lightly took hold of her shoulders and turned her in the direction of the infirmary's exit. "I believe your quarters would be more restful."

"Right of course. Thanks again Teyla." Teyla watched until she was sure Keller was not going to return then she turned and went to continue her bedside vigil. Ronon would be in to relieve her soon but she was planning on returning, probably with Rodney unless there was a crisis that '_no-one else could handle_', in order to be nearby while Sheppard was in surgery.

* * *

_A/N: Ok so i'm back finally... sorry for the abominally long wait. as you all probably know ive been moving house and we only just got the internet up and running last week, THEN my not so cooperative computer went haywire on me and it had to go away to get repaired. to cut a long story short the memory was completely wiped... as a result i am short the wonderful miracle that is microsoft word which i generally use for spelling and grammar checking... major apologies for any such mistakes and i hope you all enjoy. i have written another couple chapters but you are going to have to bare with me while i rectify the problem of the missing microsoft and type up all that i have written:)_


	28. Waiting

**Chapter 28: Waiting**

The next morning Keller had fully sedated Sheppard and, after confirming that the swelling had caused no further complications, he had been wheeled back into surgery.

The morning had passed slowly for the rest of the team as they spent even more time perfecting their waiting room activities.

Rodney spent his entire time not moving a single muscle save the ones that controlled the fingers that flew across the computer keyboard. Teyla too hardly moved as she meditated on the floor in the corner of the room. The only time she showed any sign of being alive was when she glanced towards the door that led into the operating rooms or when she looked up to regard Ronon. Ronon, in complete contrast to Rodney and Teyla, was the epitome of pent up energy. He spent much of his time pacing, striding from one side of the room in several smooth, gliding steps before turning abruptly at the wall so as to once more repeat his motion.

Jennifer had warned them beforehand that she wasn't sure exactly how long the surgery would take. According to her, the complicated machinery generally used for microsurgery had broken and they were awaiting the replacement parts. Unfortunately for Sheppard it had broken just after the Dedalus had departed from earth on its current supply run and they would have to wait at least six weeks for the part. Jennifer had been unwilling to wait so long to fix the damage. This meant that the normally simple, by Pegasus Galaxy standards, two hour operation would take an indefinite amount of time.

During the conversation Rodney had grunted in a very Ronon-ish style and commented on lack of luck on Sheppard's part. Teyla had merely rebuked, pointing out all the times they had escaped from seemingly hopeless situations.

That had been almost five hours ago…

The doors to the operating room swung outwards and Keller exited. All three of the waiting team members immediately halted what they were doing to gather around her.

"The operation was a complete success, if it wasn't for Colonel Sheppard's other injuries id say he could go back to light duty in a couple of weeks." She was trying to emphasise the success but had to fight hard to suppress the sense of Déjà vu that was threatening to overwhelm her.

"Good, good, that's good right?" Rodney babbled.

"Yes it's one less injury to be concerned about at this moment. We still need to keep a close eye on him and he won't be leaving here for a long time but yes it's good. I'm hopeful that Colonel Sheppard will suffer no ill effects from his shoulder… as long as he doesn't do anything to damage it while it's healing that is."

Keller sighed wearily, "The colonel is in post-op at the moment and hes going to be out for most of the day…" she paused knowing that the next thing she said was going to be unpopular. She could see the deep rings under the eyes of the team and had come to the conclusion that if she didn't want even more patients she was going to have to say something. "I'm not going to allow any of you to see him until I'm sure that you've had a good sleep. Only a blind person couldn't tell that you are all running on back up reserves. I can make it an order if I had to."

Ronon scowled at her but said nothing whilst Teyla nodded in her typical fashion, letting Keller know that she conceded to the demand. Rodney opened his mouth and Jennifer braced for a verbal thrashing but before he could utter a word Teyla put a hand on his shoulder, Ronon, following her lead, grabbed McKay's other arm and she said "It has been some time since I last ate, I believe the same may apply to you Rodney. It may be sensible to get something to eat. Do you not agree?"

Jennifer smiled, Teyla had appealed to the only part of Rodney that was even vaguely likely to pull him from the infirmary. "I…I…guess I could use something to eat" Rodney decided as they pulled him bodily towards he door.

Jennifer knew she hadn't told the entire truth; she was sure that John wouldn't be much of a state for visitors but, she had decided to wakee him up as soon as possible.

Given that the last time he had undergone surgery he had been out for four days, and because of the swelling the day before, she wanted to be absolutely positive that he wasn't suffering any ill effects from the anesthetic.

She walked through to the post-op area of the infirmary and, seeing a groggy John already returning to full awareness, crossed quickly to stand in his line of sight.

"So, how are we today Colonel?"

John grinned mischeviously, "I...don't know about you doc... but 'm fine." She could still hear the hitch in his voice but on the whole he sounded much stronger "... plus, whatever you gave me this time didn't... make me feel sick."

It was true that Sheppard usually reacted badly to general anesthetics. Making a note on his chart she said, "That's good to hear on both counts. I took a look at all your other wound sites and you'll be happy to know that they are healing nicely. All scabbed up and no sign of infection to be seen. You're healing up much faster than I would have expected. You may not be able to heal yourself but your, admittedly faster than normal, healing seems to have spead up even more." She saw the frown that creased Sheppard's face and hastened to placate him. "I'm still not really sure what happened to you but if all that's changed is that you can heal people who's to say thats a bad thing?"

"I guess.. it's just I hate being so different. This is definitely going to cause varying reactions from the Air Force and IOA."

"I don't want you to worry about anything other than getting well Colonel, I've asked Sam to hold up on sending the mission reports about the incident off, she's going to stall as long as possible."

The frown dissappeared and Sheppard relaxed a little. "Thanks again."

"Get some rest." she told him, unsure of what else to say, she felt like she should be the one thanking him. She could only imagine what could have happened had he not been there.

"Resting is all I've been doing lately." he grumbled, barely audible, even as his eyes began to drift closed of their own accord.

_A/N: No major cliffhangers and the next chapter is in the works so hopefully that will be up by the weekend :D _

_There was something else i wanted to add to this note but i cant for the life of me remember what it was so i guess it either wasnt important or it can wait for the next chapter... enjoy  
_


	29. Revelation

**Chapter 29: Revalation**

Sheppard spent much of the next week drifting in and out of consciousness. This was partly due to the fact that he needed the rest but mostly due to the drugs that Jennifer was pumping into his system.

Knowing that the Colonel would want to become mobile as soon as possible, she had decided to take the decision out of his hands. Over the past few days she had steadily been dialling back on the medications but she was still currently administering enough to keep him groggy even if awake.

As she went to check on Sheppard's charts, Jennifer decided to once more check the healing injuries. This had become common practice with her over the past week, sometimes checking every couple of hours, as the healing progressed faster than normal.

Checking the most serious external injury, the surgical incision that ran down the length of Sheppard's torso, she was happy to see bright pink scar tissue in the place of scabs and stitches.

"That looks good." Commented Lorne from where he now stood at the foot of Sheppard's bed.

"Externally yes, but internally is another matter entirely. The muscle will take much longer to repair itself." Jennifer explained as she quickly peeked under the other bandages that covered Sheppard's front to find the same results. "Shouldn't you still be in bed and attached to an IV?"

"The Daedalus leaves tomorrow and me along with it, surely you'll let me go free today?"

Jennifer eyed Lorne and, upon close inspection, detected the miniscule lines of pain on his face and the slightly unsteady stance he maintained as he propped himself against the foot of the bed. "I'm sorry Major, but I can't, in good conscious, do that. You know as well as I do that you're not really up to it. Now back to bed with you, I'll come and re-attach your IV when I'm done here."

She was sure she heard him mutter something about slave drivers and a smile tweaked at the corner of her mouth.

That smile was wiped from her face as she turned to look back at Sheppard, only to meet his now open eyes.

"When, exactly, were you planning on telling me that my second in command was being sent back to earth? After he was gone?"

Jennifer could hear the ill concealed anger in the voice of the normally laid back Colonel. "I'm sorry Colonel, I just haven't been able to find the right time."

"I want to speak to him." Sheppard said, barely waiting for him to finish.

"I'll go get him then." She responded, turning to leave.

Sheppard grabbed her arm lightly, the dark expression melting from his face. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose my temper, it… just caught me off guard… I'd like to go to him. I won't stay long and, other than the ones in my shoulder, I don't have any stitches to pull for once." At this last part he grinned, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Jennifer's resolve wavered as she looked into his unrelenting gaze. She had two options; sedate him and then try to stop a half-conscious Sheppard from getting out of bed, dealing with the fall out later, or giving into his request under strict conditions.

"Fine, but I want to lay down the ground rules." Sheppard nodded, agreeing to the fact that there were terms. "You don't try to move on your own, we put you in a wheel chair and you stay there. When I say enough you don't get to argue and, finally, I give you a shot of pain meds before we start."

She saw the resignation in his eyes at her last term. Whenever he had been lucid enough over the past week he had asked them to cut down on the drugs. Slowly but surely they had been complying.

Jennifer wasn't stupid though, she knew that moving Sheppard was going to hurt him, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"Deal." He said after less than a minute.

"Good." She countered, slightly taken aback by how fast he had weighed his options. It was common knowledge on Atlantis, since the other Rodney's visit anyhow, that Sheppard was a Mensa level genius. He just made it so easy to forget.

"Just give me a few minutes to get everything sorted." Seeing Sheppard's reluctance to wait she added "Major Lorne is not going anywhere until tomorrow, you wont miss him."


	30. Small miracles

**Chapter 30: Small Miracles**

Keller returned just a few minutes later with a bottle, a needle, and followed by a nurse pushing a wheelchair.

John watched as she drew a clear liquid into the syringe and his eyes narrowed in suspicion, he had been expecting her to put up a lot more resistance to his request. "Let me see the bottle." He demanded reaching out with his right hand to take the bottle.

Having spent a fair amount of time in infirmaries he had come to know the different types of drugs fairly well.

Looking at the label he was relieved to recognise a run of the mill painkiller, not a heavy hitter like morphine which would probably have a strong enough affect on him that Keller wouldn't need any sedatives.

"Ok" he told her once he was sure she wasn't trying to hinder him.

As usual Keller injected the liquid through his IV port and then stood back looking at her watch.

After a couple of minutes John began to feel warmth spreading through his body, dulling the continuous ache that consumed him.

"That should have been enough time for the painkiller to take effect, are you ready?"

John nodded steeling himself for what was to come. He knew he could have asked Lorne to come to him but it just wasn't the same.

Keller and the nurse positioned themselves on either side of him and helped him into a sitting position. He swung his legs, which had mercifully been spared the torment the rest of his body endured, to the edge of the bed with some difficulty as the damaged muscles of his abdomen protested. Once he was sitting on the edge of his bed he pushed off and stood on shaky legs trying to keep his balance.

John knew that Keller was looking for signs he was in distress and cursed the small monitors that lined his spine. He knew, without being able to see them, that the one at the base of his spine had begun to flash faster and at least half of the others glowed dimly.

Seeing where Keller was looking John knew he was right, drawing her attention back to his face he reassured her; "I'm ok doc, can we get on with this?"

"Of course"

Keller supported him, discreetly, as the nurse manoeuvred the wheelchair so it was behind him. They then both helped to lower him into the seat.

John was glad the rest of the team wasn't here to see this, each of them called off to attend to something that wouldn't wait.

"Thanks Kelly, I can take it from here" Keller declared, dismissing the nurse before taking hold of the handles of the wheelchair and pushing Sheppard towards the other side of the ward.

As they rounded the curtains separating Lorne's bed from the others in the ward Lorne came into view sitting alertly on the bed looking as bored as ever. Arranged around his bed in various states of relaxation were the men of his team each of them supported various visible cuts and burns but none appeared serious.

Not unlike Sheppard's team the men in Lorne's team had formed incredibly close bonds over the past couple of years. The tension in the air was so stark that, had Sheppard had a knife, he was sure he would have been able to cut straight through it. The knowledge of Lorne's pending return to earth was obviously weighting heavily on everyone concerned.

When he saw John he perked up; "Colonel!" he greeted, John could see that someone had reattached his IV and was under no allusions that that was the only thing confining Lorne to his bed.

"Major" he returned.

"I'll leave you to it then, but remember our agreement colonel!" John could see that she was uncomfortable listening in on their conversation and decided to facilitate her escape "I won't forget, scouts honour."

That had her scowling but it was obvious she had decided not to retaliate and instead turned and left.

Lorne's team evidently shared the same sentiment as each stood and left after saying goodbye in their own way, through a mixture of light touches on shoulders to simple, brisk, nods. Eventually the partitioned area only contained Sheppard and Lorne.

The two men sat in uncomfortable silence for several minutes before they both began to speak at once.

"Colonel I'm…"

"Major I'm so…"

John indicated that Lorne should continue.

"Colonel I'm glad to see you up and around… so to speak, at one point I wasn't sure you were going to make it…"

"I'm going to be fine… eventually, but I don't think that would have been the case if it weren't for you and your team. If you hadn't turned up when you did I'm fairly sure that I wouldn't be in the land of the living and the others would be supporting matching accessories. I can't tell you how sorry I am that you're suffering because of my mistakes."

"With all due respect sir it was worth it and I would do it again in a heart beat. And just to set things straight, anyone would have fallen for the villagers rouse, hell two advance teams did before you even arrived on that planet. It was just bad luck on your part that they acted when they did and not before or after with other teams."

"Thanks, that helps a bit I guess" John said, struggling to stand, knowing that he would probably get an ear-full from Keller later on.

Lorne made no move to help, possibly guessing that this was something Sheppard wanted to do on his own, all too aware of the helplessness that one felt while suffering from debilitating injuries.

Once he was standing upright John lifted his good arm to rest on Lorne's uninjured shoulder saying as he did so; "It has been an honour and no matter what you think, you don't deserve this."

As he went to lift his hand away his skin made contact with Lorne's skin.

There was a bright flash of electric blue light that arced from the point of contact across Lorne's chest, centring on his injured shoulder, and the lights throughout the infirmary flared bright white before going out.

* * *

_A/N: two weeks later i finally remember what i was going to write 2 or 3 chapters ago... i have no knowledge of medical practice and while i did spend a fair amount of time trying to find the right things to add i apologise for any mistakes._

_I hope you enjoy the chapter and sorry for not posting last week... i was going to post 2 chapters today but i thought of a sandwich chapter that i need to write and proof, with any luck it will be up tomorrow._


	31. Unending questions

**Chapter 31: Unending questions**

Rodney huffed in frustration. He had spent all day, and many of the past days, staring at his computer monitor. Anomalies in Atlantis's systems had been flaring up all over the city, particularly in the tower that housed the infirmary.

It didn't seem to matter how long he stared at the monitor, the information being displayed did not reveal the mystery surrounding the strange malfunctions.

His one relief was that none of the other scientists had come up with the answers yet either, saving his position as top genius.

He had suspicions, he would be an idiot not to, after all, all the malfunctions had started as soon as Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, and Jennifer had returned. Of the group only one member seemed to have been affected to any extent.

Rodney had heard the tale behind Ronon's miraculous recovery but still, he was having a hard time believing it. Maybe it was the devices that seemed to have been implanted in Sheppard and the others. The devices the others had seemed to be completely inactive whilst Sheppard's devices appeared to be fully functioning.

This had been Rodney's first line of inquiry but that had quickly hit a brick wall. The devices weren't emitting any signals that would affect Atlantis so completely.

After that line of enquiry had failed Rodney had quickly run through other options, ranging from radioactive isotopes to saboteurs. All these options had been eliminated too and thus Rodney now found himself sitting in frustration glaring at his monitor.

A flash of guilt seared across Rodney's thoughts as he realised that he had not been to see Sheppard today. Thinking that perhaps a break from his puzzle would do the world of good he pushed back his chair, preparing to stand.

That was when his monitors began to display numerous warning messages as lights throughout the city began to fail. Seeing that the energy surge that had caused the blackout had originated in the infirmary Rodney activated his radio; "What the hell was that!" he demanded of Keller, "the computers are recording a massive power surge in the infirmary."

Keller's rely was almost immediate "I'm not exactly sure what happened but I have an idea."

Before Rodney could even ask what she meant by that she came back again. "I don't have time to explain right now, I'm a little busy" her radio clicked off and Rodney felt his annoyance surge, it was quickly quashed by concern for his friends in the infirmary and he realised moments later that the best way to help them was to got the lights back on as fast as possible.


	32. Recovery

**Chapter 32: Recovery**

As soon as the infirmary was plunged into darkness Jennifer knew the source of the problem.

She began to move even before the lights flickered back on.

Her radio buzzed and crackled and Rodney's voice sounded in her ear "What the hell was that! The computers are recording a massive power surge in the infirmary."

Jennifer flicked on her radio without even stopping "I'm not exactly sure what happened but I have an idea." Pre-empting Rodney's next question she snapped "I don't have time to explain right now, I'm a little busy."

With that she switched off her radio and entered the dark ward.

As she progressed along the ward the lights flickered back on behind her.

Rounding the curtains of Major Lorne's bed she was not entirely surprised by what she saw.

Sheppard was lying in a crumpled heap next to Lorne's bed, while Lorne kneeled next to him.

Jennifer didn't have to look closely to see the healthy glow that radiated from Lorne's body, sharply contrasting the previous sickly pallor.

"You may as well take that sling off now major and help me get the Colonel back to his bed."

Lorne looked up, slightly surprised by what she way saying. It took a moment for the lack of the constant ache, which had been plaguing him all week, to dawn. "Yes ma'am." He replied briskly, even as he did as she suggested.

Between the two of them they managed to manoeuvre Sheppard back into the wheelchair and back across to his bed where a verifiable army of machines were waiting to monitor his condition.

At the bed they were met by Dr. Albright and two nurses.

"All our other patients are accounted for, where they are supposed to be and their conditions have not changed." Albright reported as he moved aside to allow the nurses to help move Sheppard back onto his bed and attach the various leads for the monitors. "Major Lorne… I see you are not where you are supposed to be but, I rather expect you won't need to return there right this instant. We can't really do anything at the moment so why don't you come with me so I can confirm my suspicions."

Lorne didn't really appear to be listening but when Albright moved away he followed, all the while flexing his, until recently, useless hand.

* * *

_A/N: This chapter and the one before could have been posted as one chapter but i prefer to separate view points by different chapters... i thought we needed a bit more of rodney as hes played very little part in the event s of this story thus far. for all of you that wanted to see lorne back to good health here you are..._

_as promised these were posted the day after, even if it was a bit later than i had anticipated._

_someone asked if i really made up the story as i went along and the answer is yes, i have no plan and just write chapters as im inspired... keep this in mind when you review :D_


	33. Clean Bill of Health

**Chapter 33: Clean bill of health**

"I heard Ronon's report on what happened on the planet and, given all the other crazy stuff I've seen since I joined the Stargate program, I really shouldn't be surprised but… this is unreal. I wasn't sure I believed the story." Lorne commented to Albright.

"It's not just physical healing you know" Albright responded, indicating that Lorne should sit down while he checked his blood pressure "when we scanned the team we found that they had all been implanted with some sort of electrical device. From what I've been told it was a means of control, incapacitating them if they tried anything. After they came into contact with Colonel Sheppard however, he was the only one that seemed to be affected by the device."

"That kind of skill could come in handy" Lorne said, trying to consider all the possibilities.

"I would agree with you, to be able to heal any injury with just one touch, however we have to find out the effects this is having on Colonel Sheppard; until we can be sure that it is causing no long-term damage we need to be more careful while dealing with him, no unnecessary contact I should think."

Lorne nodded knowing Albright was right, Sheppard's wellbeing was much more important than any advantages that could be gained from the whole situation.

"I'd just like to take a blood sample then you're free to go."

Lorne felt the pinch of the needle and looked down to see the vial fill with his blood. Albright removed the needle and, slapping a plaster over the needle mark said "You seem to be back to being as a fit as a fiddle, so you can go. I suggest you inform Colonel Caldwell that he will not need to accommodate another passenger unless, of course, you want to return to earth."

Lorne looked at him as though he had grown a second head. Shaking his head he stood up. Looking down at his hospital scrubs he asked; "is there any chance I could have some clothes?"

"I'm ahead of you there" Albright smiled as a nurse entered carrying a stack of clean clothes. "We'll leave you to it."

Five minutes later, feeling much better having put on his own clothes, Lorne exited the infirmary. He had wanted to see Sheppard but had been informed that his CO was still unconscious.

Deciding that he would do as the doctor had suggested, Lorne began to make his way towards the control room.

He was acutely aware of the fact that all the soldiers he passed, and many of the scientists, were staring at him, all having heard that he was being sent home.

He walked quickly to the transporter, uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting, trying to walk tall and give an air of strength all the while.

When he reached the transporter he was relieved to find that he was the only one taking it. Despite the fact that, unlike elevators, there was barely any time for any form of small talk, Lorne still wasn't really in the mood to be stared at even more, even if it was only for a minute. He welcomed the brief respite.

Hitting the button for the control room, Lorne saw the bright flash of light that engulfed him. He sighed deeply as the light subsided and he stepped from the transporter, once more enduring the staring faces that turned his way.

Vaulting up the stairs from the gate-room to the control room, he crossed the room quickly, heading for Carter's office.

On the way he did notice, with some amusement, that the only person not staring at him was Rodney who was so immersed in his work, mumbling to himself, that he was completely oblivious to the fact that a hushed silence had fallen over the room.

Lorne had been planning on stopping in the control-room to send a communiqué to the Daedalus however; he had noticed Caldwell in Carter's office and had decided to bypass the normal lines of communication.

Knocking briefly on the door he stood in the doorway waiting to be acknowledged. Carter looked up and, to her credit; she managed to cover up the look of surprise on he face fairly quickly; "What can I do for you major?"

Caldwell, who had had his back to Lorne, turned to see who she was talking to.

"Actually ma'am, I'm here to speak with Colonel Caldwell." Lorne explained, shifting uncomfortably under their scrutinising looks.

Caldwell finally managed to place Lorne, "Aren't you the Major that's supposed to be coming back with us under medical discharge?"

"Yes…No…that's what I came to talk to you about, I don't need to come back now…"

"It was my understanding that if someone was discharged due to medical reasons there was generally no chance of full recovery."

"Yes, that's true sir." Lorne made an effort not to stammer but he was unsure exactly how much information he should be revealing about Sheppard's part in his recovery, given the animosity that was well known to exist between the two.

"Does this have anything to do with Colonel Sheppard?" Carter finally asked, Lorne realised that she had come to that conclusion as soon as he had entered but had been staying quite, wanting to see how her second in command would respond, whether he would protect hi commanding officer or tell the stark truth when put under pressure from an outside officer.

Realising she was satisfied with his answers thus far, and that she was willing to trust Caldwell, he answered truthfully; "Yes ma'am, he brushed his fingers against my shoulder while we were talking and the next minute he was on the floor and I was healed."

"And how is Colonel Sheppard now?"

Lorne hung his head "when I asked they told me was still unconscious. Dr Albright suggested that I should inform Colonel Caldwell and the Daedalus of my change in situation so as to avoid confusion later on." Scrunching up his face as he came to another conclusion he added; "I suspect he may have been trying to get me out of the infirmary quietly."

"Don't beat yourself up Major; I have a feeling there isn't much anyone could have done to stop Colonel Sheppard from doing what he did, especially given the seeming ease with which this… ability manifests itself. Well, seen as you are back to full health, you and your team can take the mission back to P35-29X. I want to establish the exact position of the tribe people, if they voluntarily undertook the king's wishes or if they were coerced. Sergeant Ferranti's team was going to go, take them as back-up."

"Yes ma'am" Lorne articulated, turning on his heel to leave. As he walked out the door he heard Colonel Caldwell say "I think we need to talk…"

* * *

_A/N:i seem to have confused myself a little and im not sure if ive already uploaded this chapter, if i have im sorry but i can guaranttee that the last few paragraphs are new as ive only just written them, hoping to do more tomorrow.  
_

_ so i just started a full time job thus the updates may come fewer and further between, i will endeavour not to let this happen but no promises, in the mean time...ENJOY_

_btw: im staggered by the number of rewiews ive had recently, cant thank you all enough, i now have over 100!!!  
_


	34. Mission, Mark II

**Chapter 34: Mission, mark II**

It took Lorne and his team less than an hour to prepare for the mission, give the chance that the villagers were indeed hostile, despite Keller and Teyla's reports, they had determined that the best course of action was to use a jumper to go through the gate before landing a safe distance from the village and then continuing their recon with the aid of the life-signs detector.

To say that Lorne's team was glad to see him in one piece was an understatement but the time for celebrating was put on hold given the pending mission.

As Lorne stepped into the jumper he couldn't help but shudder at the thought of how close he had come to losing this opportunity, he honestly had no idea what he would have done if he had been unable to travel to different planets on a weekly basis. Sure there were down sides but for the most part the sense of adventure and suspense that accompanied every mission more than compensated.

Flying through the gate, Lorne quickly found a safe place to land before his team headed out; leaving Sergeant Ferranti's team to guard the jumper and be prepared to offer assistance should they need it.

Approaching the village the small group of men used the life-signs detector to avoid every living creature they may have come across, not willing to chance being seen by the villagers. Each step was carefully placed to create the absolute minimal sound and as a result as the team moved they sounded more like the whisper of wind moving through the leaves than that of four fully armed men creeping stealthily through the undergrowth.

Before they reached the outskirts of the village music came floating their way. The closer they got to the village itself the loader the music got and with it came the sound of lots of voices singing and talking at once.

Bewildered they crept closer, being sure to keep away from the area which currently seemed most densely populated.

"It sounds like they're celebrating sir." Green whispered easily heard by the rest of the team thanks to the sensitive radios each of them had strapped to their necks, he sounded just as mystified as Lorne himself was.

Despite the fact that they were concealed in the dense foliage of the forest and it was raining heavily, as usual, a young child, no older than four or five, chose that moment to spot them. He dashed towards them and while they raised their weapons, they were not really willing to kill someone so young without a justified reason.

To their complete surprise he flung himself at Lorne and hugged him fiercely. "Thank you!" the little boy declared enthusiastically before releasing the shocked soldier and scurrying back into the village before any of the men had any time to react.

"Hey, wait" Lorne called out, loud enough for the boy to hear but not loud enough to alert anyone else.

The boy paused briefly before turning, realising that they were not following him, he gestured with his hand, looking very impatient for such a young child, before once more running off, obviously expecting them to follow this time.

Switching on his radio in order to contact the team left with the jumper, Lorne quietly said, "Stand by sergeant we may need help on the double, be prepared for our distress signal."

Ferranti said his affirmative and both parties quickly signed off.

Lorne knew it was risky to follow the boy but something was telling him that the villagers were fairly passive people.

Slowly stepping out from where they had concealed themselves; Lorne indicated that his men should follow, trusting that none of them would question his decision.

He was following his gut and knew the others were very likely doing the same. All the soldiers that had made it to the stargate programme had honed their instincts so that it became second nature to trust what their guts were telling them.

Lorne's guard went up as they walked through the practically deserted village, the odd bird like creature that passed as a chicken on this planet were the only witness to the group's passing. The child, now sure the men were following, had not so much as glanced back.

As they approached the centre of the village the sound of multiple voices and festive music floated through the air.

Lorne didn't miss the surprised look that passed between two members of his team. Depending on the outcome of this particular venture he would either call them on the fact that their attention had wavered or he would leave them be. They were still young and no amount of training and experience would prevent the occasional lapse in judgement or attention.

When they were almost upon the village centre the team stopped. The quiet buzz of voices and music had turned into a verifiable roar.

Knowing that he had deviated massively from standard operating procedure, Lorne contemplated his next move.

Having come this far Lorne was loathe to turn around. In the end he let his gut dictate his actions.

Moving round the final corner into the village square, Lorne was greeted by a wall of sound as a cheer rose from the crowd gathered.

The majority of the people stayed back, but a single man separated himself from the crowd, walking forward, arms stretched wide. Lorne lowered his weapon, low enough not to be threatening, but high enough to be able to pull it up fast, as the man began to speak.

"Forgive me for not greeting you with your rank sir but we have not yet had a chance to learn your militaries hierarchy and insignias. We had hoped to thank Colonel Sheppard in person but perhaps you could pass along our thanks?"

"Colonel Sheppard was seriously injured." Lorne informed the man, and the crowd, stiffly before asking; "Thanks for what?"

"Why for giving us the courage to overthrow the tyrant who ruled over us of course!" the man exclaimed, as he did so the crowd parted, allowing Lorne to glimpse the cage that they surrounded.

As he looked closer he caught a flash of familiar red hued clothing. It was all he could do to keep his mouth from dropping open. They had caged their king!

Reaching for his radio he spoke. "I think you can stand down Ferranti…"

Still cautious, Lorne began to move towards the cage, the crowd parting further still as he approached. He hadn't quite lowered his weapon below recovery as, while fairly sure the king would not submit to such indignation to capture the team, he was not willing to take any chance until he was.

Upon further examination of the cage Lorne saw the pitiful state that the king was in. his clothes were ripped and torn in numerous places and he was coated in a thick layer of mud. His hair was mussed and, although it looked as if the villagers had been providing the man with food, it was patently obvious that he was the worse for wear after his ordeal.

From behind him, Lorne heard one of the men in his team snort in an effort to keep from laughing.

Once more the leader of the village approached, the child they had followed bouncing excitedly at his side. "We would love it if you would stay and celebrate the fact that we have been given the chance to take our fates in our own hands for the first time in many generations."

Having received such a welcoming, given the state of the king, Lorne was more than happy to comply. In the back of his mind he still thought about trade relations and alliances…

* * *

_A/N: im sooooooooo sorry for not posting sooner but work has shackeld my muse... i have a mindless job that leaves the muse free to roam but not tools with which to express itself, couple that with owning a horse and mind numbing exhaustion is what greets me at the end of most days... i will try to update more frequenty but no guarnatees._

_FYI: reviews would go a long way to helping me push through the exhaustion :)  
_


	35. Loyalty

**Chapter 35: Loyalty**

Sam sighed as she read yet another report from her offworld teams. No matter how hard she tried to focus on what she was reading she could not prevent her mind from wondering to her second in command and the problems that he now presented. There was only so long she could stall her report to stargate command. Not wanting to consider the possible ramifications that her eventual report was going to have on John's career, and more importantly his life, Sam tried to file that thought under bridges yet to cross.

She was saved the trouble as an incoming wormhole was announced. A veteran of the stargate programme, Sam tensed at the announcement; you never knew what the next wormhole would bring. Glancing briefly at the clock on her wall she relaxed very slightly as she realised it was a scheduled dial-in. even so, she did not return to her work until she heard the announcement that an IDC had been received, without all the radio chatter that generally accompanied a team under fire.

Knowing that if she was needed someone would come and fetch her or contact her through the radio, she once more turned to clearing the huge pile of paperwork that had built up during the day.

Several minutes later a grinning Lorne knocked respectfully on her door before entering. "I think we can safely deem that planet friendly now." He told her sincerely. "With any hope once they familiarise themselves with their new technology they will be good allies to have."

"That's good to hear Major" Sam told him, grinning for what felt like the first time in years.

"What's more;" he added, unconsciously rubbing what had been his bad shoulder "we found the source of the shrapnel"

Sam raised her eyebrows at that; she had had her suspicions but they had been unable to prove with any certainty exactly what had caused the explosions of shrapnel.

"Yeah" Lorne continued, seeing the look on her face "It turns out that the villagers were watching our escape and when they saw that the robots could be destroyed they decided to fight back, it was just unfortunate that we were within the blast radius. Whatever they used really packed a punch though; there was hardly any evidence of the robots left." Seeing the troubled look on Sam's face Lorne asked "If I may ma'am, what's bothering you?" he had an idea but he wanted it confirmed before he continued.

"My report to the SGC" Sam admitted knowing that she shouldn't really be telling him this. "I cant hold it off anymore, despite everybody's general conduct being faultless I cant help but worry about how the IOA is going to react to Colonel Sheppard's current condition… I've just finished reading Jennifer's report and there is no way to remove those devices in his back without paralysing or possibly killing him. I mean, alien monitoring devices and the ability to heal physical injuries, the IOA had removed people from duty for FAR less…"

Lorne had confirmed his suspicions "I don't think you should worry so much, there's nothing you can do about the IOA's opinions but you have to send that report or we risk losing you as well. Colonel Sheppard is an integral part of this base, perhaps even more so now, you can ask anybody in this city, military or civilian, and they will tell you the same thing. If the IOA did decide to remove the colonel from duty they would probably have a mutiny on their hands… add that to your report."

Sam smiled tiredly at the emboldened Major "thanks Evan I appreciate that" returning to a business-like tone she continued "Don't you have a post-mission check-up to attend Major?"

Lorne stood to attention before turning on his heel to leave. At the same time Sam went back to her paperwork, intensely missing the simplicity of being part of SG-1.

***

Lorne walked into the infirmary, quiet by normal standards, and headed towards the area specially reserved for post-mission checks. Sheppard still hadn't been moved into the main infirmary but as he walked past the door to the intensive care unit he saw the rest of Sheppard's team sprawled in various states of waiting while the man himself slept.

Dr Albright was waiting for him as he joined his team in waiting for Ferranti's team to be cleared.

When it came his turn to be checked out Lorne sat on the bed and asked "How's the colonel doing?"

Albright set about checking Lorne's breathing before saying "Colonel Sheppard's health has deteriorated slightly. For some reason some of the wounds that we thought were healing very well have re-opened. Dr Keller can't find any reason for this. I did posit the idea that the colonel had gone for one of his famed jaunts, but if he has we can't find any evidence of it…"

Lorne groaned, allowing Albright to continue his examination, perhaps Sheppard's recovery wasn't going to be as quick as everyone had hoped.


	36. Answers

**Chapter 36: Answers**

Jennifer thought she had finally found the source of John's miraculous powers of healing. She had been examining the blue fluid that the King had pumped into Sheppard's veins. With Lorne's return she had been able to obtain other samples of the same solution. However, there were minute differences in the one that had been in Sheppard's IV. She knew that the differences were probably a mistake but they had reacted with the colonel's body chemistry. This, along with acute physical stress seemed to have triggered the change.

She was disappointed that she couldn't offer a definite answer past what she had deduced yet at the same time she felt relief that she wasn't going to be able to reverse engineer the change, something she had been worried about being asked to do.

She looked away from her microscope, resting her tired eyes briefly before deciding to once more check on Sheppard. She knew that the real reason that he had deteriorated was because he had healed Lorne, causing himself more physical stress. She hadn't shared her conclusions with anyone else, preferring to first discuss the matter with John, when he was coherent enough to remember their conversation.

As it was he was still drifting in and out of consciousness, back on the good pain medication, and she knew it would probably be a while before she could clear everything up.

Happy to see Lorne and his team in one piece and having their checkups Jennifer ducked into ICU. She was used to the various positions that Sheppard's team waited in and quickly bypassed each individual to access her patient.

He opened his eyes as she approached and she saw very little of the drug induced haze she normally saw.

Making a snap decision to take advantage of what was likely going to be a brief window she said "I want to have a word with Colonel Sheppard in private please." And before even a single syllable could be uttered she had ushered all the other astounded team members out of the ICU and closed the door.

Turning back, she saw the puzzled look on John's face and snapped; " don't look at me like that, you know perfectly well what we need to talk about."

A deep sigh escaped his lips, ending in a pain wracked cough as Sheppard's damaged lung protested strongly at the extra work.

When the coughing had passed and John had caught his breath, Keller had been watching the monitors to ensure that his O2 stats had not dropped too low, he said "I couldn't just sit there and watch Lorne be sent away for saving my life, not when I had the power to change things."

"Yes, well… not only has it created a hell of a lot of paperwork for Sam, she could have passed what happened on that planet off as something else but there were too many witnesses here to do that but, you undid all your healing .no more skin to skin contact for you colonel- not until you are one hundred percent at the very least.

Sheppard went to sigh but caught himself and just nodded instead.

"If anymore wounded soldiers come in I will restrain you if i think you're going to try something" she warned

Sheppard nodded looking very disheartened; changing the subject he asked "How long am I confined this time?"

Keller paused for a moment trying to decide how best to answer yet another difficult question "For a while yet, I won't release you, not until you've started physiotherapy and have regained the ability to get around without any help." She didn't want to saound harsh but at the same time she didn't want the restless colonel to cause himself further injury by being inadequately prepared.

"When can I start physio then?" Sheppard enquired shifting slightly as though he was about to try and sit up.

"Not…" Jennifer never got the chance to complete her reply as the alarms began to blare and "Medical teams to the gate room" was announced over the intercom. Jennifer's shoulders slumped in resignation "this is going to be a long day." She announced to no-one in particular. Turning back to Sheppard she noticed the tense position the man was now lying in. "I think you could use some more sleep" she told him, making a snap decision and pumping the drugs into his IV before he had the chance to argue. Seeing john's eyes begin to droop she turned away and went to grab her kit, ready for the next emergency.

* * *

_A/N: i know, i know, its been ages since i last posted an for that i sincerly apologise. its not that the chapters werent written, thanks t long and very uneventful days at work this chapter has been down on paper for the better part of a month, its just finding the time to type it up that seems to be impossible...anyway hope you enjoy the chap... reviews might encourage me to put aside other jobs in order to get the nxt chap out in the next couple of days, again its not that its not written i just havent had the time to type...blame my slow typing... anyway please do let me know what you think._


	37. Bid for Freedom

_A/N: Ok so no excuses except for pure lazyness... the story is finished now theres just a few more chapters to put up over the next few days. let me know what you think of the wind up to the end as ive always been terrible at finishing stories and i hate leaving massive cliffhangers as with some of the stories ive read in the past.

* * *

_

**Chapter 37**: Bid For Freedom

John woke with a gasp as pain seared through his leg. He knew that Keller had drugged him again and anger flashed in his mind before he remembered how he had been feeling before she had. Maybe it was a good thing she had; he wasn't sure what he would have done if he had been able to get to whichever wounded team was returning.

He was snapped out of his thoughts by the pain. It was sharpest in his leg, which was odd as he had no recollection of injuring his legs at all. He was starting to think that Keller's drugs had been playing with his mind but the pain, that had felt like the bones in his leg had been shattered, began to dull.

As this pain began to fade another flared so fast he felt like he had whip-lash. This time the pain was in his head and his vision began to blur. No newcomer to having severe concussions John waited for his vision to stabilise and the furniture to stop bobbing like it was a ship riding waves.

As clear thinking returned john began to wonder if the pain was truly his at all. He was positive that he hadn't done anything to either his leg or his head and even as he tried to figure out exactly how he might have caused himself these injuries the pain began to once more fade away, only to be replaced in yet another uninjured part of his body.

John pushed himself, painfully, into a sitting position with his god arm and then, holding his breath, he eased himself off his bed and stood on two fairly wobbly legs. As he straightened into a fully standing position the surgical incision that spanned the length of his torso stretched stealing the breath from his body and the burnt skin on his back pulled uncomfortably tight beneath the bandages. As he reached out to grasp the rail in the bed his shoulder protested venomously and the burn on his wrist felt tight and sore. _All in all not too bad_ he thought to himself, at least he was still standing and wasn't crippled by the pain.

He had no idea why, but he knew that if he was able to get out of the infirmary he would feel slightly better. The problem was that there were any number of people between him and the exit of the infirmary. John stood there trying to think of any other ways he might be able to escape the infirmary but his mind was drawing a blank. He had briefly considered climbing down the side of the tower housing the infirmary but had quickly discarded that notion when he took into consideration his current physical state.

What he really needed was a diversion or some cover but there were few opportunities for such things in the infirmary.

While this thought flitted through his mind he became aware of a dull grinding noise that was increasing with every passing minute. Furthermore, he realised that in spite of the fact that it was almost mid-day Atlantis time the room was getting darker.

Turning towards the windows he was shocked to see blast doors, much like the ones he had seen at the SGC beginning to descend over the windows. With a resounding bang the doors fell into place and John could hear the muffled exclamations from staff and patients alike.

However, before John could even contemplate the ramifications of what had just happened, the lights throughout the infirmary switched themselves off, plunging everyone into darkness. Knowing that this could be his only chance, John headed towards the ICU door, having to use his intimate knowledge of the infirmary to navigate while at the same time hoping that he wouldn't crash into anyone in his bid for escape.

Every step was agony but within a minute he had crossed the entire floor of the infirmary and was leaning next to the closed door. Before he could lift his hand to open the door it slid open of its own accord and he stumbled through in time to watch it close again behind him. As he stood, dumfounded, looking for the person who had opened the door John saw something out of the corner of his eye. The lights on the door mechanism faded as the door powered down, effectively locking everyone in the infirmary.

He shivered as the cool air of the corridor brushed against the exposed flesh of his torso, where bandages didn't cover, and the motion sent yet more excruciating spasms through the torn muscles of his chest. He considered staying where he was, concerned that a serious problem had sealed the inhabitants of Atlantis in the areas they had been in, but he already felt much better than when he had been in the infirmary, the fleeting pains were much more subdued and controllable. Just putting a solid door between him and other people had helped him improve and so taking minute wobbly steps he began to move away from the infirmary and the more populated areas of the city, towards the deserted east pier.

The further away he got the better he felt until it was just his original injuries that plagued his every movement. Turning suddenly he entered a teleporter and when he exited he walked towards his favourite balcony. When he got there he sunk down against the wall, watching the birds wheel in the sky above. The planet was mostly water and the nearest land mass was hundreds of miles away and john could not help but be amazed at how far they had travelled in order to reach Atlantis, very much like the expedition he mused. It wasn't hard to imagine what would attract so many people but the wildlife was a bit of a mystery. Did animals have the same sort of imagination as people or was it something more primal that attracted them?

He continued to muse for hours until eventually he drifted off into a fitful, pain-filled sleep, interrupted by nothing, not even the calls of the birds high above.


	38. Lockdown

**Chapter 38: Lockdown**

This wasn't new, not by Atlantis' standards. On at least two other occasions the city had gone into complete lock-down… what was new were the blast doors and the fact that only the infirmary had been locked down. Radio contact had been temporarily knocked out but as soon as the lights came back on the radios became operational again. Keller had immediately got onto the control room to find out what was going on. She was surprised when Rodney answered straight away; she had been expecting him to be in his lab not the control room.

"Rodney what in heavens name is going on?" She demanded as she walked between the beds making sure all her patients were still alright and, in some cases; that the machinery monitoring their life-signs was still functioning. "One minute everything is normal and the next we're pitched into darkness"

"What? Darkness? How is that possible, it's still light outside! One minute I'm enjoying myself yelling at my underlings the next I'm called up to the control tower to deal with power fluxuations, really is there no better use of my time one of the underlings could have dealt with this!"

"Rodney! You are getting off track! We are stuck in the infirmary; everyone I've checked on so far is ok and I can't find anyone that may be carrying anything infectious so no reason for the lockdown, I've only got one ward left to check… hold on… I'm missing a patient!"

"What… oh right missing patient… wait, who?"

"Who do you _think_ Rodney? Colonel Sheppard of course."

"Of course who else could it possibly be who goes missing from the infirmary? I'll alert the military type people or who-ever normally deals with THAT problem and…" he paused and Keller was fairly sure he was adjusting himself in that self-important manner he was so good at "in the meantime I will rescind the lock-down on the infirmary."

"Thanks Rodney" Keller told him, trying desperately hard to keep the sarcasm out of her voice so as not to offend her overly sensitive friend.

She heard him muttering to himself over the still open intercom, he was too engrossed in what he was doing to remember to close them, before he stopped, saying; "That's interesting. That's the same anomalous code source that appeared last time the infirmary doors locked themselves. But that makes no sense… I scoured the systems after last time, there was no sign of that coding, and I made sure of it." Keller wasn't sure who Rodney was talking to, whether it was someone at his end, her or just himself and so decided that the best course of action was just to ignore him and see to her other patients.

She already had a medical kit set up for occasions where Colonel Sheppard left the infirmary before he was discharged and as such she decided not to worry too much about that particular scenario until she could actually do something about it.

Ronon and Teyla had been in the mess hall when the call came over the radio that Sheppard had disappeared from the infirmary. In all fairness they had been expecting something like this for a while now, Sheppard always got restless it was common knowledge, but usually he was substantially further on in his recovery.

They had both decided to have lunch in the mess hall rather than the infirmary to give Sheppard some space. Having spent their fair share of time in the infirmary due to injury and knew that some days could be a lot harder than others and, while it was nice to have company most of the time, sometimes you needed time alone.

Teyla had noticed the strain on John's face and, although he tried to hide them, the devices on his back told her all she needed to know about the amount of pain he was trying to deal with. Indicating very discreetly to Ronon they had excused themselves, Teyla saying she had to feed Toren and Ronon pleading the need for a run.

Collecting Toren from where he had been playing on the floor, she settled him in the sling across her chest. Ronon looked at her and, once he had received the affirmative that she was ready, he set off at a brisk pace, and heading towards the first of several of Sheppard's favourite thinking locations.

The west pier was their first stop but as they stood watching the sun dip lower towards the horizon Teyla couldn't help but look back at the nearest tower. She had the feeling that the natural pilot would want to be higher up. "Perhaps we should look on those balconies" she suggested, indicating gently with her hands, trying not to disturb the sleeping infant she was carrying.

"Which one do we start with?" Ronon asked meaning the vast number of options they had on every floor.

Smiling she replied; "the top one."

Ronon just nodded in agreement and once more led the way towards the transporter. As the doors swished open and closed Toren stirred gently in his sleep, gurgling quietly as he did so, but he didn't wake up.

Within seconds they were stepping out onto the top floor. Ronon paused, thinking about which way to go, before heading in the direction which would have a balcony facing the setting sun.

Before they even reached the doors leading to the balcony Ronon could hear deep breathing. The doors were already open so, standing to one side, Ronon glanced around the edge of the door frame. He held his hand out stopping Teyla, and then backed up. "It's Ronon" he said as he activated his radio. "We've found Sheppard; he's on the balcony on top of the tower facing the west pier."

A voice came back; "copy that, do you need assistance?"

"No, he's asleep; just send the doc when you can."

"ok, thanks Ronon. We will send her as soon as Dr McKay gets the infirmary doors open please keep him up to date in regards to Colonel Sheppard's condition."

Teyla moved forward to look through the doorway to see John slumped against the wall, as Ronon said, asleep. She too lowered herself into a sitting position on the floor. At some point Toren had woken up again. Knowing him well, Teyla knew that Toren would be happier, and quieter, if he was allowed to move about and play she took him out of the sling, placing him on the floor, and gave him on of the toys that Sheppard had given her. It was soft and brightly coloured but john had assured her that all the children Toren's age played with them on earth.

Toren grabbed the toy and, before Teyla or Ronon could stop him, he crawled towards Sheppard and put the toy on his lap before climbing up next to the toy and lying curled up, much like a cat. Teyla was amazed having seen the way the tot usually interacted with Sheppard, that he hadn't tried to wake him and had avoided touching Sheppard anywhere near any of his injuries.

Sheppard hadn't stirred as Toren had clambered over him and, loathe to risk waking Sheppard now, she decided not to move Toren unless absolutely necessary.

They sat in peaceful silence as the sun finally slipped out of sight and darkness descended. The cry of the birds petered out until only the continual sound of the waves lapping rhythmically against the piers far below reached their ears and still Sheppard slept. Teyla felt herself begin to slip towards, sleep as the rhythmic water lulled her and she found herself struggling to stay awake. It was as if, with the setting of the sun, they had stepped across a threshold into a completely different world.

The sound of the transporter doors and the squeak of the wheels on the gurney as the medical team arrived shattered the carefully constructed illusion. At the front of the team came a slightly flustered Keller. Ronon and Teyla stood to meet her and Teyla was sure she heard the doctor mumble something about never working with children or genius astro-physicists before she said aloud; "so where's my patient this time?"

Ronon stood to the side, indicating she should go through the door but Teyla preceded Keller, stooping to pick up Toren so as to give Keller better access to her patient. "He has not awakened since we arrived but we did not attempt to raise him" she told Keller quietly as she moved away.

"That was probably the best thing you could have done for him," Keller informed them "goodness knows he needs all the rest he can get and, for all his complaining about the amount of sleeping he does, the truth is; without the drugs he's not really sleeping well at all." She stopped herself, not wanting to break doctor-patient confidentiality while at the same time wondering how much that rule applied in a galaxy billions of light-years from home and the origin of the law.

"We understand" Teyla confided, as usual conveying so much more in her simple statement than she put into words.

Keller just nodded her understanding and began to probe all the various bandage-covered injuries. As she came to the sight of the original bullet wound Sheppard winced and opened his eyes. "Mmmm…doc, why do you always interrupt a good nap?"

"I can't imagine colonel," she quipped "perhaps if you carried these naps out in the infirmary this wouldn't be quite such a regular occurrence." Despite her care, her bare skin came into contact with his and she watched in fascination as a single blue spark travelled up one arm, across her chest and down the other arm before sinking into a tiny cut on one finger, instantly healing it.

Her amazement didn't last long as she noticed the brief pallor that overcame Sheppard's features before returning to normal. "I'm so sorry colonel, I didn't mean for that. Perhaps it would be best to get you back to the infirmary where we can keep an eye on you.

At the mention of the infirmary yet another strange look briefed Sheppard's face. It took Keller a moment to identify the look as she had never seen it on his face before but after a moment she realised it was fear.

He swallowed visibly and mumbled "uh… doc? Is there any chance we can skip the infirmary?"

"You already know the answer to that Colonel" she told him unable to keep the frustration from entering her voice. Discreetly she motioned for one of the medics she had bought with her to prepare a syringe. She was worried that if John put any resistance he could do himself more harm.

"You don't understand!" he exclaimed with more conviction; "I can't go back there!"

"You're right Colonel, I don't understand, why don't you explain it to me."

Sheppard screwed up his face before replying; "That team that came in earlier, the one that required the med team?"

"Yes…" she intoned, wanting him to get to the point.

"One had a nasty head injury and a concussion, another one broke his leg in at least two places and, I'm not sure but I think that the third one has some sort of chest injury with internal damage. It wasn't so easy to distinguish so I can't be positive."

"Well you're right on two counts but you could easily have noticed those injuries before you left the infirmary. Lieutenant Harrison has a few bruised ribs, nothing serious."

"No, I think there's more to that injury, you should re-"

Keller quickly inserted the needle into Sheppard's arm startling him enough to stop him speaking momentarily "Doc, why did you do that?" he asked even as the fast-acting sedative took effect.

"I'm sorry Colonel but I'm fairly sure you've torn some stitches and I'm not going to risk you tearing anymore."

His eyes closed and his head lolled to one side. Briefly checking his pulse Keller motioned the medics forward and between them they manoeuvred Sheppard onto the gurney.

Turning round Keller found Teyla and Ronon, in Ronon's way, looking at her with mild surprise.

"He's running a slight fever" she told them by way of explanation "I wanted to get him back as soon as possible."

Neither of them said a word but Keller got the impression they were slightly disappointed. Even Toren looked upset.

"Shall we?" she invited as the medics began to move off. Within five minutes they were back in the corridor leading to the infirmary and at once they could tell that something was happening based on the commotion they could hear.

Entering the infirmary Keller grabbed the first nurse she could see as she rushed by; "What's going on?"

"Lt Harrison's bp has dropped dangerously low, we found a slow bleeder in his chest. Dr. Albright is just scrubbing in now."

"Alright, tell him to let me know if he needs a hand." She replied wearily, now looking at the prone form of Sheppard on the gurney with confusion and more than a little guilt. "Let's get him settled and we'll try and sort this out later."

The medics nodded, wheeling the gurney into ICU, it looked like the Colonel would be getting some company in a few hours time once Harrison's bleeding had been stemmed. Sighing deeply, Keller retrieved all the items she would need to repair the Colonel's damaged stitching.

She felt slightly guilty that she hadn't heard Sheppard out but knew that there was no way they could have avoided returning to the infirmary given the circumstances. By the time she had collected everything she would need and returned to the ward the medics had transferred Sheppard back to his bed, reattached all the wires and leads and were in the process of returning the gurney to its rightful place, leaving Ronon and Teyla to stand guard by Sheppard's bed.

It took a matter of minutes to uncover the offending sutures and confirm that they had indeed been torn. Re-stitching the wound took no time at all but while she had been doing that she had come to a decision. Knowing that both Ronon and Teyla had had basic medical training she started; "Ronon would you help me remove these dressings?"

He just nodded, waiting for more specific instructions. "I want to make sure that none of the wound sites are infected, we'll start with the front and then we'll roll him over to check his back.

Between them Ronon and Keller began carefully removing the bandages and dressings. It always amazed Keller how the big warrior could have such a caring and gentle side to him. After ensuring that none of the dressings would stick to the sutures, Sheppard's torso was laid bare for all to see, but before they could proceed any further in their task Rodney came marching into the room.

"It would have been nice for someone to tell me that you had bought Sheppard back here! You would not believe the day I've-" He paused briefly upon seeing the extent of the damage Sheppard had endured for the first time before continuing with even more gusto "Eww, you could have warned me you were going to take off the bandages to do your voodoo; I really didn't need to see that!"

"Rodney," Teyla said good-naturedly "you rarely give anyone the chance to give you information."

"That's not… you know what never mind. You wouldn't believe the amount of work I had to do to get these doors to open, I mean- it's never been that hard before and these shutters that cover the windows. It turns out that every window on Atlantis has them, though heaven knows why, I can't believe we didn't discover them before!"

"Breathe" Keller commented as she bent down to inspect each individual stitch.

"Yes… but what I can't figure out is what triggered them to close in the infirmary of all places."

At this point Teyla inserted herself into the very lopsided conversation that was bordering on a lecture; "I believe that Colonel Sheppard triggered them."

"It would explain a lot of the strange things that have been happening around here." Keller commented distractedly.

"But…how?" was all Rodney managed before Teyla continued. "I do not believe the Colonel is doing it on purpose, perhaps the city is picking up on his… moods." They all noticed the slight pause as she searched for the appropriate word but no-one felt the need to comment.

Before the conversation could progress Keller announced "These all look terrific. There's no inflammation or discharge so I think we can cover them back up."

Not wanting another rant from Rodney she carefully told him; "We still have to check his back if you are worried about losing your appitite."

The subtle innuendo, shut up or get out did not pass Rodney by for once and he hastily replied "anyway, I really need to go back to my lab to study this data." Waving the computer tablet, that many thought was soldered to his hand, in the air.

Nobody said anything but Rodney hadn't waited anyway. By this point Keller had finished the all too familiar job of dressing wounds and was ready to check Sheppard's back.

The burns covered a vast amount of his back and when she had first seen them, Keller was worried she was going to have to do skin grafts. However, when they were uncovered she was glad to see signs of pink scar tissue; unlike his other wounds the burns hadn't gone backwards in their healing when Sheppard had healed Major Lorne.

"Ok I'm fairly happy with that," she informed them "there's no sign of infection anywhere but I'm going to put him on broad spectrum anit-biotics just to be on the safe side and we'll shove him under the scanner while he's out as well."

Teyla and Ronon both nodded, they trusted her to know what she was doing, before stepping aside to allow the medical team to move Sheppard once again.

* * *

_a/n: as promised a nice long chapter... looking back on the next one there are somethings i dont like about it so bare with me :)_


	39. Wrapping things up

Sam stood staring at the empty void where only moments before an active event horizon had been.

Their weekly mission report had just been sent through the now closed wormhole to Stargate command.

She had to be honest with herself, when writing her report there had been things she wanted to omit.

Colonel Sheppard's new gift of healing had been one of them but due to the rather public demonstration in the infirmary too many knew and in a city like Atlantis that meant that everyone already knew and, with the next change in personnel only a few weeks away, people in the SGC would soon know too whether she told them or not.

The other major thing that Sam had been desperate to omit was the sensors that ran down Sheppard's spine. They didn't pose a threat to either Sheppard or the Atlantis expedition and as such the IOA had little grounds in which to remove Sheppard from command. That didn't mean that they would fight tooth and nail to replace him with a more controllable manikin, but it did mean that they probably wouldn't succeed. All any of them could do at this point was wait.

* * *

John woke and groaned at the monogamy of the situation. He was sick of awaking from a drugged sleep that had not been voluntary.

It felt like every muscle was screaming at him but other than the normal pains associated with his injuries he was blissfully pain free.

Looking around, it took a minute for him to figure out that instead of being in the infirmary he was laying on his own bed in his own quarters. Knowing better than to try and sit up, he shifted his head so as to look at the person he knew would be sitting next to his bed.

"I though you didn't believe me." He mumbled around the dry mouth he had come to associate with anaesthetic.

"I'm still not sure I do" Keller told him matter-of-factly. "So why don't you tell me exactly why I'm allowing a critically injured patient to convalesce away from the supervision of highly trained staff."

John grimaced at the displeased tone of Keller's voice. There was nothing he could do about her displeasure except explain his actions. "I could tell you exactly what was wrong with those men, not because I saw them but, because I could feel every single injury, as if it had happened to me. That's the only way I can think of to explain it."

A look of abstract horror crossed Keller's face; "I am so sorry Colonel. I never would have… I just thought…"

John cut her off; "I don't care doc, you're forgiven, as long as you don't send me back to the infirmary."

Keller smiled for what felt like the first time in years "I think we can arrange that…We'll keep the IV" he noticed the stand next to his bed for the first time as she mentioned it "and I'll have a nurse come to check on you every hour. From your earlier performance you can move about enough to get to and from the bathroom but that's all, understand?"

He made a face but she just continued "If you cant agree to that then I'll have you back in the infirmary even if I have to drug you to the gills" obviously the softer tactics that Keller was know to use went flying out the window this time.

"Ok" he conceded with obvious hesitancy. "When can I start physio?" he knew he was starting to sound like a broken record but he couldn't help himself, he had to know.

"Not yet, a few more weeks then maybe. I should probably tell you; when you were last under the ancient scanner I took a look at your shoulder. It hasn't healed as well as I had hoped it would and the tendons and ligaments are going to need another bout of surgery to fully repair them, but that can wait a while yet" she added hastily "let's just get you fit again first."

**FIN**

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_A/N: Is this a satisfactory ending? is this wrapped up enough? ive always been terrible at writing the endings to stories and this was no exception. it doesnt help that the plot bunny has been throwing ideas at me that dont fit in with this story. i was thinking of writing a sequel but would like to know if i have alot of support for that idea before i start to publish so please let me know! in the meantime thank you for all the wonderful suppourt from everyone it has really helped me to finish this story..._


	40. Next Chapter

_A/N: hey guys i no its been a while but having started university ive found large chunks of my time consumed by work and clubs so apologies as this has been written for quite a while its just taken me ages to type it up..._

_so here goes... this is not technically a chapter for this story but some people have complained that the story was not wrapped up enough and it seems i wasnt totally clear... this is actually the chapter for my new story __**the return of peter pan**__ but though it would help fill in some gaps and whet your appetites as such it is not __**supposed **__to be rounded off so dont complain, just enjoy:)_

Colonel John Sheppard walked down the long, nearly deserted, corridors of Atlantis grumbling all the way. "We can go faster than walk you know Ronon."

The big man just snorted and kept walking, never altering his pace.

"my legs are fine you know!" Sheppard groused. He was sick of the slow pace his physiotherapy was taking. It had been two months since the incident on P3X-595. His primary problem had been the surgical incision that ran from his chest to his navel. It had cut right through his stomach muscles in-order to access the many fragments of bullet that had littered his insides.

On the surface it looked as though he was completely healed, with pink scar tissue adorning the previous entry and exit wounds from the bullet, the burns spanning the bottom-half of his back and the various surgical incisions that had been made in order to save his life.

Beneath the surface however, was a completely different matter. His stomach muscles were still knitting back together and he had undergone yet another bout of surgery just two weeks previously to repair the tendons and ligaments in his shoulder. As a result, his steady jogs had returned to meandering walks as the sling securing his arm impeded his progress.

All Ronon said to his previous outburst was; "Doc's orders"

Sheppard sighed, he knew better than to cross Keller by defying her orders, he had after all managed to tear his stitches on at least two separate occasions in the past two months.

The injuries weren't even the worst of Sheppard's problems. It was the side-effects of the drugs he had been given, as well as the permanent implants he had involuntarily received, whilst on the planet. He now had small, round objects implanted every couple of inches along his spine, starting just below the base of his skull and finishing at his waist. The bottom one flashed rhythmically with the beating of his heart whilst the others lit up periodically indicating the amount of pain he was in or the amount of strain he was under physically.

There had been any number of times he had cursed those devices as Keller had used them to gauge how far to go with his physio – not allowing him to push himself further than she deemed necessary.

Not only that, but the cocktail of drugs that had been introduced to his system had reacted with his ATA gene and, as a result, he could now heal any injury with the slightest skin to skin contact. Most people on the base thought this was terrific but that was only because they were unaware of the effects healing another person had on Sheppard himself. The one occasion in which he had healed someone on a large scale had set him back weeks in his own healing.

"Fine" Sheppard finally said, snapping out of his contemplation "we cant jog but surely we could at least walk faster, I'm getting bored of this particular corridor."

Ronon was saved from replying as Colonel Carter approached them, a grim look on her face "Colonel, I was just coming to see you. Do you have a minute?"

"You know the last time you said that to me you proceeded to tell me that my father was dead." Carter's grim expression did not abate and Sheppard's heart fell. "Just tell me" he told her not wanting the tension to build any further.

"It's your brother, he's not dead…" the unsaid yet hung in the sir and Sam cleared her throat before continuing "He's apparently been fighting a rare form of cancer for a while now but it's matastasised and the doctors have given him less than an week… he wants to see you."

Sheppard knew that carter hated being the barer of any bad news and said immediately "I'd like to request some leave to return… home." The word home sounded foreign to him but never-the-less he said it.

"Of course Colonel Permission granted. Our next communication with earth is set for tomorrow, I think we can send you back then." They all knew the Deadalus would take far too long and Sheppard was grateful for the suggestion.

"Thank you ma'am" he said, not entirely sure how to end the conversation quickly but politely.

"I'd like to go with him" Ronon piped up. Sam had to fight the surprised look that she could feel bubbling just below the surface "I think that can be arranged." She replied battle won. "As long as Colonel Sheppard doesn't mind"

John shook his head. The last time he had been back to earth Ronon had come and it had been comforting to have someone he considered to be his best friend along for the ride. He also knew that Ronon was chafing at the bit, with Sheppard out of action the team had been on enforced down-time. Rodney had leapt at the chance to get all his minions back in a row and, while Ronon and Teyla had occasionally assisted other teams offworld things had been quiet for them. Teyla had taken the opportunity to take Torren to the new Athosian settlement offworld and Ronon had been left with far too much time on his hands.

After the sixth enlisted marine had ended up in the infirmary Keller had taken matters into her own hands; charging him with making sure Sheppard didn't stray from her strict guidelines.

"We should start getting our gear together…" John stopped as a though crossed his mind; "will I have any problems with the IOA when I get back?" he was referring to the fact that Carter had had to fight tooth and nail so that he could remain as head of Atlantis' military contingent after the IOA had expressed concerns regarding his _condition_ and their eagerness for him to return to earth where tests could be run by impartial scientists to establish just how compromised he truly was.

"Don't worry about them" Carter told him confidently "I have friends who are willing to help out"

John didn't miss the small smile that played across her lips.

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End file.
