As the last strings of "hey Jude" faded John stopped pacing his room. He had been thinking, and reliving, what had made him get as far from people as possible, he was thinking of his old wife, Denise, and what he did to her that hurt him more then he failed to admit. He could not stop thinking about that day, five years ago after getting almost tossed out of the Air Force when he got home from the War of Terror.
---- Flashback ----
"John What is it? Are you OK honey?" Denise asked, seeing John appear in the airport with his standard issue bag of things, "What happened?" she asked again seeing the look on his face.
"Well, it is like this, Mark died, I tried to get him to safety, to help, and well basecamp wasn't happy about it that I had gone back for him, and they blamed me for his death, I don't know what to do." John said, he rubbed his chin, it had a three weeks worth of growth on it. "I need to shave, can we go home or do you have something planned? 'Cause we don't need to go straight home now..."
"No no, I have what needs to be done already done before coming here to get you, I think you'd better let me drive." Denise said smiling seeing the tiredness in Johns step as the pair walked to the Mercry Mystique Sedan.
Seeing the car John asked, "nice set of wheels, when did we get this again?" he hadn't seen the car is so long he forgot that he even got the thing for his wife for the first anniversary before he left for the War
"Three years ago silly" Denise said with a laugh, "come on, lets go home."
The pair then headed home for the night, mary had made Johns favorite meal, Barbeque Beef Steaks, one of the things that he liked most about Denise was she was a great cook.
Things then started to fall apart when Johns' General arrived at the house requesting to speak with him, When John saw him he stood up from his seat, "Sir" he said.
"At ease Sheppard." General Harns said as they both sat down at the table, "I was told about what happened last month, as well as the time you served, Not that it is a bad thing." Harns said raising a hand to keep John quiet, "you did what you could, that is what counts, though those higher then me will see it as a bad thing that you disobeyed orders from the top to pull back, that does not matter now does it?"
John shook his head, "no."
"Well, HQ says they wanna do a court date for you to get your take on things of what really happened, no doubt they are gonna try and twist your words around. I'll do what I can to keep you from getting tossed in the slammer, or put in the place as a guard, is there a place where you always wanted to go?"
"Well, for starters when is my date with the jury?" John asked.
"Monday, ten am." Harns asnwered as if on a time clock.
"Tomrrow is Sunday, the day after is Monday that means... What do I do until then?" John asked.
"Well for one thing, you can be with your wife as you two haven't see each other for what, three years now?" Harns said with a smile on his face, "again, if this falls through the right way for you, I can have you reassigned within minutes of leaving the place on Monday."
"Well, if it is possible, I think I'd like the place that is still an Air Force Camp that is American soil, but as far as possible from anyplace that looks remotely like a town or a city." John said.
"John, the only place I can think of is covered in snow year around, are you sure you wanna go there of all places?" Harns asked.
John nodded, "yes, I'm sure."
"OK, I'll try and get you reassigned, hopefully you'll be on your way to McMuredo on Wensday" Harns said, "I'll see myself out since I know the way, you might wanna tell your wife about this too."
"Yeah, I'll tell her." John said as he and Harns went to the door and the General left, Denise's gonna hate me John thought watching harns get into his car and drive away.
That night he and Denise spoke about what was going to happen on Monday, well Denise was mostly crying, John was trying his best to comfort her, "Look, I know you like it here, I do too, but HQ is going to try and jail me, if they don't the only place for me is McMuredo."
"John, I hate to tell you this but, If you go to McMuredo, let us at least get a devrice done first? that way I wont worry so much about you" Denise said. John just stared at her as if he had been hit in the gut with a two by four board, "I will at least wait until you have to leave of course" she said.
John could only nod.
Four days later John headed for McMuredo and then from there he headed for Pegasus two years later...
---- end flashback ----
"OK John, this is not helping, just pacing around your room is not going to do any good. Maybe if you spoke to someone." John stopped pacing in his room as the tune on his radio came on, it was one of his favorite tunes, "Too Much to Dream(last night)".
As the second verse started up he made his dision, and headed for Teylas room, I hope I know what I'm doing
Teyla had just finished with her daily strecthing which was the same things as she remembered the time Ronon came in on, which she had now been way more careful of by locking her door from outside opening, she was about to nod off when a knock came to her door. "Enter." She called sitting up on the bed.
John entered the room and the door slid shut behind him, his hair was a mess and he was still in uniform though without the vest or jacket, but he still had the 9mm on his leg. "may I come in?" John asked for the doorway.
Teyla nodded, "you seem... troubled by something Colonel." She said seeing the way he looked, her voice sounding concerned, "please, sit. Tell me what is wrong." She was spending way too much time with Kate Hightmeyer.
"Well, first off, since Carson died I can't seem to get my old wife out of my head." John said sitting on the chair near the bed, he told Teyla the whole story, of him getting reassigned to McMuredo, then meeting Jack, then going through the Stargate for the first time in his life to a place he never heard of, then to her planet. "Also you look a lot like my old wife and I almost thought you were her, but then after hearing you speak and treat me like a person rathre then an underling, that made me think different."
Teyla seemed a bit shy when he spoke of her looking like his old wife, though she alos felt as if she was a secondhand piece of clothing if John had been maried already, only to have his wife leave him? What would that make her? "She left you, did she ever say why?" Teyla hated herself for asking that question. But she felt that she had to ask it anyhow so she did.
"Well, she ended up going with my old friend Stan, back on Earth, I was invited to the wedding only I was not allowed to go back and see her until three years had passed, or a general had called for me, which ever came first, it turns out Gen O'Niell wanted me to come here. So, here I am" John said, he let out the breath he had been holding as Teyla asked her question of where Denise had gone off to.
"Yet you donnot think it is good to think about the past?" Teyla asked, still feeling somewhat ashamed at asking all the questions, but then John had come to her out of everyone on Atlantis, so she had to help him, ... at least as much as she could.
"I try not to think about it, though sometimes I well... I just start thinking about it." John admitted, knowing he had picked the right person to talk to about what was troubling him, "I guess that sometimes I try to get something on my mind to get my mind off what happened between us, but then... nothing works... Other then..."
"... Other then sparring with me?" Teyla asked, sounding surprized at that thought, sure she liked John for who he was, as a friend. But then she did have dreams about him every now and again after first meeting him. She smiled, she had just returned for a sparring session with Ronon ten minutes before John showed up, meaning she was still in her sparring clothing. The look she gave John was all she needed to ask 'I take it you want to spar then?'
John caught the look and nodded, then the two stood up and headed for the transporter nearby, then headed for the Gym to sparr.
And spar they did, the pair of them moving faster then they ever had before, even when John was going through that change a few months back they never moved that fast. Nor did they spar for that long. They sparred for almost three hours before John hit the ground out of pure exaustion, Teyla right next to him, also tired, "Well, that was fun." John said laughing seeing Teylas' face not three inches from his own. "you tired too huh?"
Teyla just nodded, a smile on her face, neither of them wanted to get up to go back to their rooms as they were too tired, only they did get up when the base alarm went off, asnd the door sealed itself, Teyla shot to her feet and went for the weapons rack to the P90's that were there incase someone had only a 9mm like John did, she helped John to his feet then passed him a P90 as a robotic sounding voice came over the intercomm.
"This is Zerim of the Asurans, we have retaken the city, those of you with weapons will lower them and remain where you are, if you try to fight you will be destroyed"
The comm shut off as sounds of gunfire where heard. "That is not a good sound." John said going to the door, which slid open when he neared it, making him stop dead in his tracks, "wasn't this door sealed shut?" he asked Teyla, she nodded and the pair then headed for a transporter.
"Where do we go from here?" Teyla asked as she and John did their best to stay one step ahead of the Replicators, "I donnot belielve I have been to this part of the city before." she commented seeing the stuff that was in storage, "are we not under the main tower?"
"We should be, I'm just trying to find a LSD to know who's who." John said, when something fell out of the ceiling and hit Teyla in the side of the head then dropped to the floor, "there it is" John said picking up the LSD, thankfully it was undamaged. "Let me see now... we gotta go to... "
"The ZPM room?" Teyla asked rubbing her head as she looked around the huge room the pair were in making sure they were alone, this was not how she was thinking her sparring session with John was going to be. Far from it in fact.
"Yup, only the place would be crawling with Replicators, if we even made a move towards the place we'd be shot down." John said he started looking around, and saw what he was looking for, the Atlantis life support vents, from the last time he went inside those things they were big enough for two people to go through though at a crawl. "Come on." John led the way to the vent which had a few boxes stancked up against it, he and Teyla climbed up the stack and entered the vent.
After what seemed like hours or even days John found the ZPM room, "we're here." He said to Teyla who only nodded as John dropped a flashbang along with a smoker, then dropped out of the vent, and pulled the ZPM the lights went out, and a deep rumble shook the city, knocking Teyla out of the vent ontop of John who hit the ground with Teyla ontop of him.
"uh... ow" John said in mock pain as two Replicators arrived in the doorway, only to get zapped by what seemed to be a spark from the... walls? "Teyla, did you see that? Teyla? TEYLA?!" John moved to look to Teyla, she was out cold after hitting her head on the side of the ZPM power station.
John patted Teyla's cheek, "come on wake up! This is no time for sleeping duty!" He said, worried as all hell.
Teyla moaned as she opened her eyes slowly, only to have them open wide in fear as a Replicator appeared in the doorway, "uh... John... you might want to... nevermind" She tried to say as she watched the Replicator get shot through from something in the walls around the door, then she felt the city shake under her as she was laying on the floor.
John turned around just in time to see the Replicator fall to pieces, literially, "OK, either something is shooting those guys or something likes us better" John said standing up, he reached a hand down to Teyla to help her up.
"What do you think it is? I did not fire." Teyla said, it was clear she was as confused as John was.
Right then, a song came over the intercomm, apparently somebody thought, "hey lets have some music" only thing about the music was, John knew the song and the singer and where the music was coming from, "it can't be, everyone is still alseep or off duty while offworld with no way to get back here, so why is 'Born to Be Wild' one of my favorite songs from Earth playing on the intercomm?"
"I am not sure John, but what do we do now? you have the ZPM in your hands, so... how is the city getti--" The city shook again knocking Teyla to the ground with John ontop of her this time. They didn't move until the shaking stopped, Then Teyla pressed her hands against Johns' back while saying, "get... off... me."
"Oh, uh... sorry" John said getting to his feet, somehow the tune going through the city wide was actually getting his adrenaline going. He once more pulled Teyla to her feet, "I wonder that as well." He said finishing Teylas' thought of how the city was getting power, they both looked at the other and one thought came to their minds, the Naquadah Generators! "Come on" John took off towards the nearst power generation room.
When they arrived they saw that it had been shot already, "OK so, Wild Goose is on the menu for tomrrows breakfast" John said looking to the LSD, "the next one, this way." The pair took off for the transporter and headed for the next power station at a run.
The pair rounded a corner just as two Replicators arrived comning the other way, "Halt!" the pair called to John who stood in their sights, Teyla was still behind the corner. The Replicators neared John who stood there with his P90 aimed at them.
"Can I help you?" John asked in a sarcasm filled voice.
"Yes, you can hand over your weapon and be escorted to th-" that was as far as the Replicator could get before a bolt of purple light jumped from the wall and hit both Replicators, they fell apart in a pile of little replicator blocks. Only this time John saw it all up close.
"What is it?" Teyla asked seeing a flash though not seeing the Replicators get hit. They could still hear 'Born to Be Wild' on the citywide so something had to be majorly wrong with the place.
"Well, something just shot out of the wall and blew these guys up." John said pointing to the twin piles of Replicator Blocks on the floor of the hallway. Teyla peeked around the corner and saw the twin piles.
Rasing an eyebrow she asked, "and you didnot fire?" John shook his head no. "Then what did?"
"Like I said, something shot out of the wall and hit the guys blowing them apart, come on. The next power station is around that corner." John said as the pair slowly made their way forwards, "All this and I'm thinking of my old Wife before she left me, funny thing to think of when fighting to take back the city huh?"
Teyla didn't say anything as the pair appeared in the doorway of the power room and noted that the generator was already a black pile of soot, "I do believe that Dr. McKay is going to... blow his top?" She stated simply
"Yup" John said seeing the pile of burned out soot, at least the thing did not blow like a tac nuke. "I'm thinking that the others are going to be the same, the city has to be drawing power from somewhere, only question is, where?" The LSD beeped, "come on into the vent. Quick three Replicators on the way to us."
Teyla merely nodded and climbed into the vent, John followed, looking up for a few seconds before looking back down, something telling him he was not thinking right, that and the fact that he and Teyla just sparred and she was still barefoot and in her sparring clothes... that made it all the harder to focus on retaking the city back... at the time
John finally tore his gaze back towards climib, and stopped next to Teyla, "Something tells me you are thinking of me going up frist this time yes?" John said in good humor, Teyla just looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "I'll take that as a yes?"
Teyla just rolled her eyes and said, "Where do we go from here?"
"I'm thinking the Control Room or the Jumper Bay for more ammo" John said.
"The Control Room is closer, let us go there and see how many of the Asureans there are in the city." Teyla said, John nodded and Teyla led the way towards the Control Room, the pair moved fast through the vents, She came to what looked like a huge vent grid, that actually slid upwards when she arrived, "I donnot see anyone." she said to John.
"Nor does the LSD see any Reps, lets see what happened shall we?"
Teyla nodded and dropped out of the vent and promtly screeched in pain as her bare feet hit a very hot floor. only it was not JUST her feet that hit the very hot floor, when she landed she not only got burns on her feet but also her midsection and arms as she actually fell to the ground, thankfully her clothes did not catch fire.
John landed on his feet, thankfully he had shoes on, he grabbed Teyla from the floor as fast as he could, "Hold on to me, I'll get you to a place you can sit." He said, Teyla only nodded, not able to talk because of the searing pain shooting through her body. John headed for Weir's office, and looked down over the stargate one floor below, what he saw took his breath away.
There were dozens... no hundreds of dead replicators on the floor, piles and piles of them.Aand the floor looked to be boiling hot as well. Teyla noticed as well and John could feel her take in a strong breath at seeing the Stargate floor. "what is happening?" She asked from where she hung onto John as he mostly carried/somewhat dragged Teyla to Weirs' office.
"I wish I- Ow!" John was hit in the back from something, and he dropped like a rock to the floor of the walkway, dropping Teyla to the floor below, "what the hell hit me?!" He turned to look and saw jolts of bright purple light flashing inside the control room. And heard a thud.
Looking around the walkway John asked, "Teyla?"
"Down here." Teyla called up, She had landed on her back, and thankfully the place she landed on was not as hot as the rest of the place, she slowly pulled herself to her feet, wincing in pain with every step, When she saw John's face her eyes widened, "What happened to you?" She asked stareing at John.
"What do you mean?" He called down, he didn't feel any different. So why was she worried? "I don't feel any different... unless you count the sudden headache I have from hitting the floor..." he held his hand down to her to pull her up to him. A thin line of blood trailed down his arm and dropped off his right pointing finger and hit Teyla right between the eyes.
Teyla reacted like a kitten dropped in ice cold water, she clawed at her face to get at the little drop of blood between her eyes as John called down to her to grab his hand. Blinking her eyes and looking upwards again she noticed something that John failed to, "You're bleeding" she called up to him.
"No kidding I was shot! And my ribs hurt, I think I broke something when I fell" John grunted as Teyla grabbed his hand and started to climb upwards to the walkway, "What about you? you OK enough to walk?" he asked seeing the burns on her stomach and arms, caring more for her then himself.
Teyla nodded as John pulled her up to the walkway floor and she grabbed the post that held the rail up and the same post that John was holding for dear life as Teyla grabbed hold of the thing. Once Teyla let go John backed up from the rail to allow her onto the walkway. "If you are shot, who shot you?" she asked after she got back ont othe walkway, leaning against the post.
"I think that did." John told her thoughtfully, pointing to the purple lightning flashing in the control room, there were piles of replicator blocks everywere and the stargate floor was all but buried in them. "In fact it is also the same thing that killed those two guys at that corner remember?" Teyla nodded, she remembered seeing the flash but not the actual destruction.
"Do you think it is how the city is getting power?" Teyla asked confused as all hell.
"Possible" John answered as he got to his feet, and helped Teyla to hers, "Come on, we gotta find out how to turn off the city wide" he said as the song 'Classical Gas' started up. "Either someone is playing a joke or the city actually likes my music" John said somewhat awed at what he was seeing in the control room as the purple lightning seemed to dance around the room to the beat.
"Should we not find out what is powering the city John?" Teyla asked again seeing that he was hooked on watching the purple lightning, she clealry wasn't. She jabbed him in the ribs to get his attention. "John, should we not get out of here?" She started to limp towards Weirs office.
"Hey that hurts! Don't do that please." John shouted grabbing her poking hand, "lets go." He ordered, then the pair headed off, into Weirs office and to the nearby stairwell, and fell... up? "This can't be good" John muttered as Teyla hit the floor above...
And a door slid open, showing nothing but darkness behind it. "Uh John... Did you open this?" Teyla asked not moving into the doorway.
"Depends...ow!" John said hitting the floor hard, "Rodney's gonna steam when he hears the gravity is messed up." he mumbled to himaself as he pulled himself to his feet, seeing the door and the darkness behind it he said, "well, lets see who's home." He turned on his light on his gun and entered first.
"This appears to be a burial chamber of sorts" Teyla commented seeing a raised dias in the center of the room after they came out of a short narrow hallway, there were many openings for what looked to be life pods, all of them empty.
"More like a stasis chamber I think. Rodney would love this stuff" John said as he played his light over a few controls near the door, he could see some flashes of purple outside the doorway and in the hall. "Close that would you?" he called over to Teyla who was closest to the door.
Teyla nodded and headed for the door, only to get shot by the purple lightning outside, it blasted her backwards into John, a good sized burn on her left side, she was out cold, "Teyla, come on no sleeping, I don't wanna have to put you in one of these things, come on wake up." The he saw the burn mark on her side, the shot would have been worse he knew seeing that where it hit had fused part of her clothing to her side, seeming to make it fused to her now bloody burned skin from the shot. "That has to hurt." He mumbled as he gently laid Teyla on the floor while he started digging through the tac vest he had grabbed from the Gym for a fleid dressing for the wound.
As John applied the dressing to the wound Teyla started to wake up... again... only moan as pain laced through her side, "what happened?" She asked as John pressed his hands with the field dressing against the wound.
"Well for one thing you got shot, and for another then it does not look so bad either." John said he then helped Teyla sit up, "hold still a second." He told her as he wraped the dressing tight against the wound, "How's that feel?"
"It is fine, thank you." she said between hard breathing, the pain was, in a word, painful, yet Teyla knew how to react to pain, only it was strange, it had only been but a few days since the Ancestors returned, only to be killed by the Replicators who then returned to the city to retake it. Only that did not go as planned now from the looks of the control room.
"You OK enough to walk? Your side there is pretty burned up under your arm" John told her as he shut the door, keeping the purple lightning outside of the room, for now.
"I am fine." Teyla insisted, getting to her feet and stood a little shakily as she leaned against the wall, the stasis room seemed to have a healing effect on Teylas wound as she leaned on the wall.
"If you say so, I'll take your word for it." John said, man is she beautiful...no John no thinking like that, she is a member of your team! Don't think that way. John started to look around some more to try and get hid mind off Teyla, "I really think we shoulda gone to the Jumper Bay for more ammo." He said.
"John..." Teyla said looking upwards, and seeing the power conduit for the Stargate above, starting to glow bright blue. "What is that?"
"I have no idea." Then they both heard the Stargate cheverons lock in place, "wonder who could be starting that thing up at a time like this?" He turned just in time to see Teyla disappear from sight, then found himself sailing out of the Stargate!
What the hell?? John wondered seeing Teyla slam into the stairs just ahead of him, That had to hurt he thought right before he rammed into the stairs himself and blacked out.
----------------------- six hours later ---------------------
Oh man what a hangover. John thought as he slowly came to, the first thing he knew was a pounding headache, which was the first signs of a night on the city, but then he was sure he didn't do that the night before, OK, where am I? He opened his eyes and saw Carsons concerned face stareing down at him. "Hey doc...When did you get back?"
"Welcome to the land of the living Col." Carson said. "you took one hell of a crash on the stairs near the stargate." Carson had a look that said clearly 'I'll tell you later'
"I wondered why my head hurt." John said, then it hit him, everything that happened, "Doc, where were you guys last night?"
"Well other then sound asleep in my own bed after six months on Earth, here in the city why?"
"The Reps tried to retake the city again, only I think Atlantis didn't like them."John said, then he remembered Teyla ramming into the stairs, "And something started the Stargate, then we both came flying out of the thing and Teyla... " John opened his eyes and tried to sit up, only Carson set a hand on John and laid him back down, "Where's Teyla?"
"Don't worry, she is asleep now. She had many injuries that I had to tend to before she could wake up, she was shot pretty badly as well as burned." Carson said. "That and she took a good fall, her right arm is broken in three places."
"But she is OK now?"
"Yup, and thankfully so are you, though if I were you, and her, I'd start thinking of wearing armor if you wanna take on the Replicators".
"Thanks doc" John mumbled as he once more nodded off, and I was only thinking of my old wife too...
A few hours later he woke up again, "good morning." came a voice he thought he'd never hear. He looked over towards Teyla and saw her smiling face.
"Hey beautiful." John said still somewhat sleepily.
Teyla bit her lip to keep from laughing at John, "good to see you awake and well."
"I'd say more for you." John said pointing to her right arm which was encased in a cast.
"Well, I am not alone." Teyla said a smile clearly seen on her face as John raised an eyebrow then noticed the IV and the cast on his left foot.
Seeing the cast on his leg John said with no irony whatsoever, "Well, at least I am alright now" Teyla nearly broke her already brusied ribs laughing. As she laughed he looked at her, somewhat annoyed, "Who gave you happy pills?" He asked while tossing a pillow at her. Teyla laughed all the harder as she ducked the pillow.
Then Carson arrived, "Children please, get some sleep." He had a good sized needle in his hands, "Sweet dreams." Carson smiled a fake evil smile.
Teyla stopped laughing, mostly because she fainted. John just stared at the needle. "Carson, put the needle down... Don't poke me with it, I said not...to...poke...me..." John nodded off as the sleeping fluids did their job.
The End...
...yeah right