Disclaimer: Don't own any of 'em. If I did, Liz would be back in charge of Atlantis.
The sky was blue.
A very light blue. The forest around him was light also, the kind that invited people to explore it.
John Sheppard closed his eyes as the voices of his friends approached him. The whiny sound of Rodney McKay's complaining, Ronon Dex's threats to Rodney and Teyla Emmagan's attempts to calm them both down.
John smiled. His three friends. His three best friends, his family. Not that he'd ever admit it to Rodney.
"When we get back-"
Ronon interrupted. "When we get back, you're my new sparring partner."
"As if, Conan."
"We are out here to find John, not to argue with each other." Teyla's blunt statement shut both men up.
A hoarse yell sounded, and John knew they'd spotted him. He opened his eyes to the concerned look of his friends.
"Hi guys." They winced at the sight of him. He knew that his leg looked pretty bad.
The Jumper crash had knocked him unconscious and killed the two botanists he was with. Something was wrong with the propulsion; that was all John had managed to figure out. Crawling from the wreck hadn't been fun either.
Teyla knelt beside him as Rodney gabbled on about some sort of medical nonsense, like he usually did when somebody was injured.
John took Teyla's hand. "Glad you could make it," he managed to rasp out.
"Hang on John, you will be fine," Teyla said. He saw the worried look in her eyes and wanted to tell her just how much he cared about them.
Rodney had stopped babbling now, and there was water on his face.
It had to be water.
John smiled when he realized that Rodney was crying for him. He'd never ever seen Rodney cry once, and that only made the gesture more touching. Rodney wrapped an arm around John's shoulder, and John patted him on the back.
Ronon radioed for help, and then knelt with the others. "You had us worried, Sheppard." Ronon's voice is gruff, but John can see past that to the concern he's expressing.
His best friends in two galaxies.
His only family.
When John finally got out of the infirmary, he and his team take a group picture.
It sits on his desk.
Whenever he's writing a mission report, he always glances at that picture.
And if he happens to see a clear blue sky afterwards, he always smiles.