SGA

Author Notes: This is my first attempt at writing a fic so please be gentle with critiques and criticism. PLEASE do review and let me know what you think.

AN2: I'm currently working on Chapter two and will post when it is done. I do not know HOW many chapters this will be so please be patient.


CHAPTER 1:

"Unscheduled off world activation!"

Chuck's voice rang out, startling Elizabeth from her musings. She had been staring at the mound of paperwork thinking she should start it when her mind wandered to thoughts of Colonel Sheppard and his team. They had left at 0800hrs that morning to make contact with the villagers of a planet called Adora and when they missed their scheduled check in at 1200hrs to update Atlantis, Elizabeth grew nervous. She had known when to expect them to call and therefore had been waiting at the scheduled time but when no call had come through she began to worry that something had gone wrong. She thought about sending Major Evan Lorne on a rescue mission but he had been able to talk her into waiting for a little while longer, speculating that the Colonel may have just been hung up by the locals and their pleasantries and that she didn't even know if they were in need of a rescue yet. It had only been 1230 and they weren't that late yet so she headed into her office to try to distract her worrying mind with paperwork, hoping she could lose herself in it until she heard the team come through. It hadn't worked though (obviously!) and her mind kept wandering to the team torturing her with what could possibly have happened and in this galaxy that was ANYTHING.

She cared about all of the members of the expedition of course, but she had a special bond with members of Team Sheppard and especially the team leader, Lt. Colonel John Sheppard. He was like the over protective older brother of the expedition (and of her in particular) and she worried more whenever his team was on a mission. They had the uncanny ability to get into mischief while they were away, usually coming home injured causing her to worry even more.

She ran from her office over to the command center and stood next to Major Lorne, anxiously waiting for an IDC to come through.

Though he hid it well, Major Lorne was just as concerned for his CO as Elizabeth. John Sheppard was admired, respected, and cared for (dare she say even loved) throughout Atlantis by scientists and military alike and though Major Lorne would say that his concern for his CO and his determination to get his him back safely had to do with his lack of want to be stuck with the mounds of paperwork and the nightly headaches that came with the title of Military Commander, most knew it was because he cared about and respected the man.

"It's Dr. McKay's IDC." Chuck announces bringing Elizabeth back to reality. She was secretly hoping that all was well with the team but those hopes were shattered when Rodney's panicking voice came over the radio saying, " Atlantis, this is McKay! Lower the shield, we're coming in hot!" while the sounds of gunfire and explosions filtered through the link.

She nodded to Chuck to lower the shield, stationed marines around the gate should an enemy come through first or with the team and called for a medical team just in case. Here in the Pegasus Galaxy you could never be sure what to expect so you prepared for everything.

The first of the team through the gate was a red faced Rodney followed gracefully by Teyla. An explosion rocks the gate room and it's inhabitants, scattering many and causing some debris to swiftly fly about the room as an airborne Ronon and John come through next. The sound of the gate shutting down filled the air followed by the unmistakable thud of flesh connecting with the cold and unyielding marble floor along with the sound of an "oomph", a sickeningly loud CRACK and a harsh but resounding cry of pain.

Elizabeth and Lorne quickly make their way down the steps and over to the team while Rodney and Teyla rush over to their fallen teammates. She sees Ronon shrug off the hard landing (and Rodney's help) and rush over to John, who has not managed to get off the floor and is grasping his right leg with his mouth formed in an "O" trying to control the pain that pulses with every heartbeat. His ankle at an odd angle, showing definite signs of being broken.

She and Lorne rush over trying to see what's wrong but are pushed out of the way by Dr. Carson Beckett and his med team. She notices that different members of his staff are pulling the other members away to briefly examine them but her attention is focused on the Scottish doctor and his prone patient on the ground. It makes her heart ache seeing him in pain.

"Colonel, can ya hear me lad?" Carson asks trying to determine how lucid John is. He receives a nod and continues on, "Alright, I'm going to give you something for the pain then I'm going to set the bone and immoblize your leg. After it's immoblized we'll get ya on a gurney so that we can get you to the infirmary and finish getting you checked out ." Carson explained while pulling out a vial and a syringe, swiftly measuring out the contents and plunging the syringe into John's arm.

"Team" John says. There is no inflection but Carson understands what he wants to know.

"They are fine lad, just try to relax." Carson replies soothingly, patting John's shoulder.

Once he notices the Colonel relax a little, Carson begins to set John's ankle. He notices the massive swelling in John's boot around his ankle and decides to wait until he gets to the infirmary to cut off the boot to ensure that he has the proper tools. Once they have John's leg immobilized, they gently transport him on to the awaiting gurney and glide down to the infirmary.

Elizabeth knows it's foolish to try to get any information out of the team right now and let's them go down to the infirmary to get their post mission check ups knowing the choice isn't really up to her as they are already disappearing around the corner. She'll alert them to the time of the debrief when they've finished their check up. She begins the organization of the clean up of the gate room curious as to what happened on the planet.


By the time the rest of the team arrives Carson is already in the infirmary, examining John's ankle, foot, and leg. They want to know how he's doing but decide to wait until they hear from Carson and proceed to their own post mission check ups.

Dr. Jennifer Keller decides to start with the easier of the three and starts Teyla's check. "Hello Teyla, anything to report?" she asks knowing the Athosian will be honest about her injuries with a direct question whereas with the others she has to use more of a cloak and dagger approach, or in Rodney's case she would need to filter through the babble.

"I am fine, Dr. Keller, mostly tired." Teyla replies. She realizes the doctor's reasons for going with her first and appreciates the opportunity to be able to get a shower before the others have finished with their own examinations knowing they will be stubborn or over exaggerate their injuries.

Jennifer runs a practiced eye over Teyla, observing her demeanor and posture deciding to take her for her word and after getting a quick scan and some blood, releases her from the infirmary. She then does a mental eeney, meeney, miney, moe to determine which one should go next. She settles on Rodney, knowing full well that he is not injured and will require nothing more than rest and a good meal.

"Rodney, how are you doing?" She asks, knowing it's a trick question and waits for his hypochondria to come out full force.

"I'm tired, do you know how long they made me run? I mean, what if I'd fallen and broken my ankle or something?" then looking over at John, he blushes clearly realizing that it was possible that John had done just that, but still he continues. "I am a scientist, I'm not meant for running. I use my mind not my body!" Clearly, Jennifer thinks though she will admit to herself that the scientist isn't that bad to look at but is obviously out of shape.

"Ok.. is there anything else wrong?" Jennifer asks though she already knows the answer as she checks his blood pressure, draws blood (which elicits and OW from Rodney) and prepares his scan. All off world teams are required to submit to a scan when returning so the staff can compare it to the previous ones; the IOA has determined it a necessity in case something should come up they can prove they aren't at fault.

After, Rodney has finished he's released with the order of a shower and then the mess hall to make sure he keeps his hypoglycemia in check. She then turns to Ronon, taking in his slightly hunched appearance and the faint lines of pain around his eyes. "Ok, Ronon, your turn. How are you doing?"

"Fine" came the gruff reply.

"Uh-huh, so if I were to straighten you up, you'd be ok?" She replied, knowing full well that his ribs were injured.

He focused on her and knew he had been caught so he reluctantly replied "Just bruised my ribs, no big deal. I've had worse."

"I'll tell you what, why don't we let the one with the medical degree determine what is a big deal and what isn't? Mk?" she replied as she began to examine his left side, noting the bruising around his ribcage. She touched a soft spot and he grunted, nothing was broken which was a good sign.

"Ok, nothing is broken, but you have cracked a couple of them, you'll need to take it easy for a week or two but should be back to killing the Wraith and kicking marine's butts in no time. No sparring, no running, nothing strenuous until then, got it?" She asked raising her eyebrows and pointing her finger at him, knowing he'd try to get around it sooner or later.

"Yup." He replied as he jumped down off the exam bed, heading to the spare chairs that served as the infirmary's waiting room.

She sighed, then went over to him. "Ronon, why don't you go take a shower and get something to eat. Dr. Beckett will inform you all when he's finished and update you. There's no need to stay."

He nodded and sauntered out into the hallway.


"Elizabeth" Carson's voice came over the radio.

"Go ahead Carson." She replied

"I just wanted to give you an update on the Colonel. He has fractured his foot and ankle. He'll be on crutches for the next 6 weeks and he'll be off active duty for 8 weeks."

"Oh, he'll love that!" came the sarcastic reply.

Carson chuckled, "Yes, we will have quite the cantankerous Colonel on our hands for that time but there's nothing to be done about that. When he wakes up, I'll release him to his quarters."

"He's still there?" came the shocked reply.

"Yes, he fell asleep while we were finishing his exam and I didn't have the heart to wake him. I figured he could use the sleep." Carson told her. "I'll let his team know as I'm sure they're curious to know how he is."

"Sounds good. Thanks Carson." She told him.

"Your welcome." Carson replied. He noticed the Colonel waking up and went to check on him before he released him.

"How are you feeling Colonel?" Carson asked.

"Fine, ready to get outta here."

"How's your pain on a scale from 1 to 10?" Carson asked giving John his I know you're hurting so just admit it look.

John paused a moment before answering, "about a 6, nothing I can't handle". He knew that his best chance at getting out of the infirmary and resting in his own room was to be truthful and not to antagonize the doctor so he answered truthfully.

"Aye, well we'll give you a top off before we take out the IV line anyway, then we'll get you released to your own quarters. Would you like some dinner before you go or should we have some delivered to your room?" Carson asked knowing that John had to be hungry.

"I think I'll wait til I get to my room, I shouldn't be here too much longer right?" He asked the doctor, eyes hopeful and suspicious at the same time.

"Aye, you'll be released in a jiffy." Carson replied as he finished adding the pain meds to John's IV.

John was glad for the drugs as he felt the throbbing pain that had begun to annoy him for the past 10 minutes or so being replaced by the warmth of the drugs. He couldn't wait to get to his quarters and collapse onto his bed and fall into pain free oblivion but he had sneaky feeling that he would be forced to eat some dinner first.

"Alright Colonel, let's get you unhooked while Marie brings your chair." Carson said while pulling out the IV line and unhooking the machines that he had attached to John while he slept.

"A chair? Come on Doc, can't I just get some crutches?" John asked, mortified at the idea of being pushed around in a wheel chair. "It's not like I'll cause more damage to myself." he whined, knowing that it wasn't a very compelling argument.

"Sorry Colonel. You will get some crutches to use while in your room but until the swelling goes down, I'd like you to use the chair to go long distances." Carson replied, his tone clearly stating that there was no arguing.

When Marie arrived with chair, Carson helped John to get into it with relative ease then Carson raised the leg and placed a pillow under his injured foot which John was grateful for (though he wasn't about it admit it) as it hurt from moving from the bed to the chair and the hardness of the chair leg wasn't helping matters. Before he left, Carson gave him a list of dos and don'ts.

"Ok now Colonel, I want you to go straight to your room (do not stop anywhere) and rest. I want you to keep your foot elevated at all times when you're sitting down. Do not try to walk on it, even to go to the bathroom, you need to stay off it, you hear me? For the next 48 hours you are on bed rest or until the swelling goes down. If it goes down before 48 hours, let us know and we will get a cast on ya, and I mean a good deal of the swelling, don't be calling if it's just a little bit. That said, DO call if you experience problems, persistent pain or you need help with something."

"Will I be able to attend the debriefing tomorrow afternoon?" John asked. He had heard Carson say no leaving but he figured if he was just sitting around a table and had his foot elevated it wouldn't be a big deal, however he wanted to get Carson's permission because he knew he wouldn't be allowed to join otherwise.

Carson wasn't crazy about the idea, especially considering there were stairs involved no matter how you went about it and he didn't want John trying to tackle stairs until AFTER he had a cast on. He was about to say "No" when he decided he'd propose a compromise first.

"If Elizabeth, your team and Major Lorne don't disagree, you can hold the debrief in your room. I'd rather you not trying to tackle stairs right now and it'd be better for you to remain as stationary as possible."

John sighed, "Carson, I'm not broken." Then with a pause as he considered his words he added "well, ok, I AM broken but it's just my foot, I can move around without doing more damage to myself. I can understand about the stairs, but surely there's somewhere else we could hold it without having to hold it in my room."

"Why don't we see how you're feeling tomorrow then we'll decide what to do." Carson told him.

John wasn't happy about his answer but knew that arguing with him would be like arguing with a brick wall, you don't get anything but a headache. "Fine" he conceded and started to push himself out of the infirmary.


He arrived at his quarters at the same that Josephine from the kitchen did. He gingerly got out of the chair and hopped over to the bed where he slowly eased himself onto it trying to not jar his injured foot and not succeeding very well. By the time he got situated in bed with his leg elevated he was perspiring a little from the exercise and his foot and ankle were throbbing angrily.

A chime from his door sounded and John thought open and his 3 teammates walked in each carrying their own dinners.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he asked wondering what they were doing there.

"We heard that you were released from the infirmary and was going to eat dinner in your room so we thought we'd join you." Rodney told him and he began to dig into his dinner.

Once they had finished their meal Teyla asked "Shall we watch a movie?"

He didn't want them to feel like they had to stick around and babysit the invalid so he gave them an out. "Look guys, you don't have to stick around if you have other things to do."

"Well, actually, I do need to go to my lab to make sure those children that call themselves scientists didn't destroy anything while I was gone. Plus I need to get my mission report together for the debrief tomorrow." Rodney said.

John nodded said, "see ya later McKay." And waved him good bye.

Ronon and Teyla hung around saying they had nothing to do and didn't mind sticking around for a movie. They put in 300, both of them interested in the war tactics of the humans of earth (John didn't have the heart to tell them that people didn't often use those tactics anymore). Teyla noticed John's eyelids drooping and turned off the movie deciding it was late and time for them all to go to bed. Ronon helped John get up and after making sure John was steady handed him the crutches so that he could do his thing before he went to sleep. When John was sitting back down on his bed, Ronon bade him goodnight and left, leaving Teyla to help him. It made him feel guilty for keeping her, he hated needing so much help right now and he hated being laid up even more.

"You know, Teyla, you don't have to stick around. I'm fine. Go to bed."

"I would like to make sure that you are settled in bed and comfortable before I go. Is that alright?" She said while handing him his pain medication. She looked a little hurt that he didn't seem to want her around and that made him feel like an even bigger jerk.

"Yeah, that's fine. I just didn't want you to fee like you have to stay if you were tired or needed to get back to Torren."

She shook her head, "No, Kanaan is watching Torren for me tonight. I don't have to go anywhere right now. Should we ice your ankle one more time before I leave?"

John thought he heard a silent Please in there somewhere but when he looked at her face it was neutral so he figured he'd imagined it. "Yeah, probably" he replied, grimacing as a spike of pain shot up his leg from his foot to his knee.

Her features softened at his obvious show of pain and concern reflected in her eyes, she nodded and went to get the ice pack from the little fridge in his room. After placing it gently on his ankle she sat down next to him and asked "better?"

The cold had worked itself into the joint, numbing the pain and he breathed out a small sigh of relief. "Yeah, actually. Thanks." She nodded, pleased with the result and sat there, quiet and relaxed.

John thought she was meditating until she said, "shall I leave you to rest? You seem tired." He looked up at her confused so she clarified by saying, "your eyelids were drooping."

"Oh, sorry. I didn't realize I was falling asleep. You don't have to go unless you want to." He replied. He didn't want her to leave but he couldn't think of a reason for her to stay. He mentally kicked himself for this saying idiot! She has a son and Kanaan, you aren't anywhere near the frame let alone the picture! It made him sad to realize this but he knew it was his own fault and didn't blame her for finding someone who would appreciate and love her the way she deserved.

He noticed that it had been 20 minutes since they had put the ice on and went to take it off when a hand stopped him, pushing him back down. "I will do it, you must rest" she told him. He thought she was taking this whole "bed rest" thing a bit far but didn't say anything about it, he didn't want to upset or embarrass her.

She gently took the ice of his ankle and silently examined it without touching it, she didn't want to cause him any pain but wanted to check on the swelling. "It looks better, visibly less swollen" she told him with a hint of encouragement in her voice.

"Good, maybe Beckett will let me attend the debrief tomorrow. I honestly don't see why we have to do it here when we could easily find a room without stairs to hold it in, hell the mess hall would be better than here." He said with a hint of frustration in his voice.

"I am sure Dr. Beckett just wants to you rest and not push your body too hard. I realize that it is not a life threatening injury (Thank God! She told herself) but you are still injured and it needs time to heal. I am sure that once Dr. Beckett puts a cast on, you will be allowed to be more mobile but until then, I am afraid that you will have to be patient." She told him, even managing to throw Carson's own words in there without sounding condescending or scolding. How DOES she do that? he wondered.

"Yeah, you're right." He told her just before he let out a jaw-cracking yawn. He smiled sheepishly, "Wow, I guess I am tired".

"Of course, I will leave you to sleep." She bent down and put her forehead to his, then straightened up saying "get some rest John."

"Goodnight" he told her as he waved. He settled back down in bed trying not to jostle his injured limb while he squirmed to get comfortable. Man, what a crappy day. Tomorrow had better be better he thought shortly before falling asleep.

Teyla walked quietly to her own sleeping quarters where she found Torren sleeping peacefully and Kanaan in bed. She slipped into some pajamas and crawled in to bed as well, wishing it was John with her instead of Kanaan.