I apologise in advance for any spelling or grammatical mistakes. I wrote this as it came into my head and sometimes I get the words jumbled up.
Good Colonel Sheppard
Something was... off. He bent down to examine the ground and touched it gently, just able to make out a boot-print. They had been this way.
The rest of his team had been kidnapped an hour ago while Sheppard had been negotiating with the village leader. He'd heard gunshots and raced outside, but his team was gone. Seething, he turned to the village leader, but the man looked just as shocked and very pale. It turned out that they traded with the Genii regularly and were unaware of the bad blood between the Lanteans and Genii. Sheppard had declared that he would get his team back under any costs.
So he'd run into the hills after the Genii. He knew the Gate was too far for them to get quickly with their three prisoners so their best bet was to lie in wait and capture Sheppard too.
Ronon's boot-print was the most obvious of them all. The Genii were horrible at cleaning up after themselves, but it was obvious that they weren't trying. They were trying to lure Sheppard to them.
So he jogged after them and his teammates. He wasn't going to leave them behind, otherwise he would get a billion years of hell from McKay.
The sun was sinking but still he pushed on. A light rain began to fall but he ignored it. It probably wasn't smart of him to head for the Genii straight-on, but he didn't have time to radio for help. He had to do this on his own. But his body was tiring. He hadn't been sleeping well lately and he cursed that fact.
Hours after dark he saw a light in the distance and stumbled towards it, exhausted. Far from a Genii camp, it was a lone hut settled snugly within a grove of trees on the side of a hill. He knocked on the door and leant on his knees, breathing heavily. A young girl answered the door.
"Who are you?" she asked fearfully.
"Colonel Sheppard," he said, rubbing his eyes. "My people were taken by the Genii and I'm going to get them back. I saw your light and came by to ask for some food." As if to back up his claim, his stomach gave a loud rumble.
"I saw them," the girl said nervously. "They came through barely an hour ago. They... hurt my father when he refused to give them food. We don't like them, you see. They forced the village leader to kick us out of the village."
"I'm not like them," Sheppard assured her. "I just want my people back. The Genii don't like us either."
The girl disappeared for a moment and returned, opening the door further. "The Genii will most likely camp soon. You should get some rest."
Sheppard smiled gratefully at her and stumbled inside, collapsing on the armchair she pointed to. She gave him soup and he was just able to drink it all before he fell asleep.
oOo
Hours later he awoke to birds chirping and the sun just rising into the sky. He yawned and stood awkwardly from the seat. After some quick exploration of the house he found the girl lying with a man, he guessed her father, who had a bruise on his neck most likely caused by someone trying to choke him. The man opened his eyes and stared at the stranger.
"Who are you?" he asked.
"Father," the girl said timidly, "this is the man who asked for help last night."
"Oh, hello." The man grimaced and gingerly touched his throat. Sheppard reached into his vest pocket and pulled out a bottle of painkillers that were compulsory for all off world teams to carry.
"This'll help with the pain," he said. "It's the least I can do to thank you for letting me stay the night."
"Of course," the man replied.
"I need to go save my friends now," Sheppard said, waving.
"Good bye Colonel," the girl said. "Thank you for helping my father."
"Thank you for helping me."
oOo
He crouched right outside the camp. It was clear that they were expecting him and had placed his team in the very centre of the camp, completely out of reach. The centre of the camp was the most difficult place to reach.
A Genii soldier was posted on every corner of the camp, keeping a lookout for Sheppard when he showed up to rescue his team. Sighing, Sheppard clipped his P-90 to his vest and pulled out his C4. He travelled around the camp, placing it as close as he could to the lookouts without being seen. The whole time he planted the C4 he didn't breathe for fear of discovery. The Genii needed him to bargain with more effectively for whatever demands they had.
It was done. He retreated a good distance away where he could still see the camp and flicked the detonator. Immediately explosions sounded around the perimeter and the Genii were thrown into confusion.
He saw his team get up from where they had been bound and race away from the camp. Several Genii attempted to stop them but Ronon barreled into them on their way to collect their things. Sheppard lay cover fire as they left the camp and the Genii retreated to hide, coming out to fire occasionally. Ronon, Teyla and McKay raced up to where Sheppard was and there was a cry.
McKay fell to the ground, clutching his leg which was bleeding profusely. Ronon grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder, carrying McKay the rest of the way to the safe spot. Teyla got there first and helped Sheppard shoot at the Genii that tried to attack. It was a large group but they had fallen under the explosives.
"I've been shot!" McKay shrieked. He was ignored as Ronon began to run. His shrieking became louder as he was bounced up and down on Ronon's shoulder as the massive man ran as fast as he could with a human as heavy as McKay on his back.
Sheppard and Teyla followed them, picking off any Genii that dared to show their faces.
"They wanted to trade us for a Jumper," Teyla panted.
"Yeah, I figured that," Sheppard replied, raising the gun to his cheek and firing at another Genii.
A short time later they slowed and were able to look at McKay's wound. The bullet had gone right through so it was a simple matter for Sheppard to clean the wound and bandage around it. McKay whimpered and groaned with pain and Sheppard took Teyla's painkillers and shoved some into McKay's mouth to stop his whining.
"Shut up!" Sheppard hissed. "We're going to Atlantis now. It's not safe here."
McKay nodded fearfully and allowed Ronon to carry him the whole way back to the Gate.
oOo
"You did a good job at fixing up the wound," Beckett exclaimed after examining McKay's leg.
"It was nothing," Sheppard shrugged.
"It's more than that. You saved his life. He would have bled to death if you hadn't done that."
"He's a member of my team. I couldn't leave the wound until later. Well, he was whining incessantly and that was hard to ignore, so that might be the reason."
"I think you're being modest," Beckett grinned. "Good Colonel Sheppard. I think that Rodney'll be very thankful to you when he wakes up."
Rodney? Thankful? Sheppard had yet to see that day.