Yeah. Chapter two is up and running. Reviews anyone? I don't bite. Any time you want to review! Or just wave to say hi and that you're reading. I know this is a new fandom for me. I do hope you're enjoying this so far. It's still rated K+ for now. I'll change the rating if necessary. Thanks for reading. Chapter three will be on its way in a few days.
Chapter Two
"Don't you fucking dare touch that."
They all had it wrong. No way Sheppard would ever abandon them. Even Teyla had to be wrong, although it didn't happen often. Ronon slammed his fist down next to the controls of the stargate.
"Ronon, you have to understand that this is necessary. If Colonel Sheppard has been compromised, then we need to take all precautions to protect the city and its inhabitants."
Woolsey sometimes really pissed him off. Just because he was right didn't make Ronon feel any better about it. Sheppard had to have his reasons. If he didn't get an answer when he found the son of a bitch, then he'd make sure to beat it out of him. Why did the man have to be so stubborn?
"I'm not done looking for him. I've triangulated the last known location from where the puddlejumper gated to. If you just give me a couple of hours, I'll be able to get you a gate address and we can go after his sorry ass."
Rodney always had a way with words. Ronon was going to kick his ass, sorry or not. Teyla stood beside him, if just to hold him back if need be.
"You do your calculations, McKay. It still doesn't change the fact that Colonel Sheppard abandoned his post. He is AWOL as of now. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to check on the Marine that Sheppard decked."
It was just a scratch, Ronon thought. Wimps, all the Marines were. Of course, with Lorne standing on the other side of him, he didn't want to voice that particular comment. He didn't feel like taking Lorne down at that moment.
"Chuck, if any, I mean anyone dials into that gate, I'm to be notified immediately," Rodney insisted, pointing to the man in charge of the gate.
"Yes, sir." Ronon thought that Chuck almost saluted.
Ronon watched as Rodney hurried off to figure out where in hell Sheppard was. The mutterings that Rodney was engaged in with Zelenka weren't very nice. Something about stupid idiot and why didn't he tell me were part of the conversation.
Yeah, why didn't Sheppard tell anyone he had a plan? Well, maybe because Sheppard's plan was a piece of shit, that was why. And probably because he didn't want to get anyone else in trouble if it went wrong. It did go wrong, from what they found.
He, Teyla, Rodney and Lorne gated to the address that Sheppard had traveled to a few hours before. There was nothing left but debris from something very big, possibly a ship. Certainly was too much junk for it to be a puddlejumper. There had been a battle, a very big battle in the middle of space. Sheppard possibly had gotten caught up in it. Yeah, he possibly was in that debris.
Rodney didn't detect any Ancient machinery though. That was a good sign. The gate had been activated many times in those few hours that Sheppard had disappeared. None of the gate addresses were ones they had on file.
By the time they made it back to Atlantis, Woolsey was chomping at the bit to flay Sheppard alive. Seems that Sheppard took out a Marine to take a puddlejumper. What the hell was the man thinking?
He could think of a few choice statements, but the one that best described John Sheppard was loyalty. Never leave a man behind. That motto was something that the Satedan could live by. Each time one of them was left behind, whether it was Teyla being kidnapped by Michael or himself getting messed up with his former buddies, Sheppard was always there to find them. He didn't give up.
So Ronon wouldn't give up. He damn well knew that Rodney wouldn't give up. Teyla looked fierce and determined standing next to him. Lorne was a Marine, so that was a given. They'd find the bastard.
"I am so kicking his ass when we find him," Ronon said aloud.
He heard Lorne snort as he watched that twinkle in Teyla's eyes. He wouldn't have to do the ass-kicking himself. Teyla would take care of that for him.
John couldn't get his bearings. Nothing was familiar in this star system. It seemed like they'd been flying around for hours, no progress. They scanned for a stargate, but no luck. Pretty soon, they'd have to find an inhabitable planet. He couldn't live on powerbars alone, unlike Rodney.
The pain meds had worn off, but he was gritting his teeth against the pain. Luckily the puddlejumper was flying smoothly since Fran had fixed it. Every once in a while it would jerk. Inertial dampers must not be calibrated correctly, he thought. They were airborne though. That's what counted.
"We need to find a place to set her down," John announced.
"A suitable place to sustain human life," Fran offered back.
They hit a bump in the road, causing John to groan in pain again. One more of those, he'd definitely have to dig into the medkit.
"There were three planets that could sustain life not far from our position."
John was glad that Fran could take the information that the displays were giving her and process it all. All the information on the screen had started to dance before his eyes.
"Whichever one's the best."
As he turned to look at Fran, he noticed that she had started to waver before his eyes. Crap, he thought. I can't lose consciousness now. Who would fly the jumper? Just before he slumped over, he told the jumper to fly on autopilot, hopefully to get them down on the nearest planet. He hoped it was enough. Otherwise, they'd be stuck until whenever.
"How do you do that?"
Do what? What was he doing? Opening his eyes, he was sitting in Elizabeth's office, in the chair that he always occupied when they had meetings. His arms were crossed, his feet stretched out in front of him. And his neck hurt just a little.
"What?"
"Sleep with all this activity going on around you. I thought you were going to fall out of the chair there for a moment," Elizabeth told him with that smirk she was famous for on her face.
"You would have woken me up before, wouldn't you?"
"Maybe," she replied, drawing out the word like she didn't really mean it.
He couldn't exactly remember why he was in her office. It must have been a long day for him to fall asleep right in front of her.
"Go find your bed. I'll finish this up." Elizabeth rose to shoo him out of her office.
"I'll wait. You're almost done, right?"
Elizabeth rolled her head around like she'd been sitting there for a while. The dark circles under her eyes told him that she'd been up too many hours without rest. It was surprising that she didn't just fall asleep in her chair also.
"As done as I can be. Shall we?" She gestured for the both of them to leave.
As John walked her to her quarters, he contemplated asking her for a late night snack in the kitchen. As he watched the weariness in her steps as she walked, he knew that she just needed rest. He'd make sure in the morning that she had a good breakfast, even if he had to bring it to her and force feed it.
Stopping outside her quarters, Elizabeth turned, tilting her head just slightly.
"I should," Elizabeth started.
"Yeah, so should I. Don't you dare go in there and read reports or something," he admonished her.
"Me? I'd never do that."
He knew her too well. She so would.
As he turned to go, her arm touched his, making him stop in his tracks. "It's not your fault. You did everything you could. Please don't blame yourself."
Blame? Here they were, having an evening stroll. He thought that they had both just been working too hard and needed rest.
"My mind's a little fuzzy. What were we talking about?"
Her hand still touched him. Even through his jacket, he could feel her warmth.
"It's not easy to deal with," she continued.
Now he was clueless. What had happened that day?
"Deal with? I'm just not remembering the details very clearly." Maybe he should go see Carson before hitting the sack.
"Not rescuing me," Elizabeth shouted back.
Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading.
