"Colonel Sheppard?"

He stirred. "Call me John."

She whispered. "John."

After a moment, he looked down toward her. "Yes.

"I need to get my mind on something," Abrina said, weakly. "I can't feel my arm anymore and my feet are killing me."

She'd tried, at first, to keep most of her weight off of him, but after a while she'd given in to the pain and let herself accept his support. His feet were also killing him, but he was able to tighten his arms around her and use the pole at his back to support them both.

Her head was still resting on her shoulder and he dipped his head to speak to her in hushed tones. "So what are we having?"

She chuckled and tapped his back with the hand that was tied at his waist. Then she sobered. "Do you have any children? A mate? Have you always been a soldier?"

"No children. No mate. And, pretty much. Though, I do remember a time, centuries ago, when I was a child and not a soldier."

She smiled, "Centuries ago?"

He sighed. "Hasn't it been a century since we came in here?"

It had been hours. The little bit of light that was in the room when they came in had faded dramatically.

She sighed, "At least."

"What about you?"

"I've never been a soldier."

It was his turn to lightly tap her back.

"Would you ever want children?"

John lifted his head again and focused on a shadow. "I don't know." He paused. "Yeah, I guess, I would like to have one or two, eventually."

"Boys?"

"I think one of each is always nice."

He could hear the smile in her voice. "Would you be a terribly overprotective father? I mean of your daughter?"



"Oh, yes. I have guns. I would make the boys afraid to date her." Then, remembering their first meeting. "Of course, I wouldn't go so far as to actually kill one of her boyfriends. Unless I found out he was mistreating her."

"And your son? How would you be with him?"

John narrowed his eyes. "I think I'd encourage him to be a scientist or a doctor or something not in the military. But if he turned out to be anything like me, I'd have to nail his feet to the ground to keep him from dangerous activities."

"Were you often careless?"

He smiled. "I was always trying out stunts. Building ramps to ride my bike or skateboard over, speeding down a steep slope just to see if I could make the turn in time to avoid the thorny bushes at the bottom, you know."

"And did you? Avoid the bushes?"

"Not always."

She was quiet then. After a few minutes, she took a half of a deep breath and shifted. "Ah, John?"

He tightened his arms around him. "What is it?"

"I need to stretch my feet."

He nodded. "Go ahead."

She lifted her head and put more of her weight on her toes, then balanced on one leg, lifted one foot and flexed it. Then she repeated the process with the other leg.

He winced when he heard her ankle crack. "I'm going to tie this Plero's thumbs to the back of my Puddle Jumper and take him for a ride for a while," he growled.

She looked at his face and smiled, gently. "Can I watch?"

He smiled back at her. "You can ride shotgun."

She frowned, confused. "'Shotgun'?" she asked.

John took a breath. "It's something my people say that means the second seat in the vehicle."

"Ah."

He looked at her and saw that she was look at his mouth again.

"Abrina," he warned.

Her green eyes met his hazel ones. "Hmm?"

"I thought we had an understanding about you looking at me like that."

She frowned. "Like what?" Her eyes flicked down to his mouth and he pursed his lips, then her eyes widened. "Oh." She warmed. "I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." He became aware of her eyes moving, searching his face. He smiled. "What?"

"Does it hurt?"

"What's that?"

"Your face, I mean, where he hit you."

John frowned. "Well, I won't lie to you, it hurt like hell when it happened, but now…not so much."

"You know," she smiled the same smile he remembered from their meeting at Garleen's: the teasing, almost seductive, smile. "My source was right."

He frowned. "Your source?"

"The one that described you to me before I met you. You are very handsome."

He rolled his eyes and set his mouth to the side. "I do alright…" he glanced down and found her looking at his mouth, again. "Ahem."

She warmed under his gaze. "I…" she licked her lower lip. "Your mouth is…" The color deepened in her cheeks. "I'm sorry."

"My mouth is what?" he prodded.

She bit her upper lip at that point. "Hard not to watch." She said, finally.

He smiled. "Really?"

She ducked her head a little.

He tightened his arms around her. "Abrina," he said, hoarsely.

She looked up again and found herself almost nose to nose with him. "John."

At this point, she tried to pull herself closer to him with the arm that was over his shoulder and stopped the kiss before it could begin with a cry of pain.

"Are you okay?"

Pain was etched into her face and her eyes were moist, but she nodded. "I moved my arm."

His eyes full of concern, he grinned, slightly. "Whew! I was worried I'd lost my touch."

She smiled weakly at him. "I'd say your touch is right where it's supposed to be."

"I can think of somewhere else I'd like it to be."

She gasped. Her eyes widened and she smiled, despite the pain in her eyes.

"You know, when we get out of this, we're going to have some issues to address," he groaned at the feeling of her movement against his chest.

She giggled. "I was just thinking that we'd have some issues to un-dress."

He groaned. "Stop it. This is the worst form of torture."

She leaned her head against his chest and sighed. "You're telling me."

They fell into a comfortable silence.

As the light dimmed more in the room, John became aware that Abrina was heavier than she'd been the entire time. "Abrina?" When she didn't answer, he moved his shoulder to bump her head a bit. "Abrina, are you okay?"

He used his chin and cheek to move her head and found her eyes closed. "Abrina!"

"Mmm?"

"Stay with me, beautiful. Come on, open your eyes."

She opened them, just a bit. "You really are something, John Sheppard," she rasped. "I'm having a hard time catching my breath."

He smiled at first, then a sudden vision of Spartacus hanging from his wrists on a cross outside the entrance of Rome, caused his eyes to widen. Frowning, he kicked into gear. He scooted down as much as he could, ignoring the pain of his pants being wedge into a part of his anatomy, and used the arm under her arm and all the leverage he could muster to bring her up off her toes. He gritted his teeth as the bindings around their legs grew tighter around his calves. With a grunt, he straightened his legs.

She sucked in her breath as the bindings scraped her calves, but then they were loose. The sudden movement and pain seemed to revive her. She lifted her head and looked at him with wide eyes. "I'm sorry, John. Can you hold me like this for a minute more?" she asked softly.

"Yeah," he grunted. It wasn't that she was particularly heavy, but the angle was awkward and his was holding most of her weight with one arm.

She moved her feet slightly to kick off her shoes and felt the ropes slip past her heels and off her feet. "My feet are loose!" she whispered, excitedly.

His eyes widened. "Can you bring your legs up? Put them legs around my waist?"

She nodded and brought her legs up, gripping his hips with her knees. She straightened her back and was able to take pressure off her upper arm. He pulled the arm that had been over her shoulder out slightly and allowed it slide down to her elbow.

"Abrina, this going to be hard," he panted. "But can you pull yourself up with your arm?"

She took a breath. "I'll try."

"Wait." He thought for a moment, then squatted back down. "I have an idea. Can you see your wrist?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Is it a rope? With a knot?"

"Yes."

"Brace your feet on my legs, use them to push yourself up and see if you can reach the knot."

"Reach?"

"Can you undo the knot with your teeth?"

She drew back and looked at him with a questioning look.

He nodded, gritted his teeth and glared at her. "You can do it, Abrina. Just brace your feet on my legs, use them to push yourself up and see if you can reach the rope."

She took a deep breath and nodded. "I'll try."

She lowered her legs again and placed her feet on his thighs. He moved his head to the side as much as he could without putting pressure on her arm trapped under his so as not to her back. She straightened slightly and he used his lower arm to support her backside as she leaned up.

"Yeah, I think I can…I can reach it."

He nodded, trying desperately to ignore her breasts that were dangerously close to his face in this position. "Good. Now see if you can undo the knot."

She leaned over him and began to pull at the knot with her teeth.