He came too with a start, Wraith screeching in his ears. The headache was the first to hit him, and then the light sensitivity. He groaned and managed to get his heavy arm over his eyes. Ouch.
"Oh, thank goodness." He heard Beckett exclaimed with a sigh. "We thought we'd lost you for a minute, Colonel."
Sheppard looked up at the doctor from under his arm. He felt like hell. "Where's my team?" He managed to rasp. He needed some water. Beckett was quick to get his need and passed him a glass.
"They're fine. Ronon, Teyla, and Rodney all woke up several hours ago. Jannalee is still unconscious. You two must have been the closest to the gas, had the most exposure. Rodney told us." Beckett replied in answer to his questioning look.
"Damn rat." Sheppard croaked out.
"How do you feel?"
"Like I have a hang over." Sheppard replied. His voice was getting stronger with each word. A commotion at the door brought the rest of the team into the Infirmary and to Sheppard's bedside.
"Welcome back." Teyla said with a warm smile as she took his hand. "You've been out for two days."
"Huh." Sheppard said, looking up at the doctor who'd neglected to tell him that. "When can I get out of here, Doc?"
"Oh, give it a few more hours." Beckett said as Sheppard started to try and sit up. "You need to rest and give the drugs time to get out of your system. Excuse me, I'm going to check on my other patient."
The room was spinning, but Sheppard found that focusing on a single point in the room helped the vertigo that he was feeling. He looked to his left at another bed where Janna was lying.
"She did not awaken when we did." Teyla said seeing his glance.
"Are how you guys doing?" Sheppard asked.
"Hmm. Bad hangover." Rodney replied. "Haven't felt like this since college." Everyone gave him a glance.
"Same." Ronon said simply.
"I am too feeling the effects of the gas." Teyla said. "It feels like I ate something rotten."
"Hangover." Rodney and Ronon said at the same time.
"I don't think I have experienced this." Teyla said. "Is it some Earth ritual?"
"I think it's at least a male ritual." Sheppard muttered under his breath. Teyla gave him a strange look, but was called over by Beckett. She left the three men alone as she walked over to Janna's bed.
"She's awake." Beckett told her.
Teyla looked down at her old friend and grabbed her hand. "Welcome back."
o0o
Several hours later, the team was in the briefing room with Weir and several other key Atlantis personnel. Sheppard and his team had finished their account of their time on the planet. Rodney summed up.
"So basically we're saying that we won't know what happened to the people until we do a complete analysis of the computer we brought back."
"But sufficient to say, it's not a place we want to set up shop." Sheppard added, leaning forward in his chair.
"I agree." Weir said. She looked towards Jannalee who seemed apologetic.
"I apologize that both planets presented to you are no longer an option." She lamented. "I wish there was more I could tell you. The Wraith threat has completely taken over all the worlds around us."
Their meeting was interrupted as Chuck beckoned for Weir from the doorway; it looked urgent.
"The briefing is over." Weir said getting to her feet and following Chuck out of the room. Everyone slowly filed out of the room. Lorne walked into the room, followed by another soldier carrying a Wraith stunner; they had obviously just gotten back from exploring some of the lower levels of the city that had been revealed when several systems had stopped working.
Sheppard had assigned some of the military personnel to explore the newly opened levels before letting the science team into them to fix their minor, but still needed, backup systems.
"Excuse me, sir." He directed his voice towards Sheppard, but took a look around the room, noting that Janna was present. "I wanted too..." He didn't get any further as Janna launched herself across the room at him.
"Janna!" Teyla cried in astonishment.
The major quickly blocked and defended himself from getting punched in the face, but Janna didn't let up. Rodney tried to move out of the way, but wasn't quick enough and got knocked backwards, falling into the other solider carrying the weapon.
It was a good thing too, because Sheppard had drawn his weapon and was aiming in the direction of the solider with the Wraith stunner.
"Wraith!" The colonel warned, as Rodney and the solider fell to the floor in a heap. "Rodney, get out of the way!" He fired.
Rodney yelled and scrambled away from the bullets that were now hitting the floor in front of him. The soldier was hit in the leg, and then the chest.
Teyla tackled Sheppard from behind. He ducked and threw her to the floor. She landed with a thud and lay there stunned. Sheppard raised his gun and aimed., this time at Teyla, helpless on the floor.
"Hey!" Ronon shouted. The other man's head came up and then gun swung in his direction.
Ronon dived to the floor, but not before the bullet bit into his shoulder. He landed and scrambled behind the table which afforded him a fair amount of cover.
Janna and Lorne were still going at it, but the from the looks of things, Janna was winning. A hard blow to the stomach, and one to the kidney's had the major on the floor, retching. Janna pulled her knife, and prepared to bring it down on the major's unprotected back.
Teyla and Ronon's shouts of protests were simultaneous. An alarm started to blare in the background. Bullets hit the table where Ronon was taking cover as Sheppard came closer.
Suddenly, a Wraith stunner hit Janna in the back and she collapsed, falling onto Loren. Another blast happened and Sheppard hit the ground hard.
Suddenly, everything was silent again – except for the alarm blaring. Ronon and Teyla slowly got to their feet, Ronon clutching his wounded shoulder, and saw Rodney holding the dropped Wraith stunner.
"Okay! What the hell just happened?" He demanded, letting the stunner drop to the floor. Behind him, several military personnel appeared and behind them Weir. Her concern was palpable.
"We're clear!" Ronon told them, before anymore shooting could start.
"Everything's under control." Teyla confirmed. The soldiers moved into the room and took care of the weapons that were on the floor.
"What happened?" Weir asked.
"Sheppard and Janna went crazy." Rodney replied. "There was shooting, and stabbing; bullets, lots of bullets."
"Wait, you're saying they did all this?" Weir said, motioning the chaos around them. She noted the fallen solider. "Get that man to the Infirmary!" Two of the soldier's quickly got out a gurney and took the solider out of the room.
The soldier's picked Janna off of Loren. The major groaned, and winced as they helped him sit up. His arm was clasped around his ribs, and his face looked like a punching bag.
"You need to restrain them." Ronon ordered the soldiers who were holding Janna.
"Take both Colonel Sheppard and the woman to the Infirmary." Weir told the soldiers. "Make sure Dr. Beckett knows what happened here."
o0o
Sheppard thrashed in his restraints. "There's a Wraith in here! Can't you see that we're in danger?"
Carson looked towards the doorway and the soldiers standing there with a Wraith stunner. "He's there for your protect, Colonel, and for mine. Now what you do say, you calm down and tell me what the trouble is." He said firmly.
"He's a Wraith!" Sheppard insisted, yanking on the restraints even harder.
Carson turned to his nurse. "Let's give him a few more cc's of sedative; that might help him settle down enough to talk to us."
While the nurse prepared to give the injection, Carson left the room and came over to the corner where Weir was waiting to speak to him.
"No change?" She asked.
Carson sighed. "No. None. Jannalee calmed down as soon as we removed her and Lorne from the same room, but the Colonel is insisting the every soldier he sees is a Wraith. He's quite adamant. I never seen anything like this."
A nurse came by and handed Carson a tablet. "Oh, good. Thank you, love." The doctor said taking the device. "Their brain scans." He told Weir as he pulled up the file. "Well this is odd." He muttered to himself.
"What?" Weir asked, stepping closer to him and trying to drown out the sounds of Sheppard yelling in the background.
"The fear centres of their brains are activated. So is this section. See how it's highlighted?" Carson told her, pointing it out. "I've never seen anything like this before except in people who've taken some sort of hallucinogen."
He looked up at her. "Of course. That's got to be it!" He exclaimed. Weir looked confused.
"On the planet, they came across some sort of alien laboratory. Chemicals spilled and created some sort of gas. It must have been something like a hallucinogen. If the fear centres in their brains are activated, it means that it causing a reaction with that part of the brain."
"Like flight or fight?" Weir asked.
"Exactly like that." Carson moved away from Weir and towards Sheppard. "Colonel Sheppard's must be triggered by the sight of Wraith weapons. The drug is making him believe that there's more of a threat then there is."
"And Janna's was triggered by her confrontation with Major Lorne earlier this week." Weir said in understanding. "So how do we get them to stop being afraid?"
"It's easy for Janna." Carson said. "We separated her and Major Lorne already. I don't think there will be another incident once the drugs have time to wear off. You there!" He raised his voice to address the soldier guarding the door.
"You're relieved." Carson told him. "Go and take a break, son. You deserve it."
"Are you sure, Doc?" The young man asked. His name tag said Fachetti. "I don't want to leave you without any protection."
"It'll be alright." Weir assured him.
"I'll be right outside." Fachetti told them with a glance at his CO strapped to the bed. Once he left, the Colonel seemed to calm down some. But Carson didn't know if that was due to the sedative in his system or because the threat was finally gone.
"Let's go ahead and take a blood sample." Carson told his nurse. "When you're done, get one from our other patient as well. Hopefully, it'll tell us what we need to know."
The nurse nodded and proceeded to draw blood from Colonel Sheppard.
o0o
Five days later and the team was back together, Sheppard's and Jannalee's blood clear. It had taken a while for the drugs to completely leave their systems, but once Beckett had figured out what was happening, it had been an easy fix. Time had cleaned the drugs from their systems.
Twyla walked into the infirmary in time to meet Shepard coming out.
"You are being released also?" She asked with a smile.
"Yeah, Doc said held finally gotten tired of me." Shepard joked with a grin. His face fell. "Hey I'm sorry for earlier. You know, throwing you across the room."
"You don't have to be sorry." Teyla told him. "I understand that you were not in your right mind. Besides if that's the best you can do we need to work on your skills." She added with a sly grin.
"I could have hurt you." Shepard replied. "I did hurt you. I almost killed you."
"But you didn't know what was happening." Teyla stepped closer to him. "John, I forgive you. You must forgive yourself too."
"You think that's why I was affected and you weren't?" He asked in a rare moment of vurnability.
"Perhaps." Teyla replied graciously. "Maybe you have some ghosts that you need to put to rest before you can move on."
Shepard nodded and the motioned towards the infirmary. "I'll let you go. Jenna's almost ready to leave too. I'm assuming you came for her."
Twyla nodded. "Thank you." She squeezed his arm before letting him go. She continued to the infirmary and headed straight towards Becket,t and Janna who were just finishing up what looked like final tests.
Before Teyla could reach them Beckett moved on and Janna was left in her own. Teyla saw how she looked towards the bed where Loren was lying.
It would take him several more days until he was fully back in fighting shape. Teyla watched as the other woman walked over to the sleeping man.
Beckett had waited until the swelling had gone down before putting Lorne's nose back in place and has given the man a sedative which was was wearing off.
Teyla walked over and gently touched her friend's arm. Janna looked up at her, and Teyla was surprised to see that her friend's eyes were filled with tears.
"It is not that bad." Teyla told her quietly. "He will recover."
"I can't believe I did this." Janna whispered back. "I didn't want to do this. An insult is one thing but wanting a man dead is another."
"Come on." Teyla lead her away from the sleeping major. "Do you have an idea why you decided to attack Major Lorne?"
"Doctor Beckett suggested I talk to one of their counsellors." Janna replied as they continued out of the infirmary. "She suggested that it might have to do something with the fear that he was going to push me out of this city of the ansectors, away from my home, my friends, and that fear lead to the attack."
She shook her head. "I didn't know something so ugly lived inside of me."
"I would like to think it doesn't live inside of me either." Teyla responded with a sigh. "But I have seen fear and anger make even the gentlest of people lash out in extreme ways. You are not the first."
"What will happen now?" Janna asked after a moment. "Will Doctor Weir let me continue to be here?"
"Yes." Teyla smiled. "It is good news. She understands that you were not a fault. Though your original agreement still stands. Violence won't be tolerated here."
"I've had enough violence to last a lifetime." Janna replied. "Some quiet might do me good."
"Then it is settled." Teyla said with a smile as they stopped walking. "Doctor Weir suggested that you take some time off, rest, and then we shall see about assigning you a work detail."
Janna nodded her head. "Thank you, Teyla." She grasped the other woman's forearms. "You continue to be a good friends to me."
"And you to me." Teyla responded as she leaned her head against her friend's forehead.
o0o
"How is our survey team doing on M13- 765?" Weir asked.
"Not good." Sheppard said. "The gas isn't an issue, but the clean up is going to take a while."
"Have they found anything that could lead us to the people who built the facility?"
"Nothing so far." McKay answered. "But I can tell you that they are technologically advanced people."
"I think we already knew that, Rodney." Sheppard said. "But I don't think they're going to find anything."
"Why's that?" Weir asked.
"Everything we know about these people says that they were very careful to cover their tracks." Sheppard said. "I mean, have you been able to find anything on that hard-drive worth using?"
"No, but that doesn't mean that..."
"There you go." Sheppard said. "Secretive."
"Huh, well I hope they prove you wrong." McKay said. "Do you have any idea how good those guy are at their jobs? I bet they could find a needle in a haystack."
"Let's just hope you're right, Rodney." Weir said.
o0o
The second incident didn't take long to occur. From what witnesses had told Sheppard, it wasn't anything to be concerned about. He knew where Janna was coming from. Some stupid, over eager, coming from an era where you treated woman more delicately then now, had grabbed Janna's arm to prevent a mishap and had gotten an elbow to the face for his trouble.
Both of them were sorry, but Weir's insistence on sending Janna back to the mainland still stood.
The doors to the Weir's office opened to reveal Teyla and Janna standing in front of the desk. Sheppard stepped inside to join the three woman.
"I understand." Janna was saying. She glanced up at Sheppard, but didn't greet him. "I will pack my things and rejoin the settlement."
Teyla reached for her friend, but the other woman stepped away. "Please don't, Teyla. The decision has been made."
Sheppard started to speak, but a glance from Weir made him reconsider that.
"There's a Jumper leaving for the mainland this afternoon." Weir told Janna.
She inclined her head. "Then I will be on it. Excuse me." She brushed past Teyla and Sheppard and left the office.
Weir waited until she was out of earshot. "I know what both of you are going to say. I wish it wasn't like this, but things haven't be working out; for both parties."
"It's not fair." Teyla agreed. "I understand that you have your rules, but banishing her to the mainland isn't going to work, for either side."
"Maybe you should go with her this time, Teyla." Sheppard suggested. He shrugged when she looked at him. "We're on stand down. Ronon's headed to the mainland for some vacation time, McKay's working on some project. You have the time."
"I will consider it." Teyla agreed.