Chapter 7:
John groaned in pain as he slowly regained consciousness.
"It's about time you woke up!" said Doc, "you were out far too long for my liking, I wanted to resume 2 hours ago but you were still unconscious then!"
"Glad to disappoint!" replied John smirking. The comment was answered with a slap.
"Are you ready to cooperate yet!?"
"Depends on what you mean by 'cooperate'!"
Doc growled. "Why do you insist on furthering you're torture! If you just tell me what I want to know I would let you go,"
"Well I'm not going to tell you anything!"
"Not even for your friend's lives!"
"Don't...you...dare...touch...them!"
"Then tell me your name!"
"Jake George,"
"You are lying!"
"No, I'm really not!"
"What is it?"
"I told you!"
Doc snarled and lowered his head to meet John's. "If you and your little friends want to live, I suggest you start cooperating!"
"and if I don't?"
"I'm afraid you'll have to see Melaka, and trust me, you don't want that!"
"I'm not scared of some person's name and threats!"
"You will be, you will be,"
"We'll see,"
"Yes we will," wispered someone in his ear.
"Take him back to his cell," said Doc to the young boy standing nearby.
"Yes sir," replied the boy.
John simply groaned as the boy pulled him to his feet and led him away from the 'torture area'.
"I'm sorry," said the boy, "I hate this stuff!"
"Then why are you here?" replied John.
"I was forced here, captured. My whole planet was destroyed by them but they liked me, so they kept me,"
"Ever think to escape!?"
"Where to? There is nowhere to go! It's either stay here, away from the wraith, or go to a planet and wait to be culled!"
John then suddenly doubled over as a surge of pain went through his whole body. He started shivering but he slowly stood back up.
"Do you want me to get help?" asked the boy, obviously terrified.
"From who! They all hate me!"
"True, that's why I like you,"
The boy held onto John's arm as he started swaying then led him towards the cell.
"What, did you mean, by that?"
"You have more courage than everyone on this ship!"
"Oh I don't know, they seem rather confident!"
"That's because without your strength you are not a threat to them! If you were not ill, they would be terrified!"
"Well, that's comforting,"
The boy simply frowned as he opened the cell door. John went through and looked back at the boy. "Hey, what's your name?"
"Kekik," replied the boy, he hesitated before adding, "I'm sorry," And then, the door closed.
oOo
"Sheppard! Come on Sheppard! Wake up!"
"M'kay," mumbled John, "That you?"
"Yes it's me colonel! Thank goodness you're awake!"
"What happened?"
"After you came in here you collapsed and we haven't been able to wake you for ages!"
"Alex!" suddenly exclaimed John panicking, "where is she?"
"I'm here John," said Alex from the other side of him.
John turned his head and saw Alex, with a wet towel, kneeling beside him. Her face was full of concern.
"You alright?"
"I-I'm fine," stammered Alex, "But you're not," she added under her breath.
"I'll be fine!"
"Maybe, but if we don't find a way off here, you won't be so fine for long,"
"Where'd you get the towel?" asked John, quickly picking up on Alex's fright.
"Kekik gave it to me, he was worried about you! He also gave me some bandages and medication, it's been helping you!"
"Well that's been very generous of him,"
"It really has! He risked his life bringing these!"
"His life!?"
"If you are captured talking or helping a prisoner the punishment is death! Or so he told me..."
"Okay, now, how long was I out?"
Alex looked over at Rodney then lowered her head. She started dabbing the wet cloth over John's forehead.
"You've been out for almost 3 days," mumbled Rodney.
"Three days!" exclaimed John, "what's happened since I've been out?"
"Nothing," said Alex, "they come to give us food and then they leave, but they still glare at us in a scary way!"
"What have you been doing for all this time?"
"Rodney tried to get blankets from the guard!"
"He did!?"
"Yes I did! And don't look so surprised, I do a lot of things when you're unconscious!"
"But they were really mean! They hit him in the eye and now it's all purple and black!" continued Alex, oblivious to the interruption.
"and they broke my wrist!"
"How'd you break your wrist?"
"I fell on it! Didn't you see?"
"No, I didn't,"
Rodney just frowned then retreated to the corner and started fiddling with something.
"What's wrong with him?" asked John.
"I don't know, he was really nice before! He was telling me really cool stories!" replied Alex, starting to get excited. John noticed the excitement and decided to get her talking, to take her mind off the bad things...as in everything.
"About what exactly?"
"There was one about a little girl in a red cape!"
"Little Red Riding Hood?"
"Not exactly...I think it was Lost Girl Teyla...or something like that, can I tell it to you?"
"Go ahead," replied John, trying hard not to laugh at the name.
"Well, there was a woman, who got lost on a foreign planet, she was really scared but she remembered what her father had told her about strange woods, so she started to walk in a straight line, towards the east. She kept walking and walking, unaware that a wraith was stalking her. When she stopped for the night, a strange sensation went through her body and she gasped. She knew the wraith was near. Even though she was tired she decided to continue on..."
John tuned out about there. He was laughing hysterically inside his head but luckily managed to keep the laughter from escaping his lips. He knew that Rodney had based the story on 'Little Red Riding Hood' but changed it a bit, by making it seem more...this galaxy like, his mind started to wander to Atlantis. He wondered how they were, and if they knew where he was...
"Then the brave Rodney McKay emerged from the trees and killed the wraith, saving Teyla and all her companions, the end!"
John tuned back in at this last sentence and smirked. "That was quite a story!" he said, "Isn't Rodney the best,"
"Yeah! And he's so brave! He said this actually happened, not in that exact way, but it happened! Were you there?"
"I don't believe I was, why don't you ask him?"
"Kay!"
Alex got up and ran over to Rodney. John heard some voices and Alex returned to John.
"Rodney said that you were there! You were with him, you helped slay the wraiths!"
"Lucky you're with us, isn't it!"
"Yea!"
"Hey, can you help me to the wall?"
"I'll try, but I'm not that strong!"
"Don't worry, I just want to sit up a bit, it won't be that hard!"
Unfortunately, it was. As soon as Rodney saw what they were trying to do, he leapt to his feet and went over to help.
"You should've asked me colonel!" he scolded once John was against the wall, "Alex is too young to do stuff like that!"
"Sorry Rodney, I didn't know you were so protective!"
Rodney blushed a bright red and retreated back to his corner.
Alex slid down next to John and cuddled up against his body. "Can you tell me a story?" she asked hopefully.
John smiled, then nodded, "Of course, now let me think of one...Okay I got one, you ready?"
"Yep,"
"Okay, there was once two little children called Carson and Elizabeth, they were loved by their father...Rodney dearly, but their stepmother...Casey hated them,"
Alex smiled then closed her eyes. "This sounds cool," she mumbled, smiling again.
John continued the story for a while longer, until he heard a quiet snore from Alex. He looked down and smiled as he saw her peaceful sleeping face, the he leaned his head up against the wall, falling asleep himself.
