A/N - For hifield, cause I hate to make her wait. More tomorrow. Appreciate everyone who is giving the story a chance even if it isn't their favorite - hopefully it's an entertaining ride. Leave a comment or review and let me know you are out there.
Jennifer came to. Slowly. Disoriented.
Her hair was in her face, and when she reached to move it, her wrists pulled against a binding. Her hands were tied high above her head. She looked up - each wrist was bound and then the rope was thrown over a conduit running across the ceiling. Her eyes followed the conduit along its path, finally giving her a chance to take in the room.
She had no idea where she was. A workroom? A tech room? An engineering room? It was empty aside from a table to her left against a wall. The room was small, and there was a loud mechanical hum that she didn't usually hear in the city.
And her nose was burning.
She remembered leaving her quarters and then little else. She felt hands grab her from behind. She recalled something crossing in front of her face – a cloth maybe? Drugged. Probably homemade chloroform. And the burning in her nose told her the person who made it probably failed chemistry.
When she breathed in she still felt a sting inside her nose.
Doctor mode made her wonder if her nose was bleeding from the substance, which made her look down for the first time. She wanted to see if there was blood on her shirt, but she felt panic rising when she realized there was no shirt. She was in the blue bra that she put on after her shower. Looking further, she could see and feel her jeans, but could tell that the button and zipper were undone, and the matching blue panties with their little satin bow were showing as the edge of the jeans had been turned over at the waist.
She was balanced on a stool, which at least saved her shoulders from taking the weight of her body in this extended position.
She called out, but nothing. No response. No one else there.
And an overwhelming sense that no one could hear her.
John was going a little stir crazy waiting on Jennifer to arrive. He was sure he'd heard her right – he was going to grab some dinner for both of them, and they were going to eat and watch a movie in his quarters. He checked in with the medbay and they hadn't seen her since she left when her shift ended a few hours ago. He checked in with Ronon, and he had walked her back to her quarters after their session.
He didn't want to nag her, but he finally called her on her comm only to be met with silence. His instincts told him he should be worried. When he heard Lorne on his comm unit he barked at him.
"What?"
"Sir, sorry to bother you. Need to request you make your way to your office."
"I have something on the schedule, Major. It isn't a good time."
"Understood, sir. Wouldn't have disturbed you, but I think we may have a situation."
"What kind of situation?"
"I have three Marines here who say they have reason to believe that Dr. Keller may be in danger, and want to speak to you."
"On my way."
Then John had an idea, and reached for his comm unit again.
"Rodney, check the Keller thread on the message board. Something's wrong. Meet me in my office."
When he got to his office he saw three very nervous and contrite Marines who didn't want to make eye contact with him.
"OK. What the hell is going on?"
"Sir," one of the said, coming to attention and encouraging the others to do the same, "we have reason to believe that something may have happened to Dr. Keller."
"And what reason would that be?"
"We, well, I. I should only speak for myself. I saw a photo of Doctor Keller that has me concerned that someone has crossed a line and she may be in danger."
John relaxed a little bit. These guys were here to come clean about the shower picture. Maybe they had some sense of right and wrong after all, or maybe it was all self-preservation. But at least he already knew about it.
"Really. Crossed a line, huh? The entire message board crosses a line. I assume you three are all on it?"
The three men nodded slowly and steadied their faces, preparing for the onslaught that was sure to come.
"Those women are your colleagues, your superiors, your protective assignments, your direct reports. How could you think that was ok?"
"It was just a little cutting loose," one said.
"Guy talk," one of them explained.
"It didn't mean anything," the third offered up.
"I've been a guy and in the military for a long time. That isn't how a real man talks about women."
They had no response. If there was one thing you couldn't challenge Colonel John Sheppard on it was that he had been around and he had seen a lot of stuff.
"I need names," Sheppard said once he had let his last words set in. "I want to know who runs the board, and who JACKHAMMER is."
They gave up the board owner pretty quickly. Eric Rodriquez. Probably HOTROD, John thought to himself. They also insisted that they didn't know who JACKHAMMER was.
"It shouldn't have taken someone stalking women in the shower to get you to realize that something was wrong."
They looked at each other, until the bravest of them spoke up.
"It wasn't the shower picture, sir."
"Oh, you just had a change of heart?"
"No, sir. I saw the shower photo. It was the one he posted tonight that got me worried."
Sheppard looked up at Evan, who shook his head showing he had no idea what the man was talking about. And then John saw Rodney in the doorway, anger now dwarfing his revulsion from the night they found the shower pic. John cleared the room.
"Get out. We aren't done. Lorne – confine them to quarters. Take Rodriquez into custody, call Ronon, and meet me with a security team at the brig."
One of the Marines clearly thought that in coming forward he was the hero and that the Colonel's anger was misplaced.
"But we didn't do anything," he insisted.
"No, you didn't. And now you're learning that doing nothing in the face of something you know is wrong has consequences, too."
When the room was clear Sheppard looked at Rodney, who opened the laptop and showed John the latest post without needing to be prodded.
It was a picture of Jennifer. Looking down? Away? Unconscious? He couldn't tell. There was what looked like a small drop of blood below the left side of her nose. Her hair obscured much of her face, but he could see her arms above her head. An unnatural position – you couldn't see bindings in the picture, but she was certainly tied up. With no shirt, just a blue bra, and her jeans unzipped. And a note.
JACKHAMMER: Told you I'd have her. Just going to wait until she can fully enjoy it.
"Oh, god." John said, slamming the laptop closed.
"Her tracker is off or malfunctioning, so we can't get a lock on her," Rodney reported. "I could search for the other person, but I still need to know who JACKHAMMER is."
"Let's head to the brig. If Rodriquez is giving people access to the board, then he'll know."
When the door opened Jennifer was terrified at what would happen next, but then she saw the face of Johnny Nelson.
"Oh thank god," she said, relief washing over her. "Cut me down. We need to get out of here."
"Not so fast, Keller," he said with a disturbing smile. "I went through all the trouble to set up this party and now you want to just leave?"
"You? You set this up?"
Dont be scared, be angry, Jen.
She tried to mask her emotions, but knew she was doing a terrible job. Her disbelief and fear radiated off her, and only made him laugh.
"Didn't even notice me, did you? Not really. But I noticed you," he said, his fingers tracing down her side and his hand coming to rest on her waist.
Jen was in shock. She'd been on missions with him, treated him. How could this be possible?
He lifted a bottle of tequila he was holding in his other hand and took a swig. Clearly from the way his hands were clumsy on Jen's body and the bloodshot in his eyes, he'd been drinking a while. Then he demanded Jennifer do the same. When she refused he closed her nose and tilted her head back waiting for her to need air, and then shoved the bottle in her mouth. She swallowed and coughed and gagged as it went down the wrong way, and he laughed at her obvious misery. Then he poured a little tequila on her shoulder and leaned forward lick it off her.
"Be good, now," he warned her. "It'll be much worse for you if you aren't a good girl."
But she had no intention of being a good girl.
She promised Ronon she would fight.
She put one foot up on the low support rung of the stool she was on, and as he came closer, she pushed up off the rung and jammed her shoulder into his face.
"Bitch!" he yelled, but she didn't stop.
Up on the rung of the stool she could reach the conduit, and grabbing it with both hands she pulled her knees up and got her feet to the top of the stool. Then she put a knee into his nose, blood instantly gushing from his face, and a growl escaping from his mouth. His bloody hands reached for her, grabbing at her arms and neck, but she was unrelenting. She kicked him in the stomach, and when he doubled over, she jumped off the stool with both feet and knocked him over.
As he stumbled and fell his head made contact with the table to the side, and he hit the ground like a ton of bricks.
Jennifer cringed in pain. The last move would surely have taken her over as well if the bindings on her wrists hadn't stopped her, and when they did, she felt something strain in her shoulder.
He was still breathing, though. That much she could tell. And when he came to he was gonna be all kinds of pissed.
Evan had a hand on Rodriguez's neck and shoulder as he led him into the brig and pushed him towards the chair at the interrogation table. Rodney was there flat against a well to make room for John, who was pacing in the small space.
Rodriguez didn't even wait for someone to ask him about something or accuse him.
"Ask anyone. I was under the influence of an alien substance. Chung can complain all she wants, but you can't hold me responsible for any of that."
John rolled his eyes and shook his head.
"That is a whole other can of worms, HOTROD," John said, with emphasis on his message board alias.
Rodriguez took a minute to decide how to play it. John was giving him the rope to hang himself.
"That message board is private. You can't just invade my privacy like that. I've got rights."
"Dr. Keller is the one who had their privacy violated, moron, not you. Perhaps you missed this in your first six years in the military, but there is no right to privacy here."
"Free speech. First Amendment."
"That isn't free speech, either," John explained.
And just when John's complete lack of patience with Rodriguez acting cagey hit its boiling point, Ronon entered the room with speed and determination. Almost going through the chair where Rodriguez sat, Ronon lifted the man up by the front of his shirt and put him against a wall, the chair toppling as it was disregarded in the motion.
"Fucking coward," Ronon hissed at him, face to face.
Rodriguez tried to look around the big man to Lorne and Sheppard looking for assistance.
"You're just going to let him treat me like that?"
"Tell us who JACKHAMMER is and maybe I'll convince him to move on," Sheppard instructed.
"Oh no – I'm not selling out a marine over a picture of some piece of ass."
Ronon grabbed Rodriguez and reintroduced him to the wall with enough force to knock the wind out of him.
"Wrong answer, HOTROD," Lorne pointed out.
"There isn't anything illegal about the board, and even if there was you can't pin it was me."
Ronon put his hand around Rodriguez's throat.
"I will gut you."
John, Rodney and Evan turned for the door, prepared to leave Rodriguez and Ronon alone to talk it out, but that reality was clearly a dicey proposition for Rodriguez and he knew it.
"Nelson."
Ronon unceremoniously dropped Rodriguez on the floor as Rodney immediately went to his tablet and Sheppard called the security team into the room. He instructed them to secure the prisoner in a cell.
"You got nothing on me," Rodriguez yelled.
"I'll let SGC handle it. You'll be in the Daedalus brig for the next few weeks."
"You're kicking me?"
"It's that or take the risk that I'll tear you apart with my bare hands. Trust me. You're getting off easy."
"Got it," Rodney interjected, providing Nelson's current position to the team.
John reached down and grabbed the comm unit for Rodriguez's ear.
"Lorne, Ronon – let's go."
