Worried that yelling for help would only wake Nelson sooner, Jennifer kept quiet while she leaned on the stool, her hands still bound high above her, waiting for him to move.
She knew John wasn't a patient man. At first if she was late he would just think of ways to rib her about it, but it wouldn't take him long to figure out that something was wrong. If John was looking for her, then Ronon and Lorne were looking for her. And Rodney would help. Where ever she was, it was someplace people didn't usually go, and maybe that would be enough for sensors to find her.
She really needed John to find her.
She thought about John and relaxed just the slightest amount before the slow movement of Nelson's hand on the floor caught her attention. This was it. She watched as his muscles tensed and relaxed -involuntary tests of consciousness. His head turned. Then he must have felt pain, and his hands came to his head and to his nose.
And then he remembered.
Opening up his eyes he glared at Jennifer, who tried to not lose her head.
Stay angry, she told herself.
Fight.
He was up on his feet faster than he should have been, and then swayed and staggered from the tequila and the probable concussion. But it was only a few steps till he was on Jennifer, anger emanating from every part of him.
"You should've been a good girl," he hissed at her, swinging at her face and making a connection with her side of her mouth.
Her head bounced off the wall as his fist made contact, and in the split second it took her to recover from it, his hands were on the waistband of her jeans.
"Bad girls get what they get," he jeered, attempting to push Jen's jeans down over her hips.
She was frantic, but determined to not go quietly. She moved her hips to make it hard for him. She kicked at his knees, caught him once in the groin, and turned as much as she could to block his access.
She tried to head butt him, but he dodged the impact.
When he turned her back around facing front he gave her the most sinister smile.
Rodney was certain about the location. Nelson was still wearing his communicator, and he was in an unauthorized location with an unidentified person. If that didn't fit what they were looking for, then John didn't know what would. The three men moved at full speed to get to the room. There was no good way in without drawing attention, so they just went with surprise.
They breached the door, and the second there was an opening he could hear screaming and yelling on the other side. The room had a sound dampener. That is the only way he could be standing so close to the door and not have heard it.
Nelson was yelling at her. Taunting and angry.
Jennifer was screaming. Furious and frenetic.
John couldn't tell you how many steps it took to close the distance between the door and the man, but it couldn't have been many. He was on Nelson from behind, ripping his hands off Jennifer and throwing him crashing to an opposite corner of the room. John turned to face the perpetrator, backing up against Jennifer to shield her. Lorne came to join him forming a barrier. Nelson got back to his feet only to feel the fury of Ronon. The blow was full force, and put Nelson's head, neck and shoulders into the corner awkwardly, crumpling him like a ragdoll.
And when Nelson didn't move for two beats of John's heart, he switched his attention to Jennifer.
He turned to her, her breathing rough and the tears now flowing. He grabbed a knife from his belt and reached up, slicing the binding holding her arms to high. He brought them down slowly to lighten her discomfort, and then cut the knots at her wrists to free her. One arm around her to steady her, he quickly unbuttoned his uniform, hastily untucking the long sleeve shirt to pull it off and wrap her in it.
He tried not to see the traces of blood. The hints of bruises. The red hand prints on her body.
He would lose control and that couldn't be what she needed, even though for the life of him he didn't know what the right thing to do was.
She took the shirt thankfully, sliding her arms into the sleeves. She drowned in it, and she pulled it around herself tightly for comfort.
He buried her to his chest, Jen holding herself, and John holding her. He kissed her forehead, not even realizing he was doing it – not realizing until that very moment that since he heard her screaming when the door opened he had stopped breathing and was just now inhaling again.
"Are you ok?" he asked her.
There was no response. Her arms just snaked around his body and she held on for dear life.
"Jen," he said, trying to get a response. He put just the smallest distance between them and looked her in the eye. "Are you ok?"
She nodded. And the tears began to fall again.
And then there was a sharp intake of air, as she yelled his name.
The men were all focused on her, but she was the one who saw Nelson. He went for his knife, and was pulling it out of his BDUs.
He was deadly with that knife. Everyone knew it.
Then a gunshot. And another. John felt Jen's whole body flinch at the sound of each of Lorne's shots.
Nelson fell lifeless to the ground.
Ronon kicked the knife away from the now still body, and put himself between it and Jennifer to block her view. He put a hand on her back to let her know he was there for her, and some words of encouragement. Hope. Closure.
"He's gone, Doc. And you did good. You never stopped fighting."
She acknowledged his words without truly understanding of believing them.
"Let's get you out of here," John said as he guided her slowly to the door.
As he led her out of the room he looked back to Ronon - a look of gratitude, because it was clear that Ronon's lessons had saved Jennifer some terrible things that day.
Then he asked Lorne to call up to the medbay and let them know they were on the way.
When they made it to the quiet infirmary, Jennifer pulled rank and chose her own exam bed. Out of the way. Secluded. When Dr. Pedersen approached, she tried to break the slight awkwardness with a joke.
"Nice to meet you, I'm bed 3."
John smiled and Pedersen chuckled. John moved to step away, wanting to give Jen the privacy she might need, but she reached and laced her fingers in his, pulling him back.
"Oh, but you are so much more than that, ma'am," Pedersen countered.
"Do tell." Jen responded.
And the rest of the exam was completed interspersed with casual conversation. He examined her wrists, angry with rope burn and abrasions. He cleaned them and wrapped them after confirming range of motion and only surface discomfort.
"Well, you're the CMO, obviously, but more importantly, you are Dr. Jennifer Keller. Five feet, seven inches."
"Seven and a half," she protested.
"My apologies. Five feet, seven and a half inches," he corrected himself. "Light brown hair, hazel eyes, weight –" he looked into her warning eyes, "healthy and no one else's business."
He looked at her lip where it split from the punch, and asked about secondary impacts. He felt her head for bumps or sensitive spots, and asked about the nose bleed.
"Any chance the nose bleed was a secondary effect from cranial trauma?"
Jen shook her head, and reaching up to touch her fingers to her nose, finding only a hint of dried blood.
"Homemade chloroform," she explained.
"Chloroform used to be a big thing on TV. I thought everyone was gonna have chloroform. Not that much of it in real life."
Jen laughed. "That's how I feel about quicksand. People got stuck in it constantly on TV when I was growing up, and to this day I have to this day never seen it."
She was holding her shoulder gingerly, and he asked to take a look. While he compared bone structure and felt for obvious injury, he continued his conversation.
"Also, Colonel Sheppard, our illustrious CMO hails from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin."
"Yes, I've heard that," he said.
"Can you name any famous fictional characters from the same place?" Pedersen leaned into Jennifer and whispered. "Don't help him out. There is at least one I'm betting he knows."
Jennifer was smiling watching John try to figure out the answer.
"Now I know, and knowing is half the battle," she quoted, only to be shushed by Pedersen.
"No hints!" Pedersen protested.
"G.I. Joe," John finally said, as Jennifer golf clapped for him before being told to keep her arms down.
Pedersen rotated her shoulders, identifying where in the motion she was experiencing pain.
"I don't think there is anything structural to the shoulder pain. You'll be off duty tomorrow," he explained, and as she started to protest her repeated it for clarity. "You'll be off duty tomorrow, and then in two days we can do some imaging if a hot shower and some muscle relaxers don't take care of it.
She nodded. He listened to her heart, and took her blood pressure as he continued.
"Annie Hall. She was also from Chippewa Falls," he said while he noted her numbers on the chart. "And maybe the most famous one?" he asked her.
"Jack Dawson from Titanic," she responded.
"No stumping a true Wisconsin girl," Pedersen said to Sheppard.
Then you could feel his voice and tone change, as he looked at Jennifer square.
"Do you have any additional concerns? Discomfort?" She shook her head and he continued. "Do you have any reason to believe you may have been sexually assaulted?"
Jen shook her head.
"Wouldn't take long to do continue the examination privately."
"I'm sure. Really. Thank god John got there when he did."
"Going to have to mark on your chart that you declined."
She nodded.
"And the best Annual State Fair in Wisconsin," he concluded. "Chippewa Falls must be quite the place."
She put her hand on his shoulder.
"Thank you, Rob."
"You teach us well here, Dr. Keller."