Peyton laid in her bed feeling rotten to the core, she had never felt so sick in her life, Riley had given her an IV and Maxalon which stopped the vomiting and nausea, enough so but Peyton didn't want to eat anything.

Dallas had helped her to her room, she was going have to come up with a good thank you present for the guy. He stayed with her for an hour making sure she was settled. Telling her all about his wife and kids and the horror stories of sickness and the funny injury stories, how much he missed them. Peyton listened and laughed and then as she grew tired he left her to rest, he reminded her of her older brother.

She closed her eyes and drifted off asleep.

Sheppard checked his life signs detector there was only a couple of dots on the screen in this section of the tower he walked up to Peyton's door and pulled the door sensor open and switched the crystals around the door opened.

He placed the cover back over and walked in closing the door. He moved to Peyton's bed she was sound asleep or so it seemed. He sat down on the edge of the bed and immediately a hand swung up with a knife. He caught her hand with the blade of the knife an inch from his neck.

"Whoa it's me" he whispered, her hand relaxed and he took it from her grasp putting on the bedside table.

"Geez, you trying to give me a heart attack sneaking around my quarters" Peyton groaned, he brushed a hand over her forehead, she was running a high temperature and covered in sweat.

"How are you feeling?" he asked in a low voice

"I feel like shit, the IV is working a charm though I haven't worshipped the porcelian altar in a few hours"

"That's good, listen…" Sheppard started

"I'm not pregnant" Peyton stated before he could get the words out.

"How do you know we weren't exactly safe"

Peyton laughed "Oh you are a card, I have contraceptive implant and I had a physical when I got here I think Beckett would have mentioned something"

"Ok true, but you never know" He said,

Peyton sighed "John, please I'm tired" she said closing her eyes

"You're right ok… I'll go back to sleep I just wanted to check on you" he said brushing a strand of hair out of her face.

She opened her eyes "Oh level 12 North West Pier, box 4-09 I put a tracker in it"

"I'll take care of it but right now, just rest" he said, she nodded and closed her eyes again.

"Thanks, but I put a tracker you don't need to do anything I just wanted you to know" she mumbled as he brushed his hand down the side of her face and neck in a gently and soothing manner he remember her doing to him when he was injured in Russia.

"Just relax" He said, as he continued to stroke his hand over her face, she gave sigh of contentment and was asleep in seconds, he watched her peacefully sleep, before he kissed her on the forehead and got up to leave.

Next Morning,

Sheppard and Ronon were doing a circuit of the city as they did every morning. They were running past a hallway when he spotted Peyton in his peripheral, he slowed and backed up, Ronon who was a head looked back "What is it?" he walked over to see what Sheppard was looking at.

"Pey… I mean Ryder"

Sheppard walked down the hall and caught up with Peyton. He stepped in front of her blocking her path.

"Hey shouldn't you be in bed?" he asked, she looked marginally healthy than yesterday but not enough to be up on her feet, she raised an eyebrow at him.

"I needed a cup of tea and there isn't room service" Peyton quipped as she leaned against the wall heavily for support.

"If you were in the infirmary they'd get it for you" Sheppard said

"Yuck the infirmary is for crook people" Peyton said pulling a face.

"I think you come under said heading" Sheppard said he stepped forward and felt her forehead, she still burning up with a fever and she grimaced at him.

"Haha" Peyton said, she was about to say something witty when she held her side and leaned forward groaning in pain.

"Hey, you ok?" Sheppard asked, she breathed in and out slowly and straightened.

"Yeah my guts hate me" she said, she winced again in pain holding her side.

"You going to be sick?" Ronon asked as she dropped a couple more shades to pale.

She nodded and ran for the nearest balcony and started to dry wretch, Sheppard followed her and pulled her hair out of her face, and thanked the PTB's that she hadn't eaten anything for she would have had it in her hair but worse it could have hit anybody who was below.

Ronon stood to other side and rubbed her back "Let it all out" Sheppard said. She stopped for a moment her body shuddering "I'll let you out in a min...oh god" She started wretching but this time she had something come up. It was blood.

"Holy crap" Peyton said, she swayed forward, Sheppard and Ronon both reflexively grabbed her to stop her from falling over.

She fell back slowly to the ground in their arms passed out. "Peyton" he said she was unresponsive "We gotta get her to the infirmary" Sheppard said he picked her up in his arms and ran.

"Aye I'm calling it a night..or should I say morning" Beckett said to the nurse as he pulled his jacket on he was halfway out the door when Sheppard came in holding Peyton. "What happened?"

"She complained of a stomach ache and started vomiting blood and passed out" Sheppard said

"Ok, Nurse" Beckett shouted, "Lay her down" Sheppard put Peyton onto a gurney and stepped back. Beckett and nurses rushed around Peyton attaching cords and IV's and monitors "Airway's clear, but respirations are shallow. Pulse 135 and thready" Nurse said

"Blood pressure" Beckett prompted

"Eighty over forty and dropping"

"…Hang a pint of O-positive, prep her for surgery" Beckett ordered

Ronon tapped him on the shoulder "We need to talk" he said, Sheppard nodded. he knew there was no getting out of that slip of tongue calling her the wrong name.

Ronon stood back and watched Sheppard stand by Peyton's bed. Sheppard had refused to leave her side, while they watched the operation in the observation room above the surgery room Ronon questioned why he called her Peyton and not Brie or Ryder.

Sheppard told him everything about her, who she was, their past. Why she was here and why he didn't want anyone to know because he was trying to find Calen's group. Ronon also had a sneaking suspicion that this woman meant a lot more to Sheppard than he was letting on.

He didn't push it Sheppard wasn't the kind of guy who talked about his feelings and neither was Ronon. When they had those kinds of conversations they were usually one syllable answers and very short due to the awkwardness.

Sheppard stepped out of the Post op room with Dr Beckett. "Her appendix ruptured, no complications and she'll be up kept in the infirmary for a week or so in recovery" Beckett said "She was lucky that you two found her"

"Thanks doc" Sheppard said, he turned to Ronon

A few days later,

Peyton laid in the bed completely bored out of her mind. She had been shot, beaten tortured strung up for days at end and none of it seemed as painful as lying in this bed idly waiting for Dr Beckett to give her, her discharge papers.

Sheppard had dropped by to check on her, even Ronon. It made her feel weary of the big guy though friendly she felt the undertones of their acquaintance seem to shift from him not trusting her to a lesser version of not trusting her if that were possible.

Then Lorne and Callahan came in with Dallas and hung out with her on the second day of bed rest, playing Cheat.

But this morning was torture, she felt cabin fever set in or something she just wanted to get and go. She looked around at the infirmary only a couple of other people were in, one guy had broken his leg hiking and a woman who had a bad cold.

"Mail call" a soldier said, he walked up to Peyton's bed "Miss Ryder, a package from home" he said, he handed her a medium rectangular box.

"Thanks Captain" she said looking at the box. He nodded and walked off to deliver more letters and packages. She flipped the box over in her hands there was no return address, and it was addressed to her alias's name… she looked at the post markings which said from Mexico.

Must be Campbell… she thought with a smile relieved he was finally making contact. She opened the package cautiously, the paper came off and she opened the lid slowly it was full of Styrofoam; she felt around and pulled out a hipflask. It was Campbell's hip flask she had given it to him as a gift inscribe on the flask was "May you be in heaven ½ hour before the devil knows you are dead". She ran her thumb over it smiling at his reaction to when she gave it to him.

She unscrewed the lid and smelt the contents. Her nose scrunched the contents smelt like whisky and something else. She poured a few drops into her hand her heart stopped it was blood. She screwed the lid back on and wiped her hand on the paper and scrunched it up. Why would Campbell send her a flask of blood, she sifted through the Styrofoam and found a Polaroid she turned it over and saw the photo.

Her eyes grew wide, not hesitating for a moment she stuffed the flask into the box with the Polaroid and closed it up putting it to the side. She needed to see Sheppard.

She looked around the infirmary the nurses were occupied and the doctor was looking elsewhere, she pulled her IV out and turned off her monitor and slowly slipped out her bed. She winced as her stitched pulled at the movement. She looked around to check no one was watching and picked up the box and bolted.

Sheppard awoke to the oddest of sensations he could feel someone slicing into his arm. But there was no pain besides his headache. His mind was hazy as he looked around the room, as he remembered the last thing he was doing. He was reading War and Peace about to go to sleep when someone knocked on his door.

He had put his book down and opened the door only for everything to go blank. Now he sat in a chair bound by ropes unable to move and breathing was a struggle as well. The light filtered through the window he could make out the view he was on a high up level on Atlantis, judging from the room it was one of the many un-inhabited spires due to the musty smell and lack of furniture besides another chair and a carry case for a weapon.

He tried to struggle but found his muscles wouldn't comply. The man turned to Sheppard he couldn't see his face.

"Colonel, it's so good of you to wake up, now don't worry the paralysis is temporary" he said, Sheppard foggy brain tried to register the voice it sounded so familiar.

The man pulled out his subcutaneous transmitter and stepped on it with a sigh of satisfaction. He stepped back into the light and Sheppard was drawing a blank, he looked a familiar but couldn't place him.

"You don't remember me?" the man asked he pulled over the other chair and sat in front of Sheppard "That hurts" he lit a cigarette and took a long inhale. "Something about Atlantis so clean and no one smokes"

"Who are you?"

"Huerta Marquez, we met briefly 3 years ago" Huerta said "I had long hair, and a moustache" he said, he rubbed his bald head with a smile."You were suppose to extract Holt and you were captured instead"

"You're supposed to be dead" Sheppard said, trying in vain to move, but his limbs wouldn't budge.

Huerta chuckled "Yes, Campbell thought he had gotten me, but he really only ended up taking the last thing I had that made me human" he took another drag of his cigarette "It's amazing what being in love can do to you… take Holt, She is beautiful and capable let me tell you she was one excellent assassin that was until Russia… when she disappeared for those 10 days with you"

"I must have made an impression"

"Don't be so coy, you turned her into a killer with a conscious if it weren't for you, she would have shot me on sight"

"what are you talking about?"

"She didn't tell you?" Huerta chuckled "Her mission was kill me on sight, she had me in her cross hairs and didn't shoot… why? I'll tell you why.. she saw me with Mila and her heart warmed she gave me a chance to escape with Mila and claim she made the hit so no one would follow us"

"Then why didn't you?" Sheppard asked "If I had the choice it would be very simple"

"Of course, but you see she got captured trying to get you and was shot in process, she called Campbell who caught me trying to escape, he missed being the lousy shot he was and killed my Mila"

"So what now you are going to kill me?"

"No, you are on your own time, with blood loss and the mixture of Paralytics and sedative you have a few hours to live, She on the other hand has the choice"

"What choice?"

He looked at his watch and smiled "She will have gotten my present by now and will decide whether you are worth dying for"