Chapter10

"How is he?" Dave asked Carson as they returned.

"Ach he's going to be fine eventually." Carson sighed. "Daft bugger can never keep himself out of trouble."

"Is there any permanent damage?" Dave asked.

"He should make a full recovery in time." Carson replied. "He will be left with scars but I hope that will be all."

"You hope." Dave said.

"Yes I hope." Carson replied. "Most people who went through what the Colonel has gone through would be dead. He is a very strong person and I cannot say for certain that everything will be ok, but I know John and he will do everything he can to make sure he is ok."

"I didn't realise it was that bad." Dave sighed. "He always manages to get himself hurt."

"Yes we have noticed that." Teyla sighed.

"Can you tell me what happened this time?" Dave asked.

"You don't have clearance to hear all of it." Rodney explained. "But I can give you a summary."

"Ok." Dave sighed "It'll have to do I suppose."

"Ok." Rodney replied and started telling them what had happened John.

"Oh God." Dave gasped as Rodney finished. "I… I can't believe it. How is he still alive? I would have been a mess."

"As I said your brother is very strong." Carson said.

"He has always been like that." Dave sighed. "He never admitted to being sick or in pain. He hated anyone to see him sick."

"He's still like that." Rodney added.

"Did you get the stair lift put in and his room fitted out just for his visit?" Carson asked.

"No." Dave replied. "They have been in place for years."

"Oh." Carson replied

"John was in an accident when he was 16." Dave explained. "The doctors told us that he would most likely never walk again."

"Oh wow." Rodney gasped. "He never told us that."

"No I didn't think he would have." Dave sighed. "He was involved in a car crash. Some drunk driver ran into him when he was on his way home from a party to celebrate finishing high school. He was in a coma for nearly a month. They told us at first that he may not wake from the coma and if he did there could be brain damage, but he slowly started pulling through.

He'd done some major damage to his back and legs. When he woke up he couldn't feel his legs but we knew that. He was pissed off. He spent the next month in hospital doing physical therapy and learning how to live as a paraplegic. As I said he was pissed and determined he would walk again. My father had the stair lift fitted and his room changed. He even got a special bed, got an electric wheelchair and a lot of other things to make life easier for him. When John came home he was so pissed that everything had been changed, but it did make life easier, so he reluctantly accepted it and used some of the things. Over the next month, to all of our surprise he started getting feeling back in his legs and after another few months started walking again."

"Wow I didn't know he graduated early." Rodney said.

"Most people would be amazed he recovered." Dave said. "Not that he finished school at 16."

"Yeah well I know him too well at this stage." Rodney sighed. "I have seen him do some remarkable things, so no, I'm not surprised he recovered, he can do anything he sets his mind to. But he has never told us anything about his child hood or much about his life before we started working with him."

"Oh." Dave replied. "And you all work with him in the air force or are you all civilian contractors as well."

"I'm the base Doctor or I was." Carson said

"I have worked with the military for years in weapons development and other areas." Rodney said. "And yes Ronon and Teyla are civilian contractors."

"Right." Dave sighed sarcastically. "And John is just a pilot."

"Yeah right." Rodney snorted. "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard is the head of the military in our ... ah area. He is much more than just a pilot."

"Really." Dave asked in surprise. "I wasn't aware he had a command position."

"He has saved many lives." Teyla added "Mine and my sons included."

"Mine too." Ronon added "a couple of times"

"And mine." Carson added

"Mine too." Jeanne added

"He has saved mine on numerous occasions." Rodney added. "Every person on our base owes him their lives."

"Wow I uh. We didn't know any of this." Amanda stuttered.

"Yeah well he isn't one for bragging." Rodney said. "Well not about that kind of thing. So anyway, how is it he finished school so young."

"He skipped 2 grades." Dave explained. "One when he was in Middle school and another when he started high school."
"He must have been very intelligent." Carson added.

"Yeah he was." Dave replied. "Although he tried not to show it. He was on the football team, as well as the chess team and the maths club. He was always top of his year but never spoke up in class, so his teachers were shocked every year when he got all A's"

"He is quite good at chess." Carson added.

"Yeah." Rodney reluctantly agreed.

"I don't think he ever lost." Dave replied. "Not that he entered many tournaments, but he did get quite a few first place trophies. My dad loved that John was so good at chess and they always played."

"He remains undefeated." Ronon grumbled.

"Really still?" Carson asked.

"Have you played him Rodney?" Jeanne asked. "You love chess."

"Yes." Rodney sighed.

"And he's beaten you." Jeanne gasped. "Oh my God that must be killing you. You hate to loose at chess."

"He is a good player." Rodney defended. "Its ok if it is against a competent player."

"Yet you insist on playing him every time he is in the infirmary." Teyla added. "Just because he is injured doesn't mean he can't play."

"It does when he is doped up on pain killers" Carson remarked. "But you have still never beaten him."

"No." Rodney admitted with a sigh.

"Don't' feel bad Rodney." Dave laughed. "John is a genius after all."

"What." Rodney stuttered. "What do you mean he's a genius? I'm a genius certified and all. He couldn't be."

"Oh he is." Dave assured. "He refused to do any IQ test when he was younger, but he eventually did in his last year of High school and he is a certified genius."

"Wow I never knew that." Rodney exclaimed. "He hides it well. Although he did mention he could have been in Mensa."

"The people from Mensa wouldn't leave him alone. They kept sending him forms, letters anything they could to get him to join, but he didn't want to." Dave said.

"Huh." Rodney replied. "What was his IQ?"

"I'm not sure." Dave replied. "I think it was 170 odd or something around that."

"Oh my God Rodney that's higher than yours and mine." Jeanne gasped.

Rodney sat staring at Dave for a minute trying to comprehend what he had just heard.

"He's smarter than me." Rodney finally gasped. "And he's wasting his brain being a pilot."

"You sound just like my father." Dave said. "My father wanted both me and John working beside him and when he found out how smart John was, and how good he was with numbers, he was ecstatic."

"But John decided to be a pilot." Teyla said.

"John always wanted to be a pilot." Dave said "When John had the accident, my father thought John would give up on flying and do a business degree. But John got better and had other ideas."

"Is that when John stopped speaking to his father." Teyla asked

"No John went to Stanford instead of Harvard which annoyed my father and then John refused to do his degree in business. Things were a bit strained but they still spoke. My father was furious when John joined the Air Force and things got a bit worse. After that my father criticised everything John did. He was happy when John got married, but that ended after a few years because of the secrecy of his job that again annoyed my father. John had gotten hurt a few times over the years and it scared us, my father wanted him to leave. It caused a huge argument between all of us and that was when we stopped talking."

"What degree does he have?" Rodney asked.

"He has an honours degree in Aeronautical engineering an honours degree in Mathematics and a doctorate in Applied Mathematics." Dave replied

"He has a doctorate." Rodney gasped.

"Yeah." Dave replied "And he got the degrees before he joined the Air Force and continued his doctorate while in training. He finished college the same time as I did and I only left with a degree."

"That's impressive." Jeanne remarked.

"Yeah." Dave sighed. "So now that I've told you a bit about him from when I knew him, how about you tell me a few stories from the past few years."

"Ah that could be a problem." Rodney said. "You don't have clearance to hear most of the stories we could tell."

"So you won't tell me anything?" Dave sighed.

"That's not what I said." Rodney defended "I ah brought some papers for you both to sign. They are non disclosure agreements. If you sign them we can tell you some of what's been happening."

"And if we don't" Dave asked.

"Well then we can't discuss some things, well most things actually."

"I'll need to read over them." Dave said and Rodney pulled two very thick piles of paper out his backpack and handed them to Dave.

Dave had a quick glance through them and stopped at the last page.

"These are signed by the president." Dave gasped.

"Yeah." Rodney confirmed.

"How about we watch some TV for a while." Amanda suggested.

"Sounds good." Ronon replied and Amanda flicked on the television.

"The group watched TV for the next hour or so. Teyla excused her self after a while and went up to check on Torren and John. Torren was sleeping soundly but John was moaning and moving about in the bed. She quickly hurried down to get Carson. Carson and Dave followed her upstairs and Carson gave his patient a quick check without waking him. "It's alright lass he's just in a bit of pain. His meds have worn off. I'll just give him a shot and he'll be ok."

"Ok." Teyla smiled in relief as Carson pulled a syringe from his bag. He gently lowered the covers and swabbed Johns arm and inserted the needle. John's eyes flicked open as the needle went in, but closed again as Carson withdrew it. Carson gently pulled the covers back up and after making sure everything else was ok, he left the room. "He'll be all right now but I'll check on him again later."

"I am going to go to bed." Teyla said. "Please tell the others I said good night."

"Of course lass." Carson replied and he and Dave headed down stairs.

"You know he doesn't like needles." Dave said.

"Yes I have noticed that over the years." Carson replied. "He'd be running around with his hand falling off and not make a peep and as soon as the needles came out he'd tense up."

"Yeah sound's about right." Dave laughed "He was never bothered about being hurt but it was the fixing of it he hated."

"I'm looking forward to hearing some more tales from when he was a wee lad." Carson smiled.

"I have quite a few to tell." Dave replied with a smile.

They returned to the sitting room and passed on Teyla's message and after a bit they all headed to bed.