Chapter 25:

A while later John was woken by a loud banging and shouting.

Looking up from his position on his bed he was able to see the doors leading from the ward to the main infirmary. He was shocked to see the doors closed and realised that the banging that had awoken him was coming from people trying to get in.

The thought that now he wouldn't have to have that second surgery crossed his mind however, this thought was almost immediately chased away by the rational part of his mind telling him that he need that surgery if he was ever going to stand the chance of returning to active duty.

Less than a second later the doors slid open to allow Rodney, two nurses and Dr Albright to tumble into the room.

Regaining his composure Dr. Albright strode towards John, "Colonel Sheppard, are you ok? We've been trying to get in here for the past twenty minutes." Checking John's vitals he said; "good work Dr. McKay."

Not usually one to admit to failure Rodney was furiously tapping away on his data pad. "It wasn't me." He huffed after a moment of silence, all but the beeping of Sheppard's monitors, "The doors opened on their own."

"Maybe there was a glitch" One of the nurses suggested almost timidly.

McKay just shook his head impatiently. "No, no. if that was the case the systems would have detected it and I could have repaired it. No, this is as if some invisible force was holding the doors closed… I need to do more research." With this parting McKay turned on his heel and hurried away, all the while tapping on his data pad.

John tried to discreetly resettle his weight as the burns on his back came into contact with the mattress. However, before he could complete the tiniest shift a burning sensation tore down his front.

"What kind of damage control was that!" he gasped as the infirmary staff rushed to check on him.

"The kind that saves your life Colonel." Dr. Albright informed him. "You had extensive internal bleeding; the only way to repair it was to open you up."

Deciding not to dwell on that particular subject any longer John began to take stock of all his other aches and pains.

The pain medication was doing a good job in masking all but the worst injuries and John was surprised to realise that he felt a lingering ache in his left wrist.

Looking down once more, this time taking care not to move more than necessary, he saw a metal bracelet encircling his wrist. The skin visible on either side was red and inflamed.

"What is that!?" he inquired, curiosity overriding a number of different emotions currently trying to take hold.

"That was actually what we were coming to talk to you about" Albright informed him, "We think its some kind of identification bracelet but whatever it is, it has caused some kind of reaction with your skin. We've tried everything short of a blow torch to get it off." Seeing the concerned look on John's face he quickly continued; "two weeks ago some of the researchers exploring the lower levels of the city found what you might call a workshop. There were some cutting tools in there that, thus far, have met with little resistance but I wanted to consult you before proceeding."

A resolute look crossed John's face as what he had been told sunk in. "Do it. I want this thing off me, whatever it's doing I can feel It." realising he needed to elaborate he added, "It aches, even with the pain meds."

A look of dawning comprehension arose on Albright's face and his answer to this information was; "I'll sort everything out and return in an hour." Before nodding once and leaving in a distinctly Rodney-ish manner.

John drifted for an hour, at various times members of the medical staff had come to check on him and he was fairly sure he had seen Teyla approach with Torren right before he had drifted off once more.

The last time he awoke he realised that he must have been out of it for at least twenty minutes as there were a number of people gathered round him. The group included Drs Keller and Albright, a nurse, Colonel Carter and one of the military contractors he recognised as a combat engineer.

He was uncomfortable with all the attention he was getting and voiced this feeling; "are all of you really necessary?"

Keller glanced briefly at Carter before answering, "This is new technology for us and we need to take every precaution."

John decided nodding was the best response to this.

Somebody gently began to manipulate his left wrist, every tiny movement sending shooting pains through his shoulder. Repressing the gasp that threatened to emerge, he bit his bottom lip and scrunched his eyes shut.

After a few minutes, that felt much longer to John, the voice of the engineer said "I think the best bet would be to cut here." John felt a slight pressure as the man indicated the area. "It looks like some sort of lock; the… bracelet should just fall away if the lock is broken."

There was a mummer of general consensus from the group before Keller said; "we are going to try and t this off now Colonel, Ok?"

John just nodded once more.

There was a lull in discussion for a minute as the engineer went to work. John felt a brief burst of heat and then the constant pressure round his wrist loosened and disappeared completely.

"It looks to be a nasty second, possibly third, degree burn." Keller informed, prompting John to open his eyes.

Looking down at his wrist he saw that the skin did indeed look blistered and burnt.

"That would explain the discomfort you were feeling colonel" Albright explained picking up John's hand to rotate it to face palm-upwards.

Albright dropped his hand as John almost recoiled, remembering just in time not to move, from the sight that met their eyes.

Seared black into the inside of his wrist was a small symbol. It consisted of four half circles back to back with short lines extending from the ends of the semi-circles.

"What is that?" Carter asked in shock.

John was sure he had seen the symbol somewhere before but couldn't for the life of him remember where.

Keller however placed it almost instantly, "It's the Kings crest." She told the group, "I remember seeing it carved onto the back of the chair he was sitting on."

As soon as she said this John too remembered the small black crest but before the horror of what had been done to him could sink in Keller continued; "I'm afraid we are going to have to clean that out in order to fully assess the extent of the damage and to prevent an infection getting hold, that would lead to even worse scarring."

"We should probably leave you to that then" Carter commented, obviously deep in thought "I have to go and make a report to the SGC anyway."

Carter and the engineer left quickly to go and see to other matters that required their attention and, as John suspected, to avoid watching the debraiding of the burnt skin around his wrist.

A/N: ok i know i said i was going to get the next two chapters up last weekend but then i went and accidentally packed the book that id written them, its taken me this long to find it again so my apologies! there is a second part to this chapter which i will upload tomorrow i promise hope you enjoy this for the time being... still quite a few more chapters to go but for the moment they are just rough drafts in my head :D

no promises on when the unwritten chapters will be posted as i discovered today that the moving van is coming in a week (we only decided to move 2 weeks ago) and barely any of our furniture is packed, so again apologies if theres a bit of a break.

Thanks again to the frequent reviewers but to those of you that read and dont review... a few lines goes a long way to helping speed me up and convince my parents to give me time off to write rather than pack... so any review will be tremendously appreciated oh and any comment on the fact that ive started using John instead of Sheppard, im not sure i like it but seen as its supposed to be from his pov at the mo i guess it makes sense, still not sure tho even after rationalising it to myself.