Water

Rodney stood in the shower adjacent to his quarters on Atlantis, with his hands pressed against the wall to keep himself steady. He let the cold water land on his bare back and he did not hiss or flinch, even as it washed the blood away from all his cuts and scrapes and stung like nothing else.

He winced and twitched slightly and quickly stilled the tremble trying to work its way through to his exterior. He wanted to whimper and cry out, but he held his tongue in silence. The only noise was the water pounding onto his skin and the sound of the cascade rolling off his battered and torn body and flowing away.

He stood completely still, with his head down and teeth gritted, as he watched the water turn rusty and then run clear in the tray.

The temperature of the water was always perfect. His ATA gene interacted with the system and today it sensed he wanted it to by icy to numb the pain from the bruises and cuts.

It could only distract him from the memories for so long though. He stood there until he could no longer feel the wounds and all sensation in his upper back had been lost to the freezing liquid.

Sheppard had been the one who had pushed him into the ditch to hide back on the hellish planet. The ditch that had been full of the longest and sharpest thorns Rodney had ever seen. They had shredded his skin mercilessly as he fell.

The murderous natives had run past their hiding place. But it had been so close. In the end, Ronon had had to place his hand over Rodney's mouth to silence the pained cries and stop him making too much noise through struggling to get free from the bushes. He could almost still taste the mud and smell the grimy, sweaty filth on his team mate's hand clamped over his face as he whimpered against it and his voice was muffled.

Now, Rodney was silent and still as he remembered and the freezing water soothed his injuries.

When he started shivering uncontrollably, the shower turned itself off. He watched the last of the water drain away and his teeth chattered together and goosebumps rose all over his skin.

He stiffly pushed himself away from the wall and stepped out of the cubicle. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it around himself. He did not even bother to dry off as he stumbled back into his quarters and collapsed onto the bed. His damp hair quickly soaked the pillow and he closed his eyes. Diluted blood spotted through the towel and he pulled it more tightly around himself to try and staunch the watery flow.

Sheppard came by a while later and let himself in. He forced Rodney up and waited for him to dress.

John allowed Rodney to lean against him so that he did not fall and said, "I know you're in pain, McKay. You can make all the noise you want about it now."

John waited until Rodney could no longer keep stoic like the military types who surrounded him in his offworld team. He was a man who needed to speak so that they knew exactly how much he was suffering. Rodney grimaced at John and did just that.

"It really hurts!"

John waved him off and said, "I know. I know. And I want you to tell me all about it…" Rodney looked up at him in hope. "On the way to the infirmary."

Rodney's face fell and he sighed.

John then dragged Rodney down to the infirmary to be properly bandaged and where they could administer a more appropriate and stronger analgesia that would be better than getting hypothermia in an attempt to freeze the pain away.

A/N - Wow! A quarter of the way there now... only 75 more chapter to go. w00t!