Chapter 29: Revalation

Sheppard spent much of the next week drifting in and out of consciousness. This was partly due to the fact that he needed the rest but mostly due to the drugs that Jennifer was pumping into his system.

Knowing that the Colonel would want to become mobile as soon as possible, she had decided to take the decision out of his hands. Over the past few days she had steadily been dialling back on the medications but she was still currently administering enough to keep him groggy even if awake.

As she went to check on Sheppard's charts, Jennifer decided to once more check the healing injuries. This had become common practice with her over the past week, sometimes checking every couple of hours, as the healing progressed faster than normal.

Checking the most serious external injury, the surgical incision that ran down the length of Sheppard's torso, she was happy to see bright pink scar tissue in the place of scabs and stitches.

"That looks good." Commented Lorne from where he now stood at the foot of Sheppard's bed.

"Externally yes, but internally is another matter entirely. The muscle will take much longer to repair itself." Jennifer explained as she quickly peeked under the other bandages that covered Sheppard's front to find the same results. "Shouldn't you still be in bed and attached to an IV?"

"The Daedalus leaves tomorrow and me along with it, surely you'll let me go free today?"

Jennifer eyed Lorne and, upon close inspection, detected the miniscule lines of pain on his face and the slightly unsteady stance he maintained as he propped himself against the foot of the bed. "I'm sorry Major, but I can't, in good conscious, do that. You know as well as I do that you're not really up to it. Now back to bed with you, I'll come and re-attach your IV when I'm done here."

She was sure she heard him mutter something about slave drivers and a smile tweaked at the corner of her mouth.

That smile was wiped from her face as she turned to look back at Sheppard, only to meet his now open eyes.

"When, exactly, were you planning on telling me that my second in command was being sent back to earth? After he was gone?"

Jennifer could hear the ill concealed anger in the voice of the normally laid back Colonel. "I'm sorry Colonel, I just haven't been able to find the right time."

"I want to speak to him." Sheppard said, barely waiting for him to finish.

"I'll go get him then." She responded, turning to leave.

Sheppard grabbed her arm lightly, the dark expression melting from his face. "Look, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to lose my temper, it… just caught me off guard… I'd like to go to him. I won't stay long and, other than the ones in my shoulder, I don't have any stitches to pull for once." At this last part he grinned, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

Jennifer's resolve wavered as she looked into his unrelenting gaze. She had two options; sedate him and then try to stop a half-conscious Sheppard from getting out of bed, dealing with the fall out later, or giving into his request under strict conditions.

"Fine, but I want to lay down the ground rules." Sheppard nodded, agreeing to the fact that there were terms. "You don't try to move on your own, we put you in a wheel chair and you stay there. When I say enough you don't get to argue and, finally, I give you a shot of pain meds before we start."

She saw the resignation in his eyes at her last term. Whenever he had been lucid enough over the past week he had asked them to cut down on the drugs. Slowly but surely they had been complying.

Jennifer wasn't stupid though, she knew that moving Sheppard was going to hurt him, no matter how hard he tried to hide it.

"Deal." He said after less than a minute.

"Good." She countered, slightly taken aback by how fast he had weighed his options. It was common knowledge on Atlantis, since the other Rodney's visit anyhow, that Sheppard was a Mensa level genius. He just made it so easy to forget.

"Just give me a few minutes to get everything sorted." Seeing Sheppard's reluctance to wait she added "Major Lorne is not going anywhere until tomorrow, you wont miss him."