Chapter 2

As the cave crashed down around them, they all leapt for cover, Sheppard throwing himself on top of Teyla to shield her from the worst of the cascade. Though it was most likely over in seconds, it felt like an eternity. Rocks thudded onto his injured back, exacerbating the already torn and seeping wounds. He gritted his teeth and weathered it. He was already injured. If he could keep Teyla relatively unhurt it would all be worth it.

Eventually it ended, though it was hard to catch his breath in the filthy air. He pushed up to his hands and knees, dislodging more dust and debris in the process. Just about every inch of him was bruised or scraped, but he was still alive. He chose to view that as a win.

Teyla groaned slightly as she shifted, and he got to his feet to help her up, swaying as he did so. He wasn't sure which of them was helping the other more. 'You okay? Did I hurt you?'

'No…quite the opposite,' she replied with a weak smile as she pushed her grubby hair back from her forehead. She cast her gaze about. 'Rodney!'

He followed her line of sight to spot McKay slumped against the wall, a gash on his cheek. She darted toward him and as she grabbed his wrist to check for a pulse, he immediately startled awake. 'I'm okay. I'm okay,' he insisted, while he scrambled to his feet with the help of the wall for support. 'I think I just…passed out.'

Fainted, that was definitely the word he was skirting around.

That was the moment Sheppard noticed someone was missing. 'Ronon?' Part of him hoped he'd ducked into another side passage like earlier, but there wasn't one close enough that could have provided him with shelter. There was, however, a dusty pile of rocks just a few feet from where he'd been standing. 'Oh, crap!'

Teyla shone her light that way as Sheppard fell to his knees and began tearing at the rubble, blood dripping from who-knew-where and thudding into the piles of detritus as he worked. Fragments of clothing peeked through the mess and dust, as did dreadlocks. With his heart in his throat, Sheppard cleared his friend's face, testing his neck for a pulse. It was there, good and strong. The big fella was just out cold, having thankfully avoided the most crushing slabs of rock that fallen around him. Even so, he'd clearly sustained a head injury serious enough to knock him unconscious, so they needed to get him to help.

A screeching roar told him the monster was almost on top of them. 'Help me get him out of here!' he ordered the others, and they each worked to free up Ronon's inert frame and drag him through the newly formed opening toward the sweet night-time air of this hostile planet.

As they hauled his deadweight to the cavemouth, more crashing followed. Surfaces loosened by Ronon's blasts now gave way as the creature pressed on in pursuit of them, creating hurdles for the brute to break through. It slowed him, but only a little. If they were going to make it back to the jumper, they needed to do something drastic.

'C4,' Sheppard yelled, relinquishing his hold on Ronon as they reached the opening to freedom. He thrust his hands out to Teyla and Rodney, and they fumbled the blocks from their tac vests, slapping them into his waiting palms. 'Get clear.'

Though his body protested his every movement, sheer stubbornness kept him upright. He planted the three blocks of C4 in his possession around the upper half of the cave entrance with shaking hands, bloodied and torn from freeing up his friend. What he really wanted to do was pass out, just like Rodney briefly had, but he couldn't fit it into his busy schedule. Blocks secured, he set the charges, activating the final block just as the beast crashed through the last of the rock barricades. His heart missed several beats as he assessed the situation, knowing he was too close for safety to the detonation sites, but also understanding he would never have another chance like this to take this monster out. He had less than a second to make the call.

He bolted. 'Fire in the hole!'

The switch flipped beneath the pressure of his thumb, and everything else after that was a blur…

…until the sensation of his already shredded back bumping over uneven ground jarred him back to consciousness. His one good eye cracked open to the sight of Teyla saying something he couldn't make out over the deafening hiss in his ears as she dragged him clear of the explosion. He felt like he still had all his parts, even more painful now than they had been prior to detonation, but he couldn't clear the fog from his brain. All he could do was marvel at all that strength packed into such a tiny body. She was a regular pocket-sized Wonder Woman…

Though muffled, the voices around him sounded agitated when he next woke. Sheppard lifted his head and spotted Ronon splayed out on the bench opposite where he now lay prone, groaning and flailing in a concussed stupor. Between them, a small pool of blood had gathered on the floor of the jumper, running through the gridded panels. He realised it was dripping from his own fingertips, which explained the burning pain in his forearm, he supposed. His sleeve was torn…and was that bone?

'Hold us steady, Rodney. I have faith that you can do this,' Teyla urged, her voice edged with notable, if controlled, tension.

'It's still alive!' he bleated. 'How the hell is that possible?'

'Perhaps you should focus on flying, Rodney. If we reach the Stargate, the condition of that beast matters very little.'

Something slammed against the jumper's hull, and Rodney shrieked. Were they under fire? Sheppard swung his legs off the bench so he could sit up and see what was happening. 'Wh…mph.' Words refused to come, but Teyla immediately reacted to his nonsensical sounds.

'Remain still, John. We will soon be back in Atlantis where you will receive the medical attention you need. Rodney, we need to go now!'

'I'm trying!' he yelled back to her, his voice cracking with fear. A dark shape filled the windshield for a moment. 'Oh, God!'

'Needs…my help,' Sheppard slurred, as pain speared the full length of his arm it when he tried to move.

Teyla immediately supported it, using her other hand to press him down to the seat. 'You must be still, John. Do not do anything to increase your blood loss.'

He pulled his arm into his body as the throb within it steadily built. The jumper swayed in a nauseatingly weaving path as McKay battled to control both it and his rising panic. He stuffed a power bar into his mouth in what appeared to be a desperate effort to stabilise himself. A weird scraping sound echoed through the cabin. Teyla raised her eyes to the metal above them. She looked terrified. She wasn't telling him something. 'Wha's that?'

'Nothing. I think Rodney flew too close to some trees.'

The sound came again. 'Gain some altitude, McKay,' he ordered. He didn't quite catch what McKay grumbled in return.

Ronon tried to get up, fumbling for his gun which wasn't there. Teyla simply pushed him back down to the bench, assuring him his help wasn't needed and he should rest.

''s he gonna be okay?' Sheppard croaked, as other pains now announced themselves and his brain almost phased out again.

'Do not concern yourself, John. He is strong. I am certain he will be fine.' He looked into Teyla's warm brown eyes, her empathy for his condition almost too much to bear. She was scared for them both. Honestly, he was scared for them both, too. He'd never been so close to an explosion that big before. Who knew exactly what damage in had done.

Teyla bounced up and reached into an overhead compartment, almost falling as the jumper lurched to the left. 'Rodney…please concentrate!'

'I'm doing my best!' he insisted.

'I should go help,' Sheppard rasped, but as he shifted position something in his left side crunched and he almost vomited. No way was he leaving that bench seat.

Once she retrieved what she sought, Teyla sat down again beside Sheppard. She flipped open the medical kit she now clutched, digging out sterile wipes and a pressure bandage. 'This will hurt, but you must be still,' she warned him as she worked.

In truth, he barely felt a thing. Since trying to stand, his ears had filled with a weird rushing sound that almost cancelled out his hearing, his skin instantly clammy as his vision greyed out at the edges. Not to mention the uncontrollable trembling. Okay, this was a big deal. Teyla acted immediately and slipped off her jacket before she bunched it up and put it on the bench. She then steered him back down to lying on the seat, the jacket uncomfortable beneath his shoulders and upper back, as his head dangled back over the edge of it. 'Stay there. Do not try to sit up,' she instructed, steadying herself as the jumper tilted again. A succession of thuds came from the rear hatch.

'Sorry!' McKay called back to her, thankfully unable to see the death glare she sent his way.

Another case came down from the overhead storage, and this time she lifted up his feet and dropped them on top of it. 'Do not move from this position, John. Do you understand?'

He could barely make out her words over the rush in his ears, but from the way he felt, he knew he had little choice but to remain where she'd put him. He closed his eyes and concentrated on not passing out again, just in case Rodney needed his advice. Unfortunately, his brain had other ideas…

When he next came to, it was as a result of a whole new crescendo of pain as he was lifted from the jumper's bench to a gurney. They were home already? He knew he should feel relief, but the pain simply overwhelmed any other sensations.

Jennifer pounced the moment the gurney came to a halt. 'Colonel, can you hear me?'

Her penlight beam hit his left iris, sending a sharp pain shafting through his skull. 'Yeah…I hear ya…'

She prised open his swollen eye, and he felt the same corresponding agony. 'It's alright, Colonel Sheppard. We've got you. You're going to be fine. You just lay back and let me do my work.'

He ground his teeth as she carried out a thorough examination, cutting away clothes that had almost melded to his skin with dried blood. His hearing faded out again, and cold rushed through him, a reaction that had the doctor bellowing for an IV of saline STAT.

'What's…wrong…with me?' he asked as the world seemed to tilt around him. She slipped an oxygen mask over his mouth and nose, and it immediately helped to clear his thoughts.

'You're suffering from shock, Colonel. Don't worry, we'll bring it under control.' She looked up and across the room then. 'Teyla, what pain management did you administer?'

'None. I thought it best to let you determine his requirements since we were only moments from help.'

He almost passed out from relief when Jennifer uttered the word morphine to her nursing staff. The injection barely registered as the needle pierced deep into his vein, and only minutes later the pain fell back into the distance, an echo of how bad it had felt only moments ago. It was sheer bliss, an oasis of calm in the midst of the medical furore unfolding around him.

The doctor resumed her examination, and although the scraping sensation as she pressed on his ribs told him something was seriously wrong, he didn't have the energy required to panic.

'Alright, I think the best thing we can do is a full body scan,' she announced. 'Let's move him people.'

He closed his eye because the rapidity of the movement left him dizzy. In little more than what felt like a blink of his good eye, a sickly green light passed over his face, and Keller declared the job done. So, he'd passed out again, huh? Seemed to be the pattern for the day.

By the time he was wheeled back into the infirmary, Ronon was up and complaining, which Sheppard took to be a good sign.

'I don't need an examination,' he grunted, even as Teyla tried to intervene. 'I'm fine. There's nothing wrong with me.'

The way blood mingled in with the dust on his arms and tunic did little to support his argument. Neither did the fact he kept his right arm immobilised against his body. 'Chewy…let these people do their jobs,' Sheppard croaked, his voice far weaker than he'd expected it to sound.

'Sheppard…' The colour instantly drained from Ronon's face when his eyes fell on him, which told Sheppard he looked easily as bad as he felt, if not worse.

Sheppard waved him back to his bed. 'Sit down and let 'em check you over.'

A voice Sheppard recognised chimed up somewhere nearby, and the next thing he knew, Carson's face appeared above him as his bed was returned to its bay. 'I got here as soon as I heard. What's the damage?'

'Well, apparently the colonel here has set a new Atlantis record. Nine fractured bones in one mission.'

'Och, that's quite the achievement, lad. Let's hope no one snatches that title from you in a hurry.' He took the data pad Jennifer offered him, mumbling his way through the notes displayed on it. 'Right orbital fracture, five broken ribs, a compound fracture to the left radius…' he lifted his eyes to peer over the top of the pad, wincing as he spotted the injured. 'Plus, hairline fractures to the left femur and tibia.' He stopped reading and let out a sigh. 'Well, at least there appears to be no internal bleeding. That's something of a minor miracle. Although you do seem to have acquired something of a suntan. What on Earth happened out there?'

That explained the sore tightness of face. He figured the burns were minor if Carson was happy to joke about them. 'Hard to say…' he slurred, losing himself in the cosy opioid haze now enveloping him.

'We were betrayed by the people of Endala. They told us of Ancient treasures in the caves at a place known as Hallan Point, but all that lay within was a fearsome monster from our worst nightmares.'

Drugged as he might be, Sheppard couldn't miss the slow blink Carson gave Teyla as she completed her explanation. 'Really, dear? Well, that sounds horrible.'

'She's not wrong,' Ronon growled, throwing a glare at the young nurse trying to shine a penlight in his eyes. 'The Satedan military couldn't take it down.'

'Okay. What say we find you a nice quiet side room to rest in while we prep you for surgery?' Carson suggested, taking charge of the head of Sheppard's bed and wheeling him out again. 'I think you've had quite enough excitement for one day.'

'Surgery?'

'Aye, son. That arm's not going to fix itself. I'm sorry to say, but you're going to be out of commission for quite a few months, Colonel. Broken bones are no laughing matter.'

That reality sank through the ethereal calm his drugs had induced. Five broken ribs. He'd be feeling those for months to come. 'So, no sparring, huh?'

Carson huffed out a bemused snort. 'No, lad. I'm afraid not.'

Sheppard wasn't sure that was something to be all that sorry about. He wouldn't mind not having his ass whooped by Teyla and Ronon for a few weeks. Every cloud has a silver lining, he supposed.

Carson wheeled him into place in a small side room with soft lighting and plenty of quiet. 'There you go. You stay right here, and someone will get you prepped for surgery while I go scrub up.'

'Not going anywhere,' he assured him, laying his head back down against the soft pillows and imagining himself sinking into cotton candy, his pain now just a mild annoyance somewhere at the periphery of his consciousness…

'Ahem.'

The sound of someone clearing their throat made him realise he'd drifted off again. A pretty nurse with dark hair and porcelain skin waited at the threshold of his room, leaning on a trolley that bore. water and towels. 'Sorry to wake you, Colonel, but I'm supposed to get you cleaned up ready for surgery.'

He vaguely felt his mouth twist up into another stupid smile, one thankfully hidden by his oxygen mask. It really was true about clouds and silver linings, then?

oooOOOooo

'…database says it's a creature of indeterminate age that was on the planet when the Ancients first arrived.'

'My grandfather spoke of hundreds of our ancestors going to battle the beast and failing to kill it. It'll outlive us all.'

'Three blocks of C4 couldn't kill it…hell…a direct drone strike only pissed it off. The best thing we can do is lock the address out of the dialling system and forget any of this ever happened.'

Sheppard let his friends talk a moment, trying hard to hold onto the sense of peace he had woken with. It soon became apparent that was beyond his control as pains throbbed into life all over his body. 'Ow!'

'John!' Teyla was at his side resting her hand on his the moment he stirred. 'Ronon, let Jennifer know he is awake.'

Everything, and he literally meant everything, hurt. But he pushed his self-pity down to take in the condition of his companions. 'Hey, Teyla. You okay?

'I am well, thank you,' she replied, a puzzled expression etched across her pretty features. 'But I rather think it is I who should be asking you that question.'

He rolled his head to face Rodney. 'How about you, McKay. You good?'

'Well, I have bruises where bruises have no rights to be, three stitches in my cheek, and the mother of all headaches, but –' A glance Teyla's way cut his complaints short. 'I'm comparatively well, thanks for asking.'

'How are you feeling, John?' Teyla quickly interjected before Rodney could speak again. She grasped his hand tight…a little too tight if he was honest…but he wasn't about to complain.

'Sore,' he admitted, looking down at his left arm for the first time. 'Woah!' Everything else hurt so much he hadn't even noticed the contraption surrounding his left forearm, metal rods piercing his skin to hold the bones in place.

'Take it easy there, Steve Austin,' Rodney quipped. 'You got some new specifications. Maybe they slipped a bionic eye in while they were fixing you up, too. That'd be cool.'

His right eye was beginning to open just a fraction, and he could already tell they hadn't. 'Nope. Looks like I just got the Meccano upgrade.'

'Huh…Meccano,' McKay grinned, his gaze softening as he delved into his memories. 'I used to love that stuff when I was a kid. I once built a to-scale replica of the Golden Gate Bridge with the stuff. Anyway, Jennifer says that'll take some getting used to, so don't go doing yourself an injury...or another injury, at least.'

'That's right. So no 'Leaping tall buildings in a single bound',' Jennifer added, as she entered with Ronon in tow. He was bruised, scratched up, and with his arm in a sling. A quick visual assessment showed his friend's arm wasn't strapped up, which told Sheppard the sling was to relieve weight on Ronon's shoulder or collarbone. He'd been there, done that and worn the sling himself in the past.

Rodney rolled his eyes. 'That's Superman. Steve Austin was the Bionic Man. You know… 'we can rebuild him'? New legs, new arm, a telescopic eye? Any of this ringing a bell?'

Keller just shrugged and smiled sweetly. 'Sorry. I always get that stuff mixed up. It's a bit before my time.'

'Ouch!' Sheppard grumbled, offended right along with the similarly aged McKay.

'You are in pain?' Teyla asked, misunderstanding his meaning.

'I'm fine,' he assured her. 'Only my ego's bruised this time.'

'If only that we're true,' Keller snorted as she checked the readings on his monitors. 'You look like you lost an argument with a cargo train.'

He felt like it, too. 'That you're considered medical opinion, Doc?' he quipped.

'No…my considered medical opinion is don't set off C4 charges before you've reached a safe distance,' she chided, folding her arms and giving him her best school-teacher look. 'You could have killed yourself, Colonel.'

As if he did that kind of thing for the sheer fun of it. 'We were kinda running out of options,' he explained, Teyla nodding her vehement agreement.

'The creature would have been upon us all if the Colonel hadn't acted when he did.'

Keller thoughtfully chewed the inside of her cheek as she regarded him. 'Alright. Then I revise my medical opinion to 'Try to keep detonating explosive charges in close range to a minimum.'

He almost laughed at that…almost, but the pain in his ribs instantly stopped him. Keller responded by dialling up his morphine feed. 'I'm not even going to ask whether you need more meds,' she told him. 'That should take the edge off things for a while, but you have a long road to recovery ahead of you, so take it easy.' Then she gently settled her hand on his shoulder and fixed him with a look of complete earnest. 'Thanks for getting them all back safe. I know Rodney can be a difficult old grouch, but he's my difficult old grouch, and I love him all the same.'

Ronon huffed out a laugh at that. Nothing he enjoyed more than McKay baiting.

'Hey…less of the old,' Rodney complained, as if proving her point. 'And actually, I think you'll find I was the one who got us through the 'gate in one piece!'

'You're welcome, Doc,' Sheppard told her, ignoring Rodney's indignation. 'I think.'

She smirked, gave his shoulder just the slightest of squeezes so as not to hurt him, then headed for the door. 'Ten minutes, people, then you need to let this man get some rest.'

Ronon sat down on the end of his bed, wincing a little as he did so. 'What's the damage with you?' Sheppard asked now the attention wasn't fully on him.

'Broken collar bone...couple of cracked ribs. Headache.'

Sheppard couldn't help but feel a little aggrieved that he'd come out so much worse off. 'That's it? A cave comes down on you, and that's all you got?'

The Satedan just shrugged his good shoulder. 'I guess I'm just built different,' he quipped.

'He was a little luckier than you, that is all,' Teyla told him. 'It will take time. But you will recover, and that is what matters.

He supposed she was right, but he still couldn't help feeling this galaxy had it in for him personally. As the morphine worked its magic and Teyla plumped his pillows, Sheppard asked, 'So what exactly did happen after I blew the cave mouth?'

'You mean, after you were thrown about thirty feet and knocked yourself out?' Rodney asked, looking a little queasy at the memory.

'Yeah. Things get a bit hazy after that.'

'Ronon showed signs of rousing, so I left Rodney to help him and hurried to attend to you,' Teyla explained. 'I checked your vital signs and was about to stabilise your arm when the pile of rubble at the cave entrance heaved.'

Sheppard dimly recalled the sensation of heat and force against his body as the C4 detonated, but the thump that had sent him into oblivion didn't come back to him at all. 'So, it was still alive?' He did sort of remember Rodney saying as much in the jumper now he thought about it.

'Very much so. I pulled you clear as quickly as I could. Ronon was confused but could get to his feet thankfully, but even with that blessing we were only just able to make it to the puddle jumper in time.'

'It damn near burst out of that rubble!' Rodney told him, his faced flushed and eyes wide at the recollection. 'It was like the energy of the blast gave it more strength. It was unbelievable.'

'Yeah…unbelievable,' Sheppard echoed, his eyes drifting in Ronon's direction. The big guy smirked, but since he'd apparently not known what the hell he was doing at the time, he neither confirmed nor denied Rodney's amazing claim.

Teyla, however, backed him up. 'It was, indeed, as if the explosion had only strengthened its resolve to reach us. I was only just able to close the rear hatch in time to stop it forcing its way inside with us.'

Humbled by the verification of Rodney's version of events, Sheppard tried hard not to think how badly that would have ended for them all. 'So, what the hell was that thing?'

'No idea,' Rodney shrugged, his demeanour now giddy in the safety of the infirmary. 'I've never seen anything like it.'

'Satedans called the monster the Diaboli,' Ronon told them. 'A lot of good people lost their lives to it. The locals would ask for help to kill it…all they really wanted was a blood offering to quell it.'

Rodney clamped his mouth shut for a moment, mentally translating that little gem before shaking his head as if to rid himself of the image it conjured. 'I checked it out on the Ancient database, and it said the creature was of unknown age and origin, and was predatory and hostile by nature. I wish I'd dug deeper into the file before going there. You'd think the Ancients would have flagged these things better. 'Steer clear, immortal hell beast lives here'. That kind of thing.'

'New rule. No speed-reading planet information before going on missions,' Sheppard suggested. Rodney winced, clearly stung by the criticism. 'So, I guess we need to lock P5R 717 out of our dialling protocols,' Sheppard surmised, ignoring his discomfort. No way were they ever heading back to that planet. And after the trick the folks there pulled on them, they were on their own as far as he was concerned. He wasn't risking any personnel for them.

'Well, we can certainly surmise that they don't possess a ZedPM, so there's probably not much call for us to return. Although their wine was pretty good,' Rodney ruminated.

'So, the honking great cave monster isn't reason enough to stay away?' Sheppard asked, confused by his response.

'Ohhh, right. You think it all ended when we got in the jumper.' Rodney laughed almost hysterically as that realisation came to him. Then his expression hardened for the first time since he'd begun to regale Sheppard with his tale. 'It didn't.'

Sheppard blinked back at him. 'Seriously?'

'It seems that in the darkness and confusion of the caves none of us noticed the rather expansive set of wings the creature kept folded at its rear,' Teyla explained. 'Rodney set the craft in motion, expecting to put us out of its reach, but it simply soared up to join us.'

Sheppard, a little foggy so unsure he'd heard her correctly, lifted his head higher and peered her way. 'Wings…you're kidding?'

'No…I wish she was,' Rodney told him, eyes bugging fit to pop. 'That thing was like a cave troll, Hulk, and the Mothman all rolled up into one.'

'Coool,' Sheppard drawled, feeling his face twist up into a silly smile. It all seemed pretty fascinating now with the soothing effects of medication winding its way through his veins.

'It was thumping and scraping on the hull so loud I thought it was going to break through,' Rodney babbled, his mood swinging right back to ecstatic again. 'Couldn't shake the thing, so I knew we couldn't go straight back to Atlantis. I had to think of something else.'

'Rodney dialled a planet not inhabited by humans,' Teyla interjected, right before Rodney took over again, his words spilling out a-mile-a-minute.

'It was still clinging onto the jumper when we got through, so I tried submerging us in an ocean, and it still didn't let go, then I took it in close to a rock face and tried to knock it off…that wasn't so easy...'

Sheppard vaguely remembered the noises on the outside of the craft now. 'Did you damage my jumper, McKay?' he asked, narrowing his eyes even though it pulled on his burns.

'There may be one or two dents in it,' Rodney admitted, a little shame-faced. 'But you can't blame them all on me. That thing was pummelling us to get in. But when I heard it trying to pry open the back of the jumper again, I knew what to do.'

'He had me blow the rear hatch,' Teyla finished, stealing his thunder.

McKay continued, undeterred. 'Yeah…we blew the rear hatch and the thing slammed into the rocks I'd just swerved to avoid. Stunned it long enough for me to hit it with a drone and for us to get through the 'gate to another world and shut it down behind us before it could recover and catch up to us again…but it was close! There was still a life sign showing up even as we left.'

Rodney stared glassy eyed with a weirdly crooked smile plastered on his face, his skin damp with excited perspiration. Sheppard feared he might be about to pass out. 'You look kinda tired, McKay. Why don't you put your feet up a while?' he suggested, dipping his head toward the vacant bed beside his.

'Yes…yes…I am tired,' he nodded. 'I guess I could use some rest.'

As the scientist clambered up onto the bed and curled up into a foetal position, Sheppard mouthed to Ronon to go fetch Keller. He went to do that without fuss. Apparently, he didn't think Rodney was doing so well either.

Sheppard shifted his gaze to Teyla, her clothes and hair now clean and tidy in a perfect reflection of her inner calm. 'Sounds like I missed most of a fun ride. Much as I hate to admit it, Rodney pulled off some impressive manoeuvres out there.'

Teyla glanced Rodney's way. It looked as if he had already fallen asleep…either that or he'd passed out from hyperventilation. 'I think most of it was down to luck rather than judgement. Even so, I am grateful to him. To both of you. Had we not had the time you bought us to reach the jumper, things would have ended very differently.'

He felt a little colour rush to his cheeks now…although that could have just been heat from his burns. 'I think we all played our own part in that escape.'

She smiled, and the softness of the look in her eyes warmed his heart despite his condition. 'Perhaps you're right. We will call it a team effort. But we will let Rodney think he is the hero.'

He smiled and dropped his head back against the pillow, allowing the comforting hug of morphine to completely swaddle him in its embrace. 'Can't believe those folks sent us to the caves with that thing in there. They had to know it would try to kill us.'

'Ronon told me his grandfather said each year two people from the village were selected to offer themselves to the beast. In return, it did not attack their village. I think, perhaps, we were a sacrifice intended to spare their own loved ones…just as his ancestors no doubt were.'

Though the thought of the pact they had come to with the creature made his stomach twist up in horror, Sheppard still found it hard to make peace with their decision. 'Even so…I may have a few choice words for them if we ever go back there.'

'That is…understandable,' she nodded, taking his hand. 'But for now, be grateful that the beast is confined where it can do no harm to any other humans…unless someone is unfortunate enough to ever venture there.'

'Sounds like a good reason to nuke that 'gate,' he mused.

'I believe Rodney has already made that suggestion to Mr Woolsey,' she told him. 'He is giving it some consideration.'

'What's to think about?'

''Other potential applications that might be more pertinent to the defence of Atlantis'…at least I believe that is what he said.'

He supposed they were pretty useful for blowing up hive ships. Maybe they should hang onto them.

'We're sure that thing doesn't know how to use a DHD, right?' he smirked, amusing himself with a mental image of the huge critter slamming away on the buttons as it selected an address. It was funny for a whole three seconds until he realised it wasn't an entirely implausible act…

'There is no need to worry about that. Rodney destroyed the DHD before we left the planet.'

'Good thinking,' he nodded, seriously impressed with the escape Rodney had managed to pull off under so much pressure.

Teyla fought back a smile. 'I do not think it was intended. He hit it with the jumper while trying to shake the beast loose just after we arrived on the planet. That will explain one of the dents he told you about.'

He suppressed a laugh as he glanced McKay's way, watching him twitch in his sleep. Even though he was out cold, Rodney's mind still wasn't ready to fully switch off. His own brain, on the other hand…

'You know…I might just get some sleep myself now,' he told her, sliding a little lower beneath the blankets.

'Say no more, John. My ten minutes is up anyway.' She got to her feet just as Keller swept in and began to gently take Rodney's vitals in an attempt not to wake him. Ronon waited at the door for Teyla when he realised she was leaving. 'Besides, Torren is keen to hear more of our adventure…' She paused, her brow furrowed. 'Should it trouble me that he is so intrigued by such a monster?'

'No…he's a boy. It's normal,' Sheppard told her, matter-of-fact.

'He's right,' Ronon agreed, a gin splitting his face. 'Why do you think I know so much about it? I used to beg my grandfather to tell me his stories.'

She took a moment to consider that, nodded, smiled, and gracefully made her exit. Ronon held up a hand to bid Sheppard goodnight and followed her away.

Sheppard let Keller work without disturbance, waiting until she straightened up again to ask, 'Is he doing okay, Doc?'

'Exhausted mostly. Probably traumatised. I imagine adrenalin's been keeping him going. Better he sleeps here where we can observe him for now.' She headed over to Sheppard's bedside. 'I don't know what that thing was you came up against, Colonel, but it sounds like you're all lucky to make it out as well as you did – and considering your grocery list of injuries, that's saying something.'

'Yeah…sounds like it…' he echoed, a shudder passing through him at the thought of just how close they'd come to being that creature's next sacrificial offering. The thought of how casually the peoples of P5R 717 had sent them to their doom left a deep, hollow pit in his stomach. 'And now Rodney's a hero, so you won't hear the end of that for a while.'

She laughed, looking back over her shoulder at his sleeping form. 'Ain't that the truth!' She checked his morphine again and gave it just a nudge higher. 'There you go. That should help you get that sleep you need, Colonel. If you need anything else, just buzz.'

She left him then, and suddenly the room felt too quiet. Even Rodney's deep, steady breathing barely penetrated the silence. He looked down at himself, broken and battered, and wondered how many times he was going to be able to do this kind of thing before his luck ran out. Keller's earlier comment had been a timely reminder that he wasn't getting any younger. One day he would put it all on the line for his team, and it might just be his last act.

Yet here he was, Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, military leader of Atlantis, descendent of the Ancients, and holder of the title for most bones broken in one mission, still breathing, even if it was only comfortable because of the dizzying amount of morphine in his system. He yawned as the increased dose took effect, relaxing him. His mind drifted to thoughts of the cave monster wandering lost and confused on a deserted planet, wondering where he would find his next meal, and he took some pleasure from that.

This galaxy might be full of monsters that would one day bring him down, but not today.

And broken as he was, they could rebuild him. The metal exoskeleton pinning his arm together showed that. Shame he didn't get the telescopic eye though, he mused as sleep crept up to claim him. That really would have been kind of cool.

THE END

A/N: Yay! Sheppard lives to get whumped another day! Thanks to everyone who has read and left a review. They are all very much appreciated. :)