For those of you waiting for some whump, there's some in the next few Chapters and it's my favourite kind of whump Shepwhump.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor or medical health care professional. Although I have tried to research medical terms, they may not be 100 percent accurate.

Chapter 7: Planet LM-113

When John exited the wormhole onto Planet LM-113, he was greeted by driving rain pelting his face and body. The sky was dark and foreboding, there was a fine layer of snow covering the ground – right now he wasn't sure whether it was raining or sleeting. Although he was certain that it was going to start snowing at any moment. A minute later Ronon stepped through the gate behind him. He wondered if he should just order Ronon to go back given the situation. When Lorne had returned from the planet a week ago, he had told them that it was wintertime, so they should dress for cold weather. Although he never expected this.

Turning to face Ronon he shouted at the top of his voice, "so Ronon do you think that we should head back?!"

"Nah, it won't take long and besides the Satedans are expecting us."

He knew that to continue was against his better judgement, but he also knew that Ronon desperately wanted to meet up with these Satedans. It had been a long time since Ronon had run into any of his people and to find out that there was a whole settlement flourishing on LM-113 must have been an incredible feeling for Ronon.

When the hell did I become so cautious? He thought before following Ronon, who was already way ahead of him.

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling in the distance, and he wondered whether this planet was prone to quakes and tremors. Then he remembered that Lorne had mentioned that during some of the worst winters on the planet there were rock and mudslides. Apparently, the Satedans hadn't seen a rockslide in the last five years, so why the hell would it happen the minute he stepped foot on the planet?

As he continued down the slippery, muddy path the rain turned to sleet and he could have kicked himself for not bringing a puddle jumper, but the walk was only supposed to take five minutes. Although when Lorne's team came the sun was out despite the fact that there was snow on the ground – or at least that's what Lorne had written in his report.

He was relieved when a few minutes later he saw a small settlement. The buildings were made of timber and looked strong and sturdy – he sure hoped that if the cliff behind them chose to give way they would be well protected.

Ronon stopped giving him time to catch up and when he did, he had to double-check with Ronon that they were doing the right thing, "are you sure you don't want to go back?"

"Stop being overly cautious Sheppard, we'll be fine."

Ronon was right, in the year that he had been leading Atlantis, he had barely gone off-world. Gone was the soldier who loved to take risks and in his place was a stuffy administrator. He made up his mind to rectify this once he was back on Atlantis.

Before he had a chance to say anything else a man larger than Ronon, with long grey dreadlocks – that almost reached his knees – came out to greet them. His eyes were dark brown, and he looked to be about ten years older than Ronon.

"Ronon Dex, I heard that you were on Atlantis?"

John looked up at the big man with a little bit of fear, there was no way that he'd want to meet this man on the battlefield.

Ronon was surprised for a minute, before pulling the big man in for a bear hug, "Friall, is that really you?"

"It's councillor Friall now."

"Umm…Councillor, this is my good buddy, Col John Sheppard. He is the leader of Atlantis."

"Ahh…yes your man Lorne told me what a courageous and honourable man you are," Friall said stepping forward to shake his hand.

"Pleased to meet you Councillor. It looks like you have quite the settlement here."

"Yes, we do Colonel, come inside and I will tell you all about it over a meal and a glass of mead."

At last, John had an excuse to get out of the cold, since it was now starting to snow. The rumblings continued in the distance, and he prayed that the mountain wouldn't collapse on them anytime soon.

He was happy when they arrived inside and there was a roaring fire lit at the end of the room. There were a couple of overstuffed armchairs by the fire that looked very inviting.

"Please sit down wherever you want and please feel welcome in my home?" The councillor suggested. "My wife will be home soon, and I would like you to meet her."

John went down and sat in an armchair before smiling at the councillor, "thank you for your hospitality councillor."

The Councillor disappeared and he turned to Ronon, "so you know Friall?"

"Yeah, he was the leader of another regiment before Sateda was culled. Like so many others, I had no idea that he'd survived."

"How do you feel knowing that so many other Satedans did survive?" John asked and he could have kicked himself because it sounded like he wanted to get into an emotional conversation with the big Satedan – which he didn't.

In true Ronon form, he just shrugged his shoulders before turning to look at the roaring fire again.

The rumbling was getting closer to the two-story house that they were in, and he wondered how bad things were outside. They had planned to stay the night anyway, but right now he felt extremely uneasy. He had to chastise himself for being overly cautious again.

Friall returned five minutes later with a couple of glasses of what he assumed was mead – although it looked extremely pale. Following behind him were two other people – he assumed that they were Satedans, given their size and dreadlocks.

"Ronon Dex it really is you."

"Gialla, Simian, it is so good to see you again," Ronon replied standing up to give both men a huge bear hug.

John felt a little embarrassed by what was happening, so he decided to give Ronon some space. He tapped Ronon on the shoulder, "Umm…Ronon, I'm going to give you guys some space."

He wandered into the kitchen and saw a tall woman with dark brown hair tied up in a bun. Her eyes were a deep brown and her smile reminded him of Teyla.

"Is the reunion getting a little noisy and out of hand?" She asked him with what appeared to be amusement.

"Yeah, they're getting a bit loud, so I thought that I'd leave them to it. I'm John Sheppard by the way."

"Yes, I have heard of you. I have also heard that you are a strong, brave, and honourable man."

Suddenly he felt embarrassed, he had no idea where these people were getting their information from, but all he'd done for the last year was sit in an office and send other people on dangerous missions.

Rather than embarrass him further the woman changed the subject, "I am Allyl and Friall is my husband. Would you like to take dinner in your room, to give Ronon a chance to catch up since there a several other Satedans that want to catch up with him tonight?" She took a pause before continuing, "I have a feeling that things are going to get rather loud and boisterous before the evening's end. Especially, since there are large quantities of Satedan mead to consume."

"I think I might head to my room for a while, but can you let me know when dinner is ready so that I can come down and join everyone?"

"Your room is upstairs first on the left."

"Thank you, Allyl," he said bowing his head before turning around and climbing the stairs.

The stairs were steep, and he wondered why he felt so tired – was he getting old? He was in his mid-forties now and he spent truly little time in the field and that was something he had to change. He had never stopped to think when he took over leading Atlantis that it would turn him into this.

The room that he was to stay in with Ronon, was small but tidy. There were two beds one at each end of the room with a fireplace on the middle wall. It was defiantly warm, and it was making him sleepy, so he took his coat and jacket off and lay down on the bed. The bed was extremely soft, and the mattress was obviously made out of some kind of feathers. It was so close to perfect right now, that he didn't care what was going on downstairs and it wasn't long before he fell into a deep blissful sleep.

Sometime later he heard a grating sound and awoke with a start. It took his sleep-addled brain a while to realise that the door had been opened, a plate of food had been left on his bedside table and someone had turned on a small lamp. There was a faint hint of perfume in the air so if he had to take a guess, he was positive that Allyl had dropped it off for him.

The food was a selection of meets, and vegetables and next to it was a glass of mead. He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, or whether the reunion was still going on downstairs, but right now he was happy to be up here alone – probably another side effect of being a stuffy administrator for so long.

After eating his meal, he lay down again and tried to put his endless thoughts out of his brain. Tonight was supposed to be a night of celebration and it upset him that he'd let Ronon down. But he was certainly not at his best right now, he tried to think of the last time he went on a run or sparred with Ronon. Sure, he still sparred with Teyla and although she constantly beat him, it was nothing to the workout that the big Satedan gave him. Again, this was something he needed to rectify once he got back to Atlantis. In fact, the minute he got back to Atlantis he was going to put himself back on an off-world team and start building his fitness up again because he didn't like what he'd become.

The next time he awoke there was a strange rumbling in the air, his first thought was that the ground was shaking and the whole building was going to collapse. As he became more aware, he realised that it was Ronon, and he was sprawled across his bed snoring.

Because he couldn't be bothered getting out of bed he yelled across the room, "Ronon, Buddy, Wake up!"

Ronon just grunted and rolled over, so he tried again, "Ronon will you stop snoring?!"

Still nothing, so he rolled onto his stomach and placed a pillow over his head to try and shut out the noise. Luckily, that seemed to help, so he was able to close his eyes and drift off again.

Suddenly a deafening rumble filled the air and John intuitively knew what was happening. Before he had a chance to roll over there was a loud crack and the walls of the house started to shake, the ceiling started to fall and he froze, trying to protect his head from the debris as it began to rain down on him. Lifting his head, he took a quick look out of the tiny window in his room, and he was horrified to see a wall of mud and rock heading in his direction. There was no time for him to get out, all he could do was keep his head down and wait for the inevitable. And when it happened, he heard and felt the wall of mud hit the house. The roof collapsed completely and then he felt himself falling and right before something hit the back of his head and he lost consciousness; he felt a sharp piercing pain in his back.

A loud voice pervaded his consciousness and he wondered who it was. More to the point why was he lying on a wet bed? He was freezing cold, and he wondered what had happened to him this time. As he became more cognizant, he realised that his head hurt and there was excruciating pain in his lower left back and left leg.

The voice spoke again, and it took his addled brain a while to realise that it was Ronon talking to him, and his eyes were still closed.

He heard the voice again and this time he realised that Ronon sounded desperate – and perhaps slightly drunk, "Sheppard buddy!"

"I'm here, buddy," he whispered while taking a deep breath to try and ease the agony that he was in.

"I think there was a rock and mudslide, and we are trapped beneath the rubble. I can see emergency crews outside and I think that Atlantis is with them," Ronon explained. "I have no idea how long we've been here because I have only just woken up myself. If I were to guess, I'd say it's early morning because I can see some dim light between the cracks.

That was an incredibly long speech and John barely followed it. To him, it sounded garbled. Looking up at Ronon he realised that other than a cut above his eye, he didn't appear to be injured.

"H'm I looking?" John asked and he was surprised at how slurred his voice sounded.

"You have a large plank of wood covering your left leg and lower back and there's a bump and cut on the back of your head. I don't want to move the wood until a doctor gets here in case I do more damage."

John chuckled at that comment, "the…last…time…we…were trapped, you…pulled…a…piece…of…rebar…out of my…side." He was breathless by the time he'd finished, and he wondered whether he'd damaged a lung.

"Yeah well, Keller shouted at me for doing that and you know how scary she can get when it comes to the welfare of her patients."

John chuckled again which led to a coughing fit, and he wished that he were able to roll into a different position right now, but all he could do was lay on his stomach because he was trapped. Still, at least he was still lying on his mattress.

"So… what…do… you…think… of LM-113… and…your… new…Satedan… friends?"

"It's called New Sateda," Ronon replied with a huge grin.

Well, at least he thought the Satedan had a huge grin on his face. Right now, his vision was becoming blurry, and he could barely think as the all-encompassing pain permeated his entire body.

He wanted to be happy for his friend but at the moment he was in agony, and he felt exhausted.

Ronon's voice penetrated the fogginess in his brain again, "hey buddy you're not giving up, are you?"

The thought had definitely crossed his mind on more than one occasion over the past year. He hated paperwork and right now he wished he'd told O'Neill where he could stick the job.

"No…, not…really," he panted."

"Good man, before you know it, you'll be back in the infirmary with Keller's good drugs running through your system."

"I'd…rather…have…Carson." John panted and he felt a tear rolling down his cheek.

He sure hoped that Ronon didn't see it, but if he did, he'd have to tell him that he had a speck of dust in his eye. He felt his eyelids drooping and he knew that he wasn't going to be able to stay awake much longer just as he was about to give into the beckoning darkness, he could have sworn he heard Carson calling his name.

An annoying tapping on the check brought him back to awareness, next he heard the familiar Scottish brogue that he'd come to expect when he was sick or injured.

Something was covering his mouth and nose and his first instinct was to try and get it off, but Carson was talking calmly to him, so he decided to try and listen.

"Don't try and take that off laddie, we're just trying to give you some extra oxygen."

Right if Carson was here, it was probably time to try and assess his situation, he was lying on his side and his left leg seemed to have been splinted up. There was a bandage around his abdomen and there was definitely something still in his back. His brain was fuzzy and the excruciating pain that he'd been experiencing before was muted. His vision was blurry, and he wondered whether that was due to the drugs or the head injury.

He tried to talk and all that came out was a muffled, "Wha…?"

Ronon's face came into view and the big man smiled at him, "don't worry Sheppard, we're just getting you ready for transport to Atlantis. You should probably go back to sleep now."

Although his head was fuzzy and his vision shot to pieces, he wanted answers, "Crsn, wha…?"

Luckily, the doctor understood what he was saying and was able to give him an answer to his question, "you have a compound fracture in your lower left leg, a shard of glass has pierced your lower left back, and you have a nasty head wound. Your temperature is down to 94 degrees. Don't worry about that though because once we get that up a few degrees, we'll take you into surgery and fix you up."

He barely understood anything Carson was telling him, but whatever he was saying sounded bad, "kay…" he muttered before closing his eyes and drifting off again.

The next time he came to full awareness the first thing he felt was movement. It took him a while to get his bearings and he soon realised that he was on Atlantis, and was being wheeled through the halls on a gurney. It wasn't long before he felt nauseous, and he could feel last night's alcohol and food churning around in his stomach. He was laying on his side so there was no way he was going to be able to settle his rebelling stomach, so he tried waving his hands around to try and get someone's attention. Thankfully, the gurney stopped, and a face appeared in front of him, and he assumed it was Carson.

"Are you alright laddie?"

"Sick," was all he managed to get out before he lost his stomach contents all over the floor. The retching continued long after his stomach had been emptied and if it weren't for the drugs numbing his pain, he would be in absolute agony.

"Are you alright?" Carson asked in a gentle voice.

No, of course, he wasn't alright, he was going to be off his feet for who knows how long, and he had surgery to look forward to.

Sighing he closed his eyes again and it wasn't long before the gurney started moving again. Right now, he would be happy to just go to sleep and wake up when everything was healed, but then he desperately wanted to see Teyla and Torren. And maybe when he woke up, he would ask Teyla to marry him.

With all of these thoughts rolling around in his fuzzy brain, it wasn't long before he lost consciousness again…

TBC…