Note: Many thanks to Rogue1503 for helping with this chapter. She made some pretty dramatic improvements! Also thanks for all the reviews. I'm really working to keep it updated.

The Wrong Place at the Wrong Time – Chapter 5

"We need to get moving," said John, rolling his head over to look at Nick. They were both lying on the ground, having pretty much collapsed after drinking their fill. John sat up, groaning softly at the pull on his ribs and the flaring aches in his muscles. Using a nearby tree to pull himself to his feet, he walked over to stand by Nick, extending his hand toward the exhausted doctor. "Come on buddy, I'll give you a hand."

Nick looked up at John, noting the trails and smears of dried blood on his face, chest, and abdomen. Bruises were blooming in living technicolor, while scrapes and abrasions were scattered across his torso, most likely from the "brass knuckles" the Enforcer had used on them. He knew he didn't look a whole lot better. He couldn't; because he sure didn't feel it. Reaching up, he took John's hand and used the leverage to pull himself to his feet, unable to stop his limbs from shaking the straighter he got. "Maybe we should try to clean up a bit while we're here by the water," he suggested to John, wheezing at the exertion of standing.

"No time. We have to keep moving. Besides, cleaning our wounds might result in opening some of them back up and then we'll leave a blood trail; definitely not a good look when you're trying to blend in. C'mon, let's go."

Nick sighed and rubbed his neck while rolling his head around to relieve some of the tension. He hadn't thought of that, but he knew John was right. The doctor in him just kept thinking of all the infections they were probably incubating. More down time in the infirmary under Carson's glare. He could almost hear his boss scolding him. Didn't they teach you to clean wounds properly in medical school? And what do you mean dragging around the woods all night with those ribs? Really Nick, I would'a thought…

"Nick?"

Nick looked over at John, staring at him with a frown. "I said we need to move."

Nick grinned sheepishly. "Sorry. I was just thinking about something."

John's expression lightened as he gave a small smile. "I'll try to keep him from killing you. You can blame me for not letting you do your job and I'll just inform him I was doing mine."

Nick snorted. "How did you know what I was thinking?"

"Oh, please. You're almost as easy to read as Carson. You guys are two peas in a pod." John waded into the stream and began walking.

"John, why are you walking in the stream?"

John explained without stopping, so Nick waded in to follow him. "Oh, shoot, that's cold."

"Yeah, it is a bit chilly. You'll be numb in a few minutes and it won't be so bad. So far we've left a trail so obvious even Rodney could follow it. Now that we have a little distance between us and those nuts, we have to start being a little more careful." Nick waited for him to catch his breath, concentrating on each foot fall in the freezing water, hoping neither of them ended up in a hole or worse - twisting an ankle, or a knee. After a couple of minutes of companionable silence that had each of the weary men finding their rhythm in the freezing water, John continued through raspy exhausted breaths.

"I'm not sure how good a lead we got before they discovered us missing . . . but we have to keep ahead of them . . . until we can make it back to the gate. If we're lucky . . . we'll have a rescue team . . . waiting on us."

Nick was almost afraid to ask, but knew he needed to. "What if we aren't lucky."

John didn't reply straight away; and again the only sounds were of the sloshing of each footfall and the puffing of each man.

"Then we'll deal with that when it comes."

Nick followed in relative silence for several more minutes. "How do you think of all this stuff?" Slosh, slosh, slosh, slosh. "I'm taking it this isn't the first time . . . " Slosh, slosh, slosh. " . . . you've done this kind of thing."

John chuckled, then coughed at the exertion. "Not even the first time in this galaxy."

They walked in the cold, running water of the creek for quite a while before John found a rocky spot that he was satisfied was good enough to hide their exit. They stepped out of the stream, their feet and lower legs numb. Nick gasped, his breathing ragged as the coldness of the fresh air assaulted him, suddenly wishing he was back in the stream. His stomach clenched and shook with the chill to his limbs.

They had only walked a few steps when John felt a hot pain shoot from his lower back down into his legs, causing his legs to fold up underneath him. With no time to recover or prepare himself, he crashed to the forest floor with a grunt.

"John!" yelled Nick, kneeling beside the fallen pilot, his own pains forgotten. "What happened? What's wrong?"

John found it hard to breathe at first, much less talk, as the shooting pains combined with muscle tremors and cramps. Nick held him, his eyes darting up and down the pilot's body looking for the cause of the sudden debilitating pain. After lying stiff legged for several seconds, John suddenly curled up as the muscles in the back of his thighs and lower legs began to cramp miserably. He closed his eyes tightly, his body beginning to tremble until finally, after what seemed like years, the cramps started subsiding. All the while John had tried vainly to concentrate on the steadying hold Nick had on him; unwavering, secure. He finally relaxed his tight grip on his legs, lying limp as a rag for several seconds as he tried to catch his breath.

"John, you have to tell me what's happening." Nick swallowed hard, the fear and worry forming a dead weight in his stomach like he'd swallowed a rock. His hand started to tremble slightly as he held onto John's shoulder and he wasn't sure if it was fear or leftovers from the torture device.

"I'm . . . okay," whispered John, panting and trying to focus on his surroundings. "Legs . . . still numb."

Nick snorted. "Don't even try that mister. There's no way that was from the water. My legs are numb too, but you don't see me belly-flopping on the ground and doing a fish out of water impression. Must be from that neurodisrupter thing. Can you try and straighten out for me… just try and relax into my hands."

"Just give me . . . a minute."

Both men worked on controlling their breathing for the next couple of minutes. John finally began trying to sit up again and Nick grabbed his shoulder and placed one hand behind his back, helping push him up. He let John steady himself for a few seconds.

"Help me up," John said softly.

Nick wasn't sure that was a good idea, but realized they didn't have much choice, the seriousness and reality of their situation foremost in his mind. He helped John stand and then supported most of his weight as his legs began folding up again. John stood with one arm around Nick's shoulders and one against a tree, wheezing from the effort until he convinced his legs to support his weight.

"Sorry about that," John panted, pulling away from Nick and trying to take a few tentative steps.

"Can you make it?" asked Nick, looking very uncertain.

John turned back and smiled at him. "Piece of cake."

Nick snorted as he remembered his conversation with Carson. "Not bloody likely"

oOo

"What is it?" asked Teyla as Ronon knelt beside the stream. It had finally gotten dark and Teyla had the light of her P90 turned on. Several soldiers were still systematically searching through the woods around them.

"Sheppard's been sloppy up until now, leaving an obvious trail. I think they were working for distance and not trying to hide their path. Now he's slowed down and started to get careful. They drank at the stream here and rested for a few minutes, but there is no trail leading away."

Teyla nodded, understanding the methods being employed by her fleeing CO. "What now?"

Ronon nodded to the stream. "The only conclusion is that they took to the stream to hide their tracks. They could have gone either direction, but my bet is that way." He motioned upstream.

"Why that way?" asked Elizabeth, having come up behind them.

Ronon stood and looked down at the expedition leader. "Because the other way he was likely to run into guards searching for them. You should send people both ways, just in case, but I'm going upstream." With that, Ronon started walking upstream. Teyla nodded at her and followed.

Elizabeth turned back to Lorne. "Is the jumper having any luck picking them up on the sensors?"

Lorne sighed wistfully. "No, there's some kind of interference. They can track our radio signals, but not us directly, so they can't pick up Colonel Sheppard or Dr. Strauhan either."

"All right, I guess we'll have to continue to do this the hard way. Major, send some of your men downstream to look for them, just in case, but Ronon thinks they went upstream."

Lorne nodded. 'Yes, ma'am. I'll take care of it." He turned back to the soldiers that had gathered at the edge of the creek. "Jamison, Lee, and Montero, you head downstream and see if you can track them that way. Everyone else, we go upstream; follow Specialist Dex's lead." Teyla smiled inwardly at the reference to Ronon's previous rank. Major Lorne was a good man, not so ambitious as to not appreciate true experience and seniority when he saw it. Sheppard had taught him well. Next Lorne got on the radio and let the jumpers know what they were doing.

oOo

John and Nick stumbled along in the dark, the forest floor almost completely dark since the canopy blocked out most of the moon light. They were both staggering now, hurting beyond their wildest beliefs, and barely on their feet. The temperature had dropped significantly since the sun had gone down and the wind had picked up about an hour ago. Neither man commented on the miserable conditions, opting for silence rather than vocalizing their misery. It might not have been so bad if they had at least had a shirt on, but without one they were shivering. They paused a moment beside a rock cliff, leaning against the hard, cold surface to steady themselves. John suddenly stepped sideways and leaned around Nick.

"Is that a cave?" He began walking on unsteady legs several feet over to the darkened area he thought might be a cave entrance. Nick followed him, stopping just before plowing into John's back.

"It is a cave. Maybe we can rest in here and warm up a while."

Nick nodded; he almost wanted to cry at the thought of being warm, even for a millisecond. He could feel his teeth beginning to chatter. "If we can just . . . g-g-get out of this wind, i-it would help."

John nodded in the darkness, too tired to turn around to his shivering friend.

They carefully entered the cave, taking a step at a time and then stopping to listen. They had no light, so they were hoping the cave wasn't already occupied. They had no idea how large it was and no way to tell. As soon as they were far enough in that the wind was no longer cutting them in half, they huddled against the wall and tried to stop the sickening shivering of their near-hypothermic bodies.

"Are we going to make it out of here?" asked Nick softly, almost a whimper.

"Yes," John replied firmly. "And don't you go doubting that. I hope it's tomorrow, but I can't promise you that." The wind outside howled loudly, as if to contradict his optimism. "I can promise you that I will get you home." He grinned at Nick in the dark, but he was disappointed to realize that it was too dark to see. "I have to get you home or Carson and Kelly will hunt me down and kill me."

"What if you're . . . already dead?" Nick asked, his voice still quiet, his teeth still chattering audibly. John didn't need to see his face to know that Nick wasn't smiling.

"Hey Doc, don't you go giving up on me, ye'hear? We will get out of here alive and you have to believe it."

Nick sighed, trying to stop the tremors racking his body. "Part of me does, b-b-but part of me is so tired and hurts so b-b-badly that I just don't see how we're going to make it. The gate is t-too far away."

"One step a time Nick, one step at a time . . . " John cajoled him ever so gently.

They sat quietly for several minutes, arms clutched around their midsection tightly to hold in what meager warmth they had. At least they had stopped shivering.

"What's the best thing about going back?" asked John.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, when we go home, what is the one thing you can't wait to see . . . other than a soft, warm bed and some good pain meds?"

"Oh, that's easy. Kelly." Nick closed his eyes and brought her image forth in his mind. He thought of stroking her soft hair and touching her cheek and the feel of her lips against his. "Yeah, definitely Kelly." Nick thought he could almost hear the sound of John rolling his eyes.

"Oh, puh-leeeese, man, have you got it bad or what?" John sighed heavily. "But, that in mind, make it work in your favor. Would you give just about anything to see her again?"

"Yeah, sure . . . anything."

"Then she's your focus. When you think about giving up or quitting, I want you to think about seeing Kelly again, about touching her and smelling her –"

"Hey, hey, hey! Let's not get carried away. That's my Kelly you're talking about."

John sighed. "Easy fellow, down boy. I'm talking about you, not me."

"Okay . . . I get it. I guess that could help. What about you, what do you focus on? Or maybe I should say who?"

"That Nick, is classified."

"John, that's not fair. You know who I like, so c'mon, 'fess up my friend."

John snorted. "Nick, everyone knows who you like. You've done everything but had a skywriter post it."

"You think a jumper could do that?"

"NO!"

"Okay, okay, just a thought, but, seriously, who do you dream about? Teyla? Elizabeth? That new hot girl, what's her name, Belinda?"

"I'm not . . . you think Belinda is hot?"

"Gosh yes. Belinda the nurse, not Belinda the marine."

"There's a Belinda the nurse? I had no idea. I thought you meant the marine and I was seriously thinking about having a talk with Carson when we got back to see about getting you some glasses."

"Oh, crap, John! That woman looks like a German gymnast from the seventies! . . . or maybe a Russian swimmer! Anyway, one of those places where they had their women athletes on steroids."

"She's a body builder, you know?"

Nick frowned to himself. "The nurse?"

"No, dufus, the marine. Stay with me here."

"I think I'm too tired, my brain can't keep up. Can we sleep a while?"

"Yeah, you sleep. I'll keep watch." John already had his eyes firmly trained on the mouth of the cave.

"When will you sleep?"

John had just opened his mouth to answer, when they both heard a low growl from about twenty feet deeper inside the cave. It wasn't really all that loud, but the deep power in its rumble seemed to vibrate through the floor and walls of the cavern.

"Oh, c-r-a-p," whispered John.

"Pleeeeese don't tell me we're in the wrong place again?" asked Nick softly.

"Wrong time again too," replied John, his voice equally soft. "Try to get up… as quietly as you can."

Leaning against the wall, they slid their backs up against the side of the cave, gritting their teeth silently against the protests of their battered bodies. Once they were standing, the growl shuddered through the cave once again. Slowly, one step at a time, they started edging along the wall toward the mouth. They were almost out the opening when they heard the thunderous pounding of something large leaping toward them.

"Run!" yelled John, pushing Nick forward. And that was exactly what they did.

oOo

"One of them fell here," said Ronon, kneeling as he stared at the confused mess of dirt and leaves scattered across the rocky ground.

"How can you tell that?" asked Lorne, looking at the same spot Ronon was, but not really seeing anything that looked much different that the rest of the ground. Of course, he had no idea how Ronon had known where they left the stream since the ground was covered in rock on both banks and there were no footprints.

"I can tell." He stood and pointed through the trees. "They went this way. I think we're catching up."

Teyla fell in step behind Ronon wordlessly and Elizabeth looked over to Lorne. They shrugged their shoulders, neither understanding how he was tracking them but both placing their complete faith in the former runner. Elizabeth silently followed behind Teyla as they continued their search for the lost men.

oOo

John and Nick slowly staggered to a stop, breathing heavily as they fell to their knees.

"Is it . . . still back there?" wheezed Nick.

"No . . . don't think so," answered John. "Don't think . . . it came . . . out of cave."

Nick shook his head. "Don't tell me . . . that. . . ran all that way . . . for nothing."

"So'kay . . . better lead," panted John. They both finally crawled down to lay on the ground, waiting until they had their breathing under control and their own private living-hell had stopped screaming at them. It was several minutes later when John began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Nick failed to see much humor in anything that had happened that day, including lying out in the open, half naked and freezing to death.

John drunkenly wiped the tears from his face. "Sorry . . . I just had this mental image . . . " he snickered again. " . . . of us running for our lives . . . only to have a tiny kitten come out of the cave and meow." He dissolved into another chuckle.

"That's absurd, did you feel the way the cave trembled from that thing's growl?" Nick lay there a second and then smiled. "Of course, maybe that could be some odd sound transfer thing about that one cave, so that things get amplified as they echo. Guess we could have just said, here kitty, kitty."

"Nice, Nick. Want to go back and try that?"

"Not on your life."

"Me either. Guess we'd better get going." John pushed up to his knees and felt a weird tingling in the back of his neck. "Nick, I . . . " Lightning bolts of pain shot up into his head and down his spine as he felt his body go rigid and then begin to shake. He was briefly aware of falling and then it was like his muscles took off and danced without him. There was a loud buzzing in his ear and bursts of light clouding his vision and then nothing.

oOo

Ronon had only set one foot in the cave when he gave the halt signal and silently began to back up. The others stopped talking and backed up as well, not wanting to tangle with anything that had Ronon concerned. Ronon put his finger to his lips and then quietly walked away from the cave. Everyone followed, giving each other confused looks but not questioning the Satedan. When they were quite a ways away, Ronon stopped.

"There was a creature in there, one that is very large."

Elizabeth swallowed hard. "John and Nick?"

"They went in, but they also came back out." He smiled at the people listening intently before him. "They came out in a bigger hurry than they went in."

Teyla and Elizabeth grinned at each other, thinking that was a good sign. "So, you think they made it out okay?" asked Elizabeth.

"The animal did not give chase. But they are moving quickly again. This way." Ronon began walking in the direction the two lost men had gone and the others followed.

oOo

John opened his eyes to see Nick sitting beside him, watching him carefully. He noticed for the first time in a while how pale Nick looked and that his features were drawn in pain. Looking down he saw Nick's left arm pressed close to his side.

"John, are you back with me buddy?"

Sheppard tried to lick his lips, but there was no moisture available. His mouth was dry as an old sock and didn't taste much better. "Yeah, think so," he rasped. His head felt like someone had kicked him pretty hard and little jolts of pain were still shooting down his neck and spine. "How about you? You look like crap."

The corners of Nick's mouth turned up ever so slightly. "You never stop, do you?"

John smiled back at him. "I try not to. Ribs hurting?"

Nick grimaced. "A little. My first encounter with cracked and/or broken ribs. I'm afraid I haven't mastered the Sheppard art of carrying on as though nothing has happened."

John just snorted and turned his head away. "I don't do that."

"Yes, John, you do," Nick said seriously. "And I have no idea how, because they really hurt." Nick sat watching him another few seconds. "You gave me one heck of a scare. What happened?"

John turned his head back to look at Nick and decided it might be best to be honest since Nick obviously was. "I think it's that neurowhatever thingy the Enforcer had. Pain in my neck, shooting up into my head and down my back. Then it was like everything just short-circuited."

Nick nodded gravely. "I was afraid of that. You looked like you were having seizure after seizure, except . . . it was different somehow than your typical seizure."

"We can worry about it when we get back to Atlantis." John hated the focus being on his injuries; he was trying hard to not think about what his body was yelling at him let alone trying to rationalize it with Nick. "Right now we have to get moving. How long was I out?"

"About a half an hour or so."

"Oh, crap. You should have gotten me up." John sat up and closed his eyes, waiting on the dizziness to pass.

"I don't think that was possible." Nick got up on his knees, and then grunted as he doubled over. The pain in his ribcage that had lulled as he sat with John was now fully awake and screaming at him to notice. The pain came in waves along with the vertigo, making it hard to breathe. He felt John's arm around him, steadying him so he didn't topple over. When it finally passed, he opened his eyes and looked at John.

"I'm okay now." He didn't want to be the reason John had to slow down. He began struggling to his feet and was joined by John, working to get to his own feet as he helped Nick. When they finally made it into a vertical position, they leaned against each other for support.

Nick chuckled a little. "I think is what they mean by the blind leading the blind."

"Speak for yourself. I'm not blind."

"You know what I mean." Nick felt the muscle tremors coursing through John's body, causing him to work to remain upright. Nick also found that the world kept spinning to the left and threatening to throw him to the ground. "Man, are we a pair. How are we going to make it to the gate?"

"It's called perseverance." John took a tentative step forward.

"I think Carson would have another word for it," muttered Nick.

John laughed and then groaned, putting his hand to his head. "Oh, don't make me laugh. Makes my head hurt worse."

Slowly, they began to take steps, getting a little more confident when they didn't land in a heap on the ground. They worked out a way of leaning on each other that utilized the strength of each person. They were shivering and exhausted and hurting, but they were moving again. That was enough at the moment to lift their spirits and give them hope, neither man wanting to admit defeat that, spoken out loud, would surely deflate his companion.

They felt the rain on their bare skin at about the same time they heard a clap of thunder. Stopping, they stared disbelievingly at the sky above as the clouds opened up and it began to pour, soaking them in a matter of minutes in spite of the canopy above.

"You've got to be kidding me," mumbled John.

Nick just looked at the water puddling around his feet for several seconds before lifting his head to look at John. "About going on missions through the gate with you guys . . . I may be having second thoughts."

"Ha!" was the reply. " . . . like you think this is negotiable?"

TBC