A/N: Your reviews make the muses' day. Ya'll are the bomb! And we thank ye.
7
Lorne kept McKay in sight out of the corner of his eyes. Not really necessary with the physicist leaning heavily against Ronon, groaning with one hand clamped to his head, face vividly splotched with bruises various shades of blue, black, and violet. Standing before the massive doors of the mansion, all McKay needed were a few holes in his clothes, and the moment the door opened he would have been thrust out on his ass in the assumption that he was a beggar. Lorne rolled his eyes.
He wanted to say – more like think – that McKay was just milking his hangover, but the scientist had been a lot less hypochondriac as of late.
Sighing, Lorne pounded the iron knocker against the door again. " Dr. McKay, I really suggest you sleep this off. You can come back in the morning."
McKay moaned. " No. I wanna get this over with."
" I doubt you'll be able to tell an ancient device from a fork," Lorne mumbled. He could have ordered McKay back to the inn. Teyla called most of the shots being the off world expert and all, but in terms of the team's safety and health, that was Lornes' call. Lorne was normally stubborn about not backing down. However, his mirrored desire to want to ditch this place – and his secondary desire to avoid hearing Rodney whine – had weakened his resolve. Rodney's hangover might slow the studying process, but if the physicist stumbled on a device worth trading for, they might get out of this world by supper time, so Lorne let McKay have his way.
Teyla knocked next, brow creased, eyes troubled. " They are normally not so long in answering," she said. That had Lorne's mind snapping out of its annoyed introspections.
" Think something's up?" he asked.
Teyla shook her head, brow still furrowed. " I do not know. My familiarity with these people is limited. My own people have had few dealings with them in the past since they are more interested in trading for advanced weapons that crops or clothes."
Lorne nodded. " Yeah, and the way these folks live you'd think they'd never come into an Ancient device in their life."
McKay snorted. " Ditto with the Genii."
The physicist had a point. Many of the civilizations of the Pegasus galaxy were good at hiding the fact that they were more advanced than they appeared, clinging to the belief that it got the wraith off their backs a little more by not seeming such a threat. Lorne wasn't the one to be saying whether or not the ploy worked and a difference was made. To him, a culling was a culling, and no one seemed unable to avoid them no matter how back woods a society made themselves out to be.
Teyla knocked again. Three pounds with the knocker and the door burst open to a panting, frazzled, elderly man with a thin mustache and pointed beard. Seeing the team had the man's eyes rounding into perfect circles.
" Oh! You! Oh my, I completely forgot... Um... I'm afraid that Chief Judge Harl will be unable to entertain you this day. He has some important business that needs attending to which does not allow his home to be open to any visitors. I am very sorry. If you are willing to wait a day, you may be permitted to enter tomorrow. Chief Judge Harl apologizes. Now if you will excuse me..."
He didn't allow for any of the team to respond when he shut the door in their faces. Lorne exchanged looks with Teyla and Ronon. Rodney was looking as though someone had just slapped him – slack jawed and wide-eyed.
" What the freakin' hell!" he snarled with a tenor of whining. He lurched from Ronon to grab the knocker and start beating it against the door. " Hey! Get your butt back out here! What the hell is this...?"
Teyla rested her hand on Rodney's arm. " Dr. McKay. It is all right. We will come back tomorrow."
Rodney slowly moved his gaze from the door to the Athosian, and Lorne could practically feel the man's fury like a heated vibration in the air.
" Tomorrow? Tomorrow! I don't want to come back here tomorrow! I want to get this stupid waste of time over with and go home!" Rodney stabbed a stiff finger at the door. " They invited us here! They promised us a trade! If they had future plans that were going to get in the way of that then why the hell did they invite us at all!"
Lorne jumped in then. " They didn't think we'd be here for more than a day. The longer stay was your idea, Dr. McKay." Probably not a good idea to lay this on the physicist, but McKay's temper was something Lorne had become good at tuning out.
As predicted, Rodney's eyes blazed. " Are you saying this is my fault?"
Lorne let his eyes go heavy lidded. " No. I'm saying that they didn't expect the longer stay. It's one day, Dr. McKay. I think you can last one day. If not, just say the word, we'll leave a message, and head out now."
" And make this even more of a wasted effort? Oh no. We're going to stay and find a lesser of all these useless devices to bring back to Elizabeth. Might as well since we'll only get an ear-full if we don't..." Rodney winced and pinched the bridge of his nose. " Ah crap! This sucks..." His shoulders slumped, and his face fell. " We should just head back."
Lorne's mouth twitch in want of smiling. A lovely tool – reverse psychology. Although a large part of Lorne had been hopeful that McKay would jump on the suggestion to head back home.
They stepped from the massive porch and headed back onto the dirt road leading to town, McKay back to needing Ronon's help just to stay upright. It wasn't any sudden realization that Ronon had been more inclined to stick with Rodney the past couple of weeks without being ordered to do so. No surprise to that. Adversity tended to forge stronger bonds, and the two men's escape from the wraith hadn't been a skip through the meadow for either. They'd been discovered in the lone wraith dart days after the hive ships had hyper-jetted off the radar. Both men had been dehydrated, delirious, and Rodney had nearly succumbed to blood loss. No story was required to let everyone in on the fact that they had walked the fires of hell and survived. And because of that, the unspoken bond had fused once and for all. Ronon hardly ever told McKay to be quiet anymore – not completely, just hardly.
They entered the town and fell into the flow of bodies coming and going along sidewalks and the dusty street. Buggies pulled by reptile-like horses clattered by raising clouds, and on occasion (more so today it seemed) hummed the little cart-like cars possessed only by military and security. Yesterday they'd been a rarity, today they were spooking the crap out of the lizard horses.
The muscles of Lorne's shoulders and back tightened, and alarms sparked in his brain. " This doesn't look promising," he mumbled. Both Teyla and Ronon picked up on the reason for his sudden unease. Increase of security never heralded anything promising.
Rodney hardly noticed as he was squinting against the bright light of the glaring day. " What? What the hell are you talking about?"
Lorne nodded toward a passing mini-car. " Something's going on. More patrols, and people are looking a little nervous." And in a hurry to get where they were going. " I don't know about the rest of you, but I say we should use this as an excuse as to why we cut out of here early. I don't think Dr. Weir would fault us."
McKay glanced around, and slowly the goings on dawned on him. Patrols weren't just in cars. They were walking the streets as well, all with looks of intense concentration and determination, and armed to the teeth.
Lorne sifted through the possibilities for all this. " Either there's some kind of local turmoil going on – government thing – or... a prisoner escaped."
Rodney swallowed. " Possibly. Yeah, let's go home."
" I shall have someone send Judge Harl a message," Teyla said. That was what Lorne liked about this team – they caught on fast. Past experience taught them that at the first signs of potential chaos, it was time to hight-tail it out of Dodge, and not a second was to be wasted debating it.
" Good idea. Let's head back to the inn, grab our stuff, leave the message, then go before anyone seeks us out. We'll contact them tomorrow, see if what ever's going on has passed, tell 'em we had to leave for some emergency at home. That should keep them from getting offended or anything." There was a good chance they were being paranoid. But paranoia did pretty good at keeping them alive.
They increased their pace as fast as Dr. McKay's hangover would allow them. Lorne kept aware of the patrols' reactions to see if they picked on the alien teams' distress, but Lorne had the feeling that much of their determination was because they were nervous.
Prison escapes – if that was the case – must not have been a common occurrence. Or didn't reflect too well on the Chief Judge. And no one liked having a bad reputation.
SGA
Sheppard's angle against the wall let him see out the window without being seen. He saw the four, the faces, faces without names. People, people in dreams, and he knew them. He was supposed to know them. But maybe he made them up. No, you don't make people up and have them be real. They were real, he just saw them. And their faces sent pain spiking through his brain, like claws of fire ripping through his skull. He whimpered, shivered, and slid down the wall to huddle, begging his brain to shut up already.
SGA
Kace could be charming when he wanted to, and was one of the few men on any world that could admit it and know he was right. His smile was usually the ice-breaker, melting hearts of stone to putty. But there were the exceptions who fought it, and fought it hard – like Sereeka.
She kept her head down as she sifted through the shiny items in the silken rug laid out on the gritty floor. She wiped her nose on the dingy white sleeve of her blouse. Her sun-blond hair was pulled back from her face and hidden under a dark blue scarf, with a few strands framing her sharp, oval face. The large, blood-red skirt she wore whispered over the floor at the slightest movement, her booted feet scuffing when she shifted in her crouch.
" Good haul, Kace," she said, picking up some gold trinket then dropping it back with the rest.
Kace, also in a crouch before the pile, widened his grin. " Take your pick. Any one of these is worth your entire shop." The scent of baked bread slipping into Kace's nostrils from the door behind Sereeka had his stomach begging with grumbles and growls. " Lucky for your ma, I don't want the shop. Just a few loaves, maybe some meat strips for me and my friend back there." He jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where Sheppard was. Sereeka looked up, but not at Kace.
" He okay?"
Kace glanced back at Sheppard bundled on the floor, trembling with eyes squeezed shut. Kace had already caught the waves of pain rolling from him, he just couldn't explain it, not unless he scanned Sheppard's mind.
" Not really." He looked back to Sereeka. Her eyes were still honed on Sheppard. She may have been a former guest of Harl's prison system at one time, but as much as she carried herself as a supposed criminal and a fellow member of the unofficial thieves guilt, the girl had heart. It was what made her so reliable. She would help Kace no matter the danger to herself, because it wasn't the first time Kace had helped her by sharing his spoils worth so much in exchange for a mere loaf of bread.
Sareeka twitched a smile that didn't reach her eyes. " Can see that. Just keep him away from the window." She looked back at the trinkets. " I don't know, Kace. If the bruiser squad finds out I helped you..."
" Have they yet? Come on Ser, it's just a bit of food. Give us the goods, take an item, and trade it quick as you can for something else. You're queen of the black markets, you know where to get the bests deals. Better that then having us hide out here waiting for the heat to die down. Come on."
Sereeka shrugged. Kace knew – as a fact – that she was attempting to haggle, get more than one item, maybe even three. Really they had no time for this. The girl may have had heart, but it fought fiercely with her greed. It was time to pull out the big guns.
Staying in a crouch, he moved over to Sheppard, still curled like a quaking rag heap. " Hey, Shep, come here. I don't think you've been properly introduced." He slid his fingers around John's bicep and tugged gently. Sheppard spasmed with alarm, snapping from his pain-filled fog enough to move, pretty much crawling across the floor, to the rug where he sat with knees drawn to his chest and arms wrapped around them. The pain still pulsed, but more as a throb now. Sheppard needed to rest, but not here and not now.
" Sareeka," Kace said. " This is my pal Sheppard. Sheppard, Sareeka."
Sareeka nodded at him. " What was he in for?"
Kace shrugged. " Don't know."
Sereeka jerked her head back at that. " But..."
" I know. Harl's been heavy with the brain scrambler on him. But I can tell you this – I don't think he was in for anything. Harl was just using him."
" And you helped him out because...?"
Kace shrugged again. " Felt bad for him."
Sereeka snorted out a laugh at that. " Oh you've got to be kidding me. Pity? You're risking your hide for this guy because of pity?"
Kace mocked offense. " What, you don't think I have it in me to pass out a little kindness? I like the guy. He didn't try to kill me, rob me, or swindle me. Besides, he helped me out a little with the escape. I owed it to him to help him out... just for a little longer, until I can ditch him some place safe. I'm still not looking for a partner... Sereeka."
Sareeka smirked. " I know. You've told me... fifteen times. I can take a hint."
" Not really. Now you going to help us out? I mean look at this guy. How can you say no to giving food to a guy like him?"
Sereeka did look at him, and Kace felt the struggle as she tried not to give way to her own pity. The thin face with the colorful bruises, scabs, and bloodstains, the shadowed eyes with the sickly, confused stare, the way he was huddled, and the way he wouldn't stop trembling – it worked better than Kace's smile. Sereeka couldn't fight it. Pity blossomed in her like a flower. She looked back at the pile, and took a gold and silver bracelet inlaid with bits of prismatic crystals.
" Fine. Bread and meat it is." She looked at Kace, and gave him her own charming smile. " I'll even let you use our escape tunnel."
SGA
The majority of the older structures still retained the escape tunnels normally only found in the homes of the wealthy. They'd stopped being constructed when the ground became too unstable to support them. Sereeka's family business was ancient enough to still retain one. She led them to another room at the right, a pantry, and Kace helped her haul sacks and barrels away from the old trap door. Once cleared, Kace had Sheppard go first. He dropped the small sack of food down to the skinny man, who caught it. Kace then followed with a more effective sack for the trinkets and rug strapped to his back.
He used an electric light to illuminate the tunnel supported by wooden beams. Sereeka said it was about a quarter of a mile long, and would come out beyond the town into a heavily forested area. Kace moved at a pace conducive to what Sheppard could handle. Though Sheppard carried neither the trinket sack nor the food sack, he still stumbled, breathing with a wheeze, and he'd yet to stop shivering.
They came to the end, and a ladder leading up into what looked to be darkness until Kace shined the light at the capsule hiding the exit. He climbed first, reaching up to grab the handle and give it a twist. The capsule hissed with escaping air, popped open, and Kace shoved it the rest of the way. Sunlight poured over them white, blinding, and indescribably warm. Kace blinked, then inhaled deeply to release that air with a shouted whoop.
" Here's the air to breathe in, little friend!" he called down. " Real freedom!" He climbed from the hole and onto moist, mossy ground in a small clearing surrounded by tall, red-trunked trees. He peered into the hole to see Sheppard following, arms trembling with the effort. Kace dropped the food sack to reach in. Sheppard grabbed the proffered hand, and Kace hauled him the rest of the way out, the thin body dropping onto the ground, gasping. Kace grabbed Sheppard's arm for a secondary haul to the feet and let the man lean against him.
" Not yet, friend Shep. Just a little further." Kace crouched enough to grab the food bag, and they trudged on deeper into the woods, heading right as Sereeka had told them, toward the ring. Kace's plan? He wasn't quite sure yet. He needed to find those friends of Sheppard's, maybe wait near the gate enough to see it but not enough to be seen. The ring would be guarded, but the area not searched for some time, not until the town had been scoured nook to cranny first. The rest would be up to luck and the hope that Sheppard's friends headed back to their own world soon, but not too soon. Kace didn't mind the wait. He'd done it before. The guards weren't one hundred percent in their efforts, and the change in watch was when the best time to make a dash for the ring came. There would be plenty of opportunities to get through if Sheppard's friends lingered. But if that happened, then Kace would have no choice but to take on a partner.
The farther they trudged through the forest, over dead logs, fern clusters, and small hills, the more Sheppard leaned against Kace, his breath labored and raspy, and his tumbles increasing. Kace wasn't feeling too up for walking himself either, not with all the weight he had to carry. When they came to a small clearing that wasn't so mossy, Kace stopped, dropping the sack, then aiding Sheppard in easing him down against a tree. Sheppard went back to huddling, arms folded tight against his chest, and eyes heavy-lidded and blank.
Kace patted his shoulder. " You did good, friend Shep. You did good." He reached out and dragged the bag with the stolen goods inside closer to them both, reached in, and removed the two blankets Sereeka had handed over. He draped the brown blanket around Sheppard, and the shivering quickly subsided into twitches and shudders. Kace next pulled the food bag closer, rummaged around, and pulled out a loaf of bread he split in two, handing one half to Sheppard. The skinny man took it, bit into it, and chewed slowly without tasting.
Kace smiled and patted his shoulder again. " Hope for you yet."
SGA
Light always left the woods first before evening ever really came. Above, the tops of the trees were flecked with lingering gold, and the sky was gray-toned. Below, everything was various shades of gray and blue, and cool. Not a bad cool trying to drop the degrees down to intolerable cold. It was mild, tolerable, the kind of temperature that made sleeping out doors without the use of a fire possible, even enjoyable. Fortune was definitely smiling on Kace. This wasn't a good time for a fire with its pulsating light and pungent smoke that could be traced back to them if the right nose was following the unseen scent trail.
Fortune wasn't being too kindly to Sheppard in that respect. Even with the blanket he was still a quaking mass – and not out of fear this time around. The fear had been subdued, whittled down to uneasy wariness. A massive improvement in Kace's point of view. He knew it was selfish, but he'd been needing a break from Sheppard's never-ending aura of cold uncertainty-born terror.
Kace felt for the man, but was certain without a doubt that Sheppard would probably prefer the cold to Harl any day – were he right-minded enough to think at all.
The light hadn't faded enough to obscure sight. Sheppard was fading to a shadowed shape, just not yet with his pale face stark against the darkened tree trunk. Kace had passed the time regarding that face with the glassy eyes staring at nothing in particular – turned so inward Kace was surprised Sheppard could still see. Kace's internal debate – deep scan Sheppard or don't. There were three forms of a brain scan. The empathic that was constant, feeling presences and emotions, the regular, everyday scan of seeing what was on the surface – including dreams – then the more emergency based ability of the deep scan, which practically drilled into the subconscious. The latter tended to have an effect on the one being scanned, not always adverse, but in Sheppard's case the possibility was high. The scan usually brought those deep, hidden memories and emotions to the surface; never a good result for the mentally unstable and victims of a scrambler. Fragmented thought could not be forceably pieced back together. It had to be coaxed to keep the brain from overloading, shutting down, and either putting the person into a coma or killing them. Kace knew all of this from the images he'd gleaned from Gorek. The thug really was a fountain of info for being Harl's number one in security matters.
Kace picked up a twig and snapped it one-handed using his thumb. To scan or not to scan? There was safety to it if Kace had something to focus on. A lesser scan could help him find that something, but he'd just eaten and his stomach wouldn't take to kindly to the ride.
Unless Sheppard's brain had calmed down since their escape.
Kace tossed the mutilated stick away. The daytime sounds of the forest dwindled to a single, distant call that was both a hoot and a click. A stronger gusting breeze had the trees whispering, and the collar of Kace's coat flipping up into his face. He honed his empathic senses on Sheppard, but got only what he'd been feeling since they got to the woods – a constant stream of confusion.
Kace smirked bitterly. " They worked you over quite nice, friend Shep."
Sheppard's head twitched, then moved to meet Kace's gaze through the darkness. There was a small inkling of awareness in the previously glassy eyes. Kace caught the ripple of child-like curiosity - tempered, cautious, but unable to be held back. It was as though Sheppard were realizing Kace's presence for the first time.
Kace's smirk became a genuine smile. " Bet you're wondering why I rescued you, right? Well, you would be if you had sense enough to be wondering anything at all. You'd ask me straight on, and all I could give you was a shrug and an 'I don't know' in return. Not good answers, I know." Kace shifted to a more comfortable position against his own tree. " I would say pity played a part, but I doubt you'd like that. You don't seem the type who would. Too bad, though. Pity had plenty to do with it. But don't get me wrong. There's respect to it too." Kace sighed contentedly on finding the perfect position with one leg drawn up and the other stretched before him. " Really you've got my mother to thank. Woman had a heart in her the size of a mountain. Though my father wasn't without his compassion. Comes with the territory of a mind delver," Kace tapped the side of his head. " You don't go looking into other people's heads and continue with the notion that the world revolves around you. Some folks you come to understand, some you get more confused by. Where I come from, we're not a happy people, Shep. If we were left alone we would be. No crime, no secrets... not really any privacy either but you get used to that. Keeps you from giving into stupidity, because you know for an utter fact you're always being watched. Not judged, mind you, but folks are aware. And when you do something wrong, rather than the right out punishments, you get the silent treatment, and that hurts worse than any whooping my father sometimes gave me."
Kace chuckled, toying with a fresh twig, turning it over and over in his hands, studying it without comprehending it. " I'm sorry, I'm rambling. No, we're happy when left to our own devices as a group. It's everyone else who butts in, really, and they don't even read minds. Nope, they just use us to read everyone else's. My people have been drifters since before the wraith, it's said. Or maybe because of the wraith, don't really know anymore. And yet the Regime still manages to find us. The Regime – you might call 'em intruders that don't know how to leave. I'd say they were bad as the wraith... Well, they are, except for the whole eating thing. No, the Regime don't eat us. They just come in, take a few, get us to do their little bidding, and kill the ones they don't have use for. And why can't we fight 'em with our supreme mental powers? Because someone gave 'em a device that keeps us from entering their minds. Kind of like the device that put a twister in your head to shatter everything to pieces – except the one for us doesn't hurt, just keeps us out of the upstairs if you know what I mean. So we never see them coming. And they're mean about it. They won't hesitate to kill the ones that get in the way. They don't need that many, just a few."
Kace snapped the twig with his thumb at each inch-length interval. " My mother used to say 'we're in it together.' I used to think she was talking about our people in general, which she was I guess. But she was never the type to refuse help to a stranger. You can't ignore the suffering – she'd say that too. Silly me, I thought she was telling me what to do. But you know what? She wasn't reciting a rule... She was stating a fact." Kace tossed the stick away with a shrug. " Never really realized it 'til later on, and even then I held to being stubborn and always tried to put reason behind what I did. I never wanted to give into my mom's ideal world of folk helping folk when no one was so inclined to help us. When the Regime took my dad, and the wraith came and took my mom, I made it my mission to be the biggest thorn in everyone's side I could. Life became about maintaining my freedom. Steal to live, that was my mantra. Live by the weapon, die by the weapon, and never be taken. But then butted in that pesky need to help out. And I tell you, friend Shep, you are the epitome of it, because you are of absolutely no use to me. But can I leave you behind? No! Not by a long shot. Why? I still don't know. Guess there doesn't have to be rhyme or reason to it... or maybe the fact that I like you is enough. Only my mom and dad had as much guts as you. Or maybe it has nothing to do with guts. Maybe you're so fractured in the skull, you don't realize what you're doing."
Twilight had come, the woods drenched in shades of dark and darker blue so that Kace could not longer see Sheppard's face, only the shape of his head and spiky hair. It was enough for a lesser scan attempt. Ignoring a protesting stomach, Kace went for it.
Images raced through his own mind; faces, places, feelings, one having nothing to do with the other, but all leading to other images, other faces, names, and feelings. It was like how the mind tends to wander, with one thought dredging up another. Yet instead of it being a leisurely stroll to enjoy the scenery, it was a race run by a hundred runners, pushing to take the lead, then falling back. Then it would stop when Sheppard could take no more. The mind would go blank – for a moment. Thoughts crept in, small ones, nothing significant, but would lead to something else, which would lead to something else, and the race would start up again. If there had been a sound to it, it would have been a deafening roar. Kace pulled out with a blink.
" It's a mess in there, Shep." Kace shook his head. " A real nasty mess." If dreams didn't flicker by so fast, they could have provided the info Kace sought. Sheppard had always proved most clam and steady during sleep. Kace sighed.
" Okay, how about this. How'd Harl get a hold of you, Shep? Think you could dredge that up for a second? I don't need that long."
Kace grimaced at what he was about to do, but it was a skill he'd sharpened over the years, enough to know when to pull out. He returned to scanning Sheppard, squinting against the onrush of images. " How'd Harl get you, Shep? How'd he find you...?"
Kace rolled from his position to creep closer to Sheppard, just enough to see the man's eyes through the darkness. Contact had to be more refined than a simple visual of the face. He stopped a foot from Sheppard, sat with legs crossed and hands clasped. " Come on, Shep... How'd Harl find you...?"
Flash, flash, flash. Too fast. Except... one image made a constant return. Looked like... space... Flash, ships. Flash, hive ships? Flash, Sheppard. Flash, Sheppard in a ship. Flash, a real flash, blinding. Flash, going down. Flash, crash, flash, pain, flash cry of agony, flash, cry for help, flash, voices, flash...
Contact broke when Sheppard dropped his head with hands snapping up to grab his hair. Kace felt pain smack him in the face, and he jerked back in shock, gasping.
" Ah no, Sheppard I am so sorry... I didn't mean..."
Sheppard was gasping, rocking, with twitches and muscle spasms increasing. The realization of what Kace had done was worse than the slap from the pain. He grabbed both of Sheppard's shoulders and gently eased him to the ground just as the man's body quaked and convulsed in a seizure. Kace's heart hammered hard enough to break out. He kept hold of Sheppard's shoulders as the man thrashed, arched up, gasped, and trembled with arms flailing rigidly. Pain and panic was all Kace could sense. Guilt stabbed him, and he didn't try to hold back the tears. They deserved to be shed. He knew he shouldn't have done this.
" It's okay Shep, it's okay. Just hang on, it'll be over soon. I'm sorry, I am so sorry..."
Sheppard kept arching, hands slamming onto the ground, clawing the dirt, beating against it. Any further, and Sheppard's spine was going to snap. Kace leaned onto him using his weight to try and push Sheppard down, feeling the viciously rapid pulse of the heart through the thin chest.
" Come on, Shep, come on, don't do this, just relax, come on..."
Suddenly, Sheppard's body dropped, Kace's dropping with it. The man went limp as a rag doll and, say for the heaving of his entire ribcage, didn't move. Kace scrabbled off of Sheppard and ran both hands over his prickly scalp.
" Oh wow! Oh that was bad." He put one hand back on Sheppard's chest, over the heart, and breathed out his relief to feel it descending to normal rhythms. He patted John's chest. " It's over Shep. Whew! It's over. You did good, Shep, you did good."
Kace proceeded to wrap the blanket tight around Sheppard's still-twitching frame. He pulled the rug from the bag of goods, and folded it into a pillow to place under the man's head. " I bust you out only to kill you? Some pal I am, huh, Shep? We won't be doing that again any time soon."
Guilt continued to gnaw at Kace; guilt and concern. He couldn't say if the scrambler was to blame, or the forced memories, but a seizure over a solitary event wasn't boding anything good. If one memory did this, what would a thousand memories called up by the familiar faces of old friends do?
SGA
A/N: What will they do indeed? Still with me? Feed a muse, leave a review.
