Chapter 42: Awakening

Doctor Reilly watched the sleeping colonel; his vitals had indicated he was in the process of waking up. They had decided to discharge all the other patients in the infirmary, with the exception of the O'Neills, before reducing Sheppard's levels of anesthesia. He was just now beginning to stir and Reilly knew from experience it wouldn't be long until he regained full consciousness.

He pulled on a pair of gloves determined to do a quick check before the colonel had any questions. He quickly checked each of the surgical incisions he had been required to make to stabilize the bone. The anesthesia had been reduced quite some time ago and at first there had been some concern as Sheppard hadn't responded. The ever perceptive General however, noticing the increased activity, had inquired as to the concern. When they had explained the problem he had allayed their fears somewhat explaining the recovery time after having been in the tank. Finishing his examination and, happy that there were no signs of infection; Reilly looked back up only to look into the half closed eyes of a very sluggish Colonel Sheppard.

"How's it hanging Doc?" Sheppard asked as he struggled to regain full consciousness. He sounded rough but not the rough of someone who had had a tube down their throat, for a change, but rather that of one who had not used their voice for some time.

"Not too bad Colonel, how about yourself?"

"I didn't think I was getting out of that tank that last time." He looked around taking in his surroundings "How did I get here, we are a long way from earth." He shifted slightly and winced as he pulled at numerous sutures, they had been keeping his levels of pain medication low until they were sure he was coming round.

Reilly determined to fix this as soon as he had finished examining the stab sites. He answered without looking up as he continued his examination. "A ship was detected heading our way several days ago, about the same time Ronon appeared with your brother in tow." Heading off the next question he continued "They are both fine. They explained what had happened, giving Colonel Carter and Major Lorne plenty of time to prepare. As a result, your captors beamed up a fully prepared raiding party, I imagine it was quite a shock. How are you feeling Colonel?"

"I've been better." He admitted.

Reilly had finished his exam, he knew that Sheppard would want answers and so he preempted him "You were stabbed several times but seem to have been lucky in that most of the wounds, while deep, were not life threatening."

At this point Sheppard chuckled softly; "No luck involved."

Reilly decided not to tax the man by asking him to explain and instead continued "Doctor Keller had to expand one of the wounds in order to access your liver to repair it as it had been nicked. That was very successful and, barring any infections, you should make a full recovery." Reilly could see Sheppard examining the cast on his leg before he moved over to the other leg which had been propped up on pillows. "One of your legs was broken in a manner that allowed me to set it and put it in a cast but your other leg required surgical fixing. The tibia and fibula were both snapped, if it had just been the fibula we would have set it however the tibia is the weight baring bone, it takes about ninety percent of the weight. To stabilize it we had to insert an intramedullary nail which is inserted down the central channel of the bone and then screwed in place. It should get you back on your feet much faster and prevent future breaks from occurring easily."

Sheppard laughed lightly again but this time there was far less bitterness behind his laugh "I'm a regular wolverine."

Reilly got the reference immediately and smiled "If only Colonel; it would make your trips to the infirmary much less frequent." He picked up a syringe he had prepared earlier "This is just a mixture of painkiller and antibiotics," he informed as he injected it into Sheppard's IV port "now that you are awake and I can see you are lucid we will up the dose of pain medications. I have to warn you colonel, even though the surgical fixation will speed up your recovery I would still expect it to be somewhere between four to six months before you are going to be fit for duty."

Sheppard paled; a diagnosis like that generally meant being sent back to earth during rehabilitation. "When are they going to send me back?" he asked trying to keep the worry out of his voice.

Reilly grinned mischievously; "The decision of when, or if, you will get sent back to earth ultimately falls to Colonel Carter. At present she is very busy preparing to debrief all the other captives from earth before she can even start getting all the paperwork that they will need to sign sorted. Then of course she will need to organize sending everyone home. Do you know how many people were taken from earth alone? I should imagine it will take quite some time to transport one thousand plus people via the midway station. I'm sure the SGC personnel can be sent back with the Deadalus but I think it's preferable not to subject civilians to another three weeks on a ship."

Reilly could see the colour returning to the Colonel's face and the tension leeching out of his body and so decided to continue "Of course Colonel Carter also has to figure out how to deal with your former captors as well as working out which of the other captives we are going to be able to return home and which we are going to have to relocate. Overall I should say it could be quite some time before she is able to file a report on a single member of her expedition let alone make any decisions regarding that individual." Reilly smiled again "Get some rest Colonel; we will cross any other bridges as we have to. Oh, but before you do go back to sleep I'm sure Doctor Keller would like to talk to you quickly and I'm not sure how much longer the infirmary staff are going to be able to fend off your team and your brother."

Reilly moved off to find Keller; he could see that the painkillers were doing their jobs and it wouldn't be long before Sheppard dropped off again. He found Jennifer quickly and gave her a brief rundown of Sheppard's condition and the information he had given him. Jennifer thanked him and moved off keen to catch Sheppard before he fell asleep again.

A/N: Thank you so much to everyone who is sticking with me and continuing to provide feedback. As usual im sorry for the delay but i never seem to have any free time these days; the costs of being a medical student i suppose. I was trying to work out the other day why i was finding it so much harder to write this story that the last one and I think I have come up with an answer, when I was younger I used to lie in bed and let my imagination run away with me... these days my head barely hits the pillows before im asleep. I thought I was coming towards the end of this story but it turns out the plot bunny finally decided to make an appearance and give me some ideas which could make this story substantially longer than I had originally intended. Those of you who have been following this story since the beginning (and based on recent reviews some of you have been) you should know that so far you have followed me through on country move, 7 house moves one whole university degree, territorial army training and, to this point, a third of a second degree. If any of you have been following me since i published my first story you can add another country move and another couple of houses as well as finishing school. Know that whatever life throws my way one day this story will be finished (at that point i may go back through all the chapters and edit them to remove all my authors notes); there will be another chapter heading your way as soon as i have had time to type it up!