Here it is. The final chapter. I want to say thank you for everyone's reviews constructive or congratulatory or otherwise. I always enjoy seeing review alert in my inbox. Hope you enjoyed reading this.

---------------------------

Laraby had managed to get himself lost in the process of searching for Sheppard, so it was a stroke of luck when he palmed one of the doors open onto a balcony and found Colonel Sheppard, dressed in scrubs, and leaning against the railing. Even with his back to him, Laraby could see that the Colonel was shivering and battling just to stay upright.

He reached up to his earpiece, "This is-"

"Don't," Sheppard strangled out of his throat before Laraby could continue.

"Sir, are you okay?" Laraby asked as he joined him by the railing.

He watched his CO's arms tremble involuntarily.

Sheppard didn't answer, he just continued to stare out at the sea.

"I really think you should get back to the infirmary."

"I'm fine," Sheppard said standing up straighter as if to make a point.

"Everyone's looking for you."

"I'm sure they are," Sheppard muttered, "I'll go back in a minute."

Silence fell between them and Laraby broke it.

"Do you mind if I stay?"

Sheppard turned to him with a weary smile and said, "Sure. Knock yourself out."

The sea was crashing loudly below and sea spray, having hitched a ride on the wind, swirled in the air.

"If you don't mind me asking Sir. Why are you out here?"

Sheppard was gripping the railing tightly and leaning heavily, "Just needed some fresh air."

"I think Doctor Mckay is going to be pissed with you."

Sheppard chuckled, "He's always pissed with me. No, it's Carson you have to watch out for."

"Has all the pointy needles right?" Laraby asked as he looked down at the swirling sea.

Laraby pulled his jacket around his neck to shield it from the biting wind. He noted that Sheppard's skin was prickled with goose bumps but stubbornness was keeping him rooted to the spot.

"I lost two men off-world in a wraith attack," Sheppard said as he stared out at the horizon.

"King and Adams?" Laraby enquired as he leaned against the railing. He had heard Sheppard call out their names on one of his watches.

"Yeah. Quite a body count I have now." He shook his head, "They'll never learn."

"Who?"

"The new recruits. Earth," he sighed wearily and turned to look at Laraby.

Laraby could see that he had dark circles under his eyes that were betraying the Colonel's true physical state. He was exhausted.

"Nobody can be prepared for the wraith. You saw that right?"

Laraby nodded, "Yeah, I did."

He could see that Colonel Sheppard desperately needed to be reassured that he had done all that he could have under the circumstances. Laraby at the time had dismissed his concerns and been slow to follow his orders out in Afghanistan, but now the truth was gradually being revealed to him.

"So, how do I make them….get it?" Sheppard asked as he released the railing.

Laraby watched Sheppard, expecting him to fall, but was surprised when he managed to stand without the aid of support.

"That's what I've been thinking about. How to make them see the real threat." Sheppard held a hand protectively over his side, "Ah, I don't know. "

"I could talk to your new recruits if you wanted," Laraby suggested.

He didn't like public speaking, in fact, he hated it, but Sheppard was right. Perhaps if he could connect with the new recruits and explain to them the threat the wraith posed they might actually listen.

"You'd do that?"

Laraby had to wonder if it was his guilt that was making him more receptive to Sheppard.

"Yeah."

Sheppard leant against the railing again and resumed his shivering. Again, a thin sheen of sweat was popping up on his forehead.

"Have you told them about Afghanistan?" Laraby asked.

"No," Sheppard said.

"Are you going to?"

"I don't know. I signed a confidentiality clause with the SGC shadow committee, if I tell people on Atlantis they have the power to relieve me of my position."

"You don't want to end up like Colonel Stark huh?"

"You heard?"

"Yeah," Laraby stated.

Laraby watched as Sheppard's eyes closed suddenly and he seemed to sag. He reached out and tucked an arm around Sheppard's waist before he could topple over.

"Thanks," Sheppard said weakly.

"I'll call Doctor Beckett."

Sheppard looked down at his side and cursed, "Yeah, I think you better had."

Blood had seeped through his scrub top.

----------------------------

As Sheppard was wheeled back into the infirmary he hung his head and cringed when he saw Mckay, Ronon, Teyla and Elizabeth all standing by his bed and waiting for him.

"Colonel M.I.A returns," Mckay announced as Sheppard was helped back onto his bed.

"I'm sorry," Sheppard said as Beckett helped him get more comfortable.

"You worried us all, John," Elizabeth said.

"I was only gone for an hour or…….so," Sheppard defended as Beckett pulled up his scrubs top and started to examine his torn stitches.

"Well, I'm going to have to re-stitch this….again," Beckett said with a shake of his head.

"I'm sorry," Sheppard said again, "I just needed to get out of here for a while."

"You could have asked one of us," Mckay said.

"He should have asked me," Beckett stated.

"And I'm sorry. I was feeling better, I wanted some air, I should have told all of you and I didn't. I won't do it again."

"We are only concerned for your welfare," Teyla said with a small smile.

"We did not want you to bench-press any kittens," Ronon said.

"Well I'm-" Sheppard stopped speaking and tilted his head, "Did you just say-"

"Yes, he said bench-press kittens. So, what's this Laraby character doing here?" Mckay asked as the rest of the team filtered off and Beckett disappeared to get the equipment to re-suture Sheppard's wound.

"Laraby?" Sheppard asked as he attempted to get more comfortable.

"Yes, you know, the guy I watched beat you up when you touched that device."

Mckay sat down next to his bed and crossed his arms over his chest, "Well?"

"Well…."Sheppard repeated.

"This is the part where you explain why he's here."

"Oh," Sheppard nodded, "We've sorted that out."

"What?"

"Look Rodney. You'll find out in time."

Mckay raised his eyebrows.

"And look, here's Carson with the suture kit," Sheppard said, breathing a sigh of a relief.

-------------------------------

Two weeks later:

Sheppard entered his quarters and scanned the room with a look of disdain. His two week old laundry was still on his floor. He was surprised that they hadn't walked themselves down to the laundry room by now. Actually, he was more disappointed that his friends hadn't done it for him.

He dropped down onto his bed slowly, grimacing as his side pulled and realised that he was thoroughly exhausted. Although he had managed to battle the infection, his side was still going to take a further few weeks to fully heal.

A knock at his door had him pushing himself back up and sluggishly meandering over to the door.

"Laraby?"

"Sir," Laraby glanced behind him nervously and then said, "Can I come in?"

Sheppard stood aside, "If you don't mind the mess."

Laraby walked in, acknowledged the pile of his CO's underpants, and then turned to Sheppard as he closed the door.

"Good to see you up and about," Laraby said.

Sheppard walked over to the chair by his desk and sat down, "Well, I'm still not completely recovered but I think Carson was getting a little annoyed with me."

Laraby nodded.

"What's on your mind Lt?"

"This," Laraby said reaching into his jacket pocket and passing Sheppard the data storage device.

Sheppard turned it over in his hands and looked up with raised eyebrows.

"You'd forgotten I had it," Laraby stated.

"What with the nearly dying and everything," Sheppard said standing up and pacing.

"Well you said to guard it with my life. I figured that you would want it back."

Sheppard licked his lips thoughtfully, "You should give this to Mckay."

"I should?"

"Yeah, let him look it over."

"But-"

"Not yet," Sheppard said, "I'm not going to tell them yet."

"But you are going to tell them."

"Yeah."

---------------------------

Sheppard was in the gateroom. His recruits lined up in front of him, waiting expectantly for him to say something. Sheppard was attempting to fake the gait of a man who was healthy and well and who could command his troops. Today he wasn't pulling it off and as he stood in front of their gazes he could feel his stomach roiling and his head spinning. He looked more like a drunk with the way he was reeling left and right. He should have waited until he was completely healed, but he had waited long enough. His new recruits had yet to have their formal induction and he would be damned if a bullet wound to his side was going to stop him.

"Well," he started.

His voice sounded scratchy and pre-pubescant, not the commanding voice he was going for. He tried again, "Well, you all know why you're here," he said starting to pace.

He stopped, closed his eyes and swallowed against another bout of nausea. The pain medication he had been given by Beckett was making him feel like crap, but he wasn't the type of person to lie in bed and bemoan that fact until he was well again.

No, there were things to be done.

"Sir?" one of his recruits was stepping forward, "Are you okay?"

Sheppard snapped his eyes open and squinted against the sudden brightness of the room lights, "I'm fine," he smiled.

The recruit stepped back into line and shared a nervous glance with his team mate.

"You know the role of the military here," he said swallowing hard, "To maintain safety, order, to protect the many civilians we have living here." He stopped and thought about what he was saying. It was all coming out wrong. He wanted to sound commanding and look commanding, instead he was feeling green. He bent forward, blew out some air and then tried to straighten up again, "We're the backbone of this expedition-" he started to say and felt the dizziness begin to take hold of him.

He scanned the faces and saw the Jefferies and the rest of the men from the off-world mission. He had requested that they attend this meeting for the new men, after all, they had to start from the beginning and re-learn everything. They hadn't seemed to take it in the first time.

"The wraith are a real threat here in the Pegasus Galaxy," Sheppard said in a loud voice, "just ask Jeffereies here."

He couldn't help but smile as all of his men turned to get a look at Jefferies.

Jefferie's eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.

"Isn't that right?"

"Yes Sir."

"So, if you have any questions about the wraith, Jefferies is the man to ask. Room 57 isn't it?"

"Uh, Yes Sir."

Unexpectedly, Sheppard felt himslef stumble and somebody caught him by the elbow before he could go down. He looked up expecting it to be one of his recruits, but instead it was much worse.

It was Colonel Caldwell.

"Are you okay to do this?" Caldwell whispered so nobody could hear, all the while still holding Sheppards elbow.

Sheppard tried to extricate from Caldwell's grip as gently as possible without it looking like a flinch and stood straight, "Im fine." He whispered back looking at his recruits.

"It doesn't look that way. If you had told me you were ill I would have conducted the welcome."

"Its important that their commanding officer is here when-" he stopped and reached up to push the pads of his thumbs into his eyes.

"Colonel, I suggest you go have a lie down. We could reschedule this meeting-"

"No!" Sheppard suddenly snapped.

As soon as he had spoken he regretted it, especially as his voice seemed to echo around the gateroom threefold, "No," he said trying to bring his voice down to an acceptable level.

"You're ill."

Sheppard examined the look in Caldwell's eyes and for once there wasn't the stern, indifference he usually saw. There was something else. Caldwell actually seemed concerned.

"I'm handling this."

"You've only just been released from the infirmary. Your men will understand-"

Sheppard turned and steered Caldwell with him, "I'm trying to get across the importance of-"

"The chain of command?" Caldwell asked with a wry grin.

Sheppard nodded not missing the implied joke.

"Look Colonel. The Commanding officer of atlantis needs to be in the best health. You should take it easy. We can resched-"

Caldwell had referred to him as the CO of Atlantis. He realised that Caldwell was trying to help him out.

"We wont rescedule. You…."Sheppard faltered, "You do this," he said gesturing to his men.

Caldwell look surprised.

As Sheppard walked off he heard Caldwell say, "Colonel Sheppard has some matters to attend to so if you don't mind I will be answering questions you may have-"

------------------

As Sheppard negotiated the corridors of Atlantis his earpiece was activated and Mckay's voice came over the airwaves.

"Colonel?"

"Yes Rodney?" Sheppard asked as he drank some water from a bottle.

Getting out from under the glare of his men and having a quick lie down had down the world for him.

"You have got to get down to my lab."

"What's up?"

"Well, you know that shady character Laraby?"

"Yes Rodney," Sheppard asked knowing what he was going to say.

"You're not going to believe what he handed me!"

Sheppard entered Mckay's lab and de-activated his earpiece, "Wraith data storage device?"

Mckay, who had had his back to him, twisted on his heel, "What!?"

"That's what Laraby handed you."

"How did you….." Mckay looked at the floor with a defeated expression, "You ruined my surprise!"

"Sorry," Sheppard said as he leant against one of the lab's tables.

"How do you know about this?" Mckay asked as he walked over to his laptop and typed in a few commands.

"Because he got it off me."

Mckay looked like he was going to implode, "What!?"

"That's why I came here," Sheppard said as he walked towards the door, "Come to the conference room at 1500 hours and bring what you've found."

-------------------------------

Sheppard felt nervous as he watched Elizabeth, Caldwell, Teyla, Ronon, Beckett, Laraby and Mckay file into the conference room.

When they were seated and settled, Sheppard closed the door and turned to them, "You might be wondering why I asked you all here-"

"I was," Elizabeth said clasping her hands and leaning forwards.

"Me too," Mckay said, crossing his arms.

"Well, I'm not supposed to tell you any of this, but I think you deserve to know."

Caldwell met his eyes and Sheppard nodded.

He spent a few minutes re-ordering his thoughts.

"I was recalled back to earth to lead a mission into Afghanistan and…" he paused, "to search and destroy a wraith hive ship."

"What?" Mckay asked.

Teyla and Ronon shared a quick look and Caldwell simply nodded in confirmation. He had guessed that that was what he had beamed Sheppard out of.

"Why weren't we informed about this?" Elizabeth asked, her eyes narrowing, the hurt palpable in her eyes.

"Because the SGC's shadow committee let the Air Force deal with it, so the SGC itself wasn't aware."

Sheppard leaned against the table and stared down at his palms, "Anyway, it was believed that there were no wraith in the hive ship but-"

"There were," Laraby interjected, "Lots of them and they killed the rest of our men."

"How many?" Teyla asked sadly.

"Four and three special ops," Laraby answered before Sheppard could.

"Oh my god," Elizabeth said in a low voice.

"We managed to destroy the ship and-"

"Retrieve a wraith data storage device," Mckay added at the last moment.

Sheppard nodded.

Mckay stood up and turned his laptop around for everyone to see, "This device has given us a wealth of information about the positions of hive ships, schematics…………….."

-----------------------------------------

It was late and the commissary was quiet when Sheppard sat down on his favourite table.

He breathed out and took a swig of his tea.

Silently Laraby sat down opposite him with a mug of coffee.

Sheppard acknowledged him and sipped his tea.

"Glad you told them?" Laraby asked.

Sheppard looked at him over the rim of his mug, his eyes telling him he was.

Laraby placed his mug on the table and placed his palms face down, "Sir," he started, "I just want you to know that……….I was wrong about you."

Sheppard placed his own mug down, "You were?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty convinced."

Laraby sighed uncomfortably and got to his feet, "Well, I'm going to have an early night. Got that speech tomorrow for the new recruits."

Sheppard smiled and drank his tea.

"Goodnight Sir."

When Laraby had gone Sheppard yawned and said, "Goodnight Lt."

Tonight he might actually sleep.

THE END

Thank you, thank you, thank you for the reviews. I do hope you enjoyed my ending and I'm pretty sure I tied everything up. I really felt it was time to draw it to a close. It's been difficult to write at the best of times.

Look out for my next story.