A.N.- Alright, here's the next chapter. Hopefully I'll have the whole thing written soon but I'm kinda at stand still right now but don't worry, I continue till it's done. ......and again I don't own 'em, wish I did but I don't.

Trouble: chapter ten

Sara's mouth hung open, unabashedly as the puddle jumper appeared through the stargate into the Atlantis gateroom before rising to the hanger bay above them. This small portion was huge and beautiful. Pastel blues and greens along with warmer hues decorating each walls with a unique pattern without clashing with the other walls. Each ascent was different yet similar enough for someone not to notice. It was a stark contrast to the plan gray walls she had seen for so many years. A small group of people ran into the jumper and directly to John. They gently shifted him from her lap onto a stretcher, Sheppard cracking his eyes open only long enough to see who was touching him before he slammed his eyes shut again against the pain of moving. John was soon rolled out of her sight and all Sara wanted was to follow him but she was already surrounded by her own team of medics, gently urging her onto another stretcher.

"No, really. I can walk." Sara insisted, pushing away a nurse's hand.

"Please, ma'am. Allow us to do our jobs." A young man told her, taking one of her arms and guiding her to the awaiting stretcher. Sara finally did allow them to roll her away at the reassuring nod of Ronon.

As Colonel Carter had expected, Sheppard's team members were still milling in the infirmary waiting area three hours after John had been taken into the exam room. The ever present clicking of McKay's computer echoed throughout the room, a cup of coffee sitting on the table beside him. Ronon was up and pacing the confines of the small room, his gaze landing on the door every few minutes. Teyla sat in the chair closest to the door, guilt and worry written across her face. Evan sat beside her, his strong hand tightly clamped over hers. This didn't go unnoticed by Sam but being as they were so far from Earth and Teyla was alien, she smiled to herself and pretended she didn't notice. Sighing she took a seat next to Rodney, peering over his shoulder only once to see what he was working on. She knew he only worked to distract himself and most of the work he was doing, he would scrap due to many mistakes he would make in his worry, so she didn't bother to point them out to him.

"I called in Carson from off world." Carter said to no one in particular, feeling the need to convince herself as well as the rest of the people. "He has the best of the best working on him." Everyone nodded but said no more, leaving the room to silence.

After sitting for what seemed like hours the infirmary doors opened and Keller and Carson both walked into the room, mirror exhaustion on their faces. The occupants of the entire room had jumped from their seats when the door had opened and were now waiting in earnest for the doctors to share the news of their commanding officer and friend.

"The lad's stable. He's being prepped for surgery as we speak." The Scott began.

"Surgery? You can't do surgery on him with that drug still in his system! You so much as touch him and it sends him into a moaning fit. It'll kill him if you start cutting him open." Rodney snapped in a concerned voice.

"We have no choice, Rodney." Keller stepped in, holding her hands up as if to ward off a fight. "His kidneys and liver alone are badly bruised and even torn in certain places. His ribs are scrapping against his lungs and will puncture them at any time. He has a good amount of internal bleeding that we need to fix if he's to survive the night."

"But what about the drug?" Ronon asked in his gruff voice.

"We have tested our anesthetics with the sample of the drug Lt. Yoshino's team managed to retrieve an' we feel the best bet to knock 'im down wit'out any reaction from the drug would be masking 'im down with Isoflorane wit'out any pre meds." Just as Beckett finished a nurse walked in the room.

"Doctors, we're ready."

"Keep ya fingers crossed." Carson told the group and headed out of the room with Jennifer.

Both Carson and Jennifer were scrubbed and ready to go as they walked into the surgery suite. Nervousness hung in the air, no one was sure how well the anesthetic would work when faced with a sensory enhancer but there was no time to allow it to wear off. The antidote had worked to an extent but Carson suspected that when the two drugs were mixed, as Jennifer had said, that they had then became an entirely new compound. The Colonel was already laid on the table and masked down. The nurse currently had him cranked up to 5% to ensure he was in a deep enough plane. She would soon lighten it in order to keep him under but they feared if they kept him at too high a percent he would fall into too deep a plane of anesthesia and never wake up. The balance was tricky but he trusted the nurse's knowledge and attention to detail. She would inform them of the smallest change in the Colonel's vitals, allowing them to pay attention to the surgery at hand.

"Ready, lass?" Carson asked the doctor in front of him.

She nodded and they began into the long and intricate surgery. Slowly, Jennifer began the first incision.

"Doctors." The anesthetist spoke up. "His pulse jumped to 200 but I still have him at 5%."

"We'll have to turn him down and just hope he's not as bad as we expect." Keller replied, sighing. They began to work as quickly as they could without over-looking anything, encouraged to hurry even more at the sight of the tears leaking from their patients closed eyes. The thought of laying there, unable to move or verbalize your pain caused each of their stomachs to flip but if they didn't get this surgery done and over with the Colonel would die.

Four hours later the group had yet to really move from the waiting room, Sam having left to inform the SGC of the most resent news and to discuss the future of the newest resident in the Atlantis holding cell. Rodney's ramblings were now pages long and though it didn't make much sense his attention was still solely on the screen, at least thats what he wanted people to think. In truth his mind was on only the man on the other side of the door, his life lying in the hands of the best doctors in two galaxies. Jennifer and him had been dating for a few weeks now. He had complete trust in her abilities as well as Carson's. Rodney sighed as he glanced again at the door, wishing for it to open and for the man he had grown to call a best friend to walk through all smiles and wise cracks.

Teyla sat across the room, her face still the epitome of guilt, her hand tightly grasping onto Lorne's who was sitting close to her. Her eyes seemed to stare off into blank space but her gaze was always directed towards the door. The 'what ifs' swarmed the Athosian's mind. Should she have done something different? Maybe if she had dragged 8888 to the jumper when he was stunned. She knew that would have only ended in her own capture but she still wondered. Maybe she should have given herself up to Sora. If she had John would not have had to suffer like this. While Teyla's head was filled with worries, Evan's was filled with anger. They had released Sora only a year ago, the IOA finally feeling as if they had gleaned all the information they could from her. He didn't know how she had gathered so many followers in so short a time. He had known the Genii nation was in chaos, many different groups attempting to over throw Radim's rein but he never would have thought the people so desperate for a leader as to follow a revenge happy former soldier. They never should have released her. Locking her away until the world ended or she died, which ever came first. At the moment he would have even dropped her in the middle of the nearest wraith populated planet. Which was the current problem Colonel Carter was having with the IOA once again. Last he had heard there was a nice little cell far from the sun for her to enjoy back on earth, which was fine with Lorne. He wanted her as far away from Atlantis as possible, especially from Teyla. He wasn't sure he had begun to care for the Athosian woman. When you were basically cut off from everything you ever knew you tended to rely and draw closer to the people you knew but the care he felt for Teyla seemed to go beyond that. He loved her. He wanted to be there for her, needed to be. A helpless feeling gnawed at his gut. He was powerless to do anything to help now. The rescue had meant he could do something but now that he was safe back home but now his life was in the hands of the doctors. Evan was lost when it came to the medical stuff. He could do the minimum in battle, field dressings and such. Tell him the step by step process for certain injuries but he couldn't tell you why you did them or how they helped. So now he was helpless. He could tell the rest of the room felt the same way. McKay may understand some of the medical terms but for the most part didn't. Ronon paced the floor, back and forth until Lorne was sure there were faint tread marks lining his path. He was just about to mention this to the man when the door they had long waited to open did just that. A very tired looking Jennifer Keller walked into the room and without a word plopped into the chair beside McKay. The group all looked towards her, silently pleading with their eyes for news of the Lt. Col. Jennifer looked as if she was able to sleep for days, her eyelids sagging even now but somehow she managed to wake herself up enough to answer their stares.

"He's recovering." She stated. "The surgery went as well as it could. The enhancers are still in his system so we had to watch his vitals closely."

"When will we be able to see him?" Teyla asked.

"We've got him under some heavy pain meds. He has swelling along his spinal cord so we have him on NSAIDS. They'll delay his healing but We're more concerned about nerve damage at the moment. He's not going to be alert for near a few days or so but I think he would find comfort if you stayed with him. He won't be aware of you for awhile."

"Someone will be with him all the time." Ronon mumbled, meaning every word.

Jennifer nodded, leaning against McKay and closing her eyes as Carson walked into the room, looking as exhausted as Keller.

He looked at each of them, smiling as he saw his fellow doctor, nearly asleep on the scientist's shoulder. "Sara, the lass that was rescued with the Colonel, is resting comfortably. We've given her something to help with her coughing, but.."

Teyla noticed the regret in the Scott's voice. "What is it?"

The doctor sighed. "From wha' she's said, she's be'n working wit radioactive materials for years. An' from wh't we found the Genii don't hav' the best of shielding. The damage is too extensive. There's nothing we can do."

"What are you saying?" Lorne asked.

"The lass has irreversible damage to all 'er major organs, 'er lungs are possibly the worst off. I would only give 'er a few weeks o' life left." The remorse shining in his eyes mirroring the same in Keller's who had opened once again.

The shock hung in the room. The rescue had been successful, but now, in the safest place for her in the entire galaxy only to lose her now. Everyone did not seem to have anything else to say on the matter. Even Rodney seemed to had run out of words. They each slowly left the room, Ronon mumbling something about sitting with John first.

A.N.- Thanks for all the reviews!!! I've had the uncontrollable to draw this week but I'll keep writing soon, but sometimes a girl needs her pencils. :) Please review and tell me what you think!!