Chapter Six Recovery

The Cave

Brenner had returned with an arm load of wood and the fire was now burning hot enough to warm up the immediate area. He and Rodriguez had moved the colonel closer to the fire and unzipped the sleeping bag so that the warm air could reach him. Ray had taken his backpack and elevated the colonel's legs to help keep shock at bay. Then they strung a makeshift clothesline and hung Sheppard's clothes to dry.

"Hungry?" Brenner asked while he looking through the MRE's in his pack.

Rodriguez nodded, "Yeah, broki, I'm hungry; moving around in this snow and cold takes a lot out of a strong boy like me." He flexed his arm to show off a pretty impressive muscle.

Brenner laughed, "You the man, Ray but you know what, you might be fit but you don't have the muscles of that guy." He pointed to Sheppard. "Man, I figured he weighed about 165-170 as skinny as he looks but he has to be 15 to 20 pounds heavier than that. He was a lot tougher to carry than I thought he would be; the colonel has to be all lean muscle."

"Yeah, surprised me, too; he's one tough hombre."

Brenner had pulled out some MRE's and they ate for a few minutes in silence enjoying the warmth and the quiet and most of all the respite from the wind. Rodriquez had rigged a booby trap on the passageway leading to the cave; he piled some rocks a few inches tall on each side of the narrow walkway and tied fishing line about midway down on each side. If someone came that way, they should trip the line and cause the rocks to fall, which would hopefully give them a bit of warning.

Ray looked over at Brenner and smiled; Brenner was a newbie, he had only been on Atlantis for about three months. He still had the wet-behind-the-ears persona but he had shown anything but inexperience during this long day. Rodriquez laughed at himself, 'yeah, Ray, you are such a seasoned veteran, you should talk'. The truth was that Brenner was good kid from the suburbs of Chicago and he was a product of the streets of Queens, NY. He was a punk and hanging with gang members by age twelve; when he was fourteen, not knowing what else to do to change his life, his parents had sent him to live with his grandparents in Luquillo, Puerto Rico.

His grandfather was the principal of the high school and his grandmother was a nurse. He was told from day one how they expected him to behave and that he would not disrespect them as he had his parents. The few times when he had tried to push their limits, he found out what discipline really was and it was not anger or a whipping, it was the look on his grandparents' faces' when he disappointed them. Eventually he got it, the bad boy persona was not one of courage, it was one of cowardice. To be truly courageous was to give a damn about people and make a difference.

He decided to join the Marines after going to college for two years and he had never looked back. Being on Atlantis had given him so much, good friends, good Marines, and a good commanding officer. He looked over at the colonel, still unconscious. Time and time again, Sheppard had shown him, shown all of them that bravery comes from concern and compassion and the need to protect the innocent. He thought Colonel Sheppard was the bravest man he would ever know.

"Hey, Ray, what's on your mind? You look pretty serious there."

"Just thinking, broki; just thinking about our day; it's just another day in the Pegasus galaxy dealing with bad guys." He smiled. "Paulie, what made you want to be a Marine?"

"I come from a long line of Army guys and a couple of girls, two cousins and one is a Ranger. But I always wanted to be a Marine; my dad tells everyone that I wanted to be a Marine just because I loved the Gomer Pyle show as a kid. My mother didn't want me to join; she doesn't believe in war but I told her that being a Marine was about keeping wars from happening and if they did happen, protecting the good guys and taking care of the bad guys. Not sure she ever believed me but she supports me. I had to go to college first though, her only condition." Brenner stretched out his legs and said, "I never expected to be serving in another galaxy. You could have blown me over with a feather when I got the assignment to the SGC and found out what it was; then on to the Atlantis base. I tell you one thing; I don't want to go back."

Hey, broki, how did you get a name like Pauli?

"My younger sister started calling me that when she was three and it stuck. My mom was a fan of U2 and I was born in July of '85 just after she saw the Live Aid Concert on TV, so my name is Paul David Brenner after Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, and David Evans, The Edge. How bout you? Why did you get named Ramon?"

Ray laughed, "My momma was, and still is, a fan of the Puerto Rican actor, Esai Morales. She had seen him in some movie, this hot Latin lover type and wanted to name me Esai. My father would not hear of it, he thought it was a sissy name but my mother got her way. I was named Ramon Esai Rodriguez and my mother always calls me Ramon Esai. Parents can be a real trip, broki."

"Yes, they can. So Ramon Esai, I'll take the first watch, you can relieve me in three hours. Get some sleep."

Brenner had spent the first two and a half hours of his watch walking around the cave to keep his muscles loose and keeping the fire going. He had taken a quick trip down to the cave opening, mindful of Ray's booby trap, to check the weather and wished he hadn't done that, the wind was raging and the snow blowing. A face full of snow made him decided he liked the warmth of the cave much better.

He had checked the colonel's pulse so often that he was getting embarrassed for being such a scaredy cat. It wasn't that he hadn't been around injured soldiers before, his first tour of duty was in Iraq and he had seen plenty of injury and death. It was just that he liked his current C.O. more than any other commanding officer he had served under, not that there was that many. But Colonel Sheppard was different, he didn't treat them like collateral to be used and tossed, he treated the men and women in his command like people, people he cared about. He laughed with them, worked beside them regardless of what the duty was and would give his life for any of them. They all knew that.

Lt. Stackhouse, his team leader who had been on Atlantis from the beginning, told him about the black mark on the colonel's record and the controversy around Sheppard when he was first assigned to Atlantis. The fact that the colonel had disobeyed orders in order to save three soldiers that were caught behind enemy lines only proved what they knew about him, that he would risk his life to save them. To the powers to be, however, he had still disobeyed orders. But Stackhouse also told him how it didn't take long for that black mark to be forgotten after word of what this man had done so many occasions to save Atlantis began to reach Earth. The colonel had become something of a legend among the airmen and the Marines and the brass, if they would only admit it.

When he heard a moan, he thought it was Rodriguez waking up. He looked over at the sleeping bag that held the corporal and realized he wasn't waking up. That only left one other person, he spun around and Colonel Sheppard gave him a wan smile.

"Corporal, I take it, I'm not dead." His voice was weak but he was speaking, that was music to the corporal's ears.

"Yes, sir; you are most definitely alive.' He passed the snoring Ray as he headed for the colonel and kicked his sleeping bag, "Ray, get up; the colonel's awake."

Ray jumped up so fast at the news that he tripped getting out of the bag and ended up crawling over to the colonel. "Hey, colonel, welcome back."

"Rodriguez, where the hell am I?" Sheppard started to rise up but a wave of pain shot through him and he thought better of it.

"Easy, colonel; don't try to sit up just yet. We are in a cave near the stream that runs below the fortress. Do you remember what happened to you?"

"Vaguely, I had gotten away from Dever's men and I was running out the door, heading to the stream. Then I felt something hit my back and that's the last I remember."

Brenner moved his backpack under the colonel's head so that he could sit up a bit. "Sir, is that comfortable?"

"Not too bad, Brenner; thirsty…"

"Colonel, we don't know how badly you're injured; so I really don't think you should drink a lot of water. How bout a sip to wet your mouth and throat?" Rodriguez had his canteen ready for Sheppard to take a sip. He held the canteen up to Sheppard's mouth and tipped it so that the colonel could take a drink.

"Thanks." Sheppard took a fairly deep breath and felt the pain in his side. "Got hit in the back?"

"Colonel, you took a round in the back and it exited on your right side. We think the weapon sounded like a P-90. After you got hit, you went airborne for a few seconds, then fell to the snow, and rolled down the incline toward the stream. Pauli and I were scouting the south side of the fortress; we got lucky that we saw you, sir. We took off toward the stream, found you lying along the edge of the water, and got you patched up as best we could. Brenner remembered there were caves in the area and found this one. It was big enough to build a fire in and would give us some protection form the storm."

Sheppard winced and tried to stifle a groan but didn't quite manage to do so. Rodriquez looked at Brenner and mouthed the word 'morphine' to him; Brenner got up and grabbed Rodriguez's backpack. He rummaged for the hard case that held the pre-measured morphine syringes; when he found it he handed it to Rodriquez.

"Colonel, I think we need to give you something for the pain."

"No, not yet. I need to know what's going on. Like, how come you guys are here; did you escape from Dever's men? What happen to Johnston? Tell me everything."

Beston

Carson Beckett was restless; he had tried to sleep but he had only dozed for a couple of hours. He thought perhaps if he walked around he might get sleepy. Maybe he could find some of that really good hot cider; he was finding he was quite enjoying the sweet, spicy fruit flavor. He got up, dressed, and headed downstairs. When he reached the bottom of the steps, he wasn't surprised to find Rodney sitting at a table next to the fire.

"Rodney, couldn't sleep?"

Rodney looked away from the fire, "No, I couldn't and I suppose you couldn't either."

"Any of that cider around?"

"Yeah, Captain Waters and Sgt. Parker are splitting watch tonight and one of the servers left a big pitcher of it on a stove in the kitchen. Captain Waters apparently likes the cider a lot and she seemed to like the captain. She told him that everyone should just help themselves."

"Want a cuppa?" Rodney shook his head to indicate yes and turned back to look at the fire.

When Beckett came back from the kitchen, Rodney hadn't moved. He sat the mugs down and took a seat across from McKay.

"So, what's on your mind, Rodney?"

"Just frustrated that we can't find out what is going on. I hate this weather. I hate not knowing what's happening with Sheppard, Teyla, Ronon and all of them. I hate knowing that Dever's is a bad guy and we don't know what he has done to the team. I hate this."

"Rodney, there is nothing you can do right now, you need to let the frustration go. We are here because John ordered us here; he would rather that we found Losa and her daughter than be with them. We did what we were supposed to do. Tomorrow when the weather clears, we will find him, we'll find all of them."

"What if it's too late, Carson; what if it's too late."

"Rodney, you need to have faith in the colonel and the others. They are smart and savvy; they are not going give up. We know the colonel already had suspicions about the constable. You've known the colonel as long as I have, he'll figure this out."

Rodney took a drink from his cider and looked at Carson, "I know Sheppard has a way of getting out of things that no normal mortal can but he usually gets hurt in the process. One of these days Carson, his mortality is going to catch up with him."

"Aye, but I think the colonel has a few of his nine plus lives yet, Rodney."

The Cave

Rodriguez had taken over the watch and was sitting near the cave entrance still in the circle of warmth from the fire. It would be daylight in about an hour and he had orders to awaken the colonel then. He didn't think it was a good idea but he was not going to disobey; he might however, fudge the time for the sun to rise just a bit.

After he and Brenner filled the colonel in on what they knew about the events of the day before, Sheppard had seemed quite pleased that he had been suspicious about what was going on and how he acted on his gut feelings. He had been embarrassed and had blushed a bit as the colonel told him that he had good instincts. Paulie had smacked him in the arm and he was pretty certain that he was going to be ribbed about the whole thing once they got back to Atlantis.

Once he was up to date on what the corporals knew, Sheppard had agreed to take no more than a half dose of morphine and had gone back to sleep. Rodriguez was at least glad that his grandmother had taught him trauma first aid when he decided to join the Marines. He had checked the colonel's wounds and there was no evidence of bleeding; he couldn't find signs of internal bleeding and the colonel did not have a fever. Maybe they had gotten lucky and the colonel had dodged the bullet so to speak.

Rodriguez sat quietly for another half-hour watching over his two charges while they slept and then decided to go check on the weather. He walked down the cold passageway to the cave opening. It was still snowing but the wind had died down and the sky was getting lighter. He figured he would wake up Brenner, get organized and then wake the colonel up. They had to get away from the area and hopefully, if the storm had died down, they would be able to radio for help.

The Fortress

Dever Veron was standing looking out the window toward the hill leading to the river, at first light he had sent a couple of his men out to make certain that Sheppard was dead. They had returned with the news that they had found a cloak with a lot of blood on it snagged on a tree. With the new snowfall, they couldn't tell if Sheppard had survived. They speculated that he had either gotten out of the area on his own power or if he had fallen into the swiftly moving stream, which was being pushed by the high winds, he may have been washed away.

Not finding Sheppard's body was an annoyance but Dever was certain that the Atlantis commander didn't survive. Besides, injured, Sheppard wouldn't be much of a threat against his men, especially since he had most of the Atlantis personnel locked up in the meeting hall. No, it was time to leave; Dracus and the others should have gotten most of the artifacts though the gate by now and they were taking the rest with them today. In a few short hours, he would be off this depressing, forsaken world and on his way to living the good life.

Murdos, one of the militiamen who had been part of the planning when they decided to steal the artifacts, entered his office. "Devers, the weather has really calmed down and everything is loaded up. Turven sent word that he and his crew are heading out from the farm to get the artifacts they have to the gate; they should be there in about two hours. We loaded up all that winter gear that the Atlantians had with them as well, might come in handy or we can sell it or trade it."

"Good idea. Make sure all of our men have left the meeting room and have Brunen check the door to make certain it's secure but don't tell those people we are leaving. Let's get going, have someone come up and get this trunk for me," he tapped a small leather trunk with his foot. He then picked up Sheppard's leather coat and slipped it on; a bit big in the shoulders for him, he thought but it would do. A remembrance that he defeated the military leader of Atlantis; a simple constable from a poor planet and he defeated Atlantis, the beginning of a legend. He left his fortress hideout and never looked back.