A/N: Thank you for the ads and review of the first chapter and thanks to Crye 4 Me for the brainstorming help and awesome idea and to Shadows of Realm for the beta.
Chapter 2- Home Not So Sweet Home
When Rodney came to there were many people standing over him, their faces obscured by facemasks. He had a hard time focusing on the hidden faces. The deep part of his brain told him that he was home. That he was safe, but his immediate response was the terror he felt since he was taken on his wedding night. The hands that were trying to help him felt like the hands beat him daily for the time he was held. He struggled against the hands that tried to help them, confusing them for his former attackers.
"Rodney, please calm down. You are safe now. You're home. We aren't trying to hurt you," Carson tried to calm his agitated friend. Nothing seemed to work and the Canadian grew more combative with each passing second. The Scottish doctor could think of only one thing that could calm Rodney. "When do you expect Jennifer back?" he whispered to Marie.
"Later tonight or early in the morning. Depends on the Apollo. She went to Vancouver for Madison's birthday," the nurse jumped as Rodney's foot kicked a tray of supplies, sending the metal tray and its instruments crashing to the floor.
"Ouch, he bit me," a male nurse screamed and clutched his wrist. He had been trying to restrain the flaying physicist when Rodney's teeth sunk into his skin, piercing the flesh.
Carson shook his head. He wanted to avoid using drugs to sedate Rodney, but he was making that impossible and the acting CMO gave the order to sedate the patient. It took three attempts to complete the difficult task.
Once Rodney was properly sedated, Carson begun to examine what kind of injuries and any lasting effects there were from his extended captivity. He hoped for the best, but prepared for the worst. There were many horrible things that could have been done to Rodney and Carson's stomach churned at the thought. It had to be horrendous since the rescued man had not uttered a word and only made several grunts and screams. A normal Rodney would have complained nonstop and berated the medical staff treating him.
Two hours later the exhausted medical team finally finished the exams and had Rodney cleaned up. The only thing they could not get at was the stubborn man's clenched left hand that held onto something he refused to let go.
"Carson, how is he?" John caught up with the cloned man. It tore him up inside to see his best friend in such a state.
Carson shook his head and sighed. It broke his heart to see Rodney a broken man. "Where should I begin? Besides being dehydrated and malnourished, physically Rodney is fine. He lost close to sixty pounds. There is evidence of multiple healed fractures and some scarring on his back and legs. There are also signs of..." he could not bring himself to say it. It was too horrible to imagine what had gone through Rodney's head as he was brutally attacked over and over and what was going through his head now.
"Signs of what?" John did not understand what Carson was trying to say. He could see the pain on the man's face.
"There are some scars that are never going to heal and when Rodney is ready to talk he is going to need a lot of help from everyone," Carson was grateful that Rodney had someone like Jennifer in his life. Getting through this was going to be a true test of their relationship and he was going to need his wife more than ever. The Scott thought that if Rodney was the same person when they first met, the lonely walled up man that he could be forever lost. At least with Jennifer, he had someone who loved him unconditionally and she would do anything to help him heal.
John winced as he got what Carson was hinting at. He shook his head and frowned as he watched Rodney sleep and curl up into a ball. "Why did this happen?"
Carson shook his head, "I don't know. If whoever did this wanted to break him, they succeeded."
"Is there anything wrong with his hand?" John asked, pointed to the tightly clenched fist. He could not look at the man in the bed as guilt ate at his gut, mad at himself that he failed Rodney and Jennifer. He knew that they should never have been given clearance to spend the night away from the New Athos settlement, but Rodney had said he wanted to do something different for his wedding night. If he had said no he would have only had to deal with an angry Canadian for a couple days instead of the months of worry wondering if he was dead or alive.
"Not sure. It's hard to see on the scans with the way he's got his hand. Even with sedation, he won't let it go. So I can't be sure until I run more tests if something is wrong with his hand or if it something he is doing." Carson looked at the man peacefully sleeping, a far difference from the agitated mess he was earlier.
"I'm going to check with Chuck to see if he has any update on the Apollo. This is the news Jennifer has been waiting for," John sighed, knowing it was not going to be that easy: that Jennifer will come home and everything would be back as it were. It was going to be a long road for both of them.
John did not get the news he had been hoping for, no news from Ellis. It looked like the ship would not be arriving until the morning. The military commander left a standing order with Chuck to be informed when the Apollo arrived.
Jennifer rubbed her neck as she walked the empty halls of Atlantis. Seeing and spending time with Rodney's family...technically it was her family as well... was more difficult than she had expected. Jeannie had questions that could not be answered because even she did not know the answers. Her body demanded that she should head to her room to sleep, but it did not feel right to be alone in their quarters. The tired woman knew there was some paper work to be done, paperwork that could wait a few days. It would be a blessing if she fell asleep in her office, a place that she did not feel Rodney's presence as strong. When in her room, Jennifer usually ended up crying herself to sleep and not having a restful sleep.
It was unsettling how quiet the city was, but she could not expect much for it being the middle of the night. The pitiful looks from everyone had become old a long time ago. It was if they were all waiting for her to snap. Her eyes immediately fell to photo on her desk, a picture of her and Rodney feeding each other cake at the reception. Jennifer could feel their happiness radiating off the picture. It showed no sign of how things would drastically change only a few hours after the photo was taken. "Please come home," she tightly hugged the frame to her chest. Tears rolled down her face and soon her eyes were red and puffy. She was not sure how much longer she could hold on before her hold on reality was lost.
Several minutes passed when Jennifer heard a scream followed by a loud crash outside her office. The noises startled her and she raced out of her office, only catching a glimpse of someone running out. This was the last thing the blonde physician needed and went to investigate the source of the noise. What she saw was an IV pole on the floor, the sheets soiled with vomit and a tablet shattered in several pieces.
Jennifer sighed as she looked at the mess and wondered why someone had just run away from the infirmary. Most importantly she needed to know who and what condition the patient was in and what kind of medical treatment they would need. She picked the patient chart from the foot of the bed and gripped the chart so tightly that her knuckled turned white when she saw the name on the chart. Bile rose to the back of her throat as the young woman read all the injuries. She could not fathom how one human could do that to another, much less her husband. "Rodney?" Jennifer croaked as the chart clattered against the tiled floor.
Rodney kept on running as soon as his feet hit the floor of the infirmary. The walls of the voodoo lab felt like they were closing in on him and that the machinery was going to come to life and strangling him, starting with the IV pole and it's tubing. He could feel the plastic moving and starting wrap around his skin. That's why he pulled the line out of his hand and knocked the pole over. The tablet that was next to him blinked the dreaded message his attackers drilled into his head everyday: We raped and killed your wife. There was only one place he could be safe and no one could hurt him.