Title: The Exchange

Date: 30th June 2007
Author: Kazavid
Chapter:
2/10
Rating:
M
Pairing:
John Sheppard / OFC – Tanisha Toryn (Nisha)
Archiving:
None
Warnings:
Not sure yet (Sexual Content /Violence /Possible Torture)
Spoilers:
None
Feedback:
Yes
Disclaimer:
Stargate Atlantis and its character do not belong to me.
Summary:
After being rescued from certain death, Sheppard must now escape…or persuade…his 'rescuers', not to hand him over to face retribution from someone who wants to see him dead.

The Exchange

CHAPTER 2

"Carson, how are they?" Weir asked Beckett as he checked through Ronon's test results.

"Rodney and Teyla appear to be unharmed, apart from a few cuts and abrasions that is. What's concerning me about them though is their unconscious state. It's not natural. I suspect it's chemically induced, so I've begun running a few tests to confirm that."

"You think they were drugged."

"Most definitely."

"What about Ronon, how is he?" Weir looked over at Ronon who was being attended to by two nurses.

"All our tests have come back negative, so there doesn't appear to be any internal bleeding, which is a good sign. His ribs are badly bruised and he has a couple of fractures to his hand, contusions to his face, concussion, and a very nasty bump on his head. He also appears to be drugged like Rodney and Teyla."

"Will he be alright?"

"He should be fine; we'll keep monitoring him to make sure everything is OK."

"As soon as Rodney or Teyla are conscious and able to talk, would you let me know? I really need to find out what happened, and if they have any idea as to where Colonel Sheppard could be."

"Aye, I'll do that. So Lorne still hasn't found anything?"

"No, Lorne wasn't able to find any sign that Sheppard was even there." She sighed.

"Colonel Sheppard will probably be alright. You know him, he's a bit like a cat, always lands on his feet no matter what," Carson said, trying to ease the worry from Weirs mind.

"Let's hope so," Weird said.

OOo

Sheppard was sent crashing to the ground again; he'd lost count of how many times he'd fallen. He started shouting and cursing. He looked at the woman standing over him trying hard not to smile.

"I think you're calibration on these things is too sensitive," he snapped, glaring at her.

She turned away from him so he wouldn't see the grin on her face. "You'll get used to it," she said.

"What planet is this then?" he asked, as the devices on him separated, allowing him to get up. He began walking, slowly. She wasn't very talkative, so he hadn't been able to get much information out of her

"You still haven't told me what you want with me?" he said. "Why did you save me from those men only to take me prisoner? And why did you only take me and not the rest of my team?" Not that he wanted his team captured, but he was interested as to why only he was taken…and what they were going to do with him.

When she didn't answer his questions, he decided see how far he could push her. Getting to know your captors was a good start in planning an escape. Anything, and everything, that he could learn about them could be beneficial in his getting away from them.

"So is this how you normally get a date?" he asked. "You know you only had to ask me. I mean, you're not that bad looking, I could make the effort and pretend that I found you attractive." He waffled on with annoying, incessant, inane, chatter.

"Lucas, I need a break," she shouted out. Sheppard grinned broadly, knowing he was the reason she needed a break. She was finding it hard to listen to him talking about his life.

"Just when I thought we were getting along so well," he remarked, trying to look hurt but failing miserably.

Nisha looked at him coldly, and wondered where all this charm of his was supposed to be. So far the only thing she'd seen was arrogance, but having said that though, she couldn't blame him, they were holding him captive.

"Is there a problem?" Lucas asked. He glanced at Sheppard and wondered what the man had been doing to have Nisha glaring so furiously at him. Normally she was very easy to get along with.

"You can keep an eye on him for a while," she told him as she stormed off.

She couldn't take any more. She didn't want to know who his friends where, or what he liked to eat. She didn't want to know anything at all about him, because the more she learned about him, the harder it would be when the time came to hand him over.

The rest of the day went well and they made good progress. They only stopped when they found a good place to settle down for the night. Nisha kept her distance from Sheppard, preferring not to listen to his life story, which he seemed determined to tell anyone who was within hearing distance. She took the first watch and left Lucas with their annoying prisoner. When the time came to swap with Lucas, she found the talking.

"Do you have any family?" she heard Sheppard asking Lucas, and she tensed, waiting to see what Lucas would reply with.

"Yes I have family," Lucas said, his voice was low and harsh.

"Any kids?" Sheppard continued with the questions. He'd been taught that if you made a bond with your captors, then it made it harder for them to kill you. Talk to them. Get to know everything you can about them. Give them your own life story; the more they learned about you the better your chances of survival. So Sheppard was trying this technique, he just hoped it worked.

Lucas clenched his jaw before he said, "Yes!" Then he stood up and walked away.

She moved to intercept Lucas before he stormed off. She began talking to him in low tones, but it was obvious from the facial expressions and arm waving that the guy was angry. When she put her arms around Lucas and hugged him, Sheppard frowned, wondering what their relationship was. They hadn't acted like they were intimately involved with each other. He hoped they weren't a couple, because if they were, then his plan to persuade her to let him go would be a waste of time.

Sheppard looked at the metal bands around his wrists and ankles; he'd been studying them a lot, trying to figure out a way to remove them. So far he'd had no luck. He was considering testing his pain threshold with these things when he heard Lucas mention a name that made his whole body tense.

Lucas left to take over the next watch and the woman came over to keep a watch on him.

"Did I just hear the name Kolya mentioned?" he asked. She said nothing. "You're going to turn me over to Kolya's relatives!" he said with disbelief. Was he never going to get away from that guy?

"You do know they'll kill me don't you?" he said. She looked at him and he could swear he saw something akin to regret in her eyes. "Whatever they're paying you, my people will give you more," he said, hoping he could buy his way out of this. "Money…food…weapons…anything you want we can negotiate," he told her.

"Sorry, I can't."

Sheppard bit his lip as he tried to stem the curses he wanted to throw at her. She sat down a short distance from him and wouldn't look at him. He was not about to let this go. "Look, anything you want, just tell me and I'll get it for you," he told her.

"You're offer doesn't interest me, because you can't give me what I want."

"You're sure about that," he asked, wondering why she was so convinced.

"Positive. You're offers are a waste of time so you might as well save your breath."

He didn't see it as a waste of time and tried to find out exactly what it was she wanted. She wouldn't even look at him let alone acknowledge him, so he decided to try another way. After all, he had nothing to lose and everything to gain.

He acted casual as he moved towards her, glancing around to make sure Lucas wasn't watching. When he was a few feet away from her, he raised his hand and grabbed her. His movement wasn't rushed or jerked, so the devices on him didn't lock. All the falling over he'd done was paying off, because he'd learned to time his movements so the things wouldn't lock.

With his hand pressing against her throat, he pushed her back until she was lying on the ground. "Take these damn things off me, now!" he bit out. She looked nervous and glanced to the side, looking to see where Lucas was.

"Take them off!" he repeated the demand and pressed harder on her neck.

"I can't," she told him, her voice hoarse with the pressure he was exerting on her throat.

"I don't believe you; now take them off," he snarled.

"You need both controllers to get them off," she told him.

He didn't know if she was telling the truth or not. He moved his other hand towards the controller around her neck and hesitated, wondering what would happen if he touched it. He clenched his fist with frustration, but he moved his hand closer. He touched the controller with one finger and received a jolt of pain that radiated through the devices. The energy coursed through his whole body and almost knocked back but he managed to keep hold of her.

"Damn you," he grated harshly, glaring at her. He held her gaze for an inordinate length of time before he crushed his mouth down on hers. The kiss was born out of anger and frustration at his predicament, and was meant to punish. He pushed his tongue between her lips and felt her tongue against his own. She struggled against him, but he didn't release her, instead he carried on kissing her.

Abruptly, he pulled away and rolled on to his back, drawing in deep gulps of air into his oxygen starved lungs. He turned his head to the side to see that she was also breathing raggedly. She turned to glare at him, but he could see confusion in her eyes.

"Nisha, is everything alright?" Lucas asked as he came over to them. He looked down at them, taking in how close to they were to each other.

"Everything is fine," she told him, she sat up and moved further away from Sheppard, all the while keeping her eyes on him.

What did she expect him to do for god's sake, he was a prisoner. Of course he was going to try to escape. Especially since he'd just found out that he was to be handed over to Kolya's relatives. Why hadn't she told Lucas what he'd done?

"I suggest you get some sleep, we'll have to get moving in a few hours," Lucas remarked to her.

"I will." She continued to stare at Sheppard.

Sheppard rubbed his hand which was still tingling from the jolt of pain he'd received earlier. He still wasn't sure about the amount of pain that thing gave, it had hurt, yes, but he could put up with a lot of pain, especially when the alternative was death. He didn't know how long she watched him for because he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

The next morning when he woke up it was to see her and Lucas packing their stuff up. He watched her take a gun out of her backpack and replace what must be the ammo clip. He noticed that the clip held darts in them, not bullets. So that's why he hadn't been able to hear anything when she and Lucas had fired upon the men, she'd been using darts. Did this mean she didn't like to kill, he wondered. And if so, how could she turn him over to people who would definitely kill him. This could be a weakness he could exploit. All he had to do was find a way to persuade her to let him go.

OOo

ATLANTIS

"Rodney, Teyla, how are you both?" Doctor Weir asked them as they entered her office.

"I am fine, just a few bruises." Teyla said, sitting down at the table.

Weir looked at Rodney and waited for him to give her a blow by blow account of what was wrong with him, surprisingly, it didn't happen.

"Can either of you tell me what happened?" she asked.

Rodney's silence didn't last long. "As usual you can blame Sheppard," McKay said. "He saw a young girl crying, and like the charming man that he is, he decided to find out why she was crying—" He looked at Teyla when she interrupted him.

"She wasn't just crying Rodney, she had also been beaten. We could not just leave her there," Teyla said, exasperated by McKay's explanation.

"Yes, well, we didn't just walk passed her, did we. We picked her up, fed her, watered her, and listened to her life story... which I might add—"

This time it was Weir who interrupted him. She raised her hand up to stop him talking. "Thank you Rodney," she said, smiling when he folded his arms and gave a petulant pout. She turned to Teyla. "Please, finish the story."

"The man who the girl belonged to, didn't like the way we treatment her. He got a little angry and attacked us. Then he decided he wanted us dead, to deter anyone else who thought they could interfere with his property. Just when the leader was about to shoot Colonel Sheppard, two people came in to the camp and shot everyone, even us. After that I'm afraid I don't remember anything," Teyla told her.

"Doctor Beckett said you all appear to have been shot with a dart gun. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to locate Colonel Sheppard yet. Is there anything you can recall about these two people, did you see their faces?"

"No, I am sorry, everything happened so quickly," Teyla sighed.

"Well, I have Major Lorne looking in to a few things. He's with a couple of our contacts, trying to see if he can find out if anyone knows where Colonel Sheppard is, or who these two people where. I just hope Colonel Sheppard is alright."

OOo

Sheppard saw another opportunity and decided to go for it. He slowed his walking right down until he was just a few feet in front of her. He turned to check where she was before he bent down and pretended to look at his foot. As she drew up beside him he palmed her gun from its holster on her thigh.

She had told him that if he held a weapon he would be zapped, and the longer he held on to it, the worse the pain would get. He wanted to know just how intense the pain was, so he kept hold of the gun…

"Drop it, now," Lucas told him, pointing his gun at Sheppard.

Sheppard let the weapon go; he had been in the process of dropping it anyway, because the pain had become unbearable. He dropped to his knees as his body shook with the residual after effects from the energy that had surged through his system.

"I told you to keep a close watch on him, didn't I?" Lucas shouted at Nisha.

"I forgot..." she shouted back.

"You can't forget. We can't afford for him to get away…not now," Lucas told her.

"I'm not used to holding people prisoner. I deal with…things…inanimate objects that don't pose a threat to your life," she remarked angrily.

"The people you steal those objects from pose a threat, and you do fine with them. Now keep your mind focused on watching him. And don't let him get too close to you," he bit out.

"I didn't want this deal in the first place," Nisha told him.

"Neither did I, but there's nothing we can do now. It's gone too far."

Sheppard listened to the conversation that went on between them, the part he liked the most was that neither of them had wanted to do this job. He could definitely do something with that knowledge, he thought. He was already coming up with a plan to get himself out of this predicament.

TBC...