Chapter 2 Chapter 2

As Dr Carson Beckett walked through the unusually empty infirmary, basking in the peace, he picked up a medical journal to finally catch up on the progress of the 'real world'. He knew he was the luckiest physician in the world to have a job such as this but at times he still missed the trivial activities of life on earth. As he turned the first page he heard the doors whoosh open and who should he be confronted by as he walked towards the noise but a certain Lieutenant Colonel of the United States Air force being helped along by Ronon. I should have known.

"What have you done to yeself this time Colonel?" Carson asked.

Sheppard gave the doctor an unappreciative glance as he gently settled onto one of the beds. "It's not always my fault doc."

"Aye, but most of the time it is." The doctor said with a twinkle in his eye.

"Not this time." Carson looked over at the man who made the statement. Ronon Dex was a man of few words, only saying what was necessary; this was how Carson knew it was the truth.

"Fair enough." Carson said returning his concentration to the fallen Colonel.

"One of the beams fell," John grimaced as Carson removed the boot off of his injured limb "onto my foot."

"A beam fell?" Carson asked looking over at Ronon to receive a curt nod in confirmation. "How the hell did that happen?"

"I don't know, how do most things happen around here." The Colonel made a good point but this seemed too…normal…for Atlantis.

After removing the Colonel's sock he began to inspect the foot. He heard another whoosh behind him but didn't need to look to know who it was…

"Are you not done yet?" Rodney asked in that patronising way only he could muster.

"No he's not and I'm not having you getting in the way." Beckett scolded as Sheppard gave McKay a smug smile.

"But I need him to finish my work." Rodney protested, the pitch of his voice getting higher and higher.

Carson sighed "Rodney he's going for an X-ray so unless you want an unnecessary dose of radiation he's unavailable." Leaving no doubts as to who was in charge.

Ronon helped Sheppard into a wheelchair before wheeling him off down the hall. "See you later Rodney." John said giving the scientist, who was still standing there dumbfounded, a small wave.

Rodney reluctantly left the infirmary when something hit his oversized brain, "Your using ancient scanners, there is no radiation." He smugly shouted to the now empty room.

………………

"Colonel Sheppard to the Control Room." Carson heard the request over Atlantis' public address system.

"Elizabeth," Carson said calmly after tapping his comm.

"Yes Carson." Elizabeth replied sounding slightly surprised.

"I'm afraid the Colonel won't be joining you anytime soon, he's having some scans taken."

"What's happened Carson?" Concern evident in her voice.

………………

Ronon helped John settle back on the bed while Carson inspected the results.

"What's the damage doc?" John asked casually.

"Not too bad actually." Carson replied, surprised himself knowing the Colonel's luck. But before he could impart his bit of good news he was interrupted by Elizabeth entering infirmary with Teyla hot on her heels.

"Carson, how's the patient doing?" Elizabeth asked while John and Teyla shared nods in greeting.

"Well, like I was just about to say, he's got a small hairline fracture of the third metatarsal, other than that just some severe bruising. I'm afraid ya foot'll be black and blue for a good while yet Colonel."

"So I can go?" John asked innocently. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, nice try John.

"No, you bloody cannot." John nodded to himself knowing it was a bit of a long shot, but he had to try right? "I'm gonna have to bandage up that foot and test the pressure you can put on it."

Elizabeth clasped her hands behind her back "I'll come back in a bit then, see how long you'll be suspended from going off-world." She smiled warmly and began to turn towards the exit.

Teyla leaned closer to John "I'm glad you are ok John." She stated simply.

She began to follow Dr Weir out but both women were stalled when John called after them.

"Now that's what I call a bedside manner, you should get some tips Elizabeth." John said playfully to the two leaders.

"See ya later buddy." Ronon stated punching Sheppard lightly on the shoulder before joining his colleagues in leaving the infirmary.

Carson made light work of the bandaging; well he is the best doctor in two galaxies.

………………

Elizabeth was reading through some mission reports in her office when Carson interrupted her concentration. "You can come and see him now, love."

"Thank you Carson, I'll be down in a minute." She said getting up from her desk. As she was leaving her office Radek flanked her.

"Er…Where are you going, I…er…needed to talk to you about bio hazard contamination procedure." He asked looking put out but obviously nervous.

Elizabeth laughed to herself, was she supposed to know what that was? "Oh, the usual cause of my troubles Radek." She said as she continued on her way, "Colonel Sheppard is in the infirmary." She shouldn't complain really, he did warn her.

"Right, Okay." Radek accepted knowing better than to argue when the Colonel was concerned.

She made her way down to the infirmary, chuckling to herself when she saw John practising on one crutch.

"Ah, Elizabeth, there you are." Carson exclaimed, noticing her entrance.

"Hey Elizabeth." John greeted, looking like he was enjoying himself way more than he should.

"As you can see he seems to have gotten the hang of it," looking over at John unamused. "He'll be fine for light duties around Atlantis and I'd say about seven days before he can go off-world again.

As long as he's a good little Colonel and sticks to his physical therapy regime."

………………

"Where are you going Colonel?" Carson asked sternly when he spotted John sneaking out of the infirmary.

"You cleared me for light duty." John replied without turning around, he didn't want to see the glare he could feel burning into his back.

"Ye didn't answer my question Colonel… I know you, it had better be light duty!"

John thought he'd better tell the doc straight or he'd never be let out of here. "Its just an induction meeting with the new recruits from the Daedalus. Don't worry Ronan's coming, he can do the menacing thing seeing as I couldn't scare McKay right now... well…" John squinted, reconsidering his last statement.

Carson smiled "Just don't do anything to strenuous."

"I'll be fine doc." John drawled as he left.

………………

"Sergeant Davies." John greeted the young soldier.

"They're ready for you sir."

"Good, Ronan here yet?" He saw the Sergeant flinch at the mention of the Satedan.

"Yes sir, he's waiting inside." Davies leaned in closer to his CO "Does he ever say anything sir, or just glare?"

John chuckled at Ronon's talent to intimidate even the most highly trained marines. "Mostly he just glares." He whispered before opening the door and entering the room. Davies followed him and joined some of the other marines who arrived with the previous tour on Atlantis.

John nodded towards Ronon whose expression didn't change but John didn't miss the sparkle in his eyes.

"Attention." Lieutenant Thompson shouted out.

John waved his hand nonchalantly.

Thompson smiled at the Colonel when the new recruits stayed stood to attention. "For those of you who are new, that's the Colonel's way of saying 'at ease'."

The recruits visibly relaxed and sat down.

John remained standing even though he probably should have sat down to take the weight off of his foot, but he wanted to maintain some sense of authority.

"Recruits, welcome to Atlantis. I'm Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, if you didn't already know." A few of the recruits smiled sheepishly, how could anyone not know, this was the post of a lifetime and Colonel Sheppard's heroics were already famous to the people in the know on earth.

"I'm gonna keep this short and sweet cos I'm sure your eager to get a proper look round this place and settled into your quarters." Nothing to do with the fact that he was exhausted himself.

"You'll be assigned in groups to one of these lovely gentlemen," casually gesturing toward the slightly more experienced marines at his side "they'll answer any specific questions you have before introducing you to your new teams and any other important people." The recruits smiled nervously. "Speaking of important people, the most important person around here is Dr Weir, keep her happy and you'll go a long way. Dr McKay," Sheppard paused "I wouldn't worry about keeping him happy, trust me nothing can." He said jokingly.

The marines laughed before Lieutenant Thompson asked, "How do you put up with him sir?"

"Well, I have been told by some people" looking over at Ronon "that I'm just as stubborn and annoying as he is." He hoped that wasn't completely true, at least the annoying bit anyway.

"Never, Sir." Thompson replied hiding his smirk.

"No seriously, if he ever asks you to do something, do it, cos he'll probably save your life."

"Like when he asked you to activate the ancient devices yesterday." Ronon smirked.

"Yes Ronon, thank you, just like that." He narrowed his eyes at the Satedan.

John carried on with the induction, trying to keep it light and casual. These marines had enough scary monsters to deal with on a daily basis; they didn't need one as a CO too.

"So any questions?" John asked half hoping there wouldn't be.

One of the recruits, growing in confidence, tentatively asked, "What happened to your foot sir?"

John looked down at his crutch and smiled, "Oh you know, one on one, hand to hand combat with a Wraith, you should have seen me a week ago. Looked better than him though." Hey, he had a legend to keep up.

The recruits looked back in awe while the other marines tried to keep a straight face, none of them wanted to be the one to give the game away. No such luck from Ronon though, "A beam fell on it."

John started to hobble towards the door, patting Ronon on the shoulder along the way, "Thanks for shattering the illusion big guy."

"Pleasure." Ronon said as he stood to follow John out.

Sergeant Davies opened the door for the Colonel to exit.

John entered the hallway heading straight for his quarters to get a long over due, good nights sleep.

………………

As John exited his quarters the next morning he saw the petit form of Teyla coming around the corner.

"John! I was just coming to see how you were doing." Teyla exclaimed, obviously overjoyed to see Sheppard up and about.

John stopped and leaned on his crutch, "Well as you can see, I'm doing much better…ooh we had a sparring session didn't we?"

Teyla turned to join John in slowly making his way down the corridor. "Yes we did, perhaps you would like to do something else instead." She had been looking forward to a workout and could have easily asked Ronon to take John's place but spending time with John seemed more important at the moment.

"Sure." John said pleased that Teyla wanted to keep him company.

"Dr Weir told me you had been teaching Rodney how to meditate, we could compare techniques. I would be fascinated to learn the teachings of the ancients." Teyla looked at John deep into his eyes.

John really didn't want to disappoint Teyla but he also didn't want to embarrass himself by letting on how little attention he'd paid while in the time dilation field. "You know…Teyla, I'm really not that good…" Rodney interrupted him mid-sentence on his comm. "Colonel, are you ever going to make it down here, I still have ancient toys waiting for your magic touch."

John looked over at Teyla, torn how to respond. "It's alright John," she smiled warmly "I wouldn't want you upsetting Rodney on my behalf."

John nodded his head knowing that this choice would cause him less grief. Teyla was just turning to leave when John stopped her. "Hey, how 'bout I cook dinner tomorrow to make up?" He flashed his most charming smile.

She smiled back touched by his offer. "That would be lovely John but maybe I should cook."

John chuckled. "Even better, bye Teyla."

………………

"Ah, there you are." Rodney said, still absorbed in whatever gibberish was on his laptop.

"Rodney" John drawled in greeting.

Rodney turned to give John a fleeting glance but he did a double take on seeing the crutch. "What good is one crutch," he turned back to his laptop "Where's the fun in that?"

John picked up his crutch and lightly slapped Rodney's protruding behind with it.

"Hey!" Rodney screeched.

John smiled cheekily.

"Oh, very funny Colonel. Now if you've done behaving like a child, the devices are over there." He pointed towards a table at the other side of the lab.

John sighed but made his way like a good little guinea pig. He gazed over the myriad of devices lying haphazardly on the table, trying to find the one that looked the least like a torture device. John reached over towards a small sphere but before he got there…"Not that one Colonel, I already know what that does, it just needs activating. Whereas this one" he gestured towards a large cube with asymmetric shapes indented into it "I think it might be some sort of weapon."

John looked at him sceptically. "Oh come on, you usually light up like a kid at Christmas with the mention of weapons." Rodney dismissed John's look and went to set up his monitoring equipment back by his laptop.

"OK, we're ready to go, light it up." Not giving the Colonel the chance to moan.

"Urh" John tentatively picked up the object, relief washing over him when nothing happened.

"Huh, maybe it's out of power." Rodney shrugged.

John was just about to put the cube back down when the shapes began to light up. "Rodney!"

A bright flash of light cut off Rodney's response before he was flung back onto the floor when a blast wave emanated from the cube.