John laid on his bed as he stared at his ceiling, bored out of his brain, three days of nothing could make resting seem more stressful than stress. Elizabeth had refused to give him some reports to read through, she said it was on Carson's advice but he wasn't convinced. McKay and Ronon had come by occasionally but they had other things to do, especially with him and Teyla out of action.

He was just about to try and go to sleep for the one-millionth time today when his door chimed. He quickly sat up in bed and gave them permission to enter. McKay came bustling in holding several bags of chips and popcorn, mumblings something about choice between bad films or bad films.

"McKay?" John asked half-heartedly.

"What?" Rodney asked looking perplexed as he opened a bag of chips. "Ronon and Teyla are on their way." Rodney scrunched up his mouth as he noticed that Sheppard still didn't seem to comprehend anything. "Did they not tell you we were coming?"

"Do I look like a man in the know?" John asked quirking up the edge of his mouth.

"You always know everything… and well, you never look like a man in the know." Rodney, with a half cheeky smirk and half reserved as if he was afraid of offending. He should know by know that Sheppard could easily recognise when he should and shouldn't be offended by his friend.

Teyla and Ronon arrived with a handful of DVD's. Ronon dropped them onto Sheppard's bed, "Choice is yours," he grunted.

John looked over at Teyla as she gently sat herself on the end of his bed.

"You got permission to be up and around?" He asked her.

"Yes," she said, turning towards him, "I went to see Carson earlier."

She turned back to take a bag of popcorn from McKay as John grumpily looked down to study his DVD options.

"He said you could go see him tomorrow." She said as she opened the bag.

"Really?" He asked, trying to stop the big smile tugging at his lips.

"Yes." She said with a twinkle in her eyes. John let the smile over take his mouth but choked it back when he realised everyone was looking at him.

"This one" He said, passing her a DVD, noticing that Ronon was still chuckling at him.

They watched the DVD and John was glad of the company, he sometimes wondered what his life would be like if he hadn't gone on this mission to another Galaxy, but life without his team was just unthinkable to him.

………………………

John walked up to the Jumper where his team were ready and waiting. Trust his first mission back to be one of Rodney's technology witch-hunts. Why Elizabeth gave him permission for this so easily was beyond him, she usually put up more of a fight. He nodded to both Ronon and Teyla but was completely ignored by Rodney, who was already sat in the jumper, eager to go.

Elizabeth slowing walked up behind the Colonel. "Are you sure you're up to this Colonel?" She asked.

"Yup." He replied as he clipped his P90 to his vest. He could sense the eyebrow as it rose on her delicate brow.

"Carson cleared me for duty two days ago, Elizabeth, I'm good." He gestured towards Teyla, "We both are." He reassured.

"I know", Elizabeth conceded, "I'm just surprised that Rodney managed to persuade you to go back to this planet as your first mission back."

"What?" John asked, "What do mean persuaded? He said you scheduled this mission before I was in the infirmary!"

Elizabeth pursed her lips and frowned.

"McKay!" Sheppard shouted.

……………………

The jumper cloaked as soon as it rematerialised from the stargate's wormhole.

Sheppard headed in the direction of the city per Rodney's instructions for the location of the energy spike.

"Just shut up and fly where I tell you to!" Rodney ordered.

"You're telling me to shut up?" John questioned in disbelief, "And I'm flying where the HUD tells me too." John glared at Rodney.

Rodney was about to snipe back when he noticed Teyla was staring at something through the front window.

"What is it?" He enquired so fast it was almost inaudible.

"I saw a flash of light, like one of your fireworks. It was probably nothing." She reasoned.

"Where did it come from?" Sheppard asked.

"I believe it came from the town." Teyla answered as she stood and put a hand on Sheppard's shoulder.

"Well, we can't do much about it. We're not going anywhere near that town." Sheppard stressed, throwing an accusing glare at McKay who pretended he hadn't noticed.

The light scorched passed the front window. "That's no firework," Sheppard drawled as he swiftly manoeuvred the jumper.

"That's a drone!" Rodney squeaked.

"I notice…." John was cut off as the back of the jumper rocked violently, throwing Teyla back into her chair.

Sheppard lurched to the side but quickly regained his composure, trying to get a handle on the damaged jumper. "What the hell is going on McKay?" He demanded.

"I don't know." Rodney replied as he picked his tablet up off the floor. "Where did they get a drone from?"

"And why didn't the HUD pick it up?" Sheppard pointed out as Rodney frantically started pushing buttons.

"I can't keep us in the air," Sheppard said, "are you two strapped in back there?" He asked, still concentrating on his controls.

"Fine." Ronon answered.

"We are both attached to our chair's John." Teyla expanded.

"Good, this could be a bumpy landing." Sheppard wrinkled his nose and scrunched his eyes. "I'm gonna take us down to that clearing in the woods."

His other team members looked out to see a small gap in the dense forest next to the town.

"You're seriously gonna land there?! But it's tiny!" Rodney screeched.

"Big enough for a Jumper, I'll make it." Sheppard said, staying calm.

Silence lingered over the jumper as it headed towards the trees.

A spark went off at the front of John's console, "What the hell?" He exclaimed.

"It must have been damaged when the drone hit." Rodney justified.

John threw a pensive glare at McKay before his console exploded in front of him.

…………………………

Teyla awoke, coughing through the smoke. She tried opening her eyes but the smoke stung them sharply.

She crouched as low as she could and felt around on the floor. She could feel something wet and sticky, she didn't need to be able to see to know that it was blood, but where was it coming from?

She tried moving but a wave of dizziness swept through her, she fell back to her original position and cleared her head, deciding to try and open her eyes again.

She squinted and concentrated through the smoke, she could make out a lump moving gingerly, in front of her to her right.

"Rodney?" She croaked out.

"Teyla? You all right? I can't see a thing!" He replied.

"Are your eyes open Rodney?" Teyla asked genuinely.

"No, they hurt too much." Teyla could tell that Rodney was struggling to stay calm.

"Get as low to the floor as you can, the smoke is less dense." Teyla informed him.

"See, I know that! I must have hit my head." Rodney whined.

"It is all right Rodney, it is understandable that you are disorientated." Teyla reassured him before she was distracted by a low, guttural groan to her right.

"Ronon? Are you ok?" She asked.

"Hunh" Ronon grunted and immediately tried to stand up. He toppled forward into his chair, gravity pulling him forward to the front of the jumper.

It was this that made Teyla realise that the jumper was slightly tilted, the hatch end up in the air.

"What the…?" Ronon asked, dazed.

The smoke was becoming easier to see through.

"Rodney, can you see John?" She couldn't see around her own chair to try to look for herself.

"Erm… no, I don't think so, there's something sticking through the front window in the way."

"Stay where you are Rodney," she said as she heard him shuffling around, "I will try to see myself." But before she could move she felt a strong hand on her shoulder.

"You're not going anywhere." Ronon said looking down at the floor.

Teyla followed his gaze and saw the blood she discovered earlier. It was trickling slowly out from a wound in her leg. She looked back at Ronon wide eyed, she couldn't feel any pain.

"You've almost cut off your circulation." Ronon informed her.

Teyla nodded, realising that the way she had been sat on the floor had trapped her leg beneath her.

"Rodney, are you hurt." Ronon asked.

"Um, bump to the head and a sprained wrist, it might be broken." Rodney responded quickly.

"Look for Sheppard then." Ronon ordered.

"But she told me to stay put." Rodney whined.

"I need to tend to Teyla, someone needs to find Sheppard. You're the only one left."

"Uh," Rodney muttered before realisation of their true predicament sunk in, "yeah, Sheppard, I'll find him."

Ronon turned his attention back to Teyla.

"I'm going to lift you and move your leg, ok?" Teyla nodded in response.

After extracting her leg Ronon ripped the lower part of his shirt and tied it tightly around the wound.

"Thank you." Teyla whispered and Ronon smiled back at her.

"Sheppard!" Rodney shouted. "Oh God." He muttered under his breath.

"What is it?" Teyla asked, suddenly more panicked that at any moment since the accident.

"Um…" Rodney said, quivering.

"Pick me up." Teyla ordered Ronon who was already reaching under her legs. The visibility had lifted enough for them to see Rodney's back.

"Wait." Rodney exclaimed. "Open the hatch, it'll help clear the smoke."

Ronon pressed his palm to the button and watched to see the hatch start to open before making his way over to Rodney.

Ronon carefully carried Teyla over the loose debris in the jumper. He could now see out the front of the window to see that the jumper had crashed into several trees. A long branch had smashed through the window and extended into the jumper. He followed the line of the branch until is reached behind Rodney's fidgeting form.

Rodney moved out of the way to reveal the end of the branch impaled into the right lower gut of Sheppard.

"I can't wake him." Rodney panicked. "I felt some blood from his head too."

Teyla's breath hitched in her throat as she caught sight of John who was leant against the side of the jumper. The front of his vest burnt from the blast, his head lolling to one side with a trickle of blood running out from his dishevelled hair, blood slowly seeping from the wound in his side onto the floor.

"John." She called but received no response. She tried to climb down from Ronon's arms but the big Satedan sensed her movement and gently lowered her to the floor.

She shuffled over as close as she could get and checked John's pulse.

"I'd done that already." Rodney pointed out. She thought he would have but she needed the reassurance herself.

She placed her hand on John's chin and gently tried to rouse him, he murmured in response but didn't regain consciousness.

"Rodney," she said looking over her shoulder, "take your jacket off."

Rodney immediately complied.

Teyla took the jacket and softly wrapped it around the branch at the point that it breached John's skin. Gently increasing the pressure of her touch to stench the flow of blood without hurting John further.

John whimpered again. Teyla leant in close and whispered, "John?"

His eyes fluttered open but quickly returned to their original position.

"We need to get him out of here." Ronon said moving towards the branch.

"No, no, we haven't got the right equipment, let alone the medical skills to get him to the gate alive. There's no MD's here, a doctor yes but no MD's." Rodney tried to halt him.

"I'll pull it out and then run for the gate." Ronon said, shrugging Rodney off his arm.

"Oh come on! For one we don't know how to get to the gate from here yet and you'd have to run through the town. They're not just going to step aside, let you through and cheer you on your way!" Rodney got more and more agitated.

"What can we do? We need to get that out of him." Ronon said, pointing at the large branch.

"No." Teyla said softly. "It needs to stay in, at the moment it is the only thing preventing him from bleeding out."

"That's what I've been trying to say." Rodney shuffled and adverted his eyes, pouting.

"Well it's not what you said." Ronon glared at Rodney. "What are we going to do then?" He asked Teyla.

"You need to get back to the gate… -" She said.

"- Through the town!" Rodney shrieked, interrupting her.

"Yes, Rodney, there is no other way." She stressed, tears brimming in her eyes. "Ronon can get you through the town undetected," she looked towards the big Satedan who nodded firmly back, "we need another jumper and Carson, we can't get him out alive without a doctor."

Rodney nodded slowly, contemplating his task ahead.

"What about you?" He asked.

Teyla looked down at her leg and back up at John, "I would only be a liability through the town. I will stay here and try to keep the bleeding down and get him conscious."

"Go." She told them.

TBC…