Sorry for the long wait for this chapter, hope you enjoy it.

Chapter 3- The Simplicity of Words

"We've found him."

Were the only three words she'd been wanting to hear for the past three months.

Three small words, insignificant when separate, but hopeful and joyous when put together in that precise order.

Now that she'd heard them, and the tone that came with them, she wondered whether she was ready to see what was to come.

She wasn't so sure anymore. Yes they needed and wanted him but, would they be able to help him? Would he even want their help anymore?

Unpicking the tone, she found…a sad, almost lost hitch in the voice relaying the information. Usually, coming from Dr McKay she found it more concerning that it had come from Teyla. Teyla was as stoic as the marines and Ronon, but now…the only reason it would sound dejected was if the worst had happened. But it hadn't, had it?

No, the voice had said they found him. Yes but, had they said alive.

No.

And that is what was weighing her down. They needed Sheppard to be found, to be back; like a plant needed the correct amount of water so the potential was right to keep its structure. Too little and it would shrivel, wilt and die, too much and it would burst then die. Or even forces that needed to balance to create a system in equilibrium.

Rubbing her temples, Elizabeth stood silently in the control room of Atlantis. Though, she'd been here umpteen times before, watching, waiting, wanting them to find something, anything.

And now they had, she was afraid, afraid that she wouldn't like what she'd see or learn when they stepped through that rippling even horizon. Time seemed to stretch beyond the normal space-time effect, twisting into something longer than any known amount of time…

x-X-x

On the Planet….

Teyla and McKay both couldn't help looking towards their leader, they knew Sheppard wouldn't like being carried, but as far as McKay was concerned he didn't care if Sheppard felt embarrassed by it as long as it got Sheppard home. But that was the problem, even Sheppard in pain and injured would usually perk up enough to argue with being carried like a child.

Now however, just nothing. Allowing them to take his complete weight; without resistance. It was unnatural; like they'd stepped into some parallel universe and found a different Sheppard.

McKay wanted to leave it down to the fact that Sheppard was too tired to care, but he couldn't. Not after how they had found him. Not after how he'd flinch away from any of their touches or movements. McKay's inner voice screamed at him that it was just an illusion; this was Sheppard they were talking about, he was always fine. Wasn't he? Unless, he wasn't.

Sheppard seemed to stir in Ronon's arms, causing Ronon to hold tighter as Sheppard started to thrash…

"Help me… you have to… help me!" was repeated in his mind, like a broken track. Sometimes broken up by a scream or a sob, sometimes just a silence so absolute it was a vacuum; not even like one, it actually was and each time the sob or scream stopped so did his own breath for that moment one more life was taken away because of him.

All because of him.

Sheppard fought the urge to scream back saying he knew, oh did he know he had to save them somehow but maybe, just maybe they were the lucky ones this time round. They didn't have to be here anymore. Didn't have to put up with this prison? He used the term lightly, very lightly. It was more a slaughterhouse than anything he'd seen. He'd seen a lot back on Earth but this…

Was simply something he'd expect from the wraith or even Kolya, not a somewhat peaceful race of people.

And talking meant one more person would die because of him, one more life lost because of his mouth. He wouldn't do that, in fact, he wouldn't actually do anything anymore.

They'd taught him that.

Nothing but an empty darkness clouded his mind now, blocking everything out while he was sleeping. He didn't even know he'd been rescued by his team. Didn't see the cheerless looks on his friends' faces as they carried him through the shimmering portal to his old home; didn't see anything in his bleak world of dreams that had long since been chased away by the nightmares…

Almost as soon as the thrashing had started it seemed to stop, they could only wonder what it had been about having seen the place where Sheppard had been held.

The first thing they had noticed about the place where their leader had been held was the large gothic arches, looming over them, making them feel miniscule in comparison. Cobwebs clinging and criss-crossing across the length of the smooth stone. The smell of burning flesh plunged their sense into the decaying depths of a horrific kind of torture. One not seen on earth, well, as far as McKay knew anyway.

Ronon and Teyla hadn't even seemed phased by the gruesomeness of what they had found. They had however, been affected by the sheer amount of bones and fragments lying around, strewn across the floor, just left to linger, as proof of what had been done and what could be done to the people unfortunate enough to have supposedly trespassed against those in command.

The only thing worse than the multitude of bones, was the size of some of them. They ranged from fully grown adults to small, child-like ones. But surely they would subject children to this kind of horrid end. It was just so far beyond wrong that it made McKay almost gag.

Shaking away the thoughts of where they'd found John, McKay walked a little bit a head, getting ready for dialling the gate back home.

But how their friend would be when they got him home, well, that they couldn't imagine. They'd only seen him unconscious so far, the damage unknown.

And they could only hope they'd be able to help their leader to mend what ever had been broken in the time he'd been missing…

TBC

I know it was a mega short chapter but it means I am still working on this story so please don't give up and please review. I shall try and get the next chapter out ASAP