Authors note:

I've decided to go with popular opinion and put my John POV chapters into FJS4. I'll put the title "The Other Side of the Story: John's Point of View" at the beginning of each chapter and label the chapters as interludes (thanks to hermit hideaway for that suggestion). They'll also be numbered separately from the main story. Please let me know if you get confused and I'll try to make it clearer. Okay, here we go with interlude 1 ...

oOo

The Other Side of the Story: John's Point of View

Interlude 1: My gut was telling me she hadn't left willingly

It's taken over three years for me to need a voice in Sabina's story but this time the necessity is definitely there ... as you've probably just worked out after the whole kidnapping thing!

Us taking leave back on Earth was an inspired idea if I say so myself. Sabina wouldn't admit it but she was still troubled deeply by what had happened to Elizabeth. Don't get me wrong – I wasn't exactly happy about it myself but Sabina had the added worry of what that mini NAP device had done to Oberoth and indirectly to Elizabeth. Not knowing ... maybe never knowing ... was driving her crazy and I could only hope some time away would help her deal with that.

I was frustrated after my talks with General Landry and Richard Woolsey and not just for the reasons Sabina knew about. I had another mission while on Earth, part of which necessitated having a less than comfortable chat with both men. I'd gotten part of what I wanted but the rest would have to wait for another meeting of the IOA. Man those guys were annoying ... not to mention obstructive and ... annoying! Needless to say I couldn't wait to get out of the mountain and start on the first real vacation either of us had had since before we'd met.

I admit keeping our destination a secret from Sabina was fun ... I'd never met anyone so divided about surprises. Part of her loved the idea of it but the rest of her, the part that always had to be in control? Hated surprises with a vengeance. But if I'd said where we were going before she got on the plane Sabina would have jumped to the same conclusion you're gonna make when I say we were flying to Las Vegas.

See!

Not to get married – hell I hadn't even asked her yet and I think I've got just a little more class than that! But there was something we could do there that we couldn't do anywhere else in the USA ... well as far as I knew anyway. And that's all I'm gonna say about it.

"Sir?" I turned to look up at the airport bar tender, realising that I'd been spaced out thinking about my plans. "Can I take your order?"

"Two of whatever beer you have on tap," I turned back to glance over at our table, not immediately spotting Sabina waiting there. It was busy and even though I could see over most people's heads my view at sitting level was pretty obscured. There was no reason for it but suddenly the feeling that something wasn't right swept over me. Not waiting for the drinks I pushed my way back through the crowd, moving faster and more forcefully when our table came into view ... minus Sabina.

I know what you're thinking. Why didn't I just assume she'd gone to the ladies? Because her jacket was still hanging off her chair ... and because my gut was telling me she hadn't left willingly.

"Excuse me," I interrupted the conversation at the table next to ours. "Did you see the woman sitting at this table leave?"

"She left with a guy," one of the girls said casually. "A couple of minutes ago."

"Thanks," I called over my shoulder as I strode from the room before breaking into a sprint. I took a chance on direction, sure that if someone wanted Sabina they'd be heading for the car park rather than further into the airport. Luckily we hadn't passed through security yet - I had no idea how I'd explain my mad dash through the airport it we had.

Weaving through the sparce sea of people - enough to obscure my view but thankfully not enough to slow me down - I searched desperately for some sign of Sabina.

There! Catching sight of her up ahead I put a burst of speed on trying to close the gap.

And then I was outside the airport ... just in time to see a dark sedan screaming out of the car park too far away for me to do anything.

Crap!

Grabbing my phone I put a call direct to the SGC.

"This is Lt Colonel John Sheppard. I need to speak to General Landry urgently."

"Colonel," General Landry's puzzled voice greeted me a few seconds later.

"Is the Apollo still in orbit?" I asked quickly.

"They broke orbit an hour ago," Landry replied.

"I need you to get them back asap Sir ... Sabina was just taken from the airport. We need to locate her subcutaneous transmitter ... have the Apollo beam her to safety."

"I'll contact Colonel Ellis immediately," Landry promised. "Stay put Colonel ... we'll get back to you when we know something."

"Thank you Sir," I hung up reluctantly, grinding my teeth in frustration because the Apollo had left already.

Doing nothing didn't sit well so I used the time waiting to hear from the Apollo collecting statements from everyone in the bar. The result was a not exactly consistent description of a man about Sabina's height, gravelly voice, dressed in a suit. By all other accounts he was Mr Invisible – I had hair colour anything from dark brown to blond, muscular to skinny build, and every eye colour possible. Still it was better than nothing and hopefully I wouldn't need it.

I didn't have my radio and could only imagine how they'd managed to direct a transmission from orbit to my mobile phone but about half an hour later they did.

"Colonel Sheppard," Colonel Ellis greeted me with a grim tone. Okay – that wasn't good.

"Have you located Sabina?" I tried not to broadcast how worked up I was over the turn of events even though I knew I wasn't fooling anyone.

"I'm sorry Colonel," Ellis replied. "We picked up her signal momentarily but before we could lock on to beam her up the transmission stopped."

"Can you give me her location before that?" I swallowed hard, putting a hand over my eyes and squeezing them closed tightly.

"I can do better than that," Ellis promised. "I've sent the coordinates down to you with some help ... should be arriving at your position any second now."

"Sheppard," a familiar voice drew my attention to the bar entrance.

"That help has arrived – thank you Colonel," I reported before giving my attention to the new arrivals.

"Guys?" I looked on in amazement as Rodney, Teyla and Ronon walked towards me. It was strange seeing them there so suddenly, decked out in Earth clothes with expressions of concern plastered all over their faces ... in fact I struggled to recall if I'd ever seen Teyla or Ronon dressed that way before. Yeah it was strange but in a 'thank god they're here' way ... I'd never admit it to any of them of course but I felt myself relax just a little bit in relief that they were there – there'd never been anything we couldn't work out as a team.

"General Landry requested our presence," Teyla stepped forward and put a hand on my shoulder, doing her silent comforting thing. "We used the Midway station to get to the SGC and then Colonel Ellis transported us here.

"I've got Sabina's last transmission point," Rodney held up his laptop, "I should be able to extrapolate a likely heading using that and her starting point here."

"Get on it," I ordered, looking away rather than facing their sympathetic expressions. Rodney sat down and began doing his thing on the laptop. Teyla sat next to him but Ronon remained standing beside me, a silent pillar of support.

The concern and sympathy, while appreciated, was something I had to force myself to ignore ... I so didn't need to tap into their emotions. I was barely hanging on to my own ... concentrating on my anger was the only way I could ignore all the rest. You know what I'm talking about – the worry over what the transmission ending might mean although I'd convinced myself they wouldn't take Sabina just to kill her. More than likely they'd cut the transmitter out of her arm, a picture I didn't want to examine in great detail since I was pretty sure they wouldn't have done it under optimal medical conditions. That was followed by the worrying fears of all the things they could do to her before we found her ... drawing on the colourful canvas of my own torture memories the resulting nightmare images were swirling through my head at dizzying speed.

"Why would someone take Sabina?" Ronon asked, drawing my gaze to his reluctantly.

"I don't know," I admitted. "Could be like Kolya – bait to get the rest of us to do something."

"It could be the Trust," Rodney offered hesitantly. "Their intel on the SGC would be good enough they'd know how unique Sabina is. Maybe they want to use that somehow."

"Thanks Rodney," I said with a glare, not missing the glare he got from Teyla too. "I was just worrying about ransoms and torture but now I can add scary medical experimentation to the list."

"I didn't ... I wasn't," Rodney stuttered. "If we're gonna find her we have to work out why she was taken ... and it wouldn't be the first time the Trust did something like this."

"You're right," I let a hint of apology enter my tone. "I'll get onto the SGC – find out if there're any Trust rumours doing the rounds right now. How soon 'till you have a heading for that signal?"

"Ah, should be a few minutes tops," Rodney promised, bending back over his laptop with a frown of concentration.

I watched him for a few seconds, feeling the headache already starting. God – this was so not the holiday I'd planned!

Authors Note:

Thank you to the reviewers of the last chapter who pointed out the bad guy wouldn't have been able to get a gun past security - shows you how long it's been since I've been anywhere! I added an extra line here to explain this the only way I could - that they haven't passed through security yet (thanks to blue-eyes-green for that suggested explanation). I don't know if Colorado Springs Airport has a bar outside the secure area but I'd appreciate it if we could all assume it does - thanks! Also just a note re gate travel from Atlantis to Earth via Midway - there isn't a 24 hour quarantine yet because that doesn't get instituted until after Tabula Rasa. Lastly I hope this sounds even half way like Sheppard!

Next Up? Fortunate Journey Season 4 Chapter 3